forspecial_plate

I didn't get very far with this one. Smelled promising at first, soapy, but not in a bad way...kind of sharp and spicy/sweet. Very shortly after applying, a strong powder note emerged and smushed everything else under the carpet. I think it's rosewood that's doing this to me because King of Hearts did the same thing. So disappointing!

Spooky turned plastic-y on me. Obatala did not. In Creepy, I didn't smell much coconut. I think Obatala might be your answer. In my review I think I called it the perfect coconut scent. : )

How in the world these notes work together I do not know, but they do....mish-mash is a good word to describe Jolasveinar...but not in a bad way. I smell a lot of greenery, moss and flowers, and a fir like smell, and I wonder if I would have thought 'holiday scent' if I didn't already know it was one? It seems like very much a holiday scent, anyway. I also smell the snow or slush, and the dirt, and also the spicy sweetness of the pilfered pastries.....it's all there, and it smells wonderful. Might be my favorite of the Yule scents.

This smelled sweet and spicy to me, really pleasant. I can smell the dragon's blood resin, spices, and maybe some faint woods. Then, as with most of the lab's scents that contain dragon's blood, this disappears almost completely within an hour or so. All that's left is a faint ghost of the sweet and spicy scent that I started with, and maybe just a little wine. I guess my skin eats up dragon's blood. On the plus side the juniper didn't bother me like it often does. But this doesn't last long enough to be worth keeping.

In the vial this is very buttery, slightly spicy. Once it hits my skin the butter disappears completely and it's all pumpkin spices. Never did smell any peach. After some time passes Jack takes on a dusty feel that I don't really like. I wanted to like Jack but it's not meant to be!

Nice, sweet and spicy at first, with a gentle wood note flitting about. Then not 3 minutes later my skin turns it straight to strong powder. This doesn't work for me at all. : (

Eek...my skin really did a number on Grand Guignol....turns it into a latex smell that's not pleasant at all. Occasionally there is a brief flash of apricot, but mosly it's just yucky latex. No way did this work for me. : (

For a while I thought that nag champa and champaca were the same thing...but they're not. From wikipedia: "Nag Champa is a fragrance from India. The scent is reported to be very conducive to helping to achieve a calm and meditative state. It has a high concentration of sandalwood. It is most frequently found in the form of incense sticks and cones, but soap, perfume oil, scented candles, and massage oil are also available. Nag Champa belongs to the "Champa" class of Indian incense. Champa is actually a flower. Champa incenses contain a natural ingredient indigenous to India called "halmaddi". Halmaddi is a semi-liquid resin taken from the Ailanthus Malabarica tree. It is what gives Nag Champa its characteristic grey color. Halmaddi is hygroscopic which means it absorbs moisture from the air. This can cause Nag Champa incenses to have a wet feeling to them" Champaca, however, is from the magnolia family. More info: from wikipedia, and Pacifica candles' take on the scent. I'm posting this in case anyone else had any confusion about the two. Specifically I'm thinking of Dr. John Seward, which has champaca flower, but also sandalwood, opium smoke, etc....it's more floral than incensey to me (but I still love it).

I still can't tell many flowers apart....but Bayou starts out reminding me of strong, sweet jasmine. Or maybe gardenia...some floral anyway, with a very tart lemon-like note behind it. Very interesting. After a while the flowers back off and it becomes aquatic, with the tartness still in there. The lemon aspect sort of changes but it's still something tart in there. It's very strong, with a lot of throw. It reminds me a lot of a heavier, darker Sea of Glass (which is a scent that I love). I'm not sure I ever got any moss, evergreen, or cypress...but maybe those are contributing to the tartness. I can't really decide if I would wear Bayou...it might be appropriate for a hot and humid day. But if I had to choose I would pick Sea of Glass over Bayou, probably.

Snow-Flakes starts off as a soft, 'white', pretty floral, reminding me of violets, but not powdery like violets usually are on me. As time goes by the scent changes...it still smells floral, but it starts reminding me of Dirty. So maybe the two scents share a common floral note, or maybe not. But I did keep thinking of Dirty when I smelled it. Snow-Flakes, for such a soft and pretty scent, has strong throw and lasts a long time. I can't remember if I smelled mint, but the overall impression is clean, soft, and cold, like softly falling heavy snow. It's pretty, but sadly just not something that agrees with me. I will most likely give it to my sister or swap it.

Thank you! I did look up that artist and read about him.

How about Carceri D'invenzione? I'm assuming that's Italian? Since I'm falling in love with it I think I should know how to say it...

I enjoy Azathoth a lot. I've been putting off reviewing it, because it's kind of hard for me to describe. I am getting mostly mild, sweet tangerine with earthy, spicy vetiver. It's weird....it starts off all vetiver for about a minute, then the orange blooms in a big way, almost drowning out the vetiver. Then they reach a happy medium. I don't know if I've ever been able to pick out saffron, but it probably is adding to the spiciness of the blend. I'm not detecting much cedar or black amber, but again, maybe those are just contributing to the scent as a whole. My only complaint would be too little throw and doesn't last long...other than that I really enjoy this one, and I can see it growing on me more and more. It's kind of vibrant, earthy, and spicy all at the same time. Edit: How could I not love a scent inspired by the Blind Idiot God??

I like a lot of dark, smokey scents, so usually if something is 'bright' I'm not really into it. Kuang Shi is an exception (so is F5). It doesn't give me the impression of any of the notes that are actually in it....it's not fruity, really...doesn't smell like a typical sandalwood blend to me....and the white musk is either hidden or just supporting the scent as a whole. But what I do get is a bright, fresh, clean scent that I really enjoy. Before I read the notes I thought for sure it had some kind of mint or herb in it. Never would have guessed sandalwood. Actually, yes, the citrus/orange is discernable...but I wouldn't have picked out mango. And somehow it stops short of being *too* sweet for me. I really like it! This could be a great change of pace scent for me, along with F5.

