LadyCrow

In imp: Men's cologne. Wet on skin: Pepper, which works oddly well on my skin. Drydown: This is a lot like Dragon's Hide but saltier, with the cold note of the steel standing out also; as it dries down, it gets the powdery, heavy incense scent of the resins permeating everything. Before that, though, it's definitely "the bloody sword" of a million paperback fantasy-novel covers: you smell wild places and war. A really interesting blend, in a way that commercial perfumes simply aren't interesting.

Wet: Placing your wrist near your nose, carefully recite the Lemon Sutra. Drying down: After the heavy lemongrass (yeah, it sounds weird to describe that note as heavy, but I think it's appropriate here) evaporates, which takes a while, finally the woods come out; the cedar amps the sandalwood a bit, and that's nice. It is very much a skin scent on me, with minimal throw. I mean, I could quite literally be wearing Namaste on more than just my wrists, and still not disturb the person on the next meditation cushion. The question is whether the woods, for any given wearer, are worth waiting through the OMG! Lemongrass! phase. I've not yet tried this in a locket or as a room scent; right now, on skin, it's just on the edge of having oomph.

In the vial: Cherry blossom with a hint of dragon's blood. Wet on skin: Fruity! Something's coming forward -- citrus? Lemon? No, I think that's lemongrass. Drying down: Sweet green tea. As the drydown continues, the bamboo advances and keeps the blend overall very green, with the other notes detectable but still in the background. The sandalwood, I think, may just be there as a base amping the floral aspects of the dragon's blood. This has really unusual throw for what I'd call a fresh/floral blend -- maybe that's the dragon's blood? Sigh. I would continue to write about Dragon Moon, but it is impossible: I have died of yum. My icon aside, I think I may have a new favorite Lunacy.

This was an object lesson for me in "Why Sniffies of LEs are Important." I put this on; when it was wet, I got the buttery note other people talked about; and so I waited eagerly for the pumpkin and spices to arrive. What actually happened -- and lasted for quite some time -- was that my forearms smelled very, very strongly like a deep, rich peaches-and-cream Yankee Candle smell. I cannot explain this. I don't know where my arms were getting this warm, admittedly a bit spicy, VERY peachy, VERY creamy scent -- I mean, we're talking a good scented candle -- from pumpkin, amber, and ginger. I don't know if my fair, frequently dry skin ate the good notes, or what. All I know is that I don't particularly want to smell like a peaches-and-cream candle, even a very good one. I'll use the remaining droplet in the sniffie to scent a room, maybe -- but my own peculiar skin chemistry just does not want to be Linus Van Pelt's dream date.

Ars Draconis has not yet done me wrong, and Dragon's Hide is no exception. I already liked the major notes, so addicting me to this was so not difficult. The lilac-like floral note of the resin, which some people get as jasmine, comes first, and stays dominant for a good long while. When the leather finally comes in (with the smoky note last on me), it stays warm, keeping the blend from turning overly cool for what it's meant to evoke -- and the smoke just sets the "dragon" stamp on top of everything. As with all of the dragons I've tried so far, this had great throw and lasted for hours, with the leather staying the longest. I'm not sure if this is quite as sexy as Blood Amber. I might have to do a side-by-side sexiness test.

Wet: If perfumes can be said to reflect subtle suggestions from the perfumer, Beth seriously wants me to chug some amaretto. On skin: There must be some cinnamon in this -- it reddened my skin within five minutes of application. I must have the weird chemistry from hell (and I'll retry this at another point in my cycle, I guess), because it very quickly morphed into soap -- then, after a comparatively short time, vanished into myrrh-y powder. There was a nice nutty thing going on during drydown, where the three major notes were nicely balanced, but that stage didn't last nearly as long as I could have wished, and I got the musk only relatively late in the blend's lifecycle. Still, I can see this having potential on my hair or as a room scent. But what the heck -- they can't all be winners, or we'd all be broke, right?

This is definitely in the "baffling, but great" scent category for me, with the rich, deep, sweet vanilla lasting next to my skin for hours. I mean, I don't know exactly what a root-beer float spilled on a cedar floor has to do with cowboys. But then, cowboys are mysterious; I don't know why a musclebound, gun-toting male mercenary would be called "Jayne," either. I would not have thought to pair vanilla and cedar, but mysteriously, it absolutely works on me. If it's masculine, as some have suggested, then it's a geeky, rather citified masculine -- to continue with the Firefly metaphor, Tombstone is much more Simon Tam than Mal Reynolds. The Snake Oil comparison prompts fleeting thoughts that Tombstone is also rather like Western Diamondback lite -- a handy GC similarity in between LE fixes. Very nice. To the extent that this counts as foody, it's not overly heavy the way Gluttony can be.

