starfish327

chesire moon is a very...masculine pink. it does meet the mental image in my head of the chesire cat. in the imp it's a weird jumble of 'sweet'. i don't really get an impression out of it other than 'sweet' and 'weird'. it starts out the skin in a similar chaos of scents though i do start to get the floral. and pink. but not girly pink or even mature pink, this is...a very masculine pink. i didn't realize that pink had a gender until this blend. by dry down it's started to shift towards a gender neutral though it does remind me of a bath and body work's blend that i wore a long, long, long time ago. the florals start coming forward but the sugar and the red fruits i'm starting to get out of it keep it in line. it is vaguely bubble gum but i like to smell like candy so it's not a bad thing. my only concern with this blend is that i'm not certain that moodwise it's something that i'd want to wear all the time. it kind of reminds me of a...tiefling. for some reason this blend makes me want to play dungeons and dragons but since i am in fact a gamer that's not entirely a bad thing either. either way i'm keeping it.

in the imp this was extremely sharp, a touch sour...and familiar. but i couldn't place it. on skin this morphed into a mismash of all my worst notes- rose, sharp white florals, and what i read as white musk but what i think now may have been the sandlewood. i'm not surprised on reading violet in the note list since this also bordered on skin sour. and fuzzy red wallpaper. this blend was exceptionally familiar but i couldn't place why, and i couldn't figure out why the mental association that i kept getting was fuzzy red wallpaper until it finally hit me as i was laying in bed that i reminded me of the bathroom of my parent's house when we moved in, circa 1990. prior to that point it had never occured to me that wallpaper came in fire engine red and fuzzy but it was this monstrousity of flocked red stripes and smooth white sections. my parents kept a bowl of rather dusty sad looking hand soaps in a bowl on the sink and the combination of staid floral hand soap and fuzzy red wallpaper strikes me as ridiculous in retrospect. fortunately both the soap and the wallpaper are long gone.

i didn't realize samhain even had it as a listed note, though in retrospect i guess it probably does. though it's not really an autumn scent per se, i love the caterpillar in autumn, along with the coiled serpent. i'm a big fan of samhain, samhainophobia, pumpkin I (the one with the brown musk), chimera, and raven moon.

Ekhidna came to mind for me... dark, earthy, spicy, and kinda smoky & fall leafy, lol. The drydown is more resinous/incensey, but I do think it has a feel that's similar to Samhain. i love ekhidna, but unless it's changed with a year's aging i don't get the same feel from it. they're still dark blends but i get a more...primal feel from ekhidna.

(i can't find a review that i've written for this one so i'm assuming that i haven't reviewed it yet) 2010 version i've developed this weird obsession with smelling like gingerbread. i'm not certain what it is about heavily spiced baked goods that have caused it to become my holy grail in fall and winter scents but the past 18 months have been spent searching everywhere for a scent that'll meet my needs. i haven't tried any of the gingerbread poppet scents but i was willing to try a half decant with the idea in the back of my mind that i was going to automatically need to rush out and get a bottle, budget be damned. unfortunately the poppet didn't bake through in the oven and i had a glob of eggy, bready, vaguely ginger smelling mess on my wrist. i put the imp away hoping that it was a combination of age and stress that did it; we had totaled the front of my car the week my decants came in and everything was smelling weird. i pulled the imp out today...and discovered that not only had the blend stayed just as raw, it invited play doh over for the party and they both have somehow managed to go stale at the same time. i'm certain on the right person this would be a beautiful blend and i may try even older versions, but right now i smelled like i rolled in the gingerbread batter bowl and then just wandered around for awhile.

i'm just curious since i have plenty and plan on getting more, what would a gc stand in be for samhain? i'm drawing a blank on what would be similar other than other weenies.

cherries and vetiver, which would be wonderful if there was a third note in there to balance it out. it's a similar cherry to the one in bloody mary, at least with my skin chemistry (though i think that it's actually the same almond that's in hecate the longer that it's on the skin) and the smoky vetiver reminds me a lot of st. john's eve. it's just a weird blend with my chemistry, but i still haven't figured out if i like it-even with 3 or 4 wearings. i think that the bigger issue for me that is that it makes me feel a little weird which is probably not a good thing for a conjure bag blend. i'll stick to high john when i need a money pull. it's probably more of a personal association for me but this blend makes me feel more like being thankful for what i already have than attracting more of something and i don't want to be putting up blocks.

this is such a bizarre blend on my skin. it starts out with a burst of...skin so soft. my grandmother used to use skin so soft as a bug repellant. this took me straight back to summer as a first grader. it then shifts into watermelon gum. it then cycles through something vaguely herbal/spicy, the skin so soft, and a blast of fruit stripe gum. as it's on longer though it does shift into something more herbal and fruity and less skin so soft. i'm guessing the ginger and tea are interacting with the squash to make that weird chemical impression to me. i do like the blend and i'm going to hang on to my decant, for novelty if nothing else.

