bookandbroom

Yes, this! Thirded! Pretty pretty pretty please?

Just reiterating the plea for photos - of Yules and District ladies! Purty please?

Well, that's different - and it doesn't really smell like much of anything in the bottle. Goes hyper-clean and a touch piercing when I put it on, and, weirdly, seems to amp the other things coming off my arm too - how does that work?!? There's a lemony brightness that I assume is kind of the cling wrap? Though I don't know why I think that. And a smell like metal, cold, bland, strange, but not harsh - the whole thing has an odd sort of distance, an impersonal nature, that seems really appropriate for a thing as widely touched by strangers as a shopping cart. Oh, right, there's blood in here - once I'm sniffing for it, I get it around the edges, a sort of animalistic tinge. This is suggestive and clean and physical and deeply distant and messy at once. I'm a tiny bit fascinated, even though I'm not sure I'd really wear it.

Soooooper clean, but not as chemical and soapy as it sounds. It's bright and light and clean laundry-ish, at least in the bottle. On, this is a really clean clean smell, like how I think all the things that smell like clean linen should smell but don't - but I'd prefer it as a room scent to a personal scent. It's just a little too soapy and fresh-scrubbed for me - but I wish my bathroom smelled like it! I need Bathroom Incident handiwipes! There's definitely a hint of floral and a touch of green, but I'd be hard pressed to be more specific than that, alas. Almost lettucey, in an odd way. Mostly, it's much nicer than the description makes it sound!

Oh, sweet vibrant glowing red ever-so-slightly boozy cherry, how I love you! ... but where did you go? (I'm going to try this one again and slather, because it's so. delicious. but it really disappears, and fast, too!)

Damn! I wish I'd gotten a few of the color ones ... every single Vampire I got (for a decant circle) is in black and white. But that red Mircalla is sassy!

Oh, OF COURSE. Of course this one smells way better than the GC to my nose - like a cup of coffee sitting near a plate of cinnamon-sugar toast; the coffee is mild, but if I focus, I pick it up. And of course the instant I decide I kinda like this, a red rash comes up on my arm where I applied it. An itchy, splotchy rash. Sensitive skin folks, be warned! This is a delicious and evil temptation!

Oddly, as has already been pointed out, this doesn't smell like much in the vial. When I first put it on, it was very cocoa and battery and reminded me of Lump of Coal, but with a sort of musky tinge. It was a slightly dry sort of cupcake scent, which I attribute to the fact that the cupcakes in the picture this is related to are vegan. * And the everything went straight to hell. Straight. To. Hell. What's on me now is a truly foul mix of chocolate and baby powder. It doesn't smell remotely like cupcakes. It smells evil. And musky and sickly sweet. Your mileage may vary, but I'm sticking with scones! * I mean no offense to all vegan baked goods; there's a place in my town that makes vegan cheesecake that's better than regular cheesecake!

Like karen, I'm not that good with florals, and this is definitely floral - but there's a sweetness, a bubblegummy hint that makes me suspect lotus, that really lightens the scent, making it playful and a little pink and girlish. Like schackjj said, it has an odd sparkle - like a flash of glittery nail polish on the least likely person. Alas, on me the pink/sparkly phase is short-lived, and I start to get the hairspray kick karen mentioned. Boo!

In the bottle, it's simultaneously red and soapy, and I don't have high hopes. On, it reminds me of one of the Tarots - maybe Strength? - that spicy floral. It's heady and old fashioned, the kind that brings to mind gilt bathrooms and huge poofs of powder. It's floral and spicy and hot in the same way dragon's blood often is on me. And sweet! Fiercely sweet, though. I don't really get hot and dry from it the same way other people do; it's that red-hot floral with spices thrown in and sparking as they hit the flame. Sadly, this isn't for me - I don't generally like things that smell red - but I'm surprised it's not more popular. It does go a touch powdery as it settles on my skin, though. This is a scent that doesn't say sorry unless it really means it, and doesn't back down from a fight. You want her on your side in an argument, even though she can be a little overbearing.

