northatlantic

Sniff from the bottle: sharp, grassy fig and berry. Promising! Wet: GAH VINEGAR. GAH GAH GAH. How can the lab's whiskey note be so delicious on me and the cognac so, so wrong? Maybe it's the combo of the cognac and the leather, or the cognac and the fruit? But wow, it is very sour and unpleasant. NOT happy. I can smell red berries beneath this, but it's far below and faintly cough-syrupy. No cream or paper in evidence; it's buried beneath the Attack of the Killer Cognac. Drydown: Okay, it took almost a half hour, but now I get green fig over a base of berries and cream with a little bit of the spicy-cola note that Beth's leather usually turns into on me. THIS is great, a really interesting combination of tart, sweet and earthy. But that first half hour is NOT pretty with my chemistry. Another one that I think needs some time to mellow before it achieves its potential. Verdict: Promise that may take some time to fully realize.

Peach blossom and amber with almond cream and sweet musk. Sniff from the bottle: sweet musk veeeery much forward with generic floral undertone; smells ominously like nail polish remover. Please, don't let me amp that musk... Wet: The nail-polishy scent warms into a more pleasant white floral; I have never smelled a peach blossom, but I get the fruity undertone of peach blended with a bright springlike floral. The musk drifts above it definitely Up Front and Here To Be Counted. I can't tell if it's the amber swamping the almond, or the almond blurring the amber, but it has kind of a generically non-foody-but-sweet quality on me. There's nothing offensive here, but it's kind of a jangle to my nose. Drydown: Better. As the musk burns off, the light floral is still present over a golden creaminess. I think I might cellar this one for a while in the hopes of mellowing out that sweet musk, see if it plays more nicely with its friends. I think on someone who doesn't amp musk, it would be a lovely soft skin scent, but with the amber AND the almond AND the musk, on me it doesn't reach its full potential. Verdict: more pros than cons. Age and test again.

First sniff of bottle: Sweet Tarts on steroids. Have I made a terrible mistake? I don't care for candy scents. Wet on skin: Opens with heady champaca and ambergris; as it warms, the sweetness of the sugar cane comes out more, gentling and blending the scent over a base of the beachy kind of coconut that grounds Black Pearl. It clings fairly close to the skin and it's beautifully balanced; the aquatic quality of the ambergris cuts through the sugar cane to keep it from going cloying, and the coconut gives the champaca a roundness, a fullness that keeps it from going strident and sharp on me the way white florals sometimes do. Drydown: soft and unexpectedly clean for a scent so lush when wet; there's some powderiness from the coconut and probably ambrette but it's a light and sweet baby-powder, not an eau-d'old lady powdery. Love. Keeper. If I could wear frag during the week (I work in healthcare so perfume's verboten) I would get a backup bottle.

What came immediately to mind from the GC were Robotic Scarab or Obsidian Widow from Steamworks (for the clever little creatures), Marquise de Mertueil from Diabolus (pride and hauteur, powerfully female), and Black Opal from Bewitching Brews (dark and sensual but unreal all at once.)

Have Aziraphale, and raise your hedge to a "yes."

Mag Mell is a bright and active happy, and Bastet is a curled-up-warm and cozy happy.

EXTREMELY sharp and soapy at first, it dries down pale and luminous and warm, the white amber definitely dominating for me, but by the time it gets to that stage (about a half hour) it's almost undetectable. I like it, but it's far too fleeting for a bottle.

The almond and amber are at the forefront of Miss Lupescu for me and it starts out similar to Bastet, but then the musk comes out and it's the same one that ruined Bakeneko and Ivanushka it goes all plastic. I'll stick to Bastet for my sweet warm golden furry scent. Elliott, however, LOVES Miss Lupescu. He was trying to drink it out of the imp. So animalic it must be

I don't know if it's white sage specifically, but Mag Mell isn't floral, it's amber and aquatics, as opposed to 93 Engine's amber and resins. It's very fresh and grassy.

My favorite berry scents are both herbal, Glasgow and Bewitched, although the musk in Bewitched softens it considerably. You might also consider Lampades, although that's cranberry and not blackberry, I remember thinking it had a similar feeling to Bordello.

Danube. You want Danube.

Scents with "skin musk" are usually winners for me; my favorites are LE (Vasakasajja and Tamamo-No-Mae) but there's a lot of popular faves in the GC with it including Eos, Les Bijoux, La Petite Mort and Bien Loin D'ici. Something about that scent of clean warm skin does it for me.

Hmm; from the GC, maybe Ultraviolet, Niflheim, or Black Forest, and if you can get your hands on them the LEs Black Ice and Numb. Hmm. Bewitched, Phantom Queen, Mag Mell and Rosalind from the GC are all quiet and freshly green/herbal, something a quiet and nature-loving person might enjoy. The Rappacini's Garden scents in general might be a good category to explore too. None of these are dirt scents, though, if that's something you feel would be a component; that might have to come from another recc'er No recs on the cosplay one, sorry! Hmmm. Strong apples and fermentation; The Mock Turtle's Lessons. But on me, it was more than a "hint" of fermentation, it would probably get me a breathalyzer if I got pulled over! but someone whose chemistry didn't amp alcohol notes would probably have better luck. Verdandi might be worth trying out too, I get a kind of hard-cider vibe from that, crisp but not QUITE boozy.

I cannae speak directly to morning sickness, having never had, but during a bout of stomach flu a TEENSY bit of Bezoar was comforting (I feel like I am pimping this scent EVERYWHERE, but it really did work...) Ginger and cardamom are supposed to be good for queasiness along with citrus and mint, so spice blends might be OK in really limited quantities not to overwhelm?

In the vial: WHOAclove. Wet on skin: WHOAclove. And dirt! Thin, stony soil. The smell of a clove cigarette being ground out on a graveyard drive. Drydown: Continues to be dirt and clove. No tea, no cardamom, no warmth, no subtlety. Undead craft store. Apparently, even the most rich and subtle of patchouli hates me, and without something to soften and mellow it, the clove curb-stomps all the other notes. Miss Clemence, I'm afraid you and I aren't fated to be. As described, you're a woman of cruel pleasures--too cruel for me.