alianthe

In the bottle: Pumpkin pie and bonfires, crisp autumn air. On my skin: Autumn leaves and spiced apple cider, delicious! Conclusions: Yum in different ways.

In the bottle: Caramel, maple, then after many sniffs boozy pumpkin joins the party. It's lovely enough just like this I might put it in a locket for craving busters. Wet: Quickly morphing spices and something high and sharp, bright, a bit boozy, shading to spiced pumpkins and vodka. After a while it begins to darken. As time goes by, it becomes a deep, dark, slightly gritty pumpkin with maybe just a hint of sweetness. Drydown: Harshly spicy, dark undertones, pumpkin with fake caramel on top. Overwhelmingly strong. Kinda slightly headachy. Conclusions: This is a locket scent!

This is a place for me to track my reviews, so I have some way of figuring out what's working and what's not working. It is an ongoing project. * = headache inducers. + = before cutting out sugar ECWC Reviews (barebones) | Jan09: Giant Vulva, Man With Phallus Head, Khrysse, Miss Lupescu, Electricity is Life (prototype)+ | General Catalog | Arkham+ | Ave Maria Gratia Plenia+ | Bewitched+ | Black Forest | Black Lotus+ | Blood Amber | Cathode | Dirty+ | The Doormouse+ | Fenris Wolf+ | Greed+ | Jolly Roger+ | Kabuki+ | Katharina+ | Kumiho | Lampades | Mag Mell+ | Marie+ | Morocco+ | The Pool of Tears | Queen+ |Seraglio+ | Sudha Seggara+ | Tempest+ | White Rabbit+ | BPTP | Bella Babydolls | Kumiho Soap | Miskatonic University Soap | Yoga pants | Carnaval Diabolique | Antonino, the Carny Talker+ | Carnaval Diabolique | Inez | Madame Moriarty, Misfortune Teller | The Organ Grinder+ | Halloween | Dark Pumpkin Mead | Death of Autumn 2007 | October 2007 + | Lunacy | Bakeneko | Harvest Moon 2006+ | Hunger Moon 2007 | Hunter Moon 2007 | Ivanushka+ | Libra 2007 | Oborot+ | November 2007 | Selkie | The Sportive Sun+ | Tanuki | Taurus+ | Lupercalia | Anactoria+ | Her Voice+ | The Passionate Shepherd to His Love+ | The Presence of Love+ | Red Lantern 2008+ | To Helen+ | Neil Gaiman | Mr. Jaquel * | Mr. Nancy | Panacea | TKO+ | Grr+ | Ugh+ | Salon | Mad Kate+ | Schlafende Baigneuse+ | Voodoo | Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo+ | High John the Conqueror+ | Yule | Chanukkiya 2007+ | El Dia De Reyes 2007+ | Midwinter's Eve+ | Snowstorm 2007 | Snow White 2007 | Discontinued, other | Chaos Theory III: CCCLX+ | Earth Rat+ | Eos | Litha 2006+ | Midnight Kiss+ | Mort de Cesar+ | Nocnitsa | Ra | Rage+ | Terpsichore |Wood Phoenix+ | Headache Inducers | Black Phoenix +* | Venus* | Samhain 2007 +* |

In the bottle: High and bright, kind of greenishly herbal Wet: Morphing between herbally, sweet, lightly spicy, but drying down soft and warm. Drydown: Soft and close to the skin, warm musk with a little tang, almost ambery with just a bit of tangy brightness and a tiny hint of warm spice. Amazingly, while I normally amp florals, the lily is barely even in attendance. Conclusions: Complex, but soft, lays close to the skin. Appropriate for work or going out and about. Keeper!

Bottle: Warm, round, golden, sort of like caramel musk and amber. Wet: Warmer, rounder, more amber. A little powdery. Dry: Wooden, like an old cross-beam or a much-handled whittled figurine, not woody like a forest. I can just smell the vanilla over it. It softens and smooths and warms over time. Conclusions: This keeps changing for hours. I will need to revisit it.

Bottle: Fruity, juicy, very red, very very forward. A little something ambery or incensy underneath. Wet: Juicy and red, but nearly disappeared, with an odd herbal undertone. Dry: Very very light, barely there, juicy incense. Conclusions: A little jangly, not very smoothly blended together. Not for me.

Bottle: Juniper, fir, sharp forest woods. Wet: Bright, sharp astringent woods, but warming. Dry: Summer conifer forest... with just a hint of sweetness. Well-rounded and fresh, but still super foresty. Conclusions: Hardly any different from Jabberwocky or Nocnitsa, to my nose. Only this one has a bit more of a bottom to it, so I might actually wear it as a perfume.

A negatively charged scent. Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints. Bottle: Bright, light, an electric cologne. Very high hopes for this one! Wet: Warmer, more yellow, softer. So lovely. Later, engines and flowers. o.O Luckily, the flowers disappear again. Dry: Warm, golden, soft. Gentle. Neither sexy nor invigorating. Then, it seems to disappear. Conclusions: Definitely a keeper.

