othelloperrello

Well, it is what it says: a healthy dose of strong rose, carnation, etc. It comes too close to the uber-smell of soap products to me. After a while, it dies down enough to be tolerable, but it's a fleeting thing and not worth it to my nose. As a guy, in any case, I just couldn't wear this out. To much of a boquet.

This is positively a flower in a bottle. So I could not recall what an orchid smelled like, not being real great on my flowers, but as soon as I opened the vial I knew it. A strong, heady floral, very wet with a huge blossum. Part of the scent of this orchid is not what I'd call traditionally "nice" smelling - there's almost an animalistic quality that gives it the feeling of being not just a floral scent but a particular flower. I would say it's as HEAVY a scent as gardenia, but not nearly as sweet. The throw is better than average, and it's solid for the duration. Impressive.

Cobra lily comes out with a spice like cinnamon, over the sweetness of a light floral. It has very little throw on me, and the tester died off within an hour. What I do like about it is the spice, and as it fades it seems to beckon you closer to get a good sniff, perhaps this is for carnivirous reasons. What I really like about this is the spice. It's not EXACTLY cinnamon, maybe cinnamon plus allspice. I'm a man, and this is a floral I would wear were it a bit longer-lasting.

Definitely a fresh boquet of light, what I'd describe as 'white' spring flowers. I get some honeysuckle, lilies, and jasmine in the background. I never managed to get a smell from a pansy, but this could approximate that: delicate, soft and fresh. I get no powderiness or artificiality here - only the essence of fresh flowers on stems.

Ah the champagne - frothy and fizzy - and there's the chocolate strong but not long-lasting. Shortly the obvious and quite delicious chocolate fades into the blend, loeaving: _____. I'm trying to sort out the champagne and the chocolate to identify the "sex", but it's hard to find. Maybe that's a trick of the too much champagne. Maybe I need the single note for cheap sex, or maybe I just have an alcohol problem. I love the chocolate and champagne mix when it first comes out wet on the skin, but the chocolate is gone as soon as it starts drying on me leaving champagne blended with ... something. So to me it's like watching through a lighted window, with a thin curtain, as the sexy neighbors across the way drink champagne, feed each other chocolate, and seduce each other: satisfying, enticing, but as the windows steam up I lose the sense of what's happening. Again it's the champagne - too strong, too Bottle-Caps candy. I love the concept of the cheap swanky New Years, but practically speaking I'm okay without. So glad I got to try these! So glad I don't have to seek out bottles of 'em! Happy NY's

Interesting - the reviews on this one seemed quite varied. My experience was both the champagne and the rose roaring out of the imp nose to nose. I have a lot of trouble with the champagne note, in that it's too crass and soda-like to me (rather like new year's champagne...); as a guy, rose isn't a scent I use a lot but I can definitely respect it, and I like to experience the different types of rose scents. In fact, most of my life I've been an avid seeker outer of rose gardens; in Portland OR I lived a couple blocks away from the international rose test garden, and so I'd say I've become more familiar with the variety of roses than most. The rose is a strong, pink rose and the champagne is a heady, bubbly wine, like it tasted when I was a kid. The result is a really nice balance. The rose really smoothes out the champagne and the cola-like notes of the champagne seem to just compliment the rose and add to its strength and power. Wow!

It mus be champagne and a cigar on the veranda beneath the stars, for there's none of the heavy, lingering cigar fumes of being around someone smoking one. Reading other reviews, I realize that yes, it's a nice sweet cigar that is sitting - cut and unlit - on the table next to the champagne. It's light, rather like a leather note on me. I like how it balances the over-bubbly nature of the champagne, but the cigar fades quickly, the champagne doesn't move leaving too much champagne for me! I agree with the folks who noted the ginger-ale quality to the bpal champagne. However, the thing that it really reminds me of are BottleCaps, the candy from yore.

At last, I've found you. This scent is perfect. On me it's the dense pine forest and the smell of all the best spices driving me on to reach home. Any fruitiness is minimal, but it plays support enough to fill the whole thing out. In fact, there it is, hanging out at the edge of the dense thicket of this oil's cornucopia of smellfullness. It's taken a while to find it, but now it's here to stay!

My goddess, I want to smell like this all the time. I am lying bellydown on the soft earth, my nose is in a pile of thick dark moss, and I am inhaling, inhaling, inhaling... xo

I agree that there's more fruit than just apple here. First impression upon planting a huge globule of the oil was of floral apples with popourri spices, not mulling. Minutes in, I'm thinking it could be all apples, but several kinds mixed to increase the bouquet of the cider. The spices have come around to the mulling kind, and to my perception it is the perfect oversized steaming mug of spiced cider that I got at the market, warming my hands and giving me thick clouds of steamy breath. Thanks!

