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When I opened the bottle I thought, "That smells like 70s glam-style perfume." On, it smells very traditional. A classic floral perfumey perfume. It has an odd weedy sort of smell at the very beginning when it's wet, but it dries down into being a dark floral. The oakmoss is a really nice touch in it. It's not heady or white or green or lush, it's ... perfumey. Apparently I'm unable to come up with a better word to describe it. It's not strong, though. I was afraid it would be knock-you-over strong, and it's not. Not at all. It sticks very close to my skin. I really wanted to hate this perfume because of the person who "inspired" it, but I don't. As a rule florals aren't my favorite kinds of perfumes, but I do like this one. It smells mature and womanly.

I'll be honest: I couldn't wait to smell this. Ketchup? I had to know what that would smell like in perfume. It's really different on my skin than it is in the bottle. What it smells like, on me, is very sweet fruit perfume. It's so sweet it's twinkly. It reminds me a bit of champagne. I don't smell anything even similar to ketchup at all. There is something in it that makes me think of tomato leaf, but it's not prominent. To me it smells mostly fruity and sparkly. I completely agree with the people who said it's like a wine spritzer. It smells fresh and zesty. I like it!

When I first put it on it smelled extremely masculine. It reminded me a lot of a cologne that young men used to wear in the 80s. It has that sporty, strong scent. When it's dry, though, it's a little different. It still smells masculine to me, but the ozone isn't nearly as strong and I can smell some of the other notes. It really, honestly, smells like rain. Like when you're standing outside just after it has rained and everything is wet. After quite a while the amber comes out and really rounds out the scent. I like it a lot, and I'm glad I bought this bottle for my husband. [ETA] I am editing my review on 12/3/2012 to add how it smells when it's aged. The best way for me to describe it right now is cottony and watery. It smells like aquatics and fresh linens. Not masculine anymore, but fresh and clean. I still like it.

At first Selkie smells a little bit like water and a little bit like fruit, which confuses me. I have no idea what any of the listed notes smell like, except water and honey, so I can't even tell you what I'm smelling. It's smells sort of like watery grass. When it's dry it's a little less water and a little more planty. I'm afraid that's about the best I can do. It smells fine, but it's not really my kind of scent.

I'm really mad at this scent, and I'll tell you why: I'm very picky about florals, but I like every single one of those floral notes. This scent should have been a shoe-in for me. I could wear lilac scents all day long like a carefree happy-go-lucky lilac-loving fool, and I'm always on the lookout for a great new lilac perfume. This one is not that perfume. If I had to guess what's causing the problem, I'd say it's the frankincense. It's giving the whole thing a sweet haze that I really don't care for at all. I was looking for the nostalgia associated with growing up with a lilac bush right outside my bedroom window, and what I'm getting is a distorted lilac scent that gives me the overall feeling that something's just not right. So, no. This isn't what I'm looking for.

If I'm going to wear a strong floral floral, of the traditional floral ilk, I prefer for the flower to be violets. So this scent starts off heavily on the plus side right away, since I can smell the violet in it. The rose is behaving itself magnificently in this (attar of rose usually does, on me) and instead of being overwhelming or soapy or sharp, it smells luxurious and velvety. The white pear gives it some sparkle, and the freesia makes the whole scent smell kind of blue. I think this is an extraordinarily appropriate scent for the emotion of longing. It smells a little sad but it hasn't lost that glimmer of hope. When you long for something, you haven't really stopped hoping that you might one day have it, true? If you'd given up on it ever happening, you would just be sad and miserable. But longing... that requires hope. This smells like that, pretty much perfectly. Wistful, a bit romantic, and a wish for something more. To be perfectly honest I adore this scent, and if that makes me a dopey romantic, so be it.

I have no idea how to describe this. All I know is that something about this scent turns me off. Maybe because it smells sort of sour, like some weird herb. I don't fancy keeping my nose next to my arm to try to figure out what's in this because it's just not the kind of scent I want to smell. Don't like it.

This one surprised me. For some reason, this isn't the scent I was expecting. It's a really pretty bright, clear, fresh scent. It kind of smells a bit like a crisp tea scent, with maybe some very gentle herbs. It also smells kind of dewy -- not like aquatic, but in that slightly watery fresh way. I think it mostly reminds me of clean laundry. Personally, I happen to like that type of scent a lot, so for me this one's a winner.

This smells like the white soap my Grandma used to use. I think it was Ivory. It's a really soft, clean scent. There's a faint bit of some kind of floral with it, but my strongest impression is that it reminds me of my Grandma's soap. This is really not a bad association for me at all, and I actually kinda like this. When it's dry the florals come out a little more, and it becomes slightly feminine, rather than the unisex scent it started out with. Yeah. I like this. It feels comfy.

