zankoku_zen

Musky amber and swirls of chocolate. For me this is rich amber and thick musk, with just a hit of dark chocolate. Low throw, average wearlength. This one is definitely a more perfume style chocolate (its all that amber and musk). If you ever wanted a chocolate perfume type blend, seek this out.

Lots of dark chocolate, resin and black currant. Sadly, the lavender is present and makes for an ODD overlay over the rest of the foodie notes. Whereas bneansidhe has two poles married beautifully, I have a scent that seems to want to rip itself apart at the seams. In other news, this smells like interstellar chocolate - the kind that heralds black holes and event horizons. I mean, this is a seriously oddball chocolate.

This is Embalming Fluid with a whiff of dark cocoa. On wet, the interplay of dark cocoa and lemon is more even, but as it dries, the lemon aspects become more apparent and its like a chocolate being dissolved in embalming fluid. I get a gooey sort of lemon custard/pudding from this actually, with just a whiff of dark cocoa at the very end. Low throw, and low wear length. On the other hand, I thought this would be the weirdest chocolate ever and its surprisingly tasty!

Red musk, white sandalwood, hint of roses and wood moss. I get a ton of red musk and sandalwood straight off, and then the roses and wood moss come in. This is a sandalwoody musky blend, with the roses giving that soft floral component. Decent throw, decent wear length. Sandalwood, musk, roses.

Sweet fig perfume. This to me is almost like a sweet fig SN. I get a tiny bit of vetiver, which sort of grounds the fig, but in general this is a sweet figgy blend. Deliciously sweet fig. Now to ponder whether or not I need to smell like fig all the time.

Part of me totally loves this. It smells like dandelions, bluebells and honey. This is honey, grassy, and just a tad of sunshine filtering through. It ends up on the drydown being too sweet on me, but part of me really wants to get a bottle because I swear I smell bluebells. And its just amazing. Very springlike. Green wildflowers, honey and sunshine.

Dark, smoky sweet amber, hint of nutmeg and benzoin. I was really hoping for tobacco and vanilla in this. And I ended up amping all of the elements that I hoped would add to the blend, as opposed to well, make it seem like the love child of Dee and Cracked Bell. Dark, smoky, amber.

Oh god, leaves and patchouli. This is autumn leaves for you hair. Seriously. Dry leaves, mossy dirt, and your hair is fabulous. Straight out of walking in the woods on a fall day. Sadly, I already have too much HG but this is fantastic.

I decided to bust out Aegis because I needed some. This isn't a "pure" review in that I am currently comboing Emotional Healing with Aegis because I felt a need for protection and the ability to deal with some of my emotions. Aegis to me smells like hint of lavender, citrus, thyme and something slightly bitter. I find it very calming and grounding actually. I think it actually pairs really well with Emotional Healing for me at the moment. Whereas Aegis has such an external focus, Emotional Healing has a very internal focus. I'm going to bust out Aegis in the next couple of days with perhaps some White Light thrown in at some point and come back and edit this review. ETA: So Aegis by itself seems to have a very stony vibe. To me, it's like being able to put up a stone wall around you. There's nothing fragile about this, its a very solid seeming blend.

So, I have to say that this one is clove and resins. If you love clove, and wanted more of a Clove SN sort of hair gloss, go with this. I have the Black Tobacco, Clove and Grave Soil HG, which to my mind combines both my love for tobacco and clove together, and therefore, I have the clove category double-covered but this HG is beautiful in that if you just wanted CLOVE HG, this would be it. Gloriously scented Clove HG. [also, now that HG has been a daily factor in my life because of winter frizz, I have no idea how I lived without it before. NO IDEA].

I have to admit that AEris's review piqued my interest in this particular oil. I am fortunate enough to have a very loving relationship, but the aspect of self-love is sometimes something that I've struggled with. As for the perfume, I definitely get both the solar energy from it (it reminds me to Sunlight in that regard), and the Venusian energy from it (reminds me to Mantle of Venus). As for the scent, it's a summery red clover and tinges of rose. I whiffed some lavender on wet, but it's mainly a clover and rose blend. It smells lovely. Energy wise, it's similar and different from Milk and Honey and Mantle of Venus. M&H feels like honey, sweet and slow. MoV feels more utilitarian and purposeful, it feels more about prosperity and bounty. Love Attraction feels like a pink colored ball of light. I had a very happy day when I used Love Attraction, even if we were just running errands. I had a certain buoyancy, and more importantly it felt more about focusing on each other and on ourselves - both singularly and in conjunction. Love Attraction for me was about fostering my connection to myself and to mr. zee_zee. I think it's a very useful oil, particularly in helping you balance everything that goes in life. It helps you focus on yourself and the other person in your life. To be mindful that - while, yes dishes need to be done, groceries need to be shopped for, the kids need to be looked after, you have chosen to share yourself, your life with this other person and that's equally important.

#135 Oh man - I don't know what to say about this - other than this smells like bourbon vanilla SN. It's rich, almost foodie, vanilla. It's like the vanilla of your dreams. Smooth, tasty vanilla. I don't know who sent me this but I love and hate you at the same time.

Watson, why do you hate me? I get lime aftershave, and then something that smells like greasy motor oil on a wool jacket. And it smells, well, really unpleasant. NOPE. Sorry, I am scrubbing this off.

