Argentwolf

I've never smelled cream of wheat, so I couldn't say if this smells like it. To me it smells kind of like an herbal tonic, something that would be thrust under your nose with the command to 'Drink!' and you wouldn't be able to tell what the hell was it in, but you could just tell from the smell alone that it was wholesome and good for you. At the same time, it makes me think of a dusty courtyard rimmed with green grass, the entire area bathed in blindingly-bright, warm sunlight. It's a very 'yellow' scent, very bright and happy and carefree, which isn't what I'd associate with Baba Yaga at all, LOL. But, it's kinda fun. It doesn't seem to stick around very long, though.

I wanted to love the drunken bunnies, really I did. Throw-wise, however, all I get is stomach-turning red wine; it gives me heartburn just thinking about it. If I sniff my skin close up, I get a powdery cocoa sort of smell. But all in all, it's probably best for me that this doesn't hang around very long before dissipating.

Kinda a creamy, aquatic mint. Hugs the skin, has decent staying power.

Okay, to be honest, whenever I see 'The Music of Erich Zahn', I think of staying up late at night and coming across a commercial advertising Erich Zahn's Greatest Hits, available on eight-track and cassette for two easy payments of $9.95 (plus S&H). Or, alternately, staying up late at night and listening to Art Bell and the freaky music he'd have as a background.

But that has nothing to do with how it smells.

To me, Erich smells like sticky plug tobacco and musk. In fact, he smells kinda like the Black Temple Burlesque Troupe, only slightly less chocolately...but only slightly.

It's a really nice smell. I like it a lot. Mmmm. It has good throw and healthy staying power, to boot, making it extra-lovely.

I tend to amp rose quite a bit, but the rose here is very nicely tempered by the rosemary, lending it an earthier, herbal tone. I would therefore recommend it to people who otherwise dislike/would be afraid of rose, because it reaches such a nice balance, here.

The florals kind of blend into a damp grass smell, over which sweet incense wafts. A really interesting and pleasant mix -- I like it a lot.

As noted above, this smells like lavender and mint, with a bit of a peppery undertone to it. Alas, while it smells clean enough in the imp, it threatens to turn into Axe cologne on me. Sigh.

I don't get a lot of orange from this; it's more of a cotton candy kind of sweetness. This is like sexy candy, like the hottest person you could imagine eating one of those semi-hard toffees that melts into sugary gooeyness over your tongue. Maybe the fig gives it that strange, cream-like fluidness...not sure.

Aquatic cologne...I'm not going to say Aqua Velva simply because I've never smelled that. But, uh...yeah.

The aquatic component here has a tepid feel to it; it is a lot like coming up to a small inland pond after a very, very hot day, and feeling refreshed as you slip into it, even though the water is warm from the stored up heat of the day. The grasses and fronds are finally breathing a sigh of relief as the sun sets, and somewhere, underneath your favorite tree, you've left a flask of palm wine to sit and enjoy after your soak.

Much like Ile de Tortue and Jezirat al Tannyn, this tropical island scent has a very evocative quality to it. Each of these scents tells a different story, but they're each wonderful to contemplate.

My only complaint is that it doesn't last very long. Much like a stolen moment of relaxation after a long day, this bit of reverie is brief.

Sour wine and myrrh. These are not notes that go together well on my skin, and here they remind me of how truly vile they can be. Bleh.

The orris and mint give the violet components a sweet, almost candied aroma to them. To me, it's not rude or strident at all...it's more like sitting down at your grandmother's house and pilfering her strange little violet-flavored lozenges from her candy dish. Novel, and not at all unpleasant. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to throw much, though at the end of the day there is still a little bit of residue left.

Butter, toasted bread, and tea. This should be my dream scent, and it is, for about the first ten seconds. Then it gets cloying, much as I suppose one would feel after sitting around eating nothing but crumpets with sugary spread and drinking weak tea loaded with cream. I guess I am simply not as much of a glutton for it as I'd thought...Perhaps luckily for me, it fades pretty quickly.

I want to love this scent but...I'm just not getting much out of it. The leather is so soft and faint; it has a faint smokiness around it. I'm just not getting much throw out of it at all, and it doesn't hang around for very long.

It's a faint herbal scent. Sometimes it turns sweet and fruity, as if it's got a hint of citrus or lotus. Other times, there is a slightly spicy tone to it. It wears pretty close to the skin, and has decent staying power.

This ends up being a pretty, but very light and innocuous scent on me. I think I can detect the oak as, someone else mentioned, a faint sort of nuttiness...but I find it very hard to pick out anything definite for sure. It's a bit like being in a grove of sunlit, flowering trees in the middle of the forest somewhere. It's a very fleeting moment, and soon fades away.

In spite of all the cool notes that are in this, it starts off very nondescript indeed, and if anything turns into a vaguely-sour generic cologne scent on my skin, before evaporating entirely before many hours have passed. Just not meant to be.

The 'dribble of wine' is practically all I can smell! There is a bit of smokiness way in the back, there -- the frankincense, perhaps? Now that my imp has aged a little, it smells like wine that's been aged in blackened wooden casks -- this makes it interesting, but not necessarily something that I want to smell like. Wine notes tend to go pretty sour on me, and while the incense helps keep it from getting too out of hand, this one just doesn't work on my skin.

The sweetness I get is more floral -- lots of peony, here. It's the epitome of a pink, girly scent -- soft, and very, very sweet. It sums up the picture that inspired it perfectly. It's for that reason that I ended up buying a bottle -- it's actually a lot more feminine-seeming than most of the things I like to wear, but it's a nice change and novel addition to my collection, and the way it syncs up with the artwork takes it to a whole other level.

I think this was my favorite Lupercalia scent. It's pretty much as advertised: leather (soft, well-worn, supple brown kid leather, to be exact in my mind's eye), smoothly-turned wood, and soothing oil. I kind of hope that this becomes one of the perennial Lupercalia offerings, because it's just so simple and yet so very neat and sexy.

I'm not too well-acquainted with any oceanic scents, so the wet saltiness of this scent, combined with the promise of seaweed and the creaminess of the ambergris, is really a delight to me. I just wish it lasted longer on me -- it doesn't have much staying power on my skin. Had it possessed that quality, it would definitely have been a bottle-worthy purchase. I'm pretty fond of this one, though.

Definitely an earthy/woody scent to this -- that must be the patchouli. There's also a bit of sweetness lingering underneath, like a light patting of aftershave over freshly showered and shaved skin. Alas, as alluring as the imagery is, it's just not working for me.

A wee bit of clove and anise, which mingle enough to make a kind of root-beer-and-aftershave sort of aroma. Which is not nearly as awesome as it sounds.

Aha! Those who are pegging the caraway as rye bread nailed it, to a point. It's got a sweet, licoricey sort of undernote to it. Alas, it's very, very faint...

...and is hidden under a huge pile of rust and burnt rubber.

So, if you want to smell like cleaning your garage or living in an abandoned building, here, take my imp and go nuts.

First whiff: Golden, slightly smokey/delightfully musky/with a very, very faint hint of booze

Second whiff: Slightly sweeter -- definitely smelling the quince and mandarin more.

Third whiff: Erm, soured fruit, with a faint note of liquor...but not in the good way.

I really, really wanted to like this and have it work on me, but all it does is give me a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been before turning into spoiled fruit unpleasantness on me. Meh!