midnight_aeval

I recall smelling this at Cobwebs III and thinking it was fantastic for a foody like me! I don't recall skin testing it, but when word got around that Beth said it was "melted ice cream" I knew I'd just have to buy a bottle, completely bypassing the 'testing' part of the experience. Yesterday at the Dark Delicacies event I did the whole "set it, and forget it!" thing. About an 45 min into being there I smelled it and the drydown was very similar to a prototype I have, PPGC92. Since I can now smell them side by side, in the bottle they aren't very similar with PPGC92 having a strong cake note. If DP is the melty ice cream, PPGC92 is one of those ice cream cakes you get from Baskin-Robbins, or a cake gone soggy BY the melty ice cream. In the bottle, DP smells of very generic vanilla and cream, reminds me of Love's Philosophy (ok, from what I remember of it... it didn't quite work on me). Now that I brought it home with me I can actually skin test it for real - wet it's sorta plasticy. Well, this is no good at all! As time goes by the plasticy vibe fades although it's a bit slow to completely disappear. As we were driving home last night we stopped at Wendy's where I had a vanilla frosty with M&M's. I tried to connect if the frosty tasted like DP smelled and I think my conclusion was it was pretty close. This scent is much more of the soft-serve variety than the homemade kind inundated with heavy cream.

Here are the bottles from the Poe event (Hideous Heart got kinda shy... maybe I'll take a better one later): http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f53/midn...al/IMG_1575.jpg

I can't believe I potentially [stole the bottle from my husband and] sold Count Dracula! Out of all the Order of the Dragon scents, this is the only one that was kept. It has sat on my husband's shelf since 2006 and I finally got him to use it this past Sunday in honor of Vampire-Con hehe (I, however, didn't have a vampire scent to wear, so I choose Red Rose which complemented this scent SO well; must have been the clove). As such, this is a review from what I smelled on my husband; firstly, the throw on this was HUGE. He is not a slatherer like me, but the minute he put this one on I could smell it all the way across the house. And it followed him wherever he went.. I think I was tailing him and drooling as a matter of fact The leather and cloves were most dominant and since those are his two favorite notes, I'm betting this will play a close second to Western Diamondback with the most wear time. This has only gotten better with age! I told him that if he thought Spanked was slightly too girly, that Count Dracula was a manned-up version of it. The black musk is not as present as, say, Haunted, but it really ties the leather, clove, and patchouli together nicely. Sadly, we have but this one bottle.

There is definitely a GV@RB vibe with Osiris v4. I'm wondering if it's the teak and cream accord combo working it's magic in this one. However, it is a tad 'darker' than GV@RB and I believe I detect some earthy patchouli a la Schwarzer Mond. It's almost like this is meant to be a slightly masculine version of GV@RB.

I swapped for this one even though I was at the 2nd Cobwebs - it wasn't one that jumped out at me from the testers and from sniffing the bottle I remember why! It's very dry, a tad sweet, and a lot dusty. It reminds me of a bottled up parchment note complete with a bit of a beeswax candle drippings from some occult book. When it goes on my skin the sweetness vanishes and I get the same dusty tomes note I pick up from Misk U, and unfortunately that is exactly why Misk U and I don't get along much. It's beautifully blended, invokes strong imagery, but over all too dusty/dry/waxy for me. Not sweet enough for this crazed confectionary lover

Too cute! (ok, but I'm sure at first it was really irritating)

I took some at Convergence but they are reeeeeallly not very good lol Perhaps it's better if ppl who actually got the scents post the 'real' bottles

My decant only had a tiny, tiny bit of brown sludge at the bottom and I spent about 2 minutes shaking it around. I might have to break down and get a bottle so I can get a true test of this scent. Something in this reminds me of Christmas.. maybe I'm associating the corn smell with tamales and a faint cocoa smell with mole. It is pretty spicey, but there's a fermenting-fruit note to it as well when it dries down (obviously the agave wine). This wine note is really strong with my chemistry. Don't you hate it how your least favorite notes seem to come out in full force?? After 30 min I'm left with really hot cinnamon and wine.

