Hm, odd. The first time I tried this, I got all clove and spices and balsam and a hint of orange punch. Not wicked at all, but certainly yummy. Over the day, it morphed into something woody, and by the end of the day was getting a bit soapy...but it behaved so nicely for the majority of its stay that I was willing to forgive that.
Now that I'm sniffing it again, I get primarily bitter mandarin orange, with some balsam or cypress...something sweet but woody. That's a bit more...wicked, I guess. Perhaps things had settled -- I didn't really bother with rolling the imp or anything, this time around.
In both cases, however, I very much like it. I'll need a bottle.
Upon first application, it smelled like what I fancy an old-fashioned licorice candy would smell like: vaguely bitter, but with enough sweetness in its scent to lure one in for a tooth-achingly good time. I actually envision a licorice-flavored 'coal' candy with this one.
It is decent staying power and throw, and is pleasantly-sweet throughout; I can definitely pick out the licorice and leather notes. The coal dust makes it just a tad dry or powdery around the edges, without the whole thing crumbling into powderiness. It's very interesting, but an imp is most likely enough for me.
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.
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: Illyria
I smell violet, and possibly benzoin and tonka. It actually kind of reminds me of a sweet herbal liqueur...kinda like Galliano, for some really weird reason. It's a pretty durable scent, lasting all day long.
Category -- Bewitching Brews
Wow.
This is unlike anything I've smelled in quite some time...
There is supple, well-worn leather, and ivy -- more like the dried tendrils of ivy still clinging to the grass-choked stone of a tower that has long since crumbled away to piles of rubble. Every now and then, the wind stirs up scents from the lives of those who used to dwell there -- their warm spiced wine, the wood stacked up in piles for their fire, their very spirit and essence, all wafting in in a ghostly way. It really is a very sad, wistful, evocative scent...a great sensory experience.
This is not quite for me. But if I were to come across it on a man, I think I would follow him almost anywhere.
Highly recommended for those looking for masculine scents.
Category -- Diabolus
The first time I wore this, I knew that I was smelling the plum pretty predominantly; it had a sort of rich, dark fruity tone to it without being too terribly juicy.
Now, as I retest it, I'm given the impression of a rich lady sampling plums in between sips of champagne; it's fruity, yes, but there's also a very rich, perfumey smell that is almost alcoholic in its headiness.
A co-worker of mine recently received a rose that smelled a lot like this -- a sweetness so fruity that it was hard to believe it was coming from a rose! So I can believe that there is rose in here...though in this case the sweetness is surely from the fruits mixing with all the various florals.
It tends to hug close to the skin; this is a scent that's pretty much reserved for your own pleasure, and that of anyone you invite into very close company.
Recommended for fans of plum and fruit scents, and even for those who normally hate rose (of which I am one). This is a sexy one.
Limited Edition -- Yule 2009
This is a really gorgeous, creamy, fruity scent. Utterly laden with pink and orange goodness; I get a lot of images of a sunlit room redolent with the smell of flowers and a freshly-ordered fruit basket. So very yummy! It has a little bit of throw, and lasts quite a while even under the rigors of things like washing one's hands during cooking and such. Now I'm wishing that finances had allowed a bottle of this.
Category: Bewitching Brews
In the imp, it's vanilla and mandarin; once on me, the florals start coming out, but there is always a continual theme of vanilla to it. In fact, the vanilla amps and throws the most in this one. There is a slight powdery quality to it. If you like vanilla, go ahead and give this one a try.
Probably not bottle-worthy for me, though it is enjoyable. It reminds me a bit of Antique Lace.
Fig, walnut, and bamboo mingle together to evoke images of freshly-peeled bark, twigs, sticks, tendrils of curling greenery, and underneath it all, the moist, sheltering earth of a burrow. It's warm and sweet, like a little brown rabbit curling up somewhere safe. As if that lovely imagery wasn't enough, there is a teensy bit of caramel that gives it a chocolatey sort of feel...like a chocolate bunny, almost! (I was born in the year of the Wood Hare, so that must be where all the rabbity imagery is coming from). I really liked it, a lot! And I will probably rue the day that I decided to pass up on getting a full bottle of it.
