Miss Lynx

There were a few notes listed in here that scared me, but others that sounded really nice, so I figured it was worth a try. And yes, I know it's supposed to be a men's scent, but that's never stopped me before. It doesn't come across as overly masculine to me -- more gender-neutral. A guy could certainly wear it, but it's not a super-butch scent by any means. The dominant notes I get from it initially are tonka and a light musk, with maybe a bit of benzoin. Soft and a little incensey. But as it settles in, the other notes come out a bit more, and I catch traces of citrus with floral and herbal notes. It sweetens up a bit at this point, becoming really distinctly un-butch on me at least. I suspect my skin's amping the violet and myrtle a little. It's still androgynous at this stage, but leaning a little more toward the feminine than otherwise. It's got some fairly pleasant aspects to it, but overall it doesn't really come together for me. It might be nice on someone else, but it's not really me. Grade: B-

Interesting... A warm, spicy, heavy incense scent, with a surprisingly dark edge for a blend based on the noonday sun. Then again, in a climate like Egypt, the noonday sun can probably kill you, so maybe it's appropriate after all. There are elements to this that resemble Aureus, War and Shub-Niggurath in different ways, though I don't like it quite as much as I like Aureus or Shub. It's not bad, but it very much smells more like a ritual oil than one you would wear as a perfume, which I suppose is perfectly in keeping with its purpose. Thought it seems to be almost as much martial as solar -- the spices in it have a very sharp edge. It lasts quite a long time and has a strong throw, and the way the scent settles in after a few hours (and loses the sharp edge) is actually pretty nice and something that wouldn't be bad at all as a perfume. But I think I have enough spicy-incensey scents already that I don't really need it for that. Hmmm, even though I probably wouldn't wear it as an ordinary perfume, and don't work much with Egyptian deities, I might keep it for ritual use. It smells like something you'd wear as a serious protection/self-defence oil, for times when you want to really kick magical butt. Very much a power oil. Grade: B

On first sniff, this is a light, sweet, slightly aquatic floral. No trace of patchouli, frankincense of pomegranate... But as it settles in a bit, it becomes more balanced. The florals begin to fade down, and there is indeed a bit of earthy incense beneath them, although it's still quite soft. And a bit of the pomegranate's fruity sweetness is starting to come through as well. Quite pleasant at this stage, though still a little more floral than most scents I'd wear. It's a very soft scent, with a minimal throw. I have to put my nose within a couple of inches of my wrist to be able to smell it, though maybe that's part;y because I currently have Ahathoor on the other wrist, which has throw like whoa and completely overpowers this one. It doesn't last very long either. On the whole, not bad, but not really me. Grade: B-

This is a very interesting and complex scent, and one that's nearly impossible to categorize. It's quite gender-neutral -- I could as easily see it being a men's scent as a women's, and if anything it's less conventional as a women's scent. There's a high, tart sharpness to it that's probably a combination of the tea and citrus, but with an undercurrent of woody warmth that keeps it from seeming too acidic. The orchid doesn't come out for a while, but when it does, it lends it a slightly more "perfumey" feel. The leather is just a soft background presence, helping keep it androgynous and balancing the orchid so that it doesn't become too decidedly feminine. While unusual, this is definitely the sort of scent you could wear to a job interview or board meeting -- it smells subtle, elegant, expensive, and powerful in a quiet sort of way. There's something very "corporate boardroom" about it. The eventually drydown of it, after it's settled in for a good long while, does smell a bit more masculine than feminine -- probably because the citrussy notes have faded and the leather is coming out more. But it's still fairly nice. Not really my kind of scent, but I can think of people it would be great for. Grade: B-

I'm not sure why this one never made it onto my wish list -- amber, berries and spices usually rank pretty high with me. Maybe it was the iris that scared me off. In any case, it ended up being an accidental discovery at a meet'n'sniff. And really, iris aside, it's quite nice. Lots of ambery warmth with a bit of a spicy edge, overlaid with a combined fruity-floral sweetness. The floral element gives it a bit more sweetness, or maybe a different kind of sweetness, than I usually prefer, but it doesn't amp too badly on my skin. Maybe there's not much of it, or maybe iris is a relatively non-evil floral for me? Who knows? In any case, while not likely to be a top favourite, this is quite a lovely scent. The iris combined with berries, and the slightly edible aspect that amber has, make it almost-but-not-quite candyish, but the resinous warmth helps to moderate it. At times I seem to catch a faint whiff of something Play-Doh-ish, which is odd as it doesn't contain vanilla to my knowledge, which is usually what does that on me, but it's only a very faint trace. And the scent overall lasts for quite a nice, long time. It's definitely got a late spring/early summer sort of feel to it, so I suppose I'm not exactly discovering it at the best time of year, but I will probably get some good wear from it in about 8 or 9 months... Grade: B/B+

