tartchef

Interesting that you request non-fruity scents - Guess is grapefruit & black currant, both very juicy fruit notes. My guess (OH the pun!) is that the vanilla, oakmoss & sandalwood tone things down enough that it doesn't read as fruity, per se. Meanwhile, my vote for sexy & mysterious (and tying in with your dark red theme) is for anything with red musk or opium. Red musk can be tricky - it smells almost greasy on some people, but on me, it's warm & luxurious with almost a sweet/salty note. The LE Chrysanthemum Moon is my top red musk scent, but Mme Moriarty, Scherezade & Spellbound are super tasty, as well. Opium smoke comes across as a thick, dry but nearly fruity scent - Parliament of Monsters is a stunning example, but very heavy. Belle Époque is a lighter option, very pretty but not in a frilly pink way at all. If these sound too heavy, I'll second Cordia's recs for Bastet, Morocco & the Lion - all spicy, musky resin scents that wear well on lots of people.

Ah, finally. A good deep pine that I can wear without smelling like a big burly janitor I tend to amp the solvent end of pine, and so most of the evergreen scents have been disappointments... Lucky for me, the Labbies frimped me with Black Forest this past shipment. This is a deep evergreen thicket, with resiny bark & dried needles underscoring a sticky green pine scent. The ambergris is barely there, sparkling in the shadows & adding just a hint of sweetness. The black musk behaves nicely, grounding the whole thing without whalloping me over the head. I can see the Twin Peaks/Ent associations, but to me, once Black Forest dries down, this is the lovely scent of solitude - spending an off-season weekend at a cabin in the mountains, splitting a bit of wood for the stove, but mostly just sitting with a good book, sunlight filtering down through the pines, birds twittering away in the canopy... ahhhh. Peace & quiet in a bottle - can't beat that, especially this time of year.

I can see where you might have blending problems with jojoba, Seethroughstars - I just made some jojoba & BPAL rollers for my dad, and some of the scents took a good bit of jostling to mix in properly. I'd try decanting your BPAL into a larger bottle than an imp, so you have a bit of room to swirl things around. I'm using appx 4ml rollers, and that seems to work well. From a strict carrier perspective, I can't recommend jojoba enough - it absorbs really quickly, isn't greasy to the touch, and really opens up the scents I've tried so far.

:pout: No honey, no apricot, no carnation... no fig, even! Just jasmine in the fore, with almond & honeysuckle clamoring for the silver. It's pretty enough, certainly, but not por moi.

Mmm, almond fortune cookies! The myrrh adds a deep smokiness that cuts through what could be cloyingly sweet Snake Oil & marzipan. The mandarin is barely there, more the skin & pith than the actual fruit. This is so cozy & yummy...

Oh hot damn. I was very kindly swapped an aged decant of the Lion recently... it had been on my to-try list for a while, but amber's started giving me Powder of Doom issues, so I hadn't been actively pursuing it. Luckily for me, cranberry had the good sense to include it in my package. Aged Lion is absolutely stunning on me - strong tea, silky-smooth cinnamon & sweet spices, all lit from within by a golden glowing resinous amber. It verges on "festive holiday spices", but the tea & resins rally to nudge things back into "tasty & exotic". It's sweet, but not cloying; spicy, but not foody. Just spectacular. I'll apply another oil from my collection in the morning, but nearly always reach for the Lion in the late afternoons... it speaks of languid comfort, furry warm flanks curled around sleepy cubs... Purrrrrrr....

Bleh. Too many flowers for this to work for me, alas. Khajuraho hit my skin & exploded in a cloud of rose-scented powder. I scrubbed it off with a babywipe almost immediately. Mind you. About half an hour later, what trace of oil that survived the scrubbing is gorgeous - almost opium-like, sticky & smoky with a bit of tartness in the back. No earthly idea what notes might be contributing (maybe the sandalwood & date palm, perhaps the champaca?), but it's really yummy. Shame about the opening amber & rose fiasco...

