Elspethdixon

Wonderful wood/resin/frankincense combo (LizziesLuck is right; this is far more than just an echo of frankincense). The palo santo and sage are strongest in the wet stage, and make the initial opening very soothing and clarifying, almost like a spa scent (if your spa was located inside an incense-filled cathedral) and then it dries down to a soft, warm resin/incense smoke/wood. I'd say it's sweeter than Antikythera Mechanism (without being any less unisex/potentially masculine) and warmer/less sharp & dry, possibly the difference between ail Matto's sandalwood and AM's oak. This scent is so soothing/relaxing/grounding that it feels like it should be a TAL or a meditation aid, especially in the early drydown where the sage/frank/palo santo notes predominate. I'm going to be adding this to my bedtime scent lineup.

I amp almond to the skies, so despite milk, honey, and fig being some of my favorite notes, I was sadly expecting Narr to be a too-sweet almond extract SN (like Eden, where I was hoping for fig+coconut with a hint of almond and got almond+almond with a hint of almond). I can happily report that I was mostly wrong. This is the rare almond-including blend where the almond behaves itself and shares the spotlight... eventually. Wet/in the imp: Milky honey and almaretto Freshly applied: Pure almond extract. The devil's confectionery flavoring strikes again. Drydown: After the initial almond-extract/amaretto blast, Narr dries down into a slightly-fruity honeycake scent that's not as sweet as I expected it to be. The almond reigns supreme for at least the first twenty minutes, but then begins to gradually morph from almondy-almond almond cake into honeycake. The fig and ambrette give it a depth/warmth/richness that keeps the cake and honey combo from tipping over into cloying. If Dana O'Shee and Sharing of the Cake Between the Lion and the Unicorn HG had a threesome with Cockaigne, their cake-scented gourmand lovechild might smell like Narr.* *Actually, those three scents layered together are more cloying and sticky-sweet than Narr. I know this because after my pleasant cake-triumphs-over-almond surprise with Narr, I got all three out of my cabinet and tried it for comparison.

Delicious Tobacco/Amber/Vanilla surrounded by wisps of spiced incense. I know vanilla + labdanum is practically the definitive amber base blend, but something about the labdanum/tobacco combo (and possibly the fact that it's "fossilized amber resin" instead of just amber) reads as warm, dry incense smoke to me.

In Imp/wet - Pale floral. musk, powdery violet, and lilac, with maybe a hint of citrus. This smells like the kind of floral that goes bad on me. Freshly Applied - white floral mustiness Five-ten minutes in - soft, airy, pale floral that reminds me slightly of a softer Warbler on the Plum without the tea note. Apparently this IS the kind of floral that works on me after all. Half-hour in - soft, slightly powdery floral that's gotten noticeably softer just in the past fifteen minutes. This is well blended - I can't pick out any specific note at this point, just a soft, springlike sweet scent. This is very much a skin scent. Only a half-hour in, and I already have to put my nose right to the skin of my wrist in order to smell it. So far I it, not enough to need a bottle, but definitely enough to keep and wear the imp for early/mid-spring days.

In Imp/wet - citrusy white tea and sweet lilac Freshly Applied - sour/tangy/fresh white tea with a hint of lilac. I amp white tea to the skies and it always smells like citrus on me. This smells almost like something you'd drink, a citrus-y floral thing like very sharp lemonade with flower petals in it.. Ten-fifteen minutes in - sweet, floral lilac and sharp, citrusy white tea, with the tea note dominating. I can't really smell much candlewax, it's just sort of making the lilac sweeter. Half-hour in - The white tea is still dominant, but a soft cloud of sweet lilac is easily detectable underneath. The throw has more lilac, and right next to my skin it's all white tea. By the time I'm one-two hours in, Eusapia has become a well-blended sweet-sharp floral with a hint of candy-like creaminess from the beeswax. I don't know that I need a bottle, but I'll definitely keep my decant to wear this spring.

Usually I test rose + sandalwood scents by deathmatching them against Jezebel, but I don't have any Jezebel imps around at the moment so I'm going to have to do this blind. In the imp/wet - perfume-y (must be the benzoin), light, dry, sweet. The rose isn't very strong. Freshly applied - the rose pops out as soon as it hits my skin. Rose/sandalwood is a good combo on me in Jezebel, where it's lush and velvety. This is a lighter rose than that, with just a hint of sour/soap (the cold cream comparison upthread is sadly apt). I'm afraid it might be The Bad Rose. That, or the benzoin isn't sweet enough to make it good on me. Fifteen minutes in - The benzoin and sandalwood are lovely, but the rose is just a little too sour. It's the flip side of The Best Lies, which was just too sweet; this one isn't quite sweet enough. Three hours in - BPAL has three rose notes as far as my skin chemistry is concerned: The Good Rose, The Bad Rose, and Fancy Scented Soap. The rose in Joy and Fear can't decide which of them it wants to be. It starts out thin, sour, and slightly soapy, spends a long time pretending to be rose-scented cold cream, and then, several hours into the drydown, gradually morphs into a warm, soft rose-sandalwood skin scent that I actually really like. Too bad it takes half a workday to get there. Not the worst rose skin chemistry fail I've experienced by far, but probably not for me.

