Elspethdixon

In the imp - Apple and white musk, perfume-y and tart/fruity and unfortunately slightly reminiscent of cleaning products to me. Freshly applied - Once on my skin the amber comes out and it’s less cleaning product-y and more perfume-y. It's not so much a realistic apple and pear as it is fruit-tinged feminine perfume. Light and summery, like I hoped it would be from the notes, like a fluffy, sweet cloud around my wrist. Clean in a glade plug-in kind of way but less artificial. Awful on my hair, though - there, it keeps the cleaning product edge, similar to zankoku zen and joyfulgirl's pool cleaner description. Drydown - Sadly, after the first five minutes of so, "glade plug-in" starts to bully "youthful feminine perfume" out of the way, and by the twenty-minute mark, I'm wearing apple-scented swiffer wet wipes. Curse you, skin chemistry. Those brief few moments of innocent, light-and-fruity summer girliness were so tantalizing.

Coffee doesn't disappear on me, but it sometimes turns into a bitter stale-truck-stop-coffee note when ti hits my skin, so I avoid scents that are primarily coffee in favor of ones where it's a supporting note. My favorite coffee scent from Lilith's Travelogue was Gordian Hairmop, which is coffee and teak with vetiver, styrax, tobacco, and oakmoss. It starts out coffee-dominant and slowly morphs into a dark, cozy teak, and smells like a cozy morning in a nice hotel room to me. If I didn't have a skin allergy to oakmoss it would be bottle-worthy - as it is I bought two decants so I could wear it in my hair.

In the imp - cola-like labdanum and trees. Freshly applied - tingly-spicy-effervescent labdanum with hints of winter pine tree. A warm/leathery/smokey note from the birch tar comes in after a few moments or so as it starts to dry. The birch tar is stronger on my hair, the labdanum-cola on my skin. Masculine, like a very gently spiced aftershave. Half hour in - labdanum-cola, mostly. Very little morphing. Despite normally amping leather to the skies, I get basically none from this after the first few minutes - I was expecting a wintery forest/leather scent, and instead got tingly-effervescent coke (winter edition), like the cold weather fraternal twin of The Scroll's sweet summer coca-cola. If The Scroll is regular coke (sweeter and warmer because of the cinnamon/honey), Seventh Lash is Diet Coke (crisper and more refreshing). I like it, but I really only need one coca-cola scent and The Scroll already fills that slot in my collection.

Wet, it goes on a cool, woody cedar, and then a blast of salty/smoky/metallic gunpowder hits me. After a minute or so a hint of warm spices emerge and it becomes less like a wintery version of wooden bullet and more like a warm hunter's cabin full of woodsmoke. It reminds me a little bit of Haus of Gloi's Plotter's Beakfast, except richer and deeper. This, this I might need. It's a great gunpowder scent, not as harsh as Agnes Nutter or as skanky-sexy as Mommy Fortuna. Warmer and cozier/less polished than Wooden Bullet. I think this could be my "sexy rifleman" scent, for when I want to envision Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper snuggling (my presence sandwiched in the middle optional) around a campfire.

This scent is primarily a delicious gourmand tobacco with only a hint of gingerbread, mostly a whisper of gingerbread spices rather than the sticky, molasses-y scent I associate with gingerbread itself. The tobacco (dry/sweet/warm) is stronger in my hair, and the gingerbread more prominent on my skin (but even there, it's a full-bodied tobacco backed-up by gingerbread instead of the other way round). It's nice and cozy, but I have a lot of tobacco-heavy scents already so I don't know if I need a full bottle of this one.

In the imp/wet - fruity (but not too sweet), slightly-musky, with a hint of gingerbread - no sharp/strong spice On the drydown - mild, non-foodie gingerbread and fruity musk. The gingerbread and vetiver form a warm, humid base to ground the currant. Light and subtle. Like a piece of very lightly-flavored, only mildly spiced gingerbread topped with jam. The current is the strongest note here - this is definitely a fruity scent rather than a baked-goods scent.

I have no ideas myself, but I'd love to hear some. That and Bulletproof are/were two of my sister's favorites.

