Elspethdixon

If you like both Obatala and Avunculus, you'll probably like Lovers and a Fan from the 2015 Lupers ("White coconut, thick wildflower honey, and threads of saffron"). It's a hard-to-find LE like most Luper stand-outs, but it's a lovely fresh honeyed coconut with a tiny hint of saffron. I second Black Pearl, which is a more ethereal scent-sibling to Obatala, and you may also want to check out Hidden Pearl from last year's Lupers, which is basically Black Pearl with the addition of a bit of pear stem (slightly less sweet than Black Pearl and with hints of fresh pear note in the early stages). I'm well into my second bottle of Black Pearl and nearly ready for another bottle of Obatala because I wear them both so much in the summer.

Chocolate Espresso Gingerbread bath oil and Gingerbread, Vetiver and Black Clove perfume from this year's Yules complement one another so perfectly that they could have been made for each other.

In Imp - wood and pine Freshly applied - sharp pine, cool and menthol-y. Here's hoping it doesn't go sour or turn into air freshener and soap. Fifteen/twenty minutes in - the pine has calmed down/gotten much less menthol-y, and has indeed gone slightly sour, but not in an unpleasant way. It's almost a savory scent. If I were trying to pick what this was out of the scent line-up by name alone, rather than by notes, I'd say it was Sweat of the Rime Giants, because it has a salty/almost cumin-y edge to it as well as something dry and earthy. (Which would be the tobacco and ambergris, and possibly the muguet. I'm never smelled muguet before and am not sure what it is. Edit: Apparently it's Lily of the Valley? ) Three hours in - salty/slightly-soapy ambergris. Shortish lifespan, with lots of morphing; this isn't one of those scents that lasts all day without changing until you're sick of it. I liked/didn't dislike any of the stages, but also didn't love any of them. It's definitely interesting, though. All the Song of Creation scents I've tried to far have had a kitchen-y/edible aspect to them, without being outright gourmands. Like kitchen-witch scents.

IIRC "amber" is more of a scent category than a specific note/accord, so golden amber, black amber, etc. could all be made from totally different components, and one kind of amber note working well or amping/going funky/turning into powder doesn't guarantee that another kind will. Four Season: Winter is "gilded amber," Mouse's Long and Sad Tale is "two ambers," Black Rider is "black amber," O and Coyote are just "amber" with no further description, and Road to Versailles doesn't actually list amber as a note, though vanilla + labdanum is a common amber base, so vanilla + frank & sandalwood might be pretty amber-ish (and ditto on the balsam in Anubis). Do the blends that work on you (or the blends that fail) share other notes in common? I know O and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale both have vanilla notes, but so does Road to Versailles, so that's probably not it. Anubis, Coyote, and Road to Versailles all share herbal/aromatic notes ("embalming herbs," "sage and sweetgrass," and "coriander, pettigrain, and thyme"), so maybe that has something to do with it. Do the blends that work on you (or the blends that fail) share other notes in common? I know O and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale both have vanilla notes, but so does Road to Versailles, so that's probably not it.

Wet/in the imp - a milky/cream sweetness that reminds me a little of Giljagaur without the coconut Freshly applied - clean, powdery baby-milky smell, fresher and 'cleaner' than it was in the imp, and less sweet. So far, Audumla is like the best milk-and-honey scented baby wash/baby shampoo/baby lotion ever. Fifteen minutes in - now that it's settle a little/started to dry down, it's gone right back to the soft, milky sweetness from the imp. This really is similar to Giljagaur, except where Giljagaur is coconut cream with a hint of cinnamon, Audumla is just plain sweetened milky cream. 1 Hour in - No change. This isn't a morpher; it's still milk-and-honey/BPAL cream SN. If you like Beth's 'cream' note and can wear honey well, you'll probably like this scent. If I didn't already have two bottles of Giljagaur stashed away, this would be bottle-worthy for sure. The scent stays basically the same for the entire rest of the drydown, and though looking upthread I can see that it apparently faded quickly on some other reviewers, Audumla lasted for ages on me. I got at least five-six more hours of wear out of this before it faded, pretty much a full work day.

