athirat

Wet, I got very little vanilla, but it was there just enough to smooth out the incense (although it was still rather sharp and powdery). As it first dried down, the vanilla came out a little more, cutting down on the powder and leaving it mostly incense with an amazing background. I absolutely loved this. It smells like I've been steeped in my favorite new age/occult store for DAYS and then smeared with a few vanilla beans. I huffed my cleavage all day (thankfully no one else was at work ), so I can say with a fair bit of certainly that it fades slowly and lingers for quite some time. It's worth noting that this is from a 2-month old imp and not a more aged specimen (which I am now dying to try).

Amber and I tend not to get along, and as a result this was unfortunately nothing more than a soapy, powdery rose. In the imp, the rose was warm and lovely, but the moment it hit my skin, the amber turned it into a powdery mess that attacked my nose. Off to the swap box.

I was greatly looking forward to trying Dionysia, having enjoyed other plum blends like Kitsune-tsuki, but in the end it just didn't work out. In the imp: A little fruity, but devoid of sweetness in an oddly dry way. Intriguing. Wet: This was mostly sweet fruit and florals, with some slight resiny undertones and a smell that I believe was the mahogany (I'm still iffy on notes). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the patchouli and frankincense stayed in the background and let the rest of the notes come out and shine. Dry: After a little while, the fruit got a little funky on me. I'm not sure if it was the pomegranate or raspberry or some combination of notes, but I was suddenly getting a childhood flashback to the generic fruity/rubber smell that was on childhood toys. Specifically, what I've mentally labeled as the smell of My Little Ponies. While nostalgic, it's pretty hard to get a sexy vibe when you feel like a big plastic pony. Once the whole blend started to fade, it lost that plastic smell, but the damage was done. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Wet and in the bottle, this was a very green and herby floral that kept my nose glued to my wrist. After a short time, the blackberry creeped in with a fruity sweetness that rounded out the blend, but the dominating smell was fresh cut flowers. Unfortunately, the whole smell faded the moment the oil dried, and I will definitely be on the hunt for something similar to this in the future.

In the imp: My first thought was the Yankee Candle scent of Clean Cotton, only electrified. Not necessarily bad, but not amazing either. Wet: The aquatics came out really nicely and overpowered the dryer-sheet smell. There's a bit of citrus and floral in the background which brighten up the blend, an overall I get a crisp, aquatic blend like a breeze in a park near the ocean. Dry-down: After awhile, the Clean Cotton came back, but it had already faded to the point of not smelling strongly of much of anything by then. I was surprised to read that this faded quickly on people because on me this lasted all day. This has become my first choice for a bright, summery scent, and I plan on upgrading my imp to a bottle.

For me, this perfume was like taking a olfactory journey that lasted all day. It started out full of incense with a sweet, dry floral and woodiness that brought up images of the Nile (it just screamed desert river to me), and moved into a more pure frankincense that made me think of a temple. It was a slow change and the smell lasted all day for me, although it did turn a bit powdery at the end. Usually that's quite the disappointment for me, but after the heavy incense smell, the addition of a slightly powdery scent seemed to lighten it up in a pleasant way. Overall, a definite keeper for me, and one of my first real favorites.