Oh god, this is right on the money. It smells clean, but it's not. You get those whiffs of tobacco, leather, and rosin. Which to me ends up pushing this from the gender neutral category into the masculine. And by clean, its like soap, and clean skin, and clean water. It smells sophisticated, despite being such a clean smell. But underneath are still the traces of the day - the tobacco, the leather, the rosin. I don't know how the Lab did it, but it's really a scent experience. My god. Not the type of blend I can wear, but will have to give to mr. zee_zee to try out. ETA: Tried it on mr. zee_zee last night and this may amerit a few more tests. But so far, signs are encouraging! It starts off very clean, which wasn't all that impressive on wet. As it dries, some of the clean burns off and you get more of the rosin and tobacco shine through. After about an hour, it's a very warm scent with just a whiff of clean skin. It smells at this juncture more like a combination of tobacco, roisin, and just a hint of brown leather. At this point, its very very good.

Herbal salty lavender, amber, hints of fig, patchouli and ylang ylang. I am beginning to think I amp up fig. Lacus Obliovionis starts out to me like Oneiroi but softer, and with more amber and fig thrown in. It dries to lavender-tinges with amber/resin and fig. It's soothing, like rowing on a crystal lake, sort of soothing. It ends up being foodier because of the fig than I expected.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually smelled either of these things, but a couple of people have compared Psychodynamic Discharge to Loviatar. It's an LE but still up. (black leather and red musk with aged black patchouli, Chinese rose, black pepper, coconut meat, Haitian vetiver, and igneous red ginger.) Having been one of those people that compared PD to Loviatar, I would say go for it. I found PD to be like Loviatar in vibe even if it wasn't quite the same scent. You may or may not find the vetiver and/or coconut components problematic. ETA Elfimira - I forgot to multiqoute. You could try from the GC: Event Horizon: A disconcerting scent, heavy and oppressive, through which no light, no matter, and no spirit can escape. Black opium, labdanum, opoponax, black orchid, and benzoin Old Demons of the First Class: Siberian musk, black clove, opoponax, tonka, black pepper, and neroli Other LEs: Final Darkness: Twilight of the Gods 2014. The sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea: black amber and shimmering moonflower blackened by opoponax, khus attar, smoked oudh, and myrrh and all swallowed by the fathomless depths of a lightless ocean Black Taffeta: The dry, musty wooden scent of a crumbling cedar trunk dusted upon a gleaming swath of black Byzantine silk taffeta: opoponax and opium tar, Chinese geranium, smoky patchouli, bourbon vanilla absolute, and lustrous black and white musks Grand Guignol: Thanatos: Century Guild Exclusive. All stage blood and pantomimed gore: black myrrh and murky opoponax with beeswax, Oman frankincense, rosewood, black tea leaf, bourbon vanilla, sugar cane, vetiver, and Daemonorops

This smells very autumnal - I get leaves, smoke, a tinge of apple and a base of myrrh. It smells very Fall like, and makes me want sunny, chilly days with leaves crunching underfoot as you pick a basket of apples. And maybe drink some apple cider.

Very assertive resins. I get giant hits of frankincense and a dab of myrrh. It's golden, robust, resins.

Soft frankincense and roses. I have the other Frank and Myrrh blend on my other hand, and the resins in that blend are much more assertive. This one is a softer blend. Softer resins and just the barest hints of red roses. It's soft, sensual and comforting.

Yup, this is Snake Oil as a bath oil. Smells like a softer version of Snake Oil on my skin, meaning that it doesn't completely freak out on my skin (my guess based on the other oils for the bathing purposes). It's a dark sultry musky vanilla + incense. I sort of get the Snake Oil hype. Finally. Admittedly it took a BATH OIL for me to get it.

Fluffy chocolate and pumpkin. This is gooey milk chocolate and pumpkin fluff. It's toothsome, tasty and airier than I expected. Well damn. This would make a lovely base for a skin lotion. In fact, I would use it as a moisturizer rather than a bath oil.

Honeysuckle and sugar. This is sweet, fresh honeysuckle. Pretty and floral. The consistency is again very gloopy and oily. Extremely moisturizing.

Oh man, I meant to review this earlier today and totally forgot. My best estimate is that this is an unreleased bath oil, and that most the origin time was Yule 2013, and a few people received this in their BPTP order then. I think Puddin' just cooked up a bunch of it and sent it out in the world (sort of like how SSDB got Sweet Barking Cheese, and then decanted some for forumites for the testing experience). I have to agree with Ordo_ad_Chao - this is a sweet, cinnamon cocoa. The cocoa is a little powdery on me. I can see the comparison to El Dia de Reyes. It actually reminds me to the chocolate in the recent Pumpkin Smores. It's like a cocoa + marshmallow, and cinnamon instead of graham cracker. It's foodie and chocolatey, and it reminds me to any bath oil blend that has a heavy chocolate/cocoa note to it.

Cocoa powder and meringue. It's powdery, slightly sweet, and sugary. Ever sniff hot chocolate mix? Yeah, that's what it smells like. Oddly enough, it's not as sweet or foodie as I would have thought. It's subtle foodie.

Red velvet cake, and when it dries down more cream cheese and more white chocolate. It's rich, foodie, cake-y. If you love cake and foodiness, this one smells like the actual baked goods. Red velvet and tasty goodness. Super rich and baked goods.