In the imp, Orion smells like dry, warm fig-leather-wood, with a hint of what smells almost like brown sugar. On my skin, it's a warm and cozy scent, more leather-black pepper-cedar than fig, though the fig and tobacco are probably what's giving it a rich/warm sweetness (that almost gourmand brown sugarish note). The leather blends in nicely and doesn't take over. I love it already. By the half-hour mark, it's settled into a warm, cozy-humid leather-spice-wood-sweetness scent. It reminds me of Pleasure of the Imagination III, even though the only note they share is leather.

Jezebel is a velvety, full-bodied rose that isn't at all green on me, but the orange blossom note in it is very strong - the wet stage in particular smells like I poured a glass of orange juice on my arm.

The moment I saw brown sugar + birch tar, I knew I needed to try this. Wulric from the Carnival has birch tar and is one of my cozy bedtime faves. In imp/wet - brown sugar, wood, and smoke. I like it already. Freshly applied - warm, slightly-smokey tobacco/wood, with hints of sweet brown sugar. Like a lighter/less smokey sibling of Smokestack. Very close to the skin and snuggly. Ten-fifteen minutes in - snuggly wood/skin musk/hint of smoke skin scent, all warm resin-y tobacco and coziness. Like Smokestack and Buffalo Man had a baby. Two hours in - This is pretty much a non-morpher and stays a cozy warm tobacco/resin skin scent with a hint of smoke through its wear time. This is tied with Measurement of the Soul as my fave Yule so far. It's almost gone by the two hour mark unless I put my nose directly to my skin, but that just means I'll have to buy a bottle and slather it.

2017 edition: In the imp, it's light, sweet, and fruity. For a few minutes after I put it on, the mead/sima note does that musty/fusty thing blends with honey notes sometimes do on my skin during the wet stage, but after about ten minutes that's gone away and I get effervescent mead and a hint of fruity prunes. This smells like a nice, fizzy LUSH bath bomb with a milk and honey/plum pudding theme.

In imp/wet - perfumey-soapy wood, like freshly polished furniture (Edit: after I wrote this impression down, I re-checked the notes, and ha, what I remembered as mahogany, vanilla, oak, and tea is in fact "<I>polished</I> mahogany," vanilla, oak, and tea). Freshly Applied - perfumey tea with a hint of dry wood underneath (this smells like the same oak from Antikythera Mechanism). Mahogany always goes sort of hazy and musky on me, and it's doing so here, making this tea + unisex musk. Five-Ten Minutes In - the perfume-y mahogany musk has completely tamed the tea, to my pleasant surprise. This smells like a unisex wood/musk perfume now, and actually reminds me a little of a fancier/more complex version of Bath&BodyWork's Mahogany and Teak scented candles, except without the overwhelming cheap-synthetic-musk-chemical fakeness those candles have (so, basically, B&BW Teak & Mahogany scent if it were actually good). I only applied it lightly to my wrists, but there's a good two-three inches of throw. Lets see how long it hangs around for. Half-hour in - Same as five-ten minutes but slightly lighter. One hour in - Ditto. This is pretty much a non-morpher after the first fifteen-or-so minutes. I can still catch a remnant of the scent on my skin at this point, six hours or so after application, so this has a decent wear time (for my oil-eating skin, anyway) as well.

In imp/wet - fruity fig and herbal sage, spa-like and non-sweet. Not the epic glory of Amicitia, but no fig/sage combo could ever equal that one. Freshly applied - why hello lemony white tea, there you are. (I can still detect the other notes if I concentrate, but not easily). I smell like I applied White Tea and Sage Hair Gloss to the inside of my wrists. Five-ten minutes in: The initial blast of white tea has died down and the fig and cedar base has come forward again. Now it's equal parts fig&cedar and whitetea& sage. Like what I get when I wear both the Fig & Sandalwood and White Tea & Sage HGs layered together as a body spray, but without the insane throw doing that that produces. If it stays like this, I think I might need a bottle so I don't have to do that anymore. One hour in - It's gradually morphed from a white-tea-and-sage dominant scent to a fig-and-cedar dominant (with fig in the starring role), but with a hint of the tea and herbal sage keeping it from being as sweet and full-bodied-fruity as the F&WS HG. This is the closest thing to a straight-up perfume oil dupe of that HG I've encountered yet, and I love it. Overall impression: I hoped for an Amicitia scent-twin. I got Fig & White Sandalwood HG and White Tea & Sage HG's perfume oil love child, which is a more-than-acceptable alternative. Like DrKate, I've been searching for a perfume scent-twin for Fig & White Sandalwood HG for ages, and I think A Measurement of the Soul is it.

