icarus suraki

Sigh. Once again, leather betrays me and runs away laughing when I try to make it stick. So, this is pleasant. It smells like sweet pine, a little spicy, a little woodsy. I think I like The Red Rider for spicy, woodsy smells, but this is fine. It's sweet and bright and very much like pine and pine sap. Which is nice, sure. Unfortunately, pretty much immediately it goes all men's cologne on me. I mean, it really does smell just like cologne. Just...men's cologne, and handsome men riding on polo ponies for advertisements. And that's about it. It smells too modern and commercial on me to really make me think of rogues and the wilderness--which is really a bummer. I'm guessing that's the rosin in it making it smell like pine and commercial colognes, although maybe there's something else lurking in there (someone suspected musk and it wouldn't surprise me). It smells really, really masculine. Like, really really. Make no mistake: boy. It makes me think of, like, passing a friend's brother's room on the way to her room and catching a whiff of his deodorant or cologne or something. It really does, weirdly, make me think of visiting a certain friend's house--maybe they used something pine-scented as a cleaner or potpourri. But I'm rambling... Leather eludes me yet again (again!), but if I ever wanted a pine-centered (is that a legitimate phrase?) masculine cologne, this would be the thing. Pleasant, but just...not turning into anything that really works for me.

So...if anyone gets leather out of this, I am seriously envious. I got this specifically because it was so well-reviewed as a leather scent. But I've about decided that my skin just eats all things leather, so here I'm left with nothing but musk and vetiver, which seem to slide on down into something smelling kind of like cedar or pine or evergreen. Truth be told, the longer I wear Iago, the more it smells like a commercial men's cologne or deodorant (which is frustrating because I tested Rogue last night with very similar results: men's cologne). On me it's, you know, sort of spicy and masculine (very, very masculine--think Polo cologne ads)...but no leather at all, nor anything especially interesting to it. It just smells like a guy. I'm sad. I had such high hopes. Leather, why do you hurt me like this? Addendum: Well, that's odd. Having gotten tired of smelling like a Ralph Lauren male model, I washed off what I could with ordinary hand soap and...lo and behold, there was the leather, hiding way down deep. There's no throw at all now, of course, but if I press my nose into my wrist, I sure can smell it. All right, so you're as sneaky as your namesake, Iago. I may have to let this one age and try it again (or try using it differently).

Azathoth is the blind, idiot god who sits on a black throne at the center of Chaos. His scent is high-pitched and screeching, both impenetrably dark and searingly bright with the clarity of madness: tangerine, saffron, vetiver, black amber and cedarwood. Damn. That's all I got to say. Damn. I put this on in a hurry this morning but I'm glad I did, really. Putting it on was really very odd because I got a big shock of the vetiver (I think I'm part of the .0005% that like vetiver; I know it's not overwhelmingly popular) with all these weird twisty little wafts of other smells. I kept sniffing it thinking, "Is that orange? Is that chocolate? Is that tobacco?" Well, one out of three ain't bad... Alas, the orange-chocolate-tobacco wafts don't last very long. It all seems to burn down into a dark, seething kind of scent. None of the individual scents seem very prominent, which is excellent, in my opinion. Oddly, on me, Azathoth comes out smelling very similar to The Black Rider (a major favorite of mine; "black leather, oppoponax, tobacco, and black amber") but without the sweetness. I suspect this is the black amber present in both and I think that just goes nuts on my skin. But Azathoth smells dirtier and, for lack of a better word, more disgusting (don't get me wrong, I like it, but there's something repelling about it). There's a sharpness, a physical coldness to it--as in, it stings a bit if I breathe in too much. I'm not sure what brings that on, but there it is--maybe the cedarwood. It's a strong, strange scent. It's simultaneously murky and dark while being sharp and pointed and cold at the same time. Think of a wintertime swamp, maybe. That's the mix of cedarwood and black amber, I'm sure. It's not what I'd call a "pretty" scent, but it feels dark and powerful. And I don't object to that at all.

I need some rose help! I've been searching for a good rose scent for a little while now, but it seems like every rose blend I try ends up smelling like pink sugary Turkish Delight. London, Zombi, Blood Rose--they all turned into the same sugary pink roses. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Turkish Delight and pink roses are pretty, but I'm really searching for a deep, dark red rose scent--I have memories of smelling dark red roses in a garden and I'm trying to recapture that scent and carry it around with me. I just never seem to get that out of any blend. It might just be my skin doing this to me, or it might just be that this is how rose scents end up when they're extracted. I don't really know. I have a few other rose blends in imps to try, and I will yet try them. But any recommendations or observations of similar situations would be really, really welcome.

