sarada

I've tried this a zillion times over the years and never quite clicked with it. It has things I should love: plum, wine and black currant; and one that I should hate: amaretto. But it's really just a light, fizzy berry scent to me. A little like Jester. While I love purply fruits, they seem to need a little something extra to anchor them, or they just float away after a few minutes. Bordello is one of those floaty scents on me -- a little too light and insubstantial. It needs something like a musk or other amplifying agent to make it do anything, and it's not the kind of thing I'd wear in a locket either. If it was a hand lotion or shampoo we'd be in business but it's just not bawdy enough for me!

Ever have an imp just totally sneak up on you? I have probably had this come by as a frimp a few times over the past couple of years and never stopped to pay attention before. Then I tested a frimp today and ... wow. What is that? Hmm. I always thought this was going to be one of those almondy messes that I can't wear. But it's so sweet, and has just the right balance of spicy floral and fruity sweetness. It's very familiar. Looking at the notes, now, of course -- it has the same sort of family of ingredients as Frumious Bandersnatch, one of my favorites! Carnation once again asserts itself as one of the most magnificent florals, because it never really smells like just "flowers." It's a little musty, a little spicy, and packs quite a whallop. Plum, as always, is one of my favorite fruits. So juicy, and just a tiny bit tart. It's not a deep, bloody, purple plum like Bandersnatch, it's much more light and playful. The musk, also, just serves to whip this all into shape and keep it from fading too quickly. This moves into the permanent imp box, and I'll have to try to remember that it might play well with the Bandersnatch.

Shub is the strongest of the three soaps that I ordered -- smelled it right out of the box, and it's the only one that I can really clearly smell through the (beautiful, dragon-themed) wrapping. It smells just like you'd expect Shub, a little lighter and creamier because of the additional soap ingredients, but very true to Shub without the lemony ginger notes. It feels like it would probably vanish in the shower very quickly if it wasn't properly maintained by keeping it out of the water blast, and setting it on a little soap altar afterward. The bathroom smells like Shub for a long time after I take a shower, though my skin doesn't absorb the smell for very long, BUT my skin is SO soft. Every day after I shower (in the evening) my skin is impossibly dry. I have to slather myself in lotion. But guess what? After I use this, my skin is soft and glowing. These soaps will probably become my staples for that reason, in particular, as most soaps dry my skin very badly. Highly recommended!

Fresh out of the bottle this is mind-blowing! I love sage, and this is a gorgeous one -- so fresh, herbal, earthy and green. The sweetness of the fruits, particularly the berry (blackberry and sage:always a winning combination), grounded by my beloved earthy sweet dirty patchouli. This is mucking around in the garden on a warm spring or pleasant summer day, the sun warming the rich earth as your hands, stained with berry juice, fumble with the soft, leathery sage leaves. The sense of elation that I get from the early stages probably has a lot to do with that sharp, eye-opening citrus, combining with the bubbly, fruity qualities. It would be far too fleeting if not for the grounding patchouli. Another absolute winner. I have managed to line up about a half a bottle's worth of this so far and it will serve me well into the warm months! This is a sage-lover's dream -- provided you also like a bit of fruit and dirt!

Oh yes, this is the one for me, all right! I swapped for True Love since the imps gave me Infatuation, but this is definitely the true love for me out of the Inquisition blends. It reminds me a bit of the GC scent Masquerade, but a deepened, amped up, more complex version. My favorite earthy rich dark brown gritty patchouli, moistened by juicy, appetizing peach and orange blossom. I love incensey blends and this reminds me of burning some very high quality patchouli and orange blossom incense, but more than that, it is rolling around on the ground in the summer with your own true love, in an orange grove or a peach orchard. And the carnation -- oh, the carnation!! Patchouli, carnation and orange together are brilliant. The carnation adds its strange gritty-floral deep red spice, and underneath it all there's the sweet liquid resin frankincense carrying it all forward and amping it up. This is definitely a true love for me. I had a feeling this might be my perfect match: earth, resin, fruit and a touch of spicy floral. Oh god yes!

