Mishinka

There's a coffee house near me that also sells cigars, so after I spend an hour or two writing there I come home smelling of good coffee, cream/milk, sugar, baked goodies, tobacco, and probably a few varieties of tea, and I want that scent. Without having to go a few days without showering or wear clothes in need of a wash, I mean. Is there anything like that around?

In the imp: Now that is a very interesting scent. At first I get something very similar to Bastet, sweet amber with a kind of dry, warm background from the saffron, though there's just a very distinct note of rye bread. Wet: ...it's rye bread. Slightly sweet, dusty rye bread, but rye bread. Dry: It doesn't change much and it dies off quickly. I'm disappointed.

In the imp: Lovely! Pear and cedar jump right out and pop me in the nose first thing. I'd been worried about the jasmine and cedar, but they're very mellow. It's almost all pear with a little bit of heaviness from the cedar and pepper to ground it. Wet: Ah, there's the jasmine. Pretty strong, soapy jasmine, too. This pretty much almost is soap, except I can still smell some pear and pepper. I only had a little dab on at first, but I do smell the cedar more clearly when I put a little more on. Dry: The jasmine mellows as it dries; it's not quite so soapy as it was. The pear makes a pretty strong comeback, and there's another mild flower in there that must be the champaca. Phew, this one's a hanger-on, too. A few hours later and I still get pretty strong whiffs of flowery pear--almost candy sweet, but not in a bad way--when I move my arm. I wasn't planning to buy any bottles since money's short and imps last me a good long time, but this one I'm kind of tempted.

Season of Ghosts In the bottle: Wow. Orange. Really strong orange. But funny orange. I suppose it must be blood orange, because they have this almost bitter tartness to them, and it smells rather like that. Or maybe it's the lemongrass. It's not quite cleaning fluid, it's a little fruitier and a little more pleasant than that, but the longer I hold it under my nose, the more it heads in that direction. I don't dislike it, but... Wet: It's still orange, but it's more of a natural, fresh-peeled orange. I think I maybe smell a little of the geranium in the background, but the orange mostly drowns it out. I'm not getting ginger or frankincense at all. Later: This ends up fancy soap on me, geranium with a little bit of orange behind it. It's not an unpleasant scent, but my mother got a fancy soap set for Christmas that smells exactly like this. It's fancy soap. It's a really stubborn scent on me, too. I spent the next six hours after I put this on helping a friend who's moving pack the truck. I kept getting pretty strong whiffs of orangey, slightly dusty geranium right up until the last half hour or so. I don't dislike this scent, but I think I'm trading it for something else. Edit: Though now that I've spilled nearly the entire goddamn bottle, I have to say it does quite nicely as a room scent. For some reason I'm smelling a sort of smoky vanilla undertone.

I first sniffed this with a really bad cold and thought that in the imp Velvet Tiger smelled exactly like Constant Comment or one of those other spiced-orange black teas. Now that it's bronchitis and my nose works a little better I can still see where I got that idea. I smell orange and cinnamon very strongly, but the tea note I thought I smelled earlier is actually this dirty mix of vetiver and licorice. Vetiver is no friend of mine, so I'm a little reluctant to try it on. Whoof, it's strong, though. I spritzed a little oil onto my lip when I closed the imp and the finger I wiped it off with is throwing scent like crazy. It's still not as harsh and smelly as vetiver usually is on me. I can definitely smell the teak, and a little cinnamon. There's something else a little earthy, almost musty, that I think is the play of wood and licorice. I want to say it smells a bit old-fashioned, but the era it's putting me in mind of is only about the late 1960s/1970s. Actually, it smells like the kind of basement rumpus room that would have velvet paintings of tigers on the walls. I'd expected it to be the vetiver that killed this one for me, but I can barely smell it. It's the woody licorice that amps all out of control as it dries. There's still a little spicy orange I can smell after it's set for a little while, but the spiced orange is buried under a pile of Good'n'Plenty and Red Hots candies in a wood chest. Not for me, thanks.

OMG love! This is my very favorite scent I've tried since the Halloweenies last year. In the decant I get a zap of spicy pepper that smells almost like cinnamon straight off. There's a slight woodiness in the imp that I think must be from the balsam, ad I can smell a little booze when I'm looking for it. I have no idea where the The rose is really strong when it's wet, but it's a rose I like, like the one in Day of the Skulls. It stays spicy, and I start to smell the berries as it dries down. The alcohol really just jumped out at me, too, but it stays mostly spicy rose at the end.

Hmmm. No list. It's very outdoorsy in the imp, all pine and earth. It's actually rather soapy when I put it on. I'd expected something very masculine, but it's not. There's something in here I associate with masculine scents, though, maybe a wee bit of leather. I think I still smell pine, and maybe grass or clover? It's very green, but not in the herbal way most of the other "green" scents I've smelled are. It's like, the dark grass green the lawn outside my window is right now. It gets sweeter as it dries down and I'm almost sure there are some spring flowers in here.