In the imp - sweet, cozy clove/ginger. The birch tar makes it lean closer to a masculine spice scent than a fall kitchen gourmand. I can already tell this is going to go "Halloween/fall section at Michaels" on me, though. Wet/freshly applied - clove-heavy masculine spice (birch tar is the best cozy manly skin note, hands down). In my hair, the birch tar and frankincense are stronger and it's less of a clove-fest. So far, my skin is not reacting to the spice notes. Half-hour in - cozy clove SN (and still no skin reactions to the spice). This is probably great on people who don't amp clove, but I do, so yeah. That said, it's a subdued, cozy clove rather than "Hi, I dumped the entire spice rack on my arm." I suspect this would be really nice on a guy.

For Rose Jam suggestions, you might want to check out the Rose Apologist Thread and this thread of rose recommendations. I've seen multiple people compare Hope from the Carnival Diabolique to Rose Jam (though you'd have to try and find a bottle via the sales/swap pages if you want just Hope on its own, because the Lab only sells it as part of a set with Faith), and The Best Lies from the American Gods line also struck me as similar. My favorite regular GC rose is Jezebel, but it's heavy on the orange blossom and sandalwood and not much like Rose Jam.

In the imp - sweet hay and strong clove. For a moment on first sniff I get all sweet/warm golden hay note, and then the clove hits. This is going to be a clove SN on me, I can already tell. Wet - all sweet clove, kept from being pure harsh spice by the sweetness from the hay note. (On my hair, it's clove and hay, on my skin it's all clove, all the time, but a sweeter, cuddlier clove than the clove-with-an-undertone-of-poison-smoke in Loki Lyesmith.) Dry - SN clove on my skin, fading hay-and-clove in my hair. Good throw - I can smell a cloud of it all around me without having to lift my wrist (or hair) to my nose. There's a hint of something almost rubbery when I put my nose directly to the skin of my wrist, but only a hint. Overall, this is basically a nice warm/slightly sweet clove single note for me. I don't think I need a bottle, but I'll keep the imp to layer with fall/winter scents that could use a shot of spice.

In the imp - a smooth, cozy base of cocoa-leather (more cocoa than leather) and a pool of clean/bracing gin. Gin always smells clean and sharp to me rather than boozy, I suppose because of the combo of the juniper + the fact that no one in my family drinks it. Wet/freshly applied - GIIIIIIN with a hint of cocoa. Bizarrely, this smells like a hot summer day by the pool to me. You know, that sharp, chemically chlorine smell (provided by the sharp/fizzy gin), combined with sun-warmed humid leather and cocoa-butter sun lotion. Ten-twenty minutes in - This has a ton of throw, especially the gin top note, which I'm basically surrounded by a cloud of. Close to my wrist I get a hint of cocoa/leather-ish skin scent (leaning more towards cocoa than leather, which is surprising considering that my skin usually eats chocolate and amps leather to the skies), but mostly it's all cool-sharp gin. If you want to smell like a chocolate martini (light on the chocolate) being drunk poolside on a hot summer night, this is your scent. Too bad the cocoa-leather base is so overwhelmed by the gin, because it's actually really sexy. 1-2 hours in - Now that the cloud of gin fumes has faded back a little, the cocoa-leather skin scent is easier to detect, reminiscent of the cocoa-leather in Joy of My Spirit but with gin instead of pine and without the hazelnut. I would wear the snuggly warm/humid cocoa with a bit of leather base scent forever if the top note weren't a nuclear mushroom cloud of spilled gin. but I'm not completely sure if the enormous puddle of spilled gin has actually faded back at all, or if I've just gone nose-blind to it. It's actually started to give me a bit of a headache, and I'm contemplating scrubbing this off even though objectively it smells pretty good.

I second Donkehpoo's rec for The Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, which is a cozy, sweet floral-tinged vanilla. Other faves of mine include: Antikythera Mechanism - wonderful dry, warm, tobacco-wood scent with a hint of vanilla. It's a fan favorite for a reason, and I've gone through two bottles of it. Jezebel - my hands-down favorite rose scent, a rich, velvety, lush orange blossom/rose/honey/sandalwood combo. It goes on smelling an awful lot like orange juice, but don't be put off by that; once it's been on your skin for a few minutes the rose and sandalwood start coming forward beautifully. I'm picky about rose scents because rose can sometimes smell soapy on my, but Jezebel is perfection. (Example: This spring, when the Lupercalia Dozen Roses LEs came out, I tested decants of eight of them... and bought more Jezebel instead.) Black Pearl - A light, sheer coconut/hazelnut/orris scent that's cool and feminine (despite being non-floral) and perfect for summer. I'm on my second bottle of this one, too (partly because I wear it a lot during the summer, and partly because it's a very light scent I have to slather on). Tombstone - Another longtime fave I've gone through multiple bottles of. I second pretty much everything GlassKoala said about it.