In the imp, this has a bit of a chemical smell to me -- I get the clove, but there's something in there that makes me think of ... well, a perfume counter! I think it's the top notes, there's a chemical sort of smell that comes off of galbanum and ambergris to my nose. On my skin it instantly transforms. I'd swear there was honey in this, I get a lush, honeyed clove, not dissimilar from my beloved Masque, but lacking the carnation and gritty earth tones. Every note in this is something that reacts very well on my skin -- it unfolds in a dozen different directions on my skin, sweet and resiny helped along by the musk, that lends some muscle to the blend. I'd swear there was a sweet, lilting honey-sweet floral in there but it all calms down to a simmering, sultry clove in the end. I would have loved to get a bottle of this, but I am very happy with the one that I did end up with. I will have to just try to find ways to hoard this wherever I can find it, but ultimately I think Masque is my favorite clovey scent.

I'll get to see the Crow Moon and Oborot labels myself tomorrow when I get my package but has anyone posted a Fire Pig yet?...

It's been ages since I last tried Ulalume, and I'm very pleased to be able to give it another shot. With cypress and oak notes, it's got to have something I like. I remember when I first tried it in 2004 thinking "mossy floral". That is still true but there's so much more to it. The lilies have that wonderful, pale, succulent sweetness that I so love in lilies in certain blends. They are very light in the blend but hang over it like dolorous funeral blooms. The main stage is all dark green moss submerged in darkest, murky water with a faint whiff of damp wood and roots winding their way into the pond. It is a really perfect scent for a rainy spring day, I think, and I will wear it when I go for one of my early spring walks in the wood after rainfall. It also reminds me quite a bit of The Premature Burial, but without the strong earthy notes, and with a slightly different scattering of flower petals.

I love vetiver, but I hate coconut, so this was a hard choice for me whether to launch straight into a bottle or go for a decant. I went for a decant first. And now...I need a bottle! I love the sweet, brown, earthiness of vetiver and this is my favorite kind. It reminds me a bit of Death Cap -- rich, thick humus-like earth, sweet and crumbly. But the Snake Oil layer transforms it utterly, and it is not simply an earthy scent intermingled with the complex thick tangle of spices, oils and vanilla that Snake Oil represents. I don't really smell the coconut, which is a good thing, but I think that other people might be able to pick it out on me. This is a lot like Death Cap layered over Snake Oil might be, I think, but with an added but of earthy sweetness and a touch of smoke. I'll be going back for a bottle of this, ASAP. How is it that I was never wild about Snake Oil, but these variants are just soundly kicking my ass!

I love smoky lavender (Old Scratch, Gaueko, etc.) so I'm very pleased to have this one, particularly because the sandalwood takes it into an even woodier and more incensy territory. I'm put in the mind of my old college dorm room, burning lavender incense while an undercurrent of other, woodier, smoky incenses still lingers in the air and I gaze wistfully out the window at a rainy day. Not sure of what armoise or awapuhi smell like but there's also a touch of something slightly sweet mixed in here, a bit of white floral nectar in the background. Smoky lavender loves my skin and twirls around me in a heady, herbal incensy haze. This is quite splendid for me! ETA: I reapplied this yesterday to continue enjoying it, and it really is the epitome of the sort of herbal, smoky lavender that I love with a woody, incensy base. Definitely seek this out if you like things like Old Scratch. Or even Bitter Moon -- it reminds me of the refreshing, herbal qualities of that blend with the same feeling of fragrant smoke on a grey, cold day. The woods are subtle but gorgeous: I can sense the deep green-tinged cedar and the dusty dry sandalwood beneath the pale purple-green herbs. There are only a handful of scents that I'd put in this category of smoky, herbal, incensy lavender but it is a marvelous combo and absolutely perfect for solitary contemplation and quiet, cloudy days.