When I first tried just a small dab of this, while checking out several new scents at once, I liked it -- it seemed like a woodsy, slightly spicy, warm musk. Kind of foresty and animalistic at the same time. But when I tried it in a slightly larger application on its own, it didn't work so well on me. It thankfully didn't have that "Hi! I'm a MEN'S scent!" feel that it had sniffing it in the imp (dark musk tends to get sweeter on my skin, so men's scents that rely on it tend to be not-so-manly on me), but the musk was pretty strong and a little nose-tickly. There were phases, as it settled into my skin, where I found myself liking it and others where I didn't. I definitely got moss-covered wood at one point, and it goes through some other permutations, but there were points when it seemed like the strength of the musk was almost making me a bit nauseous. It was reminiscent of Czernobog in some ways, another dark-musk-based scent that turns less manly on me than on most people, but something about this one was a little more over-the-top musk-wise, so despite it having a few nice stages to it, I will probably be swapping it away. Grade: C+/B-

This is quite nice -- definitely the musk is the strongest note, but it's a very light, almost ethereal sort of musk, not heavy at all. The other notes give it added complexity -- a touch of floral sweetness, and a bit of incensey depth, but overall it's a very light, gentle scent. It's slightly reminiscent of Sudha Segara, but it doesn't disappear as fast on my skin as that one does. Also a bit remiscent of Vasakasajja from the Faces of the Heroine series, or the eventual drydown of Schlafende Baigneuse. It's very feminine, but not overpoweringly sweet; subtly sexy while not being over-the-top enough to be inappropriate in polite company. Might almost be worth tracking down a bottle of, though it's not likely to be a daily favourite. But it's definitely something I'll enjoy wearing from time to time... Grade: B+

Ooh, I really like this! I hadn't been entirely certain about it, because while amber and pepper are always good on me, most florals can be a little chancy. But honeysuckle has turned up in a few scents that I like, so it seems to be a relatively non-evil floral. All in all, it seemed worth a try. It does come across as fairly floral in the imp, and when first applied, but the floral notes settle down quickly, allowing the amber and pepper to shine through, so that the end result is warm, rich and sweet, with an earthy peppery kick giving it depth and a bit of edge, and just a light floral overtone on top of it. And there seems to be something almost fruity in it, some note that's slightly reminiscent of Kuang Shi (one of my favourites) -- not sure where that's coming from, but it's nice. As someone else mentioned, the particular amber in here is quite reminiscent of Hymn to Proserpine, which is one of my favourites, and with the pepper kick behind it, it's almost like the lovechild of that one and The Tell-Tale Heart. The overall impression is one that's simultaneously light and feminine and sensual, but with an unusual and aggressive edge behind it from the pepper that it's clear that, girly thought the scent may be, it's for a girl who you really don't want to piss off. It quite suits the quote that appears in the description. All in all, definitely a keeper. Not sure if it merits a bottle or not, but I will enjoy using up the imp, at the very least. Grade: B+/A-

I didn't initially order any of this, not even a decant, because it looked far too floral for my liking. But when a friend brought hers over among some other scents for me to try, I succumbed to temptation, because it didn't really smell as fearsomely sweet in the bottle as I'd thought it would. And really... It's not too bad. Not my kind of scent exactly, but it's much less fiercely floral than I would have thought. There's a dry herbal edge to it, and an underlying muskiness, that keep it a bit grounded, so that it doesn't turn into Screaming Floral Death. And it definitely seems to fit well for its inspiration -- there's a decidedly witchy feel to it. Still not one I'd be inclined to track down more of, but nothing like the floral hell I'd expected. Grade: C+/B-

I never tried Malkuth, but if it smelled anything like Red Phoenix as indicolite says, then I can probably help because Red Phoenix is my all-time favourite LE. And I like a lot of scents with spicy and fruity notes. Closest thing in the GC that I have found to RP is Frumious Bandersnatch. It's a bit lighter and sweeter, but it very much shares that musky-spicy-plum feel. Other scents that have at least some trace of similarity include Chimera (the ultimate cinnamon scent), Tanin'iver (although dragon's blood doesn't always like me, either), Lot and his Daughters (from The Salon - rich and complex and spicy/fruity), Mad Meg (also Salon - earthy spiciness), Madrid (spicy-sweet wine) and Oya (rich, dark, plummy, spicy). Maybe somewhere among those you can find a new love?

