bookandbroom

I expected this to bloom into full aquatic gangbusters on my skin - we do not get along with aquatics, sadly - but instead, it puts me in mind of some of the haunted house scents of years back - a damp wood note that's stronger than the usual oceanic vibes Beth pulls into being. It's damp and soft and slightly metallic, and the ghostly gasp is floating on the surface quite clearly. It's elegiac and oddly lovely. 

On me, this is TEA. Tea tea tea tea tea ... and then a hint of gingery coconut, with the musk somewhere in the depths, quietly holding things up. As it dries it rounds itself out a little, and turns into something smooth and close to the skin. Not exactly my jam, but I can see it being quite beloved.

I'm with zankoku_zen - this is a wacky chocolate treat. I'm pretty sure there's some ginger in there as well, as (when wet at least) it smells notably like the batter for a cake I make with ground and fresh ginger. I'm not a big wearer of chocolate but I would like to eat this, which is my way of saying it's good, if it's the kind of thing you're into!

In the vial this smells ... like smoke and vodka. Honest to god, vodka. Maybe grain alcohol. It's burny as hell and the throw is intensely hot-chemical-mess, whooooa. And then I put it on and it smells like WINDEX, but on fire. I'm so jealous of z_z's results - I love grapefruit and vetiver!

Obvs, YMMV.

Yeah, I gotta agree with zankoku_zen ... this is creepy. And I don't really understand why. At first it's just white florals with maybe a drop of ozone, and then something sneaks up and makes the back of your throat twitch and honestly I didn't even put it on, just capped the imp and put it away!

A girlish, sweet floral that smells, in the vial, like there's a bit of candy in there somewhere - it reminds me distantly of Pink Phoenix, but more floral and less sweet. The floral is hard to pin down - somewhere between jasmine (but a sweet one, maybe night-blooming?) and magnolia and honeysuckle, with the tiniest suggestion of tiare. I thought maybe honey in the vial, but it's not flaring up with quite the cloyingness that honey always has on my skin, so maybe not. It makes me think of ruffles and sweetness, with a touch of something ... like oil? There's a chemical note in the background that could be a weird flower, or it could be some kind of metal. Hard to say. On me it's very much perfume, floral and sweet and oddly familiar.

I'm genuinely shocked this isn't more popular. Don't be afraid of the bottle smell - in the bottle this smells like nail polish remover to my nose! But once it's on, and had a few minutes to settle, it's evil vanilla smeared on saddle leather. It's actually borderline TOO sweet for me, which is probably just my vanilla-insane chemistry. I want more vetiver, but it's smothered under the sweet aspect of leather, and all that evil vanilla. It's pretty hot, in a bad-boy-smirking-at-you-from-the-back-of-the-bar way. If you like leather, if you like vanilla, if you adore leather and vanilla: try it. Let it get past the damp phase. You won't likely regret it.

SIGH.

It genuinely makes me think of hotels, a cleanness that's overlaid with work and emptiness. Like shower curtains and shopping malls. There's something minty and fresh about the overall effect, even though it smells like ... like a person shouldn't. It's a scent for doing heartless work, delivering bad news, sending bills. I'm weirdly glad I tried it, though I don't think I'd ever wear it. It makes me feel like someone else.

Sweetly nostalgic and sad. Like if dust were gilded.

This one feels like it's not registering properly to my nose. I'm mostly getting something like a well-rounded, inflated red currant with a drift of ozone and chill. I was expecting something heavier, a darkness from the vetiver, that's just not appearing on my skin. Weird! Almost soapy? Almost minty? Where are these things coming from? It's sort of ... Aveda-y. I would like it as a shampoo.

I was really excited to try this, for obvious reasons (Firefly!). But I can't quite bring myself to put it on my skin, because in the bottle it's a LOT of something that is either orange blossom or honey - that certain kind of sweetness. And those two notes are death notes for me. There's a sweet floral in there as well - like ZZ says, maybe magnolia, maybe osmanthus? It distantly reminds me of Crib Girls, and has a lushness that makes me think that if it was a character scent, it'd be Inara. It's too lush for Kaylee, too sweet for Zoe.

