borealis

I'm seeking scents that evoke the desert of the southwestern US. Coyote of course comes to mind: "The Native American Creator / Trickster God of Chaos and Change. The warmth of doeskin, dry plains grasses and soft, dusty woods warmed by amber and a downy, gentle coat of deep musk." I'm a little afraid of the musk, though... ordinary commercial-perfume musk is very off-putting to me, but perhaps the Lab's musk would work better for me. I am sure it is nicer, at any rate. I intend to give it an imp's worth of a chance to prove itself to me... Are there any others that have that southwest desert feeling... a sage/sweetgrass smudgy type of smell... without being floral? Some of the Mexican ones sound very close, but have florals in them, which I have tried to like... but so far have failed. The only flower that gets along with my chemistry is lavender.

The prior reviews for Rakshasa confuse me as some people say they get almost all rose out of it, and others get almost all sandalwood/patchouli. I was hoping for the latter, but it's straight-up rose on me. Even the next day, pressing my nose to my wrist, all I get is rose. But it's a really beautiful rose with a lot of depth. I like it very much. Maybe with aging, I'll get more of the sandalwood and patchouli out of it. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy it as it is, and I might even get a bottle of it.

On me, The Lion is what the most of the above reviews say... warm, spicy amber. Wet and during dry-down, the spiciness is forefront on me. I didn't get specifically cinnamon or cloves or ginger out of it, but more an impression of warm spice backed by the sweetness of the amber. Once that had faded down a bit, the amber came to the fore. It's a very nice, mellow amber, and as far as I could tell it doesn't have a lot of throw (but that could be because I used only a couple dabs). After a few hours, I could also detect the warm grassy notes. The last note to fade was a faint, faint musk. Considering my past experiences with musk, I was surprised to realize I didn't mind it... probably because it was indeed very faint. I had a co-worker a few years ago that adored amber; she walked around in a cloud of it that almost seemed to have a physical presence. It had massive throw. You could smell her from several feet away, and she left scent-trails everywhere she went. I think she fell prey to the thing where your nose gets used to the scent that you put on, so you think it's faded and you put on more, but to everyone else it's now double- or triple-strength -- you know what I mean? Having learned from her mistake, I've always been careful not to add more scent during the day when I'm around other people, even if I think it's faded to obscurity. Hers was a single note, not a blend, which may have been a contributing factor. It's just a theory, but I'm thinking single notes are more prone to disappearing to your own nose. Anyway, I had liked amber but her overkill of it made me go off it for some years. The sheer strength of hers made it harsh and unpleasant. Fortunately my experience with The Lion has made me enjoy amber again. I don't think it will become a signature scent for me, but I'll definitely use it again when I want that warm spiciness.

I love patchouli, but I have a gold standard with it. Years ago I had a sample vial of single-note patchouli. I wish I could remember what brand. It was perfect: smooth, heady, beautiful. A tiny dab went a long way. When I could no longer get even a tiny smear of oil out of the vial, I was so sad. And I've never found a patchouli that quite lived up to it. So, Goblin. Goblin goes on smelling like when you open a fresh bag of damp wood mulch and start spreading it around. It's all up in my nose kicking and punching and making me want to sneeze. Then it settles down a bit and a nutty smell starts coming out. I know it's black coconut, but I swear it's just like hazelnuts, the kind you get in the shell and crack for yourself. This blends nicely with the wood smell. As it dries down it gets sweeter and creamier, probably the benzoin tying it all together. Every now and then it almost becomes coconut tanning lotion, but then it goes all nutty and creamy again. Like it knows I won't stand for Coppertone but it wants to tease me with that sly hint. It's all very entertaining, but.... *Ben Kenobi voice* "This is not the patchouli you're looking for." HOWEVER. After it's been on for several hours, and the woody-nutty stuff dies away, it transforms into the perfect patchouli! Deep and smooth and beautiful. I have high hopes for it, after it has aged a bit. Even goblins mellow out with age.

I wanted to love this... but I just didn't. I hoped for something soft and warm and dry, and instead it went sharpish on me, kind of acrid. Must be my body's chemistry. Bastet didn't do this, thankfully. My SO wrinkled his nose and said, "Chemically." Then he allowed that he could make out a bit of sage in it. Too bad it wasn't more sagey and deserty on me. As it never mellowed into something I liked, it will be passed on to someone else.

Oh, WOW. This is amazing! It's my new favorite. The cocoa scent is rich and smooth. There's something very slightly sweet and fruity in there, but it's also warm and spicy. There is a quality to it like nutmeg. Not that it smells of nutmeg, but I get the same kind of euphoric rush with the 400 rabbits that I get from sticking my nose in the nutmeg jar... x 400 Later: oddly, this isn't morphing on me. It's still the same rich, spicy, warm, slightly sweet goodness. Also, I never got coffee from it like some people did. Definitely a big bottle!

Not just chocolate, but melted chocolate. Melted baker's chocolate, in a double boiler on the stove, getting ready to drizzle it over double chocolate chip cookies, because you can never have too much theobromine in your system. Melted melted melted chocolate. I am going to wear this when I go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and see if anyone seated around me thinks the film is in Smell-o-Vision.

The lavender in this is very nice. I put it on my wrists when I went to bed, and lay awake reading for awhile as per my usual nighttime routine. Quietude was there, soothing and soft. Now and then I'd sniff my wrist for a stronger hit of lavender. About a half hour later, it turned to soap. Ivory soap, to be specific... like my wrists had turned into blocks of "so pure it floats!" Which is not unpleasant, but also not soothing lavender. It could be my body chemistry, so I will try it in a candle diffuser before passing it on.

