kunoichi

Wow, this is a strongly acidic scent with a bright flash of pine - a very male scent. It is only when it is on my skin that a smoky scent appears and softens the pine smell, both warming and darkening the scent a lot - it's like smoke coming from a strongly scented pine tree fire. After a few hours it becomes a much softer smokiness with a slight touch of sweetness, which fades over time. It is quite an unusual and destinctive scent!

A hazy, soft, veiled scent: mist floating through twilit skies, curling gently towards the heavens. In the vial, this is a lovely breath of sweet florals, not particularly cool but certainly crisp and delicate. On my skin, the scent warms and sweetens with a lovely juiciness ramps up amongst the flowers, before the two combine. After a few hours, the now ephemeral scent has all but vanished leaving just a trace of its soft and gentle scent on my wrists.

In the vial, this is a cold, sharp floral and green ivy scent. It becomes warm on my skin, the scent deepens, and the ivy entwines itself amongst the flowers. After a few hours, it fades to a soft, delicate floral.

This is a cool, high and crisp scent in the vial, somewhat herbal but a rather hard scent to describe. On my skin, a rose scent comes out to play as the herbal scent mixes with it, and fades as the rose strengthens, to give the rose a herbal edge; the whole scent become much warmer and slightly sweeter on me. After a few hours the rose fades down to a soft breath of sweetness on my skin. Very pretty, and my boyfriend mentioned that I smelled good today!

In the vial, this is an oddly sharp and almost salty scent, with what may be a slightly sweet floral background. On my skin, it remains salty-savoury, but before too long a coconut scent appears and combines with the savoury element, slightly sweet but still rather salty. After a few hours, however, the salt disappears and it ends up a soft, sweetish musk. Quite nice by the end, but I'm not sure that this is a scent for me.

This is very different to the nine-tails Kitsune-Tsuki perfume, though from the description of Kumiho, they are the same mythological beast. This is a sharp, pungent, ginger scent in the vial. On my skin it becomes very soft, with a touch of ginger, that is just a little bit sweet. It fades very quickly to an ever so faint, sweet breath of nothing.

It is a cool, sweet, juicy scent in the vial, somewhat floal. Yet on my skin, it warms up and become sweeter, becoming a soft and subtle floral with a hint of peach in the background. After a few hours it softens into a gentle floral musk.

This is a complex scent in the vial with greens and florals mixed together, and an almost bubblegum like sweetness. On my skin, the green scent ramps up above the sweet floral which has become deeper; the green fades after a little while but it is still there amongst a deep sweetness. It eventually settles down to a sweet, powdery green scent.

In the vial it is a sweet, light grape scent, quite pretty - not what I'd expect of Eris! But on my skin it becomes darker and dryer, with something almost like a bitter note. After a few hours, though, it morphs into a sweet, powdery scent that is quite nice.

In the vial it smells like a sweet amber, quite delicate yet sugared with vanilla. On my skin, the scent deepens and is still sweetly lovely with amber floating on a vanilla and peach background. After a few hours, it becomes slightly sweeter, and leave a very lovely note on my skin.

This is a spicy, dark orange scent in the vial. On my skin, however, a rather unusual and quite strong lemon appears out of nowhere. Thankfully it fades quickly into the background, behind a spicy leather. After a few hours even the leather scent fades and almost vanishes.

Midwinters Eve 2005 is something I haven't tried since I got it - so, almost 4 years later, here is my review! Wow, this is a gorgeous sugary, juicy fruit in the vial. On my skin, it becomes a darker yet it is still a sugary ripe fruit, mmmm! After a few hours it softens down to a sweet sugar on my skin, it is just lovely!

From the vial, this has a sharpish, cool scent with a slight edge of the sea. On my skin it becomes much more subtle, though it stays cool - the edge disappears very quickly. After a few hours it has faded to almost nothing, just a ephemeral whisp of floral which is barely detectable.

