Great Grey Witch

[Venneh]

GREAT GREY WITCH
Orris root, Roman chamomile, white sugar, ambergris accord, and cimarrón.

So, in the bottle and initially on my skin, I get a combination of orris, sugar and chamomile that makes this smell like sugary cereal. For reals, folks. But then it dries down to a combo of orris and chamomile and a hint of ambergris that made me fall in love with this. One of my keeper blends from the update.

[saralaughs]

I've haven't been this torn over an oil in a long time.

 

First applied, I get Avobath. You Lushies know. Yeah. Citrus. Green citrus with a pleasant herbal undertone. Anyway, after a bit the avobath dissolves (see what I did there?) into the roman chamomile and the blend goes powdery. Really powdery. I mean powder all the time baby. After though, this sugary, part floral, part ...something comes out and it's warm and snuggly and wow.

 

I like it. A lot. I just dunno if I'd wear it.

[Tramp]

It does remind me of Lush - in the best way. Am calling this a relaxing lime blend. It is citrusy but sweet and the chamomile is a powdery soothing compliment to it. Liking this a lot

[Happicuppa]

At first, this one does not sit well on me. While wet it's all sugar and ambergris on my skin, but at drydown the chamomile comes out and mellows the whole thing down a few notches. It then turns very faint on my skin and I found it pleasant, but not something I'd want to wear very often. Not my favorite of the set, but still lovely in it's own way. I'm a chamomile junkie and I just wish it would have amped up more and given me the best of that scent. I give it a 3/5.

[fairestrocza]

In the Decant: a delicately sweet scent

 

Wet on Skin: almost lemony

 

While Drying: the chamomile is showcased during this stage; as it dries, I can start to pick out the orris and the ambergris, but both are subtle

 

After a Little While: I'm not familiar with cimarron (red trumpet creeper), so I'm not sure if that is adding to the sweet aspect, or the lemony scent. In any case, it is not an In Your Face floral at all.

 

Later: well blended; I am absolutely loving this; I started out thinking the throw was medium to light, but I am actually catching whiffs of scent as I go about my day, it is just a more subtle scent than many of the blends that have big throw on me

 

Final Thoughts: This is very well balanced. Ambergris can be iffy on me, but it behaves here. I love orris, but sometimes it can drown out the other notes. Here, it adds its personality, but remains in the background.

 

Great Grey Witch earns a 4.5/5 on my skin.

[femmefatale]

Wow! A blend where the orris stays in check!

This is a very relaxing and comforting blend. It's mostly sweetened chamomile, orris, and a hint of ambergris. I think this would make a wonderful bedtime scent.

[Antoinette]

I agree with Venneh, this does remind me of sugary cereal...in all the right ways! This is very delicate and sweet. I have little experience with most of the notes in this so I didn't know if I was going to like this, but I do. A lot. It's quite soothing, delicate. A keeper, for sure.

 

edit: After having worn this all day yesterday I just fell in love with the dry down stage. It turns to all creamy white sugar on me. Heavenly.

Edited June 20, 2010 by Antoinette

[fetish911]

Started off herbally and kinda lemony. Even though there isn't lemon in it?? Then all of a sudden,, WHAM-O orris. In my face orris. Not a bad smell on me, but not one of my favs. Kinda reminded me how Staged Moon Landing smelled when it dried down. Its got fairly decent throw I guess. Its pretty, but not really me. I would still give it 3/5 though!

[Ohmaude]

Aughh I wrote a review and then it disappeared from the world. I don't have the heart to try to repeat it here, so I will say this:

 

Great Grey Witch good.

Perfect herbal-infused amber for summertime.

Me like orris, chamomile and a lemony sugar that is just barely there.

This is sweeter, warmer version of Murder of Crows.

This makes me happy.

I will be wearing this ALL summer.

If you like this, try Aelopile or Murder of Crows.

Edited June 22, 2010 by Ohmaude

[Eemia]

At first this is light and faintly sweet, with a quality that reminds me of meringues. That airy sort of sweetness. But there's also an intense and slightly herbaceous citrus in there. It's so short lived though that I don't smell it two minutes after I've applied it to my skin. So the more lasting impression is the delicate meringues. It reminds me of those intricate towers of sugar that pastry chefs sculpt into masterpieces... like it's so fragile that it'll topple at any minute.

 

A little bit of that ambergris emerges as it dries down and makes it smell even sweeter, but with more weight and depth. And there's an earthiness lingering that I just love. It smells like resin-coated vanilla earth and stays that way. Very long lasting but clings closely without a lot of throw.

 

This was my favorite of the Moths... it's so different I'm just going to cling to my bottle.

[strahlend]

I recognize orris from Staged Moon Landing and Silver Phoenix and in the imp that's all I can detect. On my skin things turn kind of lemony and sweet - like orris lemonade. It fades down into lightly lemon scented baby powder. Not for me.

