Elspethdixon

My general go-to oils for summer are coconut blends like Lovers and a Fan and Black Pearl, or light/fresh smelling scents like Elf and Tenochtitlan, but when it's super, verging-on-triple-digits, 90% humidity, the-East-Coast-of-the-US-may-possibly-be-serving-as-one-of-the-circles-of-Hell hot, I go for really thick/heavy honey scents like O, which hold up better when I get all sweaty. (If only Snake Oil didn't contain patchouli, Womb Fury would probably be the perfect sweltering heat scent, but alas, all the honey in the world can't cover up the fact that Womb Fury has Snake Oil in it, and Snake Oil Is For Others and not for me).

Despite the hazelnut and honey/caramel in the description, this isn't foody at all on me, but neither (after an initial bast of leather during the wet phase) is it all leather the way Two Old Men was. The leather plays nice on me for once, and somehow combines with the hazelnut, cognac, and vetiver (which also plays nice - no overwhelming BBQ-pit-smoke phase) to produce something almost like coffee to round out the leather scent. I would have sworn there was coffee in this blend until I checked the listed notes. Coffee grounds, leather, and smoke. Most of this year's Lupers seem to have a relatively short wear-length on me, and this one is no exception. I put it on around 10am, and by 1:30pm it was pretty much gone. Now, about five hours after application, no trace is left except a faint ghost of ground-coffee-ness hovering just above my skin.

Wet, this smells a little musty/sharp and not at all sweet - like slightly chemically wood polish, maybe? - It's the first honey blend other than Skuld that's gone slightly unpleasant on me when wet, though nowhere near as unpleasant at the horrible wet stage of Skuld. Thankfully, knowing that Skuld morphs from sour, musty horribleness to honey-drenched floral sweetness once it dries gave me the hope to persevere in case The Gift did the same thing. *spoiler* It totally does the same thing. After a few minutes drying on my skin, the sharp sourness morphs into a sticky-sweet honey note that's amazingly realistic. I get no Frankincense and very little wood, just honey, honey, honey. Not much throw, but that might be a good thing or bees would start following me around. (Not actually a joke - my parents keep bees, and my mother has had to abandon several floral-scented shampoos because they caused bees to try and and land on her head to fetch nectar from her hair) Sadly, the honey fades after only an hour-and-a-half to two hours, leaving a very faint, close-to-the-skin amber-powder (the sweet-warm, barely detectable without pressing your nose directly to your skin, scent-residue most amber tends to fade down to on me) with just a hint left of honey. Reapplying it more heavily at lunch time got me about an hour-and-a-half more of the same delicious sticky-sweet honey, and proved that putting it on my clothing doesn't produce the same "cracking open a beehive" effect that applying it on my skin does. Wonderful while it lasts, but I'm going to have to deathmatch this against some of my longer-lasting honey scents like O before springing for a bottle.

Hidden Pearls from this year's Lupers is very, very similar to Black Pearl. A little more complex/sophisticated, but still very close.

In the imp: Rich and smokey, and I think I can smell a bit of the black pepper. On my skin: The moment this hits my skin, even before it's dried, it becomes a dead ringer for woodsmoke. A thick haze of woodsmoke with hints of something almost BBQ-like (maybe that's the brown sugar and cognac reminding me of the whiskey and honey that often go into barbecue sauce?). Sadly, it doesn't last long on me - after about half-an-hour to an hour the smokey campfire/BBQ pit smell has changed to a faint, sweet/smokey scent that has already begun to fade away. About a centimeter away from my skin I can smell a ghost of fruity-sweet smoke, and if I touch my nose directly to the skin I get a delicious smoked brown sugar. If the smoked brown-sugar-and-fruit phase this dies down to on me was stronger and lasted longer, this would be a must-have, but as it is, I mostly get a half-hour of woodsmoke followed by almost nothing. (I bet if I put this on my clothes/in my hair I would smell just like I'd spent the evening sitting around a campfire grilling delicious things and gotten the smoke smell all over me - I may have to try that with the remains of my decant). Edit: Forgot to mention that I got very little leather out of this scent, despite leather often amping and taking over on my skin. It was all slightly-foody smoke, all the time.

