jewelbug

Imp: Definitely earthy...the same sort of dirt note I get from jazz funeral. But with a hint of berry...the combo is weird to me. We'll see how it plays on the skin. Wet: Oh, yes, a LOT of dirt. Vmuch like the jazz funeral dirt. Under that, a hint of sweetness.... There's actually something lemony (maybe the herbs?)...and a faint, fruity wine note that is sometimes like montressor, and sometimes not wine-y at all. The nuances are hard to pin down! Drying: Mint? Huh? Just a bit, but this has a "chill" to it that is reminiscient of mint. I really get mostly dirt + citrusy/minty herbs. No wine/fruit at all after the wet stage. The effect is oxymoronic: clean dirt. Its pretty faded by about 4 hrs in. Overall: This one wasn't at all what I expected...never much wine, it started out really citrusy dirt, settled into an herbal scent with a hint of dirt and then faded. The dirt note here is lovely, and reminds me strongly of jazz funeral, but I prefer JF, so I'll be passing this to a new home.

Imp: a really light, clean sort of scent. definitely worthy of a description wiht light, crystal and purity in it. THere is perhaps a twinge of lime? Wet: This goes on pretty powerful for such a light, clean scent. I still smell what i think is lime, maybe even a hint of mint. And there is something ozoneish, too. Dry: I get a clean ozoney citrus scent with a hint of herbal florals, and it has a throw for MILES. Further into drydown, the citrus and ozone back off, and the clean herby florals are more evident. They are clean white florals, and I'd hazard a guess that there is even a bit of pale rose in this blend (think moon rose). After about 3 hrs, this is a faint clean scent. Overall: This is really pretty, but simply not in my genre of scents. I'm more a spice gal. Ziggga-zig-ahhhhh.

Imp: Oooh, a really fresh, juicy apple! Its got an apple cider hint to it, too, its that juicy. Wet: Still strong apple (much like the apple in the hesperides), but I can definitely smell something more sinister underneath...almost...swampy (maybe that's the hemlock)? Occasionally, I get a faint whiff of apple that TOO sweet..almost overripe. Drying: This evolves into a more...perfumey apple. Not perfumey in a bad sense, but in the sense that its not a foody apple blend. A really sophisticated take on the fruit. Later into drydown, there is an incredible throw of juicy, sweet apples, but up close there is a rooty deep floral scent--reminicient of lotus root, even though I don't think that's a note in this. Overall: I really enjoy this blend! I'm going to hold onto my imp and see consider a bottle. Its lasts 6ish hrs--I do wish it had a bit more staying power...

Note: This is a pretty aged imp of Urd, as far as I can tell (i've had it for a year or more, and it was someone else's before that.... Imp: dark and incensey, but simultaneously sweet. Wet: this goes on very woodsy to me...the patchouli, perhaps? Woodsy with an undercurrent of syrupy sweetness and something akin to champaca flower (nag champa, maybe?) Drying: This starts getting more incensy (the nag champa, I think). It settles into a woodsy incense with a hint of sweetness. Overall: Very nice, and I'm glad I tried it, but its simply not my genre of scent. I'll pass it along to a more loving home. Has good staying power (6-8 hrs), and decent throw.

Moxie usually cheers me up and gives good energy. And I second white light.

I'm passing this on to a more loving home, but thought I'd review it first! Bottle: citrus with maybe a hint of powdery amber, and tea? Wet: a very fresh, sweet, green tea and citrus scent a hint watery. Drying:Ah, its orris, not amber, and its getting that earthy powder scent that orris tends to give me. Very pretty. Orris, tea and a light citrusy scent (linden, maybe?). Dry: By 2 hrs in, it’s a faint powdery orris, and rapidly fading. Overall: It’s a lovely scent, though not quite my genre. That compounded with its lack of staying power on my skin means it doesn't get enough love in my home. Its being adopted!

This goes on a thick hazelnut cream...more nuts and cream than coffee (that's how my sister takes her coffee!). Unfortunately a burning plastic nastiness comes out under the hazelnut cream and doesn't leave. Just as well, as this starts out a bit too foody for me, anyway.

Its maybe a bit too obvious than what you're looking for, but Blood Kiss was the first thing I thought of. "Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk." Its got the dark vampiric aspect, but its got those playful and sweet cherries and vanilla/honey. Other possibilities: Horreur Sympathique The perfume of a hellbound soul, gleefully lost to iniquity: blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane. Les Bijoux Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, frankincense and myrrh. I like this one cuz its so different from the others, and it brings the french into it. Plus its got ritual scents (resins), the skin musk of getting up close and personal before the bite and a playful peachy girly side.... Maybe since she's promiscuous, Vixen? "Lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker's perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli." That's all I've got for now!

