t_for_tau

In the bottle: toasted hazelnuts! Oh my god, this is *fantastic* - foody and delicious without being overly sweet. On my skin: fantastic for a few seconds, then suddenly....wtf? Where's all the FRUIT coming from?? For a few minutes I waft around in a cloud of juicy fruit, which turns gradually into mango-scented hairwax (really), then suddenly my skin gobbles it all and just leaves the smell of shampoo. Nooooo! Dry-down: thank god! The toasted hazelnuts have come back, and they've brought chocolately friends. It does still have a bit of fruity sweetness, but not overpowering. It's perfumey enough that I don't smell like a chocolate shop, and chocolatey enough that I want to snack on my wrist. At the weekend I got given some very flash Armani chocolates, and it smells like them. LOVE.

Okay, unlike Azathoth, this *does* smell of saffron. *mystified* My girlfriend makes a thai prawn dish with lots of saffron, coconut milk and lemongrass, and it smells like this. I can't smell the vetiver, but maybe that's because I'm still reeling from Azathoth yelling VETIVER at me so very loudly. It's foody and spicy and warm, and with a sweet note that doesn't make it sugary or flowery or girly. I was worried about the mimosa & opoponax, but they're behaving themselves - beldning rather than going sickly. I'm wondering if the saffron smell is the tamarind? I'm going to have to go and find somem food before I start eating my own shoulder, which is where I'm testing this. This. Is. Awesome.

In the bottle: omg YUM. Tangerine and saffron over vetiver. Straight on: VETIVER VETIVER VETIVER. Fortunately I love vetiver, but I'm hoping this is going to mellow, because right now it's just like a vetiver single note. Drydown: it *does* mellow. The cedarwood comes out and gradually bitchslaps the vetiver into place, so taht it becomes a rumbling sulky base. I can smell the tangerine again, too. The saffron is eluding me - I keep thinking I get wafts of it, then changing my mind. This is very dark, very masculine; part of me thinks I'm far too faggy to wear this, and part of me wants to keep my nose jammed under my arm. Right now it's making out with Nyarlathotep, who's further up on my arm. They go together really well. N is citrus and ozone and cleanness; he's tidying Azathoth up, making sure he's not drooling too much and telling him to lighten up a bit. Taking care of the boss.

Uhhhh....evil lemons?? To be specific, the lemon scent from sherbert lemons. As it dries down, it gets more complicated and cologne-y. I like it. It's a sharp, expensive, men's cologne, together with a faint hint of almost soapy cleanness (not soap like jasmine goes on me, more like a guy who just stepped out of a shower), plus the lemon. It's like a very clean evil lawyer in expensive leather shoes, eating sherbert lemons. Right now it's making out with Azathoth, which I have on the same arm, giving me wafts of vetiver and saffron under the leather. Makes sense that they go together well.

This is wonderful. Straight on I get a burst of chamomile, pepper and cypress - and the chamomile smells like the actual dried plant, not an oil - and then it settles down through leatheriness to smell like the back of a spice cabinet. I get that underground note that Nightgaunt mentioned too. I'll need to wear it more to get a better idea of throw and so on, since it's currently fighting with the waft of Azathoth on my other arm. But this gets a big thumbs up. ETA: the throw of this on me is Tezcatlipoca without the cocoa!

On me, this could best be described as "Tezcatlipoca for girls". It's got that same deep bitter cocoa as Tez (which I love), but perfumey where Tez is leathery. I can't figure out what note it is - maybe the dragon's blood? It's really cocoa-y in the imp, then on my skin the perfumey note and the pepper really come out for a while - and then it settles back down to cocoa again after a while, just with a perfumey overtone. I don't like it as much as my beloved Tez, but while my imp of that is missing (noooo! *freaks out*) this is proving a good substitute. If Tez was too leathery and dirty, you might like this.

Augh! Marzipan! This scent is full of my nemeses (nemesises?), and I wouldn't even have put it on my skin except for the fact that I got it as a freebie from someone and the lid was broken when it arrived, so I had to transfer it into something else. And it slimed everywhere and screamed MARZIPAN, and even after scrubbing it off thoroughly I can still smell it going MARZIPAN! MARZIPAN! somewhere around. And now, like someone upthread, I'm getting garlic salt. And marzipan. Eeek! Two scents in a week that I've had to scrub off, and I've never had to do that before. Sigh.

... Obatala’s ofrenda is soft, white and pure: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. Remind me not to put scents on without re-reading the notes. I got this as a freebie from a very generous seller, and though it was not one I'd ever pick out I thought it was worth a try. In the imp: butterscotch. Terrifying for the guy who fears sweet scents. On my skin: oh god, there's something in here that is making me feel really *sick*. For real. It's not that it's an unpleasant smell - I can see how people woudl like this - but it is making me seriously queasy. And then I re-read what's in it and all became clear; it's the milk. I'm seriously lactose intolerant and have been made sick by milky things so many times that I just associate the smell of it with being ill. Ooops. Definitely off to swaps.