In the imp: Cologne-y, with a hint of coffee Wet, I got mostly a musty sort of smell, but after a couple minutes it opened out into leather overlaid/blended with something fresh and green. It's a very soft, clean leather smell, not the harsh leather I get from some of the other leather scents I've tried (the "whip leather" that took over skekNa the Slave-Master must be black leather). I don't get any teakwood or cacao, but maybe they'll emerge after I've had it on longer. I'll report back after a few hours. Three-four hours later: I was hoping the coffee and teak would come out, ideally some of that gorgeous teak note from Antikythera Mechanism but without the vanilla sweetness, but it's stayed all soft, clean leather with little-to-no morphing, except for gaining a slight powdery sweetness around the edges. It wears very close to the skin and smells more unisex than masculine to me, not at all men's cologne-like. Around the three-hour mark it started to fade, and now around hour four it's traces of soft, powdery amber with just a whisper of leather. So no teak or coffee or cacao (sadness), but I did get a good three hours worth of very wearable soft leather from this.

In the imp/wet: Hot, dry, and acrid. It has a similar 'feel' to Dragon's Bone (which is thin, dry,and acrid and which I dislike), but I don't know whether they actually share any notes. I doubt I'll want to wear it if it keeps smelling like this, but it's certainly an interesting and evocative scent. As it starts to dry, it turns into a sort of general "perfume-y" scent. Still not up my alley, and also less interesting than the wet/in-the-imp version. After a few minutes (ten-to-fifteen? I wasn't really keeping track), the perfume-y smell fades into a subtle skin musk with a hint of spices. It's faint/soft and very close to the skin, and fades quickly. About two hours after application it was completely gone. A shame - the 'spiced skin musk' stage was lovely.

In the imp, it was almost cloyingly sticky sweet. Wet on my skin, the sticky-sweetness changed to something stale and musty, and I was strongly tempted to wash Skuld right off. But I reminded myself that I was testing and persevered, and within ten minutes, the stale mustiness had disappeared to be replaced by a delicious sweet and heady ylang-ylang & honey blend that smells like masses and masses of honeysuckle on a warm spring/summer day. Either it doesn't have much throw, or my girlfriend has a cold or something, because I could smell it all over myself in wafts of honeysuckle deliciousness, but she swore she could't smell anything even with her nose right next to my skin. Two hours on, it has pretty much stayed sweet honeysuckle without much morphing (except for the musk finally starting to emerge a bit), but has faded to be much closer to my skin. I don't know that I need a bottle, but I'm definitely keeping the imp.

Adrastea is almost totally rose on me, alas. A nice rose, though.

Giljagaur (Coconut cream, sheep’s milk accord, and a drop of Ceylon cinnamon) is all warm creamy goodness on me. Fresh from the lab, it was almost a single note cream accord, but the cinnamon has started to come out a bit now that it's settled, and so has the coconut.

Wet, this is glorious - a rich, juicy glowing spiced peach, with an almost foodie/baked goods note, like a hot-from-the-oven peach pie. Dry, the spices vanish and the warm/glowing/juiciness changes to a softer, sweeter, peach scent, with something almost floral about it, even though the listed notes don't contain any florals in them. I don't get any pumpkin at all, just soft peach. By the time half an hour has passed, the scent is already fading, but it was wonderful wet. I'm wondering now how this would do in a burner or a scent locket.

In the bottle it's thick, smokey tobacco with a note of something almost bitter or medicinal. Once it's been on my skin for a few minutes, it becomes eyes-roll-back-in-your-head good. The chocolate is barely there, just a hint of something rich and sweet in the background, with the tobacco and vetiver as the main attraction, and the overall impression is of rich, dark woods and heat, like being inside a sauna paneled entirely with teak, or a wood-paneled sun-heated warehouse full of hogsheads of tobacco and bags of cacao nibs. It's masculine, but the kind of rich/warm masculine scent that does really well on me. After an hour or so, the smokey/heat effect fades and softens, and it's all rich tobacco and warm woods, close to the skin and gorgeous.