Totally not what I was expecting, absolutely not what I'd plan on smelling like, but this is strangely lovely. Clean white floral saved from Soap of Doom by a bubbly undercurrent of citrus & juicy nectarine. The patchouli is a mere whiff, barely noticable but grounding things very nicely. On me, this smells like very expensive commercial perfume, minus the horrid chemicals - it would make a very good enabling scent if the intended was devoted to the big name perfumes.

Oh baby... now this is Snake Oil I can wear! The original SO goes PlayDoh sickly on me, and in the bottle, Temple Viper threatens to tread that same path... Luckily for me, all the additional notes Beth's added are consistant winners on my skin, and they conspire to make Temple Viper a delicious haze of fruity nag champa & opium smoke, with the sweet & buttery wood note that I get from wearing frankincense. It's actually very similar to Parliament of Monsters on me, and I can see similarities to Midnight Kiss, though not nearly as sweet & cloying. My only complaint is that it seems to fade much faster than PoM - not the all-day-smoke-up that I was hoping... ah well. This is still delicious, and I'm indebted to Clover for sharing the love! ETA: Over 7 months later, Temple Viper has quietly worked its way into my Top 10...

Seems like all I'm reaching for these days are spicy scents, so here's what's currently in heavy rotation: Red Phoenix: yowza-Big-Red cinnamon at first, but it dries into a gloriously deep & dry spice incense. Not as hard to find as it used to be, it seems, esp on eBay Scherezade: mmmm, occult bookstore! Sandalwood incense with a bit of saffron & spice Bengal: less complex than some of my other oils, but a nice straightforward whallop of chai with a dab of honey Priala: myrrh + cinnamon = teh YUM, hot & smoky & deeelish Sri Lanka: a much drier, more austere spice, not foody-spice as much as resin-spice Snake Charmer: Spicy, juicy Snake Oil minus PlayDoh! Devil's Night '06: I much prefer '06 to '05 - it's darker, with more booze & this incredible smoked cinnamon note Shub: Evil gingersnaps! Pumpkin Plunder #5 ('07): Evil gingersnaps with lemon zest & pumpkin! The Smiling Spider: sticky tarry clove, almost beyond spicy in its blackness Bastet: much, much lighter than the rest, but a lovely warmed-skin & spice scent Hmmm. Any wonder that I love it when the cold weather sets in?

Wow - what a morpher! This went from 'eh' to 'hmmm' to 'YUM!' over the course of the day... Wet, I'm getting Big Red gum with a bit of patchouli in the background - really sweet & cloying. It's very similar to Bengal's opening volley. Within minutes it vanishes - poof! Barely a trace of cassia, that's it. Luckily, I had a busy day & didn't bother replacing it with anything on my wrists, because after an hour or two, the tart plum & red musk emerge... faintly at first, but slowly warming like a coal in a brazier. By the end of the day the sweetness is gone & has been replaced by lovely smoky tobacco with a bit of tangy red musk lurking in the shadows. I get a bit of warm woodiness too, akin to the final throes of Anne Bonny. I don't get any mandarin, which is fine with me... I almost feel like this is a precursor to Mme Moriarty - similar components, a bit rougher out of the gate, but definitely in the same vein.

Just a quickie review before I send this on its way to a better home: Bonfire Night, but with pumpkin and less tar/asphalt. Sweet & buttery cut with a sharp cinder note. Mid-dry-down I'm getting pineapples & ham with a bit of yeasty beer in the back. Like someone dropped their plate AND their beer on the way back to the patio... Fun, yes! Wearable? Nyerhe.

Mmm, huminahumina... I'm not surprised that someone got lucky wearing J&H... It's like Hod's sexy cousin - that same honeyed cream & carnation base, but with a veil of light incense & the tiniest dab of magnolia. I get just a hint of patchouli, just enough to deepen things a bit. This is subtle, but really compelling - if you wore it to a party, people would want to lean in a bit closer... Unfortunately, it's a fast fader on me, lasting barely 2 hours. I blame some of that on dry skin & cold weather - this is worth resurrecting in the spring to see if a bit of warmth & humidity helps it linger...

