crebbsgirl

Let me preface this review by stating that right now, ylang ylang and I are in the most gigantic of fights. We are not speaking, much less even looking at eachother and thus, I almost didn't try this. Let me tell you I am so glad I decided to be the bigger person and give Sleepy Moon a go. Narcotic is an excellent word to describe this. The blend was very hazy and soporific. Wet the poppy and chamomile are most predominant. As it dries, the lavender and ylang ylang come out - but both are very very soft. The darkness of the poppy combined with the sandalwood provides a wonderful depth. Something about this blend reminds me of Frau Holle, but I can't put my finger on it.

I was leery of this blend because of the black wine note, but that surprisingly wasn't what gave me trouble. The champagne grapes on the other hand, that is quite another story. This went bubbly and grapey on my skin. I didn't get any tonka or oakmoss here. I was hoping for a more resinous scent. What I got instead was something surprisingly light. The musk was very faintly present here, and the wine added some depth. The honey sweetened things up, but overall, I feel like this scent may just be too light for me.

Fresh on my skin this is pure lotus bubblegum. Then as it dries, the cedar comes out. As it dries more, the cedar smacks me over the head! Wow, this is pretty much single note cedar on me. I also get the wintergreen undercurrent the previous reviewer had. Boo.

I'll admit, this blend looked perfect for me, until I read "frankincense". The two of us have a history. I was concerned. But I shouldn't have been. This blend is the most wonderful incense blend I have tried so far. The frankincense behaves and the myrrh adds a depth. The teak note is fantastic in this, and the sandalwood doesn't overpower the blend in the slightest. The benzoin adds a sweetness here. It's complex but soft at the same time. A real winner for me!

When wet, there's a cherry note here that's immediately reminiscent of Blood Kiss. As it dries down, this fades and the patchouli and cinnamon come out more, turning the blend into a earthy sweet spice. The vetiver appears and lends its smokiness to the scent, but doesn't ever overpower the rest of the notes. The red musk isn't overly heavy either - which was my initial concern for this blend. All in all, it's quite wonderful.

As a scent, this isn't very complex. It's a sugared lavender, with maybe a little bit of vanilla. It smells almost identical to lavender cookies I bake sometimes. It's warm and comforting, but not something I would wear as a perfume. However, I wore it to bed last night and it was the first really GOOD night's sleep I've had in forever. It was great! I woke up this morning refreshed and energetic (which NEVER happens). I may have to have a whole bottle of this one!

Sigh.. I really really liked this blend, but something about caramel on my skin causes my boyfriend to feel very ill whenever he smells it. I can't agree enough with the previous reviewer who said it smells like a creamy caramel apple, that was exactly the scent I got while wearing this. It was fresh and light, with just a bit of foody tint to it thanks to the caramel.

This is wonderful! It's a sugary, boozy, smokey blend. Whatever musk there is in here is absolutely gorgeous. I agree with a previous reviewer that the smoke note doesn't seem to belong to a particular wood. The overall effect is hazy and languorous. I really really like this one. ETA: 9/28/09 The above review was for the 05 version. There seemed to be more sugar in that one than in the 09 version. I have tried the 09 version and this one was MUCH heavier on the smoke notes. The smoke is tempered by the musk and booze later in the drydown, but the sugar doesn't come out nearly as prominently as it did in the 05 version. In fact, I can barely detect any sugar in the 09 version. Very cool autumn evening indeed here.

Oh good god this is sex in a bottle. I love everything about this, and I am NOT normally one for patchouli. This blend ends up going an earthy sweet on my skin. I agree with the poster who said that it was present without being obtrusive. I could smell it all day, but it wasn't an in-your-face kind of scent. The patchouli and myrrh remained dominant notes throughout, but amber and musk were there as well. All in all, this was a beautifully dark blend.

So I've wracked my nose about this one, and I still don't have any idea what's in here. It's possibly the most complex and intriguing blend I've tried thus far. There's very much a spice and incense vibe here, and someone mentioned it's similarity to chai which I must agree with. I don't get any cinnamon here, but maybe nutmeg and cardamom? I think I can pick out myrrh as well. It must be noted however that the incense note here is very light and not-at-all headshopy. On me, I didn't get any floral notes. This was very delicious indeed.

The sage and leather combination here is very reminiscent of Bow and Crown. This blend has some wonderful scent associations for me, because on the dry down the leather note comes out rather prominently and reminds me of the way the costume stores would smell when I had to go buy new ballet shoes every year growing up. Not to say this blend is all leather. It's not. The Snake Oil lends a wonderful sweet spice. I really like this!

This one was nice, but my skin ate it right up! There was virtually nothing left after the two hour mark. Before it left me, there was a musky undertone, with black pepper, ginger and tobacco acting as prominent notes. I couldn't really smell the cinnamon at all. I suspect the desert sand was lending a dryness to this blend, and may be the reason my skin ate it. It was nice while it lasted!