The good news for me was that this is a pine-esque blend that didn't smell horrible on me. I don't really smell juniper, but I do smell SHARP green/gold, slightly herbal, very fresh pine sap in this. Then there is the weird sweet berry note that I can't identify...so familiar...but I don't know what this is reminding me of. Kind of like Strawberry Shortcake dolls or something (sorry...it smells better than that, but there's no denying that's what it's reminding me of). Then there is some weird note drifting in and out, that just goes sour on me. I have no idea what that might be, but it's like a halitosis smell, or almost a skunk-like smell....? All around interesting scent, that I'm glad I got to try. The sniffie I got has enough to wear it again one or two more times, but I doubt I'll seek it out again. I will say it's kind of close to what I want Yule to smell like, although I haven't tried that one yet.

Yeah...Mr. Morris turned me back on to leather after I thought I didn't care for leather. To me it's a sweet, brown leather though, as opposed to a black leather...if that makes sense.

Hmm...what am I smelling? Sandalwood? Ozone? Not quite...but it does have a clean, soapy smell....dry though. Desolate is a good word to describe it. Almost in the same family as Oblivion and maybe Morocco...dry, a little woody, maybe some amber, and there's something powdery creeping in. But if Oblivion is darkness, this is more sunny...but still empty. It smells good and I'm going to hang onto it, wear it again, but probably not buy a bottle. It's interesting though. Oh and I could have sworn I smelled some vanilla in there.

I definitely wouldn't have chosen Lady MacBeth on my own. I am not crazy about wine or berry notes...but it was sent to me as an extra, and like many others I have a try-everything policy...so here goes. It's actually better than I would have thought. The very first wet stage was such a mystery, because I didn't read what was in it first. I thought...floral? roses? mint? coconut?....then I read the notes and it started to make sense. Not sure where I got the hint of rose, but the 'mint' was obviously the thyme peeking through. It didn't scream WINE at me, which is good because it definitely would have turned me off right away. And I guess the red currant and/or wild berries fooled me into thinking I was smelling coconut for a brief moment. As it dries, it's pretty much sweet, herbal berry with a little sweet wine. Not bad, really, just not my thing.

I think I have a love it or hate it relationship with wood notes.... What I'm getting here from the beginning is a spearmint or winter-green type smell, pretty strong. It's an unpleasant association for me...from childhood I've always associated those smells with chewing tobacco (from growing up in Kentucky, I guess...). This fades a lot in the first few minutes, but doesn't go away completely. I guess the dried leaves are what I'm smelling. Then I can also smell the wood notes, and they are just not working for me. The aquatic notes are in there, struggling to come out, and I think with time they might become more apparent. I do wish that I got the beauty from Ulalume that others got from it! This actually isn't terrible after a while...but I just can't see waiting through the first stages of it. I can see this being a good 'winter' blend for some.

Morocco threw me for a loop at first...it smelled nothing like I was expecting! It reminded me a lot of Oblivion (the sandalwood, maybe?) and a little bit of Black Opal, somehow. After a while, as it dried and warmed and I started to get past my expectations, I very much enjoyed this scent. Smells dry to me, woodsy, and spicy. I am also picking up the sweetness/vanilla (?) that others mentioned in their reviews. At first I thought of it as feminine. Then I realized it could actually work really well for me, in the right setting, like a formal occasion or wedding or something like that. I kept thinking of hot desert winds, although not so dry and harsh as Scarecrow.

Wow...this is a sharp one! Sophisticated and classy come to mind, also herbal and dry. I'm getting a lot of moss, and maybe some of the geranium and rosemary. The mints come out just a little bit after a while. I don't think I can smell any jasmine at all...but it's so well blended it's hard to tell. Actually, when I read the notes, I was surprised that there were so many. And for a scent with so many notes, this does very little morphing on me. VdV does smell very clean and somewhat soapy on me, but that's not a problem. I could see being in the mood for this. For some reason it keeps reminding me of Scarecrow.

I'll add Nyarlathotep, if you haven't already tried it. Lemon-y citrus with dark incense. My skin turns it into baby powder after 1 hour, but maybe you'd have better luck. : )

Djinn, Count Dracula, R. M. Renfield. Also Bitter Moon will be available for a short time this weekend (maybe tonight!) but nobody knows yet what that one will smell like. : )

I love the smell of anise, fennel, and black licorice...even as a perfume smell. So far, this is the closest I've come to finding one (among bpal scents) that does what I want it to. It is heavy on the anise, which is good. I can tell there's a little something more behind it but it's hard to pick out other notes. I think I can smell the civet which I was worried about, but it seems to be behaving here and not getting out of hand. So far I haven't really picked up on the moss or lichen, or oak leaf. I smell a little bit of herbal sweetness behind the anise but that's about it. Not a bad scent at all for me, actually wearable. But it doesn't live up to my dream anise scent, which would have more sugary sweetness and maybe a touch of citrus. So probably no bottle on this one, but I will keep the imp to wear from time to time. : )

This is a pretty scent, softly floral and sweet at first, very subtle, with a light throw. No one note stands out a lot for me.....it seems like a quiet scent, but kind of bright and sweet. If I sniff up close, I can smell the lavender. After an hour or so, the musks come forward (or maybe the other notes back off). This will go in a special pile of imps I'm saving for my mom and sisters. I like the way it smells but it's a bit soft and pretty for my tastes.