sarada

I didn't order this initially because of the word "cologne"...that combined with ingredients like bergamot and lemon rind made me think it would be a very sharp and lemony cologne. But the reviews that described it as green, made me seek out some imps! I'm glad that I got a chance to try it, this is unlike any other scent that I've tried -- I don't think I would use a whole bottle but I'll definitely enjoy an imp or two! The herbal smell is foremost in the blend, a definitely strong waft of herbs, and it's not too lemony. It's sunshiney, coming across as yellow-green (though that's not the color of the actual oil). It does remind me of a cologne or a grandmotherly perfume here and there, but overall the strong herbal quality dominates. I love the scent of cardamom so I'm looking for it in this but I don't smell it. I do smell something like amber though. Not the amber I'm used to...that must be grey amber. I know that the variety present in this blend is vegan, since all of the lab's components are vegan, but if you are curious about the original namesake for that substance here's something I found on the International Perfume Museum's web site: "Grey amber is an animal substance coming from a pathological secretion in the intestines of the sperm whale. Its obtention in no way endangers the animal as it can be found floating on the ocean's surface or simply along the coastline. The perfume industry uses it as a trace, like musk or civet, to fix or exalt other perfumes which might be too delicate or fleeting." Neat, huh? Whatever the vegan equivalent is, it does anchor what would probably be a fleeting scent - I think that I especially like the dark, musky/amber quality that anchors this. That scent lingers for some time...almost like white musk with a trace of amber through it, and the lingering breath of warm herbs. It's not exactly "me" but I like it anyway and will wear it on nice spring days like today!

I was very curious about this one and a little nervous -- I don't like florals much unless they're very complex and combined with dark incense scents or plum/berry scents. Given some of the reviews, I was hoping this might be one that I'd like! In the bottle, it is a very dark and complex blend indeed with a strong floral component -- I'm going to have to join the ranks of those who can't tell jasmine and gardenia apart in a blend, but since this isn't giving me a headache I'll guess that it's either a type of jasmine that doesn't bother me, or some other floral that manages to be sharp, sweet and dark at the same time. A little bit smoky, a little bit of a spicy tingle. Actually, as it dries down it really smells a lot like root beer...but not so syrupy sweet. There's nothing vaguely like cinnamon in this to my nose, though perhaps that's what I'm interpreting as the root beer smell. Cinnamon makes my skin burn a little and doesn't generally agree with me, but this is a very smooth, slightly sweet and dark, musky floral blend. No hints of anything resembling vanilla either -- again, that sweetness is just interpreted by my brain as root beer. I'm trying real hard to see if I can detect any cinnamon....if it's in there it's blended so well that it just turns into that sort of root beer scent. Cola and root beer always smell like a very complex blend of spices to me, so it's quite possible that there's a blend like that in here. The floral notes fade after awhile and I didn't get a headache from this upon first wearing it, though I will be very careful with how much I apply since it's very heady and seems to have some headache potential! Ultimately I like it, and I'm glad I have a half-bottle to play around with, as it's definitely unique, and I might like to feel like a sacred whore occasionally!

Is that the one called "Ancient Times"? That was my favorite too but I am not sure if I can find a correlation in BPAL...I haven't smelled that in so long! I might be inspired to order up some Gonesh incense to refresh my scent-memory actually, I loved those, but I don't know of any places around me that sell it...that would send me on a major trip down memory lane I think! I'm sure that some similarities could be found with some BPAL oils.

