brilliantcat

In spite of the fact that is inspired BY A SPIDER I adore coconut, mint, ginger... you see my dilemma. I will walk around smelling like a spider if it smells as good as I think it will. Oh, the sacrifices one must make in the name of scent! Holy crap, right out of the imp, it's amazing. Tons of coconut, a smidge more lime than I'd prefer, and really that's all I get when it's wet. I could be oh so happy with it as is but I'm hoping to get some of the champaca and ginger to show up. I definitely get the tropical drink references and whoever said this was Tiki Lounge sans the booze was right on the money.

So far the rose is playing nice with my skin and I get a deep red wine with undertones of bitter herbs and the slightest breath of rose. A sultry woman was mixing potions and her perfume wafted over the dark herbs and sweet red wine she was using. There's an almost sour note but I don't think it's the wine as that, if anything, usually goes syrupy sweet on me. The herbs I'm smelling remind me of a certain "herb" that many people find enjoyable to smoke *wink wink nudge nudge* This is one rose I think I could befriend. It's a rich velvet petal, not one of those "LOOK AT ME LOOK AT NO NO LOOK AT ME" brand of roses that I end up fighting to the bitter end. The whole blend is dark and sultry and just a little bit scary, which suits me quite well Re-testing this one as I was cleaning out my perfume box and the way it smelled in the decant just grabbed me and I said "Mmmmm!" out loud On, it's honeyed wine with the fruity plummy sweetness I get from red musk with a tiny hint of bitter herbs and rose. Gads, this is lovely! I have a terrible track record with roses but as noted in my original review, this rose is playing nicely, or the other notes are keeping her in check. It's more bitter than it was in the vial overall, but still beautiful. I can't stop snuffling my wrist. Age has smoothed out any sourness that was present when fresh, as well as the cannabis funk. It's still exquisitely dark, sultry, scary, and very me I wish I had more of it than this tiny partial decant.

In the bottle: Tart berry. Immediately after application: Berry and cardamom with neroli. Warming up: Tart acai berry and cardamom. I like the smell of acai, it smells very clean to me. Not getting any SO or vanilla yet. Fading: Stayed fruity till the end when I got the faintest breath of vanilla-y SO. Faded: Average throw, average wear. Overall: Not my favorite of the snake pits. Rating: 3/5.

In the bottle: Sandalwood, musk, possibly the ti leaf. It smells green and fresh. Immediately after application: Green and musky. I can't really pick out specific notes. Warming up: Herbally and musky with touches of the oakmoss. Fading: Moss and musk. Faded: Average throw, long wear. Overall: Not for me. The moss ended up taking over and while I like it, I don't really like SN moss. Rating: 2/5.

In the bottle: Bubblegum. Immediately after application: Bubblegum and a hint of leather. Warming up: Could it be? The rust and leather of my beloved Rivet.Goth? IN A FORM I CAN BUY WITHOUT GOING BROKE? OH HAPPY DAY! Fading: The rust note went slightly aquatic (?) and the leather faded. It still might do in a pinch but it's less Rivet.Gothy now Faded: Average throw, average wear. Overall: I was hoping it would be a substitute for Rivet.Goth but it failed me. IT FAILED. I still like the general feel of it so I might spring for a bottle eventually. Rating: 3/5.

In the bottle: Slightly aquatic feel, possibly the "wind". Immediately after application: Still a bit aquatic to me, but with leaves and currant. Warming up: The aquatic feel has faded and it's definitely got a leafiness to it. No currant now, but I consider that a positive. I like it better than I expected, though it's not really for me.

Website Description: Golden sunlight and sweet fresh air brightening a Heavenly sky on Christmas Day: crisp winter air, shimmering amber, sweet honey, with a touch of pumpkin pie, pine cone, cranberry, and bayberry. In the bottle: It DOES smell golden! And very very Christmassy. Probably the bayberry. Immediately after application: Pine, bayberry sweetened by honey and the spices from the pumpkin pie. It smells like Christmas to me the way Lambs-Wool smelled like autumn. Warming up: Yum. It's Christmas. Fading: Light bayberry. Faded: Average throw, average wear. Overall: The addition of the pumpkin pie, honey, and amber kept this from smelling like a Christmas scented air freshener and added a lot of depth while still smelling JUST like Christmas to me. WIN. Rating: 5/5.

Website Description: The dawning of hope and the blossoming of charity: vanilla, orange blossom, white sandalwood, mate, red tea, and carnation. In the bottle: Sandalwood and maybe the red tea? Ahh, thank you wikipedia. Probably the mate too. According to wiki, mate is a tea-like herbal drink popular in South America. Neato! Immediately after application: Now the orange blossom is poking its head out a little and my brain is connecting citrus with lemon even though I KNOW it's orange and making this smell very tea-like.

Website Description: Mulled wine and marzipan. In the bottle: Sweet and fruity with almondy candy. Immediately after application: Exactly as it smelled in-vial. Warming up: Fruity, spicy, almondy. I love! Fading: The almond has faded leaving the fruit and spice with a hint of wine. Faded: Average throw, average wear. Overall: Love and adore and need a bottle! Rating: 5/5.