Where are my candied oranges? There's a bit of orange in this when it's first applied, but then it turns to musky, almost cloying orange blossom - or what I'm pretty sure is orange blossom. There's still something orange to it, but it's heavy and floral and musky, and I keep thinking there's honey to it, even though nothing is quite doing honey's magical pee-trick on my arm. If it's orange, it's orange that's been hanging out in a hippie clothing store, getting doused in musky "sensual" perfumes. I wish I got what everyone else did!

A thousand thanks to scrappy for sending me a bit of this to test! In the vial, it's lime Kool-Aid powder; on, it sweetens and softens, but without losing a sharp citrus edge. There's definitely a lot of lime rind in there with the sweetness, and there's quite a bit of salt, too! It's giving me a margarita vibe - but without booze. (I'm definitely with edenssixthday on that.) Maybe a tiny hint of booze. Sweet salty limes. The salt is really dominant for a minute a few minutes after application, but it chills out and lets the limes back up from where it had them pinned to the deck. Though I should have expected this from the previous reviews, Scurvy quickly grows surprisingly faint. And I love it. I swear it almost dries down with a sparkle, like the way Zotz candy feels. It's not sophisticated and it's not perfect, but it makes me giggle and grin and I want to pour it on my arm so it can't fade so fast!

This is quite odd, in the bottle and on; it's sort of sweet and sour, warm and spicy and cool, all at once. On, it's still a muddle - hot and cold, which is interesting and appropriate, but not a great scent on me. Something about it gives me a feel of menthol, camphor, something cooling and almost minty like that. Sort of medicinal in a very natural way. Warm amber and dusty frankincense, not a ton of heliotrope on me, the summery smell of chamomile if I sniff for it. It's interesting and definitely a perfect scent interpretation of an eclipse, the way the dark and light notes slide around each other, but it's not quite my thing.

In the bottle, this is green and earthy first, banana second, like a wisp of fruit floating around a tropical forest. But on me, it goes quite strange. Stage one is OH HAI BANANA! But that quickly gives way to stage two, in which Aswang reveals a much darker side. I don't know what it smells like, note-wise, 'cause I'm not much good with those, but I almost suspect some sort of dark musk or amber, because at first there was a hint of a dark spice or wood, and now it's gone masculine, somewhat cologney and yet somewhat aquatic, too. There's still sweetness from the banana, still a layer of tropicality, but there's something almost faintly smoky to the masculine drydown. At least on me. It reminds me a bit of some of The Graveyard Book scents, alluring and yet a little bit sinister. It would smell really good on a fella, I can say that much for sure.

This one smells like being at Coney Island with a flask in your pocket on a hot summer's day. It's pink and artificially-colored and boozey as all hell ... and flirty and strong and overbearing and giddy, too. It makes me think of that particular faux-strawberry flavor that McDonald's milkshakes have, and like those milkshakes, there are times when the scent of pink tipsiness is the only thing that will do.

Tetramorph kept surprising me. My rambly notes are as follows: Beeswax + warmth; but foody; but clean. The waxy impression fades and the soapy-clean — not floral! — takes over some. Something tickles my nose, and something is sweet but not like honey. There's a sort of golden-amber L'Estate vibe; could some kind of herbal note cause the soapiness? ... yeah, that was rambling. By the time I got to work, the warmsweet honey-like nature of the scent made me want to wash it off, but hours later, what remained smelled warm and spicy and quite nice, though still not quite my style. (I hate it when I try to wash things off and THEN they smell good! Because of course that half-gone smell cannot be faked...)

