patina

IN bottle: Hairspray? Machine oil? Leather and dust? Skin contact tames the overpowering hairspray note and it turns into a ferny fougure. I don't get green musk exactly, or I don't recognize it. This smells sepia somehow. I'm not sure how something can smell sepia but there you go. The sepia industrial leather dust mixes with a dark ferny green. Sophisticated enough but maybe a bit too perfumy/cologny

In the imp this was slightly alarming, strong on the dust and a kind of vetiver char, but on my skin it immediately turned into machine oil and loam, well-behaved with not a trace of the vetiver to be found.Oddly pleasant on the skin, but not very strong. Then again dirt scents are usually weak on me. There's something almost like anise in this.

Welp, this is what the color of red autumn leaves would smell like. Initially I get a strong hit of spice that my brain thinks is cassia. I also think I smell dragon's blood but that's probably the red musk. On, this is clearly several different things blended together very well. It's hot and spicy indeed but not single note spice and the patchouli and oude do a lot to keep things from getting out of hand. The clove and basil make it smell almost cold and hot at the same time. Red. red, red, spicy, and dry with depth. I feel like swaggering while wearing it. Edit; Bizarrely this doesn't last long on my skin, drying down to an unusually soft red musk. Or maybe I've gone noseblind

My first thought smelling the decant was "pumpkin cookies?" Weirdly I got pumpkin cookies. I guess blackened pumpkin just tends to skew sweet and buttery. Then the pomegranate and incense came out and I had a sweet, faint pomegranate waft around me. This scent is not terribly strong probably because leather is weak on me and pomegranite tends to fade quickly. It does have a good throw though. I suspect the scent might have more staying power as the patchouli ages.

This captures fall nights very well. There is a bit of an ivy leaf/ pickle note I assume is the byproduct of the leaves, patchouli, and booze. Evocative as this is, I really prefer Dead Leaves, Blackcurrant, and Tobacco. That is, unless the patchouli root deepens on my skin. Will have to report back later. Edit: on my skin the pickle note disappears and this turns out strongly fruity.

Notes unseen, my first thought was "red musk and sheet cake." Something here is strongly (and appropriately) reminding me of Eat Me. I know that there's labdanum and amber here and I can sort of smell them but mostly my brain is just going "sheet cake." Also lots of red musk. Did I mention red musk? This smells absolutely delicious, but potentially cloying. But also delicious. Edit: on the drydown I get champaca and orchid but this is still strongly sweet. I am getting the faint sourness I usually get from champaca but it's not a scent ruiner so far. Edit Edit: After some time reapplying I have no idea why I initially got cake, but this still reminds me of red currant

This was a bright red musk with ashes. You know, I really don't know why I expected anything else. The ashes aren't vetiver-y or especially charred smelling, the red musk is more cheerful than you'd expect for a scent about large portions of the world being on fire. I can also detect some leaves, maybe. This really reminds me of the Yule Krampus' Shadow, except that one has patchouli that drags it down somewhat.

A bit like shampoo, but more delicate. I definitely get the orchid and gardenia. The ti leaf gives it a strong citrusy edge, like green tea but brighter. This is very perfumy but the occasional whiff of icy musk makes it more than the average perfume..

Snake Oil and green musk, black leather, black amber, ambergris accord, sandalwood incense, and oily black musk. Fresh from the mailbox, my first thought is "yep. It's Snake Oil." It's powerfully smooth vanilla with a softer version of the leather from Snake Skin. I can only pick out Snake Oil and leather right now, but I'm certain the ambergris, amber, and black musk are all doing their part to make this even smoother. No regrets. On settling, I'm only getting the barest trace of green musk, but I do get a little sandalwood. It makes the leather smell a little like suede. This is very clean, balanced leather snake oil, as another commenter said.

For reference, this is a very old decant. I remember being unimpressed with the scent when it first came out. I get a very soft leather and the powdery vanilla scent of old books, but there's something sweet as well that almost smells like an incense. Someone mentioned rose but it seems more like sandalwood to me. If this doesn't fade away to nothing like Dee does this might be a go-to book scent.

Black saffron, frankincense, Florentine iris, blackcurrant, white pepper, black clove, vetiver, and smoky honey. I wanted to like this one. It is smoky and spicy with some sweetness, but I'm getting a little sourness somewhere. The vetiver and something like orris (the iris?) are the strongest components and they remind me of smouldering cardboard here. Maybe try it if you like a little smoke and honey doesn't go bad on you.

Powerful incense when first applied, but has short wear life. A lot like Cathedral plus rose.

I have the 2017 version. Initially I wasn't thrilled because of the chemical/cherry/powdery leather. Also my skin tends to eat leather. However, this has aged into a soft black suede. As much as I love aged Snake Oil it can sometimes be a little too sticky-sweet and foody by itself. The leather works very well for it. Less staying power on me than the original Snake Oil, but that's fine. This might be a top 20? If not top ten.

I like oudh! That said, this heavy oudh plus vetiver is also unfortunately poopy at first on me. I do get the sparkling labdanum and I could see aging and deepening Snake Oil completely solving the poop problem but those first few seconds are a little alarming. As the snake oil warms up and the vanilla scent wafts the vetiver poop transforms into something s lot more palatable, sweet, brown, warm, and a little powdery.

The red musk is a little more sour and acrid than the one I'm used to, or maybe that't the blackwood. Not that it's unpleasant, it's just that it has an almost blood-orange smell to it. Like a blood orange musk with some oudh and patchouli. The patchouli is well blended though.

At first the closest comparisons I can make are Banded Sea Snake and Snake's Kiss (though it doesn't have the lemony note). I get oak and moss predominantly. The davana really stands out to me as a powerful white floral in the middle of all that snake oil, wood, moss, and unspecified dark stuff. I think this one will get better with age, though moss also has a tendency to get deeper with age so it might get too moss heavy.

I haven't tried anything that smelled only like clean bare wood, but Yggadrasil might have that note in it. At least that's what I recall.

It's not smoky and a bit more cologne-ish but you might want to try Odic Force from the Yule's. Same eerie green.

Okay, what about goblins? I know there's Goblin, but what else?

Wine. Or actually WINE!! I get an intense burst of something that smells like the Zadok Allen Vineyard, just heavy grape with maybe some oak or darker elements in there. This may be a little sweeter than Zadok though.

Slightly burned but accurate coffee. Or maybe the snickerdoodles were left on too long. That doesn't matter because there's syrup and toasted sugar and...marshmallows? It's hard to go wrong with those notes if you want a foody atmo.

At first this is bright lime. A guy's cologne with ozone. I'm not a great fan of citrus in general but the amber manages to mellow it out and ground it a little. I would compare this to 51, although that one is a floral and has deeper elements. It seems like such a simple scent but as I wear it I find myself increasingly intrigued. I ended up getting a bottle for all those times I want to smell like unearthly green flames.

I didn't care for a lot of the gingerbreads in this Yule, but it really works with the tobacco. Maybe because my skin is good with tobacco. I wish I could describe it better, but it's just a medium, standard molasses-clove gingerbread with caramelized smelling French tobacco. The tobacco is far stronger than the gingerbread. Incredibly snuggly.

Faintly powdery blue musk with a tinge of the lab's blueberry note. Just barely edging into "foody" but not quite. I could see this in a Federalist style room with pale blue walls. almost regretting having just the one bottle.

Almond flour and dry cacao with some golden labdanum and well-behaved cherries. It's like a delicious but not too sweet or moist cake. If the labdanum only shone a little more or the patchouli were deeper then this scent would have a lot more depth, but that might happen with aging. I'm on the fence with this one.