Loligo

There's a WHOA FLORAL note at the beginning -- I'm not sure which flower it is. But for me this quickly settles into something quite similar to Dragon's Musk, a sweet, heavy musk with a warm, almost spicy floral component.

The initial notes are resinous rosemary and a pure, sweet floral that is probably the lily plus something else; this is a strange and lovely combination. But soon the night-blooming jasmine starts doing the same thing as its day-blooming cousin, and I am all congested and sneezy. Once the jasmine burns off, the musk comes out, and I do not like this musk. I see why it's called crypt musk -- there's something sweet and dusty to it that makes me think of rot. I feel kind of bad, writing all these so-so to negative reviews for the Demon line, but then, I took a chance and got decants on a lot of things I wouldn't normally try, so I guess it's not surprising.

I wish I knew which note was making this go bad, because I would *seriously* avoid it in any future blends. This starts out as harsh, sharp cologne. If I ignore the tingling in my nose I can sometimes smell the other notes that other people are enjoying so much -- it smells like tiny flowers beside a stream by starlight, cool and clear and pretty. But the harsh cologne note is hard to ignore. Then it dries down to lily and sawdust. Most of the Demon blends are so unusual and evocative that I'm keeping even the ones that aren't great on me, but this one is just so bad that I think it will have to go.

I had low expectations for this scent, despite the near-universal love for it. Patchouli is iffy on me, and my skin amps up cedar and cypress, so I was fully expecting a Pine-Sol experience from this. Not at all! I guess fir is a *good* evergreen. The initial fir-patchouli burst is earthy and sharpish, but pleasantly so. Then it starts to smell like spiced cider gone feral -- not sweet at all, just the wild essence of apple lurking in the woods, like maybe an abandoned, haunted orchard that has been overtaken by the forest. It slowly sweetens up: three hours after application it smells like cider, faint spices, and sweet pipe smoke. Very beautiful and very seasonal!

2005 version: On me this starts out as florals, honey, and incense in that order of strength. It gradually dies down to a slightly chocolatey pipe tobacco scent with sweet bread in the background and some incense still sticking around. I really love this -- very evocative.

Last night my husband and I wore long black robes, gloves, and wide-brimmed hats draped with heavy black veils, so heavy that no one could see our faces. We wandered around his friend's Halloween party, not speaking to anyone, and freaking people out. (It helped that the party was out in his barn with lots of excellent decorations.) And our BPAL: Wings of Azrael for me, Laudanum for him.

Patchouli is by far the most prominent note in this blend on me, but thank goodness it's "forest floor" patchouli, not "hippie B.O." patchouli. The cardamom creates an almost medicinal smell for a while (making me think of Laudanum), but then something sweet comes out -- I could have sworn it was honey, but looking at the listed notes, maybe it's the mandarin or gardenia. The overall vibe is very unique and exotic.

Mmmm. This clinches it -- sugar is GOOD on me. This starts out smelling like cormeal pancakes with honey. An hour later, the sweetness is less pronounced, and coffee, caramel, and spice notes are starting to peek out around the edges. Just beautiful.

On me, this is a very light and elegant floral. The lilies are pronounced, but not sneeze-inducing OMG LILIES the way the flowers themselves can sometimes be. It also develops a very pleasant, rounded powdery note (could that be the lotus root?). But an hour after applying, I can barely find it on my arm. Too bad, because this had a lot of character; it wasn't just "Yep, them's some flowers," the way a lot of floral blends are. ETA: But I should add, that the little bit that *did* linger on my arm stayed there for hours, so I'm hoping that if I slather this (like, an hour before I have to go anywhere!) the gentle drydown stage will be nicely sniffable all day. There's something so clear and simple and polished about this scent, which is not an impression I usually get from sweetish florals.

