strahlend

I love this scent. At first it was musky and had hints of sweet tobacco and soft leather. Later the sweetness seemed almost more like honey with the tobacco and leather. It was sweet, warm and musky - very inviting.

For some weird reason this scent is in my blindspot. I can't really smell it in the imp. A swab on the back of my hand and I thought I could smell something for a second and it seemed like honeysuckle and then less than 20 seconds later and I can't smell anything except for maybe a very faint, far off whiff of something resinous. Weird.

Hm. I guess this is supposed to be woodsy/floral but on my skin it smells so sweet that it seems fruity/floral. After a little while it's just floral/floral. Much lighter and brighter than I was expecting. After a while the woods come up to the front but in a nondescript and floral kind of way. I didn't even write a review in my notes when I got this bottle back in July - it's pleasant enough but not very memorable.

This isn't the kind of scent I usually like but I'm really enjoying it. It's fresh and clean and somewhat soapy but in this way where it seems a lot more interesting than other blends I would usually use those words to describe. I think it might be the vetiver in there giving this sunny blend added depth, even though I can't smell it as a distinct note. There's something kind of sexy, kind of soothing about this scent. I like how bright this scent is without it being traditionally fruity or floral. I'm really glad to have a bottle.

This is reminding me a lot of Velvet Dogs Playing Poker. They both have a thick, rich, woody, musky, sweetness. I think this blend has more of a cedar factor to it though because there's also a sort of dry wood element too. This smells like fragrant dark woods and cologne - like in an old library with expensive imported furniture where men with good taste in fragrance hang out a lot. Very potent, very luxurious, very intense. I'll say it's swoon worthy. I very much enjoy this scent and I can't believe it took me so long to try it.

I was digging through last years Lupers after this years update came out and I realized I had pretty much forgotten about Smut. Time to check in again.

It starts off a lot sweeter than I usually like. This is some sweet stuff. Later I notice that even though I'm testing something else on the other arm all I can smell is Smut. I do love a scent with a decent throw. A while later though I'm still getting some intense whiffs and it's starting to remind me of ... corn. I don't know why, but I kept thinking of that musky/sweet smell that fresh ripe corn has. It stuck around for a good long time - its presence was noticeable for longer than any other bpal I can remember. Overall not a scent for me, but it is long lasting.

Now that my beloved Macabray is gone I'll be stocking up on Cloister Graveyard in the Snow. Not the same... but it's the next best thing.

Beautifully musky and powdery in that sort of way that opium always makes me think the word dusky - it's sweet and smells almost like a floral/fruity/smokey sort of musk. I think this is what other people are calling the incense element. The only listed notes I can detect are lavender and the pomegranate - and maybe the copal. Overall it's very well blended and no note in particular stands out. As other reviews mention, this scent feels like it might be in a similar family to Mme Moriarty.

It's very lovely and I find it to smell quite comforting, making it a great choice for an evening or sleep scent.

I'm just happy to have a bottle.

Blends like this are the reason I try things I don't think I would like.

This strikes me as a creamy white flower, a bit of milk, a bit of salt, a tiny hint of coconut maybe.

I don't normally think of myself as liking milk or cream scents since I seem to remember thinking they went sour on my skin - but here we are. This is definitely milky and it totally works for me. I don't normally like florals either. This blend shouldn't work for me at all, but it totally does and I'm putting it on my bottle list. This will make a lovely spring scent, it's fresh, clean and light without being herbal, lemon or soapy.

I love it when I come across scents that break all my rules and show me how much I have to learn.

 

ETA: during the dry down I keep feeling like I'm smelling some fantastic vanilla french toast. Sure enough, it's this stuff. The surprises just keep coming

 

Update: I loved this scent and bought a bottle. Unfortunately the bottle scent is MUCH more floral than what I had in the imp that this review was based on

 

2nd Update: Bought another bottle thinking that maybe the bottle I already had was a fluke. Nope. I guess the wonderful smelling imp was the fluke. This bottle is also more floral/aquatic than creamy and sweet. It ends up smelling like generic floral bathroom spray.Very sad

Love at first sniff

I could run through the streets like a mad woman and shout to the world how much I love Phoenix in Autumn.

I really, really love it.

What does it smell like? Well, let's see.

I'm getting a really beautiful balance of ivy and the patchouli - and the patchouli is blending so nicely with the teak that it's like the three notes are having a love fest together. This isn't overwhelming dirty hippy patchouli, it's more just a feeling of depth and a hint of warmth. I would say that the leaf/ivy notes are the stars in this blend.

