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Showing results for tags 'Lunacy 2015'.
Found 12 results
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The Marsh of Corruption: murky patchouli and dank oakmoss drowning in a mire of leathery bourbon vanilla, bitter clove, bog cypress, cumin, and vetiver. In the bottle: Murky bog water. Literally, this smells like the murky water and scrub oaks in the marshes up in the Rocky Mountains. Wet on my skin: ALL the vetiver and patchouli, with a bit of leather. Dry: This is incredibly evocative of the scent description. I don't know how, but it does actually smell like a marsh at first. This is definitely vetiver and patchouli dominant on me at first, with oakmoss and the leathery vanilla coming in under it. More leather than vanilla there, definitely. As it continues to dry and warm on me, the clove and cumin start coming out just enough to spice up the dank, damp bogginess of the rest of it. There's just enough cypress to "green" the scent, taking it from muddy brown to a muddy green-brown. The cypress isn't there really as a note in itself, and is under even the clove and cumin in terms of its presence. This is a fairly masculine scent, and I happen to really, really enjoy it. Definitely one for patch/vetiver lovers.
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A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat for prosperity, King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, and peach fruit to represent the fourth phase of Wu Xing. This year's Lunar New Year blend has an extra dollop of blazing red of dragon's blood give you fortitude and strength, and, of course, to assist in scaring away the rampaging Nian. In the bottle(after about an hour's rest from mailing): I smell very sweet jasmine, and very bright citrus. wet: The jasmine turns itself to support for the citrus note, making this a creamy-fizzy-sweet kind of deal. It's bright and happy and...prosperous? drying: As it plays with my skin chemistry, I'm getting bits of another, slightly watery, delicate floral underneath the citrus, which has a little bit of a tang to it when you inhale deeply enough. If I had to guess, I'd say an interplay between bamboo, peony and pine, maybe? I'm not really smelling anything discernibly Dragon's Blood, yet-- which is surprising. Yet, the whole thing dances so beautifully on the skin and in my senses. It's like sitting in the shade of a late spring garden, with a cool rock pool next to your feet, watching rays of sunlight play across the stones. drydown(little over an hour later): It's dried down to a soft, creamy floral. There was a short phase where it veered a teensy bit towards a slightly soapy(albeit really nice, quality soap) phase. But now, it's just a cool, close to the skin, soft green floral, with a lingering hint of the gorgeous citrus. Wooden Goat is absolutely beautiful, and I am so very enamoured of this incarnation of my zodiac animal. It will be getting a lot of wear. Out of the seven Lunar New Year scents I have tried, this one is probably my second favorite(right behind Water Dragon). It's happy and vibrant, but not overpowering-- with a close throw, and pretty decent lasting power(showing now signs of fading here at the one and a half hour mark). Unless you absolutely loathe flowers or citrus, I would recommend you give this a shot. You may just fall head over heels in love(says the girl who can't stop sniffing her wrist). And, no, it does not smell the same as the Lunar creatures that have come before. The closest comparison I might make would be the lovechild of Water Dragon and Water Snake. It isn't as 'WOO, citrus!' as Water Dragon is at the outset-- and the citrus has a different quality to it(more like citron in Water Dragon),nor is the drydown that beautiful mystery musk. But it isn't anywhere near as jasmine-floral as Water Snake. Wooden Goat seems to bridge somewhere in between, and adds its own glimmering coolness, for a unique scent of its own.
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The Sea of Fecundity: clove and allspice with chamomile, strawberry leaf, sweetly aged patchouli, squill root, acorns, and bright mosses. Stealth frimp from another wonderful BPALista. You know who you are! Mare Forecunditas is heavily clove and allspice, with a touch of acorns. It stops being overtly foodie with a touch of patchouli and slightly aquatic moss. I feel like chamomile bring a slight herbal bitterness toward the end. Definitely loads of clove and allspice. Mmmm, allspice. This smells like FALL. You know all of those fall things you love - the spices in everything, the smell of dirt, the slight chill in the wind. UGH. Beautiful. In a lot of ways, this reminds me to Harvest Moon 2005 in vibe. I don't think they share any common notes at all, but the feel of having bottle the Autumn season is right there. ETA: From the bottle, I got a ton more patch/clove/allspice which made it smell like burnt fall leaves. Which again is amazing for the Fall.
