strahlend

In the decant this smelled kind of soapy and reminded me of Embalming Fluid. Skin testing was a whole other story. Fog Machine Juice actually manages to be diaphanous while maintaining a very clear presence. There are no sharp notes here that jump out at you, there's just this smooth cloud of gorgeous scent that carries with it a hint of lime. The base of this scent eludes my ability to name it, but I can tell that it is not soapy, it's not sharp, it's not lemony, and it's not a musk or resin as they typically appear. Call me crazy, but I feel like I smell a bit of quince. This was the Weenie that put me over the edge and made me decide to put in a lab order. It really is a fascinatingly beautiful and unusual scent. Edit: continuing to try to puzzle out this scent. Today I feel like I'm detecting absinthe in here. I feel pretty sure that it's a component of this scent. Absinthe, lime, and quince? Sounds weird, but that's what I'm coming up with.

Started out with a strong scent of whiskey like in Mad Sweeney. It fades quickly here as it does in MS. Now the tobacco and musk are reminding me of a mix of Black Lace and Haunted. The tobacco and whiskey notes both have a bit of sharpness to them, but the musk does round things out. The overall impression is of expensive perfume wafting around a parlor where guests are drinking whiskey (but not smoking). The tobacco here is not like in cigarettes or pipes, it more like what I imagine tobacco smells like raw or dried. In the end it is the bear musk that is the longest lasting note, it is warm and strong, this is not a subtle bear. The whiskey and tobacco provide interesting dimensions as the perfume settles in. My initial impression was that I probably could find a similar scent in my existing collection, but that's actually quite false. The bear musk is new to my nose and the companion notes set it off beautifully. Edit to add: many thanks to the lovely person who sent this to me from the NYCC!

I thought this scent might be more on the musky side, but what I got was a very sugary/caramel vanilla richness with an overtone of booze. It reminds me a lot of Red Lantern mixed with Grog.

First sniff – more orchid, floral, than I expected. I thought it would be more milky and sweet. Skin tested – to my nose this is an orchid blend with some other notes faintly in the background rounding it out. I had hoped that the dominant note would be the fig milk, so this is a lot more floral than I anticipated. Ends up smelling like a drawer sachet to me, but might work great for the orchid lovers out there.

First sniff – sharp piercing lavender, but stays on this side of pleasant. I like this better than the expensive lavender perfume I have a sample of (Caldey Island Lavender). Testing – this is a fantastic lavender. Sharp enough to smell like real lavender flowers but just slightly rounded. Love it. Perfect balance of sharp but rounded out and beautifully accented (but not overwhelmed) by the ginger and plum blossom. I can see myself wearing this often and have it on my bottle list.

First sniff – very light and airy incense. Airy sweetness. Skin testing – this is very much like wearing nag champa incense. I like it very much. After a while – yep, this is really, really nice. It's warm but light and airy but sweet. Most certainly considering a bottle. This is the closest thing to wearing nag champa incense that I've encountered.

First sniff – exactly as I imagined. Very sweet and creamy with equally strong and compelling florals. There's something in here that almost reminds me of coconut, like a sweetness you can bite into. Makes me think of a more mature and glamorous version of snow white. Testing – it does end up being a lot like snow white. Not able to distinguish itself enough to make me want a bottle, but very pretty.

This scent reminds me a lot of Tezcatlipoca, but with a strange undertone of vitamins. Even though leather isn't listed in the notes, it seems to have a chocolate and leather feel to it.

I just got my decant in the mail and misted just a bit on my sweater. The scent reminds me a lot of a sprayable form of Haunted. I think the similarity is the dark sweet musks and amber. Reads very much like a black musk/amber hybrid. The vanilla isn't pronounced, it just keeps things on the sweet side from the background. The scent is pretty much as one would expect from the note list, if ambery musks are your thing, this is your atmo spray.

I get a custardy, vanilla, honey, powder from this scent. Not too powdery, not too foody. I'm in love, so glad to have a bottle. Smells pretty much exactly like Lush's Silky Underwear perfume (I've never smelled the powder).

Wet on my skin. I smell like I have been rolling in celery. This is an unusual interpretation of a resinous blend, usually I associate amber and frankincense with being anchors, but this blend plays out a little differently. The frankincense is lending a hint of sweetness and holding its own among the higher and airy notes of the galbanum. I have the SN galbanum, and it is definitely a feature here. The other notes play supporting, rounding, softening roles to the galbanums sharp, green somewhat piercing starring role.

A very light, almost honeyed smelling vanilla with a beautifully subtle hint of earthyness. Absolutely gorgeous, but fades so fast off of my skin that it's just depressing.

Very appealing in the decant and when first applied to the skin. I love the champaca. It's kind of starting to smell like vitamins. I think it's the vetiver. Ah, the champaca comes back after a brief stint of vetiver. It's lightly incensy, in an airy, almost fruity way, but with a bit of dirty depth to it. Dries down to... it's nice, but didn't make a strong impression on me either way. It's a pleasant scent, but I'm not in love.

Smells fantastically pine pitch and wonderful in the decant, on my skin after a while it just goes straight to oakmoss and stays there being loud and oakmossy.

