yakiguri

Exactly what it says on the tin: green tea and cucumber. I also agree with the comparisons to Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea, but this is MUCH softer and not acrid/synthetic smelling. Perfect for days when it's too unbearably hot outside to wear anything but the lightest of scents.

Daruma Doll starts off as juicy HAYYY RED MUSK as all red musk blends too, but quickly the almond and fig seeps in. I don't really get the blood orange (unless that's juiciness when the blend is wet), rose, or cognac. Hoping more aging will make this a bit more interesting. It's nice, but doesn't really stand out among my other red musk blends.

I totally agree that at first this is cologne with a whiff of coffee. As it dries it leans more perfumey, like Lurid Library with a drop of coffee, but the teak and coffee keeps it from getting too high pitched. Curious on how this will smell on Mr. Elf. Glad to have my partial!

Yum, milky, creamy chocolate, sweet but not too sweet. Definitely I'm glad it works on my skin, but since chocolate is not a note I reach for often I'm good with just my decant.

This is lightly toasted, buttery, fluffy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet marshmallows. Exactly what it says on the tin. This isn't close to Boo IMO, Boo is much drier thanks to the linen note. Now I'm craving marshmallows...and a full bottle of this.

Oh man, this is the good stuff. Booze is a note that only works on me when it's thick and syrupy, and in this Beans blend it's definitely thick like molasses. If I didn't know better I would say this blend has tobacco in it, as I'm reminded a lot of Red Lantern but a thicker, sultrier version. It's sweet, smoky, and spicy, and incredibly well blended. This is going to FANTASTIC in the colder months. I have a partial and may need to upgrade to a full bottle before the Lupers come down.

Starting off Phallus Parade is leather with a dash of cola (is that the tea melding with something else?). As it dries the blend turns into powdery incense with a dash of sweetness from the champa blossom, and unfortunately a bit of plastic. I'm hoping more aging will bring out the leather and tea more. Glad to have a partial but I think that'll do.

Has anyone been able to find a dupe for Variety of Pleasing Amusements? I just finished up my first bottle and I'm slowly nursing my second (and last) bottle. I saw a response here a few years ago that Perversion is close, but it has champagne (I can't handle booze notes aside from rum and cognac) and I don't currently have an imp of it.

On my skin this reads like Evil and more Chaotic...not the actual Chaotic blend, but the notes here are so discordant and just generally do not work on me. It starts off with a thick puff of opium and tobacco smoke, then devolves into a funky blend of plum and kush. Every now and then I get a whiff of salt from the ambergris. Evil doesn't smell bad (ha!) per se, just...WRONG. Which I guess is a kind of evil? /shrug

Scent-wise Neutral is exactly as it says on the tin, a skin musk that reads as slightly red to my nose. Mostly clean, but just a tad spicy. It's is like that coveted my-lips-but-better (MLBB) lipstick shade: nothing exciting, but just adds that little extra oomph to lift you from blah to, well, you-but-better. I wouldn't wear it on its own but it'd definitely help anchor other blends together.

Tested on Mr. Elf. On its own, Fighter is COLD STEEL with clean leather in the background. No blood whatsoever. I guess he amps the metal note as the feel I get from this blend is cold and sharp. Testing with Neutral, the coldness comes back a bit but it's still piercingly sharp. Mr. Elf likes it, which is all that matters, but it's too sharp for my own personal tastes. Trying it on myself, more of the blood notes come out, but it's still too cold and sharp for me.

Tested on Mr. Elf. Sherlock Holmes starts off as clean, safe scent but quickly gets down and dirty with the leather, tobacco, and rosin. It's spicy, but not Middle-Eastern bazaar type spicy, but more aftershave+outdoors+I've-been-up-to-something-nefarious. This is the guy that seems safe and approachable at first but you later find he has a hell of a mean streak. My favorite type.

I completely agree that La Petite Mort is like a watered down O. LPM is nice, but, for lack of better term, too safe for my tastes. It's soft, sweet, and just a tad spicy. Since both are named after bedroom activities I'd say O is the raw, raunchy, bed-thumping, bodice-ripping kind of sex and La Petite Mort is the gentle, romantic, soft-sighs-between-the-sheets sort. If O didn't work for you but you'd like something in the same family, try this. As for me, O does work and does much more complex and interesting (dirtier) things with my skin chemistry. I'll enjoy my imp but can't see myself upgrading to a full bottle unless O suddenly ceases to exist. This could also work if you enjoy O but it's too raunchy a scent for the office.

Every whiff of this I get an acrid, chemical-powder note that I sometimes get from fresh black leather scents, but black leather isn't in this, right? Then I reread the notes. Orris. Orris = violets = one of my biggest death notes. Even though it's not on my skin, my nose just does NOT like the smell of violet. It always reads as "cheap dryer sheets" to my nose, and unfortunately it throttles the typically dominant red musk into brutal submission. Guess I was so excited about everything else in the blend I completely missed that orris was in this. Off to sales she goes.

I like to throw on anything with green tea before a run for that extra zing! of energy and freshness.