In the bottle: Rose, with hints of milk & honey. Wet: ROSE On the drydown: Creamy rose, with a tangy-sweet element that I think is the goats milk. It reminds me a little bit of Turkish delight (the rose-flavored kind, obvs.,not the pistachio kind). An hour or so later, it's still all creamy rose, and not the foodie milk-honey-etc. blend I was hoping for. But it's a very pleasant, soft, gentle rose, that wears close to the skin, the first rose blend I've encountered that I actually find wearable. If you like rose, this would probably be an amazing bedtime scent.

In the bottle: Boozy gourmand blended with leather Wet: Leather with a hint of cakes & rum As it dries, it turns into leather leather LEATHER with a hint of something metallic. I only had it on for about two hours before I showered (for non-perfume-related reasons), so it didn't get a chance to really dry and morph on my skin, but the leather was still going strong right up until the shower-soapy end. I think maybe I amp leather.

Just got my 2016 version bottle in the mail yesterday, and opened it immediately (though I did roll the bottle and shake it gently first). Wet, it smells sweet/creamy/cool with a hint of something rootbeer-float or creamsicle like, presumably from the cream/saffron combo. It reminds me slightly of the creamsicle undertone in freshly applied/wet Titus Andronicus, though that's dark resins/woods with creamsicle and this is light/soft vanilla with creamsicle. I actually wish this stage lasted longer, because I really like the creamsicle/cream soda note. Once it dries, my skin apparently eats it whole. I get a few minutes of the lovely "clean bedsheets spritzed with vanilla" scent cherrycherry describes (my first thoughts were of linen closets full of fresh/clean linens with scented sachets tucked in them, or lingerie drawers lined with scented tissue paper), but it very quickly dwindles down to "stick your nose directly against the skin of your wrist if you want to smell anything at all" levels. Since other reviews have describes this as having good throw, I'm assuming that either I didn't apply enough and I'm going to have to slather this one, or that my dry skin's desperate thirst for oils is too much for a scent this light and I'll have to put it on my clothes/hair. Edit: After a second, much heavier application, I'm getting rootbeer/cream soda-flavored vanilla, like a sweeter and more feminine version of Tombstone. And my wish about the rootbeer float/cream soda/creamsicle stage lasting longer appears to have come true. Fifteen minutes after application, I'm still getting "sweeter/prettier Tombstone" rather than "clean vanilla-scented linens."

You might also want to try <a href=http://www.bpal.org/topic/73065-lawful/page-2>Lawful</a>,which is oak, rhubarb, and chamomile. It may be closer to the "cloyingly green" variety of oak scents than you're looking for, though.

Blossoming Vulva, one of this year's Lupers, has oak (it's oak, amber, bourbon vanilla, blue lotus, and tea,I think), but I haven't tried it personally yet so I don't know how prominent the oak note is. Kill-Devil (from the GC) also contains oak, but the oak is pretty much drowned under the rum/molasses/sugar/boozy-cloying-sweetness.

Testing an older (at least a year old) frimp. Wet/freshly applied, I get strong/slightly harsh leather with a hint of something almost smoky. As it dries, a hint of powdery-sweet incense comes through, gradually dominating more and more while the whole scent softens and the leather and smoke recede. Then, tragically, it fades completely to the faint close-to-the-skin sweet/warm powder that oils containing myrrh or frankincense seem to do all-too-often on me. It's a pleasant, slightly-amber-y smell that's warmer and more subtle/complex than the baby powder some people get, but still a disappointment compared to the leather-smoke beginning.

PrinceofcatS - I second the rec for Cockaigne if your mom loves Drink Me and Miskatonic U. I love foodie smells and Cockaigne and Drink Me are two of my favorites. Another possibility is Elegba, which is rum, tobacco, and coconut, very thick/sweet, and which shares two of the main notes from Mr. Nancy. -

Dark Chocolate, Tobacco, and Vetiver from this year's Lupers (up right now) is a slam dunk as far as smoke/cacao goes. I second Satan Summoning His Legions, which is a delicious leather/incense blend, but be warned if you're sensitive to spicy oils - I got the red/burning cinnamon skin reaction with it. Fighter from the RPG series is a very strong, almost single-note leather. It smells just like sticking your face up against the lining of a set of brand new Vanson's motorcycle leathers and inhaling, and it layers well with most of the other RPG scents mentioned upthread. I've heard good things about skekUng the Garthim Master (dragon's blood, vetiver, and smoke) but have never tried it myself. The Ars Draconis scents (GC) all contain dragon's blood and most of them are pretty unisex. You might like Dragon's Hide (dragon's blood, leather, and smoke), or Dragon's Claw (Dragon's blood and sandalwood).

