strahlend

This scent is pretty straight forward for me. Black musk with amber rounding it out. Feels like the same black musk as in BT Burlesque Troupe. As it mellows on my skin every once in a while I get a whiff of beeswax or something similar. It's fairly strong, long lasting and stays very warmly musky from start to finish. I bought my bottle from someone and it has an older style label so I'm thinking about getting another bottle now to age, it seems like with these musky scents the age works to their advantage. I don't get any lemon at all, which I'm happy about and I'm not having any powder issues, so that's good too. I can see this scent being in heavy rotation for me during the fall.

On me this seems like soapy men's cologne. I love lavender but I'm not picking it up as a distinct note here. The soap aspect is what seems most dominant, sandalwood peeks in every now and then but not enough to get my attention. I thought cinnabar would be more obvious but I'm not getting it at all. In short, this one isn't for me.

2006 version: First sniff – this reminds me of something fruity like plum or prune with something super sugary like burnt sugar similar to gluttony. What a surprise – this isn't anything like what I thought it would be. Reading the reviews I see that I'm having an unusual experience with this scent. On my skin – similar to first impression but I'm getting a lot more incense or smoke, maybe some wood too. It's remaining somewhat fruity for me too though... like incense fruit. Something is reminding me of the sweet incense in Agrat-Bat-Mahlaht. The more I sniff the more it's growing on me. Hmm. Mostly it's smokey prunes and incense with just a little wood. My partner says it's reminiscent of mildew, which I don't get at all. 2010 version: I like this so much more than the 2006 version which I quickly fell out of love with. This version is fresh and clean and also musky and lightly sweet. The linen note is contributing a lightness that beautifully balances the more musky woodsy elements. I see how the linen might come across as lemony, but I think that it has its own unique feel that goes beyond being just lemony. This reminds me of a clean skin sort of smell, but not soapy at all. I like this quite well.

Every time I open this bottle the first whiff I get smells like a diaper pail - a mix of urine soaked diapers and disgusting scented wipes. If I leave the lid off and then sniff again it smells kind of like a spiced floral. I haven't had the courage to actually put it on yet, but here goes. On my wrist wet - getting the diaper pail again, but the florals are stronger. Now the diapers are gone and it's all floral. That was quick. There's something sharp that's smacking me in the nose, a high pitched almost metallic feeling. Hmm... now I'm starting to really enjoy this scent. The spices are reminding me of carnation but often when I encounter carnation it's paired with something heavy or super sweet, but that's not the case here at all and it works a lot better for me this way. On the dry down - I can see how there's almost a hint of ozone or soap here, but it's more of a feeling than a real presence. It's keeping this floral blend from going overboard and I appreciate it. Hmmm... I think I'm now getting the dirt people are talking about. It's not dirt in the sense of how I actually smell real dirt, but this is what I've smelled in other blends that list dirt as a note... similar metallic dirt note as in Yorick perhaps? Seems to be sitting here at the dirt note for a while. Still a little floral spice in the background but not overpowering. After a while it softens up, mellows out and returns to soft carnations - with a mild metallic tang. Very interesting how a blend that starts off so very, very wrong in the bottle ends up so nice. I like it quite well and I'll be hanging onto my bottle. edit~ I just looked over the notes and realized I don't interpret this scent as boozey at all, and that was probably what made me buy the bottle. Oh well.

First sniff – woods. Pretty, pretty woods. Incense. Head shop. Herb store. Wood boxes and incense resin and dry woodsy herbs. On my skin - I smell like the inside of a beautiful wood box that had herbs in it....I think it's the myrrh but it could be the gum mastic that gives this just a little edge – and I'm liking that... the incense smoke with the woods is just perfect. I'm liking this a lot more than I thought I would. I'm really in the mood for incense right now and this scent is PERFECT. Often I've smelled this type of scent that's ruined for me by something sickingly sweet like clove or something. This is what I always want those scents to be. How did I overlook this one for so long? I thought it was just another nice patchouli blend, but it's so much more than that. Sri Lanka just made it to the top of my must buy a bottle NOW list.

In the imp I really love this scent. It's woodsy, incense-y, and musky and reminds me of Satyr. On my skin, however, bad things happen. I seem to be smelling some pine and something that's reminding me too much of animals in a not nice way. My gut is telling me that this is civit. I've had it on for about five minutes now and while I don't feel compelled to go scrub myself I won't be sorry to wash it off when I do the dishes. It's weird because it really is nice except for one part of it that's not good at all.

