zankoku_zen

I get a rosewood kind of smell. The teak and the cedar are pretty dominant, but the rose is fragrant. Fragrant wood. Yes, that's what this is. If you like wood and you like roses, this is a must-try.

This is more feminine and works better on my skin than I thought it would. The main participants are the black currant, the musks and the lilies. It has this softly hypnotic effect. I find it slightly 'hairy' and foreboding, kind of like the prickle of a tarantula. It's feminine, yet vaguely feral. It actually kinda spooks me a little.

So when I first opened this little vial, I got the giant waft of bubblegum (ah lotus). Upon application its bubblegum on metal, but thankfully now it's a masculine metal and leather combination. Very masculine and tantalizing, but playful. Very nice.

Ugh. This didn't work out. The combination honey and incense, I think, drowned out the lemonyness of this blend for me.

Wow, on me it's a rose-chamomile mash up, but really it ends up smelling like it's entirely made of rose geranium. It's very old world and very soothing. I liked it more than I thought I would! (Makes note that when WSRE runs out, to substitute it with Rome)

This is rainy, kinda gritty, forest pines and ozoney Irish Spring. It's fairly masculine, and after an hour, it definitely smells like dryer sheets. BOO.

... My goodness. It is the attach of the strawberry sweet tart. I mean, this on me is sugary syrupy sweetness, with a hint of strawberry. And a hint of plastic. Sadness. It does evoke feelings of - well, innocence and childhood and good sweets.

This is a soft, feminine scent. The base is definitely a powdery amber and sweet vanilla, but really its the cornucopia of floral loveliness that takes center stage. Very feminine, very pretty.

Wow. This is a plummy rose. So at the beginning, this is a very rose and peony scent, and then the plum comes through, and it's a complete menage a trois. This is very luxurious, and opulent, and riotous. The woman that wears this is TROUBLE.

I wanted cucumber love. Instead, I got Irish Spring. Very fresh and clean. SAAD. ETA: The prototype feels like a very distinct aquatic. On wet, I got a hint of bubblegum so there is some lotus on this, as it dries, it goes to dryer sheets as opposed to Irish Spring. In fact, it sort of makes me think of Snuggles, as opposed to Bounce dryer sheets.

Oh man, on wet, this is a juicy pear floral. Love it to bits. As it dries, the pear fades away and I get more of the orchid/spice thing going on, which makes it oddly enough smell kinda plummy. It's a regal velvety purple, and it reminds me to Morgause from the GC, minus the incense. It's rich, deeply regal, very purple, very luxe. I wish pear had stuck around for longer. I am still on a pear quest.

On me, this is spicy, cinnamon leather. It's got an almost preserved quality to the leather smell. Smoky, almost. Yup, not for me.

Tea and roses. It does smell very Victorian and Londonish and proper. This is the kind of scent you'd associate with a lady that wears corsets, eats tea and crumpets and is scandalized by nudity. Well, maybe not. It bears a certain similarity to Lucy's Kiss, like it's from the same time period.

This is very sweet. Both rose and dragon's blood tend to be very dominant on my skin, and this time they had a very stinky baby, with oddly enough kinda smells a little like cherry is thrown in as well. Oddly enough, the scent makes me think of plastic Barbie dolls. There's something innocent and yet kinda fake about this scent.

This is sagey blackberry patchouli. So it's very sage, very berry, very earthy and very not me.

This basically became dryer sheets on me. Sad, since I was hoping for clean skin. It was definitely clean, and then it was CLEAN. I'm beginning to think that the BPAL linen note and I, well, it loves me but I wish it wasn't so aggressive.

This has GIANT throw on me. It's mainly cinnamon (overwhelmingly so) and cassia OF DOOM! DOOOOM I tell you. It's spicy, and big and in your face, red hots and something else. Yeah. No.

I am enjoying this much more than I thought I would. This is sweet almond cinnamon cookies. Definitely almond and cinnamon, with a warm, sugary base.

Okay, this is based off Beth saying that lots of Talvikuu + drop of Yew Berry can mimic Skadi, Yew Trees is a GC, but what can substitute in the GC catalogue for Talvikuu? ETA: For me, a good substitute for Winter Stress Relief Elixir is Rome.

This one is incidental - but still. I managed to purchase a Money decant off Lycanthrope's decant circle. His package arrived and in the mailbox was our long-awaited, and oft delayed, tax return. Maybe it was just coincidence, but it was a gratifying one nonetheless. I will post here once I actually use the oil, but I felt that it's arrival was worth the mention in the meantime. ETA: Dec 2008 So I used it the other week, hoping to have my sales pick up ----- AND THEY DID. Way more magnificently than I imagined. I was just about cleared out. And wow, yeah, it works. The smell is kinda metallic, herbally. It wasn't unpleasant per se, but it wasn't perfume either. And I just used like a drop. ... Perhaps I should invest in a bottle.

Hmm, so this smelled intensely of Jolly Rancher candies in the vial. On wet, the strawberry bloomed, and the sweet pea made an appearance. And then I got what usually happens with either strawberry or vanilla = plastic death. Yup smells like a Barbie doll.

Oh man, this scent was TEH YUM when I put it on. It was like burnt caramelized sugar with a tiny whiff of violets. Think of melting violet candies, with the sugar syrup. Unfortunately, it has almost no throw and no lifetime on me. My skin just gobbles this puppy up. I'd have to toss on the entire 5ml and be constantly reapplying.

Oh man, this blend makes me wish that my husband could wear leather scents. This is a smoky, herbal leather with a hint of pine. It's medicinal and manly and dead sexy. It's got this almost biting spicy top note, and the underneath is sleek leather. I would make Doc Constantine my doctor. I totally would go see Doc Constantine ALL the time - headaches, slight colds, lacking my daily eyecandy fix, you name it. Just to stand there and be able to catch whiffs of his manliness. ETA: I have a little sniffie of the proto. Huzzah. It's been a while, but again the smoke and leather obviously made it to the released version. No pine in this one though. It's a smoother, more rounded blend - I would say this blend is a little sleeker and more urbane, which is probably why changes were made to the released version...

On me, this is sweet, white cotton floral. I feel there are certain similiarities in the floralness of this blend and Blue Moon 2007, like they share a number of floral components. If you like sweet, fragrant white cotton flowers, this one is for you.

Okay, so this at the beginning, smelled like a food market to me. It was a blend of exotic smells - both foreign and familiar. Then it settled into this woodsy jungle. And now it's a smooth, blended cedar. Uh... what? Yeah, for me it was like finding a native guide in the food market, having him take me to the jungle and then me, felling a fragrant tree and making off with the goods. Yeah, I said it. I felled a tree.