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Everything posted by Casablanca
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Two Sheep and Two Goats Resting Together in a Field
Casablanca replied to boomtownrat's topic in Halloweenie
I'm also getting lots of smoke from this. This smells like a heavy woolen cloak worn by someone who just stood by a campfire for a week. A vanilla campfire. 🔥🤗 Although I smell nothing aquatic or wet about this, I keep thinking it smells like a campfire in the mist. Maybe it's the mood this soft vetiver is leaving here. I can see the Unicorn and Ram comparison for sure. My friend had a completely different impression of this blend, one of strong dislike, and made many faces upon testing it. But for me, I'm considering a bottle upgrade.- 20 replies
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Zoe and her goat go on me as a creamy honey patchouli smoldering with smoke and caramel. It's gorgeous. The smoke is short-lived on me; the caramel adds a more lasting subtle and sweet brown tone. But the patchouli has a dusty quality, and then -- surprise -- it turns to the dusty pale patchouli from It Sifts from Leaden Sieves in drydown. I didn't see that coming. On me at least, this smells like that dusty white patchouli that reminds me of a desert of bleached sands, and I'm liking it with this cream and darkened by caramel honey. Oh, I know what else this reminds me of: Dalliances by Candlelight (beeswax, white patchouli, and honey). I got a sort of caramel tone from that, too. Since I got one bottle of It Sifts and two of Dalliances, I'm in some spending peril here. After drydown, though, that strong pale patchouli impression settles down and blends back into the rest. Then the whole becomes a mellow unity of creamy honey and light patch. I really like this.
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Agreed, this is a piney delight! I've been wanting a nice, deep foresty HG to pair with Forest of the Empress and other woodsy things. This is it. I get pine most strongly, followed closely by fir and an herbal, dry, brushy sage. The other notes blend into a woodiness. I'm intrigued that black locust is listed; I don't know what it smells like, but was reading about the tree recently. Overall, this is a blend of dry prairie running up into conifer-studded mountains. It reminds me of the Rocky-bordering landscape of my old home in Colorado, and the drive up into Wyoming.
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Pop Star is a sugared-up honey that manages to smell like honey sticks, rather than just honey. This is like the honey stick note in Don’t Tell Me Heaven Is Under the Earth. I didn't like the stick-y part of the honey when I first wore that one, but it has grown on me over time. Right now that one's combination of sugared honey, cinnamon, and patch is one of my favorite grounding scents. This blend is reading as simpler on my skin, mainly just sugary honey sticks smoothed with a little vanilla. Besides Don't Tell Me, this reminds me of O. I like this, but Don't Tell Me has become my go-to for this honey fix. 😊 ETA: After a couple hours of wear, this honey turns from honey stick-like to more floral on me. I'm not sure if it's my chemistry or something else. Quirky.
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Truth Will Prevail is yummy and comforting. The milk note is dense and creamy. It reminds me of sweetened condensed milk, with lots of vanilla added. The spices are soft and well-balanced, and don't overwhelm. Sadly, this went out of stock by the time my decants arrived, but I s'pose it's one less bottle to worry about overspending on. 🤩
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Dead Leaves, White Sage, and Apples Atmosphere Spray
Casablanca replied to DryFrogPills's topic in Atmosphere
I love this. The apples are strongest for me, and they have a buttery, almost creamy warmth I didn't expect. Despite that, this atmo doesn't smell particularly foody -- more cozy, comfy, and autumnal. I've been a slut for white sage lately. It's soft, cool, and airy around the edges of the blend. The dead leaves are similarly supportive. They aren't cologne-like here, more leafy and textural. Last night I spritzed this alone, and then combined it with Ceylon Cinnamon, Black Clove, and Copal atmo. The combo was phenomenal. I like this alone, but it's just delishus together with the cinnamon one.- 5 replies
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- pile of leaves 2018
- halloween 2018
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Ceylon Cinnamon, Black Clove, and Copal Atmosphere Spray
Casablanca replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Atmosphere
