septima_pica

Oh, yuck. Someone spilt O all over my Bastet. Smelt good in the imp, but now it smells like bitter almonds mixed with stinky-ass buttermilk. My boy likes it, though; then again, he has little sense of smell...

Gnaaaah! Wow, this smells EXACTLY like hot sweet buttered rum. Unfortunately, I don't think I really want to smell like that. Still...whoa. Outrageous. Also, it led directly to me learning to make *real* hot buttered rum, since it induced a craving for said drink in both myself and the friend who came with me...we bought a bottle of rum on the way home and made a pot of it when we got back home. Yum. Thank you, Lab.

Well, damn and double damn. I was REALLY hoping this one would work out, given its appropriateness for my usual look -- I wear a top hat and affect a vaguely Victorian demeanour, and in fact have been called "the Mad Hatter" before by several acquaintances. And I could pick out nearly all the notes in the description, and liked all of them, but unfortunately somehow my skin dredges up a chocolate note in there...and I can't do chocolate scents. Disastrously so. The overall effect ended up being...well, if you've ever had a dentist who uses that nasty chocolate-mint abrasive toothpaste, you know exactly the scent I'm talking about. And the worst part is that I don't even know where that smell came from, 'cause it's not listed. Bah.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this already...thanks so much, attar shanas, for mailing it to me! Definitely one of my new top favourites. This is like the younger, more lively sibling of Laudanum. The overall impression is "yes, that's it exactly!" -- it really evokes the taste of absinthe, green and anisey, with cardamom and mint, and (late to show up) a twist of citrus peel. I don't think I smell the alcohol at all, oddly; I never seem to pick up that note in any of the boozy blends. It doesn't bog down in sweet vanilla and honey, either, like La Fee Verte; this is a cold shot straight out of the bottle without the sugar cube. And although its delicacy made me initially expect it would be a quick vanisher, it hangs around for a good four or five hours. All in all, a total winner. I need a bottle of this one.

I forgot to review this one, I see. It was a sad experience. I was so very much looking forward to this one, and so it was one of the first ones I tried when I got the chance. And, indeed, the rum smelled appropriately sugary and boozy, the red wine is as lovely as it is in Nosferatu, and the blood is exactly right. But the cocoa -- it's a disaster. Instead of smelling like good bitter chocolate, it just smelled like burning a panful of cocoa powder on the stove. It was acrid and bitter and yeccch. Heartbreaking. So, sadder but wiser, I will find another way to celebrate the Infinite Drunken Rabbits, and in future avoid chocolate blends. ::sigh::

Hm. This is a nice, gentlemanly, slightly distinctive cologne, but some of its subtlety gets lost on my skin, which just amps the hell out of the amber and lavender; those nice tonka and rosewood notes that deepen the smell of Dee so much get swamped out. In summary: pleasant enough, but it'll smell better on someone else. If I want something of this flavour, I'll go for Dee instead, where I can actually smell the tonka.

This smells TERRIBLE. Seriously. I initially was quite ready to try it, on the basis that everyone else here likes it so much -- but when I tried it on at the lab, all I got was a funky sort of spoiled smell. I put it down to olfactory exhaustion at the time. Well, I got an imp as a freebie in swaps on the lj forums (thanks!) and was able to try it properly at home. And guess what? ...it STILL smells awful on me. It's a reasonably nice foody smell in the bottle, but on my skin it's got this dreadful rancid sour smell -- not even the Play-Doh that some are complaining about, but something genuinely foul-smelling. I wish I knew what did this, 'cause I'd avoid it like the plague. Wow. Bleah. Yeah, I knew I had weird chemistry. Quite some throw and staying power, though. Not sure that's a good thing.

The deep red of this oil in the imp is fascinating, although it stains my handkerchief. On my skin, the vetiver immediately materializes in an acrid puff, briefly repelling me. However, after a few seconds it dies down, as it always does, and reveals the rest of the scent: musk, cinnamon, patchouli; is that clove I smell? And then the dragon's blood comes out, and finally I get the cherry-and-spice smell that I've heard it's supposed to have; in every other blend, it smells of flowers on my skin, but in this balance it's much better. The smell of this isn't the red of the oil itself, it's the nearly black red of blood when it pools and congeals, plus the brassy sheen of the vetiver scent. The spicy smell here is almost animalistic, somehow, and the cinnamon is wonderfully warming. I may try this layered with a bit of plain patchouli, because I love patchouli and its sweetness is covered up rather by the sharpness of the cinnamon and vetiver. In any case, I'm definitely considering a bottle of this. I'll probably want to apply it rather heavily, and my imp is already nearly half gone...

Mantis reminds me of Karma, although it's muskier, a bit darker and more complex. The basic orange-patchouli bright yumminess is the same, though.