Can I get anyone's opinions on Hanerot Halalu? I passed up getting a decant of it last month because I already have Flickering Lanterns and Light of Men's Lives to satisfy my beeswax needs, but now that it's actually Hanukkah I'm having non-buyer's remorse.

I amp leather, particularly black leather, and Nobodies Watching Wrestling was beautifully balanced between leather and strawberry jam on me. And like LizziesLuck, I found that it got smoother/softer as it dried down.

In the imp - perfume-y/floral apple (as in, it smells like apple, but not in a foodie way) Freshly applied - once on my skin, the teak and skin musk take over, and it instantly morphs from apple to a soft, neutral creamy skin musk with hints of fuzzy, woody teak. I can still catch just a bit of the apple, but it's almost subliminal. This is delicious. On the drydown - like a softer, more feminine/sophisticated version of Haus of Gloi's Olde Cider Haus. Soft musk and wood and a hint of apple/caramel. But not the rich, foodie caramel-apple of Caramel Apple Cookie. Overall impression - skin musk and light, floral apple, with a warm/fuzzy depth from the teak. More apple and less caramel/cream than I expected.

In the imp/wet - fruity red musk Freshly applied - sweet red musk and something stale and fusty. Not much spice, despite the listed notes Five-ten minutes in - red musk and dragon's blood are not a winning combo on me; the two of them together are all I get, like a thinner version of Dragon's Heart. If I press my nose directly to my skin, I get a faint hint of dry sand. Still no spice, despite my skin usually amping cinnamon. Thirty minutes in - Perfume-y red musk and floral dragon's blood (the kind that smells almost lilac-y). The fustiness is gone now, and it's not unpleasant, but it's not the spicy desert heat scent I expected. This is a heavy, feminine, floral musk. Three hours in - The musk lightens and sweetens over time. By hour two, it's a lovely, sweetened floral musk reminiscent of lilac, and I'm starting to really like it. Sadly, by hour three, it's morphed into something artificial and perfume-y (in the "like commercial perfumes I don't like" kind of way) again, with a slight hint of baby powder. Now it smells like something my mother would wear. Apparently red musk is the patchouli of musks - like patchouli, it ruins everything.

In the imp/wet - cinnamon and something sharp/sweet Freshly applied - toasty cinnamon-clove that mostly avoids smelling like Christmas. My skin stings where I put it on Five-ten minutes in - Sweet, warm, toasty cinnamon-clove with something acrid and hot/dry/sour underneath. Definitely fall spice-themed now, as my cinanamon-amping powers kick in. I want to lick my arm (which is still stinging, BTW, though it hasn't gone red), despite the fact that it smells like it would burn my tongue. Thirty minutes in - Edging into craft store cinnamon broom territory now, but I love craft store cinnamon brooms, so IDC. Craft store cinnamon broom with an undercurrent of something fruity, like a hint of mulled cider. I smell like a fall kitchen decorated with every cinnamon-spice/pumpkin pie spice/spiced apple scented product Michaels makes. My arm has finally stopped stinging/tingling. Loki stays about the same for most of the rest of the wear time, but has started to fade by two hours, and by the three-hour mark, all that's left is a faint, dusty skin scent, like long-faded potpourri or maybe traces of dried snake venom on the floor of a dusty cave. Loki has too much delicious cinnamon for my cheap, fragile skin, alas. If applying it in the middle of the day gave me twenty minutes of mild stinging, putting this on in the morning right after a shower is going to give me red welts. Sorry, Loki. A full bottle of you is not in my future. You're going in my oil burner so I can make my whole apartment smell like that kitchen I was talking about, and I'll have to keep searching for a replacement for Chimera's magical non-burning cinnamon.

Wet/in imp - sweet to the point of almost cloying, rum-soaked cake with cocoa. Smells like it has an alcohol note despite it not being listed. Freshly applied - sweet cake drenched in rum or brandy, or possibly just a really sweet creme liquor made from one of the two. Ten-twenty minutes in – the alcohol note is still present but not as strong – the dominant note now is a heavy/syrupy sweetbread-and-pasty. It’s almost Yankee-Candle foodie and sweet – I can almost taste it in the back of my throat when I sniff at it. I keep getting hints of the roasting nuts (the candied/praline kind) and caramel/candied apples, and for a few minutes at the 5-10 minute mark I got wafts of cooked/melting sugar like walking into a candy-maker’s store, but the overall impression is just a big, gourmand/cakey/sweet/liqueur-soaked whack in the nose. But, like, in a good way. 1hr in – Apple cake, the super-dense, super-moist kind (with little chunks of baked apple in it) that’s halfway between cake and some kind of bread pudding and weighs as much as a brick. Still backed by a foodie-straganza of yeast-y baked goods and a hint of liqueur. At the three-hour mark, it has somehow become sweetened peanutbutter toast. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I like peanutbutter toast?