This is a sharp, spicy and warm scent in the vial. When I put it on my skin, the scent quickly changes to something much more mellow, with a smooth soft spice that isn't at all sharp. After a while, a tangy edge emanates from the smoother spicy scent.

The scent from the vial is of a smoothly rounded spice with a hint of sweetness to it. On my skin, the scent becomes slightly sweeter, almost creamy, and the spice softens. Unfortunately I couldn't smell the bright flashes in a dark opal - it was more like a white opal on me! Eventually it fades down to a very subtle scent, and fades to become just a hint of sweet spice.

In the vial this is a boozy, warm vanilla-caramel scent, like butterscotch schnapps (probably a combination of the rum and tonka)... Mmm! On my skin this starts smelling like a vanilla-and-coconut-rum drink, with a darker base (perhaps the leather and tobacco) running through it – it’s a darkly naughty scent, and not a tropical cocktail on my skin! After a few hours on my skin, this reminds me of another BPAL scent that I can’t place right now; it has a warm, ever so slightly smoky and leather-like base with a faded sweetness over the top of it.

Along with Loviatar, she has become something of a Patron Goddess of all Dominatrixes, Wanda is the breathtakingly beautiful sable-wrapped marble queen of Sacher-Masoch's fantasies. Her scent is a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle. In the vial, this smells of a juicy, penetrating sweetness that is perhaps the wine and flowers together. On my skin this becomes a soft floral, smelling mostly of violets flowing over a darker base note that may be wine and leather which tempers the floral sweetness. After a few hours this is a softer, more musky version of the scent; a touch sweeter with florals, and quite lovely.

In the vial, this is a somewhat light vanilla that isn’t particularly sweet, instead being rather smooth. On my skin, this is a smooth, dark vanilla-ish scent on top of the amber and labdanum resins, and a mix of musk spices; I don’t smell the plum or coconut, though. After a few hours on my skin, this smells like a dark, musky, softer vanilla spice to me; though a guy at work asked, “What’s that smell? Did you put on some Chinese incense or something?” – it doesn’t smell like incense to me!

In the vial it smells like a dark, dripping honey-like scent dripping with a multitude of conflicting scents within it. On my skin it becomes lighter with the vanilla in the honey, though there is a darker wine and musk scent underneath it all. After a few hours this is a much softer honey scent on my skin.

In the vial, this is a sweet scent of the ylang ylang over something darker. On my skin, this becomes more rounded and the ylang ylang becomes more noticeable in the blend, though it is covering the myrrh, which would be the darker scent. After a number of hours on my skin, this is a softer and lighter floral with a darkness to it.

In the vial, this smells of bright tea scent with a darker sweetness underneath it. I’m not sure what the fougere cologne is meant to smell like, but on my skin it becomes a very rounded, dark vanilla as the bright tea scent disappears almost immediately – it is dark and sweet and seductive. After a number of hours on my skin, this is a soft and sweet, yet has a darkness underneath it probably from the tea. It is delightfully delicious!

In the vial, this is a strongly scented, boozy scent with a background note of subtle fruity sweetness. On my skin this turns somewhat creamy and less strongly boozy – it’s a nice apricot sweetness that is quite a pleasant fragrance. After a few hours this smells a little sweet, a touch creamy and very softly of apricots. It’s quite nice.

In the vial, this smells of the florals (mostly the carnations) with a light, bright tea-scented kick behind it. On my skin this becomes a tangy floral that starts to become creamy for some reason, though there is nothing to suggest creaminess in the blend’s notes! After a few hours on my skin this smells like an almost creamy sweetness which is both light and beautiful. This is quite a pretty blend.

In the vial this has a really strong bite, kind of a nasty bite of something powerful and strong and astringent, perhaps eucalyptus and lavender; not my kind of scent for sleeping, though! On my skin this starts off with the bitingly strong scent, but soon a sweeter side starts to appear as the sharp top notes fade, leaving a sweeter floral scent, with an astringent edge to it that slowly fades to something softer. After a few hours on my skin, this smells like a very soft and somewhat floral-sweet scent – the exact opposite of smelling it from the vial! The imp I got was empty apart from what was on the lid-wand, so I only had enough to test it out – no ability to test it when sleeping.

