Em-

When this first came out, I was not particularly drawn to it, and probably would never had ordered it, had it not started getting such rave conversational reviews. And strictly speaking, I've still not ordered it, as Olympia301 was kind enough to gift me with a decant. But I will order it, oh yes I will. My first impression of Black Opal, other than "oh my god, yum!" was of coconut musk. Not that that is a specific unified note, per se, but that was my impression of the scent. When I tried it, sitting in the airport waiting to fly home at the end of my day, I could smell more on my skin...the mineral sort of scent that others have mentioned, and a definite creamyness rounding out the coconut. But at the end of the day, I think that Black Opal will always, for me, be coconut musk. And I am fine with that, as I am very happy to have found a non-foody, non-alcoholic sophisticated coconut scent. Yea for coconut musk.

Um..wow. Blood Moon is, hands down, one of the most indescribably beautiful blends I have tried. It is deep, feral and bloody, sharp and musky, yet, it is crisp and almost light with a herby edge. The day I received this I put some on before bed and was immediately taken with how unique and just wonderful it smelled. I slept restlessly because I had to be up earlier than usual and was afraid I would sleep through my alarm, and every time I woke, I could smell the metallic scent of blood on my wrists. It was a warm, almost comforting scent...which sounds strange when I read it in stark black and white, but really, it was... Wearing it during the day, I had whifs of the same blood-like notes, along with what I am sure is a hint of Dragon's Blood, some woody notes, musks and the herbal grains. I don not get the spicy cinnamon that others are getting, but that's okay. My Blood Moon is perfect just the way it is. It is not a scent that I will wear every day, but I will cherish every drop for those days when it is the perfect scent.

This is a very calming centering blend for me...at first I cannot pick out any notes, other than to note that it is somewhat resin/incensy, but in a light, soothing way (some incenses can be a little more than my head can tolerate). As it dries down I get a strong vanilla note, which is really nice...I loke this a lot. I will have to see how much I use my decant, but I will not be at all shocked if this makes it onto my bottle list, as the description and purpose are as appealing to me as the scent.

I really like the smell of this, although I would have been hard pressed to identify any of the notes. Mostly I get musk and tonka, no sage, and well, I have no clue what sweet pea smells like, to be honest... On me this is a very think, almost syrupy blend, and one that I like a lot, it actually reminds me a lot of Urd and Skuld, which I like a bit better really. I cannot see myself reaching for this imp, as lovely as it is.

I didn't initially order this, as I was afraid that it might be just too much of a good thing and too much of a novelty scent. Plus, I hoped that I could check out the early reviews, see if it sounded too good to be true, then hunt down an imp...so I did. Trick or Treat smells *good*. It is more than just corn syrupy sugar (which is pretty much what I think candy corn smells like, which is another reason why I was not overly tempted originally), but it is definitely sweet sweet sweet. When I first put it on, I had my husband sniff my arm and his reaction was "gingerbread!" which I wasn't really expecting. Then I took another whiff. And i did, indeed, smell a lot like gingerbread on me - not quite like Gingerbread Poppet, but more like the ginger shortbread I sometimes buy or something. But there is definitely spice in there on me. It has mellowed a bit, and is definitely a fun scent and I'm glad a have some to play with for cooler days, but I doubt that I will use more than the imp.

Hunh. I feel sort of like a heretic after reading all of these gushing reviews, but Hamadrayad is not doing much for me (this is definitely a sleeper scent - I had no idea people loved it so...) At first I get spicy, predominantly cinnamon, which is nice, with an almost clean note underneath, which just doesn't work for my nose. It actually sort of reminds me of Whipoorwill, which I adore, but with less depth. Or maybe it is just that that is the only mossy scent I will ever be able to wear, but there is something in here that is starting to give me a bit of a headache. Pout.

I am going to review the 2005 vintage separately from 2004, because these are almost two completely separate perfumes on me (and glancing back, I can see that I am a terribly unique and special snowflake in that regard... ) Anyway...in the bottle, 2005 is completely cactus/desert flowers. Very pretty, but not exactly what I signed up for (although to be fair, it took me a little while to warm up to the florals in the '04 vintage as well, which was also aged about 7 months when I first experienced it...okay, caveat over). On my skin though, the other notes start to come out and the flowers fade a bit. Dia has never been a chocolate blend for me - it is about the mix of sweets with tobacco and wood smoke and the flowers that make it something different than, say Samhain. It is the parade of scents through the Dia celebration. I think that this will actually age quite well, and I hope that the floral notes will relax a little as it does, but I am new to this concept of letting a bottle age, so we shall see...I am definitely glad that I resisted the urge to buy two for myself, though. I'm going to add my thoughts on 2006 here, rather than posting anew as I did last year. First, let me note that 2004 is still the glory year for this scent in my mind, and I will horde the weensie bit in its roller bottle until I can sniff no more. 2006 starts off an aggressive funerial bouquet - big white blossoms and a perfumy haze. But it settles...and much like 2004, after a time, it settles into something much more complex - as others have noticed, closer than last year to the original vintage. So I shall definitely let this sit a bit, and see what happens as the flavors meld...

This is the first of this year's Halloween scents I tried, and boy is it lucious. It is like burning leaves, mixed with something wonderfully sweet...the musk on me is a sweet smoky one, not an animalistic one, and I had completely forgotten that there was booze in here until I re-read the description. Yummy! So glad I ordered a bottle!

