Blood onmy hands

First on this is clove and something oddly herbal. It's reminding me of cooking spices. Then it is all clove for about ten minutes and I am finding it rather pleasant... until the jasmine starts to creep in. Anyone who has read any of my jasmine reviews will be sick of hearing me talk about how overpowering jasmine is and how it gives me a headache. Same boring rant applies here. People may also recall that I am not fond of dragon's blood. Wolf's Heart is jasmine and dragon's blood on me in the drydown. You can imagine the hell of having two of my least favorite scents conspiring against me. They are a formidable pair. This is strong and sickening sweet (floral-sweet, I hate that) on me. I practically scrubbed my arm bloody trying to wash it off.

The lavender here never stood a chance against the musk and florals. Not on my skin. First on, this is all powdery rose and light musk. Then the jasmine completely takes over and that's all I can smell for hours until this fades. I think that jasmine might actually be pretty if it were ever light on me, and I could actually smell other notes with it. It just never seems to work out that with my skin chemistry. It gets very strong and smoky. Overpowering jasmine.

I always hesitate in reviewing any single notes. I feel like the scents are pretty self explanatory and since they're not widely available anymore... I dunno. I guess that I generally just don't have a lot to say where single notes are concerned. I digress. I like the smell of true honeysuckle flowers, but honeysuckle perfume never manages to work out on me. It always smells too strong and perfumey to the point of giving me a headache. Floral perfumes are not my friends. That said, honeysuckle single note does start out that way on me. Perfumey and horribly strong/smoky, actually reminding me more of jasmine in the beginning. In the drydown this takes a lovely turn though. It truly smells like real honeysuckle flowers. It gets considerably lighter and in my mind I keep thinking that it smells like sunshine. Definitely a happy, bright floral. Sweet and playful. This is one of the few floral scents that doesn't give me a pounding headache. Very pretty, a floral that I could actually wear from time to time.

I wanted to try Queen Mab because it has black orchid in it (one of the few florals that I love)... sadly, I don't smell any black orchid in this. First on this is musky jasmine. My skin amps it up to overwhelming proportions. After a few minutes the rose starts to come out and go soapy. The overall result was nauseating to me. Jasmine is such a strong floral to me, paired with the musk it was a pure migraine.

In the bottle I thought that I would love this. It smelled like peppery patchouli, a combination that I adore. Actually, I adore anything with patchouli, but I digress. On me it smells like ash though. Like the charred wood and ash from a campfire that has recently been rained on. Cold and burnt. It starts to sweeten a bit (amber?) and then suddenly the sweetness turns sickening. It smells like feces and I'm having flashbacks of czernobog. The drydown on this is just so bad. I smell like a rained out campfire with a pile of poo next to it. I have to scrub this off before class or risk alarming my peers.

Snake Charmer is the only CN scent that I haven't tried thus far. I held off on buying a bottle because I don't like Snake Oil and that's what everyone compared it to. But I finally got a lovely decant from the even lovelier slugbait (who sends out some of the nicest swap packages that I've ever had the pleasure of receiving ). First on my skin... yep, this smells exactly like Snake Oil. A not quite so heavy version of Snake Oil. After a few minutes, snake oil and gummi bears? Something about this is making me feel sort of dizzy, like I'm about to get an awful nosebleed. It's almost like I accidentally breathed some pepper up my nose. And that's the cycle that it goes in for me: Snake Oil light to Snake Oil with gummi bears to Snake Oil with pepper. All in all I'm glad that I took everyone's advice and didn't get a bottle. I think that I'm in the minority with not liking Snake Oil or Snake Charmer though.

Starts off as an airy, cool, crystalline lavender and white musk type of fragrance. Dries down to a slightly smoky, heady jasmine that's vanilla-sweet, with a hint of that airy, cool, almost minty lavender in the background. Actually very pretty. Reminds me of a less sharp/sour LUSH's Flying Fox, with some lavender lightening the whole thing up.

The Queen of Hearts doesn't work with me at all. She is very hateful. First on this smells like cherry cough syrup and a sharp musky floral. In the drydown this smells like dish soap and baby powder. Lily and I are old enemies. Needless to say, this will be going to my swap pile.

First on, Baghdad is so sharp that it actually threw me into a sneezing fit. Sharp tickling rose with a hint of candied orange peel. It then quickly morphs into sharp tickling roses and STRONG baby powder. I think that this is the first perfume that has gotten this reaction out of me. Sneezing and watering eyes. It's like I'm allergic to Baghdad. Sad because I actually like the rose note here. It's just agitating me in odd ways. It's probably the amber that turns to baby powder on my skin, as it often does. I'll probably be swapping my imp. The combination of sneezing, watery eyes, and baby powder is more than I can handle.