I usually don't get the feeling of leaves in blends that include mention of them, but the feeling does come across here.

What I'm not detecting in this blend is any sense of coffee at all and I'm not getting tonka as an independent note, although I suppose it's in there somewhere sweetening things up a bit.

Mainly though, ivy-patchouli-teak. My new holy trinity.

I'm going to need several bottles of Phoenix in Autumn!

 

I can see at a point in the drydown a similarity to Samhain (which I also love), but I would probably call them cousins. Since others have mentioned Falling Leaf Moon I'm trying to track down a bottle - even though Lunacies don't usually agree with me. That's how much I love this scent.

ETA: I would definitely put Phoenix in Autumn in a similar category as Falling Leaf Moon and Samhain. I think I've found a scent family I particularly love.

I like the smell of ginger but I'm not really into foody smells. I got this decant on impulse partially because I like the name.

In the decant and on my skin this is much more ginger ale than it is gingerbread. I like that. When I prepared for my first sniff I was expecting something heavy and cakey and super sugary. In contrast this scent actually has a little bit of a pungent edge like real ginger. It's light and fresh and just a bit sweet. It seems almost effervescent like ginger ale. I like this a lot more than I thought I would.

October 2010

In my decant I really liked this scent. It made me think of piles of dry leaves laying near puddles. On my skin though it turned into a very soapy (irish spring) kind of scent. I bought a partial bottle anyway because of how nice it smelled. It finally dawned on me today to put it in my clocket and now I've found the perfect solution to wearing this scent. Yay!

I was just frimped Dance of Death recently and it's quickly become a Smell Of Interest.

On my skin this is a bunch of black musk - and I really like that. Before I looked at the notes I didn't know what it was that was rounding out this scent but seeing it's patchouli and myrrh does not surprise me because I really love those notes as well. I've been avoiding orris because I came across it in blends where I thought it was the dreaded powdery culprit, but here I'm not having a problem with it and nothing is turning super powdery. I don't know why this wasn't on my wish list, but now that I've found it I know I'll be on the lookout for more. Yay, another scent to love!

The scent of the blend and wet on my skin is almost indescribable. It goes through many stages and all of them are quite strange. I get a feeling of bread one moment and some kind of unidentifiable fruit the next.

BUT - I do know that what it dries down to smells a lot like an oatmeal cookie with a bit of brown sugar.

I love how off the wall this scent is.

sandalwood. vanilla. musk. spice from the carnation.

 

It's warm and soft and beautiful. I often like heavier, darker scents but this one is perfect for when I'm in a more snuggly mood or need to be careful about knocking people over with my usual favorites. Same sort of woody, spiced idea that I ususally like - but sweeter and much more mellow.

 

It kind of makes me feel a little sleepy though, I think I'll also try it as a bedtime scent. Oh! I just realized why. I like to wear Mouse's Long and Sad Tale to bed and the sandalwood and vanilla I think are reminding me a bit of that scent. Yep, it's reminding me of MLST but without the sweet pea and added carnation. ♥

I'm not getting anything here that makes me think of metallics or being claustrophobic... quite the opposite. In my decant I smell mostly a sort of bitter oak. On my skin, oddly enough, this smells kind of fresh and pleasant. There's a green element here that seems almost aquatic. It's reminding me of something... ivy... that's what it is. It's making me think of the oak/ivy combination in twisted oak tree - it's more of a feeling than a direct connection. Wow. This is a really interesting scent. It's green and woodsy and it feels clean without being overtly soapy. A good scent for spring/summer. This is totally different than I was expecting, I like it a lot.

In my decant I don't get any note in particular - and I feel pretty familiar with most of this list of notes. It's a blend that really forms a whole. This scent makes me think of a well aged spice cupboard. It's kind of sweet, dark, hazey, incense - set down to age in a spice cupboard. It's interesting, and I'm pretty sure that if I smelled this on someone else I would think it was lovely but it's triggering a subconscious scent memory for me that makes me not want to wear it.

In my imp this reminded me a lot of Womb Fury. On my skin it's a unique honey scent with something that feels fresh and has a bit of a sparkle to it. I'm thinking it smells like there's pink pepper and cinnamon in here. I'm really not sure how to describe it. This is a wonderful blend!

On the dry down it's mostly honey. I don't get the feeling of anything metallic or woodsy in this blend at all. I would call this a sparkling honey, it's not cloyingly sweet, heavy, dark or powdery... it's like honey with sunshine glowing through it. The more I sniff this the more I think it's my favorite honey blend so far. Bottle worthy!

