zankoku_zen

Pine resin, bayberry, and fig! This one smells like Christmas. It can tend toward the Christmas spice that you smell in craft stores - but fresher, and with more fig. Ugh, so good.

Perfectly mature and deep red rose - velvety, proud, and red. Good throw.

Sugary funfetti cake. Sugar Cookie is a hot mess as a perfume on me, and ends up kinda plasticky and playdoughy. This is definitely a funfetti cake smell, with extra frosting and sprinkles. All that sugar and vanilla you wanted as a kid.

I get mainly rose and snow. There's definitely mint in there, but mainly rose in this. Great throw.

[No additional description provided.] Champaca, gingerbread and a whiff of cacao. This one is a champaca blend with a touch of gingerbread. If you love champaca, give this a whirl. Good throw and wear length.

[No additional description provided.] Light, perfumey pumpkin. It completely lacks the heavy buttery spiciness associated with some of the pumpkin blends. Instead, its got a light, almost citrusy perfume edge to it. It's the flesh of pumpkins picked before they are ripe, and distilled into a pumpkin flower. You know those blossoms that become the pumpkin? Yeah, that's what this makes me think of.

In this Berlin café, schere beats blurry schere! So there! Blam! Warm leather, coffee beans, tobacco, Bärenjäger, and a drop of blackberry liqueur.  Blackberry booze, coffee, and leather. This one is definitely a more boozey-honey-leather blend than coffee. Coffee is in there, but there's everything else coming out. As it dries, more of the tobacco comes out. But yeah, this smells like an expensive tobacco lounge - you know liqour, quality tobacco, and gorgeous leather. Good throw and wear length.

Going in blind, with no notes. These were available for purchase at NYCC 2017. The Tower is a very smoky blend, definitely has vetiver as well as herbad edge, and I swear there is leather on the drydown. It dries down to a much calmer blend once the smoke dissipates and I think there's some myrrh in here. Good throw and wear length.

A viscous splash of red musk, opium smoke, calla lilies, black orchids, clove husk, and brimstone. This one has a heavy brimstone note on wet, but it's mainly a red musk, smoky orchid, and a whiff of clove husk. Honestly, this is probably what actual succubuses from hell smell like in Catholic imagery. Brimstone, musk, and heady florals. Driving men and women to sin. Heavily. Great throw and wear length.

This perfume encapsulates the sensation of descending slowly and languorously into a warm pool of dark water, and holds within it the voices from the nights before night existed, before twilight bisected the day; whispers burbling from our primodial subconscious, sending omens, portents, and symbols on dark wings. This is the stuff of your dreams, the dreams of your ancestral line, the dreams of your future selves, and the flotsam of dreams that buffet around you and buoy you. The bottles were bathed in water steeped with blue lotus petals, clary sage, and rose mallow, and charged under the auspices of Jupiter on Sunday, August 26th from 7:28-8:21PM beneath the full moon in Pisces. This oil has been crafted to be worn as a perfume and to be used in a ritual capacity. Signs and symbols, both subtle and shrieking, drifting like thick-tentacled currents through the black ocean before time: blue lotus absolute, white champa flower Co2 select, French lavender essential oil and buds, armoise mugwort essential oil, styrax essential oil from sapwood and bark tissue, liquidamber orientalis, CO2 extract of butter, marshmallow root, frankincense carterii essential oil and gum, coconut oil, bay leaves, and orris root and butter, all steeped for a full lunation in kewra and oudh attars. Please note that these bottles may contain solid plant matter, and each bottle contains a piece of amethyst. Ocean of Dreams reminds me a ton of the Neptune Conjure Bag (which makes sense since Moon-Neptune, and Neptune being the ruling planet of Pisces). It's got that heavy watery quality. Not silvery (which is often much more Lunar). This is deep salt water. I got a bit of lavender and mugworth, and a touch of both frankincense and bay. Anything Neptune related isn't a natural fit for me (as a Sagittarian with strong solar and a ton of earth in my chart), and it feels more like as if I went into a sensory deprivation chamber. I do remember having a very very long deep sleep, but honestly can't recall any dreams from that. I'm going to try and use both the Neptune bag and Ocean of Dreams in the next full moon, but since I'm on travel in December, this probably won't happen until the new year.