High, sharp, clear woods. Like a damp, cold, conifer forest, all fir and birch. Reminds me quite a lot of Jab.berwocky. I don't get the darkness at all, just a bright and somewhat mind-clearing fresh, woodsy scent. I could see using this along with a peppermint to sooth headaches.

I'm sad; this used to be light and lovely and delightfully soft on me. I had some body chemistry changes, and now it's primarily soapy.

I've been away from the forum for a few years. Once upon a time I was quite active here, did a lot of chatting, a lot of swapping, a little reviewing. Life got crazy, and money got tight, and I used this space even more as a safe and welcoming place to connect with other people. I immersed myself in the Sleepover Party, and played The Games, and leaned heavily on the support of wonderful people here. And, yes, still participated in decant circles and Switch Witch and such. And then life got crazier and money got tighter, and I decided that the enabling was just too much and I couldn't afford myself the temptation anymore. I separated from someone I'd with whom I'd so closely shared the BPAL experience that for a long time afterwards wearing perfume at all made me think of him. I stopped wearing makeup and perfume and started trying to build a whole new life on a shoestring. But, you see, I've been running lean for too long. I'm beginning to miss it. A little indulgence in the way of something that smells delicious is perhaps just what the doctor ordered. And then there was the blood moon last night, and out of the blue I thought "huh, that's something Beth might have celebrated." Apparently not, but this year's Weenies (always my favorites) look amazing as usual, and lead me to the Lab's (new to me) search feature and finding new wish list items. And then I dug out the remains of my old stash and categorized it. Between not replacing used-up stash with new bottles, and those awful times when I had to sell off my excess stash for grocery money, and sold more than I otherwise might have because I was trying to move across country by shipping myself only what I needed, there's not a lot left. There's a little though. It's pretty much just imps and decants that didn't move during the great cleanout. Many of them are now rare or discontinued. So who knows, maybe folks will want to swap them for lovelies that have happened during my absence, or lovelies I always meant to try and didn't. I'm not sure if our old feedback profiles are still accessible somewhere out there in the ether, but I won't mind if people distrust my lack of feedback in the new forum spots. In any case, hi! I may or may not be saying anything, but I'm lurking in your forums, seeing who's still around. Thanks for still being here, and still being awesome.

These is a list for my tracking purposes, so I don't let things get on the wishlist that are here. It's a list of imps/decants I found in my stash, which I'm currently testing to see whether I want them. By definition, I'm not offering these up for swap. If I do, they'll go up on my swap page. The goal is to test several scents per day from this list. From Wishlist, GC: Aglaea Azathoth Blood Amber Cathode Cordelia x3 The Dodo Galvanic Gogggles Lampades RPG: Neutral x2 Oya Port-Au-Prince Tamora Tombstone Vixen From Wishlist, LE/Unavailable: A Moment in Time Autumn Cider Autumn - Overlooked my Knitting Hallow-e'en 1914 Magnificent Autumn October x2 Samhain Sonnet D'Automne Phaeon Crescent Pumpkin I (Pumpkin III) Pumpkin V Red Spotted Purple Visions of Autumn I Visions of Autumn III Visions of Autumn IV Visions of Autumn V Visions of Autumn VI The White Witch Ahathoor Danube Euterpe Inez Khajuraho Melpomene Pool of Tears Purple Spotted Swallowtail Succubus Suspiro Tanin'iver To Autumn Unsorted (Testing) Bag-o-imps GC imps: A Countenance Forboding Evil Aizen-Myoo x2 Akuma Caliban Calico Jack Catherine Death Cap Defututa Dian's Bud Elegba Fallen Grandmother of Ghosts House of Night Mad Hatter Medea Nocturne Nyx Omen Oneiroi (Somnium) Ouija The Reaper and the Flowers Santo Domingo Santa Muerte Sheol Tzadikim Nistarim Ulalume Urd Whoso List to Hunt Wicked Wolfsbane Possets 301: Halloween 2010

In the bottle: high and light, bright woods and pale spices On me (wet): spicy woods, warm and dry and comforting, winter appropriate On me (dry): hot and spicy, still warm, a little cedary. Still comforting and winter appropriate. Hits all the same happy notes as Mort de Cesar, but differently.

A new set of reviews, for now that my body chemistry has changed due to giving up sugar. In the bottle: Spicy, fruity, sex on a marble floor. On me (dry): my beloved says it smells like roses and motor oil. I get more roses, but so intensely that it's almost headachy. Very slightly rotten, or otherwise corrupted, with a hint of baby powder. Unfortunately, I amp sweet florals (like rose) into rampaging slavering flower monsters, and the "sexy woman" note tends to turn baby powder on me. Sadly, I'm getting itchy nose and hurty head here. It's a shame, because the rose is really quite lovely, under the other influences.

Oh, my goodness! This is incredible! Warm, spicy-woodsy, delightfully assured. It hangs close to the skin, but feels like potency. With a delightfully fruity impression in the background. But mostly warm, woodsy, and confident in an oh-so-sexy way. This goes in my new favorites!