Website Description: Friendly, charming, and cuddly, but possessing one hell of a mean streak: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and cistus. In the bottle: Lavender, sage, a smidge of the birch. Immediately after application: This went on like a lion and is warming already like a lamb. It was in-your-face lavender-sage-birch with a hint of vanilla but calmed pretty quickly into a lovely vanilla, cocoa, and herb scent. I definitely want to keep this werewolf around! Warming up: Wow this is yummy! Vanilla, cocoa, with herbs and a touch of musk and vetiver. Fading: Musky vanilla and herbs. Faded: Average throw, average wear. Overall: I LOVE THIS SO HARD! It was war at first with all the notes and settled into the most wonderful, furry scent. MY WEREWOLF! Rating: 5/5.

Website Description: Three deep, dark myrrhs, smoke, and cinnamon bark. In the bottle: Warm, resinous myrrh. Immediately after application: Cinnamon, underlaid by the myrrhs and a whiff of smoke. Warming up: Cinnamony myrrh and smoke. Very evocative of a phoenix imo. Fading: The cinnamon has faded and it's mostly resin and smoke. It captures the life cycle of a phoenix in its wet, dry, and faded phases. Very nice! Faded: Average throw, average wear. Overall: I love the idea of it and it really did remind me of a phoenix. Rating: 4/5.

So very many love notes in this! Rich, heady musks in the imp and on my skin, the clove bursts through to add delicious spice. This is love so far It's Smut with clove and patchouli. I may need to find some more of this ETA: Retesting some of my decants to determine if I want bottles. In the imp, I get mostly patchouli and tobacco. The tobacco amps a bit on my skin and is quite sweet. It makes me think "toasted". The patchouli is keeping it from becoming cloying as it can often do on me. I also get more red musk on me than I could smell in the tester. I get a bit of dustiness/powderiness that I know is the black musk as it's ruined other blends for me with its powder of doom. As it dries down, it becomes sort of patchouli-dusty-perfumey-clove. Definitely don't need a bottle.

Linen and what I think is the ink-stained tobacco note are most prevalent when wet. I quite like this stage and am eagerly looking forward to seeing how it morphs on me! It's fairly sharp at first but mellows. Oddly cologne-y with tobacco under it. Cologne and tobacco. Not really digging it

This is such an interesting combination of notes. On me, I get grapefruit body powder. Honey often does this to me in the early stages. I also get some of the musk. It's soft and surprisingly pretty. Depending how this warms up, I may let my daughter have my tester. She's only just going to be 7 but she's already a BPAL convert As it warms, I get more of the moss and musky notes along with the tangy grapefruit and powdery honey. Oh blah, it's gone completely baby powder

A light, ethereal apple backed by soft florals and a kick of vanilla. This one has potential! The apple faded almost immediately, leaving a lovely floral with vanilla undertones. These are florals that I like and I feel rather pretty in this but I don't know that I need more than my partial decant as I doubt I'd wear it much.

Ok rose, I see you there. You be nice to me and I'll be nice to you Oh dang, it smells heavenly when wet! Mostly lilac musk and honey. This is what I was hoping for! And... then it all goes to hell and smells like deodorant and roses. DAMN.

In the imp: dirt, definitely. A hint of greenery and flowers, just planted. On me, less straight-up dirt though it is still certainly present. More floral but it's a fruity floral. I don't know that the pom is causing the fruity feel though; it smells different than any pom I've encountered. I smell like I've been in the garden planting. It's a most unusual scent, probably not my style, but amazingly blended nonetheless. The soil component is really just

Wet: candied fruit. I can't pick out individual notes but it's quite pretty and very girly. It's soft and candylike with just a hint of floral. Apparently my skin chemistry can do tea rose. I am pleased! I think I may find a partial of this for my daughter, it seems perfect for her.

In the imp, it's rose and pomegranate, which smell oddly nice together. On me, the rose is amping of course. It's a fresh rose petal sort of scent so I'm not hating it. Yet. The tart bite of the pomegranate is keeping it in my tolerable zone. And then... rose, all rose, all the time. Too bad I don't love rose like it loves me.

It smelled surprisingly perfumey in the imp but is dramatically different on my skin. It's tobacco, very sweet fresh tobacco, not dried. I'm getting a bit of herbal feel, likely from the hemlock. I'm shocked that the red musk is so laid back, I usually amp it (and I love it so win/win). I expect it to bloom as this warms up. Oh damn, something, perhaps the amber, has gone soapy. It smells like someone smoking in a bathtub I am disappoint.

Dream notes: check! Wet, it's leather and woods topped by incense. I'm in love already It warms beautifully into leather, incense, and old books. I adore it. It's the old library of my dreams, settled into a leather couch that faintly smells of smoky incense.

Just applied: Woodsy with a hint of the citrus from the mandarin. At this point it smells a bit like freshly polished wood and Orange-Glo. I can't get the Orange-Glo'd wood feel out of my head. Eventually though it does gain some musky/smoky undertones as it warms, taking away that wood polish feel. It actually smells rather lovely , just not bottle-lovely. ETA: And now it's morphed to bug spray. Ew. Ew.

Wet, sweet wine and cake. It smells so good! I begin to get hints of vanilla and cream. It's melded so seamlessly that I can't pick notes out anymore. All I can say is that I really really like it!

Smoky, sugary, and creamy in the imp. On, I get the cinnamon that others have reported. That's not BAD per se, but I liked the smoky sugary scent much better. It seems to be turning more and more into a straight Red Hots type of scent. I was really hoping for charred smoke, not spicy cinnamon

Very reminiscent of Banshee Beat in the imp. On, it's more of that delicious patchouli but with woods instead of herbally hemp. I like! Warming up, I get more of the woods blended seamlessly with the patch and a bit of spiciness.