This is a really beautiful fruity grapefruit and cherry scent with a hit of ginger that lifts the spirits and brings a soft pinkish-gold glow to a cold, snowy day. It does have a similarity to Hungry Ghost Moon, which is one of my three favorite Lunacy scents, though lacking the wood and resin base it fades rather quickly on me. The cherry is not heavy and almondy the way cherries sometimes go, it remains very natural, though at times I'm reminded of having a mouth full of hard candy, glistening, wet and jewel-like. My skin really absorbs scents like this without the wood or resin floating in the background to anchor it though so I will likely try to swap it for something more suited to my incense-lovin' skin. ETA: After wearing this for awhile and taking some more sniffs of it, Infatuation really is an apt name because it's really weaving a spell around me. It's such a rich, deep, sparkling fruit. Not the glittering frosted sugar of Treat #1, this is a much deeper and juicier fruit, with the florals interweaving beautifully. Now I'm finally getting some of the darker grape notes beneath the bright pink grapefruit, blood-red cherry and a touch of that pale yellow verbena. It's really hard to stop sniffing this. I wish it lasted longer....maybe in a locket?

My first whiff of this is a dreamy breath of a light, sweet resin and curled pale wood chips. I think of wood shop, actually -- white wood raising a cloud of powdery pale dust and the faint aroma of burning. As it dries on my skin it sweetens though and the note I recognize clearly from Dr. John Seward comes out...that must be the opium smoke. It smells for a bit just like Seward, actually, but the pale woods and clear resinous smell kicks back in. I'm not sure exactly what blonde tobacco smells like but I feel like that must be the kind in this because all I can think about are the palest golden woods. I'm imagining monsters gathered in an old library poring over stacks of books, spectacles poised on the ends of beaks and proboscises, pipes hanging loosely between fangs as coils of smoke laze through the room.

Arachnina boasts my favorite bottle art in the bunch -- a redheaded spider with a thing for PVC? I can't wear heels, but I identify with the rest! I had to get this for that image, and for the black currant, red/black musk and patchouli. I was hoping that it would be deep, thick red earthy berry scent with a rush of incensy musk. Of course, I was aware that poppy and lilies are the two-headed beast of perfume headache on me and that is in fact what I get upon first opening the bottle. Very perfumey, with the floral and musk doing twin guitar solos while the deeper notes play bass solemnly in the background. I braved the perfumey rush though and as it dries down, the currant and patchouli do come out a bit, and the currant raises its voice in a surprisingly upbeat song. It ends up as a berry-like perfume with a slight grit to it in the background...kind of like how in Death on a Pale Horse, the patchouli becomes the dark soil at the bottom of a clear stream. Arachnina is honestly a bit too feminine and reminiscent of traditional perfume for me but I can see wearing her with a red, black and white outfit -- maybe with the buckle and strappy corsety PVC thing I just bought. I might have to keep her around for those occasions.

The artwork on this one just delights me so much -- it smells just like it looks! I imagine a clearing in a dark jungle, with these laughing, tattooed figures leaping over flames. While it doesn't smell like the GC scent Jezirat al Tennyn, it reminds me of it with the way it combines the forces of heat/flame with humid, dark greenery, the impression of hot stones and tropical flora. In the bottle it is deep and swirling, with clove throbbing in the foreground among a heady blast of Spanish moss and a rich mixture of woods. If you've smelled the single note, you'll recognize its heady, damp aroma -- it tends to give me a bit of a headache so I have to go easy on this one. On my skin, it's like a horde of cackling little demons have been let loose and are running up and down my arm. Strong clove and a blast of pepper are almost too much for my sinuses, so I think I put a little too much on. But it is tempered by the smooth sweetness of amber and grounded by patchouli, which does not step out on its own but just gently calms things down in the background with its earthy tones. It's a bit on the masculine side, in that woody-spicy way, but I mostly wear masculine scents so that works...this is something that, if someone else were wearing it, I'd want to get closer to them. It smells a little dangerous, but inviting. If I went out I'd say it would be good to wear to a club, but for my purposes it's a nice warming scent on a cold winter night. Oh and also the red-skinned figures with horns and tails remind me of Hellboy, so I'd better keep this one around to wear when the next movie comes out!

My standard disclaimer, as always, is that Snake Oil normally does not work on me. Play-doh city. With that in mind, Temple Viper is phenomenal. There is none of the plasticky clay scent that regular SO inspires on my flesh, it's just pure, gorgeous, sweet resins. Glittering globs of amber- and tea-colored incense crystals, dusted with sugar and glistening by candlelight. I can smell frankincense and champaca right off the bat, with a marvellous crystalline sugar coating. The shadows of Snake Oil in the background are all of the elements that DO work on me and none of the ones that don't. It's not hippie store incense, it's not new age store, it's...a tent in a marketplace shrouded in smoke pouring out of bronze censers, piles of golden silks and goblets of rich, thick spicy amber liquid. I wish this was in incense form actually but I think that on my skin it will have the same effect, without the smoke. This is what I always wished Snake Oil could be on me and now I have it!

