calivianya

I was expecting a sweet woodsy smell from this one. It started off vanilla and pine, very promising, but dried down to play-doh. This is the first blend that's really smelled like play-doh to me. Very strange.

I think I am the opposite of many people here; I don't usually get an overpowering grape smell from wine notes. I am feeling lucky right now. Anthesteria is the strongest grape scent I have smelled thus far.

I spied a bottle of VILF on Etsy and went for it! I had initially been a little intimidated by the pepper note, as pepper of any sort tends to go bad on me, but I couldn't resist the temptation because the other notes all sound wonderful. For so many strong notes, VILF is curiously light on me. My initial reaction was a big sigh of relief as the pepper is definitely present, but not a huge player in this scent. What I am getting a lot of is LEATHER. This is a spicy, dirty leather with a little bit of woods hanging out in the background. The vanilla and honey are very quiet on my skin, as on me this blend has almost no sweetness at all. This is not exactly what I thought it would be. I do like it so far, but I did expect it to be a little sweeter than this. Maybe with some aging VILF will have more vanilla and will then be perfect.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. The grapefruit immediately jumps out and attacks once this blend is on my skin, but as it dries down the other notes come out more. I can definitely smell the chamomile, currant, and lavender. I can smell a hint of musk in the background but it is not as in your face as black musk usually is on my skin. This is a winner, and by far the best scent of the 6 imps and 6 frimps that came in my order.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. The first thing that I notice about this oil is how thick and dark it is. If you are fair skinned, like I am, you will really need to apply it somewhere it doesn't show because it is very noticeable on the skin. All I can smell is the black pepper, which totally and completely overwhelms all other notes in this blend and is starting to give me a headache. Sadly, this one isn't for me.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. Coyote really is a grass and musk smell - too grassy for my tastes. The combination of notes smells very cologne-y, and I may try this out on my boyfriend to see if he has better luck with it than I do.

I got this as a frimp from the Lab. All it took was sniffing it to detect the dragon's blood and decide that skin testing would be a very bad idea. I will pass this along to someone whose skin is kinder to dragon's blood than mine.

I got mint, caramel, black musk, and sage from this, until I read the other reviews that said celery. Now I can't get the idea that this smells like celery out of my head. The combination of those notes really does smell like celery to me, albeit celery with some kind of sweetener, like caramel dipping sauce. Overall, I like this blend, but now I'm not sure I'll be able to break the celery association.

I really like chamomile as a note so I had to give Lawful a try. In the imp, this smelled like a very bitter wood and was a little off-putting, but it immediately sweetened on my skin. I can smell the chamomile clearly, and there is a little bit of wood underneath grounding it. I'm not sure what rhubarb and fig leaf smell like, but there is more to this scent than what I've mentioned so I'm sure they are present. However, this is mostly oak and chamomile on my skin. I like it.

I sprang for a bottle unsniffed based on the reviews, and I'm glad I did. This scent is a gorgeous, resinous scent that goes a little high pitched from the white musk. The leather starts to come out for me on the drydown. Unfortunately I am never able to detect the vanilla, but this is still a gorgeous resin blend without it. If resins are your thing, you should really pick up this blend.

I'm half-wondering if my imp is full of the wrong scent, because something is going terribly wrong here. I was expecting a woodsy scent with beeswax and berries, and that is not what I'm getting. I am not sure what the culprit is as there are several notes in this that I haven't tried before, but I am getting total overpowering SOAP! with a hint of wood from this blend. I feel rather sad about this. I will age my imp just in case, but I think I may get rid of this one. Edit: after 30 extra minutes past the initial drydown, the berries are finally starting to sweeten this up. However, I can still definitely smell the soap. It is better, but still not as good as I was expecting.

I get mostly sandalwood from Half-Elf. The beeswax and tea leaf try to peek out from under all of the sandalwood, but are generally overwhelmed. I think I am also getting a bit of the urban musk, but I'm not positive. This is my second favorite of the RPGs so far and I will be keeping my imp.

This smells mostly like leather and the lubricating oils on me. I was hoping for more frankincense. This is a very unusual blend. It really does smell like someone who has been working on machinery all day long. I'm not sure if I'll wear it often, but I think I'll keep the imp because it's such a unique scent.

I had high hopes for this one. I love frankincense, beeswax, sage, and balsam... but something in this is making it smell very peppery. I can't stand pepper in my perfumes most of the time, and this is no exception. Maybe waiting for the drydown would make it awesome, but I don't think I can wait to make it there. Sadly, I'm going to have to wash it off.

