cranberry

Maybe Al-Azif. It's quite sweet, with incense but not the OMG INCENSE like Midnight Mass, Cathedral or Pit and the Pendulum. It's a great blend. Shub Niggurath also has a fantastic incense once the ginger and/or lemon (depending on the age of the oil) recedes. It's not a real strong incense blend though, but just enough to make it really special. Tezcatlipoca is also an amazing incense blend behind the patchouli, leather and cocoa. The incense gets stronger the longer it wears and it becomes mainly an incense-patchouli blend. Yum!

In the imp: berries or plum. Deep red-purple fruits On the skin: Initially I smell the purple fruit, then another notes comes forward – a bit musky and a bit herbal (almost). I don’t know how to describe what I’m smelling here but it’s interesting and I like it. I think it’s the wine but I’m not sure. Dry the purple fruit are predominant. There’s still a bit of an herbal smell there, must be the tannins in the wine. I like this scent a lot but for berries I have Florence.

Hmm – this smells like wood and ivy most strongly. Moss is there in the background. As it wears, the ivy gets stronger and stronger and I totally agree this is similar to the Black Tower, which I very much enjoy. I was expecting more dark wood from this scent rather than a predominantly ivy scent.

Wet: pears! Sweet, sweet, pears! Dry: the straight pear scent is offset pretty quick with sweet vanilla. As it wears the vanilla becomes stronger. I think this is the vanilla from Snake Charmer. Oh, this is really good. I wasn’t expecting to like this one but this is really good. At this stage, it’s mostly vanilla but here and there a bit of pear will peek through. After it’s been on a while, if I wasn’t paying attention I could almost confuse this with Blood Mary – it’s got that sweet, soft, fluffy vanilla smell. Very nice!

When first applied, this was dry, woody, and sharp. As it dries, the sharpness recedes and this remains all dry wood, mildly sweet. I’m not sure I know what cognac smells like, but there are aspects of this blend that reminds me of Perversion. I suppose that’s the cognac as they both have boozy notes in common. The longer this is on, the better it smells. It's really a fantastic wood blend. The mahogany reminds me of sandalwood somewhat, which I love, so that's a definite bonus. It's still pretty dry, but that's ok. It's an austere scent -stark, clean, refined. I haven’t tried many of the Haunted House blends but this is my favorite of what I’ve tried thus far. I think I have to get a bottle of this one.

After a disastrous experience with Milk Moon 05, I thought I wasn’t a milk fan. Dana O’Shee convinced me that I was wrong. Oh, and that’s true for honey too. On the skin, this is all honeyed almond with a dollop of cream. After a bit, there’s a strong sweet vanilla too. As it wears, the honeyed creamy almond is most noticeable. It’s warm, sweet, comforting, and one of my favorite layering scents – especially with Snake Oil and Aureus. There, I was trying to emulate POTL, and I think I was close, but regardless I love the end result. Alone, it’s just as good. Not super sexy or anything. I think it’s a fairly safe scent - I can’t see anyone being offended or annoyed by this. But beyond that, it just smells good. Slightly foody but not overmuch so. It’s a happy, calming scent and one that just makes me feel good. Yup, I did get a 10 ml and I’m glad that I did.

Wow, I think I am in love. I adore a good lavender scent and this may be it. I thought that Agony of Loss was an amazing lavender scent but this may trump it and be the lavender of all lavenders for me. In the imp, the predominant note is lavender. Once applied, oh fuck. This sexes up mightily from that herbal scent in the imp. Lavender, slightly waxy, a touch of darkness and resins, a dark sweetness. This is fabulous. The longer it wears, the darker and richer it gets. I can smell a bit of the black musk, but I think it’s the tobacco that’s really making this scent shine and oh so sexy. I would love to smell this on my DH; I think it would smell amazing. As it is, I just keep smelling my wrist and loving it.

In the vial and on the skin, this is quite sweet. It’s familiar – slightly floral, bright smelling, happy. In terms of notes, I’m thinking grape, bubblegum and clove. I wouldn’t be surprised if lotus was here in small amounts. I don’t know what mimosa smells like – I’ve never been a fan of cocktails for breakfast, but I found out that mimosa is also a short lived evergreen-type plant with a crazy looking flower. I’m figure that the cocktail drink is the mimosa used here, but kinda interesting to know. Anyway, as it wears, there’s still that grape-bubblegum-clove smell. It’s staying pretty consistent and not changing much. I like this, but it’s not something I would ever wear. It smells edible, and would be really nice in a tart or an oil burner.

