tallan

Red musk, vanilla bean, pomegranate, black currant, patchouli leaf and wild plum. I was so, so scared that I wouldn't love this as I love the original, that the addition of the blackcurrant would have ruined it for me, turning it into fruity sugar doom... but I didn't need to be. Thank everything that is holy, if indeed there are holy things. It's not the same. It's lighter, brighter, fruitier. Sweeter on me. Less patchouli and sharp pomegranate, more of the softer notes. I don't know how much of that is part of the reformulation, and how much is age. It has the same red musk-vanilla magic (and it truly is magic). I am a wee bit fonder of the original version, I think, but this new one is pretty damn glorious, and likely to get even more so with age. It's beautiful. I love it. I need more bottles.

A few other GC suggestions: Dorian - A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea. Mouse's Long and Sad Tale - Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood. Lyonesse - Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss. Tamora - Amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom and vanilla bean. Mania (screeching white musk collides with a howl of red musk, with sharp white grapefruit and pale strawberry leaf) may sound scary and aggressive and grapefruity but it was all sweet fruity musk on me. I'm also thinking of The Dormouse (a dizzying eddy of four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony) and 'Tis the Voice of the Lobster (a woody, musky-weird base glooping over with blackberry preserves, a twist of mandarin, strawberry juice, pulverized watermelon, and a handful of smushed gardenia petals) - they're more fruit than vanilla, but they're both very sweet and pretty. Seconding a lot of other suggestions - Snake Oil, Bordello and Dragon's Milk are all must-tries, and Alice's Evidence is just wonderful - including the one about checking out the Liliths. It seems like a very sweet(s)-centred collection.

So I received my Dragon's Milk backup straight from the Lab (well, via group order) today, and it looked like this: (Not the sharpest of pictures, sorry, especially after Nathaniel's works of art, but you get the gist.) Is this a new thing? I was expecting the old red dragon and purple text! I really like it, though - the li'l dragon curling around the text is very cute.

Soap! No, wait. Cologne! Quite nice cologne without sharp edges, masculine but not macho. As it dries, it softens further, becoming more unisex but never losing the cologne association. It's... nice, but doesn't evoke anything in particular for me. Inoffensive. I wouldn't hate smelling this on someone else, but... eh. It doesn't excite me.

Well, peachy. Like Jack without the pumpkin. A short while after putting it on, the rest of the notes appear, but stay in the background. The result is quite disjointed. Fruity peach is so absolutely dominating, but then there's musk and resins hanging around, and they never really coalesce into one scent. I don't really know what I think of it. It irritates me. Not a keeper.

This is the Ars Draconis blend I've been interested in for the longest time, and I'm slightly scared to try it now because I've committed to Dragon's Milk (I own a bottle and another is on its way), and I'm not sure I have room for more than one AD scent in my heart. But, well. It's on now. Wet: oh, this is pretty. Strong dragon's blood, with noticeable fruits. The musks take a while longer to show up, but round out the scent beautifully once they do. Annnd the fruits immediately hasten to leave the spotlight when that happens, leaving this a primarily DB and musk blend. Dry: Yep, DB and musk. It's stronger and spicier than Dragon's Musk, though, without actually being spicy. Sharper is maybe a better word. It's good, I like it a lot, but it doesn't measure up to Dragon's Milk (what a relief), and isn't distinct enough to get to stay around anyway. ...I think. ...Okay, maybe-pile it is.

This was just... no. I could smell all the notes, and I don't think I have anything against either of them on their own? (Maybe? Not sure about apricot and white ginger, but in theory.) But they don't work together on my skin at all. This was predominantly weirdly musty apricot vanilla, and it smelled like the fruit was off. Blech. I washed it off. Maybe fruity vanilla is just not something I can do.

Oh, this is dark and spicy. And heavy. The patchouli, clove and myrrh are all deep, deep, deep, and the ylang ylang is incapable of lightening it up, it just adds a floral tone to the scent. I feel like lying down when I huff my wrist - almost faint. It's like the scent steals its way into my head and weighs it down. This is so, so "BPAL-y" to me. It falls into the same family as Sin, Lust and Vixen. That deep, sexy-resiny type of scent, heavy on the patchouli, lacking the sweetness of, say, Snake Oil... It's good. It's distinctive. I don't know if it's me, still. (The rest of them weren't.) But I'll hold on to this for a while, see if I'm ever drawn to wearing it.

