Naamah_Darling

In the bottle this is a light, clean meadow scent like a field after the rain, coupled with a deeper draught of throaty but pale musk. On, it comes into its own with a vengeance. This is a foresty, herbal blend tempered by just a touch of rain and a faint breath of flowers. It's fresh and wild, and very clean. Normally such clean-smelling blends aren't for me, but this contains a beautiful musk akin to the one in Dorian that rounds this out perfectly and makes it just animal enough for beastly little me to wear. For a perfume that begins very soft and unisex, it finishes quite masculine, going through a brief woody phase, and then into a light, boyish musk tinged with rain and forest. Wonderful, versatile, and intriguing. Recommended if you can get your hands on a decant.

This is sleek and dark, a husky, musky blend with a thoroughly sexy edge. It's roses and musk, but it's a warm enough scent that it's gender-neutral despite the roses. It goes on in a throaty moan of musk and rose, its sweet roses backed with a licking, fiery warmth. The spices are an influence, not a demand, but they are definitely present under the musk. And this musk is beautiful – it's smooth and sultry, heavy-lidded. As it ages the musk and rose blend together seamlessly into one silky scent, indistinguishable, sublime. What with the musk and spices, it is just a tad reminiscent of Spellbound, but where Spellbound comes on strong and heavy, Othello is subtle, wooing rather than ravishing, relying on atmosphere and subtlety to seduce rather than brute animal sex appeal. This is overall just a tad feminine, but a man wearing it would be an instant god of sex. Please, all you gorgeous boys out there, I know you are listening: put this on and come to my house. With a scent like this, you don't even have to bring me flowers. I'll just spank your butt and we'll call it even. Ahem. Pretend you didn't read that.

Lavender and mosses give this a rugged yet poised character in the bottle. On my skin, it's the same, only with an undertone of carnation. Very masculine and rich, and very nice. I may have to reevaluate my opinion of lavender, because in cologne-type blends it does very well on me. This has depth. As it dries, a woody note pokes out. It's not listed but I would not at all be surprised to learn that cedar or sandalwood went into this. The amber isn't foremost here. It's a sort of muzzy softness in the background, just peeking out. It dries down very stable, hasn't changed much from the initial scent, just mellowed a bit as the moss fades more into the background. I like this, and as it's a rather traditional-smelling men's fragrance, I will recommend it for guys who are wanting to get into this, but who don't want to try anything too extraordinarily weird.

Unexpected! This is high, bright, and perfume-y, very pretty. On, it definitely has amber in it; I can smell that in the waft. It goes on very sharply perfumey/soapy, but fades in a minute or so to a very regal incense and slightly floral perfume blend that is both classic in profile and yet subtle and very deep. The resinous notes here are sneaky, pretty. It's not a heavy scent, but it's not one you can ignore, either. Its touch of classic perfume would make it suitable for someone transitioning from traditional perfumes to BPAL, while its resinous depth lends it a sophisticated depth. This is definitely a dry, hot smell, but it's not a desolate, empty smell. This is more like the scent of perfumed resin baking out in the sun – strong and clear. It just gets more and more beautiful as it dries, and more incense notes come out. Lovely. I really cannot emphasize its prettiness enough – in its final stages it is quite reminiscent of the opening of Jacob's Ladder, albeit minus that heartwrenching slight sweetness that Jacob's Ladder had. The drydown is very neutral, but the opening salvo is so traditional that I cannot classify this as anything but an overtly feminine perfume.

Musk fronts this, a hard blast of that coca-cola smell. This is thick, dark musk and indeed the oil itself is a tarry brown-black. There's a waft of incense underneath, but just a hint. This is unusual on the skin. The vetiver has its usual ruthless edge, but the myrrh is a trifle sweet, and the mullein is a cedary herbal note under all of it. This smells very close and personal, a body-odor scent that is almost but not quite off-putting. Truly, a dark scent for a dark god. It settles to an almost musty odor, pleasant but very strange, a combination of the musk's depth and the vetiver's grassy rasp. Good for those who like faintly dirty scents, which I do, but this is a trifle dirty even for me. I like it, but I don't know that I'd wear it.

