forspecial_plate

I really like this scent, and I thought I had already reviewed it a long time ago. My review probably sounds like most others....I smell a lemony floral with some coconut, and it has a soft, smokey feel to it. It does smell somewhat like cookies or candy, but the smoke and flowers add more complexity....still, it's light and subtle on my skin. Very sultry and kind of incense-y. I can also smell the vanilla and black musk just a little bit. After about an hour, the lemon flower has faded considerably, leaving a musky, smokey floral scent. It's kind of faint on my skin now and that's my one and only complaint about this scent. But really, maybe that's appropriate for this particular scent, especially since I'm a guy. I love smelling like this, and I honestly want a whole bottle of it. It's not exactly masculine, but I think in some situations I could wear it and pull it off. Even if I don't wear it out in public, I could see myself getting a bottle just to wear it at home, because it's just too yummy to miss.

I forgot to mention, Centzon Totochtin (it's in the Excolo section) strikes me as very dark and almost velvety: "Bittersweet Mexican cocoa with rum, red wine, and a scent redolent of sacrificial blood". It was a surprise hit for me.

This is a very full scent, ripe and almost juicy. Oh! I thought it had currant, then I just read the notes again. I guess I'm smelling a lot of the plum and coconut, musk and spices very much like Snake Oil, and vanilla which is reminiscent of both Snake Oil and Eat Me. It's not buttery like Eat Me, though. Just very fruity and spicy. It's a lovely scent! I don't know that I would wear this often*, but I do want to have it around just for when the mood strikes. It's very potent and I feel like I could dump the whole imp into a bottle, dilute it 1:1 with jojoba oil, and it would still be strong. I might do some experimenting. Much later on, the resins become noticeable as the other notes fade. I do wish the resins were stronger from the beginning, but really it's such a nice scent I will happily accept is as it is. *edit...I've changed my mind...I thought at first this was just too rich and fruity for me to wear in public. Then I wore it to lunch yesterday, and just loved it....I'll be hunting down a whole 5ml at some point, I think.

Heavy and thick, Sloth is very strong and lasts a long time. At first the vetiver is mixing with the myrrh and smells almost metallic to me. But after a while the heavy, sweet myrrh comes out on top. It's the same myrrh that I smell in Penitence. Even later, after more drying, Sloth reminds me a lot of Laudanum, which also has myrrh. Myrrh is so weird. People call this masculine, and I guess I could see that. People say that myrrh is bitter. But to me, this myrrh is heavy, sweet, and almost powdery. Sloth isn't something I would wear often, but I might keep it around just for when I'm in the mood. I do like the extended Laudanum-esque drying part of it. Lasts and lasts.....

What I mostly get from Dracul is very spicy orange blossom. Strangely, I smell a strong hint of cayenne pepper, which I guess could be the clove and cumin playing tricks on my nose. The rest of the notes give little brief hints of themselves, for the most part...the mint, fir, black musk, and tobacco...it's all there. Something about the scent is a little stale or dusty on me, a problem that I'm finding with more and more scents. In this case I feel like it's the tobacco that's causing the problem. It's not horrible, just not a scent that's working well with my skin. It doesn't change or morph much at all, except the spiciness fades a little and the sweetness of the orange blossom gets stronger with time. edit: Hmm, later on..like more than an hour later...all the notes finally come together into something that I do really like. The scent hasn't changed, really, it just finally decided to cooperate with my skin. It's still spicy orange-y with musk. I like it enough now to hold onto maybe, and try again at least once or twice. edit again: This is yet another scent that I've grown to really enjoy. I will be getting a whole bottle at some point. : )

Aizen-Myoo starts out like the bitterest sharpest thing I've smelled out of the lab. Kuzu must smell like grapefruit because this smells exactly like when you peel a grapefruit and the mist droplets come out of the peel....just a little bit *greener* though. It's a lively smell, but I'm not sure where or when I would want to smell like this. Later on this sharpness fades, and a more candy-like sweetness comes forward. There is something a little stale about it now, and I think that's the tea turning on me. I don't think I have a problem with cherry blossom, and that combined with the mikan (someone said that's a kind of orange) might be contributing the candy sweetness. Without the staleness that it makes on my skin, this would be nice and fresh, but maybe too sweet for me. And even later, the staleness or dustiness, whatever it is, does fade and it's more like a candy smell now. Interesting scent, not what I was expecting. It makes me think of the face Homer Simpson makes when he tastes the sourest candy in the world, and the whole bottom half of his face puckers up. I wish I could find a pic of that, because it sums up the first bitter stage of Aizen-Myoo perfectly.