In the imp - soft, sweet/light, sweet pea with a hint of sage giving it a slight green/vegetal quality. Very girly and fresh/innocent.. This isn't a fairy queen; it's one of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies. Pictured: Aeval in the bottle. Wet/freshly applied - sweet pea dominant, like Mouse's Long & sad Tale without the vanilla & sandalwood. After a moment or so it starts to go soapy. Nooo, you were so good on the little imp wand. On my hair, it basically disappears. Five-ten minutes in - Freshly scrubbed skin musk/hint of soap. We started out flower fairies. We are now a vintage soap ad. This is an extremely light scent, with very little throw. The drydown has only just started and it's already in nose-to-wrist territory. Pictured: Aeval on my skin. Half hour in - Soap, maybe nice sunblock, clean skin musk. Freshly-scrubbed skin if you were naturally sweet-smelling. Totally gone from my hair. By the time an hour and a half have gone by, all traces of Aeval have completely disappeared. This is a short-lived, ethereal fairy.

In the imp - Sakura & a hint of neroli over a cedar base. Almost syrupy without being cloying. Wet/freshly applied - Gentle cedar with wisps of soft florals floating above it. Shunga-like, as I expected. Five-ten minutes in - The cedar has receded, blended seamlessly in to the florals, and the syrupy-sweet aspect is gone, too, leaving a soft/powdery floral that edges close to soapiness (don't turn into soap, please don't). Light, with low throw (only about an inch or so). I'm getting much more sakura & peach blossom than neroli (there's not even a hint of citrus bite - smelling this blind I'd never guess neroli was in it, and after the first few minutes I'd struggle to pinpoint cedar). I ran the wand from the imp through my hair as well, and on said hair, with skin chemistry removed from the equation, it's a completely different scent, cedar dominant with a hint of syrupy peach and some very faint hazy frankincense incense, maybe a slight touch of floral. Is there such a thing as girly cedar? If so, this is it. Half hour in - Soft peach blossom & clean skin musk, maybe with a hint of cedar, but only if I'm looking for it. On my hair, it's a faint cedar-peach combo that smells almost like baked goods.

Volcano in Springtime was entirely vanilla cream and sandalwood on me, no floral notes, but I enthusiastically second Cave of Treasures and The Bride. This is a lab discussion thread, not a post thread, but I'll add that Three Couples HG from this year's Lupers is an amazing gently-spiced fig & orange blossom that pairs beautifully with spicy florientals and that I'd kill to have in perfume oil form.

In imp - Warm, almost candy-sweet vanilla-cedar. Wet/freshly applied - Creamy, almost musky haze of vanilla-cedar/wood. The cedar is more of a creamy warmth than any distinctive cedar scent. This is amazing! A glorious your-skin-but-better scent. Five-ten minutes in - A soft haze of sheer, creamy vanilla-myrrh-wood, cozy and delicious (it's the soft, powdery kind of myrrh rather than the gritty, resinous kind). I need to death-match this with Small Brown Cat. One hour in - Inez is a non-morpher. Still creamy, warm vanilla-cedar, so well blended that I can't pick out the separate notes. Late drydown - goddamn glorious. Best Grindhouse lady ever, hands-down. Like the late drydown of Tombstone with it's glowing vanilla-cedar only better. Earlier in the drydown I could get a hint of spiced incense (the myrrh + cinnamon-clove-y carnation) when I put my nose right to the skin of my wrist. Now it's just a soft, powdery, vanilliac cedar-myrrh.

