Tal Shachar

On me this was a very refined orange blossom with a hint of clove and pine. I distinctly remember a time when musks terrified me because they were all so loud on my skin, but I guess times have changed. Even the mint is nowhere to be found, and mint is usually not shy on me. This feels gentle and warm and not at all masculine, quite pretty, and considering the dangerous orange/clove/pine combo I should be glad it doesn't turn into car air freshener. But...but I wanted the black musk and tobacco! Not fair.

I'm surprised I didn't review this when I got it, which was months back, but it's my Grassy Scent, a more feminine Ides of March. The grass is sharp, no lie, and the florals have a retiring quality--they're there, doing their thing, but even the heavy hitters like rose and gardenia are hard to pick out if you don't know they're there. The grass, though, THE GRASS is so note-perfect that it just makes my eyes roll up. It softens in short order and yet even so I can understand this grass being just too pointy for some people. The ivy is also a notable player and a note that I just love every time it shows up, like a friend I haven't seen in awhile. I like all the Salons I've tried so far but this one is just special. It smells like summer. (Yes, summer, spring smells way muddier and snowier around here.)

First impression: Dammit, Welch's grape juice. I knew it, I knew it, but severed-head/blood/leather/galbanum overcame my good judgement. It was supposed to be musky and resiny, a thing of beauty, not this foul abomination! It does improve on the skin. The purple-Jell-o quality calms way down and it opens up in a pretty awesome way. Galbanum, yay! The monolithic juicy purple scent opens out, the leather note popping and the dried blood accord coming out. The dried blood is essentially metal but...well, it does smell like blood, although I'm not sure I'd make that association without the description. Onycha appears later, which I recognise from Hades. Overall, this is much more interesting than I would initially have given it credit for, but I could still live without the fruitiness. The leather-metal-wine-incense combo means it's quite a bit like The Black Tower, and I like the latter better because the wine there just passes in and out on my skin instead of sitting right out in front.

I loved Chanukkiyah a ton, which is why I bought this, hoping for more of the same mojo even though the listed notes made it look less complex. And it is; the sugar-donut note in Chanukkiyah disappeared as soon as it hit my skin so that blend was all olive oil/beeswax/fig/pomegranate and lo it was good. Hanerot Halalu does with me what it seems to do with most people: orange stage, followed by beeswax and olive and then smoke. When wet it seems to have what I would label musk, something sharp and...greenish but not planty or sweet (unhelpful description). After a lot of sniffing I think it's just the olive getting off to a loud start. The smoke is present for me but after a bit of promising birthday-candle wispiness it becomes a more familiar and less interesting frankincensey scent. I am not one to complain about olive, beeswax and light frankincense, and if there were wood in there (or fig) I would have bought a second bottle in my Christmas Order Mark II. Note that I have never yet bought a second bottle of anything, I'm too greedy for novelty. So Hanerot Halalu is rich and warm and comforting like a candlelit front hallway after you come in from the snow, but it falls just short of being a Chanukkah holy grail (wow mixed metaphors).

I don't know what rhododendron or bellflower smell like, but apparently the answer is "delicate, understated florals." This started out as a gentle aquatic that I really enjoyed, but on the drydown it seemed to...dry up. The impression of water goes away in favour of some odd note that I can't describe--almost scorched. Either that or something's cooking around here somewhere and Danube has just faded so much that that's all I'm picking up. Anything is possible. Obviously one expects delicate scents not to last, but I liked this one and am somewhat disappointed.

Holy crap, how can something so sexy smell so classy? The vanilla musk fades quickly on me as it always does, to my annoyance, because it's a fantastic note. The amber and the spicy carnation are what last on me, with the sandalwood lurking underneath (sandalwood is always the last one off the train). Resinous but classic and womanly. Might be scent locket material since damn, I miss that vanilla musk once it disappears.

This reminds me a lot of Tzadikim Nistarim, which makes sense given the frankincense and hyssop, but it has the same gentle sweetness--not aggressive resins in the slightest. I can just about get the ylang ylang but not the rose geranium, unless I use a bit of imagination. (I can smell the herbal/floral element just fine in the bottle, mind, but my skin loves resins.) Tzadikim Nistarim is one of my all-time favourites, and this has the same calming, spiritual quality.

