Astarial

In the imp, this is a very very realistic orange - zesty peel, bitter pith, and sweet juice. It's stunning how real it is. Once applied, some grassiness comes out from the hay and a hint of smoke from the tobacco, but it's still primarily a slightly bitter orange scent. Varies a little by location, though - orange is stronger in the crook of my arm, while on my wrist it's played down a little. Dry, the bitter pithiness fades off and the orange melds more closely with the hay and tobacco. It's a warm, slightly smoky orange. This is a really lovely and comforting fall scent.

In the imp this is a ton of strong, woody patch. I love patch but it's a little bit much! It gentles pretty quickly on my skin, though, with the patchouli baacking off and the vanilla and champaca flower coming out to add some creaminess. As it dries, it takes on the qualities of a really good (in my opinion) chardonnay - oaky, buttery, creamy vanilla goodness. That's not to say it's at all winey, because it isn't. It's more like the patchouli has been aged in a good oak barrel. When I first applied this I didn't think I'd want a bottle of it. I've got a number of lovely patch scents already, and this one was pretty strong. But the gorgeous drydown is making me reconsider that, particularly because I think it would smell sexy as hell on my beloved.

In the imp, this is lovely. I get vanilla and tobacco, with a hint of orange and a gentle cinnamon. On my skin, the tobacco is the most prominent note, with everything else playing in the background but not completely disappearing. For a little while, I get a bit of a champagne note, almost - not sure what that's about, but it could be the tobacco morphing? It reminds me of the champagne/tobacco I got from Stardust. Unfortunately, this scent does not last very long at all on me. It's still there, if I get my nose up close and personal, and still mostly tobacco, but it's very faint. I'll retest it and see if a couple days rest helps it last longer, but the quick fade is disappointing.

I agree with Garnet that Prague is not a strong lily scent, but it is a breathtakingly beautiful floral. I'm not sure if it's the crocus or the snowdrop that's predominant, but it's lovely. You could also consider Lampades (Cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices), Juliet (Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear), and Victoria (Graceful vanilla musk, tea rose, and stargazer lily).

A bit hard to find, but if you can track down some Snow, Glass, Apple...

This is really amazing. Starting out there's definitely some peanut going on, a dark, roasted nut like you might dip in chocolate. It's not peanut butter or anything light like that - there's definitely a burnt note, but in a good way. It morphs as it dries down, though, and the musk really comes into play. I like how OctoberGwen put it - "It's syrupy and gooey, but not sweet...which is fascinating." It's not foody at all now. It's the least foody, richest, sexiest peanut I've ever met. This is a peanut that will take you home and make sweet love to you on its leather sofa. I kind of wish I had sprung for a bottle instead of a decant, because this is simply gorgeous, but the beloved has a (thankfully very mild) peanut allergy so I don't think I'd get enough use out of it to really warrant a whole 5ml.

I find Black Pearl similar to Snow White. It's the coconut speaking.

Some of the reviews for Tempest compare it to Lightning and Jolly Roger. Have you tried either of those?

Phoenix Rising looks like apple, orange, cinnamon? For that I'd try Fearful Pleasure (Dried orange peels floating in simmering cider, roasted apples, smoldering firewood, chimney smoke, sassafras beer, warm hawthorn wood, and oakmoss). It's mostly apple-cinnamon, with some brightness from the orange peel and the other notes simmering softly in the background. Might be hard to get your hands on some though, since it's a LE from 2008. Alternative apple scents are Autumn Cider (Fermented apple juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, lemon zest, butterscotch liquor, and orange slices), which has all of the notes, but I've never tried it myself, or Lambs-Wool (A popular holy day beverage in 18th century Ireland: roasted apples mashed into warmed milk and ale, with nutmeg, sugar, ginger, and clove), which is non-cinnamon spices and no orange, but warm and apply. Let the Good Times Roll says it's a butter caramel? There's a few good caramel options, but nothing that I know of that's just caramel. Creepy (As creepy as Spooky was spooky, this is the scent of butterscotch-kissed, caramel-smothered red apples spiked with a blast of coconut rum), Agrat-Bat-Mahlaht (Amber, cream accord, white honey, apple blossom, skin musk, caramel, and teak), and Red Lantern (Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice) are all pretty pure caramel on me, and a lot of other reviewers say the same - or very strong caramel, if not pure. Other options might be Bien Loin d'Ici (The Scarlet Woman, aglow with sensual indolence: red musk, benzoin, caramel accord, golden honey, and spiced Moroccan unguents), which is also pretty caramelly, or Sugar Skull (Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits), which is more of a mapley or burnt sugar scent than a true caramel. Bite me (Croquembouche with almond silk and a drizzle of caramel) is caramelly, but also almondy. I've never tried The Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil (Bourbon vanilla, benzoin, caramel, Mysore sandalwood, aged black patchouli, carnation, and iris florentina), but it gets some caramel-heavy reviews.

