pkwench

Rage It amusing to me how happy and lacking in rage that Rage makes me. Upon first crack, I get that big, sweet hit of Dragon's Blood. But then florals start to emerge on the skin. Later it gives way fully, allowing the amber to fully cultivate instead of drowning beneath the DB to a sort of powdery undertone. The florals also add just a lovely dimension to this. I think rage is that sort of bitchready combination of DB and Amber that I was hoping to find in Blood Amber. LOVE IT!

The Coiled Serpent A potent yogic oil that stimulates the kundalini, provokes spiritual awakening, and releases the energy seated in your root chakra. I knew next to nothing about what was in this blend when it was first listed, but I was curious to try it. This has that dry, twist of a hemp and herbal scent to it that I've smelled in other blends - Helping Hand comes to mind. It comes off as a dry, weedy and reedy herbal blend. I think of hemp, dried grasses, and jars of exotic bits. I see this as a something of a working blend. Definately more medatative than perfumey. I think it'd make a good, relaxing incense.

Nemesis I'm not sure what I expected from Nemesis, but creamy and sweet probably wasn't it. Nemesis was the blend that taught me that red patchouli is an entirely different beast than it's darker and hairier cousin. The tonka bean gives it a happy creamy sort of thing going on, but the overall blend is so delish. I can pick out ginger and fig layered over the woody sandalwood and that beguiling red patch which is almost smelling like a spicey amber to me. It's a serious, happy high. If I haven't gotten off my can to add it to my bottle list, I will be soon.

Grog I tried this back in November, scribbled down my thoughts on it, and promptly forgot to review it and anything else on the list. Somewhere on the boards, there's a thread about imps you passed through too quickly. Grog may be one of those imps for me. The first sniff was a hot & heavy shot of yummy butterscotch. On the skin, it immediately went to what I thought of as Brach's butterscotch. Oh, the buttery goodness! My final note next to grog was a note that reads: DRINK ME! Because, yes, it's drinkable, edible goodness.

The Lion God, I love amber. The Lion seems to be one of those amber blends that my skin eats, but that doesn't wholly disturb me. I bought a 5ml, after all. I figure I can be as liberal as I like with it. Because the amber was the first thing I caught scent of - all golden and just glorious - for a moment it reminded me very much of Bastet. But upon application and further sniffs of it, I get that lovely, dry grass and yellow herb smell. I don't get cinnamon from this at all, but there is a faint sort of spicey verve to it. This sounds particularly silly, but in the book I'm writing with my friend, we have a particular sort of grass that we made up. The Lion reminded me of what I imagine that grass to smell like. I know, that's kind of retarded. But it just makes me love it that much more. However, for these scents I love but my skin eats, I'm contemplating trying out a scent locket. Venom & Yemaya are the same way. LOVE IT, skin eats it. This could be a good idea. HMM. Anyway, The Lion is hereby Wench approved for inducing happy thoughts and smelling damned good.

Corazon The description of the scents used to create this blend was enough to sell me on Corazon. Then I went to read up on the donkeys and just damn near lost it. I'd have purchased a bottle for that reason alone. I suppose it's a selfish, first world sort of thing to say, but how lucky I am to be able to contribute a bit of cash to charity and smell so damned good in the process. In the bottle it smells sweet and fruity, with a definite depth to it. Once I put it on, it did remind me a touch of Red Moon, but a little less sugary. It's a touch smoky and the amber gives it a much dryer sweetness than the dragon's blood or whatever it was in red moon. This is a GORGEOUS scent. Sweet and lightly smoky. The red musk is the definite leader of the blend, but everything else goes in with it so nicely. It's really quite sexy. And the label on the bottle is lovely.

Cold Moon I love cold moon. It's so floral and cool with the green and musk twist to it. I absolutely adore it. It does, in fact, remind me a lot of Blue Moon, but remove the cuke and toss in some light Skadi. The sad thing is that it has no lasting power on me at all. I shouldn't say no. It just goes very faint within the hour. If I get right up on the application site, I can still smell its lovely fragrance. However, I don't just smell it, you know? No wafting. No throw. However, this only means that I will have to more heavily apply and more frequently. Initially that made me sad, but then I remembered just how many bottles I have and I was okay again. I figure it's probably okay to have one that I need to apply more frequently. Also, I may try dabbing a bit on my bra or my clothing. I just put my sweatshirt jacket back on and I notice that it's wafting up a lovely Cold Moon breeze.

