WidgetAlley
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Everything posted by WidgetAlley
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Orange blossom, blackberry, amber mint, and red sandalwood. Oh, my. Am I really the first to review this? Oh, the pressure. Here goes. I should add that it is That Time of the Month for me, so this may go completely insane on my skin right now and then be great later on. In the bottle: Oh, wow. This is a lot darker and smokier than I thought it would be-- the scent description makes it sound playful, light, and fruity, but it's much stronger and more sensual than I anticipated. Sandalwood and amber are predominant, with a rich deep blackberry note and somewhere a tingly, beautiful mint. No orange blossom as of yet. Oh God this is good. Smells like a really good fruit incense with a charge of mint. Wet: The oil is reddish-orange, and the smell is almost all sexy red sandalwood at first. Slowly, oh-so-slowly, the other things start to emerge: amber, and blackberry, and something that smells a lot like tea, and maybe just a tiny little bit of orange blossom. The throw is lighter and fruitier than right up close, clean and fresh but still intriguing. This is absolutely gorgeous. The combination of fruit far away and then incredibly sensual smoke up close... Dry: I'm really not giving this much time to dry because I have to rush off somewhere and I want to post a review before I do, but holy God. If you are looking for a sexy "red" incense scent with fresh, fruity component rather than, say, the usual plum, this is it right here. I would highly recommend this if you're a Red Phoenix, Snake Charmer type fan, and are looking for something in that vein but at the same time... oh so deliciously different. [edit] Now that it is dry, I can figure out what it reminds me of-- The Haunted Palace! Same beautiful light notes over a red-gold base. Replace the orange, vanilla and flowers with sophisticated fruit, tea and a fresh splash of mint, and you've got Couple Consulting an Enpon.
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Imp: Bitter, spicy neroli, caraway, and something like dry cedar wood. Wet: Sweetly bitter neroli, spicy caraway, bright bergamot. Really lovely, a little incense-y, a little citrussy, oddly sweet. Smells a lot like a very nice spiced black tea... reminiscent of The Lion on me. Dry: This ends up smelling like chocolate-incense-tea on me! Not sure where the chocolate is coming from, but it's lovely-- very similar to The Lion but a little foodier adn less dry. I will definitely enjoy this.
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Imp: Yum! Sweet dried fruits, candied ginger and maybe a tiny bit of soft cinnamon. Oh man, I want to eat a big spoonful of whatever the equivalent of this would be! Maybe date bars? Wet: A lovely, wintertime smell of dried apples, plums, apricots, cinnamon, ginger and a little bit of pine-y floral. Smells like a Christmas wreath, a winter tea, or a candle store but in a good way. If I start humming carols I'll know what happened. Dry: Christmas candles, fruity and spicy and sweet. Maybe it's cliche, but I actually really like this smell! I will enjoy the heck out of it in December.
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Imp: Sweet musk (unfortunately I think it's black musk, which doesn't work on me), rose soap, and ylang ylang incense. Sweet and feminine but not really my thing at this point. Wet: Sometimes roses have a component that makes them smell almost nutty or grainy, and the combination of that with the soapiness makes them resemble the kind of bar soap you can buy with little chunks of scrubby in it (don't ask me how I can smell the nubbins, I just can! ) That is almost exactly what I'm getting here. All rose soap and loofah chunks, all the time. Dry: When dry, the ylang ylang comes up over the rose to create a really pretty, sweet floral juiciness, and some dry spice and maybe... hmmm... Siberian musk instead of black musk? It's cuddly and a bit spicy. I did not expect this to be much more than soap, since rose is frequently overpowering on me, but this is actually very nice!
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Imp: Dust, dry gravedirt, mushrooms, moss and a sweet white floral. Quite nice! I have mixed feelings about dirt blends but I like this one so far. Wet: Lots of sweet papery white floral backed by dirt and maybe something a little fruity. Predominantly floral rather than earthy at the moment, especially in the throw. The overall combination is like femme soap and gardening at the same time. I still get fungus a bit too. A very clean mushroom farmer! Dry: Sandalwood and flower soap and mushrooms. Not, um, exactly what I expected, but pretty.
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Warm wood, faint incense, and a very strong champaca/grape note that smells like commercial perfume to me. So sad! I was hoping this one would be woodier, spicier and more 'temple'-y.
