sarielswish

In the vial, it's highly resinous, sweet and heady. Very nice, but hopefully not too strong. Color, flame red. Wet on my skin, I'm mostly getting amber and ylang ylang, which is a pleasant surprise. It's a very womanly scent - something I'd imagine a Chinese empress wearing or something. :-) 10-15 minute drydown - Slight powderyness coming from the amber, but that is expected, especially with my chemistry. Now I'm starting to get a little more of the cherryish sweetness of the dragon's blood and the depth of the poppy. So far, I have to say that this is my favorite of the Ars Draconis line.

In the vial, hellooo cocoa. Straight out of the box cocoa powder. Color, chocolate brown. Wet on my skin, much better. This smells like caramel, milk chocolate, and just a hint of black currant. I could definitely bathe in this. :-)

In the vial, of course it's lavender heavy. But I'm also picking up juniper(?) and maybe sandalwood or something a little woody. Color, lilac. Wet on my skin, it's a little greener than I care for. Kinda makes me want to sneeze, actually. 10-15 minute drydown - I'm thinking there might be some lilac in here as well. I'm smelling something very similar to Needlework that I didn't care for. I like lilac, but only in certain blends. 30 minute drydown - I don't think I care for the scent of this one. Unfortunately, I don't get any of the jasmine anyone talks about, because I love jasmine.

In the vial, that smells like pure myrrh. Color, dirt brown. Wet on my skin, GACK! Nothing but myrrh. It smells almost like spicy dirt. Mind you, I *like* myrrh, but not by itself. 10-15 minute drydown - Ok, not nearly as offensive now. I'm starting to get the jasmine and rose. It's not painful, but it's not me. 30 minute drydown - It's very... perfume-y. Like old lady perfume. Not my thing.

In the vial, it's a pretty heady floral. Lots of carnation, frankincense, and chamomile. Color, gold. Wet on my skin, it's mostly chamomile and carnation. An almost sickeningly sweet floral. Not liking this at all. 10-15 minute drydown - And now the frankincense comes out and becomes overpowering. There's also a sickly 'rotting flowers' scent to it. Not pleasant at all. 30 minute drydown - Not so nauseating now, but still not something I *want* to smell like.

oops, wrong thread.

Personally, Mme. Moriarty is gorgeous slightly plummy patchouli on me. She's one of my favorites. Depraved is simply patchouli and apricot, which keeps it from being dragged down into mildew territory, which IMO straight patch can often do. I'll also second The Illustrated Woman with the caveat that, on me at least, there's a very strong pine note.

in the imp: incense and soap. odd. must be the amber. wet on my skin: incense, opium, smoke, and there has *got* to be some clove in there. very rich. i'm not getting any frankincense, b/c frank gives me migraines and i don't feel anything. and and if there's myrrh, it's sweet myrrh, i think. the amber is still decidedly soapy, though. 30 minute drydown: slight bit of the plum peeking out now, but i'm still getting amber-incense-resin soap. 2 hour drydown: i spoke too soon about frank, because the scent is emerging and the headache has confirmed it.

in the imp: this reminds me a lot of some strawberry candies i had as a kid that came in a tin. they were kinda tart and made your mouth water just at the smell. same reaction here. sweet, but not overly so. wet on my skin: i don't know why, but i'm getting strawberry scented shampoo out of this. 30 minute drydown: i just realized why i got shampoo. Iris, how you vex me... invariably, iris/orris turn a perfectly good blend into soap/shampoo on me.

in the imp: smells like my leather jacket and pool water... that is to say, worn black leather, tobacco, and chlorine. weird. wet on my skin: leather and tobacco immediately, which is awesome... and the oil, which isn't. it smells like pool water on me. i'm afraid this will immediately amp to either bleach or gasoline, like Robotic Scarab did. 30 minute drydown: still leather and chlorine.... and i had high hopes for this one. 2 hour drydown: no longer chlorine, but it's just your run of the mill high end men's cologne now. smells very nice, but not very distinctive.

