Ravenclaw79

Do you like the smell of pine? Are you a girl? Buy this, then. It's piney, but it's not manly like most pine smells are -- it's pine, feminized. It's really lovely. I'm not such a huge fan of pine that I need a big bottle of this, but I'm glad I have the imp. EDIT: I came back to add to this a year later, 'cause age has really benefited this scent. It's not piney anymore -- a tad cologne-y when you first put it on, but then a wonderful musky, close-to-the-skin scent, really nice, sort of like a less powdery Ivanushka.

Initially, this was men's cologne, one that's really familiar but I can't place the name (it's not like I smell much men's cologne -- my boyfriend now doesn't wear smellies). And then, it was CEDAR. Not cedar... CEDAR. Screaming CEDAR. I like cedar, but it was just too much. I smelled like a closet. And I couldn't get it off, either -- I scrubbed it five times before it would even think of fading.

A nice, well-blended floral -- and "well-blended" is an understatement. I can't pick out a single note here, 'cause they all mix together so nicely into one harmonious blend.

I didn't expect to like this one. Green usually means bad, heavy, dark, snake-y, or overly grassy. Meh. But this one, this one starts off a little grassy, yes, but it's very fresh, and a little dandelion-y. It settles down into something almost soapy, but not quite, just very fresh-smelling with a hint of grass. It's lovely. Too bad I only have the one imp (and it's not a horribly full imp, either). I won't wear this again anytime soon, but in spring and summer, it'll definitely go into the rotation, for as long as the little impie lasts.

I agree ... the first thing I think of is "golden." It's not honey-like or beeswax-like, not particularly, 'cause those are notes that usually jump out at me. But it's very resiny, ambery... it makes me think of a big chunk of amber, hard golden sap. It's not any of the things that you usually think when you think gold, though, not honey, not strong bitter herbal, not brassy. It's faintly sweet and very resiny. Lovely.

At first, it was a jumbled mix that settled into apples, smoky apples. Now, it's pretty much just wood smoke, with a slight apple undertone. It's alright, but I'm not thrilled with it.

I was hoping this would be a little like Ivanushka, in that they both have the idea of an animal out in the cold wind. This actually smells just like you'd think from its description -- there's a hint of Ivanushka-ish muskiness and furriness, but it's burried way underneath the horse's rider, the Lady herself, who smells perfumey, in a sweet and elegant way. I definitely get pale petals, but it's not overpoweringly floral, and I get a powdery sweetness, but that's not too dominant, either. There's also a smokiness about it, which must be the tobacco flower -- it's a light note, like walking by a jar of loose tobacco and catching a whiff. This is actually a really, really well-balanced blend, so you get the petals, and you get the sandalwood and amber and resins, and you definitely get tobacco flower, but none of them jump out at you.

Harsh and woody and dirty, dirty like dirt, like potting soil. Interesting but not for me.

Intriguingly sweet and flowery, then briefly soapy -- and then gone, vanished, poof, nothing.

... A pale floral? Huh? I don't get dragon or tears out of this. It's a pale floral, slightly soapy, but I'm starting to get a hint of lilac, which is odder still. Not even close to the aquatic I was hoping for, but I might have to try this again when I'm in a lilac frame of mind.

Salty wood with a dark, spicy sweetness about it (must be the rum).

This smells like an old lady. I mean that in the best possible way ... it smells sweet and light and perfumey, but it smells like something a nice old lady would wear. I'm not that old, not yet, anyway.

A watery, faintly sweet smell, but when it settles in on the skin, it turns into dishsoap. Meh.

Ferns... that's what I must be smelling. It's an aquatic, but it's overpowered by something bitter and masculine.

There's a moment where this threatens to go all wonky, like an aquatic scent and a can of condensed milk are having a fight. And then, it settles, and what's left is soap -- not the usual soap, though, not dishsoap. This is one of those bar soaps with "real moisturizing cream," like a bar of Dove. It's very clean and feminine and quite nice. It's not the oceany smell I had hoped for, though.

