greenranger

In the imp, sweeeet honey wine and leaves. I think I've smelled honey wine in other things, but, wow. On me, the leaves come forward more with the incense, but, the honey wine is still sweetening it up. It has left the overpowering sweetness behind, though, and is much more reasonable. Drying, well, I guess there *is* rose somewhere in this blend, 'cause it just amped. Grrr. Roses and a touch of honey wine. The rose isn't truly overwhelming, only sort of overwhelming, so there must only be a little bit of rose. The other scents are keeping the rose just barely reined in from the screaming rose that sometimes erupts on my skin. Hopefully it will burn off soon. Ok, bay coming forward slightly again with they honey and incense...I think this might work in spite of the rose, at least for using the imp. I'm not sure about loving it enough for a bottle. Stupid skin amping rose...sigh. Actually, once the rose burns off, it reminds me a little of a honey wine version of Athens, with a little less throw. ~edit~So, I ended up ordering a bottle of this. Then I remembered that I had smelled rose, and wondered what I was thinking. Well, here it is several months later, and I'm not getting rose much at all, except maybe the impression of a dewy tea rose somewhere in the room. This is sweet honey wine with bay leaves and a hint of incense. It is a more wet scent than Mead moon, if that makes any sense. It also has more throw on me. Compared to Gluhwein, Delphi is more honey wine and leaves, and less honey. Gluhwein is wine, honey and spice drying down to just honey with some spices.

Wine and incense. Just when I thought that the incense would overwhelm the wine, the wine pushed the power up a notch. This is an interesting blend of incense, and not one I have encountered before. I've smelled nag champa and patchouli, but not together. The nag champa is giving a lighter lemony tone over the earthy patchouli, and the muscadine is sweetening up the whole. I think I like. =)

In the imp, frankincense, and verbena. Wet, on me, herbs!! Wow, so many herbs. Rosemary and lavender and verbena all at once! They almost smell like they have invited even more friends over, for just a minute. Dry, it settles down fast. Mostly there's just verbena left. Maybe, there's a bit of frankincense as well. A nice scent, but, nothing to fall in love with. Wearable, though, and possibly summery. I don't have a lot of summery scents in my collection yet...

Very very aquatic, but, cleaner smelling than any true beach that I know of. It doesn't smell like soap, quite, to me, but an unrealisticly clean version of ocean and seaweed. No shells, no fish, no seals, no people...just really clean saltwater, and very freshly scrubbed seaweed. It's a nice scent, except that I am so rarely in the mood for aquatic, and when I am in the mood, some of the pirate scents suit me better.

In the imp, I think I am getting the lime rind, lilac musk and maybe myrtle? On I get a strong whiff of the benzoin. Dry, benzoin, lilac musk, lime rind and myrtle. An interesting scent, there's a lot going on, and the high and low notes are playing games in my nose. After a bit, the scent has calmed down. some of the notes don't seem to want to last on my skin. The tonka and the benzoin are most of what is left. There's something else spicy and resinous lingering on my wrist, but, mostly it's tonka and benzoin.

In the imp, oh so very sweet. Caramel or toffee? Candy of some sort. Maybe someplace that is making candy because I can't pin it down. On, butter and sweetness. There's a high sugary note, and caramel somewhere below, and butter. Drying, toast and butter, and sugarcane, or sweet tea? Southern sweet tea of the sort that they add the sugar to the tea while it's hot so it will dissolve and hold more sugar. I think there might be pineapple jam somewhere as well, maybe. I didn't think I'd like this. Eat me didn't thrill me, but, this? I think I like this one. =)

Wet, dirt...garden loam, turned and ready for planting. Then the rose appears and eventually covers the dirt. Apparently, not only do I amp rose, I amp rose geranium as well. Somewhere about 3 hours in it starts to balance out. Unfortunately, three hours is too long for me to wait.

Wet, dragon's blood. Drying, dragon's blood, with maybe wood as a base. Personally, I am hoping that the dragon's blood fades a bit to let the sandalwood through soon. The dragon's blood blends last well on my skin, but, just dragon's blood isn't what I was looking for...