Bizarrely, even though patchouli and red musk are ordinarily not shy at all on my skin, I don't get them at all. This smells like a sweet, innocent floral on me, which fades quite quickly. I don't dislike it at all, but I'm just surprised since I've never had patchouli go MIA before, and ordinarily anything with musk of any colour will last foreeeeeeeever. The florals are well-blended and not at all piercing or hard to wear, and very feminine. I can even smell the patchouli in the bottle just fine! What the hell? Sorry, still hung up on that. Black currant and orchid had me worried initially, since they can get too sweet and heady for me sometimes, but they're just hanging out in the background. Lotus root is subtle but I always enjoy it, as in Silence and Diwali. This can easily become a favourite just as it is now, and probably will remain that way when my chemistry goes back to normal in a few days and remembers that it loves patchouli and red musk.

Musk and incense both love my skin, so here they are rather drowning out the subtler bookish note. If I really press my nose to my wrist and inhale I can catch the dusty papery smell, but otherwise I will have to be content with the musk--light, but not sharp like the musk in Aziraphale--and the dusty, soft incense. No hard edges in this library, and between this one and Hunter Moon I now have two scents where the musk is actually my favourite thing in the blend. As it dries, the paper note does emerge more, to my delight. It's not as throat-tickly as Aziraphale's dusty Bible accord, but it's just about as dry. (Am I alone in specifically loving the smell of mildewed books? That used-bookshop smell is what I keep hoping for from these scents and I never get it.) A resin/musk scent that's actually subtle, I can get behind that.

When I first tried this, I hated it so much I was already composing my "take this off my hands pls" LJ post. Thick, dark smoke like burning tires, and NONE of the other notes were coming out. Ordinarily I can wear vetiver without any problems, but this was simply unpleasant. Then, about fifteen minutes later, the scent very suddenly morphed and the smoke dissipated. The khus is now like ordinary vetiver on its best behaviour: dark and earthy but not overpowering. I can smell the amber, the saffron, the galangal, and yes, even the oud--the oud being the note I bought this blend for. It's spicy, wild-smelling, smooth and dark. I don't get a leafy note at this point unless I really use my imagination. It's also somewhat faint, and the thought of applying more and going through that "stuck in a burning warehouse" phase again is a bit off-putting. The spicy stage is definitely good enough to save this one from swapdom, though.

This smelled very masculine in the bottle, and I thought I'd keep it for swaps, but I just tried it today and WHOA skin chemistry. The coniferous woody smells faded within seconds, and what developed over a few minutes was a warm, musky honey, sweeter than it was spicy. No woods, no dirt, only a hint of oakmoss and ambrette under a smooth and strong honey. I like it enough to keep the bottle, but I probably won't hunt down a second even though the blend is luxuriantly complex (hate missing out on the good stuff).

The glorious spicy-creamy carnation note disappeared within minutes of application, which made me sad--I was left with lavender and oakmoss. Lots of lavender. I didn't dislike the smell, but aftershave comparisons did come to mind just as other reviewers have said. I am sometimes in the mood to feel a little masculine, but on me this is just not the masculine scent I would want if I were a guy (if that makes sense); it's very tame, with the carnation and the amber notes vanished. Lasting power was good. I usually burn through scents in about 4 hours (or, possibly, my nose just stops detecting them) but this lasted much longer, 8 or 12. Every so often I'd get a nice waft of lavender moss. Nice enough but not for me.

This smelled absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, which I bought unsniffed on the strength of my love for the notes. Smoky, dark vanilla and coconut. It is powerful stuff, so smoky that it was making my eyes water a bit when I slathered it on (I like that effect). After the first ten minutes, I got an icky sour smell, like the coconut and the vetiver weren't playing well together, but then that disappeared, leaving a nutty scent. Thank God, because I would have cried if a blend like this hated my skin. I would scent-locket it in the event of such a disaster.

I ordered this out of patriotic feeling, it being the only Canadian-ish scent in the bunch. (Do an Ottawa scent, Beth, and I would love you EVEN MORE--tulips and lilacs and carefully mown grass over smooth still water, a bit of something magic to create an air of papery officiousness--what's the smell of red tape?...) Anyhow, it reminds me of Ides of March, only slightly more floral, with the berries just emerging after the drydown. But hey, GC replacement! I am happy with that, and the berry note is nice, exactly sweet enough. This is a scent in which all the notes behave themselves well (how appropriate). I do get the woodsy note later as well, as a bonus. I thought I hated berry notes but in this it's my favourite part of the scent, probably because it smells like real berries on tangled, prickly stems, not a sugary can of raspberry pie filling or something similar. Score.

I get very little morphing with this one -- amber, jasmine, and citrus in about that order, which is OK by me. Elegant and courtly, as others have said, but interesting: the smell of genuine good breeding, not mannered or affected. Rich, gold, too juicy from the jasmine and fruit to turn dry with the amber. Love love love. Ordering a bottle now.

