whoahorsey

I am here with all that I possess, Sir – A name, a patch of land and the will to make it yield. The least you can grant me is the courtesy of your time and the chance to prove it to you, and these fine gentlemen, that my will, dear Sir, is at the very least, as strong as yours. Amber, clove and leather takes shape through the scent of raw determination; a fortitude born of having nothing left to lose. In the background, guiac wood, white sandalwood, and myrrh forms the dust of long-forgotten aspirations and hope on the verge of being forever relinquished. Oooh, this is lovely. In the bottle, I smell nothing but leather and clove. Wet on skin: leather, leather, leather. I love the lab's leather note -- I will never stop kicking myself for selling my bottle of De Sade right before it was DC'ed. But some leathers can be a bit too sharp and masculine for me to actually use. As I applied to my skin and sniffed, I thought "Lovely scent, but far too manly for me. I'll pass this bottle along to my brother for his birthday next week." Drydown: Well, guess what? My brother is out of luck. lol When this oil dried and mellowed on my skin, it turned into lovely soft, warm leather and the sandalwood came out to play. The sharpness of the cloves mellowed out and gave it a warmth. It reminds me a bit of Dee, one of my favorites on the more manly spectrum. It's a little masculine, but not in an aftershave kind of way. It just smells like a refined library filled with leather-bound books and perhaps some sandalwood trinkets from far-away lands. Honestly, I don't get any amber from this at all, which is surprising, as my skin usually amps amber to the nth degree. This one's a keeper!

This reminds me so much of BBW Sun-Ripened Raspberry, and I'm not complaining a bit! That was my favorite lotion in my 20s, before I discovered indie companies, and this scent brings that time in my life back to me thanks to scent memory. This is gorgeous. I want a bottle! This smells like picking berries in a sunny field on a hot spring day in Texas.

I was so excited to try this because I thought it would be a tropical delight, but all I get is fabric softener sheets? I mean, nice enough in that really "clean" sort of way, but nothing that screams tropics to me. Sadness! I was so sure I would love this.

This smells sooooooo good, but it's so faint that I can only smell it if my nose is resting against my skin. As I'm a slatherer that likes to move about in a cloud of my perfume (don't worry, I work alone, not in an office, so I'm not bothering anyone), this just won't work for me. Sadness! It really does smell good, just needs more throw.

I skin-tested this randomly, without looking at the notes first, and my first thought was "this smells like Lucille Sharpe!" When I looked up the notes and saw the combination of red roses and black lilies, it suddenly made sense why I was reminded of Lucille Sharpe. This isn't quite as complex as Lucille Sharpe. It's missing the plum musk that darkens Lucille, *but* it's a passable dupe if you're running really low on your beloved bottle of Lucille Sharpe and don't want to sell a kidney to get another.

This was way heavier on the cinnamon than I was expecting. Wet, I get a hint of baked apples underneath a mountain of cinnamon. No strawberry cream to be found. It doesn't irritate my skin, luckily, so I guess I don't have a cinnamon sensitivity. I will say that the baked apple note is quite lovely. It doesn't go Yankee Candle on me at all the way most of the Lab's apple notes do. If you can get past the initial blast of cinnamon, this is quite lovely on the drydown.

This one reminds me a LOT of Uncle Brian from a few years back, one of my favorite candy/slushy/supersweet perfume oils! Love it! Brings back childhood memories of Fun Dip, slushies and microwave popcorn while watching movies with my parents.

Oh my goodness. I nearly passed up this bottle because I was scared of the sage and cedar, but I'm so glad I gave it a test. This is everything I wanted Jacob's Ladder to be, but JL went sharp and perfumey on me. This amber is darkened and grounded by the tobacco. It's warm and sultry and just a teensiest bit musky. It's truly gorgeous! I'm so happy I was able to score a bottle from a friend who said it was all pencil shavings to her. It's delicious on me! This is going to be a favorite.

Oh my, this is nice. It's light and subtle, but when I toss my hair, I get a cloud of vanilla and rice that is pure delight. I only got a decant of this, but this is definitely bottle worthy. Must buy more! I think this would pair well with Hungry Ghost Moon. Don't be scared of the iris root -- it's not prominent at all.

This is a huge blast of strawberry and I love it! The first few minutes are a little overpowering on the strawberry, but it swiftly mellows to something creamy and fluffy and sweet. If Round Dance and Stekk were mixed together, this is what I imagine it would smell like. This smells like an expensive milkshake from a gourmet ice cream shop. I need a backup! This may be my favorite strawberry perfume ever.

