zankoku_zen

Thanks to Invidiana for a sniffie of this! To me, In Reilig Oran is the Host of Air's big brother. Dirtier, greener, and it has an aquatic note that toggles between salt and fresh water. It is both dark and light, fragrantly green and with a touch of masculine air to it. I think the green either comes from dandelion or heather. I like Host of Air, so I like this. I'd love to try this out on mr. zee_zee but given the rarity, I rather not chance it working out on him.

Ah, and again, I don't think BPAL citrus notes fare all that well, and Pink Grapefruit to me is no exception. On wet, it's got a horrible lacquer/varnish smell that is absolutely horrible. As it dries, it becomes more of the bitter pith of a grapefruit, and if I sniff about an inch or two away from where I applied it, I can sort of smell the grapefruit. If my nose is closer however, it smells horribly bitter and fake and like b.o. Epic. Fail.

Apricot to me smells more like baked apricot with a good dash of cinnamon on top. It has a 'baked' quality, warm, sugary.

This to me is the smell of childhood - it is artificial strawberry - the kind you get in candies, Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Not quite real, but almost real. Sweet, sugary, innocent. Dude. It really does smell like a Strawberry Shortcake doll.

White musk, ambergris and powdery violet. It smells sharp, aquatic and whitely floral. Sort of like soap. Meh.

Out of all of the honeys so far, this is the one I found most wearable. It's got honey, dark greenery but something that smells almost spicy/smoky. Very sexy. It's got the same vibe as Gun Moll and Voodoo Queen (no components that are truly alike), but more in the feel of it. Dark, mysterious, womanly, deadly. Not to be trifled with.

Vrishka is very pretty - its got honeyed apple, and something green/floral. I definitely amp up the honey. Very spring like, very pretty.

it starts out as green, milky dandelion plant and stems. Unfortunately it does not stay that way and eventually turns soapy and then disappears from my skin.

Rosewood definitely skews toward the rose end of things. Rose, warm and slightly woody grounding it.

Creamy cedar smell, almost peppery wood. Light citrus swirl. This is a very nice sandalwood/incensey smell. ETA: From the bottle, definitely a much more cedary sandalwood. On wet, I get a citrus/lemony. Smooth.

Oats, tonka, brown sugar, hay. And a bit of nuts. In the end, it smells like breakfast in an old farmhouse barn. There's something very 'outside' in this blend - and I think its the hay. Definitely one of the stranger BPALs.

Heavy bitter plantiness - I actually get a whiff of coconut from it and honey. It makes me think of sticky suntan lotion.

Soap. and just the barest hint of blood and vetiver. It's a very masculine, clean scent. Oddly enough, it smells like Ivory soap.

This one has the same orange note as Orange Phoenix. It's a super blast of orange on wet, but fades quickly. I am left with a slight orange blossom note, sandalwood (with slight powderiness), resins. It's a warm, sensual blend. I can see it fitting in well with the Shungas.

Light floral - I have a swirl of what I'd call fairy like notes a la Floating Market and Fairy Market - that sort of sugary incense vibe. I think this has a brush of lilies in it.

Herbal lavender and a hint of cool cinnamon. Very interesting. Pleasant, but not noteworthy for me.

Sweet vanilla florals and honeysuckle. Way too sweet for me, but I can see why this is so popular. It's like the sweetness of TKO without the lavender - the same plushy creamy vanilla.

Black Widow doesn't work for me because of the jasmine. On wet, I get a splash of red wine but it is quicky overpowered by cat pee jasmine. Holy crap, does this sucker have throw! When it dries down, after about three hours, it is a soft sandalwood, again with the red wine and a hint of rose. I can't handle the three hours it takes to get there, but if your skin chemistry can handle jasmine, this could be a killer femme fatale scent.

Decant labeled “Experimental Blend (minty)" - dark brownish-red in the vial. Faint trace of mint, especially on wet and it dries to a mix of Snake Oil, a giant hit of vanilla and dragon's blood. There is a weird stage where it smells slighty plasticky, but that could either be the SO or the vanilla on me. Previously reviewed by Shollin Decant labeled "Experimental Blend (unknown)" - again, dark brown in the vial. For me, again Snake Oil, vanilla and some orange blossom/neroli --- definitely citrus--- that was very prominent wet. Dried to a rich, vanilla musk. Unfortunately my skin totally ate it.

Orange blossom, white musk. Very aquatic. I wouldn't be surprised it this also had neroli in it. Salty, it does remind me of the ocean, salt and mermaids. Slightly sweet, slightly soapy.

Saturn smells very much like Capricorn 2004. Dirt, woods, cedar and vetiver. Masculine, smoky, dirty.

Dark lavender and black currant jam. Its slightly spicy, slightly resinous. Dark, somber, sober.

Ylang ylang, cherry and something else. The ylang ylang smells like moon lit jasmine, but it's not. It's very floral, very silvery and otherworldly in feeling.

Maybe it's my skin chemistry and BPAL's fruit SN, but I found Fig SN to be more about a fig perfume than a straight up fig. Again, on wet it smelled more like fig skin, slightly fragrant figgy but much fruitier in comparison to the D'Anjou Pear. After it dries, it smells slightly sweeter - but it ultimately dries to a powdery, darker figgy floral. Uhhh. Huzzah for not wanting more SNs?

Again, time does a disservice to the fruit SNs. I found it on wet to be more like the skin of a pear, slightly fragrant, pear-ish. As it dried, it smelled more like pear blossom on my skin. After about an hour, it's more like a canned pear, it has an almost syrupy note, almost musky. Definitely more like pear perfume than straight up fresh pear.