Shollin

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s RPG scent series was designed to emulate the character creation process, and are meant to be layered in order to create a character concept. In short: you layer your class, race, and the two fragrances that compose your alignment to construct your character scent. The RPG scents are designed to be layered! Are you a Neutral Good Half-Elf Ranger? Are you a Chaotic Evil Orc Mage? Whatever combination you try on, this is the place to review it! (Please note that nonreview comments and questions are still off-topic here and will be moved.)

First sniff: Light and airy (and for me, a little sneezy). I don’t actually smell citrus in this, but it feels like the sort of scent that would be citrusy. If that makes any sense at all. Wearing: It’s very very pale, almost ghostly, which matches the art beautifully. Pale wood, pale flowers, pale musk. Faded completely by noon.

First sniff: Deep golden fruits in a liquid pool of sunset. I can’t pick out any distinct notes—it’s all just deep, warm, golden, fruity, beautiful. Wearing: Stays very true to the first-scent sniff for the whole of its wearing, and it was still going strong as I headed off to a concert that night. Just fantastic.

First sniff: The edges of this scent smell like cherry/almond to me, but nothing like that is listed in the notes. There’s a rich buttery vanilla at the core, surrounded by lots of fruit. Wearing: Very bright fruit and very dark vanilla, a study in contrasts. It’s a little unsettling for some reason; the fruit is rather loud, and there’s a hint of boozey fruitcake-ness to it.

First sniff: In the bottle, all I can smell is patchouli and clove. Wearing: Dirty hippie smoking a clove cigarette…or possibly something herbal. It quickly calms down to a sort of green incense, and the floral part is coming out strongly on my right wrist.

First sniff: Pink and fluffy! Wearing: The pink fluffiness immediately solidifies into a very solid base of warm vanilla tickled by white floral sweetness.

First sniff: Someone has ground up a Thin Mint cookie into a fine powder and blown it straight up my nose with a blowgun. Chocolate and mint and…well, what else do you need, really? Wearing: Chocolate. Mint. Happiness. Sadly, as with just about every mint, it doesn’t last…but I think it’s good enough for long enough that I’ll just learn to deal with it. Yum.

Pumpkin with tobacco, champa flower, carnation, and tonka. First sniff: A pumpkin base with a gorgeous rich deep sweetness. I never expected to like tobacco, because I always figured it just smelled like cigarettes, but it seems to add a really nice deep, woody, almost-spicy note to anything its in, and paired with tonka its just fantastic. Wearing: Oh, instant love. Smooth pumpkin underneath, sweet dark richness at the core, hovering just this side of spicy. Love.

First sniff: Pumpkin, very ripe juicy fruits, and tea. It’s caught somewhere in the middle between sweet and savory. Wearing: I keep thinking this should be spicy, but it really isn’t; it’s just that I associate spice with pumpkin. The pumpkin in this is provides a very smooth base layer to boost the fruit and tea. I smell like either dessert or breakfast, and I’m not sure which.

First sniff: Pale but solid, a cool, clear night-air scent. Very pretty. Wearing: Crisp cold air, glittering stars. It might snow in a few hours, but for now it’s the absolute crystalline perfection of a clear winter night. And unfortunately it’s just as fleeting; the aura extends no more than half an inch off my skin, and within an hour or two it’s gone completely. Sigh.

First sniff: Very chilly. Lemon and cold air. Wearing: Lemon and mint, warming up just a little, but still the general impression is “chilly.” It takes an hour or so for the grounded sweetness of the tonka to develop, but it makes for a very pleasant warm undertone. I wasn’t super impressed with the initial chilly lemon, but now I keep happily revisiting my wrist.

First sniff: A sweet rose that threatens to go horribly poofy the second I put it on me, with a darker, stronger base underneath, and maybe a few drops of tea. Wearing: POOF! But it seems to be calming quickly. The initial burst of powderose didn’t last too long, but the rest of the scent didn’t grab me.

First sniff: Cloyingly sweet floral. Hrm. Wearing: I’m really trying not to let my opinion of the party influence my opinion of the scent, but this reminds me of a certain politician’s personality… it’s fake-sweet and cutesy, but underneath there’s just not much there.

First sniff: Oh, this is just amazing. Cool sweetness, fresh flowers, green fruit. It’s a complete mismatch from the note list, and I’m hoping the danger notes behave themselves on my skin, because in the bottle this is simply gorgeous. Wearing: Wow! Rich fruit and warmth and flowing honey-sweetness. I’m thrilled that it stayed like this all day.

First sniff: For a “hint,” the wine in this is pretty strong, on a backdrop of flowers. Wearing: Wine and flowers all day long. Not my thing.