In the bottle: Cinnamon with a cool/sweet top note (maybe the honeysuckle?) Wet - Cinnamon. Sweet cinnamon-y cinnamon. On the drydown - CINNAMON. This is basically a single-note cinnamon on me at this stage, and for the whole first hour or so that I wear it. This is not a problem for me because I adore cinnamon. And unlike most strongly cinnamon-scented oils, it doesn't turn my skin red (yay!). It's a very strong, but soft/sweet cinnamon, not a dry/dusty one, and not quite the "red hots candy" single-cinnamon-note of All Night Long. After two hours - The cinnamon has softened slightly, and I can now smell some of the incense underneath it. I can't pick out the honeysuckle, but that may be what's been making this scent softer/less harsh than All Night Long. After three hours - The scent is starting to fade back to a general soft-powdery sweetness (why does incense always go to powder on me?), but still with a detectable hint of cinnamon. It's reached the "have to put my wrist right up to my nose to smell it" stage that practically everything with myrrh or frankincense reaches on me after a few hours. Verdict - Cinnamon that doesn't burn my skin = WIN, even if I have to reapply it by lunchtime in order to make it last all day.

Wet - leather with a hint of ecclesiastical incense. Very masculine. As it dried, the incense came forward a bit - by about five minutes after application, it was a lovely balance between incense and leather. I can't really smell the cinnamon, but my skin certainly knows it's there. My skin is flushing red and going warm/tingly/faintly itchy wherever the oil has touched it. Dry - after an hour or so, the leather has dialed back a bit and spice has started to peek it's way out, and it's delicious leather/incense with a hint of spice. It's one of the first strongly leather-scented blends I've worn that isn't overly masculine on me (Fighter reeks of brand new motorcycle leathers on me, even when I try to layer it with something else), but I can tell it's already starting to fade. After two and a half hours, all traces are entirely gone. My skin has eaten it whole. I really like what this one turns into after I've been wearing it for a bit, but the hour or so of delicious soft incense-y spiced leather may not be worth waiting out the ten minutes of skin-reaction at the beginning.

"Drink Me" seems to smell different on almost everyone who reviews it (perhaps fittingly given the description). On me, I get a massive waft of butterscotch as soon as I open the bottle, and it remains buttery and rich/sweet and almost cloying as it dries on my skin. I totally get what the people who mentioned custard and butter cookies were talking about. I always wear this layered with something spicy (Chimera, Inferno, Wrath, or my beloved Pumpkin II 2014), which turns the cloying foodieness into a delicious gingerbread cookies/holiday baking smell.

Wet - vanilla rootbeer, with the rootbeer scent in the lead. Pleasant enough, but not the kind of thing I'd want to smell like all day. Dry - Delicious vanilla with a hint of cedar. This was another of those "apply, be iffy on the scent when wet, then a half-hour-to-an-hour later want to make love to my own wrist it smells so good" scents on me. I'm almost through my first bottle of this and have already ordered a second. My sister, who is also a fan of foody oils and who loves both vanilla scents and root beer, bought it for herself immediately based solely on sniffing one of my open bottles and says she has no regrets.

Wet, this is very floral/incense on me (well, by my standards of "very floral," which are probably most of other people's "moderately floral"), but after a few hours, it morphs into a lovely cocoa scent. I tried this once at the BPAL booth at NYC Comiccon and was unimpressed on first sniff, but a few hours later my left hand smelled *amazing* and I was wracking my brain to try and remember which oil I'd tested on it. I usually layer this with a stronger but shorter-lived cocoa/chocolate perfume, in order to have some chocolate around to balance the incense/flowers during the first phase.