DoktorDandy

This scent absolutely broke my heart. In a bad way. It was one of the ones I was looking forward to and MAN did it let me down. I tried it at least three times, and it was such a flop... The first time, it ended up fresh and salty. Odd but not bad.... but way, way, way too mild for me. Not villainous at all- very saltwater & seaside. The next couple of times. Man. Sweet, very powdery, very feminine florals. Emphasis on powdery. Did I mention powdery? There was even a lotion scent in there- one of my most hated scent associations.This will sound terrible but it's... sissy. It's the word that came to mind right away when smelling it. I am swapping out both imps I have. I came looking for a companion to Vicomte de Valmont and I was very disappointed.... I'm still not over this, ugh. I really hope this is better on someone else!

Wet: This is... nice! It's all linseed oil and turpentine, but I mean that in the nicest possible way. It's blonde piney wood. Reminds me of pine cabins I've stayed in with generators, gas lamps, corrugated iron rooves, and only access-able via 70 miles of pine-lined logging roads in Maine. Puts me in mind of chopping firewood & setting it aside for weathering. I can really see some people thinking of this as car freshener pine or maybe pinesol but I have way too many natural associations. I find this really evocative. Dry: When it dries, Loup Garou starts getting smoother and more streamlined. Deep green hints with a slight sweetness- almost itchy associations. Comforting. There's something not unlike a floral hidden under here, not a tame, hothouse flower- more like a prickly thistle? I wish it had a little more lasting power on me, but it's, yep!- nice, really nice! Overall, I'm keeping the imp because this is DANG pleasant. A few more tries will let me know if this is a bottle scent or not.

Oooh! A wow reaction right away! Here's the floral I was looking for! The Lady of Shalott is all big, screaming florals on me- green and white ones, huge, hothouse blooms and so heavy. It's GREAT. There's a sweet honeysuckle-like scent that starts up, really overgrown and oversized. Creamy honeysuckle-like scents give way to glorious gardenia with something doing some backup wailing- maybe lily? When it dries, it continues to create this nice effect when I sniff it, similar to the feeling of breathing in cold air. It goes warmer eventually, and will do it faster (noticed this on multiple tries) the warmer the weather is. Reminds me very distantly of my favorite Pacificia soap- the Tahitian Gardenia one. This elbowed it's way to the top favorite scents and so far, she's reigning as the unexpected queen of the florals. Friends and family like this on me the most. There's a bottle of this in my future.

Immediately a musky, animalistic floral. Muse is all body-sweat and musk-jasmine on me. It's not my favorite kind of jasmine- this is a murky, swampy, armpit-y jasmine. A sweet prickle-scent starts up. Strongly, strongly reminds me of those scented markers from the 90's, a fistfull of the markers rather than a distinct one. That or scratch and sniff stickers. Wow, it's really close to those on me! Dry, it fades to just the scratch and sniff stickers- that's almost exactly what this smells like now. Very cool scent rather than hot. Not my thing at all, not what I expected. Went really weird on me.

In the Imp: BLAST of ginger-ale! Very Distinctive and surprising too, given the notes? Wow- I love gingery smelling things so I'm excited to try this! Wet: The bubbly note is amazing- I'm not sure how it's done but it's pretty amazing as far as a curiosity goes. What should be champagne is certainly ginger-ale on me, no question about it. Yeah, very distinctive. No strawberry or any other note I looked up for this. Dry: Ugh! The ginger departed, leaving behind something weird, plastic, headache-y, sweet & sour. At the end there's a copper or blood tinge that is nasty. Swap! Maybe it will be good on somebody else.

First impression before it hits the skin is a soapy head shop scent. As soon as it was on my skin it went sweet- spicy, honey sweet. Maybe sweet clove? Tingly, pleasant sort of autumn/winter scent. Eventually this effect was ruined by a weird, round, nutty sort of smell that I liked less. It lasted a while, but became this distant purr- not as strong as I wanted, and not as complex on me. I ended up liking the darker, more complex spices in Dracul. I sent this one on to a new home!

Probably Lily the Prostitute from the Pretty Deadly series! http://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/pretty-deadly/lily-prostitute/ THANKYOU! I didn't know that's what the series was called? I'm still bewildered by the ammount of lines. This solves a couple of questions for me. I'm much oblidged!

Okay.. maybe this seems a mite dumb, but I have a frimp from a forumite and I'm not 100% sure what it is... it's a decant, labeled as "LILY" pretty deadly bpal 2014 something like that. Just lily- what is this most likely to be? I don't know of anything that's called that? That I know of? There are a lot of compond lily names...

