Casablanca
-
Content Count
2,076 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by Casablanca
-
Dark-Eyed opens on me with a swirl of potent cacao and soft brown sugar over fuzzy, earthy patchouli. Starting in drydown, cacao settles down and cardamom spices up. I have a weak spot for sugar-spiced patchouli (having gone through two bottles of Don't Tell Me Heaven Is Under the Earth), so the blend enters a literal sweet spot for me here. I sniff and sniff, a little happier each time. The scent settles cacao-vanilla patchouli with wafts of cardamom and brown sugar, sitting at the intersection of sweetness, spice, soft coziness, and dark agendas.
-
Freshly applied, this year's Strawberry Moon is predominantly strawberries, but also sugary and floral on my skin. I had a couple earlier Strawberry Moons. I think they were a 2017 and some version of a prototype; they've been empty and done for years, so I can't compare them directly. But my memory of 2017 was a more wildflower-meadow and sappy-dandelion strawberry blend, while this one is playing out more as sugary-sweet and floral strawberries. It's a newly arrived summer bottle, so this might change as it chills out. The strawberries smell similarly pinkish-red and playful to what I remember before. And that's almost it. This doesn't shift a lot as it dries, except to develop a bit of chewiness like honeycomb wax. Strawberries, floral sugar, and a texture like a bit of chewy honeycomb wax.
-
White Chocolate, Pink Carnation, Coconut Cream, and Clove
Casablanca replied to Seajewel's topic in Lupercalia
Freshly applied: Creamy, almost chalky coconut cream swirled in white chocolate. Drying and dry: A sprinkle of clove mingles with the predominant creamy coconut-chocolate-vanilla thing going on. It's a soft sprinkle, only hinting at the clove, and it's also a teeny bit peppery and white-sugary to me. But I mean really teeny. It's a playful amount, not a commitment. And once this is dry, I get some well-blended, cushiony-soft carnation bloom as well. It's mingling so well with the coconut cream and white chocolate that I don't find a clear line, and I love it. I passed on this one at first, but eventually blind bottled it because of coconut cream cravings and the other reviews. I'm happy to have it. -
White leather, opal musk, and amber-limned rose. Wet on my skin, roses and soft leather remind me of The Book. This isn't a bad thing, because that's my favorite rose blend to date. The roses lean more pink than I anticipated, but as in The Book, it kind of smells to me like there might be some red in there, too. I smell white leather and sometimes smell a soft, light tan leather with it. It gives the white leather more depth. Drying, Boticelli's Unicorn is like The Book with less vanilla and more amber and musk. The opal musk. There's something a little fruity-floral in it, something that smells to me like a tiny red-purple gleam almost lost amongst the dominant notes, but mostly, this is roses wrapped in soft, pale leather. I love this.
-
Oberon, Titania, and Puck with Fairies Dancing
Casablanca replied to Seajewel's topic in Limited Editions
Misty, pale, and powdery, this one does evoke a wander in foggy woods. Misty orris and osmanthus come out most noticeably on my arm, smoothed over by a creamy mallow and pale sandalwood-ish incense. The osmanthus, I think it is, has that bit of orange-like tone to it that I noticed from... I think it was an osmanthus duet. The peonies become apparent on drydown, and the cream strengthens then, as well. This is a dreamy mood of a blend --- misty, creamy and floral --- but also powdery on my skin. This one will suit the style of others, though. -
Scorched Clove, Cinnamon Bark, and Tobacco Absolute
Casablanca replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This trio comes out thick with a chewy sort of leather-shop tobacco swinging hard, but a blackened clove and cinnamon follow close behind. I cannot get away from some leather-shop impression, here, from the horse-riding days of my youth. Yet, this dark spice combo also pulls some of my focus toward a cinnamon-broom craft shop place... leaving a bizarre bazaar of rustic shops in my nose on balance. I'm just going to put the word rustic here for this one. This is a Wild West craft shop party. -
Green, ozonic, fuel-gassy cologne is a good description of where Sheepfold begins on my skin as well. This is quite a different direction than I imagined from the bare-bones notes list. It's kind of like new-mown hay and dried, woody stalks mingling together with a soft chemical gas and, gradually, an emerging, oily sort of wool. As this dries, the chemical hay-day (🤨) settles down, leaving more wool. After that, this pretty chill, really... It becomes a lazy afternoon-to-evening in a warm field, watching cut grass dry and the sun sink and color the world an ordinary gold. The blend becomes pleasantly mundane and everyday, if your everyday is slow, pastoral and steady with peace.
-
This 13 is really lovely, and now that I have a decant, I'm sorry I missed its short life on the shelves. Sweet-honeyed, sugary cacao with hints of smoke and caramel. As this starts to dry, I pick up the brown sugar, amber rock sugar, and a little molasses, though the latter is not as heavy as the note can sometimes go. I think this is where my early caramel impression came from. Still lots of honey and other sugar riches swirled in with cacao. Then the smoke wafts out more richly for a time, so gorgeous with the chocolate and other notes. Smoke and sugar always draw me in, and together, they're just ahhhh. This settles into a sweet, nuanced cocoa. I haven't always been a 13 person, but this is glorious from start to finish.