The dark, sweet wine (kosher wine? it's that sweet) and the sharp smoky incense hit my nose first as it's wet. Dry, the frankincense and the woodsmoke fade, although the honey/fruity note stays strong. It's a very sensual smell for such a...cerebral-looking painting, but you can in fact smell the golden light and the warm ruddy darkness. Much love.

YES, that's just what I thought of, and why I like this. I also think of Easter morning at church when the smell of the lilies can be so overwhelming that my eyes used to water. This does not quite have that effect on my tear ducts, but it's much more present than I thought a white aquatic floral like this would be (I was concerned about throw--no worries there). It's truly a celestial smell, serene and sweet but in an austere way, very pure and thus a bit fiercer than other white floral scents I've tried. I got almost no morphing--it softened a bit, but retained its integrity, as one would expect.

I am ordinarily not enthusiastic about foody smells, but I wanted to like this one--All Saints and All Souls are two of my favourite days in the liturgical calendar. And I do like it--I get cake like crazy, although no currants, smoke and incense including woodier notes and that very sharp rose-like incense that was mentioned above. Wet, it smells too harsh or chemical, but dry it softens up, just as the extremely cakey note fades away. Very glad I hunted down a bottle.

Oh man this one was impulse but I'm so glad I got it. The honey (which I was worried about) is barely there on me, just subtly sweetening the woods and the incense. It shifts back and forth between sweet and powdery to woodsy and slightly sharp. The oude is a mystery note that makes me think of Indian incense and adds the extra touch of exoticism. Very sexy, to my nose.

The frankincense here is sharp enough that it strikes my nose as green, and there is a beautiful blend of herbal-incense-floral-citrus. The amber does kick in after a few minutes and warm it up, very much like the sun coming out. This is a fantastic citrus, too--warm, floral, even dry. Not that there's no juice in the oranges, but it didn't hit me in the face with bouncyjuicy and dominate everything else. The flowers are creamy and also stayed in the background. Amber and frankincense were the dominant notes on me, which made the blend very Sol and very Invictus. Now to hunt up a bottle...

Wet: Fresh, piercing greens, but a sweetness underneath from--I believe I have located the narcissus! The lemon is present but well-behaved. Dry: Fifteen minutes later, the sharp rosemary and bergamot settle down and...narcissus, yes. It now reminds me of Hades, which I also love. It's brighter, and the impression of greenery is still there, but on me it goes SWEET floral, yet with almost no throw even when I slather. Whiffs now and then. This was so strong just minutes ago! I would swear there was lotus in it if I didn't know better. Verdict: Pleasant and I'll hold onto my bottle, but won't go nuts trying to find another one to hoard.

Got this as a frimp from littleone101701 (I think?), which is good as I would not otherwise have tried it. Grapefruit and mint and lotus were all I could pick up, and at first the mint was overwhelming, a toothpaste mint. I would love a mint-grapefruit toothpaste, but as a perfume maybe not. It warmed up on my skin, becoming more fruity with the mint just as a sharp edge on the top. But then on the drydown the grapefruit went off arm in arm with the mint and left me alone with the lotus. Which is...nice, but not terribly interesting. I'd probably like it more as a room or linen scent.

Got this as a frimp from...akanekun, I think? (Got a bunch of packages at once today and immediately forgot what was from who, oops.) But wow, is this ever unexpectedly good. On me, it smells exactly like the woodsy marshy country around here, leaf and bark and water. It's cool and clean, yet earthy. I get no evil from this, and no dirty-hippie either. It did get stronger and stronger on me, rather than fading away as the BPALs I've tried hitherto have done, and a drop in my elbow had incredible throw, but I see that as an advantage. After a hard workout on my bike, my skin changed it to a brilliant cedary-incense scent--outdoorsy earth and Mass at the cathedral? Must get a bottle. Must get two bottles.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. This is exactly, EXACTLY what I was hoping for from this bottle. In the bottle, there's an anise sort of note, medicinal to my nose, but as soon as it hits my skin it is dry, resinous, beautifully woody and a welcome change from all those fruity and floral imps I've been running into lately. The anise does not disappear, but it becomes this high, bright note far up in the stratosphere, not at all black licorice-like or annoying (not a fan of anise). From the bottom notes to the top there's this shimmering quality, like old gold or bronze. Strength and dignity in a bottle, to me.

In the imp, I thought I smelled apple or honeydew melon, but it morphed into the peony on my skin. Floral, light and very pretty. It smells like a more high-rent version of this drugstore green tea scent that I liked when I went to prom in high school, so I associate it with that time. Later, the fruit comes back if I sniff very carefully, but the note is kept well in line by the florals. Alas, I smelled no grass or greenness--none of what I smell when I put my nose in a box of tea, only the smell of tea perfumes.