Yeah, coming in waaay late on this party... I ordered a bottle of the Parlor on a whim with some other last-minute Weenies. I knew it was a forum favorite, and figured I'd keep it on hand for decanting, at least. The vanilla/pear combo sounded nice, but I was expecting it to be a little too sweet & cloying for my taste. Dammit Beth. You & your genius brain. Wet, the Parlor is just was I anticipated - sweet & innocuous, with a hint of plasticy pear. Given 5 minutes, though, it totally transforms into a smoky, dry vanilla with an undercurrent of rich, roasted pear - I get the same pear here as in Block Buster. The longer it wears, the more smoke I get, until it's almost pear-&-vetiver - nose-tickling & spicy, fruity but dry, like burning pear wood & leaves. ETA: The late drydown is almost a dead ringer for Bonfire Night - that same smoky vetiver with a bit of sweetness underneath... I love the imagery here - it's late evening, & you're invited into the parlor to wait for the mistress of the house to descend. All seems nice & normal at first, with a merry fire burning, a dish of fresh pears on the mantle & lots of pretty doilies. As you wait, though, a sense of dread & forboding creeps over you. The fire smokes & spits, the air grows thick & heavy, and the pears begin to writhe in their bowl...

Poopstick. Ivanushka whapped me in the face with a bag of baby powder. Every once in a while, I think I might be getting a bit of musk, or fur, or orris, but the good ol' J&J wins out every time. I'm going to cellar this for a week or two & see if it calms down...

I highly recommend Block Buster - it's helping tremendously in my battle against winter malaise. I'd also second anything with grapefruit, or any citrusy note. The kicker for me is that it has to have some sort of warm, grounding spice or incense - Mag Mell & Shub come to mind. I'm a hard-core kapha (ayurveda, anyone?), and I need both a cheery bright element & something with some heat to it to get my oily cold butt in gear

Woo! A dragon's blood scent I can wear! Normally DB goes horrible on my skin - "floral bouquet" toilet cleaner, heavy, soapy & cloying. Despite it's top billing here, though, it's surprisingly light. In the bottle, Dragon Moon is the essence of Spring - clear water, fresh tea, green stems, a hint of sweet blossoms... I can almost hear the birds twittering away On my skin, it keeps that freshness, with lots of tea & bamboo & a distinct spring-water scent. The sandalwood is barely perceptible, but I suspect it's what's keeping the cherry blossom & dragon's blood from exploding in a cloud of soap. I'll keep decanting this... for now. I want to keep some for myself for those bleak February days when spring seems so very far away... ETA: If you liked the concept of the Darkling Thrush, but the violet & amber didn't work for you, Dragon Moon might be an alternative - it's that same hopefulness-of-spring-to-come in a bottle... ETA Part 2: OK, I'm keeping this... and looking for another bottle. I got a tiny smudge on my desk while decanting last night, and this morning my office smells absolutely incredible. I need to revamp my Top Ten...

Woah. This should have gone utterly rank on my skin, a la Gluttony... but no. This is incredible. For a split second, there was a whiff of popcorn JellyBellies, but that quickly vanished, leaving a quiet & incredibly cozy scent. The hazelnut is subtle & understated, the honey & vanilla low-key, and best of all, the amber non-powdery. I think it's the sandalwood & myrrh keeping what could be a foody explosion in check. The drydown is smoky & spicy with a rich undercurrent of toasty vanilla, but not in the least bit foody. A-frickin-mazing. I got Wezwanie/Hold strictly to decant, but I'm going to have to keep most of it for myself, I think. Something tells me this will be absolutely stunning given the chance to age a few months. Just have to ETA: this has become one of my absolute go-to scents over the past few weeks - I find myself reaching for it over & over on these cold mornings...

Blockbuster, hands-down - the effect is almost instantaneous. I keep a vial at my desk for those days when I just can't make any headway... a few sniffs brings my brain back into focus & helps banish the distracting thoughts that tend to pile on mid-day. Water of Notre Dame is also very effective, but requires more concentration on my part to help it work its calming magic.

