malabar

Out of the bottle, a bit offputting: the frankincense was like a slap in the nose, almost rotten. It improved very quickly, though, with the cinnamon establishing its usual rapport with my skin. I like this one, and I'm glad I'm ending up with two imps of it.

Samhain 2005 - Lots of woodsiness and smoke for me; not much else. I want to smell the fir, apples, pumpkin, and vanilla that others have noticed. May be better dilute.

The 2005 version: The first thing that hit me was roses and an undefined foody smell. On me, I get that sweetness lingering, but with a harsh undernote that may be tobacco or possibly candle smoke, a la Gypsy Queen. Whichever it is, it's transient; and now it's drying down to a somewhat spicy but flowery powder smell. It's a bit overwhelming; may be better dilute.

I loved this initially - it's a whole lot of neroli in my face - but alas, that gorgeous top note vaporizes quickly and I'm left with just a trace of it in a rather undistinguished powdery base. I'll give it another go, but it's ultimately disappointing.

I couldn't smell anything but lavender, either. Nice enough but not noticeably different from plain lavender essential oil.

I got the strong, acrid drydown you're describing, which is a shame because the inital smoky incense was lovely. Oh well, can't win them all.

Interesting - the first time I sniffed Namaste, I couldn't smell anything at all; this time I was blasted off my feet by lemongrass and then beaten soundly about the head and shoulders by the florals. After a few minutes on my skin, I'm getting an acrid mix of lemongrass and cedar that makes my nose twitch. Not relaxing in the slightest for me. This will be swapped with all due haste.

Yes, exactly like a bog. I once had to crawl through a bog on hands and knees, and it smelled just like Dunwich. It's interesting from a novelty point of view but I can't imagine wearing it or using it as a room scent unless I were playing Call of Cthulhu.

On me, this is incense and more incense, with a golden heart like Aureus or Umbra. I couldn't pick out any citrus at all. I really like it, though. I guess it's a men's scent because of the sandalwood, but maybe my chemistry isn't very girly because it loves me long time.

Rush of pine upon opening and for the first 15-20 minutes on my skin, which is great. Like many of you, I also found the dry-down disappointing: baby powder and not much else. Seems like a defanged version of Loup Garou.

I seem to have no luck with Dragon's Blood; it just doesn't like me. When I sniffed the imp, it smelled so unpleasant (like paint thinner!) that I almost just closed it up and put it in the swap bin; but I was brave and put a bit on my skin. The acrid chemical smell toned down after 15 min or so and I was left with a faint golden glow like Aureus or Umbra, but it didn't last very long. Nope, not for me, not even slightly. A pity, because I love the idea of blood scents...

On me, this started off smelling of citrus, which I liked, but it dried down to a harsh, chemical tang. I imagine it's the olive leaf; I have found that olive doesn't like me one little bit. A shame, because it started off so promising.

I was hoping for lots of blood orange and neroli, but all I smell is a dark raspberry. It's nice, but not exactly what I was looking for.

I got a heavy juniper hit off this one, too - was surprised that it wasn't listed as a note. No lavender that I could detect. And then it went all powdery on me on the drydown.

Funny, I immediately thought of "Umbra's younger, lighter sibling". I don't detect any similarity to Voodoo at all, but maybe that's just me.

My first impression was that this smelled very familiar somehow, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I put a few drops into the bath, climbed in, and then it hit me... it smelled just like one of those instant International Coffee blends! Mostly coconut, very sweet, with a tiny bit of coffeeness in the background. I thought for a bit that I had got a mislabeled imp and had something that was based on Irish Coffee, but then read everyone else's descriptions and figured out that I was smelling the sugared rum and mistaking it for Irish Mist or Jameson's. No tobacco detectable for me, though.

I got no chocolate out of this one - to me, it smelled like a very vanilla-infused maple syrup out of the bottle, then dried down to a kind of dry, spicy fruitiness. My husband said it smelled like coffee to him (and he hates the smell of coffee), but I couldn't smell it at all. A shame, really, but this isn't going to be a keeper for me.

I agree with people's assessments of a woodsy top note, but on me it was combined with a rich sweetness as well. It was well-balanced with the woodsy, though, not at all cloying. What really impressed me, though, was the drydown: on me, it smells distinctly chocolatey. A campfire with hot chocolate or possibly s'mores at the end. Yummy!

I got a faceful of grapefruit to begin with, followed by what I can only describe as a sweet corn tortilla-like smell on the drydown. The grapefruit was nice, but the tortilla smell bugged me.

Lemon tea out of the bottle. As the lemon wore off, I was less and less able to smell anything. Whatever the deeper notes are, they were lost on me.

Olive smell right out of the bottle - possibly osmanthus, which is narcotic and smells like olives. On me, it stayed olive-and-salt - I smelled like a relish tray, but a calm one.

Passion, sensuality, romance, sexual sensitivity. Ylang-ylang very intense right out of the bottle; settles down to more jasmine-floral later on. If you like heavy floral, this is for you. On me, they smell about as unseductive as it can get.

I got a bottle of this and a bottle of Nyarlathotep at the same time, and at the start, I couldn't tell the difference: both have that ozone-air quality on top with incense underneath. Yog-Sothoth is stronger on the incense, though. I thought I could smell myrrh and possibly olibanum. It seems fairly masculine to me. I put some on my husband and it made him smell fantastic!