plainjean

THE PHOENIX IN SUMMER The Phoenix soars through a summer thunderstorm: Nepalese amber, galangal, red musk, saffron, ozone, and the scent of hot rain striking pavement. For me, this scent is really evocative of summer in a city, during a heavy midafternoon rainstorm. The sun is beating down and suddenly there's a torrential downpour. This happens all the time here in Florida, so I suppose I could say this scent reminds me of home. I can't pick out a single note, it's so well-blended. Really, this scent is more of an image than a bunch of scent notes. Gah, first review, and I wish it was more helpful! I just can't seem to think of a way to describe this using scent terms rather than image terms. Hm..I guess I'd say that it's a tiny bit aquatic, but dry and warm at the same time.

So I just tried Hesiod's Phoenix today, and fell madly in love. Of course it's impossible to find... So does anyone have any suggestions on something similar that's more easily obtainable? LE or GC is fine. I feel like I have smelled something similar before, but I just cannot for the life of me remember what it is!

Any ideas for a Havana replacement? I, of course, fell in love with it after it was discontinued.

This is just...hauntingly beautiful. It starts off heavy on the rose, like a bouquet of velvety red roses. The autumn leaves are in there, just sort of floating around. But then the dry down...oh the dry down. It smells like it's part of my skin. Like I naturally smell like this gorgeous, incensey, red rose. Beautiful.

Awesome! Thank you both!

Okay! So I'm going as femme Jayne (from Firefly) for Halloween this year. I have most of the costume together...I just can't decide on a scent! Any ideas? I have a fairly extensive collection of bottles and imps. I was thinking maybe Tombstone or Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener? For that sort of old-west feel. But I'm not sure! Soo, any suggestions?

Tiki Princess and Shango (The Master of Lightning’s ofrenda contains red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane) are my two absolute favorite tropical scents.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. On me, it's all smoky orchid and dark lavender. It's not quite the perfect orchid of Great Vampire Bat, but it's definitely in the same family, and it satiates my need for dark orchid. For now, anyway...

There's no sludge in my bottle—that I can see, anyway. However, I do still get the dry cocoa powder scent, though mostly only up close. Overall, the scent is a custardy white rose and skin musk scent. So, so pretty and sexy, but sexy in a way that doesn't seem like it's trying to be sexy. It just is.

Yesterday was Snow White, and today is Lick It Softly.

I have Blue Moon 2012 (Beth's version), and that's the label it has.

The Gorobble for me today.

Today I wore Monster Bait: Bloody Mary and tonight I'm wearing Anne Beany (I am wearing a cute pirate costume, so I thought it'd be appropriate)!

The combination of the inspiration/artwork and the notes made this an automatic buy for me. Champaca, oudh, and orris? Yes, please. The first time I tried it, it was overwhelmingly patchouli-grapefruit. After letting it sit for a few weeks, though, it's much smoother. Now, I only smell the grapefruit when I get close to where I put it on my wrist. From a distance, it's a sweet (but not sugary or saccharine), smoky, slightly dusty incense that just sort of floats around. It's a soft scent (in feel, not in throw; throw is strong at first), and it works so well with the inspiration.

Oh...wow. So, I've had this bottle since the release last year, but I rarely wear it. That was due to the overwhelming OMGSPICY. I felt like I smelled like cinnamon candy. So it just sort of sat there in my box, all lonely and ignored. But today I was like, "Spicy sounds good!" And let me tell you. This has aged AMAZINGLY. Now it's mostly bourbon and leather on me, with the spice mixed in perfectly. Honestly, it has blended so well and is now more of a sweet-spicy rather than a straight and in your face spicy, which was a little off-putting. And it's much smoother now. The spices at the beginning gave it a rough sort of feeling. I love it now.

I just passed off a bunch of man scents to the boyfriend. As far as I could tell, his favorites were Oblivion (Dark musk, wood spice, labdanum, patchouli, dark African woods, and saffron) and Absinthe (An intoxicating blend containing wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and the barest hint of lemon). Whenever I manage to look through what all he took, I'll make a list of his favorites and post them here.

Based on a Romany incense blend reputed to induce sexual dreams: Somalian rose, Moroccan rose and Bulgar rose with a sultry dribble of cinnamon. Oh, wow. A rose that doesn't give me an insta-headache. Actually, I really, really like this. It smells like pure, lush red roses (sans greenery) and the spicy warmness of cinnamon. The cinnamon definitely tones down the floral aspect of the rose, and makes it super sexy and not old-ladyish at all. It's not in-your-face, which I love. It just sort of floats around the spot where I tested. After a while, it definitely smells like this rose incense I have.

Here you go.

This is so, so good. It started out fairly green on me (definitely dandelion sap), which turned to pure syrupy (or I suppose honeyed) strawberry, and finally settled into a creamy strawberry with slight vanilla undertones. The grasses keep it from being overly sweet, though, which is nice. Also, the strawberry is definitely familiar to me: it's the same strawberry as Weeping Branches Moon and Sugar Moon 2011.

The best scent with skin musk that I have tried is, hands down, Beanman & Beanwoman Prepare to Attack the Vagina (skin musk, white amber, ambergris, orange blossom, ylang ylang, and coconut milk).

I'm wearing Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo today (thank you, DA! ) and, on me, it smells exactly like Rockstar/Snow Fairy.

The two that immediately come to mind for me are Thirteen (13): April 2012 (This 13 contains thirteen flowers of good luck swirled in white chocolate and a touch of honey: white carnation, stephanotis, blood-flower, yellow rose, eggplant flower, tiare, chamomile blossom, champaca flower, pink heather, wild orchid, pink peony, sweet basil flower, and Bells of Ireland) and Fairy Wine (An ethereal vintage, steeped with dandelion, honey, and red currants). It sounds like the sections that would most fall into line with what she wants, though, are the Mad Tea Party and Rappaccini's Garden.

I agree about Shub-Niggurath. I get a large amount of ginger from Hungry Ghost Moon 2011 (Offerings of sweet rice, ginger candy, sugar cane, smoky vanilla and rice wine mingle with a ghost's perfume of white sandalwood, wisteria, ho wood, ti, white grapefruit, and crystalline musk. This scent is tempered by the presence of ten herbs, woods and resins used in the purification of the spirit), as well.

Oh, this is so pretty. And it's exactly what it says it's supposed to be on me: French lavender and slightly fruity lotus that's warmed by the subtle spices. I agree with the above poster: it's a juicy lavender. I think I'm going to have to get a bottle of this.

Okay...either I'm crazy, or my skin amps bay rum and vanilla like crazy, or something...but I'm finding that for something similar to Hellhound on My Trail (Bay rum, bourbon vanilla, galangal, hyssop, High John the Conqueror root, tobacco, life everlasting, and brimstone), maybe try out Marquis de Carabas (A splash of bay rum, leather, dusty black wool, massoia bark, and opium residue) or Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener (Sassafras, vanilla extract, oak leaf, CO2 butter extract, and onycha). On me, Hellhound is like a mix of the two, but less masculine than Marquis de Carabas. It's crazy. But so awesome... ETA: And now Hellhound has dried down to exactly how Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener smells on me. Thing is, I love how Hellhound evolves overall, so I'm still holding out for a res.