Haven't I reviewed this yet? Oh my... I wasn't racing to try Dorian at first since it mentioned vanilla, and if there is one note that hates me, it's vanilla. But I was intrigued. I am very fond of black tea, and even my dislike for vanilla wasn't enough to turn me off from at least trying Dorian. Digression: there's a type of tea that I dearly love, called Victorian Garden. And while I ~overwhelmingly~ dislike even a hint of vanilla in tea normally, I like it in this tea. It is a black tea...with lavender, vanilla, and possibly some other flowers, I'm not sure. But it has the slightest hint of natural sweetness (I take my tea black, I cannot stand sweet tea), a wonderful faintly purple floral bouquet and a gritty, smokiness underlying it. It's one of my very favorite teas. Dorian....smells like this tea. Whenever I wear it, I feel compelled to drink this tea. And vice versa. I know that it has vanilla in it...but it doesn't bother me. The lavender tea scent keeps it from seeming foody to me, and it makes me think of holding a pale silken eyemask stuffed with lavender over my eyes to relax, while a cup of my favorite tea brews nearby. The musky undertones are the scent of a mysterious masked man beside me...I can't see him, but I can smell him. This floats into my top ten from time to time, depending on my mood, and it is the only scent containing vanilla that I can wear regularly. I don't detect any lemon smell, incidentally. This is also a favorite of mine to wear to bed -- it is very comforting, and it makes me feel as though I'm snuggling up with someone, even if I'm not!

In the imp I mostly get an orange smell, not very strong. Instead of sandalwood in the background I catch an almost peppery scent -- very dry. As I expected though it starts to fade upon application, and quickly the mango catches up. I recognize this mango scent, I think it's the same that is in Corazon, not very strong but enough to give you a refreshing orangey (the color, not the fruit!) splash. I vastly prefer mango to orange as a scent so that is a welcome change. The mango starts to fade as well after about 15 minutes and finally the sandalwood comes out. It ends as a lovely, dry sandalwood scent with a glimmer of the orangey mango, like a wooden crate that was full of fruit but is now empty. It also makes me think of a faded fabric with a pattern of branches and orange fruit on it. Unfortunately it's so very light and fades so fast I can't see ever wearing it regularly, though it would make a perfect lotion if I just had some empty bottles and unscented lotion to make some with!

This is the short review, I will edit it after a day of wear. But having just applied this (I bought a bottle unsniffed) I am completely overwhelmed. Macha is right -- how did they get a fresh blooming warm garden in a bottle? I bought this unsniffed because the complexity of the blend and the variety of dark, fruity and floral ingredients made me think it would have an impact on me similar to that of Blood Countess (in the running for my favorite blend right now) and Queen of Spades. It does! The lab's plum is truly an amazing scent -- it makes a blend dark and juicy and, well, purple. It is a dark and dusky, incensy garden of fruit and flowers, and while I can't pick out any individual notes (there is no strong rose or gardenia note popping out, for instance) they shift and move and peek out at you from time to time. I have to wear this around for a day to enjoy all of the subtleties but this is definitely a masterpiece, and if you enjoy the dark complexity of something like Blood Countess, you should enjoy this. Now go back and read Macha's review again, she has this down perfectly! ETA: After wearing this around for a day it's definitely in my top...15. It's like Blood Countess' sister. The tartness of the pear and quince really sparkle among the dark juicy sweetness of plum, pomegranate and fig in the bottle, but ebony and fir smooth it over and add a sort of woodiness that makes it last on my skin. I think that the date palm must be adding another dimension of dark, woody sweetness as well. The flowers do not become floral or powdery, they simply float along the surface and help to keep this from being overly sweet and fruity. No flower jumps out at me, much like the Countess -- they're beautifully integrated into the tapestry of scents. I have to reapply a lot to keep getting that waft of fragrance that I crave though. Like I said earlier, a masterpiece!

