alioth

I cannot for the life of me wear anything at all with a white musk in it. No matter how good the rest sounds, if 'white musk' appears it's going to turn into a screaming cheap soap. Same goes for florals. The only 'whites' I can wear are patchouli and sandalwood. Sob. That said, basically every other musk is beautiful on me. Skin musk can end up smelling like, um, clean sex, if that makes any sense? You might have better luck with warm color musks (red, brown, black, and furry). I haven't tried green musk, so I can't speak to that. But give those warmer, darker colors a try. Coyote is a great furry musk, and I'm 90% sure our beloved Snake Oil has red musk in it. Raven Moon is a good black musk that isn't too difficult to find even though it's an LE. I know I've tried something with brown musk that had a similar kind of fuzzy/furry scent to it, but I don't remember off the top of my head.

Autumn Lace (easier to find but also limited) was better on me than Black Lace, and Mini Magdaleine has a similar light feeling, but no booze.

This is everything I wanted it to be--sweet and cozy with a hint of warm spices, with just enough incense-y smoke to keep it from being too simple or childish. It has the warm beeswax of Lights of Men's Lives, a lovely vanilla that might be a bit like Detestable Putrescence, and a creamy sandalwood note. Throw isn't heavy but it lasts for a good while. Love love love it.

Amicitia starts out all about the sage for me, with a bit of something peppery that I think is the carnation. The cedar is there as a gentle backup--magical, because I often amp cedar to lumberjack-y levels--and as it dries the honey comes out to play, adding a creamy sweetness that plays excellently with the sage. Close up to my wrists it's a little sharper/spicier, but in the air it's a gentle sweet sage and honey with a hint of cedar. The honey is a very 'white' honey, almost beeswax-y. I never get anything that I could define as fig. There's something that's just very calming and gauzy and about this scent, almost a sense of purity.

Autumn Lace opens with lovely leaves that remind me of Falling Leaf Moon, with a side of tobacco and a dryness that might be the tea and incense. Vanilla shows its face for a hot minute before the less sweet elements take over again, but by the time it's dried down, Autumn Lace is a gorgeous gauzy, musky vanilla and tobacco, with a hint of something that might be the leaves or incense keeping it from being too simple. I never get any linen or obviously identifiable cognac, which isn't a problem because I tend to amp 'clean' or 'boozy'. For some reason the drydown reminds me of a more delicate sister to Crowley, although there's not actually any leather to be found in here.

Shark Tooth is an absolutely beautiful ambergris on me. It's an LE, but it's easy to find on the forums. Soft and sweet and creamy, but still fresh and clean at the same time.

Cafe Mille is such an interesting scent experience for me, because it's the first bpal that's really made me think of a physical place, instead of the idea of one, if that makes sense. It starts off with a blast of black coffee and a tobacco scent that has a distinct edge of burnt--not quite ashtray, but like the stuff that clings to the inside of the bowl of a pipe, smoky and charred. I was expecting pipe smoke, and this isn't that, it's more like the scent accumulation of years and years of pipe smoke on cushions and curtains. That burnt edge fades as it dries, and then the proper tobacco and spices come out, almost like one's nose adjusting to being in a smoky room. This never really gets warm and cozy on me, but it is extremely evocative of a cool night spent in a very old hookah lounge, where the smoke is almost as thick as the coffee.

Somehow Shark Tooth doesn't smell anything like I expected it to. On first applying, it's got a clearly aquatic sort of bent, to the point where I'm almost afraid it's going to go the screamy-high white way of 'clean' scents on me, but then it magically doesn't do that. Instead it settles into an absolutely lovely mellow ambergris and oudh, with maybe a bit of pachouli sweetness. I get no cedar at all, which is amazing because I tend to amp it. I agree that this is somehow marine without being directly aquatic, although I couldn't say why. Clean, fresh, unisex, and surprisingly excellent.

I picked up my bottle of Hemlock Honey on impulse, because I love my bottle of Jerusalem Cherry Honey. JC Honey somehow manages to perfectly replicate the smell of tomato plants to my nose; I was hoping for Hemlock Honey to perform a similar sort of magic. I wasn't disappointed! Honey loves my skin and my skin loves honey, and this is a beautiful honey cut through with a deep green scent that doesn't quite hit either pine or mint exactly, but has that cool sharpness. Others have used the term 'medicinal' and I think it applies in the best way possible. After a few hours of wear it softens down to a close scent, and that medicinal sharpness turns into something muskier, but still green. This is one of those scents where I can definitely see how it isn't everyone's thing, but it's totally my thing.

Et Lux Fuit was a summer '06 LE and I think possibly an astrology-based blend, as opposed to a collection scent. Back in the day things weren't quite so organized into LE releases as they are now.

Oh, this is lovely. Wet, there was definitely some honeysuckle in there, but now that it's dry that's gone. I'm getting the sarsaparilla from Anti-Saloon League with the gorgeous leather from Crowley and just a little bit of vanilla creaminess to keep it from being too sharp. I'll have to do a non-wrist test to cement my adoration, but so far Badgers is just beautiful. So glad I had an awesome fairy to get me a bottle.

Nthing Nonae, but also bumping up the recommendation of Phantom Cow--it's easier to find than Nonae, and has the same sort of fresh milk scent as Milk Moon 05, but with a hint of greenishness instead of honey. Milk Moon 07 was more like a smoothie than milk-and-fruit on my skin. Nonae on me is very sweet because of the myrrh and fig, and has a heavier goat-milk smell as opposed to the lighter cow's milk. Both of those notes are very different than any kind of bpal 'cream' note that I've ever experienced, which are very thick and sweet (almost icing-ish, even) on me.

Oh man, I love this stuff. On me the vanilla and patchouli combine into a sweet, thick, sinfully rich scent, almost like incredibly high-end fudge on a well-oiled wooden plate. Either this is a different patchouli than appears in other lab blends or the vanilla is doing something really special in Banshee Beat; it's got an almost syrupy quality to it instead of a woody feeling. As a fan of vanilla and patchouli, it was definitely worth the effort to get a bottle.

I really, really wanted to love Ü. And I loved 2/3 of it. The wet stage was incredibly promising, all dry old leather and sweetish, beeswaxy vanilla on sturdy bookshelves. Alas, that whole 'melange of balsams' thing turned Ü from old books and candles to The Man Your Man Could Smell Like: Lumberjack Version once it had been on my skin for about half an hour. It took me three tests to admit it, but Ü and I just aren't meant to be.

This is the 2008 Inquisition version. It's a rich buttercream vanilla with a hint of sweet mint. This is much more vanilla than mint for me, and pretty different than Tokyo Stomp, which dries down to something much more akin to a girl-scout cookie. Snowblind is more like a gorgeous buttercream frosting swirled with creme de menthe.