in the imp: it *does* kinda smell like cherry chapstick. lol. wet on my skin: cherry, vanilla, and egyptian musk... i am in love. i could seriously bathe in this stuff. 30 minute drydown: it's official. i've found my one true BPAL. why did it have to be one i'll never be able to find a bottle of, though?! the cherry is sweet and sensual without being cloying, the vanilla rich without being too foody, and the egyptian musk is well, egyptian musk. it's perfect, period, in my book. 2 hour drydown: my only qualm with this is that it fades fairly quickly on me.

in the imp: super fizzy Bawls. you know, the caffeinated version of Sprite. so fizzy and sweet and tart it almost hurts your nose, like drinking a half frozen one too fast. wet on my skin: surprisingly enough, no difference. still ultra fizzy and sweet-tart. hell of a throw, too. 30 minute drydown: still super sweet and heavy on the lime. lots of the effervescence left too, which kinda surprised me. 2 hour drydown: mostly sugary lime now. kinda reminiscent of the drydown i get from Serpents with Glittering Eyes and Forky Tongues.

111. Got to try a friend's bottle. In the bottle, it's Skittles. Dead on berry Skittles. Very sugary and fruity, no amber to be found on the initial sniff. On me, it starts off Juicy Fruit gum and dries down to some horrid Victoria's Secret lotion reject - Amber Vanilla Berry with a good strong dose of melon on the back end that took me forever to figure out. It took me all day to figure out that it was the same note I didn't like in Yemaya. On her - started off berry Skittles, turned to melted vanilla ice cream with a hint of amber.

I actually have a tat of the Tzimisce ouroboros on my right bicep. hehe. i <3 Chiropteran Maurauders.

Alice, most definitely, for the girlishness, children's lit, daydreams, and Victoriana. Also, Mag Mell for the exploration, love of nature, and just general green goodness. as for myself... i'm a *huge* history buff. i was a Classical Civilizations major in college. think of majors in Archaeology, Anthropology, History, Latin, Greek, Philosophy, and Classical Literature, rolled into one. i'm a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a historical recreation group, with a 14th c. Ottoman Turkish persona. i sew all of the garb for myself, my husband (he's a 15th c. Barbary Corsair), and our daughter by hand when i can. i'm a belly dancer, albeit not a very good one. i am an avid reader - i devour books. i'm particularly fond of fantasy (high, medieval, and dark, esp. lovecraft), science fiction (hard and cyberpunk), dystopian fiction, horror, and classical literature. i'm as like to be caught reading Lovecraft as i am Homer, Gibson as i am Chaucer. Musically, i'm all over the board. i love what would be considered goth (deathrock, darkwave, ebm, industrial), rockabilly/psychobilly, folk, filk, metal (viking metal, progressive, operatic, symphonic, power, speed), neo-swing... that's the more eclectic stuff. i listen to the radio too. i'm anything BUT a girly girl. i've got a rather morbid sense of humor and i'm a complete girl geek. i love RPGs - console AND tabletop. and i'm a terrible flirt in social situations. i've been told my appearance is rather striking. i'm very pale, shoulder length black hair with suicide bangs (Bettie bangs), and huge blue grey eyes. i'm also 6' tall. i rarely wear any color other than black, red, or purple unless it's garb for an SCA event and then you'll see me in golds, reds, yellows, oranges... lots of very warm colors and tassels and jingly bits.

Tombstone is all Bandaids on me and The Dodo smells a lot like red oil, to those of you who know what that is.

They are not. It is on the unimpable series list found here: http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/sample.html If you're ever unsure, it also mentions that they don't sell individual imps for scents that cost more than $15/5ml (I assume that will be adjusted to $17.50 after the price change at the end of March). thank you. that's what i was looking for. not necessarily *good* news, but now i know, right?

i know this is a little random but on looking at the lab's site, i was a little unsure. are the Carnaval Diabolique scents impable or not? i see nothing stating they're not, but i thought i'd ask to be sure first.

i dunno about anyone else, but i've found three notes that are migraine triggers almost every time i smell them. not *every* time, but almost. i love the smell of the lab's myrrh, frankincense, and red musk notes, but almost every time i put them on, i end up with a migraine. not fun. occasionally, i'll find a blend that has them mixed just right or is aged *just* so that they don't overpower, but that's a rarity. thank god for migraine meds and note lists, though.... otherwise, i'd be in *trouble*.

if i want to get my husband's attention, all i have to do is put on a tiny bit of Loviatar and i can't get him to leave me alone!

