calivianya

Red musk and florals are both wild cards on me. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't - and with florals, it's usually a don't. I'm really hoping that the red musk behaves itself here, and that the black orchid is very understated. The rest of the notes sound great. This is a very dark oil. It looks a lot like Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, etc. in the vial. Smelling it in the vial, it is single note sharp red musk. I was a little intimidated by it, but decided to give it a try on my skin. It is solid red musk at first, but then it blooms almost immediately. I am getting a very heavy dose of floral and red musk. This is much sweeter than I'd imagined it to be. In fact, the longer I have this on, the more potent the bright floral note seems to be getting. The black orchid is amping on my skin and savagely beating the other notes down. I haven't worn a blend with black orchid before, so I didn't really know what to expect - but black orchid apparently smells like soap on my skin. This is starting to smell a lot like a bar soap with hints of spicy red musk in the background and a teensy smidge of tobacco sweetness. I don't think I can stand to let this dry all the way - I won't wear a scent if all the stages don't agree with me. I really wish I had gotten the wonderful incense scent the previous reviewer had gotten; it was what I was really hoping for.

I am so thankful that I got to try this. Major props out to the forumite I swapped with for a decant! This may not be the most reliable review, as I have pretty severe sinus congestion, but I can't take it any longer! I've had it for three days and I haven't tried it yet; something had to give. In the vial: Fruity, fruity, fruity pomegranate! I can't really pick out anything else. Wet on my skin: Pomegranate and pepper! The patchouli slinks in almost immediately - wow! I can tell the difference in this patchouli and in other scents with fresh patchouli that I've bought from the Lab. This is really smooth. The fougere starts to show itself after a few seconds, making this slightly more masculine. It is still sweeter than I was thinking it would be with so many masculine notes. The pomegranate is a little stronger than I would have liked it to be, but it isn't doing horrible things on my skin yet. I'm surprised. Drydown: The pomegranate is still there, and still not nasty! I'm really surprised now. Every scent I've worn where the pomegranate is a major player has gone a bit rancid on my skin. Dragon's blood in all its incarnations also amps and goes rancid on my skin, but I was never able to detect that at all. Huh. What I do have is a very incensy blend with pomegranate. I am still getting the patchouli and perhaps a hint of ginger, but I can't pick out much else at the moment. I really like what I'm smelling. I think I'll keep my decant, at least for now, and do a re-test when my sense of smell is less impaired. Now, I wish I had tried for a bottle on Etsy. I just refreshed the page and enjoyed watching the numbers go down...

I was really excited for this; I didn't think there was any possible way this could go wrong on me. Frosting? Check. Red wine? Check. Dry leaves? Check. Tobacco smoke? Check. Incense? Check. Snake Oil? Check. Dorian? Check. However... this is really not great on my skin. The red wine dominates initially, and it is very grapey, like Anthesteria. Red wine normally does not go grapey on my skin. It is usually very dark and sensual, not candy grape-like. What's going on here? Okay now it's starting to go powdery on me the way that Tombeur does. This is also mystifying, as technically they only share Snake Oil. I can wear Snake Oil, I can wear Green Tree Viper, Boomslang, Lilith Victoria... what's happening? Maybe the tobacco smoke note includes a bit of vetiver to create the smokiness, as that might explain the similarities to Tombeur I'm getting. I really don't know, this just ends up an overly sweet powdery mess on my skin. I am very disappointed, and I am really hoping that aging works some miracles. I was really hoping that this was going to be my HG scent.

I'm going to make a plug for The Wiley Grasser. I can't stop wearing it. If you like the smell of cotton candy, this is the most true-to-life cotton candy I have ever smelled with a hint of florals and pine needles. It goes through a period on me where the floral attempts, and fails, to take over, but other than that stage it is pure candy sweetness. I will be really surprised if this one isn't a hit.

This is definitely a white scent. The grapefruit and white tea jump out immediately upon application. It's tart and sweet, and reminiscent of pink lemonade with a hint of tea. Lovely. As it dries down, the ginger becomes more prominent and sort of ruins this for me. That crystalline white tea/grapefruit combination is still there, but it smells like it's been dirtied a little by the ginger. And now I'm getting the cleaning product scent others are getting. I'm not sure if it's the combination or what, but this is a little sad. I really liked the beginning of this scent on my skin.

I had some apprehensions about this scent since the Lab's Irish coffee note does not work on my skin sometimes, but I couldn't help myself when I saw an opportunity to swap. I'm really glad I did. At first sniff, the Irish coffee note threatens to dominate and sweeten this blend to the point of being nauseating, like it does in Miskatonic University. However, the woods and tobacco bring it under control so that on the drydown, this is a sweetened coffee/tobacco/woods blend. This is exactly what I hoped Miskatonic University would smell like on me, and I am very pleased to have a bottle.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. Only one rose scent so far (Lilith) has made it onto the like list, so I don't have much hope for this one. Wet, this is roses and creamy coconut on my skin. I can't really pick out the musks/orris. However, as it dries down, the rose turns to powder and the musks appear, making this a coconutty, powdery musk. It's really not my kind of scent.

