Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v6

[Kitrona]

CHAOS THEORY VI
Chaos is the score upon which reality is written. – Henry Miller

An old take on Chaos! A new take on Chaos!

This year, we are offering the traditional chaos of the original Chaos Theories, manifested as Eris’ Tilt-A-Whirl, and a new Recursive Self-Similarity series.

Each CT:6 scent under the auspices of Recursive Self-Similarity, has a base of one of the following scents, in wildly varying proportions:

Amber
Frankincense
Vanilla

From these bases comes a new series of flowing, fragrant fractals that emanate from these three roots. Random combinations of oils have been added to every individual bottle, retaining their sensitivity to their initial component, resulting in a truly unique blend that swirls merrily around its core oil.

This is an exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct.

Am I really the first? Hmm. With the forum downtime, I guess it's possible. Mods, if I mess this up, please be gentle; it's the first time I've been first.

#58
In the bottle: Definite frankincense base, but my nose isn't sharp enough to identify anything else.

Wet: Similar to in the bottle

Dry: A ghost of incense, a comforting scent in a small chapel

In short, I love it. Edited June 16, 2010 by Shollin

[thekittenkat]

CT Frankincense 90 is interesting. Something sweet, like sugar and frankincense and a hit of a berry in the bottle. Wet, that berry morphs into a citrus fruit, some kind of an orange, perhaps. Drying, it's losing the fresh fruit scent, and seems to be a powdery frankincense with some sweetness, and tempered by an amber note, perhaps. This is probably a candidate for the scent locket, as I really like the scent out of the bottle.

 

[boxinghelena]

#83

 

At first sniff, all I could smell was something citrus. I am not usually fond of anything citrus. I actually can't stand most citrus scents. I use this stuff at work called Flush Off-Orange Solvent and most citrus scents remind me of it, very chemical-orange-smelling that is just *shudders*.

 

Once applied, Oh wow! It's quite interesting. Frankincense & orange. I slathered it on myself right before work & all day I was lifting my wrist to my nose. It's a fresh orange( I guess, I mean, I don't usually wear citrus scents) & combined with frankincense, it works. It's actually very nice on me for once and I can actually say I have a citrus scent I can wear. The scent lasted all day.

 

[dreamcatcher]

#10

Lightly sugared oranges with a squeeze of lemon over frankincense!

[angelicruin]

#28 - Frankincense and berries, I think. I can't place the fruit, though it smells like berries of some sort. Very "pink" smelling and I LOVE this one.

[surlygurl]

OMG. This came in the mail less than 10 minutes ago. This is crazygood. Ready? Its a Coke float (vanilla ice cream - just a bit) with a touch of rootbeer. Not much frankincense. I'm doing silent all over the apartment. My face may be permanently stuck in *smile* position. Really.

 

Oh yeah - it's #6.

 

eta: the frankincense comes out a bit more on the drydown, but still a coke float. Yay!

Edited June 19, 2010 by surlygurl

[Venneh]

#114: Berries and maybe mint and frankincense? Not really sure. Going to try this on my skin, see if I get a better sense of things. On my skin, berries, maybe watermelon? And frankincense? I don't know, we'll see what this does. Watermelon and berries and frankincense. Not quite my thing, but who knows, maybe it'll be someone else's.

Edited June 22, 2010 by Venneh

[LadyMedb]

#12. This amounts to frankincense and Purple Phoenix (which I always sorta regretted selling). A little bit of grape fizzy soda, a little bit of Morgause's white flowers. I think I like this...and I was all set to be critical, too! A smidge powdery, but it gets lost in the overall pleasant purple resinous effect!

 

Yum.

 

ETA - dang, my skin chemistry makes this dryer sheets after an hour or so, with all the lovely purples and resins haunting me still. Hopefully someone else's skin won't do the same thing!

Edited July 5, 2010 by LadyMedb

[angelicruin]

#23 Smells like frankincense, sugar cane, skin musk on me. This is slightly sweet but not at all foody.

 

Even though it's an incense blend which tend to be heavier scents on me, this one is surprisingly soft & delicate.

 

It's still not grabbing me enough though to keep it, so off to sale/swap pile it goes.

[boxinghelena]

#80

 

Disgusting

 

 

#99

 

Equally disgusting

 

 

Smells like the dregs of all the worst components you can come up with & VOILA!

Edited June 26, 2010 by boxinghelena

[edenssixthday]

#105: Frankincense and orange. It's not super-sweet orange, it's kind of tart, so maybe blood orange? It smells like there's something sweet lurking far beneath ... perhaps lotus flower? This is a gorgeous scent. It's really awesome.

[greenranger]

#81 I only ordered one.

 

Orange and citrus, over frankincense. Not just orange, I think..? There might be a tart berry or three in this, like Acai or something. A fruity, juicy, tart scent, with a hint of spice, that might be the frankincense or it might be something else I haven't identified yet.

 

As it dries, I begin to think there may be a flower or two in it as well. It stays mostly on the fruit side, although it is beginning to be less juicy and more dry.

