Zii

In bottle: A surprsingly fresh water aquatic. Smells very much like fresh pond vegetation with a hint of something sweet.

 

Wet: That sweetness revolved into a bit of salty ozone over a really remarkable aquatic. It is still a bit foody, but it it is much clearly a salt water note now.

 

Drying: The foody note amped a bit and is a bit sickly now. it's very much an odd aquatic, that's for sure.

 

Dry: Again, the sweet note sorted itself out and became floral. It is very sharp and high in it's scent profile, and is very much a sweet and eerie aquatic.

 

I don't find myself reaching for aquatics much, but this is a nice and interesting addition to my collection that I will be happy to keep around for a while.

In bottle: Lemon verbena. That's it. Maybe a bit of the neroli, darkened with the other notes, but very lemony.

 

Wet: Bug spray. Badger Balm bug spray. That smell, with lemongrass and beeswax, is this scent. Not at all a bad scent, but it's that exact herby lemony scent that reminds me of summers in Vermont.

 

Drying: This scent is getting a bit disquieting. I think maybe the vetiver is rearing it's head, but it's certainly not the vetiver I'm familiar with. It could also be the oakmoss, but it's very smoky for oakmoss. Maybe both of them together?

 

 

Dry: Herby, sharp lemon with the oakmoss and vetiver distant back notes. This is very much a scent experience for me, and while it is never unpleasant, I'm unsure if I'd ever wear it.

In bottle: Dirt and Vetiver. Darker than Graveyard Dirt for sure.

 

Wet: If Placophobia was graveyard dirt with patchouli, this is graveyard dirt with vetiver. Deep, angry and dirty.

 

Drying: Pretty much the same. No dead meat thankfully. Something metallic is kicking up for sure.

 

Dry: Very similar to Placophobia at this point. Dirty, spicy and sweet. I would eat my hat if there isn't vetiver in this and it is giving it more of an ashy feel than placophobia has, which is why I'll keep it around. It does have less throw, but against this skin it is VERY noticeable and yummy.

 

This is right at home with my dear loves Graveyard Dirt and Placophobia. It's different enough that I'm glad I have a bottle.

In bottle: Very sweet. Similar to Miskatonic U.

 

Wet: All toffee. Like, Miskatonic U levels of caramel. As it stands, this smells more like a mislabeled, Misk U bottle than anything else.

 

Drying: There is a bit of sharpness that smalls maybe like old paper or dust, but not a trace of leather or flowers.

 

Dry: Still butterscotch dominant, but every other whiff or so, I get paper and a depth that seems to most likely be leather. Still no flowers, which is a blessing to me. The longer it dries, the sharper it gets.

 

This is Misk U's close cousin to me. The leather really tempers the frightening sweetness of this when it was wet and it develops a really nice spicy oomph to it that keeps it from tipping over the 'omg I smell like a pastry' line that can occasionally trip me up. I will definitely be grabbing this when I need a foody kick.

In Bottle: Awful and chemical. Similar to what Black Rider smelled like, so this is probably something to do with the black leather note.

 

Wet: This is the EXACT same leather I love in Black Rider, spiced up with musk and a little hit of what can only be dust.

 

Drying: The red musk and dust are playing strongly here. This physically does the same sort of twitch in the back of my throat that actual dust causes and it's amazing.

 

Dry: There is now something surprisingly sweet about this as it dries. It may be the wood and red musk playing nicely together, and there's still that dark, seductive black leather hanging around that keeps this from going floral or fruity.

 

This is surprisingly feminine on me! I really like this one and think it will be a nice day leather compared to Black Rider, which stayed aggressively in your face on me.

My bottle was aged for 5 weeks before I touched it, so this is a pretty mellowed out bottle.

 

In bottle: Leather clove and musk. Yum.

 

Wet: Sweet musky incense. Must be blood musk, seeing as I'm not familiar with that note, but a lot of reviews say it's a sweet musk. The leather quickly makes itself known, which deepens and cuts that sweetness that was bordering on headache territory.

 

Drying: Holy leather and clove batman! I cannot stop smelling my wrist. I feel so incredibly sexy wearing this!

 

Dry: This scent only gets better. The throw is the sweet blood musk and clove, which complement each other perfectly, and when you get up close and personal, this scent is warm and seductive leather. I bought this for the black pepper/leather combo, which really is not the main feature, but there is a light kick of tingly pepper complementing the spice and leather beautifully.

 

I never thought I would find a better leather on me than Loviatar. While that will always be a leather near and dear to me, this is much more my speed. It is a very masculine scent on me, which is something about it that I love, but there is this odd, seductive sweetness about it that is still very feminine. I really feel like I might end up wearing this one a lot!