This is so freaking good. Do you have any idea how freaking good this it? It's really freaking good. As I will probably mention in all of my Snake Pit reviews, I am not a big fan of Snake Oil. But I really don't smell much of it in this -- just the most strong, delicious, sweet mint I have ever smelled. It's utter bliss. This isn't the toothpastey mint that seems to plague me in other blends...this is a strong, sweet, bold blast of fresh mint touched with a splash of green earl grey. It goes right up your sinuses and does a little green dance. The Snake Oil element simply makes this bold, sweet and long-lasting. People around me can't get enough of it. There's a similarity to mint chocolate chip or thin mints, but without the chocolate. The sweetness is still there, but it's not a cloying, sticky foody sort of sweetness. This is my favorite mint scent ever, and bodes well for the rest of the Snake Pit. As it dries, the mint calms down and the tea/bergamot comes out a little bit, but it dries down much like other vanilla blends do on my skin, which is a little sweet and a little spicy. Also, I love the green snake on the bottle!

The Great He-Goat! I like dark scents and I love vetiver, so I love that one -- but of the "dark" scents that I find unsettling I'd say Czernobog is the darkest.

The day before this was announced as a new scent, I had been looking at a picture of the painting in my folder o' symbolist art and thinking what a great fragrance it would make. This is exactly what I imagined! It's actually not the kind of thing I would wear, but it's definitely a blue scent. I imagined that blue musk would be similar to white or pale musks, with its thin sheen of succulent funereal sweetness, touched by aquatic, crisp floral notes. These are all of the most translucent, pale, ethereal white-blue notes, but they are not a loud, blasting floral trumpet. I occasionally like a bit of pale white funeral flowers at my disposal for days around Easter, where it's still a bit cold and crocuses and hyacinths are blooming. I think I'd prefer something that was mostly sandalwood with a touch of mint, tea and peach, since I don't smell any of those enough...I mostly get the flowers. But they are dew-touched flowers glowing blue in the moonlight, the embodiment of silence.

I've wanted to try this for a long time because I love snow blends and this is a favorite piece of art of mine (also my mom's favorite artwork). The comparisons to Ice Queen were also very exciting, though I already feel like Talvikuu and Kumari Kandam kind of fill that niche for me and I don't wear a lot of overtly minty blends. Just as I expected, this is very close to my memory of Ice Queen, but the mint is on top in this blend. Rather than the impression of the smooth surface of an iced-over lake, this is a quick blast of ice cold air just outside a church, because I do get a hint of that frankincense. It doesn't quite have the complexity of Ice Queen as it dries though and stays a fairly flat mint. I love that icy quality that is achieved by the mixture of pale musks, electric airy ozone and a breath of cold mint, but it's just not making the magical backflips that Ice Queen used to do for me. And I think I like the complexity of Kumari a bit better too, with its evocative mineral notes. This does what it set out to do and evokes the artwork for me, but I think I have enough blends like this for the moment. Maybe if I run out of the other ones I'll give it a spin again!

I had to grab a bottle of this one right off the bat, since vetiver, patchouli and pomegranate are among my favorite notes, and amber and black musk work for me in many a blend. Carnation and ginger also tend to work very well with patchouli (Masque, Masquerade, and Lycaon have various combos in this realm). In the bottle it's a strong, sweet earthy scorched vetiver with a hint of deep red pomegranate, sparkling just a touch with those earthen crystals and a hint of ginger adds light. My skin loves nothing more than vetiver and patchouli. While it reminds me of Malediction at times, it's not as harsh and bitter as that blend. It's a much more advanced incarnation of the concept though. The lighter notes of pomegranate and ginger fizzle off quickly and a deep, dark looming shadow of vetiver takes over. Ominous and steeped in rich, dark earth, soaked in blood-red and shot through with flashes of light. If Malediction was too burn and oppressive, but Samhainophobia suited you well, this would be a good balance. I'll have to wear it around awhile to see if I can get any more of the other notes, aside from the earth and resin tones, but since those are my favorite things anyway I'm quite content! Another favorite among the Salons!

