MamaMoth

I find myself craving Sudha Segara day after hot, sweltering day. And Hypothermia is also quite nice when it's muggy and sticky. It's not my favorite thing to smell, but it makes me *feel* cool.

You know when you're testing a billion imps, and suddenly one of them morphs on you and becomes wonderful, and you're frantically sniffing through a pile of imps trying to find the one you dabbed on the pinky finger of your left hand? Yeah, like that. I'm really not a fan of leather scents, as they tend to smell like a swimming pool liner to me. (plastic-y and chemical-y) So while I adore opoponax and tobacco, and am a fairweather friend to amber, I never tried The Black Rider because leather is just such a big no-no for me. Well huzzah for frimps, and trying things I'd never otherwise. At first, this one does have that synthetic-smelling leather tang on top that I'm not so fond of, but also darkly resinous and sweet underneath. The leather stays dominant for the first few minutes after application, and the scent falls very firmly in the masculine category for me. But then magic starts to happen. The leather calms down greatly, and just lends an earthy warmth to the overall scent. The amber and opoponax are definitely in the forefront here. Sometimes amber can have a fakey kind of overwhelmingly perfumey smell to me, but here it is beautifully resinous, sweet, a little bitter (in a good way,) and softly dry. (Because it's "black" amber, maybe? Further investigation required.) The tobacco lends to the overall sweetness, I think, but I can't pick it out individually. Warm, sweet, dry, and cozy. Dark but not overwhelming or intimidating. I would say it ends up being unisex with masculine leanings.

Whelp, that seals it. I've tried it in a lot of forms, and I just can't do leather notes. This smells like when my parents replaced the plastic liner in their pool, almost exactly. Plasticy and watery and a little chemically.

This smells a lot like Morocco with a little dash of added floral aspect. Creamy and soft, a little dusty, with gentle cardamom spicy-freshness. I can't think of any other way to describe it, besides: Morocco and soft florals! It's soft and gentle and feminine. I can't really pinpoint the florals but they are pretty nonoffensive as far as florals go. I can see where this one might be a hit, but it's a little... hmm... demure for my taste.

I've always felt that rubbing it in kind of advanced the scent on the drying scale. So if I enjoy the early stages, I don't rub in. Otherwise I do, as I want to get to the longest-sustaining stage of wear as quickly as possible. When I'm reviewing I don't rub in, as I want to be able to evaluate all the stages. Just as an aside, The Illustrated Woman ages fabulously. I've discovered much to my chagrin that I don't like it very much fresh at all. I take my newish bottle out daily and stare at it to bully it into aging more quickly.

I got a bottle of Black Death when it first came out, then picked up a backup bottle when it was restocked. The second bottle is really really really different to me as well. Very fruity. Could be apple, definitely. I got a bottle of Black Lace with the second Black Death bottle, and I don't smell any fruitiness in it. Smells like a decant I got from about a month earlier. But I never smelled the original Black Lace to compare.

Yeah, I pulled a couple of decants from my original bottle and gifted them out, because I knew I had a backup coming. :\ I've been toying with emailing the lab over it, but I haven't done it. Technically I didn't buy it from the lab, but I dunno there is obviously something off with the second batch. Would it do any good, do you think?

Yeah, the batch difference between the first and the second stocking of Black Death are HUGE. The second one is so much fruitier. It was different enough that I thought perhaps I got the wrong scent as well.

Wow! This smells like a honey lemon cough drop! (The ones that are more like candy than medicine.) Very tart/bitter lemon and sweet honey, with a little of cardamom's spice. As it dries, the lemony twang backs off and allows the cardamom a little more throw. The tartness really cuts through the sticky honey. Softly spicy, citrussy, and sweet. I really like this after about 30 or 45 minutes. Wearlength is pretty short, though. :\ Not sure I'd use a bottle of this, but it's a fun scent and I'll enjoy my decant during the summer, I think.

I received a fabulously aged imp of this. It is seriously thick and dark and just gorgeous. Lust has three things I love (red musk, patchouli, myrrh) and one thing I detest (ylang-ylang). I was interested to see if my loves could whip my nemesis into shape. The verdict? No. Gorgeous aged red musk, earthy patchouli, and sweet resiny myrrh. When I first applied it, I thought I had a winner. The ylang-ylang is a bottom note and was behaving itself fairly well. then my skin chemistry took over and amped it beyond all comprehension. Ended up cloyingly floral. And the sickening, opressive ylang-ylang brought out the worst aspects of the red musk, making it overwhelming and heavy and thick. I had to wash it off.

In the imp, I smell sweet candied floral, vanilla. Yummy, slightly foody, girly, sweet. Wet on: I agree that this reminds me of Dorian, and that I would have sworn there was tea and white musk in here. A little bit of lemony vanilla, sugary sweet pea, white musk. I cannot smell sandalwood at any stage. I think that's the amber grounding it with a slightly resiny powdery base. (VERY slight. As in, I wouldn't have been able to put a name to it if it weren't in the note list.) As it dries, it goes the route of Dorian. Soapy. :\ I can see why this one is popular, but it wasn't really a "me" scent even before it turned to soap.

First on, this is a beautiful pine/vanilla, with maybe a touch of juniper behind it. I love love BPAL pine, but I've never tried "white" pine and this is gorgeous. It's almost like a mentholated pine? I don't know how to describe it, but it's all the zing of pine without the greenness. It gets so soft and beautiful as it dries. The pine, vanilla, and the amber mesh to create this golden resiny softness. Amber can sometimes be really powdery on my skin, but I feel like the pine and juniper are keeping it in check here. And juniper in too great a presence is always too sharp and masculine on me, but there really is just a breath of it here. Underlying everything here is this lovely soft woodsiness. I've tried "rosewood" blends that smelled of rose, but I can't detect that here. I really adore this! Softly woodsy, just a little creamy and sweet, with tangy pine. It could definitely be worn by a guy, but it's also that kind of masculine that is dead sexy on a woman.

In the vial, this smells like sweet, flat cola with lime and cherry. Wet on, the vetiver flares for a few minutes, but then settles back down into just a little dirty smokiness. The cherry smell settles into a nutty sweet almond. Fully dried, nothing really pops out here, it's a good blend. Sweet but not oversweet. It has that powdery resin kind of feel, overlaying an almost baked-goods kind of base. Just a little bit of smokiness and earthiness. I really like this!

I got a bottle of Black Death from the first batch, and it was super heavy on the clove and bay, kind of dry and spicy, with heavier patchouli. I picked up a backup from the second batch (I think 2nd. After a reorder at DD.) And this bottle is insanely different. It's so much fruitier... the lemon peel and the lime are much more prominent. The bay has taken a definite back seat, as has the patch. The clove is stronger, too. At first I thought I didn't like it, but now I'm thinking I'd like a balance between the two. I'm tempted to mix a half-and-half imp of the two.

This was totally worth the wait and the hassle to get my grubby little hands on it. The vanilla is syrupy, heavy, and sweet. There is none of the plasticky whang that fresh vanilla sometimes has, this is rich, golden, and deep like aged vanilla. The patchouli is black and rooty and earthy. The hemp is kind of dry and herby. It goes on super sweet and syrupy, and just a touch medicinal. The comparison to Goblin was apt, as it does remind me of that a lot when it's wet. It dries less sweet (but still pretty sweet) and warm and earthy and just... YUM. So good.