TooMuchTemptation

Grrr I typed this whole beautiful review, which got eaten when I clicked submit! I can't recreate what I wrote, so here's the short version. In the vial I smell the pickle-ish scent that I got from Ivanushka. On my skin, it's herbal and astringent, but I think it also has sassafras which sweetens it and gives it a minty quality. There's a hint of dirt there as well. It reminds me of Val Sans Retour a bit, but deeper, earthier and sweeter. The greenery is similar, but where Val is light and lemony, Yggdrasil is herbaceous and astringent, with the same grassy-sweet underpinning. It has a lovely foresty quality that makes me see the association that people make with Ivanushka and Buck Moon. While Buck and Ivanushka are gently animalistic to my nose, Yggdrasil is all vegetation. It's the deep forest the animals live in. If someone had asked me if I liked forest blends, I would probably have said no, but the more I sniff them, the more in love I become. Edit so that my sentences make sense.

I didn’t get Ivanushka when it first came out, but after I read the reviews that compared it to my beloved Buck Moon, I had to try some. I was able to score a decant of it. In the vial, it smells soapy and a tinge sour. I’m getting the pickle-ish vinegar smell that other reviewers mention. The gentle soapiness is the kind I associate with white musk. It reminds me of the white musk I smell in Black Pearl. It’s not bad, but it’s not killing me with beauty at this stage either. Wet on my skin, I get a clean powdery smell right off the bat, and a smidge of the pickle smell, but not enough for it to be an overpowering note. As it dries, it gets more powdery. Not like baby powder, but dry, slightly musky and dusty, not unlike, dare I say it, clean fur. It’s not the actual smell of fur, but it’s very evocative of it. Like a fur coat stored in a chest with sachets. Clean, freshly bathed, freshly powdered are all things that spring to mind as I sniff. Dry on my skin, this sweetens a bit, and gets a hint of spiciness. It’s this sweet spiciness that makes me think of Buck Moon, though it doesn’t smell exactly like it. Something about the musk I think. It's a bit like white musk, but a little more golden. But instead of the rich warm skin scent that Buck Moon evokes, this is very freshly scrubbed, just this side of soapy. There's a bit of dry grass, and I think I’m getting the dry leaves now too. The dried leaves smell can often turn potpourri or candle-ish on my skin, but whatever makes this scent so clean holds that in check. There may also be a hint of something pine-y. I can’t outright say I smell pine, just something that prickles my nose the same way pine does. Later, this scent retains the clean, sweet spicy muskiness that is reminiscent of, but not the same as Buck Moon, along with a strong dusty dry leaf pile scent. It’s quite lovely and very evocative of autumn to me. It remains sweet on my skin, but not food sweet, just musky-sweet. That feeling of fur or soft suede in my nose recurs from time to time, and it’s very pleasant. It smells like an idealized version of the outdoors to me. In the end, I have to say that it definitely reminds me of Buck Moon, but it has a bit too much powdery freshness to match its feel and the mood that makes me choose to wear Buck Moon. Buck Moon is a deer snuggling into its winter bedding place, and Ivanushka is a shy, fey doe that has been spooked and is springing through the woods and fields.