Thank you to the kind and generous forum members who hooked me up! I was well aware of the lab when this came out, but completely oblivious of the forum. So I missed out! I recently realized that wine and tobacco scents do marvelous, amazing things on my skin, some months after putting those notes on my list of things I was not interested in. While I still dislike rummy smells, wine smells are marvelous indeed, but what really does me in is the gritty, smoky sexiness of tobacco scents. God I hate it when it's burning -- I get very sick around cigarette/pipe smoke, but as a perfume, it's ~marvelous~. The main impression that I get is the clinging scent of clove cigarette smoke to clothing drenched in musky body heat. I really do get the impression of lipstick from this. When I waved it under a friend's nose they picked up the bubblegummy note and it comes across to me as a sticky wet lipstick smack -- but not powdery, happily. I do feel a hint of that cherry bubblegum lingering around the edge, like the imprint of red lips on a glass, but it's not overwhelming. Instead the deep spicy clove scent is the strongest on me. I hope that the samples I obtained will last me awhile as I know we might not get a shot at a scent like this again. There's definitely nothing else like this out of the....260+ scents here that I've tried! But if Hell's Belle is at all similar I'd better hook myself up with some of that and find out!

Received a sample of this from Penance! Ace of Pentacles is one I've had my eye on for awhile but I was also unsure if I'd detect an almond note -- something that does not generally agree with me. Happily, this is woodland bliss! It come across as a dark green piney scent at first, rather like Nocnitsa but not quite as syrupy and dark. The patchouli does assert itself quickly, all of the ingredients are taking turns -- pine stays strong, but I get that nice patchouli dirt smell that I love so much, just under the surface. This is a pine forest in the summer after rain. The honeysuckle is warmed by the sun and drifts lazily through the humid air. If there is an almond note, it combines with the honeysuckle so perfectly that I do not detect it. It moves very quickly from pine to patchouli to honeysuckle before settling into a faint murmur of tree branches and a breath of sweet, warm air. This is definitely a cousin to Nocnitsa for me, not quite as powerful and dark but very beautiful. I think I will have to reapply frequently if I am wearing it but this could be a great scent for me in the green months of the year!

Wow, now I know why Perversion is slightly sweet on me. Weird thing is though, I hate coconut (as a scent, not as a taste -- I love it with chocolate!) and feel violently nauseous if I smell it in incense, sunblock, anything like that. But I don't mind it in Spooky and I LOVE it in Perversion. Weird! I wore Perversion today. Totally not what I'd normally wear on a hot day but I just really wanted a little Perversion in my life. ;P

Didn't I review this yet? Wow. This is one I've been enjoying imps of for a few months and now that I have a big bottle I should start putting it on my favorites list. Initially I couldn't tell the difference between Scherezade and Spellbound, but I ordered a bottle of Spellbound because I had to force myself to choose, and that seemed the most like "me." Now that I'm more keenly aware of individual notes I am enjoying Scherezade as much if not more. Red musk is very powerful and alluring -- possibly the sexiest note of all, to me, though I can't wear it every day. Maybe once a month, or I'll be overwhelmed. Fortunately, it does NOT go powdery on me, it lingers and even strengthens over time. It lasts forever and surrounds me with a warm, incensy feeling. Deep red velvet and silks, polished wood stained from years in a smoky room. The only problem is that for every person who says "Wow, you smell GREAT" I wind up finding another who sneezes uncontrollably around me, when I wear Scherezade or other red musk scents! So I have to restrain myself and use it in small doses. The spices in this are incense spice, not food spice. I like it more than Morocco because it does not have the perfumey/floral feeling that Morocco has at first. I like it more than Snake Oil because it does not have that vanilla running through it. Both of those scents are great and I like them, but the red musk is really what does it for me. I'd definitely recommend this as a great thing for someone to buy in their first order if they like incensy smells or "spice market" smells. This, and Silk Road, are the two spicy smells that really work for me. I'm going to have to work hard to keep from slathering this, to spare my friends with allergies, because this has a lot of throw and power.

