treealien

In the bottle, this is not altogether pleasant -- something about it feels almost plasticky -- like the smell of opening a new Lego Bionicle (for those of you of a certain generation). I do love it though. A this stage it's quite inky and lightly acrid, with a churning earthiness and warmth that seems to come and go. On my skin, this is a different story -- and where I just adore this blend. With some personality it usually reacts differently to my right and left arms, the right being drier and the left developing a little more of a fermenty sweetness In either case, it is resinous, dark, and elegantly stately. It has a decent-average throw on me compared to most other bpals I've tried. I love this blend, because it is so dark without feeling too heavy or oppressive. It feels dramatic, but self-contained -- kinda like me

This is surprisingly a dry-purple-red scent to me, with some headiness for sure. I'm getting a kind of dryness maybe from the dragon's blood, which is more floral and progressively makes itself known as the oil dries and volatilizes. This is complemented by the tea, which I find a lot stronger in the bottle and wet on the skin. At first it's a dark, succulent, lightly sweet and perhaps even chocolatey black tea -- kind of reminds me of some teas from Fujian I have tried. As it dries I get more dragon's blood, somewhere between resin and floral. The black tea is maybe something stable in the background, making appearances here and there, all the while retaining a sort of understated inkiness that darkens the scent considerably. As a whole, it doesn't feel very earthy or anchored to me. A heady, amorphous cloud of... something. Kind of mysterious. It reminds me of the ring entities in The Expanse. Medium throw. After a couple of hours, there is some faint and clean-smelling dragon's blood.