I love creamy, vanilla scents, so I was interested. After comparisons to Love’s Philosophy, I had to try this. I searched around until I snagged and imp of it. In the imp, I’m waiting for the cream to jump out at me, and it doesn’t. My initial impression isn’t of cream at all, but strong, herbal, medicinal, capital-S Sassafras. On second sniff, there’s also something faintly aquatic about it. But mostly it smells like a sweet old-fashioned tonic. Horehound or the cola syrup my grandma had for upset tummies. It verges on licorice-y. It’s sweet, but dry. Wet on my skin, I get a super-strong kick of sassafras, followed immediately by a sweet spiciness. It makes me think of the feeling you get it your mouth when you drink sassafras tea. It smells wholesome, and refreshing, but more like a treatment than perfume. Happily, a lot of the medicinal sense I get from this falls right off as the oil settles and warms. As it dries on my skin, oh noes! I’m getting hints of the freshly sharpened pencil smell that prevents me from smelling the vanilla in Tombstone. The oak leaves maybe? It’s not as strong in this scent, possibly because the spicy sassafras is holding it down. It dries a little further, and the pencil sharpener smell settles back to a mild wood-dry leaf-y scent. I breathe a huge sigh of relief. The sass and the wood settle into something warm, smooth and spicy sweet. At this stage, this is something I would wear as perfume. Dry on my skin, it’s curly, woody dried sassafras bark and ahhh, here’s the creaminess. It’s been hiding behind the more aggressive notes all this time, lending smoothness, and waiting for its turn to peek out. It’s not crazy creamy or buttery on me though, which I appreciate. There’s just enough creamy sweetness to make this velvety to my nose. Sniffing it is the olfactory equivalent of stroking a length of light golden brown silk velvet. It’s comforting. I bet this would be amazing layered with something lightly musky. This isn’t really much like Love’s Philosophy to me. To my nose, LP was vanilla cream, butter cream, ice cream, and a dollop of spicy root beeriness. SSS is more herbal, dry and almost peppery spicy, with a bit of cream to take the edge off. This is different enough for me to justify owning a bottle of both. LP is for when I’m in a definite food-y mood, and SSS is a refreshing, yet warm and spicy scent that I can wear whenever I want. I’m rather pleased that SSS isn’t a root beer bomb on me. As much as I like a root beer float, I wasn’t sure I wanted another scent to make me smell like one.

I've been wanting to try this scent for a while now. It's more foody than I usually go for these days, but there was something appealing to me in the description of the blend. Wet in the bottle, it smells like toosie rolls to me at first, slightly spicy tootsie rolls, full stop. On my skin, it smells more cocoa-y, and now I can definitely smell the cinnamon and the coffee. There's also a bit of caramelish sweetness that I have trouble teasing apart from the cocoa smell. It kind of smells like an expensive latte. Very Very foody, but pretty good so far. As time wears on, the smell shifts, and not in a good way. I often have trouble with chocolate notes, and this is no exception. First, the cocoa part of the scent goes through a seriously cocoa butter phase where it smells quite a bit like chocolate scented lip balm, then the cinnamon gets really strong and hot smelling, then the chocolate note does what a lot of chocolate notes do on my skin, develops undertones of butt. There's just no polite way to say it. On my skin, chocolate scents develop definite tones of baby powdered butt. I am not happy. It smelled so yummy at first, and then my skin killed it. I know I have trouble with chocolate, but I keep trying chocolate-heavy scents. In a bit, I can smell cinnamon, the chocolate smell I don't enjoy, and nothing else. I guess this wasn't for me.

I got this as a very generous gimp. I wasn't sure what to expect from this scent. I actually hadn't even looked at the description, since I figured I'd never smell it. Off the bat, just sniffing the imp, this rather reminds me of Chaste Moon. That creamy sweet with soft florals thing, but a tinge spicier. Wet on my skin, it's still creamy-florals and again like Chaste Moon, there's some slightly astringent fruit, this is different because the cucumber, lettuce and squash definitely make things vegetable-toned, and there is definitely a spiciness to the mix. As it dries, I smell some very juicy fruits, underlaid with a cream note that's ever so slightly dried out by the way honey turns powdery on my skin. But there's no honey funk to this, and the fruits keep things sharp and bright. I can definitely smell the cucumber and lettuce. They're juicy too, but cooler and green rather than sweet and astringent, giving this a very interesting twist. And on top of everything else, there's a lingering floral feel to this. My review may make this sound like a hopeless muddle, but that's the thing, it isn't. This is very complex, but harmonious at the same time. It's quite light and lovely. Later, the creaminess is what's lingering on my skin, along with some sharp sweetness. This is really amazing. That said, as much as I'm enjoying the scent, I'm not sure it's quite me. I tend to like creamy, heady scents, and this tends to veer towards the delicate. Also, towards the end, I catch a hint of the honey doing the funky musky thing it does on my skin sometimes. I'm super happy to have gotten a chance to try this though. It's really a work of art. Something so complex, yet dainty and not overbearing.