The legendary birthplace of the Green Fairy. Swiss ferns, lilac, blackcurrant, Gallic rose and lavender with a dollop of sugar and absinthe. Imp: Lots of lilac, something a bit fruity, and a fuminess. Wet: Wow, tons of lilac. Really pretty indeed! Lilacs are my mom's fave flower, so it reminds me of her. At the Drying: Lilac, lilac, lilac. At the end I get a wee huff of the absinthe, I think. Dry: As this dries, the lilac backs off and the rose starts to amp. This finishes as a subtle green rose blend. Overall: I LOVED the lilac at the start, but even if it stayed that the whole time, its just a scent I'd wear--I'm not into the florals so much. I think I'll pass this along.

Your results may vary, but I was recently testing Cockaigne, and it reminded me strongly of sugar skull...

The sticky sweet scent of candy corn! Imp: Darkly sweet syrup with a hint of spice. It smells a bit boozy and yes, is reminiscent of candy corn.. Wet: Such a warm, sweet, spicy scent. A hint of clove, maybe? Dry: A spiced brown sugar sort of scent. This actually reminds me of the crumb topping of a dutch apple pie. Overall: This, to me, is in the bengal/chimera family of very sweet spice. Its a perfect fall scent, and I know I'd wear it then if i had more. But more than a scent for wear, I think this would be a phenomenol home scent. If this comes out again, I'll likely by a bottle for my oil burner. Since I've only got one lonely imp right now, I'm going to pass it on and share the love. eta: Its 5-6 hrs later, and at this point, its still a sugary scent wiht spice, but it does smell more like candy corn than it did early on. Best described as a vanilla sugar spice now...

I was testing Cockaigne today, and I think it smells very similar to Sugar Skull '05.

Imp: Jackish without the pumpkin. Wet: Buttery carrot cake and a hint of berry wine. I get a wee bit of the milk note from Milk Moon '05, too. Dry: A sugary, syrupy, boozy, buttery cake, no more milk. Its sort of a like a cake soaked in sugar skull, actually. The fruitier year of sugar skull, whichever that was...'05 maybe? Overall: If I run out of SS, I think this is a reasonable sub. As much as I like SS, its very sweet, and I don't often wear it, though, so this one will be passed on until that day....

I second Silk Road for a summery cinnamon scent. Its light and grassy, but spicy at the same time. Chimera is pretty heavy/sweet on me, so I tend to go more towards winter with that one.

Imp: Um, jasmine rears its head. It wants to make sure I know its there before I try putting it on my skin. Its trying to scare me off, and it would work if not for that pesky "must try everything on skin" rule that I have. Jasmine, honeysuckle? and maybe rose (white)? Wet: I think I smell jasmine and honeysuckle. Not much else. Maybe a bit of dirt? Dry: Jasmine/Rose. Okay, its not that awful--usually jasmine goes to complete cat pee on me. This is...well...its cat-pee-esque, but not nearly as bad as some I've had.... Overall: Jasmine/Rose floral, bit of honeysuckle, bit of dirt? Nope, not me, but glad I got to try it!

Bottle: Metallic ozone. This screams dept-store preppy boy cologne to me. Which is not a bad thing, of course, but not something I wanna smell like. Wet: Yes, definitely ozone. Maybe a hint of citrus. Its a nice scent, sweet, clean and rivetingly rainy fresh, but its still preppy-boy smelling to me. Drying: As this dries, I lose a lot of the overtly dept store boy scent. The amber comes out a bit more, and oddly enough, I feel like there is a bit of spiciness in the background. Maybe its the scorched woods....Given several hours I lose the rainy/ozone feel entirely and smell a lot more of the scorched grass/wood(blonde) and amber (slightly powdery). Overall: This is a great portrayal of the thunder storm. At the start is ozone and rain, middle the rain tapers off and at the end you're left with the after-scent of clean woods newly rained upon. Very cool. Not a scent I'd wear regularly, however, being a spice/food/musk kinda gal.

Imp: Citrus Almond Dirt Flowers. Okay, that sounds odd...it actually smells good, but that's the best way I can describe. Wet: Defintley a citrus overtone with a heady creamy(almondy, still) floral. Dry: Less citrus, less almondy, much more floral now, and I totally understand what others mean by a spicy lilly scent. Its not spicy in the traditional sense, but it definitely has that feel. After a bit, it takes on a distincly necco wafer/conversation heart smell, which is something I often get from gardenia blends. Even though this one's a lily. Don't ask me to explain it...i smells what I smells. Overall: Nope, not me. I'm not a floral/lily gal.

