kettu

When I first put it on, it was kinda blah, actually (that might be because I had just retried Alone, which is all about the spice). As it dried down, it became something more. Very warm, but not necessarily warming. Almost soft, but not quite. It's pleasant. I like it but not enough to want to swipe Lynxie's imp or get one of my own. Stop! Hold the presses! I wrote this too soon! The saffron finally decided to make an appearance, after about 45 minutes. Saffron is totally what makes this scent for me. Without it, Scherezade is kinda blah. With it, it's freakin' gorgeous! Were Lynx to get a 5 ml, I would be quite happy. Yay for saffron!!!

Holy Shit this is good! Just freaking beautiful. Perfectly spicy and sweet and smooth. I love what carnation does on my skin. I tried Kathmandu last night and this is incredibly reminescent for me -- probably because it's the only scent even remotely similar in my entire collection. Though unlike with Kathmandu, there is no bubblegummy lotus to suffer through before getting to the good stuff. It's right there from the beginning. Morocco, you are beautiful and I love you. Thank you ever so much, Beth. You win!

Wet On: BUBBLEGUM!! wtf?? guess it's the lotus? it smells like pepto bismol with a hint of cedar off in the distance. Dry On: Saffron, sandalwood, muted cedar, which is to say, a pale sweet woodiness. So very soft. I wish it started out like this on me. (later) Wow. This is really beautiful. The chiuri has appeared, adding a warm butteriness to the soft sweet wood. Just fricken beautiful. I am totally in love with this scent, minus, of course, the lotus at the beginning. I can suffer through that to get to the beauty. So. Very. Lovely.

A sorrowful graveyard bouquet of somber blooms, funereal boughs, dismal green and laden with grief. Green, then spicy green on skin. Dries down to floral, but not headache-inducing floral. Light, warm, wet florals with a green underbelly. Haven't tried Samhain yet, so I can't compare. But that's next on my to-try list, so maybe I'll have more to say in a couple of days. Regardless, it's a lovely scent, and I approve.

Nearly everybody seems to have smelled the vetivert, but that's not what I got from this bottle at all! IN the bottle, yes. On my skin, everything disappears and all I get is some weird powdery violet-sage combo. What a disappointment! I wear vetivert, cedar, and myrrh really really well, but I didn't get any of this. Not even pepper or patchouli. I sad.

This smells... sad. Heavy and sad. It also smells like lemon cleaner of some sort. I think it's the vetivert mixed with the lemon, but yeah... it's not really working for me. Evocative, but not good with my skin.

This is absolutely lovely on me. Lynx is definitely giving this to someone who can appreciate it more than her: ME!! Mine mine mine! I can't wear Bengal or Chimera, but I can wear Three Witches! Woohoo! This is what Alone wanted to be and couldn't. Three Witches... oh how I love you! Though it stinks in the bottle, all three scents are completely harmonious on my skin, with none of them vying for dominance. Absolutely perfect.

in the imp, I smelled cocoa. Yay for cocoa! but then on my skin when I tried it on, the cocoa went spiralling away and it got all weirdly lemony. ew. and now it's faintly lemony with a touch of distant incense. Pooey. *pout* this one goes back into Lynxie's stash with no turning back. I wish I could have smelled this on my skin without the herbs of conflict. it got all confused with the conflict. bad, conflict. bad.

wet: This is POTENT STUFF, here. Aggressively cardamommy and spicy. It's wasabi-potent without the edge of oh holy gods, where are my nose hairs!?!!! dry down: much less potent. becoming light and heading towards delicate, but not there yet. mandarin is there now, but faint. I am undecided on this one. I like cardamom, but DAMN! I'll have to give it another go to see what I think. *** Ok, it's been 6 days, so I thought I'd give it another go. Verdict: I really like it. It's like a cardamom train-wreck when I first put it on -- I can't stop smelling it, even though I know I should wait until it's died down. I'm horrified and intrigued by how aggressive it is. But when it dries down, I really really like it. I'm going to keep it around for awhile.

COCOA!!! Make-me-hungry Cocoa! That's about all I smelled for the first 10 minutes, and I'm so not complaining! After the cocoa fades a bit, I get incense with hint of cocoa, and a teeny tiny bit of pencil, which is the patchouli (why pencil?? Idunno; it just does that). But wow. Cocoa. I want to go bathe in a vat of it now. Definitely a keeper.

