moon_lemming

If a blend smells like baby powder in the imp, it is unlikely the experience will improve. Debauchery is sweet smoke on my skin, with a powdery undertone and a hint of Band-Aids. Not the Powder Death I expected given the scent in the imp, but not something I'd wear, either. eta: Oh, I forgot about the civet! It's not nearly as horrible as it usually is on me. (Or else I probably wouldn't have forgotten it, ha.) I actually have a hard time finding it, unless that Band-Aid scent -- which I assumed was due to cloves or something -- is the civet.

I only smell sweet pink rose in Rose Cross, from start to finish. Although in the finish it gets a bit odd. I have had a LOT of my recent tests end up with "has new-carpet smell of awfulness" in the notes after drying, and this oil is joining them. It might be the frankincense doing it here, or it might be a chemistry thing. I wish I could be more specific, but I'll have to leave it at that.

I can barely smell anything in the imp, just a very, very, very light sweet floral. Then I dab it on and I smell jasmine and THE END. Sorry, Zorya, you never really had a chance with that list of floral horrors. It's not as bad as it could be but I can't take even the light-to-medium dose of jasmine in this one.

I don't know what acai berries smell like or what poppies smell like, so I can only guess what I'm smelling until I have more experience with both. That said, I love Slippery Poppy Tincture in the imp! I can smell something that is like cranberry but sweeter and deeper, and something that smells like the very bottom part of a flower petal, where it attaches to the stem. It goes a little too powdery for me once it's dried, especially once the berries fade away, and what honey there is is too thin to balance the powder. I did love this one in the imp, though.

Lolwut? Fruit? I might have laughed a little when I sniffed this in the imp -- The Deep Ones: you expect dark salty briny dark darkness, right? NO! FRUIT! It made my cat sneeze, and he is sort of terrifying if he's pissed, and sneezing sort of pisses him off; does that count as dark? So in the imp, it's grapefruit and . . . fruity but planty at the same time. Who knows. It is too well blended for me to pick apart. On my skin, it's grapefruit and something balsamic. It gets more aquatic as it dries. Once it's dry, it's more what I expected: soap. Oh yeah, aquatics will never fail me. This would be a blue-and-white soap, I think.

I dislike the scent of lily on my skin. At first I thought Imperious Tiger-Lily had enough other stuff going on that it would be okay, since I mostly smelled neroli and ginger in the imp. But the lily amps up on my skin, and no thank you. There are other notes on my skin but I can't concentrate enough to pick them out with that lily note distracting me; it's got that new-carpet smell I find hard to ignore.

For some reason I'm not really drawn to the Lab's dragon's blood blends. I do love Dragon's Milk -- it's one of the first BPALs I hunted down a used bottle of -- but I've never really felt compelled to try the rest of them. Dragon's Tears doesn't really persuade me to seek out the others, to be honest -- it has the standard dragon's blood scent, but almost all I can smell is jasmine. It might be something similar to jasmine, and not really jasmine, but that's what it smells like to me. Whatever flower it is, it fades a little as it dries. Actually, almost all of the scent fades once it's dry. I can find the dragon's blood next to my skin but it's not very strong. I never smell anything "salty" or aquatic (which is a blessing in disguise, I guess: I can't really do aquatics).

Worm Moon has that beety soil smell that reminds me so much of the woods I drive through on the way home in springtime. It smells like good, earthy land that is just starting to grow things, mostly turned-over soil but also a little bit of something that makes it more than a soil single note. Love, love, love. I do have two other scents that are similar: one from Possets, and Penny Dreadful (although that one has the additional ginger), but I can't help but keep this one as well.

Sticky Pillowcase is all heated sugar and strawberry candy on me -- like that candy that makes me think of rhubarb. It has that edge to it. It's okay, but I don't love it. If it stayed like it smells in the bottle -- which is to say, EXACTLY like the description -- it would be a different story. The in-bottle scent is SCRUMPTIOUS.