Eggnog with coffee buried deeply in latte frothy cream. On the drydown, the coffee loses its strength as the spice rises sweetly to the surface. Definitely a close cousin to miskatonic, but it's a different drink in a different cafe. This is a stepping out from the sniffly cold and settling in to foggy-warmth and sounds of my favorite cafe during the holiday season. So sweet and warming, it's half the reason I came in was to soak the atmospheric haze of deliciousness. The eggnog comes out nicely, but for me just as in my drinks, I prefer a little more coffee kick. I'm presently considering mixing some drops of coffee SN in here. Going to try the blend first to see how it goes, I'll let yall know.

Same here: I didn't take notes, but tried several Diablique-to-Come scents as I was dashing out. Some interesting scents, but the one that leapt out at me took me by the back of the hair slowly caressed my body was Horror Coaster. Look for it !

First thoughts: How is this going to attract anyone? It's not, as it seems to me, sexy or alluring. I am a guy, so let's keep that in mind because this one is obviously a feminine scent. So it starts out as an ammonia-based lemon cleanser, kind of heady. Cools down to a boquet of fresh flowers: I picked out carnation and white rose, possibly ylang ylang. Turns out the latter is the lilies and chrysanthemum, which I get on retrospect. So here's what I see: Louisiana courtesans lived in a time when our sh!t stank, in the sense of livin' in an extreme southern bayou shipping town in a time of many horses and few showers. As a courtesan, you don't need to seduce anyone - you need to provide both yourself and your customers a refreshing fresh scent while they do their business. Good point. However, it turns out that this scent is just that - refreshing, fresh, natural and beautiful. Were I a woman I would wear this often. Instead I gave it to my daughter, which on reflection is a little weird considering the whole courtesan-connection. Hm... oh well! x Othello

First skin: Choco goodness. Very promising. 5 minutes: Seems to fade quickly. Chocolate drops out, leaving a feather-light musk - after some research and discussion with my bpal think tank, I suspect that this is the myrrh coming out as the dominant note. My skin doesn't like myrrh much and damps it down a lot. Yields a nice residue, but with none of its original glory. 10-15: I really do think this is an excellent scent, not for what it leaps out of the bottle with but for its velveteen smoothness once it settles down. Alas for me it's too light and TOO smooth - it reminds me of white chocolate. x Othello

Snake oil: the ideal spicy, sweet, exotic blend. I bought this to age, because I have experienced the grandeur that is snake oil mellowed with age. But I thought I'd review it new, and see in about 6 months how it compares. So first of all there is an undeniable difference to the scent when it's new, like it's a naive, inexperienced snake oil. For one thing the vanilla is much more prominent almost to the point where for me it turns me off. Within a minute though the more resinous spices come in and round it out well. I think this is sexy as hell to start with, especially for me as a guy who has a hard time finding a lot of sexy scents. Compared to other bpals it's simple and straight forward, but compared to most of the rest f the world's education of scent it's crazy-good. The only other thing I can say is that, after 5-10 minutes it has settlled into: vanilla + an inscrutable ball of delicious swarthy spices that registers simply as 'good'. Looking forward to trying out blending with this. x Othello

Graveyard dirt is exactly that. To me, it recalls these 2 things EXACTLY: 1) Moss when you bend down real close and take a deep sniff, 2) Rotty, deep earthy soil. It's not a scent that mimicks or approximates these things; it is them, exactly. As has been said before, it's like smearing deep, rich, intoxicating earth over one's sleeves, indeed like burying oneself. xo

It's an out-an-out race, the grain and a lemony-sourmash note neck and neck out of the gate (ie, wet on the skin). I think the lemon is gaining inch by inch, length by length, on the drydown and looks like it's going to take this scent away. But Wait! What's that emerging from the background? Is it a spicy rumble of godforsaken debauch? or is it babypowder and bedtime already? Yeah... though I follow it to the bitter end and fade out, it's lemon and babypowder by a sniffly nose in the end.

Unwilling captive, or is it the pirate's life for me? This one's so hard to tell, so hard to tame, I cant be sure! First (wet) skin: That heavy, pleasing cologne smell that I love (I'm a guy) when it doesn't overpower - and here it doesn't. Old weathered wood and favorite beaches. I'm not sure I'd call it "acquatic", though mayhap that's what it is; it's just that I am not a fan of scents acquatic, but there's just enough not of approaching or just departed storm to make it alright, really nice even. There's a sweetness that is beguiling, certainly not too sweet but just enough amid the many notes. They blend extremely well. You know what it is? It's like how when you are by the ocean, all of the ambient sounds - surf, gulls, creaking & knocking of boats, water people - blend together into a background that you stop noticing except when it's taken away. There IS one prevailing scent that dominates but like the sweet rot of the sea it is both and neither fair or foul. Drydown: The woodsy cologne fades to a steady background, the lime rides nicely balanced with it, and for a while (5-10 minutes) there is a slightly acrid note, like sulphur. It reminds me of Maoi, from summer 2008. Gunsmoke in the sea air? This latter fades as well, and yields a mix of all of these. I still cannot decidedly say whether I "like it" or not, but I for better or worse I am hooked. Brilliant.