The nice thing about having been forced to wait 5 weeks for any testing due to travel is that my bottle is nicely aged right out of the gate as far as testing.

 

In bottle: Almost medicinally sharp minty pine. Off putting and VERY cold. I actually shivered.

 

Wet: This must the the minty snow note I've never encountered before. This initially smells like mint pine-sol... But pretty quickly something pretty awesome starts to happen. The pine combined with what must be the berries starts to come out much more sharply. It's a very fresh scent, and cold for sure. However, it's not very me. It doesn't have the cold ozone note I like and the mint is off-putting.

 

Drying: The more the mint fades, the more I like it. This is the first perfume I've had a really physical response to and every huff makes me shiver. It doesn't have much noticeable throw on me though, and what it does have seems to be the mint note.

 

Dry: This is a very strange scent on me. It's not morphing much, but it really seems to just be sweet mint and not piney at all. For someone who tends to both love and amp woods, I'm pretty disappointed.

 

Overall, this isn't a bad scent per say, but it isn't me and is certainly not a) what I expected or anything I'll wear much. I'll probably throw it in the back of the collection and let it continue to age to see if more of the wood comes out.

 

--edit--

It's all berry now. Nothing else. Berry and a faint hint of sickly mint...

You may love Miskatonic University. To me it's very strongly caramel and coffee with a lovely undercurrent of wood and paper.

My love of patch has become a really habit...

 

Very excited for all the CG blends that I'm ordering in my next batch.

I think the Rappuchini's Garden scents would be fun to play with. You could whip up a cool 'potions ingredients' sort of tester with those.

Wet: There is a sharp resinous and very metallic sweetness to this! No stone or cold scent yet, but I am loving this wet!

 

Drying: As it's drying, there is this leathery note almost like a leather cord (fitting for a Jeweler), but it's almost getting sweeter! It is still very metallic and sharp, but from the description I was expecting a cold scent, which this is very much not. It's almost getting sneeze inducingly sharp and resinous as it's continuing to dry down. I am definitely amping something that if I had to guess would be amber.

 

Dry: Whatever that sneezy sharpness is gone, and while I wish I got some of that stony coldness so many other people got, this is really a remarkable and unusual scent.

Spicy delightfulness!

 

I get a heavy, smokey lavender with a heavy tobacco and incense note. There is something peppery about it, despite pepper not being a component. I think it's probably the way the incense is playing with the other notes.

In bottle: Bailey's coffee liquor. This is TREMENDOUSLY sweet smelling and is either going to be awesome or awful.

Wet: Okay, this is definitely falling more on the awesome side. It is still heavy on the coffee, but now it's bloomed into a really stunning caramel coffee. No hint of wood or tomes yet.

Dry: THERE is the wood and the books! It is amazing how this morphs on me! It started out super foody and then dries down to something super intense and dry. When I put my nose too close, it's sharp to the point of being a little bitter, but the drift is amazingly soft and scrumptious.

 

Fair warning: I put on a tiny drop on my hand and it is wafting and throwing super intensely. A little is going to go a long way with this!

Alas, I suspect the black currant is to blame for the really odd, slightly rancid fruity thing going on with this. I rested it for the weekend thinking it was just the cold and travel shock, and while it did improve, there is this fermented sweetness that I really don't like. It's a shame, because when it's dry the musk is utterly beautiful, but the currant and ylang ylang aren't worth fighting through to get to that soft dry stage.

Off to swaps.

This is just amazing. The spicy carnation is coming across a lot like cinnamon on my skin, but it's the rich non-foody type I love from Hatta. in fact, this is a lot like a woody version of Hatta to my nose.

 

I am very much getting the musk and the woods, and there is something playing with the musk that has to be the leather balsam because it has a hint of the leather from Black Rider, rich and spicy, though not a main player. It is an incredibly snuggly and warm scent despite the richness of the woods, which is what is so wonderful about this.

 

I am very excited to whip out the Sylvia trio for my evening out tomorrow!

In the bottle: This smells exactly like chili lime tortilla chips. It is very much lime dominated with a little spicy kick.

 

On my skin: I am getting almost no eucalyptus smell, but it very much has the cooling feeling that eucalyptus oils have. In terms of the scent, it is strongly mint and lime with just a kiss of the herby scent of rosemary.

 

To be honest, this isn't something I see myself using much. It is a very bright and sharp scent that would wake me up in a bath when I almost always bathe at night to relax. And as far as the scent itself, it's not something I am in love with. I'm probably going to pass it along to someone more excited for it.

HOLY DELICIOUSNESS BATMAN!

 

I was wary of how foody this sounded, but got decants of the whole Sylvia set because of all the woody notes. This is the sleeper hit of my decants for sure.