Finally, a semi-winner in the Demon series for me! This is like Embalming Fluid plus the cool, tart linden note of The Unicorn. (Also, the more I smell it, the more I think there might be linden in Empyreal Mist, because I am somehow reminded of that one, too.) It does pick up some slightly more dusty wood-like notes as it dries down. There's also just a teeny whiff of something bitter in the drydown -- I think I need to try this at a different time of month to get the full effect.

Ah well. Vanilla, heliotrope, and gardenia are all good on me, and all the other notes in this scent are sometimes good, sometimes bad. Alas, this time they lean toward the bad. Not the "Augh! Get this off me!" bad, but they just never quite mesh with each other or with my skin. I get strong, tart orange and equally strong rose, and they just sort of battle each other out for several hours before they both slink off to lick their wounds, leaving the field to a red musk & amber drydown with faint hints of vanilla. ETA: I don't know if the perfume just settled in a bit over the past week, or if my skin chemistry is having a better day, but this time the amber and vanilla did a much better job of keeping the rose and orange well-blended with each other. This time, HP was a much less jangly experience. Many people seem to experience the orange burning off quickly, but for me, this time I'm noticing that there's an effervescent tartness, like a spritz of orange zest, that lingers through the whole drydown. Still not an ideal blend on my skin, but I'm getting more of the bright, cheerful lushness that other people are talking about.

Oh, I am in love. Maple syrup and brandy, with just enough of a burnt smell to give it some edge. I never get a real fruit note from this, but there's something in the beginning that's almost floral, the way some wines smell floral. Warm, delicious, and more complex than you might think.

Help me, help me! I've been mugged by a thuggish musk! Normally musk is a good thing on me, so I never dreamed it would overwhelm this scent the way it has. Like someone else said up-thread, I smell like a sweaty frat boy, one who's been drinking, smoking cigarettes, and eating candy corn. Uh, yum? No.

I'm another person with ozone/aquatic issues. I love, LOVE the smell of the ocean, even the rotting seaweed component of the smell, but I just don't get that smell from "marine" perfumes -- I get detergent/cologne. Same here: it's a very delicate, wistful version of the cologne smell, but still too artificial-smelling to be successful on my skin. Beyond the ozone, all I can pick up is the violets and a hint of wood.

What a fascinating scent! It starts out with a strong blast of sweet sawdust and bitter leaves -- a bit scary. Then it quickly turns to green leaves and watery fig; I'm not sure why, but fig is never a strongly sweet fruit on me. I really love this scent once the toasted coconut and sandalwood kick in; they make a delicate spicey scent almost like a very refined cinnamon. The fig and honey provide just enough sweetness, and the green leaves keep rustling in the background. I've never smelled anything quite like this, and I'll have to go count things up to be sure, but I think this might be in my general catalog top ten now. I do wish it lasted longer, though -- it's gone in four or five hours.

My friend em_h mentioned this in another thread: she and I both recently received Dorian imps that smell STRONGLY of spiced cider, and it sounds like they all came from the lab at roughly the same time. So it's not just your body chemistry, or anything; I think it's pretty safe to say you've got something a bit odd, there. If you ever find out what happened, please do post to this thread, because if the batch turns out to be a specific other blend (rather than just a random ingredient swap), I'd like to know which it is!

Huh, I thought I review this way back when I first got it, but nope. I haven't worn this all summer, but I dug it out now that the weather's getting a teeny bit cooler again. This blend opens as a heavy floral, and I can't pick out any of the notes other than to say that there's probably a wee bit of jasmine, which always gives me that "commercial perfume" smell. But it's not too bad, and doesn't take over the scent. Where this blend really shines for me is on the drydown -- I dont' get cooking spices at all, I get some sort of spicy wood or resin, with a faint breath of vanilla, the remaining florals, and is there some myrtle in here? It's warm, gentle, and rounded.