Resinous incense sweetens this in the bottle; there's an herbal, clean touch that lifts it up a bit. Subtle yet authoritative. This has immediate promise. It goes on masculine and rich, fennel and basil over a base of incense. It's outdoorsy without being overly green or woodsy, clean without being soapy, and subtle without being dull. The incense lends a smooth roundness to it, a kind of well-groomed urbanity. The leather, and it is just a faint touch, nudges it just slightly into the "sexy" category. As it wears down it becomes more roundly sweet and incensey, with the herbs firmly in tow . . . it's actually fairly feminine at this stage, but on a man it would be devastating.

This limited edition Oblation blend is a smooth aquatic with a tangy breath of distant pine. The "ozone" note is powerful. For those of you wondering what it really smells like, the aquatic/ozone smell has that same green, silky scent that you find in cucumbers. I've smelled "green tea" flavored products that smell similar as well. It's clean smooth, and juicy, almost fruity. And really, that's all this is: pure aquatics, pure ozone. There's a bare hint of greenery, but it's not really very piney/pitchy, more plantlike, saplike. It's quite beautiful, in a cool mountain breeze sort of way. It's a rarity, but I don't know that it stands out that much; there are other comparable aquatic scents among the Salon series and the GC scents. Lovely, and worth sniffing if you really love aquatics/ozones, as this is as pure as they come, but in my opinion it's not something one should feel obligated to track down just to try.

This was a limited edition blend, and it is a helluva scent. Thick, dark, and dirty, foody but filthy in the bottle, it smells like rotten dog butt. I know this is going to be good, because fig and chocolate, both of which are forefront here, always reek until they get on the skin. On, it blows up into this huge scent, all chocolate and musk and savage, savage juniper and cubeb. This smells like a particularly foul and pestilential liquor the likes of which might well poison you. That said, I like it. It's very dirty, though the juniper is distinct, and the cubeb lends a tangy, peppery scent that, with the juniper, give this a distinctly camphor-like aroma. It is vaguely medicinal. Potent would be a good word for this blend. It's either going to find something to screw, or go off into the corner and noisily lick itself. Either way, it's not polite, and it's not possible to ignore. Naturally, I adore it.

Woody and musky, Fenris Wolf has a slightly sweet edge, the sandalwood and musk are just a bit like cola while it's in the bottle. On, the musk powers up at the same time the wood comes out as much rounder and spicer. The rosewood here is very spicy and very sharp, this is a heavy smell with a surprising edge to it, soft but enveloping. The cola smell is gone. On weardown, it's very woody, with that fuzzy musk still lingering. Very tenacious and long-lasting. This one is fairly unisex, and I think for someone searching for a woody, musky scent, something personal and warm, would do well to consider this one. It's quite nice.

This is a viscous, black oil that looks truly foul. I pop the top and take a sniff, and it turns into a breath, a long inhalation followed by a purring moan. This is the smell of sweaty man sex. The cola-like scent of musk is less sweet and more funky here. It's well-known that this blend contains a very dark musk, perhaps civet, and I have to say it smells very animal. There is spice, too, almost root-beery. And oh, my does this have bite. No. Make that balls. This is richly stinky, a delicious, dirty, depraved scent that borders on the unhinged. There is something sweaty and malodorous lurking way down in there, a hint of the smell of sweaty hair. And cinnamon, I swear there is cinnamon. It smells even better the morning after, too. WOW.

Pine and juniper softened with rosewood and a hint of warm vanilla. This is tingling clean and sharp in the bottle, but not overpoweringly so. It's definitely cologne-y, and I have to really sniff at it a minute to detect the vanilla under the yellow pine notes. This is undoubtedly a man's blend. The amber and vanilla mix with the pine and juniper to form a scent that is pitchy and smooth, rather than high-pitched and cacaphonous. This is a little powdery, all the ingredients are very dry. Pine is definitely forefront, but the vanilla alongside it is a fascinating touch. It adds a personal note, a hint of the flesh, as does the amber. This is lively to me, most definitely, but not necessarily carnal. It's not sexual-smelling to me at all, it's definitely more toward the "clean" end of things. What sexuality it has is the thoughtless kind. Masculine, poised, and self-assured, refined but not reserved, and brightly-lit, this is a good cologne-type scent, and would make a good bet for a guy wanting to transition from commercial blends to something a bit more individual.

