fiddledragon

Jack: I smell like warm pumpkin bread. It's a wonderfully delicious smell but...I smell pumpkin bread and there's no pumpkin bread! Now I'm hungry. *sheepish*

From the GC Circle Swap. Tombstone: Ooo, a tarted imp! I can pick out all the notes, but they're very well-blended. The cedar's going a tad dry and pencil-y on me, and something about it and the sassafrass make an almost tobacco kind of note...I never thought I'd say this, but I may want something sweeter and more vanilla to layer it with. *rummage, rummage* No, not vanilla -- honey! Honey Moon layered over it is absolutely decadent. A similar GC like Sudha Segara or Osun would probably work just as well.

From the GC Circle Swap. Red Devil -- And here to inspire you to kinky sex acts is....a grapefruit? It's nice. Refreshing. Citrus-herbal. An odd, light, salty-musk touch in the background. Then after it dries, it's a quite nice sort of aquatic lilac. I'm confused. I'd wear this in my fairly rare light-floral moods, as I adore lilac, but I feel a bit odd using the Voodoo blends as everyday perfume.

From the GC Circle Swap. Vice -- In the bottle: I feel my blood sugar rising just smelling this. *is dubious* On me: At first, I smell exactly like a chocolate-cherry cake soaked in orange blossom water. This has given me culinary inspiration, but I don't want to smell like it. As it dries, it goes through a lovely-but-sharp pure orange blossom phase, then mellows to a beautiful sweet warm orange blossom. The chocolate and cherry remain to give it depth and sweetness but are identifiable only if you really focus. This isn't at all what I'd expected, and very much the sort of scent I like.

From the GC Circle Swap. Blood Lotus -- ooooooo...lotus and...myrrh? Dragon's blood. Lotus and dragon's blood. Oh, and there is myrrh now that it's drying. And not as sweet as that combination had the risk of turning out. This is, as the description says, lush. I like it, but it has that bitter sharpness of myrrh that's a little stronger than I usually want. I think I'd almost want this for some kind of ritual use, rather than straight perfume.

This is a beautiful dark sweet lotus/myrrh combination on me. I don't get any of the sandalwood, which is odd given how much it amps on me. The only problem with it is that in certain points on my hormonal cycle lotus goes bubblegum on me and I end up smelling like myrrh-flavored bubblegum, which is just bizzare. If your skin does lotus consistantly though, this is a must-try.

From the GC Circle Swap. House of Night -- This one is an herbal-floral blend that I intensely dislike. It feels cold and sour and is perhaps very well-named that way, but it's going away now. I can't identify any individual notes except what might be lily of the valley...I'm not very good with most individual florals.

From the GC Circle Swap. Baron Samedi -- A dry almond-clove scent. I had no idea what bay rum was, and assumed it was a relative of actual sugar cane rum, the scent of which I can't stand. This is perhaps not my sort of thing, but it's kind of growing on me. It strongly reminds me of something I can't remember, which is interfering with my ability to judge whether or not I like it.

Oblivion -- This oil is green. Deep blackish green. On me, it's a very deep woody incense, with a musk note that's very different from the usual "dark" musks in some other blends, which don't agree with me at all. I like it very much, but it's not an everyday sort of perfume.

From the GC Circle Swap. Lurid -- This is nicely refreshing -- not at all "lurid". On me, it's mainly a sort of soapy-floral ozone, which is nice, but not me. I could see myself wearing it if I wanted a more "formal" perfume, or possibly as a room scent on a hot day, but I don't think it would get enough love to warrant actually buying it.

From the GenCat Circle Swap. Wet, mainly strong, slightly bitter and medicinal almond. Dry, it's medicinal and slightly lemongrass-like. Was met with wrinkled nose and confusion by boyfriend. I think the Voodoo blends are really just not for me.

I had expected this to be cloyingly sweet with the fig/date combination, so I'm glad I got to try this in the GC Circle Swap. Wet, it's an almost overripe sweet fruit, which is somehow not actually unpleasantly sweet, but not really me. Dry, however, it's the smell of fig and date, with most of the actual sweetness gone, some wonderful dry spices, and an anise touch in there somewhere. This is a wonderfully exotic, languid scent, and is really the first "sexual/sensual" one actually work on me. So much love! That goes on the list of newfound loves to get an imp of in my next order. But it's one of those that I have to be careful where I wear it in case someone asks me what it is! And yeah, I kind of want one called Sodom.

The aromatherapy/ritual ones all sound like good things, though I haven't tried them yet myself (except for the Somniums, which I find just outright soporific rather than calming, so they're probably not what your looking for). Also, just consider what scents you personally find relaxing. It sounds like citrus works well, and there are lots to try there. Especially for work, I might actually recommend Jabberwocky -- it's orangy with a blast of pine/eucalyptus that just gets out all that mental crud and drowsiness. Some of the woodsy or foody ones might be other paths to try if you find nature or cookie smells relaxing, etc. Good luck!

