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Showing results for tags 'Lunacy 2014'.
Found 12 results
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The Lake of Solitude: a scent of introspection and introversion. Meditative white sandalwood with rosewood, Roman chamomile, white lavender, marjoram, Himalayan cedar, and oudh. Cedar, lavender, oudh. Beautifully, seamlessly blended. Wow. The sandalwood and marjoram provide a soft/sharp contrast for the bottom. The chamomile is light and soft and beautiful. I opened this late last night after a long day of travel and after one sniff, i needed to wear it to sleep, and it let me sleep soundly. I adore this and will treasure my bottle. Sorry this first review isnt more descriptive...i just wanted to.share my impression. 🙂
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The Harbinger of the Dawn: shimmering mugwort-infused crystalline musk painted by a glowing arc of sheer vanilla, pink grapefruit, honeyed benzoin, almond blossom, tangerine rind, rose water, green cognac, and neroli. Montes Harbinger is so pretty, like a sparkling, citrusy play of light above a very gentle musk. No one note overshadows on my skin, and it's hard to pin down any individual one as they're as fleeting as the jittery prisms cast by a spinning crystal in a window. On the drydown I think I smell the rose water and the almond blossom, and then I catch the grapefruit and tangerine. There's just a hint of vanilla to it—the balance of citrus and the grounding benzoin and musk keep the blend from being too sweet, at least on me. This would be a great BPAL for work or a day when I want something clean and light but with real complexity.
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The Bay of Rainbows: red currant, orange blossom, yellow lemon peel, green moss, blue violet, and indigo poppy refracted through a shimmering pool of golden musk, mugwort, champa attar, and saffron-infused agarwood. When it's wet the main note I pick up is the redcurrant, with a slightly woody note. Once it dries down I'm finding it very hard to pick out individual notes on this as it all blends so beautifully together - if I try to concentrate on picking out a note it seems to shimmer and change quite a bit. Overall a fruity sort of incense, not overpowering and very gently musky. I don't really pick up the green moss and the noticable currant vanished as it dried but there's still a sweet and fruity note. i find myself wishing that the moss and the lemon shone through a bit more on me but it's hellishly hot here so I will retry when the weather cools down.
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The Land of Insanities. Shrieking white tobacco flower and geranium pepper streaked by high-pitched wails of orange blossom, neroli, and elemi, all obscured by a disorienting veil of orris and violet root. So excited for this new Lunacy theme! In the bottle, it's a high-pitched, white lunar herbal, leaning heavily towards herbal. First applied, it's still light and herbal, but has the weight of a highly refined unisex cologne-- perhaps leaning a bit towards an aquatic. The neroli and elemi combine to form an airy-cool scent that is neither one nor the other, but brings wisps of rich herbal coolness with very light throw. The pepper adds a little kick. I don't smell the tobacco flower, per se. But I think it's in there, delicately adding a white roundness that completes the scent. As it dries, it goes through a short "soapy" phase-- but only the best, french-milled, tiny niche shop soap, you understand -- where it's a bit too white and too high-pitched. This phase fades quickly. It could be due to the bottle having just ended its journey this afternoon, being born only slightly earlier than that. It's anyone guess. When the scent has settled into the skin, there is more tobacco flower. It's cooler and rounder, with the orris adding a fine, powdery quality, like moondust. As it fades, there's mostly sweet orris-- a little powdery-- buoyed by a soft breath of tobacco flower. The impression this scent gives is of a cool, dark field of grey sand, under a black sky, where the earth has replaced the moon. And maybe it's comforting that no one can hear you scream. This blend is pretty fabulous, greater than the sum of its parts, and highly wearable.
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A scent of dreams and portents, strange omens, and palpable mystery. The blood moon passing through the earth’s shadow: mugwort, moonwort, and black lotus reddened by pimento, smoked carnation, red musk, and red rose petals, all shadowed by tobacco absolute, bourbon vanilla, Peru balsam, leather accord, and myrrh. In the bottle: There is a musty herbal smell that overshadows the other notes. I think that must be the mugwort, it reminds me very much of the musty note in Winter Stars. Underneath, I can just make out a heady floral, but nothing I could identify. On skin: The mustiness fades almost immediately. It turns into something akin to rose incense, unlit and with a hint of something spicy. I get the impression of very red, very hot and very dry. (It doesn't seem like a head shop sort of incense at all, it is more familiar and feminine.) If I put my nose to my wrist I can make out tobacco and something vanilla. It is a bit like the Antikythera Mechanism, but instead of golden and oiled, it is red and scorched. It is a surprising smell, and I think giving a little resting time (I tried this just a few hours out of the mail box) might bring out more depth.
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The Ocean of Storms: crystallized salt and opalescent moon stones buffeted by an illusion of wave-thrashed kelp and tattered seaweed. I adore it! On me, it's a warm, green aquatic with something a little...dusty/dry in the back. I don't have enough experience with individual notes to pick it out, but it's really gorgeous! The more I wear it, the more I get an almost...melancholy...vibe. It's not so much an ocean, as it is the memory of an ocean. Or maybe, the memory of an ocean that might have been, had the universe twisted in a slightly different way. It actually makes me think of Myst Island, in a way. Which is AWESOME!!!