Retesting my decant of Aeronwen now that it's got some age on it. Originally, it was a tangy herbal-citrus, but let's see what a year on the shelf has done with it. In imp - rich, velvety brown scent from the fig and black musk/myth Wet/freshly applied - Predominantly fig and cedar, but then a sort of bronze-colored herbal tang comes forward. This is really well blended; I can't really pick out individual notes (letting your decants age for a year clearly benefits them). I get a hint of freshness and just a bit of citrus from the orange, but unlike the usual amped-up dishwashing liquid/Citraclean orange often turns into on my skin, it's just a subtle breath. This is a rich, slightly-earthy herb garden scent, but with that velvety undertone from the fig/musk/amber. Five-ten minutes in - rich, bright, fruity fig, velvety and slightly humid, slightly earthy/woody and slightly herbal and not like any of my other fig or amber/musk perfumes. If A Measurement of the Soul is my cold-weather fig and Amacitia is my nostalgic California desert/spa fig, this is a summer fig. Fifteen minutes in - the amber/orange has started to go creamy, like the slight creamsicle undertone in Titus Andronicus. (On my hair, it's a rich, sweet cedar incense that's almost Christmas-y, possibly from the fig&orange + myrrh& amber, but on the other hand also like the wooden/uninsulated attic of the old house I grew up in in the summer, thanks to the cedar and warm, humid fruit) One hour in - cedar and bronze musk with a hint/edge of something tangy. It makes me think of a sheet of iridescent bronze silk with green or orange highlights depending on which way the light hits it. Late drydown (like, 4 hours in) - faint cedar skin scent, and now that the top/middle notes are gone, I can pick up a powdery skin-musk-like hint of myrrh, as well. I'm definitely a fan. Aeronwen was nice but not bottle-worthy when I cracked open a brand-new decant back in 2017. Now it's smoothed out into a beautifully blended velvety bronze amber/musk with just a hint of fresh herbs and rich, earthy fruit (from the sweet orange and fig). I think I'm in love. This may be my second/third-favorite out of the Grindhouse Ladies so far, surpassed only by Inez.

Wet/in the imp - Light/sweet anise (but more a floral/perfume-y sweet than a licorice candy sweet) Freshly Applied - sickly-sweet anise liquor and a hint of hazy opium smoke. Heady and slightly overwhelming (and also not very floral)... except no, wait for it... there, at about the two-three minute mark, comes the fusty waft of indolic florals. Hello, wet stage of lilac. Fifteen-twenty minutes in - Cool anise/absinthe, heady opium smoke, and a hint of fusty white floral that hasn't gone away. The throw is nice - cool anise with a hint of rosewater - but nearer to the skin it's all cloying and too-thick and the fusty hint of white floral lurks around the edges like maybe someone in the absinthe tent has stale, bad breath. On my hair, it's a cool, somnolent scent with a hint of alcohol that makes me think of an upscale nail salon. The Green Fairy likes to get pedicures and have her nails done. And the absinthe tent seriously needs a good airing out. Drydown - Around the 1 hour mark, it started to fade and turn soapy - I guess they kicked the drunks out and are scrubbing the tent down. The absinthe+nail salon scent stayed on my hair for the next eight-ten hours, btw, ages after it vanished from my skin. Don't put this one in your hair, folks.

Testing this at the same time as Mad Sweeney, because they both have a whiskey note and are thematically linked. In the imp - Pretty much straight whiskey, but a little softer/more perfume-y than Mad Sweeney and not as sharp. This still smells like alcohol, but not as overwhelmingly. Freshly Applied - whisky and honeyed skin musk. Cozy-sexy, like a really nice manly cologne on your boyfriend's collar. (BTW, the combined throw from both this and Mad Sweeney, which I'm testing on my other arm, plus the leftover dregs of the Saw Scaled Viper I put on eight hours ago? Total bananas foster territory. I'm surrounded by a cloud of caramelized sugar and dark rum/rum caramel sauce). Fifteen Minutes in - as it dries it’s gotten softer and less masculine. This is clearly the sort of honey note that goes powdery, because I’m getting baby powder and skin musk, with amber and whiskey. I’m not picking up any sweat or blood at all, unless Leprechauns sweat vintage perfume nitromusks and bleed honey/dark-unsweetened-caramel laced with whiskey. Which they actually might, come to think of it. Actually, the smell reminds me a little of the new Starbucks ultra-caramel frappuccino’s dark caramel flavoring, overlaid by perfume musk. (Combined throw of this plus Mad Sweeney now smells like manly whiskey-laced dessert topping. Like sticky toffee pudding soaked in whiskey.) Half-hour in - The sweat and blood notes have gone all perfume-y synthetic musk with an edge of dryer sheets. A shame, because the opening stage was so good. 1 Hour +/Drydown - the honey/mead did its best to turn the whole scent into baby powder and the sweaty musk wanted to morph to dryer sheets, but they don't quite succeed. For The Joy of It gets less sweet and less powdery over time, and by the time we're well into the drydown it's like the manlier version of that Luper from this year that was all wood and sweetened musk, except that was softer/hazier and sweeter than this (a quick check of my perfume notes from this spring tells me I'm thinking of Novel Ideas for Secret Amusements).