This scent morphs quite a lot on me as the different notes bloom. First there's a big hit of rich, deep cherry/almond. Then the star anise takes over and I smell like Chinese barbecue for a few minues. Then the cherry and anise find their balance, and the overall effect is somewhere in the cherry Coke/ Dr. Pepper/ rootbeer/ birch beer range. This part was rather nice, if a little unusual for daily wear, and I began to come up with all sorts of layering plans for it. Then the red musk took over. The red musk here is almost *too* sexy, if you get my meaning: a salty, smoky, skin scent that makes it smell kind of like my wrist has, um, just visited somewhere private, shall we say. And the anise drifts through at odd moments, making it smell like I just had sex with five-spice pork barbecue. Peculiar, to say the least. I think this stage is *finally* calming down. Now it's smelling more like sexy vanilla with an Asian kick to it. I'll have to try this again to see if this unusual experience is replicated.

Huh -- I could have sworn I reviewed this back when I got it early this summer.... oh well, I came back to change my review, anyway! I was underwhelmed the first time I tried this; it was a mild smoky/woodsy/sweetish blend. But either it has aged extremely well, or my nose was off that day. This is the first time I've worn it since then, and HELLO, it is wonderful! I feel about this the way that everybody does about Samhain (which I haven't had the chance to try yet): it is the essence of midnight woodland revelry, primal and sexy. (Though I will say, the smoky note is much less prominent now.) Must have more!

Okay, I have to wonder whether this imp (which came fresh from the lab) is really Dorian or not? Because I get spiced apples. Spiced apples like WHOA. There is some vanilla and musk lurking far in the background, and maybe a hint of lemon, but for hours (till I fell asleep, and can't report any further) the prominent note was crisp, sweet, gently spiced apples. (A friend who got an imp around the same time had the same reaction -- natural batch variation? Or a mislabeled batch?)

I was astonished by this blend. Lily of the valley and any sort of evergreens are usually problematic notes on me, so I expected that this scent would tank. Instead, it was beautiful! Mostly myrrh and violets, with the other notes contributing just enough to make the blend cool, feathery, and a little foreboding. Definitely evocative and a little bit eerie -- this is the feel that I expect to get from some of the Demon In My View LE's. It did go soapy after a few hours, but those few hours were definitely worth it.

At first this had a note that strongly disagreed with me, something that smelled kind of like men's cologne and yet fake-sweet at the same time. It was really hard for me to smell past this to indentify any other notes. But once that note finally wore off, this smelled *very* similar to Numb, just a bit softer and more rounded. So I will agree with those who think there's some violet in here. The overall effect is very calm, cool, and balanced.

If only this lasted longer, it would be a perfect 10 on me. Because my skin doesn't do well with ozone, aquatic, or pine notes, I've had trouble finding a BPAL blend for the times when I'm looking for something clean and elegant. This fits the bill perfectly: a touch of herbs, a touch of spices, and a nice warm sweetness tying it all together. It's traditional, it's feminine, it's classy -- this is just what Leslie Caron's character would wear in "An American in Paris". And then an hour later, it's gone. I may try layering this with Somnus, or maybe combine Somnus with Black Lotus, to see if I can get a similar effect that lasts longer.

Mosquito repellant. I'm serious. This is exactly the piney-sweetish-herby smell I remember from whichever brand my mom bought most often -- maybe Cutter, or Deep-Woods OFF. It's gotten a bit more floral as it's aged over the past hour, but still... bug spray. Nostalgic, but not what I'm looking for!

Thank you for solving the mystery, Misfitroxy! I knew I'd smelled that weird note in some other BPAL, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was. When I first put this on, the throw is the nice wistful vanilla that everyone raves about, but if I get my nose anywhere close to my wrist I smell the sickly, stale air freshener note that ruined Yog Sothoth for me. It takes about two hours for that note to dissipate. The vanilla keeps on going, but still, I'm afraid I have to put this in the "kinda nice" category. Given that this blend is some people's Holy Grail, it would be irresponsible for me to keep it, wouldn't it? [ETA: Wow, it took me all of two hours to find this one a new home -- I can be sure this imp will be very, very loved. ]