EdenIris

Temple Viper is two scents in one! In the bottle and wet, I get the grape candy that others have mentioned, but it's fleeting, Drydown brings up a rich, complex vanilla. For the next four or five hours I get straight Snake Oil. Following that, it's all sweet, heady incense without a trace of SO. As it fades, I get a faint ghost of the grape again, but I really have to bury my nose in my arm to find it. Gorgeous. This bottle, by the way, is a year old. The fresh stuff behaved a bit differently, and I only now got around to reviewing it. So glad I have a backup.

Wings of Azrael is gorgeous. It exceeds the sum of its parts, if that makes sense. I also like Eternal and The Ghost. Both have a sort of chill to them, and I prefer my florals like that.

This is so lovely at first, fresh and clean. Nothing but tea in the imp, with the lemon verbena coming in shortly after application and the honeysuckle sweetening things up a bit during drydown. Sadly, this turns sharp and soapy about midday. I had the same problem with Kumiho; I think my skin is inimical to light tea scents. If you get along well with Kumiho and Baobhan Sith, then Shanghai is for you. As for me, I will have to decide whether to swap this imp to a better home or make liquid hand soap out of it.

Hey, my imp's not green! I wonder if the formula changed. This is really beautiful. I suspected from the description that it would work well on my skin (dark musk, woods, patchouli, and saffron are all winners for me), but I thought it would be darker, more intense. Instead, it's sort of comforting. Gentle. During drydown, I get prominent wood (heheheh, I am 12 -- sorry!), but then all the notes balance and meld into something soft and dark and just a little sweet/spicy. Like kitten fur. This is going on the GC bottle list. ETA: Very strong throw for the first half hour or so, then it backs down. I'll have to be careful where I wear this.

This smells like granite in the sun and very fine flour. Also, sadly for me, like baby powder. I was intrigued by the prospect of flashes of brilliance, but none are forthcoming on my skin.

Jacob's Ladder smells expensive and privileged to me (woman in her European convertible driving to the marina). Ecstasy of St. Theresa smells opulent but approachable (woman in designer clothes who volunteers at the church carnival).

The husband person is fond of Queen of Sheba, which may be evidence of a pastry fetish, but it is fairly light and does not contain the above-mentioned "sexy" notes.

1. Temple Viper 2. Boomslang 3. Habu Habu might take over the #2 spot, though. King Cobra went all industrial bathroom cleaner, which is odd because I don't normally have a problem with any of those notes, and Aussie Copperhead was too sharply berry for me. All the others have unworkable notes.

I save them on the off chance the bottle doesn't work for me and I want to sell it. Also, I have more bottles than wand caps (I didn't know the lab sells them now -- hurray for that!), so as I rotate bottles in and out of regular use, sometimes I switch the wand caps out. I soak them in alcohol, clean them thoroughly with water, and let them dry in the sun, and they're ready for a new scent. The glass wands are the method that's worked best for me. When I first started buying bottles, I put them in rollerballs, but they applied far too much oil.

The little people (4 and 2) demand a swipe of perfume every morning. They don't seem to care much what it is, although of course the foody stuff is preferred (they LOVE Knave of Hearts, which smells awful on me). Fae and Maenad were nice on them. They also like a bit of lavender EO on their clean sheets; maybe I should try some Paris. They enjoy partaking in the mailbox ritual and confiscate any candy or fruity tea sent to me by swappers. As someone mentioned above, BPAL brings families together.

Tamora is fruity sweet. Sugar Moon is molasses sweet. Kabuki is cherry sweet with a little spike of anise.

This is exactly as the lab description says, soft and comforting. First sniff out of the imp and initial wet stage is VERY vetiver, but it backs down quickly. The roses make a brief appearance in the drydown and then vanish, as roses tend to do on me, and the rest is a charming unfolding of chrysanthemum and cactus. I can't really distinguish cactus flowers as a separate note, but there is a succulent feel to this. Not a lot of throw, and not an overpowering floral at all. Very nice.

This is the first review for which I actually took detailed notes because in my experience vetiver smells gorgeous, but sometimes (Saturnalia) it takes about eight hours to get there, and I wanted to know exactly when Malediction would reach that stage. Wet: Chinese medicinal herbs plus a charcoal grill covered in burnt fat. At 15 minutes: slightly greener but very sharp, a sort of menthol/eucalyptus. (Husband concurs on the eucalyptus.) At 30 minutes: oppressive green earth, a rice paddy on a sultry day. At one hour: smoky campfire with a faint wisp of sweetness in the background. At three hours: there it is! The refreshing jungle green that is Good Vetiver, with just a hint of sweetness similar to the scent of a bag of black jelly beans. Patchouli doesn't have a strong presence, but it's there. Three hours is better than eight, but still a longish time to smell strange. I will be experimenting with this as a room scent and possibly tossing the imp into the cellar of despair with the other stuff I'm aging to see if that brings out the patchouli a bit more.

Wet, this was butterscotch and slightly rancid butter. As it dried, it became more pastry, but with only the ghost of berries, and no roses at all. I may try this as a room scent, but it definitely doesn't work on my skin.