This smells like . . . shampoo! A very clean meadowy smell, like laundry washed in sweet berry/floral soap hanging in a field. This is a relentlessly cheerful, springtimey, smiling scent. I just got out of the shower, and I couldn't much smell it after applying it. That is how soapy-clean this is. Frothing and sudsy, almost. Beyond the flowers and grass, there's not much; a vague green wood scent and a hint of waxy berries, as though the field borders a forest. It's still cheerful and good-natured, without anything really distinctive about it at all. Recommended for those who like clean, soapy scents. This is bright and mild, and even works on me. The floral and grass elements are very well-balanced, and the berry is barely an influence.

Myrrh, myrrh, myrrh! Myrrh! Oh, and some currant, and something that's a little sweet. But mostly, myrrh! On, it's . . . dark. Myrrh is usually a lovely golden scent on me, but this is ferociously dark. Like a shadow, it puts out other scents. The throw has that slightly vanilla resin scent, but it's a smoky, thick scent, tinged heavily with some organic sweetness that could be the mimosa or the mandrake. This is, rather than incensey, an earthy scent, a spoiled scent, one that is just on the edge of wrongdoing. I like it. It's not velvety, it has a burr to it, a roughness. It's not gentle at all. It's insistent and slightly deranged, the psycho ex-girlfriend of a scent. It ages to something a bit more gentle, now it's a sweetish myrrh with a little floral in there, but it's not quite so . . . fell. Oddly, I never really get the currant, except in the bottle, when I can smell it as a stickiness like . . . hmm. Like the smell of a fruit roll-up. Smells sorta like fruit, smells sorta like butt, and you eat it anyway. But it doesn't do that on my skin. Currant is usually a little more forthcoming, but here I think the myrrh is just sitting on it too much. The drydown is murky and sullen, a fussy goth in torn lace sulking in the corner after an all-night squawk, then falling asleep in her own tears with various body fluids still congealing on her pasty skin. Take a bath, woman. You smell like your brother after a week-long bender. Don't get me wrong, I like this well enough, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing clean about it. Including, by the way, the scent description. I would love to know more about Masabakes, 'cause that's just bizarre. I'm going to jump in and say this is possibly a unisex scent. I can see a man, the right man, wearing this to very good effect.

Pear and flowers are strong and sweet in the bottle. This is very floral and so sweet it's almost sugary. Sweet pea, heliotrope, and honeysuckle are the dominant notes I think. On, it's all soft musk, a little pear, and a whole lotta sweet, sweet florals. I'm not good with florals, so I'm just going to say that I can identify sweet pea for sure, and honeysuckle, the lily-smelling stuff is less strong than usual (I can tell because I don't smell pickles) and I think the odd shimmery smell is the heliotrope. This is just beautiful. I can't think of a floral I've liked in the very recent past; this one comes as close as it's possible to come to a floral blend I would willingly wear. I suppose it might be the musk making it palatable, but whatever it is, this is great, great stuff. It's not too strong, and as it settles, it becomes a beautifully blended, smooth floral with no one note predominating. The musk fills up the space between the florals, makes them really blend together. It's not too powerful, and though it has respectable strength up close, it doesn't throw much. A good choice, unlike many perfumes, for office wear. What throw it does have is positively enchanting, the sort of smell that will make you take three steps backward to ask the person wearing it what on earth that heavenly scent is. Sweet, vulnerable, nubile, and beautiful . . . this is lovely, a perfect evocation of Juliet. I like the perfume way, way more than I liked the play. The perfume is way brighter than Shakespeare's doomed twit ever was.

I smell like pirate crotch, courtesy of Masabakes, which is a delightful scent if you want to drive away your crab lice. No. No. That's not fair. It'll curl your eyebrows, but I really DO like it. Does it make me weird that I enjoy the really dark, feral, ferociously stinky scents? I put on Satyr before bed last night and woke up in the morning with that gleeful sort of Christmas morning glow. I had no idea why, until I raised the sheets and caught a whiff of myself, and what the perfume had done cooking under the bedclothes all night. It went from the smell of a very well-groomed goat to being the smell of three days worth of pitilessly good sex crammed into eight hours. Subconsciously from the smell I'd been expecting to find another person in the bed, and it smelled like they were sex-ay. This Satyr owns a disco in the hip downtown district, baby! Curiously, they make a killer root beer float.