Penumbra, it's dark, a little fruity and I get compliments on it. Glowing Vulva goes perfectly with my chemistry, and it smells sweet and creamy yet sophisticated. It's one of the things I put on when I want to feel sexy. Black lace is very pretty and sophisticated, but rather ladylike, until I layer it with Buck Moon, which gives it a gentle boost of sweetness and muskyness. The last time I went out with that combo on, I got a lot of attention.

Ichabod was one of the Halloweenie bottles I ordered unsniffed. When I sniff at the bottle I smell tea, what I'm guessing is the wool, and a slight after bite of pepper. I'm on board. Wet on my skin, Ichabod Crane puts on a wool sweater, busts down my door with an axe and says "Heeeere's Lily!" Lily is almost all I can smell. I have lily of the valley growing in my yard, and it's a very pleasant smell outdoors, but on my person it's very loud. The smell that I think is wool is there, and way under I get a hint of spiciness, but Muguet is out in front, big mean and oppressive. Everything else is cowering in fear. This is killingly floral for me. Later on my skin the lily recovers from it's psychotic episode and falls off some. It's still quite present but now the tea with a touch of cream, wool, and yes a honey-esque base smell that must be the beeswax. It's quite pretty and nice actually, but I don't think I can put up with the initial floral attack to get to the this stage. At this point it makes me think of having tea with a maiden aunt. She's in her apartment with candles burning, the heat turned up to 80, wearing her Sunday perfume and a wool sweater and serving cup after cup of tea with milk. It's a cool concept, but not the scent for me. Edited to use complete sentences.

I ordered a bottle of this unsniffed because I love the copal and florals in Xiutehcuhtli, and this just sounded divine. When I sniff at the bottle, it's hard to say what I'm smelling. I get the copal right away because, for some reason I find copal intensely sniffable. Smelling it almost makes my mouth water. There's also a slightly green sappiness that I'm assuming is the agave nectar. Maybe a hint of spice, but my nose may be faking me out. I'm not sure if I like this or not. Wet on my skin, this blooms into a scent that makes me huff my wrist, and then tip my head back and sigh. I'm glad no one can see me holding my wrist in front of my nose going "Oh! *sniff* Ohhh! *sniff* Wow! *sniff*" Yum mouth-watering copal, then sweet agave nectar, then deep dry woods, and just at the finish something faintly spicy and ever so slightly rosy. As it dries, the woods and resin tilt it slightly towards the cologne-y end of the spectrum, but not in an annoying way. Copal, sweet woods, and spice. If you're afraid of rose, you should know that I don't really smell it strongly here. There's a slight rosy roundness to the tail end of the spices, but nothing that I would sniff and say smelled like a rose. I think I've found my fall into winter scent. This is round, warm, resiny and spicy without being heavy or smelling like fall potpourri. Damn if I don't think I might need another bottle. Edited for clarity.

I had to get this, there was no question that I was buying a bottle unsniffed. Honey is an iffy note for me, but I didn't care. In the bottle, I mostly smell honey and cream, and something a bit funky. I think it's the honey taking on a bit of an edge. Wet on my skin, this is nothing but white rose, and since I love the Lab's take on white rose, that's just fine with me. It's true, clear, sweet and delicate. It's a clean, dewy, fresh rose, nothing heady or blowsy about it. As it dries, it gets creamier, but not the thick cream note that I'm used to. This is lighter and smoother. After a bit, I notice the powderyness that I get from honey coming out, but rather than turning the whole blend into baby powder, it keeps the rose and the cream in check. Neither of them gets too much out of hand, because the sweet honey note is backing them up. The rose isn't sweet at all, so the honey isn't overwhelming. Dry, it's the white rose that I love in Penthus, but instead of salt water and incense, there's the light touch of cream and the dry, almost musky sweetness of honey. It hasn't gone wrong on me yet. Yay! Lovely formal rose, with a slight kick. This scent is delicate, traditionally feminine, and a bit flirtatious. Not sexy or anything so overt as that. It's rosy and enticing, the most pink and white thing I've ever smelled. It's like the flash of lacy petticoat under an otherwise austere Sunday dress. I really like this scent, though I have to think about what occasion this will be the scent for. I was afraid that this might be too similar to Hope, but it's not. It's a completely different style of rose. It can occupy it's own space in my collection.