Apples, definitely, unquestionably; soft, warm apples in the bottle. On me, a tartness appears, less golden than the bottle scent. There's something else in here, something clean that's giving me an Herbal Essences vibe. (Sometimes I wish I'd never used that shampoo, so I couldn't think of it every time I smell apples!) Maybe a hint of spice, but sweet spice, not readily identifiable to my nose. I don't get honey, but I do get a warmth that's suggesting baked apples. Sort of makes me think of ice cream with baked apple chunks - is that a vanilla tinge? The soapiness — which I kind of suspect is apple blossom — is getting a little fainter, but not entirely going away. It's really nice, and I like the sweetness, the impression of the soft apple flesh dotted with spices; I keep thinking of cinnamon even though I don't exactly smell it (the sweet spiciness warms up the longer this is on my wrists). But Eve also reminds me of several CTIVs that passed through my hands; there were a few with an apple note like this, and one I kept an imp of. I do like when it starts to smell a bit like apple peels — something about that texture makes me smile — but at the same time it seems just too ... something for me. I'm not quite sure what, but I think it's just that apple isn't my thing!

Aphrodite begins green, damp and growing; I pick up cucumber, and a touch of white florals. I think it's Gibbous Moon this reminds me of at first — but only at first! Within minutes, this scent just blooms on me. I'm pretty sure it's rose that's dominant, but I don't do a lot of florals; the best I can offer is that it reminds me of the little shaped soaps that my stepgrandmother had in her guest bathroom, which makes me thing "classical floral," though I'm not much good at pinpointing beyond that, alas. What I do know it's that the floral notes are wrapped in green and damp, like dew-covered stems. I think there was a Love Poem a little like this. At one point I could have sworn I sniffed a tiny hint of watermelon, but I may have been delusional from lack of coffee. This is a scent with staying power. It's an hour and a half later and I tried to wash the last bit off — did I mention I'm not much for this kind of florals? — and she's clinging pretty tightly.

Thanks, nenia! That IS cute!

Er ... me again ... Does anyone have a shot of Lilith and the Jarocho I might peek at? Many thanks!

So ... anybody got a pic of Planting Moon yet?

Oh, dear ... a caveat: My nose ain't that good. Seriously. Testing things without notes is hard! That said ... I get only a slight suggestion of eucalyptus in this blend. Mostly, I can't get over how it smells familiar, somehow — not familiar like I know it from life, but familiar like I've smelled a similar BPAL before. On me, it's a little bit green and bright, a touch like Villainess' Grundy in that sense, yet also a little creamy-powdery-sweet, a hint of some kind of amber, the suggestion of pepper and oakmoss. I keep asking myself whether the tickle of sweetness is heliotrope, and then asking myself whether I really know what heliotrope smells like. It's that kind of thing. It does, though, remind me of some of the Tarots, and something about it is walnutty in a way that makes me think of Leo 2007. Actually, there's a lot of that blend here, a little nutty, a little ambery, a little rich, a little warm — but at the same time it smells very different. Something peppery, and the suggestion of cedar shavings, dances over it all. It's fascinating, but too creamy-rich, and slightly heavy on the nose, for me to wear. (I'm not much for heavy scents.) Still, I'm happy I got to try it.

Am I the only one entertained by the way the L in Metal Phoenix fades out in the font, leaving us with "Meta" Phoenix? Perhaps a different sort of Phoenix for next year, Beth?

This? Smells like a Gilette commercial looks.

Oh, HOT. This is a dirty, smoky Amor, at first, in a way, though not in all ways, and I simply have too much of it on. It has that almondy-sweetness, but it's musky and slinky, too. It is a smell for knowing things in a physical way. The patchouli is smutting things up, I think, but this is still subtle, sneaky, sly. It makes your mouth water when you don't think there's any reason for that to be happening. Something smells like orange peels even though there aren't any nearby. Something smells like a secret. The woods come out, or creep up on you, all dark and slightly dominating, and you wish that ex-boyfriend had smelled like this, even though you kind of want to smell like it. But only sometimes. It's too much for all the time. It knows too much about you.