This is a lovely warm musky-leathery-tobacco scent -- comforting and homey, not sexual. It's a bit masculine for my taste, and fades rather quickly, but I'll keep it around for a while. On the other hand, it make my boyfriend smell *exactly* like a comfy leather armchair.

I second the rec for Kali -- that was what got me hooked on BPAL's red wine note. In the vial, it's very alcoholic, but it dries to this divine sexy fruit smell without being at all foody or heavy. On me Centzon Totochtin did this creepy blood-and-hot-stone thing, but a lot of other people like it. Blood Rose is another of my favorites, though for a room scent, as that's one of the rose blends that doesn't like me.

Wow...I'm enjoying reading how different this is on different people's body chemistry. This was part of the GC Swap O' Doom, otherwise I'd never have ordered it. Silly me! In the vial and wet on my skin it smells of mainly faint sweet citrus, maybe lemon. Once it dries it deepens and becomes very dusty and earthy, with some white-but-not-sharp florals and dry woods and an odd almost musky smell. It's lovely and very much not my usual thing, but I really like it. Appropriately enough, it reminds me very strongly of the dirt and wood shavings and that sort of invertebrate-critter smell from the terrariums my family's pet tarantulas live in.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Lab's rose...it either works stunningly beautifully on me, or hates me and goes all musty. I should really try more rose blends...they'll come in the GC Circle Swap I suppose. Persephone: a beautiful juicy rose, but something about it went wonky on me (Swank worked, so I think it's the rose rather than the pomagranate) Jezebel: on me, the rose was very very subtle in this; the orange was much more dominant Blood Rose: didn't quite work on me, which made me very sad, but it's a marvelous room scent. It's quite similar to Persephone, but darker and less innocent. My personal favorite rose blend is Rose Cross, which really doesn't seem to get enough love. It's such a glorious sweet clear rose scent, without being dusty or fruity, and the frankincense melds with it perfectly. The rose fades before the frankincense does, leaving a quiet warmth behind on your skin after most of the scent is gone.

How about Kali? Depending on what it does on your skin, that can be *very* dark-heroine. On me, it's wonderful strengthening comforting wine-chocolate-incense, but on a friend of mine it's this really dark tobacco-floral sort of scent.

Oh, I love Black Annis, but unfortunetely it smells really appropriate to the name -- i.e., dank and creepy -- so I use it as a costume. It doesn't work for me to wear it every day. I'll check out Fire of Love, though :-)

Civet seems to have this rather infamous reputation, but the one scent I've tried that I know has civet in it, Black Annis, I've greatly enjoyed. What I'm assuming is the civet adds a lovely warm furry musk tone to it. The lichen and anise and such combine to make it smell delightfully creepy on me, but most of the time I don't actually want to smell creepy. The one other scent that has been reviewed as having civet in it that I've tried is Satyr, in which the red musk did horrible, horrible things on me (I think it's red musk. It's one of the musks that goes weird on me anyway.). So I'd like advice on: 1. How much civet is there in Black Annis? 2. What other things could I try that have civet but NOT red/skin musk? (black, white, and golden musks are delightful).

It probably depends on what they do on your skin...on me, Penitence is all about the myrrh with just a bit of frankincense in the background. Midnight Mass, on the other hand, is sweet, warm sandalwood and frankincense with maybe some myrrh in the background to deepen it.

In the bottle, this is a wonderful alcoholic berry scent which melds to a not-too-sweet red wine...the oak and patchouli are in the background, and maybe a bit of orange peel if I really sniff. On me it's beautiful woods and patchouli, with just enough orange, berry, and alcohol to make it elegant. This is a really *upscale* unwashed hippy!

I'll second Tushnamatay, Cathedral, Aureus, and Jezebel :-) Anne Bonny and Velvet are also very sandalwood on the drydown, but on me turn scary and harsh, so I can't review them fairly. I'll also add Midnight Mass, which on me is wonderful warm resiny sandalwood.

Mmmm...grapefruit and tangerine and wonderful bitter citruses! But the black tea in this adds a note that doesn't entirely agree with me. It need something deep to ground it and drown out the black tea: it's stunning layered over Midnight Mass. The only florals from this I get are really green ones...this has a note that smells like cherry blossoms taste. Or any other not-normally-edible wispy flower for that matter; most of them taste about the same.

In bottle: Buttered dirt. Huh? On me: This dries to something like gingerbread and dirt. There isn't anything resembling perfume, which makes me quite happy. There's something in it that almost reminds me of Shub Niggurath...some sort of spices that probably include ginger...only it's much warmer and less evil-fertility-demon. This was surprising and happy.