zankoku_zen

Heady plum, with a base of wood (its the cypress!) and dark greenery (hemlock, is that you). This one is a very 'heavy' blend, which makes it a very good incarnation of lead. The wood and dark greenery again give it a 'darker' edge.

This smells like a green, rooty sort of scent. Definitely on the drydown I can smell the coriander.

This falls somewhere between 04 and 07 in my mind. Not as much cucumber on wet, but not as floral as 07. Definitely florals, and on the drydown the blue musk comes out.

Cherry pie, sugar and butter. Loads of butter. But that's just my skin chemistry.

Lemon, yuzu leads to a citrus blast at the beginning, and its very effervescent it shares that in common with Ackerman's Toys. However, as it dries, I get more of the evil jasmine smell. Ew. Definitely a bright, shining scent though. I liked the wet stage the best.

Oh, you are such an odd blend, Adoration. I get this limey fizzy pop on wet, and a cool aquatic with a strong lichen/moss/linen note. There's an almost fruity undertone to it. This makes me think of finding a cave by the a river. Cool stone, fresh water and a strong green moss presence. On the drydown it goes a little 'toilet' cleanser on me, which is sad... but perhaps the hubby would like to give this a whirl...

Oh yum. This one was nicer than I anticipated. Red musk can be so overpowering on me and plum can turn very cloying. This one is a nice, sweet musky plum with a drizzle of chocolate. I can smell the ginger and it keeps everything from being too much. Definitely Bordello's grown up sister. You know the kind. Mature, sophisticated, confident, and ready to take what she wants and is completely unapologetic about it. In fact, you look at her and think DAMN, I wanna be like HER when I grow up... Not my style at all, but seriously considering keeping the decant... ETA: This is for the prototype. Not so much red musk, and more of the plum and a hint of booze. It dries down to a boozey, grape candylike scent on me. More like Countess Willie hit both the sugar bowl AND the liqour cabinet a little too hard this evening. Not sexy, just sort of a plummy version of Jailbait.

This one is a bright, icy narcissus. I get a lot of minty snow on wet, but as it dries the snow gets sweeter and then the narcissus pops up. Soft, feminine, floral.

Honey honey honey. It's got a little zip of lemon and underneath a nice base of cardamom. Warm, sexy, and honeylicious. I'm not a huge fan of honey since it amps up on me but this one was nice, soft, and just... well, like a light smear of honey.

Vanilla smoke, with a hint of ginger and clove. It's not unpleasant, but not the kind of vanilla I'm attracted to. Damn.

Soft brown musk and powdery amber with a hint of rose. Soft, musky, and kinda comforting actually.

Wintergreen and animal musk. It dries to a nice, furry scent. In some ways, it reminds me to Papow. Except, less sunshine and more cold winter. It's a little soapy on the drydown.

Minty mums. The mums are dried, dusty, slightly woody bitter mums. Meh.

Pine! Snow! Dirt! This has the same sweet icy snow note from Ice Queen, but definitely with pine as opposed to IQ's fir. I also get a slight linen note as it dries.

This one is so... odd. I get this nutty incense (like hazelnut) and loads of lemon verbena. As it dries, I get more of the patchouli. Odd. Odd. Odd.

Holy crap. This is CEDAR and a hint of civet. It's a very potent combo. Like manly pencil shavings. And yeah, in this case pencil is totally a euphemism.

Old Ackerman's Instructional Toys. Ginger fizz. Literally.

Have you tried these 'snow' LEs (not this year): Yuki-Onna Archarngel Winter Darkling Thrush Moon of Terrible Perchta From the GC catalogue Night-Gaunt Macabray (un-impable from the Gaiman collection) Death of the Gravedigger (Salon) Cloister Graveyard in the Snow (Salon) Personally, I'd give Yuki-Onna, Night-Gaunt (if you like citrus), the Macabray and Cloister Graveyard in the Snow a whirl.

Hazelnut sweet. This is nutty and honey sweet with a touch of berries. It kinda reminds me to a farmhouse kitchen, smell of oats, berries, nuts... it just smells like something is cooking. Perhaps cookies?

Very fruity and sweet. On wet and for the first hour or so I do get alot of the blood orange swirling about and I love that. Unfortunately, it doesn't last and I get plum, guava and a hint of violet on the drydown. Love it on wet, as I adore blood orange, but it just doesn't stick around.

I get rose and cedar from this. After like twenty minutes, the cedar definitely smells like pencil shavings. Two hours later, the wood is back to being wood and the rose has a hint of powder from it.

Super fresh aquatic. Slightly green, hint of violet, and very aquatic. I like the hint of 'sea air', personally, as it keeps this from being too woody, and gives it a nice airy touch.

Cocoa and cream. It's like Candy Butcher on steroids. And I'm pretty sure it's cream as opposed to milk because it definitely is 'creamy' and it goes to plastic on me after like 20 minutes... just like every other blend that has BPAL's cream note. Stupid skin chemistry.

Sugared lemons, licorice and vanilla. This one is a 'lighter' version than v5, the licorice isn't as heavy. The lemon is probably lemon verbena as on dry it becomes more herbal and less juicy.

This one has a very green apple edge to it, as it dries it goes from a 'fresh' apple scent to more of a baked apple and there is a lingering sweetness of it like a light drizzle of honey. Mmm. Baked apples.