Well blended, on me. I can't really pick out notes on this one even though most of those notes are familiar to me. Drying, there is a short while where the leather stands out, but, then everything blends together again. It's an elegant dress up perfume, to me, rather than something I'd pick out to put on on any ordinary day. I do hope that it continues to behave on me, because sometimes sage goes out of control on my skin and clobbers everything else. So far, though, the scent is still very well blended, three hours in. This may be because most of the listed notes are things that tend to really like my skin and linger a long time.

This is raw leather. There really isn't anything else to say about it.

Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk. Wet, on me, amaretto, possibly amaretto and marzipan. Drying, the rose amps up, as expected. It stops just at the level where it is balanced with the amaretto and marzipan. Actually, so far this isn't bad, especially considering that I usually don't do rose or almond scents. Ah, there it is...Myrrh. My new favorite note. It is sweetening the rose and almond and blending them together with...*sniffs and grins* the honey and the apple! They are now being blended into the mix as well. Have I actually found a rose scent that I can wear? Mostly, this *is* a rose scent on me, so far, BUT, it is possible that with the myrrh tying everything to the rose it will work out better than most. *crosses fingers*

An aggressive musky scent. I can definitely see this as the scent of someone out to start fights. Spicy powerful musks with the honeysuckle sweetening it slightly, like a thin veneer of civilization. I had to try it, but, I think I am finding a new home for this. I don't think I have the attitude to carry it off.

Resin. Frankincense and something else I don't know yet. Sweet incense. For a moment there was a note or a clash of notes that I wasn't sure of, but, it was just a moment and the scent seems to be settling into resinous beauty on my skin. This is a complicated resin scent on me. Very interesting. I like.

Wet, it's acai berry. Drying, it smooths out and is somewhere in between fruit, floral and resin. Nicely blended. So far it is refreshing and light on me.

Wet, ALMOND. Drying, still very very almond. Thankfully it is a toasted almond on me, and not amaretto, since I don't really care for amaretto, but love almonds themselves. Will it stay that way? Dry, almonds and snake oil. Better than I was expecting, since I was expecting amaretto. I think the myrrh is beginning to make its move. There's the myrrh, sweetening and smoothing everything over and blending it together...mmmm. One of my favorite snakes, I think, unless aging them changes something completely. Apparently when myrrh loves me, it loves me very very much.

Wet, I smelled the bamboo. Drying, the black musk is coming forward and sweetening like it usually does on me. Then it fades and leaves room for the woods? This one is interesting. I suspect it will last pretty well on me with all that wood. It's still light and fresh. Spicy light wood, and it is still a refreshing scent. I'll have to see what it does over time, but, so far my skin really likes this one. On me, this is a really good scent for hot days and iffy air conditioning.

Wet, a light floral. Most of the flowers in the description are not very familiar to me by scent, so I can't pick them out. Clean, light, soft, and springlike. Ok, it took twenty minutes, but, the florals decided to really bloom. This isn't as light as it was, because the flowers are asserting themselves. This is very definitely floral perfume now, with the snake oil only apparent as an earthy base to nourish all the flowers. I'm not getting much vanilla from it, yet. For a floral perfume, it is nice. I don't usually pick florals to wear, but this one I might. Hm.

Wet, on me, I thought I smelled cinnamon? I don't see that in the scent notes, though. I do smell the apple. Dry, more apple...a hint of lemon peel and light flowers. I suppose the Snake Oil spices may be making me think cinnamon, still. This one is nice, though, like a few of the other snakes it doesn't seem as powerful as Snake Oil itself on me. Maybe it needs aging for that though. =)

Wet, aquatic, probably the oak and sea moss. Drying, a coolly spicy Snake Oil...interesting, but, I'm not certain those notes are going to play nicely together on me. Alright, the notes have reached a truce with my skin...but it isn't much more than that so far. I'm thinking this one may be going to a better home.