The instant I sniffed Mr. Jacquel on the back of my hand, I got a picture of a man in an expensive, well-tailored black suit -- perhaps the character from the book, definitely somebody you'd be having a drink with in a desert. The patchouli really grounds the spices and resins, and then hangs around for a long, long time, but this is an understated and subtle patchouli. The overall effect smells rich, sort of like a cologne made with expensive ingredients -- but not with any obnoxious department-store quality, just the richness of notes effectively layered. I always find it interesting to compare American Gods to their Excolo counterparts, and in this case I think of Anubis as a daytime scent and Mr. Jacquel as a nighttime scent. You could wear Mr. Jacquel in close quarters, say to an art exhibit, and not be remembered by everyone as "that person with the heavy perfume," but the people you chose to be close to would like your smell.

In the imp, all I get from this is honey -- initially, it seems like a tamer honey than that in, say, Kali. Very docile, sweet, indeed subservient. But the amber, which does that powdery thing within the first hour, keeps the blend from being cloying or sweet in an undesired way -- if I wanted Trick or Treat, for example, I'd spring for an imp of that, and I'm typing this in a season where one starts to worry about attracting bees! Instead, the "O"verall impression this left for its long staying time was of something murky, indeed musky, that was sweet if smelled close to the skin, but generally the scent description nails this. Something sexed-up has been added to the pure sweetness in a good way. I actually thought I smelled something floral a bit early in the application; it was probably just the bit of vanilla doing that. Interesting blend!

Loviatar absolutely nails the commanding aspects, and has superior throw and staying power -- as I would have expected! I'm not totally sold on this blend after my first test, though. I get that salty thing early on, which is a little confusing, as theoretically I wouldn't have sweated into the leather yet... and to veer quickly away from TMI territory, perhaps it's the musk that gives this such a strong men's-cologne vibe later in the drydown, which was something I wasn't necessarily looking for here. I do also get a bit of the powdery note from the myrrh, but not excessively. That said, I really like the way the leather plays with the amber. I'm going to try aging this a bit to see what goes on.

Delicious. I love the way this slithers between the dry leather and the sweetness of the Snake Oil and tonka bean (for me, the sage mostly comes out in the very-wet and drydown stages). Long-lasting and seductive in an outdoorsy, summer-evening way, with the creamy sandalwood making a nice base for everything. I can see why you'd handle a rattlesnake that smelled like this.

As Coyote dries on me, I get the sweet, warm musk and amber -- that creamy note I like so much in other blends. I mean, this is a very wearable scent. But when it's just wet on me? Freshly wet? I'm amazed. The sweetgrass predominates, I suppose, but what I get is a scent picture of the fresh, clean tallgrass prairies of the Great Plains where I grew up... and a deep longing to romp around loose and chase prairie dogs. Okay, maybe not that last part literally. I just never thought you could get big-sky country in a little teeny imp, but apparently the Lab can -- wind through the tall grasses in the sun, yum. I could wish it lasted a bit longer (my fair skin drinks oils), but my tail is wagging.

I was already a bit angry when I put this on, so I can't speak to its tendency to cause anger from an otherwise neutral start. I can, however, speak to its tendency to make me keep sniffing myself over a period of several hours! I got an imp of this for the dragon's blood and amber that play so beautifully with my skin in other blends; indeed, this is basically Blood Amber diluted a bit with more floral and fruit notes, which for me steer the scent a little bit more toward kittenish-sexy than tigress-about-to-eat-you sexy! I do get something musky or smokey from Rage, which is probably the amber; the citrus and florals make this, despite the name, less aggressive than Blood Amber, more something I could safely wear out to dinner with my husband AND other people. (I was about to write that sometimes, you want a fragrance to be less "penetrating," but in context, that just seemed wrong.)

It's hard to know what to say about Malediction except that the last time I smelled this much patchouli this strongly, Jerry Garcia was still alive. Seriously, I don't know about "evil incarnate," but if you wear this, be prepared to attract random VW microbuses to your general vicinity. Now, this isn't such a bad thing for me, because I love patchouli -- and for the first several hours (the sheer strength of this blend and other reviewers' comments combine to make me think that there will be another few hours yet to come), it's Radio Patchouli, no commercials, all patchouli, all the time; only well into the drydown do I get the cedary vetivert and citrus notes that augment the earthiness -- but if, for whatever reason, you do not want to smell like a hippie, Malediction is not for you. I disagree that this is necessarily masculine, but then I think Birkenstocks are perfectly unisex as well! To me, Malediction defies its description and strongly evokes summer. It's just that it evokes Summer Tour: "back in Terrapin / for good or ill again," that's what I get.