On me U was sweet and sort of dusty with some warm spices. I like balsam, vanilla, and leather - but this didn't smell like any of those things to me. Unfortunately this particular kind of sweet spice makes me feel kind of unpleasant. I really wanted to love this blend and I was really excited to get it, but it just didn't work out.

On me Burial is absolutely Vicks vaporub, a very cool menthol, eucalyptus scent. I don't get patchouli out of this at all. It reminds me of scents that are enjoyable but weird like gasoline, rubber cement glue, some kinds of paint. As it dries down it becomes a little more warm and woodsy, but it still has the menthol in the background. I'm really enjoying it. I don't think I'm at a bottle-worthy level of enjoying it, but I'm glad I have a couple imps of it.

I don't have issues with sleep, but I do love lavender like.... like someone who loves lavender a WHOLE HECK OF A LOT. Yes, indeed. Someone passed on a testable sniffy to me not too long ago and I was hooked immediately. I just got my first bottle today and I'm trying to imagine how I can make it last because I know I'm going to be reaching for it all the time. The scent is sweet lavender, I'm not getting the antiseptic, herbal or sharp feel that some people seem to. This is like a blend of pure lavender and sweet tarts - and I'm meaning that in the most heavenly way possible. It's like a heap of lavender blossoms laying on a blanket of powdered sugar. And then the sugar fades away and there's just a perfect soothing, mellow, straight from the gods, roll around in it all day kind of scent that makes me wonder how I'll ever remember to wear anything else.

I just got this as a frimp from the lab and I'm really loving it. I don't get any smoke from this at all, but there's a beautiful light honey that is just wonderful. It's not as dense as O, this honey reminds me more of the honey in the Shungas - light and spring-like. I just slathered some on but the scent doesn't seem to travel too far away from me. Very pretty. If I hadn't already gathered several bottles that feature honey as a dominant note I would be all over this one.

This is a more gentle blend. I thought this was going to be a dark, heavy scent but it's really not. It's warm and soft and has a bit of spice in it. Unfortunately it fades off my skin so fast that that's about all I can tell you. Very pretty while it lasts.

At first I was thinking all almonds, but after a minute I'm getting honey and apple – for sure on the warm musk. I almost feel like I'm smelling cinnamon. I can smell the rose in here and it's surprisingly subdued and combining with the other notes in a way where it's lending more of a feeling than being present as a note. Now musky and apples. The sweetness of the fig is with the musk, it's very pretty. Honey, musk and apples... but not like wearing a pie, it's more like the suggestion of apples. The almonds mellowed out really fast. This is really lovely. A while longer though and the rose has come out more. It's still a little appley and sweet but there's a rosey tang to it that is unmistakable. It's reminding me of Alice in a way. Final verdict - I love how it starts and the middle stages, but it ends up too rosey for me to be able to enjoy.

I'm getting more spice than florals. Sweet foody and incense spices - at the same time, then it dries down into a (rosey?) floral. It's a little too much for me.

I'm not usually one for leather but this blend has been calling to me quite a bit lately. It reminds me exactly of walking into a leather store. I think I could grow quite attached to this one except for one thing. Every time I put it on my partner ends up sniffing around the room thinking that there's something burning. He says it smells like an electrical burning plastic kind of thing. I normally don't care too much what he thinks since he usually doesn't comment at all, but it's kind of weird to be told I smell like something so unpleasant. I'm not sure how to reconsile this, but in the mean time I'm happily huffing my imp. *edit I decided to go ahead and get a bottle even though every single time I tested it I got the same response from my SO. I realized that I enjoyed it too much to not get a bottle. I wear it when he's not around.

I LOVE this blend. It's the one that makes the light go on in my heart and I think to myself that *this* is the scent I've been looking for. It's the perfect blend of earth and water. I'm getting a distinct water scent with what I think is oakmoss, I would think a little pine.... it's useless.... this is an amazingly complex blend where all the notes interact so beautifully that it's like an olfactory symphony. This scent is right where other similar scents have gone wrong. Simply put, amazing. And now I'm stuck with a passion for a scent that's hard to find.

In the imp it seems to be all lilac and nothing but lilac. On my skin there's still a whole lot of lilac but also another flower scent that I'm thinking might be the wisteria, after a little while it seems like some musk comes through a little. And that's pretty much it, I love lavender but I don't smell it or any of the other listed notes. Very flowery.