Fearful Pleasure (Dried orange peels floating in simmering cider, roasted apples, smoldering firewood, chimney smoke, sassafras beer, warm hawthorn wood, and oakmoss) and Lambs-Wool (A popular holy day beverage in 18th century Ireland: roasted apples mashed into warmed milk and ale, with nutmeg, sugar, ginger, and clove) are great warm fall apple scents, that aren't as sweet as Creepy. Despite the name, Autumn Coolness (The scent of wisteria, Cymbidium, lotus blossom, and cassia buds drifting on a breeze through gently swaying bamboo reeds) is more like a warm, late-summer/early-autumn night. It's fresh in a floral/fruity way, but also warm, almost humid. Like things are at the peak of their ripeness, before fading into winter sleep. Edit: Veering into super foody/sweet, I love love love Sugar Skull (Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits) and Sticky Pillowcase (Smushed candy corn, rock candy dust, marshmallow gunk, strawberry goo, spun blue sugar, globs of salt water taffy, and lint).

So apparently to me, "absent-minded fey artist" says "sparkly and flitting! And fruit!" because here's what I thought of: Spinning Multicolored Metallic Pinwheel: Polycarbonate and metallic film monuments to domestic whimsy, whirling merrily in the summer breeze. Raspberry, lime, blueberry, tangerine, lemon, juniper, and white grape. Schroedinger's Cat: A paradoxical scent experiment! - tangerine, sugared lime, pink grapefruit, oakmoss, lavender, zdravetz, and chocolate peppermint. Getting away from the fruits a little, I considered: Mag Mell: The Plane of Joy, eternal reward for a lifetime of valor and glory. A place of eternal youth and beauty, strength and honor, music and revelry. The warmth of amber, the puissance of white ginger and the clarity of verbena, with fresh green grass, lush sage and cleansing droplets of summer rain. Imaginer: A report from the land of dreams: honeyed patchouli, Madagascan black pepper, fossilized amber oil, beeswax absolute, massoia bark, Egyptian myrrh, and a thin thread of blood-red saffron. And of course, these based mostly on the names: A Fit of Artistic Enthusiasm: Electric jolts of mania: a salt-crusted coffin bobbing through tumultuous ocean. Who in the World Am I: Sheer vanilla, hinoki wood, lavender, bergamot, cotton blossom, and lightly spiced oriental blossoms.

I get lilac and tea predominantly, with a hint of fig fruitness and refreshing oakmoss in support. I wish this came as a perfume - it's a wonderful springtime scent. Reminds me of playing outside at my parents' house when I was little, with their lilac tree in full bloom. This is really really lovely.

This is definitely a dark sugar and caramel scent, predominantly. Rich, sweet, and foody. Once it's had time to settle down in my hair a bit, I get some of the musk. Like all the glosses, it's sadly very faint on me.

This is all ginger in the imp - strong and ferocious and raw, like taking a big whiff of fresh ginger root. Once on the skin, it sweetens with some of the poppy, I think, with cubeb and amber giving a hint of spiciness and a hint of creaminess. As it starts to dry down, the scorpion pepper comes and shakes its tail at me - it's like eating a hot pepper, but without any of the tears. Kind of a weird sensation. Once dry, it veers almost toward fruit loops - it's spicy, but it's sweet and warm at the same time. Amber kicks in again, luckily, which tugs it back from fruit loops and gives it a kind of milky quality. Quite different from The Three Cocks, which is also spicy but with a very different mental feeling - whereas that one is more like smelling tins of spices in someone else's unused kitchen, this is more like the warm smell of cooking going on as you sniff. That's not to say it's at all foody - it isn't. While the cinnamon and clove in Cocks definitely make me think of baking spices, Surtur isn't any spice combination I'd think of cooking with. It just.. has this inviting quality that makes me think of cooking.

In the imp, this is red musk, clove, and copal. Once on my skin, something floral and almost fruity comes out, which might be the belladonna blossom. It's joined by amber and copal. After a few minutes of wallowing, the clove regains its strength and comes out roaring full force. It dries down to a spicy, cinnamony scent, that's full of heat but also somehow cold and distant.. like sniffing someone's spices in their unused kitchen. Very intriguing!

