cinderfallen

...how does something turn powdery and sharp all at once? =/ Rose and amber strike again.

This just shot up to my top 10. I knew there could be no wrong with this blend for me, and I was totally right! It goes on almost fruity bright, green, perhaps from the crisper orchid; and there is that lush, almost overripe smell people mentioned, right at the beginning, but that's immediately gone. Within a few minutes, the incense mutes the intensity of the florals, which turn a little creamy except for the crooks of my elbows, where that crystal green note sticks around. But when I say incense, I mean a sugary smokiness that texturizes the bubbly sweet scent, gives it character. I love that the incense is not a true headshop incense note, but just that touch of *something* that warms up the scent, turns it slightly Oriental and edgy-musky. But for the incense, Marae would remind me a lot of Vasakasajja, which was a little too loud for me; the smokiness lends the perfume a more intimate presence, pretty as it is. I agree with a previous reviewer that this reminds me of Midnight on the Midway, or more of what I wanted it to be, though Marae is sweeter and brighter: sugared incense and flowers, with the texture of crystallized sugar of cotton candy on your tongue. ETA for another take on description, perhaps also a slight change in chemistry/hormones (right before my period): Gardenia is a super heavy, sweet, uber-floral isn't it? A friend had a gardenia she grew in her room, and that definitely doesn't smell like this! I get super sour candy, the really lip-puckering kind, where the sweet lays just underneath the surface, and you can almost taste it, there's so much sugar. Almost citrus-lime, almost berry! I don't get any kind of vanilla or cream from this blend. This scent is super crisp. The balance of sweet to sour reminds me of tart lemonade. ...which seems to be super different from others' perceptions!

Personally, roses turn really sharp on me if they're a bad variety, so that might be your culprit. The thing is though, is that there are a lot of different types of any one note that there's kind of no predicting what will go bad (or good!) unless you try it on your skin. What kind of scent recommendations are you looking for?

Oh. Man. Can I just say that I am SO. GLAD. that I got too lazy to swap this away because it has gotten BEAUTIFUL. I am not a foody person, really, and this has just shot up like 10 points with me. At first, I was too eh about the weirdness about thick cocoa and fruit notes, but that has balanced out with age to become not a foody scent but a gourmand perfume, where on the skin, the cocoa acts as a light base, as sandalwood might, to support the gorgeous honey fruit and very light spices. It's tart and yet is supported by an almost woody cocoa and the honey is just delicious in its supporting role. The cocoa almost but never quite disappears, and I'm surprised by how happy I am about that. The very slight hint of topnote from hot ginger and spicy clove is an excellent counterpoint to the tart, juicy fruitiness, with its slightly floral waxy sweetness, as well as the mellow honey and the creamy base--and just, man. This is good stuff. I saw reference to this being similar to Storyville, and if there is resemblence, I can see why the latter is so popular. I'll be keeping and loving my 13. UGH. I want to roll around in this scent.

This one does a disappearing act that's hard to beat! I slathered this everywhere, including over scents I'd previously tried: wrists, forearms, crook of my elbow.... Gone. In 15 minutes. Even more amazing is that I can smell the scents that had been previously under Marianne. Goes on with as much red musk as Scheherezade, with patchouli and a thin sweetness. And as my nose strains more and more to catch some scent, poof. At most, I get an aura of red musk, which I amp, because that's all I got out of Smut, too, though deeper.

I love smelling this in the vial as it's nowhere near as juicy and sweet-complex on my skin. It's a punch of syrup. You can really smell the alcoholic tinge of the grape wine (not red or white, but grape juice wine, very sticky sweet with that alcoholic fume) which is lifted by the rose, a higher top note. It's a thin, sweet rose, like the one in Two, Five, and Seven, almost like an acidic-sweet berry like cranberry with that characteristic rose delicacy. This is probably because of the dragon's blood, which is the binding note to highlight the wine and the rose and give it that oomph without being showy itself. On my skin, it goes through a lot of changes. The juiciness is gone, though the rose adds a dewy quality to the base, matte wine. Then the rose goes sharp, as roses tend to go on me, as if you were to pulp rose petals along with their stems to make a thin juice. This lasts for a while and thankfully, calms down. Underneath, there is still a slightly sticky sweet quality, also a little resinous (like tree sap) with a faint concord grape quality. Then that, too, is gone, smoothed out and I'm left with a pretty little rose blend that is sweet and pitched "high" with a cranberry/acidic grape sweetness. Girly-flirty and pleasant enough, though I'm not sure it's worth the harrowing drydown of sharp, driven off-kilter roses. This is especially the case when I'm pretty sure the sillage of the perfume is greatest during that stage, and not the more pleasant dry-down.