-
Rich, deep purple, juicy blackberry. Tones of wine and bergamot soon start to develop in tandem. I get a few green tea whiffs early in, too, but they fade out. Juicy blackberry wine and bergamot. In drydown, I find a few bramble-green leaves, too, and this becomes the scent of a memory... I'm 20, wandering an Oregon blackberry orchard with a friend, two buckets, and a jug of blackberry wine. We're on a mission to collect more berries, for more wine. Our buckets fill with berries, our bellies with wine. It's a time of beauty. Much later, Blackberry Moon brings out little whiffs of fig and patchouli. They are pretty scant. I want to add a couple drops of patchouli EO to a bottle of this if I upgrade (when I upgrade) to see how that goes... I agree with others --- this one is for devotees of the berry. I think it's reminding me most of Blackberry and Oudh... with a little of Painted Scars' blackberry wine splashed in.
-
Wild Plum, Green Tea, and White Jasmine
Casablanca replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This one is a bit of a tease. On the wand, it's a soft but fairly lush plum, almost entirely. But when it makes the leap to my skin... it's a shrill jasmine, almost entirely. And, sadly, this jasmine quickly develops more indole to its flower than I usually get. I'm not sure if something in my chemistry has changed; I haven't worn any type of jasmine in a long time. But before long, I smell pee. It's kind of suboptimal. I ignore this one on me for a while. When I come back to it, dried, I catch green tea and a hint of soft plum. The jasmine abides, still a bit indolic, but thankfully air-breezed and lighter. Overall, I don't think this one works for me, though. -
Sunrise Kimono opens on me with a burst of bright citrus and warm golden apple. The lemon, bergamot, and apple are coming out strongest, but I find a pretty and clean grapefruit when I look. It isn't long before mimosa and a soft cedar make an appearance, both warming the blend further, and the latter adding a little rustic, woodsy something. The grapefruit strengthens, bringing a brisk, almost astringent cleanliness that reminds me of some white tea notes. I actually feel like I'm smelling a little white tea hiding in this sometimes. I never notice amber, but there are plenty of yellow and other warm tones to this scent. It smells like breakfast-time, and could fit easily anytime from spring through fall.
-
Sugary banana-nana-nanana rum. Although I'm not really getting a pastry note, the sugary banana with a bit of spice keeps bringing my brain back to Banana Bread, which I finished a whole bottle of at some point. I keep thinking this is a rum-spiked Banana Bread---never mind the reality of the notes. As usual for the fruit, the banana is fairly short-lived. When it flies south for the winter, it leaves behind a warm, mildly spiced vanilla-poof rum, a rum with a sugary bit of marshmallow floof and, later, a hint of white frankincense. It's soft, and an enticing skin scent for summer. While I liked the opening, I'm actually most drawn to it from this point on, and considering a bottle.
-
Warm cocoa with a powdering of quite dry cinnamon, sweetened with dark honey, almost like a buckwheat honey. This is pleasant, but it's quite heavy with sweetness, and somehow also bristle-dry. When it first came out, I assumed I would want a bottle and threw it in my cart, but resolved to try a decant first. And I'm really going to enjoy this decant, but now that I have it, its qualities are sitting a bit strangely with me, so I may not upgrade.
-
Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry (Uso, Shidarezakura)
Casablanca replied to Seajewel's topic in Limited Editions
Intense, musky, ultra-pink cherry blossoms at first blush... But the scent quickly falls back into a powdery, generic floral for me, like a cake collapsing. Dry incense smoke wafts out as the backing for the flowers before long. I think of an ancient temple behind blooming cherry trees. It wants to work, but for me, this is too musky and powdery. -
Syrupy-sweet, creamy vanilla amaretto with cherry hints. A heavily almond amaretto. Yep. It's... basically all those things. So, if you like these things, you're likely to be quite happy with this. But if you do not... I'll enjoy the decant.
-
Lots of sweet, creamy lotus and almond, with vanilla amber also in play. A pinkish rose is apparent, but not the star of the show---it softly blends into the lotus. Veers a bit powdery with wear, but the creaminess tries to make up for it. Sweet, creamy floral with pink and ivory tones.