When the Halloweenies came out, I ordered the things that were just calling my name, and Huesos de Santos was one of them. I open the bottle for the first sniff, and my brain goes CAAAAAAAKE! It's buttery, vanillary custard-cake! It's rather reminscent of the cake note in Eat Me without the fruity berries. I don't really smell anything else, but that's okay, it's delicious. Now I'm craving cake and frosting. When I dab it on my skin it's still cake, but now I smell the orange as well. It's like someone took a wonderful moist cake, filled it with custard, and drizzled it with orange syrup, it's sweet, but not sickeningly so. Now I smell the anise, and I think it's one of the things that keeps the cake from becoming too cloying. It adds a sweet slightly medicinal edge. Many scents with anise also have mint, which makes it smell like toothpaste to me. This is cake, custard, orange and anise. As it dries the initial burst of foodyness starts to die off. The vanilla cake goodness is still there, but the anise gets a bit stronger and now I can smell the florals. I can't tell what they are, because the cake is still first in line, but there are flowers there that keep this scent from being too simple, and pull it in a slightly different direction. There's the yummy creaminess, the anise to ground things a bit, and then the florals, floating quite lightly and delicately along underneath it all. It reminds me of a wedding cake with fresh flower decorations on it. Later, this has gotten more complex as it dries, sweet, creamy and floral. I think I'll be reaching for it when I get my sweet tooth.

Interesting. I wonder how that blending could be done with candy scents though? I mean like candy corn, cake, stuff like that. Well I guess that's the art of it. Finding the items that evoke a certain smell and then blending them. It involves having a sharp nose, and a good scent memory, and the willingness to sniff all kinds of things to find the right ingredients. It totally blows my mind that the Lab can do this while restricting themselves to naturallly derived ingredients. I also think that this is what makes the scents so unique. Edited to Add: I know for example, that seaweed extracts can be used to evoke a salty, oceanic scent, and that Candy Corn is primarily flavored with honey and wax, both of which can be made into scent absolutes. You can get extracts of butter, cocoa,vanilla, and various spices, which is basically what we smell when we smell cake. Other than the typical floral notes that we're all familiar with, there is a huge palette of oils, resins, absolutes and concretes that can be blended in an infinite number of ways.

I've recently taken a liking to violets, and so I added this to my wishlist. Someone sweet sent me an imp with a swap. I didn't know what to expect from this scent at all. Wet in the imp, I smell the violet right away, and right behind it is a tangy sharpness that I'm going to say is red currant. It's not fruity per se, but it's sharp and juicy like a broken stem. Then I smell patchouli and the dirt note. Patchouli doesn't smell like dirt to me, but something in this blend smells like clean dirt. Wet on my skin I still get the tangy broken stems and sweet violets, but now I'm also getting an herbal whiff before patchouli and the dirt. Also, this is getting very dry, almost dusty. I like it though. It's not like anything I've smelled recently. As it dries out the sweet violet blooms on me, and the scent dries considerably. What's interesting to me about this is how it can be so dry, and at the same time refreshing. The currant, violet and patchouli are tangy-bittersweet, but in a good way like tonic water and lime. It doesn't smell like tonic and lime, but it's a reminder that bittersweet can be good. I'd love to have some soap or shampoo that smelled like this. It's dry clean and refreshing. That said, I think this is too heavy for summer wear, at least for me. I think I might have a hankering for it as the cooler weather sets in though. I'm going to keep sniffing, because I'm not sure if this imp is enough, or if come winter I'll want a bottle. It's really a work of art though.