I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one yet. I'm still not quite over Akuma going all grape Children's Tylenol on me last night, so maybe I've set myself up for a fall. See, rose scents and I have a history: every rose scent I have tried thusfar from BPAL seems to smell the same: a sticky, sweet, "high pitched," pink (always pink) rose--it smells like sugary Turkish Delight. Which can be fun, but it's not always what I want. I'm beginning to think it's me, that I just tweak out these rose scents to something insane (London, Zombi...now Blood Rose). So that was my initial impression: oh no, here we go again with the screaming pink rose. And, yes, that's pretty much how it was when I first put it on: pale pink sugary roses. Lots of 'em. Roses everywhere. But, all right, that was at first. It's since calmed down and it now seems to have gone a bit more wine-like. It registers to me as grape or fruit (not artificial grape, mercifully)--almost plum-like or cherry-like, a dark fruit like that. The rose is still there, still being pink, but it's tempered a little with the fruity wine scent, and it's all still quite sweet. It's more wine than rose at this point. I really wanted to like this one, but the screaming pink sugar rose is making it difficult. The weather's quite humid and I spent more time in the humidity than anticipated, so I think I've spoiled today's test a little. So, bearing that in mind, I may try this one again in the hopes that it'll mellow a little with time. Either that, or I just need to get over my obsessive search for The Perfect Rose Scent.

I got a frimp of this with my last order and I was quite excited to try it. It wasn't even on my radar, but the description sounded interesting. So I tried it... Only to find that, on me, it smelled like candy (sugary, sugary, sugary hard fruit-flavored candy, like the red/orange/purple Starlight hard candies) when it was wet... ...and like grape-flavored children's Tylenol when it was dry (that or Oxyclean gel, which also smells like artificial grape). I mean, it was nothing but artificial grape flavoring on me. It was so distinctive I couldn't stop laughing, smelling like children's Tylenol. First candy and then medicine. Quite devilish and tempting, oh yes. My skin chemistry hates me, apparently. Lesson learned.

So I received a frimp of Dorian from the Lab with my last order--Dorian has always sort of been on my radar because so many people have said how wonderful it is, but the description never seemed to be quite what I was looking for and the reviews were appealing but not so much that I wanted to try it. I take it all back. I tested a bit of this last night and probably fell asleep with my wrist against my nose (I'm writing this the morning after--which seems appropriate). It smelled pleasant in the imp--sweet, slightly like citrus, certainly like lavender. I'm terrible about judging scents in the imp, so let's move on to how it smelled on my skin: What's interesting is that, to me, it smells much more like orange than lemon (I see a lot of reviews identifying lemon). It's not quite as "orange" as fresh orange juice or fresh orange fruit would smell, but maybe the same kind of scent as orange rind or orange oil or orange wood or orange blossoms. Or, rather, think of holding an orange and smelling the skin--that's how it smells to me. It's more "woody" (I use the term incorrectly there, but it's all I can think of) and subdued than fresh orange fruit smells. Beside that or below that there's a measure of creamy sweetness--that must be the vanilla. And all around it is a kind of masculine lavender cologne scent. But "masculine" is too strong a word. I kept thinking of the word "boyish" but that's too young. The closest likening is "youthful"--which, of course, makes sense given the inspiration for this scent. It did smell "male" or like traditional men's colognes, as would be expected, but not so masculine or male as some "masculine" scents can (Dee can smell very masculine on me, for example). I'm a woman and I know I could wear this with a kind of wink and nod towards androgyny (a wonderful thing), but it did smell like I should be catching this scent from someone else, in a way. The whole effect is akin to what some people have described here, but not quite: this makes me think of meeting a very charming young man at a ball sometime in the 1880s and finding oneself in entirely too intimate a conversation with him in some cooler drawing room and catching this scent from his skin or his hair as he draws far too close for propriety. It's not flirty, but it is enticing. And it's amazing. I honestly did not expect to like this scent so much as I do. I take back all my previous notions. I would wear this one quite a lot.

