starfish327

in the imp: sharp, tart cherry wet: in your face cherry koolaide, with a bite of something behind it. feels sort of woody but also sort of spicy (and my chemistry seems to want to turn everything to wood this week, so take it with a grain of salt). dry: this is a slightly more grown up suck it. it's the same sweet-tart bright red cherry note, but there's a darker, richer cherry just behind it. i think that the cream in this is making it a richer blend, but i'm not reading cream at all (which is good, cream tends to go bad on me). this is a very pretty candy style blend that's actually fairly adult on my chemistry. i bought the decant on a whim and i'm glad that i did.

in the imp: light smoke, something sweet and nutty wet: wood...and cigars. though only in the throw. close to skin it's wood and smoke dry: this keeps morphing. first i get the wood and cigars, then i get smoke. then i get nuts, and now it's something sweet and vaguely smoky.

okay this sounds like fun...maybe. i'm roughly 5'5" of eastern european/germanic/slavic descent and rather round. i'm an almost cliched aries- i have a fast temper, i do tend to think about myself first automatically (but not necessarily act on that thought), but i'm also driven to learn and i'm passionate about community involvement and the like. i'm a true academic. i'm literally not happy because i'm not in school right now. i need that level of social interaction and mental stimulation. however, i prefer to study weird things- i went in to school orginially for epidemiology and ended up with a master's in alternate family structures. i don't handle hot weather well. fall's my favorite season, with samhain and yule being my favorite holidays. i love goth and horror cultures, though i don't dress goth at all. i'm addicted to carbs and diet soda. i love to knit and i collect sheep.

*2007 blend in the imp: aquatic and greens. not my favorite combination of notes wet: this starts out as a very green aquatic. it smells more like the middle of july than august. i do hope this morphs, because while most aquatics amp painfully on me and this one doesn't, i swapped for this one hoping that i would get something like dry leaves. dry: this does in fact morph, and the longer it dries the more it becomes a slightly spicy dry leaf note. i was thinking of swapping away this decant but i found that the longer i wore it the more i liked it. the only real downside i have with it is that it was a very close scent; i'm not sure that i got any real throw off of it. i would like to see how it layers under a blend like yorick, something with a fairly heavy dirt/loam note.

in the imp: the lab's snow note wet: yep, the lab's snow note. it's pretty much a single note at this stage. dry: wait, where is the candle? i keep smelling a candle- archangel winter keeps morphing between a straight up snow note and a blown out candle. it's very odd because it's either all or nothing with both stages, completely candle wax and smoke or completely snow. it's one of the more wearable snows that i've come across from the lab (it's not as pain inducing as snow maiden or ded moroz) but i'm not sure how i feel about the candle stage. i like the smell, just not on me i guess. this is going to get another wear because i can't figure out if i like it or not.

hellfire is gorgeous on my skin. in the imp, it's a sweet, leathery blend with a touch of tobacco. wet it's very traditional male cologne, but it dries down to a sweet, spicy blend. it smells like unbrewed chai, and it's gorgeous- in fact it's almost the perfect spice blend that i've been looking for. so of course i'm allergic to it.

the dodo starts out as the lovely, head shop-y patchuli like blend on my skin and then settles into a sweet red musky scent. i like both stages extremely well, though i think i'm going to try to layer this with the caterpillar to see if i can hold onto the heavy incense quality that i get when this is wet.

i think that it would be too harsh to say that i'm disappointed in kali, because that's not exactly true. however, what i get out of kali is about 180 from what i was hoping to get. in the imp: chocolate and something i'm reading as cherry. it's dark and rich, and i'm hoping it stays like this. wet:...wait, what? now it's traditional perfumey, white musk and florals. as it is, the florals are behaving and the white musk isn't getting sour. dry: all i get is the honey, rose, and tulip. it's very light and feminine, and very springlike. it reads to me as similar to queen mab- it doesn't smell like queen mab, but it has the same feel. i'm hanging on to my imp to see what another skin test does, but i have a feeling that i'm going to end up putting this on the swap pile as just not being 'me'.