I was afraid the cedar would make this smell like hamster shavings, but I don't get much cedar at all (yay!). The iris is subtle too. I don't normally go for florals at all, but this isn't screechy. It's nice! The golden vanilla is a good balance to the iris. This is very sophisticated and classy. Very nice!

I agree with Jenjin's comparison to The Bride. It immediately reminded me of The Bride, but with jasmine. I hate jasmine, but this is a soft, fresh jasmine that reminds me of the wild star jasmine that grows on porches all over the south. The non-foody vanilla keeps it from being screechy like some jasmine is. I'm not a floral fan AT ALL, but I love this and am glad I gambled on it. It's bottle-worthy for sure! I couldn't stop sniffing my arm.

… The Master of Lightning’s ofrenda contains red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane. Soooo confused by all the reviews talking about how tropical and fruity it smells. On me, I swear it was red musk single note, although musk isn't even listed in the description. Red musk and I do not get along at all, so sadly, this went into the swap pile. Still searching for my perfect fruity scent.

This? http://www.bpal.org/topic/18255-pumpkin-patch-i-2005-2006/

True, I totally forgot that their mascot is the Eagle, probably since that never made any sense to me. ha ha ha Ravens are way smarter than eagles. They even use tools! But I digress... Doozers does sound pretty perfect for Hufflepuff.

Snake Oil or any of the Snake Pit would be an obvious choice for Slytherin! Or maybe Coiled Serpent or Serpent's Kiss? For Hufflepuff maybe either Badger or Badgers? Or how about "Against Idleness and Mischief"? ha ha For Ravenclaw there's Raven Moon, The Raven, Night Raven. Or you could rift on their studious nature with something like Scholar's Tower, or The Manuscript. I'm going for the low-hanging fruit with the really obvious name tie-ins. ha ha ha If you want to get more esoteric and less literal, I like a lot of the golden, amber-based scents for Gryffindor, like Lyoness or Bastet -- or hell, The Lion, which would be fitting both from an obvious name tie-in, and also the more abstract "feels golden" sense.

Musky blueberry! Sounds gross, smells divine. I can't stop huffing my wrist, and my kitten keeps rubbing her face on my wrist. ha ha Very unusual scent. I'll be wearing this a lot this spring/summer!

Smelling this instantly transported me to a place I once loved: Old Tibet on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado. I used to go there frequently to buy incense, prayer beads, Buddha statues, etc., and whatever is in this blend smells EXACTLY like the incense I used to buy there. I don't know if I really necessarily need to smell like incense, but this is a deeply nostalgic, comforting scent for me. I am going to wear it to bed so I can dream of idyllic summers in the Colorado mountains. Lovers of incense/resin blends, this is a must try.

Fae and Aglaea are my favorite GC summer scents. I also like The King's Daughter a lot. Anything light and fruity, especially with peach or melon. Summer is peach season in Texas, so anything with peaches reminds me of summer.

My experience with this oil seems to be different from everyone else's in this thread. I don't get any anise or ozone. To me, this smells like a more feminine version of Dorian, with more flowers. It's very lovely and heady.

Smoke and vanilla. Underpants on Fire. Double entendre fully intended. This is lovely. So dark and smoky and mysterious. I loves it. Need bottle.

Spring starts in February in Texas (you think I'm joking, but it's 85 degrees in Austin today ha ha), so I've been rocking my spring scents already. My favorite is Fae, but Dorian also gets a lot of wear in the spring, and now that I've tracked down more of The Hesperides, that will get a lot of wear, too. And The Fairy Thorn.

Oh my goodness, I love this. The peach wine is dominant. It actually reminds me of Arbor Mist Peach Chardonnay, which I drank in my early 20s because I didn't know any better. So it has pleasant associations for me, AND it smells deliciously peachy. The amber gives it a little sexiness and depth. It's Fae's older, sexier cousin, and I adore Fae. Rocking my Still Life with Peaches hair gloss at the moment, and it goes wonderfully with Aglea. This combo will be a go-to this summer during peach season here in Texas!

Unfortunately, this smells exactly like Irish Springs soap on me.

I'm from East Texas, and grew up with a magnolia tree in my front yard, as well as a mimosa tree, and honeysuckle, and some scents that remind me of sitting on the front porch at home in a humid Southern night: Lolita - It's a blast of citrus at first, but then the honeysuckle takes over, and really, really, really reminds me of southern nights with honeysuckle. Give Me Thy Breath, My Sister -- there's no honeysuckle or magnolia listed in the notes, but I swear that that's what I get from this oil! Or mimosa blossoms, maybe. And I love it, even though it makes me a little homesick.