alianthe

In the imp: Light, sharp, woody & herbal. Very refreshing, but not terribly bewitching.

 

On my skin: Juicy! Extremely fruity. It's very... juicy berries, with a bit of musk underneath, drawing you down. Note to self: do not get perfume on lip when sniffing. Yuckyuckyuck! But, that's how glued to my hand I was!

 

Conclusion: Yum! I'm sniffing someone else's, but I think I want an imp of this myself.

In the imp: Light, floaty, very tea-rosey floral.

 

Drydown: Powdery. Himself said "it smells like a daycare center I used to go to." To me... it's a light, pretty, powdery floral, edging towards slightly bitter. Definitely getting some of the "debauche" here. No throw. Disappears in about 30 minutes flat. To be honest, since it shares a name with a woman who stalked me (in the scary, creepy way, not the SW way) as a child, I'm actually relieved not to have fallen in love with.

 

Conclusions: A pretty floral. Not really my thing, but glad I got to sniff it.

Sweet, juicy, sugared plums. There's not a lot more to say about this, really. It's just candied plums.

In the bottle: Bright and sunny, spicy, hot, like sun beating down on your face.

 

On my skin: Mm, spicy! Warm and round. Definitely smelling the cedar. At the trail-down, it's mostly cedar, with a little sweetness and a little amber. Soo glad the flowers didn't come out as much.

 

Conclusions: A good, light summer blend. But, I'd wear it in a locket on winter days when I'm craving sunshine.

In the imp: Mmmm, warm and sweet and round and sensual, with something high and bright and golden yellow on top.

 

On my skin: The first hit is amazingly sexy, hot, sweet and skin-musky. After a while, though, it settles into my skin in such a way that it's barely there, but in the same way that a little negligé is barely there. Definitely getting some of the daemonorops and honey, and the amber is there but not running the show.

 

Conclusion: I think I might need a bottle, just to see how it ages. Fresh in the imp it's lovey, as well. Definitely a keeper.

 

ETA: I've come to refer to this as the perfume that "smells like lesbian sex." It's as female-sexy as Br.om B.ones is male-sexy. Also, quite potent.

In the bottle: Herbal, a little juicy, with a floral note that feels sort of half-smelled, like how you can't really see a blacklight and can't hear a dog whistle at all because they're out of your sensory range. Sort of like that.

 

On me: How do I describe this?! Herbally florally juicy, but in a different way than it was in the bottle. And, which of these descriptors is more prominent is a thing that changes from time to time as it's worn. I'm actually shocked, now that I read the description of the notes, at how well the freesia and gardenia play together with my skin, considering that I tend to turn sweet florals into stomping slobbering rampaging flower monsters. When he first smelled it, Himself said that it was lovely and he liked it, but it smelled like "somebody else," as in somebody who wasn't me. And, I'll grant him that it's not for every day, but it's delightful on days when I'm feeling a little off-kilter. Personally, I like it.

 

Conclusions: Delightful, light, pretty, and yes, a bit mad. Stays close to the skin, but lasts a while.

In the bottle: Warm spiced caramel popcorn, steamy hot and delicious! With other, sinuous side notes. Hot, round, silken, red-gold, delicious, languid. If it wasn't a Bad Idea [tm] to eat perfume, I'd want to slurp this stuff down.

 

On my skin: Immediately it changes! Sharp, spicy, cooler, and smokey. The various notes rise and fall. Tobacco surfaces for a moment, then is brought down in the swirl of satin skirts and dusky knowing laughter. There's a little luscious berriness, but it's brought down as well. Finally, I'm left with just a breath of warm swirling smoke and spices, the memory of debauchery. I think I'll wear it more in the locket than on my skin, but both incarnations are incredible.

 

Conclusions: Ohhhhh yeeeeeeaaaaaaah. That's what I'm talkin' about, baby. (Picked up a 5mL at Will Call, and SO glad I did.)

In the imp: Definitely smelling the grapefruit! But it's extra bitter, almost like somebody was zesting it and went a little too deep into the quick. Also smelling some of the bitter components of the jasmine, but thankfully not the sweetness (because I amp sweet like nobody's business). I took a chance on the jasmine because I'm such a lover of amber, musk, and citrus. Rose can go either way on me.