Wheeeeee! I love this scent! In the vial it reminds me of those multicolored pastel bunny-shaped marshmallows you get at Easter and NO I'm not talking of Peeps (I hate those things). I see all the comparisons to Velvet Unicorn, but this is much closer to Velvet Pink Kitty to me, like VPK minus the fizzy/boozy note that mellowed down just enough in the dry down to make me really like the scent (seriously, I could do without the wet stage on that one). This will be a multi-bottle purchase if I didn't already have a bottle of Velvet Pink Kitty. Perhaps I'll get a couple of these and let VPK into the wild.

Yes! This does remind me of Blue Fire - I wondered what that familiar scent was. The first time I opened the vial it was EXTREMELY "fizzy" smelling. I don't really care for the boozy/fizzy blends so I tossed it aside without skin testing it for a couple days. I opened it up today and it's much more of a Hawaiian Punch scent. Sorta like that sparkling party punch people make with the ice cream (ok, I assume the semi-solid white cream stuff in it is ice cream). I'm undecided - the first time I smelled it I was like NONONONONO and now I'm thinking it's not as bad - who knows what's up with that.

In the vial this scent is very much like sweet dirt - how I would imagine a fortune cookie covered in mud to smell like There's a generic sweetness to it, not like anything too specific. When I put it on the dirt note mellows somewhat but still remains in contest to be the dominant note. I'm so intrigued by the scent because it's really unique, but I doubt I would ever wear it except to humor myself. I am tempted to wear it to work just to see what sort of comments I would get - one of my coworkers practically stalks me just to follow my perfume trail lol As it gets to the hour mark the dirt note has almost vanished and the scent left behind is somewhat close to what I recall from L'Inverno, but a spicy woodiness replaces the winter fruits. Hmmm, sorta like if L'Inverno and L'Autunno were mixed together.

This blend seems like a cross between Bat of Good Death, Smiling Spider, and Velvet Bandito to me. It's got the dry notes from the orris, hyssop, and frankincense that I detected in Bat of Good Death, the angry clove of Smiling Spider, and a dusty feeling from Velvet Bandito. As a definite foody/sweet scent lover, Zenobia probably won't be in my regular lineup, but I'm glad I got to try it!

ETA: Nevermind, found it!

While at the DD trunk show I was on the... sniff-out (? lol) for masculine scents for my husband since he sits in the corner (when he's not talking to Ted, Beth, or admiring little Lilith!) feeling left out when I'm finding all sorts of new smells for myself. This one was one that instantly called out to me as one he'd like. It's masculine, has the scent of the leather interior of a new sports car. There's a hint of non-sweet mint here also, not at all like the kind in Lick It or Tokyo Stomp. I also agree that cedar might be present.

Agreed - looking at all of them in that picture I'm loving the contrast of color.

I get a jolt of butterscotch numminess from the bottle. On my skin it invokes the scent of cotton candy, candy-dipped marshmallows (if there were such a thing), and those long spiral multi-colored lollipops you can buy at the fair. The butterscotch has since faded. When I first skin tested this one I was getting fried twinkies, butterscotch, and smoke - but today it's much more like a candy shop put into a bottle. It reminds me of that mini candy store at Disneyland - you know, the one with all those lollipops that takes hours and hours, possibly days, to eat? As it dries more and develops there is a hint of sweet smoke (not from cigarettes or the like, incense maybe) that I think I detected the first time I tested it. Not at all obnoxious, it gives the blend character. I think those that like Velvet Unicorn, Velvet Clown, and Midway would find this blend lovely

CCCXCIII (393) origin - straight from lab This one is super fruity, red berries and lush plums with a base of Snake Oil. Not like Mme Moriarty, but has some similarity to Dionysia. I'm impressed by the "juicy" quality of this one. I could see this becoming even better with a little bit of age!

