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By Silvertree
Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101 Thanks!- 5 comments
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No. 93 Engine
in the bottle: Smoky and sharp, resinous, metallic. I can smell beeswax and something reminiscent of Vicks VapoRub (not a bad thing). The rest of the scents are strong and completely meshed -- I can't pull them apart. An assertive scent. Masculine. I like.
on wet: Metallic Vicks, with strong, skin-like warmth underneath. The sharpness has faded, and my impression is now of a more gender-neutral scent. Definitely strong resinous undertones -- makes me think of sticky, hardened sap.
drydown: The Vicks has moved to the back, leaving me with a lovely warm scent which is, unfortunately, going a bit incense-y. I'm guessing the frankincense is asserting itself. Less than an hour later: Frankincense and other components have combined in exactly such a way as to make this scent a hybrid of headshop and candle store. I not like.
one hour later: Straight incense. I'm going to wash this off. I really don't like strong incense smells, not even in a room scent. Other oils have given me different impressions when tried again later, so I'll give this one another shot on another day.
end of day: Didn't make it.
compared to official description: There are a lot of components to this oil that I'm not familiar with. I have to rely on general impressions only, because I can't say "the calamus stood out" or "the balsam of Peru supported the rest", since I'm not familiar with those scents (or half the ones listed, actually). I got wax, frankincense, benzoin (the Vicks smell), something like warm skin, and a melange of indescribable scents that fused into a strong, sharp, warm, pleasant whole in the bottle, but that went almost pure incense on my skin.
notes: This one would definitely work in a locket. I'm not tempted to get a bottle, but I'll keep the imp.
added to forum reviews
A small, little, short, brief note..
MORE SW QUESTIONS!
Rocktober SW Random Q&A
Les Infortunes de la Vertu
in the bottle: This is the first leather-based scent in which I smell the leather right off the bat. I like. Leather, amber, incense. Comforting. Calming. Sensual. I can say with utter certainty that I long to be surrounded by this scent. Whether it works on me remains to be seen.
on wet: Still leather, amber, and incense. No hint of florals.
drydown: I'm already losing the leather and going to almost straight amber with a hint of incense. I'm starting to think that I need to research oils without amber, as I seem to amp it to the point of no return. I don't dislike the scent of amber, I just don't want it to be the only thing I smell, and on me, amber doesn't play well with others. Though I usually really dislike florals, the almost one-note-ness of the amber now makes me long for the scent of florals just to break it up.
one hour later: I washed my hands a couple of times for food prep and lost most of the scent, so I reapplied. On second application I get the leather more strongly immediately after application. After the second drydown I'm still smelling mostly amber, but I have to admit that, although my nose isn't pulling scents out that I can identify, there's definitely more to this than amber. The primal part of my brain, the part that has no use for words, is feeling comforted, safe, and amped -- aware, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I feel like I'm wrapped warmly in the arms of a strong man, listening to his quickened heartbeat. Flippin' amazing. Beth, I worship you.
end of day: The most sensual phase of this oil only lasts about ten or fifteen minutes on my skin. I like it overall, definitely. I really like it in the bottle and absolutely love it for the first ten minutes on my skin. I have to declare this a winner, but I'm going to have to try it simultaneously on and in a locket to get the full effect, I think.
compared to official description: I don't pick up any of the florals, which is probably a blessing. I definitely think they're there, but only evident in the in-the-bottle stage, where they add to the whole without standing out. That's really amazing to me, as florals always seem to go straight to the top of the heap when I'm wearing them, whereas here they fade completely out. I was very afraid to try an oil with rose listed, as I've had rose-based scents go cloying (and rotting) on me before, but ... this oil can do no wrong.
notes: I should add that this seemed masculine to me at every stage, but that only increases my enjoyment. It makes me want.
added to forum reviews
Catchup
scents destined for a locket
Darkness -- actually, I've already decided that it works on my skin, but I like the out-of-the-imp scent better
Embalming Fluid
La Petit Mort
The Antikythera Mechanism
Velvet
Shub-niggurath
in the bottle: Dried baking spices, heavy on the ginger, with a musty, cloying, almost rotted smell, like not-quite-fully-decomposed mulch.
on wet: Ginger, ginger, ginger, spices, dirt.
drydown: Cinnamon red-hots, ginger, dirt.
one hour later: Cinnamon red-hots, ginger.
end of day: Didn't make it.
compared to official description: I'm guessing the combination of dark resins and ritual herbs gave me the composted plantlife smell. I don't know which spices are considered aphrodisiacal, but nothing in here did a damn thing for me. I got a strong cinnamon component later (not like dried cinnamon powder, but more like cinnamon extract), and I can see someone arguing that cinnamon is an aphrodisiac. Again, not so much.
notes: To my scent aesthetic, this is ugly, if a scent could be called that. Not unpleasant, off-putting, unappealing or unapproachable, just ... ugly.