if starbursts moved into the liquor/wine flavored catagory, this would be the champagne burst. it's really nice. it's not a champagne note, but i get a sweet white wine feel from the blend. i love the lab's wine notes, but most of them are really heavy and in your face booze on me. this isn't that dominant. under the wine/wine like note there's a jumble of really sweet, juicy fruits. the general impression is red, but it's red the way that a bag of life savers or starbursts are red- a pile of things with an overarching feel of red but no one single fruit coming forward the most. i do really like this one, which was unexpected. it reminds me a lot of mason and jenkin's port jelly, but i can't wear that one to work because it's too obviously wine. this one i can get away with because it's much more subtle but very much has the same feel to me.

this is amazing. that is all. it's a very green, masculine scent but it doesn't overpower me. it verges on the soapy but it pulls back enoguh to make it wearable (and it may just still be travel shocked). it is very indictive of 'forests', and it reminds me of late summer. i find this one very wearable, and i normally can't do herbs or woods, especially not herbs and woods together. there's a slightly spiced edge to it, though i'm not sure where it's coming from. i'm also normally allergic to basil but this works well on me. i'm not getting any reaction from this.

i need to let this one settle a little more, but this is my initial impression. in the imp: very sweet, with a hint of spice and vague greenery or florals. not as intense as i had feared it may be. wet: i get a lot of jumbled fruit and florals. it's a little chaotic and intense at this point (but it could be travel shock as well). it does smell like fall to me, and of the lunacies i've tried this may be the only one that works other than raven moon (and crow moon on odd days). dry: it morphs a lot on dry down. i amp the mulling spices and the cloves, which sit on top of something that smells faintly aquatic. i think it's the lily and the greenery working together. periodically i get hints of the fruit. it's a strange mixture but it's not unpleasant. and it does remind me of late fall. i'm going to need to give this one more time to rest, but i think that this one will be a keeper.

I thought I had reviewed this one but apparently not. This is a heavy, dark blend on my skin but it's not so heavy I can't wear it to work. The first few minutes that I apply it, the blend's quite harsh on my skin. Myrrh doesn't always play well with my chemistry. After a few minutes though it becomes a smooth, vanilla and dark musk that's quite comforting. and does remind of a bird, which i love because i really like birds.

i think that my yule decants were travel shocked when i first tested them, because on the second wearing of this blend i'm finally getting what everyone else was talking about. in the imp, this is very foody. i don't normally do foody but i liked the scent description. wet: wow. this is really spicy, orangy food with a hit of cake in the background. i like it though. i like really spice heavy blends and this is very close to gingerbread at this stage. there's a definite bready note here, but in a good way. i've never actually smelled a plum pudding but i have a mental image that this would be close. dry: this actually keeps getting better. the spice starts amping forward even more, and the citrus sticks around. the bread note settles down into cake, and i almost feel like this has a brown musk vibe (and i wish there were more brown musk blends, so this is a good thing). i have a feeling though that it's a nut note though because it reminds me of some of the pumpkin patch blends. yay, now i have to go through and retest all of my yules (this is not a bad thing lol).

2010 in the decant: i actually don't get anything in the decant. i thought i had picked up another blend initially. wet: sweet resins, without any incense. i'm actually disappointed because i love heavy, rich incense blends. dry: still predominately sweet resins, but there's smoke lurking in the background. i get a hint of incense/spice as well, but this is still primarily a resin blend on me with a hint of cedar.

in the imp: pine and thyme. thyme has a habit of ruining scents for me,i can't really wear herbs. wet: pine and thyme. it's a fairly assertive blend. it's very woody but oddly it's not very green on me. dry: the pine is still there, but it's definitely playing second fiddle to the thyme. way underneath there's a hint of lemon. i really don't like it when it's first on, but it seems to be mellowing out the longer that it's on. it's still very assertive, and while i'm not sure that it reads masculine on me, it's not really feminine or gender neutral either. it's hard to pin down. i may have to let this one age a little to see what the thyme does before i let it go, because the throw is much better than the close-up scent and i like it as long as the thyme isn't punching me in the nose.

this starts out being definitely a starfish-type* scent. it's very heavy vetiver (loves me dirty vetiver) with a sharpish edge to it- i get that from resin/vetiver blends sometimes. while drying, it sadly morphs into something flat and stale. i almost wrote this one off, because it doesn't play well at that stage. fortunately though after about 30 min- 1 hour it starts sweetening up and the black current starts coming through. the vetiver takes on the slightly incense-impressiony vibe that i get from the lab's vetiver. while i have heavy blends that i see myself reaching for more often, this does actually, scarily, sort of smell like how i see myself. *my mother refers to me as the ghost of christmases yet to come. i'm just as easy to hold a conversation with.