Huh. I had to google the site to figure out that this was an unreleased scent... now I feel special. Anyhow. Reading the other reviews, it seems that different people get different parts of this amplified, changing their impressions a lot...on me, it's one of those signature BPAL almost-a-traditional-cologne-except-not scents. Reminds me of a traditional "oriental", in that there's the dense florals and (I suspect) ylang-ylang, there's the ambery-woody note, the musk...and then there's a bunch of yummy fruit, pineapple and apricot and I don't know what-all. On me, this is astonishingly subtle and well-blended, though the fruit is the brightest component. First scent I've tried where an apricot-ish type fruity scent has come out at all; I wonder if it's actually that, or if it's something else being disguised as it. On my handkerchief, it smells much more like a traditional perfume; hopefully some of the sharper notes will fade on drydown. Astonishing throw, too. I think I may have put on a bit much...

Wow. This is something else. I was expecting straight-up pine and dirt, and that's what I got until drydown...then it started sweetening up like crazy, smelling sunnier and fruitier all the time... Overall impression was as follows: a short walk through a damp pine forest, so thick you can't see the sun...but then you walk into a clearing where the sun's shining through, and you stuff your face with wild berries and fall asleep in the sun. Pleasant associations, but I was pretty bummed when the dirt vanished, 'cause that's what I bought this for. Maybe I'll try this with a bit of Graveyard Dirt on top, when I get that. I should try and find some of the others mentioned here. Skadi? Black Forest? Hexennacht?

Like caramel oranges and Mexican chocolate, is the first impression. Impelled me to go home after class and eat an orange. Upon further (less hungry) examination of the scent, wafting smoky incense and plumeria makes it not too foody...warm and sweet and dark, with a dark burnt orange colour impression. Despite not being in the listed ingredients, I definitely think I smell chocolate, though not the sort in Tezcatlipoca and Centzon Totochtin, which (alas) just smelt singed on me. Maybe it's vanilla, but that doesn't usually work on me either. Not sure what's going on with that sweet note, then. I'm not sure what copal smells like, but I should try and find some of it...and I should get another imp of this once it's gone. Scented a bright flowery Russian silk handkerchief with this one.

Ahahaha! Thank gods someone else got peanut-butter, I was thinking I was crazy! It smelt like I put on some Sed Non Satiata and then spilt a mug of hot buttered rum over the top of it - and Sed Non Satiata smelt of, as I have specified elsewhere, sweaty peanut butter and semen, so that shit's no good. I wonder what the peanut butter note is? ::goes and searches around:: Is it the particular sort of booze?

Alright, glad to see that it wasn't just me...I got a smell as if I'd been simultaneously chewing one piece of wintergreen and one piece of cinnamon gum. Certainly not unpleasant, but I sure don't want to smell like that. Sounds like it's a question of body chemistry, though, so hopefully the new owner will appreciate this blend more than I can...

So I bought this one on the advice of many of y'all here on the forum when I was looking for dirt. Thanks very much! Upon application, it has a peculiar cloying note that I can't quite figure out and don't much like. However, this disappears by the time it's dry, leaving a really nice mixture of roses and swampy dirt - not quite the same dirt as in Nosferatu, in that instead of damp sweet dirt, it's sodden and mossy. The roses are soaked too, and crushed...there's just enough of the cloying sweetness left to suggest their incipient decay. As time goes on, though, the dirt fades and leaves only roses. The ultimate effect is less of the swampy moss-roses it was earlier, and more like my parents' rose-garden after rain - roses blown, wet, falling to the wet clayey ground. Mostly rose, though. I like it, but not as much as I liked Nosferatu. Keeping the imp, but not buying a bottle. The quest for more dirt continues... Edit: You know, this one is growing on me. A lot. As in, this is the best rose I've ever smelt. The dirt and moss make the rose smell so much more real and juicy than any of the other roses I've tried. I didn't think I liked rose until I started wearing this; it was always too girly and perfumey. This one's real, the way roses smell on their own. I think I may need a bottle of this; I find myself choosing it frequently and trying to conserve the imp. Also I salvage and dry cut roses whenever I can, and this gives a truly uncanny effect when you put a drop of it right in the heart of a dried rose -- it's such a live rose scent that it smells like a rose zombie!

Huh. So this was another freebie that didn't work at all... Smelled like puzzling exotic fruits in the imp, which was hopeful. However, directly I put it on it became fake grape. Lots and lots and lots of fake grape, with a surprising throw. If I steeled myself and put my face down to the skin to sniff, I could make out something spicy or woody going on down there, but it was all drowned in Dimetapp inside a couple of minutes. No honey, even. Ah well, can't win 'em all. Off to the "mail away" pile. The utter awesomeness of Mantis more than makes up for all the ones that didn't work in this batch...

