cyborgutena

I really wish this was as lurching and hateful as described because honestly: scent goals. I really like the parts of it that are mean and smoky and spicy. There's just this sweet note that I really don't like very much. I'm not sure what it is. Weirdly, I now think it might be the scorched cumin and/or black basil? It's really hard to describe... maybe BLUNT sweetness? Given how often I register 'sweet' when other people don't, I think it might just the way I interpret certain planty smells. I really like the smokiness that crawls out after a while. Letting it age a bit seems to have allowed the notes to separate a little more, and either the sweetness has toned down a little or it's just easier for me to separate it from the rest when I smell it.

This is one of my very favourites. I think it has a sort of dark and slow feel to it. Smoky and lavender. Not a sleepy or sharp lavender but a mysterious one. I love most of the notes in this individually and the sum of them is as excellent as expected. It's hard to describe the parts of it individually because they sort of meld into each other very naturally, but I definitely get this great background of nag champa. There's a mild sweetness to it, but it's definitely not one I find unpleasant in any way. This isn't a very detailed review, but I love this one. Great for going out at night.

People are saying this scent changed, so for reference I think mine is from late 2017. With that said, this is my scent for when I feel like a decadent bastard. : D It 's not what I expected but it is great. I'm not entirely sure what ambergris is like, but I think that's the main scent I get. My overall impression to start with is sweet with a thread of pleasant astringency. The tobacco and incense create a mysterious background to it and I can't really separate them. Leather comes out as it dries and the astringency dies down. The ambergris is kind of honey-sweet backed up by musk and I almost feel like the astringency is slightly floral. Weird! But good. I would really like to smell a less ambergrisy one too.

Unfortunately, too herbal sickly-sweet for me. There's so many notes that I'm not sure what is what. Wet, the scent is all green and has a sort of sharp freshness on the top. There's also a herbal sweetness somewhere in there that I dislike and I'm not sure which note it is. It might be the result of the greens mixed with the sweeter florals. To me, it's more the 'softened' part than the 'shadowy, unapproachable forest'. As it dries down, the sweetness lingers and even becomes a little more prominent. Unfortunately, whatever note/s I'm smelling here means this scent isn't for me. It registers as 'medicinal' in my brain.

I got this because I love nag champa and I quite like patchouli. Unfortunately, it turns out I don't love the other notes with them. This, to me, is really grapey. REALLY grapey. To the point where it sort of smells like fake grape when it goes on (not like Hubba Bubba level of fake grape...more dark and less artificial than that). The nag champa and what I assume is cereus start peeking out from beneath it and I enjoy those. I don't know what cereus smells like but I assume it's the sort of spooky floral that I'm getting. The nag champa is spicy as well as (I think) the patchouli (although I don't recognise it that well in this mix for some reason). I would like this a lot better if it didn't have the muscadine, I think. It makes the scent a bit too sweet and rich in a way I don't love, although luckily not in a way that is sickly. I don't think I'd love any grape scent though, to be honest.

When it's wet, my brain combines the 'earthy' with 'mildly sweet' (floral) and gives me 'beetroot'. Which is not terrible but it is a little confusing! As it dries, my brain seems able to separate the scents into the lovely damp earth scent with the floral notes above it. Weirdly, the floral doesn't necessarily register as 'rose' to me. I mean, I like rose and I like this particular floral but they seem different. Anyway, this is very much soil and earth (as you could have guessed from the notes). It's a grave with flowers after the rain. I don't always feel like wearing this one, but I do have my days. It lasts a decent amount of time.

I got this as a frimp. Not sure I would have picked it for myself, but I actually do like it and have worn it when the mood struck. Firstly, I really love licorice and star anise so I find this scent pretty intriguing. The sandalwood softens the anise sharpness and the cherry blossom lends a floral sweetness to the already existing spicy sweetness. There's a certain powderyness to this that isn't unpleasant. I get cherry blossom but not cherry like some other people. I don't really get candy from this...not in the regular sense anyway. The sweetness is more like mukhwas. It's sharp but soft and it's really nice to keep sniffing. I probably won't buy a full only because it's not super 'me' most of the time, but I'll certainly use up my imp eventually.

Wet is like....whooooah herbaceous. With this strong sweet medicinal herb thing going on. Also sharp-herbal. Some wood. As green as possible. It sort of mellows as it dries but that sweetness lingers. To me, this is living trees and picked herbs. Unfortunately, whichever herb is registering as 'medicinal' to me is dominating it and I find it kind of unpleasant. It's like... blunt and antiseptic. I wish I knew what it was so I could avoid it in the future. This one is really interesting to me but I won't be using it because of that particular note.