When first applied, this is a mix of verbena and iris. Amber too. The verbena is there but it’s quiet, which is good because I usually don’t care for verbena. As it wears, even though the verbena is mild, it’s starting to do what verbena always does on me – that is, turn nasty. I don’t know if it’s my nose, my skin or my brain, but when I smell verbena after it’s been on a bit, I smell this weird raw flour scent. And that's what I'm getting here. I can't stand it. Luckily, that weird smells doesn’t stick around long – after about 20 minutes it’s pretty much gone and I’m left with a predominantly amber – incense – violet/iris scent. This stage is absolutely wonderful. It doesn’t last too long after that but while it lasted it was fantastic and quite beautiful. Overall I like this a lot, but that weird verbena stage is really bad. There’s too many oils that I love at all stages to fixate on an oil that smells good only part of the time.

Before trying this, I thought for sure it would smells similar to Bed of Nails, so I’m thrilled to finally be able to try this. Thanks GRR! Wet: When first applied this smells like ozone and white musk. I put a dab of Bed of Nails on my other hand to compare and while they are similar, they are distinctly different. My first thought was that Door 13 was a combination of Bed of Nails and Buck Moon. It’s got a bit of an edge. Dry: As it dries, it softens and sweetens. It has that sweet soft musk smell. It’s like the feminine counterpart of Bed of Nails if you will at this point. This is a very fresh smelling oil – airy, light, ethereal. There’s something there at the edges – mint or pennyroyal I think, but in very small quantities. As it wears on, I know for sure, this is nothing like Bed of Nails. It’s actually rather sweet. This has the musk that is in Buck Moon – smooth, velvety and almost a little coconut, and a bit of the ozone that’s in Thunderbird. At this stage, it is best characterized as lightly sweetened musk, some pennyroyal nearby, and thunder on the horizon in a dark evening sky. As I smell it, it feels cooling to my nose, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something mentholated was included in here. It’s so strange, the sharpness of this scent seems to come and go as I smell it. Sometimes it’s there strongly, yet othertimes the sweet musk comes though more. This is nothing like I expected (and not at all like Bed of Nails). I think it’s one my favorite “ozone, wait maybe not ozone” type-scents and I’m so glad that I got to try this. eta: ok, in the drydown of Bed of Nails, there is something a bit more similar, but it took longer to get to in that scent. Door 13 is still softer, sweeter and fluffier though. but not as long lasting.

Mmmm. This smells really good. Pumpkin, not too sweet, maybe a hint of smoke. There’s a bit of spice. After a few minutes, the wax comes out. The smoke is strong and a bit acrid but it works wonderfully with this scent. Best summed up, this is a smoky, waxy pumpkin with just a bit of sweetness and spice (but not much). I think this is my favorite of the Inquisition this year.

In the imp, this is all sweet apple with a smidge of caramel. On the skin, I feel like I’ve got a caramel covered apple right in front of me, or in the very least apple slices and caramel dip, and I’m ready to take a big bite. The apple scent is strongest. The caramel is not strong, it’s a supporting player only. As it wears, it seems to be getting sweeter and sugar comes out mostly displacing the caramel. The longer it’s on, the stronger the sugar scent gets, overwhelming everything else. It lasts a couple hours on me, and it ends with the caramel-sugar scent predominant close to the skin.

In the imp, this smells like light wood and light musk. On the skin, that continues. This is so light and pretty. I think this contains white musk, cotton blossom, and some sort of wood that I can’t identify. It is indeed cottony and reminds me of Enraged Bunny Musk without the lemon and clover. Love it!

The name describes this perfectly – in the imp and on the skin wet it smells just like boozy fruit punch. As it wears the booze flashes off and a sweet red fruit punch remains. Delicious!

This is more pumpkin than cheesecake but I don’t care. It smells delicious. I think I must be having pumpkin overload because I’m having a hard time articulating the differences between them. Nonetheless, I can tell the difference, but only after a while. At first, it’s delicious sweetened pumpkin with stuff. When wet (and in the imp too), I think I can smell the cheesecake but then the sweet pumpkin swallows it up and stays the dominant note. I must amp pumpkin. But after a while, I swear I can smell the graham cracker crust in amongst all the pumpkin goodness. Either way it’s good. Really good.