Kapet (kyphi), meaning ‘incense’, is a combination of frankincense, mastic, sweet flag, pine, camel grass and cinnamon in a honey base. Raisins and wine were added as a base in later ingredients, and ingredients were changed through time, such as the addition of myrrh, juniper and so forth. Mention of kapet happens as far back as the time of the pyramids in the Old Kingdom. Kyphi is a mixture composed of sixteen ingredients; of honey and wine, raisins and galingale, (pine) resin and myrrh, aspalathos and seseli; moreover, of mastic and bitumen, bulrush and sorrel, together with the two kinds of juniper berries (of which one is called major and the other minor), cardamom and sweet flag. And these ingredients are not mixed by chance, but according to instructions cited in holy books, that are read to the incense makers while they mix them. -- Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride The Ebers (1500 BC) and Harris (1200 BC) Papyri both list the ingredients, as does Plutarch, supposedly from the works of Manetho, as does the walls of the temples of Horus and Isis at Djeba (Utes-Hor, Behde, Edfu) and Iat-Rek (Philae), and Dioscorides and Claudius Galen, Greek physicians of the 1st and 2nd Century AD, also have their own versions. Sadly, many of the ingredients cannot be identified with certainty. This is one of the versions of the incense listed at Djeba: [Take 273 g each of mastic, pine resin, sweet flag, aspalathos, camel grass, mint and cinnamon.] Place the items in a mortar and grind them. Two-fifths of this will {turn out to} be in the form of liquid to be discarded. There remain three-fifths in the form of ground powder. [Take 1.5 lb each of cyperus, juniper berries, pine kernels and peker (unidentified)] Reduce the ingredients to powder. Moisten all these dry ingredients with [2.5 lb] wine in a copper vessel. Half of this wine will be absorbed by the powder [the rest is to be discarded]. Leave overnight. Moisten the [3.3 lb] raisins with [2.5 lb] oasis wine. Mix everything in a vessel and leave for five days. Boil to reduce by one-fifth. Place [3.3 lb] honey and [1,213 g] frankincense in a cauldron and reduce volume by one-fifth. Add to the honey and frankincense the kyphi macerated in wine. Leave overnight. Grind the [1,155 g] myrrh and add to the kyphi. -- Lise Manniche, Sacred Luxuries Dioscorides’ version is listed as: Kyphi is a mixture of incenses dedicated to the Gods. Egyptian priests use it very often. It is also mixed with antidotes and is given in beverages to the asthmatic. There are many methods of preparation, one of which is the following: half a xestes (0.137 lt) of galingale; the same quantity of the major juniper berries; twelve mnai (5,239.2 g) of big stoned raisins; five mnai (2,183 g) of cleansed resin; one mna (436.6 g) each of sweet flag, aspalathos and lemon grass; twelve drachmai (48 g) of myrrh; nine xestes (2.466 lt) of old wine; two mnai (873.2 g) of honey. Stone the raisins and chop them, and grind with wine and myrrh. Then grind and sieve the other ingredients and mix them with the aforementioned mixture. Let steep for one day. Then boil the honey until it thickens and mix thoroughly with the melted resin. Mix thoroughly with the other ingredients and store in an earthenware pot. -- Dioscorides, De Materia Medica As for my review: This smells of a spicy blend that is sweet with fruit, with a clean citrus-like breath of freshness through it. On my skin this becomes a very citrus-scented blend – it is very light, tangy and bright – on perhaps a base that may be honey with sweet fruit, though the base is very faint in the background of the strong citrus scent. After a few hours on my skin, this is a soft citrusy-honey-incense fragrance as it fades. The citrus was certainly a very unexpected note!!