if you're looking at your order through ccnow and it says shipped, it means that it's been harvested- which means they pulled it for filling. if you haven't received a cns yet then it hasn't actually shipped yet. eta: reading comprehension, i have it.

just out of cursiouity, how long does it generally take customer service to respond to emails? i emailed a question about my last order (mainly if i even did it right) three days ago and i still haven't gotten a response. i know that this is a really busy time for the lab, and i don't want to send another email if this long of a wait is normal. i'm known for jumping the gun and doing things like half an hour before they would have been done anyway. eta: and nothing like maintaining my long standing habit of jumping the gun...i got an email today!

i've been wanting to try this one for awhile, but i don't play well with either ozone or metallics, so i'm not holding out much hope for this one. in the imp: i actually don't smell much of anything. i get a very faint cologny ozone if i try hard. wet: all ozone and metallics. and it's making me sneeze. dry: when it first starts drying, i get a lot more of the notes- i get smoke, leather, and something faintly green. however it then morphs back to a rather flat ozone and metallic before it dies out completely. and it's making me sneeze again. i like the theme of this blend, but i can't handle blends that make me sneeze...

in the imp: dirty leather. this just feels dirty. it's nice, but it does remind me of a tack store. but i tend to not really like anything in the imp either. wet: the leather is still the prominent note, and it feels like the leather in the traveller- which could be a problem. however, it stays pretty tame and stays essentially just dirty leather. dry: it does get sweeter and lighter as it dries, but it stays a pretty heavy blend. the leather still stays the first note, but it does start to pull back. i get a hint of the clove and the musk as individual notes but everything else just blends. i do have to agree with the cowboy imagery mentioned upthread- this strikes me more as rural than urban fantasy. but it's not bad. it's not the stellar win i had hoped for, but it's far from meh and i'm thinking that aging this will help in the long run.

in the imp: really really faint. if i try hard i can grab at the amber, and something sweet. wet: wow. okay. this is completely different. this is actually fairly strong on me. it's sweet, almost honey sweet, and spicy. i wouldn't call it incensy though, this smells more like bengal than say dracul in feel. the amber isn't going powdery on me like normal. dry: this is a blend that smells like something i'm familiar with, but i can't figure out what it is. the sweetness pulls back a little and i get hints of the saffron and the cedar. i'm not familiar with golden musk but it does have a musky edge to it, but it's not rough or animalistic at all. wow this is not what i expected at all, and i'm much happier with it than i thought i was going to be.

block buster is without exaggeration the only thing that i've found that can pull me out of a panic attack.

in the imp: i get the vetiver, the musk and something woody. wet: civet actually sometimes reads to me as chocolate, and this is actually foody on me wet (or it was today at least). it reminds me of walnut fudge). dry: this is much more incensy than foody dry. i get the really dirty civet (love me some civet!) and the smoke. it's this gorgeous dirty black musk type scent on my skin. it is however a very heavy dark musk blend, with a really good throw. i barely applied any and i still got throw a good four hours after i applied it (which is extremely rare on my skin). i also wouldn't wear this much in summer but now that it's starting to want to cool down i can see myself wearing this one.

in the imp: chai spiced black tea....hmm? really? this remains to be seen. wet: yep. chai spiced black tea, sweetened, but no milk. dry: pretty much the same, and it dries down in long dry down to the slightly plasticy note that honey turns on me sometimes. the only downside is that it disappears rather fast- i applied this an hour and a half ago and it's gone already, and all i did was lay down for a nap. i've been looking for a solid spiced blend that i can layer, and i think that this is the closest that i've gotten so far. this smells like a stash chai spiced black tea bg right after you open it.