On first sniff, my immediate thought was, "This smells like a Christmas candle." Don't know what's causing that, but when I sniff it I can totally picture one of those red spicy-scented Christmas candles. I think maybe it has some light florals in it, plus a spice that smells mostly like clove. Hmm. Usually when I smell a "spicy" floral it turns out to be carnation, so maybe that's what this is. This smells sweeter than carnation usually does on me, though... maybe another flower in there is causing that. It's kind of light, and I think it's pretty. I really can't get past that winter association, though.

When I first put it on, it was a perfumey floral. As it dries, though, it warms up. I definitely seems like there's some honey in this, and it's smoothing out the scent a lot. It still has that perfumey quality, though. Honestly, I can't really tell what might be in this. It smells familiar to me, but I can't place it. It ends up being a nice musky scent, but on my skin there isn't much else going on with it.

Gamaliel The Obscene Ones.Idleness and unconscious, uncontrolled, perverse sexual desire. Governed by Lilith Nocturna, the Onokentauros, Mother of Demons, First Wife of Adam. Gamaliel גאמאליאל It started out odd and chalky/dusty, and then it turned into a dry coconut scent. (Coconut often smells like Fruit Loops on me, so whenever I smell that Fruit Loops scent I think there must be coconut in it.) But still dusty. It smells like what I imagine Coconut Pez would smell like, if they made such a thing. When it's drying it loses the dustiness but gets sweeter for a little while, and it ends up rather musky. When it's dry it's much smoother than I thought it would be. I think there might be a teeny bit of patchouli in this too. It kind of reminds me of Eden a bit.

This oil is orange, which of course makes me think of oranges straight away, and it's difficult for me to stop making that association when I sniff the oil. However, although I think there's definitely fruit in this, I don't think it's oranges. It smells more like a berry. The scent smells so familiar to me, and I'm not sure why. I think perhaps it reminds me of another GC scent, but I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, mostly this smells like a berry musk to me, and because I can't get that blasted orange notion out of my head I also think I'm smelling a little bit of orange blossom. There might be some vanilla in this, too. It's doing that very slightly chalky thing on me that raspberry usually does, so maybe there's some of that in here. I really enjoy this scent a lot, even though it's driving me nuts that I can't think of what it reminds me of. ETA on 8/28/07: I've worn this enough times now that I think I should mention in my review that although it smells a little acidic/medicinal right at first, it warms up really well and ends up being beautiful in drydown and wear. Really a lovely scent.

This oil is the reddest of all the Qliphoth scents. To me, usually that means dragon's blood, and I would say there definitely is some in this. You know how sometimes dragon's blood smells sticky? It doesn't, in this one. It smells dry. There's a smoky aspect to it as well... it makes me think of opium poppy due to the floral and smoke combination. But just as soon as I decide there's a floral note in this, it disappears and I smell something else. This scent seems to morph a lot until it settles down. Mostly, it seems to me like a lightly musky "perfumey" blend with a dragon's blood undertone. There's a little bit of gentle spice in there, too -- nothing overwhelming. I think this scent is quite calming and centering. I really like it when it's dry.

The oil is a medium orange color, if that tells you anything about what could be in it. A little woody, and really sweet. Possibly frankincense. Smoky. I don't think there's anything like flowers or fruit in here, it seems like it's all wood, resin, and incense. Probably some musk. Usually with blends that have those kinds of notes in them they're either dry and sweet or they're dark and smoky. On my skin, this one is of the dry, sweet variety. When the oil is dry, the scent kind of rounds out and becomes smoother. I really like patchouli a lot, and I'd love to smell that in this scent, but I'm concentrating really hard and I can't smell it. Other reviewers have mentioned dragon's blood -- my nose is very familiar with that note because I wear DB blends all the time, and I can't smell even a drop in this. I will say that I think A'arab Zaraq smells better in the imp than it smells on my skin, so I think maybe my skin's having problems with it. From the imp sniff I thought there'd be some citrus in this, but I can't detect any when it's on my skin.

It seems very spicey-incensey at first, but it morphs a bit into a deeper, more resinous scent. I definitely do smell some fruit in there, but I have no idea which one. I can see why people compare this to Snake Charmer, but on my skin it's far too incensey to be very similar to Snake Charmer (which is smooth and creamy on me). I would say it's more like Hellion or Red Phoenix. I think there's some wood in this too that's giving it a nice, dry base. As it dries it gets a little smoother and sweeter. Very nice.