Wet/in the imp - bright/sweet, fruity Freshly applied - something in this is stale-musty-smelling when it first touches my skin (possibly the honey?) but the throw still has that fruity-sweet quality so I suspect the stale note will fade. Fifteen minutes in - soft and gently sweet, with fruity notes. There's still a hint of something stale/musty, but not the "first few minutes of honey badness" effect from earlier. It's reminding me a little of one of the Apiary scents now, like the way Chokecherry Honey could have smelled if my skin didn't hate cherry. I'm not getting much in the way of herbs, mostly powdery-sweet fruity honey. (btw, my fingertips that I used to opened both this imp and the one of Audumla that I'm testing on my other arm now smell amazing. Try layering these, guys) 1 Hour in - The scent is fading into something softer and less fruity. I assumed at this point that it wasn't going to last much longer, but it remained as a faint skin scent for pretty much the rest of the day.

I wore The Bride (layered with Skuld) for my wedding last spring (I actually bought the bottle as soon as the 2015 Lupers went live specifically for the occasion because of the name).

Thirding My Little Grotesque (which is practically cardamom SN on me when wet but gets more cake-y as it dries), though I have high hopes for a couple of the Lupers.

Wet/In the Imp - musk & pine Freshly applied - cool, menthol-y hint from the juniper, slightly sour pine, hint of clean/laundry/haze from the musk (don't turn into soap/dryer sheets, don't turn into soap/dryer sheets) I'm testing this side-by-side with Przezcucie (sp?) and they actually blend really well - with both arms combined I'm surrounded by nose-tingling winter forest. One of the two makes the inside of my nose feel cold/tingly for several moments even after I've stopped smelling it, but I can't tell which. Neither of them is what I think of as "Christmas Tree" fir/pine, but both are nice. I think the Prz has practically burned out my nose so that all I get from Thanatopsis is musk. I'll have to retest it alone. 30 minutes in - my nose still feels weird tingly-cool on the inside from those first sniffs. Some kind of sensitivity? Anyway, the strong pine/fir scent has faded and Thanatopsis is now warm and masculine outdoorsy-tinged musk with a little soap with hints of cool juniper when I put my nose right to my skin.

Wet/In the Imp - cool/cold, wintery fir Freshly applied - sharp, almost anise-like fir needle & terebinth (as opposed to what I think of as "Christmas Tree" fir/pine). No smoke at all. I'm testing Thanatopsis on my other arm, and one of the two makes the inside of my nose feel cold/tingly for several moments even after I've stopped smelling it, but I can't tell which. As it starts to dry, something in Przeczucie also strikes me as soapy - I think maybe this is via association because things like Old Spice shower gel contain pine notes? 30 minutes in - my nose still feels weird tingly-cool on the inside from those first sniffs. Some kind of sensitivity? Anyway, the strong pine/fir scent has faded and Prz. is now soapy pine (still no smoke) with hints of sweet fir right next to my skin, but mostly it's soap. This is the soapiest anything that isn't an aquatic has gone on me in a while. I have no idea what's turned it into straight-up soap on my skin but soap it is. From this point onwards, there's very little morphing, just several hours of soap, soap, hints of pine if I put my nose right to my skin, and more soap.

In the Imp- slightly acrid cologne-y-ness with a hint of lighter fluid. Freshly Applied - Once on my skin, Djinn smells like charcoal doused in lighter fluid, but, like, in a good way. It doesn't smell scorched/burnt so much as it does flammable. My father has a big, old cast-iron charcoal grill that used to belong to my grandfather, and the wet stage of Djinn reminds me of that metal barbecue grill just waiting to be set alight. Something in this tingles in my nose slightly, like of combination of something acrid/something medicinal (maybe menthol?) which I think is what's giving my the lighter fluid impression. As it dries on my skin it goes from charcoal to slightly-medicinal without losing the flammable aspect, and there's a note of something almost fruity beneath it, and maybe a bit soapy (ozone?). This is not the face-full of gritty-smokey vetiver I was expecting, unless it's one of the more barbecue-like vetivers. Five-Ten Minutes In - Barbecue-type vetiver, hint of something fruity, wood? (the lighter fluid aspect is now just the faintest hint). Something about it makes me think of mesquite-applewood smoke. I could eat something cooked with/cooked over this. If Smokestack is a lumberjack's campfire smoke, Djinn is the fruity charcoal you're getting ready to smoke meat over. This is actually a really good scent for a cold, drizzle-y winter day, like a whiff of Fourth of July barbecues in the middle of January. Djinn is prepared to handle all your summer cookout needs. A Hour+ In - As the drydown progresses, the acrid/smokey notes fade and the fruity aspect gets stronger. It reminds me a lot of the fruity note that dominated Christougenniatiko Dentrophobia on me (opoponax?), except I like Djinn better, probably because of the vetiver. I'm a fiend for vetiver.

