forspecial_plate

All I get from this is sharp floral, which in itself isn't a bad thing. However something in it just isn't agreeing with me, and it's reminscent of Ultraviolet so I'm assuming it's violet that I don't like. It does start to turn powdery as it dries on my skin. Just not for me, but that's okay, I think my mom might like it.

This is very true to its description. Sugary-spicy vanilla, very sexy and appealing. It's sort of deep and dark, but sweet too. Intoxicating, really. I wear it at home by myself just so I can smell it. I can see myself wearing this if I can't decide what to wear...very much an 'old faithful' or go-to scent. Yeah there is almost a Play-Doh smell there, but if I hadn't already heard that I might not have detected a Play-Doh smell. Must be some or one of the 'exotic oils' used in the blend. I don't care, I love it and I'll be getting a 5ml as soon as I can afford to. Edit: About a year and a half later....I continue to really like Snake Oil. It's one of those scents I don't wear very often, but never want to be without. It doesn't fit my personality as much as something quieter and smoldering like Djinn, but when I am in the mood, I really love Snake Oil. It is rather heavy and very potent, with a powdery element that comes and goes, almost like heavy incense smoke that's nearly too much. But I get noticed when I wear it, that's for sure.

The throw from Iago reminds me of the taste of these: Panda herbal licorice (in a green box, in case the image ever gets lost). If I sniff closer to my skin the leather is more prominent. It's funny because you would think it's the vetiver causing the herbal association for me but really, I can't much pick out the vetiver here, it's blended really smoothly with the leather and musk. There is a little powder creeping in as it dries down, but not enough to worry me. It really has staying power too. Stays pretty strong after a couple hours: when I washed it off to try something else, I could still detect the Iago underneath (and it doesn't layer well with Blood Moon, let me tell you...). Anyway I do like Iago, mostly because it's so unusual. I know if I wear this to a dance club nobody else will be smelling like me. For that reason I'll keep it around, but probably won't wear it much. It's very emphatic.

I think Blood Moon is a good one for early fall. A little cinnamon-y, a little spicey, very warm and musky, just a great 'red' scent (but doesn't actually smell of dragon's blood resin to me). And I got my bottle just in time!

At first just lemon, veering dangerously towards Pledge, but the other notes keep it from turning into furniture polish thankfully. It's actually very nice, lovely and yes it's refreshing, making me look forward to my pending bottle of F5 even more. After a while a sweetness comes forward, automatically making me think musk, although I suppose it could be the aloe or green tea. But I'm pretty sure it's the musk I'm smelling, threatening to turn powdery and too sweet. But fortunately, there's the lemon keeping it in check, and one never quite overpowers the other. All around enjoyable scent, I'm really glad the lab threw this in with an order. This seems very unisex to me, and something that I think my mom and sisters will like.

This smells strange, tantalizingly familiar, but I can't put my finger on it. It's kind of rich and buttery, spicy, and has a sandalwood feel to it. There is also a weird medicine/medical quality that reminds me of a doctor's office. It's not sweet, but somehow too rich and almost cloying. It's not terrible or offensive really, just not my thing. It is kind of a golden smell. As it dries, another weird note starts to peek out that reminds me of sour puppy breath. I guess it's just going sour on me, but it's a really strange thing to smell halitosis on my skin! I guess I'm just not an amber person, although I do love Aureus which may have amber in it. But the Lion just isn't working for me.

Interesting. This is somewhat similar to Blood Kiss to me, not as earthy but both have a sort of sassafrass feel to me. I wanted Kabuki because it has anise which I love, and unfortunately I can barely smell it. It has a candy sweet sassafrass flavor that is nice but I don't see myself wearing it very often. Also it's not very powerful, it fades from my skin pretty quickly. I put on some Blood Kiss in a different spot, just to compare, and the Kabuki is pretty much overpowered. It's like.....where did the Kabuki go?

At first I get cinnamon and herbs, almost minty. I'll agree that it's a different sort of cinnamon, kind of dry, very appealing. I wasn't sure what grains would smell like, and I'm not sure how to describe it, but the grains are there too, kind of a sweetness, kind of creamy (this could be the musk too, who knows). Then as it starts to dry and warm up, the musk takes over. Up until now I felt a little left out because so many people love Beth's musks and I had yet to have a really good musk experience. Well, this is it. This feels like a red musk, and it goes perfectly with the spicy/sweet backdrop. Everything else in the blend moves to the back seat and the red musk just radiates from me for a good couple hours. It's like walking around in my own spicy red cloud. It's quite lovely and I'm so glad I took a chance on a 5ml. Overall it doesn't last a really long time. I did fall asleep for about 4 hours (I work 3rd shift) and when I woke up it had mostly faded except for a faint sweetness. I would love to wear this to a very formal party or event, something special like a black tie New Year's Eve party. It's a very sexy scent to me. edit, much later: I no longer think this has red musk, at least not the same red musk that's in Fenris Wolf, Krampus, Scherezade, etc....I don't know what kind of musk is in Blood Moon. Still love it though.

