Lycanthrope

I imagine what they would have us do if they shrunk the character limit even more. Comments (25 character limit): PLZ TO SEND OILZ KTHXBAI!

Man... that character limit has got to go. I think I communicated effectively but I had to shorten everything... and at the end, trying to fit in that last bit was aggravating as all heck.

A minor jinxing oil, used to cause irritations, restlessness, unease, anxiety and discontent in your enemies. Unassuming little bottle. It is labeled classically with the word 'Brittle' emblazoned across it. I don't think I've ever owned an oil called Brittle. In general use? As odd as it sounds, I want to try the oil, but don't have a particular person in mind. I normally don't cause others distress. This time, I'm oddly enough, focusing the intent and energy behind this onto my stuffed giraffe toy. Wet in the bottle: I smell pepper, a little citrus lemon, maybe some cinnamon. On Giraffe: Giraffe now smells like cinnamon and some strong fruit. On Skin: WHOA man, this is strong. Definitely some sort of citrus rind, on top of some seriously biting, bitter herbs. Fiery spice of cinnamon and pepper is rising in the back of my nose. It's so fiery, I can feel it catching in my mouth and feel it on my tongue. Drying Down: Have you ever had Big Red gum? This is very similar. A touch malevolent! I'll have to reserve it for a proper use, if someone really gets on my nerves and I want to find some non-violent, non 'calling down the spirits from on high' approach to forwarding them a little chaos.

Each bottle of Chaos Theory is truly unique, a fragrant fractal, and exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct. I ordered 32 CTs for a decant circle, and will be adding reviews as I do 'em to this post. Any snarky names added are not actual titles from the Lab, just my demented and odd sense of humor while on Ambien. CCCXLVIII (clear, no tint of color): "We'z gonna get marrieds? Creamy vanilla sweet kiss and bridal veil..." Slightly creamy, vanilla, a very yellow flower, creamy... honeysuckle? Like Antique Lace, but with a different flower, instead of ancient wispy florals this is a bolder, more 'heady' note, like osmanthus or honeysuckle. Previously reviewed by Aerinha. CCCXLIX (light pink! srsly!): "We're in Redwoods national Park and my tires done exploded." Redwood, definitely more woodsy than I would expect from the color of the oil, and there's a touch of a rubbery, sleety note (like asphalt). Very strange. It smells like I imagine Redwood National Park might. CCCLXXI (blonde yellow): "Oh HAI, I'm evil gingerbread kissed with orange rind." Orange and currant? A touch of ginger or pepper. Dries down to a mishmash of spice, clove perhaps. Previously reviewed by Aerinha. CCCXXV (gold yellow): "Tasty squishy drippy melon pulp and bright cucumber..." Cantaloupe! Melon! Something tickling the back of my throat. Fairly straightforward and fades fast. CCCXXXI (slightly greenish yellow): "Fizzy Happy Drinks, Mixed Drinks as Kiddos." Apple Juice and gingerale. Ginger? Apple? Some kinda light floral? CCCLXVIII (light yellow): "Fruity fresh herbal with a hint of berry."

I'm particularly peeved if they're calling it a 'incorrigable systems-based error,' because... hello... like, YEARS of additional characters.

Ugh, this sucks. Especially since Irrelevant and Disturbing Crawdad Dream really eats the characters...

Licwiglunga (sp?) is the weirdest scent ever. It is like bottle confusion on me. I just don't get it. I think the description is also something like 'what graphemes are these?' And it's totally like that in my nose. How does she do it? Also votes for: Smokestack, Brimstone, Djinn. Shadwell. Ligur. Mr. Nancy. Black Annis. Whoops! Impables, eh? Srry...

I don't even know. Weirdest BPAL ever. Even with all my years wearing niche BPAL blends, this blend just wonks the heck out of everything. My tongue and nose are betwuddled with confusionation. This is like sweet rubbery metal fruit but not, and kinda gummy sweet like those weird chewy Gum Mastic pies you can get in Greece, but then roasted over a smokey spit lit by resinous tears. And yes, on top of it all there is a phantom pomegranate that is gloating over its pending victory by making this into... a fruit smoke gum resin thing. I think I need to lie down.

Frum. Caramel and me do not get along. Overall, after I've worn this for a while, my impression is the scent of sweaty skin, musk, and butter. Yum, right? My history with apple blossom is also probably to blame. Now I smell like a touch like a drunken buttery whore. I guess there are worse things to be, but... sadly, the wrong bits of this fragrance amp and the right bits that I was hoping would play together, do not.

Oh man, is this one dark. It's vetiverish at the start, over this pure essential distillate of EBIL. Yes, my hackles are raised, this is essence de menacing, bien sur. It really reminds me of something in GC Smokestack, a sort of clean, dusky grittiness touched with that sharp bite of vetiver, and if there is wine in this, it's dry, dry, dry. Combines beautifully into the scent of scared religious fervor. Oh man. Yikes.