Wet/in imp – Crisp, ripe fruit in the imp, but then a stale note appears on skin (like Skuld but nowhere near as bad) Five-ten minutes in – The stale note is gone and crisp, juicy lotus/fig reigns. Clean and fresh rather than rich/cloying/lush. Smells more like a Luper than a Yule; a really nice Luper. Several inches of throw (more than Jacob's Ladder, which I'm testing on my other arm). 30 minutes in – the crisp juiciness is starting to fade, but it’s still a light, sweet, not-quite tropical scent. I can’t distinguish either the coconut or the fig; I think they’re blending in smoothly with the lotus, making it creamier and less floral. 1 Hour in - creamier now; the coconut has come forward a little as the crisp/juicy fruit note from the lotus fades. So far, my favorite of the two I'm testing. Throw is about half what it was initially, but still there. 2 hours in – becomes creamier (more fig & coconut, less lotus), then by two hours has begun to fade.

Wet/in imp – Perfumey amber Five-ten minutes in – light/sweet perfume-y amber, (reports that this is a really nice amber are not exaggerated) 1 Hour in – this morphs very little; still a perfume-y amber, rich and sweet. Not strong, but a couple inches of throw. 2 hours in – no change (and it's faded entirely by four/four-and-a-half hours in)

Wet/in imp - sharp/thin, herbal, tangy-sour (almost like pickles?) Freshly applied - sharp kitchen herbs and something cool and minty. There's definitely a strong mint note in this - my skin even feels cool where I applied it. Five minutes in - sharp and at the same time slightly musty. Something in it tingles in my nose. Like Grandfather Frost's slightly-musty but pine-scented robes after he comes in from the cold outside, maybe? I don't know that I want to wear it, or if I even like it, but it's definitely interesting Twenty-thirty minutes in - it's gotten softer (I can detect the amber and fuzzy snow note now) and a little sweeter/less sour, but the tangy herbal note is still there, as is the nose-chilling bit. Like a crisp, cold outdoors day with a hint of just-about-to-snow in the air. It doesn't morph much past this point, though I get several hours worth of wear out of it. I have no idea what caused the pickle-like effect early on - maybe the bois de rose going sour bad!rose on me or some combination of the tree moss and snow notes?

Wet/in imp - perfumey vanilla. I don't get much tobacco. Freshly applied - cool, creamy vanilla with a hint of alcohol - the cognac almost makes this smell like a commercial perfume because of the alcohol note, but I like it. Something abut this is cool and pale, but a different cool than the dry coolness of Winter: My Secret. It makes me think of porcelain and smooth, pale plastic, possibly via the power of suggestion due to the name. A good two/three inches of throw. Twenty-thirty minutes in - musky vanilla (with a hint of tobacco?) and cool, aromatic/rich cognac. This has a sophisticated air to it despite its sweetness, maybe because the cognac adds that hint of fancy-perfume-alcohol to it. This is one of those big dolls with sausage curls and a fancy Victorian dress that sits in a white-painted child-sized chair and stares at you with dead china/glass eyes. Its eyes are pale blue-green, and there are ghostly white dust-clothes over the larger pieces of bedroom furniture, including the mirror of the small, white painted vanity. The dry-rotted fabric tears when you try to pull it back to see the age-spotted silver mirror behind it. The glass perfume bottle on the vanity are empty except for some dried residue and the ghost of the sweet, girlish vanilla scents they used to hold. No one's been in this slightly-musty wing of the house in years, and when you ask about it, everyone pretends they don't know what you're talking about. I don't think I need a bottle because I have half-a-dozen vanilla scents already, but if I didn't, I'd consider it.