This has been on my wishlist forever. I got Hope all on her lonesome in a swap. When I saw sugared rose, I had to go for it. I was kind of waiting for this to be a really simple, one-note scent. Sniffing from the bottle, I definitely get the sugar before the rose. It's like rose syrup or rose jam. But as soon as I sniff something in my head says "Oooooo I like this!" Wet on my skin, it's sugar sugar sugar, and roses. Wait, is that vanilla? It's something creamy, and it briefly reminds me of Possets Silver Roses, except where Silver Roses is delicate and ethereal, Hope is sweeter and headier. As it dries my initial Silver Roses impression goes away almost immediately, and the sugar note dies off a bit. Rising up from my skin is a very sensuous rose scent. It's still sweet and a tinge creamy, but now I'm getting something that my brain calls musky from this scent. This rose wants to edge towards soapiness I can tell, but the sugar and cream keep it from going there. Later I'm still compulsively sniffing my arm. Hope, that little minx, is turning sexy on me. Often rose either goes very green and stemmy or sour, but this is warm and soft and sweet. It's gotten a bit drier and more powdery. I don't like the use the word powdery because I often use it in a negative sense with fragrance, but that's what it is to me. The sugar has gone from wet and syrupy to a light dusting of powdered sugar over musky rose. and just a touch of violet maybe? It's not enough for this scent to be violet-y, bit I feel that it's there. Hope and Faith are Siamese twins after all. Every once in a while I get wafts of the initial rose jam scent, but it's fleeting. I'll have to wear it for a while to be sure, but I think Hope is the BPAL rose scent I've been searching for. Right now, I like this even better than Rose Moon.

This is a review of a bottle with the GC style label. I swapped for this hoping to get creamy vanilla underlaid by florals. Wet in the bottle, I smell the grapefruit, then immediately afterward the vanillas. I have hope for this blend. Wet on my skin, grapefruit, and then gardenia. Gardienia for some reason often presents to my nose as an oily bittersweet floral smell. Next comes the Jasmine, sweet and strong, and almost a little funky. I'm not happy. I was hoping that I could skate on the jasmine in this blend, but as of now, no dice. As this dries, the grapefruit fades back, but the Gardenia and Jasmine are still kicking out the jams. I can smell the creamy vanilla in the background, but the florals are louder than anything in this blend on me. And the Jasmine gets funkier and funkier. The grapefruit is giving this a bit of a sour turn for me. Later, the florals have fallen off and softened, and the soft lovely vanillas underpin this. I'm not fond of this blend though. I like my vanilla with a hint of floral, not vice versa. Jasmine tends to come to the fore on me, so I'm not surprised that this didn't work out well.

I've been haunting my mailbox waiting for this bottle to arrive. I'm not very fond of apple scents, so I had mixed feelings about this purchase. On the one hand I really wanted the book. On the other hand, I eat apples and am rarely tempted to smell like them. I kept reading the reviews of apple and mint and wondering if I had made the right decision. On first whiff from the bottle I smell a very sharp and dry kind of green apple. Not jolly rancher, but a pretty good rendition of a freshly bitten Granny Smith. On sniffing more deeply, I still get the green apple note first and foremost, but there's something aquatic and ozone-y there. Ozone usually smells like fabric softener or laundry soap to me, so I'm a bit wary. Wet on my skin, slightly soapy apple. It's not bad, it's just very much a clean laundry, green apple shampoo scent for me. I'm trying to be patient and wait to see what happens. It's still a little soapy, a tinge floral, and not tangy or juicy at all. At this point, this feels cold, and bit icy, and I'm not sure how much I'm loving this. Dry on my skin, ah now a bit of sweetness and warmth is coming out. Still aquatic, still crisp, but not as cold. I think the crystalline musk is stepping up to take the place of the apple which is fading fairly rapidly. It IS sweet, but not in a sugary fruity way, but in the way that flowers and musk are sweet. That said, it's not strongly floral to me. It's just that the sweetness is reminiscent of flowers. Later, this becomes a fresh crisp sweet aquatic, and I'm sooo not giving it up. The musk is blooming out too, clean and clear, rather than murky. I can't usually wear aquatics, but this one works really well. I'm keeping it for when I want to smell sexy fresh.