I have discovered that my body chemistry enjoys pomegranate just as much as I do. Which, is unfortunate, as whenever a pomegranate containing oil touches it, I become One. One, with the pomegranate. Oh, the seediness. Oh, the multiparous inverted raspberryness. Dionysa started patchouli on me, but after just a few moments, it became on my skin identical to any other pomegranate BPAL I've attempted to try, with maybe just a little dirty whiff of something trying to break through.

Au Bon Pain makes a cookie that I have eaten many, many times as a snack on the wards. It's called the 'Key Lime Sugar Cookie,' and it's a hefty, sprinkle-encrusted beast that tastes like a buttery shortbread cookie, yet also tastes very limey and citrussy. This perfume smells like that cookie tastes. Which, to me, also evokes the smell memory of it being 2:30 AM, I'm very tired and slamming down a cup of coffee and eating one or two of these instead of a proper meal, my hair is mussed up, I'm not able to smell like BPAL because I'm working, and my break ends in about two minutes. Wet, from the bottle, it's all a strange mishmash of bright lime hovering over a sugary, buttery bread/cake note, on my skin, it's almost as if I've layered two perfumes, one of Beth's mad foody ones, and one of her dapper gentleman's lime colognes/fougeres, and on me, they don't really 'come together' on the skin. However, as a joint fragrance, it smells totally like I've been indulging in cookies. If cookies were a drug, this would be the equivalent of a whiskey binge. I have the unmistakeable aroma of a torrid night with a few too many little tasty golden circles.

I reviewed Ligur first. In reality, I tried Hastur first whilst decanting. The thing that struck me was how very dark this oil is. So dark. A glob of it sat in the pipette, taunting me, going 'yanno. you want to. do it.' Wet on my skin, this is remarkably sexy. Dark. Smooth. It's musky, but not in a fiery red musk, or in the way that blends incorporating several kinds of musk are. This is a cool, deep musk that is rounded out by the sweetness of labdanum, resinous, brings to mind very well polished black onyx. Whereas Ligur really takes a more twiggy, wood note, Hastur approaches 'dark and broody' from a resinous standpoint. He's sticky, just sweet enough to be wicked, but without the smoke and brimstone usually associated with demons. I'd call Hastur one of the best, more masculine but still very wearable sexy scents, one that commercial men's perfume only wished it could be, in its most wildest dreams. Try this if you like Iago but not Iago's vetiver, or if you like Beth's musky scents (like Fenris Wolf, Loviatar, Crowley) but without too much fire or red musk.

Dude! Ligur is all sorts of scent memory awesome. I don't quite know if I could pull this off as a personal perfume (I'm sure coworkers would love it...). Wet, and from the bottle, it was pretty much one gigantic drop of vetiver, but once it hit the skin and was able to settle a bit, it brought to mind a ton of association memories. I'm thinking... wood chips scattered haphazardly in a makeshift trail through a bit of preserved Michigan, or jogging on a trail with my friend in North Carolina, or standing outside on vacation in Northern Michigan in the dead of winter, smelling the curls of woodsmoke wafting through the air. It's eerie how much this brings that to mind. Ligur smells of smoky mulch, potting material, gardening, hardware store gardening section, earth without being dirt, forest without being sweetly woodsy. Dark, charred, crackling campfire. And the ultimate clincher? With the drydown, this beings to have hints of the drydown of the first ever still unreleased blend I ever tried, Kweku Anansi, which immediately makes this ULTIMATE WIN. I really need to get my own full bottle. Or two. Srsly.

I was hoping for glittery resins as the above reviewers gave glowing reviews, but I'm mostly just getting lilac. A really strong lilac, too. I think around the edges I can detect a little something golden, sticky, but it's just a hint before I get the strong 'pull' of lilac, and the Cross turns into a bright, very sweet floral on me. Maybe I have to try this again... The color I get from this is stark white. Which is very odd.

Pwrhrrhrhhrhhr..r. Rose'd. Also... akin to above, after I dabbed a little on, I was like OH NO. But it is very beautiful, like Rose Cross (resinous rose) but it actually dries down to a less rambunctious rose on me. Seriously... Rosi-crucian... yeah. *smacks paw to head*

This is the CD scent I was looking most forwards to trying, and I got a bottle unsniffed. It's mostly because the idea of swampy bog violetz really clinched it for me. Also, I've always wanted to wear captured souls. Neat. From the vial, it's not that violetty nor is it green or herby, it's definitely fresh, watery. It's got a very similar feel to the Tiki Blend Moana, but where Moana evolves towards a mildly salty, white subtle floral, Faeu stays misty and wet. It kind of smells like guava juice. citrus pulp, it's not cooling like peppermint, and I think if there is mint in this it is spearmint or watermint, some kind of less 'fresh and bracing' mint and more 'herbal grassy mint.' In terms of 'swampiness,' it really is what you'd think swamp mist would be - that filmy, breathy, steaming mist that hovers over the ground. There's not any of the dirt note I feel is present in blends like Penny Dreadful, Deep in Earth, all that. It's a scent that is glowy, transparent, that hovers in the swamp, but not in the ground of a swamp. The strangest thing though is I get absolutely no sensation of violet at all off my skin. That's odd, because I love violets and make an effort to snorfle them in blends whenever possible, and Faue stays this citrussy, misty thing, and I can't for the life of me locate the florals. Whrrf? GC similarz to Faeu, try: Nyarlathotep, R'Lyeh, Olokun, The Deep Ones.