CCCLXXXI (381) origin - straight from lab Whoa gingerbread. I didn't know you and Snake Oil had THAT kind of relationship! The gingerbread in this is really, really gingery and spicy. Not the super cakey kind that lingers in Gingerbread Poppet. Part of me is enamored by this blend, but the other part screams it's too much!

I wish this one could have worked as great on me as everyone seems to be claiming it did for them! To me it was too floral, not enough smokiness. Which is not saying it's not good, it just doesn't work for this girl Although I was happy the red musk did not come out in full force like I'm used to. There's something about this blend that reminds me of one of the Shungas from this past year...Couple Consulting an Enpon. Oddly enough, orange blossom is the only common note, so maybe this is one my skin chemistry turns to total Public Restroom smell. How odd! Maybe there's a cleaning product that uses orange blossom which might explain the negative connotation.

CCLXX (320) origin - straight from lab This is one of 2 scents I plucked from my husband's shelf to test out. One was a masculine after shave & Dorian mix; this one is masculine as well - I can't pinpoint notes, but when I got it my husband said it smells like how his dad used to smell (all weirdness aside...) according to my husband his dad used the classic Old Spice a lot. I tested this on me today and I get myrrh; I only think this because I recently got a bottle of SN Light Myrrh and can recognize it. There's also a touch of citrus... orange maybe. Almost no Snake Oil to be found.

CCLXXIII (273) origin - purchased from forum member Bought off the forum, cannot find the original post I responded to nor the PM - boo - but I recall it being described as Dorian and a leather jacket I definitely get the more masculine feel of this one. I don't believe there's leather in this, I get more of Dorian with a dose of testosterone, after shave only a many-man would wear. Bay rum with musk, possibly some woodiness to round it out.

I still have a handful of CT bottles I haven't even tested yet; so here goes the first couple! CCLXII (262) origin - straight from lab From the bottle I smell Snake Oil and Tang (you know that powdery orange drink astronauts and monkeys drink?) When I skin test the Tang scent goes away and the strangest spearmint/sinus clearing note comes out. After about 10 minutes it mellows to sweet spearmint and snake oil. What a morpher! CCCXXIII (323) origin - straight from lab Snake Oil meets male executive hottie sitting amidst a huge office with a classy leather chair, opening his sleek leather briefcase to reveal stacks of money or naughty accessories This one couldn't be more perfect for me. This is not the rugged, wild west, dusty leather from Dead Man's Hand; it's new, refined, and toned way down. This blend differs greatly from Western Diamondback which has the DMH leather mixed in it (you know, the bad boy biker sort). Drys down to the way classic Snake Oil would, but the leather is never too far. Summed up:

This one is pretty freakin awesome, if you care to know my opinion lol I skin tested it and went outside to go help my husband with the canopy. He started looking around and thought he smelled sun tan lotion. Of course, it doesn't smell like sun tan lotion to me, but the throw is pretty strong. The banana cream pie dominates, the metallic tang from the "blood", but only as a background note. Reminds me a bit of Velvet Clown but with banana cream pie in place of the rum and circus peanuts. So far this one is my favorite of the Summer Blockbusters!

I was most worried about this, but in my thorough testing at DD (yeah right, I opened each bottle, took a sniff, and told Del I wanted 5 of the 6 ) I decided to pick this one up. I have an extreme fondness for Japanese horror flicks and often will refuse to watch the American remakes (crap I tell you!!!) so the list of florals made my head spin - I dislike florals, almost an extreme hatred, really. It's sweet and ethereal which fits the whole genre amazingly. The lily is the most noticeable note for me in the drydown phase. I get almost no mint, eucalyptus, or blood orange which is surprising because they are such dominating notes. Not sure if I would stock up on this scent because it's not my usual forte, but I think I will keep this one around for those really hot, summer nights.

This is a great musk blend - no red musk, which I hate, but I think I detect a bit of black musk because I'm getting a hint of the lemon-esque note I get from Haunted. No sourness that I sometimes get from BPAL musks, this one starts and stays sweet. Creature Feature wears incredibly well; it's sexy, stays close to the skin, and begs for others to lean in closer