I was very excited to try this, the description sounded so interesting. In the bottle, I get an intial strong whiff of blueberries. When I go to sniff at the bottle again I get blueberries and, I'm not kidding, balsamic vinegar. That's the only way I can describe it. It's like one of those fruity-vinagrette dressings, sweet and fruity, yet tangy too. Blueberry-balsamic! Wet on my skin, no vinegar thank goodness! I'm still not sure what gave me that sensation in the bottle. But yep, the other reviewers are right, blueberry pie filling. But not the canned kind to me, but like the innards of a home made blueberry pie, rich, sweet and slightly spicy. Or really good blueberry preserves. Oh and then there's the ginger coming out a bit, and maybe the slight grassiness of green tea. The fruity smell dies back quite a bit as it dries. As it dries, it's getting musky. Usually red musk is nauseating on my skin, but this is nice I might understand why some people think red musk is so sexy now. The muskiness has a sweetness too, and I'm not sure if that's a characteristic of the red musk, or if the aftermath of the fruits still linger. There's also a creaminess in the back of everything else that I think is the benzoin and the vanilla. Not overt, just there, and right behind that, the coriander. With all the varying notes, I expected this scent to be super heavy and thick. It's not really though. Each note is surprisingly light and fresh. It's like many thin layers of chiffon making a skirt. Later: Umph this has turned so sexy on me, which I didn't expect at all. I expected playful yes, especially after the intial blueberry blast, but not sexy. But it's just settled on my skin and turned into sweet spicy musky ginger bite me sauce. I have to restrain the urge to lick my arm where I've dabbed it. It definitely starts fruity, and food-y, but ends up some place else entirely. I'd love to smell this on a man. The initial smell might be a bit fruity for the average man, but on the drydown I bet it would be mancandy sex on a stick. This is Surreal, it changes moods so quickly. I think I need another bottle. ETA: This started out as love, but it turned on me. I'm not sure if it's body chemistry or what, but I put it on yesterday, and the red musk attacked me. Now all I smell is fruit in a headshop. I still love it, but it doesn't love me!

I got Penumbra despite there being several notes in it that I'm a bit afraid of. I'm definitely iffy about oakmoss, I've had some bad lavender experiences, and neroli can get poisonous smelling on me. But I was tempted enough by the other notes to go for it. In the bottle it's a little sharp, a bit cologne-y and yes, herbal. Oakmoss, and lavender are right up front, but they're not making me run away yet. On my skin the herbal smell is still there, but now there's a touch of sweetness that I like. As it dries, I'm noticing the amber and the sandalwood rising up, being supported by the earthy base of the scent. I'm getting a bit of fruitiness that I think is the pomegranate and the neroli getting together, but it's not poisonous, it's just giving this very dark blend some sweet relief. Ohh and there's the purple musk, and it smells so sexy! This is gorgeous. It's like velvet. It's regal and warm and sweet and there's an underlying sensuality as well. I'm soo glad I followed my intuition and got it.

Cathode It's all prickly smelling. Not in a vinegar way, but in an ozone-y electrical current way.

I love most of the BPAL fragrances with a cream note, so when I got the opportunity to swap for this one, I did. Wet in the bottle, I get a big whiff of the cream note that I love so much, backed up by something faintly and sweetly medicinal. It also smells-fizzy. As if the liquid in the bottle was carbonated. On the second sniff, this smells sassafras-y. Wet on my skin this gets very butter creamy, and the vanilla comes out more strongly. I can see where people might sniff this and think "wintergreen", but my nose says hey saffron! Hey sassafras! It threatens to turn plasticky for a second, but then doesn't ever really go that far. It's dry on my skin now, and I smell like an expensive root beer float, or a sexy cream soda. It's actually kind of nice. It's not an every day scent, but I love the creaminess of it, and the freshness that the saffron-sass (Sassa-fron?) brings to it. Later, it smells drier, less buttery, and more vanilla confectioner's sugar creamy. Fluffy and soft. Me likey.