Sniffing from the imp War seemed to have the cold bite of real ginger. I wouldn't say bitter, but I would say it hits a very unusual register - if most scent notes have auditory equivanents it seems to me that this would be some kind of half note. It has some 'high' properties that seem crystaline and golden, but then there's this darker funk right there beside it and the combination is sort of unpleasant. Or a color analogy would be one of those odd in between colors like olive or puce. On my skin for the first few minutes it stays pretty much the same, which makes me wonder why I put this on in the first place. Oh ya, I read the reviews that said this one changes a lot with skin chemistry. Ok. Well... About 15 minutes in it suddenly changes to something really amazing. It's warm ginger with the most beautiful darker basenote holding it in place. Now the color analogy shifts to a dark mahogany red with chocolate brown accents. It's deep and rich and spicy... unmistakably ginger but so much more than that. And the great news is that it stays right here for a while. It has become sweet and warm and wonderful. Does remind me of Shub-Niggurath, but Shub is more cookie. edit - after an hour or so the floral element became more obvious. I wouldn't have guessed that ginger and flowers would smell so good, but the combination is really working for me. Summary: Beautiful ginger goodness.

I'm a big fan of mint, but for some reason it took me quite a while to get ahold of an imp of Green Tree Viper. I'm totally in love. It reminds me strongly of the mint in Mad Hatter, which is to say pennyroyal (I believe) and I totally love it. I had no idea how mint would blend with Snake Oil, but I am delighted with how it ends up. It's everything I love about mint PLUS an extra dimension of super amazingness. I can't describe why it works so beautifully, but I can tell you that it does. ~runs off to check the sales page for Green Tree Viper~ *edit After a obtaining a bottle and wearing it quite a bit I realize that the overtly mint part wears off pretty quickly every time and I'm left with a gentle snake oil that ends up fading off faster than it seems like regular snake oil does. Hm. I still love it a lot but this might end up working better in my locket.

In the imp I am strongly repelled by the shellacked wood, it reminds me of paint thinner and lemon wood polish. During the dry down I'm still getting wood polish, but it's not as aggressive as it was and for that I'm thankful. Dry - this one just isn't sitting well with me. It's reminding me of unpleasant things like chemicals and soap and nothing is reminding me of green, wood, sap or sawdust. Glad I got to try it, but I don't think I'll need more than an imp.

In the imp and on my skin this smells like heavily buttered french bread. There's also an element that is very sugery and a very minor element that seems just a tiny bit floral. The intense sweet foodyness of this scent is reminding me of a lot of Gluttony. As it fades and becomes less overpowering it's easier to be with, but unfortunately soon after that it's pretty much gone. An imp will be enough for me. Oh, and CitizenBree, I also detect somewhere in there something that is reminding me of anise.

For me Crowley smells a lot like snake oil with a dash of lavender cologne. Which is fantastic. I really didn't think I would like it so much, but now I'm thinking of getting a backup bottle. I normally amp anything in the lemon family, but I'm not able to smell any lemon here at all. I also don't normally enjoy leather scents, but this is an exception because of how perfectly it blends with the musk and wood. ♥

I'm usually not fond of the Lab's dragon's blood... Dragon's Milk is the ONLY exception I've found. It is absolutely delicious, heavenly, wonderful, sniff yourself all day, goodness. I would even call this a pretty straight forward thick, rich vanilla blend. I don't normally like foody smells and this really works for satisfying that delicious vanilla scent in a non-foody and also non-floral way. I didn't think I would love this one, but I really do. Edit to add: This is also the bpal that I get the most compliments on - hands down. It's easy to love a scent that gets so much positive attention.

First sniff - something cool and fresh, like cucumber? Second sniff – this smells a lot like a pungent green herb and something kind of icky sweet. Ok, on my skin – It's menthol floral. Best case scenario this ends up somehow seeming kind of like menthol green jasmine. Yes, jasmine. Lots of jasmine. This is nothing like what I hoped it would be like. Which is too bad because I would love some more carrot blends and unusual not soapy fresh scents a la gunpowder. This, however, is none of those things.

In the bottle it seemed a little cleaning product citrus, but not awfully so. I smeared a bit across the back of my hand and got a lot of citrus which quickly seemed like lemons and then (I'm not kidding) soap. Like liquid citrus hand soap. After a few minutes it has lightened up considerably and seems on its way to fading off fast. Weird.

This scent is striking me as similar to The Steeple but with wood. Green, clean, kind of soapy... but with the sharper scent of wood that lays over the top. The pairing ends up nice enough, but I was expecting something less clean, so I'm kind of disappointed.