Very nice! It's very herbal in the bottle, but it's a summer night smell when I put it on. I get a lot of incensey smell that must be the ambergris, and a touch of citrus from the bergamot, but otherwise this is a very deep, dark floral. I don't smell the honey or currant, and only the slightest bit of patchouli (that's good, though. I don't care for patchouli) or oakmoss to give it a bit of earthiness. The honey comes out a little after a while, and I'm even starting to pick up a little bit of spiciness from someplace after it's been dry for a while. Right now it's kind of soapy, but I just washed my hands, so I might be smelling actual soap. This one's pretty!

This is a very fizzy, sweet scent. I thought at first it smelled like cotton candy in the imp, but I think it's actually root beer I'm smelling. On my hand the oak leaf grounds it a little; there's a slightly earthy edge to it, though I still smell a lot of sassafras and some vanilla. It's a strangely cool scent once it dries--it bites my nose a little like winter air. After a while and a couple of hand washes it's still hanging on as a slight, buttery sweetness. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but it's interesting.

In the imp it's very earthy, almost chocolatey. There's a lot going on there when it's wet! It's fun enough that my initial impulse is "let's put some more on!", though I think this is probably one of those where a little goes a long way. That's some really hot, strong cinnamon, almost too much. That chocolate/earth note is still there, and I can't figure out what that is, unless it's from the fig. It's very sweet and fruity; I definitely smell pomegranate and maybe a bit of grape. I don't know what spikenard smells like, but there's some kind of floral hanging around in the background. I like this a lot so far! It stays hot, fruity cinnamon for a long time, though it dies down to a mellow, sugary apple that seems like it ought to belong to a Yankee Candle something-or-other after a while. I generally don't like fruity/foody scents, but this one is neat! I would totally eat this fruit.

I don't know what wormwood smells like. I'm guessing probably woody and bitter. In the imp I definitely smell the anise straight away. Wet, I don't know what this "barest hint of lemon" is about, because phew, lemon liek whoa. Lemon and anise. There's a bit of herbiness behind it at first, but it goes straight to Lemon Pledge as it dries. Though now I can smell some kind of floral in the room, though I'm not sure if that's the Absinthe or the Hello, I'm A Great Whopping Pile of Imps on the Shelf Over Here next to me. It's really stubborn lemon and anise, too, because washing my hands a moment ago didn't have much of an impact on the scent.

Oh my, this is sweet! Not in a bad way, but that's definitely the theme here. When I put it on, it almost seems to be a single note of honey, though there's something a bit green and maybe a little smoky behind it. I smell something kind of fruity in there, too, maybe the wine. In the imp it's a bit darker and rougher. The honey jumped straight out at me at first, but I think I smell the myrrh more strongly before I put it on. The resins jump out in a "what does that smell like? I can't quite figure it out" way. It's still really sweet even after it dries. It lingers as a soft, sweet mead incense. I'd been leaning at first toward "oh, this is awfully sweet. Drink it, sure, if it tasted like it smells, but I don't know if I actually would wear it", but I like this quite a lot once it's dried.

In the imp I just get rose in a department store perfum kind of way, which sort of surprises me. The spices all sort of burst out when I put it on, but the rose overwhelms them pretty quickly and just sits on their heads like a six hundred-pound gorilla even after it's started to dry. The rose does die down after it's been dry for a while, but still all I get from it is powdery rose. I love like ninety-five percent of the notes in the list, but it just comes out plain rose on me. Sad face. So sad face it bears spelling out and an emoticon.

Pretty! I got this as a frimp from the lab. In the imp, it's pretty much just honey and a hint of the minerally candy-orange that comes with chewable aspirin and kids' vitamins. Not in a bad way, though. There's a big blast of orange when I put it on. The honey balances it out after a while, and I finally smell just a little rose once it starts to dry. I can't find any sandalwood, though, unless it's the slightly dry note I smell when I put my hand right up to my face. I like this. It's very simple but without being dull. It's a nice late spring/early summer scent, I think. Whoof, has quite a throw, too. So now I'm just about to meet someone for lunch, and I have a big old splotch of Jezebel on one hand and a big old splotch of Al-Azif--supa-sweet incense that also throws like anything--on the other. Go me!

I would never in a million years have pegged this for a Lovecraft scent. It's just so cheerfully bright and sweet. In the imp it reminds me a lot of Bastet, that super-sweetness that's just enough to make me wonder if I really want to try it. I think it must be saffron and incense they have in common. It isn't so warm or fruity as She is, though, or as complex. It's pleasant, but this is just an spirit who wants to be a god, or to be more powerful than it really is. When I put it on, I get a big burst of caramel. There's incense here, but it's sweet incense, frankincense or maybe sweet myrrh and a little beeswax. After a while I start to smell some faint, distant florals. It isn't anything used a lot, but it's some kind of white flower. The sweetness mellows as it dries and the scent gets spicier. I smell a little wood and maybe some cinnamon. It definitely picks up a smoky note, but it's an incense smoke instead of something burnt. Actually, it smells a lot like the incense that was in the air when I went to St. Mary's Cathedral in Covington, Kentucky right after an evening service. I like it, but I don't know if I would wear it often. It's a bit foody for my tastes.