cranberry

I can’t believe I haven’t tried this one yet. Well I’m glad that I finally did. On the skin the first thing I smell is something bright and citrus, what may be patchouli, a faint floral in the background. The citrus is so bright and it melds beautifully with the darker notes. When first applied all I can think is that this is familiar and I could swear this is Ravenous that I’m smelling. Testing them out on opposite hands, this is a brighter, lighter version of Ravenous. Looking at the notes, I see that copal is here, and that combined with the incense is probably what is coming across as a lighter, brighter patchouli. Other than that, they smell practically identical. There could be a touch of vanilla in here too. This scent is just fantastic and I need to get a bottle.

Wow, this is gorgeous. Wet, it smells of honey, blackberry, vanilla, and musk. I’m so glad that I finally tried this. The vanilla in this reminds me of Snake Charmer, and it is in that family of scents. Musky, vanilla, fruity, spicy. So sensuous and beautiful. It’s intoxicating to smell. It’s not changing too much on me as it wears. The vanilla is a touch powdery, rather like the powdery vanilla musk in Antique Lace. The biggest change would have to be the blackberry - it gets softer as it wears. I’m enjoying all aspects of this scent. I have to get a bottle.

The first thing I smell is tea rose. Next it’s the vanilla musk. It’s the same as from Lucretia. This is quite a beautiful scent, soft and pretty. I don’t really smell the stargazer lily at all. The vanilla musk remains strong and a good counterbalance for the rose. I typically don’t care for tea rose at all but in this scent it’s so pretty.

Oh, this smells sweet, boozy, eggy, creamy and slightly spiced. Just delicious. It’s a faint scent though. I put it on 20 minutes ago and I can barely smell it. I don’t remember the original being as quick to vanish but this smells just as good, and I may like it better if only it stuck around a bit longer.

Antique Lace layered with a touch of Perversion is awfully close to Black Lace. Not exact but close enough so that when my Black Lace runs dry I'll have something that still smells damn good.

In the bottle I smell jasmine, maybe some honey, and something dark. Chocolate. Yep, this smells like a 13 variation. Once applied, the flowers vanish and it smells of chocolate, musk, and honey. That may sound good, but it is not, it’s actually quite terrible. It’s similar to the 13’s, but over the top. Way over the top and just too much. As it wears, the jasmine comes out and blends with the honey, chocolate, musky mess that is developing on my skin. Honeysuckle too. Combined, they are quite sharp and add a sharp, screeching quality to this scent. It catches the nose and makes my nostrils ache when I breathe this scent in trying to figure out what it smells like. It almost smells like there’s black pepper in there too – there’s something the tiniest bit spicy in that sharp floral hook of a topnote. The musky chocolate honey is still there, at the base, and actually smells kind of ok if I can get beyond that floral assault. The jasmine and honeysuckle are combining in a very heady way, in the same way that orchids are heady and overpowering (but I like orchids). For the most part, I like most scents, and I’d like to like this one, but I just can’t. Honey typically does bad things on my skin and this scent is no exception. I’m sure it’s not just the honey, there’s some other iffy notes for me in here that when combined just don’t work on my skin.

I totally agree about Her Voice.

This smells of tea and bamboo. This smells very fresh and light. A light green color. It reminds me most of Holiday Moon. It’s a bit deeper and richer, but so similar. As it wears, the freshness scales back a bit but not much. This is still very much a fresh, light, clean scent. I’m not sure what cherry blossoms smell like, but there is a wee bit of sweet, light florals here too. To compare it to Holiday Moon, this is deeper, a wee bit darker, not as fresh, but with light beautiful flowers too. In comparison, Holiday Moon smells still of light green freshness and white tea. Almost like a plant, but not a grassy smell – more of a stem scent. I guess Holiday Moon is the cleanest budding of plants in the spring, while Dragon Moon is what happens once the flowers emerge.

this just smells really good. I'm really liking sugared scents, and this one is definitely sugary. when first applied, it's caramel sugar, and something not so sweet - maybe wood smoke or tar. that not sweet note made me think of the smoke in Bonfire Night or the beer-tar in Pumpkin Smash. but, after a quick moment, the wood smoke-tar recedes and violets come out. it has that sugared violet of Faith, but it's much, much darker. richer. deeper. Faith is very much a candy-floss high pitched scent to me. this is not candy-floss. this is sticky sweet with a smattering of violets stuck in the sugar. the caramel note reminds me in some way of one of my favorite oils, Trick or Treat. because of that, I had to get a bottle. this one is sneaky. I didn't expect to like to but I kept coming back until it had me in its grasp.

