yakiguri

Pine Sol. >_< Luckily I have both an aged imp and a Lab-fresh one, so I'll set the aged one aside and hope the Lab-fresh one come out differently. EDIT: Got impatient and window-aged my new imp, and yup, got Pine Sol again. Swapping.

Nothing but caraway when wet--ugh. I was worried I wouldn't like it due to the comparisons to Interfector (which I tried SO hard to love, but it just wouldn't work), and yup, Brahmin is EXACTLY like Interfector on my skin--sharp tobacco-y woods that veers slightly into curry territory. However Brahmin is a tiny bit softer/sweeter on drydown, though the rose otto and vanilla orchid never show up. I'll keep my tester to try it again in a few months and see if the caraway calms down, and I'll also try it on white elf and see if it works better on him. EDIT: Nope, Brahmin's getting stronger by the second--must scrub off!

Interesting scent, it definitely smells more like a coming-of-spring scent rather than a winter scent. I don't really get the pepper note but the maple and camellia is strong, and the aquatics give the scent a breezy, crisp-but-not-cold air effect. I like it, but I don't think I need a bottle of this, and with it lasting 5+ hours on my skin I doubt I'll ever use up my decant anyway.

After clamoring for a decant of this for the longest time (and then forgetting I had one for the longest time), I'm a bit disappointed by Hanami. I have to echo previous statements of this smelling like a Japanesey body wash/shampoo with its soft sakura and ume notes. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if I wanted to smell like Japanese bath products I'd just buy some from my local Japanese grocery.

Butterscotch is one of my favorite tastes, but it's definitely not one of my favorite scents on my skin. It screeches to front, pushes the other notes out of the way, and keeps its cloying self right there. Ginger isn't helping, seeming to push butterscotch right at the front. No chocolate, but it's a bad note on me anyway and would probably make this blend worse on me than it already is. Scrubbing off right away.

EDIT: Wanted to revise my original review now that I'm far more familiar with notes. Bakeneko could almost be Voyeurs Among the Cherry Blossoms' feisty sister. They share the same clean, soft cherry blossom note, but where Voyeurs is ethereal and calm Bakeneko is fiery and fiesty. Citrus is typically my nemesis but the Satsuma tangerine is quite soft and subtle here; it along with the cherry blossom adds a nice splash of lightness to the heavy depths of the black tea and amber. Cardamom and cinnamon add a bright spike of energy to the blend--this isn't your mellow lap cat, but the crazy energy of kitties at play. Bakeneko is STRONG too, with major throw just with a small application. I MUST get a bottle!

This is chock-full of win notes for me, but unfortunately Flowering Chrysanthemums falls a little flat. It starts off as a nondescript light floral that's easily forgettable, but as it dried it bloomed into a very soft (and unfortunately very subtle) pretty golden-spicy floral. Disappointed that the cinnamon and chrysanthemum didn't make more of a statement. I like Flowering Chrysanthemums, but I don't love it, and its lightness really makes me iffy on investing in a bottle since I'm not a slatherer. I'll keep my decant for sure, and if I ever see a partial bottle I'll probably snag it, but I probably won't go out of my way to find one.

Hello acai berry, you can go away now. Seriously, you're smelling like stale sweettarts now. Oh, you're insisting on staying, despite knowing how much I love jasmine and chrysanthemum? Well then you're getting scrubbed and swapped. >_>

Found this by happy accident--Unveiled smells EXACTLY like Chanel Coco on dry down. So much so that I had double-check that I hadn't applied my Coco decant by mistake.