The intoxicating perfume of exotic incenses wafting on warm desert breezes. Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. It took me this long to see Macha's wonderful comment above that this scent is almost but not quite like the headshop smell I'm longing for! I can't believe I didn't seek this out before and I have to thank ivyandpeony for hooking me up!! It's funny that I tried the rather new Silk Road before the longtime lab favorite Morocco, as I feel like Silk Road is almost the perfection of the Spice Market scent that winds its way through so many favorite BPAL fragrances. Morocco is a close cousin, that's for sure! Warm, dusty, spicy, just a hint of florals (that would be the carnation I guess?)...it does come across a little perfumey on me at first, I get just a twinge of the perfume headache that I sometimes get, when I inhale too deeply. But I do feel as though if I walked by someone wearing this, they wouldn't think "Who's wearing perfume?", they would think "What faraway land have I just arrived in, and why am I suddenly sitting on a camel?" or a flying carpet perhaps -- I'm obviously drawing all of my analogies from old Popeye cartoons and for that I apologize. I think that with Silk Road and Scherezade on their way to me in bottle form that I might have enough wonderful mysterious desert spice scents for the moment but I can definitely see acquiring more Morocco in the future. It dries down to an almost perfect non-foody spice on me and it doesn't burn my skin at all the way blends with too much cinnamon do. It's a classic!

I've been very curious about this one. This is the seventh Tarot oil I've tried! In the vial this reminded me of Belladonna. A very dry, slightly bitter herbal smell, but very strong. It makes me think of sort of an olive green color...slightly musky, but definitely green. As soon as I apply it the spiciness comes out, which really surprised me despite the fact that I expected it from the reviews! The cinnamony smell (is it like the one in Hamadryad? I can't remember...it's been awhile since I tried that one) doesn't exactly mesh well with the herbal smell to me but when I think of it in terms of my spice cabinet it all makes sense. Yes, this smells like my spice cabinet. All kinds of dusty dried herbs and spices! From around the whole world! Very strong and long-lasting. It dries back down to the Belladonna-esque herbal smell. I like it but I'm not sure if it's me -- but of course I realize that the Tarot oils are as much for contemplation and meditation as they are for wear, so that makes sense! I'm very happy to have gotten a chance to try this!!

I can't figure out why I didn't just order this immediately since I like all of the notes in it and I support the cause that inspired it! I think that I didn't realize how much I like red musk until recently -- it's definitely a favorite note of mine. It makes everything very warm and incensy. It is not overwhelmingly strong in this blend on me though -- in the imp it is very fruity and the mango is lovely and not too sweet. I feel like I can see the color of pale orange when I smell the hint of mango...very vivid like a sun setting in the desert. Once applied, there's just this wonderful rush of SAGE and just a tingle of lavender, all mixed in with the gentle musk and quickly fading hint of mango. Sage and a fruity fragrance become the main notes for awhile and I really like it in that middle stage. Herbal but sweetly so...and there's a sort of incense-like grittiness to it. It fades quickly on me but I only used a tiny dab. I ordered a bottle of this just in time and I can't wait to get it! I'd call this a great year round scent but particularly nice in the warmer months maybe, gender neutral (to me anyway) and I think it would also make a nice room scent.

This is the week that I acquire and test everything that has smoke, fire and tobacco (haha, I typoed "tomacco" the first time I tried to write that...) as ingredients, that I can get my hands on. I was quite surprised to realize recently that I love these scents. Who would have thought, after all my complaining about my dad smoking pipes, that I love the smell of tobacco so much. In the bottle and freshly applied, this is like opening a pouch of thick, soft tobacco -- sweet and smoky, but dark. I can't stand the actual smoke, it makes my throat clench and eyes water, but I love the smell of the leaves, and of the lingering smoke when it gets into wood. This actually becomes quite sweet after awhile, an impossible dark, smoky flower. I don't get a lot of leather, which is good as I'm not wild about leather. DeSade didn't really turn me on, for instance. This is one of the scents that I dub a Sherlock Holmes smell...I think of a wooden study full of books and an Englishman carefully examining a skull or a globe. I think the ambergris must give this a kind of golden sweetness, and anything with amber in it dries down to a mainly amber smell on me. I'm not sure what the incense notes are, but I am a big fan of anything remotely relating to incense and I enjoy the smoky aftereffects of this. Truth be told, this makes me feel a little high! Heady, strong and exhilarating. Another smoke blend to die for!! I wish I was a 19th century Englishman, I would wear this to my secret occult lodge meetings. I guess this is masculine, but I really prefer these kinds of scents anyway...I can see getting a bottle of this some day, or at least more imps!