Bottle: Fruity chocolate. And, well, to be honest. It smells a bit like scratch n sniff chocolate stickers... Wet: Ginger (not spicy ginger, fruity ginger like in Hungry Ghost Moon), chocolate and general sweet fruitiness. Not scratch n sniff anymore, thank goodness! Dry: Strangler Fig with chocolate. Seriously. I can't explain it, I mean, fig isn't even listed in the notes of this one. Fig/fig leaf WERE in the previous two 13's and I didn't smell it in either one. But in this 13, well, almost all I smell is fig. With a bit of chocolate. Overall: Well, I love fig, so this is a no brainer for me. I'm definitely keeping it. I'm just puzzled as to how I got fig from this.

Imp: I smell mostly almond, with a bit of rose and a...dirtiness....that I can't describe. Wet: Still a predominantly almond blend. The rose supports it, and there is a honey (i think that's the souce of the "dirtiness", actually) myrrh evident. I also smell something distinctly spicy--dunno what it is. This is a very rich scent, smooth, round, womanly. Dry: As it dries, Bilquis goes a bit powdery on me (roses often do)...still almondy, but its a dirty powdery almond. If you've read American Gods, you know what Bilquis does with unsuspecting menfolk--This smells like that--powerful, womanly, and DIRTY (sexually honeyed spicy dirty). Honestly, its too powerful for me--I'm overwhelmed and have been fighting the urge to wash it off. Usually I wash off scents that have gone horribly wrong. This one is not wrong, its just...intimidating. Update, I managed to keep it on longer: It gets an incensual powderyness to it, and you can definitely start to smell the lillies. These are strong lillies, not the soft sweet type that I usually smell. The almond blends into the rest and I'm left with a very womanly incense/honey/floral blend. Overall: I'm just not typically drawn to almond blends. Add that to the fact that I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing this in most company (its intimidating) and this will have to be swapped. As a blend it portrays the subject matter EXPERTLY, its just not a scent I can pull off. The feel reminds me of Mama-Ji (strong womanly florals with spice and deep complexity), and I'm more comfy spending my time with MJ.

I can definitely see the cocoa absolute separating in my bottle, so I made sure to give it a good blend before I tested this. I love how hte inside of my bottle is like a lava lamp with hte dark chocolate absolute forming little blobs. Bottle: Oooh, spicy chocolate. A lot of cardamom and clove. This is SO promising!!! Wet: Oh yes, spicy chocolate. And a hint of mint, perhaps? Maybe that’s the catnip… Dry: Holy cloves, batman! This turns into an amping clove single note for quite a while…3 hrs later it’s faded quite a bit (can’t smell unless I’m close up), and what I do smell is still predominantly clove, with just a hint of chocolatey sweetness about. Overall: I love clove cigarettes and clove scent in general, but the clove single note I got from this 13 was a bit much for me (as a perfume, at least). I was hoping to get a lot more fig (one of my faves), cardamom, sandalwood and chocolate from this, but the clove amped them all into non-existence. That said, I think this will work phenomenally to add spice and warmth to other blends. I'll be keeping this and experimenting with layering.

Bottle: A chocolate blend, yes, but I actually smell more sugary, deep vanilla than chocolate. The result reminds me of a less chocolatey candy-butcher. This also has quite a bit of fruitiness, though I can't pick out what sort of fruit. Wet: Oh yes, quite a bit of tropical fruit feel to this, and still quite a strong vanilla aspect to the scent. The chocolate is an afterthought. . Dry: In the mid-dry, this maintains is sugary vanilla with light fruits and chocolate scent, but it gains some herby floral--its got an almost minty herbal smell (though its slight, I really have ot huff to get it). During the last stage (2-3 hrs and later), this settles into a very sugary sweet vanilla with hints of cocoa and fruits (no more herbs/florals). Overall: It's the lightest and sweetest of the 3 13's I've tried (haven't tried July 07 yet)--very sugared vanilla smelling, way less chocolate than the original. I like it. I originally bought 2 bottles, but I think one will do me (I don't wear these types of blends often), so I swapped the second away. A very comforting scent! ETA: THAT'S IT!!!! Somethign was bothering me, as the sugary sweet vanilla scent was reminding me strongly of something and I couldn't put my finger on it. The answer is LICK IT AGAIN!!!! It smells like LIA minus mint, plus fruit and a hint of chocolate. I feel better now.