Oh baby. It's like someone grabbed Shub & dressed her up in something red & burnished gold & sexxxxy... there's a wallop of lemony ginger, with the buttery pumpkin & vanilla keeping it grounded. The lemon fades quickly with orange & neroli peeking out in its place, cutting the sweetness & adding a zesty, almost effervescent zing. Scylla's right in that it's tasty, but not exactly foody - it's not a pie or dessert scent as much as a festive nod to the edible. I don't really like smelling like food, but I loooove smelling like this! Insta-bottle - just feel stupid it took me this long to try it

Mmmmmm, yummeh! I was afraid this would be a Big Scary Stomping Spider, what with the black musk, but no... this is a small, black furry little guy, with a sly little grin. The clove is the frontrunner, but the warm dark wood keeps it from piercing my sinuses... the musk adds the soft hairiness, and the patchouli just adds to the dark & secretive vibe... My imp's definitely aged as well, so it wouldn't surprise me if a fresh Spider had a sharper clove bite.

:sigh: Ah well. I had to try, right? The imagery & concept were so lovely that I ignored the ozone & no-list resins... and got a mouthful of soap. I could taste it in the back of my throat the moment I put it on. In the bottle, it's amazing - coldcoldcold, almost prickly & sharp, like sleet hitting your cheeks. There's the promise of frozen grapes & frosted wreaths of evergreen & ivy, and the resins lurk around the edges, bittersweet & spicy. Alas, this will be much happier on someone else. Though it would be worth a shot in an oil burner...

TrailerTrashPrincess & I must have had the same psychic blip... WTH was I thinking ordering this? MiskU was an utter trainwreck on my skin, and after 15+ years in the food industry, I really hate smelling like foodyfood. I put this on this morning with babywipes & witchhazel at the ready... Huh. Go figure. This is actually pretty yummy on me. Trust Beth to prove me wrong! Straight out of the bottle, El Dia de Reyes is boooooozey - healthy slugs of chocolate liquor & cinnamon schnapps in a very small cup of coffee. There's a moment when the chocolate threatens to go "chocolate flavored coating" & plasticky... It's akin to brownie batter out of a box... but then the cinnamon steps up & beats everything back into shape. It's a very dynamic cinnamon, shifting from super dry bark to pungent cassia to Red Hots & back again, all with the barest hint of dark roast coffee lurking underneath. At this point, the chocolate has all but vanished, leaving just a hint of creamy sweeetness. There is an element of "Hot Fudge Delite", but I get that scented candle vibe from a lot of scents that combine cinnamon with food or florals. I certainly don't need the whole bottle, but will keep an imp on hand for holiday socializing - I can see this being a potentially good enabling scent, particularly for two of my pre-teen nieces...

Flail! Drool! Aaaaarrrrglllltthhhhhppppptttthhh... Sorry. Every cell in my body goes to jelly when I sniff my aged imp of Mme Moriarty. It's a visceral, undeniable reaction, akin to (TMI alert!) the electric moments leading up to a really good orgasm. I want to drink my imp, roll around in it, rub my face in it, do naughty naughty things to it. Gah... What does it smell like? Oh, ah, I dunno - fruity red musk, bitter leafy patchouli, smoky vanilla (waves hands ineffectually)... I will say that the new-ish bottle I just bought from a forumite is very different, much lighter & fairly innocuous, so it's going in the back of the box for a good year or so... Now, where was I? Oh yeah... gahhhhrllllllhhhhhhppppppthhhh...

Wet, November is surprisingly sweet - Willowm()()n is right in that it's very remeniscient of the Darkling Thrush. There's that same sweet violet/slushy snow note, but with an undercurrent of crisp dry leaves. Once this wears for a bit, the leaves get wet & release a lovely spicy scent, underscored by damp leafmold & a tiny bit of evergreen. This is perfect for today - it's damp & drizzly, but not too cold, so you can smell all the wetness. November is, strangely, not as desolate & dry as October - there's a hint of warmth skating along the surface, like being out in the cold & wet & taking shelter in the doorway of a nice shop that sells pretty notepaper & fancy tea.. ETA: Nearly a year later, the evergreen is more dominant... not ovewhelming at all, but more prominent than when November was fresh. Still that lovely sweet slushy intro, now with sticky pine boughs slapping against your legs as you crunch through the snow-dampened leaves. I am SO glad I held onto my bottle - this will be spectacular when the weather finally changes...