Snake Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage. I have high hopes, and deep fears for this one. I love tonka, sandalwood and leather are usually good on me...but sage sometimes overwhelms other scents on my skin on drydown. Wet, leather. Drying, leather and sandalwood, and I think I smell the sage warming up. Interestingly, the scent just hit a point where everything just blended and I can't pick out the notes. Dry, the vanilla and the sage aren't playing nice with each other on my skin. The leather and sandalwood have vanished behind the vanilla and sage battle. This isn't working on my skin. Really really not working, like public bathroom disinfectant smells. Ah well. ---- How come the ones that your skin hates are also the ones tha are so bloody hard to wash off completely! --- ~edit~ My first review of this was back in July. It is now early December. I was going to swap this bottle away long ago, except that I kept reading that it aged well, and that aging improved it. So, I held onto it, and tested it a few more times. It took until September for the cleaning solution smell to leave, but, I still wasn't in love with it. Today, I put a little on the back of one hand, sniffed it, decided it was nothing special yet, and went off to do other things. About an hour later, I put my hand up to my nose half out of habit, and thought, "What?! What is that! Vanilla and...*sniiiiiffffff* ...." Ok, it doesn't smell like cleaning stuff anymore. It hardly even smells like snake oil at all. There's a whiff of vanilla/tonka/leather on that hand. It's delicate? How can it be delicate? None of the other snakes are delicate on me? Maybe it's a skin chemistry fluke, but, right now it is lovely. And I hated it before... Of course this means it is going to be even harder to swap anything away.....

Wet, mint. Drying, tea and mint...I seem to smell something a little like Dorian, but, greener. I didn't think I'd like this because I don't usually like mint flavored things...but, the Lab's mint notes are different. This seems much fresher and cooler than Snake Oil. It would be nice on a hot day.

In the bottle, I can smell the resins....mmmmmmm. Wet on me, the frankincense is the first note up. Drying, the frankincense fades slightly, but, skin really likes resins, so it may be a while before the resins let the rest of the scent through. Dry, ah, there's the Snake Oil. It makes an interesting blend, and different from the other frankincense scents that I have been collecting. =)

In the bottle, cinnamon. Wet, on me...Ouch! What is that? Ginger? Yikes! Ok, now the ginger is thankfully taking a step back, and I smell cinnamon again. The scents are not playing nicely yet. I'll give this one a few minutes and get back to it. Alrighty, back from their time out, cinnamon, cassia and ginger are behaving, now, but, I don't know if that will last. There might be Snake Oil behind these scene stealers or there might not be. It's hard to tell so far. So far this is a delicious dry cinnamon/ginger scent, with only a few minutes to be wary of when freshly applied. I'm still not getting much Snake Oil from it, though. Maybe next time, with different weather and skin chemistry.

In the bottle, it smelled very similar to Snake Oil. On wet, mostly it is the spices and patchouli of the snake oil, and then...MMmmm. Apparently Opoponax is a resin. My skin just looooves most resins. I can smell the coconut, and I've gotten to the point of almost being able to identify vetiver when I encounter it, but the resin is what will make this scent for me, I think. Dry, everything blends together much faster and much, much smoother than just snake oil does. The spices don't stand out from the blend, and I suspect the opoponax may be the cause. It isn't as intense a scent as snake oil, but, there is this scent just wafting around...I lose it if I sniff to closely, but the wafting scent on me is gorgeous. This isn't a coconut blend on me. It also isn't a vanilla scent, though the vanilla and coconut are needed to sweeten it. It isn't any one scent, actually, but more of a well blended whole. Dark, resinous, spicy and very slightly sweet. I'm happy that I have a bottle.

Wine...wine and berries. I can maybe smell a little bit of the thyme, but, only because I am looking for it. Even just wine can be fruity on me, so this is Very very rich and fruity on me. It smells a little bit like Bordello did on me...but, richer and rounder? There's also a slightly smoother base to it, I think, and it is less sparkly than Bordello. Less playful. As it gets dryer, it is also smoothing out more. It is becoming less complex...at least one berry note isn't staying on my skin, possibly more. It is still nice, but, simpler. It's becoming a single berry sweet scent on my skin.