A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, lychee for strong family relationships and peace in the home, orange for happiness, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, coconut for longevity, and candied melon for good health, with a splash of blazing red of dragon's blood... to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.
Reviewed 03/08/2008
In the imp: This smells sharp, but not citrus sharp. It makes my nose twitch.
Wet: Why hello there melon! Wow, that's strong. I can't make out any of the other notes through the melon.
Drydown: None of the citrus notes came out for me, sadly. The melon calmed down a lot and blended with the other notes to create a beautiful fruity-floral scent with a hint of something sharp cutting through all sweetness. I'm glad I didn't amp the dragon's blood in this, because it doesn't do well on me. The throw is low, but it lasts a really long time even on my skin, which drinks up oils like a Hummer guzzles down gas. I'm not sure how often I will wear this, but I definitely want a bottle of this before it goes down.
A bombardment of edible carnival indulgences. Funnel cake, caramel apple, cotton candy, salt water taffy and sugar tart.
Reviewed 01/21/2008
In the bottle I get mostly sugar, a touch of something tangy, and a hint of coconut suntan lotion.
Wet: It's hovering on the edge of that plastic, playdoh scent Beaver Moon '05 gave me. NOOOOOO!
Dry: My skin eats every other note and leaves funnel cake, dusted generously with powdered sugar. NOMNOMNOM is the perfect description for this. I don't get any apple at all, which is a shame, because I love caramel apple and was hoping for some of that to come out. It doesn't have much throw, and fades out quickly, but it's worth the repeated slathering. I'm glad I nabbed two bottles of this while it was up, and I'm sure I'll be on the hunt for more.
The Four Hundred divine rabbits of the Aztec pantheon that preside over parties and drunkenness. Bittersweet Mexican cocoa with rum, red wine, and a scent redolent of sacrificial blood.
Reviewed: 01/21/2008
In the imp: COFFEE!
Wet: COFFEE! It's screaming. I'm picturing someone hyped up on 15 espresso shots chanting coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee. It's nothing but coffee. If I liked coffee it would be wonderful, but I don't drink it and I'm not a big fan.
Drydown: This is still screaming COFFEE! at me. It's very in-your-face. Every now and then a swirl of booziness will bubble up, like someone trying to sober up after a long night, but only rarely. This would be perfect for the teacher my kid had last year who adored coffee and was a wine connoisseur, and I think I may pass this on to her for her birthday. It's very well done, it has a good throw and it lasts a long time, but it's just not for me.
Edited to fix spelling. Apparently, I need some of the caffeine from the coffee in this perfume. *L*
The sticky sweet scent of candy corn!
Reviewed 02/11/2008
In the bottle: Buttered corn. Not candy corn, real corn.
Wet: Creamed corn. Eek!
Drydown: Butter and sugar, maybe nutmeg and cinnamon? The spicy part smells like a bottle of pumpkin pie spice. Thank *goodness* the real corn scent faded! It doesn't really smell like candy corn on me, but it does smell good. It has a very definite fall feel to it. I don't get any of the booziness that some reviews have mentioned, and that makes me happy as most of the Lab's booze notes don't work well on me. This is foody but not overly so; it doesn't scream "Eat me!" in your face the way something like El Dia de Reyes does. I think it would be wearable even for people who don't tend to like foody scents.
The Day of Kings, the Celebration of the Magi. In Mexico, on January 6th, children place their shoes by their windows. If they have been good during the previous year, the Wise Men tuck gifts into their shoes during the night.
Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar.
Reviewed 01/22/2008
In the bottle: Chocolate, lots and lots of it.
Wet: This smells just like hot chocolate. Not the powder stuff that gets mixed with water, but the real stuff. YUM. It's incredibly rich, decadent, and lifelike.
Drydown: Now I'm getting hints of cinnamon teasing me through the chocolate. There is no coffee, just sweet, thick chocolate and swirls of cinnamon. I am enthralled by this perfume, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely a winter scent, I can't even imagine wearing something this warm and thick during the summer months. Like Midway, this is best described as NOMNOMNOM. The absolute best, most true-to-life chocolate scent I've ever tried.
Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant.
Reviewed 01/22/2008
In the imp: Cherries! Is this finally the so-juicy-it-makes-me-thirsty scent I've been dying to find?