Brown sugar apples and a whiff of bourbon. But I mainly get brown sugar and apples.

2016 version I am getting a hellacious amount of cassia. For me, this is almost like a cassia SN. With a tiny base of SO. Good throw and wear length.

So I've tried this before, forgot to review it, traded my prototype decant, and then hand to hunt it down again. It's a heady juicy sweet pea floral, and there's tinges of blueberry, orchid, fresh greenery, and I swear this reminds me to one of the Bats. It's got that juicy floral feel.

[No additional description provided.] Frostbitten Dandelion and Concrete is very interesting. On wet, I get more of the snow, and it actually makes the dandelion note hold on for much longer. After about two hours though, the concrete takes over, and after four, it's a very cologne-like concrete and I would call it a fougere, and definitely in that gender neutral to masculine category. I'm going to give this to mr. zee_zee to try.

I definitely get the ginger beer type note, its fresh and gingery with a whiff of cardamom. Nice, fresh, light.

Fancy cocoa powder and a whiff of eggnog. Lovely.

This is my latest Conjure Bag. It feels like floating on your back, swimming while gazing up, because if you look around you, all you can see is water. One side effect for me is that whenever I sleep with this bag under the pillow I have some pretty deep sleep. It's a very 'deep' sort of feeling: watery and unfathomable. I picked up this bag because aside from the dream side of things, Neptune is also associated with idealism and compassion, and both of which at this time and living in DC, I feel a need for.

[No additional description provided.] Limey, minty, florals. I think honestly the snow note actually prolongs the lime note in Shoggoth. I get a whiff of coconut, which merges well with the snow and makes me think of Snow White (which is coconut snow if you ask me). It's a fun, light, tropical blend with the lime and coconut coming through for me. I am seriously enjoying this one. Medium throw and wear length.

White fir, olibanum, thyme, and leather. I get fir, thyme and a whiff of leather on the drydown. This is very much a green fir smell. It's very fresh and pleasant to smell. Good throw and wear length.

Mint, sugar cookie, cinnamon and a whiff of vanilla cream. Not too foodie, but evocative of those times in the the kitchen with the baking is going on. Delicious.

Smoky pine and fir, with a touch of sweetness. It's a nice piney sort of blend. Very atmospheric.

Sweet, soft snow - touch of vanilla and musk. This is severely underrated, I agree. This is quite accessible, versatile, vanilla that would go with everything. EVERYTHING.

This one is like a combination of Prayer's of St. Expedite and Golden Blessings - its got that deep red from Prayers, combined with the golden mica from Golden Blessings. It smells like vanilla and cinnamon to me. As a luck blend, this is definitely tied to St. Expedite. I am not sure that this is a blend that I resonate with, but I'm giving you decanting impressions of this one.

This is one hell of a golden oil - optically and as a scent. It's deep golden, with the little golden mica pieces floating about, and smells like amber, honey, and resin. To me this is definitely a 'money' blend. It has alot of the same feel as some of the other prosperity blends, but definitely catching some Jupiterian oomph from this. Out of the 3 St. Expedite blends, this one is the one that I felt the most comfortable with.

Very deeply watermelon red, fuchsia mica, and in general its the red color you associate with Catholic saints and their red candles. It smells like cake to me (mainly the vanilla and cinnamon). It's a very cozy and comforting scent. St. Expedite is not someone I have really done anything with, but it gives off a very clear impression. ETA: I haven't used this to petition St. Expedite, but I have used it to thank him. I had an issue come up before the order arrived, made my first petition to St. Expedite, and the matter was resolved in a super easy peasy manner that I almost fell over. I anointed a beeswax candle with Prayers, and offered both chocolate and cake to St. Expedite as a thank you. The oil smells deliciously of cinnamon. St. Expedite came through for me, and it was great to have this oil to give thanks and appreciation for his help. Coincidentally, the oil was created on my birthday so it has super extra special meaning for me.