whataboutprom

I have been slathering on Sloth for two days now, and I can't get enough. Any recommendations for vetiver heavy blends that are similar?

I thought I hated Vetiver, but now I get what others see in it. Sloth is lovely. I (thankfully) never get the Old Spice smell from this. I get a deep, dark, green vetiver with sweet myrrh that is a little powdery but definitely not anything like baby powder. I think vetiver blends I have tried in the past have been far too smokey for me. I don't like smokiness, but I do love the vegetal vibe from this. It doesn't morph much on my skin, except for the bit of powder that comes out and makes it more sensual, like the feel of musk without actually being straightforward musk. I think I love this. And it is making me consider buying the single note Haitian Vetiver while it is up.

Wet this is ROSE SOAP! After it dries on my skin a bit, the overpowering soapiness fades, but this is still a clean, fresh rose. It smells vintage, like the memory of an antique tea rose perfume. I do think I will use this for layering, maybe with some resins to take away the cleanness a bit. I would love to wear this for a summer picnic or going out for champagne cocktails with my ladies. I don't normally think of soapy roses as very me, but I am going to keep this one.

I've had this on for a few minutes, and so far I am loving it! At first I got a sharp white floral, with maybe a tinge of yellow paper, which was strange. As I hoped, this blend warmed up and mellowed as it dried. I get a teensy bit of leather now, with old, yellow book pages and some other aged yellow notes that I can't pick out. Mmmm... if it keeps getting better as it dries, I will consider a bottle.

Peanut butter, then popcorn, then the dreaded DUST note that takes over on my skin whenever sugar is present. I knew going into this that it might happen, but I was hoping that this blend would be different. The dust note is unpleasant and lasts for the duration. I can see how this would be a really fun scent on someone else though. Maybe it's time to invest in a scent locket.

I agree that this is a soft, pink jasmine. I can't smell much other than the jasmine, but it's not overpowering. I hope that the other notes come out more with a bit of aging, but this is nice as it is.

I have trouble picking out the notes in this, but basically it is very clean, (but not soapy,) and green. A bit too fresh for my taste, but the good news is that I can't smell the honey so far. Honey does not like me, but it is behaving in this blend.

Snow White bath oil is a complete disaster on my skin. Snow White has such consistently good reviews, that I bought a bottle of the bath oil as soon as it was up on etsy. I tested a few drops on my skin before committing to a full bath, and it turned into instant strong dust. It's such an overpoweringly bad smell, that I don't think I can risk trying this out in the bath. I've had this happen with a few foodie blends before, although I don't think they had any notes (listed notes at least) in common with Snow White. Such a disappointment. Hopefully I can find someone who will enjoy this more than me. Danged stupid skin chemistry.

I am adding Spellbound to my list of possible bottle purchases with the next round of LE's. At first I was unsure, as I got a wave of high pitched POWDERY amber that threatened to ruin this for me. After a few minutes though, the rose made an appearance, and it is so lovely! I definitely smell the musk, but while I usually amp red musk to the exclusion of all else, the rose tempers it in a way that it doesn't even have the normal head shop/ incense vibe on my skin. Spellbound smells like something rose scented from my childhood, but I can't quite remember what. I do think this is an "old lady scent", but to me that is a good thing! I can imagine a young woman in the 1920's wearing this for a night out on the town.

I'll admit, I was actually hoping that the likeness to Snake Oil was exaggerated. Snake Oil is strong and intensely powdery on me, and sometimes I feel kind of stressed out when I wear it. I tested Siberian Musk today, and it did smell exactly like Snake Oil on my skin. It's been over an hour, and the OMG POWDER is still going strong. I can enjoy powdery scents in some contexts, but this super high and intense powder is a bit much for me. After a while I decided to try out my new imp of La Petit Mort over the Siberian Musk, and I do like them together. I think the SB will work well for layering, even though I'm not a huge fan of it straight. I can use it to make sweet florals smell more dangerous.

2011 Version: Gelt is the BPAL amber I've always wanted! Many amber blends go powdery on me, and while some of them are beautiful enough to pull that off, in general I am not a huge fan of powder. Gelt 2011 is like a gorgeous chunk of golden amber incense. At first it is blended with a similar chocolate to Velvet, but after a while it's almost like a single note amber on my skin. I've actually made my own amber paste from plant oils and resins, and this is similar, except it has so much more lasting power than my homemade version. I love it, and I'm so glad that I have a full bottle!

I can barely smell Paladin. I tested a small amount on my arm, and after about 10 minutes of not smelling much of anything, I reapplied with more oil. There is hardly any scent, even with my nose right up against my arm. I guess the notes are in my olfactory blind spot. What I can smell is a very faint frankincense with a bit of soft white musk. I don't usually like white musk, but this is not the harsh, laundry detergent type. It smells like freshly cleaned skin without harsh soapiness. I wish I could smell this more, because it is quite beautiful, something I could see myself wearing frequently.

wet= cherry cough syrup. As it dries, it still smells like cherry cough syrup, but it's not very strong. I actually like the bubblegum scent of other lotus blends like Jailbait, but I'm not getting any of that with Black Lotus so far. After a couple of minutes, the myrrh is trying to peek through, but mostly it's still fake cherry. A few minutes more and I get a hint of pencil shavings along with the cherry cough syrup and a tiny bit of myrrh. (This has never happened to me with sandalwood before.) The cherry is calming down, and now I get almost a soapy scent. It's only been about five minutes, and I already have to put my nose right up to my wrist to smell anything. This is just... not for me. I would be curious to smell this in a scent locket though, to see just how much my skin chemistry is screwing things up.