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The Sea of Vapors: white sandalwood, smoky oudh, golden amber, bourbon vanilla, and black jasmine. Gorgeous! I love when Jasmine and Sandalwood mix, it's just a perfect scent combo for me. The Jasmine is strong in this (on me but my skin does amp up Jasmine in a good way) and the Bourbon Vanilla is just so faint it's almost haunting in the backdrop.
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The Land of Heat: red musk flickering with hot red amber, red pepper, scorched thyme, frankincense, green cardamom, and Ceylon cinnamon. This is an unusual and intriguing semi-dry blend comprised of an almost but not too red hots candy cinnamon with flares of dried red pepper and cardamom, tempered with amber and frankincense, with a teensy bit of thyme giving it a faint herbal note. Certainly a hot smelling blend but as of this brief wrist skin test, not a burning skin blend. Slightly but not overly sweet, and though the cinnamon reminds me a bit of red hots candy it is not overly foody either. The focus of this blend on me goes towards a very hot, spicy, amber resin. I am looking forward to doing a full body run on this one because so far this is a standout.
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The Land of Cheerfulness: blood orange and apricot with Chinese geranium, Italian bergamot, langsat pulp, cardamom, white peach, and white sandalwood. On me, this is bright and cheery - very citrus heavy with the predominant note being bergamot. It reminds me strongly of some of the "metal" Chinese new year scents. On dry down, I get a touch of the peach and sandalwood. I got no cardamom or geranium at all. So pretty and so perfect for spring. This was my first lunacy in ages and I love it.
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Mare Nectaris The Sea of Nectar: sweet peach liquor with papaya-infused musk, golden musk, and green ti leaf. This is the first Lunacy I've gotten in AGES! but the notes sounded pretty great, so let's see if the gamble paid off! In the Bottle: Peach schnapps, papaya and musk- oh my! Wet On Skin: Man, that green ti leaf is AMPING on me! Behind that, the fruity aspects are playing around, but definitely overshadowed a bit. Dry Down: This is...odd. If I'm being totally honest, the first thing this reminds me of is a perfume I wore freshman year of high school. It was a "Designer Impostors" fragrance, of all things, and it had a sweet, musky thing going on just like this scent does. But the ti leaf has calmed down and adding some hi notes to this. Hmmm. In All: Medium throw, definitely musky above all else. The ti and the fruits just sort of weave in and out, never staying stable. I can't get a handle on whether it's right for me or not. But I'm willing to let it settle and re-test in a week or two. If nothing changes, off to swaps it goes!
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The Bay of Love: red sandalwood and velvet-thick vanilla with red pepper, oudh, Ethiopian myrrh, and champaca blossom. In The Bottle: The champaca blossom and myrrh combine and are doing this thing that somehow smells like a flower that emits baby powder. Odd. Very very odd. Wet On Skin: Wow. Many years ago I had this incense that smelled like blue lotus powder, if such a thing existed. This smells like that, and also, the red sandalwood is coming around now, all spicy and rich and smelling like another beloved scent of my youth, Bain de Soliel suntan gelee. Incredible. Dry Down: Wow, again. this scent is a bit of a morphed, and truth be told, I'm glad- myrrh tends to become pure talcum powder on my skin and makes me sad. But the myrrh has faded into the background and this scent has become rich, spicy and sexy, like a well-loved riding crop and the vanilla musk of a person's natural sweat. I think I'm in love.
