Shollin

I second Seance. Ingenue strikes me as very wispy and ethereal too, in a completely different way.

Take your time, lady, I'm in no rush. Have a hell of a blast in Vegas!

Bath Good! It's probably bad luck to wish Ted good luck if hockey works anything like theatre, but considering the sport, I don't want to risk wishing him broken limbs... Enjoy the break. And tell Brian not to be such a Virgo. (Yeah, like that ever works... ) *joins the chant* When you get back, everything will be fine.

It took me a while to build up the guts to open Puck's vial at all - every time I sniff it closed I smell animals in heat. Guess that’s the civet. Scary. First sniff: From far-ish away the grape is very nice, but there’s that thick black animal smell underneath if I get the wand anywhere near my nose. I’m trying it on and hoping for a miracle. In a posting at Bust, kebechet once referred to a couple of the guy scents (Satyr and Czernobog) as being “penis-oriented,” and that’s exactly what I’m getting from this one. (Sorry for the visual.) Wearing: Yup, I smell like a grape Popsicle in heat. Trying to give it a fair chance to develop, but at the moment... yeargh. (Only the second I've actively disliked of gods-know-how-many BP scents I've tried - still a damn good track record.) Swaps away!

First sniff: I somehow can’t picture Othello as a man’s scent. (And I wrote that before reading paperdoll's review!) It’s soft, spiced roses – not hot-spicy, just flavor-spicy. There’s something warm too that makes it more than just rose. It’s beautifully clean and very reserved – doesn’t shout ROSE! like so many other rose perfumes do. Wearing: Someone mentioned clean bedsheets? Heck yeah. There’s a gentle dusting of powdery softness over pale yellow roses, which I can barely smell on my skin. This is just intriguing as heck. I’d probably be very confused by a guy in this scent… and at the same time very drawn to him, because this definitely isn’t a typical guy scent, but there’s something very comforting about it… in a clean-bedsheets sort of way, not the warm sort of comforting I usually think of with blankets by the fire. It’s being nine years old and waking up on a weekend in spring when you know you don’t have to go to school and fluffing your pale-blue bedsheet way up so it softly drifts back down over you. It’s very light – I dabbed a bit more on just a few minutes in so I could get a better feel for it.

Honestly, everyone's been so fabulous about following the review format that I haven't had any trouble at all keeping the place in order... I think a second mod there is fairly unnecessary. All the review threads have been sorted - if you see something out of place let me know. Hellfire is in Limited Editions at the moment just because it's unavailable - I'm moving it back under the main category as soon as I get mod access to the subforums. The other two that are left without a subforum are upcoming scents that aren't on the site yet and so don't have a category. The new place looks great - thanks so much!

First sniff: Ooh, I like Seraglio. Slightly orangey and Christmas-spicy and sharp – not creamsicle orange, more like Orangina, maybe even Orangina with champagne (flashback to New Year’s Eve in Bordeaux…) It’s decidedly sweet-almondy too – took me a bit to place the scent, but it smells like my mom’s almond tea. Wearing: On first touch, same as the bottle. It’s still a bit sharp, almost sneezey, but overall really nice. I can picture a belly dancer sprinkling this scent in her scarves. After a moment the rose is peeking softly out, but it’s not screamingly rosey like Black Rose. Really gorgeous – just five minutes on and it’s a velvety rose wrapped in warmth and dusted with spice.

Welcome, Skallywag! Jester is nothing but apples on me, but I think it's just my skin being weird, because there's no apple in the description. I haven't worn Eve yet, but it's apples and roses, with a drizzle of honey. Delirium has apple, rose and lemon (also haven't tried that one), and there's a single-note apple blossom oil that's probably worth a look. Hope this helps!

Phantasm and Ingenue are my favourite spring scents at the moment. I might put Apothecary on that list too. Ophelia isn't one I wear, but she's gorgeously flowery springy.

You have my dollar if you need it, Slyth. Let us know.

Have you seen this link, Fae? It might be helpful. And welcome to the madness.

Oberon might actually be a decent one to wear when it's hot. It does have that deep woodsy thing going on, but it's very fresh and cool rather than stifling. If you're not into light florals.

Holy *bleep.* I was JUST about to post that. Oberon is one of my favourites... woodsy and wild without being too stubbly-manly for Elrond. It's got my vote.

First sniff: Gluttony is very strong – I can smell this clearly even with the vial closed inside a little plastic zip-bag. From here the smell is reminiscent of the Hazelnut Coffee candle from Yankee – very dark and rich, not sweet but still with the feel of something delicious and decadent. Smelling the wand itself, it isn’t nearly as dark, and the coffee scent isn’t there. It reminds me a bit of the warm sweetness of Hellcat, but not quite as blatantly boozey. Wearing: YUM. Gooey and darkly sweet, and the coffee is back! Weird! It smells more high-class than I expected… rather than sitting in front of the TV gobbling chocolates, you’re out at a nice restaurant sipping bitter French coffee and watching the waiter drizzle dark caramel sauce over a complicated and beautiful dessert. There’s a hint of spice here too, maybe even cinnamon. Can’t wait to try this one in the burner and see what it turns into.

