moukin

Cough syrup....nothing but cough syrup on me.

Verdandi in the bottle and wet on skin: hmm...reminds me of The Apothecary. Perhaps they share some of the same herbs. Verdandi has the apple in it, though so I get a hint of the fruity smell, but not as much as I was expecting. There's something warm and soft in the background...the amber, I'd say. Mostly, it gives me that same feeling as Apothecary...a cool, damp, sweet smell. Light and refreshing. As it warms and dries on my skin, the apple starts to come out more. A few minutes later, it's reminding me a bit of Akuma. Fruity and tart. The fruit notes in Akuma have a tendency to smell artificial on me...and sadly so is this... After about 20 minutes: oh! There's the amber...just a bit. It softens the apple into more of a dried apple, instead of fresh juicy apple. Overall, this seems very pretty and feminine to me. Fresh and sweet. Not too sweet and not too tart. Just the right touch of softness.

Arcana - In the bottle: Hmm...light and herbal, citrusy and a bit astringent. Wet, immediately on skin: ACK! This smells like lemon cough drops! Hmm...thankfully it doesn't smell TOO medicinal for too long. A few minutes later, it is still lemony but not as much in a bad way. I smell the lavendar and other herbs, and they're making me feel very calm and a bit sleepy. I've been known to be VERY sensitive to the drowsy effects of lavendar, so I'm thinking this one can't be a daytime scent at least...maybe I shouldn't have tested this one right before work. About 15 or so minutes later: Oooh...wow, the frankincense is starting to really tone down the lemon. Lemon and citrus in scents tend to make me think of household cleaners (and/or cough drops apparantly), so the frankincense coming out is a very good thing. It seems like the frankincense and the rosemary are taking over the most. I barely smell lemon anymore...and this is starting to remind me of another scent I tested recently, but I can't quite remember... Oh! Anne Bonny! This reminds me of Anne Bonny once it had completely dried on me. That sort of spicy/salty/herby/woody smell. *looks up Anne Bonny notes* It's the frankincense, I guess. And it's definitely not exactly the same, just reminded me of it a bit. It's dry on my skin, and it smells dry...the frankincense tends to make things smell a bit dry and woody whenever I smell it in a blend. But now, I can smell all the components if I try to. They blend very nicely and it's a soft, soothing scent. It smells very old...like dry, old books and herbs. Very suiting to its name. I can't decide if I'll keep this one or not, but I do like it. I think I want to try this on my fiance, too.

Mmmmm! Dragon's blood and cinnamon! I also smell the other spices, the pepper seems to add some extra bite. The spices in this seemed to really pair well with the dragon's blood. Dragon's blood smells floral after a while on both me and my fiance and the spices really kept it more true. My fiance is coveting the little imp I got of it, so I think I'll have to get him a bottle.

I'm still experimenting with florals to see what I like and don't like. I'm not a very floral person generally, but I think I'll learn to like florals in some of these blends. I seem to like florals best when they are darkened and sweetened, like in Kali. (dark chocolate, wine, honey, and balsam are the notes aside from the florals) All that said, when I opened Dragon's Eye and dabbed a bit on, I had to wash it off immediately. Dragon's Blood often tends to seem a bit floral to me and I guess paired with the actual florals, it was just too much. I think if I had worn it long, I would have gotten a headache from it. I bet it's a lovely scent for many people, though.

This reminded me of Zombi but with wine and spice instead of dried rose. The earth/dirt smell was overpowering at first, but then the spices came through and evened things out a bit. My fiance seems to like how it ends up on his skin, but doesn't think he really wants a 5ml. I wonder how this would burn in an oil burner? On his skin, the wines went away depressingly fast. I imagine they'd stick around better if we burned it. Will have to experiment with that.

I think the dragon's blood overpowers this scent. In the bottle, I can sort of smell the sharpness of the leather in there somewhere. On my skin the dragon's blood just took over everything.

This is a rather wonderful scent! It's amazing how well the feeling of earth and decay and burial are captured in this scent. On me at first, the very deep, damp earthiness of it is a bit overwhelming, but the rose gradually starts to take over. After all is said and done, the dried rose is the only thing left on me. It's such an interesting scent, but after trying this and Nosferatu, I think I should stay away from scents that smell so much like real dirt/earth. It's not that I think it's a bad smell at all, just that I can't be too sure if I want to smell like it on purpose. Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way and ought to try these as room scents.

Oh no! I got an imp of this from someone in the LJ community and I'm in love! It's very spicy and woody and sweet. At first, it smells a bit too appleish for my tastes, but the apple dies out a bit and then it just smells wonderful on me. It definitely evokes images of crunching through dry leaves in October and smelling fresh baked autumn treats. What a wonderful scent!

When I sniffed this in the imp, it smelled very watery and fresh! The dragon's blood is present througout, but it smells like dragon's blood swirling in fresh clean water. I put this on after I showered. I work in gardens all day so I get very hot and sweaty and dirty. This was the perfect after shower scent. Fresh and clean and wet. Eventually it dries down to slightly flowery/powdery on me, but not really in a bad way at all. It's very pleasant.

