patina

Blueberry tea or candy! Specifically the Celestial Seasonings blueberry tea that smells like there's some vanilla or chamomile added in. I was worried about the tartness because my skin can mess up tart scents and turn them into something unpleasant, but wow, this smells good! A little green from the tea. It's like lying under a bunch of green leaves smelling tea with honey while eating a blueberry candy.

Neither leather nor honey is overpowering. Certainly not to the extent that the leather in Pleasures of the Imagination: I was. The opium and champaca are the strongest notes on me. It's a very good champaca, but with the opium it smells a bit like hairspray. Not terrible though. I may keep the decant.

On the drydown the myrrh and amber are sweet and gorgeous. Unfortunately, the leather makes the scent softer than I'd like at the end. Before it really dries leather's the dominant note. It really smells like bandaids or something medicinal mixed with weirdly sugary resins. Unlike The Red Rider, the contrast between sweet resin and leather is a little jarring here. Not terrible, probably better after aging, but I'm not a big leather fan. Edit: After a few days, the leather and resins seem to marry better and the scent is a lot more pleasant, more of a slinky leather and silk scent.

This is spicy, but in an earthy way, not a hot spice at all. The oudh and saffron are strongest at first. Saffron to me smells pollen-y and yellow green. The oudh is earthy. It's almost a green scent initially. Then the red sandalwood comes out. It's kind of a powdery incense. I can't help but be reminded of soap when I smell sandalwood but not everyone does that. This smells exactly like my red sandalwood incense. I can't describe this to someone that doesn't know the notes. Earthy, dusty, powdery wood, pollen and soft spice? Faintly tangy?

Herbal lemon candy with some anise. It's strong at first, but dries down to a subtle scent. The clove isn't much of a standout. The patchouli will probably be stronger with aging.

Starts out heavy on the mugwort but almost instantly transforms into all floral all the time (plus a tiny bit of cucumber). The star jasmine smells like the confederate jasmine I have to remove from my yard. Heavy and pollen-y. The violet backs it up and does a little of the powdery thing violets do. Or is that the sandalwood? If the Star Jasmine was a person, it would be flouncing and vamping and waving its arms around. Definitely spring in a bottle. It has the same cheering effect on me that Virgo had, except that one was more grounded. I like it despite the over the top diva florals. The cool, tender elements (cucumber, violet) help balance that.

Another cute handwritten decant with little blades of grass drawn on it. Gorgeous honey and fresh hay, very good for spring. I would have thought there was a floral here but I guess not.

I find Nanshe good for really hot, uncomfortable nights. Oddly sugary scents keep me awake.

Lemon balm or lemongrass, some soft clove (or ginger?) and lavender in there. Really it smells like fruit loops, a bit. This is one of the best oils for sleeping in hot weather. I haven't noticed much effect on dreams but it's very comforting.

I have a super aged bottle. It starts out as wet violets and dank sandalwood. I can't really pick out the neroli. The musk combined with the violets smell like...hair...oil? I've never smelled hair oil in my life, but I imagine Victorian men would wear something like that. On drydown it goes a bit powdery. Not baby-powdery, but like a dry attic trunk filled with sandalwood. This might sound less than appealing, but for me it's a go-to comfort scent.

Fuzzy brown husk and sweet patchouli. This goblin's a small hairy Scottish brownie type fellow. It's good, but it's almost too simple. There's a similarity to Banshee Beat but this isn't as rich or quite as dark.

HI I AM FAKE NEWS PAY ATTENTION TO ME I AM FANCY AND EXPENSIVE AND FANCY DID YOU KNOW PINK PEPPER CAN CURE CANCER!? This has an insane throw on me. As others have mentioned the patchouli smells almost but not quite like chocolate, the white tobacco is dry and wafting all over the place and the pink pepper gives this a lovely bite and mischievous edge without being hard on the sinuses. I wish I could tell you what the gold element was. I can't. It's kind of metallic without being super ozony. It's a lot like department store perfume, but the ideal of department store perfume. Super dry and cutting on drydown.

I mostly smell dark musk and cashmere. No kidding, it smells just like a sweater. I can understand this being called a clean or skin scent. I thought the amber would smell more polished, but it's there in the background blending almost seamlessly with the patchouli and tobacco. The tobacco leaf must be providing a bit of extra woodiness. There's something very old fashioned about this somehow even though it doesn't smell exactly like an old perfume. It reminds me of the smell of National Geographic magazines from the 50's and 60's. Hopefully that doesn't make anyone think that it's not sophisticated, because it is sophisticated.