The other night I met a lady who smelled just like Sea of Glass to me. I told her she smelled good and she said it was Tommy Hilfiger summer bath gel. I did some searching and I think she was talking about Tommy Bahama Very Cool Woman bath and body gel. Here's the description: "An aquatic citrus floral fragrance that radiates sparkling freshness and energy with traces of sensuality". Anyway whatever it was it smelled just like Sea of Glass from about 5 feet away.

Love the color of the oil itself, lovely blushing shade of red. Looks almost like blood smeared on my wrist. Bright, fresh, sweet FLORAL is what I get from Dragon's Blood, with a sweetness almost like candy of some kind just peeking through, almost a marshmallow-y sweetness, but really mostly floral. As it dries and wafts I keep getting little hints of something spicy like cinnamon. Every other time I've tried DB it gets sucked up by my skin very quickly, so today I tried applying it along with a fragrance free lotion which makes a little bit of difference. What happens it the initial blast dissipates after an hour or so, and I'm left with a faint floral sweetness. It's nice and I enjoy layering it with other scents, making my own Ars Draconis blends.

Blood Amber is a shifter on me. First of all let me say that Dragon's Blood doesn't last long on me. My skin seems to suck it right up. Blood Amber, well, it's pretty simple really. To me it smells just like dragon's blood resin and amber. Starting out it's dragon's blood and sharp amber. To me, amber has a kind of medical smell before it warms up. It's sort of like cinnamon or clove. Anyway, in Blood Amber, at first the amber is dominant. Then there is a brief period where the amber warms up and blends nicely with the dragon's blood. After a short while the dragon's blood fades a whole lot, as predicted. So what's left is amber that is sort of flavored with DBR. It's a nice smell, and I'll hold onto the imp just to experiment some more and see if I can play with it, mix it with moisturizer, make it last longer, or just make the DBR last longer.

Sea spray with an undercurrent of leather, Bay Rum, and salty, dry woods. I've tried this a few times now and I do really love it. It's a clean, fresh aquatic blend that smells floral to me. It actually reminds me of Sea of Glass, only a little sharper and bolder, maybe a little salty. I can smell the leather in there, but it's almost closer to vinyl or black rubber than leather. Adds to the feel of intense cleanliness, in a way. This doesn't last long on me, and I'm going to try mixing it with unscented lotion to see if I can trick it into hanging around longer. But the throw is almost nil after 2 or 3 hours, I can still smell clean leather if I sniff up close on my wrist. After about 5 hours I can't detect it at all. This would be the only thing preventing me from buying a bigger bottle. As it is I'll keep experimenting with the imp and definitely use it up. If I can get it to last it will definitely be a favorite.

I've been putting off reviewing this because it's hard for me to describe. It's light, fresh and sweet, kind of floral with a dash of cherry candy. There's also something.....different underlying all of this. Maybe it's the ozone-tinged electric light. It's very subtle whatever it is, and I'm not even sure the people around me would detect it, but it must be the ozone....it makes me think of flower petals on wet metal (I know that came from Ultraviolet's description but it's very appropriate here too). As it dries down much of the blend fades leaving the candy sweetness behind, although this takes a good 3 or 4 hours. One of my favorite scents, this is something I would wear on a first date. It's sweet on top with mysterious undertones.

For my particular skin chemistry, the Apothecary works as a lighter, sweeter substitute for Kingsport. Kingsport is very strong and broadcasts a lot, whereas the Apothecary takes a minute or two to warm up, and it's much softer. Also on the dry-down they diverge pretty significantly. But I swear there's at least one common note in there. I'd be interested in knowing if this happens on anyone else!

The Apothecary is so fresh and green on me! Very herb-y and sort of sweet. Very subtle too, it broadcasts a bit more as it dries. Also as it dries it reminds me very much of a lighter, sweeter Kingsport. I'm considering a 5ml of this when my imp of Kingsport runs out, it's that close on me. But where Kingsport dries down to a briney beach scent, Apothecary doesn't change much on dry-down. Just gets sweeter and more powdery. Almost something I could wear to work, it's so light and upbeat.

Voodoo is a dark, warm, spicy and earthy blend. It reminds me a lot of Blood Kiss, I guess because of the clove mainly. But this seems to have a richer earthy background, giving it more depth on me. I can picture near naked bodies writhing and dancing by firelight when I wear this. Very much my cup of tea! Not something I'd wear on a first date, but maybe with an old flame. ETA....Love this even more now, it's what I wanted Port Au Prince to be. Darker and just delicious. I do get the cola throw too. edited AGAIN: Oh, FUFF! What happened? After 3 hours my skin turned this into generic, cheap after-shave!! How disappointing!

To me this is a peppery floral that reminds me of dragon's blood resin. I don't know my florals really well so I couldn't say which one specifically I'm getting here. But it's nice, and I smell black pepper as a backdrop. That's about it really, a nice blend, but hard to say when I'd be in the mood to really wear this.