Blood A vital, bold scent, throbbing with sensuality. Essence of dragon's blood resin, thickened with myrrh and cherry, with a trickle of clove. I concur. From the in the bottle I thought it it was going to be another dragon's-blood-with-something-added, but... On the skin it's and excellent balance of what I discern as cherry wood, clove, dragon's blood, and myrrh. I don't know if that covers it all, or if there are other untold spices in there, but those are the main notes that I can identify. The overall feeling is a very pleasing sweet spiciness. The immediate fruit (the tang of the blood) fades into a deeper sweetness. In this way it makes me think, yes, it's the rush of the vampire's bite, and then the relaxing into the oldness of it.

This decant came to me in a tiny little roll-on bottle, so it went right to the skin... First skin: Most of the reviews have been right on - dark, resinous, woodsy, wonderful. Honestly, I have been looking for this exact scent for a long time, and am a trifle bummed that it's so difficult to obtain. To me this is the perfect non-cologney ultra-dark oil. The scent is of the soft, layered floor of an old pine forest: lying on the ground and raking back the top layer of new needles, taking in the air: not pine needles, but the healthy decay of the tree bark, bough, and root into new earth. One of those scents you can really 'taste'. I get a quick impression of sassafras that sinks nicely into the mix. I can still detect it if I focus on it. No lime for me. I get maybe a mixture of frankinscense, dark musk, pine resin, subtle woodsy herbs... that's all I can identify. Dry down: Stays very consistent on me. THrow is medium. Must try with voodoo queen.

In the bottle this reminds me of one thing: When I was living in Oaxaca, in the south of Mexico, we would go out to the desert-mountain-country town where they made the local liquor, called mezcal. We'd go there where they ground the giant maguey plant into pulp, burn it, let it ferment for 24 days in a cauldron, and then slowly distill it in a brick and copper still. We'd taste the fresh or 'white' liquor still warm from the still - this is that smell. Slightly sour, slightly acrid, but with a deep sweetness carrying it. First skin: Once on my skin, Moai spreads itself into a dry volcanic landscape. Sweet and sour palm surrounded by sulphurous fumes, the kind that leaves yellow and purple rocks. It's all there, really - dry stone, volcanic mists in sea air, and sparse but sweet vegetation. A very warm smell, I can almost feel the strong sunshine on my cheek as I come close to smell it. The other thing this reminds me of are hot springs, of course, because of the sulphur smell. Dry down: On me this stays true to its original scent, but sinks way in. Throw is minimal, but seems to last several hours close to my skin. Truly unique scent - well done Beth!

Much has been said already on this 'n, but without reading many let me give my impressions.. PrimeroSkin Exciting -- sweet dark spices, like streets with bright gatherings behind stout doors and windowpanes; settling for a few precious moments on an orange that's been covered with cloves, and hung in the kitchen. But this one does not stay -- it throws out its music and then settles close to the skin, subtle and nice, mostly pachouli on my skin. Not bad; since I only had a sniffish amount I may keep my eye out for a stray bottle. 'Twould make a decent evening cologne, though I like it a little darker : ~

First skin: A very nice sweet blend. Cherry & strawberry over vanilla, with cakes for substance and powdered sugar. Sinking in: Amber and musk comes out to play, creating in my palette a well-balanced fun-sexy scent. I don't really wear the sweets, but I appreciate them and this really is pretty. A light sweet with a beautiful smile.

Bottle, skin, onward... In the bottle this had a sweet, tantalizing scent that must be the bay rum - lovely - and my hopes were high with many of my favorite ingredients. However, as soon as it touches my skin all these fine things coalesce into soap. Good soap - the kind that is brown in color, wrapped in paper and smells all woodsy and deep - but just soap nonetheless. Too bad for me.

At last! Having tried October and November which didn't work at all on my skin, I was despairing. Then Death of Autumn came. Wet: An overtone of cologne, which made me nervous since the above autumnal scents turned to cheap perfume before my nose. But definitely some woodsmoke in there, and something dark, so my hopes are high. Dry on skin: Yes, this is what I was looking for. It is, on me, exactly what the ingredients foretell: deep clove and vetiver, darkest amber glinting with the lightness of chrysanthemum. Rarely do all of the components of a scent come out on me, but here I can detect each individual note. They all play together well, too. Altogether, as I'd hoped, this really does have the feeling of its title: woodsmoke, distances, dry and decayed leaves, hard wind and thinning light. Thank you Beth!