-Upon opening the bottle... JASMINE!!!! This one screams jasmine and that's about it. However, once I put it on I get JASMINE and sandalwood. After about 5 minutes, the jasmine starts to fade off and it's a nice, sultry mix but still a little flowery for me. After roughly 20-30 minutes, the jasmine has tapered off and I get a *very* pleasant sandalwood with a hint of jasmine and true vanilla. The only problem I have with it is that it fades off completely too quickly - 2-3 hours. Maybe I just need to disperse it more. I definitely need a full bottle of this one.

Wet in the vial, I'm impressed. I quite like the cassia, red musk, and sandalwood together. It reminds me very much of my very favorite incense, Egyptian Goddess. Immediately, I get a very sweet cinnamon, almost like the cinnamon hard candy my grandmother used to make and a very distinct musk, cut with something almost medicine-y (probably the agarwood) , similar to red oil for those of you in the south. Still very reminiscent of that incense, though, which is a good thing. Gotta be careful, though, because that medicine-y character and the cinnamon are almost overpowering when wet. 10-15 min. dry-down - Most of the cassia has toned down, so now I'm getting a lot of musk, sandalwood, and agarwood. It's a very resinous, sweet scent. Again, reminiscent of incense... kinda reminds me of the way head shops smell, amusingly enough. 1 hour dry-down - Heavy on the musk and agarwood, but the sandalwood is still there. There's a slightly sour note, possibly the lemon peel, that I can't quite place but it's not bad. I don't know that I'd buy a whole *bottle* of this one, but it's something I'd wear when I was bellydancing. 2 hour dry-down - Ok, I'm getting pretty much all musk and sandalwood now. This is not a bad thing. It's also gotten pretty faint by this point.

In the vial, all I get is rose. Rose rose rose. I might as well have a bottle of attar of rose in my hand. Wet on my skin, again all I get is rose. I'm not even getting the slightest hint of leather. 10-15 minute dry-down - *sigh*. Still just rose, but now it's got a chemically sort of undertone to it. Not very pleasant. 1 hour dry-down - It just smells like old lady rose soap. That makes me sad, because I had such high hopes for it.

In the vial, I get spice and sandalwood and carnation. Color associations are saffron and rust red. It's beautiful. It's almost what I think an oasis would smell like - dusty and a little dry and sweet and verdant at the same time. Wet on my skin, the carnation is a little more than I'd like. The sandalwood and musk are there, but almost overpowered by the carnation. The cassia is almost non-existant, unfortunately. However, while I can't pick it out individually, it gives the whole a spicy, sweet undertone. 10-15 minute dry-down - Still, too much carnation for me, but the sandalwood is starting to come out more. The musk and cassia are still hiding, though. 1 hour dry-down - That's better. The carnation is starting to blend back into the mix and the sandalwood and musk are coming out more. Actually, I think the musk is starting to overpower the sandalwood. Cassia's still in the background, though. 2 hour dry-down - There's the cassia! The carnation has blended better, so now I'm getting all the notes without one dominating. I like it. Dunno that I'll order a whole bottle, but I like it nonetheless. 3 hour dry-down - Oddly enough, the carnation and cassia have gone to vanilla. Not a reaction I would have expected, but not unpleasant. Now it's musk, sandalwood, and vanilla.

In the vial, amber and leather... I'm liking this one. Colorwise, I'm getting black. Not just black, though. Black leather - that slightly coarse, stiff leather of a worn leather jacket. Wet on my skin, the myrrh is a little strong, but not as bad as Nefertiti. I can defintely smell the leather and amber and it's very nice. 10-15 minute dry-down - Lots of musk and amber and leather with, as the hubby put it, a magickal scent - the myrrh. I'm pretty fond of this one so far and Josh won't leave me alone. ;-) 1 hour dry-down - Very nice blend. The myrrh is toning down and mixing well with the other scents. It's not overpowering anything in this one. 2 hour dry-down - Ok, this one is a keeper. Smells very nice, decent throw, sticks around. This is a possible 5ml. Note - for some reason (I'm guessing my chemistry at the moment) this turned to vanilla on me, but there's no vanilla in it. Weird.