Wet: Yummy, juicy, ripe to bursting cherries. Oh yes!
Drydown: Wait, what is this? I smell like...sawdust? Freshly cut wood and sawdust. It's very interesting, and quite well blended, but sawdust isn't really on my top ten lists of things to smell like.
While Persephone visited the realm of Hades, she tasted one single pomegranate seed, an act which compelled her to remain connected to the Land of the Dead for all eternity. Demeter's grief over her beloved daughter's absence that brings on the bleakness and barrenness of the winter months.
The Fruit of Paradise, the Nectar of Death: bittersweet pomegranate.
Reviewed 01/22/2008
I was a bit nervous when I first put this on. I got a hint of the Vicks-ish note that makes Crypt Queen awful on me, but thankfully it faded after a few moments. It became a gorgeous, juicy fruit scent, just tart enough to make things interesting. I'm so in love. I wish it had more throw, and it fades out very very quickly, but it's so beautiful that it's worth hoarding so that I can slather myself in it repeatedly without guilt.
May marks the apex of the year's fertility, expresses the reawakening of the sexuality of the Earth and her inhabitants, and May's full moon celebrates both the fecundity of the creatures and flora of this world and the vibrancy, rejuvenation and life-affirming energy of Spring. Milk Moon is Flower Moon's warmer, gentler cousin; it is a scent that emulates the closeness of child and mother. In it, cream and warm honey soften our traditional blend of lunar oils.
Reviewed 03/08/2008
In the bottle: It smells like a certain milk candy I used to eat when I was young.
Wet: Milk, but it's barely there. It reminds me a bit of Chaste Moon. I put on quite a bit, just this short of slathering, and I still have to put my wrist all the way to my nose to smell anything.
Drydown: It gets a bit minty, and then suddenly it turns into sour milk and cat pee. Oh skin chemistry, you have failed me once again. *sigh*
A lunatic's blend of lunar herbs and blossoms, with lemongrass, guava, pink grapefruit, banyan fruit, hibiscus, and cherry blossom.
Reviewed 03/08/2008
In the bottle: Creamy fruits.
Wet: Heavy on the guava and the grapefruit. It's very crisp and clear.
Drydown: The longer this sits on my skin the more the floral notes come out. The florals come forward and ground the fruit, while the fruits keep this from becoming too floral. It's a relatively non-foody fruit scent, IMO. It 'feels' very cool and it's appropriate for the coming spring season. I like this a lot.
The Master of Lightning's ofrenda contains red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane.
Reviewed 01/26/2008
I got this as a lab frimp. It's been on my "things I might want to try, but has a scary note so there are other things I want more at the moment" list for a few months now, so I was glad for a chance to try it out.
Wet: OMGFRUIT. Banana, coconut, pineapple, apples, I can pick out each one. I adore really juicy fruit scents, the kind that make you thirsty for some fresh juice when you sniff them, and this seems to be one of those.
Drydown: This isn't something I can stick my nose in and inhale, the chili pepper makes sure of that (if I try, my nose starts to twitch, heh). It's got a good throw, though, so I don't have to. I was nervous about the chili, but it didn't irritate the skin on my wrist at all. It did burn my face where I accidentally touched the test spot to my cheek, so I think it's a wrist-only scent for me. It only lasted a few hours, but I know that my skin drinks oils up and very few last longer than that. I will definitely be nabbing a bottle of this in the future.
A super-sweet, glittering mountain of crushed hard candy: watermelon, pink lime, lemon, strawberry and piles upon piles of crystalline sugar.
Reviewed 03/08/2008
This is absolute silliness in a bottle, and I adore it. A mountain of hard candy is the perfect description for this. I don't get much watermelon, but there's tons of lemon and lime with a dash of strawberry thrown in, with a few pounds of sugar piled on top. It smells like rock candy. I think what I love most about this scent is that it's impossible to sniff it without smiling, you just can't be sad if you're wearing it.
The name of this moon refers to the color of wild ground phlox, a primary component of this Lunacy Blend, which is one of the most widespread floral signposts of springtime in North America. This Lunar blend is soft with phlox, tulip, daffodil, dogwood and muscari, dusted with pink sugar and honey, and a touch of the first strawberries of the season.
Reviewed 02/11/2008
Pink Moon 2007 didn't work on me at all, so I was nervous about trying the earlier version. Needlessly worried, I discovered. This is beautiful!