Unveiled smells almost EXACTLY like Chanel Coco's drydown: dark, spicy woods with an undercurrent of something velvety and warm, like a favorite chocolate-brown cashmere sweater handed down to you from a chic and elegant auntie or grandmother. Unveiled has so many bad notes for me (peach, myrrh, mandarin) that this should NOT have bloomed into a cousin of my favorite perfume of all time, but she has, and now I must go hunt down a bottle. EDIT: Turns out I never had a bottle, it was something else. >_>

Wet: Sharp herbal/green notes, like fresh-cut grass or loose high-quality gyokuro tea. This is supposed to represent an Egyptian queen? Dry: OK, here come the sandalwood and iris. Myrrh is actually behaving on my skin, as it usually kills blends for me and grinds them to ash. The herbs and olibanum aren't as piercing as they were when wet, but they still linger more than I'd like. Overall: Nefertiti is a clean aquatic herbal I can see as evocative of a queen looking out unto the Nile. However, I would've thought a blend named for the queen herself would be a much more exotic, powerful blend. I'm reminded more of Chanel No.19 than Egypt. If you like green/herbal scents, this is for you. I don't, so it's off to the swap pile.

Looks like I amp wine, as all I smell on my wrist is grape. Blegh.

This is such a beautiful and undeniably JAPANESE scent that reminded me so much of my years living in Japan, that it breaks my heart that my skin hates it. The yuzu and mikan screech on my skin, the cherry blossom is absent, and the kaki and tea turn to ash. I would love this as a room scent for when I'm feeling nostalgic but it's an unfortunate miss as a perfume. Though I *am* craving tangerines and persimmons now...

Strangely enough, Giant Vulva smells like a lighter Illustrated Woman on my skin. I'm guessing it's the copal coming off like pine on me. Unfortunately this blend is a little TOO light, my nose barely picking it up unless I grind my nose into my wrist. Within an hour it's gone poof. Ah well, there are plenty of other second-skin blends out there that have much stronger staying power.

Dorian v2 is like a lateral move from the original Dorian, with the lemon removed and replaced with lavender and coconut. It's STRONG too, with quite some throw--definitely dab, don't slather! The coconut is teeth-achingly sweet during the wet phase, and with a headache threatening to form I moved to scrub it off but thought I'd wait. I'm glad I did, as the lavender and deep/musky tea has roped in the coconut more to keep the blend from going cloying. Glad I took a risk buying this! EDIT: Ugh, it stayed ZOMG STRONG for hours, and I finally had to wash it off. Off to swaps it goes. >_>

EDIT: While going through my imp box I found this again, and retried it this morning. I think I was having an off-nose day when I last reviewed this, or my nose just wasn't as well-trained as it is now, but I got a totally different experience! I'm not sure how Konseishin could be classified as a masculine scent. Yes, there's a definite woodsy undercurrent with the fir and balsam, but the apple blossom, myrrh, and champaca add a sweetness to the blend that prevents it from going manly. Looking up what tan xiang is, apparently it's East Indian sandalwood, which explains the almost milky quality to this blend. I don't know what cistus (rockrose, according to Wikipedia) smells like, but I think it's safe to assume it's the slightly spicy floral I'm getting whiffs of now and then. Quite lovely blend. I'll need to hunt down a bottle. ***** Original review: Another one of those weird blends I just can't smell. I get a vague hint of flowers, and that's it. I had the same problem with Three Brides, so I'll have to compare their notes and see if they have anything in common I might be anosmic to.

I can't believe I got rid of my bottle. I'm lucky I still had a decant... Normally lilac isn't a scent I gravitate towards, and my impatience with the blend before caused its aforementioned removal from my stash. But, tastes and scent chemistries change, so I pulled out my decant today to give Penis Admiration another try. Man, I wish I had kept the bottle! The opening/wet stage is definitely lilac-dominant, but my now more-seasoned nose can detect the vanilla and soft wood in the background. The latter two notes unfurl further as Penis Admiration dries, with a tiny bit of galbanum peeking out every once in a while to ground the blend just slightly. Then the tonka slips in, giving such a sweet tint to an already beautiful blend. Penis Admiration sticks close to the skin, but I wouldn't say it has weak throw--more like the kind of smell you want people to come in for a closer sniff, not for it to run out and hit people with its scent. For having a name like Penis Admiration the blend is incredibly feminine. I must hunt down a bottle!