Understand while you're reading this that that statement is not meant as a hit on Beth's skill. I'm an artist, and I know what it's like to have people love, shrug at, and seriously dislike your work. I know the pain of planning, testing, refining, and slaving over an idea, pouring too much of yourself into it, then getting ... well ... stepped on. Beth, I have no reason to believe that you'll ever read my blog, but if you do, please understand that I completely admire what you've done for yourself, and I respect your courage and efforts. You know from reading other people's responses that you've given a great deal of pleasure to many. I can only describe my experiences the way I experience them. Please don't take it too much to heart.
added to forum reviews
Mary Read
in the bottle: Boozy and sweet; rum and sarsaparilla. An undertone of something sharp. Bizarrely, this reminds me strongly of Velvet, Centzon Totochtin, and Dracul -- yeah, all three.
on wet: Sweet, a little boozy.
drydown: Sweet warmth with a touch of creamy soap. The soap makes me think of an old soap-on-a-rope my dad got as a gift when I was a child but never used (left hanging, untouched, on the shower head to scent the whole bathroom for about 10 years). Maybe the patchouli? The warmth has a kind of spiciness to it, otherwise, it's almost impossible to describe. Just, warm. This ... this almost smells like warm skin to me. Wow. Could this be my first brush with a skin-only-better scent? But there's a hint of something sharp and a little off-putting. Damn, damn, damn. So close.
one hour later: I'm getting a warm, clean scent, like nice laundry detergent and fresh air; a "hanging the laundry on a warm summer morning" kind of scent. It's not a bad thing, but I miss the boozy-ness.
end of day: Same as "one hour later" assessment.
compared to official description: It's hard to tell what's going on here. The leather, musk, and/or gunpowder may be conveying the warmth, but I can't pick any of them out of the mix so it's difficult to determine how they're contributing. Or maybe the gunpowder was the unpleasant sharpness (that seems unlikely as I like the smell of burned gunpowder). I'm not familiar with aquatics in general, so maybe it's the "salt air" and "ocean mist" that were off-putting to me.
notes: This is a really tough scent for me to pick apart; most of it I like very much, but it has an element that I find disagreeable right up to the point where all the elements I really like morph completely, at which point the off-scent fades too, but I'm left with fresh air and laundry detergent. Bummer.
added to forum reviews
halloween 09 switch witch ketchup 9/29
Fall SW Questions - 9/24 - 10/7
Switch Witch Fall '09 Questions
O O
TKO
More SW questions
Fall 2009 Switch Witch Questions
Ketchup
Random Ketchup.
The Antikythera Mechanism
(second review)
Round 2: I tried this again, and all my initial impressions are there, but it didn't go right to powder this time; instead, it just faded out completely. Still not ideal, but better than a baby's butt. I still have a sense of wood, vanilla, and something oddly cocoa-y (which, with more concentration, I can now say is definitely the tobacco). I do like this one. Medium like, not omg-gotta-have-a-gallon like.
Seems like I said this somewhere else in this blog, but I really think that the ones that go to powder do so over clean, dry skin -- meaning little body oil and no lotion. I have several lotions and they're all fragrance-free, so I have no excuse not to layer oils over lotion, and I'm wondering if that's the only way to get a real sense of what these oils are like (at least on my skin). I have to believe that it would make a difference. Having said that, I also have to believe that there would be just as much a difference between the scent produced over skin softened by my own body oil as opposed to skin softened by lotion. One is full of, well, I don't know how to put it, but the essence of me, essentially. The other is just a barrier and a carrier. Really didn't mean to rhyme that.
It's sort of a moot point, as I've reached an age where oil production has slowed and I have dry skin most of the time. So, lotion it is.
in the bottle: Dry wood and vanilla -- a very warm, smooth, non-sweet, non-foody vanilla. Luscious. I want to pour it over my head, let it run over my whole body, then drink the last dregs. Yum!
on wet: The vanilla really stands out now. It has changed to something that reminds me of dry cocoa, but still definitely not sweet. Something in this is modifying the vanilla and giving it a powdery effect.
drydown: Powder, faintly vanilla-y. This has gone from "yum" to "after-bath powder" in ten minutes flat. I can see how this might work on someone else, but unless this does some kind of miracle morph, I think the experiment's over.
one hour later: After an hour of powder, I decided to force the issue. I layered "No. 93 Engine" over the top. Now that five minutes has gone by, I can say with certainty that this move was a mistake. Something about the combination smells almost rancid, and all the nice warm notes have gone all jumbled and icky. Oof. Time to scrub.
end of day: Didn't make it.
compared to official description: I wasn't picking up the tobacco outright, but I'm sure it was modifying the whole. I think I'd prefer to pick out the tobacco as a separate and distinct scent.
notes: I'm really disappointed -- not in the scent, but in my skin's reaction to it. I had high hopes for this when I smelled it in the bottle.
added to forum reviews