Mad Sweeney starts out utterly awful, but dries down into something truly delicious. In the imp - Strong, sweet whiskey. Smells a little bit like bananas foster and a lot like alcohol. I can literally feel the fumes in the back of my throat. Freshly Applied- whiskey mixed with nail polish remover. Does Mad Sweeney drink rubbing alcohol? Fifteen Minutes in - rich, deep whiskey and oak. Starting to smell good now that the rubbing alcohol topnote has burned off. Several inches of throw. I probably smell like a distillery. Or a Jack Daniels commercial. Half-hour in - A rich, manly aftershave that's what an imaginary cis-male me would smell like if I grew a beard and wore a rugged brown leather bomber's jacket and got a job doing manly carpentry and woodworking. In my manly barn/wooden airplane hanger built with oak beams and filled with leather flying apparel and chewing tobacco and rich, seasoned wood and toasted sawdust. Where I burn pretend-whiskey-and-mahogany/teak-scented candles. (Over the course of the first half-hour, this has gradually morphed from almost entirely booze with a faint hint of oak to being oak dominant, but a richer/thicker and less-dry oak than Antikythera Mechanism.) By forty minutes in it smells divine, like the sexiest wood-paneled sauna ever, if someone threw a shot of good whiskey onto the hot rocks to hear it sizzle. Amazing. I’m seriously considering a bottle. I want to try layering this with Bulgarian Tobacco SN.

Wet - MIIIINT. The vanilla and sugar/mallow root make it a soft, buttery/creamy mint, like those pastel-colored buttermints they used to serve at the end of the meal in restaurants, but I'm really sensitive to the taste/smell of mint (to the point that most toothpaste feels like it's burning the inside of my mouth) so it's still too much mint for me. Like a pastel-colored buttermint that's punching you in the face. Five minutes in - Minty mint mint mint. It's a soft, sweet, complex mint, with hints of other notes underneath it, but mostly all I can make out is mint. Ten minutes in - by ten minutes in the initial blast of nose-searing mint has calmed down slightly, and I can make out a haze of pale rose and what feels like white musk but is probably the spun sugar surrounding/accompanying the mint. The pastel buttermints are now being served on a white-linen-covered tray with a vase full of pink and white roses. That, or Alisz is sucking on a buttermint after spraying herself with rosewater. Close to my skin it's more minty, but the throw has a hint of frankincense now. Thirty minutes in - The mint has softened down a great deal as the frankincense has come forward, turning Alisz into a cool, wispy candied rose. I actually really like it now, but I'd like it better if it had just skipped the inclusion of mint entirely. 1-2 Hours in - Alisz has morphed from nose-searing mint to a lovely, cool, soft, hazy vanilla-rose where the frankincense and mint blend seamlessly in. I can't even detect the mint anymore, it's just making the rest of the blend smell light and cool. Is this how scents like Snow White smell to people who aren't super-oversensitive to menthol?