Up front, I'll say that I don't like florals. I like the smell of flowers, but have no desire whatsoever to smell *like* a flower. And I've learned to fear the lab's jasmine, because it always turns to soap on me. This was the first floral that I've opened the imp of and thought "Wow!" It was pure fresh living jasmine flowers, just green enough to smell real. Despite the fact that it was really feminine, which is normally NOT my thing, I could have rolled in the stuff. Freshly on it was the same. But then dry down set in, and - yup, here comes the soap. I ended up smelling like a bar of very expensive jasmine soap. I'm going to try it in a locket or something, otherwise swapsies, I'm afraid. Am sad about this one.

Oh dear GOD, get it OFF me. *throws a queeny strop* This is the first bpal I have tried that I have actually *hated*. If I'd been at home rather than stuck in a car, I'd have washed it off about ten minutes after drydown. In the imp, it smelled lovely - a slightly sharp, woody and for some reason almost apple-y fragrance. On, it turned straight to the antiseptic from HELL. It smells *exactly* like the stuff they used to put on skinned knees in the playground when I was five. Is this the wintergreen everyone's talking about? Whatever it is, it HATES me and wants me DEAD. Off to swaps with it!

I wish I got the herby, leathery version of this. In the bottle, it smells wonderful. On, however, it turns into pure talcum powder with a hint of leather - like Antony's leather armour was too tight and he had to powder up heavily to get into it. Oy. I might try it in a locket or something, but otherwise I fear it's going to be off to swaps. Drat.

Wonderful vetiver and oakmoss when it goes on, and then it becomes THE ROSE OF DEATH. DEATH. The kind of rose that wafted around the office and terrorised my coworkers. And then it faded down to a pleasant sandalwood and rose. If I can just evade the KILLER ROSE OF DEATH then it will be a success.

Pine mixed with jasmine and lillies....I like this. (Sadly, all my girlfriend can smell is, in her words, "Olbas Oil and bubblegum" ) To me is is beautiful and dark and sharp all at the same time, with the femininity of the floral over the pungency of pine and an almost eucalyptus smell. Really fits the concept.

I would love this if it wasn't for the weird note of bubblegum berries in the foreground. The background is herby and green and dark and wonderful, but those berries kill it for me.

Disappointing....starts out as generic ladies' perfume, and then vanishes completely. And then comes back with a horrible vengeance. This is going in my girlfriend's stack, since she likes the florals....

This is the first Rappaccini's Garden scent that I have fallen in love with. Woody, spicy, piney, with that very very faint hint of rose to lift it... It's like a cross between Loup Garou, Black Forest and Burial on me, which are three of my favourites - but not as excessively piney as Black Forest or excessively rosey as Burial.

I am in love with this. The smell of cocoa hits me first when I open it, but it's bitter rather than sickly-sweet, and the incense wafts out with it. On it's cocoa for a while - and for a moment I got that sickly note I'd been worried about, almost an undertone of vomit but it goes after a few seconds. And then the incense and the leather and the patchouli come out, and there's something wonderfully warm and *comforting* about it, like drinking spiced hot chocolate in a warm cafe while the rain hurls down outside and you sit and natter with friends whose leather jackets are pungent with the rain they've run through, and whose hair wisps the scent of incense from the magic shop you've all been browsing.... And still with that dark, bitter undertone to the cocoa, that reminds me of Tezcatlipoca's dark and tricksterish side, but right now he is holding you tight to keep you safe and will not let you go. Straight to the top of the big bottle list.

I was really hoping for the woods, patchouli & spice other people have got from this. What I *did* get was a rich jasmine-y floral (is there ylang ylang in there too?) with a hint of spice. Now it's drying down to something powdery. Wretched skin, amping jasmine.

I liked this as soon as I sniffed the imp - wood and incense, and that warm scent that I think must be the galangal because it's the same as in Loup Garou. I didn't get the raw wood/sawmill smell from this that other people have, just an undertone of it; over all the scent is rich, warm, golden. The incense and woods blend beautifully It doesn't morph a lot or have any specific notes that stand out on my skin - just this lovely enfolding scent, masculine without being aftershave-y. This one scores a big thumbs up, my lady likes it, and I will probably be ordering a big bottle.

Got a 5ml of this on spec, cos of the description.... In the bottle: omfg alcoholic cherry coughsyrup! *wipes eyes*. Girlfriend is going to HATE THIS so much. On me initally: mellowing cherry cough syrup. Hmm. We shall see. After a bit: YUM. Walnut and chocolate and musk. Ok, so this is a keeper after all. Great relief. I couldn't have stood that cherry for much longer... Sadly it doesn't last long on me, though.