indicolite

This is one of my favourite blends ever. I have been wearing it pretty continuously in a scent locket as a sort of perfume, sort of to focus intention. It is definitely a red musk and citrus --- which is the Indi Dream Scent. As for effectiveness --- can't say yet, but no news is good news, as things are now.

Remember that you can't get Crowley in an imp from the lab, though!

Malkuth to me smelled ridiculously like Red Phoenix. Cue chorus: "Shut up, Indi, that's not exactly helping!"

I believe the perfume with synthetic components that ClareN remembers was Toxin. There are a few prototypes in the hands of certain community members, but it has been in the works for at least two years and has not yet been released. I do seem to recall that when the lab put a Toxin prototype on eBay, they included a note in the listing that it specifically contains synthetic compounds. However, your chances of getting your paws on even a little bit of Toxin are very small (although I am not discouraging you from the Holy Grail hunt if you read the reviews, under Unreleased Scents in the Reviews forum, and decide that it sounds like your thing; however there are many, many fantastic perfumes more readily available). An aldehyde is a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen which has at its end a carbon atom. This terminal carbon atom, which, like all normal carbon atoms, can form four bonds, uses one of the bonds to connect to the rest of the compound, one to hook to a hydrogen atom, and two to hook to an oxygen atom. The structure that forms is called a carbonyl group. Because that carbonyl group has a greater influence on how the compound would react than almost any other property of the compound (i.e an aldehyde that actually has a carbon chain of four carbon atoms, but has a carbonyl group, would behave more like an aldehyde which has twelve carbon atoms, than it would behave like something with four carbon atoms, but no carbonyl group) the presence of that carbonyl group categorizes all compounds with it into the aldehyde category. One aldehyde (cinnamaldehyde) is responsible for the smell of cinnamon; glucose is another aldehyde you've probably heard of. As the example with cinnamaldehyde shows, some perfumers use synthetically prepared aldehydes and mix them together to get the necessary scents: to get a perfume that has notes of cinnamon, they put cinnamaldehyde in. However, since Beth uses only natural ingredients, I would think she actually takes some derivative of cinnamon bark itself to put into oils that should smell partly of cinnamon. These oils do contain cinnamaldehyde (they have to) but it is not pure and mixed with a lot of other things. The example with cinnamon is simply what came up in the Wikipedia article. Hence, floral aldehydes would be synthesized aldehydes that are responsible for the primary scent of some flower. However, when you smell a natural flower, you are not smelling just the aldehyde; there are a lot of other components in there, and they affect your perception. It is like a cocktail containing vodka smells and tastes and affects you a lot differently than neat vodka, even though that is the primary component. Hence, your reaction to pure floral aldehydes may have been "Ouch, give me the rest of the stuff in the petals, this is way too strong and monotonic straight!" Hope that helped.

I'll put in a good word for Ra, and, if I recall correctly, the other Stations of the Sun. I was wearing Ra yesterday, and golden frankincense sunrise heaven... Sol Invictus, although it is an LE, is very lovely too.

I'll put in a good word for Polyhymnia.

It is mostly cucumber, with something else high and sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. At times, though, I catch whiffs of cypress, and it becomes a lovely cypress-and-cucumber woven braid of scent. I am not going complete nuts over it and hoarding, but it is a beautiful blend I will hold on to.

Cassia, cassia, cassia, cassia, cassia goes to town. Now, I already have two bottles of Red Phoenix, which Malkuth is reminding me quite strongly of, so I may not keep Malkuth. But I will see how this goes.

I put her in the locket. Sniffing it, I can see how people were comparing her to the Snake Oil/Mme Moriarty family (I have never smelled Hellion or Snake Charmer). She is fruit-toned, yet dark and sexy. Yet it is not, to me, an all-out sexiness, like Mama-ji. It is more of a skilled courtesan, trained to make conversation that will charm the man so that he is wild by the time it comes to the actual sex --- this may be the frankincense that people have mentioned that forms that impression for me. Nahemoth is what I would wear to tell stories for a thousand and one nights (with apologies to Scherezade, which this oil does not remind me of at all). I will definitely hold on to my bottle.

I sniff the bottle and I get "Dark musk, dark musk, dark muuuussssk!" I put some on my wrist and sniff it about twenty minutes later. This is sultry, smoky musk. Any dragon's blood (and I adore dragon's blood) is not a distinct note, but adding to the sultriness. I used to think that Mama-ji would be the scent I would wear to meet a hot guy, to make me feel like the kind of woman whose clothes he'll want to tear off. No. It's Sathariel, all the way. It's a, "my lord, let us deny the love of God, because we have our own, and let's do it in such a way God will look down with envy!" (I confess my reading of Kushiel's Dart lately may have influenced my thoughts somewhat, but...) I'm glad I have 10 mL of this. ETA: In the locket, I am getting a high clear note also, something almost aquatic, on top of the musky base. I am not getting the cinnamon most of the other reviewers noted, and I am wondering why no one else pointed out this top note. It is still beautiful, though. I keep sniffin and sniffin.

Layering The Lion for Gryffindor, The Raven for Ravenclaw, Serpent's Kiss for Slytherin and...hmm, what's for Hufflepuff? Determination, perhaps?

I have never smelled worsted wool. I smell the rosewood, but it is forcibly reminding me of a soap (probably the same soap Numb violently reminded me of). I do not mean that it turns into soap, as I have had one scent so far (Ozymandias) do on my skin, when I realized the Dread Soap Curse. Instead, it seems that somewhere in my youth or childhood, I was exposed very strongly and completely subconsciously to a soap that smells like the common ingredient in both Kelly Pool and Numb. I will hold to it for a while, as it is a great disappointment, and I hold out the hope.

Ooh, Misktonic U has had the scroll smell removed (I love you, Misk U, don't be mad at me for speaking of you in critical terms, please!) and had a dark woody scent added that is probably a blend of the woods and cigar wrappers. Darkly delicious for my coffee days, yum de yum yum. I understand the popularity of this scent.

In the locket: Iced tea. Absolutely, totally, very good lemony iced tea. Earl Gray iced tea, to be specific. I am not getting leather at all, nor am I getting any impression of a submissive little sex maniac of a Count. This Count would not be asking his mistress to behead him, as the original Count von Sacher-Masoch is said to have done; this Count will have endless rounds of iced tea in the sun with Wanda, under those big patio umbrellas, possibly with frilly paper umbrellas in his iced tea, talking idly about how they are going to decorate their living room. But is it ever refreshing on a hot day like this one.

It is darkly beautiful, and reminds me of what would happen if Schwartzer Mond and Mama-ji mated and had babies. However, it has the same heady incense note as Mama-ji did, that gives me a headache on drydown. I can tolerate it, and I will hold on to the bottle, but I will be sparing with it.