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Imp: Cinnamon, sandalwood, and either black musk or civet-- something sweet but dirty. It almost smells camphorous, or maybe there's some balsam fir in there too? It's not bad in the imp but if it's black musk it might turn to baby powder on my skin. Let's find out. Wet: Sandalwood, cassia and cedar along with something that isn't musk but is kinda powdery, maybe an amber? It's a dry, precious-resins-in-a-box sort of smell, much nicer than I was expecting. Dry: Well, make that black musk after all. After a while, the baby-powder-and-weird-lavender smell that black musk always is on me takes over, which is too bad, because this was lovely up until then!
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Imp: Soap. Dish detergent? Wet: Serious soapy florals, in fact so soapy I'm not even sure what they are! And.... fruit. Cherry or almond, maybe? Dry: Soooap! Man, this one was consistent from start to finish.
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Imp: Happy fresh citrus, white florals and light woods. So pretty! Wet: My love for grapefruit knows no bounds. I also get white tea, juicy orchid of the same type as Shadow Witch, lemon peel, and a little bit of wood. I also get, unfortunately, a hint of that $@@~!! leather note that never works correctly on me, but it's mostly covered by all the awesome. Dry: This fades into a pretty but indistinct citrus. Too bad!
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Imp: Sweet almonds, soft florals, and something clean and green. Pretty! Wet: Almonds, roses and geranium soap, green and prickly. I think a lot of the "traditional" love oils smell like floral soap, maybe because historically people have bathed less often! This one actually reminds me a bit of Black Phoenix, what with the almond/rose thing happening, but it's a lot lighter on the musk. Dry: Lovely herbal soap. Well, it was nice while it lasted.
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Sea air, driftwood, waterlogged kelp, and the memory of plundered spices sprayed over worn leathers, rough musk, and the salty wooden floorboards of the Revenge. Imp: Salt, aquatic, seaweed, and wood. Wet: Incense, musk, salt water, and the weird rubbery vanilla smell that leather notes always turn into on me. Dry: Sweet salt water and musk. This is actually less offensive than some other leather blends but still doesn't work on me.
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Imp: Hot ginger, soap, sand and chemical ash. That is one weird smell. Wet: Plastic, ginger tea, and hand soap. I get something else very sharp as well but it's unidentifiable. It's... actually not as unpleasant as that sounds, surprisingly. Dry: Hot ginger tea and dry soap powder. This is nice, but I have other ginger scents that I prefer.
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Imp: Sweet wet resins and a hint of aquatic. Wet: Dry flowers, frankincense, resins. On me, of course, expensive, resin-y soap! The myrrh goes a little salty, as it often does, so it becomes expensive resin-y soap by the seaside. Dry: This just fades away on me. Too bad, because it was clean and fresh for a while there. Oh well!
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Michael Casts Out All of the Fallen Angels
WidgetAlley replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Limited Editions
Imp: Clean unburned resins, soft white musk, and something like a hint of sweet gentle citrus. Pretty and pure. Wet: Soft sandalwood, a hint of the rooty valerian, clean musk and church resins, but not smoky at all. Warm and comfortable and close to the skin. Dry: Musk, soft and warm, and resins. This reminds me of a cashmere sweater, soft and luxurious but not in-your-face. -
Imp: Siberian musk! Smells a lot like Demons of the Old Class. Wet: Siberian and Tibetan musk, presumably, lovely and deep and fuzzy and not overly sweet like red musk is sometimes on me. Under that, tea and wood and gorgeous clean florals. A surprisingly nice combination between the soft animal musk and the incense/white florals. Like a seriously awesome dryer sheet, kind of? Dry: Lovely fuzzy musk with a lightening hint of clean florals and soft purple incense. This is just lovely!
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Imp: Wood. A dry wooden box that's been used to store spices, and a light grassy vetiver. It's dry and grounding and exotic and smells just faintly of lemongrass as well to me. Very pleasant! Wet: Black pepper and sandalwood and tumeric, but surprisingly not at all veering towards Indian food. Just that same dry wood/spice smell. This actually reminds me a bit of Clemence, but minus the paper and flowers. Dry: Incense stored in a lovely wooden box in the hot dry summertime. This is surprisingly lovely, but I have lots of very similar scents.
