Shollin

First sniff: Nephilim confused the living heck out of my nose. It’s dry almost to the point of being astringent, with a breath of chill, lingering somewhere between greenness and woodiness. There’s definitely something in it that makes my nose cold, the same way Pain did, but I can’t pin down any specific notes. At the second “first sniff” the fig is very apparent, and I’m not sure why I couldn’t pick it out before – I suspect my nose was overwhelmed.

Wearing: I still smell fig very strongly, brushed with dry lemon. Fig fig fig! Liking this much better on me than in my first first-sniff. It reminds me quite a bit of the flowiness of The Apothecary. After the first few minutes there’s something very dry and pungent under the fig… I suspect this is the frankincense asserting itself and reminding me that we don’t get along.

First sniff: Green wood and incense – very quiet with a touch of spice. I’m hoping the almonds will show up on my skin. There’s a roundness to Queen of Sheba that makes me think it’s fruity when it’s not.

Wearing: Wandering through a crowded bazaar, pausing by the spice merchant’s stand and slipping into the shade of the tent to breathe in barrels full of ground spices from all over the world. The almonds are hiding somewhere in the midst of all that – not the sweet almonds of Seraglio and Voodoo, but a more straightforwardly dry nutty note. It’s pleasant enough, but I’m not blown away by it and wouldn’t mind swapping.

Frankincense, from Single Notes.

First sniff: Heavy and dark incense, more woody than spicy.

Wearing: At first touch it reminds me of a campfire on a chilly night in the woods. Within five minutes it’s gone aggressively sharp-sweet, and while it isn’t wafting at all, if I sniff my wrists it makes me sneeze.

Incense + my skin = unmixy things. Which is sad.

Hellfire, take II, from Sin and Salvation:

First sniff: A fancy glass of expensive brandy spilled on a thick deep-red carpet beside a leather armchair in front of the wide fireplace. It smells like one of those snooty gentlemen’s clubs for snooty old rich men, complete with a butler in tailcoat and cravat.

Wearing: It’s late in the evening, the pipes have been lit and the snooty old rich men are sitting back in front of the fireplace discussing politics. Despite the snobbery, this is a strangely comforting scent – I can see my grandfather sitting in his red leather chair in his living room, the one that usually stands empty because everyone feels weird about sitting in his chair even though he’s been gone since I was twelve. I’m quite pleasantly surprised that I like it as much as I do - now that it's dried it's quite soft but somehow still very solid, a good kind of smoky, and that leather armchair will not be moved. Not an everyday scent, definitely, but one I’ll turn to now and then when I need that sort of comforting.

On my guy: As soon as it dries, it smells like I dabbed single-malt Scotch behind his ears.

EDIT: Please note that this thread is for the new version of Hellfire, the one that smells like leather and booze. If you're looking for the old Hellfire, which has often been described as smelling like buttered popcorn, you need to go here. (And if you've managed to get your hands on the original, be proud, 'cause it's hard to find!) --Shollin

Old Amsterdam, from Wanderlust:

First sniff: Fresh and sunny, bright flowers floating on clear water.

Wearing: It’s been quite a while since I smelled a tulip, but I’m pretty sure this is them. I love the freshness of this scent – it’s not room-full-of-flowers-y, it’s definitely an outdoor-flowers scent, with sun shining on a watermill.

Regan, from Illyria:

First sniff: This one, I like. It’s a fresh, warm-breezy fruity-floral that feels like a young woman’s breathless laughter.

Wearing: Oh! There’s the vanilla. (And yes, it really is an “Oh!” moment – I didn’t smell vanilla in the vial at all, then it touched my skin and exploded.) Mmmmm. Tiny but powerful flecks of vanilla seeds sprinkled into the centre of a sweet purple flower. It stuck around throughout work and by the end of the night was a quiet, golden vanilla scent, warm rather than sweet. I LOVE IT.

Ouija, from Bewitching Brews:

First sniff: Dark wood paneling surrounding a room full of spiced pipesmoke, with a dry edge to it. This is what I expect Ollivander’s wand shop would smell like. If there are flowers here, their brightness is obscured by dry wood… though there might be a hint of dried flowers.

