ravenfeathers

in the bottle fruity and boozy, but incredibly heavy like ripe fig and cocoa wet on skin i can smell all the individual notes here, but they blend incredibly well; exotically sweet and lush dry on skin close to the skin, it's gone pretty standardly fruity, but the throw is where the real magic is happening. it's like those tatters of scent in cartoons that lift up the characters and pull them around by their noses. i'm not in love with the scent, but i can't stop sniffing around to figure out what it is and where it's coming from. later: very grape-y and purple; strong. crazy, crazy strong throw. i had to stop testing other oils because there's an invisible purple cloud all around me. up very close, it smells a little like apples and cinnamon. O_o really, really fun! this is tempting me greatly to get a bottle!

in the bottle apple, dry and almost spicy, but not quite wet on skin tart, very faint.... dry on skin soft, getting sweeter, whoa! lots sweeter! crazy! smells incredibly pretty up close, but has almost no throw whatsoever. really having to sniff hard to get anything here. it's really bizarrely bubble-gummy! later: ah, there's the ash. it's: ash over BUBBLEGUM. for a scent with a name like "apple of sodom", this is a cheerfully innocent and pretty little sweet scent!

in the bottle a little bit sharp and balsam-y; this doesn't bode well wet on skin yeah, that's the good stuff. the musk is that hairy, animalistic musk of buck and hunter moons. myrrh like whoa and i'm loving it, despite a little bit of that sharpness lingering dry on skin resins rule here, with just a huff of that fantastic black musk. this is gritty, sweet, and reminds me strongly of schwarzer mond. it's SM's angry alterego. minotaur is in your face, bullish, ballsy, and all man. fantastic.

in the bottle sharp, woody, with just the tiniest breath of a coffee scent wet on skin the sharpness disappears completely and what's left is a very sweet, soft smell like brown sugar and dry tobacco leaves with still just the smallest whiff of coffee beans dry on skin this is very pretty and has the kind of universal appeal that is the real key to its popularity. it's not that it's drop dead gorgeous, but that it's so incredibly inoffensive and softly sweet that i can't imagine anyone on earth actively hating this. if i had the opportunity to buy a bottle for a reasonable amount, i'd do it in a heartbeat, but this isn't so fantastic that i need to break the bank for it.

in the bottle uh, hello? *peeks in bottle* i'm getting the teeniest whiff of red musk and nothing else. *is perplexed* wet on skin hey, presto! perfume! this is interesting, although not what i was expecting. low-key with the thick sweetness of red musk and the barest whiff of clove and something almost floral? must be the pettigrain, because it does have a neroli-ish feel to it. dry on skin the amber amps up and the pettigrain diminishes, thankfully. the bourbon vanilla isn't here at all, which is disappointing. it's dry and sweet, like something syrupy that dripped onto a polished wooden table and then dried until it was no longer sticky. definitely resinous. the two blends that this is most reminding me of are the tell-tale heart and hellhound on my trail, oddly. must be the galbanum? since those are two of my top-ten scents, i can say that ecstasy of passion is a real winner with me.

OM NOM NOM NOM- oh, excuse me. i think is should add a caveat here that, while i do not have a sweet tooth to speak of, if i could only have one sweet for the rest of my life, it would be dark chocolate cherry cordials. i'm a serious fiend for these things. in the bottle before i even opened it, i held it up to the light and noticed the boomslangian glob of cocoa absolute on the bottom of the bottle. rolling and, yes, even shaking, did not appreciably break up this globule. i'm very tempted to go home and stir it with a pipette. anyway, in the bottle, it's boozy chocolate, no cherry detectable at all. wet on skin booooooozy! holy crap, it's like smearing yourself with kirsch. yum. the chocolate runs and hides from the boozy cherry which still isn't very in-your-face-cherry, just a dark red fruit. dry on skin woe and plastic. while this evens out between the cherry (which is similar to bloody mary's thick red fruits note) and the chocolate, there's some seriously icky plastic going on just under the surface. but, however, i will persevere and try this again after it's had a chance to rest after its shipping adventure and my overly excitable shaking. later: pickled plums? weird. it's like dark chocolate and umeboshi. eta okay, retested last night and stirred it up thoroughly with a clean pipette because i could see that glob of cocoa on the bottom, but not amount of rolling was mixing it up. i stirred until i got a good saturation of cocoa globs, then tested from the tip of the pipette. close to the skin it's a chocolate just a little darker than bliss, not as dark as boomslang, and sweet, candied cherry. six inches away, it's tart cherry and vomit.