This is one of the most unique things I have ever smelled. I got an imp of this in a swap. When I looked at the description in the catalog, It didn't speak to me, so I passed it by, and probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. Lately however, I've noticed that my tastes in fragrance have shifted slightly, so whenever I get an imp that I haven't tried, or don't remember trying, I test it out. So glad I did! In the imp, it's all citrusy-sharp orange. That's not a bad thing. It reminds me of peeling clementines, sugar-sweet but astringent. Underneath the sweet orange smell is something perfume-y and nice. Wet on my skin, the sourness of the citrus dies down. It smells almost creamy, like an orange creamsicle. I think it must be the copal that gives this creaminess. The smell of this both in the imp and on the skin gives me a feeling in my mouth, which I think is interesting. As I sniff it, my brain is giving me the same response as if I had bitten into a very juicy sweet-sour tropical fruit. My mouth is watering. I've never had this response to a scent before, but it's awesome. As this dries, it becomes less "juicy" and citrusy and more resinous and smoky. The resin is creamy, and the smoke is soft and sweet. There's a slight musky undertone to this, but it might be the perfume I applied this morning. The floral underpinning of this keeps everything sweet and fresh. Despite the resin and smoke, this scent isn't dark at all. It's light and bright. In my mind it's a bright clear orangey-yellow color, like sunshine. I'm definitely getting a bottle of this. I can see it being a serious mood lifter for me.

I got a decant of this from one of the Grindhouse Decant Circles. It wasn't my first choice, and possibly wasn't even my second. I think I chose it because it had sandalwood and vanilla, two things I'm interested in right now. To me in the vial, there's something almost astringent smelling about it. I can't pick out any individual notes right now, except for the light astringency, which is surprising considering how many dry and woody elements there are in this. Wet on my skin, the astringency falls back, and there are the dry woods. I recently tried Tombstone which I thought I was going to love, but which turned to freshly sharpened pencil on my skin. Cytherea on my skin smells just how I was hoping Tombstone would. It's dry, faintly powdery and yes, ever so slightly astringent, but not sharp. Soft, and smooth. As the oil dries on my skin, this gets a touch more sweet and resiny. It's not sugar sweet or candy sweet by any means. I think it's the amber and perhaps the vanilla. Normally, I experience vanilla as a distinct note, but this time I can't pull it out from the other notes. It's very harmonious. dry woods, a bit of dried resin sweetness, and a hint of soft floral. It's incensey, but not head shop-y. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm so glad I got this. I don't know if I would have jumped on this blend on my own, but I'm loving it. I think this would smell awesome on a man too. In fact, I have a specific man in mind But it also smells wunderbar on me!

I love roses, but I had yet to find a rose blend that I really loved wearing. I’ve found several that I enjoy the smell of, but nothing that really seemed like a me scent. When I heard about Rose Moon (long after it had be released) it sounded like something I just HAD to try. Never mind that I had serious reservations about the poppy, bois de jasmin, honey and lilac. In the bottle, I get a strong sweet whiff of roses, but right behind them is a cloud of floral-y-ness that I’m not sure I like. There’s a bit of the oily sweetness that I associate with jasmine there too. Hrm. I dab a little on my skin and ahhh, there are my roses, beautiful, if a teensy bit soapy from the other floral elements. Just when I think they’re going to turn the corner to unbearably soapy, they soften and become gently powdery. This is starting to make friends with my skin. As it dries, it softens further. It’s still rose, but it’s no longer a perfume-y soapy rose, but more musky. I might even call it a bit sweet and faintly spicy. After wearing it for a while, I still catch faint wisps of rose wafting around me. It’s soft, but not powdery, and the dry down definitely has warmth. It’s lovely on me. It seems well-blended. The rose is definitely a key player, but it’s well-blended, I can’t really tease the other notes apart from each other. They give a harmonious impression.