I get the cherry-almond-vanilla sweetness from this that people mention, but it's a tamer almond than the very amaretto-like note in some other blends. As this dries, some very nice golden incense/resinous notes come up, accompanied with something that's strangely nose-opening, rather sharp. Throw is good; drydown is sweet and creamy -- the aftertaste of a cherry-vanilla cola? As a Voodoo Blend? I am seriously starting to get nervous. Last night, sort of desperately hoping, I scented a room with this and swiped some across my wallet and the notes in it. Today, I got news that my poverty and want for the summer will, indeed, be partially overcome (translated: I've been assigned a class for the late-summer term, where previously I was looking at no paychecks until September). It would be a very odd world if there were no coincidences... but, dude.

I only get the rose when this is in the imp. On my skin, it's the sandalwood that hits first, with the resins coming on as drydown begins. This reminds me a lot of Tushnamatay, in the way that certain blends -- and I wouldn't have thought of this when I thought of "woodsy" -- have this lovely creamy quality that keeps my nose firmly attached to my arm. Both blends are also very much skin scents for me, so much so that I, with my peculiar tastes, would consider using this one especially as a room scent. (Nia states in her review that Thanatos is "too happy to be named after death." I have to agree that the enchanting images it evokes for me are nothing like the doom-and-gloomy description. I'm sorry -- this is just not morbid! Romantic and swoony, okay, in the same way that Rose Cross is. But this is not the Djarum Black of perfumes, here.)

I don't know what disturbing synchronicity has led me to test so many oils lately that contain the almond/amaretto note, either backed with cherry or by itself! Very heady, almost intoxicating, when wet; strangely, what lasts longest on me is the powdery drydown, with the incense-like notes others have mentioned, but that's also a stage with unusual oomph for what it is. I also got the bay rum note I'd heard was sometimes in this -- really, initially, it smelled almost salty and aquatic behind the cherry/almond, the way Baron Samedi does, but that toned down nicely as the drydown progressed. Interesting, but I find myself among those who are sadly not in love with the signature scent; it's nothing that makes me want to jump up and go chase a bottle -- that's not to say it isn't pretty or interesting, but there are other bottles I'm chasing!

Wet, Salomé was all about the amaretto -- very similar to Bastet in that way. After the initial application, the jasmine was the strongest, giving it that "department store perfume" feel that others have mentioned and that I just find really hard to like. However, once those stages were done, what remained was a boozy, low-throw skin musk that was quite nice. It didn't have the world's greatest staying power on me, however; I don't see myself seeking out another imp -- but something perverse in me wants to try layering with something even boozier (Grand Guignol?). Maybe I can get my skin drunk!

This was... well, every bit as peculiar as you'd expect a Lovecraft-inspired perfume to be, and definitely fit the constant-change part of the description! Wet, it was all the lemongrass, to the point of lemon Pledge. I just kept my wrist away from my nose and waited, confident that everything would change on the drydown. And it did -- sufficiently that the musk rubbed up against something late in the coconut-floral stage (which, thankfully, never got cloying) and gave an almost smoky note, as if to say, "Hey! This is a monster! Remember?" On me, Shoggoth had fairly good throw for an oil that's so light-colored in the imp, which was interesting. I think that overall, for me, either this is going in the "age it, try again" pile, or this is more in the category of "perfume science experiment" -- if I'm trying to write and my brain really needs to be woken up with some highly unusual sensory input, definitely, Shoggoth. I can see why this isn't in Bewitching Brews under the "fall at my feet, you hot and lustful man" category, however.

The resins come out best for me on the drydown, and then they're very nice, giving things a bit more of the incense-y wafty quality I'd hoped for. At first, though, all I can smell on me is the lotus, so dark (true to the scent name) it smells purple, and I can see where people would find it cloying. After that initial WHOOMP of lotus, things are more balanced. Overall, this is just a little bit traditionally perfumey and floral for my taste; I'll probably use up the imp, but not quickly, as this gives me the feeling of an evening dress-up occasion--and contrary to popular belief, the nightlife of an English teacher is not sodden with glamour! I'd wear this with black velvet, for example.