 

It dries down to a dry resin, sweetened by just a bare hint of the fruit.

[angelicruin]

#105 - Creamy orange and frankincense. I am completely in love with this scent. :heart:

 

#21 - Champagne & frankincense. Just lovely!

 

#150 - Sharp citrus & incense

Edited July 9, 2010 by angelicruin

[Djaeno]

#131

 

In the bottle, it smells very strongly of a kind of sweet citrus and the spicy frankincense. Once I put it on, though, I really can't tell the frankincense anymore! I get a nice, sweet citrus that makes me think of grapefruit -- maybe it's just the red/pinkish color that comes to mind. When it dries a little, I think I can smell something like rose.

 

It got all powdery at that point and I was afraid it'd stay that way, but now it's back to being fruity. I can't really detect the frankincense, but I love my scent!! It's a perfect summer blend; I can switch it out with Giant Squid this season.

[hkath]

#151

 

In the bottle: clove. Lots and lots of clove. Also picked up hints of pine and something that reminded me of fruitcake - molasses, maybe, or some kind of sweet spice. Frankincense is very faint, but present.

 

Wet: 100% clove.

 

Dry-down: clove, amped to an overwhelming degree by my skin. All the other notes have disappeared. At this point, the clove scent is so strong that I'm having flashbacks to having to use oil of cloves to euthanize a sick pet fish a while back. Unpleasant associations are not helping this scent.

 

Dry: It took about an hour for the clove note to settle down, but now that it has, I'm actually enjoying this. It's still clove in the forefront, but it's kind of comforting now instead of clinically offensive. I'm also picking up the frankincense and the sweet slightly foody note I smelled in the bottle.

 

Verdict: actually turned out quite nice, but I don't think I have the patience to wait an hour smelling like fish-death to get to "nice". I'm willing to give it another test or two to see if it settles down a bit, but if not, it's swaps for you, buster!

 

Edit: Tried it again tonight (5 days later) and it took a bit less time to settle down into a pleasant (but still quite potent!) spicy clove-frankincense-(maybe pine?)-gingerbread scent. Now I'm thinking of hanging onto it until the holidays, because wow. Very, very Xmas-y, and with the added bonus of being highly economical - a single small drop will get the job done with this one

Edited July 13, 2010 by Kath

[kikithepirate]

#42

 

I won this partial from a fairy on LJ. I think maybe some other people out there might have decants of it, so I'd be interested to hear their thoughts!

 

I don't tend to be a big resins girl, but am starting to like them a little bit more, so I wanted to at least try one Frankincense blend. This one is really interesting! Definitely super resiny, but more of a wet resin than the "incense" type. There is something very, very slightly floral about this after it's dry -- maybe just the slightest hint of violet? I get hints of cinnamon too, but I'm not sure if there's actually cinnamon in here or whether it's just the sweet floral + slightly spicy resin playing a trick on my nose. My skin tends to be pretty sensitive to cinnamon and isn't reacting to this oil at all, so if it IS in here, it's definitely only a tiny tiny bit.

 

The oil gets sweeter and slightly more floral after it has been on my skin for a while. It's a very light, pleasant scent. I don't know if I'll really end up wearing this because it might be a little too generically nice for me, but we'll see!

[Ondine]

#12, previously reviewed by LadyMedb

 

SOAP. Like soap in a restroom. Cloyingly soapy in its soapiness; I had to wash this off immediately I have a bottle of Purple Phoenix and it works well on me, so perhaps the frankincense isn't playing nice?

[cyberpuff]

If this CT, which is #171 from the Frankincense group, was listed in the GC or even as an LE somewhere it would have this as its description:

 

The incense and atmosphere from the Consecration of the Vintage Motorcycle Temple: frankincense, black pepper, mixed musks, clean denim with aged leather and polished cherrywood.

 

And you'd want to hoard it and give it a name like Cafe Racer Cutie. And you all are right to be steaming jealous of me. Seriously. I die.

 

I did have to suffer through the initial reaction to the wet in bottle smell of "Oh JEEZ this smells like corrosion protectant!" It only acted like that for about five minutes, then the black pepper went all submissive and an hour later the above description is what it smells like.

[Little Bird]

#21. In the decant vial, this smells fizzy and slightly like champagne, but sweeter and not as sour as bpal's champagne blends tend to be. On my skin, it smells so fizzy and bubbly, like a mix of sprite and spiced cola (almost smells a bit like cinnamon on me, but I know there isn't supposed to be cinnamon in any of these blends). The boozy champagne smell fades in and out. Oddly, I don't smell any frankincense, just a fun mix of sodas and alcohol. I probably won't ever wear this, but it's interesting.

[panavatar]

I received bottles 40 and 68.

 

40: This smells like a mild orange mixed with vanilla and cream, but not sweet. Not tested on skin.

 

68: Wow, that's...so familiar yet hard to make out...it's like some kind of citrus candy, maybe a sweettart...except, uh, very sharp instead of sweet. Not tested on skin.