Bottle: This smells like a warmer version of some of the yule scents to me. Definitely has that evergreeny cold scent that I don't usually gravitate towards, but its softened by some warmer musky tones that I could warm up to. Wet: Strong on the winter air and pine, with a musky furriness to it, and a hint of something almost metallic. Drying: The cool evergreen notes are still very strong on me, but some winter berries come out to add a sweetness and warmth. The throw is really...furry...its amazingly executed, not sure how beth did that! Its warm and cold all at once. I think the musk/amber/orris really helps with that warmth. As time goes by (30 min or so), this really sweetens up--almost like a sweet leather along with all the winter outdoorsy notes, and the cedar/sandalwood become more pronounced. Late Dry: This is a warm musky woods blend now--the chillier evergreen notes are gone and the warmer sandalwood/cedar has replaced them. There's a bit of berry left, and the scent is still FUZZY warm with orris and amber giving it an earthy powder note. Slightly sweet, and very masculine sexy to my nose. Overall: This is so wonderfully blended, and very evocative of its inspiration--i can imagine the warm fur, the steaming breath in the cold forest air, even the leathery skin of the animal itself. That said, its just not the type of scent I go for--a wee bit masculine to my nose. I think it'd be sexy on the hubby but he prefers his other staples, so this will have to be passed along to a more loving home.

I got a sniffie of this in a swap and wanted to give this a test before I pass it along to a very generous forumnite. Imp: lemon juice and lemon peel. Wet: Lemon and a pine-sol scent. This really smells like cleaner to me--lemon AND pine. On second thought...maybe eucalyptus, not pine? In any case, its very fumey-cleaning-agent on me right now. THe only think I can see this giving me energy to do right now is clean my bathroom! Dry: This keeps its cleaner scent for a while, but then it mellows into a creamy citrus, sort of like the creamsicle previous reviewers have mentioned. And there seems to be a bit of an edgey spice (clove?)...either that or a metallic (um, nose confusion, right?). This late drydown is far more pleasant than the early stage, and reminds me a bit of LUSH's Merry Xmas massage bar... Utility: Its certainly invigorating!! The later stages got me off my bum to pack up some last minute swaps, brew some nice tea and reorganize some bpal boxes, so I'm gonna say its pretty effective!

MCXLII Bottle: A light floral citrus. The citrus is most akin to a grapefruit, I'd say. And there's a mimosa like scent too. Perhaps a wee bit of oakmoss? Wet: Green floral (sweet, not sharp), light grapefruit-like citrus, and maybe a hint of aquatic? Dry: less green now, still a very pretty light grapefruit scent with a hint of floral. There may be some pale musk in this--white musk or vanilla musk--the longer i sniff it the more i think vanilla musk...At different points during the dry down i swear I smell champagne notes, and later in an apple/chamomile like scent comes out and the citrus diminishes. There's a slight powdery-ness to this. Maybe amber? Overall: A fresh, light citrus blend, a bit creamy that gives way to sweet light florals and a hint of other fruits. Its not really in my usual realm of scents, but its very pretty and feminine. I can't quite decide whether to keep it or not. _______________________ DCCXXVII Bottle: green tea and bamboo? This smells akin to some of the Asian moons--Holiday, especially, though not as lemony (IIRC). It has a green tea sort of vibe. Wet: Very juicy green, sort of like cut grass. So incredibly fresh, and one of the sweetest, greenest bpals I've tried. I smell freshly cut, wet, bamboo, grasses, maybe a hint of cucumber, and crushed stems? Very spring-time. Dry: Less wet green scent now, its definitely drier. Still green, but not nearly like in the wet stages. There is a bit of something in here that reminds me of Night's Pavilion. Osmanthus maybe? Though it could actually be frankincense. I dunno what it is, but I'm not liking the dry stage of this nearly as much as the wet. The drydown reminds me a wee bit of what selkie did on me, though I swapped my selkie so i can't confirm... Overall: This one isn't for me really. The Asian moons weren't my thing, and this green fresh type of scent, while lovely, just isn't my preferred scent genre.

Bottle: This is a sweet fruity smell in the bottle. Orange, definitely, but also a cherry hint from the dragon's blood. And some yellow smelling florals. Wet: This is a medium strength floral (is that the sunflower? Its pretty) with a strong orange influence. Unfortunately, in the wet stage, this has a twinge of something i don't like (sorta reminds me of sweet pea, though that's not listed) Dry: This continues to lose its orange/floral (no more weird sweet-peaish scent) as it wears on and after a few hours I'm left with an incensey amber scent with a hint of vanillic sweetness. Overall: I'm not sold on this yet. I think I'll let it age and then come back to it. These resins definitely have potential but the wet and early dry stages have a floral that I'm not digging.