When I put it on, I get an immediate blast of ginger and citrus. The grass and the sage follow a few feet behind, like sedate parents with their bright and bubbly children running ahead. It's summery and pretty and not particularly what I want to smell like. I want the amber to show up. It doesn't oblige. This dries down into grass and verbena. It's a lot softer than Embalming Fluid on me, more snuggly, and it disappears a lot quicker. No amber. Boo.

The first time I tried Sinus Amoris, it was just a light sandalwood, backed by some hardly noticeable myrrh. A disappointment, in other words. And then I got Fenris Wolf, which I'd been excited about for a while - and the comparison to which had made me more interested in Sinus Amoris - and it didn't work on me at all. I started preparing myself for this not being my scent, either, even though I really wanted it to be. But it needed a second try. (And a third. Possibly a fourth and a fifth. I mean, to be really sure.) And the second time I put it on, the vanilla showed up. This time? Warm, soft woodsy vanilla made interesting by the spicier, resinous notes. I don't get any champaca blossom, or do but can't identify it, which is just fine by me. It's still pretty light on me, with hardly any throw; hopefully that'll improve with aging. I have a feeling it will age gloriously. And I'm perfectly okay with imagining Chris Evans smelling like this, thank you.

Some suggestions that all evoke that fairy feel for me (GC and LE): A Nocturnal Reverie - Violet musk and oudh with black amber, ambergris, agarwood, black currant, dark musk, fig, and lavender incense. The East - Bluebonnet, passion flower, freesia, jasmine tea, mint, thyme, and redcurrant. Fae - White musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss. The Fairies - Apple blossom, white clover, huckleberry wine, dandelion sap, milkweed, primrose, thyme, pink moss, thorny thistles, and opium pod. Leanan Sidhe - A crush of Irish herbs and flowers, Gaelic mists, and nighttime dew. The Lilac Wood - Ageless trees, everblooming flowers, brilliant grass, and soft shadows.

Yeah, I'm one of those who colour code all scents.. it's part of how I organise them, both in my head and in my personal files, and is basically the starting point for my daily choices ("I just wanna wear something green today"). So fragrances that evoke certain colours? ALL OF THEM. I'm with Dusk when it comes to electric blue, though. I'm no good with blues at all (ha), it's mostly aquatics and atmospheric ozoney stuff, perhaps some spring flowers... and blueberries, of course. Mostly stuff I've stayed away from. Blue Fire sounds like a perfect fit.

My heart is filled with Daredevil. What Would Matt Smell Like? (Oh, hell.) Something bloody... and religious? I'm having trouble nailing it. Also Foggy, and Karen, and Claire, and Ben Urich, and Wilson Fisk and Vanessa... Wesley? I want them all. What do you think?

I never thought I'd like something with dragon's blood, even less fall head over heels for it. Dragon's Milk has joined the handful of scents I can't get enough of - yes, they're just a handful; I'm really picky, and this is just that good. (HOW?) Wet, it's floral vanilla - the candyish quality of DB on my skin is wonderfully tempered by the vanilla and only appears as a soft, soft hint of something like cherry. But it's good. I can't stop huffing my wrists. I want more. I want to bathe in this. Dry, the DB takes a backseat to the vanilla, and the scent turns almost Snake Oil-like the longer it's on. The only thing I don't love about it is that it doesn't last very long on me - 2-3 hours and it's almost gone. I'm going to have to try the "almond oil beneath" thing. And get a bottle or two for slathering. Verdict: :wub: :wub:

Dragon's blood is one of the first notes I learned doesn't work on me, so I've wisely stayed away from the Ars Draconis line. That came to an end when I got this as a part of an Ebay lot, and happened to like it a lot. Huh. It's soft and musky and dark pink in my mind - terribly romantic. I get visions of medieval dresses and long tresses and other things which do not rhyme but is part of the same narrative - princesses and knights and... faires, things like that. Very, very pretty. I'm keeping it.