Wearing: Immediately I smell cigarette smoke. I don’t think that would be allowed at Ollivander’s, especially around all those wooden wands! That seems to be just the first-skin-touch scent though, because it swirls up and then vanishes quickly, and in its wake come the dried flowers, much more distinct now than in the vial. White roses and lilies with a wee bit of greenery, all crisped and sere (I’ve been reading Ulalume too much…) They’ve almost overwhelmed the dark woodiness, and I’m not entirely sure whether that’s a good thing.

An hour or so later I think it’s probably not – another one for my floral friend Barbara, I’ll just have to convince her to sit through the dark-wood part of it.

First sniff: Green herbs, almost citrusy in their sharpness, and something cooler flickering over the top that might be mint. I seem to smell the taste of lavender.

Wearing: Definite greenery, and very cool. There’s a faint hint of lemon whispering underneath… getting stronger now that I’ve noticed it’s there. I like Arcana quite a bit – it’d make a fantastic shower-gel scent to wake you up. The lemon keeps crescendoing. I lost track of the scent for several hours while playing Magic… :sheepish grin: and by the time I sniffed my wrist again it had turned to something warm and furry and spicy and the lemon had faded altogether. The end result is very nice, and I’ll be wearing this again.

Cathode, from Bewitching Brews:

The version I tried is a prototype.

First sniff: Zingy and bright! Makes my nose tingle. Very minty.

Wearing: Bright white mint in the sun, with flickers of green around the edges. It’s a softer mint than Mad Hatter, more diffuse and less crisp. Before it faded it went very softly sweet on my wrists. I'll definitely be wearing it again.

Danube, from Wanderlust:

The version I tried is a prototype.

First sniff: Ooh, nice. A very deep freshwater blue, cool and breezy on a cloudy day.

Wearing: Very fresh, and the blue is so deep it’s almost purple, floating through tree-shadows cast on the river’s surface.

A lovely cool wet scent that I suspect will get a lot of use while it's beastly hot.

Mystery, from Bewitching Brews:

The version I tried is a prototype.

First sniff: This has an almost citrusy edge to it, a pale wan light in the close darkness. There’s an oppressiveness to the darkness of this scent that feels like being inside Robert Jordan’s Waygates, the dark pressing in against the circle of lamplight like a living thing and nothing in sight but the crumbling paths and your own party huddled together against the blackness. I will try it on to see what it does on my skin, but for now it’s decidedly creepy.

Wearing: Dried lemon fighting off the darkness, almost dusty. Upon drying it becomes a thin sort of lemon-soap scent that doesn’t particularly appeal – but then, my skin goes through phases where it turns everything to soap, so I’ll give it another shot.

Aiya. You get everything sorted out and then something else blows up! Hope it fixes itself soon (and rather selfishly glad I got my Gloom order in Wednesday!)

Magdalene, from Sin and Salvation:

The version I tried is a prototype.

First sniff: A very firm floral with a flowing herbal sweetness around the edges. This lady can take care of herself.

Wearing: Sweet and strong and totally feminine. Girl power. I really like it. After a few minutes the rose is much more apparent, dominating the scent without screaming. It might be a bit too girly now that it’s dried down a bit – it’s going powdery and the aura is still quite strong.

On second try, the lady and I got along much better. Sweet, deep, purple flowers. Still a very determined, standing-firm scent. I'll keep her.

The Hesperides, from Bewitching Brews:

The version I tried is a prototype.

First sniff: Apples of gold, twined with greenery and soft flowers. A quiet night in an orchard in full fruit, sitting in contemplation in a patch of moonlight on the grass. The dragon is sleeping quite soundly. Here’s an obscure reference: If anyone ever played the old Sierra game Hero’s Quest – the really old one, in 16 colors, before they changed the name of the series to Quest for Glory, back when you had to do such mundane things as type in commands! – this scent is what I imagine Erana’s Peace would smell like at night.

Wearing: Wonderfully tart, but there’s a hint of sweetness around the core. It’s more straightforwardly appley on my skin – I don’t get the moonlit-orchard thing as much – but it’s still really gorgeous.

Phantasm is my favourite wear-when-it's-too-muggy-to-be-legal scent. Phobos might be even better - it's cold on me rather than just crisp.

Blood Rose is very juicy, but I wouldn't call it refreshing. Do you like mint? Pain or Mad Hatter might be worth a look. Cheshire Cat is very juicy and since it tends toward citrus it's more what I'd think of wearing in the heat.

Let us know what you pick!