I love this scent! It's the dirt without soap, without florals, without anything to mess it up ~ah~ and it's Wonderful.

Freshly applied I get a hit of hazelnut and the coffee/nutty/sweetness reminds me of a blend of Gluttony and Miskatonic University. There's also the feeling of mixed spices – a bit of nutmeg, a whisper of anise, a hint of cardamom. None of them are particularly distinct, it's just a feeling of various spices. After a few minutes the leather comes forward with the tobacco. At this point the coffee and hazelnut have either morphed or blended with the spices in a way that's making me think of black pepper. The leather and tobacco are sweet and nice – this is not new leather; it's soft, warm and sweet.

 

After a little while longer the coffee seems to have peeked out just a bit again. A bit later and I'm almost getting a woodsy feeling. When I huff really hard I can tell there's hazelnut somewhere in there but it seems pretty soft at this point.

 

A wrist shoved under the boyfriend's nose yielded a slightly pained expression and the comment, “Coffee? Toffee?”

 

Later - the coffee and nut have resurfaced with a vengeance. This seems to be mostly coffee/nutty and leaning toward the foody end of the spectrum with my skin chemistry.

 

My skin has totally eaten this up by the hour and half point. I only get a very faint whiff of sweetness where I had heavily applied it.

 

This line up of scents is something I would have put in a dream blend, so I've been pretty excited to try it. It's nice but one of my main problems with this scent is that it doesn't seem to have much of a throw and it doesn't last long. I'm a slatherer and even with a heavy application I don't feel like I'm getting the strength or duration of scent that I prefer. It seems to stick close to my skin no matter how much I put on. I'm glad to have a bottle, maybe I'll get a backup sometime if I can (when I do want to wear it I'm going to need quite a bit to make it through a day), but this isn't the omg must hoard scent I thought it was going to be.

 

Ends up making me think of Gluttony layered with Bah! - if you like both of those, and the idea of them layered, you'll love this scent.

 

ETA: It's been about a month now and I've tried AD on a couple more times. Unfortunately the more I try it the less I like it. It reminds me of day old cold coffee. Kind of thin and flat in its olfactory impression. I'll hang onto it for a while to see if age improves it.

(edit for spelling)

I get mostly the black musk, patchouli and tobacco I think. It's musky/woody and surprisingly sweet. I like oakmoss but it doesn't seem particularly pronounced here. This blend works so beautifully that I think before I use up my bottle I'm going to look for another black musk & patchouli blend - hopefully in the GC.

I've been on a black musk kick lately so I picked up an imp of this to try.

 

At first sniff I get a lot of red musk.

On my skin after a minute it's clearly just MUSKY. For some reason it's almost bordering on soapy. If I encountered someone who had this on I would tell them they smell good.... but for some reason it seems just a little too soapy or cologny for me... or maybe not. Hm. I really can't tell. It is very nice. No, there is something with too much of an edge here – ok, I think it's the black musk being overwhelmed by the white musk that makes this seem weirdly perfumy – I think I have issues with white musk.

It's weird that with all this musk it ends up smelling super clean.

This is a soft leather and there's something sweet – yes, tobacco. Mildly sweet and very gently leather... the longer this is on the more almost fruity (reminding me of fig) it becomes. Mmm.... this is really nice. It's almost too subtle but with enough slathering this would be really wonderful.

Bohun Upas works really well for me as a Yule scent. It has some evergreen to it without being distinctly pine, juniper or other overt and sometimes sharp winter tree scents. I don't get a feeling of fruit, but this does have a mildly sweet element to it - so some kind of fruit could be here but indistinct. There is a feeling of muskiness in this blend but it's not overpowering or too intense - just enough so that it will mesh with skin and body heat to lend a warm feel. After a little while the fruits come forward a little more and I think briefly of spiced apples for a moment, but then the evergreen feeling comes back in. A while later I'm getting more wafts of some kind of warm spice - just a hint - and it's really lovely.

This is what I always hope winter tree and snow Yules will smell like, but they usually don't. This blend is a lovely combination of green/musk/sweetness that is inviting and comforting. This blend hits a perfect middle ground of not being too subtle or too strong - it's just right.

I've had this in my favorites box for a long time but it frequently gets overlooked - but I'm going to fix that. This is a beautiful scent for cooler months, it's going on the bottle list for sure.

My first thought was cantaloupe. Something is making me think of fresh melon.

On my skin it's kind of like something green and full of chlorophyll and melon. This is an interesting scent. It seems very fresh and clean to me. I'm not really feeling it right now, but I'll be happy to revisit this scent in warmer months to see how I feel about it then.