At first this reminded me a lot of Eggnog, but it changes dramatically as it dries. Now it’s light, dry, perfumy, and sort of powdery. It reminds me of orris or something. Not quite violet but close. I don’t know if I can think of a similar scent. I thought initially Numb, but I checked and it’s not. There’s a light bright musk, something smooth and not too sweet. Maybe a touch of milk and something waxy. Carnation too but it’s subdued. I think that if you took out the sweetness and vanilla from Antique Lace you’d have something similar. I’m not getting anything edible out of this blend – that scent category would be the farthest thing from my mind. After it’s been a ½ hour or so, I’m definitely getting carnation and the blend really sweetens up. It’s still not foody at all but I like this stage of the scent. It’s reminds me of Hod but with a bit of milk. At the end, it’s kinda musky, milky, sweet….this is one crazy scent. Or maybe my nose/skin is crazy, I can't say, but it's been a hell of a ride. I do love the bottle..

At first this reminded me of Sugar Cookie, and I got really excited. But as it dries, like bookandbroom, I’m getting Hawaiian Punch. And yes, this is RED and sugary. Wow, this is getting fruitier and fruitier, redder and redder. This is crazy. Now cherries peek through all the sugar and fruit. If I didn’t know better I would have thought this was Spiked Punch. It smells like red gummi worms – it’s so sweet, and fruity. And it stays that way for the life of the scent.

Of the three Sugar Skulls I’ve tried (‘05, ‘06, ‘07) this is my favorite, hands down. This smells so delicious. I love the 2005 and 2006 versions, but this blows me away. It is highly sweet – white sugar, caramelized sugar but there’s something else that that’s taking it beyond any of the others that I’ve tried. It’s almost like incense, or maybe something I remember from Anaconda. Whatever it is, it’s fucking amazing. It reminds me a bit of sugared flowers – like Faith or Pink Moon 07. I think it’s that white sugar note which was overwhelmed in years past (or at least '05 and '06) with the caramel and burnt sugar. I can’t smell any of fruit. It’s good, I don’t want to – I just want to keep smelling the incense and sugar. Multiple bottle purchase for sure.

This reminds me strongly of Miskatonic University (I’ve stayed away from Pinched but I’ve read they too are similar). This smells like coffee to me, plus lots of caramelized sugar (treacle). The tone is similar to Miskatonic University but it’s smoke instead of wood. The smoke is pretty strong. There’s also a nutty smell here - it smells like sweet hazelnut coffee. Honestly (and surprisingly), I like this better than Misk U. Yum!

On the skin, this is a strong salty, aquatic with a dash of lavender. As this wears, it stays pretty true to that initial smell – a salty aquatic with a touch of flowers. There must be lilies in here – I’m getting the same kinda of strong sharp lily that I got from Strength, plus the salty aquatic. I like this stage better than the wet. The sharpness is the most noticeable thing about this scent, but it’s also fresh and green. I don’t think this is true love but I did enjoy trying it.

In the imp: green, slightly bitter On the skin: herbs, greenery and lilac. Yup, this is lilac all right. It’s light, fresh, clean and reminds me of summer sitting under the lilac bush. After it’s been on a while the rose comes out a bit and blends so nicely with the lilac. Pretty!

In the imp and on the skin this reminds me of the cucumber fragrance oil that I used to wear when I was a teen. It’s a very true fragrance from that perspective. I think this might be a bit greener than the cucumber I used to wear (any layer – with peach, it’s yummy!). Pretty and fresh! And so evocative of year’s past for me.

Rapture. This oil smells very much like one of the now discontinued Chakra blends.

This is a lovely spicy rose scent. It’s a bit waxy. Oftentimes rose and I don’t agree. I’m happy to say this scent is an exception. The musk is gorgeous in this scent and really compliment and grounds the rose. I’m getting myrrh too – I think that’s the touch of spice that I’m getting. After it’s been on a while, the myrrh gets quite strong. It combines with the rose and jasmine and I’m not sure that I like where this is going. It was fantastic when it was wet, but now I’m not so sure. I love Aveda scents, and this does remind me a bit of one of those. I’m finding myself liking and not liking this scent. There are others that are more compelling to me and that I don’t have a love it-hate it relationship with.

In the imp, this is all lavender. On the skin, the lavender is there, but also white sandalwood and musk. I love lavender so I’m liking how this one is starting. As it dries, it remains a wonderful lavender blend. The longer its’ been on, the stronger the sandalwood gets, which is also good as I love sandalwood in all its forms. After it’s been on a while, this blend gets really sharp. This sharpness is detracting from the lovely beginning of this scent. I hate to say it, but the sharpness almost reminds me of BO. Damn, I really liked the start.