The spectrum of ingredients in this version of 13 was completely baffling to me. It seemed as though there were so many things thrown in the mix it couldn't possibly work. But after sniffing it, I couldn't tear myself away. There are so many layers to this scent, and each sniff brings a different combination of the strange bouquet -- at once the sweet chocolate-vanilla candy store, a crisp garden of dew-soaked herbs and a warm bowl of tropical fruit. The sandalwood -- one of my favorite varieties of it no less -- ties it all together in a mix that lasts on my skin with a lot of throw, like a stick of very fresh, moist sweet incense. I don't smell a lot of the individual notes, like lavender, but I know that they always add a little bit of magic to a blend, making it sparkle and vibrate. I have never liked any blend with cocoa in it. The first 13 was OK but I never wore it after the first couple tries. This however really takes off on me. I can't get enough. I can't stand foody blends yet the floral, fruit and wood aspects take this out of simply being something that hints at chocolate and vanilla. I think my DH found it too sweet when I first tried it but he was having some allergy problems at the time. I think under normal circumstances this would entrance anyone around the wearer and draw them in until they couldn't take their nose off your neck.

The Darkling Thrush is another Yule blend that I had a hard time getting a feel for until I tried it by itself, and then I began to wonder if I might have a mislabeled decant because it was so minty. It was overwhelmingly minty, almost like Snow-Flakes, but without the Snow White layer underneath. The snowy note in this most resembles the one in Snow Bunny, but it's really going in a minty fresh direction on me. Underneath it, the orris, amber and violet are indistinct. If anything it resembles the cosmetic foundation scent that I get from I Died For Beauty. Must be the violet, plus that dry orris, making it remind me of layers of thick caked makeup. Unfortunately that's not a positive smell for me. The underlying powdery scent is drowned out by the minty slush though. While I think it's similar to some of the minty scents that I liked in this regard (Nuclear Winter, Talvikuu, etc.) it's really just not working on me. But fortunately I think I have plenty of other snow scents to keep me busy!

Afraid of almond, I didn't get this one at first, figuring that no matter how much I loved the pine and hoped for a crisp, fresh apple, that the almond would smother everything. I was wrong! And this might be my favorite of the Yules this year, alongside Krampus. This is a pine-lover's pine. One of the lab's strongest, greenest pines. A dark, dark green but perfectly clear and glistening, sparkling with snow. The apple adds just the right touch of crisp sweetness...it's the kind of apple that I like, the tart, fresh kind, not the sugary, cidery kind. And finally, the almond is barely noticeable after it dries on my skin, though I can sense it in the bottle at first. It just melds into the background. I keep craving this and going back for it. There are a lot of snowy-snow scents out now and I love them all but this has a stronger emphasis on dark green pine and that suits me just fine. A true Christmas tree scent!

My first impression of this was fairly faint and perfumey so I haven't reviewed it until now. Now that I am trying it on by itself its personality is a little more clearly discernable. This scent broadcasts golden, yellow-orange and white light. It is ambery with a touch of orange and a general fruitiness to it that remind me mainly of Haunted Palace, but without the deeper notes in that blend that make me like it. In the cold and dark of winter it is a cheery, bright scent, though probably not strong or dark enough to last long on me. I imagine it would be lovely in a locket, but I have a lot of scents like this already -- I think Haunted Palace remains the winner in the amber with touches of orange and berry category, but as this dries on me the resins give it a little more staying power and throw.

Thank you abejita for the pronunciation help! People always mangle my name (sarada being my real middle name, from Sri Sarada Devi) and if they don't think it's "sandra" outright people invent weird pronunciations for it. We say "sah rah dah", or even "suh rah duh", but not "suh RAY dah." As for why mom chose the name...it was because it was the early 70s and mom was a scholar in Indian religions (although we ourselves are not Indian). On-topic, I just gotta say how much I want Hope & Faith now that I've thought about it for two days! Do we have a vampire smiley? I can't stop thinking about them, but I had like $220 worth of other things that I needed urgently too...