2016 version Wet/in the imp – sweet rum, maybe a hint of nutmeg, but primarily the same sweetened rum note I love in Kill-Devil Freshly applied – once on skin, the vanilla comes out and it becomes warmer and less boozey Five-ten minutes in – after a few minutes, the rum note re-emerges, but it’s a foody/desert-sauce rum rather than a boozey one. This is reading as less custardy eggnog to me and more as the rum sauce that goes on bananas foster. Something about it reminds me of burnt sugar. This is reassuring me that the plasticky note in SN French Vanilla was a one-off, though, because Egg Nog isn’t plasticky at all. 30-40 minutes in – now it's custardy, like vanilla custard with burned sugar (I’m going to have to try this in my hair to see if the Kill-Devil-like rum note lasts longer there) Two hours in– by two hours, Egg Nog has faded almost entirely to a warm, sugary-vanilla skin scent. It was nice while it lasted, though, possibly one of my top three from this year's Yules.

Wet/in the imp – slightly sweet resin, with labdanum as the strongest note Freshly applied - still sweet resin, but once it touches my skin, the myrrh starts to emerge Five-ten minutes in – very little vanilla (I get a hint of cool, dry vanilla right by my wrist, but the rest of my forearm is all resin), mostly incense, not quite as sweet as it was at first. But something about it is indeed cold and wintery. This is a cool incense somehow, rather than a warm, smokey one. The sweetness of the Eggnog I'm testing on my other wrist could be causing me to read this as cooler/less sweet though. It gets sweeter and softer and less cool/dry as it dries down/wears. 30-40 minutes in – soft, hazy incense. Maybe a hint of cool/dry vanilla? I have to say, this is not living up to my gritty/rich/warm vanilla-myrrh dreams. I was hoping it would be like Funary Papyrus after the weird green note has burned off. Two hours in– And now that I’m well into the drydown… it has in fact morphed into a pleasant/warm vanilliac incense. Just as it’s starting to fade Why couldn’t it have smelled like this all along? Turns out my impression that it was fading was wrong: Winter: My Secret lasts as a pleasant incense-y skin scent for about 4-5 more hours, because of course it does. So now I’m like “Is two hours of “meh” worth three-four hours worth of smelling good?” If forty minutes of "weird green note" kept me from buying Funerary Papyrus (A choice I only slightly regret), then I suspect those initial two hours of generic cool incense will keep me from getting Winter: My Secret.

It looks like you like both sweet/vanilla-y foodies and florals (or at least roses). De Vos's Unicorn is a good sugared/creamy floral that I definitely recommend (I think it might be my fave of the unicorns). Others you might want to try: Allegory of Chastity - another of the recently discontinued Unicorns. This one's a rose/vanilla cream/jasmine combo. A lot of people find it very similar to De Vos (which is apricot, rose, lavender, white musk, and marshmallow), but on me it was a strongly floral sweet rose that was completely different from De Vos's ethereal fruity-floral-pastel-marshmallow scent. It's the only jasmine that's never gone bad on me. Eat Me - (GC) vanilla cake and black current. If you like Cake Smash, it may be worth a try. Bastet - (GC) amber, "Egyptian musk," saffron, cardamon, myrrh, almond, and lotus. Hellcat is basically pure almond extract on me - Bastet is a slightly more complex scent while still having a predominant almond note. Eden - (GC) Fig, almond, coconut, and sandalwood. Another almond-heavy scent that's nearly as sweet as Hellcat. Poor Monkey - Currently-available Yule LE. If Kurukulla is more lotus than rose on you, you may like this one - it's a creamy fig/vanilla/lotus/ylang ylang combo with a strong lotus note, like crisp, juicy fruit. The Bear Prince - another current Yule. I've never tried this one, but it's apparently a soft rose with a sweet snow note and fuzzy musk and a lot of people really love it.

Wet/in imp – sweet/rich opoponax with hints of pine, almost fruity Freshly applied – pine air freshener with hints of bathroom cleaner/urinal cake Five-ten minutes – slightly fruity tobacco with hints of urinal cake. Why? I had such high hopes for this. One-two hours in - The urinal-cake-like aspect went away after about a half hour, and now everything has dried down to a fruity leather with hints of tobacco. I don't know what on earth in the listed notes is causing the fruity aspect, but this is sadly not the Christmas tree scent of my dreams. It is a rather nice masculine cologne-like scent, for a man who doesn't mind smelling like a candied fruit/leather/humidor//hint of Christmas tree mashup. This has staying power as well as decent throw - I could still catch whiffs of leather from my wrists eight hours after applying it. (There must be spruce tar in some of BPAL's leather notes, because leather's not a listed note here but the late drydown is basically SN black leather on me).

