hipslike___cinderella

A huge bouquet of squished rose petals: Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose… …and just an itty bitty bit of green grass. I think at this point my review is redundant, but I'll throw it in anyways! HOLY ROSES! This is strong, gorgeous, almost mouthwatering. Not your gramma's roses. Sweet, fresh, and dewy. Baby roses, barely ripe. This bodies out strongly when you wear it, and is just the right temperament. Never goes powdery, and the tiny peeks of green grass make me so happy. I. Love. This. And so does my boy. A 5ml is essential.

Try as I might, I just can't picture darkness with this oil... just greyness. Upon first sniff, it's light and sad. Narcissus is the biggest scent. Wearing it, opium, and more opium, comes through. I think every now and then I get the hint of myrrh, but it's so light, maybe I'm imagining it. The opium and floral notes balance for quite awhile, but eventually floral takes over. Luckily it didn't get soapy on me. I imagine a sad bouquet of white flowers peering through thick opium smoke. I wish this was less floral, BUT- as far as florals go, this is a good one. I think I'll experiment with more opium scents before deciding on this one.

For me, orange blossom and ginger are the dominant notes. This one smells sweet and light in the vial, definitely orange blossom, and I can smell the hint of ginger. Once it wears on me the ginger warms up, and for awhile patchouli comes out and balances it. Over time orange blossom comes back as the dominant note. So pretty! Sweet and spicy. I really love this one, as I have a soft spot for ginger. It's sweeter than I expected; I was thinking this would be sexy and maybe a little sinister, but this smells just happy on me. I wouldn't mind a big bottle of this.

Straight from the vial, this is PUH-CHOO-LI. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Thick and sluggish. This IS evil smelling. Once it's on my skin, the vetiver jumps out and chokes me. It reminds me of burning dirt... like a forest in Hell. That's really all there is; this one stays strong FOREVER... even a shower didn't wash off where I had applied it. That being said, I actually love this one. I'm a scent thrill-seeker and this one is full of character and dirtiness. Not for the faint of heart.

Oh, crap! This is my first review of a "oh, no no no" scent. First of all, let me say I picked this solely for my guy, because he loves HP Lovecraft. This was before I was a forum member, and was only going by the mysterious Lab description. This was very, very wet. Sticky wet. And I was surprised by the sour fruit note. Definitely fruit. On my skin it got worse... fruit, mostly close to grapefruit, and some floral hints I can't pin down. It seems like my chemistry fights with this blend, and my body is trying to bring out a stale department store cologne/perfume note. Further down the road, R'lyeh starts to smell more and more artificial. After about 30 minutes I had to wash it off because I was getting a headache (I promise, I don't usually get this bothered by oils). I don't want to be anywhere near this, ever again. In summary... I didn't find this to be a "hellishly dark aquatic scent" at all. Strong and screaming aquatic, but sour and citrusy, with barely a whisper of herbal hint. So I guess it's not dark, but Yikes! It is vengeful. Let it be known that I really do not like fruity at all, and I'm having a hard time with aquatic scents (although I am still trying to find one I might like!). Neither of us liked this one... BUT the imp found a new home with my mother, and she even asked for 5 ml for her birthday! To each his own.

Wet and in the bottle, this is a soft mix of greens... mostly jasmine and neroli, and just a speck of vetiver. On my skin, it's exactally the same with slight hints of incense; not dark or cloudy incense, but light and springy. This doesn't change too much after a while, except that the neroli becomes stronger. It fades gently and becomes a little bit powdery. This is pleasant, especially as a room scent. I don't really picture the Catepillar with this; I hoped it to be darker, mustier, and more forest-like. Unfortunately, I don't smell the least bit of patchouli. My boyfriend loves this on me, but I'm afraid I won't spring for the 5ml after my imp is gone.

This is just heavenly to me in the bottle... darkly red, sexy but forboding. Strong red patchouli, darkened with myrrh, and a touch of ylang ylang. It's just as wonderful right when applied, but fast as can be the ylang ylang bursts out- STRONG. It stays warm and sexy, for awhile... by the time it's totally dry, it's pure ylang ylang with a touch of myrrh. I never do detect the clove, which makes me sad. Worst of all, ylang ylang does this burnt-out and poof thing on my skin... it overwhelms me, and then completely turns powdery. Such a shame! This is so perfect when wet. Curses on my chemistry.

This is sweet bright cherries from the vial, with just a hint of flowers in the background. When I first applied it, the cherry began receding into the background, and very clean, linen-like lilies appeared. By the time it was dry, cherry was all gone, and it was just lilies. This one is moderately strong, very feminine, and very "adult" without being "old lady". Sophisticated. I'll use up my imp, but it's not exactally my thing. I like it on days when I want to feel like a lady.

This one is mint, mint, mint in the bottle. Icy, sugary, mouthwatering. White mint, not green mint. At first on my skin, it was all the same; plus it started a big cooling action on my skin. It stayed strong, sweet minty for quite a long time. When it started to dry, eventually the neroli came out first, but still very sweet. Now the weird part is the cooling feeling seemed to even intensify as it dried (maybe because I'm a slatherer and used too much? ). It took a little while for violet to show through, but it was beautiful. This one has staying power on me, and morphs slowly. In the end, it is all sweet violets and neroli, no mint. I love this oil. It makes me just so happy, and reminds me of these toys I had when I was little... Strawberry Shortcakes friend? She had purple hair and smelled like flowers? Am I crazy, or did that doll exist? At any rate... I need more than just an imp of this.

Straight from the vial, this is very cedar... but my nose SWEARS to me it's wintergreen. It's a clean, crisp, clear white cedar/wintergreen smell, like the peak of a mountain. It's also medicinal to me; in fact, especially the very first time I opened it, it smelled precisely like a tattoo parlor to me. Which I didn't mind. Wet on the skin, it's mostly the same wintergreen-cedar scent, except the lotus peaks through, just a tiny bit. Once dried, it only changes slightly, to add some spicy notes. I never got the sandalwood; but then again, sandalwood seems to have a difficult time showing up on my skin. Unfortunately, this pretty perfume fades fast. After 2 hours it had disappeared, practically without a trace. Shame shame. I'll enjoy my imp but I'll move on.

Straight from the bottle, lavender is really the dominating scent. It's not a floral springtime lavender, but a musky lavender.... like a bouquet in a headshop. Wet on my skin it was mostly the same, but the scent swelled beautifully to be just a tiny bit more floral, but still in the musky way... is that labdanum, maybe? Upon drydown, the scent recedes quite a bit to a soft and very warm lavender and nag champa mix, with just a tiny hint of sandalwood. I never got the whispers of tobacco smoke, though I wish I did. Overall, this is a wonderful, warm, pleasant scent. Some say it's masculine, but I find it quite feminine. I actually am not a lavender fan by any stretch, and it's the nag champa note that made me order an imp, and I'm glad I did. This is a nice day to day perfume, not loud or intrusive. I do secretly wish it stayed as warm, strong and husky as it did before drydown.