whisperstilled

Wet: Sweet beeswax ozone and a touch of musk. There's a chemical whiff from the ink. The ozone here has the same prominence and quality it does in Becoming Thunder, a favorite of mine. So far I'm not getting smoke, but there might be a touch of the lab's paper note in there. Dry: Now the paper and 'notebooks' (leather?) are coming out. Sweet, pleasing, and clean. I don't feel like I need to huff my arm for days but this is a really nice scent. A bit cologney, great for summer, very unisex. Very little throw but still nice.

I absolutely get the 'laundry' quality from this - think the 'linen fresh' scent of any major manufacturer but more subtle, with a splotch of dragon's blood and a whiff of something faintly resiny, which I'm guessing is the clay. My skin, at least, isn't amping the metallic quality, but I get a touch of salt. 'Clean laundry' scents aren't usually my thing, but this one errs just cool and goth enough to be a keeper. This would smell divine as a room or linen spray. As it continues to dry, I immediately had the sense memory of being in an expensive home goods store.

"You got to understand the god thing. It's not magic. It's about being you, but the you that people believe in. It's about being the concentrated, magnified, essence of you. It's about becoming thunder, or the power of a running horse, or wisdom. You take all the belief and become bigger, cooler, more than human. You crystallize." This is the scent of the absolute: this is the perfected manifestation of the absolute essence of not who you are, but what you represent to others. This is You as Symbol, your spirit separated and combined, distilled and condensed into one archetype. Skin musk and 20-year aged frankincense, a sprig of asphodel, a splash of soma, a lightning-streak of sharp ozone, and a stream of ambrosia. My first ever first review! Wet: Green, bright, and musky. Ooh, this is some good stuff. There's a sharpness here I just love, and the frankincense adds a spicy resin background. The ozone is definitely there, but in a way I love, and oh my god, this is the closest scent I've come across to my much-beloved by very HTF bb Sarah from the old Literary Vampire collection. It has the same musk-ozone combination, plus a boost of greens. Dry: 'Ambrosia,' whatever it is, might be faintly alcoholic - there's a little bit of that in the background of the scent. Really, though, this is ozone/musk/green with a thread of frankincense. Resin after a rain, we'll call it. I love this one. I need a bottle post haste. Clean, sweet, perfect for summertime.

"I think," he pronounced, gloomily, "that our kind, we like the cigarettes so much because they remind us of the offerings that once they burned for us, the smoke rising up as they sought our approval or our favor." Cigarette smoke overlapping with the resonance of long-forgotten incenses. American Gods has been more hits than misses for me, so high hopes for this one. Wet: Wow. Yikes. Sharp, medicinal cigarette smoke, kind of like a clove cigarette. Smells like literal medicine from a medicine cabinet. Like Victorian medicine. Like camphor. Dry: Okay, sweetening up and becoming less terrifying as it dries and the resins start to come up. This is dry, burning stick incense over a softer resin like myrrh or frankincense. I'm tempted to say it reminds me of nag champa, though it's been so long since I smelled the real thing that I will defer to others with better incense experience to pinpoint the actual base. It's still too harsh and sour for my taste, but smokey incense fans will love this one. I feel like this would layer well, but that sharp cigarette smoke base is just a no go for me without something to soften it.

Floral and very, very soapy. I'm getting mostly florals with barely any sandalwood. I do smell my beloved vanilla orchid, but it's very much hiding in the background. A beautiful scent nonetheless.

Simple, beautiful rose with a hint of green. The perfect, perfectly rose single note.

The oudh makes this dark, woody, and a little funky. I agree that it would work better as a room scent than a perfume. Strangely pleasing.

Very weird and watermelony! Juicy and wet. Worth a sniff, would be great for someone who loves a fruity scent.

Floral and sharp with tea in the background. It gets a soapy quality as it dries down, which possibly comes from the herbs and peony combo.

Sweet, spicy...bubblegum? Very odd.

Subtle, sweet, and herbal. Reminds me of Gennivre a bit! Really lovely and well-balanced.

Nutty pistachio, oakmoss, and mint chocolate. Very foody, and a little too much so for me!

The ozone is extremely aquatic, actually way overpowering the leather, which I didn't expect at all. I was hoping for more leather with ozone than ozone with leather. The ozone is bright and sweet, and it's definitely a clean scent I can see being great for summer.

Vegetal and green on top, devious black resins underneath. Behind the Veils is definitely a good comparison, at least as far as the base notes are concerned. The top notes recall BPAL's slimy green Lovecraftian scents.

A complex and sweet marine-green scent. I can smell almost all the notes - wood and florals and water. The frankincense is pretty heavy, but I love frankincense, so that's not a problem. Just gorgeous.

I had to breathe deep to catch the snake oil under the thick layer of honey and cream. Surprisingly light, for what I thought would be an overpoweringly rich scent. This one definitely deserves a full day test.

Agree with the other reviewers, pine on top, resins underneath. If only I didn't have such bad scent associations with pine! Still, I think this would make a lovely home scent.

Strong coconut on the first sniff. Classic sunscreen coconut, with the florals and musk contributing to give it a truly 'tropical' feel. As it dries down, it's more vanilla and lilac and less coconut. Not to my taste, but a lovely tropical floral for summertime.

Holy hell, this is horrific. That's essentially what I figured from the description, but yep. Sickening sweetness over a nasty scorched bitterness. The only scent I can relate it to is Drink Me - not because it smells similar, but because it has that same kind of sickening mix of totally incongruous notes.

Smoky wood and amber with vanilla. The ambrette seed comes through very distinctly. If you're seeking a St. Clare dupe, this is very, very close, though I prefer St. Clare's sweetness. A really beautiful scent.

Vanilla orchid, white tea, and honey. Heavenly. A little over sweet, but I still think this will be a great summer scent. Definitely in the same scent family as Gennivre.

Coffee and black musk are both very hit or miss for me, and this one was DARK in the bottle. Reminds me a bit of Zory Utrennyaya. There's something medicinal about the deep, dark mixture of coffee and musk. The vanilla starts arcing over both after it sits on the skin for a bit, like the back of the dashing aerialist on the bottle art. As it settles, as others have mentioned, it gets much more appealing. This feels like a perfect fall/winter scent to me, and wonderfully sophisticated despite the simple combination of notes.

Eve reminds me very strongly of Morocco, perhaps my all-time favorite GC, but there's just so much more to it. This is a rich and deeply sophisticated blend, heavenly resinous, with a sweet amber at the core. Something in it goes slightly baby powder on me, which I suspect is the honey. It's a deeper and darker scent than I remember from testing it a year or two ago, and I suspect it's darkened as it aged. It reminds me of something a deeply glamorous creature would wear. Enchanting.

Finally managed to snag a bottle in the restocking! In bottle: Sweet and musky, and something like incense. Wet: Softer than I expected! A little chalky, in an odd way, like candy. There's something almost like...bubblegum? Dry: There's vetiver down there somewhere, under the candy/incense note. This is one weird blend! Thrilled I had a chance to try it, despite it possibly not being for me. What really surprises me is how little throw it has. I had to pin my nose to my arm to smell it.

Ozoney, salty sea water, with practically none of the lab's creamy milk note. It's definitely in there, but the ozone drowns it out. If you're into aquatics, you'll love this one - to me, the milk/cream hint and sea salt rankle my nose a bit.