Wet/In the imp - Red musk and tobacco. The oil is thick and dark, and actually stains my skin slightly - either my imp is well -aged, or this is just a really thick/dark oil. Freshly Applied - Now it's red musk, tobacco, and a musty sort of incense. As soon as it hits my skin, the mandarin starts to come out, and for several minutes adds a note of bathroom cleaner to the blend. Then it dies down/resolves into a sharp, almost metallic tang, which is actually kind of cool. It really does smell reminiscent of a sword now, or maybe of sweat and blood. Not my thing, but definitely evocative and interesting. An hour in - the metallic note faded relatively quickly, and now this is all musty incense and red musk, like a really stuffy/poorly ventilated new age shop. I'm not sure what the classical herbs of conflict are, but I don't think I like them.

In the imp, this was all grainy frankincense and cold eucalyptus, but once it hit my skin, the frankincense disappeared and the lily came out, joined a few minutes later by just a hint of soft leather. It's very fresh and clean smelling , and more floral than I'd expected, more like a Luper than a Weenie. It's a very smoothly blended scent (despite the lily's attempt to dominate it on first application), and after the first twenty minutes or so, it's melded into a soft, close-to-the-skin blend of lily and soft wood/leather/tonka. After an hour and a half or so, it fades into a soft, gentle skin scent that I can no longer pick out any individual notes in. I actually like it best at this stage (when I finally start to get the fuzzy Unicorn-and-Ram-like aspect Kris was talking about upthread), but I suspect it will fade entirely after not much longer.

Wet/in-the-imp - A light, smoky vetiver reminiscent of Beanman and Beanwoman plus something cool and fresh and damp. I like it. Freshly applied - Sadly, a soapy note starts to emerge as soon as it hits my skin. On someone else, this would be gorgeously atmospheric - even on me it conjures up images of an empty beach full of wet stones and drift wood, on damp, heavily overcast day. But, like, if you took that scent and turned it into a soap. An hour in - The wisps of vetiver smoke keep bravely wafting up through the soapiness, but overall, the laundry detergent/soap aspect is winning. This is probably one of the least-awful results I've had with an aquatic scent thus far, but even with a usually surefire-winner note like vetiver in it, it can't completely escape my skin's aquatics = soap curse.

Wet/in-the-imp: Like a masculine cologne. Well-blended enough that I can't pick out any individual notes. Freshly applied - Fresh, almost fougere-like, with a hint of aquatic soap. I usually like masculine-type scents, but this is one of the rare occasions when I find myself concluding that yes, this would indeed be better on a guy. It gets sweeter after the first few minutes, but also more soapy. Twenty-thirty minutes in - Sadly, after about a half-hour (and a very brief phase of smelling almost melon-like) or so it's become pure soapy laundry detergent. And it remains soap and washing powder for the next several hours until it fades. I had hope for the first fifteen minutes or so, but my skin's hatred for aquatics struck again and buried the hope under a mountain of soap suds.

Hunter is a subdued/very light clove on me. It starts out smelling like sage and leather and warm, dry grass, but then after a couple hours morphs into amber combined with something that's sort of like spiced chai tea. Like the lovechild of Bow and Crown of Conquest and The Lion, except not quite as sweet as either. My favorite clove scent atm is The Avenue (dark chocolate, clove, smoked amber, bourbon vanilla tar, and black pepper), which smells sort of dirty-sexy and sort of like Christmas at the same time. The clove note is pretty strong in it, the chocolate note is the dark/not-too-sweet kind, and somehow the combination of ingredients makes it smell almost like it has leather in it. Plunder is also a strong, spicy clove, but the black tea note in it is a little stronger than I'd like. I have extremely high hopes for Gingerbread, Clove, and Vetiver from the new Yules update.

French Vanilla SN! it's not as complex as Vanilla Bean Noel, but it's the same kind of custardy, almost creme-brulee-like vanilla scent.