Electric Maenad

Okay, so when I bid on this during one of the Lab's eBay sales, I was only looking at the caramel and brown sugar and hazelnut and butterscotch. Especially the hazelnut, because man, I do love me some hazelnut latte. But this is... it's kind of like Miskatonic University, only less with the library / Bailey's / tweed vibe and more of the campfire coffee / burnt marshmallows / freshly-sharpened pencils vibe. A little more rugged and outdoorsy than Misk. U., but still sweet and woody and not particularly scary at all. The only downside is that the hazelnut tends to go away rather quickly, but overall, I'm really liking this and am glad it's not all-sugar-all-the-time.

This is you: This is you, sitting in an old-fashioned wooden deck chair at the beach eating creamsicles: Any questions?

In light of my discovery that Beth's ambergris (and by extension, grey amber) smelled way better on me than the "artificial whale barf" article on Wikipedia would suggest, I figured this would be a total win for me, what with the sandalwood and vanilla and musk and whatnot. Several of the Calgary BPAL crew expressed surprise that I'd never tried it, and one of them graciously provided me with a frimp at a MnS. Nope. It smelled like hairspray - gods' own truth. I'm blaming the lily.

Asp Viper is almondy-snakey-myrrh omnomnomness.

So... embarrassingly enough, I had a sniff of this at the Calgary MnS last night and said, "Wow, this smells like orange juice! I've got to order a bottle of this!" At which point, Paperrose pointed out that I had swapped her *my* bottle I'd ordered last year after discovering that on my skin, it smells like "lemon-flavoured condoms". I'm really glad *someone* remembered that it was total fail on me before I sprang for another bottle. Le sigh.

Smells like caramel popcorn on me, so not my cuppa. Babybear loves it though, so I might have to get a bottle so he can smell like "a candy ghost" whenever he wants. Definitely a good scent for a small child. Very evocative of old-school trick-or-treating, with a pillowcase full of bubblegum, rockets, Tootsie rolls, and sticky popcorn balls.

Phwooooargh. Damn, that's some red musk. And in blends where it isn't the dominant note, it's lovely. By itself though, there's a weird fruity element to it that I don't care for. It's the same reason I can't wear Scherezade by itself (although it layers nicely with spice blends). Not getting the honey at all, unfortunately.

Iago - don't like it myself, because vetiver is a death note on me. But I smelled it on one of my friends, and it smelled pretty much like "bastard in a bottle" I thought the note list for Two Headed Goat from Carnival Diabolique sounded pretty damn strange. Actually, a lot of the Wunderkammer scents sound pretty damn strange. Also, last year's Yule LE, Old Man Ackerman's Instructional Toys was just flat-out *weird*. Sort of a lemony, fizzy, metallic WTF.

My first impression of this from the decant was candied violets and chilled pears, which is slightly weird because violet isn't listed in the notes. It's a very spacy blend - the visual that springs to mind is icy rings of, yes, opalescent mist around a full moon on a very cold winter night. It has a sedative effect like TKO, but unlike TKO, it doesn't make me sleepy. This makes me feel calm, but in a highly alert way. It doesn't last terribly long, unfortunately. I still like it, because it's the most psychically charged non-TAL I've ever tried.

This was not what I was expecting at all. Mind you, I suppose I wasn't entirely sure what I was expecting, so there you go. The lavender is the first thing that hits, and it's a rather sharpish, cologne-y lavender as opposed to the lovely soft fluffy lavender in TKO that made me stop hating lavender. So after five minutes, I'm thinking - "Augh, I need to wash my hands," and then the lavender just vanishes behind an equally sharp but more agreeable metal note. I think the sandalwood is also playing a part in this - toning down the metal and making more... well, liquid. After about an hour, it reminds me a lot of Galvanic Goggles. A nice, clean, manly scent. James Bond, only French and instead of carrying a gun, he carries around a Thomas Pynchon novel and will spend the next several hours telling you about it until you realize with some surprise that you're in his bed. Naked. Good stuff. If I was a guy, I'd be all over this. Suave, cool, and sexy in a very cerebral sort of way.

