The_Merf

When this is wet, it is a dark chocolate--in fact, it's so creamy/chocolate that I mistook it for coffee (I got the scent confused with another). That's pretty much the dominant note on me. When the scent starts to dry up it does reduce itself to a honey/wine drydown, with more strength to the honey on my skin. However, this is a nice and sweet honey, and not the type of honey that sometimes smells baked or burned or stale on my skin. The wine is much like the note in Lilith. At the very end, the scent becomes a bit powdery (powdery wine drydown is a new one for me!).

An absurdly generous frimp from BPTP on an ebay order... This comes off as very strong lemons on me--I guess this is what happens when wormwood is combined with lighter notes instead of darker notes as in Scorpio 07. Strong, strong lemony scent--one of the most dominant non SNs that I've ever tried. There's a slight unidentifiable 'herbiness' at the back of the blend, but like others have noted, I don't really get anything floral here. It's a crystalline, yellow-grey scent and the wet stage leaves a very strong impression.

tartchef very generously frimped me a sniffie of this... Creme brulee and Snake Oil...but I really get the sense of maple syrup from this. It's wonderful and swirling brown and sweet, but it remains sticky, flowing--it never gets hard or burnt (on my skin at least). There's a really foody freshness to this that I don't get from other similar blends. I'll bet that's the Snake Oil in the background. I was only able to put a little dab on me, and I think that's really good with this oil--less absolutely strikes me as more, if you know what I mean. I basically smell like one of the sweet crepes I can get from the crepe stand--syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar. I don't really get that much SO from this blend either--I know it's doing something in the background, like I said earlier, but I don't really pick up on it distinctively. It really is pretty awesome, and I'm so glad I had a chance to test it.

This blend is as complex as the note list would indicate. In the decant (dated to 2006, so this has aged some), I get the pulpy tea-like dragon's blood of Dragon Moon, but when I put it on there are a ton of warm notes--vanilla, hazelwood, some amber that work against the DB at some level to provide a very interesting contrast. These warm notes really dominate the blend, which surprises me (I guess since the scent title has 'Dragon' in it, I'm just trained to think that DB will be the leading note). Unfortunately, as warm notes sometimes do, there's a bit of "burnt"-ness to this scent as it goes through its main middle stage. This stage is occasionally interrupted by a burst of DB (which is so fresh here that it nearly reminds me of pear). Amber/vanilla, with a dash of pulpy DB really starts to take this one over in the end. There is not scent of floral on my skin, and the woods are not prominent either.

This is a strong, strong lily on me when it is wet. Unlike many others, I don't get a lot of citrus right away, though there is a bit of a tang as this one dries down. The first time I tried it, the redcurrant was strong, but I don't really pick up much on that this time around. As others have noted, this is a soft one. It fades away very quickly and only really leaves a bit of lemon behind.

I find that Villainess Byzantium soap will remove the traces of even the strongest, most resinous BPAL from my skin, so long as it's had at least 20 minutes to set in. (This is why I always order 2 Byzantium samples when ordering my 12 jars of Smooch!) I guess if you have to get something off right away, the baby wipes would be your best bet.

When I put this one on, there are a jumble of notes looking for attention--opoponax, clove, red sandalwood, patchouli and rose (no orris, alas, which is one of my favorites). They don't really settle together immediately, but after a minute or two this is very smoky-resinous (opoponax); in fact, it reminds me of Lapsang Souchong tea just a little bit. Everything else has disappeared; perhaps there is the slightest breath of rose still detectable. The scent loses that tea-brown color and becomes a more basic resin smoke (this is really becoming a very churchy scent on my skin). There continues to be the slightest breath of rose and a tiny hint of warm clove when you take a deep sniff of the area, but it is very much a resin on me. This is another one that I'm going to have to let sit for awhile and see what some aging does to it. It's really nice, but not what I expected at all!

Champagne, peach and citrus (osmanthus or tangerine, I could not say) in the imp--a wine/tea/fruit combination that reminds me of a more expressive and complex version of Thalia. The peach is very strong in this scent, and the champagne-like notes constitute the base over which the peach is set. This is probably the least changeable of the RO Salons that I've tried so far, as it really stays true to this peach/champagne combination throughout the wet stage and into the first part of the dry-down. The champagne/grape note does become stronger as the scent dries down, but the blend remains those two notes, at least on my skin. There's no trace of florals at all.

In the decant and immediately when when, this is all patchouli. Very quickly, the fig is also prominent, and I smell something that honestly reminds me most of black amber--perhaps it's the amber and the vetiver mixing together? I get a very "beachy" scent (or faux-beachy scent) from this in the wet stage. The really strong dirt of the patchouli and vetiver disappears after about 5-7 minutes, leaving this odd combination of amber and fig, which really does smell like fig-scented baked sunscreen mixed with beachy sand. It's a really, really unique combination. This honestly reminds me of Hi'iaka, with vetiver and a dash of patchouli added to it. In the next stage of this scent, there's a cool, piney woodiness that comes in during the very last "stage" of a deep sniff. This is another creative and unique scent from this very ambitious and special RO Salon series.