White Chocolate and Sugared Violets = chocolate (not quite white but not quite milk) and Faith. It's good. Really, really good. But then, I love Faith. The chocolate note fades after twenty minutes or so and I'm left with . . . Faith. It's a little more complex due to the teensy bit of chocolate that's left, but it's mostly just Faith. I'm not complaining! I love this sugar-violet scent. I just can't justify keeping both scents when they end up being so similar.

For some unremembered reason, I expected Maud Ruthyn to be all oatmeal and honey and a little rose, but in the bottle it's more like . . . super-sweet fruit with a squish of rose. It smells like cherries, actually, although that may be the nectarine blending with something else? On my skin there is a floral of doom. It reminds me of jasmine, but with less stompy boots. It gives it that new-carpet edge that I loathe. Aside from that, there's sweet nectarine and a little quiet rose. This just doesn't work on me. I really expected to love it, too. Boo.

CCLX (260) I'm not sure that I've got the right number here -- mine came to me with the number half rubbed off. I stuck some tape on it and from what I can tell, CCLX is right. This is O and cherry at first, but the red fruitiness fades fast (it is possible it's almond, but I really don't think so) and a sort of fizziness pops up. It's sort of like . . . ginger ale -- minus the ginger -- plus O. I'm not sure about this one! I'll keep it for a while and see what happens.

CCCXIII (313) Dorian and . . . ozone, I think? Something I can't identify, which means either aquatic, ozone, or some random floral. This isn't soapy so it's probably not an aquatic and it has the aftershave feel that ozone gives off. It almost smells smoky, likes there's a bit of vetiver in the mix, but not in a bad way. Sometimes, when it's just wafting by, I sort of smell fish sticks which is very very strange. I might try it on my husband -- if it works with his chemistry (eg no fish sticks) I think it will be AWESOME on him.

Yorick is a less ginger-spicy, slightly drier version of Penny Dreadful on my skin. I actually like it a lot -- I love love love soil scents -- but it ends up fading to nothing in a very short span of time.

Bread-and-Butter-Fly is VERY buttery in the imp, SHOCKER, I know! It's almost butterscotch but there's something in it that makes "butter" come to mind instead. On me, it smells like buttered celery and toast. Strange, in a bad way. I would guess it's the tea-plus-something-else sending strange ideas into my brain about celery. As it dries it reminds me a little, a VERY little, of wearing Dorian while eating toast, but the celery overcometh all.

I can only find roses in the imp, but once Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds is on, I detect the orris -- the only reason I recognize it is that it smells the same in Signoir Dildo. The coconut is just baaarely there, and there's a powdery hint of musk. Somehow the combination smells almost like oranges on my skin. After it dries it's basically a powdery red rose, probably because of the musk, which turns to powder on me. Oh well.

Snap-Dragon-Fly really really REALLY reminds me of something but I can't put my finger on what that is. It just won't come to me. It's kind of driving me nuts, actually. Anyway, in the imp this blend is super-sweet and warm and plummy, but almost in a savory way. On me it's mostly sweet plum and a little bit of spiciness, but more sugary than spicy. If it were a candle, it would be one you'd burn around Christmastime. I'd love it if I didn't have a bias against plum-scented perfumes, but I do, so sadly this one is not for me.

Eden is incredibly foody in a dessert-y way. Honey, almonds, and coconut toastiness in the imp. The figs keep it from being overwhelmingly heavy, although it still has some substance. On me it is less delicious, sadly. I hate the way fig smells on my skin, and it amps like whoa. The honey amps as well, and it's all too rich together. As soon as those two notes start to show signs of relenting, the coconut gets stronger and turns to plastic. Not for me. I have enough honey scents, anyway, I'll leave this one for everyone else.

Lemon drops dusted with confectioner's sugar -- maybe a little hint of chemicals behind it, but nothing overwhelming -- in the imp and wet. Once it dries, though, the amber/musk takes over and turns it to new carpet badness with a lemony background. I loved Skytyping wet (I love love love lemon scents) but that new carpet thing kills any interest I had in it.

