fiddledragon

On me, Morella is all sage and civet. I *love* civet, and wish it were in a GC blend I can wear, so this made me very happy. It's like a deeper, sexier, fuzzier Oberon.

Another question. I do like to toe the line as far as masculine/feminine scents, but there can always be too much. I tried Lear and it was a bit too masculine for me. How would Count Dracula, Anthony, and Nero compare to Lear in masculinity? I haven't tried CD, but Anthony seemed less masculine on me -- the leather gives it a nice unisex warmth that Lear's cedar-herbs just don't have. Oberon is very sagey, though on me it isn't at all "angry". For bitter herbals, I'd recommend Aizen-myoo, most of the non-flower and non-mushroom Rappaccini's Garden blends, Djinn, Arcana, Nero, possibly Temple of Dreams and Nanshe. On me, Tenochtitlan was extremely sweet, but I amp hyssop.

Hmm... My first recs would be Jabberwocky, Thaleia, Kumiho, and Et Lux Fuit...citrus tends to go kind of weird on me so I'm not that well-versed in them. Have you tried Sudha Segara? That has a sort of lemony-tea note to it that's probably the ginger, and is gently sweet without being foody. On me, at least. If you like lemongrass, I'd strongly recommend Nanshe and Namaste.

I really don't know what my skin chemistry did to this one... Wet, it was a blast of fresh ginger root -- promising! Unfortunately, as it dried, it became this truly peculiar sweet laundry detergent sort of scent. Fresh-detergent scents aren't really my thing, but have potential as room scents...but this was *sweetened* laundry detergent, with possibly an odd dirt note in there somewhere. Eh, it was an experiment. I'm glad other people are having better, or at least more interesting, experiences with it.

Unfortunately, while honey loves me and I love it back, BPAL's mead note does not love me. In the bottle and wet on my skin this is Essence of Cheap Greek Tavern: a sour-sweet wine scent with a hint of unwashed bathrooms. When it dries, the laurel comes out more and the mead tones down, but the incense never shows up, and since laurel is already a fairly sweet scent, it stays kind of sticky-alcoholic feeling. Bad skin chemistry. No cookie.

This starts out somewhat sharp with a kick of what might be mandarin and/or bergamot, but that quickly fades to a warm, spicy amber-musk scent. I can just pick out the saffron, sandalwood, and maybe a hint of rose, but otherwise it all blends into a lovely unified scent. It's a bit like Bastet without the almonds, or like a muskier, warmer The Lion. While it's the kind of warm and spicy I generally go for, it's not really an exciting or distinctive scent, and I was hoping for some of the nutmeg to show up. I'll enjoy using up my half-imp, but probably won't get any more.

I love leather, but this is almost entirely rose on me. It appears to be the same clear rose as the one in Rose Cross -- this is the earthly variation on Rose Cross's celestial frankincense. It's a bit sharp on me now, but I know that in two weeks or so it'll be quite lovely. I just wish the leather came out at all...maybe I'll get the effect I was going for layering it with Dee?

I get more honey and light fruit from Thaleia, but it has gardenia in it and some other people who've tried it have found it to be strong gardenia on them. It's a wonderfully happy cheerful scent either way :-)

My favorite white musks are Oberon (misty-forests and somewhat masculine) and Fae (bright, cheery, fuzzy).

Smooth, polished and lethally sharp: dragon’s blood resin and three sandalwoods. This is a pale orange color, unlike the deep reds of some of the other Ars Draconis varieties. Wet, I mostly get dragon's blood -- a nice mild version, possibly because this looks like a fairly new imp. Dry, the sandalwood comes out. Now, normally I really like sandalwood when it goes incensy and tolerate it when it goes dry-woody -- it usually amps on my skin so that it's too dry if it's that variety, but it's not actually unpleasant. But wow, one of these sandalwoods doesn't like me. I smelled like cigarette smoke. Not BPAL's "tobacco" note, which is a beautiful warm unburnt smell, but like cold stubbed-out cigarrette butts. Much saddness. I just wish I knew what it was so that I could avoid it in the future! I'll retry Dragon's Bone if I want to satisfy the sandalwood kick I've been on lately.

I'm not getting as much patchouli as vetiver out of this...I'm guessing it's the earthier kind of patchouli rather than the sweeter kind. I also get cedar and something I'd swear is almost vanilla. It's a wonderfully earthy, grounding yet awakening scent; perfect for meditation. I tried putting it in my oil diffuser, though, and it sadly seems to be one of those scents that just doesn't diffuse well in a water-based diffuser. A good 1/3 imp didn't really smell at all unless I put my face right up to the water. At least it's lovely on me!

