ND¢

So the luck of the draw has me in the Trick #1 camp, eh? And me so violently affirming my feelings about floral scents. Well, if there's anything I've learned in the past few months (hello Carpathians, hello Penny Dreadful) it's that BPAL scents can change my conception of even the seemingly immutable.

Now, having said that, I also have to say in summation that what I mostly get from this fragrance is skin musk, vanilla bean, and FLORAL. As in bowl-me-over on application and for some time afterward. The magnolia and musk are quite dominant in the bottle, with a bite of ginger and an undertone of honeysuckle and perhaps patchouli. I smell what I've come to identify, hopefully correctly, as red musk strongly in the bottle, but it's a much simpler, gentler and sweeter scent on my skin. The patchouli does not make an appearance on ND¢. Neither does the leather, which is sort of too bad for me. The floral scent is very strong when wet and for some time afterward, but then (what I think is) the skin musk and vanilla bean balances it out after maybe half an hour.

This is a much more classically feminine fragrance than I'd choose for myself, but it's undeniably beautiful, and I think that with some adjustment, I'll come to reach for it when I need to feel extra-womanly and extra-desirable.

ETA: After having had it in my possession almost a month, I am pretty much in love with it 100% and must obtain as much as humanly possible. So there you go.

I don't get a straight-apple scent at any point, save perhaps in the imp (but it's a bit spicy even then.) Apple with strong mulling spices, perhaps? It is a crisp and clean scent (and one of the first 'autumn' scents to avoid the craft-store/potpourri association for me.) The cranberry makes a richer scent, and I'd say that as time wears on the cider spices mellow, making it even smoother and more satisfying.

Imp: something gritty under a heavy incense that carries a lighter note. (How descriptive of me.)

Skin: Starts out as a high, sort of sour (cedar?) note with a somewhat heavy incense. The cedar mellows, though it's still quite strong, and doesn't take on the pickling-spice scent I sometimes get from cedar, so I am assuming I'm smelling more than cedar and just can't discern. It's a rounder, fuller wood scent. If I think of it, the wood smell becomes fragrant, creaking floors, or a massive stand of old cedars, some broken on the ground. It and the incense are what I smell most strongly. I don't get even the faint floral some people describe. The herbs may be what seems to be 'complicating' the cedar.

On application I smell a lovely, natural pine that is quickly overtaken by Ben-Gay, which put me in mind of Vinland (also started out on me as Ben-Gay, and turned into a scented nail polish remover.) But this lightens up quickly and my fears were unfounded. Apart from the inital pine and a curranty drydown with a possible undertone of evergreen I can't detect separate notes in this-- it is very smooth and sweet, with no sharpness. A fruity, light scent. I thought this was a surefire 'no' for me, but Beth has proved me wrong and I am glad!

This is very cinnamony on me, and what I think is the dragon's blood adds to the sweetness. The bayberry completes what, to me, evokes a holiday potpourri scent.

Sweet cocoa when wet, and shortly a gentle floral comes out. It's not a 'round' floral scent; it's thin and reedy and very pretty. If I smell incense, it's a sweet and light incense that complements the blend well (the cocoa sticks around, but I don't smell leather.) I'm not sure this suits me, but it does smell lovely, so I'll keep the imp around and see how we grow on each other.

I get an unsettling animal smell that keeps prompting me to say 'unclean' even though that's not really the best description. The faint sweet clove smell is nice, but I can't relax with that other smell. But boy, does it ever last a long time!

I enjoyed the China rain note, but what I assume is the vetiver (vetivert?) takes on a harsh and quite chemical tone on my skin. Possibly like unscented nail polish remover? It's hard to compare it to anything.

buzz23666 made note of a smell of an ointment like Neosporin or something of the kind... I smell Desitin (I think that's what it is called?) The sweet pea is overwhelming; I think that's what's causing it.

I was lucky to get a generous imp-and-a-half of this, my most coveted single note. Yup, a real redwood tree, enormous and still in the sun. No green scent, just pure redwood, crisp and gentle and comforting. There is a hint of earth that comes out after it's been on a while, and the next morning it's faded to a sweet ghost of itself. I wish I could make that little vial last forever.

It smelled like an 'Autumn Spice' gel air freshener on me. Sigh.

