zankoku_zen

Chestnut and rice flower! It actually would complement the Castitas bath oil pretty well (with some chestnut thrown in). Overall, it ends up smelling faintly reminiscent to caramel. Definitely sweet.

WISTERIA ATTACK! I get wisteria, lilac and lavender. If you can handle wisteria, this is a nice, floral blend. Very spring like. Unfortunately, wisteria loves my skin, and I don't love wisteria. At all.

Amber, hint of metal that ends up going soapy on me, vanilla and some musk. Overall, full of FAIL!

Authority - Creativity - Courage - Leadership - Abundance - Good Health & Healing - Illumination - Truth - Honesty - Wise Counsel - Prophecy - Pride - Revelation - Equilibrium - Mediation - Nobility - Generosity This definitely has orange, and I want to say sweet orange as it has the same orange Pez quality I've encountered in other blends. When it dries, I get a hit of sweet clove, but its more of a cinnamon blend. There's a slight orange flower overlay to this.

Oh SNAP! So normally, my skin totally eats citrus. It's like a giant NOM festival. This one is actually a bright, juicy tangerine that stays, and is this possible? grows larger and even more fierce as it dries. This is totally abetted by White Musk SN. And it ends up smelling like a cool citrusy orange creamsicle. I get a tiny tiny hint of cypress, which to me makes sure that this blend doesn't end up in ubersweet territory. I think I need a bottle. Like YESTERDAY.

So I get this blast of lime on wet, with a hint of chocolate. And it dries to chocolate + florally lime thing that I'm not entirely sure what to do with. Odd.

Originally posted this in the Naiad thread under Discontinueds. Tried the cobwebs proto, Naiad v4, and I feel like the lotus is more of the lotus flower, as I don't get the bubblegum to it. There might be either ginger/ginger flower in this. Def. can smell the lavender and its sweet and mildly aquatic. I like this one much more than the original! My skin eats this up though!

This is a very 'dark' 13 - I smell cocoa mainly, incense and a hint of greenery. On wet, I could smell the prune more, but as it dries, I definitely get a slight whiff of tobacco and flowers. Interesting, but a little too intense for my liking.

Bright, juicy tart cranberries and red currant. Slight green herbs, bright, citrusy. On wet, I would get occasional stabs of the cedar, which smelled like pencils, but it smooths out to a woody base underneath the citrus. I find this very well blended - fresh, yet sophisticated. The woods are a little too much for me on the drydown, but pretty nonetheless.

This one starts out with a strong lemon citrus blast with a 'green' plant-like component. As it dries, it definitely is more 'plant', and ultimately on my skin dries to almost a lemon powder. :/

Lots of honey, and combined with the vanilla and cognac, it smells like a boozey caramel. More delicate than the BPAL caramel blends, but very much in that vein. Sweeter than I would have liked. Pass.

On me this ends up more rose than rose geranium, and the combination makes it smell like dryer sheets. Made.of.fail

Original Black Lily proto, from the forum raffle. This time its much more creamy and benign. No pepper. Just cream, dark orchid with a hint of dirt. Pretty, simple, sophisticated. Sort of like the little black dress. In fact, that would work with the LBD and pearls.

Released Version. Hmmm. Not sure about this one. It's less fruity than the proto, still a creamy white floral. I think there's more incense in this.

I hit a giant hit of lime from this, and a good bit of mandarin on wet. I love that. However, it dries to a zesty, slightly citrusy gardenia + white musk blend. Pretty, slightly effervescent, but the gardenia kind of stabs my nose repeatedly. Oh skin chemistry. You are made of lose, today. ETA: Second test. Again, giant hit of lime/mandarin. As it dries, more of the blackberry comes out. On the drydown, it's a mix of blackberry and gardenia, but its kind of soapy. Again, skin chemistry, you are made of lose.

Okay... so I totally got some leather out of this. And by some, I mean quite a goodly amount. It's got some dry patchouli/woods thing going on, but underneath is what I tend to associate with the black leather from DeSade, an almost harsh chemical overlay to it. This, to me, smells very much like walking into a Wilson's Leather store. Skin chemistry for the lose.

I was oddly and pleasantly surprised by this blend. It's a fruity, soft feminine amber blend. On wet, I definitely get more of the mandarin and peach on wet. But it dries to a slightly more floral, less fruit amber. Very pretty, very delicate, ultra feminine. Hmm. I like it better than I thought I would.

Powdery floral honey dries down to a honey/pepper sandalwood blend. If the pepper hadn't shown up at the end, I think I would probably think more favorably of this blend. Unfortunately.... I can't.

This one is very odd to me. It's anise and pink white flowers. There's a hint of vanilla to it, which makes the overall blend seem like a kissing cousin to Humbug. I find this more wearable to Humbug, and for those of you out there that like Absinthe and anise, this is definitely one to try.

This makes me think of a more limey Nivea Cream. Lime, white florals, in particularly white musk and roses. Feminine, light and pretty.

Definitely strong in the balsam, juniper and patchouli. It's a resinous blend, masculine, smooth and I find that I get more frankincense on the drydown. Not my type of blend and after four hours, it is nearly gone.

2009 version. Butterscotch plastic. Made.of.fail. This must have BPAL's cream note as a component. BOOOOO.

This one was a smoky resinous blend, spicy and resin-woody. I think there's some balsam and maybe some sandalwood. Meh.

Oh, Cthulu. You are an odd one indeed. On wet, it smells like dark planty cocoa... and dries to plastic graham cookie chocolate water. ... Yeah. Just... odd.

So on wet there is definitely PINE and a slight orange twist to it. The orange goes sour so it makes the pine smell off, but it dries to a rather masculine delicious clove. Mmm. I have found I tend to enjoy my clove when it is mixed with other things, or it ends up to masculine on me.