I really like resins, but "dark" fruits and berries can go off on me, so I was a tad worried about this one... Not to fear! It did the same fascinating thing Gomorrah did, where almost overripe-smelling fruits turned to a warm, dusty, incense-like scent after they dried. It's as if someone burned dried fruits as incense...and it, y'know, worked instead of smelling like burned fruit! The amber is warm and round and doesn't turn sharp like it sometimes does on me. The overall effect is actually very similar to Midnight Mass plus a *very* dark pomagranate note. A definite winner.

As it turns out, pumpkin goes kind of oily on me, which was offputting in this blend. In Jack, it was more of a butter note, which was delicious, even if not my style, but in this it was just an odd cloying oil note. The woods blend well with it, but I never really could pick out the ivy or galangal. *shrug* It was a very generous frimp, and now I know not to order a bottle of it.

This is a truly glorious sweet resin combination; mostly frankincense and myrrh. For some reason, Hymn to Proserpine is very similar on me, so I'm guessing there's some amber in there too, or something like that?

I ordered an imp of this from the lab, then initially slightly regretted it when I sniffed it through the GC circle swap. Nothing bad about it -- it was just an almost undetectable whiff of sweet musky ylang-ylang. I shrugged and put my newly-arrived lab imp in the "maybe" drawer, thinking that it might age well or something. I opened it today after reorganizing the afformentioned maybe drawer. It's been less than a month of aging on the lab-fresh imp (so the one I tested must have been older), and this is the most amazing wash of golden-sweet honey I've ever smelled! The ylang-ylang adds some florally goodness without being sharp, the labdanum grounds it, and the musks are understated and sensual. The circle-swap imp must have been from a more floral batch. I had the opposite reaction to Osun -- my test sniff of it was all glorious honey, wheras my impulsive bottle and swapped imp were both kind of herbal -- nice, but not the honeyed glory I was hoping for. I regretted selling away my beloved imp of Honey Moon thinking Osun would fill that gap. Now I have Skuld and I smell like honey and it's GC and doesn't need to age and it's *all mine*. *wriggles happilly*

My lovely soapstone diffuser bit the dust when it fell off my bed, but I have a cute new copper one that I'll try out tonight. One problem I found with soapstone is that it absorbs the oil after a while and so you end up with this sort of generic bpal scent accumulating in it over time that even soaking half a day in vinegar didn't remove completely. Are some of them glazed in some way to prevent that happening? Putting the oil in the vacuum cleaner worked even better than the diffuser at scenting the room, but is somehow a less gentle and relaxing practice. My favorites so far are Sudha Segara (the room smells like HONEY!) and Jabberwocky (especially in a pot of boiling water, this makes the room smell happy and perky as well as helping that winter stuffiness). Kitsune-Tsuki makes a beautiful cheerful daffodil scent, and roses that don't work on me are often nice in the diffuser. Some scents I find just don't work in a diffuser for some reason. Thaleia, while smelling divine on me, and quite nice in the bottle, ends up kind of sharply floral in the diffuser. The vacuum-cleaner trick produces a truer scent to what's in the bottle -- I'm guessing this is because while it does heat the oil, it mostly distributes the scent through sheer air pressure, so you don't have as much of an issue with the different oils vaporizing at slightly different heats. Given all the recommendations, maybe I'll have to try Neo-Tokyo...it was odd and soapy on me.

I've been using Temple:Chthonic for about two weeks on and off to help work through some anxiety issues dealing with shadows and repressed fears. It seemed like a thematically appropriate ritual oil to work with that kind of mental space. Yep; the stuff works. Fascinatingly enough, it had almost completely different effects used in a diffuser and as an annointing oil on myself. Used in a diffuser during meditation, it definitely helped sublty but powerfully bring me into that space, but left me feeling drained and off-kilter. It was more or less the effect I was expecting, but not something I felt like I could use very easily if I wanted to go about my daily life afterwards. But used on myself, it had an entirely different effect. In the bottle or diffuser the scent is a dark earthy resin with an unsettling musky menthol note; very evocative and an effective trigger for whatever metaphysical properties it may possess, but overall just kind of weird. On me it transformed into a myrrhy spicy resin with what had to be vetiver in there somewhere and was the absolute embodyment of EARTH. Deep, enveloping, safe earth. (If you want better scent description, my best comparison is that it's a combination of Ahathoor and the Root Chakra oil) The feeling it gave me I associated more with Persephone than anything else: "You've ended up in a scary unfamiliar place, but it's not going to just go away, and it's ok to be afraid, but quit panicking, 'kay? You've got help, so take a deep breath and deal with it." It felt like home. I felt sexy and strong and like I had a safe place to sit in and poke the shadows with a long pole. This was so very much not what I was expecting, but was exactly what I needed. I take off my metaphorical hat to the Lab! Oh, and if you're interested in working with that kind of energy, the article Inanna9 links to above is quite an excellent overview!

