emzebel

With the caveat that I can generally only wear cocoa notes, as opposed to chocolate notes (weird difference, I know...): I adore Velvet - it is so rich and sultry and not sweet per se, but almost like mole - spicy, incensey, dark unsweetened cocoa. Boomslang is not really similar (at least in my scent memory - I have not done a side by side) - it is sweet spicy, vanilla cocoa. I do get a lot of Snake Oil from it, at least in its new form. A lot of the adjectives are the same (spicy, cocoa, rich) - but the scent is really very different to my nose. As for different chocolates, I would definitely try Wulric - it is the most masculine, virile chocolate/cocoa scent I've ever smelled. Any chocolate conneseur should absolutely try at least a decant of this one. For older LEs, Freak Show, from the original Carnival Noir collection has cocoa and fig , Spooky is chocolate mint cookies on a lot of people... And of course, the 13s...which you should have a chance to buy direct here in a week or so.

At first this is all red musk and cassia, with some fruit trying desparately to make itself known. I love pretty much everything in this blend, but I'm coming to the conclusion that much as red musk is one of my favorite notes of all time, the mixture of it and cassia can be overwhelming on me. Or perhaps it's that I can only wear cassia in blends, like Blood Moon or Red Phoenix, that are supposed to be savory, as opposed to sweet. The cassia takes this over on me, to a degree that saddens me, because I would love to smell the other notes so much more.

At first this is honeyed tea - delish! The tropical florals start to weave their way in, still lovely mind you, but not quite so me. This is definitely a blend for someone who loves flowers as much as they love honey.

Mmm. Nutty with a hint of spicyness, and sweet creamy florals. This is gorgeous.

Happily, I get a lot of leather, musk and spices from this, with a generous splash of the ocean on a good day. I like leather, musk and spices - and the aquatic is one which I can wear - I think this is a keeper for everyone of oil wearing age in my house.

Wow, a caramel accord I can wear! Red musk is almost always a winner note for me, honey is one of my true loves, and benzoin and Moroccan spices sounded like a most wonderful blend - so I decided to take a chance that this would be the one caramel blend that did not turn to burnt something on my skin, and I am glad that I did. This starts out a very light, almost golden musk - not nearly as smoldering as many of Beth's red musk blends, with the honey and benzoin creating a sweet almost creamy base, with a hint of floral and a beautiful overlay of rich incensy spices. This blend is like looking through a lamp of Middle Eastern stained glass mosaic...beautiful and subtle and sparkly, all at the same time. My only regret is that it stays so subtle on my skin - oddly, with such strong powerful notes, my skin drinks this in like it's own scent - I get whiffs of it off and on, but this is a scent I will need to put in a roller bottle and apply often.

Oh, Tanin'iver, how I wanted to love the - with DB, patchouli and pomegranate, some of my favorite notes, I thought you were a steed who would not steer me wrong. However, the cassia and the mimosa and the smoke gang up on my chemistry and amp into something a wee bit too sharp for me to truly love. Sigh...

Very floral - with a breath of lightness (from the tea) and a spicy/wood note, which I think is a combination of carnation spice and woody rose. This is nice, but a wee to, well, maidenish for my tastes.

Fresh and light with something warm - this is an odd mixture of fresh watery aquatic and almost bakery ginger on me, which may be the way my chemistry is reading it with the amber (I do weird things with amber)...I don't get nearly as much of the herbals - the verbena and the sage as I might have hoped, not do I get OMG ginger. Just an odd combination...like eating ginger cookies in the rain.

This is a very cacophonous scent, and appropriately so - the tamarind lends a definitely spicy fruitiness, the mimosa a splash of fruity floral, and then there are the deeps. The darks. Which never get as truly deep and dark as you might expect - vetiver and fruits are a winning combo with my chemistry and Erich Zahn is no exception. This is a morpher - with dark notes and high notes and whirling dirvishes of scent. I like it. Quite a lot, actually, but it is quite a lot of work to get my senses around.

Mmm. Warm, buttery incensy coconut. And that is just about enough delightfully said, quite frankly.

Sugary sweet spicy flowers - that would be the carnations, there. I'm not sure what phlox smells like, actually, but I really just get sweet sweet sweet and carnation from this. Which is very pretty and lovely and pink and perfectly springy.

This starts out as a sweet floral, then I start to amp the sugary treacle, which on me smells like burnt caramel. This is a curse of my chemistry. On someone that can wear Beth's delighful sugary scents, this would make a gorgeous spiced addition.

I really really wanted to like this - I had hoped for something herbal and grassy with fruity/spicy overtones, but I don't get any of the ginger or fig - only an intense herbalness. This is not unpleasant, but I can't see myself reaching for it regularly.

A soft, fresh feminine floral with a hint of fruity vanilla. This is not a very me scent, but it is very pretty.

Woah. Jasmine jasmine jasmine, with a thick, heady kick in the eye of something darker. Honestly, I cannot get past the jaz to really figure it out, although I'm sure it's the patch and the vet.

Wow. Tea and leather. Specifically, warm, lemony earl gray with a pinch of leather. This is awesome stuff.

This is very very sweet on me - an almost bubblegum cherry sort of sweet that made me wonder if there was lotus in this until I saw the notes. The red musk comes out after a few minutes and the star anise gives some spice, but neither get enough play on my skin to make this a favorite, alas.

Mmm - cinnamon and clove, with something almost vanilla or tonka underneath, yet, this is not foody, per se, more...sensuous. I love this, and wish I had more than an imp.

Somehow, despite taking down a very detailed review of this blend in my little scent notebook, I failed to ever actually type it up - so here, is my review of HM2005, which is weighed heavily against 2004 (but not against 06)... Spicy apple cider with a hint of mulled wine and florals - generally - smells like something familiar that smells good, but is hard to place. This is lighter and much less floral than '04, and does not have the thick buttery note that one had. On drydown, the apples fade quite a bit, leaving a soft, dry floral, like drying leaves.

I had no idea what to expect from this - but something sweet, almost creamy, and not in the least bit watery was certainly not it. This is a very fresh scent. And I get a sort of blue-green feel from it, but not aquatic in the traditional mossy sense. It fades on me faster than I would like, so I will have to do some playing around, but I do like this alot, I think.

Intersting. Herbal grape. Must be the loganberry. Very quickly, this amps into almost a rich red-wine-grape-like note that can be a migraine trigger for me. Very very odd. No vinland for me.

Aaah...I had wanted to try this forever, it seemed - the only thing putting me off was a fear that the heather would be too floral of a note. But it is the perfect scent of a grassy, herb-filled field, with a touch of blue flowers and a smattering of blackberry bushes. So gorgeous.

Sharp herbal incense, with a honey undertone. I wish the honey was stronger in this, but I seem to be amping other things.

Sweet banana with a lush tropical floral backdrop. This is a gorgeous blend if tropical florals are your thing. Unfortunately, while they are lovely to look at, I'm not so into the scent of them, so this is one of those blends that I am thrilled exists, but am happy to send to a new home.