This is a scent I wear during scent-craving days when I want to smell lots and lots of red musk and sandalwood and non-spicy spices. It's not a mainstream scent and I'd say it's like an acquired taste if you're not already inclined to wearing incense/new age/occult shop scents as perfume. (I'm not.) I don't think it's appropriate for all situations, especially professionally, but it is nice to luxuriate in sometimes. Scent-wise, if you want to know what red musk smells like, try this. =) It's a very rich but clean, rounded musk, with a lot of depth, which holds the drier sandalwood and saffron in check. It's one of the more quietly intense blends, with no "high" top notes to announce itself but the new age shop spices.

My favorite tea scent is actually Alice. It smells like candy tea, milky and sweetened with honey, but spicy with carnation, with that astringent bergamot at the back of your throat, with a delicate rose petal infusion. The rose is there as a softening, sweet note, and goes well the tea-like bergamot. I am STILL looking for an amazing, true jasmine tea scent.

I have one bottle in use and it's noticably aged and changed more than my backup bottle: the coconut and fruity notes has gotten very prominent, and the smooth red musk bulges near the edges of the scent, which resembles the way the patchouli works in Mme. Moriarty. It's brighter. It's got more "texture" but it's gotten even more similar to Mme. Moriarty. I have an original release Snake Charmer, and I'm hoping that the amber will mature and come into its own, and the fruit/coconut notes tapers off, because at its heart, Snake Charmer is a slinky scent, not a boisterous sex bomb.

This is interesting in that it fits the concept of "fire" very well--a gentle blaze. However, as a perfume or even as a room scent--nope, no way. Off-putting and bleh-inducing.

I tried Dionysia fresh and it was a lot of fruit, BPAL style. Aged about 6 months now, the frankincense and mahogany have a real presence, acting like a dark and musky cloud that lifts the brighter fruit notes forward. Has the feel of Mme. Moriarty's patchouli/fruit without the creamy vanilla.

I'm not a fan of spicy scents, but this scent is really compelling. It starts off with a blast of cassia like in Enraged Groundhog Musk, very high-pitched. But then suddenly, the low notes appear to bolster and support the high notes of cinammon and clove. It's the suggestion of wood more than the actual scent, but it effectively encases the scent and provides a frame to enjoy the spice in. Of anything, I'd say this blend is a really "stimulating" scent. The scent leaps to my attention and my mind feels revved up with it. It's really interesting to sniff.

This is bright and light, a sweet scent that touches on herbal-floral but not quite, almost like muscadine grape if you pulled the skin off and smell that, but with a luscious, resinous bottom. It doesn't smell like incense at all to me. I really, really like it. I feel like this should be a super popular scent because it smells so. good. A bit green and plant-like at the edges, like a deep and honeyed plant sap oozing woody-green and amber. Pretty. I know what it reminds me of! The original, old-school Herbal Essences shampoo. Uhm. In an awesome way. Storax is another name for benzoin, so I'm pretty sure that and balsalm--as well as the myrrh--is where I'm getting the honey/vanilla notes from, though it's surprising that resins can be so sweet, bright, and uplifting. It never edges into "too sweet" because of that hint of plant sap quality. Totally, totally, TOTALLY bottle-worthy. Come to me, precious! The scent of the bottle is a bit different from the imp, sigh. But I'm hoping aging will take care of it. It's a bit softer, more diffused, with less of the sticky resinous aspect--but it does come out longer into the wear.

Oh, I am SO happy with the new Snake Charmer! This will age exactly into the old bottle I sold/swapped away, I can tell. It's a little bold and sharp but the same reassuring musk and fruit note is there, ready to become slinky-soft-sexy. Not as patchouli and dark/heavy as Mme. Moriarty, which I really appreciate. I think the only Snake Oil resemblence is in the slightly sharp note and the hint of spice/sweetness, but I don't think they're very much alike at all. Fresh, Snake Charmer reminds me a little bit of Hell's Belle.

