maewitch

This one is overall an oil I like, but it does hit a weird patch briefly thtough the drydown. At first it's a very soft pine, with something bright and sweet peeking out. The sweetness takes on a powdery aspect, which is still very pleasant. I definately get the mental image of girly swishing through a pine forest ski trail. (A male friend sniffed it and said "Smells like perfume in a forest", but I don't think he thought that was a good thing.) Then the pine note becomes a strange grassy sort of smell, almost like a cross between lily and vetivert. And still powdery. Not quite off-putting but close. And then it reverts back to being a very soft, powdery pine, with less of that bright note. (And it's not Skadi to me at all. This is all cool and sweet, but without that counter-point of warmth or faint spice.)

My first impression: very green and fresh, without being a redundant rehash of Embalming Fluid. It's in the same general family as EF and Spirits of the Dead, but whereas the first is soft and fresh, and the second is pale and romantic, this is crisp and cool. There is no lemon as such, but the bamboo pulp lends both a cooling greeness and a faintly lime-like jolt. As it dries, the citrus character fades and the beautiful tea note emerges. This is a carefully prepared and lovingly steeped tea, deep and redolant with a floral undertone. I was afraid the oude would take this to an overly sharp and woodsy level, but it seems to serve more as an anchor, giving this weight and a certain feminine austerity, keeping this from being merely fresh and flighty. Lovely, elegant, serene.

I think probably anything with resins will have good staying power and strong throw. ie: Snake Charmer, Midnight Mass. Floral scents...on me, Moon Rose has pretty good throw.

This is PINK, dude. All sweet girlishness, bubblegum cuteness and sassiness. I get honeyed strawberries, and that's pretty much the consistent note throughout. This one really doesn't morph much on me...it's just sweet and pretty and yummy, and just sinks more and more into my skin. I don't get the similarity to Pink Moon either. Though there is a light floral in here (sweet pea), my skin doesn't play it up at all.

After the crushing disappointment of Snowblnd, I was somewhat wary of testing this. But...so pretty! The mint of course died a quick death within minutes, but what it left behind was lovely. This soft, cool, dreamy, sugary vanilla with just a little something musky underlying it. It reminds me a bit of Dorian, minus the tea and lemon, and with the musk turned way down. I really can't stop smelling myself. This is just so nice and somehow hugable, even if it registers as more of a cool scent.

This smells absolutely edible in the bottle, but sadly, the vanilla cocoa all but disappears on me within a few minutes. The sandalwood and myrrh are initially quite strong and sharp, with the sandalwood hitting a high note that makes me think of cedar rather than sandalwood. It does mellow considerably with wear and develops this powder-dry, sweet, very smokey character. I'm not sure how much I like it, but I do find myself compulsively sniffing my arm. It's good, but I perhaps a bit too powdery overall. I think I'm going to have to give this one a few more tries before I decide.

First sniff of the bottle and I started to panic. Would the delicious foodiness therein fall prey to my skin chemistry and its tendency to ruin the most gorgeous bakery scents for me? But no. On my skin, this is just lovely. I don't find it too spicy or doughy at all. It's just this really nice ginger cookie, still raw. It think it's that raw quality that keeps it from being overwhelmingly foodie or spicy.

I am so so sad. I was so excited to get this, but there's that note, the one that killed Beaver Moon for me. This sorta dusty-plastic thing lurking under the fugitive mint. The drydown, hours later, was soft and creamy-sweet, but as good as that was, it just couldn't erase the memory of Great Plastic Dust Bowl of 2006. It's gone off to a better place, where it will be loved.

Gah, I can't believe I didn't review this one yet. The opening notes are all fruity citrus deliciousness mixing with the sweetness of the benzoin. It smells like a particularly lush and sophisticated take on the generic dreamsicle fragrance. But it soon picks up this resinous depth, as the olibanum (which smells like frankincense to me - is it the same thing?) pokes through. As much as I enjoy the cheeriness of the wet stage, the drydown is pure magic incense.

I can totally vouch for that. My Pink Moon came missing about a third of the oil, which had leaked out all over the label and the box. Looking at how the cap was sitting on the bottle, it seemed slightly askew. At the time I though the Lab had perhaps purchased equipement that capped the bottles as well as filling them and maybe it had a kink in it. (I'm glad to hear it was nothing so complex and possibly difficult to fix.) I e-mailed the lab with a pic of the bottle. I got a professional, apologetic and kind response within 36 hours and was told that a new bottle would be included in my next order. The lab's service is really the standard by which I judge all etailer customer service.

If it's a scent I'm keeping (which is usually the case with bottles - unless it's an LE, then I usually use a q-tip), I just press my wrist to the bottle opening, tip it and that leaves a little puddle that I then rub btw my wrists and on my neck.

I know how you feel. Amber tends to go Skanky Grandma on me - powdery but sexual. Brisingamen was perhaps the worst offender in this category. There are so many different amber blends however, that it's worth experimenting. I found the Lion to be a wonderful amber blend, perhaps because it is balanced by that dry grass note and the spices. From your list I would totally recomment Dorian and Lady Macbeth.

There are some surface similarities between this and Embalming Fluid - namely the tea note and the citrus. But comparing them side by side, the differences pop out. This is a much more brittle and dry scent. Rather than deep lemony-sugared-tea, this is the contents of a memory box. The dried florals of a blushing boy's sincere offerings, still suggestive of lime and powdery sweetness, but oh so faint. A sachet of tea leaves, perhaps for some Victorian tea-reading parlor game. Letters written carefully on lovely paper, once scented with perfume, never sent. The box itself, a dainty construction of pale wood to capture a young woman's last whimsies before adulthood. Subtle and utterly lovely. EDIT: The drydown is COMPLETELY different. SotD is all faint papery floral goodness, while EF is it's usual lemon-musk yumminess.