Bensiabel's a shifty little bugger. First, it was harsh and overpoweringly leathery. Then, it was plummy, but that quickly shifted to acrid and fruit, almost like rotting plums. But while it smelled like that on the skin, I kept getting wafts of lilac. I still have yet to find the perfect lilac scent for me, but that wafting stage gave me false hope for a while. Alas, this love affair was not to be. It seems to have finally settled down now, and what I'm left with is a fruity floral, a plummy undertone, I'd say, but the lilac isn't distinct, and I think the leather's pretty much gone (which is alright with me). Do I like this one? Yeah, once it settles down, finally. Will I wear it much? Probably not. No bottle, that's for sure. But I might hang onto the imp.

I keep looking for a good ocean water scent, something that smells like the sea. This isn't it, either, at least not for me. It smells, like many other aquatics, like freshly-scrubbed man, like a men's body wash named "ocean breeze," artificial and soapy. Meh.

In the imp: Dark and herbal. On the skin: Fruity, citrusy for a moment, then fading down. With wear: Odd... if I sniff my skin, I get musk and herbs and a hint of fruit buried underneath, too buried to tell what it is, just a fruity sweetness. But I keep catching whiffs of it, and wafting through the air, it's much more fruity, currant and musk and a bit of citrus. Fascinating, but I don't think I love it. I do like it, though ... it is very snakelike, mysterious.

This is another one of those scents that I knew I would hate, but everybody loves it so much that I thought I should try it anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. I hate patchoulli. That stuff reeks of dirty hippie, and I can't stand it. Blech. But somehow, that nasty stuff seems to be hiding on me. I can just barely detect it, if I sniff for it, but what I'm mostly getting is smoky apples, almost like Fearful Pleasure but less sweet and more smoky. This could be bad news for my wallet, 'cause if patchoulli does, in fact, mostly hide on me, there's a lot of the catalog I could try -- that's always been my first rule for weeding out scents I should or shouldn't try, "patchoulli = bad." So Samhain isn't so bad. In fact, it's almost good. I can still catch a faint hint of dirty, nasty patchoulli, though, and that's enough to put me off it, especially when there's such a nice autumn-apple alternative out there in Fearful Pleasure.

I finally got to try Snake Oil yesterday, after all of this time. Funny, I thought there was supposed to be patchoulli in this. I'd swear I remember hearing that. But I don't see it in the description here. I don't smell it on me, either. Huzzah! What I do smell is ... vanilla, and something, and powdery. It goes from "hm?" to a sort of old-lady smell. I might give this a second chance, just 'cause it's so beloved that I want to make sure I'm being fair to it. But so far, eh.

In the imp: Spice cake! It smells just like cream cheese frosting! Wet: Oranges! Delicious! Om nom nom... wait, my hand isn't food. But it smells like it! Darnit! Drying: Creamsicles? This one might just be a keeper. Whatever it is, it's making me have to keep reminding myself that no, my hand isn't food, honest, I don't care how much it smells like it.

Wet: Pumpkin and dry, like a woodiness. Drying: Pumpkin cologne -- that's the best way I can describe this. There's pumpkin, cedar, butter, maybe some smokiness in there. Eh. Not my thing, this one.

Wet: Warm in a way my nose can't quite sort out, and peppery. Drying: Weird. It's really not changing -- wool? Yeah, I think this is creamy wool, creamy wool with black pepper on top. This could get sickening fast, I think. Not for me.

Wet: Candy? It smells like sugar and a little like bubble gum, the fruit-flavored kind. Drying: Very sugary, just like opening a bag of sugar and taking a whiff. It's not bad, but I don't know if I'd really want to smell like a bag of sugar all day. It does smell tasty, though, and it makes me kinda want to bake something.

Wet: Herbal, with a bit of roses. Drying: Dry and herbal with a floralishness underneath, a little bit of rose, but oddly, the rose isn't taking over like it often does for me. And something.... blackberry leaf? Yeah, that makes sense. This is starting to remind me a little of Glasgow, which I lurve hardcore. This will get a second test -- it's showing great promise (unless it's TOO much like Glasgow, of course).