The first time I wor this I was a little disturbed - all I got was a little bit something sharp and herbal which disappeared petty quickly without any hint ofhoney, almonds, anything I was looking forward too... I tried it again, after rolling the imp in my palms and applying slathering a bit more, I waited out this sharp woody phase and was rewarded with the wonderous honey almond spicy goodness I was hoping for... Yea!

I really expected to be blown away by Black Pearl. And it is not that I don't like it. It is a lovely little imp. Really, it is. But it is one of those blends. You know. Those blends. The kind you think are going to be big bottle blends that ar really just kind of nice. It is a nice sophisticated coconut, not a boozy, Elegba, come and get plastered with me kind of coconut, but a nice straightlaced, coconut battered shrimp on a lovely platter kind of coconut. I don't really get much out of this at all, to be honest, unless I really look for it, not the hazlenut, or the musk or the iris. Just a little bunch of coconuts.

I snagged this imp at our DC meet and sniff a while back, after sniffing and falling in love... Hollywood Babylon is extremely sweet and cloying and filled with candy-fruit goodness, but there is a heavy seductiveness to it. Like Hollywood, it is not what it seems. This is not a blend for when you want to smell natural or innocent. This is a blend for fun.

Part of the TAL Circular Swap. I tried a tiny but of this, hoping as I did so for a bit of luck. Unfortunately, this is a blend that I had to wash off right away, as whatever the heavy soapy flower note is (and I leave that to those of you that can actually sniff it to debate), it made my brain hurt.

Part of the TAL Circular Swap. Like Eros, I dabbed a tiny but of this during the non-night time for review purposes. This was a very woodsy blend for me, with maybe a little creamy something, but no mint. The woody note was so strong that I ended up having to wash off the tiny tiny amont that I dabbed on this morning. Perhaps it was trying to tell me something - like read what you are doing before you put this stuff on.

From the TAL Circular Swap. My first reaction to this was fruity! I like fruity, so that is good. I definitely can see a floral background, but I, thankfully, do not sniff the comparison to Persephone, which was a lovely blend that hurt my brain. I wholeheartedly agree with Wickedgoddess that were this not TAL, I would hunt some down for perfume, but alas.

Tried very sparingly as part of the TAL circular swap. I wish I had had the presense of mind to actually try to wear this with intent, but ah well. Anyway, trying purely for asthetics, Lionheart was soft and soapy-floral to me, and not really terribly appealing as a perfume. There was a hint of vanilla that was nice, though, and the scent is pleasant, so I can see how it would have appeal on that basis as a ritual oil (when chosing between two with similar properties).

I'm trying this as part of the TAL Circular Swap. In the imp, this smells soft, but familiar. I'm not getting the lavender/violet scent that others are getting, but more of the juniper in a snowfall scent, or almost the scent of natural a "natural" lemon mint toothpaste I used to buy. This actually reminds me a little bit of the soft notes in Skadi, now that I think of it. Unfortunately, the tiny amont I applied evaporated almost immediately on me. Ihope it does become more readily available, so that I can play with it more, as it is really quite lovely.

This is sweet and almost candy like. More than almost any other Dragon's Blood blend I've tried, I can smell the cherry note that folks talk about, which combined with the almost bubblegum flower scent of the lotus make this a bright red almost playful scent to me. But maybe I'm just weird...

Citrus tea, with a flash of floral. This is a sophisticatd scent that draws lines and distinctions between the wearer and her surroundings, as opposed to one that draws you in. I like this, but this is definitely a blend for a power suit kind of day for me.

A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms. Bayou is one that I had completely written off as something I would never be able to wear and/or wouldn't like because of the heavy blooms. Well, I was half right. Iactually liked this, much to my great surprise, as a combination heavy floral/watery scent is not exactly my typical scent pattern. It is not something I would reach for often, but might ocassionally. But there is something, probably night blooming jasmine, that kills this, and my brain, for me.

Amsterdam is definitely floral, but it is a light, breezy floral wqith a definitely herby/grassy tone that keeps the floweryness from being too overwhelming. I actually like this. !

Um, wow. I really did not expect to be able to wear this, as pretty much every other aquatic/ozone scent I have tried has enede up smelling like really cheap men's cologne on me and giving me a headache (stupid chemistry)... Insteat, Tempest is light and airy with a hint of something almost tea or citrus like...there are definitely some herbs on the breeze. This is not something I would wear every day, or even probaly put on more than once a few months, but it is a lovely scent.

Another lovely frimp from the lab. Bliss is true to it's description - pure, rich, (good quality) milk chocolate. Which, much as I love to devour, is actually not my favorite perfume scent. I actually kind of like Bliss, though, largely because it does not try to be anything other than chocolate fabulousness. This is a much lighter note than in, say, Vice, which I really disliked, and I can actually see myself playing with Bliss a bit...

Jester is a very very berry scent with just a hint of something herbal in the background. It is similar to Bewitched, but sweeter, almost overripe, and not at all the love affair I expected, to be honest. I have a hard time imagining when I would reach for this instead of Carnivale or Bewitched...

I made it a point to hunt this down largely because it was discontinued, and I wanted to try it, partcularly because of the grapefruit note...which is a nice part of this, but not overwhelming. This is a nice light blend that I will probably try again in warm weather, but I am not heartbroken that I will never see more than this little imp. Rereading the description though, it is sort of sad that a blend this this history had to be discontinued...

I received this as a frimp from the lab and first tried it based on being drawn to the scent without reading the description. THis is a very green, organic blend. Without knowing the notes, the first time I wore it, I guessed olive oil or fig leaf, the latter because the top note reminded me of the green note from Eden, but more mellow. This is not an everyday blend for me, but definintely something I enjoy.