-
Usually, Snek variants are mostly variant and very little Snek on my skin before they have aged. I like that --- because I have a lot of these variants around, and too much Snek would mean too much sameness between them. Snake Milk falls outside this norm. On me, it shows up as nearly all Snek. It's lots of Snek and a little toasted brown sugar. I'm surprised to find I get almost no milk from this while it's wet. It's Snake Sugar... not as much Snake Milk. Once this dries, though, a soft, caramel creaminess comes out; the toasted brown sugar grows, too. I love all sugar and most milk notes. The dried Snake Milk is the Snek I sought. Last night I layered this with Milk, Burnt Honey, and Ambrette Seed for an even warmer variant on this Snek theme. The burnt note in MBHAS is harsh, but once the early phase passes, these two blends make 'licious companions. ETA: After this sits around for more than a week, the condensed milk note comes into play and the Snek settles down some. Really love this now.
-
Yabluchnyk was a surprise hit for both my friend and I (I test her decant now). We'll both get bottles. It's boldly fruity, round-bodied and jovial in the nose. On me it comes out most strongly as peaches, and my friend's skin brings out the cherries most. Besides those, I get cinnamon-spice apple cider softened with brown sugar. After perhaps an hour, it smells rather like a fruity apple wine on me, like a bountiful autumn sangria of peaches, cherries, and apples floating in apple wine. Which... sounds decadent and like an actual plan for later this year, really. And then hours later, it becomes a gorgeous, mildly fruity creamy vanilla on me for a while before fading out. The blend never went cakey for me, but I eventually get the vanilla in a surprising and dreamy way. This scent is the spirit of wandering and imbibing in a pick-your-own apple orchard during the bright harvests of late summer through fall.
-
Warmed, creamy vanilla cheese Danish. Hints of lemon waft in and out. Tasty, at first. After a few minutes, though, something in this turns a bit off and cheesy-rank (cheese a little past its prime) on my skin. Every now and then, a lovely little creamy lemon returns and distracts me in a way I appreciate, but there's still something not working with my chemistry.
-
TIL rye is sneaky. Stealthy tip-toed bread. Chocolate babka goes like this: chocolate marzipan, chocolate marzipan, chocolate marzipan... RYE. Well, the chocolate is still present. But in a burst of scattering crumbs and crust-flakes, rye jumps out from behind marzipan and stands in front of it, relegating it to obscurity. So, sort of kinda chocolatey rye now.
-
Freshly on, this is mostly warm, glazed pastry --- lightly spiced with cinnamon and a little nutty --- with some honey further sweetening the dish. The pastry is realistic enough to give me an immediate head-picture of pulling off a piece, seeing the cinnamon-flecked, moist bread stretch and tear unevenly, feeling the stickiness on my fingers. (And... I'm noticing that it's about time to come off the intermittent fasting for the day and have breakfast! But who's hungry? 😏) The balance is consistent on me through its wear, which is fairly short on my skin (less than an hour?). Cozy, amiable, hunger-inducing.
-
No lie: I got a sample of this just 'cause I liked the phrase "proto-baguette." "Proto-baguette." [Sold.] So, I guess I had a personal, hidden "proto-baguette" button that could be pushed and I would buy something. I did not know. Freshly applied, this smells like baguette. Very a lot like baguette: crusty crust, bready bread. For a second or two, I fear that the sharp, newly broken edge of the crust will damage some soft tissue in my mouth as I take a bite. There's a little dribble of cream, but mostly, this is baguette. Then, y'know, my skin happens. Butter. All the butter... Butter for miles, butter reaching forward to the future and arcing back to the past. Proto-butter. Maybe this wasn't a win exactly, but at least the proto-baguette button got its due.
-
A delightful, fresh, springtime deli scent. Newly applied, A Meal Interrupted brings on the fresh cuke with dewy, cool lettuce, soft black pepper, and a short-lived little burst of green musk. Hunting around, I find breathy touches of green onion and melon, but no sesame or cardamom. This is a scent of fresh, dewy, edible greens. The green musk in the opening is like the green from the lovely Emerald Lace, but it only lives a handful of seconds on my skin. When it's gone, it leaves all the paler green things that you can eat, and a pinch of dark pepper spice. As this dries, I realize I can find the sesame seeds in this, and in the oddest way... they just keep appearing in the foodie head-picture this scent gives me. I needed to notice them in that visual to sniff again and find them in the blend. Cool! I much like and appreciate this one.
-
At about a month of rest, Cacao, Palo Santo and Copal blends well into its own thing, rather than showing up at your door as three distinct notes. The mix is a dark, dry cacao incense. The cacao and spicy copal are apparent, while the palo influence is more subtle. The lemony hint in beautiful palo santo is reading as a slightly odd contributor in this blend, I think. I enjoy these three notes, and dark cacao incense sounds amazing to me, so I thought I would love this. And, I like it... it's interesting. But the notes aren't currently gelling for me as well as I imagined they would. I'll see what more rest does with them.
-
Kerosene? I can tell this is meant to be the black leather, but this particular leather note is going all garage chemical on me. I had this result about a month ago when I first tested this blend, and the time hasn't altered things as yet. In drydown, I notice a hint of cacao. But kerosene continues to overwhelm the rest of the scent.