In the imp: Sweet and floral, but not overpowering Avon-ish floral.
Wet: Sugared flowers, the kind you see used to decorate cakes.
Drydown: Flowers and a sweetness that might be sugar or honey or even a hint of strawberry. It's very delicate and feminine. It sings Spring to me, and I need that at this time of year. I want to slather this all over the next time the temperature dips below freezing so I can daydream about little pink flowers and budding greenery. It has a surprisingly good weartime for such a delicate scent.
Papaya, blueberry, lemongrass, and gin.
Reviewed 05/02/2008
In the bottle: Sugary sweet fruit, lots of gin.
Wet: A hint of sharpness from the gin, but mostly this is syrupy, over-sweet blueberries.
Drydown: I'm all about the sweet foody scents, but this was overkill while it was wet. Thankfully it calmed down as it dried, becoming lighter and less cloying. It's like a blue raspberry slushy, with a dash of gin, some fizzy club soda, and a twist of lemon. This scent is very summery and so much fun, and I got more compliments wearing it today than any other I've tried. It's got great throw, and it lasted all day long without needing to be reapplied.
A melancholy, deep scent, poignant and brimming with nostalgia. The perfume of sugared plums over a breeze of winter flowers.
Reviewed 02/18/2008
In the bottle: Mmm, berries.
Wet: Luscious, juicy berries. I don't know plum well enough to know if it's plum specifically, but it's wonderful.
Drydown: Still very juicy. The berries are on top, but there is something underneath that makes it feel cold to my nose. It's an actual sensation; the insides of my nostrils feel cold if I bring my hand to my nose and sniff closely. I really love this. It did make me itch for a short time, but it didn't last and didn't make the skin red at all. It's got a good wear time, but the throw isn't as strong as I'd like.
Ok, fine. It isn't really a lump of coal, but brownies and coal are vaguely similar in color! -- and you know you could never be naughty enough for us to really toss a coal at you! After all, we specialize in sin at Black Phoenix. This is the truly sinful scent of a sticky, thick, dark and rich fudge brownie.
Reviewed 02/22/2008
I'll cut to the chase with this one: there is no morph, no difference between imp and wet and drydown, it is pure chocolate decadence. It is spot-on in capturing the scent of a pan of brownies, fresh out of the oven, with the edges a bit crispy and the middle still gooey and sticky. YUM.
Since 1928, Mother Shub and her brood have been providing the snack shacks of the Miskatonic Valley with a bevy of otherworldly sweets and baked treats. This year, Mother Shub has created a promotional perfume oil that embodies the scent of her famous Peanut Brittle Caramel Popcorn. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Thank you for an eon of community support!
Reviewed 4/22/2008
In the bottle: Hot, dripping-with-butter popcorn.
Wet: Buttery popcorn, and a hint of sweetness coming out.
Drydown: The popcorn settles down and sweet caramel comes forward. I'm not getting anything peanut-y at all. The caramel note is amazingly real, and combined with the lingering butter it reminds me of fresh, homemade caramels being pressed into a buttered pan.
Fairly low throw, but decent wear length; I couldn't wait to get home and slathered some on right there in the post office after I picked up the package. That was about three hours ago, and it hasn't faded much at all despite the fact that my skin drinks oils for breakfast. I can't wait to try this in my scent locket tomorrow!
Glowing liquid passes through the fogged retorts of ancient alembics, sparks fly from behind a massive workbench, and a cloud of thick incense smoke hangs low, all casting strange and surreal flashes of light and shadow on tall bolted-steel walls. The chug and hum of gargantuan machines echo through the chamber.
Burnished gold and oiled bronze notes with Abramelin incense and sage.
Reviewed 04/21/2008
I can't remember exactly what I wrote last night, since it got lost in the forum burp. But I do remember that this smelled exactly like a perfume I had as a child called Topaz. It came in a bottle shaped like a lamb, and I'm not sure who made it. I probably won't ever wear this, but I'll sniff it every once in a while to go back to that innocent time in my life.
Hay absolute, tall grasses, dry honey, mallow, cardamom, amber, and wheat.
Reviewed 07/04/2008
In the bottle: This screams 'perfume'. I almost didn't want to try it.