Envy starts out with lime, mint, and lavender - after about 30 minutes the only player left remaining is lavender with a faint grassy tinge. I wish the lime and mint hung around longer; it might have been worth keeping my decant if they did.

Nero is a very masculine scent. It does smell very much like cologne, with strong bay and rosemary. I do like some pine scents, but this is not one of them. It is sharp and astringent, and it was not a good match with my skin chemistry. It might smell good on my boyfriend, so I'll have to try it out on him later.

I don't know why I never reviewed this. o.0 I'm not a huge fan of florals, but I decided to try this anyway because I received it as a frimp. I'm not exactly sure which floral it was that went bad on me, but this was spicy nasty floral that turned powdery on the drydown. It just was not appealing on my skin.

I received this as a frimp a while back; I wonder why I didn't review it then. Oh well. I had some hopes for Nephilim with the frankincense, patchouli, lavender, oakmoss, and cypress, all of which I like, but I didn't really get any of those. What I got was hyssop, fig, and vetiver, with a bare hint of patchouli and frankincense. I'm not a huge fan of hyssop or fig, so this isn't a good fit. This is going to swaps.

This turned pure nasty lily on me. I was hoping for more sweet oppoponax, but it stayed well-hidden in the background. I ended up washing this off because the lily was so rancid.

I am not a fan of aquatics or ozone, but I was hoping the incense would make up for the other notes. It didn't. I got an aquatic/incense blend that was just meh on my skin rather than the dark incense I was hoping for.

Miskatonic University smelled nothing like I had hoped. I got a little bit of woods and sweet buttery popcorn that didn't morph at all. I would really have liked the coffee...

I wish I got the sexy foody ginger everyone else is getting from this blend. I get a very sharp, astringent ginger. It's so intense it's a little bitter. It is not in the least appetizing and I was washing this one off my skin pretty quickly.

I can't believe I have never reviewed this scent. It is an absolute favorite. Dusty books, sexy musk, incense... what's not to love? It is just on the masculine side. The musk is the same musk from Black Lace, but where Black Lace goes slightly soapy on my skin The Lurid Library stays true. It is a wonderful scent and I am in love. I just wish it was a hint more feminine, because it would be my signature scent for sure if it was.

An agricultural gargoyle. Though he is the Guardian of the Crops and Keeper of the Fields, his visage is still the stuff of nightmares. The scent of a hot wind blowing through desolate, scorched, barren fields. I got the nail polish smell as well. However, it disappeared on my skin, and just smelled vaguely like dry hay. I'm not a huge fan of hay in perfumes.

I love lavender and I'm gradually learning to appreciate patchouli, so I thought that with the tonka to sweeten it up this might be good. However, the lavender is very sharp upon application. The rosewood and patchouli come out, making this a sharp dirty wood smell. Where are the amber and tonka? I really need something sweeter in this scent, and for some reason the amber and tonka are not delivering. I think if they actually showed up I would like this scent a lot, but since they don't, I don't. Off to swaps!

I really love oppoponax, so I thought I might love this blend. Alas, this is not the case. It is very woodsy and dry with a bit of oppoponax, but it also smells strangely astringent. I'm not sure what exactly is giving it that sharp edge. I can vaguely smell the rose on the drydown, whose extreme powder puts the final nail in this scent's coffin for me.

Pomegranate never works for me, and this is no exception. I don't even know if I can describe how bad this goes on my skin. It's like a weird, sickly sweet, medicinal smell. It is not good with my skin chemistry.

I really just opened this one to sniff, as dragon's blood turns absolutely horrible on my skin. Yep, I can smell the dragon's blood in here. I can definitely pick up the musks as well. I think this would be really good on someone with the right chemistry, but I'm not willing to risk it today.

Definitely smells like a good Cosmo. I normally like booze scents, but this one is just so exact on my skin that I feel like I've spilled something on myself. Oh, and it disappeared quickly anyway...

This is definitely a pure cucumber scent; however, I don't think I want to smell like cucumbers.

I've found that pennyroyal often makes a stronger mint than actual mint does, and this is no exception. I get an immediate blast of MINT! in my face. It's quite delicious. At first, the minty pennyroyal is all I can smell. Eventually, I get a hint of the lavender-citron cologne, but it is definitely in the background underneath the pennyroyal. I never do smell the black musk, which is unusual because black musk is usually extremely aggressive on my skin. This is a much lighter blend than I was expecting based on the notes. I love it.

I received this as a frimp from a wonderful forumite. This is very pretty and lighthearted! Wet, it is mostly dandelion and honey on my skin, with a little fruitiness from the currant. It doesn't morph on me, but my skin does eat it. What a shame. If it wasn't gone within 30 minutes, this would be a bottle purchase for sure.