reconditarmonia

Amber Dawn, you might like Against Idleness and Mischief, maybe. I can't speak to its similarity to Door because Door was all cistus on me, ack, but Against Idleness is wonderful honey and chamomile with tonka, which is apparently kind of like vanilla. (Vanilla doesn't work on me either - too sweet - so this may not be helpful.) Then again, depending on what other notes you don't mind having in it, there are a couple of milk'n'honey blends with other things in, I think - like Alice of Dawn: Maiden, which have rose, carnation, blah blah blah.

I get the impression that this would be a great scent for summer or winter: the honey musk and vanilla (which doesn't make it cloying! maybe because it's vanilla bean) are cuddly, but the green tea leaf keeps it cool. It seems very sophisticated, but not like a traditional "sophistication!" scent. I get blackberry, too, and a bit of spice.

I'd love to get the honey that everyone else seems to be getting, but on me there's too much cistus (labdanum) to distinguish any of the other notes, and unlike in Magdalene (the other labdanum scent I've tried), this one doesn't give way to the other components. Alas...

Goes on smelling like hair spray (I know people say rose does this to them, but BPAL roses tend to love me so I blame the frankincense). That impression fades away after a bit, but it's still a lot more frankincense (+ saffron? I don't know what saffron smells like) and a lot less rose and honey than I hoped.

Luckily, the beeswax didn't turn to cologne in this one, like it did in other beeswax blends I've tried. Instead, I get a lot of amber with a sort of foody beeswax undertone, which the ozone and the opaline notes act on to give the impression of a sort of rich amber dusting powder. No rose.

Wet, I get all flowers (but not rose) and no cream, honey, or amber. Not as warm and yellow as the painting, but I definitely see how it relates - it smells all clean, like I've just got out of the bath. Would that be the skin musk? Never very strong, after a few minutes, it's all but gone. I like the non-aquatic clean smell, but if it doesn't even last as long as the clean smell from an actual shower, there's no real point. Edit: I get a leeeeetle cream as time goes on. But I already have cream scents I like, and this one is very faint.

Skin musk, sugar cane, honey, beeswax, vanilla flower, and copal. Aaaaahhh, now I know what the note is that made Philologus smell so much like cologne! It's BEESWAX! And I love how beeswax smells in real life! I was expecting this to be sweet and honeyed and feminine - but it's just...cologne. I think I'll be passing this on. I know many people will appreciate it better than I could. EDIT: Okay, it's not cologney any more. Now it actually is sweet and honeyed and feminine...but perhaps juuust a bit on the too-sweet/foody side, thank you sugar and vanilla. Still passing it on, but a little more reluctantly.

Admittedly this was bound to be a fail on me because it's a nice, simple blend of two notes I don't like, but it's worse than I expected. Really sharp and awful. Gets a little better in drydown, but not enough to prevent me from going to wash this off right now.

Very green. I definitely get the cypress. Not my thing.

Fruit, smoke, forest. Not for me, though since this was a frimp and the only way it would have worked on me would have been if everything disappeared but the roses, I'm not too disappointed.

This sounded perfect for me - I adore lavender and I adore honey - but, not so much. Lavender is always really weak on me, and this ends up smelling clean and slightly tangy rather than what I was hoping for. I'll have to give it a little time.

Haven't tried them, but some GCs with grass are Rosalind and Amsterdam.

Starts out with an unpleasant green-resin smell which I guess is the labdanum, but in the drydown it's largely rose, and BPAL rose loves me. The orchid comes out after a while, too. Wouldn't buy a bottle - it's not as nice as my other rose scent, London - but I'll finish my half-imp.

In the imp (decant from glasspillars! <3) I can definitely smell the blackcurrant from Lurid. On me, the currant recedes as I get a weird sort of dry, almost toast-y scent. (castoreum? labdanum? opoponax?) It's very like Lurid in the drydown - the blackcurrant comes back - but not as nice, I don't think. Less sweet, more masculine, more of the notes mentioned above. I was hoping it would be blackcurrant-lavender-magnolia-rose, but I'm not getting much of the latter three. Verdict: Finish imp, but no bottle for me.