I love white musk. With the addition of the green notes, this is bottled sex. I sent the imp off in swap, but certainly not out of a lack of love. More out of sense of longing. See, the fiance` is across the pond and even when I wear this blend I find myself missing him just that much more. (Plus, it sort of puts thoughts of much humpage into my head and, again, it's TORTURE!) This is going to be a blend to try on him, I think.

Bastet Bastet and Bathsheba were the first two non-LE scents that I ever ordered on description alone. Which, in the case of Bastet is amazing when you consider that it has lotus and that I've never done so well with lotus. (Reason #476,589 to love Beth-she keeps finding ways to prove me wrong. First Frost Moon's lotus and now Bastet. Genius!) But, you know. Amber. I LOVE amber. Add the fact that it also has myrrh, saffron, and cardamom in the description and I was a lost cause. I love not being disappointed. This smells warm. Golden. Dry. The amber doesn't go overly sweet in this blend at all. It's too late for me to be at all logical or even coherently descriptive. So, maybe I should just say that I love Bastet. I can wear it and easily transport myself away to the stifling desert. Great on cold days! I'll try to remember to revisit when I have more brain!

Centzon Totochtin I wore this for the first time today over a little sandalwood body frosting. They melded well together, but the lotion's scent had a tendency to eat Centzon Totochtin. In the vial, there's an initial hit of a rich coffee, but the second sniff brings up a sweet cocoa scent. On the skin, the wine and something just ... naughty, wicked and sweet comes up, grabs it all, and just twists it all around into a really intriuging and pleasing scent. I will add this to my bottle wishlist because it's just so delightfully peculiar in all of the most enjoyable ways.

Sugar Cookie Note to self: always trust Beth. I initially didn't order Sugar Cookie because I had a fat bottle of Sugar Skull that I loved and hugged and smarmed and wore and adored and, shit -- did I need another Sugary type blend? Ironically, the first day that I'd really gone hog wild with the Sugar Skull was the day that I decided I had to order the Sugar Cookie, despite my initial fears that they'd be two peas out of the same sweet peapod. I was so wrong. Sugar Cookie is so very spicey, warm, and just sexed up happy where as Sugar Skull is more the sweet blends of sugars and molasses. Cardamom and Cinnamon in a buttery sort of swirl is the first thing that I smell. ANd it's cardamom and, maybe clove? that I smell throughout wearing it. It's grown on me throughout the day. At first I was lukewarm on it, but by the third trip into bottle sniffing, it was love, love, love for the devil cookies -hooboy! It's also been a big hit around work today.

Mistletoe O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree! Dude. This is fantastic. It smells like a fresh Christmas tree just brought in from the cold. It smells green, fresh, a bit spicey, and all together GORGEOUS. I didn't initially order Mistletoe. It came back, taunting and haunting me, teasing me, all but DARING me to order it. I cannot be happier that I did. If you need to feel fresh? Wear Mistletoe. If you need to an invigorating scent to wake you up? Wear Mistletoe. If you need something positively radiating greeness-you NEED to wear Mistletoe. Also, for you layering junkies-it goes marvelously with Bath and Bodyworks' Juniper Breeze body cream. (I also ordered a White Christmas scent from MMU to wear with this, Skadi, and Ice Queen. We'll see how that works.) Anyway, if you like the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree/pine, then Mistletoe is for you. If not, well, then probably not. LOL

Depraved Wet it was a very, very ripe and decadently sweet fruit scent. Almost like cherries about to burst they were so ripe. But then I put it on and HOLY PATCHOULI, BATMAN! Fruit? Nah. Apricot? Nah. It's ALL patchouli and, god, I don't know what it is with my skin and black patchouli, but it's like a freaking amplifier. The little dab becomes this HUGE and hairy patchouli scent. Woah.