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The Lake of Forgetfulness: a deep, still pool of lavender, aged benzoin and patchouli, frankincense, and sorrow-honeyed ylang ylang. Deep beneath, there is a touch of fig's sweetness and amber's golden light. The ylang ylang makes this powdery...but overall it is truly a beautiful scent. Frankincense, benzoin, and the lavender swirl together in a wild dance with the ylang, ylang and crescendo higher and higher while wet. Dry...this scent crashes into a beautiful ylang and amber scent on my skin. Not a lot of fig here but I think some aging will help with that. This will truly be a beautiful scent once some of the ylang ylang settles down. I just got this bottle today so right now it and the amber are the loudest notes on my skin.
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The Lake of Death: narcotic indole, pale asphodel, and bone-white sandalwood plunged into in an impenetrable sea of black patchouli, labdanum, castoreum accord, and oak moss. im still a newb deep in my soul so idk if im supposed to snap up first review or not but here i go! bought this one as fast as i could, i loved the sound of it. and it doesn't disappoint! in bottle; very dark! i find it pretty masculine, almost like how cologne smells in the bottle but with delectable richness. i get labdanum, sandalwood and patchouli but it's so lovely and dark. wet; a spicy musk, but the oak moss comes out full-force. still masculine, but a sweetness plays on the edges. dry; sharp and very dark. the moss and sandalwood carry the rest of the notes, but it's such a complex, sophisticated scent. very masculine on me, though, which i don't mind at all but others might. would absolutely recommend!
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The Island of Winds: chilled white tea leaf, astringent white musk, and eucalyptus petals biting through ragged osmanthus blossoms, crystallized white amber, and ice-limned cedarwood. I'd blindly bought Insula Ventorum based on multiple Willcall reviewers comparing it to Spirits of the Dead (which is a longtime favorite of mine), but was shocked to find it not what I expected at all. To tell you the truth, I can't shake the feeling that this reminds me a lot more like Okayaki. So I looked up the notes to both and compared them this way: IV has Tea, Okayaki had Bergamot - both lemony like. IV has Osmanthus blossoms, Okayaki had Olive blossoms. Both IV and Okayaki share a similar Amber note. Both IV and Okayaki share a similar Icy note. I can also see a similarity to Spirits of the Dead, which shares Tea, Blossom and Wood notes. But it's that Icy Amber part of IV that pushes it to Okayaki territory for me. A love child of Okayaki and Spirits of the Dead perhaps? I had let go of my bottle of Okayaki awhile back, when it aged into something I couldn't wear. I think I'll hang onto IV for awhile and see where it goes. [Oct 30]: I found my decant of Okayaki, so I skintested all 3 - Okayaki and Spirits of the Dead on one arm and Insula Ventorum on the other. Reviews were correct that IV *is* more like SotD, but when I layered Okayaki over the SotD, it was so much closer to IV. [Apr 22]: I'm glad I kept my bottle of IV - it's aging wonderfully and has become a favorite.
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The Marsh of Frogs: weedy green musk, three boggy mosses, water lettuce, and water hyacinth against a backdrop of glittering moon rocks. First things first, this is not a dank/boggy/wet vegetation scent! When first applied I get a fairly strong blast of high pitched white flowers (they're reminding me strongly of Zephyr.. I imagine it's the "water hyacinth" a note I'm not that familiar with). Peeking out from behind those flowers is a sharp green note-- kind of like stems, but also recognizable as containing some of the "lettuce" note from The Last Unicorn. It disappears almost immediately and that is the end of anything resembling actual greenery here. As the blend dries down the floral aspect morphs, becoming softer and, honestly, dryer-sheet-like (Zephyr does that to me too). The other notes then emerge: the "moon rocks" (soft, powdery, very slightly sweet), the decidedly aquatic musk (thin and slippery; no deepness or furriness here), and the mosses (kind of a dry green scent). The musk and mosses combine to give a fairly masculine, aquatic-cologne vibe. The throw I get is clean, soft, cologney white floral. I hope a little aging brings out the musk/powdery rocks more. I know some people might be wondering how this compares to a couple other beloved "rock" blends-- Staged Moon Landing and Black Opal. Dont get your hopes up.. Those two are more alike than this is to either of those blends. All three have a powdery/soft base that might be vanilla in origin, but I personally think any comparison ends there. This blend has none of the sweetness those blend do.
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The Peninsula of Thunder. A rolling, booming scent, heavy with foreboding and bristling with peril: scorched ebony wood, raw myrrh, blackened benzoin, Tunisian black musk, bourbon vetiver, black copal, and a sharp, yellow-white blast of cognac and chaulmoogra. Oh man, this one was a little disturbing. It was cedar and dirty patchouli dominant. Which meant, it smelled like smoked, burnt wood (that been the wood and vetiver thrown in together).
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The Lake of Sorrow: the plaintive wail of a bleak, pale chypre with carrot seed, lugubrious opoponax, and wormwood. Wow, wormwood is really strong in this blend, alongside carrot seed and something that smells like lemon peel. The pith, not the zest, very astringent and a bitter. I hope this calms down a little, because on initial application, it's like an ice-pick to the sinuses that almost brings on a sneezing fit. It does settle down pretty quickly as it warms on my skin. The sharp bitterness fades and a beautifully resinous opoponax develops, there's a bit of carrot seed (one of my favorite notes), and just a little of the lemon-peel-like note left. This is getting better and better the more it dries down, warmer, sweeter and more resin-like. I think there's some labdanum in the chypre too; or something else giving this more resiny sweetness (it's too subtle to clearly identify). Finaly dry-down is something I'd describe as dark, deep, sweet resins with a bit of carrot seed, with a sparkle of lemon zest and wormwood, though the wormwood is so faint now I'd have to know it was there to smell it. I'm really digging this, so I'm glad I snapped up a bottle!