I love this scent. But then again, I love tea rose. The rose is pleasant and dry. Like dried rose petals in a box, but not musty. As for the 'wickedness': I do get something but I'm not entirely sure what. There's something vaguely dark. I don't really know how to explain this in a way that actually sounds good, but it gets this kind of earthy mushroom thing going in the background as it develops. In a good way. Maybe wet soil. I can't tell if that's my nose totally misinterpreting the note or what. On me, decent throw and wear length. Especially long wear length in fabric because my wrists rubbed against my coat while the scent was still wet one time and hung around for weeks (I didn't try to remove it because it was nice).

Lavender and....eucalyptus? It's very sharp but calming. It's not really something I wear as a scent out but rather something I like to apply at home to relax. Unfortunately, it doesn't have great throw and it fades super quick. I'm kind of surprised because I don't think lavender normally does that on me. If it was stronger and stuck around longer, I would use it when going to bed. As it is, I mostly just keep the imp around and sniff it occasionally.

It's annoying because I do like this scent but unfortunately in makes me nauseous after a little while (kind of a slow burn nausea rather than an immediate one? It might be my skin doing something to it). I'm not sure which note in particular doesn't agree with me or if it's a general combination of them. It really does smell churchy. I am not religious but my extended family is Catholic so that is my main experience of church. I like the incense used there and this smells pretty similar to me. (Incidentally, church incense does NOT make me nauseous.) It's not a particularly 'warm' smelling blend to me. I might even describe it as cold. It's only a little bit sweet. Mainly it's just very resinous and...something else. It's not light like incense smoke. It's quite strong. My partner said 'you smell like an old church' which is what I was going for, so mission accomplished. Unfortunately, I won't be wearing this again or using it because it makes my stomach do flips.

This is one of my absolute faves. In the grand hunt to find things that are really 'me', this is definitely one of them. While wet it's like wood plus a really complex spicy thing. It has a sharpness to it but also seems deep and dark and mysterious. I think the sharpness on top is the mint and orange blossom. There might be a slight sweetness but it's not the sort of thing that my brain usually registers as 'sweet' (not sickly-sweet, not herbal-sweet, not food-sweet...). Dry, it's like perfumed wood furniture. Not perfumed in a girly way but in a spicy incensey kind of way. That....doesn't make it sound as good as it actually is. Imagine a wooden coffin or wooden furniture in a mysterious magic shop. It lasts for a long time on me. I have received compliments while wearing it. Also, one person didn't realise the scent was coming from me and thought someone had been burning incense (in a 'mm, that's smells good!' kinda way). Also, while I was sitting next to my partner, his cousin told him 'you smell like candle shop'... which I suppose tells me that the scent is assumed to be masculine (partner is a man and I am not).

The scent is dark and dirty. The patchouli doesn't give me the 'clean' impression that I sometimes think of when I smell it (which I think is the result of it being in various things toiletries products I've smelled). I don't know why, but it gives me the impression of an old stone building plus...other things. The coconut is definitely not sweet, juicy or tropical to me. Perhaps that is the other notes balancing it. There's no sweetness to this on me, only a bit of spiciness, and I like that. This is one I wear.

I get a herbacious background (which I like) but with sickly sweet over the top. I think the musk/vanilla is responsible for the sickliness, and it's a kind of sweetness that I don't handle very well. After thinking about it a while later, I realised that it's the particular combination of herbacious over very sweet that didn't work for me. Leather may have had a hand in it as well, because sweet leather can be weird for me too. I've been kind of wary about vanilla combos ever since, although I don't know for sure that I should be! Unfortunately, I ended up having to scrub this off when I tried to wear it because the sweetness was making me feel nauseous. Even dry, the sweetness did not go down.

I got this imp for free and didn't read the description or notes before trying it. The image that came to my mind was somehow.... sexy fairy godmother? Feminine velvety gown and cleavage with a soft glow. On top it smells fuzzy-sweet (where fuzzy is violets) and on the bottom it is deep and mature with a hint of leather. I didn't realise wine was a note at first, but it became more winey as it went along. I think the wine accounts for my 'mature' impression from this one, along with the leather. Overall, I would describe it as deep sexy wine with violets on top. There's a sweetness that isn't sickly. The colours I'd associate it with are deep red and deep purple. This isn't something I'd wear, but I wouldn't mind being seduced by the woman this would suit.