[benthic]

I have a few decants and one bottle!

 

#126: Very frankincense, and cedar maybe? I'm getting wood out of this, but the frank is very strong, just how I like it. Cedar or redwood, I'd say, and as it settles on my skin, there's something sweet behind it; I can't identify it yet, but it's really nice and subtle, perfect for tempering the other notes. I love this one! The sweet note emerges more as time goes on, but I still can't pinpoint what it is, it's so quiet. Sugar?

 

#71: Whoa sweet! I know this note, but I can't ID it. Man, I suck at this. Very little frankincense and some sort of sweet juicy fruit/floral. Definitely floral, as it settles. Finally the frank is beginning to come out, too. And there is some kind of fruit note in it as well, which starts out strong and begins to fade but is still present throughout. It's so familiar that it's driving me crazy that I can't think of it, ha ha. Overall I'm not wild about this one, because I'm not a big fruity fan. Yeah, I'm not liking this as it dries.

 

#147: This is really nice, but I'm having an even harder time pinning it down than the other two. The frankincense is strong, and whatever else is in it is subtle. I'm really just getting frank, and whatever's underneath it is--nice, vaguely warm? Warm and dry and sweetish? But I have noooo clue what it is. It might be a super faint floral. Lilac? This is my favorite so far, even though it eludes me so! Yes, it's a powdery, light floral. I'm very fond of this.

 

#130: CITRUS! Finally something that's easy to recognize. This is straight-up citrus and frank. Grapefruit, I'd say, and probably pink grapefruit, since white goes weird on my skin. The initial blast of grapefruit fades fast and goes to bubblegum on my skin. I don't think this is an actual bubblegum note, just the way grapefruit + frank works out. It's what my nose approximates it as. This one is fun!

 

#113: My own bottle. And honestly, I can't identify a thing in it. It's the most bizarre thing. I don't really get any frank at all. It's a strange combination of sweet and medicinal, like a soft vanilla candy with an edge of herbal. Possibly a sharpish musk in the background. This blend is very light and strange. I like it quite a bit, actually, even though I seriously just can't describe it, and it's a close-to-the-skin blend, and it's very lacking in the frankincense department. It's sweet and creamy but then there's that hint of like, salve, some natural remedy going on. I could not tell you what any of these notes are.

[Nachtwulf]

Hokay. Low, low number of #49.

 

In the bottle, citrus and 'freshwater aquatic'. If I inhale REALLY HARD I can pick up a hint of frankincense in the very back of my sinuses.

 

Wet: OMGLEMONZ. Good lord. Lemon lemon lemon (water) lemon. Oh, and lemons. And maybe a hint of... bug spray. Maybe it's grapefruit instead of lemon... I often get that sort of bug spray thing from grapefruit.

 

Dry: All I'm left with is a (to me, somewhat noxious) citrus.

 

I'm not saying this wouldn't be amazing on someone else; one of my last CTs reminded me of nothing more than 'pot roast' and yet the gal I traded it to thought it was fantastic. Ah, skin chemistry, why must you be so fickle.

[kyrsed]

#73

 

First I have to mention that I'm not all that familiar with the scent of frankincense. I just wanted to try all the Chaos Theories!

 

In bottle: Buttered popcorn - seriously. I was not expecting this to be foody but there you go.

 

On skin: the popcorn smell is gone. This has softened to a much warmer and less foody scent. I can almost smell some vanilla in it. Definitely feminine. I wish I could tell if it was the frankincense I'm smelling - all I know is that this is soo good I want to eat my arm . I will have to see how dear husband feels when he comes home from work

[alterosen]

I wasn't sure if the label said #42 or #62 but since kikithepirate has #42 it must be #62 (it's a full bottle)

 

Wet, it's a bright fruity floral scent that might be champaca (I'm not at all sure, just basing that on one of the past pumpkin blends which is the only time I've encountered it, could be something else entirely).

 

As it dries, this changes into cherry blossom and then sweet, dark cherry fruit comes out to anchor it (ripe black cherries, not fake or almondy). It gets sweeter & more syrupy as time passes, maybe with a little bit of a cola note, too.

 

Pretty tasty, though perhaps a bit too sweet for me.

 

I'll have to dig out my decant of Suck It & compare - though this doesn't have a booze note, I think it might have a similar feel, especially once dry.

eta: Not at all similar - Suck It is much brighter & fruitier, this is a way darker cherry

 

eta: After about an hour, it turns into cherry blossom incense, hmm.

 

eta: Feb/11 - Trying it again, I get a little bit of a wine note, too, especially in the dark cherry middle stage.

Edited March 2, 2011 by alterosen

[talula_fairie]

#33

 

I can't really identify frankincense at all here. This smells like a really creamy, complex floral. There is *almost* a hairspray note to it, but that seems to be calming down as it dries and is really only apparent when I huff my wrists directly. Overall it's actually quite nice, it almost reminds me of Gypsy Queen.

Edited August 17, 2010 by talula_fairie