I really loved all the Phoenixes. They are so very evocative in their own respective ways; I haven't had this much mental imagery from scents in quite a while. I really enjoyed my experiences with the Anniversary scents, and am grateful to have been able to sample them.
Category -- Bewitching Brews
Straight out of the imp, it's chocolate brownies! Moist, fresh brownies with chunks of chocolate chip melted in them...oh man, I really want to bake some, now.
As it dries, it turns to more of a dry cocoa powder...the sticky sort of smell you'd get on your hands if you've been nomming on a bag of chocolate candies for far too long.
I can see this being great layered with other scents...just by itself, it's not quite to my taste, but it could be fun to experiment with!
Category -- Rappacini's Garden
A rather innocuous rose. The dragon's blood gives it a sweetness that threatens to send it into the same icky rose territory that I amped like crazy in Rose Cross, but it stays okay for the most part. It actually ends up smelling soapy more than anything. Decent throw and staying power, just not for me.
This is a very light, clean scent, without ever turning soapy. The skin musk is predominant, but as it settles in on my skin I can detect the light sweetness of the vanilla flower, with perhaps a hint of honey and beeswax giving it a bit of a warm glow. This is another scent that tends to hug close, with occasional whiffs throughout the day....but it is *very* durable.
Basically, it smells like fresh, slightly damp skin, straight out of the shower. Very nice and clean. I haven't tried Glowing Vulva, so I couldn't compare this at all, but in its own right I think it's rather nice. If you like discreet, deceptively simple aromas, then this is worth acquiring.
Peachy flowers. While the peach note is really pretty, on me the notes just all meld together into a very generic sort of sweet-fruity-floral scent. It's a bit like a girl who is very pretty and sweet and demure, but also very vapid, and easily-forgotten. I'm sure the character this is based on is *nothing* like that, but it's the personality that seems to be put forth by this blend, to me at least.
Category: Excolo
In the imp: Oh my goodness, this was a beautiful scent. It actually brought tears to my eyes for a moment because it was so lovely. Very sweet, definitely redolant with peach, though I could also smell the warm tones of the musk and, I am assuming, amber around it as well.
Wet: Very sweet and peachy. The fruitiness and sweetness predominated.
Dry: The muskier tones come back, but the peach is definitely not to be undermined, and conquers all. It is *almost* a little cloying.
Verdict: I really like this scent, though I am almost thinking that it would be better as a room scent, as unfortunately I think it tends to get a little sour and cloying on me. I'll be willing to try more of it, though.
What I liked: The peach, and I think I liked the amber.
What I didn't like: The fact that yes, I think musk likes to misbehave a little on me. Though thankfully it's just a little.
Overall, I can live with this scent, I just don't feel like it's *perfect* on me. It's so gorgeous, though, that I can't give up on it. I wonder if it would work in a locket, where it is warmed by me but not in contact with my skin. I'll keep the imp around but hold off on getting a bottle for a while, I think.
Category: Illyria
In the imp I can detect incense with a great deal of sweetness to it...the sweet herbs and grasses, perhaps. As it goes on, it gets more of a woodsy tone to it -- the frankencense, perhaps? Over time, as it dries, it turns spicy (and most stereotypically manly) to me.
Overall, it's a nice scent...while it does not scream 'HI I'M A DUDE' to me, that's fine with me, as most of the 'mainstream' male scents have a nasty overspiced air to them, while this is a lot more mellow and subtle...and besides, I like wearing it. I'm half-tempted to smear some on the BF and see what effect it might have.
What I liked: It's nice and mellow.
What I didn't like: Nothing in it really seems to stand out for me. Like the vast majority of these scents, it's nice, but not a must-have. Then again, isn't half the fun having something new to experiment with all the time? So I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about not going OMG MUST HAVE BOTTLE for more of these guys.