Urd is the only one that I have tried that has nag champa listed as an ingredient, and smells like it. It smells like it a LOT. And it's my #1 favorite BPAL!! Gaukeo mostly smelled like lavender to me. I haven't seen champa listed anywhere else but I do agree that Scherezade reminds me of that sort of incensy smell...

I didn't order this but received a generous amount in swap, for which I am very grateful! I had wondered if it would come across very sweet, or very floral on me, though I hoped that I might have the same success with this that I have with some other "red" scents ... though usually, "red" for me means red musk or dragon's blood, neither of which appears to be in this blend (?) In the bottle it is very strong and heady and I don't apply a whole lot because I don't want to knock anyone out at work today. It initially comes across as a pleasant, strong perfume like Venom, but without the ingredient that gave me a headache in Venom (jasmine?)...it definitely comes across as more of a red scent, than the green/purple that impressed me with Venom. As it dries down it comes across more and more like Blood Countess, without the strong dark/juicy purple fruit. I feel like there is plum in this though...it's reminding me of the countess, and Queen of Spades a little but again, it isn't quite as dark. It's more of a medium scent...I feel as though there has to be some kind of berry in it, jazzed up with very fragrant but not cloying floral qualities. Again, I feel as though a lot of the ingredients are things that I would associate with the color purple (lilac perhaps?) but it never quite gets as deep and dark as those other fragrances. This has a really nice drydown on me. Though I'm sure there are a lot of floral characteristics to this, the things that come out on me are a little more like plum, a little more like the incensy floral I get from Blood Countess. I like it a lot! I will definitely wear this.

Why is this kicking my ass so much?!?! What a surprise!! I got a freebie of this (thank you lab!!) and had never given it even a moment's thought as a possibility for something I would like. A long time ago I listed my least favorite scents and included: tobacco, booze, and leather, among them. Boy, was I wrong. Always test your imps!! This absolutely explodes on me, into the most warm, comforting, all-enveloping goodness I can imagine. I am really, really into smoky scents this week, but I never knew that tobacco could be such a wonderful smell. Rich, deep, gritty, earthily floral. It's my dad's pipe tobacco. And while I don't like it while he's smoking it, I love the way that the sweet smoky smell gets into wood and lingers. It smells very studious, warm, homey, and comforting to me. Yeah, so it's called Perversion...and it makes me feel like I'm at my parents' house. That's not too f'ed up or anything! I don't get the bad rum smell that makes my feel queasy in several other blends...just a sort of heady sweetness that is overpowered by that sensual comforting smoke. I have no idea what tonka smells like. I thought it was something I didn't like. But I like everything in this. Maybe it's a "time of month" thing that is changing my scent personality this week but I am so into this I cannot get myself into a big bottle fast enough. Hilariously enough I don't drink and don't smoke, and I hate the smell of alcohol and (smoked) tobacco so much that I avoid them at all costs. Hopefully this won't make me smell like I have been bar-hopping. Because to me, this is the smell of a dark study full of heavy volumes of books on the wall, maybe a model skeleton and a brain in a jar, and a pipe-smoking old man is carefully looking through a leather-clad book at his desk. (the book, however, is a volume of vintage erotica, more likely than not...) I'm just going to lie on the sofa and sniff my arm for awhile now. p.s. no coconut smell for me at all. thank god!