This one sounded so intriguingly complex that I had to get a decant despite the fact that (1) it contains a lot of florals, which my skin usually amps to frightening extents, and (2) in particular, it contains ylang ylang, which is pretty much my scent nemesis. I used to think that no scent with ylang ylang in it could ever be anything but Screaming Floral Death on my skin, but I have since found a wee few exceptions, so I occasionally do venture to try such things. However, in this case, I dabbed it on, rubbed my wrists together a bit to warm it and blend it into my skin, took a sniff, and... *sigh* Screaming Floral Death! The ylang ylang, accompanied by a few other high sweet florals, stomps everything else into submission. No woods, no bay, tea, no cypress, no clary sage. Just HI WE ARE A BUNCH OF EXTREMELY SWEET FLORALS WHO ARE NOW GOING TO TRY TO KILL YOU. Oh well. I should know by now that Lunacies that work on me are few and far between, and trying something that was both a Lunacy AND contained ylang ylang was just asking for trouble. Grade: D

Ooh ooh, I know this one! I used to have a bottle of L'Occitane Vetiver, and the first time I tried BPAL's Azathoth, from the Picnic in Arkham (formerly Springtime in Arkham) collection, it was a dead ringer for it. At least on my skin...

Most of the good sleep recs have already been made, but now my imagination is wandering through recommendations of a special scent for a little boy. But after reading the sweat-and-dirt-and-hay description, I realized what it has to be: Coyote! Coyote smells like the great outdoors, and is light and gender-neutral enough that it's not going to smell like he's been bathing in dad's cologne or something. I think it would be perfect.

I have found that the very most effective antidepressant scent for me is Aglaea. It smells like liquid sunshine, and it has never failed to lift my spirits, no matter how down I've been feeling when I applied it. More specifically, it smells kind of like bathing in liquid amber while drinking peach wine in an airy sun-drenched room. Fruity and incensey with just a touch of flowers and musk, warm and sunny and glowing. It's sweet but not overly sweet, light but not timid... just all around an awesome mood-lifter.

I so wanted to love this, just for the name! I mean, who doesn't want to be able to tell random strangers who compliment you on your scent that it's called Sunrise with Sea-Monsters? But I wasn't too optimistic... Aquatics have a way of not working very well on me, and this one has some very sweet florals added as well. Recipe for badness, on my skin. But at the same time... There's amber! And pear. So who knows... Well, my initial instinct was right, sadly. This one really doesn't work on me. It's a pretty enough scent, in its own way, but it's far too sweet and perfumey for me. It is indeed very, very aquatic, and maybe if I didn't have part of a bottle of Thalassa left from my CD III decant circle, I'd keep it for doing ritual work with water. It's also got a slightly sunny feel, probably from the amber. So it does evoke the art in question very well... it smells like the painting looks, and expresses the concept nicely. But alas, it's not for me. Grade: C

I was really looking forward to this one - it's the only one of the Good Omens scents that really sounded like it was almost guaranteed to work on me. At first sniff, it was actually a bit sweeter than I expected - not sure if it's the honeysuckle, or the combination of three different musks or what, but it's a little more on the "perfumey" side than I'd thought it would be. Definitely a spicy edge as well, but on the whole it's not quite what I was expecting. It's quite reminiscent of Shub-Niggurath, which is a good thing, but sort of -- well, girlier, for lack of a better word. There's a sweetness that's part floral and part almost candy-ish. But here's also some note in it that is striking me as slightly "off" in a way I can't quite define -- something dark and bitter lurking underneath. And as it settles into my skin, the different notes seem to by vying for dominance so that it's always changing: "Sweet!" "No, dark!" "CANDY!" "Bitter POISON!" "Spicy flowers!" "No, decaying POISONOUS flowers! Of DOOM!" Kind of like that. The conflict keeps up for quite a while (appropriately enough given its inspiration!), preventing me from fully enjoying the scent. Eventually it settles down to a nice spicy musk not unlike Shub, but that takes several hours. While I do like the end result, I think I prefer a less warlike means of getting there. Which means that much as I looked forward to this one, I shall be swapping it, and sticking to Shub for my ginger fix. Grade: C+/B-