2017 version. I have high hopes for this blend, because the bottle art makes Ashlultum look like a sexy orc lady. Wet/in imp - light (but fuzzy-warm) almost sunblock-y vanilla-tobacco-coconut-musk. Not very floral. Sweet without going full-blown gourmand. Freshly Applied - still toasty-sweet sunblock, but now with a hint of fustiness once it hits my skin. Hello, indolic elements in lilac. I otherwise get no hints of floral, but the indole is definitely there. It's fading quickly, though, pretty much gone by five minutes in. Ten-fifteen minutes in - warm, toasty tobacco-coconut-vanilla. This is very well-blended, with none of the individual notes dominating. I get approximately zero tea, and only the barest hint of something floral, less like lilac and more like the coconut is accompanied by a hint of monoi oil. When I hold my arm out away from my face, I can get just a hint of coconut-lilac, but up close it's all a soft, slightly-grainy (the way tobacco sometimes is) warm scent that makes me think of warm, golden sand. If this is Sargon's warprize-turned-queen, she likes to slather on tobacco-vanilla-monoi oil and sunbathe wholesomely on one of the palace terraces. Possibly on a beach chair, while wearing a giant, floppy sun hat. Half-hour in - The throw is light and somehow summer-y (sexy orc lady is still wearing a floppy straw sun hat), despite the warm richness of the tonka/tobacco, while putting my nose to my skin gets me gentle, sun-warmed golden tonka with a hint of velvety tobacco. I can't tell how strong it is or how much sillage it has overall because the L'Heure Vert I'm testing on my other arm is drowning it out. 2 hours in - Starting to fade into a soft skin scent by hour two, but still a warm, lazing-in-the-sunlight golden scent. Just a much fainter version.

Wet/in imp - cinnamon-skin musk scent (ambrette usually = a sexy, slightly sweaty musk on me) with an astringent edge that's almost like juniper (the calamus?) Freshly applied - masculine aftershave, clean, spicy, and bracing/medicinal. I can definitely recognize the calamus from the Post's Patientia Bath Oil. Makes my skin tingle where applied. Fifteen-twenty minutes - Patientia's warmer, cozier, less clean/green-scented cousin. My wrist is still tingling/stinging, but there's no redness. 1 hour in - Relatively little morphing (still warm, cozy myrrh and skin musk with a little bit of a manly aftershave-esque tang), but it's gotten softer and closer to the skin. 3 hours in - Magician's Hands has melded into a soft, unisex skin scent/skin musk, with a bit of an outdoorsy/leathery/manly tang. This smells like there's sandalwood in it even though there isn't. Despite containing cinnamon and myrrh, it's nothing like the Scroll or Chimera - the ambrette and calamus are dominant.

Wet/in imp - cool, sweet spiciness that's almost like root beer or coca-cola or ginger-ale. Seriously, this smells like an artisanal soda made with real cane sugar. Freshly applied - rootbeer/cola/cream soda. Seriously, I cannot believe how much this smells like something out of a fancy soda fountain. No burning effect from the cinnamon (yet?). Fifteen-twenty minutes- nose-tingling rootbeer/ginger-ale/cola OMG this is so weird. I really like it - it's cooling rather than warm like cinnamon usually is, a perfect summer boardwalk scent. The cinnamon's failed to burn/sting on my skin thus far, so I think I can rule this one safe for my skin. 1 hour in - The scent has faded back slightly and lost some of that epic fizzy tingle, but it's still a unique tingly, spicy-cool scent. 3 hours in - has faded to a soft, close-to-the-skin fizzy scent. Less like soda now and more like a soft, powdery-haze-y fluff with a bit of tingle. I can't distinguish any of the notes clearly, except for the soft, powdery effect that's likely due to myrrh's drydown.

Clean, soft, inoffensive office scent. Which sound like damning with faint praise but actually isn't - there aren't many "clean" scents I can wear without smelling like detergent (curse you, aquatic notes) or dish soap (citrus oils hate me), so having an unobtrusive office-friendly scent that isn't floral or vanilla to add to my weekday rotation will be nice. There's a slightly funky aspect to it in the wet stage, but it very quickly settles down into a light clean/spa-like skin scent, slightly herbal and sweetened just a bit by a soft/light amber. The juniper in this is indeed sheer, adding a hint of extra clean/freshness to the sage rather than making you smell like gin. I was expecting this scent to be similar to L'Idole, the other amber/juniper scent I've got, but there's barely any resemblance - it's not nearly as sharp or strong as L'Idole. Low throw (which is good for an office scent, though) and shortish wear length. By hour two it's all but gone, just a nose-to-the-skin hint of it left. In my hair, there's a slight smoky hint that doesn't show up on my skin - possibly this is due to the copal? I haven't worn many scents that include that note, my usual go-to incense note is frankincense.