After the initial Deep! Dark! Berries! of the wet application begins to dry, I get something less deep and more like a red haze -- maybe somebody bewitched by a sweetly prankish fairy wandered into a berry patch in summer. On drydown, the musk and woods keep this from being overly sweet; it's pleasantly so, but not in an annoying overly-scented-candle way. I do wish this lasted longer, but then I only tested it on one pulse point -- probably a wider slather, or use in a scent locket, would give me more time in the pixie's musky berry patch. ADDED July 28: I'm not crazy about scents that are OMG!Berry and nothing but all the time, but what I really enjoy about Bewitched is the way the sage, green tea, and (eventually) musk give a drier, leafier cast than you'd find in Baneberry or Jester. I found myself liking this, in fact, more than I'd expected to. The big bummer for me here was the relatively short wearlength. It's a subtle scent, especially on drydown after the initial berry-ness gets muted a bit, so I wasn't looking for a Schwarzer Mond-type sillage -- but the whole thing really vanishes so quickly. It might make a good room or locket scent if berry-sage is your thing.

Wet, this was cool -- I would almost have been tempted to call it aquatic. I got the milk -- a tall, thin glass of iced milk with a cutting of fresh ginger. As Sudha dried on me, it was absolutely a skin scent, one of those I have to slather to get the scent at all. When I do get it, though, it's relaxing and clearing; I wore it to bed, and while it wasn't what I'd expect from a jolt of TKO, it was perfectly comforting for that moment. Sudha also has really nice staying power. I kept sniffing to get the lemon and ginger, which merged into a layer that was almost classic-perfumey, but stubbornly different from that. Like many before me, I suspect I'll be using Sudha as a layering base, maybe to boost incense-y blends that otherwise disappear on me, like Othello or Manila.

Wet, Blood Pearl definitely smells like musk and dragon's blood at first, with the deep, deep sweetness of the latter, but the coconut makes it rounder and more tropical. As I kept sniffing myself, I got visions of being on a porch somewhere lush in the Southern US, somewhere with fruit trees, drinking big drinks. (I have always depended on the kindness of strangers!) Blood Pearl is really nice -- rich without overpowering the nose. The orris did stick around the longest, leaving things a bit perfumey-powdery for my taste at the end, but it's worth that minor point given the comparatively long time this stays vibrant. It's a skin scent on me, which is good for the times you want to smell like these notes, but not overwhelm everyone within ten miles with your sultry sexiness! (Three miles, okay...)

I got a sniffie of this with some other imps, and tested it without having read the notes recently. I think I might have glanced over it in here and gone, "Ooh, not for me." Let that be a lesson! If you have preconceptions against a particular scent category or note (that you're not actually allergic to), forget them when it comes to BPAL! Very much like Mi-Go Brain Canister (another fruity, peppery scent), Xanthe is a scent I never would have dreamed would be so good on my skin... but it is. In the imp: Sweet and fruity, with a bit of spice. Wet: Banana bread? Seriously, is this banana bread? As it dries: Can't stop sniffin'. This isn't a scent with major throw -- I've found that if it's pale in the imp like this, it's not going to pack the wallop of, say, a dark red Ars Draconis blend. Xanthe is definitely a skin scent, but one that gives me pleasure as I move around, smelling like something sweet -- simultaneously that indulgent, childish sweetness of the guava and something more sophisticated. With Xanthe, although I can seriously smell the cotton candy on drydown, the floral notes and the pepper remind me that there's more to the "world" of this scent than just the sweetness. The guava is kept from having the tropical-sticky feeling of the actual juice (which I love, but wouldn't want to smell like on its own unless I really wanted to attract bees). Deftly blended, definitely summery.

Having read other reviews, and having allergies that manifest on my skin, I was deeply grateful not to have a reaction to the cinnamon here (as I absolutely did with Possets Cadmium Red, for example). What reaction did I have? It works! I love me! I think I'm the sexiest thing on legs! Wait... was that the intention? Seriously: Wet, I get all the sweetness of the dragon's blood (which always, always plays well for me; the next time I slaughter some dragons, I'll remember to bring my bucket); the woods; and an almost musky spiciness. As the scent settled down, the patchouli, another favorite, rose up and took command, with the sweetness remaining in the background; maybe this is where people are getting the "cherry Coke" impression. As Love Me dried, I got more and more of the vanilla in the space around me. Fantastic throw, fantastic staying power, and a warm sensuality (a very adult sensuality -- the woods, I think, really add to the sit-up-and-take-notice quality) just as I'd hoped from this oil. Effects on others yet to be fully tested!