Scarecrow Wow. I get straight up straw in the beginning and something that smells a little plastic-y. Wet that same smell, but now with a touch of smoke and something strange, like someone else said, reminiscent of astringent. It does indeed smell hot, desolate, and dry. It's altogether a forlorn and abandoned scent. Rather like someone set up the scarecrow and then came drought to end the farm and everything else.

Imp Love amber, love peach, fear patchouli. But, dammit, I SO wanted to try Imp. I was more than a little freaked out because it at first smelled like Aureus light. It was really starting to mess with me because it was so similar, only a touch lighter. No peach for a good 30 minutes and, happily, no problems with black patchouli either. (I've concluded that red patchouli doesn't cause me much in the way of distress-it's just black that sometimes gets me. LOL). It took a good 45 minutes on me for the peach to come creeping up in this scent and for it to smelly a little more fruity and playful than Aureus. Freaky!

Jailbait I tend to like sweet scents, so I expected to like Jailbait. And, in the vial and on Pekeana-it's just delish. On me ... it got a little weird. To begin with, it's super sweet-and that was okay! But it heightened so that it was so sweet and SO bubblegummy that it was like it was screaming for attention. But, then something dark sidled up underneath it so that it started to smell like bubblegum flattened on much traveled concrete. It was definately my skin, but something just weird crept out and sullied the whole affair for me. I don't know if I was PMSy that day or if I was just off, but that dirty rock smell just twisted it all around. However, everyone else I know loves Jailbait and it smells great on them. I must, then, conclude that it's all me and my body chemistry. Hmm.

Red Moon The first whiff of Red Moon is warm, sweet marigold. This smells warm, sunny, and red. My first thought is that it reminds me of the color of light behind your eyes when you look up at the sun through closed eye-lids. Warm, warm, sweet, and summery. Once I put it on, the dragon's blood jumps out and takes the marigold for a happy little dance. It mingles and turns it to a sweet, almost syrupy, red floral. The smell of it matches the color of the oil to a tea. Also, it mixes deliciously with Dragonfly Blue's Sugar & Spice.

Antique Lace I'm not sure what I expected from Antique Lace, but creamy vanilla probably wasn't it. However, that's not a negative or disparaging comment at all. If anything, that creamy scent just heightens the bygone scent of phantom perfumes and linens. It's very elegant, very pretty, and wearing it today has produced feelings of quiet contentment. This is going on the LOVE IT BIG BOTTLE wishlist. Also, for any MMU wearers out there, it mixes wonderfully with Sands of Morocco cream. (I happen to like the Bare Necessity, myself. LOL) Also, and most likely just because it's lace and I just read Blood Canticle 4 days ago, I'm both charmed and amused by the notion that it reminds me of Lestat's lacey cuffs. *G*

King of Diamonds Pulled my review off the of the LJ community. I'll be honest upfront and admit that I recognized the scent of chypre, but didn't have a blasted clue WHAT it was. Best I can figure from a quick stab at AskJeeves (don't laugh!), chypre is a combination of oakmoss and citrus. (Please feel free to educate me if this is incorrect.) It makes sense to me, because I do get a tempered, sauve sort of citrus high from the King. The musk is a brilliant combination with this. On first sniff, the King is bright and mighty. In the bottle, he actually smells pretty manly. Which is no bad thing. *G* Once on, it sizzles down to a gorgeous, mellow scent. Light musk with that vague, slinky citrusesque thing going on. He's bright, yes. Regal, definately. But, on my skin he's a lot more subtle than the Queen.

Queen of Diamonds I reviewed this on the LJ community a while back and I thought I'd pull up the review and include it here. The Queen is a sly girl for me. In the bottle, I smell nice, sharp grapefruit and citrus with a few other things swimming around, flashing me here and there with teasing glances. Almost instantly on application, the floral notes come out front. She does indeed get cold. Maybe even a little haughty with her regal beauty. She's very soft and floral, with the citrus notes tingling in the background like old-fashioned glass and crystal ornaments shaking and shimmering on a Christmas tree. Now, my skin does and will amp the floral notes in about anything. So, on another human, the Queen may end up being a little more twangy with citrus that floral and sweet. I think, even on me, the scent is gender neutral-sophisticated, haughty, and just damned fine.

