zankoku_zen

Cherry blossom, rice milk, and a bed of sandalwood. This one is much much lighter than I expected. It codes as vaguely Shunga-esque actually to me. This one is a light, delicate, smell. Actually, I would love some of my skincare products to smell like this. Delicate florals, luxurious, comforting. Low throw and wear length.

I get mainly cocoa, sugar, caramel, a whiff of chewy tobacco. Coffee appears to have take a look at the chocolate trifecta and hightailed it straight out. It's a smooth, cozy, chocolate. The tobacco keeps it from being too sweet or sugary. But still a very chocolate blend. Medium throw and wear length.

Sweet, sugary lavender is what I get the most. On the drydown I get white chocolate. I think there's some vanilla or marshmallow in it. It's a soft, pretty, sugary floral. Medium throw and wear length.

A touch of orange, chocolate, over a base of patchouli. Its a sweet patchouli blend. If you love patchouli, I'd give this a whirl. Good throw and wear length.

Juicy peaches, a ton of honey, and a whiff of vanilla. This actually turns up the sweetness up to 11 on my skin. There's something sort of lush and overblown like the Flowering Lines scent for Century Guild. It's got that same golden and juicy fruity sweetness going on. Good throw and wear length.

A lavish white amber chypre with lemon verbena, opulent white gardenia, tuberose, and tonka. Lemon verbena and chypre give way to gardenia and tuberose, with a base of tonka. This one starts off as a very effervescent and light citrusy blend, and dries down to a sparkling, cool metal floral which I think is the combination of the chypre, gardenia and tuberose. It's definitely much more gender neutral than Flowering Lines. To me, this is like a crisp cool white wine. Refined, elegant, cool.

Strawberry candy with a soft base of dragon's blood resin. This is a sweet, sugary blend. I'm surprised at the longevity of the strawberry note. This is that delightfully sweet and fresh strawberry note that we saw in Strawberry Moon. Sweet enough to rot your teeth out. On the drydown I get a slightly lily vibe from the DBR, which makes again the comparison to Strawberry Moon stronger. Strawberry Moon's little sister amped up on sweetness and sugar. This one goes to 11.

Juicy apricot, lilies, sweat pea, with the spicy carnation as a base. This one is an opulent, and what I'd consider more along the lines of a traditional perfume, but very heady and very Art Nouveau actually. There's something both joyful and blooming, and curvy about this blend. It's just gorgeous. Great throw and wear length.

Taut red strings of daemonorops draco and licorice root tugging on carved oak streaked with vetiver and clove with bright nerve-sparks of frankincense and elemi. Chilly elemi, red frankincense, and something that smells like blood. This is both cold, warm and something that smells like sinew. For real. There's something kinda creepy about this. Perfect for those that love spooky blends and Halloween. Medium throw and wear length.

Chocolate and rum! This one smells chocolatey, but not overly so. It isn't very sweet. I love the inclusion of rum. It adds this dark booziness to the chocolate.

This one has some throw! Chewy tobacco and a touch of amber. It smells warm and cozy. LOVE IT.

Milky powdery hot chocolate. This is straight up sweetened chocolate - no woods, no marshmallow. Chocolate. For all you Bliss lovers out there.

Prototype via Lab Ebay Auction. Books of Blood is, I'm almost 100% sure of this, a reference to the Clive Barker series of horror fiction collections titled Books of Blood. The #3 variant is heavier on the incense and musk. I smell incense, musk, but the leather is back. It seems slightly softer in this blend. There's also a green top note to it. Still masculine. Medium throw and wear length.

Prototype via Lab Ebay Auction. Books of Blood is, I'm almost 100% sure of this, a reference to the Clive Barker series of horror fiction collections titled Books of Blood. Also, obviously a variant as opposed to #1. This version is much softer, more dragon's blood resin, definitely redder in feel and scope. I think its the blood part quite literally. It's obscuring the musk and leather if there is any, compared to version #1. My skin really eats this up. So low throw and low wear length.

Prototype via Lab Ebay Auction. Books of Blood is, I'm almost 100% sure of this, a reference to the Clive Barker series of horror fiction collections titled Books of Blood. This one smells like musk, black leather, and blood. Soft, because I think this prototype has been kicking around for a while. Masculine and leathery.

Cool, minty, snow. It doesn't last long, but I agree that it is great for hot weather.

Chewy tobacco cedar and leather. It's very masculine to my nose. mr. zee_zee said it smelled nice though. Average throw and wear length.

Smoky, incense, and a touch of woodiness. Before you spray it, you do get the "charred sacrifices" and there's an almost carbonized meat smell to it, which thankfully DOES NOT come out when you actually spray it. Heavy, smoky, incense.

