maudlinrose

Its beautiful, but not my style. Its pale etheral lilac. Something is giving is an airy quality - like lilacs in mist. The perfect white floral, if you can pull that kind of thing off.

Lavender lemon, a bit soapy. Lavender fans should try this.

I dont know where the sweetness is coming from, but this is definutely sweeter then I thought it would be.

The Tzadikim Nistarim protect a nation persecuted by enemies. They are the righteous ones, the chosen of the lord, but too humble and virtuous to make such a claim, they remain forever concealed.

Not sure how to capture that in a perfume.

I was expecting more frankincense, more resin and depth - maybe the frankincense and other notes would be detectable when slathered, but I did only a skin test out of an imp, and got a dominant slightly aquatic sweet note. Which I find puzzling, but still a beautiful blend. Will use up the imp for sure.

Wet: spicy herbal wood ... Not getting any leather or frankincense.

Overpowering cinnamon - and not the spicy true cinnamon that I love, but the artificial cinnamon candy cinnamon that ruined Wrath for me. Some people love it, but this is how cinnamon ended up on my no-no list. It smells exactly like cinnamon chewing gum/hot red candy cinnamon.

The leather oudh is beautiful. There's smething about the musk throwing it off for me - its a creamy sort of musk, and I think with a bit of time to settle, this is going to get even better.

This is the perfect rose. Even more then Whip. Where the leather in whip provides a warmth to the rose, the amber in Spellbound is an equal player - blending perfectly with the rose. Since rose has a tendency to be a little too sharp to my nose, I love the combination of rose and amber.

Amazing throw, actually smells better from a little distance. Too close and the sharpness of rose is overpowering. Wet its all red musk. On the dry down the rose comes forward, and dry its a beautiful rose amber.

This is really nice aged. Fresh it had a tendency to turn cough syrupy - but it's maybe 10 years old now? And it aged very nicely, it is dark and juicy fruit and smells like hard cherry candy. Cherry is still not a favourite note for me, so I swapped both my bottles, but if you like cherry, you should try to score the now aged MB: Bloody Mary

I had an imp of this that was all rose for a few minutes, and then nothing but leather.

I like leather, I just dont like smelling like leather single note. I always wondered if I had just gotten a weird imp, because it was nothing like the scent I read about in the reviews.

So I tried this again recently. It was such a different scent that I actually thought there might have been a reformulation or mislabel. There is leather. But its light. Like fresh cut roses in a leather pouch, and if you keep sniffing, you will pick up hints of soft leather. Leather is there, but it brings out the rose, and rounds out its sharpness. It seems to change as you keep sniffing it.

I love it, but its subtle, and not the BOOM in your face all leather I was expecting. Im really glad I tried it again! My bottle is 2 years old and the rose is still a little sharper then I like, but I am hoping some more aging will soften the edges and deepen the leather note a bit more.

Its a pretty simple floral honey...the jasmine is a little overpowering at first, but when it dries it complements the honey very nicely, adding a depth to it that is difficult to describe (i want to say honey and oats...)

Either there are a couple of variations of this floating around- one with the wine/sourness and one that is dryer and spicier, or I just lucked out because on my skin, this is a well balanced dry spicy rose with dark frankincense and a hint of powderyness.

This is definitely a *dry* scent, and I dont get any sourness or wine, which I was very worried about! The orris is not noticeable to me, but it may be adding to the beautiful and complex depth of this perfume.

when it dries there is an earthy herbal (not green) depth to it. This is more resin-dominant then rose on me - the rose it hard to pick out. Its more like everything blends into a spicy floral incense scent.

Not for me no....it smells exactly like a glass of absinthe. Awesome to try as a novelty, but not my style for daily use.

Wet: its definitely anisey but something is throwing it off for me. Maybe the hyssop. I do get a little lemon, but no cardamom.

Drydown: it all comes together and definutely smells like absinthe. It almost tastes like absinthe when sniffing.

Did we all sniff the same perfume - mine is all fresh cut roses when wet, no cherry at all. Usually I'm very sensitive to medicinal cherry - weird.

Drying down, it does become more white floral. And increasingly soapy. A little too soapy to be a favourite, after sniffing it I feel like I've licked a bar of soap...

Velvet ... Prefer it aged tho, too much fresh sandalwood smells like pencil shavings on me, at least when wet...

The wettest rose note I have ever smelled. Wet, fresh, green rose. Too fresh for me. Like roses before they are in full bloom during a damp sunrise. I will have to pass.

I just couldnt get into this. Champagne is a bit of a no no note for me, and BPAL's strawberry has never quite made an appearance on my skin. I am sad about this, but gave up on strawberries some time ago.

Straight chocolate. Used to be crazy about it, but so many more complex chocolate blends available now...could be very nice for layering, if you like chocolate note.

As the above reviewer said, not my favourite rose. But does remind me of Lucy.

Its a delicate, pretty, innocent rose. I wish the spices were around to add that corruption and depth to it, but I would try it again, to see if it's batch variation.

Got this as a frimp, absolutely love it. Definitely want a bottle.

I dont usually like almond scents, but this one smells like a beautiful rich almost honey - and honey is one my favourite notes. Im not sure where the sweetness and depth to the almond are coming from, but this is the first almond blend I could wear fresh.

This smells very cologney to me - the tobacco is a bit too dominant, in my aged imp. I think I prefer St. Clare's tobacco which is blended with a powdery sweet vanilla - its adds some complexity and softens the sharpness of the tobacco note ...

This would be gorgeous on a man.

2015:

In the bottle, and wet, there is something that smells overly green. Which is a polite way of putting it. I was so sad, because I love some of the older versions of Snow White.

The dry down goes through some awkward, overpowering off stages as well.

But once dry it is indescribably beautiful, and hard to believe it is the same perfume ... sweet, soft floral. I may keep this one yet, and see what aging does to the yuck wet stage.

Wet: yes orange.

Drydown: rose, oranges, honey. Kind of weird...cant decide if Im loving it...

Once its dry it enters a stage that isnt working for me - sour sharp green rose. I wish the honey sweetness would come back. It fades to a pleasant honey-powder, but it kind of resembles something like rose toner for the duration.

I can smell it from two feet away in the bottle.

The resin is a nice base for the gardenia, very simple.

But WHOA gardenia induced headache. I think I will literally have to remove the bottle from the room.

Fortunately we are packing this one up and sending it off to a new home, where it will be loved.

2013 version:

I tested as soon as I received it and it smelled of flat playdough. No amber, no blood, maybe a little kush. And it faded so quickly! I'm thinking maybe its because I didn't roll the bottle and some resins tend to separate in storage.

I tested once more later in the evening, after rolling the bottle, and as soon as I opened the bottle I could smell the sweetness of the blood note. And it dried down to a beautiful powdery amber, with a hint of sweetness. I think long term aging could bring out the honey and sweetness of this blend even more. But the earthy, powdery amber stage its in right now is very wearable and lovely.

Wow that amber is beautiful ... And there is a creamy sweetness I assume is the combination of pink musk and creamy skin musk. The jasmine, if there at all, is only playing a background role on me. Its a powdery, rich sweetness - like a creamier version if my favorite stage of Dorian.