This sounded really good to me, and I've gotten all the previous 13s, so of course I had to order it. But on the whole... I'm underwhelmed. I don't hate it or anything, I'm just not terribly impressed with it. Part of it, I think, is that as the versions of 13 multiply, each new one is starting to seem less unique and less interesting. Even though they've all got at least partially different notes. There's a growing sameness about them that I guess I'm getting a bit tired of. When the second 13 came out, the first one to be reformulated, I initially really liked it, and thought it was better than the original. But later on I found it kind of dimmed for me and I still liked the original best. Ditto with the third. And with this one, I'm finding it hard to even keep straight what this and the second and third all smell like any more, because they're all kind of blending together for me into an amorphous category of "OK, but not as good as the first one was". This one in particular starts out very floral, with only slight undertones of chocolate. Maybe it's my skin amping the orchid or something, or maybe there are other florals among the unlisted notes. I'm not picking up any cocoa absolute, though the slightly fake-smelling white chocolate note is there as a background presence. Hardly any spice, either. I think there's some fig -- it has that slightly funky wax-crayon type scent that fig can sometimes turn to on me. Eventually the florals fade a bit, and it's more fruity and slightly more chocolaty, but I never do get much ginger or clove from it, sadly. And the overall experience -- well, if I'd never tried any other 13 before, I'd probably like it more, but as it stands, it's more like "Yep... Another 13. *sigh*" I guess I'm getting kind of 13'ed-out. I hate to break a perfect record, but unless the next one sounds radically different, I probably won't order it, and I'm thinking I may need to do a comparative test of 2, 3 and 4 and decide which if any of them I actually need to keep. Interestingly, though, our month-old baby seems to like it! Since his birth I usually only apply scents sparingly, and only on my wrists and arms, unless I'm going out and will be away from him for a while. But this morning I put a dab of it on my cleavage and neck like I always used to, before I thought about it. And when I next held the baby, rather than him being irritated by it, he pretty much did a face-plant directly into the area I'd applied it, and went contentedly to sleep with a little smile on his face. So maybe I should keep it around and put a dab on his bedding now and then... Grade: B

When I first saw the notes listed for this one, I figured it could do no wrong on my skin. Anything with both amber and saffron in it would have to work pretty hard not be amazing on my skin. I only have one planet in Leo, but clearly I needed to have at least a decant. But at first I was startled, because when I initially applied it, it smelled of lemon! Really strongly. I have no idea where the hell that came from -- I can't see anything in the listed notes that would account for it. But the dominant note was that really strong, bright, sharp, sweet lemon-drop scent that I associate with verbena. So I reluctantly thought maybe this was not a good scent for me after all... However... After about a half an hour, I happened to catch a whiff of my wrist and I smelled amazing! A really rich, warm, almost vanilla-y amber with a touch of spice adding heat to it. Gorgeous! Like an improved version of The Lion (suitably enough). And in this phase, it lasted a long, long time. So, initial random blast of lemoniness aside, this is every bit as nice as I thought it would have to be. But I'm still trying to figure out where the lemon came from... Grade: B+/A-

Absolutely Chimera -- you cannot be a cinnamon lover and not want that! It is cinnamon bliss. And I don't really see it as a seasonal scent at all -- I'll wear it any time! For other seasonal cinnamon recs: Spring: Maybe Harlot, and I'd also recommend Frumious Bandersnatch -- I'm not sure it's actually got cinnamon in it, but it certainly smells like it does! And is fairly light and fresh. Summer: The Lion, definitely, and Bengal. Also Chimera (though as I said I'll wear that whenever). Fall: Priala, Sin and Umbra. And maybe Chimera. Winter: Tintagel definitely. And I'd probably wear the ones I listed for fall in the winter as well. And Chimera. Not that I'm, er, fixated with Chimera or anything. Maybe I should go put some on now.

