Gwydion

In bottle: Surprisingly sweet, with the beeswax/honey note strongest. I am surprised there are no berries. Smoke is faint, but present. Wet: the musk in my skin brings out the smoke a little more, but the effect stays sweet honey and candles dominant. It is a delicate scent, but pleasantly so. It is a weirdly mix of the sacred and earthly. Dry: Quietly stunning. The olive oil beeswax thing is lovely. The smoke is subdued, but makes it a little extra interesting. This is elegant in its simplicity.

Each bottle of Chaos Theory is truly unique, a fragrant fractal, and exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct. DXII 512: In bottle: Sweet, aftershavey, vaguely familiar. It smells rather like sea breeze with rich undertones. Wet: It’s reminding me a lot of both chuthulu and lightening. It’s definitely got a sea breeze/ozone thing going on. It has that floral edge a lot of the sea scents have, though it manages to stay reasonably androgynous. It might have a hint of linen, though if so, it’s not strong enough to annoy me. It is lighter and more floral than I’d choose for myself normally, but the scent is so appealing I may very well keep it. There is a faintly aftershave sort of scent to it. The whole thing makes me think of coming out of the shower after a swim in the sea and wrapping up in a freshly laundered towel. There are several elements that are hauntingly familiar, but I can’t separate them out of the stronger ones well enough to identify. It has a ton of throw, like the other Chaos Theory I tried. Dry: Much te same, a pleasant sea breeze/ozone scent.

I don't know, but am very interested in the answer.

In bottle: Dragon’s blood, something herbal, and musk. Lots of musk. Something else familiar I can’t place at the moment, possibly a spice. Wet: something sweeter on top of it all, vanilla probably. It is a lot mellower on the skin than I expected from the bottle scent. It has a faint floral edge. The musk is mostly subsumed. Dry: the floral/dragon’s blood thing seems to predominate, with the other elements creating a strange, but appealing undertone.

In bottle: Pleasant floral with faintly herbal under scent Wet: I smells violet/jasmine to me. Dry; smells like floral drier sheets. Note: I splashed this on my hand, so it’s not a normal test patch.

In bottle: I swear this smells like caramel. My guess that its all the sugar. Honestly, I’m happy the sugar went caramel instead of maple syrup, which is what sugar skull does on me. So, burnt caramel, strawberry taffy, and cotton candy mostly. I can just detect marshmallow and something odd that is likely the lint. It’s not a bad sort of odd or anything. This does, in fact smell pretty much as promised. It reminds me rather of my little sister’s purchases at the candy store when she was eight. Wet: Rock candy. Soooo much sugar. Strawberry toffee, in that order of strength. The other elements emerge more slowly. This is a serious morpher though as various elements rise to the top in turn. I am really liking the lint note now that I can smell it more clearly. Weirdly, it seems to hold the fragrance together. I’m really liking the strawberry, which I wasn’t sure about at first. I had heard you can't distill strawberry so this is an approximation. It smells quite good though and if I decide thumbs up on this it will be for the playful interaction between strawberry and lint, with the charming caramel hints. I'm not sure how Ii feel about this as a fragrance to wear because it is too sugary for my taste, but I am fascinated by the interplay of elements. Dry: Mostly strawberry taffy and cotton candy.

In bottle: Weirdly metallic aftershave and wood. It’s quite appealing, actually. Wet: Much as in the bottle, only vaguely spicey. This is crazy sexy in a masculine sort of way. I am surprised there is no fougere in it as it has the richness I associate with fougere based scents. It’s a little like Mechanical Phoenix, a little like Valmont. It is made of win just generally. I am already in love. As it warms, more of the richness of polished wood comes out. Dry: It calms down a little as it wears, ending up a woody, vaguely metallic, insanely sexy aftershave sort of smell. This is going to be one of my all time favorites, I can tell.

In bottle: So much citrus. Which my skin massively amps and orris, which never works on me. My hopes aren’t high. Wet: I can actually just smell the florals over the extremely intense citrus. The orris is relatively mild, adding an appropriate sense of decay under all that scent. Dry: Mostly rose and amber once the citrus finally fades.

In bottle: Strongly shampoo floral with incense. Wet: I’ picking up some vaguely chemical overtone. It takes a little while for the loam to come out. When it does, it does something quite pleasant with the frankincense and violet, but the effect is a bit weird. I think the ylang ylang and hyssop aren’t quite working with the rest on my skin and the whole things a bit too floral for me anyway. Clearly, not a good choice with my skin chemistry, but no bar to it working for someone else. Dry: Goes dry and vaguely rank and almost sandalwoodlike. I have no clue why, but it does.

In bottle: yummy. The rose geranium is fairly light compared to the other notes. It does smell like damp dark earth with a mossy yew growing over it. Wet: Garden. The floral note is a bit stronger, but doesn’t overwhelm. Dry: Rich dirt and a bit of moss. The flowers fade entirely into the loam.