...death apparently likes a good curry. pass.

this starts out sweet candied powdery vanilla-rose, and then turns to pineapple, but i didn't place the pineapple note until reading the reviews. it's a very pretty, laid back type of scent. i could see putting this on a kid, or a pre-teen without a problem. it's very gentle, and honestly it's a better rose on my skin (maybe because it's not actually rose?). i do like it, however, i don't ever see myself wearing it. this may actually be the opposite of sexy to me, though it's also not the fault of the blend. this smells like what i think the stereotypical victorian would smell like- feminine, pretty, but ultimately safe. i studied victorian through jazz age sexuality as an undergrad and this conjures up ideas of covered piano legs and corsets. it's very pretty for what it is, but again, i'm not sure i would actually wear it.

in the imp:...nothing. nada. zip. i might as well be sniffing rubbing alcohol. wet:...still nothing. huh. dry: okay, this is better. this actually reminds me slightly of the coil, though the coil was much more floral on me. it's faintly fruity, faintly citrusy, faintly herbal, and slightly sharp. it's quite nice actually. i think what i'm interpreting as citrus is the white musk- if i sniff heavily i can get the skin-sour note i get from some white musks, but the rest of the blend is keeping it in check. there's definitely an ozone note in here, and it's definitely an electric style ozone. it's quite nice actually. i'm not sure about throw but it's rather faint to me.

this may be a fairly straightforward question, but do you get a cns with a paypal order? my bottle of samhain was the first order that i've made where i went paypal directly and not CnS. i mean, i would image you would but i'm not sure.

in the imp: yep boozy chocolate. wet: chocolate and whiskey, though it's not really overpoweringly boozy either. i would probably be comfortable wearing this to work if i applied it early enough in the day. it does smell like fudge dry: nutty chocolate, and faintly smoky, but the smoke could be coming from the last blend i tested as well. i think i prefer the coconut and ginger truffle (which also does not have a booze note which gives it a leg up because i'm not comfortable wearing booze notes to work), but i like this is a lot more than when i first got it.

well i guess this is what happens when the forest decides to rise up against you... in the imp: woody grapes: wet: that sweet koolaidy grape note i love so much in bordello and smoke. i'm not sure i like this combination. if the smoke were more assertive maybe, right now it just reminds me of grapes and stale cigerettes. dry:....somone left the grapes to rot on the vines in the sun. think i'll pass.

in the imp: i'm not sure what i was thinking of, but this is a lot less floral than what i was expecting. this is quite nice actually- it's musky floral, almost perfumy, i'd almost say mature? it's the type of thing i can myself wearing to a dress up type of event if that makes sense wet: more musky floral, almost herbal-sharp but not quite. i'm assuming that i'm reading the neroli now that i have the note list in front of me. dry: dark musk and florals, but it's a lot more balanced than wet. i actually like this one a lot.

i really want to like the caterpillar, but i'm not sure he wants to like me back. i'm constantly hunting for spicy/incense blends, they're my current obsession. the caterpillar comes close. in the imp: smells similar to a lot of the incense blends that i have in my collection- slightly woody and spicy. touch of sweetness. wet: nice. heavy sweet incense. in fact it smells like the new age shop in the mall. i can live with this even if people in my social circle would laugh at me. dry:...crap. this went to perfume: nothing but sweet florals. to be fair this is the first jasmine heavy blend that i can wear, which is making me wonder if it's the jasmine i even have problems with. same with the carnation. though it may just be balanced out with the other notes. but it also seems to be an indecisive caterpillar because he can't make up his mind and periodically i amp the patch and vetiver again. i think that i'm going to keep this one for another full wearing and see what happens, because i have a feeling that this is more an issue of disconnect with what i thought it would smell like more than not liking how it smells.

hi! i'm determined to make that whole comm smell good. i actually enabled like three people last night with the 'weenies... on topic: i think that lucy, kissed will go on my iso list, and i've been meaning to try zombi anyway. i have an imp of godfather death in my test bag already (i think).