Category: Rappacini's Garden
Ohhhhh, yum! I get a lot of coconut from this, though at the beginning, if I lean down close and sniff my skin, I get the 'dirt' notes -- a musky, loamy sort of smell that is creamy in a way -- like, yes, mushrooms. Incredibly odd, but true. As it dries, the coconut smell takes over for the most part, with just a hint of that creamy 'shroom smell running underneath it. I have to admit that I wondered why people seemed to flip over this, but damn! It's delicious. Definitely on my list of favorites, now!
It has a gentle sort of throw, treating me to wafts of creamy coconut all day long. Yay!
Limited Edition -- Yule 2009 -- Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire
I don't get a nutty vibe from this...it mostly smells like spicy baked goods, like cookies or bread. Unfortunately, the sugary side of it is what causes it to smell off to me...there's just a barest hint of toasted plastic to it. And that's a shame, given its subtle throw and very hardy staying power. Ah well.
Someone else compared this to a 'high-end soap', and I totally agree! Not that it's soapy in a bad way; it's just really, really fresh and clean-smelling. It's almost minty, in a way. There is a definite air of teal-blue; brisk, cleansing water sudsed with sea-foam. Like nearly all the Phoenixes, it tended to hug very close to my skin, but was quite strong should I come nodding back for a sniff. I'd say it had about average staying power, say five or six hours.
Category -- Ars Amatoria
Mmmmm. Up close and personal, it's pine. Big, manly, rugged pine. And then, as my wrist whisks away, it leave behind a tantalizing blend of spicy vanilla -- the pine's still there, but now it feels more like a blend of juniper and herbs, the same sort of sexiness that I love about Himerus.
To me, this is the male companion to Flowering Chrysanthemums. FC is all wet, dusky petals, and GP is a thick branch brimming with sap, and both of them are bathed in fragrant vanilla. That's hot.
Delicious.
Category: Limited Editions -- Halloween 2008
Admittedly, this is less-than-pleasant upon first application; you get all of the beery, boozy qualities of it, that stale, sour leftover-whiskey smell that lingers on your breath the morning after. Not nice.
However! It calms down and behaves itself really quickly. It is like a burly, scruffy man with booze on his breath, who completely surprises you by reciting a lovely poem from memory. The harsh booziness goes away, and you are left with a sweet, malty sort of aroma, like you're leaning over a freshly-drained cask of whiskey and inhaling that slightly-toasted, caramely smell that's still soaked into the wood. Once it's morphed to that stage, it stays there. I really liked this one.
If it weren't for the unpleasantness at the beginning, I would spring for a full-priced bottle. (If I had unlimted funds, I still would.) I managed to wrangle a partial bottle, and I certainly wouldn't mind buying up other people's unloved imps and adding them to it from time to time. It's inspiring borderline hoarding behavior.
Category -- Rappaccini's Garden
I wasn't hoping for much from this one, but was pleasantly surprised. This really does smell like rich, juicy red berries, with maybe a teensy splash of wine. Unfortunately, it doesn't have all that much throw or longevity on me; otherwise it'd be a keeper.
Go ahead and try this if you normally don't like lotus. I think you'll enjoy it for a change.
Category: Limited Editions -- Lupercalia 2007
I received this as a decant from my Switch Witch.
This...is sex and decadence in a bottle. The earthy pleasures of opium, tobacco leaf, and liquor -- yes, liquor! I'm wanting to say bourbon -- are all I can detect, and it is AWESOME. It's as if someone had captured the essence of a long night in a bawdy bar, sans the less alluring scents of, say, sweat and actual tobacco *smoke*, and put it in a bottle.
If you want to smell like you've been out all night partying, with the smug satisfaction of not having a hangover, then wear this. And don't be afraid to slather it.
YUM.
Limited Edition -- Halloween 2009
A very yummy Pumpkin, indeed! This is the first time I really came up against the 'buttery' note that a lot of people talk about. But as soon as the cap is off and it's being applied, I get a hearty blast of freshly-melted butter. It quickly ebbs a bit so that it just smells like lightly-salted buttered popcorn...and then the other notes come out to play. I like honey, but often it can smell just a little too musky or tart; here, the pumpkin mellows it out enough so that it gives a nice, mellow body to the pumpkin and takes away a light sweetness from its fellow component. I liked it so much, I made sure to buy a bottle.