Okay- some slight adjustments now that I've tested a little more.. 1- Viconte de Valmont (love how sharp and elegant this is, smells like a beautiful man on me) 2- Languor (the big dark opiate flowers that I didn't know that I wanted to smell like) 3- Count Dracula ( though Dracul is helping to ease the suffering of being unable to get bottles of this beauty, if only a little) 4- The Lady of Shalott (those huge white cold flowers, I love them) 5- Dragon's Blood (so far the other blends do not hold a candle to the straight up cheerful, bold warm original) I'm going through new scents every day, but curiosities like The Ghost and Loup Garou have been sneaking multiple wearings and Mr. Ibis and King Haggard may edge themselves into the top 5 soon.... Let me know if there's anything I should prioritize. I wonder if I'm showing any patterns yet... so far I know things that go to sweet/foody don't work on me. GC or unimpable only, please. Count Dracula broke my heart with his inaccessibility.

In the imp: Bitter, acrid, bright. Oily? What on earth is that? Wet: Pretty strong right off the bat. Weird note now- Lotion? Skin? Salt? Salty metal? Bitter and oily. Sweetness that isn't sugary or sweet. The oil is a little sticker and thicker than the others. Takes it's sweet time drying. The throw is pretty good. I keep getting wafts of it. Dry: Yeah this is a coppery smell. A dry, ashy sort of incense is there, almost dusty but I really have to huff my arm in order to get any of it. Starts to fade though. In Mechanism leaves an odd sour-bitter-sweet trace, almost powdery. The impression of Oil is pretty strong. Overall this is like licking a penny- or has that memory to me. Oily golden thing. Meh- I'll trade this. Too much of a bitter tang for me, though it's very interesting.

Wet: Something tingly that makes me want to sneeze. Then fruityness. Something like peach? Peach-bossom then? Fruit and floral are very close under the tingle. Too much of whatever the floral is- it's a squat, bulbous floral like jasmine with a bad hair day. I feel like this really needs something grounding in here. It ends up a little too sour too... Dry: Just not for me. Yeah, too sweet, too sour, too sweaty and pushy. Looking at the notes (pear?? really? huh.) I think Champagne might not be my thing. If you like Bon Vivant or maybe Lolita, you may like this (and vice versa, certainly).

Narcisse Noir sounds like Hunger. You'd want it aged to get the smoky incense effect. Thank-you! I'll be keeping an eye out for that then- hum! If anyone else has any ideas too, I'd be happy to hear them! Hunger was my first thought too! Extra feedback is good! Even more promising. As I have never smelled the original formula, I won't know for sure, but I'll share if I can find an aged one, and if it ends up at all similar. Hopefully it will do the trick...

Reporting back to ay that Dracul *IS* nice, and does work on me. It ends up smelling similar to Count Dracula but is missing some notes I think. They both go strong and spiced and snuggly on me, and both have woody notes though the one in Count Dracula is way more... gleaming? Warm? Weathered? In Dracul it's more forest-y. Dracul is missing the very slight leather note (to my nose) present in Count Dracula. Also the Count has a dead floral/dried flowers thing going on that's abscent in it's more rustic version. Some of the same clovey notes really shine though- I wonder if clove likes me, and that's part of what's going on? I still haven't discovered what works on me and what does not.

Narcisse Noir sounds like Hunger. You'd want it aged to get the smoky incense effect. Thank-you! I'll be keeping an eye out for that then- hum! If anyone else has any ideas too, I'd be happy to hear them!

Wet: I like the lavender I'm getting from this right away! It's the first thing that hits me! I've been looking forward to finally getting to try something with the Lab's lavender note, as I usually like lavender things quite a bit (heck I even cook with it sometimes). Ooh yeah this first note is lavender goodness! I think the Nag Champa comes out after that... less pleased. Surprised that I'm not pleased, but it's suddenly not coming off like something that I want on my skin- more like I've been rooting through a box of slightly musty incense. Nope nope nope, it's getting worse now, oh dear. Dry: Hooo boooy. Incense B.O. Not good. This went sour and unpleasant- too much Nag Champa for me maybe? Yeah there is something good and sort of smoky/woody here, but it's covered by the bad sour note in the foreground. Wet, sour- something didn't agree with my chemistry. Ends up straight Nag Champa with BAD SOUR stuff all over it, ack. Note- on somebody else!- On my mum, smelled like a lovely soft incense BLEND with maybe sandalwood and some fuzzy brown and gold and purple edges. She ended up with both little imps. She says she's not 100% in love, but she's pleased that it's the only one that doesn't seem to change day to day on her. Low or dark notes do well on her, whereas I seem to amp higher, sharper things- so maybe that will help someone trying to decide.