At first, I liked this. I wore it more than once and remember liking it a lot. Sharp and woody, moist and green smelling. Then I started to develop a dislike of juniper. Don't like it in Black Forest. Can't stand it in Golden Priapus. As far as I can tell, juniper is the common note that my skin dislikes. Pine could be part of the problem, but I really think it's the juniper. Edit, about a year later.....now I have found some blends w/juniper that I do like. I think my aversion to that note was just a phase. I still don't want to try Golden Priapus again. But I did try Burial again, and I quite like it. Something about the sharpness of it reminds me a bit of Djinn, but Burial is a cooler scent (not fiery like Djinn).

Such a lovely description, I wish this had worked for me....in the bottle, I like how it smells. On me though...right away, I caught the same note from Golden Priapus that I couldn't stand. At least now I know a little more what to avoid. I don't know if it's the pine, juniper, or both of them together but on me it turns into this shrill almost-sweet note that I needed to wash off right away. It was much worse in Golden Priapus, here in Black Forest it's a little less cloying but still not working at all. Oh, how I wanted to wander through the Black Forest! : (

Mmm, Sea of Glass is just beautiful. On a day like today when it's going to be up in the 90's outside (maybe hotter), SoG is very refreshing. I don't know my florals very well but this makes me think of water lilies in a green flowing stream. Very wet and green smelling. It doesn't change much on me from wet>warm-up>dry down, it just loses some of the wet-ness and kind of gains weight, if that makes any sense. I guess I do like aquatics and ozone, because I'm really digging this one. Worthy of a bigger bottle, for sure.

Ra is an elusive blend for me. I'm sort of on the fence about it. Initially it's sweeter than I was expecting, and I can smell sandalwood in there. Warming up, the sandalwood (if that's what it is) backs off and it smells sweet and resin-y to me, although I'm not sure I'm correctly identifying resins here. That's just what it's reminding me of. Resins and incense, and maybe a little golden citrus. It's still sweet too, and that's putting me off just a little, but I do like it, enough to keep the imp and continue to try it. It's a fascinating scent. edit: Roughly a year later, I still have my original little imp of Ra....I really love it! It reminds me of the resins in Midnight Mass, except this is like the daytime counterpart to that scent.

Les Infortunes de la Vertu is bold and masculine, in the wet stage it smells very similar to the men's cologne Drakkar. As it warms up the leather comes out more, and I'm getting the oakmoss and incense too. Actually I can smell the orange blossom too. Quite an assertive scent. This is a keeper I think. edit: Tried this again almost a year later, and I no longer think it smells like Drakkar. I think it's a nice balance of light and heavy notes, kind of tickles my nose. I like how it smells and I may end up getting a bottle.

Sudha Segara on me smells cool, tingly, sparkly, bubbly....not a milky scent at all to me. I smell lemon and lime, and tea too. The ginger is there too, altogether a very cooling scent, and I'm not really sure if I'm into it or not. I think I'm foiled by my expectations a lot, and some scents I like much more on 2nd or 3rd try. Maybe this is one of them. I did layer this with Dorian and Dragon's Blood today, and it was a little heavy and cloying but still nice (I was bored). I called it Dragon's Reflection...'reflection' meaning meditation for the Sudha Segara, but also the reflection of Dorian's portrait. I liked it so maybe Sudha Segara has layering potential for me.

Golden Priapus did not agree with me at all. It's the very first bpal scent that I just absolutely didn't like, from the get go. It's hard to explain...it's not horribly offensive on me; at first, from the bottle, I thought I was going to like it. Then I put it on and knew right away that I didn't like it. To me it's sweet, although I'm not generally averse to sweeter scents. It has a cloying-ness to it that I find hard to describe...almost like a flat or stale cola smell. It actually made me a little queasy and headache-y, and not only did I have to wash it off, it put me off testing any more scents for pretty much the rest of the night! The sense of smell is a funny thing......

Chaos Theory III Strange Attractors CDLXII (462) At first I got all brown/carmelized sugars from this, with hazelnut I think. As it dried, I sensed a little cocoa, once or twice, which may have been my imagination. After a couple minutes I started to get the barest faint hint of mint, more of a feeling than a smell, really. Just a little minty tingle way back there, peeking out. Mostly reminded me of Sugar Skull '05, but no candied fruit. Unfortunately after 3 hours this was almost completely gone, except I swear I can still detect that mint. I'm going to try it again. Second time, I smelled it in the bottle first....still sugary, and hazelnut I think. Now I smell citrus! Where did that come from? Put some on and yes, there seems to be citrus here that I somehow missed completely the first time. Strangely, it's not a sweet citrus..more like orange zest, I think. It's a lovely complex blend, and I hope I did a fair job of picking out notes. Definitely foody, sugary, and hazelnut (I think that's hazelnut, that's what my brain is telling me). Some nice citrus and mint teasing notes in the background, although I wouldn't swear this has mint. It kind of reminds me of a sweet liqueur, although I wouldn't say it has any boozy notes. It's more like a really frou frou liqueur that disguises the alchohol. I like it! I'll keep some for myself but wouldn't mind sharing a couple imps at some point...I'd actually be interested in someone else's take on this. ETA it's also buttery.