Grandmother of Ghosts is Yummy! It smells very dry to me and reminds me of maybe a slightly more floral Omen. I can't think of any other ways to describe it... I don't really smell spicy pepper or fruity mandarin, high florals or even medium florals. This is not to say that they aren't there -- just that it all blends so well with the wood. Makes me wish I knew what laural smelled like so that maybe I could give a better description. Regardless, it's a winner for me!

faint lemon drop clean, damp mid-spring morning 10am, overcast, cool breeze time to open the windows, clear the house of winter's staleness This Is Fresh. (and then my skin ate it)

got to try this at the Toronto meet'n'sniff this afternoon. Lynx walked away with the imp, so I'll probably try it again at some point. sadly, I got no berries from this. I wanted berries. I wanted berries badly because otherwise it's all sharp and green and strong. And then, when it dried down, it got all woody. Berries would have added the perfect balance to it. *pout* at least I have Talvikuu.

A notorious voodoo priest, who eventually rose to become one of the funereal Guédés, alongside Baron Cimitère and Baron La Croix. He is a Guardian of the Crossroads: the pathways between our world and the realm of the spirits. As a Master of the Graveyard, he ensures that burial rites are performed with skill, and he helps ferry souls to the dark realm. In his honor, we have created this scent: our spin on traditional Bay Rum. got this from em_h today at the most recent Toronto meet'n'sniff (did she get another one? did shapeshifter give it back? Idunno. but I have it now). pungent pungent spice. dark, brick red spice with some more spice added in and some bay to even it out. The bay ends up smelling a bit like men's shaving cream, but there's enough clove and cinnamon and other spiceywhathaveyous to draw attention away from it. I *think* I smell a little cigar/tobacco, but it's mostly just very strong, longlasting spice with some pungent bay in there. I'm keeping it but mostly to wear if I go to another tambour.

this is deep, dark, cinnamon-with-a-little-berry red mixed with astringent, crushed-holly-leaf green. they work very well together. there is an occasional air freshener/soap waft and it smells more like how I'd want a scented candle to smell. I really enjoy it, but I'm not sure I'd want to wear it more than the one time.

oh my... this is absolutely divine! wet, there is an initial pine resin astringency. on drydown, a very subtle berry comes to the fore mingling with crushed coniferous needles. wet and cold with a distant inner warmth. it's a beautiful scent and I'm definitely getting a 5 ml

It smelled... tinny in the imp. Not unpleasant, just a bit odd. So I put it on and it smelled ok: incensey metal. It wasn't anything that particularly grabbed my attention... until I noticed a pain above my left eye. And so I smelled my wrists again and the pain got worse and the smell got worse -- it had morphed into metal shavings and evil baby powder and it had to come off NOW! That's depressing. If Lynxie doesn't want it/want to try it, into the swaps it goes.

For me, this is 100% cinnamon and red musk. It is rich and smooth, warm and sultry. This is definitely one of my most favourite scents. Lynxie smelled the grave loam, which she cannot stand, but I smell no dirt at all (same imp, too -- just different noses, I guess), and *looking at other reviews* no powder or ginger or cocoa. It doesn't smell too earthy or even very foody at all. Just warm happiness. The scent doesn't change, either and it has good staying power -- I just have to steer clear of Lynx until it dries down a bit.

The Raven was the first scent I actually liked, and my liking it shocked the heck out of both me and Lynx because we both found it over-the-top floral. This was bad for her, as her skin amps florals like nothin' else. But it was pretty good for me, so I held on to the imp for several months until I realised that it was just too strong for my nose and I'd managed to acquire a good handful of imps, so I didn't feel it necessary to hold onto The Raven. It got swapped recently and I hope it is getting more love than I was able to give it. Now, onto the review: in the bottle and on skin: oooooeeeee! hot damn, that's potent! It's violet and black and dusky and shiny. It's ten o'clock on a mild summer night. The night-blooming flowers are scenting the air with a vengeance; the sun is below the horizon but it's not entirely dark yet. You're out walking in a comfy-but-sexy cotton summer dress, and you're being followed by a violet-adorned, shiny black Raven, who is watching you. Just watching you. Very intently. The scent of the violet stayed with me for many many hours. I only had to dab just a little bit on, otherwise, it'd be just enough to edge me over into headache-land if I was leaning that way anyway.