For a long time I thought this was a typical snow scent. I even lost my bottle for a while but didn’t worry. Heck, I didn’t even notice for who knows how long. Well I was wrong. This is gorgeous and it may be my favorite snow scent period. I love the shirt, now I really love the oil too. At first this is snow, ice, evergreens. Beautiful, cold, smelled similar to all the others. But as it wears and dries, something happens. I swear it’s like maple sugar and snow. Think Sugar Skull plus snow. This smells delicious. Now I really regret getting rid of my extras of this scent. This scent has aged really well. This is just YUM! Damn.

This smells cold and slushy, with loads of pine. As it dries and wears, it’s taking on that sugary snow smell which is just wonderful. The sugar seems especially strong here, I think because it’s mostly that snow/icy BPAL smell and sweet sugar. I think I’m finally getting the snow scents – I have quite a few but for a long time they all smelled pretty similar. At first when I tried this I thought it was similar to Snow Moon or Talvikuu (as compared to Old Moon, Long Night Moon, etc). Well Snow Moon is pretty different. Talvikuu is different too, but not as much. This is sweeter and more sugary, while Talvikuu is a tad more watery, has that birch smell, etc. This doesn’t seem to last quite as long, but I love the sugar snow aspect of this. I think this is one of the more subtle snow scents.

This smells fresh and green, with a spike of lime. There’s something bitter here too, and also something quite sweet. It’s like sugared plants with a bitter herb to make you stop and take notice. Now it smells like there’s amber behind the fresh green plants, and cucumber too. This is gorgeous, so fresh and perfect for spring. The lime is pretty much gone at this point, it only offered that blast in the beginning while still wet. The sweetness is overtaking the fresh green plant scents – that’s what is most noticeable now. It smells like something is candied in here, but I can’t say what. It’s quite sweet, so that must be the amber but I swear there’s white sugar here too. I like this scent a lot, and am amazed at its different stages. Luckily I love them all. This is perfect for spring and just the thing to help me deal with my spring fever.

This starts off as heavy cypress and herbs. It smells fresh, woody, a touch evergreen and herbal. As it wears the frankincense and rose come out, toning down the cypress and herbs. I’m having a hard time deciphering the background beyond the rose and resins. It smells dark, slightly woody, a bit smokey, almost familiar but not quite. Like an interpretation of an exotic incense blend from a land far away (like it should be one of CDG’s Incense series). Quite lovely in fact and so surprising considering the strong herbal beginning.

First sniff this is definitely an aquatic. Oh man! Once applied, it smells honeyed and sweet, with the aquatic in the background. The ambergris emerges as does a smidge of mint, not really there but adding something cool and crisp. This actually seems fairly familiar but I can’t place it. As it wears the aquatic note backs off mightily and the honey (I always amp honey so YMMV) and the ambergris are most prominent on my skin and to my nose. This almost smells like tobacco and if I sniff hard enough I can almost smell something burning. It’s interesting because now this scent is fairly dry and I wouldn’t have associated it with the sea at all. Maybe it’s Famine that this is reminding me of – I wish I could test them together but my imp of Famine is a long way from here. This is a pretty amazing scent just how it’s changed. I wasn’t too keen on the aquatic side of the scent but they drydown is gorgeous.

First sniff, this was mainly patchouli. As soon as it hits the skin though, citrus comes out strongly. This has a woody quality that’s almost like cedar that I’m attributing to the patchouli. As it dries and wears, ylang ylang and violet emerge combining wonderfully and surprisingly with the patch and citrus. This scent surprised me – I wasn’t expecting anything so dark and dry. There’s a very dusty feeling to this scent – I think it’s the patch and the spike of citrus. I find this scent pretty unusual and quite enjoyable. After it’s been on about a ½ hour or so, the violet gets stronger but still doesn’t overtake the patchouli. I don’t ever detect any amber, but maybe it’s a dark amber adding to the dry, dusty feeling I’m getting. If I had to classify this scent, it would a patchouli scent no question about it. I like this quite a lot and the whole series has turned out to a wonderful surprise.

This reminds me very much of Hungry Ghost Moon. With a dash of Holiday Moon. This smells green, fresh, of bamboo and tea. There’s something tart there too. This is absolutely gorgeous and I’m so glad that I splurged for a bottle. It’s slightly sweet - not the super sweetness and citrus of HGM. It’s like a masculine version of HGM. There’s a slight creaminess there too. Beautiful!