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The Lake of Goodness. A perfume that inspires philanthropy while fostering kindness, affection, and compassion: sweet amber with rose geranium, lavender, amyris, motherwort, orange blossom, honey, apple peel, and angelica root. I was a little worried about what the herbal notes in Lacus Bonitatis would do, but I needn't have worried--I don't get them at all. This scent, on me, is dominated by the amber, orange blossom, and an orangey fruit note that I think may be a combination of the orange blossom and rose geranium. This orangey note is the most prominent note in the early going. It's a sweet, bright impression of orange or maybe of neroli, definitely the fruit and not the flower. Next to this is the amber, which is vanillic here, and the overall impression is kind of creamsicle-ish. The orange blossom is slightly perceptible underneath these other two notes. So it's a slightly floral creamsicle. It does this for a few hours, and then the fruit note fades out in the drydown, leaving a blend of the vanillic amber, the orange blossom, and I think some of the honey. There are some blends where these notes are kind of smutty; not here. Lacus Bonitatis has an innocent air about it. This is sweet, cheerful, and definitely hot-weather-worthy. I don't regret pouncing on this one.
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The Lake of Hate: blood musk, pink pepper, and neroli boiling in a seething mire of saffron. This had me at "blood musk", and as a big fan of Beth's blood accord, it lives up to any and all evil, sultry, blood-soaked expectations I had for it. It's basically the love child of Blood (GC) and Oceans of Love and Millions of Kisses bath oil. It has that ridiculously sexy blood note entwined with come-hither musk (there has to be red musk in here somewhere), but it's also so much more than that. Neroli gives it a heady, almost honeyed feel that receives a sensual warmth and flame from the saffron. If I hadn't known there was no honey note in this, I would have guessed there was. It's a scent that burns with two colors of fire. Whereas the blood musk and slight bite of pink pepper give this moon its red fury, the neroli and saffron swirl the Lake of Hate with molten gold. Seething and boiling indeed, but in a really good way.
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The Sea of Crises. A discordant, clashing shock of petitgrain, rosemary, and fir needle, roiling with fiery mandarin and acerbic lime. Bright pop of lime, hits of mandarin and drops of petitgrain and rosemary. So this is discordant. It's a clash of lime, mandarin and other herbally smelling things. It's sharp, and stabs your nose and in general I'd say that this is the perfume equivalent of being roiled by sea waves. You know, when you dive your head down and suddenly you don't know which way is up anymore. On wet, it was almost unpleasant because of how strident it is. After it's dried for about 45 minutes, it calms down a lot but not enough that it doesn't just hit you. It just doesn't punch your daylights out.
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September 27th brings us a Supermoon Blood Moon Full Lunar Eclipse in Aries. This is the scent of domination and belligerence, passivity and compliance – revenge clashing against reconciliation – and the internal struggle to balance it all. Soul-rending hatred gnawing at the impulse of compassion, the struggle for safety at all costs, and the blood and tears that cleanse it all in the end. May the Gods show mercy to any who stand in the way. Impenetrable, blood-spattered, Martial red musk, fiery pomegranate and black pepper, the splintered woods of uncountable wooden arrow shafts and shields, sharp frankincense and morose myrrh, all smothering the gentler impulses of the moon. First review I'm writing and I can't do it the usual way because I'm not that good yet. But I needed to say that I bought this scent believing I wouldn't like it. But the concept of it fit me to a T. It described me, like someone had seen me from the innermost part of my soul. I thought I was being very foolish with my wallet. I figured instead of wearing the scent I wouldn't like, I'd use it in ritual (likely something pertaining to my rage issues). Well, the bottle arrived and I tentatively sniffed it. What?? This isn't rage. This is the gorgeous rust-red color of the moon the night of the eclipse. If color had a scent, this would be what the moon wore that night as she gazed down on us in beauty and splendor. I could do nothing but stop and gaze back in love and wonder. She was calm, comforting, soft, caring, and gentle despite her position in Aries. I can't describe this other than, on me, it smells like a soft, floral nag champa. It's utterly beautiful and brought tears to my eyes. If this is rage, let me rage.