I nabbed an imp of this from someone on the LJ community. I really wanted to try this before buying some because my fiance and I intend to use this as an altar scent. In the bottle, the almond smell tends to override everything, but I love almond, so I forgive it. Since we don't plan to use this on skin, I started out by adding a drop or two onto a seashell and setting it on the altar. I was basically just looking for a solid object that would partially absorb the scent and hold it for a while. I wanted to see how it would change on something solid like that. The almond dies down and this oil becomes a very pleasant incensy ambery musky smell. I love all the notes in this blend and they go together wonderfully. The next test was to burn a couple drops in an oil burner. Just a couple of drops seems to have great lasting power and the oil just smells divine when it burns. It's soft and powdery, musky, and warm. If I try to, I can pick out pretty much all of the notes separately, but they blend together so well into one scent. I think this blend is quite perfect for our dear Bast.

Mmm.. Very yummy scent. Definitely very fall. I was hoping to find something to replace a long lost scent that I used to buy from the KC Renfest. It was called All Hallow's Eve and also smelled spicy and autumny. Sadly, this one seems just a bit too sweet to use as a replacement. Aside from that, it's a very pleasant pumpkin pie and spices smell. I think it would tend to work better as a room scent than a skin scent because it smells a bit candle-ish to me.

The first time I tried this, the florals seemed to come out too much, but I didn't get to wear it for long because I had to slather myself in sunscreen for work. I tried it again today and it didn't change a whole lot from the way it smells in the bottle. In the bottle, the blackberry smell is very rich and juicy and definitely the primary smell. On me, the florals come out and the berry dies down so that each note seems to express itself equally. A very pleasant scent all around, just not one that really suits me. It generally reminds me of a lazy summery day. Quite nice.

A truly fae nectar! Dragon's blood resin and honeyed vanilla. In the bottle and as soon as I put it on, it smells sickly sweet. I immediately want cookies and then I almost don't because the sweet is suddenly dizzying. It's dizzying, but I'm almost happy that it is. Goosebumps. Thankfully, it dies down some and now it smells sweet and warm with the dragon's blood somehow adding a tart feeling behind it. It's subtle...most of it is sweet vanilla, but the dragon's blood gives it the tiniest bit of an edge. It's heavenly. I want to just sit around sniffing my arm and purring. A while later, and it seems like the dragon's blood and the sweeter parts of this scent are battling it out for who will be dominant. Funny thing is, I'm not sure I care who wins. If it's vanilla with a hint of dragon's blood, it'll be great. If it's dragon's blood with a hint of vanilla, it'll still be wonderful. So, I'm happy all around. I get the feeling this battle might last a good long while and that's part of what makes this scent a fun one.

In the bottle, it smells light and almost floral. After wearing it, it dries down and gets this light, dusty feel to it. I really can envision a dusty tomb full of dragon's bones, with some dried flowers somewhere in there. All of it has this vaguely magical feel to it...but it feels like the magic was there a long time ago and has faded. A rememberance of something old and noble and powerful. I love Dragon's Blood and this is a pleasant blend that brings up some interesting images to mind.

This went baby powder on me very quickly as well. I don't expect it to change much from that, but I'll edit if it does.

This is a lovely scent, really. It's spicy and sweet. But in the end, it smells too much like an incense shop on me and stays that way a little too long. The honey calms that down after several hours on me, but that's a long time to wait. A pleasant smell, but not one I'm likely to buy a big bottle of.

In the bottle, it smells sooo rich and intoxicating...with a bit of a sharp sting in there somewhere. All the smells are apparant, but especially the wine/honey/tobacco mix. On me, wet....definitely rich and sweet. The honey and wine are strong. I can smell the florals behind, but not very strongly....I think it's because the florals are of the darker, richer type. At this point, I was quite nervous that those florals would go too light and girly on me. Drydown, the honey is staying there, much to my happiness. The florals start to come through a bit more, but they're still dark and rich and quite pleasant to me. It's been about an hour, and this may morph on me a bit in a couple more hours...but I absolutely LOVE this fragrance overall. The slight stinging darkness I can smell in the bottle dies off and gives way to the honey/wine sweetness that stays. I'm VERY tempted to order a 5ml of this. Later: I love this scent in every phase. It's dark and rich and makes me feel very sexy.

VERY almondy in the bottle. I love almond smell, so this wasn't a bad thing for me. After putting it on, the almond faded to the background very quickly and then it smelled musky and smoky for a while, with the underlying sweetness of the almond. I think it's pretty much in its last stage on my skin an hour later, it's still a bit musky and smoky....but mostly powdery. It keeps making me think of baby powder, even though it smells a bit darker than that because of the musk. I'm sad that it went to baby powder smell on me. When I picked my fiance up from work, he told me I "reek of baby". Guess this one just isn't for me.