Category: Sin & Salvation
In the imp: There's cinnamon, but in a sweet, sugary, Red Hots candy sort of way.
Wet: Sweetness predominates. I'm assuming this must be the clove, though I had never expected it to smell like that. It is mainly a floral sort of sweetness, with just a hint of sugar running through it; thankfully, the candy-like scent has gone away. Every now and then I can detect a brief spike of cinnamon or pepper, but the scent is predominantly sweet.
Dry: Finally when it had dried and died down (this would be *hours* later), I could detect a resinous incense scent on my skin -- dragon's blood.
Verdict: Even though it's not behaving the way I'd have thought from the description, I LOVE this scent! It is my favorite so far. Every time I would catch a whiff of myself I would feel quite happy...and this would happen quite often, as even with moderate application the scent is very strong and throws very well. Yum! A full bottle of this is a must-have.
What I liked: The sweet scent -- flowery and sugary, without crossing over into being obnoxious. The strength -- this throws *so* well, and I love being able to smell it on me without having to slather it on and risk being too stinky for people around me. And, the lasting power -- I put this on in the morning and can still smell it -- albeit faintly -- twelve hours later.
What I didn't like: Nothing! Wrath makes me happy!
I thought Absinthe and Aglaea were good, but this tops them, absolutely.
Fig, walnut, and bamboo mingle together to evoke images of freshly-peeled bark, twigs, sticks, tendrils of curling greenery, and underneath it all, the moist, sheltering earth of a burrow. It's warm and sweet, like a little brown rabbit curling up somewhere safe. As if that lovely imagery wasn't enough, there is a teensy bit of caramel that gives it a chocolatey sort of feel...like a chocolate bunny, almost! (I was born in the year of the Wood Hare, so that must be where all the rabbity imagery is coming from). I really liked it, a lot! And I will probably rue the day that I decided to pass up on getting a full bottle of it.
I really loved all the Phoenixes. They are so very evocative in their own respective ways; I haven't had this much mental imagery from scents in quite a while. I really enjoyed my experiences with the Anniversary scents, and am grateful to have been able to sample them.
There's a lot of white chocolate here, and after a few moments the violet peeks out. It's really lovely at first, but wears off all too quickly. Ah well.
This is a really lovely candy scent. The white chocolate gives it a very light, airy sugar scent, while the strawberries add just a hint of plump, juicy creaminess. It doesn't give off a whole lot of throw...it's more of a scent to be savored privately throughout the day...much like a coveted box of chocolates.
Someone else compared this to a 'high-end soap', and I totally agree! Not that it's soapy in a bad way; it's just really, really fresh and clean-smelling. It's almost minty, in a way. There is a definite air of teal-blue; brisk, cleansing water sudsed with sea-foam. Like nearly all the Phoenixes, it tended to hug very close to my skin, but was quite strong should I come nodding back for a sniff. I'd say it had about average staying power, say five or six hours.
The good news: It smells exactly like it says it's supposed to. One instantly gets an air of fine, misty rain, permeated by the dust on one's sandals, and the incense burning in the sheltering temple atop the mountain. It's beautiful, and it sums up the concept of 'rain' perfectly. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it smells like a purifying, Oregon rain -- the kind you'd feel sweeping in straight off the ocean, as you stand on the beach.
The bad news: It lasts about six seconds on me, then evaporates.
I can see how some reviewers get a 'Sprite' vibe from it. There's definitely a citrus/lime tone to it, probably to preserve that fresh, purifiying aquatic quality of the perfume. I rather liked it.
Category: Limited Editions -- The Salon -- April Fools
This...smells so familiar. And delicious. I think...I think it might be reminding me of that one magical time when I was wearing Fearful Pleasure, and it had that woody sarsparilla smell with just a hint of vanilla beans and other stuff...so hey, if cigars, coffee, and Irish creme is what makes it smell like that, FINE! There is definitely a smooth, woody tone pervading the sweetness throughout. As one reviewer noted, it does smell more like the mess left in the room afterward, as opposed to the actual doggy poker party itself...but that's fine by me. I think I need a bottle now.