I'd spent the last year or so telling myself I didn't need to even try this scent because I don't like smelling like chocolate, but then yesterday I had an opportunity to test it. Wet and in the initial drying stages, it confirms all my suspicions: baker's cocoa and nothing else. A little later, I get some roundness that is the vanilla and probably the rice milk. Strangely, it's very faint if I try to sniff it; I have to get right up to my arm to smell anything, but if I'm not trying to smell it, it wafts up. As time passes, this gets better and better, less like chocolate milk and more like something exotic, incense mixed with those lilies that smell like vanilla, maybe. The husband's opinion was that this was a comforting smell -- so, not "sex in a bottle" around here. Verdict: Want a bottle. Maybe two. The Snakes are taking over my bottle box.

Wet: Candy. Drying: A more sparkling candy, like champagne over orange sorbet. Aaaand it doesn't really change after that. A delicious, exotic hard candy. I don't get the same earthy fig I get from other scents like Aeronwen, and I enjoy sniffing this, but it's really just making me crave sweets and isn't something I want to wear. This will go into the swap box coming my way and will, I hope, find a good home elsewhere.

Oh, my goodness, no. Wet: I used to take Chinese herbs for inflammation. They were bitter and alkali and almost intolerable. Saturnalia in its first phase was exactly the smell (and taste -- it got in my throat) of those herbs. I've had good experience with vetiver in other blends (Anathema comes to mind), so this was a surprise. Drying: I tried to give it a chance, I really did. Kept waiting for the violets to come out. They did not. Just bitter medicine that faded a bit after an hour or so but never became anything remotely pleasant. Verdict: Unrestrained licentiousness is not likely to occur while I have this scent on. It is the opposite of sexy on me. Fast track to the swap pile. Of all the scents I've tested, there have only been two that I really couldn't stand, and this is the second, so I don't feel too bad giving it a negative review. ETA: Several hours after initial application I'm finally getting the jungle green scent I associate with vetiver, but it doesn't repay the effort of waiting.

How did it take me so long to find this? I thought I'd toured all the incense blends, and this is gorgeous. Wet: Sweet sandalwood and myrrh. Drying: Sharper scents coming out, possibly the gum mastic and of course the cedar, which goes a bit celery on me at first. Later: This settles out as a lovely, complex scent, more wood than incense but nicely balanced. The patchouli is just underneath, barely registering. This goes on the list with Kathmandu, Penance, and Cathedral as scents that I may not need entire bottles of, but of which I will always want at least an imp. On me, this is a great everyday scent, not too heady or headshoppy, with a decent throw.

I don't know what it is that's giving me the scent of institutional disinfectant. I get along well with copal and frankincense, and I think orris is OK. I've never tried straight-up Snake Oil (heresy, I know), but other members of the Snake Pit smell gorgeous on me. The disinfectant backs off a little as it dries, but then all I get is a faint bitterness mingled with sugar, like strange old candy. Not such a tragedy, though -- more room in the box and the budget for Temple Viper and Habu!

This is deliciously sweet on me, which I was not expecting. Wet, it had a very strong, nutty odor (bamboo?), but that has backed off and let the vanilla come through, along with what must be the ho wood. Behind that is something woodier (teak, I presume). This is very different from anything I've smelled before, and I like it.

First sniff: Metallic roses Drying: Something dusty, like gold motes floating in the air, with gentle, dry roses behind it. Later: Sweet liqueur (that would be the hazel). It starts out dusty, but warms on the skin to become almost creamy. The roses add some greenness to keep it from becoming too desserty. Very little throw on me. It's a warm, comforting scent that I would not wear regularly, but I'll keep the imp around. It makes me want to sit in front of a fire on a cold, rainy day (and maybe read ghost stories).

Every white/pale/crystalline/etc. musk has been an epic failure on my skin except Vechernyaya, so if you have the light musk fear, try that one. I think the patchouli grounds it and keeps it from going all soapy/acrid. For reference purposes, red musk works best for me, followed by blue. Black is occasionally tolerable.

I had a completely visual reaction to this scent, like paint on a canvas. First, aquamarine lotus, blending into pale lavender, with an obvious demarcation of brown where the spice (I get mostly clove) kicks in. I tried this at bedtime, so maybe that's what happens when you test a scent in the dark. The lavender is a bit sharp at first, but everything comes together beautifully. I thought this would be a good nighttime scent, calming with the lavender, but it's a good one for any time. Could be very professional with a hint of secrets.

Somehow I managed to forget that this had jasmine, and my skin hates jasmine (or loves it too much, depending on how you look at it). But as I was cursing myself, after a few minutes it changed, became, dare I say it? Wearable. Myrrh saves the day! Once dry, it was a beautiful (tamed) floral. I love the smell of fresh jasmine, just can't stand the oil on my skin, but this blend is quite nice. I didn't get any distinct rose, just myrrh cracking a gentle whip over the tempestuous flowers. No bottle in my future, but I will find uses for this imp.

In the imp and wet: cake frosting. Drying: still very sweet (vanilla and the sugared lily, I think), but something darker coming out, maybe the balsam of Peru. I occasionally get a waft of hay/tobacco/champaca, too. Several hours later: back to mostly vanilla, maybe a hint of opium. So many components, and happily the ones I was concerned about don't show up (the jasmine and leather), but it all reduces to a vague sweetness. I will finish the imp; it's pleasant, but I'm not sure I need any more.