Cold spearmint and eucalyptus, with a touch woodsiness. However, after the initial minty cold blast, I don't feel like it really lingers on my hair. However, on wet, it was more in the gender neutral category. Almost masculine. I can see this appealing to the fellas.

I totally forgot about this one, but I did test it and its a chestnut, fig, booze and a touch of orange on my hair. Very foodie and festive.

With a touch of oak bark and bourbon vanilla. I get gleaming steel, oak, a touch of pepper and vanilla. The vanilla I think combines with the amber to make it slightly powdery, but on wet, I really get the sensation of pepper/musk/blood. It smells like metal and amber, and its pretty but there's a sharpish animalistic smell that I think smells like adrenaline and fear. If you're into Vampire the Masquerade, I'd sell this sort of smells like Tzimiszie. There's some flesh-crafting involved. And pain, well, pain is just there to make sure you're not blase about the experience.

Shadow saw a gray-haired old Eastern-European immigrant, with a shabby raincoat and one iron-colored tooth, true. But he also saw a squat black thing, darker than the darkness that surrounded them, its eyes two burning coals; and he saw a prince, with long flowing black hair and a long black mustache, blood on his hands and his face, riding, naked but for a bear skin over his shoulder, on a creature half-man, half-beast, his face and torso blue-tattooed with swirls and spirals. Unfiltered cigarettes, the leather and metal of sledgehammers, aortal blood slowly drying, and black incense. Czernobog is such an interesting fella. I get a ton of metal, with some red blood, and a touch of incense and smoke. It's cleaner than what the description is allowing for - but it's not clean metal. And yet in other ways, this smells like an old Eastern European // from the old country // would smell. You know the type. The kind that can wears pants (never jeans, not a suit, but jeans are too modern for him), but also has a rifle to shoot a bear, but would be OK to wrestle a bear with his bare hands because sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, drinks vodka/firewater copiously, can swear mightily but also has some old fashioned manners. It's definitely a hammer smell that has been used - and maybe bashed a couple of fingers in the meantime as well. Uncompromisingly male, but not quite feral but not quite tame either. I'm surprised at how much I'm actually enjoying it as a smell. It has a low throw but great wear length.

To your side, you hear a mans deep whisper, Slowly I turned inch by inch step by step. A scream interrupts him, and a roar of laughter pulses through the shadowed hall. Following the commotion, you move to the next stage. A bone-thin man moves across the stage, and sits upon an overstuffed, threadbare armchair. A battered violin is propped against the chairs side. The audience starts to dissipate, and you realize that you must have just missed his performance. Relaxing, he reclines lazily, and as the light falls on his face, you come to realize that he is truly skeletal: a thin membrane of skin covers most of his body, but in many places, bone is completely exposed. He winks at you, and chuckles at your obvious discomfiture. The sweet smoke from his cigar touches your senses, and you hear the soft clink of the ice as he swirls the bourbon in his tumbler. Late for the show, are ya, friend? Ill tell you a quick one, and then youd best skedaddle. I have better things to do than sit here and be gawked at all night. He takes a swig from his tumbler. A man goes to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist says, I think youre crazy. The man says, I want a second opinion. The psychiatrist shrugs and says, Alright, youre ugly, too. His attention is diverted by a scantily clad woman in the audience beside you, and he leers at her. Hello, nurse! he growls, and leans towards her lecherously. Hows about you come back to my dressing room, and I show you my stamp collection? Bourbon, black tobacco tar, dry bone, bay rum aftershave, and sleazy cologne. Isaac is a ton of black tobacco tar, bay rum, and a touch of bourbon and cologne. This smells dark and sleazy. But really, it mainly a very deep black tobacco predominant scent. Good throw and wear length.

The fat young man at the other end of the stretch limo took a can of diet Coke from the cocktail bar and popped it open. He wore a long black coat, made of some silky material, and he appeared barely out of his teens: a spattering of acne glistened on one cheek. He smiled when he saw that Shadow was awake. Hello, Shadow, he said. Dont fuck with me. Its all about the dominant fucking paradigm, Shadow. Nothing else is important: vape smoke and burning electrical parts. This one smells like angry grey smoke, electricity, and something that smells like corrupt champagne. There's a fizzy almost champagne edge to the fog (perhaps the vape smoke). On wet, this smelt like burning latex and smoke and I almost washed it off. It dries down to a gentler, less angry, and I think I'm smelling some tuberose. Technical Boy was described as the male version of the Girl. There is something haunting about this, but its also a much angrier persona. Aggressive and in your face. But also, oddly insubstantial.

Butterscotch, sugar, hint of apple and cake. Yup, this smells sweet and foodie. And like a baked good.