orangepoppy

Before reading the ingredients - In the imp it’s somewhat astringent with a hint of sweet green. Honeysuckle and jasmine. Iris maybe. Drying down there’s something really soapy. Oh dear, is there lotus? After reading ingredients - Ok, so I’ll never be a “nose”! Apparently it’s the stephanotis that smells like jasmine. Anyhow, this isn’t working for me. I can’t think of any other scent that smells so soapy on me and it’s even burning a little. Darn! ...and I don’t get the slightest bit of rose.

Good heavens! I put on Tenochtitlan about 5 minutes ago and it's just astounding!! I ordered it mainly because I've loved Beth's other Aztec blends (Centzon Totochtin and Xiuhtecuhtli) to distraction. I was afraid of the fruit and sweet factors, but Lordy Mercy, it's delightful! I think it's the coriander that makes it airy/slightly minty without going ozone and the prickly pear that makes it juicy/watery without going aquatic. As it dries down, I'm losing much of that as it goes a bit drier and sagey. Really amazing for something that smelled like bubblegum in the imp. ...Ok, twelve minutes now and it's fading really fast.....noooooooooooooooo! Over an hour later - It's still there, thank goodness. (I think I experienced a "false fade" due to having my wrist attached to my nose for so long. How embarrassing.) I think I'll have to get a bottle of this to have a cute little collection of the Aztec blends.

(I tried The Caterpillar about a year ago and forgot to review it and sadly, forgot what I thought about it, so retried it today - therefore I'd consider this imp to be a bit "aged") First on I get a sharp blast of grapefruit, which is odd since there's no grapefruit in this blend. Must be the neroli/bergamot. I think it's the iris that gives it a sparkly quality. As it dries down a softer and sweeter quality emerges. My husband hugs me and says, "You smell good." I say, "I know" The jasmine is barely detectable. I really like this one - it smells freshly sweetly cleanly.......deviant.

This is beautiful! I was so happy when rose made its appearance after drydown. It's like I'm not wearing "perfume" ~ on me, Psyche takes on a "second skin" quality. It's sort of strange, but the area of my wrist right before my hand (where those "bracelet lines" are) smells like wonderfully sweet airy rose, and then farther away from my hand, the white musk is stronger and pulls it back to earth. Maybe the skin is thinner there, I don't know. I can wear frankincense well, but I can't really single it out....there's just a whisper there. I tend to avoid incense/resins in the summer because my body heat turns them into smothering blankets and then I scream. Aside - I'm not sure what orchid smells like, so I can't comment on that part, but something tells me it's a bit of a "sparkly" scent? I'm a huge fan of good rose scents and it doesn't matter if it's an airy rose or an earthy rose, if it's good rose, I'm going to like it. Psyche is both airy and earthy. I'm amazed. This is a rose scent that I can wear even on the hottest day of the year (which I think is today). Kudos to Beth for such a beautiful creation. Wow.

From the description, I thought I'd love this. I've tried Mata Hari two times now in an effort to love it. Jasmine can be wonderful on me or it can go wrong. In this instance, it went wrong. I know lavender isn't an ingredient, but I could've sworn I smelled lavender throughout the drydown and in the end it's just all jasmine. Sort of a rotting, ill-tempered, cloying jasmine that is borderline nauseating. More rose, less jasmine might make it all better.

Twilight, I can't seem to stop sniffing you. I absolutely adore the "cooling" quality of this scent. Whoever said Twilight is the cool side of the pillow is spot on. I'm one of those that has to be very careful with jasmine as sometimes it can almost smell stinky on my skin. Not in Twilight. The star of this show is the lavender, with the jasmine taking off the sharp edge it wants to have and the honeysuckle sweetens it just the right amount. A great scent for when you want to feel cool and relaxed on a stifling hot muggy summer day.