I went for this scent in an imp pack mostly because I loved the time I spent in London. The funny thing is, as lovely and delightful as this scent is, it doesn't remind me of London at all! In the Imp: Roses! Roses, roses, roses! Specifically, pink roses. I'm not sure why I'm seeing pink roses so particularly, but this smells of pink roses or tea roses. There's also something sharp or astringent in the background which I wish would come up a little closer. I hope it's not just roses on roses on me. Wet: Roses upon roses! That "sharp" smell (for lack of a better term--I'd say "sour," but it's not quite sour, even if it does remind me ever so slightly of the sharpness of lemon or lime or even evergreen) is still there, but the pink tea roses are just conquering all. They're lovely, but they're powerful things. There is some tasty throw on this: I have it on my wrists and it keeps drifting up to me unexpectedly. Unfortunately, I don't get anything "twisted, blackened" or "emboldened with wickedness" in it, outside of that hint of sour. If anything, this seems just sweet and rosy and a little Jane Austen-y. Maybe a little like "My Fair Lady." It seems less London and more English Countryside, somehow. It's still absolutely lovely, though. Dry: Still pink roses, and lots of them, though the sour smell is completely burned off now. There's a very faint "powdery" smell in there, but it comes across as "softness" to me and kind of tempers the otherwise overwhelming sweetness of the roses. However, I have just realized what this smells like to me: rose-flavored Turkish Delight. And you must understand that I love Turkish Delight to excessive and Edmund Pevensie-like levels. So that "powdery" smell now makes me think of powdered sugar and the rose is the rosewater of the Turkish Delight. Later: It's been about two hours and it's still hanging on, but only if I keep my nose to my wrist. I think it stuck around for a decent amount of time, I think (a few hours) and faded gradually--what's left is still soft roses, a little powdery. I'm being picky about how it doesn't remind me of London, so ignore that. Still, I'm not sure I'm the kind of person who can wear rose scents easily or well, but I do like this scent--Turkish Delight in a bottle! I do think it's lovely and it puts me in mind of rose gardens and ladies in white gowns and so on. I enjoyed it, but I'll have to think about whether I'd wear it again.

lamenteuse, Floria--thank you both! These all sound excellent. Dorian has been turning up on my "maybe, maybe not" list for a little while and I think I should take a second look at Schrodinger's Cat (yes, I did just do that) if for nothing more than the name. Thanks!

I stumbled on this thread a few days ago and, although I've just put in my first order for a handful of imps, I'm feeling a little vain and still curious about what anyone here might recommend for me--maybe things I never would have considered for myself? I'm also actually really bad about describing my own personality. But here we go: I'm female, recently turned 29 years old, and a librarian--public library work, mostly, but I've done a couple of stints in university libraries. I think I just come across as kind of...out of left field? I don't want to just say, "Ha ha, I'm really weird!" but... Well, here's a list of things I like: strange ideas, weird books (like the Voynich Manuscript), experimental literature, Modernism and Postmodernism, Surrealism, paper ephemera, Asian horror films, "ugly things" of all kinds, tribal-style bellydance, abandoned tobacco barns, Japanese popular culture and subcultures, classic Gothic novels, Spaghetti Westerns, Steampunk, hyperreality, music with very heavy beats, trivia and esoterica, maybe even research and scholastic...stuff. It's all brain stuff that gives me some nice emotional feedback. I used to write a bit and carry on with a little art. I'm better at planning and ideas than at execution. I like to think of myself as imaginative and I'm too fond of my weird dreams. I also like to flatter myself by thinking I'm witty or quick, fast with a pun or a reference or a connection, and kind of intellectual (I like to read James Joyce and Thomas Pynchon for fun). I might be--I've been told I am, but I kind of think I just retain a lot of details and trivia (I'm a little bit likes Mycroft Holmes sometimes). I'm not quick to call myself a geek, but I guess I really sort of am, given some of the things I know and love (speculative fiction, graphic novels, anime, manga). Though I try to keep all of this pretty much under wraps and behave like a with-it adult--so I tend towards being kind of quiet and maybe a little stoic. I'm not always good at sharing this daydream + bookworm stuff. Ideally, I think I come across as just "intelligent" or "creative," which does fine for me. But...I'm also inclined towards stubbornness, melancholy, isolation, worry, cynicism, sarcasm, and a little "belligerence" (to quote a friend). I think I'm actually lacking underneath it all somehow and I use a lot of imagination to sustain myself and a lot of sharp or harsh responses to defend myself and the bizarre objects of my bizarre affection. And I'm lazy. I can be so lazy sometimes it amazes even me. (Did I mention I'm a Taurus? Okay. There you go.) I'm not what anyone would call "pretty" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm kind of too tall, too gangly, too skinny, too boyish, too bespectacled, and too old to be anything near on to "pretty." So I tend to shy away from anything that's overtly feminine or, well, just pretty (scents included) and head towards things that are, while not necessarily overtly male or masculine, still a bit boyish. (If you saw the list of the imps I just ordered, you'd see what I mean.) I feel like I shouldn't or can't do otherwise--it would be like a mule wearing pearls. I also identify as asexual, so I try to avoid anything that seems noticeably sexual or sensual because I don't think it's right for me to present that kind of image when it would be misleading or misinterpreted. Complicated... (But I am willing to hear otherwise in a recommendation--just giving fair warning here.) Although, the bizarre curve-ball exception to that is that I'm also a follower of Japanese Lolita fashion (if you know the lingo, I tend towards Classical and Gothic styles mostly, along with a little Aristocrat along the way). I'm still not pretty, but I'd like to think I can wear the style successfully enough (again, imagination + intellectual project). Intellectual dreamer seeks scent recommendations to match this pile of things often referred to as a personality. Any thoughts--?