On my skin: My grandfather. I can't even sniff for notes because this smells EXACTLY like my grandfather, the unique combination of his aftershave, soap, hair stuff, cologne, and tanned skin. When I smell this I see his face, it is *dead on*. My partner thinks this smells amazingly yummy and would love me to wear it all the time. It's lovely, but I don't think it's something I can wear because it makes me all teary.
Golden mead, fermented with gruit, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger root, sweet-briar, rosemary, and lemon.
Reviewed 07/04/2008
In the bottle: Honey, lemon, and a hint of ginger.
On my skin: This quickly becomes vaguely-honey-scented baby powder. WAHHH. It has good throw and lasts for EVER, so I think I'll let it age for a few months and test it again.
A nocturnal bounty of fae dew-kissed petals and pale fruits: white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon.
Reviewed 07/05/2008
In the imp: Pear and sweet pea, fairly strong. More floral that fruity.
Wet: Grape juice, a hint of peach and floral. The floral notes take a back seat to the fruits.
Drydown: Refreshing, clean, girlish and innocent. This is very well-blended, no one note takes over although I can definitely smell sweet pea, which happens to be my birthflower. This is a very different pear than the Haunted House '07 scents; those turned into play-doh on my skin, while this stays sparkling and fresh. I see this becoming a favorite summer scent. Medium wear length and it clings close to the skin with little throw, so the sweetness doesn't become overpowering on hot, sticky days.
Smut! Smut! Smut! Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes.
Reviewed 07/05/2008
In the imp: MUSK!
Wet: Wait, where did it go?? There's nothing, literally no scent at all. Did my skin eat it in the 15 seconds it took me to swipe, cap the imp, and sniff? How *weird*.
Drydown: Powdery, faintly spicy musk, with absolutely no throw. What little I do get smells like it could be very sexy but it disappears the moment it touches my skin no matter how much I slather. I have to practically drown myself in it to get a whiff of anything at all, and used nearly 1/3 of the imp just to properly test it. This has the potential to be really wonderful, but my skin drinks it down faster than someone guzzling water in the desert.
Blue and white musks, moonflower, rose, magnolia, lemon verbena, and lychee.
Reviewed: 07/06/2008
In the imp: Very sharp. I can definitely smell the lemon verbena and lychee.
Wet: I'm not just clean, I'm Zestfully clean! This smells just like Zest soap.
Drydown: I'm getting a bit of rose now, and a small amount of that citrus freshness that lychee gives, but it's overlaid with a strong soap scent. This is definitely not for me.
TP'd Trees! -- Cypress, oak, and pine covered in 2-ply!
Reviewed: 07/06/2008
In the imp: It's not the pine scent I expected. It smells like something labeled "mountain spring fresh" rather than anything piney or woody.
Wet: Wow, is this subtle. Not at all what I expected. It's aquatic and light, slightly powdery.
Drydown: Still very subtle. Not much throw, but it lasted a decently long time. There's a skin-musk-and-powder scent here that reminds me a lot of Enraged Bunny Musk. I've been putting off testing this one because wood notes are so awful on me, but I really, really like this. It's very light and fresh and cool, a perfect scent for the dog days of summer.
A stirring yet gentle perfume. The scent of love and devotion mingled with an undercurrent of heart-rending sorrow. A bouquet of white roses, labdanum, and wild orchid.
Reviewed: 07/07/2008
In the imp: Sharp, strong florals.
Wet: Sharp floral, an undertone of something soft and powdery.
Drydown: The sharpness has faded, and only the soft florals remain. This is pretty and feminine; it 'feels' very gentle and spring-ish. It has decent throw but fades relatively quickly. I think it would be interesting to put it in a scent locket and my skin at the same time, so that the locket would retain the sharpness but it could take on the softer scent on my skin.
The Babylonian Goddess of Dreams, who bestows the power of Oneiromancy onto her priests. This blend opens up psychic sensitivity during sleep and aids in the understanding and correct interpretation of portents and symbols.
Reviewed: 07/07/2008
In the imp: Sharp lavender, bright citrus. Very strong.
Wet: Crisp, bright lemon, with something spicy lingering underneath. It's still very strong.
Drydown: The lavender has been completely overpowered, and it's a spicy, bright lemon. This has one of the strongest throws I've ever found. Since I have to wear a CPAP mask that covers my face while I sleep I can't speak to any dream properties, but it's quite lovely anyway.