In bottle: As expected, sweetened pomegranate, such as one finds in juice, only more concentrated. Wet: The pomegranate is less sweet and more spicy. Pleasant enough and oddly womanly. I can imagine how nice this would be on a curvy Mediterranean woman such as Persephone herself. Dry: Fades fairly fast leaving a powdery fruity residue.

There is a chocolate shop downtown that handmakes all the store's product. Gluttony smells like that store to me.

I second boomslang, mostly because velvet goes a little weird on me.

I had some luck with the most recent 13 (June 2008). It's not as strongly chocolate as Boomslang, but it's reasonably androgynous.

CMXLIII (943) In bottle: Vetiver and smoke. Maybe licorice and something green, possibly tea. So disappointing. Wet: Definitely smokey. Also leather and the things I noticed before. I suspect this is what Sharpe of Sharpe’s rifles would smell like. Weirdly, I rather like it, despite the vetiver. It smells of Napoleonic war era soldier camp: gun and woodsmoke, leather, tea, sulpher, men. Unfortunately, we all know how well I do with vetiver. Heartbreaking. Dry: I really could almost where this. It goes all leather/licorice/spices as it dries, but the lingering hint of vetiver is just too much for me and my eyes swelled up a little, so I’m going to have to let it go despite the yumminess. Heartbreaking.

In bottle: Rich sweet wood, moss, and ivy. It has a strong herbal edge and an unexpected richness to it. Wet: It smells wet and loamy under all that green. I can see the ivy and moss covered tree this is trying to evoke. I’m now sorry I don’t have a bottle of this because its stunning. Dry: It’s quite the morpher, the wet loamy smell turning to dry wood powder like one often finds on a rotting log. It vaguely like sandalwood, only with a richer, greener edge left by the plants. I’m loving this.

In bottle: This one’s appropriately weird, sort of aftershave and moss with something softer, maybe its the neroli? It has a sea breeze feel to it too. It is slightly sharp, but not unpleasantly so. There is a faint spiciness to it. Obviously, my sample is rather old, so may not well reflect early reviews. Wet: Wet stone, sea breeze and things growing on it. The cumin and what I’m guessing is the balsam comes out. There is something very faintly floral or possibly citrus, though that’s not the right word to the blend. Again, I’m not that familiar with either Balsam of Peru or neroli, so I’m giving impressions It is darkly and very green. It suits its concept well, though there are clear indications of the effects of age on the blend. Dry: A lingering scent of moss, cumin, and the thing I think is balsam. Very nice.

I was going to make some suggestions, but Irina beat me too it. I only had serious trouble with a few ingredients so i keep an eye out for them. i still pretest everything just in case though. If you had that strong of a reaction, I would wait several days before trying again, Petrina.

... This oil blend is a serene, soothing Indian blend, created to bring calm and joy to the heart and peace to the spirit. Sandalwood, jasmine, rose, patchouli, cedarwood and lemongrass. In bottle: Lemongrass over sandalwood with a faint floral touch. Wet: Grows more complex as it warms. Lemongrass stays very strong, but the other elements are well blended creating a smooth floral/incense blend underneath the super strong lemon. As my skin amps anything lemon like, your results will likely vary. Dry: The lemon eventually chills out taking most of the florals with it. The resulting blend is quite pleasant, sandalwood, cedar, and a hint of patchouli, the ghost of incense.

In bottle: Chalky and pungent, dark green and herbal. Wet: Sharp and vaguely smokey, it’s not entirely pleasant to the nose, but not unbearable. Mintlike without being minty. There is a hint of decay. It wouldn’t surprise me if this had vetiver in it. Dry: Or not. It’s surprisingly pleasant on the dry down, with a pleasantly dusty almost insensey smell. Weirdly comforting where once it was sharp and disturbing.

In bottle: definitely fruit and mimosa on top. Wet: Mostly lush mimosa. It’s quite pleasant, the rich florals supported by the softer fruit and a hint of spice. If I wore florals, I would wear this one Dry: The scent goes dry, flatter and pleasantly spicy, moving away from the lush wet smelling florals.

In bottle: Mostly ambergris and grapes with incense. Wet: Much more complex on the skin as all the more delicate ingredients come out. The grapes smell way more winelike too. This is my last try at wine scents and the most successful of them, likely because of the way ebony and ivy interact with the wine. It still doesn’t work quite with my skin chemistry, but it came close. Dry: The sandlewood and ivy slowly become dominant turning the whole thing much drier smelling in a pleasant way. The wine stays present, but gentler.

I would say Snake oil, Crowley, Mechanism, Quincey Morris, and pickled Imp are all fairly masculine and ones I rather like.

In bottle: Smells surprisingly like berries. I’m guessing that’s the hyssop. It’s very sweet and shampoolike. The linen/dust is indescribable, but interesting. Wet: very berry/herbal shampoo. It’s pleasant enough, but nothing special. Dry: Sweet, dry, floral/berry scent.

Wow, I nominate Pickled Imp as smelling the most like chai.