jejunery

Zephyr is one of my favorite scents, but it's not particularly strong citrus on me. For things that do shout citrus, though, I like Night-Gaunt, which is a more floral version of Aizen-Myoo to my nose, the aforementioned Whitechapel, and Baobhan Sith. Xiutecuhtli is a more sophisticated kind of orangey blend. Never realized how much I like citrus until I started typing this up...

This might not fit in with your criteria, but I had to mention Haunted again regardless. The musk doesn't dominate the amber like you might think, and it stays sweet. So sweet, in fact, that my cats will go out of their way to try and lap it off of my neck when I have it on. Lick-me amber indeed.

This was a freebie from the lab in a recent order. I have to give them credit yet again – Chimera is not a scent that I’d ever thought about sampling, but it’s really interesting. I can see why people associate Chimera with Big Red gum; it’s a sweet, honeyed cinnamon. But when I dabbed a bit of Chimera on my wrist and took a big whiff, my first thought was “ohmigod -- it’s ice cream!” Yup, as somebody noted way back on the first page of this thread, this smells exactly like one of the best ice creams ever, Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. While I very much enjoy smelling like my favorite cinnamony-sweet cream-oatmeal cookie-filled ice cream (especially when I can’t make it to the store), my skin amps the honeysuckle to the point of being almost too honey-sweet. The cinnamon, while complementing it wonderfully, doesn’t completely cut through the sweetness. It’s too much for me in the summer, but I drag it out in the winter when I’m in need of some psychological/emotional oatmeal cookie ice cream.

A poisonous fruit-bearing member of the buttercup family. The scent, like the plant, is dark green, herbal, and plump with bulging black fruit. This is indeed a green berry scent, but the greenery provides a fairly soft, mellow backdrop for the predominating berry note. I can see why others have described it as "clean" -- this changes even further into an almost floral, soapy scent with a tinge of berry to it. The Lab included this as a freebie in a recent order. It's not the kind of thing that I'd normally select for myself, but I'm glad that I was able to try it anyway. Two hours after application, I'm left with quiet, refined, herby soapy berries, but I'll give it another shot later.

When first applied, Samhain is dark, claustrophobic, and murky: I smell smoke/tobacco, trees, and something patchouli-like wafting at me, and some other notes that I can't identify. After half an hour or so, however, it settles down to a woodsy, dirty apple. It's not a fruity blend at all; in the background is an almost sour smell that reminds me of the scent of compacted, rotting leaves. That makes it sound less-than-lovely, but it's beautiful and incredibly evocative: it's sweet, deep, and organic. It's fruit with depth, instead of all sparkly-happy-effervescent as in some other blends. I can't wait to see how it ages. (This is for the '05 version -- I hope to purchase the '06 when it comes around, as well.)

Why don't I wear Morocco more often? It's delicious. I can see how "spicy" could be misleading -- Morocco isn't spicy-hot, or spicy-firey, more harmonious-sweet-spicy like yummy cookies. While carnation tends to be tricky on my body chemistry and stomp on all surrounding notes, it plays nice here; the base of musk, sandalwood and cassia is really well-blended, and no note overtakes the others, or thwacks me on the head 15 minutes after application. It's a changeable scent on me, though. Occasionally my skin amps up some background note and I smell really... musty. Like a book that's been in basement storage for too long. Most days, however, it's the delightly predominating smooth-vaguely-spicy mix. So cozy and comforting, but in a different way. Yum!

On me, Embalming Fluid smells exactly like a freshly-opened packet of Tazo Zen. (This makes sense, because Zen is green tea blended with lemon verbena.) It remains the same for most of the day—no deviations into lemon Pledge territory, and the white musk remains a soft, grounding base. It's clean and refreshing, but light and not sharp or in-your-face. While Embalming Fluid isn't a showy, complex, overtly sexy scent, it's still one that I've received compliments on and that I reach for year-round. Don't let its lack of flash deter you -- it's big bottle-worthy, and one of my desert island BPALs.