First sniff. Smells spicy, slinky, and exotic. Something about this strikes me as smelling almond-ish, but I normally hate almond, and this is mouthwateringly good. Also perhaps a bit dragons blood-ish smelling, but I also normally hate dragon's blood. I should hate this, but I don't. 5 minutes after application. I am *so* glad that I gave this scent a try and some time to drydown a bit. It has an almost indulgent oily almond/dragon's blood scent in the background, but there is a lovely spice and honey scent coating it now. Half hour later. This just keeps getting better. Sacred Whore of Babylon has dried down into a mouthwatering honeyed vanilla with an unknown exotic spice mingling in it. I love this. It's definitely a 10 ml purchase. It has a lot of throw too. It's almost foodie, but not quite, and very spicy and sexy. I'm going to go through my imp of this one very quickly.

I haven't really liked any of the Funereal Oils, so my hopes weren't high for Danse Macabre. I think that it's my favorite blend in this category thus far though. It's very heady and dark on me, like peppery pine resin and black soil. It stays pretty true to that first impression for hours too. Dark spicy earth and resins. I can actually picture this as the scent of "flute-wielding skeleton leading a procession of dancers to their graves". Unfortunately, that scent is very not me. Danse Macabre has decent throw and lasted a good 6-7 hours. I'll probably end up swapping my imp though. It's just one of those perfumes that feel like they belong on someone else.

The Red Queen smells like black cherry kool-aid powder (tart, dry and artificial cherry) mixed with pencil shavings. It starts off heavy on the cherry and light on the pencil shavings, and dries down to tons of pencil shavings and a hint of cherry kool-aid powder. It's similar to the woods in Velvet, except this has cherry instead of chocolate. Desk full of pencil shavings...

I expected this to be a very dark, heavy, earthy blend thanks to the vetiver, woods, and 'burnt' sandalwood. I was surprised to find that this is actually very breezy. I don't get darkness or burnt notes from it at all. On me, Incantation smells exactly like being in a park on a cool summer's day. Very breezy. You're laying on a soft, clean cotton blanket in the cool green grass, underneath the shade of a huge leafy oak tree. The woodsiness is of that great tree, there is a slight twinge of greenery, and the overall smell is very clean and breezy. It has a very lazy feel to it. I am in love with this. It's a strong perfume with lots of throw too. 'Entrancing' is a perfect describing word for it. It makes me feel calm and happy, but also a bit seductive. Lovely I definitely want a big bottle of this one.

Edit to review the 2016 version of this. I'm not getting juniper berry or patchouli from this anymore. I do get a lovely, sweet myrrh and a dusty, sour, sharp oakmoss. The oakmoss takes over in the drydown, unfortunately. I also keep smelling something that reminds me of bpal's "dusty clove" note. A strangely spicy, dry, dusty/powdery moss with an edge of soapiness. Smells like an old fashioned aldehyde and chypre moss. Too powdery, too dry, too sour, too soapy... warm and stuffy, old smelling fragrance...

This smells like something that I hate. Dragon's blood? Only not as strong as dragon's blood usually is on me, more musky and cold. There is also a definite smell of dish soap here too. It's already giving me a headache and I've only had it on for about five minutes. After about 15 minutes I am starting to smell coconut... but it is a bad sort of fake-coconut. Coconut scented tanning lotion type of coconut. And it's all mixed in with that awful musky dish soap smell. I washed this off not too long after that observation. Blood Pearl is mostly soapy floral on me in the drydown, with strong hints of bitter musk. This is going straight into my swap pile.

I feel bad when I write short scent reviews, it makes me feel sort of lazy. There just isn't much that I can say about Rome. Juniper is usually pretty strong on my skin (nice, I like juniper), but this was all roses on me. A very strong rose with lots of throw and a slight soapy twinge. Rome turns into just a rose perfume on me... I don't pick up any of the other notes. And it's so strongly floral that it gave me a bit of a headache.

Brimming with native fruits and flowers, but also imbued with the power of native earth magicks: apricot and pomegranate with deep plum, wild roses, two Middle Eastern pale musks, white orchid, iris and sweet roots. First on I am getting nothing but apricots. Very heavy, sweet apricots. Like the kind that come in a can and are smothered in thick syrup. This is the exact sort of fruity scent that I cannot stand for some reason. I love sweet foodie scents... but I usually hate sweet fruity scents. No clue why. After a few minutes the pomegranate comes out and this takes on the tart bitter edge that pomegranate always smells of on me. Curse my skin chemistry. And then in the drydown I smell like musky canned apricots. It's a light scent with very little throw on me, so at least the musk isn't giving me a headache. I'll be swapping my imp as I do not really like fruity scents or musky scents. Fruity musk is just not me.

