corvidus

in the imp: marzipan, with a hint of liqueur-like bitterness. foody and quite sweet. i can see where people saying cherries are coming from, though it's not a connection i would have made myself. on (wet): marzipan! there's a darkness that miiiiight be the incense but it's mostly just marzipan. incidentally, i dabbed this on some fabric i was wearing and the incense came shining through, i guess my skin just eats it all up. on (dry): smoky, buttery almonds with a hint of incense. which is good because i kind of dislike marzipan, haha! it's really nice, smooth and witchy and mysterious, but never too cloying or overpowering. verdict: love this smell!! something in it keeps it from being too foody, which is perfect for me. definitely looking forward to my bigger bottle

frimped this one with a set of decants i ordered from a forumite here. in imp: this smells exactly like a greenhouse!! we went to kew gardens over the summer and this is pretty much the same scent as the tropical hothouse they have there. there's a slight sweetness, but it's a fresh green sweet, not the fruity-sweet i'd been expecting - like geraniums, or sweetpeas (as i think was mentioned). on (wet): sweet, fresh peas, dirt and moss. there's not a huge amount of depth, though that's not a bad thing. it's very evocative and very, very green - new-leaf green on the top notes and deep, dark green in with the damp moss. on (dry): not much change, although the sharpest of the sweet notes recede a little and the wet mossiness comes out a bit more. i'm not getting fig at all from this blend, which i find a little disappointing because i love fig, but people are reporting a lot of variation in smells so go figure. overall - i actually really like it. very different from any other perfume i've tried before. i wouldn't wear it on its own, it's a little overwhelming for that, but i can imagine it'd layer well with other, lighter green scents.

A sinister, sinuous incense of summoning, a herald and paean to the Primordial Gods of Darkness, Chaos, Madness and Decay. got this as a frimp from another forumite and was immediately intrigued. no idea what this was supposed to smell like apart from incense, so went ahead and tried it out. in the imp: yep, there's definitely incense in here. i can't place what kind, but it's smoky, resiny and sweet. can't really detect much else. wet: ...hold on, are you sure there's incense in this? on me it immediately turns to a kind of vanilla syrup (i can see what the maple syrup people were talking about, but it's not quiiite maple to my nose.) luckily, after giving it about 30 mins... dry: ok good, there's the incense. i was beginning to get worried. delicious, smoky incense undertones start to come in strong beneath the syrupy vanilla. there's definitely something else there too, though, hiding beneath the more obvious notes. i think dirt was mentioned - the first thing i thought of was sickly rotted flesh, although in the best possible sense (?). verdict: al-azif is kind of wierd, which is as to be expected i guess. it's very evocative, very dry and slightly cloying. i like it and its connotations, but i don't think i'd really wear it, at the same time? will probably keep my imp and see if it grows on me, though.

in imp: i don't know if it's because of the associations i already had with the perfume, or the apple-y, spicy floral notes, but this smells really red. that's the best way i can describe it really. delicious, but not really in a food-y way? sweet and very boozy, i can't pick out much else. wet: cider and posies is immediately what i'm getting, with a touch of slightly bitter wine. i know what this reminds me of now, it smells like the mulled wine they serve out of big vats in the christmas market where i live. there's something else there, too - i think it's the florals - that keeps it from being totally christmas. drydown: the smell... deepens, i guess? i can pick out more of the notes - the posies come to the fore, and there's what i think is the amber eking out over the rich alcohol base. delightfully sweet with a spicy bite to it - a hint of cloves or maybe cinnamon that i'm probably getting from the carnations. i can't smell the treacle at all, but presumably it's adding its part to the sweetness. overall verdict: i like it, a lot. i'll have to see how quickly i run through the imp before considering getting a bigger bottle, though, because i'm not sure this is something i'd want to smell like every day. it's quite a bold scent, and i feel like it'd be great for certain occasions, but it's a little much for everyday use.

my first review! this one jumped out at me from the RPG section - i almost always play a rogue or thief, and i loved how it sounded, so i bought a 5ml bottle from a forumite here. in the bottle: wow, pine! the first thing i notice is a sharp, sweet pine rosin. the freshness of the hemp is there if i squint. it's got this heady, almost incense-y smell to it, which might be the leather eking out from under the strong pine. on (wet): the scent smoothes out, and the pine softens a little. that's a big thing i get from this smell, actually, it's sort of - smooth and sultry. the hemp sticks around, keeping it fresh and quite clean with the bitterness of the rosin. on (dry): the "edge" on the rosin fades, and /there's/ the leather. again, i start to get this kind of incense smell sticking around. the leather body is full, and bought up by the subtle hemp and the sweetness of the rosin. i found it faded after a few hours and didn't have a huge throw, but i didn't put very much on. either way, it's a very nice scent, if not as dark as i expected. excited to try layering it with some of the other RPG scents (half-elf and lawful are two i'd like to try, so we'll see how that goes!)