Category: Limited Edition -- Halloween 2008
As many others have said: OMG YUMMY. Admittedly, it did take me a day or so to warm up to it, but once the full brunt of orange custardy cake goodness seeped into my system, I was hard-pressed not to just sit in a corner and lick myself for hours. I had been afraid of the floral notes, but I never really detected them at all. It just smells like moist, delicious, orange-glazed cake, and that is definitely good enough for me. Foodie fans must procure themselves a bottle of this.
Category: Mad Tea Party
On first application, it's Honey Liek Whoa. Thankfully, it doesn't take long for the tonka and perhaps the chamomile to calm it down and make it into more of a smooth, creamy scent. Once it dries, it tends to hug close to the skin, and seemed to wear off pretty quickly.
Category: Diabolus
While this shares the same note (red patchouli) as Malediction, it's sweetened considerably by the myrrh, making this a scent that's earthy in a sensual way.
Category: Bewitching Brews
In the imp, there is the sweetness of the lavender, spiced around the edges with the prickly sharpness of rosemary.
As it goes on, there's still that very sweet tone with the herbal note throughout...I think I can detect the neroli now.
As it dries, it gets light and peppery...herbs and perhaps frankincense.
While I'm not exactly a huge fan of lavender, it's a nice, soothing, pretty scent, and would make for a great room scent IMHO. Unfortunately it evaporates pretty quickly on me. But if you're a fan of lavender, well, here you go.
Category: Ars Amatoria
I really wanted to like this one -- and it was pleasant, no doubt about it. I get amber, pretty much, with the apple blossom and myrtle adding something sweet around the edges...and then it goes away. Just doesn't stand out enough for me, alas.
Category: Ars Amatoria
In the imp I could smell musk and a hint of lemon. It was a very elegant mix.
As it joined with my body chemistry, the lemon grew a little bit stronger. Unfortunately, it grew faint and wore off really quickly. Just not for me.
Category: Bewitching Brews
I smelled mostly cedar and patchouli in this one, with some other vague incense smokiness going on around the edges.
Aureus is golden in the way that a chunk of amber is golden; you get that lovely deep aura of radiant wood and patchouli, dark red-gold and bright orange-gold; and then there are those dark swirls and flecks of smoke and leftover incense embers caught up within it. If you are blessed with skin chemistry that highlights incense and smokiness, I suspect that your senses would be going over and over it, like polishing a smooth stone in your palm.
I, alas, am not one of those people. As seems to be the norm with incense, this faded quickly on me, though the cedar stuck around for a bit.
Category: Unreleased
Perhaps I should preface this with that I'm really not that familiar with fruitcake, my only exposure to it having been a nasty, cold concoction that had all the charm of fossilized Jolly Ranchers buried in road tar. I don't recall it having a scent, and the experience left me with no desire to ever make any of my own, so I've never smelled a freshly-made, *good* fruitcake.
That being said...
In the imp: It reminded me of a sort of bread...a dark, moist, spicy bread with a definite sweetness to it.
Wet: A candy-like scent came out, like gumdrops; it also made me think of brown sugar, and molasses, and, yes, booze...perhaps rum. Definitely something sweet.
Dry: It settles down to a more reserved version of those ingredients...sometimes a more spicy element pokes out, but there's always that sweet tone, as well.
Verdict: I like *this* fruitcake. It's a very evocative scent. I can't see wearing it a lot, but now that I've used the imp I think I'll justify hanging onto it. It's really cute and I'm glad I've gotten to experience it.
What I liked: It's sweet and comforting. I love the mental pictures it gives, even if I do get a vague craving for something moist, sweet, and chewy.
What I didn't like: Hm, nothing really...except perhaps that it makes me fear that no real fruitcake could ever compare to this.
Category -- Bewitching Brews
On me this is mainly iris with a sweet, creamy undertone of coconut, though every now and then they trade places in predominance. It's a really light scent on me that seems to fade all too quickly.
Category: Bewitching Brews
In the imp: Very, very sweet and floral, with a haze of warm, herbal scent about the edges. When people describe this scent as smelling like a garden, it is very apt.
Wet: The sweetpea comes to the forefront, resonating with a very strong sweetness. It seems like a feminine scent, but one that is more sweetly seductive than powerful and sensual.
Dry: The other notes return; I can definitely smell the musk, and I am assuming that warm tone that envelopes it is the tonka? Now I begin to see why this scent is named after such a fae. It sneaks up on you, but once you become aware of its power it is inescapable, and a little overwhelming.
Verdict: It's very interesting; certainly not a bad mix of scents by any means. I don't know if I would go for a whole bottle of this...I'll be wanting to try other floral-type scents and see how those strike me. It will definitely be a standard that I compare the others to.
I'm a bit relieved that it seems to smell good and 'appropriate', i.e. like the notes that are supposed to be in it, rather than melon-like, sickly-sweet, or just plain icky, as other reviewers had experienced. I'm a little torn on whether or not I like the musk of it...on the one hand, it's nice and warm and strong, and on the other hand it comes dangerously close to turning into 'old-lady' perfume. It may be one of those things that will be iffy on me.
What I liked: The warmth; also the sweetpea was surprisingly good. I will have to keep an eye out for that and tonka in future scents and see if those are the exact notes that I liked.
What I didn't like: The fact that the musk is iffy...almost dangerous, like it could turn on me at any moment. It's less of a dislike than something I'll try to be aware of.
Category: Mad Tea Party
Now that I am re-visiting it for the review, this smells a lot better than it had initially. I remember it being rather shrill and awful; now it's more muted, more like a watercolor painting done in pastel colors than the garish melange of FRUT! FLOWERS! INSANITY! that I remember.