Parthenope... my decanter gave me her trading card - oh my, she's a naked green glowing girl. She escaped from Captain Kirk? P was on my 'secondary list' of CDs to try, along with Marge and Dai, because of several notes in the description that made me balk. This would be star jasmine, as jasmine is one of those notes that enjoys strangling the heck out of everything else and turning into single note lush, yet stark similarity on me. Yet, this is not at all what happens with Parthenope. In fact, it's very fitting to the astral or aquatic, floating green lady of the label. Oil itself is a rusty orange, in the vial I'd call it smelling of mostly the resinous, sappy bite of benzoin, and some night time, smooth, unassuming florals. No smack of jasmine yet. Wet, the jasmine is more apparent. The entire blend is musky powdery sweet, but so far the jasmine is not overtaking anything. I think the honeysuckle/jasmine combination lends the concoction a very sweet, feminine edge. There are no sharp corners on this scent. Underneath this luminous floral creeps the benzoin. The moss does not leap out and give her a gritty edge, it's just a little color (green!) dappled on her cheeks. Overall - this is a very potent oil, of the night floral category.

*quizzical* I got a decant of this. In the vial, it smells like Gummy Savers, as acai tends to do. I put it on, and it's very nice, light, fruity, a touch of floral but no overpowering jasmine. About twenty minutes later, it smells like Dorian on me. Like, exactly the same drydown. I think it's the musk and tea. Maybe a nip of acai still very, very faint in the background but hullo, sugared musky tea. Frrrrah?

Rose is one of my archnemeses, always guaranteed to amp the heck out of itself and overpower any blend I wear that has it in it. The ironic thing is I love roses in vivo, but as a personal perfume I now know to avoid it. Of course, that didn't stop me from nabbing Marguerite, because, well, hope springs eternal? Wet, in the vial, Marge is a glowy green translucent color. I smell dewy roses. The rose note is similar to the wet/damp dew note that Rose Red presented to me, and I'd say it most links with the roses experienced in Libertine/Two, Five, and Seven. On my skin, there's a huge mishmash of Rose +. That is, to say, it is definitely rose, and the other florals and floral-like oils in this complement and push the rose forward. There's a distinct herbal bitterness, a tang, that I've come to associate with palmarosa, and over time, Marguerite calms down just a tad so that I can experience the scent as a rose scent with an undercurrent of waxy petals underneath (must be gardenia, tuberose). The overall effect is very complex, yet not. Hard to describe. Me? I currently smell like a rose, all the time, yet this is a very complicated, richly layered blend. I'm probably going to keep the decant for very specific times.

Dood! This is so awesome! This smells like a white carnation to me. Why white? I dunno - it's as sweet and sultry as a carnation traditionally is but it's smooth, not pink around the edges, there's some bite to it, and the best part is that once she's settled on your skin the black pepper keeps ruffling the edges to let you know this isn't your everyday carnation. It plays on me similarly to Maiden, but without the sharper, brighter tea astringency that blend has. Must hoard. Excuse me.

Just 'cause someone said Wolf. Aroooooooo!

Maiden is more tea-y than potion but I recall it has a similar 'bright carnationsy-rose' feel.

Check in a well lit mirror: Is the change in your skin purely dry skin (xerosis)? Is it just peeling, a little rough looking, but without redness? Or... is there a well-marked, associated area of redness, or 'stinging/smarting' at the site, followed by the flaking of skin? In the second case, that could be early irritant contact dermatitis / allergic contact dermatitis starting. Do a small patch test of the oil on different areas of your skin, in an inconspicuous place. If it starts looking like the other spots, you may be sensitive to an ingredient in the oils and I'd use caution when applying.

I received a generous sample of this with my latest eBay shenanigans. It smells very cedary, rich, earthy from the imp. Similar dark junipery-ness of blends like Nocnitsa, Omen, Black Forest. On, it has that same piney, sappy snap, but then here comes that sweet, sort of almost fetid (in the good way - like how tuberose and neroli smell almost rotten sweet... I'm not making sense...) civet note, and it rises up and bypasses the woods, and now it's all civet all the time on my skin. I have to be honest, this does not meld well with my skin chemistry, although I really love about a few minutes after application when I can still smell the dry woodsiness from the cedar and other woods. The drydown is gummy, sticky, resinous, civetty, and unlike in other civet blends like Morella, there is not a balance here for my chemistry, and it's too much. It's a dark, deep, sweet musk. I do extend a hearty 'thank you!' to my generous frimper for letting me have a go at a blend that was d/c'ed way before I got into this smelly situation, I'm glad though I don't have to seek out a hard to find bottle, however.