Lear is a very dry, simple scent to me. It's more cedar chips than cedar trees. Almost dusty in its dryness. After a few minutes, the sage comes out and makes me feel a bit ill. I have a bad association with the smell of sage that I won't go into. Overall it's not something that I want to smell. Cedar chips and dried sage. Very woodsy. I could definitely imagine this working better on a guy than a girl... but I don't like it enough to make my boy test it out.

I normally hate fruit scents, so I passed on ordering a bottle of Fruit Moon... and now I'm kicking myself. I hate fruits that are too sweet, or that smell like fruity gum or candy on me. Fruit Moon smells like a genuine juicy tropical fruit salad to me. In the drydown it smells like it has a bit of sugar sprinkled over it, but it still isn't fakely fruity or too sweet. This smells like all of my favorite fruits. At first I'm getting the pear, peach, and apple... it smells a bit boring to me at that point. I like tropical fruits and berry scents a lot more. Luckily for me, this is all lush and wet tropical fruits in the drydown. Kiwi, mango, passion fruit, lime, and various melons... I love this . I feel like such an idiot for not getting a bottle. I'll use up my decant and probably try to get a 5 ml off of evil ebay.

Loup Garou smells very strongly of Vicks VapoRub on me. I don't necessarily dislike that smell, but it gives me a headache if I'm forced to smell it for a long period of time. For a while in the drydown I smell mostly juniper, before it morphs back into Vicks. It's a very cold/menthol sort of scent. I normally really like foresty/piney/green scents... but I don't like the sharpness of this one. It reminds me of a pine forest that needs a good rain, but the weather is just dry and cold. Sort of depressing.

First on this smells very odd. I keep thinking of melons that have been very watered down. Honeydew melon? Over the next few minutes the watery note fades and it gets more candy-like. I'm not getting watermelon jolly ranchers (it isn't that sweet on me), but I could see this as a sort of melon hard candy. I forgot that I was wearing this and ignored it for a while, until suddenly I smelled a very perfumey musk and started to get a headache. Then I realized that it was Eris. This goes from melon candies to perfumey musk on me. Off to the swap pile it goes.

Somnus is a sharp, clean, cool, white-smelling lavender. It almost has a bit of a soapy edge that reminds me of cleaning fluid. I like my lavender notes to be sweeter & creamier/milkier smelling, so this isn't working for me. After about a half hour, this smells like a weird, perfumey floral soap (maybe jasmine-y). This is way too sharp for me and gives me a headache after a while. I love a lot of lavender blends & single notes, but this isn't a keeper for me.

This is all Marshall Fields floral on me. That cliche overly perfumey white floral that gives me a headache. The lilies here are going sharp and perfumey on me rather than soapy as they usually do. In the drydown this gets a bit more of a smokier smell to it, but it's still mostly still just department store floral on me. Very blah and makes my head pound.

Umm... add me to the list of people that Czernobog went very, very badly on. First on this smelled like sharp medicinal menthol and maybe a hint of lime. I really like lime, so I thought that maybe it would be okay. It was luring me into a false sense of security. Slowly this begins to take on a bad smell. Reminding me of, um, feces. Dirty and nauseating. I wanted to wash it off at this point, but I was only five minutes into wearing it. I waited it out for 15 minutes before washing it off. It started to smell like a mechanic's shop. Oil, grease, car parts. And still feces in the background. This is so odd. My friend said that it reminded her of Satyr, but Satyr is one of my favorite BPAL blends...and it didn't smell anything like Czernobog does on me. This is awful, so awful that I don't even want to swap it to anyone. I think that I'm going to send this to a guy that I don't like anymore with a note about how sexy it smells. I'm sadistic like that. Retrying an imp of this in 2016 and it is (or I am) completely different. I smell misty, cool evergreens, like rained on juniper bushes, paired with a black musk and sweet myrrh combo that's really quite nice and conjures up blends like Snake Oil and Snake Charmer. Slinky, sexy, musky, dark, resinous, forest blend.

I was hoping that this would smell like some of my other favorite churchy incense blends (Kostnice and Cathedral - 2 of my favorite BPAL scents)... I love spicy resiny scents. Unfortunately, this isn't much in the same vein as Kostnice or Cathedral in my opinion. In the bottle and first on my skin, this has an almost buttery caramel smell to it, held down by a smokiness that reminds me of a campfire. Burnt buttery caramel. That quickly fades away and this takes on a soapy floral smell, most likely thanks to the lilies. I hate lilies... they always turn to dish soap on me. 15 minutes later this is a *very* light floral incense smell. Like walking into a room where incense was burned an hour or two ago. Over the course of a few hours this gets to be a sweet powdery flower smell. It's too light and too floral for me to love it. I'm going to try the remainder of my imp as a room scent and see how that goes.