Oy. Smells just like cologne when I put it on - it's really, really familiar for some reason, but I can't place exactly what cologne it smells like. Dries down to a slightly warmer/manlier/more cologne-y (incensy?) version of Dee (leather and books). I don't pick up the wax per se, but that's probably what's warming it. I may finish my decant (thank you glasspillars! <3), despite the terrible start it gets off to, but I definitely wouldn't buy a bottle. Alas, the perfect book scent evades me.

Eep, this is a bit too dark and smoky for me. Not "OMG get it off" bad, but not me, either. (I'm definitely getting incense, leather and tobacco - I can't really smell musk in general and I can't identify ambergris, so, er.)

Provenance: Frimp (a few months over one year old, that I'm getting around to reviewing) Judgment: Not for me. I can sort of get the "linen" note if I think about it - like hot detergent-y laundry - but "wet" rather than dry. In any case, it's just toooooo sweet and clear.

Off the top of my head - check out the (discontinued, so maybe not helpful) Muses. Clio is definitely citrus-lavender (with parchment), and I think some of the others were too.

Hoooo boy, this is strong. In imp: Hazelnut. On skin: Sweet and a bit spicy, which is probably the honey mead (the sweetness being the honey and the spiciness being the booze - because I got the same sort of thing from the cognac in Arcana's Caffeinated Death) - with a sort of nutty undercurrent. After a while, it's still sweet (seems like more than just the honey; perhaps the buttercream, or sugar from the rum?), but less spicy and more nutty. This is the second time I'm trying it, and I'm not getting any of what made me dislike it the first time (it lost a lot of its sweetness after a few hours and was rather unpleasant) - hormones? settling? That said, I'm just not sure I'm a fan of foody scents, and while I may finish this, I won't be buying more.

Starts out floral (violets? lilies? muguet? I don't know, but it's not the tea rose) and dries down to a very faint, less sweet, different floral (violets? lilies? muguet? I don't know, but it's not the tea rose - maybe some chamomile and leaves). Wet it's nice enough, though I'm not mad about whatever it is, but I like the drydown less. Sorry I can't identify very many florals... (This was a frimp from about a year ago that I just got round to reviewing.)

Bland floral. Not unpleasant, just bland and whitish. (I don't have the experience to identify a lot of notes, or I'd go into more detail.)

How similar is Anesthesia (from the non-impable Neverwhere line) to Baku (from the impable Somnium line)? It's lavender/peppermint/bergamot/mandrake vs. lavender/mint/anise, and since I'd rather try an imp than get a bottle unsniffed if they're mostly the same anyway, I turn to you all...

Aah, I didn't know about that.

There are four mimosa scents currently available from the Lab, but unfortunately none are impable (three are CD and one is Salon). Marianne: Red musk, bergamot, black currant, mimosa, orchid, patchouli, and lotus root. Melisande, The Puppet Mistress: Jasmine sambac, dark musk, violet water, vanilla bean and mimosa. The Grindhouse: Florentine iris, red musk, mimosa, magnolia, Damascus rose, clove, and vanilla bean. Monna Vanna: Russian rose, mimosa, gardenia, bois du rose, parma violet, calla lily, red currant, ambergris, and bourbon vanilla. I can easily imagine that you might like any of these (note that Marianne has blackcurrant, and Melisande and Monna Vanna have violet).

I'm starting to think BPAL vanilla* is just too sweet for me. This and Dorian are similar in that they're almost cotton-candy-like in their sweetness. I get a little of the sandalwood too, but no spice or carnation - I'll try it again, perhaps elsewhere than my wrists, but this might not be a keeper. *If this is vanilla. Not listed in the notes, but everyone else seems to be getting it, and musk has worked just fine on me in other blends.