I love this. Ceylon cinnamon is strongest for me, but it's closely followed by clove and copal. The cinnamon smells just like the Ceylon cinnamon sticks I get for my bird to chew on. Somehow it smells a tiny bit cleaner and woodier to me than some other cinnamon. The copal smells dark and deeply rooting. I loved the copal in The Crescent Moon, and am finding this one resonates strongly for me also. Last night I spritzed this alone, and then combined it with Dead Leaves, White Sage, and Apples atmo. The combo was phenomenal. I like it alone, but it's just delishus together with the apple one. -
2017 version This blend was pleasant last year, in its youth, but a tad flat and lackluster. Now that it has aged a year, it's starting to show its depth. Fresh on, the overall impression I get is of dark, warm red apples: mashed, baked, and softly spiced. Apples intended for cider. What I'm perceiving as a darkness to the apples is mostly a smooth black patchouli blending in with them, as close as their shadows. There's a woody hint, but mostly this is a grounding patchouli. Pumpkin adds a buttery warmth without being overtly pumpkin or foodie. (Nice, because intensely pulpy pumpkin scents can make me feel queasy.) After Samhain dries, I pick up more wood, and start to notice the fir as a crisp, wintry note along the edge. There's also a rustic, herbal quality to the woods that might actually be the mullein. I like the way it's working with the woods and spices. I feel like I should be drinking hot cider to go with this (preferably spiked, and all day), but I can make do with the ginger tea I have. Happy with this blend.
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- 2024
- Halloween 2024
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This turns to so much chewy bread on me. With Jupiter Nourished first applied, I get bread with fruit, milk, and a little honey. The bread is ultra-moist and chew-nommy. The fruit reminds me of generic holiday fruit. It's like when you see cake or bread with some fruit bits throughout, and you don't know which fruit (or fruits) they are. And you don't necessarily ask. The milk and honey are comparatively mild. The blend just continues to grow in bread-ness over time on my skin. I was hoping for more goat's milk and honey; this is too baked-goods foody for me. But I can make a body gloss with lots of goat's milk and honey fragrance, and add this blend to that for some complexity.
- 21 replies
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I tried a bunch of decants from a friend this weekend. I can resist bottling them all, even the ones I liked, but I can't resist this. It was just enchanting, the sort of naturalistic scent I've been loving lately. It also took me back to some of my kid years living in the Southern Cal valley. "Kid." Goats. Hehe. California lilacs wafted over woodsy sage, grasses, and other summery vegetation, all well-blended and sun-warmed. I agree with earlier comments on the lilac; it seemed to add some floral tone without going super floral at any stage. It felt like a floral with maybe some herbal/grassy tone, if that makes sense, and that tone merged into the other notes. It also seemed a bit like honey. All notes felt like they could be growing together on the same arid slope in the backyard, a treat for California bees. The blend lasted longer than most do on my skin.
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Oof! A sort of red fruity-floral-metallic musk. With a side of ashy smoke. Yup. Pretty much that. A musk with red fruits and flowers and coppery metal is how I experience "blood musk." This went muted on me quickly, which is OK. Fun to test, but not my thing.
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So much fruit! This was all currants and strawberries on me at first. In drydown, it developed a bit of woody coconut and sandalwood, and the fruit became a less fruit-specific, general fruitiness. Not my kind of blend, but I enjoyed trying it.
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Psalm (numbers) was mostly faint and powdery benzoin on my skin. Hints of musk and vanilla. It seemed a little floral, barely, in the way that some baby powders can be. There was a little strangeness to it, too, which I'm guessing was the crystal. Usually the concept notes smell to me like what they should represent, which I enjoy, but this one just didn't seem to resolve as it should have. I think this wasn't a match for my skin.
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Honeyed champaca incense. The champaca was strongest on me, followed by the honey, with incense hints. But this was well-blended overall, and only became more so the longer it sat on my skin, until the three became one. This was sultry and calm. I loved testing it and am only able to resist a bottle because of having many champaca blends.