[edenssixthday]

Great Grey Witch - This is gorgeous! My very first two thoughts were how similar it is to Silver Phoenix, and then, how similar it is to Staged Moon Landing. It's that gorgeous, gently powdery orris note. Soooo lovely! The chamomile is very subtle in this and the sugar gives it a sweetness that is, I think, another reason why it reminds me of Staged Moon Landing. I absolutely adore ambergris, and while I can't smell it in this blend, I have a feeling that is what is giving it the warm base it has on my skin. It's a beautiful, truly lovely scent, and by far my favorite of all of the Metamorphosis blends (which is saying a lot since they're all awesome!) However, I don't know that I need it since I have a stash of Silver Phoenix and I also have some Staged Moon Landing. It's so pretty -- don't miss out on trying this one!

[anomie]

Imp: Definitely getting the "sugared cereal" note right out of the decant. Froot Loops! I'm also getting a powdery note - the chamomile, maybe - under it that also drags the scent towards "baby wipes." Unfortunate.

 

Wet: Okay, no powder, just froot loops. It makes my teeth hurt.

 

Early drydown: Lemon fresh baby wipes. Eergh.

 

Later drydown: The fruity scent has all but vanished; now it's powdery, sweet and warm. Warrants further testing, but I like it.

[brilliantcat]

Imp: I too got the lemony waft, along with a sugar rush. Not bad! I like lemon sugar!

 

Wet: Lemon meringue, just slightly hinting at a Lemon-Pledge-ness. I'm giving it a chance to warm up and see what happens.

 

Warming up: Morphed into baby powder, ugh! I hate baby powder and had to wash it off

 

Sadly this was a complete loser on me. I got half-decants of all the Metamorphosis scents so I'll be swapping this one away or selling/offering as a frimp. Not me at all.

[angelicruin]

This is like effervescent lemon & lime on me. Totally sugary too. I'm really loving this decant I believe I will order a bottle of this as well.

Edited June 28, 2010 by angelicruin

[krazyanjel]

This is very smooth and dry. It is identical to Staged Moon Landing on me. Strong orris. It's very pretty, but I don't know that I'll keep it when SML and GGW are both the same drydown on my chemistry. I do think that I might prefer GGW to Staged Moon, as the chamomile is nice and soothing. I could use this as a nice sleep scent. If you liked Staged Moon Landing, go for GGW!!

[reynardine]

Decant. When first applied, it is has that commercial perfume flavor which I heartily dislike. But it quickly softens. Getting the orris, getting the chamomile, getting the sugar. Dries into this lemony-type scent which is okay, but I just don’t like lemon scents.

[Dark Alice]

I AM SO GLAD I BOUGHT THIS! I was really really scared of the sugar and chamomile...but the orris keeps it from being too sweet! It gives it a fluttery effect! So glad I took a chance on this! This will be used, worn and loved!

[midnight_aeval]

This was heavy lemon verbena to me - which is not even a note listed. Couldn't figure out what cimarrón is because google is only giving picture of a dog, and I highly doubt that Beth would put eau de perro in a blend

 

After a bit the orris came out in full force! It always does that on me. It dominates everything, so I guess this would be a no blend for me.

[Schmoozy]

 

Love! Relaxing roman chamomile sweetened with sugar and a good measure of dry, dusty orris root to temper the sweetness and add depth. It's kinda woodsy, slighty lemony, refreshing and soothing all at once.

I need multiples of this. I think I've discovered my new sleep blend.

[MCS4096]

Yep.. very much like Staged Moon Landing. I wore them side by side yesterday and Great Grey is sharper and a bit more soapy. I like them both, but since I have Staged Moon Landing I'll probably skip this one, especially since it's throw is much less.

[CitizenBree]

For me, this is a cross between Staged Moon Landing and Skytyping with Chemtrails. It's got that lemony sugared edge that Skytyping has with that muted orris that Staged has. Very pretty and light. Since I have bottles of the other two, not sure i'd want another bottle that is so similar, but i might be persuaded.

[benthic]

Oddly, what this blend reminds me of most is Metal Phoenix, even though they have no notes in common. It has that light, sweet, ozone-citrus feel to it, but it's less metallic and more soft and sugary. It does also remind me of Staged Moon Landing without the chalky sandalwood (which I didn't like about that blend; something in it went strange on me even though I love sandalwood). There's a definite verbena/lemonness to this blend, too. Soft sweet sugary floral marshmallow lemons. It's gorgeous, and I can't stop huffing it, but it's similar enough to other blends I own that I'm not sure I'll go for more. I can't decide if it's worth having a blend that's so similar to another fave of mine. Honestly, I think I like this one better, but it's also a lot fainter.

 

Edited for bizarre typos, ahhh I need sleep.

Edited July 8, 2010 by benthic

[Suusje]

This really has a lemon meringue thing going on. Totally not what I was expecting. And not really what I wanted either since I'm not a lemon person.

[Teipu]

At first this smells lovely of chamomile and white sugar. It's a sweet and almost girly smell and I love the chamomile.

Unfortunately after quite some time orris comes out (which seems to be a note of doom on me) and I smell like play-doh. I don't get any lemon.

Definitely not a bottle purchase, but so many other moths and butterflies worked out well on me that I'm not really sad about it ^^

Edited July 11, 2010 by Teipu