I was very generously given an imp of this, to my complete and utter surprise! The generosity of BPALers is truly astounding! I had this on my list of things to buy for sure, when it was discontinued...and unfortunately because I'm either blind or stupid I didn't NOTICE it was on the to-be-discontinued list. If I had to list my four favorite things in the world it would run something like this: Vetiver, sandalwood, cedarwood and frankincense. If you add patchouli to that list you get my five favorite things. So, yes, this is destined to be a favorite. Vetiver stands out the strongest in the imp, and it is similar to Malediction and Umbra (without the cinnamony kick). Drying, it is just incredible...the most perfect deep brown wood scent...with a touch of sweetness, a touch of spice...this is profound. It is the dark interior of a wooden chapel and it is sunlight baking the freshly-turned, moist rich earth. I can only hope that some day a bottle of this most sacred substance comes my way, but until then I will savor this imp. In the meantime, the scents that come the closest are the also-discontinued Capricorn (which I have 15 ml worth, thankfully!), Malediction (which is a little sharper and stronger...I definitely like the softening touches that the sandal and cedar provide), Umbra (wish I liked cinnamon more, but it's damn close...) and Anne Bonny (which is missing the vetiver but makes up for it with the fantastic patchouli). Oh Damnation! If only we had met sooner!

I didn't initially try this because it sounded like it might be perfumey/cologney, but the idea of "Irish blossoms and herbs" is very intriguing to me, since I've been developing an interest in very green-smelling, fresh meadow scents for the spring (of the Dublin variety). This rather reminds me of a more masculine verson of Leanan Sidhe, which I recently tried and decided was too perfumey. It's similar, but more along the line of a light musky cologne than a perfume. I shy away from anything that has that "perfumey" quality but I do like the way white musk works in some blends (Ice Queen for example) so I am going to wait it out. The cologney smell becomes more of a pronounced warm musk like Coyote. It feels like warm light on a meadow, and that is very nice indeed...musk makes me want to snuggle with something warm and covered in fur. It makes me think of rolling around playfully with a white white wolfy dog in a field full of dandelions. It is still too cologney for me though and I keep thinking of my grandmother's dresser drawers, full of various old musky perfumes and colognes, and I don't get enough of the fresh spring meadow. Very lovely though and it will be a shame to see this one go!

Szepasszony is the perfection of the crisp, clean, clear water scent, to me. Most aquatics, I cannot smell at all once they touch my skin, though I like them in theory. Sea of Glass, Amsterdam, Lightning, all smelled very eye-openingly refreshment and crisp to me, but they vanish on my skin instantly or even become a little bitter. There's something about this, though...it doesn't fade, and lingers in my hair. It is impossbile not to feel like you just stepped out of a chilly rain on a spring day, when wearing this, and I'm looking forward to splashing it everywhere this summer. I want to make a shower gel and a shampoo out of it if I can, to help me cool down on a summer day. But it is equally lovely on a crystalline winter's day or night, for wandering through the freshly fallen snow. Unicorn and Szepasszony are the only fresh white floral scents that really, really work for me. Both are in my Top 20, even though I don't like much else that is this light and floral. It is not perfumey. It does not scream "flowers!!". I wouldn't even know there were flowers in it if not for the description...I just smell pure, white, crystalline freshness (but not the fresh linen smell...this is more like fresh air, a soft after-rain mist smell). I don't think I can possibly get enough of this, as I can imagine just stepping into a bathtub of this.

Somehow, despite having begun my interest in Tarot about 20 years ago (when I was about 11), I always forget that there is a Justice card...I confuse it with Judgement. So I had not put this on my list of things I wanted to try. But I just nabbed an imp (in advance of the Tarot circle reaching me!) and I am excited to try out my sixth Tarot oil! This reminds me of some of the green tea scents, in the vial. Dormouse, Apothecary, Embalming Fluid...and as it dries down it reminds me a bit of Bewitched. I think that as it dries I'm getting something dry and woody like orris or white sandalwood out of it...that bone dry, dusty fragrance that I recognize from Shroud and Dragon's Bone. It develops a kind of dusty herbal sweetness as it develops. Sage? I feel like there are green tea and sage, something dry and woody, and something slightly lemony in this. Very nice! I don't know that it makes me think of the concept of Justice but I would still wear it on a day that I needed to have the law on my side, just in case!