I got this in a swap, and it arrived yesterday. I don't have to repeat the obvious, but yes, it smells exactly like gingerbread or ginger snaps. I almost went out to get ginger snaps, through the power of suggestion. So I put some on this morning while my boy and I are sitting at our respective computers. The gingerbread smell was fairly strong, though I hadn't put much on. I wasn't really thinking much about it though. Later we went to lunch so I scrubbed it off, as I don't think ginger and molasses really go with falafel. Somewhat later, in a conversation I mentioned that I had tried the Gingerbread Poppet this morning. My boy's reaction was classic (and it's the reason for this so far pointless review): "OH! That's what that smell was! I kept thinking, 'Did she buy cookies and is hiding them from me? Why is she being so selfish?' " He also said it made him really hungry. I'm still chuckling over him thinking I was hoarding cookies and eating them on the sly. Such is the power of Gingerbread Poppet!

Tombstone sounds really interesting (having just read the reviews). Not quite what I had in mind, but I'm going to try an imp. The reviews of Scarecrow started out sounded very attractive -- green, hay and straw, dry earth -- then in later reviews people are talking acetone nail polish remover. Scary indeed. I wonder if the formula changed. Or if the power of suggestion is at work here -- one person mentions nail polish and others begin to smell it. That happened to me with Velvet, when I read someone's Play-doh reaction to it... suddenly the sandalwoody chocolatey vanilla-y on my wrist turned to Play-doh in an instant. I was transported back to childhood and my mom telling me for the hundredth time not to eat the Play-doh. The sense of smell is such an odd thing... the way it's tied in with memory, the way suggestion can morph a scent... The way I occasionally hallucinate a scent that by all rights should not be there at all. Now and then I smell my grandfather. I don't know exactly what the scent is --old man, the outdoors, the trees and plants he cared for (he ran a tree nursery), the smell of his breath. And on occasion I've smelt my friend Jolon, who passed away a few years ago. She always had the scent of tea roses hanging about her. I don't have any rose scented products in my home, but sometimes I catch a whiff of tea rose anyway. I wonder if she is there in spirit form, checking up on me. This got sidetracked, didn't it? But it all sort of relates. The desert scent I'm trying to find is the memory-scent of sunrise, standing on the cliffs above Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. The wind comes up out of the canyon, bringing with it the freshness of the trees and little stream at the bottom. Closer at hand, the gnarled pinon trees and junipers cast out their dry scent, which mingles with the grasses, sage and the other herbs around me. The light is golden on the warm stone, shadows cast by the rocks are deep purple; as the sun rises in the sky, the shadows don't pale so much as simply sink into the ground. Crows caw in the distance. It feels deeply sacred, peaceful and yet very alive at the same time. It also feels, oddly, like I am home. That's what I want, bottled... kind of silly, I guess. I'll keep looking. And I'm ordering Coyote for sure, and will use the power of suggestion to overcome my fear of musk.

Many thanks to all of you! *runs off to read reviews of all above-mentioned scents*

I love sandalwood, but it has to be the right sandalwood, you know? I am not expert enough to know what the differences are, but I know there are some sandalwoods that are warm and smooth, and others that are more rough, like sawdust up your nose. The sandalwood in Velvet is one of the warm, smooth, deliciously woody ones. In the vial the bitterness of the cocoa is strong. Once I put it on, mmmm sandalwood. I can detect the myrrh, which is warm and spicy but slightly bitter, balanced by a touch of vanilla sweetness. As it dries down, these back off and the cocoa comes out again. From there on, Velvet stays very balanced on me. My boy loves it too. I hope this is never discontinued.

Danke! Especially linking to the specific Mi-Go post... above and beyond the call!

Does anyone have photos of LEs? I'm especially curious what the MiGo Brain Cannisters look like... is there really a bitty brain inside?

The first scent my lover and I have agreed on. He thinks he doesn't like patchouli -- and I wisely didn't mention what the blend is. Though truthfully, on me the cedar-like scent came out to the fore, while the patchouli quickly faded. Is the cedar-like scent the vetiver? I'm not familiar with vetiver... May 31st update: a couple of times since, Malediction has morphed into lemony citrus... not a Lemon Pledge scent, but like when you're zesting a really fresh lemon for a poppyseed cake. Not that it's sweet or foody at all. Lemon zest, bright and tart, under the woody darkness. I am fascinated how the same scent can be so different at different times of the month. June 13 update: From what others have said, it's the vetiver that goes lemony. I really like this scent and have started trying it layered with others... today, layered over Snake Oil, it cuts the sweetness down quite a lot and makes for a more complex scent... the patchouli comes out more also. Interesting.

After reading through these reviews, I'll definitely give it another try, in a week or so. But my initial reaction is ambivalent. I like the spiciness. I honestly don't detect much vanilla at all (leading me to doubt my nose!) After an hour or so, the most prominent scent I detected was amber. Hardly anyone here has mentioned amber, but that's what I'm getting from it... May 31st update: Have tried Snake Oil again a couple of times, and it is growing on me. The spiciness is lovely. I'm now getting the sweetness of the vanilla, too. This isn't an instant love like Velvet was for me, more like an aquired taste for something exotic and piquant.