Category: Discontinued Scents
This is a wonderfully light and delicate floral. I can smell iris and, I think, moonflower; I don't pick up the super-sweet tone that I normally do from jasmine, but that's fine, as it seems to be working its magic in other ways. This scent is fresh and clean, and highly evocative; imagine standing among reeds and fragrant, dew-covered flowers at the edge of a pool, while the moon and stars shine above. It's beautiful. This is the one Muse that I really liked!
Category: Bewitching Brews
It was hard to review this one, simply because I'm not sure how to describe what I was smelling. Ah well, here goes.
In the imp: I am wanting to say it was more floral than anything else, though there was a certain...solidity to it. An edge. A razor-thin one, however, as the scent was not strident in any way.
Wet: Still floral, getting a lighter quality to it. It's hard to really, truly catch a whiff of it...it's as if the scent rises just short of my nose, and then darts off to parts unknown, leaving only a ghost of itself for me. I told you this review was hard!
Dry: It gets very faint, fairly quickly -- a couple of hours after application, it's barely detectable. It did leave behind a faint, woody scent, almost like cedar.
Verdict: I'm afraid this doesn't do anything for me; I'll keep an eye out for a loving home for it.
What I liked: It was a pretty scent, if a mystifying one.
What I didn't like: It had no throw, no lasting power...I want to reek of smelly goodness, gosh darn it! I have no idea what notes might have been in it, so I couldn't tell you anything else specific.
Limited Edition -- Halloween 2009
Not *exactly* like candy corn to my nose...more like a sugary vanilla. Someone who described it as Karo or corn syrup hit it pretty much on the nose.
Category: Wanderlust
I think that, for me, cedar is going to be one of those scents that shoulders its way to the front and tries to hog all the attention, and that's certainly what it does here. Fresh out of the imp and wet on my skin, all I can smell is the cedar. As it dries, thankfully, the creamier, refreshing vanilla note becomes evident. This mostly becomes a balance of the vanilla and the wood, though the sassafras does peek out from time to time in sweet, delicious little wafts. Unfortunately, however, on me the cedar note just turns a bit rank and ruins whatever sweet dusty qualities this blend might have had. If one likes vanilla and can have the wood note behave on them, though, I think they will enjoy it.
Category: Limited Editions -- Samhain 2008
There are definitely dry, dead leaves here, but they are accompanied by sweet, warm apple cider and poppies. It's a very nice autumn scent -- right smack in between the earthiness of Chant D' Autumne and the warm deliciousness of Fearful Pleasure. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long on me, which is why I'll just content myself with an imp.
Hm, odd. The first time I tried this, I got all clove and spices and balsam and a hint of orange punch. Not wicked at all, but certainly yummy. Over the day, it morphed into something woody, and by the end of the day was getting a bit soapy...but it behaved so nicely for the majority of its stay that I was willing to forgive that.
Now that I'm sniffing it again, I get primarily bitter mandarin orange, with some balsam or cypress...something sweet but woody. That's a bit more...wicked, I guess. Perhaps things had settled -- I didn't really bother with rolling the imp or anything, this time around.
In both cases, however, I very much like it. I'll need a bottle.
Man...what a flippin' cocktease.
I get a brief, teasing whiff of orange, and then a pine branch smacks me in the noggin. But I like the orange...so I keep coming back to sniff again...and keep getting pine needles shoved up my nose. And then amber and incense come around afterward to douse my wounds in a medicinal bath, and prep me for round 7,531 of this endless cycle.
It's an exercise in sadomasochism for me.
Category: The Mad Tea Party
So this is the apple note...yummy. I definitely detect that the most, as well as the mint, and a hint of lime, both of which add a coolness and freshness to the candylike sweetness of the apple. (At least, from a distance; when I come in close for a sniff, the tartness of both notes asserts itself and indeed gives a mischeivous and contrary jolt to my nose.) It truly is wet and aquatic, but in an...alcoholic sort of way. In fact, looking at the notes, it sounds like it would make for a really good cocktail. Gotta try that, sometime.