Freebie from Lab... Blecch. You know, lots of other people seem to love this one, but on me it's notably bad. Every other blend in which I've tried dragon's blood has turned it into roses and amber, but here the cherry smell really shows up. And you know what it all smells like? Like being nine years old and losing your voice, taking artificial cherry cough syrup and then washing it down with vanilla soymilk 'cause it was really gross. Yeah. that's about it. Hopefully this works better on its soon-to-be recipient. I think I'm just not suited to sweet milky scents.

Wow! Freebie from Will Call. Never would've spotted this on my own, but so many thanks to the Lab! Definitely on my "top n" list. It's a little like Lush's "Karma" soap, but with amber, and something else a bit sexier - maybe it's the musk? Delicious, in any case. A happy, strengthening sort of scent, which is just what I've been needing lately. I may need a bottle of this, too, if I make it to the Lunacy next month. Just beautiful. Again, thanks so much to the Lab - I never would've thought to buy it! Not sure why it's a mantis, though...

The foody smells, interestingly enough, seem to come out on me exactly as advertised. (Vegetarian diet, maybe?) This one is lovely and ceremonial, honey and sweet grapes with laurel leaves. I don't really smell the incense, though. Has a lot of throw, too. Walking around the lab, I could smell the places where I'd stood in the last couple of minutes. Wow. Oddly, though, it's faded in the hour and a half since I put it on. down to a faint fruity/herby sweetness that I can only smell by pressing my nose to the crook of my elbow. Then again, I didn't put on very much.

I must admit to having a complex about florals, in that I normally can't stand to wear them even if they smell wonderful. I don't feel like I can take myself seriously in them. This is similar to my unwillingness to wear anything pink. This, though? Even though it's floral, it's still got dignity. Kostnice is not the cheery pastels of most florals; rather, it's the pale yellow colour that white roses and white bones take on when you dry them. It's not a posy, it's an oblation. 16th-century sacred vocal music comes to mind, oddly enough - Byrd, Victoria, maybe Lassus. As this is some of my favourite music, I'm a happy sniffer. Upon re-reading the above paragraph, I find that I've half-consciously used several words that evoke the Kostnice Sedlec. I wonder if this is a property of the scent itself, or whether I'm just very suggestible? I suppose the note that's giving that dignified impression is the frankincense, now that I think about it. I tend to like incensey notes in almost any blend, and this is a good example. Probably won't run through this too fast, as it's still much lighter than anything I'll wear frequently, but I should get another imp. It's a nice scent to have around, on the off-chance that I might want to smell like a Palestrina motet. D*mn synaesthesia. Silly business.

Wow, that was quick! Thank you all so much! Nosferatu is among my three favourites already. Shall definitely try Jazz Funeral, Zombi, Nocnitsa and (if I can find it) Alone. Crossroads sounds interesting as well. I tried Burial, though, and although it was nice I didn't get any dirt smell from it. Again, thanks very much for the help!

I find that for self-confidence and strength, I do best when I wear those scents that reflect what I want myself to be and the persona in which I feel strongest. In fact, these are the things I wear most often. For me, this is Dee and Laudanum. Your results may vary depending on how you see yourself. Just my two cents...

Ohhhh. This smelled so good initially that I bought it after a sniff...but then when I got it home and tried it on by itself, it went all baby-powder. It was hot vanilla and chai and musk...and then it all disappeared, leaving only a lingering odour of diapers. So sad! I guess I'll send this away, then... edit: Tried it on the boy and it's absolutely delicious. He smells like a b'stilla. ::grins:: In summary: Skin chemistry is weird.

Huh. That's funny. At first, this is totally a bottle of men's cologne - distressingly so. That lasts for 10 minutes or so. At the end of this period, though, the cologne fades away entirely, leaving the most delicious scent - incense, vanilla, leather, rosewood, resin, and something unidentifiable. What's tonka supposed to smell like? It's an androgynous smell, in a passionate old-fashioned scholarly sort of way. Perfect. Holy crud, I need a big bottle of this. Maybe I'll try layering it with a bit of something with tea or dirt in it - Nosferatu possibly? Mmmmm. Edit: Aha, I just figured out what tonka smells like. Now I know -- that sweet dark smell is a combination of tonka and pipe tobacco, nothing to do with vanilla! No wonder it worked -- vanilla never smells good on me, sadly. Also, layering this with Laudanum was awesome: Laudanum's sweetness got toned down a bit, and the cologne elements in Dee were muffled by spices. Perfect combination.

Wow. So it turns out I can't wear dragon's blood. After all the reviews I read here, I was so looking forward to all the Ars Draconis blends...::grumbles:: Instead, every one I tried turned immediately to an ambery rose smell when it hit my skin. Nothing else, just straight-up roses. No cherries, no spice. It even drowned out the fruits in Dragon's Heart. I don't *want* to smell like roses. Bah. Stupid skin chemistry.