Second-ing Typhon, adding Count Dracula and RM Renfield if they weren't already mentioned. Someone compared Renfield to a screaming disembodied head in the reviews.

To me, All Souls is pretty much how it's described, cake and sugary with incense. It's a drier cake smell, not as buttery as, say, Eat Me, which smells very rich, buttery, and somehow a bit deeper to my nose. All Souls is pretty balanced between the foody aspect and the incense, although later the incense comes out stronger. It's a sweeter, more floral incense than other bpal incense blends that I've tried. Not much wood in this, that I can detect. As for the currant, I think it may have blended with the incense notes because it did remind me of a floral and fruity incense smell. Pretty straightforward, All Souls is a lighter scent than I was expecting. It smells good, but there are other incense scents that are darker and more exciting to me (especially Midnight on the Midway). I'm glad I got to try it and I can see that it would be very appealing to some. Edit: Well what do you know, 2 years later, I'm wearing this again on Halloween night, and wow....it has really grown on me. It's the same scent as far as I can tell, I just grew to love it more. I want more than my one little decant now!

Typhon is very earthy and dark, as expected….lots of vetiver and patchouli. At first this seems like the most patchouli-centric bpal I’ve smelled so far. The patchouli has the same ‘motor oil’ feel that I get from brand new Snake Oil. That sounds bad but it's not...I just can't think of another way to describe it. After a few minutes I'm reminded of Mme. Moriarty even more than Snake Oil, I guess because of the patchouli and musk. The sandalwood swirls in and out of the mix in a beautiful way. Sometimes I kind of forget about sandalwood, but this scent really shows it off. This is a keeper, for sure… I think this would be great to wear on a date with someone who already knows me in an intimate way. Surely not a ‘first-date’ scent. And it’s a little too dark and sexy for a formal occasion. I have a feeling this will be the replacement for several other bpal scents for me….Schwarzer Mond, Lycaon, and Azathoth. Maybe even Iago. Typhon has the best qualities of all those, and might be my favorite of the bunch. And as mentioned in other reviews, this is going to age really well I think. I bet it will only smell better and better over time. I'm glad I followed the advice of my fellow forumites (Sarada and Nineveh especially!) and grabbed a bottle at the last minute. Thanks for enabling me!

Neo-Tokyo, maybe? Also Zombi....freshly turned, moist dirt with a capital D, and flowers...the dirt calms down after a while. Not really a city scent, but kind of humid and floral, like Demeter's Wet Garden (in my opinion), with more dirt...I could be way off base here.

Wolf Moon is deep and murky at first....seems aquatic to me, somehow, with pine. There is a sweet/tart fruitiness that reminds me a little bit of Bayou. Then after a while, the juniper blooms in a big way (and in this case I don't hate the juniper...I actually like it!). It's a complex blend that I really like. I couldn't 'find' some of the notes listed....amber and black musk are nowhere to be found on my skin, unless they are quietly supporting the other notes. All in all a wonderful scent, although it's kind of quiet and brooding on me, and I wish it had just a little more throw. This is a keeper, I think.

Orpheus is fresh and green smelling, just like lots of others said. There's something in it that reminds me a lot of a commercial perfume, maybe the lavender or benzoin, or maybe just the combination of notes. After a while some of the sharp pointy notes become more rounded out, and it's sweeter but still has that green feel to it. It reminds me of the Apothecary although I didn't do a side-by-side test of the two. I like it enough to keep the Imp around, maybe not enough to buy a bottle.

Thanatos!...I just put some on this morning. "Dry white sandalwood and soft Siamese benzoin over a lugubrious blend of myrrh, Moroccan rose, mastic, tomb moss and a thin whiff of Greek incense". The rose is pretty strong on me, but there is a little bit of sharp green note (the tomb moss?), sandalwood, and the incense. I don't know what mastic is. It's one of the few rose scents that I can wear...maybe the only one?!