I agree about the fresh lemony tea, but the citrus is ruining this scent for me as it shunts the other notes out of the way, screaming OH HAI I'M LEMON VERBENA PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEEEE. A shame, as the Darjeeling and anise notes (when I can catch them away from the LEMON VERBENA) are beautiful and subtle. Bah, I didn't have this problem with Dorian, and that's a lemony tea too! Boo!

Was on the fence about buying this when the Lupers were live as sake is typically a death note. And yup, it ruined this scent for me too. Sour, acrid, NOPE. Scrubbed and swapped.

Yup, myrrh is a death note for me. >_> All I get from Aeronwen is something sharp, dirty, and sour. I'm betting the sour note is from the orange, which is typically a death note as well. Scrubbing and tossing into the swap pile.

Warm spicy almonds, that's what I get, and that's a GOOD thing. Almond is one of my favorite notes, so I'm inherently biased, and thus the first blast of WHOA ALMOND neither bothered me nor went cherry on my skin. I couldn't stop sniffing my wrist. The frankincense grounds it all and keeps Eclipse from getting almond-foody, the vanilla and heliotrope sweetens it, and the cinnamon gives the blend an awakening kick that continues through its long drydown. I definitely smell the light and dark duality in this, but Eclipse (on me) is ultimately bright, warm, and uplifting, more evocative of dawn after a bad night. Will need a bottle of this pronto!

I'm on the fence about Liz. I REALLY want to like her, and vanilla + leather SHOULD = YES, but whatever florals are in this blend are amped like WHOA on my skin. I barely get any leather, though that may be the spiciness lurking in the background, and no smoke. Liz is STRONG also, and even this tiny dab on the inside of my arm is starting to give me a slight headache. Strangely enough I'm reminded of Inez (which I LOVE) but with a MUCH louder floral base. I was hoping for something girly with a tinge of something dark/tough, but instead of badass in leather and lace I get 12-year-old little sister. >_> Curse you skin chemistry! If I can find a partial bottle that would be perfect: I doubt I'd use up a full bottle of Liz, but I definitely am willing to have more than this little decant since I'd probably cry if she were DC'd. I'll try again in a few months to see if I change my opinion of her. EDIT 8/9: I left my half decant open on my windowsill for a full hot California day to see if I could quick-age/burn off the florals, and testing Liz again this morning the floral vanilla one-two punch is toned down considerably. Those notes aren't completely gone, but the spicy girly/soft leather is much more at the forefront, which is what I had initially hoped for from this blend. I get whiffs of smoke every now and then, and the blend itself sticks much closer to the skin now that all the screaming florals have been reigned in. While Liz is still a tad sweeter than/not as spicy as I'd like with my leather blends, she's definitely earned a place on my bottle list. I might layer her with Rogue to get a tiny bit more of leathery goodness. If anyone's having trouble with the florals I recommend doing what I did.

Another heart-breakingly beautiful blend that I wouldn't have bought on my own, discovered through a frimp, fell in love with, and OF COURSE is DC'd. >_< Midnight on the Midway is a soft, beautiful blend with candied florals and sweet incense. Normally any incense note goes wet dog on me--hence me not even giving this blend a glance before--but here its sweetness adds to the blend's femininity without going high-pitched or cloying. It gets even softer and slightly smokey upon dry down, and I'm envisioning more of a bordello or seraglio than a carnival. I wonder why this wasn't part of the Grindhouse instead, as soft and sultry as it is. Will definitely have to hunt down a bottle!

I don't know what it is about Three Brides, but for some bizarro reason I can barely smell this. I get a vague idea of florals, but that's it. I have to push my wrist right into my nose to smell it, and even then I get very faint roses and nothing else. I've tried it several times over a series of weeks and I simply can't smell this. I wish I knew which of the notes I'm apparently anosmic to, as the description of Three Brides led me to believe it would be nothing but win on my skin. Pity. I'm glad I didn't buy it blindly and got a decant instead. I might wait a few months and retry to see if it's any different.

Could someone recommend something similar to Shadow Witch Orchid? Bottles of it don't seem to pop up in the sales threads that often (at least *I* haven't seen it) and I absolutely ADORE it. Thanks! :3