This is incredible. I'm staying far away from florals because everything seems to make my head and nose feel icky, and a nice handful of soot and smoke seems to be the answer! I can't believe I didn't try this sooner. Djinn reminds me of two things and can take me to either of these places, depending on which I concentrate on: 1) A campfire in an evergreen wood. The crumbling texture of the burnt logs and smoke drifting through the black night air. 2) A vast temple with thick black columns disappearing into the vaulted ceiling. An enormous stone statue of a god or goddess stands at one end of the room, and braziers burn in the darkness. Incense smoke fills the air -- not any specific incense, just a general sort of wood and coal smell. Actually, ever see the covers of the first hardbound D&D books? The ones with the statues on them? I think of those!! I can just see the adventurers prying the ruby eyes out of the statue's head! Anyway, this is an immediate favorite. I know that when I wear this people will probably think I just came out of a burning building or was smoking up or something, but as it dries it really becomes more incensy. I imagine it would layer well with a green or wood smell as well and I can see wearing this all year round, as it reminds me of either camping, or a fireplace, or a bonfire. WONDERFUL!!! Must have bottle!!!

The rose in the Rose Cross I just tested, very much reminded me of the rose in Persephone. It's just got dry, incensy frankincense backing it up instead of pomegranate. I like both! More to sniff than to wear, but still, it's lovely!

As I expected, this reminded me very much of some of my favorite incense that I used to burn in college. Before BPAL I was never a perfume person, only an incense person. So it makes sense that those are the oils I go for. All the lovely smell, without the smoke and dust! This is a very sacred-smelling blend...it makes me think of some of my favorite Indian incense (rose and sandalwood, though this is frankincense...it has a similar quality, of a rich rose blended with something more woody and earthen). It makes me think of hippies...and church...at the same time! The rose is strong but it doesn't scream "flowers!!", because that woody resin scent blends in and makes it pure lovely incense. Very peaceful, calming and...well, sacred! I don't think I'll buy a bottle quite yet because I don't always want to smell ~like~ roses, even though I enjoy them. I seem to have more than enough scents with rose in them...but I can see this becoming my go-to rose scent in the future when I get through some of my others!

Okay, so you can probably tell by looking at my signature that Dance of Death is a big hit with me, since I just added (Penance's!) icon of it there a few hours after testing this for the first time. Unfortunately I only ordered an imp so I am going to have to keep it going for six weeks while I wait for a full bottle! In the vial, this smells like...."Tramp" by Lush! Yes! I couldn't put my finger on it before but smelling this made me think of something very very deep dark green in color. This makes me think of the picture that I have on a Dead Can Dance t-shirt of a bunch of medieval skeltons dancing on their graves. (ETA: Actually, it makes me think of dead hippies dancing in a graveyard...and this is a good thing!!) It is lush and dark and deathly shadow green. Only problem is myrrh. I have this relationship with myrrh, whereby it becomes soapy violets for a brief time during its stay on my flesh. The trick is to find out if it stays soapy violets, or goes away. This starts out as Tramp on me, and while the myrrh messes things up for awhile eventually it all comes right again. The musk really darkens and deepens the green patchouli shadows...the orris, well, I can't smell on its own but it must be there because I am thinking about bones sticking out of the earth. That's what orris usually does to me. The myrrh eventually settles down into its spicy phase, where it stays. Good! In the end, we have a slightly sweet, spicy, dark green patchouli blend here. This is one for me to cherish. Good for the patchouli and incense fans, and for the dark green/earthy fans. Must...have....more.