Pepper! Whee! This has an awesome kick to it. Orange is usually really dominant on me, but here the pepper turns it into something very interesting (I should also note that the strength is from regular orange, not necessarily blood orange like I have here). There is a bit of staleness on the drydown, but during the long-lasting 'main' stage of this scent, it is an awesome pepper and orange combination. Quite cool.

This comes off as rose and myrrh--it's like if the rose from Rose Cross was mixed with the resin of Penitence. Both notes are really strong, and the rose is actually quite sharp (a pink/white/tea rose?), but it does come down a little bit. I'm surprised there's not more spice--when I smelled this in the imp I thought it would be a darker Othello, but it's really more of a Sin and Salvation scent!

This is very definitely vanilla and pear combined--the pear note is very much like the SN when I first sniff it, but it blends so well with the vanilla that the mixture is nice and creamy (with just a hint of sugar). This is really evocative--it does smell like something you would get from a well-kept parlor, with hints of baking from the kitchen and fresh fruit that has been placed out for consumption. Both notes really remain balanced and the perfume doesn't get overwhelming either way. Oddly enough, this was the Haunted House scent that I was most iffy about trying, and it's clearly been my favorite. Oddly enough, as the scent continues to dry down, I smell more pear than vanilla (Pear SN did not last long on me, which is why I find this surprising).

I can smell the rose in my decant and, sure enough, the two major notes I pick up on right away when I put this on are the 'dry leaves' and the rose absolute. It's an interesting combination that immediately places a red-brown association in my mind. In the wet stage, this is really a strong, plummy-colored rose on my skin and I don't really pick up on much else (the sense of the leaves are in the background). It's a really sophisticated rose, and I quite like it. After about five minutes, the rose becomes less powerful, but the scent also loses a bit as a whole, because nothing else overpowers the rose. When I sniff my wrist this is always rose--of some varying strength--with the 'dry leaves' and sandalwood (I think) sort of floating around in the background (I really don't get anything that is sweet or tart enough to be osmanthus). The overall picture I get is of a rose dipped in a golden-brown, slightly scented (but not boozy) liqueur and allowed to stand as a centerpiece at a table, perhaps surrounded by leaves of varying reds and yellows and oranges. It's a very color-evocative scent, and, like all the RO Salons I've tried so far, I think that it will be really interesting to see how this ages. I've really enjoyed the RO blends I've tried so far--many kudos and thanks to Beth for creating them.

When I first put this on my skin, I get vanilla and apricot (but, as tartchef said, these are not overly sweet and sugary). Very quickly I can also pick up on the lily of the valley (but I should note that lilies go crazy on my skin, so this might not happen for most people). That is also momentary, however--this moves to a vanilla/tonka/sandalwood. BUT, the floral comes back again (or at least I'm assuming it's a bit of the floral), because the scent then moves to this very creamy vanilla/tonka, with just the slightest hint of woodiness--and then there's a hint of the apricot as well. Obviously, this scent does a lot of changing around, and it's one of those scents where I tend to get a different result each time I sniff my testing spot (obviously). It's kind of cool that this scent doesn't necessarily have the a-->b--c progression that you get from a lot of other blends. It's very interesting and I'm glad I got the chance to try it. It's a very golden scent (matching its coloring in the decant). I think that if you forced me to describe this in a few words I'd go with "golden vanilla apricot", which is really quite close to jewelbug's final summary as well.

When I first put this on, it was mostly ambergris, but as it starts to dry down, all sorts of complexities emerge. The incense--which really reminds me more of the freshest puffs of incense smoke from a thurible during the Triduum--mixes very well with the ambergris. At this stage I still don't get any of the woody notes--this is absolutely incense and ambergris swirling around in an old stone building under dim candlelight. In fact, I still don't get them really notably in the later stages, but I can tell that they are in the background and contributing to that sense of "incense smoke." Eventually the scent loses a lot of its strength, and this is when the sandalwood and other woody notes start to emerge (it really is sort of like there was incense on your skin that was burning itself out to leave only wood behind). That stage is lovely as well. In terms of comparison to other 'churchy' blends, I'd say that this one is more sophisticated and likely to morph that the standard GC Sin n' Salvation blends (not meant to impugn those blends, which I love and own bottles of) like Penitence, Hymn and Cathedral. The resins are not as influenced by "outside" forces (florals) as blends like Rose Cross and Resurrection of the Flesh. In terms of changeling ability and complexity, I'm reminded most of Midnight Mass 2005, which is one of my very favorite blends. I think this is one of those blends that is just going to age very, very well.

This scent actually has good staying power on me, but it's really sharp. The musk is obviously a light one, and it's behaving here like musk behaved on me in Water of Notre Dame and Dorian and a few others--going very sharp and lemony. I'm sure that the incense/resin is also contributing to the lemony sharpness on my skin. The scent does calm down after about 20 minutes, but it remains very lemon-soapy on me, and I don't get any of the warmth that tends to come with paper notes (I loves me paper notes), which is a shame.