ha, the vermont contingent chimes in! in the bottle mostly apple, but sweet and far heavier than i was expecting. wet on skin amping tropical fruits and the apple-y brown sugar-y scent from the bottle is completely gone. tart and passionfruit-y and the sweet pea is representing. dry on skin the cream note is going a little bit sour and plastic-y on me, but mellows out as it dries further. extreme drydown is softly fruity and a little fuzzy with the tonka lingering nicely. throw is almost non-existent and i fear that wearlength will be freakishly short, but this will be a really nice spring and summer comfort scent, suitable for bedtime. two bottles was probably overkill, but one will certainly round out the collection.

in the bottle i smell the cognac, dusky fig, and just the slightest hint of the berry. it's freakishly sweet and heady and fairly swoon-worthy. wet on skin there are the cream and paper bag, ha ha! nice! the berry amps up and takes over for a bit with the other notes only with extreme huffing. dry on skin what the? blargh! who put snow white in this?? die, nasty raid smell, die! oh, hell and gutment. retest next week and cry in the meantime. eta this just plain isn't working for me at all. this morning when i put it on, i got melon and pine! and now it's straight back to a darker, filthier snow white which is in my bottom five BPALs of all time. crap.

in the bottle dark, sweet, and really beguiling with no notes really grabbing my attention. damn, this is fantastic. wet on skin what, ho, vetiver! the tarry black opium note is well under the radar here and sharp, smoky vetiver is stomping all over everything. it's like smokestack in an opium den and not particularly pretty. dry on skin vetiver gets all tired out from the stomping and settles down to smoke a little. it gets sweet again and really musky. the opium, musk, and tonka are ruling the roost here with a thorough grounding from the resins. this blend, in the same scent family as schwarzer mond and hellhound on my trail (dark, sweet, masculine, sexy), has instantly shot up into my top ten. my test dot yesterday lasted about ten minutes before i got the bottle back out and slathered. throw is decent and wearlength is incredibly long. i dabbed some on last night before bed and fourteen hours later i can still clearly smell the opium-sweet musk, not just a random sweetness which is what usually lingers with BPAL. this is not only incredible now, but i guarantee it's going to age beautifully.

in the bottle spicy, red musk-y, with, yes, a little citrus-y undercurrent wet on skin funny, because there's something here that's screaming MYRHH and reminding me tremendously of priala minus the smoke dry on skin really smooth and the red musk and something else... sarsparilla? is giving this a little bit of a dragon's blood feel. decadent and a little smoldering, this is a fascinating blend. the cirtrus-y bit sticks around, but it's not sharp or tart. there's almost a creaminess to it. fascinating and not at all what i was expecting from the notes!

in the bottle laundry detergent? possibly evil laundry detergent? wet on skin an extraordinarily ozone-y pine and tart, tart berries. dry on skin soapity soap. the ozone, pine, and berries are here and something like soot which is smokey and neat, but, alas, it is so, so very soapy, almost industrially so. and i should add that i never get so much as even a teensy whiff of anything minty in this.

in the bottle cookie dough and egg nog, yup wet on skin a little boozy, a little plasticky. that egg nog note just hates me. dry on skin i can't believe how warm this is. i get this sort of aura of imaginary heat on my nose when i sniff the back of my hand. plasticky and plastickier, though. a horrible crying shame. i love the greasiness of this and the warmth, but i don't care for the plastic.

in the bottle strong, whoa! cocoa and nuts and something filthy. musk? wet on skin hazelnut! the cocoa dissipates and just deepens the whole thing, much like the cocoa absolute in boomslang. dry on skin i can't believe the throw on this stuff. the musk just keeps getting muskier and there's a sticky sweet undercurrent like hazelnut brittle. incredibly strong. this sort of reminds me of wood phoenix without the magnolia.

in the bottle gingerbreadsawscaleviperpoppet wet on skin hm, more perfume-y than GP and SSV. there's a sweet booziness here that's translating into cheap cologne. oddly, i sort of like it. dry on skin this would make a fantastic soap, but i'm not sure about it as a perfume. i love the ginger rumminess, but there's something else going on here that's not quite right. this was frozen in transit, though, so i'll let it rest for a few days and try again.

in the bottle earth? really? i'm getting sticky wet fruit and resinous tobacco wet on skin EP+skin=dirt; yep, this is dirt. dirty dirt dirt. not like graveyard dirt, a "single note" if you will, but the vetiver is strong with this one. in fact, i seem to have lost most of the other notes.... dry on skin the drydown is the triumph of this blend, when the cherry, the tobacco, the dirt, the plum, and the jasmine (yes, the horrendous and disgustable jasmine) all sit harmoniously together and hum. i think the jasmine is maybe too obvious for EP to ever be a real, confirmed favourite, but this is highly wearable and i will enjoy my bottle.