Without reading, I wouldn't have guessed this had pine *or* earth notes, at first. For me it's sharp, green and herbal, with some eucalyptus or other herb, something almost ammonia-like which fades within a few minutes. There is a sweetness that I can't identify, and also something citrus-like. Then, around the 30 minute mark, the pine comes out. Wow! NOW I smell pine. The sweet and citrus are still there, too. Now it smells like how I imagine Yule to smell. This smells good. It wasn't what I was expecting, but that's not unusual. I was expecting something more like Zombi, I think. But I like this. Not sure that I would wear it often, but it might be nice to keep around to wear every once in a while.

Mmmm, this is just as good as I was hoping it would be! Starts out with a candy orange scent, with the patchouli starting to emerge. To me it's very much like the patchouli in Snake Oil. Great herbal/orange combination that stays pretty balanced throughout the drying part. The notes stay kind of separate which isn't a bad thing. I'm curious as to how this will age. I think citrus ages faster than other notes but as we know, Snake Oil ages wonderfully, and this reminds me somewhat of Snake Oil so we'll see.

Chaos Theory III Strange Attractors CLXVI (166) DARK. Smokey, herbal, spices, sweet cinders, maybe leather? The devil smiley is appropriate. On first try, I'll be honest...this was repellant to me. It smelled strongly of burnt rubber, tar, or pitch. I could tell there was a little bit of sweetness in there, and some herbal quality like eucalyptus or hyssop. However…I had to wash it off, the burning smell was making me feel queasy. I decided to put it away for a while, so I put it in a dark cabinet for a month or two. When I tried it again, it was much smoother, and closer to blackwifey’s review (although I haven’t smelled Medicine Show, Geek, or Herr Drosselmeyer so I don’t know how it compares to those). I’m smelling strong herbal, slightly burnt or smokey, a little mint or eucalyptus, or some other herb, possibly a touch of leather. There is some sweetness that I can’t identify….resin? Vanilla? Maybe vanilla. As it dries, it sweetens even more. It’s amazing how a little time in a cabinet settled this down to something I can handle. Still…my original two CT’s from the lab work much better for me. Edit: I think I should mention that I swapped this away (I think.....unless it's still hiding in my closet, somewhere!), because I just couldn't handle it after all. Just too acrid, it kind of gave me a headache after a while.

In the vial this is straight up dirt, very potent. Then on my skin the florals bloom and the moist mosses come out, and I'm in love. I would love to wear this to some outdoor party or event in the spring time. Honestly the rose is threatening to take over but it's stopping just short of overpowering the other notes. I hope it stays just like this. Reminds me a lot of my favorite Demeter combination, Wet Garden and Dirt.

Smells like gin, maybe a little something fruity as well, or maybe that's just juniper. I don't know....not doing much for me, really....I don't drink any more, and I wouldn't want to wear this as a scent. It reminds me of a Demeter scent, I guess because of the alcohol, and the lightness of it. Just not my thing.

Bat-Woman is a lovely, soft, whispering floral that smells good on my skin. At first I can smell the night blooming flowers and tartness (I think from the verbena) that remind me a lot of Bayou. Bat-Woman has more of a dry, almost dusty, sighing feel to it. I don't smell any lavender. After a while the florals back off and I think what I'm smelling is the grey amber. It's a very pretty scent...not sure I would wear this in public because it is somewhat feminine to me. I don't know, maybe I could pull it off.

Himerus is most interesting because of what I can't smell in it. I think I mostly get lilac, sandalwood, and maybe a little orchid, but nothing else! No juniper whatsoever, and no red musk, at least not the red musk that I know from other scents in the catalogue. It smells softly sweet with just a little wood. I thought rosewood turned to strong powder on me but it's not doing that here, so maybe I was wrong. It's more fruity than spicy, and it's really strange that I can't smell the juniper, unless that's the fruitiness. I do like this, although it doesn't wow me, it's more of a curiosity. Might be a little too sweet and soft for me. It reminds me a lot of a couple of the Salon blends (Penitent Magdalen and Carceri D'Invenzione), so honestly I don't have much reason to wear this when I like those a little better.