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This is a little strange. The oil that I applied to the back of my hand a few minutes ago has a strong sour lavender smell -- sort of like lavender + camphor. It's biting. However, I got a little bit of oil on my other hand when I was trying this on, and that spot smells wonderful. It's bright and cheerful and quite pleasant. Maybe I need to wait a little while to see what happens to the oil on the back of my hand. OK, the lavender isn't nearly as strong now. I can smell a little bit of orchid, and it's very pretty. It smells deep, almost resinous. Unfortunately, it's really soft. If I tried to put on more oil in order to amp up the scent, I'd be stuck with that wet sour lavender phase again. So... I don't like the wet phase when the scent is strong, and although I do like the dry phase I can barely smell it. I don't think this one is going to work on me after all.

I bought a bottle of this last year thinking it would be wonderful, and I didn't like it. My husband didn't like it either. My notes were: "The juniper ruins it for me. Smells astringent on." When Lupercalia rolled around again this year, I didn't buy a bottle but I wanted to try a decant. Just to be sure. Tastes change, chemistry changes, all that jazz. (Plus I'm still sorta peeved that it didn't work on me last year.) In the 2007 version, I get huge, huge patchouli. That great deep, dark patchouli that I like. It smells earthy and almost gritty with the other notes. I'm really surprised because I distinctly remember walking around smelling like a juniper shrub last year when I had the 2006 version on. This doesn't smell anything like that. Warm, wonderful, lovely dark patchouli. Now to hunt down a bottle.

Okeydokey, here goes the suckiest review of all time. The only notes that I'm really familiar with in this are frankincense and orris root. (Also, I thought olibanum was the same thing as frankincense?) Frankincense is a sweetness culprit on me, but in this it's very successfully tempered and balanced by the other notes. Orris root is a very dry almost-planty scent, if I recall correctly, and I think I might be getting some of that here. I honestly don't know what the other notes should smell like or what they're doing to the scent. Does hyssop smell sort of wood-like? Or is that the reed/frond I'm picking up on? Reeds usually smell a little green to me, and I can smell that here. And hibiscus... we can't grow those here in Chicago so I don't know what that smells like. Don't think it really matters anyway because I don't smell anything floral at all in this. I can say that this is one of the very few frankincense scents I can wear. It's what I wish ALL frankincense scents would smell like on me. It smells like frankincense should smell, without my skin chemistry interfering. Dry, nicely incensey, and only slightly sweet. I like this much, much more than I thought I would.

I was sitting there at Convergence trying not to be overly fangirly, and Puddin' came over to our table and sat down. He started handing out imps to the people at the table and prompting us to ask him what was in it. (To which he of course said, "Ahhhh duno!") A few minutes later Brian came around with a bag of imps and started to give one to someone at the table, and suddenly 6 people showed their Ah'Duno imps to him and loudly and happily proclaimed that we already got some. (I have yet to hear Brian speak because he sort of slinked off right after that ostentatious display of glee... the slinking was possibly out of fright.) This imp always makes me smile. Oh, right... what does it smell like. Um... it smells like Wrath Lite. This is great, in my opinion, because Wrath is much too hot for me to wear. With the other components in it, it takes on a creamy and sweet aspect and becomes wearable. It's still a lot of cinnamon, but it's smooth underneath. I like it!

I tried this at the Convergence booth with darkitysnark, and it went all pungent jasmine on me. On her it smelled good! On everyone else who tried it on, it smelled good! On me? Not so much. ETA: At a meet n' sniff over the weekend I sniffed one of the bottles with the white label, and it smelled like it had a LOT more vanilla in it than the one I tried. Hmmmm.... I'm going to see if I can track down the white-label bottle.

Very floral. It does smell like jasmine to me, but there's a "clean" element to it as well. A greenish clean scent. I'm not sure exactly what it is I'm smelling, but I kinda like it. It smells much more crisp than the heady jasmine I'm familiar with. I don't think jasmine is the only flower in this... but I'm not good enough at identifying floral notes to be able to tell what it is.

At first, this is a musky floral -- smells like a white flower with soft petals -- with a little bit of some kind of smooth creaminess underneath. As it dries the flowers aren't as strong and it's muskier. It gets sweeter, too. I love the musk in it, and I'm glad it turned into a scent that is not overtly floral! This is a very pretty, deep and luxurious scent. I really like it.

Woah. Exceedingly alcoholic at first. Doesn't really smell like hops to me, more like rum. But then as it's drying that initial rum weirdness goes away, and it ends up smelling like cherry pipe tobacco. NOT like pipe smoke, like the actual tobacco you put in the pipe. I used to go into a cigar/pipe shop all the time to buy clove cigarettes because it was the only place in town to buy them, and the inside of that shop smelled like this. It's a sweet, dry, almost musty, tobacco scent. Smelling this transports me mentally back to that shop. I bet my husband would love this. I'll let him try it.