This is definitely more what I wanted Misk U to smell like--the coffee scent is much fainter and much less foody than it was in that blend (GC version) and you can absolutely pick up on the papery-tobaccoy smell of the wrappers (which is a cool scent). This smells like a cigar (with a bit of coffee mixed in) while it's being smoked (sadly, even the nicest cigars don't smell nice on your clothes the next day). I don't really pick up on any cinnamon bark and if there's woodiness, it's really in the background. This is a pretty fantastic blend and I'm really glad I got to try some.

I tried this from a Lab fresh imp and was sort of meh about it, but I let it stew for a loooong time. It is ginger-butter-chocolate-cookie on me, yet it is not overwhelmingly foody. This does get herbier on the drydown and the buttery goes away, leaving the cocoa/resiny "afterburn." However, after about 30 minutes, this blend just about makes me sneeze; it really tickles my nose in an unpleasant way (Black Orchid makes me actually sneeze).

When I saw "buttered rum," I feared I was staring into the jaws of one of Grog's relatives, but as many others have commented, the almond scent is what you get right off the top of the bat. The rum is right behind it, and even though it's not the sort of alcohol you get in Juke Joint or Baron Samedi, it's not a foody alcoholic note either--it's somewhere nice and in the middle. After it's been on my skin for a few minutes, there's some clove jumping into the mix. The rum and almond and clove are really hard to describe together--boozy nuttiness? That's not even right, because this doesn't strike me as a boozy scent at all. It is nutty, but there's something else there as well. I'll have to hold this one over for more testing.

This one really doesn't do that much on my skin--it's just a really light leather with the dryness of sandalwood (it's almost dry like orris). I could definitely pick up the ambergris while the scent was wet, but the middle (and longest) stage is light leather and sandalwood. It reminds me of a lighter Les Infortunes, with the ivy, wood and redwine adding character in the same way that orange and florals add a kick to the other. I don't get any ozone from this blend at all--it's a light but absolutely complex perfume blend and very lovely in its balance.

Oh man, this is a floral gone wrong on my skin--immediate baby wipe/baby powder territory. The culprit behind all this seems to be the not-exactly-holy combination of vanilla and jasmine. The vanilla makes the jasmine take on the most baby-wipey aspects of night jasmine (which doesn't work too well on my skin), and as the scent dries, the gardenia becomes stronger, which does not help. Oddly enough, the tea rose (which is usually a strong note) is absent in this blend on my skin. The vanilla really is devilish in the mix on my skin!

This is a really interesting blend; I can absolutely see three of the four elements working with each other. The first thing that stands out about this blend is a brimstone/dirt combination that seems to really represent fire (particularly volcanic) and earth mixing together--there is a sense of stone here, which seems to make sense. The second wave of notes that emerge after a few minutes on my skin are very cool and minty, and certainly bring the wind to mind, and there is even a hint of stone soaked by water that comes out here. Given the scent description, I was quite curious about what would emerge, but I must say that it is really quite an accomplishment.

I know Delphi can be very, very different on people, but with me it sticks pretty much to the Lab's description. In the initial stage and in the imp I do smell some of the bay, but on my skin this is honey and wine and not much else. It reminds me a lot of Athens. I haven't tried Athens in ages, but I think the only difference between the two of them is that Athens had a bit of a resin and Delphi does not. It's not really an unpleasant smell, though it starts to get a little soapy in the last stages, but I find that I run very hot and cold on wine scents--I go through long stretches where I like them and then suddenly I find them repulsive, and because of that, I tend to stay away from bottles. However, I might keep this imp around; it's nice to have a scent where the honey sweetness doesn't go completely awry on my skin.

Verbena, grass, ginger and the slightest bit of amber when wet--I think that the ginger and grass combine (with the lemon) to give this an aquatic character when it is wet. However, the amber and lemon get stronger as the scent dries. Lemon is really very well behaved on me with this blend--usually it goes out of control on my skin, but it actually smells quite nice with the amber here. This makes the scent especially appealing, as I do like the citrus scents on my skin, in moderation--the problem is that they are almost never moderate! Now, as the scent enters its last stages, it does become almost all lemon, but it does have a nice middle stage.

Well, this is certainly unlike other "light" scents like Ra and Sol Invictus. On me this is frankincense and patchouli--it's a pretty clean patchouli, but it still makes this scent very, very heavy. If this is golden light, it is golden light as smelled in a church where that light has been heavily filtered through a stained glass window covered with dust and dirt and now shines on old, decaying clouds of heavy, nearly stale incense and myrrh. The resins become stronger and stronger on the drydown, and it becomes hard to tell the difference between this scent and Cathedral or Penitence (in fact, this strikes me as a combination of the two (leaning toward Penitence), with a bit of patchouli thrown in for good measure).