The Penitent Magdalen starts out sweet, floral, nearly powdery, with some sandalwood. The powdery aspect fades pretty quickly. I'm getting the musk and honey just a little, and a little bit of amber. I'm really not familiar with any of these florals, though. It reminds me a bit of Carceri D'Invenzione, although they only share sandalwood as far as I can tell (maybe blonde musk and blonde tobacco smell alike?). Anyway...I do like this, even though it's a little sweet and floral for me, so I will probably hold onto it for a while and try it again later. It might get even better with some aging.

When I first put on Pride it had an odd, sharp herbal feel to it, but it quickly settled into a potent floral. I hadn't read the notes (I think I got it confused with Envy, so I wasn't expecting all that floral), and I kept thinking, 'what flower is this? heliotrope?'. I did think it smelled like rose but I must have been smelling the narcissus too, because it was more than just rose. Anyway, bottom line, this one isn't for me. Very womanly floral, to my nose. It's very strong with a lot of throw and might have lasted a long time if I didn't wash it off!

At first, this is like a commercial cologne, something more masculine I would say. I can smell the anise in there a little but the rest is pretty much blended together. I can pick out the amber and the lavender kind of drifts in and out of it. It seems to swirl around a lot for a while. Then after about an hour, the amber takes over almost completely! I like the smell of amber, more as a room scent than a cologne [Edit: WTF? This was obviously before I got to know amber a little better]. It smells good but I would like some of the other notes to come out more. Maybe a scent locket would be good for this. I'm going to let it age for a while and try again. Edit: almost a year later, I like this a lot more. It seems close to Wilde to me, but I didn't like Wilde and I do like Casanova. The tonka seems to anchor this or round it out a little. Other than that I find that this is expertly blended and none of the notes really stand out (especially leather, which takes over on my skin sometimes). I think sometimes lavender smells like basil to me, this seems to have a hint of basil. I likie! I'm glad I kept trying it. Edit Final verdict, this is just a little too salty for me. I don't know why it seems salty, but it does. I'll stick with Vicomte De Velmonte for now.

This just goes to show, I can read descriptions and notes until my eyes cross and still can't tell what's going to work and not work for me. Centzon Totochtin came as a freebie from the lab and it's quite an amazing scent. Starts with cocoa, which often doesn't work for me, because it can turn dusty. Then some sweet, dark, fruity wine comes forward, blending with the cocoa, just for a few minutes. And finally dragon's blood resin comes out, I'm almost sure of it. This note threatens to take over, which it does in other blends, but never quite steps over the line. I'm not sure I really got the rum, seems to be a supporting note for me. A couple hours later the cocoa seems to get a second wind. I can tell that dustiness is almost there but the other notes keep it spicy and rich, and almost sweet but not quite. What's amazing is that wine, cocoa, and dragon's blood resin (if that is truly in this) are three notes that usually turn me off. That's why I wouldn't have gone out of my way to try this. But they come together to make something deep, dark, sexy, almost smokey. The throw is just right...strong but not too strong. I honestly thought I was getting tired of the darker blends but I guess I wasn't! This isn't an every-day scent. I think it's for special occasions, or maybe just special moods.

Lycaon is definitely dark and herbal...nothing powdery whatsoever, which was my big fear. I think what I smell mostly is patchouli, wood, and olive leaf. I really don't know how to describe olive leaf but I recognize it from Haloa. I agree that this is a lot like Schwarzer Mond, except without the bay that turned on me in that blend. This isn't nearly as sweet as I was imagining it would be. I was expecting at least a little powder from the black musk, myrrh, and/or opoponax. I can smell these things but they seem to be extremely well balanced with the herbal notes. I'm not sure I can smell any ginger at all, but it's one of those notes that is touch and go with me. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes not. I'm on the fence. I wouldn't say I love it, but I definitely can wear it. I'm going to hold onto it and let it age for a few weeks, and try again. Could be this will grow on me in a big way. If nothing else, this would fill the void left when Schwarzer Mond ended up not working for me.