In the imp, this is a bright green musk swirled with basil, and perhaps a bit of the mistletoe? I'm not entirely sure, but I know it's green. Once applied, it's still green. It's herbal, but not sharply so - more like a comforting whiff of a fresh basil plant. The white patchouli starts to come out, and it's glorious... like taking a dirty hippie and giving them a bath in a tub full of milk, sweetened slightly with honey (I think that's the cistus talking), tinted with crushed basil leaves. I'm not getting any ginger, which isn't surprising, as it tends to hide from me most of the time. For a while, this actually starts to remind me of one of my biggest BPAL loves - Green Tree Viper! I think it must be the combination of patchouli and uber green things, even though there's no mint in Loki and as far as I know, no basil/etc in GTV. This is really really great. I love it even more than I expected!

Mugwort isn't butts on me, but it sure is stinky! I was a little worried at first sniff, because in the imp this blend is a really strong mugwort. Once on my skin, it gets even weirder, with a really strong peppermint coming out to play with the stinky mugwort. Not very nice! Happily, the stink burns off very quickly, and the peppermint settles down and allows more of the aquatics to shine through. As this wears, I start to get some vetiver out of it, reminding me a bit of the asphalt note in Black Ice. That also eases off pretty soon, though, and the scent settles down as it dries into a cooling, slightly herbal aquatic. I think this would be lovely for hot summer days - it makes me think of going swimming in a cool lake.

This.. really confuses me. In the imp, I get the lovely frankincense... but on my skin, it's Gingerbread Snake with an after-scent of... ginger ale? And that's how it stays, for hours and hours and hours until finally disappearing. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine scent... but not at all what I was expecting from the notes.

In the imp, I get Lilies, and maybe a touch of white frankincense. Wet, he pepper comes out for a few minutes, then disappears, turning this gentle and floral from the lilies and tuberose. It stays this way for a while on me. The white frankincense starts to come out again as this dries down, pushing the lilies into the background and playing solo for a while. A few hours later, it finishes its monologue and wanders off-stage again, leaving the lilies to hum along alone for a bit. Nice, but doesn't wow me.

In the imp, this is all Musk and honey, baby. It's not quite as evocative of raw sex as red musk is, but it's close. It gets a lot more complex on my skin, though. I get impressions, more than notes - musky, spicy, woody, with a touch of sweet honey. There's not a ton, but I think the beeswax is also keeping it creamy and not super masculine. Dry, it settles down into a gentler patchouli, still musky, spicy, and sweet, but less ferocious about it. I like it, but I think it's got a bit more of a masculine feel than I tend to really love on me. Time for man-testing!

In the imp: Dark and spicy, almost chocolatey, with a hint of coffee. Very smooth, and not at all bitter. The coffee comes out a lot stronger on my skin, rich and sweet, and slightly spicy and resinous. It aaaaalmost gets woody, but stays just on the foody side of my nose. As it dries, it gets sweeter and richer - that's the vanilla coming out to flirt with the sexy boys hanging out in her living room. And when she does, they all sort of tumble into a lovely cuddle pile and let her run the show. Destructive Vagina? More like Dark, Snuggly, Inviting Vagina.

I'm not sure what I smell in the imp - it's the mimosa or the white amber, but I'm not familiar enough with either on their own to be certain which nit is. I think it's probably the former though, perhaps with a hint of amber providing some creaminess? Sweet honey comes out (as it always does) once it goes on my skin, and after a few minutes I almost get a hint of champagne. This is like drinking a mimosa at brunch, one which has been made with fresh orange juice and top-shelf champagne, and sweetened slightly with honey. Very posh. I don't think I'm picking up on any explicit amber in this, but I'd guess it's continuing to play a gentle, rich, creamy role that keeps this blend from going cloyingly sweet. Interestingly, while most sweet and comforting blends read as winter scents to me, this one doesn't. The mimosa provides just enough hint of citrus to keep this bright and cheerful, perfect for spring.

In the imp, this shows real promise. It's a gorgeous blend of cherry blossom, rose, and lily, with just a hint of honey. Not too sweet, not too floral. Sadly, on my skin the rose and honey conspire to drown the other flowers and rule together in a mad, passionate embrace. At times it veers slightly soapy, but overall that's how it stays - rose and honey, honey and rose. On the bright side, I can definitely tell it's pink rose, and not red?

Tested this on my skin, so will update when I have a chance to bath-test. I get sweetness from the sugar, freshness from the tea, a little tart-sweet fruitiness from the currant.. and rose from the rosewood? Don't get me wrong, I prefer rose to wood, but I wasn't expecting it to be explicitly floral. All of the notes stand out, but also blend to create a lovely scent. I can't wait to try this out in the tub!

Rubbed a little bit of this onto my arm to test it. Pure chocolate and coconut, with what smells like a tiny hint of cinnamon. The scent stays pretty true the entire time I can smell it, but disappears after a few hours. I deeeeeefinitely want a sexy man to rub this all over my body.