This is a fresh, herbal rosemary blended with sweet flowers. On my skin, it has a powerful and fiercely conflicting throw – roses and pungent green herbs. There may be a trace of sage in here, and a smidge of lemon peel, perhaps. It's quite sour, perhaps too sour. I like it, but it's a bit biting and acrid to wear as a perfume, and it's hard to pin down because of it, too. Dry, it settles a lot, and is a dusty rose blend with a hint of herbs. In this phase I like it a great deal. It's not overpowering, and is, in fact, downright genteel. It's just that first kick that's so intense I'm not sure I could stand to wear it out. Interesting overall.

This is gently floral in the bottle, with a hint of resin. On, it expands to a cool, pale rose, and the damp scent of orchids. The labdanum is an incensey, crystalline sweetness swirling in and around the florals. It's beautiful, very subdued, and not terrifically powerful. A somber, lovely scent, not sexual at all, like a virgin dressed in mourning. It's very light, very soft. Lovely. It ages, and sadly, the florals sour on me, ripening to a slightly rancid, pickled smell. The rose is still lovely, though, and the overall impression is still one of lightness, paleness. It's quite dry and powdery. Nice overall, even with the pickle smell, but not for me.

This sounds like a hell of a scent – let's see what I can make of it in the bottle. Oh, this is pure t!ts-out sex, people. Musk and bourbon swimming with flowers, and just a brush of sweet incense. The jasmine fronts the flowers, but it has a tooth. It goes on floral with a harsh rasp of something resinous . . . then evens out to a positively bewitching, intricate, dangerously sexy floral. There's an edge to it that is not at all nice, an almost unpleasant sharpness somewhere in the middle third, and that sharpness takes it from pleasant to fascinating, the way a beauty mark can really pin down a face. This slightly "off" note is what makes the scent so arresting. I'm not getting overt vanilla but the whole has a unified creaminess that I associate with vanilla's influence. The clove is a faint dash of spice in the scent's aftertaste – and I think it, along with the slightly-funereal lily, is what is making this really dance. This is the kind of ruthless sexiness that spits booze into your mouth, slaps you around a little, squeezes your head between her thighs, and rakes the s**t out of you with her nails when you're on top of her. The kind of sexy that starts out rough and ends up with both of you purring like kittens and drooling on one another in the aftermath. The kind of sex, say, I was lucky enough to get after putting it on. Yeah. The musk and booze are genius. Without them, this would be sweet and sort of wistful. With them, this is agonizingly sexual. Like bottled blue balls. Wow-meow! Why this scent doesn't get more play I can't say; it's a showstopper. Wearing it, I feel powerfully sexy, like I could get anything I wanted out of anyone with just a look and a gesture. Very hot, very intense, and very me.

This is unexpectedly sweet and fruity, with a sweet incense note floating right up top, and rose swirling around in the bottom. This goes from bubblegum to dark, musky sex in about four seconds, like a black rose unfolding. They myrrh and wine have a candylike throw, but up close the musk is a throaty, husky purr. The rose really isn't dominant in this at all, and it's a very herbal, dry rose, like Zombi. A black rose, or dark red. This isn't coming across as particularly sweet on me, for which I am grateful. The black musk is really gritty and dirty, an almost animal scent, but the myrrh and the wine give it some lift, keep it from smelling rank. It still lends a kind of gloom to the scent, a heaviness like a hint of danger. If this is a sexy woman, she's one who might turn on you. She wouldn't slap your cheek, no. She'd just break your neck. And probably laugh. Others have complained of it being far too sweet, but my skin amps up the animal musk, and on me it's controlled, powerful, deep, and perilously sexy. A womanly, adult scent that screams "predator." Beware!