 

On my skin: Still smelling the bitterness, alongside a spritz of citrus brightness, but it's starting to mellow out. Definitely getting more of the floral now, but the amber isn't very apparent. It's bright and light, sharp and pretty, and WAY more floral than I expected. But then, I do amp that up. After a while, the musk comes out a bit more. But mostly, it's a light and lovely citrusy floral, with depth.

 

Conclusions: Definitely good for somebody who likes pretty, light, happy floral scents, and likes citrus. They're playing pretty nice together, but it just doesn't smell very... me. I guess I need to stick with Egyptian amber and darker musks, and keep steering away from the florals.

In the imp: The first thing I noticed is a high, sharp, green herbally scent that immediately reminded me of October and Oberot (two of my favorites!): that really unpleasant note in the bottle that resolves to something so incredibly wonderful on my skin. So from the beginning, I'm hopeful. Next to that: fresh florals, like in a florist's shop rather than sniffing a tropical flower. Under that... more of the same, light and bouyant and fresh and pretty. I'm not getting a hint of the amber, but maybe a teensy edge of the vanilla-yness, and none of the beeswax. Nope, just pretty and fresh florals.

 

On my skin: This goes through a lot of transformations. High and sharp, then unpleasantly green (rather than pleasantly green), and finally duskily but pretty floral. It ends up quite lovely, although probably not something very consistent with my identity. However, I'm starting to warm up to it. At which point, BAM! Quickly-descending headache.

 

Conclusions: Not another headache inducer! Good thing I just bought a new bottle of GRR...

 

ETA: Wow does it have staying power! I've scrubbed it 4 times...

In the imp: Round and warm, and sweetly floral. I can see what she means by "opaline notes," and it's really the only accurate description. All together, it's... pale and shining, at once round and sharp. Something there on the side that worries me, though. I'm beginning to feel a little nauseous. 

 

On me: Those opaline notes went... weird. White like coconut. But it's ghastly, sticky sweet rotting coconuts. Like, I'm expecting to see maggots. I'm so sad! I thought amber couldn't go wrong on me, and I *love* ozone, but between the sweetness of the flowers and... I'm not sure what else. I couldn't stand it all the way to drydown, to be honest. It made me feel ill, and my gentleman sneeze repeatedly. Yes, it's almost kind of rubbery... but also like sugared decomposition.

 

Conclusions: An unhappy surprise: one for the swaps box.

Extremely medicinal, and very reminiscent of old-time sore-muscle salve. Hello, eucalyptus!

 

That said, it works very well, particularly in the massage oil form.

 

When I'm really bound up, besides rubbing it in to the achey muscle, I find a couple of drops in a hot bath does wonders. It is the perfect thing after a long day in the garden. Goodbye aches!

This scent is just delightful. Minty and clear, sweet and light. Very uplifting and soothing at the same time. One of my favorites to turn to for relief of minor tension headaches and sleep deprivation muzziness.

 

Like other reviewers have said, this is not for heavy-duty killer migraines, but it's great at stopping a minor tension headache from becoming a crushing migraine.

Lathers up wonderfully, leaves my skin feeling soft. When treated properly in a well-drained soap dish, this soap is lasting a looong long time, which is good, because I love it.

Kumiho is one of my favorite BPALs, and the soap smells just like the oil, to my nose. It's a little softer and more subtle, but just as light and bright and clearing and delicious.

 

An absolutely delightful way to get clean.

I was delighted to find that the notes in the oil that go "off" when I wear the perfume don't come to the front when I'm using the soap. Nope, for me it was all luscious lather, mocha goodness, oh-so-soft skin, and a little coffee zing. I swear, I felt just a little low-dose caffeine zip after using this in the shower, and that was before I knew there was coffee in the bar.

 

All in all, it's my favorite morning shower soap.

In the bottle: Warm and welcoming! Hot beeswax candles, some but not all of them blown out, a little fruity, a feeling of warmth and friendliness. Community? So much of this blend bypasses my scent analyzing capabilities and hits me straight in the emotional subjectivity. If it wasn't for the fairly forward element of blown-out candles (an odor I've never much enjoyed), I would really like it a lot.

ETA: I've decided to age it a bit more to see if the amber comes out as more than the warm, friendly aura it seems to contribute fresh.

In the bottle: dark and delicious, burning red and resinous.

