Okupsidedown

Snakes in the Last Snows of Winter In the bottle: Snake Oil, something mildly oudhy or indolic. Mint, and something mildly buttery? Perhaps ambergris? Wet: Mint jumped forward, but in my experience, fades quickly. We'll see. I'm guessing indolic. White blossoms. Not really getting any frosty notes. Dry down: Wait, here comes the frost. Still minty. If you've ever smelled the plant chocolate mint, that's how it smells. Not a whole lot of Snake Oil, but what I thought was white blossoms must be an oudh of some sort, as it's going sparkly sweet on me. Dry: It's light and sweet and sparkly. Finally some of that sugared vanilla in the Snake Oil coming through. Still mildly minty. Lovely! I almost always love SO variants.

I Will be Strange, Stout in Yellow Stockings In the bottle: It really is strange. Rice. Something lurky. Perhaps the smokey vanilla? Seems more murky than that, though. I get a tiny bit of tea. Wet: Riiiiiiice. And the lemon. I'm still having trouble picking champaca out, but I think it's the buttery flower note. Smells like lemon cookies a little, which makes sense. Dry down: Oh fuck, this is delicious. Lemon cookies, but not foody. How? No idea. Perhaps the champaca. Flowery. If you made lemon cookies out of flowers, this is what you'd get. Green tea coming forward. Dry: More rice husk than cooked rice. The lemon is so friendly. Gentle. The vanilla is more savory, probably because of the smoke. As I test more blends with champaca, I'm developing a great love for it. Not the incense, yech. But the flower and absolute, yis! This blend is a great deal more mild than sniffing the bottle would have you believe. I like this a whole lot, but I'm very curious as to how it smells on me to other people. It's even less conventional than your average bpal, which is saying something.

Silver Haired Bat In the bottle: Amber, copoiba, and benzoin. All the light, creamy, sugary goodness. Wet: Gloopy, creamy amber. Cedar waving in the background. No oudh anywhere. Dry down: Buttery ambergris coming forward. The cedar is still so very subtle. If I concentrate hard on pepper, I can sense a sharpness, but it's not something you'd pick out if you didn't know it was there. Really wish that cedar would shit or get off the pot. It just sort of flirts waftily in the distance. Dry: It smells like pipe tobacco? When I was in high school, I was on the swim team. Our coach was a tiny Jewish man with a gigantic mustache, and he'd drive us home shirtless while smoking his pipe with his giant mustache. (His son was always in the car, so it was never inappropriate) Anyway, it smells like that. Except now the benzoin and copoiba are really coming forward, making it smell kinda like a rootbeer float. Don't ask me, I don't make the rules!! If you just shut up and enjoy it, Silver Haired Bat is a gorgeous, comforting, gentle blend that holds one aloft in happy childhood memories.

Hope and Fear Set Free In the bottle: Weirdly watery Frankincense. Wet: BOOM! Frankincense and bourbon vanilla! In yo face! The frankincense is almost astringent. Like soaked strips of wood rather than a resin. Dry down: Vanilla is showing itself in the throw, but not necessarily on my wrist. I put a swatch of this in my Moriuntur locket, so perhaps that's what's giving the vanilla more support? Hasn't changed much from wet. I love the way I smell with the throw, but my wrist still smells like soaked wood strips. Dry: Vanilla coming more forward, and it's a great, woody, dry vanilla that pairs perfectly with the frankincense, instead of trying to strongarm it into foody. I'm so into this! Might try it with a tiny drop of Vanilla Orchid SN, cause I feel like that would be amazing.

Elegy No. 1 S. 196 In the bottle: *pokes at the bottle* Do something. Smells. Like nothing? Ambergris seems to do that in the bottle about half the time. Maybe a tiny bit of powder. Kinda sweet? Wet: Oh hay there, Bergamot, you sexy beast! Gorgeous. White musk and ambergris. Oof! No sandalwood yet, but I amp it, so it's only a matter of time. Dry down: Sparkly white musk and ambergris. Bergamot ran off in a huff and says she's never coming back. We'll see about that. Just barely enough sandalwood to give this blend a foundation. Dry: I love white musk! The usual buttery thing ambergris does is nowhere to be smelled, everything is just glittery and sparkly. Little powdery, but sandalwood keeps it grounded. Yis!

Csárdás Macabre In the bottle: Hella resin. Smells like every voodoo shop in New Orleans. Red Musk and Balsam. Tiny undercurrent of geranium. Wet: Same as in the bottle, but with a little sharp rich tobacco. Dry down: Round, rich, thick, red. This one has a lot of notes outside my comfort zone, so it's a little harder to pick them out. Dry: It keeps getting rounder and richer and redder! Voluptuous. This. Is. Sexy! It almost hurts how good this smells. This is not a friendly good. This blend forces you to love it. Pulls at you from the seat of your weaknesses with ruthless darkness.

Greeeeeeeen! Of course, there are the floral notes, but I love the greeeeeeen! Like bruised bright leaves. After everything settles, and the dry down has made up its mind, the daffodil and peony are most present, held aloft on a light bed of greeeeeen.

I love this scent. I love it in the bottle, wet on the skin, dry, and fading. I love that I can smell it on my pillow, on my clothes, and when I turn my head. The balance is very even until the end, to me. It's not until the scent is fading that I can pick out the plum and amber cream. Otherwise, it's a very rich, but still oddly fresh and floral scent. Plum and amber love me, though, which probably contributes to the beautiful experience I've had with this I've.