This is all almond in the bottle, a cool, thick cherry/nutty smell bottomed out with a cola-like dark musk similar to the one in Smut. On, it goes up in a smoky drift of incense; thick, spicy myrrh twining around the cherry almond and eventually consuming it. The musk is throaty and full, a good match with the incense. This is a very dark scent, very female yet not quite feminine. The musk and almond are for beauty, but the myrrh adds an unexpectedly sorcerous influence to the blend, a nice little thread of witchcraft. It dries warm incense and musk; a brindled, copper-colored scent with just a faint hint of the almond off in the background like moonlight. Quite pleasant and very sensual.

Holy cow. This is a fruity, flowery blast of in-your-face sweetness. It's so well-blended that the rose and pomegranate go hand in hand together. The rose here is very glowing and bright, like something spot-lit or painted on black velvet. The pomegranate is a fruity twang so perfectly bound up in the rose that they can't be separated. It's not really pomegranate-like to me, more a sort of sweet sugarplum scent, but it's quite pleasant. There is, when dry, a faint smell of something scorched, which I find interesting; like burnt rose petals. This is reminiscent of several very sweet scents I've tried: Maenad, Bordello . . . this is a bit more subtle and a bit less sugary while still falling firmly into the sweet category. Here is Persephone as a beautiful girl, gathering her flowers, the first time Hades caught a glimpse of her.

Sweet, light flowers – a dusty rose, layered with lotus' sweet candy bubblegum and the dampness of lily. It's a pretty scent, very feminine and frilly, the olfactory equivalent of a multi-layered crinoline skirt and fussy little gloves. It goes on thick with rose and lily, very white and pleasant, and at the same time wan and a bit thin. I can see the Ophelia-ness of it. This isn't a powerful scent. It's weak and uncertain, too sweet for its own good, and just a little overripe. I don't care for it close up; lily has a bitterness on me that is truly foul, and this rose is chalky and sour. But the throw of it is wonderful; a lotus-inflected rose that has just the faintest tinge of color to it. The little whiffs of it I catch as I move are very appealing, sweet and gentle and girlish. Still, it's not a very "me" scent, and I think only people who really enjoy lily and pale rose scents should try this one. It's not one for people who can't wear florals or who prefer heavier, more authoritative scents. Beautiful from a distance, but only up close do you realize that this scent is pretty dead in the water.

This is light and pretty, a slightly spicy apricot leavened by the sweetness of orange blossom. It goes on warm and rich, with the gentle lushness of white musk keeping it from being too foody or too clean. It has formidable throw, this fruity, apricotty aura, but isn't overwhelming close-in. Very close, the apricot takes on an almost vanilla tinge. It's sticky-sweet and very pleasant, without being overwhelmingly sugary or smelling in any way artificial or juvenile. Delightfully simple, and one I'll recommend to people who have liked the peach blends in the past; Fae, Aglaea, etc., but might have wished for something lighter. This is similar enough to belong in the same class, but it's very light and polite. Recommended.

This is sweet, sharp, and herbal in the glass. It's all cedar and grassy topnote, quite pleasant. It goes on rather harsh. The cedar and vetiver are quite sharp, but underneath is a pleasant, green sweetness. This is clean, herbal, and a little medicinal, though not unpleasantly so. The contrast between the sharp edge of the cedar and vetiver and the warmth and sweetness of the olive and raspberry leaf is interesting, and keeps me sniffing it. It is a beautiful scent. It dries to a woody, sweet finish that is still somehow fresh. Like the smell of the tiny, tiny box into which I shove my rage.

This one has hardly any smell in the bottle, very little throw. It's sweet tonka and smoke with a yummy hint of ginger and a little of the pepper's sweetness. The flower is there, very faintly. All the notes are present, but it's so very quiet and subdued. This is lovely once it warms up. Sweetly smoky, woody incense with ginger spice and creamy tonka. The pepper is lively, as always. You know, I enjoy pepper in perfumes, which I didn't think I would, but its spiky sweetness is always so charming to me. The champaca flower is sweet and damp, and it blends, oddly enough, with the ginger. This is a very rich and actually quite feminine perfume. You know, sexy, drugged stupor and all that. Dry, the flower and the ginger are quite candylike, an odd combination. It gets more floral as it wears on, but it's such a sweet floral, sticky, that it's not powdery at all. I really like this. Girly and candylike, yes, but it's a nice scent, rich and layered and a little overheated, just like I like them.