Woo! Tried this out yesterday, and the first impression is these ultra-bastard sour jawbreakers that they sell at one of the shops down in Chinatown. Lemon so sharp you might actually fall over if you happen to pop one in your mouth expecting something else (true story - I thought it was gum). Anyway, the lemon kick departs relatively quickly on me (unfortunately) and shares air time with the mint and something effervescent I'm assuming is the ozone (I can't identify ozone as a separate note for the life of me). Then about an hour and a half after that, it fades down to something that reminds me a lot of Torture Queen. That sort of generic "clean and fresh" perfume smell, only without the musk to anchor it. I really wish the lemon / mint / herbal / fizz stage lasted longer.

Mmmmmm.... This starts off really buttery and spicy with a leetle bit of citrus. Weirdly, it reminds me a lot of my bottle of 2007 Pumpkin V, only without the pumpkin, if that makes any sense at all. Okay - I've got it. It's like shortbread cookies with cinnamon and nutmeg and peppercorns mixed in. That same really rich buttery smell, only peppery instead of sweet. I've decided that I like *spicy* foody scents, and this one is looking like a potential bottle purchase. Must test the rest of my decants first though.

I got this as a frimp at some point in the distant past and avoided trying it for the longest time because of the honeysuckle. And then I finally dabbed some on, and was instantly transported to cinnamon sex goddess world. Not a hint of floral, just cinnamon and a sticky, sultry sweetness that manages to smell like fresh cinnabons and hot sex simultaneously. If you like Shub, you'll like this. If you like Saw-Scaled Viper but it gives you a rash, this might work on you. if you love the smell of TAL's Caliph's Beloved but don't want the full-on magical boot-to-the-libido... you'll probably dig this.

Seconding Inez. I've actually over-applied her a couple of times because I'm so used to my skin eating perfume. Saw-Scaled Viper was pretty long-lasting too, although the spices faded away after a couple of hours so all that was left was the Snake Oil part. Snake Oil too, obviously, although I've only tried a really super-thick aged version, so I don't know if it lasts as long fresh. Rakshasa also lasted a crazy long time, which was unfortunate because I smelled like an over-budget 1950s Technicolor movie about "Teh Mysterious Orient" for damn near 10 hours before the rose and sandalwood finally killed each other.

Snakes I've tried (in no particular order): 1. Asp Viper 2. Temple Viper 3. King Cobra 4. Green Tree Viper 5. Saw Scaled Viper 6. Boomslang 7. Western Diamondback 8. Snake Oil (aged - tested this after most of the others for comparison purposes) Snakes I love: 1. Asp Viper (almond + myrrh + SO = ) 2. Snake Oil (I think I'll have to get a bottle, stick it in a drawer, and just forget about it for a few years ) 3. Green Tree Viper (minty fresh!) 4. Saw Scaled Viper (started off as burning welts of doom on me, but it seems to have calmed down a bit after a few months of aging) Snakes I'm not that crazy about: 1. Temple Viper (GAH! GRAPE!) 2. Western Diamondback (too manly... which is fine since I got it for ze man anyway) 3. King Cobra (too sharp) Snakes I'm still not sure about: Boomslang (I think I prefer my chocolate and Snake Oil separate...)

Jeebus. If Starbucks / Second Cup / Tim's / *anyone* made a drink that tastes as good as this smells, I... well, I'd have a damn sight less money to blow on perfume. Which is to say, none. Like it on me, but tragically it doesn't last very long. If I put it on ze man though, it lasts for hours, and I can just wrap around him and snurfle to my heart's content. Need to get him a bottle of this, stat. ETA: To be a little more specific - I get sticky, creamy, Bailey's-and-coffee bliss from this. No wood, no parchment, unless the very faint sweet dusty smell at the end of the fade counts. Don't care. It's yummy just the way it is.