Hrm... 1 Penitence - pure unadulterated resin 2 Thaleia - a wonderful example of Beth's honeyed florals 3 Danube - a nicely complex aquatic 4 Nephilim - so many ingredients show off how personal chemistry affects how something smells on different people 5 Rose Cross - you need a rose blend, and I have a weakness for frankincense 6 Eat Me - I haven't actually tried it, but there needs to be a foody one in here 7 Somnus - both an excellent example of jasmine and a good "utility" blend 8 White Rabbit - a good milk/tea scent (which, alas, goes weird on me) 9 Nyarlethotep - incense, ozone, and just the name 10 Dee - a good masculine blend, and shows off Beth's use of leather 11 Loup Garou - shows off woodsy/evergreen blends 12 Bastet - can go foody or incensy depending on the person I have to be recalcitrant and not include Snake Oil. I've just never understood the appeal or been able to smell the complexity. Once the person is enabled, they can go and get it themselves.

I'm definitely picking out lilies and dragon's blood here (there had to be dragon's blood given that wonderful color!). It's comparable to Tiger Lily, but where TL is sweet and fresh and innocent, CL is dark and syrupy. I can't always wear dragon's blood, so I think I'll stick with Tiger Lily (I'm trying this through the GC Circle Swap), but I'm glad I got to try it. If dragon's blood likes me better someday this will be at the top of my list.

I adore fig, and can generally wear citrus well, so I had high hopes for this one. But from wet to dry, this is the exact smell of a Michael's craft store...all those scented potpouri thingies and dried "flowers" and stuff like that. Or some kind of really generic scented fall candle. So sad.

Wet: CHERRY! And a touch of anise, and a little bit of musk that seems to behave itself. Dry: The sledgehammer of cherry tones down and lets the anise and musk shine, but it's still *very* fruity. Not my thing, but it does tell me that I can wear red musk sometimes -- that used to be my nemesis wherever it appeared.

Wet: PEAR! Fresh, sweet, pears dripping with juice. Dry: Those same pears toned down a little and with a few flowers thrown in. A pleasant scent, but you have to either really like pears, or have a skin chemistry that makes the other notes come out more. I'm not such a juicy-fruit fan, so off it goes.

In the imp, it's blindingly sweet almond rum. On me, this is MARZIPAN OF DOOM. Marzipan seems so pale and innocently sweet. Don't trust it. It teams up with rum and will pillage your sinuses. But after the marzipan raiders finally go away to torment someone else, it's the most beautiful delicate laurel scent. I am sad...I *want* that laurel! But the marzipan. Maybe if I aged it it would go away? Bastet went through a similar stage, and now it's all beautiful saffron.

On my skin, this is a bright, cheery herbal ginger grass rain smell. The amber's under there somewhere, but mostly it's just happy and wet. The verbena is miraculously not taking over and is a tangy herbal smell rather than violently citrus as it sometimes goes on me. It's the smell of a light spring mist over clean grass...there's no weird floral grapefruit like is in so many "aquatic" bpals to my nose. It just smells bright and happy and cool-rainy. Unfortunately it still goes a bit sour after a while. I'm contemplating using this in a bath...it's the perfect sort of detox-smell, like having your brain gently washed out after a trying day. But I need to figure out if it would be weird having such a cool-rain scent in my normally close to scalding bath. I want to dive into a cool pool of rainwater gently scented with this.

I'd suggest Somnus (and definitely *not* Nanshe; it was very sharp and herbal to my nose), Twilight -- which to me was like Somnus but quite as sleep-inducing -- and Sophia, particularly if you like soft musk. I remember Gaukeo being almost entirely lavender on me, but I do odd things to lavender sometimes, so that's a recommendation to take witha grain of salt. If you can find a soft rose that you like, and a soft non-rosy lavender, this may be the time to get a few empty imps/bottles and do some alchemy of your own :-)