This is absolutely beautiful – so creamy, warm and sensual. The amber is strongest on me and this is just a warm, creamy, glowing scent. The amber is absolutely gorgeous here – I think it’s a golden amber, certainly not black amber which can go powdery on me. The teak is not strong here, just a little bit to help ground the scent. The cream is wonderful too. I was a bit worried about it – I’ve had some milk scent go terrible and sour on me, but this is far from that. The cream is just enough to add a richness and creaminess to the scent. I can’t smell the lotus blossom here, but oftentimes I think lotus adds a smoothness to a blend, and I’m convinced that what it does here. I absolutely love this scent and can’t think of another BPAL like it. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous.

I haven’t smelled Fee but I think (and fear) that I’d love it if it smells similar to this. When first applied this is all melons. As it dries, it sweetens up and is like melons and sweet sugar. Candied melon – yum! This is so sweet and pretty – perfect for spring or summer. After it’s been on a while it reminds a bit of Faith – sugared violets. I wasn’t expecting that! This doesn’t last long on me but it’s absolutely lovely while it does.

I’ve loved many oils with opium as a component, and poppies are one of my favorite flowers, so I’m glad to be finally reviewing this oil. This is just lovely – smoky, rather bitter, resinous, only slightly sweet. As it wears it becomes more a floriental type-scent. Slightly spicy, slightly floral, resinous, smoky, sweet. Heady and gorgeous. I’m seriously considering getting a bottle of this.

Honey at first, then comes a waft of orange blossom. Oranges too, the fruit. But that vanishes quickly and I’m left with honey with a bit of orange blossom. As it wears, the orange blossom gives way to roses and now it’s honey and roses. Neither is dominant – they’re duking it out. But the longer it’s on, the more it seems that rose will ultimately win. That’s not to say the honey is completely absent, just backing off a bit. This does seem like the rose from Alice, which is good as I like that rose. After it’s been on an hour or so, this is a soft, very pretty scent, close to the skin. Sweet, rosy and creamy. I really like this stage of the scent – the honey has calmed down but is that just enough to add a nice sweetness.

I can't remember specifics but Sheol smells really good. don't know if it's the labdanum or not but it's wonderful. temple viper too. it's one of my absolute favorites. just delicious!

At first this was strong, strong leather. As it dries, there’s a touch of lavender there too the background, which makes the leather seems just that much more leathery. This leather is sharp, strong, crisp and smooth. This is such a strong leather that it’s stunning. Damn!

When first applied this smells of amber and saffron. Frankincense too – ohh this is gorgeous. The combination of saffron and frankincense is the most compelling thing about this scent. The amber is gorgeous of course – this is one of my absolute favorite types – warm, glowing, rich and sensual. But it’s all about the saffron. The frankincense adds a resiny warmth to the saffron. This is a very bright, shining scent. The saffron is almost piercing but not obnoxiously so – the other notes hold it back just enough. There’s a dryness too here to this scent. To me, this is very much a golden scent. Just lovely and reminds me of the sun.

At first this is all orchid, pear and jasmine. As is wears the pear recedes and orchid and jasmine becomes a bit stronger. I can smell something that adds depth to the blend, taking it beyond a simple fruity-floral blend. The orchid is gorgeous in this oil and I’m now an avowed orchid lover. The lotus blends beautifully with the orchid, as does the musk, both adding a smoothness to this oil. When first applied there was a green note blending with the pear that disappears as it dries and wears. In sum, this is gorgeous. It’s just as beautiful as its companion, and they smell heavenly when worn together.

When I first tried this fresh from the box a few months ago, there was something almost vegetal at first. Luckily that burned off pretty quick and it turned into a wonderful vanilla-tobacco-musk scent. Since then I’ve worn it quite a bit and am thrilled to say that the weird vegetal scent is no where to be found at any stage. When first applied there’s a sugary sweet vanilla. It’s not a bright cheery vanilla by any means. It’s darker and offset by incense and tobacco. This is just sexy and so gorgeous. I agree that it is like a darker Antique Lace. It has the musk and vanilla but the tobacco and incense push it into that darker category. Cognac too. But there’s something soft and fuzzy here too – cottony and soft. It smells almost edible – like darkly sweet vanilla fluff. I love it and wish I had another bottle or two.