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Wet: Mm, lots of handsome patchouli, with a bare hint of tobacco. There was cologne, too, which I was not loving as much, but the patch was sure attractive. Dry: The cologne calmed down, except to just barely nuance the patchouli. From then on, I just got the patchouli, with its adult nuance. After a while, the blend turned a bit powdery on me, so it was a powdery patchouli. Loved the patch.
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Wet: Tart blackberries and aquatic ozone. I'm going to guess this was the same blackberry as in Echo Azure, because that went quite tart on my skin also, but not on my friend's skin. Something about my skin makes this fruit a bit sassy. Dry: A bit of ozone-tinted, vaguely fruity powder. This faded quick. I never pick up violet. This was a fun, quirky blend, but unusually short-lived on my skin.
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Pater Populi was a well-balanced Mediterranean blend. Bay and lavender were strongest on my skin, but still smoothly blended into the other notes. I also caught olive blossom and cedar, somewhat, but the background was just very nuanced and complex. I didn't notice it changing much through its stages. Recommended for a Mediterranean mood, especially for bay.
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Wet: I can smell each listed note, and they smell great together. The pine and clove seem to be the stronger two of the four notes, but they're all there. This pine, which I'm really liking, is especially short-lived on me, though. And then most of the rest fades... Dry: Sadly, this turns to a sweet clove SN on me. I wanted to pounce on a bottle when this was wet, but it unfortunately lost its nuance once it dried.
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I think this is the strongest-throw BPAL I've tried. One dot on one wrist turns me into a sweet citrus sillage storm. Sugary lemon icing. After a minute, it grows a hint of lemon fizz. It's always wild when a constructed note smells so close to the reals. The lemon icing smells just like lemon icing, like the sort of white dribble that has hardened over pastry.
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First impressions on skin: Amber incense, ambergris, and a soft musk. I anticipated an immediate flower fusillade, but this is playing differently at first. The ambergris is adding a fair dose of salt. Drying: There they are. Queenly gardenia and tuberose sweep in and take over, throwing a pale, floral curtain over the earlier notes. Dried: Tuberose dominates, with gardenia in its shadow, on a background of the other notes. Tuberose, the grand salon blowout of florals. Unfortunately, the amped tuberose makes this a bit too big and heady for me.
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Wet: Lots of red ginger, and some well-blended clove. I never pick out birch tar, only an indistinct background at this point. Dry: A quieter gingery clove blend. A soft frankincense emerges to join them. If I hunt for it, I can find a little dark smokiness from the birch tar, but it's barely showing. I have a bottle of birch tar and it's intense, but in this blend, it's almost not there. This settles into a mild, spiced frankincense blend.
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I wore Blue Blankie as a sleep scent once and then lost the decant (sigh). However, I recall a potent French lavender first up. I also kept smelling hops right alongside it. I couldn’t lose the hops impression with the lavender. It reminded me of the lavender-hops pairing of Lilith’s HG and Fuck This Heat. Blended in was a pretty musk, light but without most of the powder I get from white musk. Yay, skin musk. The rose appeared in drydown and was quite potent on me. It had aquatic hints, but wasn’t at all like a few rose water notes that haven’t worked on me in other blends. I’m glad I got to test this before it wandered off, but I hope to try it later when I’m awake. :-)
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The freshly applied Woodnymph carries tonka and cacao with a side of dry but greenish grass, the grass of late summer into autumn. The tonka is fairly prominent. The cacao is softer than chocolate notes often are on me, which is a relief because I have more choco-scents than I wear. It's not especially sweet and is mostly having a drying and browning effect on the blend, pushing it toward autumn. I love the sense of drying grasses to the blend. I may need to bottle this one. It's nice to pair with Harvest of the Empress, with its hay and wheat.
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A mingling of sweet hay, dry grassy-grain, and light clove. There's more sweetness and weight in this than I expected, to where I wonder if there's a little lurking sweet labdanum, or something. This is not long-lived on me, but it's an appealing hay-clove combination for the fall.
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Realistic Honeycrisp apples in sugary, creamy milk. I even seem to smell the skin of the apples. This blend is so autumnal, it might change color and fall to the ground by November. Lovely.