Wet/in the imp – clean and perfume-y (I forgot until I came here to post that it had white tea in it, which is probably the source of the "clean" aspect) Freshly applied – GARDENIA Five/ten minutes in – The gardenia morphed very quickly into soapy ambergris with a hint of vanilla musk and something sharp/clean that might be the metal notes (eta: and the white tea). A couple inches out from my arm the throw is mostly a soft/light vanilla-floral, but up close/nose-to-wrist all I get is ambergris. Thirty minutes in – primarily soapy ambergris with just a hint of the amber/vanilla/gardenia backing it up. Feminine aquatic. One hour in – all soapy aquatic ambergris now. I had high hopes for the vanilla/gardenia/chrome combo in this, but the ambergris combined with my skin’s hatred for aquatics means the Torture Queen is sadly not for me. At around the two hour mark the amber and vanilla tried to make a comeback, only to then go back to soap by hour four. The traces of skin scent that are all that's left over at the end of the workday are amber/vanilla again. I bet this is lovely on people who can wear ambergris.

This is a foodie caramel-apple-butterscotch delight. I've only used it as a body spray so far, so I can't say how it wears in hair, but the scent reminds me of last Halloween's Caramel Apple Cookie. I'm going to have to upgrade from my little 5ml decant to a full bottle.

Orange and patchouli are both death notes on me, so I can't help you with 3. and 4., but if you liked Antique Lace, you should run, not walk, to check out Zorya Polunochnaya from the American Gods collection. It's a light, ethereal, slightly perfume-y/non-foody vanilla scent, and reviewer after reviewer have compared it to Antique Lace. Lavender tends to figure prominently in the fall Lilith update, which should be going up some time next month (three of my all-time BPAL lavender faves, Capax Infiniti, Good Morning London, and Lilith's Hair Gloss, came from previous years' Liliths). In the meantime, Baku (from the GC Somnium collection) is a sharp, herbal lavender/eucalyptus, Paris (GC Wanderlust) is lavender with sweet/fruity lotus and clove, and Wulric the Wolfman (from the Carnival Diabolique) is a cuddly/snuggly lavender/leather/cocoa. Ganymede, an LE from last year's Moons of Jupiter lunacies, is a metallic lavender with hints of ozone/ice that's very sharp and unisex.

Seconding Kitten with Samisen and adding Flickering Lantern.

I agree with Celestia about sugared/creamy/ethereal florals being the prettiest scent category - and also with a lot of her list. My "prettiest" scents: De Vos's Unicorn (like soft, pale, pastel unicorn fur) Cave of Treasures (heady-sweet lilacs in bloom) Haloes (this isn't floral, but it's like the delicate, apricot-tinged spring/summer sibling of Antikythera Mechanism) Beneath the Kotatsu (this edges into "beautiful"/too mature to be "pretty" territory for me because I associate white florals with my mother) The Best Lies (the sweetest pink rose sugar-bomb ever, like an explosion of rosewater-flavored cotton candy) Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds (soft, slightly-soapy rose with a hint of coconut. Like one of those fancy scented soaps shaped like a rose that you put in the guest bathroom but that no one ever uses because it's too pretty to mess up)

I can confirm that one instance of sitting around in the heat won't damage most oils - I've accidentally left imps in my purse before and then proceeded to let said purse sit in the noonday sun on top of a metal table for an hour while I ate lunch (in July, in NYC), and they didn't seem any worse for it. I'm not sure how it would affect the oil if I did this to the same imp over and over, though, so I don't exactly recommend "inside my black leather purse which is sitting out in the sun" as an imp storage method.

In the imp/wet - Cedar. LOTS of cedar. I think it's Virginia cedar/blood cedar, which is my favorite kind, so my hopes are high for this blend. Freshly applied - vanilliac cedar with hints of what smells almost like wood smoke. For the first few moments, it's like Tombstone without the rootbeer, but then a sweet/smokey/hazy musk similar to the one in Buffalo Man takes over (except this isn't as sweet as Buffalo Man, possibly because it's got the cedar backing it). Five-ten minutes in - cozy/warm/dry Virginia cedar beneath a soft haze of sweet musk. It's official: "fur" musk goes sugary-sweet on me. Thirty-forty minutes in - the sweet musk has gotten sweeter, but the cedar remains the same. two hours in - faint cedar-musk skin scent. Over the past two hours, the cedar and the sweet/snuggly musk have gone back and forth in terms of which dominates. This is a pretty unisex-leaning-masculine blend, despite the sweetened musk, and while it's very different from Bast on me, I agree with Roseus that it complements it well.