cinderfallen

This scent is very similar to CB I Hate Perfume's Black Tea accord: sweet, aromatic black tea scent, very delicate, that turns into carnation on drydown.

Dishwashing soap. Alas.

I think you should try emailing customer support, since people have been getting their New Year packages.

At first, Ladon is pure apple, but I don't think I like the Lab's apple very much. It's the type of apple used in cider, and not the tart, super-sweet ones that I love. On drydown, there's a tiniest hint of dragon's blood that is more implicit than anything, and what must be the apple blossom and hyacinth toning down the scent to a fruity floral rather than sheer fruit. It's a mellow sweetness that strikes me as a little flat.

Fresh on, Melisande reminds me of jasmine tea; as it dries down, the vanilla bean and musk lend a creamy, solid note--no fragile flower wisps here. The violet and jasmine meld into each other, and I think the violet is actually gaining precedence over the jasmine. The jasmine and vanilla bean lend smoothness, and the violet has a "coarser" sugary feel on top. It's quite interesting.

Oh, no. Nope. Honey and ylang ylang seem to be pretty bad in combination; Eve went the same way: sharp, with the slightest edge of rotting flowers. With a bit of grape fizz.

I'd second Red Lantern, and add Black Opal. I immediately thought of glamorous black-and-white film stars in slinky dresses when first trying it on. It's a really sophisticated vanilla scent; not as fun or flirty as others, but definitely has that vintage feel.

Fresh on, it's a blend of leather, coconut, and something sweeter, almost foody: must be the tonka. The leather dries down, moves into the background more, but it's still a very blended scent that goes a bit sweet, but dry. I'm sure someone else will love it, but it smelled too "mature" for me, darker than my tastes run. ADDED 7/14/08: Whoa. Talk about the importance of skin chemistry! I tried this out on a whim while going through my swap box and the change is startling! I got the imp about two years ago and have tried it periodically and I never got any of the lighter notes. It was a very dense, coconut/leather-heavy blend that smelled about 20 years older than I was because it was not very sweet. The texture was like dense velvet that clung with definite presence a few inches away from my skin, but it smelled strong, unpleasing, and off-balance to my nose. NOW, wow. I can smell the crisp, lighter notes--like champagne bubbles over a creamy, vanilla-like tonka, wrapped in a sexy suggestion of leather and smoke. It's super vanilla-sweet which I would never have suspected a year ago! Actually, I think the vanilla note I love so much in Snake Oil is contributed greatly by the tonka in Perversion. I would love to have a full bottle, but I know it won't smell like this. Batch variation is truly a sad thing.

At first, it's pure Tulszcha (sp?!): mint and cool cucumber, and then it dries down to something like creamy coconut, no hint of mint or cucumber anywhere. Buh? I think I'll stick with my Tulszcha.

I just came into revelation myself! c/p bits from the Rec section: TWEEDLEDUM: Absurd! Green mango, fig, patchouli and green tea. The patchouli is barely noticeable, or rather, it's noticeable in that it gives the fruitiness its structure. It's a sweet, green, bulging fruit with tea scent that twines around a thin strand of light, sweet patchouli. I hate patchouli and I love this scent. <3

I get honey and lily, definitely, with some soft amber giving the scent some weight. Reminds me of an expensive department store perfume, really. On another test, it's a lovely floral. The skin musk is played up to every advantage, but I still don't get much of the spices. It's a very gentle, balanced scent that's almost creamy in its loveliness.

Wow! Ra is so underappreciated! It started out amber, a little sharp with citrus and sweet with floral, and, like a previous reviewer said, felt like "focused" light. But after an hour, the scent sort of...popped open, exploded to reveal its core. The essence of Ra is that dry sort of cocoa sweetness layered over wood and resin, almost a powdery creaminess. It's still a little bright from the top notes, and the overall effect is simply gorgeous. I'm quite surprised by this one!

I get what I'm guessing is the "plum" but mostly, I get that jasmine-sweet scent underlying it. Smells like one of Lush's bathbombs....hm. I'll have to try and remember the name. But the jasmine-y one.

Oh, oh, such a good idea! I just tried Eat Me layered underneath and...yum! The currants are *amped* up! Hm. My bottle of the stuff reads Black Raspberry Vanilla. Name change?

Gorgeous! This scent is the the first one in which I was actually tempted to want to *eat* the scent on my wrist--it was that good. It's not overly foody, though, but it has this rich dimension which translates to my brain as something would be amazingly rich and moist and sweet, but not overly so. But it really is moist, rich, white cake with a thin, dribbling layer of rasberry-currant jam that pops out at you when you get that fork near your mouth.... This scent has a really inviting backdrop of vanilla that's incredible. The fruity aspect reminds me of Shango, actually.

A deceptively sweet orchid vanille with a faint trace of stephanotis. It was interesting--warm vanilla and floral, but when it dried down, the vanilla faded away to a mere sweetness, leaving the flowers bulging. Eventually smelled like dryer sheets and soap. Sadness.

This is exactly like Dorian! That slightly powdery vanilla sugared tea....unmistakable. It goes a little plastic on me, though, so I'll stick with the former.

It's kapow! Aquatic citrus loving! It dries down too quickly, though, because I love that initial stage. It dries down to a danker grapefruit smell. Hmm. Edit to say: Final drydown was completely nasty. There must be something like...I don't know, vetiver? Musk? Because it smells like pee and cat fur. Same for my friend.

This is pretty amazing! It's cocoa and vanilla and fig, right off the bat, but the bergamot comes into play, too. It dries down a warm, rich tonka and fig scent, with wafts of lighter fruit that zests things up. ETA: I really amp the fig, and at times it's Fig Newtons, not fresh fig.

At first, I was afraid that this would go into the dreaded crafts store scent because of the sweet pine, but that fades quickly. It's definitely a cold scent, just a *hint* of pine with some frosted sweetness to balance it out. It's lovely!

I love this! The mandarin is the note I love most, because it keeps the pumpkin/ginger/spices from being too heavy. It's a very unique scent that straddles the savory, darker smells of the pumpkin and amber with the seamlessly blended ginger and mandarin. I get the tiniest whiff of cardemom, too.

This is the perfect fragrance of a crafts store on my skin. Would probably work better as a room fragrance. (Cider and spices don't work for me at all--it's really sad.)

Oh, love! I'm really glad this doesn't stay the original mint, because it smells like Extra chewing gum (which I adore, but...as a perfume?). Instead, the cucumber note blooms and gives this fresh, sweeter, smoother note to the mint. It's a little aquatic, and infinitely wearable. I was really lucky to have gotten a fairly priced bottle off Ebay! I've decided: this smells like snow. Powdery, virgin snow that pile oh-so-prettily with the first good snowfall.

Stardust is definitely not for me. I get the worst of both worlds--the effervescence of the more sparkly notes are competing with the base notes and it ends up smelling like a murky, rotting combination of flower, champagne bubbles and spicier sandalwood.

On drydown, it's a floral floral floral. I get mostly violet, with a sweeter note that's probably the jasmine.