I would wear Red Lace on my wedding day, I think. To me, it's elegant and sweet and sexy all rolled into one, which is exactly what I would like to feel like then.

Imaginepageant, have you tried The Lights of Men's Lives? The wax and smoke of millions upon millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death's shadowy cave: some tall, straight, and strong, blazing with the fire of life, others dim and guttering. This is all sweet beeswax on my skin. I don't get any smoke. This is one of my favorites.

When I was testing Black Lace, I thought it seemed familiar. I figured it out today. I tested Black Lace and The Lurid Library side by side and the drydown is almost identical. Black Lace is a hint of vanilla plus musk, and The Lurid Library is dust plus the exact same musk. I'm relieved. I don't have to track down a bottle of Black Lace, and wouldn't even buy one if I could because of the extreme similarity between these two scents. I love The Lurid Library.

I received a tester from a wonderful forumite. I am immediately hit by a flood of red musk when I put this on my skin. I agree with the other reviewers who say that red musk completely dominates this one. I often, but not always, pick up a cola smell with red musk blends - maybe this is really what red musk smells like and the cola smell is not something else added in. I thought red musk was different than this, but apparently I'm wrong. Maybe my first experience with red musk was deceptive. I'm honestly still not sure; this will require further investigation. I do smell a sweetener in this, probably vanilla. I can pick out the barest tiny bit of earthy patchouli if I hold my wrist right to my nose and inhale deeply. It is barely perceptible, which is okay with me because patchouli heavy scents don't always work for me. Overall, I really do like this blend. It's a shame it's hard to find.

I received this from a great forumite. I am not a huge fan of florals, but I wanted to try this to see how they'd interact with the copal, labdanum, and tonka. Wet, this a floral. It is *very* floral, but not a bright happy floral. It is rich and spicy. Based on a previous review, I might keep and age my imp just in case it turns into beautiful resiny no-floral goodness, but as of right now it is going in my swaps box.

Hunter reminds me very strongly of Western Diamondback, which totally makes sense considering. Either way, I love both of these. Of the two, Western Diamondback is sweeter due to the presence of the vanilla in Snake Oil. I think that if you took that out, these blends would be nearly identical on my skin. I can very definitely pick out the sage, leather, amber, and clove when wet. Leather is the strongest player for me and stays strong well into the drydown on my skin. This is a very soft smelling leather with a touch of amber on the drydown and is honestly the only leather blend I've tried that has kept leather as the dominant player on my skin. It is quite delicious, and I might need a bottle for when I feel like I need an extra leather kick. I think this would be great layered with Western Diamondback to bring the leather note to the forefront.

I received a tester of this from a very generous forumite. ...I think I should have checked the notes before putting this on my skin, though. I immediately recognize gardenia, which is a sudden and immediate death note. It's not quite killing this blend as badly as it kills most things that hit my skin, but there is definitely a little nastiness going on. I cannot pick out any other notes as the gardenia is quite overwhelming. Oh well, I will happily pass this on.

Tombstone's vanilla is intensely foody on my skin, which I was not quite expecting. It smells for all the world like this cinnamon nougat I just had some of this morning. The sassafras and cedar are just adding to that impression, sassafras being foody on its own and cedar smelling almost spicy on my skin. I don't really get the balsam at all - just super foody cinnamon nougat. Wow, my skin chemistry is strange.

Green Tree Viper just jumped to the top of my bottles to buy list. The Snake Oil is there, but very subdued on my skin unlike other Snake Pit scents I have tried. Mostly, this blend is just minty fresh with a little bergamot. This is instant love. ...I'm not sure if my skin chemistry has changed or what, but lately it's been going slightly soapy before vanishing altogether within an hour. I'm sad; I really liked this one.

Inez immediately strikes me as a "warm" scent - which is usually my gut reaction to cedar and myrrh. Both of those notes are definitely present here. The carnation and myrrh combination make this deliciously spicy, and the vanilla musk sweetens it. The sandalwood and amber are also definite presences, making this one of the few oils that I can actually detect all the listed notes in. Inez is totally beautiful and I might just have to get a bottle.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to try this blend. I cannot compare Antique Lace and Black Lace, but I can provide counterpoints to Red Lace. Black Lace is more aloof and elegant than Red Lace. Red Lace is candy sweet, but while I can smell the vanilla cotton note here, Black Lace is overall not a sweet scent on my skin. I am mostly getting tobacco and musk, and the combination is delicious. I'm afraid I'm going to have to search down a bottle now.