fiddledragon

In vial: Weeeeird. Sickly unripe pear. I can see how this might contain lotus...I'll keep my hopes up that it'll turn into nice friendly lotuses when it hits my kin. On me: Fresh fruit of some kind. There is definitely lotus here. And an almost banana-peach smell? I'm not getting any anise; pity, I like anise. Once it dries down it's a sweet fresh-fruity lotus scent. There's still some of that weird sickly note left over from the wet stage, though. If I want a good lotus, or a good fruit, I have other things I can reach for. I can see this being appropriate for the tarot card, but it's not jumping out and grabbing me, image-wise.

In the imp: dragon's blood and...slightly scorched cookies? And maybe some resin of some variety? And pepper? On me: Still cookies. Odd, spiced cookies. The dragon's blood is also there keeping things sweet and resiny. There's definitely lots of ginger here and some pepper, and that sort of faint scorched note. This one's a second cousin to Shub-Niggurath. I really like it; better than Shub, in some ways...but why does destruction smell like cookies?

I had a very hard time picking out the notes in this one, though now that I see lavender mentioned, I agree. It's not the sweet lavender of TKO, but a very herbal, almost aquatic one. It's a cool, faint, high scent that's deeply quieting and grounding even though it just kind of coats the outside of your perception without you really noticing. It's not exactly a happy scent...this is a fairly solomn, contemplative quiet. It would make a good meditation focus, or for when I need to think through something serious and have to stay focused and calm. It's not at all soporific to me.

Summary: EEEEEEBOUNCEJOYWAKEUP! Actual review: This is happy, happy citrus juice. Mainly a tangerine-orange sort of scent, but there's also quite possibly some grapefruit and/or lemon in there. It grabs you by the limbic system and says "you! wake up! be happy!" It's all giddy and giggly. I'm going to keep an imp in my backpack for sniffing on long boring days at work or mornings where I'm having trouble greeting the sun with the proper amount of happy sunshine. I'm incredibly impressed with almost all of the Panaceas so far. So much research and art went into them...for the most part they really do what it says on the bottle while smelling lovely.

This is an amazingly soft sweet powdery vanilla-sugar-lavender. It's so happy and cuddly! I haven't tried it as a sleep aid yet, but I can very much imagine it working, especially for one of those nights where my mind is racing and won't settle down. My boyfriend accurately described it as "overwhelmingly cozy". Interestingly, layered with Moxie it's pure joy.

I'm getting mostly mint and citrus from this, very medicinal. The mint doesn't go evil like it normally does, but it's still not something that really works on me. If your skin doesn't do bad things to mint, I can see this being very effective. It definitely clears your head. It might be better in a diffuser for me.

I get mostly olive oil and bay and a hint of something alcoholic which is probably just the very sweet fruity olive oil. This has an extremely grounding, calming, ritual feel to it. After half an hour or so it does go kind of sour and musty, so this feels like a better one to use in a specific short ritual or meditation to come back to earth rather than to wear all day for its effects. Alas. But so pretty! It's also not the WHOMP grounding of the deeply earthy blends. Much as I like those, this is gentler -- it just tenderly but firmly pulls you back to yourself, pats you on the head, and tells to calm down and everything will be all right. So much love.

Ylang-ylang. Lots of ylang-ylang. It goes kind of stale and musty on me after a while. I like ylang-ylang, but not in these quantities, and it's not seductive. Eh, seduction's one of the more individualized stimuli of the ones Panaceas cover, I think.

If someone used pure toasted sesame seed oil as a massage oil, it would probably have quite a lot of throw, as it's potent stuff, but that seems kind of unusual. I haven't smelled any BPAL that was sesame-like, unfortunately, but I've successfully layered toasted sesame oil with BPAL. Midnight Mass I found works particularly well. :-)

Does anyone know if Tarot:The Emperor was reformulated in the past year or so? The earlier reviews all describe it as this intensely masculine scent, which certainly makes sense for the name. But then the imp I have matches the last page worth of reviews in smelling like girly bubblebath. Really *nice* girly bubble bath, I should assure you -- I'm certainly putting it in a bath or shampoo at some point -- but I was kind of confused. I suppose this isn't quite the right place to post this, since I haven't smelled the oil the earlier people were reviewing, but the fact that practically everyone's reviews changed made me wonder if they had a weird batch or a reformulation or something.

In the imp: sparkly grape juice. On me: very carbonated and fruity, drying down to a quite woody cinnamon. This is a wonderfully metamorphosing scent, appropriate for the name.