Hrm. This is an odd one. I can't say there's anything wrong here. It's faintly citrusy, a little spicy from the carnation, and has a faintly muskish basenote peeping through. It smells oddly mellow for something with both patchouli and ambergris. I don't dislike it, and there's nothing discordant to throw me off, but I can't say I'm loving this either. I think this one is a swap.

Oakmoss has moved up to Enemy #1. It kills all the lovely notes in this with it's evil commercial-perfume-powderness. I can almost catch the musk and the sandalwood, but my nose recoils and flees in terror.

Grassy! I think there is some vetivert in this. This smells like a combination of dry and fresh grass on me, which I assume is the sandalwood, the (I think) vetivert and the embalming herbs. I get no florals from this. I'm not hating the grass note. The name suggested to me that this would be a more ethereal sort of scent, but this strikes me as fairly grounded. Soft, a little dainty even, but not ghostly. It is strangely pretty.

This is like Tombstone but with the softer and slightly more feminine pine and rosewood as opposed to cedar. It also smells like Dorian with a drop of Dee. This is a totally gorgeous blend. Reading the description, I did not see how it could work. I mean the warmth and pwdery sweetness of vanilla and amber mixed with woods and the almost mint-like bracing quality of juniper? But it WORKS. It's just this absolutely fantastic vanilla with an edge. Once it starts drying, I can't really pick up the rosewood, juniper or pine as distinct notes. They only provide the blend with some needed sharpness and texture. Comparing this to Antique Lace, I have to say I'm a surprised convert to more masculine interpretation on Vanilla.

Wet, this smells almost exactly like my boyfriend. It's WEIRD. I mean, it smells like his skin and the body spray he wears and the laundry detergent on his clothes. As it dries, different elements come out to fracture that feeling. The moss gets stronger, as does the thyme I think. It's a strong, classic men's cologne kind of smell at this point, feeling a little more refined than the opening notes. Nice, but not for me. I'll make the boy try it.

This does have that 'expensive men's cologne' sort of feel to it, and it's a darn handsome one. There is something smoky and deep in this, balanced by the coolness of the musk. I don't know where the smokiness is coming from, since patchouli generally reads as a more earthy note on me. It's an interesting blend, and I need to swipe some on the boy.

Yep, the opening notes also remind me of Blood Moon - which to me has an herbal, slightly bitter bite. I don't see any obvious notes in common, but Alone also had a similar feel, so I ascribed it the angelica and assumed that must be the 'forest herbs' contained in Blood Moon. Now I'm thinking maybe it's the patchouli. It's not listed in BM, but that blend does have an earthy feel to it, so I wouldn't be surprised if it did have patchouli as well. I'm curious if this is the oil that Fritz is making for the lab? If so, it seems to have this particular topnote that dissipates relatively quickly. Anyway. Ok, so bitter and herbal at first, with that wonderful dry spiciness that I think is the cassia. As it dries, it develops a slightly powdered vanillic character that belnds quite smoothly with the spice. Dried down, there is just this waft of deep spicy musk and sweetness. Not nearly as earthy I was expecting. I think this blend will get even better with age as the patchouli mellows and rounds out the base notes. I can't wait to try it again in a few months.

Either my nose is out of whack or my skin seriously loves and amps vanilla, because that is ALL that I am getting from this. A soft, slightly powdery but still creamy vanilla. Something in it suggests that it will ultimately dry down to a cool white musk. I can see this being in the same family as Black Opal and Regan, but while I didn't like those very much, I'm digging this one. Though not to the same degree as Dorian, which remains the vanilla-musk to beat. I think I may have to wear this a few more times before deciding if it's worth a bottle.

Maybe my nose is all faulty, but I don't get pine or fir or anything distictly tree-like in this. it's a gummy, vaguely medicinal smell, that's not precisely off-putting, but not quite something I would wear either. Very strange. My immediate thought it "umm, no", but I'll give it another try at a later date.

I really enjoy peony, but surprisingly it's my least favorite part of this blend. Not that it's in any way unpleasant. The peony and presumably the sweet pea are the opening chords of this blend, and they strike a sweet high note, girlishly light and almost powdery. Nice, but not outstanding. But as they pass into an echo of themselves, the cooler notes of cucumber and other green things begin to assert themselves, and that's when this becomes much more interesting. It smells like drowned fairies, nayads, lakeside mermaids by moonlight. Cool, soft, innocent - but removed from frivolous femininity.

Beautiful. Lavender isn't always great on me, but this is just a whisper of lavender that fades without a word into the most delicate and serene blend of pale rose and silvery-violet florals, and the most gentle sandalwood I have ever smelled. This is an utterly calming and lovely scent, discreet and feminine. Beautiful like a portrait of the Madonna is beautiful - pure lines, sad eyes. A thing of grace.

OMG the cardamom is going to kill me, but first it's going to take out my sinuses. Lordy. Beneath the ever-loving spice, this is very sharp and herbal, which I suspect is the angelica. This actually reminds me A LOT of the first few seconds of Blood Moon - perhaps the "forest herbs" are similar. The sharpness mellows into the sandalwood and patchouli, but damn, that cardamom is just too aggressive on my skin and to my nose. I want to say it's a pass, but since I disliked Blood Moon at first before falling completely in love with, I'm going to put this one away and try it in a few months. Maybe the spice will settle and the patchouli and sandalwood will develop stronger backbones.