red lantern '06 a rather pleasant coconut cookie dough type scent. nice enough, but not really me.

march hare may end up staying in my imp collection simply because i keep sniffing my wrists, more than because i actually like it. in the imp: sweet, fruity. wet: sweet, fruity but almost creamy. i could swear i'm getting tea from this as well. dry: sweet, fruity, but in a dried fruit way, not fresh. i'm getting a sensation of a spice way, way in the background. it's surprisingly pleasant, but it's also fairly benign and cuddly.

oh hello there mr. slaugh, you're looking good today. in the imp: slightly medicinal. an odd combination of mint and root beer, but it works. really. wet: pretty much the same. minty root beer. dry: the tea starts coming forward. it actually reminds me a lot of laudanum, just without the anise/licorice. it stays slightly medicinal, but it makes me think of the pictures of men i kept finding when i was studying the 1920s. i have no idea why. it borders on masculine, but it definitely works for women too. it starts shifting away from mint and root beer to dry herbals and root beer. the slaugh are angry dead or angry fae, but apparently they smell really good.

2007 this starts out a sharp, high, screaming green note on my skin and then goes to soap. it reminds me a lot of an avon soap that my grandmother used to put out at christmas time that was green and shaped like a wreath. the pine eventually comes forward, but unfortunately it goes holiday scented candle on me, which i can sometimes stand but not in this blend. oh well. off to the swaps with this one i guess.

this was the bottle that was contending for first le bottle purchased unsniffed, but someone was kind enough to send me a tester. let me preface by saying that this is not a negative review, just not what i was hoping for. in the imp: a blast of espresso, heavy espresso, followed by heavy pumpkin spice. nom. wet: the same, with a dose of cream. it's very realistic and i'm excited because the cream isn't going sour. dry:...where'd the coffee go? seriously. i smell like pumpkin oatmeal. the coffee is gone completely, replaced by a strong grainy scent and the spices.

i will preface this by saying that i don't like foody blends. however, i will also say that for some reason i had to get a decant of this blend, it's been haunting me for about a month now. in the imp: a bright red cherry followed by the faintly plastic chocolate smell that i associate with the lab's chocolate note in the bottle. wet: wow, this is good. it's the same red cherry note from suck it and bloody mary followed by one of the best chocolate notes that i've gotten in a blend from the lab. dry: the lab's cherry note sometimes goes sweet-tart on me like koolaid (which is fine for me, i like that smell) but this stays pretty true to a candied cherry scent. the chocolate remains sort of an impression of chocolate instead of a full chocolate note but it does ground the blend. close to skin it reminds me vaguely of mason and jenkin's port jelly, and the throw occassionally goes a little cough syrupy. however, this is a gorgeous red sticky foody blend, and i think this will be put back onto my iso list because i'm going to need more for the winter.

very very faint (at least to my nose) mint and sugar, with a touch of something that's going to plastic. the mint and vanilla get increasingly strong as it's on, but it reminds of the long dry down of lick it till it's sticky.

wet and in the imp, this does slightly like stereotypical department store perfumes- it smells like the stuff my grandmother used to send me at christmas when i was a pre-teen. not necessarily too mature for my tastes, just in your face sharp florals and whatever department store brands use to mimic 'green'. it does start to pull back to slightly less sharp and rounder florals and herbs, but it's still pretty dominate. i think that this would probably be quite pretty on someone who's chemistry can handle ozone/water and florals better than mine, but i'm not doing this one any justice.

I'm thinking Lyonesse for you! It has a kind of watery feel without being a sharp aquatic, and I think the rich amber smells would satisfy the earthiness in you. Okay everyone, do me if you can. I am straight up weird. I'm an INFJ, which is the rarest Myers-Briggs personality type (and trust me, I wish I weren't). I'm well-liked but an outcast at the same time. I'm deeply attracted to sensual and beautiful things. I love colors, smells, tastes, and sounds... I'm also an intellectual. I'm applying for a Ph.D. in history and women's studies this fall. I love art, and I love everything that is old-fashioned. I am obsessed with animals. I need a lot of "me" time each day and I hate crowds. I have an eclectic taste, scent-wise. I'll try anything. For me, it's about chemistry more than notes. defututa. it's a very pretty,sensual blend on me that's sort of outside the range of what most people are drawn to but is still well liked, and it actually strikes me as vaguely intellectual.