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Imp: Dirt. Dirt and wet leaves. Maybe a faint white floral. Wet: The BPAL dirt note always smells dry and dusty on me rather than deep and rich. So, yeah, powdery dirt, like the garden after a drought. Dry: Spicy dirt. If you're a dirt-lover, this is definitely a must-try!
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Imp: Floral aquatic, reminds me of some of the more commercial floral perfumes but less in-your-face. Wet: Orris root, like dried iris petals and dust, and muguet, which always smells wet and green to me. Dry: Lovely soap. Sigh. I do wish that the white florals category worked on me more frequently.
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Imp: Purple! Purple flowers! Purple incense! Purple fruit! And some musk as well. And a pretty grapefruit; I just love grapefruit. Wet: Yum. Purple plums, grapefruits, bursting ripe fruits, gorgeous florals and deep lovely incense. I'm not a big fan of black musk but it's very tame here, not powdery or animalistic at all. Dry: Gorgeous fruity citrus incense, purple florals and warm musk. This is absolutely gorgeous, sultry and tropical and fruity and just all around lovely!
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Imp: Strong red musk and tobacco and amber. Very, very similar to Snake Charmer, Smut, or any of the other fabled Red Musk blends. Wet: Sweaty, sultry musk, thick rich tobacco, honey, and florals. Whoever said a dead ringer for Snake Charmer was just about right. Dry: Snake Charmer, right on the money! This might be a touch more orchidy and a bit less plummy than the fabled Snake Charmer, but they're so close it would be hard to tell the difference. If you missed SC, get some of this instead!
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Imp: Sweet musk! Not at all what I was expecting. Sweet warm musk and nut cookies. Wet: Sweet, spicy musk and lovely florals. No nuts now, but a faint hint of powder that I think is probably the lily. Dry: Sadly, this verges quickly into dryer sheet territory on me, but the musk stays beautiful all the way through. If florals work on you, this is definitely one to watch!
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Undine Comes Into the House of the Fishermen
WidgetAlley replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Limited Editions
Imp: A strong, salty soap, or nice marine dryer sheets. Bit of jasmine underneath. Wet: Summery, salty aquatic with a hint of sweet fruit and lovely florals. Champaca is doing its usual lovely thing here, smelling like a gorgeous, lightly plummy incense. This actually reminds me of The Sea Foams Blood, but with jasmine, champaca and plum underneath the aquatic. Dry: Sea breeze that actually works on me (rare!), champaca, delicate sweet florals and iced plum wine. Man, Beth is killin' it with these Pickmans, this is absolutely gorgeous! -
Imp: GINGER! Scorching hot gorgeous Vixen-y rooty awesome ginger, oh goodness, I love ginger. And amber, and nose-stinging cayenne, and oh, yum. Just... yum. Wet: Ginger, deep and strong and lovely, and red amber, hot and sunny like in The Lion, and the combination smells like the best ginger tea ever. I get dusty hot cayenne too, but no sulpher or frankincense yet. Oh yum, I want to veil myself in a cloud of this hot lovely ginger. Dry: Hot warm ginger, candle wax, dry incense, pepper and the desert. My goodness. I'm trying very hard to cut down on the amount of BPAL I own right now, but if I weren't, I'd be seeking this out by all means necessary.
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Imp: Pine! Sweet, sugar-frosted pine, and lots of fizzy juniper, which always makes me think of gin. And behind it, musk. It doesn't smell like black musk or civet yet (neither of which work on me), so perhaps there's hope for this after all. Wet: Pine and warm animal fur and a hint of baby powder, which, uh-oh, could mean black musk or could just be juniper doing weird things on my skin. Fresh-cut wood, too, splintery and damp. I expected something much less.. refreshing. Oh, wait. There's the cedar-baby-powder-death smell of black musk coming up underneath. Man, black musk is way unsettling to me. Dry: Forest and animal eyes, gleaming out of the darkness. I think this would be great, dangerous and feral, on a man, but to me, black musk is just to odd to wear.
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Imp: Sweet tarts and florals. Wet: Paper-white flowers that I recognize from some other lab scent (what else has delphinium?), the ivy note from Sir Hugh Ockram's Winding Sheet, and lots and lots of fresh, non-powdery violet. Dry: A faint pretty violet. Clearly, not meant for my skin.