Jeebus - I can't believe I forgot to review this. Okay, so on initial application, a fresh bottle of this stuff smells almost exactly like pure almond extract, which is fine, because I like the smell of almond extract. There's a faint hint of citrus underneath, but not much. After a couple of hours, the spices in the SO come out and it's like spicy marzipan. Spicy sexy marzipan. I recently acquired an aged bottle of Asp Viper, and the almond takes on a bit of a burnt quality (again, not unpleasant) and the myrrh (I assume) is much more prominent. Basically, all the notes are much more in harmony, although I notice that the mandarin is pretty much drowned out by the other notes on me. It's still a really sexy, sort-of-foody, but above all exotic scent. It's in my top five easily. ETA: It also lasts a super long time - at least seven hours, although by the end it's just the SO and maybe a tiny bit of myrrh.

Oh gods. This is my personal holy grail of fragrance. I'd been wanting to try Faith, but I really can't imagine it being any better than this. There was this ultra-posh French chocolate shop in town years ago that I would occasionally buy four or five chocolates from (which was about all I could afford) They did these chocolates with a little candied violet flower on top. The filling was a violet-flavoured creme fraiche, and this smells just like that.

Niiice. Goes on *dark* dark chocolate - the almost black kind that has 90% pure cocoa and actually makes your mouth a little dry when you eat it. The caramel comes up almost immediately after, but it's held in check nicely by the bitter chocolate so it doesn't do that ARGH INSULIN SHOCK thing that I got after applying Red Lantern. The pepper and smoke sneak in behind the two dominant notes in a very subtle way, so that I get hints like wisps of actual smoke when I move. Again, unlike RL, the smoke smells like food smoke (think the burnt crust of sugar on creme brulee) rather than stale cigarettes. This is definitely a cold-weather scent. It's way too rich for summertime. I think this will also smell awesome on the man.

This scent was instrumental in making me decide to order a bottle of Strawberry Moon. I am absolutely blown away by the Lab's strawberry note - it smells like an honest-to-gods fresh strawberry. Actually, scratch that. It smells like a fresh-picked, organic, non-huge-grocery-store-mutant-variety strawberry. At least initially, anyway. The white chocolate comes up slowly and merges seamlessly into the strawberry for a nice long period of really good strawberry ice cream, and then gradually tapers off into vanilla cream with just a hint of berry remaining. I'm seriously tempted to lick my arm whenever I wear this.

Waaaaaargh... I really ought to know better at this point. Rose doesn't like me. I smell like a 1950s Hollywood producer's idea of what a Hindu temple smells like. [later] Fortunately, the rose toned down a fair bit after about an hour, but it's still pretty heavy on the overall headshop / incense boot-to-the-head. Not my cuppa, I'm afraid.

I must have the weirdest skin chemistry ever. I can hardly smell this, even with my wrist right up to my nose. There's a little vanilla, a little spice, and maybe a hint of plum, but apart from that I got nothing. After an hour, I can't smell anything at all. Fortunately, I suspect I will have little difficulty finding a good home for my decant.

You know, if I was younger or if I had a little girl, I'd have been really disappointed that I didn't get a bottle when I had the chance. It's wonderfully sweet and summery and fruity, like the really good kinds of fruit drops they sell in the English import shop near where I live. That said, while it's great stuff, I think it's a little bit girly on me, and I will stick with the much sehexier wine-gums-and-incense vibe of Dionysia.

Me: Huh, you know, this is kind of nice. Woody, with a bit of citrus, and a hint of foppish florals, but really a lot more manly than I was expect-- Rosezilla: STOMP STOMP STOMP Me: AAAGH! RUN AWAY!!! After the initial ten minutes of sexy dandy smell, I get nothing but fancy little bathroom soaps of doom from this. DOOM, I tell you!

Garg. I probably should have read the description for this before applying it with my usual heavy hand. Vetiver is a note of death on me, and it turned a scent that bore a certain resemblance to Faustus (which smells like White Light, which I lurve) into swampy, medicinal smelling violets.