It lasted all day, and had a pretty decent throw. I found myself sniffing my wrist quite a lot with this one. I think I'll hang onto it for a while.
When first applied, I get frankincense and a hint of amber -- very lovely. I can see how people get the 'fizzy' feeling, though, because I quickly detected it there, as well. Then the incense morphs quickly to something sweeter; while I didn't get out and out 'grape' scent from the wine, it was vaguely there. After a bit, it just goes generically perfumey. Just not my thing...
Category -- The Mad Tea Party
Predominantly a glorious, warm amber. The grassy scents are dry ones, and smell a little like patchouli and cinnamon, or some other very dry, powdery spice. I agree with other reviewers about this lasting a short time; it's really nice for the hour or so that it's there, but then the Lion is padding off to parts unknown.
Category: Limited Editions -- Samhain 2008 -- Sleepy Hollow Series
Initially, it's a very dry, smokey scent; it doesn't have the sharp tang of cordite that I was expecting -- it's more like the last traces of smoke after a flame has been snuffed or blown out, sans the wax.
This is very fleeting, however; after that, I swear that it smells like Axe Body Spray. LOL Not really my thing.
This does strike me as a very masculine scent, and I'd recommend it, along with Brom Bones, for anyone seeking out a late 'Weenie purchase for their male companions.
Category: Ars Moriendi
Well, 'ethereal floral' certainly applies here...I get a whiff of light florals, with maybe a bit of dusty ivy...and then it's gone. Very faint, very fleeting.
Peachy flowers. While the peach note is really pretty, on me the notes just all meld together into a very generic sort of sweet-fruity-floral scent. It's a bit like a girl who is very pretty and sweet and demure, but also very vapid, and easily-forgotten. I'm sure the character this is based on is *nothing* like that, but it's the personality that seems to be put forth by this blend, to me at least.
Limited Editions: Yule 2009 -- Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire
For me, this doesn't register as either 'chocolate' or 'tobacco' right away...it actually smelled like vanilla. A real sultry vanilla, the dark black of vanilla extract without the alcoholic edge to it. But that's just my nose being silly. Close up, I can definitely get the cacao, which is unlike any chocolate scent I've smelled heretofore...and the tobacco melds so nicely with it, that to me it becomes a dark, creamy, sensuous scent. And it lasts. All day long, and then some. I was actually on the fence about it for the longest time, but I realized that every time I put my coat on I was smelling the redolant aroma of the Troupe and *smiling* because of it...and so I came to my senses and ordered some. This is probably the most awesome of the 2009 Yule scents, and I'm *so* glad that I ordered a bottle!
Category: Illyria
In the imp, it smells very strongly of tea and ginger, with some sugar thrown in.
As it goes on, a more herbal sort of tone comes through. As it dries, though, I smell the tea/ginger again.
It's a lovely smell -- I really like the smell of tea. Unfortunately, this scent is so light and fleeting that it will not work for long on me.
I think I actually like this better than Aizen-Myoo. The grapefruit in the other scent isn't necessarily unpleasant, but I rather like the gentleness of the ginger in this one better. Just wish my skin didn't suck up tea so well!
Category: Phoenix Steamworks
Dark wood, seasoned with a splash of manly vanilla. (Do you doubt that there is such a thing as manly vanilla?) It hugs fairly close to the skin, and seemed to evaporate after a while...didn't last the whole day on me.
It starts out with a bit of a sour kick, like wine gone musty...I'd have to assume that it's the pear and grape acting out, there. From a distance, it gives off a creamy vanilla vibe with some fruity overtones, while up close there's more of a tart pear smell. It's really interesting. Of all the Odes, this one had the most throw and lingered the longest. I'm actually sad now that I didn't buy a bottle.