I got a chance to try Hamadryad this weekend at a local Meet 'n' Sniff and I liked it so much that I was able to take it home with me. Thank you, em_h! Hamadryad has completely reinforced the serious fruit ampage ability of my skin. I got no cinnamon or nutmeg or moss or lichen. I got woodsy green apple. It's a soft and subtle sort of green apple -- it wasn't headache-inducingly sweet. It was perfect. There are no fruits listed in its ingredients, but if there is apple blossom or apple tree wood, then my skin chemistry says, 'This has been close to a fruit! It must smell like fruit! Everything must be fruity!' If there is truly neither apple blossom nor apple wood, then I really don't know where the heck my skin gets woody green apples, but it's there regardless. I wish I got the cinnamon and nutmeg or even moss and lichen, because I think they'd work really well on me. But I got green apple wood instead. Thankfully, I like it. ETA: just read more-recent reviews and am thinking that maybe this is Hesperides... Lynx and I have an imp of Hesperides on its way, so if it smells just like this, then I'll assume it was a mislabeled imp and move my review over to Hesperides. Until then, I have apple Hamadryad. Edited further: The apple Hamadryad smells EXACTLY like The Hesperides imp I eventually received. So I got a mislabelled imp. I just received two more imps of Hamadryad direct from the lab and I'm getting a bit peeved. These two are what Pesha Rocha described: nothin' but wintergreen. I hates wintergreen. Where in freekin' hell is the real Hamadryad?? If I ever get a chance to smell it, I know I'm gonna love it. But damn, am I ever getting tired of this tricksy not-Hamadryad business. *scowl*

This is love. Lynx saw this on my wish list and asked theshapeshifter to bring it when we met to try and buy some imps she had. I had since taken it off my wish list, thinking that the cedarwood would be amped way too high and the cinnamon wouldn't work, but lo, I was mistaken. I smelled the imp and right away, I knew it was going to be love. It falls somewhere between Dance of Death and Omen on the earthy dryness scale, and they're two of my favouritest scents in the whole wide world. Umbra on me is cedar tamed by patchouli with hints of vetivert and a dribble of cinnamon to round it off. *looks at description* Holy crap! It's pretty much exactly how it's supposed to be! Deep dry wood with a bit of spice. Rich woodsy reddish brown. Yum. ETA: Much gratitude to Miss Lynx and to theshapeshifter!

Holy Crap! Evil Root Beer!!! Miss Lynx tried this and I reeled in horror. But it became a train-wreck sort of horror and I kept coming back for more. Eventually, after a couple of weeks of having it in the apartment, I tried it. This scent is just bizarre enough to have captured my attention and has since morphed from sheer, unadulterated disgust to a warped and pleasant delight. Initial: evil root beer! It's almost like a mellow-sweet civet. Dry Down: the root beer fades enough to be manageable and the spice comes to the fore. It is deep, bittersweet spice. Really really really nice. Lynxie doesn't want it, so it's mine. Aaaallllllll Miiiiine!!! Muahahahahahahaha!

I have two imps of Darkness and they're different enough that it makes me want to get a third for a tie-breaker, if that's even possible. I tried the first imp of Darkness weeks ago and all I remember is being disappointed at it's unremarkability. It's supposed to be all earthy and myrrhy, dammit! BE something, already! But... no. Nothing doing. Edit: I just tried the first imp of Darkness again and YUCK! it's all arsenic and old lace. Sickeningly sweet with dusty florals and old Miss Haversham glaring at me in the attic. Ew. My guess is that the myrrh is lacking and the opium is amping the narcissus. Phooey. And then we got a second imp and it was a slightly different colour -- darker. Hrm. How appropriate. And this one... Oh. My. Sooooooooooooooo niiiiice. Dark myrrhy incense smoke wafting through my brain. This is not gloom. Gloom is Black Annis. This isn't even doom. There is no badness here, only a warm, slow burn of embers in a darkened opium-den-inspired room. Velvet pillows, raw silk duvet covers, heavy curtains draping the walls and windows, smoke filling every available space but without being overpowering. So very sensual. um, yeah. I think I like it.

I have two imps of Shub that are WILDLY different from each other, and I love them both. One is definitely evil gingersnaps. It's all about the ginger. Bright, piercing ginger, singe my nosehairs and warm my body with gingery embers. The other one is musky, mother-goat goodness. It has a comforting, spicy, every so slightly gingery warmth. Absolutely splendid.

I am heartbreakingly sad. I was hoping for woodsy, herbal, calming hermit. Instead, I got BERRIES! and GRAPES! and little else. The smell was exactly like a mix of a couple of different scented candles from Pier One that I used to burn together, though I can't remember what the scent names were. It's comforting, but not something I want to smell like. It's all berry red and purple grape on my skin and I am petulant and pouty. *stompy stomp stomp*