The rum is so sweet in the bottle that it smells almost entirely like butterscotch - but once it’s on my skin, the sweetness translates into a rummy, alcoholic streak that I kind of like - it’s still almost butter rum, though, the tobacco sweetening the mix to the point of teeth-aching! I want to eat this but I am not sure I could wear this kind of sugar - it makes me think of Butter Rum Cookie, but a more sophisticated version.

It quickly snuggles down to a lot of warm brown musk and a waft of rummy sugar, oddly comforting though still really sweet. Did I mention it's sweet? Because it's sweet.

(All thanks to my fairy!)

I get so much oregano from this that I smell like I just dumped the shaker from a pizza joint all over my head! It makes me hungry.

Another happy sniffie-circle participant here!

I was very wary of this one and might not even have tried it had I not gotten it in the circle - honey and I never get along, and much as I want to like pomegranate and plum, they usually don't work for me either. But this surprised me! At first sniff it's very sweet, but not quite as immediately NO-inspiring as I might've guessed; it sort of has that candy-hearts thing that Pink Phoenix has in spades - which, to my surprise, makes this really appealing! I only really get the rose in the throw; up close it's fruity sweetness, and honey - which usually does something you do not want to have me describe on my skin - is behaving. But pomegranate tends to turn waxy on me, as does plum sometimes, and this is no exception. It's a lovely scent, but on me it wants to be a candle. I bet it smells absolutely luscious on the right person!

And another sniffer who's grateful to Suedonym's circle!

Much cleaner notes are coming off the rollerbal than I would've expected! But then it starts to get richer and deeper once it's on my skin and in the air - earthy-clean patchouli, bright amber, warm everything else. It makes me think of Christmas trees even though it smells nothing like them - there's something bright and warm and comforting caught up in these notes. But there's also something that turns a little funky - I don't think tamaring is playing nice with my skin chemistry. I had high hopes for the tonka, amber and fig, but this mostly turns sour on me.

Thanks, you guys! As always, I'm just looking to pick out the right fonts for my decant labels. This makes it easy!

Soooo ... anyone have pictures of the Yules yet?

Does anyone have some pics of the NYCC bottles? I'm really curious if there are ladies on the labels. (or badgers)

I don't have a picture, but there are no images - just a curly font on a sort of old-fashioned brown background!

This has a oakmossy smoothness that made me almost not test it, but then something lured me in - and then my first instinct proved to have been right. The smoothness reminds me of sandalwood; the sage is nice, and definitively purple, but I only kind of like it up close and don't like the vaguely furry, light brown, kind of masculine throw at all. There's a spiciness in the musks that makes me think this must smell amazing on the right person. The fuzzy-smoothness reminds me (in feel, if that makes any sense) of Ivanushka and blends that have brown musks or furry notes; they sort of just ping me in the wrong place.

Vetiver? With my lavender? Hrm. But it smells good, if dark, in the bottle - I'm not sure midafternoon is the best time to test this, but here I am! It's quite a heavy sleep, in contrast to TKO's marshmallowiness. The interwebs say zdravetz is something referred to as true geranium, and knowing this makes me smell geranium in here. Mostly, though, it's a darkened lavender, like heavy blankets. It makes me think of black clouds rolling in, but not in a doomy way; in a time-lapse photography way, like night coming on. It's a little too dark for my taste, but very powerful (I kind of want to crawl back into bed!) and perfect for what it is.

My surprise love from the Lupercalia updates. Candy hearts and chaos.

Hey bookandbroom - I just got my 2/14 order yesterday. The CnS came on Tuesday 2/28. So if you don't see anything soon, I'd drop the Lab a line, but I don't think you're quite in danger turf yet. In fact, I think my order might have come sooner but I ordered a bottle of Theotokos along with a bunch of Lupercalias. I think most of the Lupers are shipping quickly but Theotokos was a newer one waiting to be blended and bottled. Good luck!

Been meaning to say - thanks for this! I'm going to give it to the end of the week.

Is anyone else still waiting on an order placed around 2/14? I ordered my chocolates the instant they went up, and I'm noticing that the CnS thread is almost two weeks past that date. I had to use PayPal Mobile, which sometimes is a bit weird, but I did get a receipt... still, I'm getting a touch nervous!

I love Erebos and don't think the rose is dominant at all - it's a complex and somewhat sweet vanilla-lavender, mostly. (I'm not good with rose, either.)

Thanks, you guys! Very much appreciated.