This does remind me of Old Moon 2011, except that scent was ruined for me by it's plastic-ness. It smelled like old plastic photographs and film. This is just very soft leather and dust and tobacco scented paper. Edit: Sometimes bone and wet leather show up too. Sometimes it's overwhelmingly almost-vetiver and leather. This is a morpher. For whatever reason this doesn't turn chemical at all on me. It's comforting and the truest book scent I've smelled so far. (I haven't tried the Bugger Alle Thys Bible or the one from the Paranorman collection however.) This smells like the Cryptkeeper's more genteel and scholarly brother.

I loved The Inexorable Finger. Anyone have other Patch + Oude recommendations? Especially if a resin or two shows up to the party.

The richest, dirtiest Fig Newtons ever. It seriously smells like the fig cookies, except I never liked those and this is a lot better. It's not completely gourmand though. I'm surrounded with a halo of amber and fig, but the beige oude is keeping the richness and sweetness from getting out of hand and adding a dry element. If you like purple fruit, patchouli, oude or semi-gourmet scents you might want to try this. The only downside to this is that the environment you wear it in and possibly your skin chemistry can affect your perception of the scent. I was changing a vacuum filter and the sour dust smell blended in seamlessly with the oude. For hours afterwards this smelled sour to me.

I'm not a big fan of citrus though herbal citrus can be okay. I dislike most chypre scents I've tried. Patchouli is pretty good, but not always. It's surprising that this was such a winner on me. It does have a lot of lemon verbena and the "candied lemon" thing is accurate. It adds a lot of sparkle and zip. Normally I associate lemon with cleaning products. And...to be honest it's not completely unlike those. But there's enough of a difference here to matter to me. There's an almost "clean" patchouli. It seems bashful, but then patchouli doesn't amp on me. But the chypre is my favorite element. It doesn't smell of all moss all the time- rather it's the best combination of woods and ferns and maybe some dusty moss, it's not clear. But it smells like a lovely backdrop of soft, tiny delicate creeping plants. Mutable earth indeed. I think that there's an understanding of the sign better than that behind many other Virgo scents I've seen. I was afraid of straight up cleaning products. This lifts my mood and I feel more cheerful and alert while I'm wearing it. And yes, clean, but there's a grounding effect as well.

Black plum, black currant, opoponax, olibanum, sinuous labdanum, and opium tar. Perfumy dark fruit. To me this is Isidore's Phoenix: The Atmo. There's no violet but it's still a dead ringer.

Welp, that is some patchouli. Gnarly brown and wooden but somehow smooth as well. The oudh is breathtakingly dry, like dark dirt landscape that hasn't seen rain in fifteen years covered with cracks dry. I don't get much obsidian, but it's there somewhere, probably smoothing out the patchouli. Edit: The oude is very sophisticated here and I keep wanting to wear this.

Like the other people have said it's a not really foodie licorice. The tea gives it a floral note.

Funny, I must have been the only one that didn't get cinnamon caramel popcorn. Instead I got pumpkin eggnog. It's good, though. A bit heavy on the nutmeg.

Green musk recs? Smite thy Borders With Frogges almost works but is too soapy. Laughter of Loki and Zombie Green Hair Gloss are amazing, though.

I had hoped this scent wouldn't be all smoke all the time, but actually on the first sniff, I get leather. The leather from Leather Phoenix to be exact. The same kind of sophistication. It also smells glossy and green in a way that could be called aquatic but isn't soapy. I'm guessing it's the poppy doing this, along with the ivy. After a little wear I get some smoke but overall this is low key. A deep scent without much throw.

Lovely dark spicy gingerbread. the usual smokiness of vetiver isn't distracting here, I can hardly smell any smoke but there seem to be undertones of peanut butter. It's the weirdest thing. As if someone smeared gingerbread cake with peanut butter. I like this, but Gingerbread Zombi is my one true gingerbread love.

Okay, read the label. There's your review. Actually, I find the industrial scent somewhat tempered by the mineral char. It's darker than Smokestack but not as offputting to me. It alllmost goes petrochemical but stops short.