goodness, with that note list, how does this smell this good?? in the bottle caramel! bzuh? wet on skin fig and walnut and fig. and walnut. also fig. bamboo? mebbe. and fig. dry on skin is that vague, bright spiciness the pink clove? what is pink clove? is it like carnation? whatever it is, it's frakking brilliant. it still has a vague, dark, sweet caramel-iness that reminds me a lot of khajuraho without being disgusting (sorry, khajuraho lovers out there). the magnolia, yes, a flower! it's in there! and you know, it smells pretty awesome with the dark, gritty fig and the bright clove. the only question i have left is: why did i only get one bottle?

in the bottle this is prickly and... a little... pickle-y. that's weird. wet on skin that musk is fierce. but... but... where did the lemon come from? the scent under the lemon is dark and shaggy and resinous and just really amazing, so i have no idea where this lemon top-note is coming from or how it even goes with all the shagginess, but it totally does. dry on skin the musk goes a tiny bit powdery and the resins really start throwing their weight around. it's oddly not a particularly dry scent, which is what oakmoss usually imparts. it retains that fruity tart lemon note. it's not berry, it's distinctly lemon curd. that sour citrus over the dark, crusty resins make this a deeply fantastic men's scent. i can't even believe i'm saying this, but this is almost too masculine for me.

in the bottle cloying and medicinal wet on skin see above dry on skin there's just a hint of spiciness here from the cardamom, but other than that it's sort of... plain and sweet. i can't shake that medicinal tang and this is a real no-go on my skin. wear length is alarmingly short on me, too.

in the bottle waxy and sandalwoody wet on skin deep, dry, waxy sandalwood, yum! dry on skin it's so oddly sweet, but the sandalwood stays uppermost with just a hint of smoke, a tiny spike of pepper, and that waxy finish. if haloes was too fruity or bold and antikythera too stark, this is a nice compromise.

i didn't do a proper test of this because it freaked me out so much in the imp. i should mention that i loved worm moon and freaking adore graveyard dirt, so it's not dirt that scares me. it's badger. this is a nuclear apocolypse of charred earth and scorching ash. gah! i actually actively hate this, which is something that i can hardly ever say about beth's work. however the drydown is incredibly surprising. i don't know how it morphs because once i'd dabbed it on, i avoided sniffing it. what's left after, oh, four hours or so is something that is extremely similar to hellhound, but darker and less sweet. must be the galangal i'm smelling and it's just pure love on my skin. i might try a bigger dollop of this sometime when i'm sitting around the house and amn't going to startle someone with my fiery death perfume.

in the bottle gorgeous almost fruity amber wet on skin floooowwwwwerrrrs dry on skin this settles into a powdery floral on me that smells a bit like lily of the valley and a bit like carnation. a huge morph on my skin and sadly not at all the sort of scent that appeals to me.

Golden amber, golden musk, litsea cubeba, cedar, and saffron. in the bottle amber-y with cedar wet on skin hello, SOAP! dry on skin the soap goes far away and this morphs wildly between soapy, spicy, and incense-y before finally settling down to a musky amber that's feminine and earthy and very wearable.

this was much dustier than i expected, very dry, dark, and sweet. i was thinking of something brighter and, frankly, a little less menacing! i've passed it on now, but it was a treat to try, as all the room sprays are.

in the bottle cherry cough syrup. i'm having serious flashbacks to fortunato and kunstkammer with the saccharine syrup smell. boozy. wet on skin extremely tart and slightly dry or bitter black grapes. dry on skin an almost elusive sweetness starts to build, a sort of vanilla-y tobacco that underlies the fruitiness and turns it into something that's quite dark, sultry, and sullenly decadent. this is in a great addition to my favourite cherry berries, including monsterbait: bloody mary and the phantom calliope. very different from either and strong in its own right.

in the bottle strong, resinous, and slightly bitter. it's almost cologne-y wet on skin hey, there's those pencil shavings i always hear people talk about! they're a bit smoky, though, like cedar embers, sizzling slightly. still bitter. dry on skin this is where P&P does its incense-y thing and becomes something dark and beautiful, woodsy with a tiny kick and that lingering bitterness. this is a really fantastic scent, although it's not really my thing. i actually had a huge, huge brain squeeze and bought this thinking that i was buying the telltale heart. OOPS! anyway, it was a fun one to try, pretty much completely out of my normal comfort zone.