The rose in Desire smells kind of dried to me: bittersweet neroli, black patchouli and black musk, gilded by apple, bergamot, blood red rose, teak, and vanilla. *edit* I just remembered which other blend I wanted to recommend. Phantom: Myrrh, dark musk, attar of rose and ylang ylang. Thank you! Those both sound interesting. Phantom sounds like it would be made of win for me.

Any recommendations for a dried rose scent? I love the rose in The Fainting Couch atmosphere spray and would like to find a similar rose in perfume. I love musks and resins and don't like white florals very much, but I am open to other flowers blended with rose.

This is one of those oils that shouldn't work on me but totally does. I tend to amp neroli, and because it can become so overwhelming, I generally avoid it. And while in theory I like patchouli, people have such negative reactions to it that I never wear it. Carnation can be kind of sour and too green on me. Well, ambergris I do love. Wet, I get sharp patchouli. This morphs pretty quickly on my skin; the neroli comes out first, with a bit of carnation bite in the background. For the first 30 minutes or so, the patchouli and neroli battle for dominance. After that the soft, sweet, somewhat powdery (but not baby powder!) ambergris comes out, and everything else fades into the background. This is totally worth the slightly strange wet phase. The ambergris has me huffing my wrist nonstop. Unfortunately, this fades into almost nothing after an hour or two. I have just the teeniest, tiniest bit of ambergris fragrance left on my skin after a few hours. Totally worth reapplying though. If I use up this imp, this might actually end up being a bottle purchase for me. ETA: Well, a few days later and my imp is almost empty. I can't stop slathering this on, so I just purchased a 5ml bottle.

This is beautiful, but I don't get the smokiness or scent of blown out candles I was hoping for. I definitely get lots of honey and beeswax. Strangely, it smells like really expensive sun tan lotion to me. I do love it. It's warm and sunny and a great room scent.

I can't pick out any individual notes in this, but it is a fresh, clean floral that is slightly sweet. I usually hate clean scents, but it does not have that harsh laundry detergent smell- just fresh flowers with a bit of soft honey or sugar. This is great for my bathroom and hallway.

I've had a frimp of this hanging around for a while, and for some reason I had never tried it before today. The most prominent note is a beautiful sassafras, like fine root beer with a dash of vanilla syrup. Sassafras is kind of medicinal on its own, but the butter and vanilla round this out and make it delightful to wear. I think this would work equally well as a cold or warm weather scent. It's cozy enough for winter, but sassafras always reminds me of digging for the root to make tea in the peak of summer. Beautiful and uplifting. It doesn't have a strong throw on me, so this is a great scent for wearing at work.

I received a frimp of this the other day with an etsy order from the Trading Post. I guess it's Christmas in July! At first whiff, this is very foodie- strong cocoa and caramel mostly. The cocoa quickly fades and a warm, nuzzly brown musk comes to the front in its place. It doesn't morph too much after that. Most of the dry phase is a salty caramel and musk. Usually caramel is terrible on me, but the musk keeps it in check and makes this a more wearable scent for me than a true foodie scent would be. Luckily its cold enough in San Francisco during the summer that I don't have to wait to wear this wonderful winter scent!

I was actually just noticing today how much faster scent fades from my wrists than from my neck. I got little hits of Lyonesse all day, after I couldn't smell it anymore on my wrists. I figured out it was because I had applied some just below my ears. It lasted for 12 hours there!

I was actually just noticing today how much faster scent fades from my wrists than from my neck. I got little hits of Lyonesse all day, after I couldn't smell it anymore on my wrists. I figured out it was because I had applied some just below my ears. It lasted for 12 hours there!

Scrumptious! I've never smelled roasted chestnuts, but this smells a lot like the candied walnuts a friend of mine makes for the holidays. I don't really get fig, but the toasty, sweet chestnut fragrance is divine.

I received this as a frimp from the lab, and dabbed it on my wrist without really thinking about it. Wow! I can't stop smelling myself, and I had to apply more. I've been searching for a good skin musk forever, and other brands always smell too synthetic and overpowering. On me lyonesse is mostly musk, the "skin but better" kind, with soft white florals and vanilla adding sophistication. Luckily this isn't soapy on me. I do get a little bit of a salty bite from the ambergis. So lovely! I may need a full bottle.

On my skin, the lemongrass and almond cream are the strongest notes, with the white chocolate rounding things out and adding sweetness. I'm not sure I can pick out the coriander as an individual note. The almond is not the cherry-like almond extract type of scent; it is soft and creamy and doesn't take over the fragrance as straight almond often does. This is a tropical fragrance, just begging to be worn on balmy evenings, or on cold days when one wants to fantasize about summer.