This was pine and an undertone of salted nuts (? I know... but I can actually smell the salt) on me. I like the pine; it is more of the sweet pine slave1 mentioned and not the sharp medicinal tone I usually get from blends containing pine. That part was very good. I think the 'salted nuts' are the almond milk and sarsaparilla, and somehow the combination of pine and salted nuts... I wanted to like it but had a rather strong reaction to it, so I think it should be swapped to someone on whom it smells like it was meant to (unless it was meant to be downright unsettling.)

I can see how this initially resembles an amped-up version of Dorian-- it is sharper, and I'm not sure what is causing that (perhaps a combination of the musk, jasmine leaf and fougere.) Jasmine isn't my favorite thing to have in a fragrance, but it's not the overly sweet jasmine flower smell. This also has an acquaintance with Severin, probably my favorite everyday scent.

Snake Oil smells quite similar to Snake Charmer on me, which is a great relief and a comfort, because now I don't have to sweat about $40.00 5mL bottles! Lighter than Snake Charmer, but with the same characteristic sugary-vanilla/incense scent that is sexy and utterly feminine.

A lighter musk than I expected from the description. Strong and heavy at first in dry-down, and I smelled a hint of orange in that stage only. Dried to a straightforward, elegant musk with a hint of sweetness.

The florals are most prominent on application and remain so on me. It overwhelms the possibility of smelling other notes. When I exhale, there is an unpleasant acrid 'aftertaste' in my nose that I've had from a few other BPALs. I wish that the orchid/cereus hadn't drowned out the other notes, but I tend not to prefer florals by nature; they tend to seem too audaciously flowery on me.

From this I get a too-sweet smell off the bat, floral, not the honey. (Laurel? I don't know.) Then a very dusty smell comes in... the scent becomes dust and rose.

The wine is strong on me, and combines with the honey in an unfortunately unsavory bitter/sour smell of cooking Marsala.

The cedar, which normally goes out of control and powerful on me, is muted and deep (smoky) and compliments the leather very well... almost making it seem like leather-cubed, as if the sharp tang of leather and the tang of cedar are potentiating each other. I think the musk adds to this effect, making it almost too vigorous for my skin chemistry. Fir rides along the top, giving me the 'autumn' feel. I'm not sure I'm capable of detecting the amber.

The second I put this on I thought, 'This is Snake Charmer's smarter, darker, wryer older sister,' and my first impression stands. The patchouli and red musk make this so worldly without ever venturing into the hippie stereotype patchouli seems to have. It is a bit reminiscent of menthol cigarettes on application, which bothers me, but balances itself out on my skin with the sweetness of plum and vanilla. (I wish it was a little less like menthol cigarettes, but feel confident that impression will change with the aging of the musk & patchouli.) I can only smell the notes when I concentrate on them specifically; this doesn't scream any one note, and I look forward to owning it by the bottle, having tried a decant.

Yeah.... rose scents? Yeahhhhh. I'm gonna need you to.... NOT smell like dill pickles on me? Yeahhhh.

In this case, the dill pickle is very gentle, peeking out from behind mostly-rose and a bit of sandalwood (which didn't go out of control.) Herb and grass scent might be adding depth to this, but not enough.

As has been mentioned, this is also reminiscent of Big Red gum on me. The cinnamon is dominant but softened by the rose, so it's not a sharp, spicy cinnamon.

Though I love the green color of the oil, the Vicks Vaporub scent doesn't really rub me the right way.

Perfumey in the bottle, drying to a sharp eucalyptus/medicinal herbal smell. Green herbs, a sharp pine sap... and a hint of something sweeter... Irish Spring? As I was typing this I smelled cat pee and thought 'If one of those cats peed....' of course the punchline is it is Djinn. I truly smell a note of cat pee.

Two ample samples traded to me by the generous cuervosueno. First reviews to be found here (XXXIV) and here (ML).

XXXIV: Apple with a bitter green vegetable I eventually identified as celery. It strongly suggests hard cider and dries to an Apple Jolly-Rancher sweetness with a tiny kick left over from the original bitter scent.

ML: In the bottle and wet on the skin, starts off with a rich green/resin bitterness that is just intriguing. I've never smelled anything like this. In drying, the bitterness (which is something organic-smelling, like leaves? recedes without entirely disappearing. It leaves a high, not too sharp, sweet floral note floating above a green/ aquatic scent (the aquatic is noticable on exhaling.) I don't smell the bergamot, but I'm also not great at identifying scents.