This one sounded promising, with as many woodsy or resinous notes as florals, but alas, it's not for me. I get no sandalwood, amber, cedar, or anything else I might like, just high sharp perfumey badness. It's very sharp and very sweet, and not even so much hyper-floral as just hyper-perfumey. It's got that high, sharp, synthetic-smelling edge that so many commercial perfumes do, which is the number one reason I can't stand most of them. In BPAL scents, I usually tend to associate that with ozone, but ozone's not in here, so I don't know what it is. All I know is I really wanted to wash it off after about five minutes. Oh well. Grade: D

At first sniff, this is very much like a lighter, slightly more floral Blood Moon, which makes sense given the seasonal associations -- Blood Moon is darker, richer, more what would be considered a fall scent, while Red Moon is a warmer, sunnier (if that description makes sense for a Lunacy scent!) version of the same concept. There's a definite floral/herbal side to it, which is very much evocative of warm summer nights. And it does seem to fall into that relative small category of "Lunacies that actually work on me." Definitely hanging onto my decant. But I don't know that I'll try to track down a bottle, just because of the similarity to Blood Moon, which I already do have a bottle of, and which is on the whole more my kind of scent. But I wouldn't say no if one happened to wander along... Grade: B+

At first sniff this was really, really floral, enough so that I at first thought "Ack! Swap!" It was overpoweringly perfumey. But thankfully, that phase does settle down, and it eventually becomes a little more manageable. After about an hour or two, it had settled to a fairly pleasant level. On my wrists it was a bit baby-powderish, but in the crooks of my arms it was a lovely, soft, warm amber-musk with floral overtones, a bit reminiscent of Lyonesse and also Vasakasajja from the Faces of the Heroine series. Much more likable that way -- but still, I suspect, not really for me. Maybe if it smelled that way more consistently... I do think that this one will win major fans from among the people who are better with florals than I am -- it's very well-formulated, evocative of an expensive perfume, and would probably be lovely on someone other than me. On me it's eventually nice, but only after passing through the Screaming Floral Death stage. Grade: B/B-

This is simultaneously very fiery and very earthy. The vetiver's quite noticeable, although it doesn't completely take over (yet, anyway -- we'll see how it develops), and it smells as though there's some patchouli in there too -- maybe as part of the scorched earth note? But it's also got that same rich smoky cinnamon as Priala, which is a very nice addition. And there's a touch of sweetness, and a herbal element... Thankfully the almond is not too strong at all -- I dislike almond, but it's never stopped me from ordering a scent, because it's one of those top notes that fades fast, so there's a limit to how much damage it can really do to a scent. Some people would probably read this scent as masculine, but I don't -- there's nothing men's cologne-ish about it at all. Mainly it's just earthy-spicy-incensy, in quite a nice way. Quite reminiscent of Priala the Human Phoenix, really, which is one of my favourite CD scents, but this one is more complex and oddly a little lighter. And it's definitely got that lovely multilayered complexity that many of the Salons do -- sweet, dark, earthy, fiery, herbal, incensey, spicy, and a strange almost-metallic edge at times. On the whole, I very much like it, and I suspect my half-imp sample will not last long. Don't know that I'd be up for a bottle of it yet, since I still have almost a half-bottle of Priala left from my decant circle, but maybe once I run out of that... I think between the two of them, this is the one I like better. Grade: B+

At first sniff this smells like some kind of relaxation aromatherapy blend, though that tends to be my response to most things that have lavender as a top note. The lavender has a rich earthiness beneath it, though, which keeps it from being overly sharp or sweet. As it settles in a bit, it begins to take on that unmistakable "Hi! I'm a MEN'S scent!" aroma, although not the point where I feel completely freakish wearing it. It's a rich and interesting enough scent that it smells like a woman could get away with wearing it, even though it's pretty butch. The overall feel is a bit like a non-chocolatey Wulfric at this stage. Unfortunately, the later stages, after it's been on for a few hours, seem a bit "off" on me, in a way I can't really identify. Something about whichever notes it is that last the longest in this makes them not really quite work on me. There's almost a bit of that mildewy graveyard dirt note that's in Zombi, though I have no idea what it would be coming from here. But whatever it is, it was unpleasant enough for me to eventually wash it off. Grade: C

My first impression of this one is that it's a lot like Bastet, which seems odd because they don't have that many ingredients in common. But it's got quite a similar feel, that sort of sweet warm floral-incense impression. It's a bit lighter, though -- less incensey despite the frankincense and myrrh, and with a bit more of a sharp, bittersweet herbal edge. There's something fairly floral in it too, though I'm not sure what given the listed notes. It's a fairly gentle scent -- even 5-10 minutes after applying, I have to put my nose right to my wrist to smell it much. The throw is pretty minimal, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, particularly considering how sweet it is. It could easily be overwhelming if it were stronger. Grade: B+