In the imp: Very soapy, very fresh-scrubbed dragon's blood. On me: Dragon's blood and...roses. Maybe some other florals? As it dries it gains a little depth and strength from the dragon's blood, but mainly pleasant light florals. Like some sort of really nice bubble bath. The Emperor has a secret weakness for girly bath products. Who knew? Was the last batch particularly girly? The earlier reviews are all manly-sounding.

In the imp: A nice sweet tangy floral, with a hint of an ozone-like note. The floral is maybe lily? Or some carnation? On me: Is that apple blossom? Or possily plumeria? I know, specific, isn't it? It's a spicy, heady floral that has a jasmine-like overtone but definitely isn't jasmine. There's something almost aquatic about it, but not the usual BPAL aquatics (which hate me). It's quite calming, which I suppose is appropriate for the card. I'm very happy with this :-)

In the imp: very sharp almond with a slight mint tang at the back. On me: very medicinal almond...no sweetness at all. It attacks your nose with its spears of attack marzipan, so that you hardly notice the fairly nice mint. Normally mint's the one that attacks. When it dries down, it's simply less dangerous evil marzipan. I am sad. I was so looking forward to this one.

Weird wintergreen-patchouli combo. Or seeing the reviews, maybe I mistook vetiver for the earthier variety of patchouli. I'm not much of a mint fan, so this does nothing for me. Why is the world minty-fresh?

In imp: Bubblegum!! And this isn't just that flowery bubblegummy scent of lotus. No, this is perfect freshly unwrapped Bazooka bubblegum. There's a hint of the lollypops around it, but it's mostly bubblegum in the imp. This is making me giggle :-) On me: mostly bubblegum. But it's lost some of that sharp tooth-aching Bazooka sweetness, and is now the smooth powdery sweet of bubblegum that's been chewed a while. That's almost unnerving the way the scent morphed like that. The lollypops stay in the background, and there are perfumy whiffs around the outside. This scent is exactly as promised, and once the super-sweet phase wears off, it's really pleasant. I'll keep the imp just for the amusement value.

In imp: weird sour-ozone smell. On me: gentle soapy florals. Very much a "dryer sheet" smell. It's kind of comforting in its cuddly warm laundry associations, but it's not something I'd actually *wear*. Maybe I'll keep it around and make a laundry spray out of it. Or maybe today's the day I try putting this stuff in the dryer!

Very herbal, soapy lavender. I can see how this would be a healing blend -- it had this sort of gentle, sad feel to it.

Ave Maria Gratia Plena and Ephemera. In both cases I'm not sure what it is that's producing such a visceral reaction of saddness, but it's kind of unnerving.

Hmmm...I think this would be my list; * indicates warm dark, otherwise it strikes me as cold dark Black Annis Czernobog (morphs from cold to warm) Gomorrah * Black Forest possibly Nocnitsa if you don't turn fir sweet like I do Sloth Brimstone The Coiled Serpent * Hymn to Proserpine * Hades Djinn * Burial

On me, this is straight-up sweet lotus and lavender. The spice is maybe wafting around in the background, but it's mainly those two notes. They go together quite well, without being soporific. I totally failed to notice that this had lotus in it when skimming through the catalogue; yay whoever swapped me this as a frimp/mystery imp!

Mmmm...spicy sweet leather-patchouli! All these notes really work together. I guess it's the leather that's giving it the sweetness, because I could swear that there's some honey or dark fruit or something in here. I like the edge that the spices give it.

The oil is this rather lovely pale red-orange color. In imp: mainly dragon's blood, a touch of leather and black pepper (*love* black pepper perfume!), and something at the back that is indeed metallic. On me: Wet -- dark, sweet, resiny, peppery. Nothing's jumping out as individual notes except the dragon's blood and pepper. It's quite faint on me; I think once this ages a few more months and the resins deepen, it'll liven up a little. It's very similar to Mars, which should surprise nobody :-) There's a slight cool metallic note that's remarkably evocative of sharpened steel (though of course it helps that I had that image in my mind already). The pepper comes out a little more as it dries, but it stays pretty true through the drydown. I'm not going to go hunting after a bottle, as dragon's blood can be hit or miss with my shifting chemistry, but this imp will definitely see some love!

Hmm...I'd echo Titus Andronicus (in any case, I think it's a nice inoffensive masculine-smelling blend that might intrigue even if it isn't close to Mesmerize), and add maybe Fallen (nice woodsy masculine notes), Moscow (maybe a bit too floral but has mandarin), The Lion (spicy resin), Penitence (myrrh. Lots of myrrh.), Nyarlethotep (citrusy incense), and Aureus (resins and woods).

Violet tends to smell metallic or blood-like on me. Ones that have "metal" notes in their description to try might be The Cracked Bell, Bed of Nails, The Bloody Sword, Ultraviolet, Neo-Tokyo, and The Clockwork Girl.