Even so, something -- possibly the pineapple -- is just not working for me. This one needs to go to a loving home.
Category: Sin and Salvation
Another woody, sort of piney scent (to me), but it's clean and full of light, too...like sunlight spreading across curved rafters and pillars of polished wood. If anything, it makes me think of sitting in a church, perhaps before a big ritual or holiday, in the hour or so before everyone else starts arriving; you're alone and you have time to savor the quietness and intimacy. Even though it's not a keeper for me, it's a beautiful image to evoke.
Category: Marchen
Initially, this is plum, leather and musk like woah. After a bit, it softens, and the lilac comes out. Believe it or not, this is a fairly manly sort of floral. I am discovering that plum is one of my favorite notes, and this perfume does not disappoint. It has good staying power and some pretty decent throw from time to time.
Vanilla with sweet palm date, with the oakmoss and ginger giving it sort of a warm undercurrent. If this would have had any throw at all, it would totally have been on my MUST BUY NAO list. However, it is really, really lovely, and those who prefer to keep their perfumey pleasures all to themselves, to be sniffed discreetly from their wrist throughout the day, are really in for a treat with this one.
Category: Limited Editions -- Halloween 2008 -- Sleepy Hollow
I got a variety of scents from this one over the time that I tested it...the first day, it was straight-on, overpowering apple juice, with a rather unpleasant...biological sort of edge to it. (Read: pee. Eeek.) On subsequent days, however, it played very nice. One day, I could swear that all I smelled was sarsparilla...like a smooth, creamy, home-brewed root beer with a hint of vanilla and just the barest wisp of smoke. I have NO idea what was going on, that day, but I liked it -- and if it had done that repeatedly, I'd definitely be wanting a bottle of it. Overall, however, it settles into spiced apple cider. It's a scent that's both sweet and warm and very evocative of Autumn. If you love apple scents, definitely grab some of this. It's really good, but for a foodie scent, I believe that Huesos works better for me.
Pretty much as advertised...very strong, dry lavender, with a faint bit of bergamot underneath. It reminds me lots of Baku, only without the sweet addition of anise. Fades away to nothing pretty rapidly. I thought I'd like this a lot more than I actually did.
Category: Ars Amatoria
Initially, I got lots of syrupy cherry with a hint of cinnamon; subsequent uses brought out the licorice. Now, it's blended (in that very mysterious way that a lot of scents seem to have gotten their shit together a month after I originally tested them) into a nice mix of cherry and anise, with the licorice smell diabolically present and tempting. I was on the fence about getting rid of it, but now that I've read the reviews again, I think I'll hang onto it. :love!: It stays and throws decently.
Limited Edition -- Yule 2009 -- Miskatonic Yuletide Faire
I didn't have much material to test, so this one sort of got lost in the shuffle. I'm rather regretting it now, as it's pretty yummy-smelling. As many others have noted, it has a slightly-buttery almond pastry feel. I'm not getting a lot of fruit, though there is a very sweet aspect to it, so I wouldn't put it past the cherry to be present right now. It's throwing pretty well just from the tiny dab I put on. This turned out to be my favorite of Mother Shub's creations.
Category: Excolo
This is lovely.
The juniper adds a very nice, grounding effect for the other woods, because for some reason sandalwood seems to do odd things on me that are not always pleasant. Together, the woods form a nice base, and there is a bit of spiciness from the juniper, I think, that creeps up every now and then, as well as bergamot. The florals lurk in the background; I can detect just a hint of lilac, just enough to make it especially sweet and pretty.
A very pleasant, romantic scent, in my opinion.
Category -- Diabolus
*gack cough* This is aggressive, all right. Vetiver whispers unkind things into the ear of patchouli, who otherwise is my friend, and together they are stalking across the way to rearrange my face. I think I shall be leaving by the back door, now...
And you know what's ironic? Besides being so angry, it smells like the Queen Of All Hippies. Talk about a paradox.
It actually reminds me a lot of my experiences with Crossroads and Lust...and those weren't very pleasant, either.
Category -- Limited Editions -- Yule 2008 -- BPTP Yule Inquisition
Sirensea sent me a sniffie of this (phew, say that five times fast), and I'm very glad to have been able to smell this! It's a very rich coffee that to me has tones of hazelnut, or amaretto. I don't really get a boozy vibe from it. There wasn't enough to test on my skin, so I'm not sure how my chemistry would have interacted with it. I almost get the impression that it might have turned sort of sour after a while, like coffee breath. But as a little sniffie every now and then, it's very fun.
Limited Editions -- Halloween 2009
Like many, I also detected Roses WTF from this. Upon deeply huffing my wrist, however, I can figure out that it's just the way that the almond is interacting with the other components...it's almost like there's almond and orange extract, or orange rind, in with a caramely pastry of some sort. From a distance, that distinction blurs and becomes a rose-like scent. I actually love the way that this scent works, and therefore bought a bottle of it.
Limited Editions -- Halloween 2009 -- The Literary Vampires
I pretty much just get roasted chestnuts off of this. It's a rich, almost buttery sort of smell -- it's like going over to someone's house after they've been baking all day...all the smells of the various breads, cookies and such mingle together, into one warm, delicious celebration of carbohydrates. It's a very, very intriguing scent, though in my case I'm pretty sure I don't need a bottle of it. If I do ever swap my imp of this, it will be with a bittersweet and reluctant feeling.
Category: Picnic In Arkham
This is another one I really wanted to like, and I do...I just don't know how well. It has a really nice, coconutty air to it, along with what smells like hints of chocolate...I think that sandalwood smells like that to me sometimes. I think it ultimately must bow down to Death Cap.