Black Pearl and Lush's Absolution aren't exactly alike, but complement each other very well. I love this combo

in the vial - sweet, somewhat soapy honeysuckles. Interesting. wet - smells almost like vetiver or something else smoky and sweet. I think I like this even though I usually don’t like things quite this sweet. drydown - I don’t know if it’s the color or my association with Blood Rose (one of my faves), but I’m getting a bit of rose. This is very interesting and pleasant. dry - mmm, zingy and salty sweet and rosey. Fresh yet with a faint musky/smoky undertone. It seems to be almost activating my salivatory glands. *blush* I don’t know how much I’ll wear this oil, but I have a feeling I’ll use up my imp. I'm very hip to the rosey nature this oil assumes on my skin.

Excited to try this as I love the scent of roses and oranges. in the vial - painfully sweet almond extract wet - painfully sweet almond extract with powder drydown - The painful sweetness calms down immediately and then there's the rose. I love rose. This reminds me a bit of Jezebel, one of my favorites, but with less rose and something spicier in the background and the tiniest hint of neroli. The warmth of this oil is nice. Somewhat high hopes. dry - oh no, is that dill? Intrigue and Seance both turned to pickles on me and this one is trying to do the same thing. I was hoping to get orangey rose goodness, but alas, I can't get past the picklish smell, no matter how faint.

The Star is just gorgeous! In the bottle, it's bright and fruity. The "fruity" scared me a bit, but dissipated as soon as it dried on my skin and was replaced by a lovely toasted coconut topnote with something "Fae-ish" underneath. Really spectacular! The only reason I won't be buying a big bottle of this is that it has almost completely disappeared after only 5 minutes. I'm going to try it again when I'm more moisturized. eta: I just noticed the comparisons to Spooky and I want to add that though Spooky was quite disagreeable on me, The Star is fantastic. I hope I can figure out a way to make it last longer.

Shroud was lovely sandalwood and white flowers at first. Within 5 minutes I got the same dill pickle smell I got with Seance. They don’t have any ingredients in common. I’m truly mystified.

I really like Amsterdam, Neo-Tokyo, Szepasszony, and Moon Rose for Spring.

Sometimes it's almost scary when the Lab sends imps gratis and they work better than the ones I've researched and chosen for myself. Penitence is one of them. It's glorious and strong and grounded. Grounded yet very "higher plane" feeling. Completely gone from my skin after two hours, but what a fine two hours it was.

In the bottle Wolfsbane is slightly sweet and minty green. First on, a sweet floral lemon-pepper...hmmm, what’s next? Vetiver is next, rising to the top as in Saturnalia. Luckily the vetiver pulls back quite a lot over the course of a couple minutes and a rose blooms, it’s a sweet almost powdery rose, but with some greenery ala Rose Red. Wow, I don’t get any woods at all, my skin tends to eat them, alas. After drydown, Wolfsbane is an expansive (seems I always want to use the word “expansive” with vetiver scents) clean clear rose with some spice. Yes, I do like this quite a lot, but would like it more if it were woodsier. Oh, and it’s fading fairly fast, too. Will definitely use my imp because I'm going to have to slather this to make it last. Oh wait, now the rose and a great deal of the sweetness is fading to the background (I've had it on about 20 mins) and there's something almost like spiced violets in there (!) and I think I do detect a bit of cypress or juniper? Wolfsbane, you are quite a changeling, and I'll try you again, you mysterious canine, you. eta: Tried you again, and Wolfsbane had tremendous throw. I was outside late last night and thinking I was smelling some new spring flowers on the breeze, when I realized it was me. Wow. Tremendous. I'm going to have fun experimenting with this one. Very natural scent, to me.

Shattered - Out of the bottle and first on, it’s sharp and lemony with a bit of sweetness in the background. Oh dear, as it dries, I’m getting something I don’t think agrees with me and it’s somewhat unsettling - which would make it true to its namesake. It smells like fresh mint, very green and kind of not so pleasant with my chemistry - it’s almost like licorice or even cilantro. When completely dry, there’s still that unsettling note, but also a mustiness. I was hoping for a refreshing “cold” scent for summer, and it is those things, but there’s a particular note that is putting me off.