On me: Hot amber rock candy. Yes. Jaw-breakingly hard, tooth-achingly pure and sweet, amberlicious candy, warmed but not melted on a fire-heated stone. Not spicy: hot and RED and sticky sweet. It's more a taste than a smell, and I want to suck on some amber candy now! THIS is what red "hot" candies should taste like (cinnamon candy has always dissapointed me on that score).

Conclusion: SOOO glad I bought a bottle before it came down. I hoard my imps, and jealously guard my bottle, for this is the first time that my skin's tendency to wring out and present every possible molecule of sugar has been a boon. Lip-smacking, jaw-cracking delicious.

ETA: spellcheck.

In the bottle: sweet and resiny-spicy, with a hint of sharpness and a warm round behind. A quite complex blend.

 

On me, drydown phase: It starts with a bit of a clamour, and definitely takes its time to calm down. The myrrh is warring with my skin's predeliction for turning heady florals into rampaging slavering flower monsters. Amazingly, the floral seems to have been shouted down (thank goodness) by strident myrrh and surprisingly uncompromising sandalwood. I'm thinking argument between priestesses in a twilit temple, for some reason. The amber seems to be looking on in amusement, unseen in the background.

I am a big fan of amber, what can I say? Other than O, which I am aging in the hope that it improves, I haven't met an amber blend I didn't like. I'm not sure of the age of this imp, but I'm amazed at how little the amber character seems to be coming out, given my skin's normal temperment. In fact, I can hardly tell it's there at all. If it weren't for earlier argument, I probably wouldn't pick it out at all. Instead, the amber seems to be embracing and supporting the other notes. Nothing floral appears to be in attendance, amazingly. The resiny spice of myrrh is the focal singer in this blend, but it is supported by the sandalwood and the two are embraced and backed by the amber. The priestesses are now in a state of civility, if not complete and smooth accord. The result is harmonious, very spicy, and has sort of a... violet flecked with gold... forward, rich, and brash... velvety texture.

 

On me, dry: Eventually, the amber embraces and cushions and slooooowly softens the harsh spiciness of this blend. At finish, it is rich and complex, and complete. Harmonious in the manner of a group of people who have their tensions and differences, but through time and experience have tempered themselves into a smoothly working team. At this point, the individual notes are indistinguishable within the whole, but each clearly lends its character to the blend.

Mysterious, warm, rich, complex, resinously spicy, delicious.

 

Conclusions: Oh, lovely! I think it gets beat out by The Lion when it comes to favorite quite power blends, but it's definitely a keeper imp.

 

ETA: The more I sniff it on me, the more I like it.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Dirty! Hello clean. Black Opal could work, or it might go sweet, but I'd still say you should try it. You should definitely give Dee a spin, and I'll also second the suggestion of Odin. The Hesperides might be heavy on the apple for you, but it does have that autumnal vibe, to me. Scarecrow, Seance, Tempest, Yggdrasil, Sacred Whore of Babylon, Szepasszony and Ozymandias all come to mind, as well.

 

Teehee, Dirty. I was GOING to mention Dirty, but I decided not to, since it was sort of off topic.

 

Dirty to everybody else is clean and fresh, or laundry-soap floral. It is to my nose in the bottle, too. But when I put it on, it goes all misty-dusky-musky-gorgeous-sexy. Himself starts salivating, it's really cute.

It's weird, because normally I amp florals to an uncomfortable level, but in this case I wouldn't think there's a single flower in the bottle. Maybe everybody else is wrong, or maybe it's just my freaky skin.

So yeah... when I want to get seductive, I wear Dirty. When I want to feel clean and fresh, I wear Kumiho or sometimes Embalming Fluid.

 

Also, Tempest! Holy rainstorm, Tempest! In the bottle it smells like impending rain. On me it smells like monsoon. It's fabulous, if you like aquatic scents. Which Tehriaz said she doesn't.

So, totally off the wall here, but have you tried Kumiho? It's white tea and ginger, and it's my favorite "fresh! happy!" smell. Embalming Fluid is also quite nice, but Kumiho is much more fresh-smelling on me. It still has a little sweetness on me, but it's not rock candy sweet like Rage. Yes, I'm probably the only person who got amber rock candy out of Rage. But if you amp sweetness and florals, be sure to google any note name that you don't know. Rage contains a note of a tropical flower, and on me it goes amber rock candy. Which is actually quite delicious, so I use it as a craving buster, like El Dia De Reyes...