Obatala is a scent I've been wanting to try for a long time. For some reason, I always get distracted from it by other scents. So finally I got a decant of it. First impression, sniffed from the vial, HOLY SCHNIKES Milk Moon 05! That rich and creamy lead-off smell that I adore! Milk Moon 05 is heaven on me, I must put this on my skin right away! Wet on my skin it's still highly reminiscent of Milk Moon to me, but while MM is cooled by a faint mintiness, Obatala's full blast creaminess is cut by something aquatic, making it smell a bit like freshly shredded coconut. I can pick up hints of the shea butter, but it's not strong. Dry on my skin, I'm loving it. This is round and creamy without being super-foody, aquatic without being dryer-sheet-y. I've been digging more dry and woody scents, but Obatala is not dry at all. It's wet, like it's just been rained on. The creaminess is still there, and it's sweet, but not heavy. The longer it dries, the lighter in intensity it becomes, and it's great. It's similar to my Moon, but different enough for me to want to wear it. Milk Moon is my cuddly blanket comfort scent, but Obatala is more refreshing. Like the coconut water that you drink straight from the coconut shell, the kind you can get from street vendors on hot days.

I think I tried an imp of Black Pearl a long time ago and liked, but didn't love it, and so swapped away. Later, I'm looking at the notes and reading the reviews, and I wondered why I did, so I put it back on the wishlist, and arranged a swap. Sniffing the bottle, this smells quite sharply of white musk, which is fine because I love the "clean" quality that white musk has for me. On second sniff, I get what I think is a hint of iris followed swiftly by a touch of something that I can't figure out. I keep opening the bottle and sniffing to figure it out. It's hazelnut, but it smells-boozy. Like hazelnut liqueur, but also in a way like rum. I'm not sure what's making it smell like that to my nose, but it's interesting. I'm not really getting the coconut scent in this like I remember. Wet on my skin, no boozy smell, which is fine. A light coconut scent comes up, but what I mostly sniff is the white musk (love!) and the iris, which don't recall smelling before this. I really like what's happening as it warms. Dry on my skin it's-summery. The white musk settles into my skin and does its thing of smelling like freshly bathed skin, the coconut mostly disappears except to keep the musk from getting soapy, and I can't really smell the iris anymore. Maybe the iris is what's giving my nose the faint impression of water in this scent. But I smell good. I smell like I took a shower half hour ago, put on tiny bit of cocoa butter lotion, and am now sitting in the sun. It's not a loud scent on my skin, it's the kind of thing you'd have to nuzzle close to really notice, but I love it. This is one of the blends where the musk I love on me is not overwhelmed by the behavior of the other ingredients. I have a bottle of this, but I think I'm going to need more.

I was both hopeful and suspicious about this blend. I love white musk, rose amber, and pink grapefruit. Jasmine however, isn't my favorite by any means. Sniffing it wet in the bottle, I get a sweet floral. A second sniff, and I smell the grapefruit, and something rosy underlaid by the lotion-y smell I associate with Jasmine. Wet on my skin the jasmine comes to the fore, which is what my skin usually does to jasmine. Initially, it's very sweet, but once my nose adjusts to the jasmine I can smell its underpinnings. The grapefruit is faintly there, a little bit acid smelling to my nose. Not in a bad way though. The jasmine is the foremost note on me in this blend, very sweet, and maybe the rose in the amber is giving this a sweet floral boost. It's almost verging on soapy. The jasmine is starting to bug me, so I go rinse my arm in the sink to knock the scent back a bit. Shortly, I catch a whiff of clean musk and rosy amber and realize that I'm smelling the remnants of The Presence. It's lovely. This is perhaps what it smells like with an extended dry-down. Unfortunately, the jasmine is too strong on me for me to wait for the part that my skin agrees with. It's actually a lovely floral, but not for me. Incidentally, my cat is really interested in the arm where I've put the oil.