Gingerbread Poppet 2004 *bows to Beth's Genius* Now, for some reason, I expected Gingerbread Poppet to be my least favorite of the yules that I ordered. I figured it'd be nice and that I'd love it, but that it would be blown away by the others. What a shocker to find that it's one of my favorites, if not my favorite. I don't know that I can choose one over the other, but I do know that Gingerbread Poppet is bottled happiness. It's warm, spicey gingerbread to the point of perfection. I wore it layered over MMU's Gingerbread Latte the other day and I just wanted to curl up in the scent-if such a thing were possible. It's simply delicious and smelling it makes me smile every single time. It tends to make everyone else happy too. Though ... it's disconcerting to have random people tell me that they want to eat me up. *blink* LOL Anyway, Gingerbread Poppet is a definate winner and guaranteed to make you feel warm, happy, and loved.

Yuletide 2004 Ah, lovely, spicey potpourri for the skin! When I first put this on, I got a bit of a sting. It's not unusual if there's cinnmon in the oil, though it's strange because sometimes it'll burn and sometimes no. Anyway, definately tingly upon first application, but not a hot burn and really fairly tolerable. It was also more than worth it for the scent. It's so clean and fresh. I don't get pine at all. It's all hot, spicey berry. In fact, I have a lotion from Avon called Spiceberry. Now, the two aren't EVEN on the same caliber here. The lotion is nice, but sort of generic and commerical. But it has that warm, berry scent like Yuletide does. But Yuletide is full bodied and just scent perfection. It's something like a girlier version of Three Witches-berries and spice and EVERYTHING nice. Oh, yes, it's what wenches are made of. It does smell like a room scent, but it melds so nicely with the smell of my skin that I don't think I'd ever want to waste a drop of this on an oil burner. It's all for meeee! It was also an instant crowd pleaser at work. Upon arrival at work, sometime around butthole am, I was greeted with these comments: "You smell so good!" "That's so fresh and clean!" "Omigod, you smell like Christmas!"

Rose Red 2004 WOW. I love the scent of roses, but tend to stay away from rose perfumes because they're always just ... bleh. Discovering Bpal changed my mind on that one. I fell in love with Othello in seconds flat. But Rose Red is the most glorious rose scent I've ever smelled. It smells so fresh and so damned wet, as if the scent is about to explode off of my skin and rain down deep red rose petals from the sky. Because it's so deep, so rose, I can't help but think of it as RED. It smells, to me, more red than anything I've ever sniffed before. And it's so dewey! This is bottled genius. Glorious, perfected, rosey genius. I am going to horde this bottle like it's the holy grail.

King of Spades. All Hail the King! And all hail those swappers out in the great, wide world of Bpal that have allowed me to sample him. On first application of King of Spades, I endured a moment of pure panic. Something in my skin instantly went acidic and for 2.3 seconds I was awash in a very urine-y sort of note. However, it doesn't last for more than a blank and then out comes the fruit and wine. The King is much more subtle than the Queen. The vanilla and coconut (my skin inhales coconut) temper down all of the fruity, winey, blackberry goodness so that you catch whiffs of it when you move your arms and turn your head. All in all, he's a very pleasing dude and I'm a little curious what it would be like to layer him with his chickybird. I may have to try that at home. *G* Ironically, King of Spades has made me very eager for my bottle of King of Diamonds. Is that weird?

All Saints All Saints, All Saints. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! First, there's an unexpected buttery sexuality bursting out from the bottle when I open it. Didn't expect that one coming, but I'm not complaining. Secondly, there's the soft, smokey sweetness of incense at its perfection. It's so pure, so damned perfect in all of its monastic glory that, well, let's just say I'd never be a good Catholic girl with this oil on. It evokes the sense of a smoky candlelit room and makes a girl feel sensual, happy, and way relaxed. Each sniff of the wrist (stuck my nose down my shirt too, just so ya know) produced a happy sigh and a smile. I need MORE!