First sniff: The High Priestess has almond and mint, and there are other things here I can’t pin down. It’s a cool, shaded scent, and one I really like. (My bottle leaked a bit in transport and this is definitely the gorgeous cherry/mint scent I kept smelling while sorting out the package.)

Wearing: It’s very crisp on my skin, an effect I always like. I can’t tell whether the thing I thought was almond before is almond or cherry – my nose often confuses the two. It’s greener and darker on me, and has the chilly-but-welcoming aura of an old stone church. The mint is a greener mint than I’m used to – more like the leaf-scent of the mint in Envy than the peppermint-stick mint of Mad Hatter.

Sadly, on the way to work – less than an hour after application – it turned very weird on me, and not a good weird like Voodoo. It was like it had fermented. Pity, too, because the bottle is so ridiculously gorgeous I’m tempted to keep it just to look at. I might try it in my burner to see if it stays truer to the bottle-scent, which I really do adore.

Enjoy your vacation, Nella, and travel safe. And bless you for your part in my recent windfall - I'm flabbergasted!

First sniff: Everyone was SO RIGHT about Old Morocco. I haven’t even put it on and I love it. It’s warm without being overly spicy, exotic without being weird, sandy but not dusty, subtle but not shy. A while ago in a fit of wanting to get away from chemically-smelling stuff (this was before I met Lush) I bought an overpriced body lotion from The Thymes – the scent is called Filigree, and Old Morocco is what Filigree aspires to.

Wearing: It’s sweeter on my skin, a sweetness of spices rather than honey or fruit. If the spice of Arrakis smells like this, no wonder it’s the most precious substance in the universe. The aura is just glorious, burnished bronze and smoky-warm.

First sniff: A rich cool berry scent, much more restrained than Bordello and cooler than Bewitched, with a whisper of green and craggy stone and an undertone of the sea.

Wearing: Chilly… it’s reminiscent of the deeper-than-physical chill I felt at Culloden. A cold, remote winter-evening purple. It’s somehow not fruity even though the core is berry – what I call fruity scents are much sunnier than this, and Old Glasgow is all low-hanging clouds and wind-shredded wisps of mist around the mountains. This is not, at all, a bad thing. I LOVE the brooding Highland chill.

First sniff: Bright honeyed flowers – Old Athens almost smells like mead.

Wearing: This is really beautiful, very sweet but not unpleasantly so, and definitely mead without spices. Very smooth and golden. I kept sniffing myself at work and smiling. Definitely a keeper.

First sniff: Cordelia is white rose embraced by a sweet kitchen spice… a really interesting combination. I can’t tell if it’s cinnamon or clove or something else similar, but it’s a sweet mulling-spices sort of scent dusted over the rose.

Wearing: It’s more of a Red Hots cinnamon on my skin than the true cinnamon-bark scent in Harlot. I’m a bit confused because there’s nothing remotely cinnamony in the “ingredients” list, but apparently I’m not the only one who’s smelled cinnamon in this, so maybe my nose isn’t crazy after all. Both the cinnamon scent and the rose scent (of course there’s no rose in this either) faded quickly and left a pretty watery-flowers scent, somewhat reminiscent of the nonrosy part of Ophelia.

There's a Magdalene! I'll browse and drool properly when I get caught up on posts, but Magdalene must be mine.

Beth, ke'chara, I'd ask you to marry me but I think Ted might object. I cannot WAIT to try all your new bits of genius.

Ooh ooh! Will the new scents be up next week? Really really?

Damn. I'm going to be in Geek Heaven. Harry Potter, the new Magic expansion AND new stuff at the Lab... :swoon:

First sniff: Chilly white crispness of mint, colder, darker and more regal than Mad Hatter. If it’s possible for something to be white and dark at the same time, Pain is it.

Wearing: There’s a sharpness to this scent that gives my nose a chilly tingle. I’m not in love with it immediately. The scent itself fades very quickly, but if I put my nose to my wrist I can still feel the tingle – I can’t smell anything, but it still makes my nose cold.

First sniff: PINE. Dark, stalwart, unmovable pine, just on the very edge of dusk – Loup Garou is not a sunny scent by any means, but it’s not quite mysterious enough to be a night forest.

Wearing: I’m not entirely sure I like pine as a me-scent… it’s too dark and cold. There’s a hint of sweetness underneath, but it’s not me enough.

(And clearly I can't tell the difference between juniper and pine. Oh well.)