In the imp, Tin Foil Hat is bright lemon-lime with a bite of thin metal. On me: one of Bath & Body Works' men's body sprays. Maybe one of the green ones. Definitely ozone in there. Even more definitely not for me.

Damn, I can't pick out much in this one. I'm going to have to go with other reviews to figure out what's in Van Van. Okay, I get the vetiver and the patch. There's an earthy spiciness in here, and something herbal. Definitely something citrussy. And I agree, it has shades of vanilla. A bunch of stuff. Anyway, I like the scent in the imp, and there are very few blends that are this smoky that I even LIKE. Interesting. As it dries, the citrus -- which is clinging to the vanilla in a strange way -- pops and everything else except the vetiver kind of fades back. It's still there but the main stars are the citrus/vanilla blend and the vetiver. This is such a weird blend. It sounds weird, right? It is so strange I can't even actively dislike it, I'm just sitting here with an eyebrow cocked as I sniff it. Smoky lemon cake, I don't know. It makes me think of the color brown. The main point of the Conjure Bag for me is DOES IT WORK. I haven't worn it long enough to really tell yet, so I will edit this review later. It's worth the odd scent if it does. eta: I think YES. Yes, it works. As always, I am open to the notion that it could be a placebo effect. I feel like it's giving me a much-needed little shove, sort of a confidence in myself and an affirmation that what happens will happen and that's okay. That doesn't make much sense but I don't want to get too longcat about it. It's sort of an active peace/calm confidence. If that's not what I'm supposed to get from it, don't tell me, because I like this. I will keep Van Van around, I think it's a good tool to have. I won't get a bottle like I did with High John, but an imp or two, definitely.

I really like this in the imp! Roses and sweet wine. Two, Five, and Seven is sweet and rosey at the same time, and I could see how that would turn others off, but I enjoy it. On my skin the wine burns off, mostly. It's just roses. Oh, then a perfumey green note comes out. Oh deer, then it gets a little powdery. Powdery hot pink roses. The powder fades as the oil dries, though, and it gets sweet again. In the end, it's what I would describe as rose candy. Maybe rose Kool-Aid, but it's not quite that sweet, not as much as it was wet. It's not very strong on me. I like it okay but it doesn't grab me by the hair, and there are other rose blends I love more.

Staged Moon Landing really does smell like cool dusty rocks to me. I can see the comparison to LUSH's American Cream, too. It's more like a cool powdery version of AC on my skin, until the muguet (I think) amps and makes it too floral for that comparison. This is a strange blend. Sometimes it strikes me as floral and other times I think of it as a "vegetable vanilla" blend, almost like it has a hint of carrots. Weird. eta: I agree with the comparisons to Black Opal as well, definitely in that family. Black Opal worked better on my skin, though, from what I can remember (although it still wasn't a favorite).

I got a decant of Lulu from a very generous seller, as a freebie. I would never have picked it out myself because of the gardenia, which usually amps to an unholy level on me. In the imp, Lulu is evenly gardenia and bergamot to my nose; on my skin, however, the gardenia amps and takes over the blend. As it dries the gardenia monster backs off and I can smell a tiny bit of a citrus in there, but it's mostly a blend of a few different florals that I can't pick out, and it has a weird edge to it (thanks to chemistry, I'm sure) that I don't like. Not for me.

Regret born from ceaseless longing: wisteria, white grapefruit, neroli, green tea, jasmine, white ginger, honeysuckle, iris, and tonka. Honestly, my first impression of Vampire Tears was LEMON HORROR OMG. The lemon part is not the horror, I LOVE lemon (even when it's actually grapefruit, heh). I had forgotten that this blend had jasmine listed in the notes. And wisteria? And iris?! WTF was I thinking? It is just as awful dry. I should state that jasmine is always horrible on me, and half of the other notes listed have a history of awful as well. I don't even want to get close enough to pick out notes. I can see how someone else might like this, but I should have stayed far away.