 

In decant: Sharp hazelnut coffee. I think it must be the pine giving this it's bite.

 

On skin: The pine is much more obvious now, but the rich chocolate hazelnut coffee thing going on is just delectable. I am getting the amber for sure now, and a little bit of foodie sweetness that I think is the fig, because it's not a chocolate profile at all. The chocolate note is super true and totally stunning.

 

This is also my first bath oil, and while I didn't put it in my bath and just put it on my skin, my palms feel so soft, and one drop was enough for my whole hands. This is and awesome product for my perennially dry hands!

Out of the bottle this was ALL coconut and I was really distressed. That was the ONE bad note in this for me, and it made the bottle smell like sun screen. Fortunately when it hit my cedar loving chemistry, the woody notes I was super excited about take over, making this a sweet warm cedar, rather than the coconut of doom.

 

On my skin (Haven't put it in my hair yet)this settles into cedar and juniper sweetened by the coconut and vanilla. I am getting no clove or lavender, just this really woody sweet scent. I wish there was less coconut, because I have strong sun screen associations, but it's still very lovely and the main notes are still the warm woods I love.

This is very much a myrrh and smoke scent to me and I love it. It is very dark and dusty, with a little kick from what I can only assume is the apple bark. This is not at all a light scent to me, and while it is really fitting for the description, is not at all earthy or 'natural' smelling. To me, it really feels like perfume, rather than some of Beth's other leaf or dirt notes. I think this is because the myrrh comes out really strongly for me.

 

It is the darker, smokier cousin to my beloved Templum Victoriae and I am in love.

I would look into a lavender essential oil. It is one of the most universally soothing oils and is often put in sleep sachets for just this reason.

 

I would personally steer clear of most perfumes, and would go for a candle or braiser so the whole room smells. To me, room scents are better for calming and atmosphere than an acutal perfume.

This is strong on the pepper smoked caramel, and the chocolate is a much more subtle backing note. The caramel is very, well, caramel smelling, and not the flat sweetness many caramel scents (and many caramel candies) seem to have. My biggest fear was that this was going to be a simplistic over-sweet sugar smell, but much to my joy, this is not the case.

 

My bottle is very separated, and i suspect that I will get differing amounts of the chocolate depending on how much of the oils get applied, but this is stunning and yummy.

LXXX

 

Wet: HELLO CEDAR!! YOU ARE ALL I CAN SMELL AND I LOVE YOU YES GOOD.

 

Drydown: Still very very cedary on me. There's a hint of something creamy in the background, which must be Dorian, and there is some depth to the typically spicy cedar that may be Dorian's tea note, but it isn't obviously separated from the Cedar note.

 

Conclusion: I amp cedar to high heaven and this is just another case where it's drowning out most of the other notes. Fortunately, I have been in love with Beth's cedar since I first smelled it, and this has been glued to my nose since I tested it.

I am going to start this review off by saying I adore the bottle art. It is perfect for this idea and I adore it.

 

In bottle: Generic cologne. My brother used to have a bottle that smelled sort of like this, though I can't remember for the life of me what the perfume was.

 

Wet: This is a sweet, spicy ozone scent. There is a touch of floral and something that reminds me of maple sap, very sweet and green.

 

Drydown: There's the smokey wood scent I was looking for! While I didn't mind the sweetness of the wet stage, the pepperiness of the smoke is quite lovely.

 

Dry: Cheap cologne and sun screen. Hopefully some rest and aging will bring out the wood and smoke some more.

 

Conclusion: There is real promise in stages of this, though I'm not sure I want to keep my second bottle. I think I'll let them both sit for a while and then retest them before making any final choices. I will keep the bottle I opened most likely, but if it stays this soapy, it won't get much love.

 

--edit--

At the recommendation of a forumite, I tried my second bottle, and they are completely different perfumes. This bottle is green and sappy and cold ozone that is just beautiful!

 

Second edit:

It is now almost February, and now this 'good' bottle pretty sharply resembles the bad one I tried first. There is a strong soapy lemon that hits the back of my nose and sticks there, and this is now bright cleaning products. While I don't find the scent bothersome persay, this is a bottle I can happily do without.

I really want to hunt down both VILF and the Soldier now! Spanked is also something I'v been looking into, but it's kind of hard to find.

I would try all of the rider scents, white, red and black. They are great leather scents! I also second Fenris Wolf. It's a great woody, rich smell.

 

I'd also put Jolly roger on your list. To me, it's strongly cedar and a little bit of the salt air note and it's just wonderful. I'd also try Lightning. Many of Beth's ozone notes have a very sharp lemon component on them that I really like.