Well, this certainly started out promising. The rose and blood orange were predominant notes while in the wet stage. During the drydown, the gardenia came shrieking around the bend, hauling the heliotrope with it. Finally the toasted vanilla and amber came out. And then, we went ROSE!! Which seems to happen to me when I try to wear any blend with rose in it. For the first hour, this scent was intriguing, until my skin chemistry effed it all up.

I get a smoky rose incense here. I suspect this might be rose and frankincense. There is a woody note in here as well. As I don't like rose much, I don't see myself wearing this very often.

Helllooooo almond! Wet, this was almost pure single note almond on me. As it dries, the frankincense came out and lent a touch of incense to the blend. The cinnamon was very faint on me. The vanilla lent a creamy tone, whereas the heliotrope offered a bit of a golden edge to this blend. All of the components were distinguishable, unfortunately this was just too much almond for me.

On first application, this is mostly a masculine purple scent. The leather takes the foreground as the lilac and herbs blossom on the skin. There is a faint undercurrent of the plum juice, which sweetens this a titch. During the drydown, the herbs fade and soften, but they don't completely disappear. The lilac and leather balance each other out nicely and what's left is a cooler leather scent. Very refined.

Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. On me, this smelled exactly like the L'Occitane fragrance "Neroli". Let me first preface this review by saying I am NOT a floral person. Not by any stretch of the imagination. This blend did not smell like a floral to me at all! I got a dark scent. Slightly heady and mysterious, with a little bit of a spicy edge. You could faintly smell the orange blossoms, which brightened the scent slightly so that it wasn't oppressive. The vanilla took on a seedy, dark undertone. I would almost call this a musky scent, although musk isn't listed as a note. This was wonderful!

I don't get a pickle note here at all. This is soft and furry. A light musk. This wears very close to the skin for me, and lends just a faint sweet smelling musk. It's very cozy, and makes me want to cuddle up with someone warm. I was having a pretty crap day earlier, and this turned it all around. Wearing it, I feel relaxed and contented.

I was going to blame skin chemistry here but after looking at the reviews, I'm not so sure. I can't for the life of me figure out what's causing this but on me, this blend smells EXACTLY like Fuzzy Peach Slices. That gummy peach flavoured candy. I know what frankincense smells like on me, and when I googled spikenard all I could get was "warm and earthy". Not very descriptive, but definitely not the cause of the peach smell. So I'm stumped. Its a warm, golden blend. Bright and friendly. Sweet, but not sugary. Nice, but not my cup of tea.

Alright all I got here was the mulled wine. Very berry. I could faintly detect leather underneath, providing a warm base. I'm not one for berry or wine scents, so I think I will have to pass on this one.

I think it was the caramel combined with the red sandalwood, but something about this blend just put me right off. I think I may have a problem with caramel as a note in general. This became really thick and heady on me. But not in a good way. The caramel definitely became the predominant note here, almost to the exclusion of all others. I could detect the red sandalwood underneath it faintly, but other than that, I didn't really get anything else.

Cinnamon, clove, vanilla, and pine sap. Wow, I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet, seeing as how this scent is now in my heavy rotation. On me, the pine sap note isn't very predominant. Mostly I get a vanilla/clove scent, with just a touch of cinnamon. This feels very Yule-y to me as almost everything in my house growing up had the clove and cinnamon scent at Christmastime. I think the pine sap does a great job of preventing this blend from becoming foody, while avoiding a sharp note that I can sometimes get with pine. I love it.

That you so much ivyandpeony, and icing! I was lucky to find a decant of Snake Charmer before the update, so I'll have to revisit that. And Smut and Perversion sound right up my alley! I will have to try to hunt those down.

I'm hoping someone can help me here. I have recently fallen head over heels in love with Black Lace. As it's ridiculously hard to come by and apparently I suck at Ebay, I need a good recommendation. BL on me is all dirty smutty, vanilla. I think it's a combination of the boozy cognac and tobacco and musk that makes it quite so awesome. Does anyone have any recommendations for dirty vanilla-y scents? I'm not looking for foody here. Most of the comparisons to BL from the wonderful list that ivyandpeony compiled are too clean-smelling for me. (Black Lace: Antique Lace, Euterpe (dc), Dorian, Haloes, Black Opal, Zephyr, Desire, Anactoria, The Sailors’ Den, The Antikythera Mechanism, Galvanic Goggles) I'm not looking for something that necessarily smells like BL, more like something that has the same vibe.

Alright, I've worn this twice now before reviewing because I thought for sure I was missing something here. I mean *this* is one of the most sought after scents of the forum, but I was left feeling rather... indifferent. Don't get me wrong, this is sexy as hell. It smells to me like the offspring of Scherezade and aged Snake Oil. I get just a hint of coconut, but I can't detect any black plum at all. This is all amber-y vanilla-y musky goodness. I just don't get all the hype.