This turned into generic incense on me. I didn't know what that would smell like until I smelled this. "Oh! Cheap, generic incense! Named something like Blue India!" And a bit of soapiness. ETA 1.23.09: Hey there, split personality skin chemistry! This smells nothing like what it smelled like on me before. (Understatement.) Now that my stress, cortisol levels, etc., are down, and my diet has completely changed.... I think this might have a component that's in Dorian, perhaps a musk? It's that sugar-gritty musk that gives depth to the scent. The scent is interesting--it IS a brooding sort of scent, but not in a true Gothic way, but a romanticized vampire midnight sky kind of way. There is sugar and just the insinuation of flowers which form the light top notes. Sometimes, it interacts with the base musk in a weird way and I smell fresh laundry, hot out of the dryer. But overall, a clinging skin scent, warm and sweet. Wafts sometime make me think of an exotic tea, sugared and creamed with a floral infusion. Looking at reviews, it looks like I might have a decant from a batch made around Aug of '08. The current batch looks more flower-heavy. ETA 9.29.09: Skin chemistry never fails to surprise me. Procured a bottle, which on me smelled very much the imp I had (YES no batch difference!!!!). I tried it on today at the end of my period and I smell a floral-dominated scent, not nearly as musky and rich as it usually is on me. It's usually incense sweet musk, where the flowers are almost an afterthought, but it's completely the opposite this time. I can almost see the delicate petals of the flowers--and they're not a white floral like jasmine, but something that has less oils and more delicate leaves, crushed. Behind that is just a hint of incense, sugar and vanilla, and then the warmth of musk pulling everything together. This is quite a pretty scent! I wish my body liked to do pretty rather than resin/dark/musky all the time like this!

It's weird because I don't think Snow White smells like almond, or coconut, or white florals at all. At ALL. This really is just really well blended, and it smells like Snow-Flakes with a creaminess that doesn't overwhelm the slightly wet quality of the scent.

I think Red Lantern might work: Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. It's an LE but it's pretty likely it will show up around January for Valentine's Day. There are also imps floating around the forum. The Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil, a Salon, is: Bourbon vanilla, benzoin, caramel, Mysore sandalwood, aged black patchouli, carnation, and iris florentina. From the GCs, I'd recommend you try Velvet, which is described as "gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh." Reviews here. Dorian may work. It's a dark, rich vanilla tea with a good dose of musk. It's not too sweet, in my opinion, and has a powdery gourmand quality. Boomslang is a mix of spicy/vanilla sweet Snake Oil with cocoa absolute. Dark and rich, but sweet.

What kind of scent is it? Fruity? Sweet? More creamy? Just giving out notes doesn't help much if you want scent recs unless you find a person who already knows that scent. There's a search engine on the BPAL site: use it. Learn it. Love it. Otherwise, there a million different ways the notes could be blended at different strengths and concentrations. Even vague description of what it smells like to you will help a lot. I'd say try Queen Mab, which looks similar. It's a sweet floral, with a nice light musk, a little candy but not over the top.

I loved wearing Khajuraho for just that reason! 'kaj ur a ho!

Starts out sparkling citrus and the white tea note, very fruity. It settles down more creamy and musky with the same almost-fruity red musk from Mme. Moriarty. Oh, I figured out this smells very much like if you had to blend Embalming Fluid and Mme. Moriarty together! Mind-blowing, huh? ETA: Had to add that this is one of the few blends with rose in it that works for me without going sharp and sour.

This smells like LUSH's American Cream, light on the vanilla and heavier on the herbal/woody notes.

I can't get past the buttery vanilla at first. It has the same intense foodiness as Eat Me, with the robust earthiness of vegetation and what smells like patchouli (not the hippy kind, but that distinct note that gives perfume that earthy body). It's smoothed out by the lily as a sweet after-scent. It's initially a very earthy-gourmand, which is a bit odd, the grittiness I'm going to attribute to the ambergris and sea moss, though I'm not sure what it is. As the scent wears on, the butteriness death dies down enough for more of the lily to take over, and it's a much smoother, sweeter scent overall, grounded in a light resins. There's a nice uplifting note in this that refreshes the scent, a little green. In the middle phase, it turns creamy, sweet earthy scent, with notes of vanilla, patchouli, and lily. Reminds me a bit of Mara Fox's Love Potion Black. On complete drydown, the scent blossoms up on the higher registers to something brighter, more floral and sweet. Subtle resins dirties up the lower registers, but it's not nearly as earthy or intense as it once was. It actually turns very pretty and wearable. It's no longer a novelty scent but a perfume. It goes through a huge change from in the imp to on my skin. If I do try this again, I'll need to remember to not directly sniff for a couple minutes. Buttery foody death. Gag.

Life's too short to be fussy. From the cap, imp wand, imp itself, wand cap, upending bottle, in any and whatever fashion... Apply neat!

Can you not smell anything directly from the imp or on your skin? If it's the former, ask someone else to try and smell them--it may be just your nose. If it's the latter, it may be just your skin chemistry eating up the scent. If it's neither of those things, I'd email the lab and tell them what's up.

Have you tried the swap/sale portion of the forum? Forumites are quite kind to newbies and you can try out a lot of different samples rather than potentially wasting time and money on full bottles.