Phantasm is gorgeously light and springy and fresh, a very soft lemon. I suspect I'll be wearing it a lot this summer when it gets insanely hot and muggy. Ingenue strikes me as a light spring scent too - it's a very pretty floaty floral with melon. I haven't tried Embalming Fluid, but that one sounds promising.

The descriptions of Ingenue and Vicomte were posted on Shiny & New as part of the November update but I don't think they were ever in the official categories. Am I right?

They're certainly not similar scents, but I wore Virgo a couple days ago after washing with the Merry Christmas limited edition soap (which is pine to the infinite power), and it worked surprisingly well. Piney and earthy definitely get along.

I haven't worn either of them, but it probably depends on whether you want a sweet scent or an assertive sexy scent. Lilith sounds decidedly seductive and Lady Macbeth has often been compared to cherry cough syrup (but usually in a nice way). LMB is probably more similar to Blood Rose than Lilith is.

Rose Red sounds like it would have been perfect... alas, it's sold out. The only one I've actually worn that matches what you're talking about is Ophelia - have you tried that one? It's a very innocent scent all 'round and the primary note (at least on me) is rose, with a touch of something sweeter. Ingenue is also very innocent, but I didn't smell rose when I wore it (though it's in the description). Of ones I haven't tried (just going by description), Maiden sounds like it might be the closest match. Eve is apples and roses, that might be a possibility. Silentium Amoris is rose and ylang ylang, though that one sounds more wistful/longing than innocent. Lucy's Kiss is rosy and several folks have said there's something candy-sweet underneath. Also, the Lab makes a single-note rose oil, which might be worth a look if you just want rose by itself without anything else affecting the tone of the scent. Hope this helps.

I've discovered through the Lab that resiny scents like incense and amber do NOT work on my skin, and I wanted to share Elizabeth's comment on Bust with anyone else with whom resins don't get along. I'd asked if there was a note shared by Cathedral and Aureus, as both of them went unpleasantly sweet-sharp on me, and here's what she said: So there ya go. Seance has rosewood in, and it smells fantastic in the bottle, but I haven't tried it on yet - hopefully it'll behave.

EDIT: Moved Gothabillywench's review to here as we had two Phantom threads. --Shollin

I'm wearing Twilight today (or will be when I head to work). Tried ONO yesterday and while it was nice, with a decent helping of spice at first, it was a bit too honeysuckle-sweet for most of its wearing. Hoping for slightly more subdued things from Twilight. And no worries about the babbling - it gives me things to put in order, which always pleases my Virgo soul.

The closest I've smelled yet is Venom - it struck me as a very elegant but ice-princess sort of scent. And I completely agree with BP capturing characters so well - Ophelia and Oberon are both shining examples of that, and you should have seen me freaking out when I read the characteristics of Saturn after posting my review because it matched so well and I thought my brain was just being weird when I fixed on the image of a scowly male schoolteacher.

First sniff: Warm, sweet, gingery. Bakery smell. Made me go “ooh!” Wearing: Sweet but not unpleasantly so. Definite vanilla. After several hours it’s reminiscent of Angel Innocent, but definitely not as WHOA! strong. Really, really like. Topping off before I go out tonight. One of my favourites. I kept smelling it at work all day yesterday when I wasn’t wearing it – maybe my brain just smells like Siren now. It really smells like the ginger root, not like gingersnaps or ginger in cooking, but ginger itself. Overall, I worship and adore this scent just as it was, but I can understand why it was changed - I know the gingermania was a bit much for several people. I have an extra sample of the old variety coming in a swap and I'm thrilled. ADDED June 29 - let's have a review of the new version too, for completeness' sake! First sniff: It’s just not the same scent at all. I have the original gingermania version, pre-apricot, and I adore it. This is nice, but… it’s just not the same scent at all, and something about it smells rather “off,” like the ginger and apricot don’t really like each other. Wearing: Nope. Pardon the ongoing nostalgia, but… this isn’t the Siren that makes my guy growl and bury his face in my neck… this isn’t the Siren I was wearing the day I first made him my Black Phoenix guinea pig, when he smelled like the king of the faeries with every errant breeze as we stood hand-in-hand on the corner waiting for the streetlight to change. I’m not sure whether I’d like it enough as a scent on its own without the previous Siren haunting it. So... yeah. I'll stick with the nonfruity version.

First sniff: Old Venice is so lush and heady I didn’t want to stop inhaling the first time I sniffed the vial. It’s like rolling around in a huge pile of sun-warmed flowers, burrowing into the riotous colours. Wearing: I tried this on just a bit after I posted the initial review because I couldn't stand not to, and I reaffirm my original opinion. Burrowing in flowers, bathing in flowers, sleeping in flowers. Enormous lush wild Mediterranean blooms like a flamenco dancer would wear in her hair, not sweetie-girlie florist flowers. Sunkissed and bright and soft and decadent. I love the feel of this one.