 

Pottersville, I've found that same thing with blends like Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo! It is supposed to be tooth-achingly sweet, and on me it simply doesn't change at all from the bottle to my skin. Which I agree, is much preferable to the blends where the sweet comes out unexpectedly, when they weren't supposed to be sweet. Like Taurus. That went completely Slavering Rampaging Plumeria Monster on me and I don't have any idea why. I didn't think there was anybody else out there who was as weird, skin-chemically, as me..

 

Also, The Lion is my new favorite power scent, next to War. Very amber and spices and warm and powerful, and not sweet at all. 

 

Kumiho, Embalming Fluid, and The Lion are all GCs, btw, so should be pretty easily available as imps, and cheap besides.

In the bottle: has the same harsh sharp overwhelmingly green front note as October. This is both frightening (not a nice scent) and reassuring (October is one of my very favorite scents). Also somewhat spicy... almost reminds me of Bakeneko. Is that a werewolf or a weretiger?

 

On me (dry): musky, dusky, earthy, woodsy, swarthy, YUM.

 

Conclusion: oh, yeah. Just yeah. So perfectly me. SO glad I bid on that auction. I want to eat myself.

In the bottle: yummy mocha goodness! With cinnamon.

 

On me: Amazingly, this doesn't change much. Still yummilicious, and slightly sweeter. That may be the brown sugar, or it may be that I seem to sweeten every scent that hits me.

 

Medium throw (people around me could smell it a little bit, which is tough to arrange on my skin), lasted in its own right a few hours, and clung against my skin a bit longer.

 

Conclusions: okay, I'm not usually huge on wearing the foody scents and carrying them around with me, but this is the perfect locket scent for craving days. I just want to *bathe* in it, but I know I have too much BPAL soap right now, and I'm only using Egg Nog soap at the gym.

In the bottle: Sweet and sharp and bright and dark and inviting....

Got some on my fingers. Instant headache. Owwwwie! Took multiple vigorous scrubbing sessions to get it off.

In the bottle - exactly what it says: tea rose, twisted.

 

On me - still tea rose, but the darker, more incensy notes start peeking out. Is that... sandalwood? patchouli? cedar? (Those notes aren't even similar, but I can't quite seem to distinguish). Whatever it is, it's somewhat sad, somewhat sleepy, somewhat decadent, absolutely lovely... but not something I'd wear often.

In the bottle: warm, a little floralish, just a bit sweet. Not getting the amber at all. This could go many ways on me.

 

On me: it did in fact go many ways! First touch on my skin it was shouting baby powder. About half an hour after putting it on, it was heavy baby powder layered over the floral note from Katharina. About 20 minutes later, it was baby powder over patchouli, which was completely unexpected! I'm just not a baby powder fan (nor a patchouli fan), so the facts that the patchouli disappeared quickly and the baby powder took about four hours to quiet down added up to a sort of mixed blessing. It's going on 5.5 hours now and the scent is still very much there. It's kind of warm and soft, and the amber is just starting to warm up, but there's still that note of baby powder. I think maybe it's the honey - other honey-containing scents have seemed powdery or dusty to me before. This one, it's just overwhelming.

 

Conclusions: This one is a long lasting one, and has a lot of potential if you either like or don't get the powder effect. I'm torn about whether to age it and see if the amber will morph it around, or give up and toss it in the swaps box. At the least, I think I'll hang on and see if it's a problem of being too fresh.

 

eta: clarification of bad syntax

I must preface this review by pointing out that after having read about it, I had to try it, and I had great high hopes for this scent.

 

In the bottle: Complex. Definitely some wintry forest & animal notes going on, but it's more sort of... disjointed imagery to me. Birch trees and melting dripping snow, and something under it. Could go good or bad, I just hope it resolves into one thing.

 

On me: Warm, furry, alive. Shares some of the same notes with this year's Hunter Moon - the parts I liked best. Oddly comforting, though it isn't a human sort of thing. More animal and immediate. Like other reviewers, I interpret this as a warm furry creature that carries the scent of wet winter forests but is now indoors.

As time goes on and tea is drunk by me, it fades out a little at a time, starting with the animal/fur heart of the scent. After four hours it's all melting snow on decomposing leaves. Birch trees on a bright and sunny dripping day.

 

Conclusions: Oh, lovely. Wonderful wonderful imagery.