This is the surprise hit of my Philharmonic decants. In the decant it seems kind of jumbled and not too promising. On my skin the red musk, myrrh and tobacco form a pleasant red musky-incense sort of smell which is pretty nice. When I stuck my wrist under my partners nose he says it smells like walking into a hippy occult shop, which is a nice association for both of us, I agree. The red musk stays mellow and soft without going powdery and the geranium doesn't amp up crazy. Everything stays really nicely balanced and just smells incensy and wonderful. This is the bottle purchase out of the bunch.

In the decant, mostly incensey plum. On the skin the pine really pops out first and is nicely backed up with some tart sweetness. I assume the tart floral counterpart is the geranium, but the tobacco absolute is playing a part in rounding it out, which makes it distinctive. The tobacco seems to be pushing forward, which is fine because I like it. It ends up smelling very much like a sweet chewy tobacco with the feeling of opium, which I mean as a rich, hazy, musky sort of scent with a sharp edge to it. The tobacco and hazy musk become so intense and sweet that the scent has become cloying and just too much for me after a little while. Reading my own review I would buy this scent, but actually experiencing it, it was just too sweet and too loud. One of those scents I think I would rather get a whiff of off of someone else rather than be in the middle of it all day long.

I smell mostly cedar and sweet lavender with just a touch of pine at the start. It has a fresh, natural, effortless sort of feel to it. I'm not sure if my hair routine has changed or if it's this gloss, but it seems just a little heavier than the others I've tried. I wish my hair wasn't so fine and oily, this smells so fantastic I would love to load up my hair with Shiny Furball.

A savage, dark, lurid scent: blackened woods, pomegranate rind, mossy earth, mimosa, and thick, black wine. In the bottle I'm getting mostly the earth and a feeling of sweet and rich red fruit, which must be the wine and pomegranate. On my skin the woods and moss come forward much more and this turns into a beautiful dark forest scent. Very lovely and exactly what I was hoping for. ~ It's been about four months and I wanted to update my review to add that this blend is aging beautifully. It's developed into a very rich earthy (but not dirty) scent with a rich depth to it. The pom and the wine have really mellowed out and lost the superficial red fruit and boozy wine vibe and taken on more of a velvet burgundy feeling. There's a bit of soft spice and woods here as well. I think that once people catch on to how well this ages it will become more sought after.

Lavender with tobacco, zdravetz, Haitian vetiver, and blue lotus absolute. I can only smell lavender. It's very nice lavender (not too sharp, not too sweet), but the vetiver, tobacco, and lotus are MIA as far as I can tell. I had no idea what zdravetz was, here's what I found: Zdravetz, Geranium macrorhizum, referred to as true geranium, has a strong floral aroma. It, however, has been used extensively in Bulgaria where it is known for its aphrodisiac properties and for its balancing effects on female hormones. Zdravetz is said to lower blood sugar.

I agree with those who get a feeling of benzoin in this blend, there's a sweet bite to it that isn't the vanilla or the frankincense. Generally I'm getting sweet vanilla with a sort of airy-light version of frankincense. It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere spray House of Unquenchable Fire due to the common notes. I love the spray and I love having a similar scent to wear. I wish it lasted a little longer on my skin, but sometimes it's just like that. I'll try it in a scent locket to see if that keeps it around longer, but ultimately the scent is so lovely that I'm perfectly fine with just reapplying more often.

THE MADWOMAN In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face. —Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte Dusty white sandalwood, ragged cloth, and a dry, long-dead bridal bouquet. This is a very appealing sandalwood scent. It reminds me of the sandalwood fans I sometimes see in import stores. Along with that there's a floral that feels clean and bright to me, or maybe it's how the floral interacts with the cloth note which seems maybe like linen. I'm not sure what's in the bridal bouquet but it doesn't seem to be roses or lilies - I get the feeling of a sort of pleasant sweet kind of flower, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. This scent is unusual enough to hold my interest but I think it's also innocuous enough to fit a variety of moods and occasions. ~edit for spelling

I think I remember being not too interested when this first came out but then I got a decant from someone and fell in love. It reminds me almost exactly of the Mlle Lilith Fortune Teller perfume. Very similar incense and pom. Mlle Lilith is one of my favorites and having this spray is simply fantastic. I'm just sad that I only have one bottle.

I'm really enjoying Liz. Starts out with spring like flowers and sweet vanilla. The flowers fade to the background and the vanilla and leather mix into a sweet feminine leather. Then the smoke comes forward and mixes with the sweet leather and just hangs on being subtly girly and sexy at the same time. Fantastic scent story and wonderful fragrance. I'm very happy to have this bottle.

My thanks to arsinoe9 and BoneBone24 for the great suggestions. I like the take on the inviting aspect of being a receptionist with the tea notes. I actually like and have all of those scents I think. I'm really comfortable in Dorian and I'm head over heels for Ambergris SN, it makes me feel like a classy lady. Hmmmmm.... thanks again for the ideas!

I will be interviewing at an environmental law firm for a receptionist position. I wear BPAL every day and wouldn't quite feel right without it. I would like a scent that comes across as competent, confident, and professional. The kind of person you would trust to greet fancy guests at the door and to make sure all the lunch orders are correct. This isn't usually the kind of thing I'm thinking of when I'm sniffing, so I'm at somewhat at a loss. Help?