sterlingspider

in bottle: very fast morphing, dusty leather then almond, suddenly a mossy greenness comes out, very promising wet: sweet for just a second and then sharply earthy, very warm but with a hint of soapiness to the background, just a slight bite in the sinuses as it's drying: I think the musk and amber is taking over as I'm starting to get a bit of babypowder soap Dry: yep, babypowder getting stronger by the minute, off to the bathroom to wash it fof before it makes me sick Bleah, that one really had a lot of promise at first. I just can't get past that musk+amber=babypowder effect. *sighs* 2 out of 5, another one for the swap pile

This is a fabulous thread, the reccys are all greatly appreciated. I love the incense/resin family, but my chemistry is so picky that it's hard to find scents that don't have one spoiler note or another. I pretty much can't do any florals or musks (I just amp them to headache-ville), BPAL amber turns to baby powder bomb about 3/4 of the time, and dragons blood turns to cherry cough syrup. Personally I could bathe in Pit and the Pendulum, especially wet when it's really woody, before it sweetens up all the way. For me that's just about the epitome of an incense blend and I'm hoarding it like a madwoman. What I'm direly wishing for is something with that same set of base notes, but as dark and smoky as the Cathedral or Midnight Mass are sweet. I look at those three as a sort of "Ecclesiastical incense continuum" and really hope there will be more along those lines, but like I said in the darker direction. If you really want to smell like a head shop, slather on some All Souls and then wash it off with unscented soap. The floral component in it was too strong and was making me sneeze, but there was this really distinct "rack of fresh incense" side to it which stayed even after a fairly vigerous washing. The minute my arm dried I smelled exactly like my local one stop hippy/goth/punk superstore Utopia, I almost kept the imp based on that alone.

bottle: heavy pine and juniper with an almost cherryish undertone wet: very sharp juniper with a warm tone to it, VERY christmas almost smells like pear though. Drydown: very odd, more of the fruity pear scent now and the juniper has faded to an odd soapy sort of smell I can smell the amber trying to come forward more clearly but it's being drowned out thus far slightly later: very short throw, a nice non powdery amber/vanilla scent from a little bit away but up close smells like sharp vanilla floor cleaner several hours later: Golden Priapus mellowed into a very nice vanilla/amber with a bit of woody complexity, enough to go beyond run of the mill but nothing that really rocks my world. I give it a 3.5 or 4 out of 5. I wouldn't mind wearing it, but I don't see myself digging through the imp box to find it. This would make a pretty nice room scent though and might work very nicely on a guy who can wear sweet scents.

Wet: Mellow at first with a sharp spicy note growing stronger by the second, lavender and amber predominate, Drydown: very soapy, but not unpleasantly, getting a bit powdery though Dry: smells like baby Into the swap pile with you.

Wow, reading the rest of the reviews I'm wondering if I didn't get a grossly mislabled imp. Wet: first reaction was "Honeysuckle?!?! UGH!" (I hate honeysuckle by the way) On drydown: oriental floral soap with an undercurrent of powder. Incredibly sweet and cloying. I can smell the amber trying to come through, but I have to wash it off as it's giving me a headache. 3 hand washes later: this is why I don't wear anything even vaguely floral.

wet in the vial: glorious dark cocoa chocolate with a hint of sweet black cherry (real cherry scent too, doesn’t smell oversweet or fake at all) and orange blossom. Pretty much exactly as advertised. Drydown: unfortunately I've lost a lot of the chocolate, the cherry seems to be dominating with a faint kick from the orange blossom. 3 hrs later: the chocolate has come back but is a soft sweetened cocoa scent. There is the barest hint of cherry and I dont detect much of the orange blossom at all Very interesting but ultimately not me. I think I've simply lost my taste for chocolate based scents but if it's your thing I highly recommend this.

Wet: Sharp and campherous with an undercurrent of pachouli and evergreen, tingles like camphor on the skin Drydown: getting softer, more cedery but with a very long throw. I can smell this one all the way into my chest. Totally wrong as a perfume on me but maybe good for a room scent, very homey and pleasant.

in bottle: lavender sex wet: primarily amber with a hint of the tonka and a background hint of pachouli, something sweet and woody coming out as it dries drydown: Old baby powder at the bottom of a dusty cedar chest On me this turned out to be a total clinker, but I want to try it on My Boy before I swap it away forever as he tends to smell DIVINE in lavender based scents.

Samhain 05 drydown: kind of plasticy sweet, the spices take over completely and there's no hint of fir or pachouli at all. Unfortunately this plasticy smell became very cloying and I had to wash it off. The faint hint of it that was left after my shower was nice though, perhaps I would have done better if I could have cut this with some carrier oil, but ultimately I swapped it.

Bottle: really interesting, almost nutty fade between cinnamon and the cedar Wet: predominantly cinnamon with a cedar overtone and a bit of a pachouli bite, very fresh and woodsy Initially when dry: cinnamon backgrounded, cedar much more strong, faint nutty scent Dryer: almost all cedar Hours later: almost like pachouli and amber, not quite powdery but warm and spiced Later: cinnamon coming back This is definitely a summer scent for me. Over the summer I would go out to lunch and sit in the sun reading during my break, and then once I had gotten warm almost to the point of sweating I would put this on. I love how it cycles and how magically every new phase of the scent is actually pleasant to me. I have to be in the right mood to wear Umbra, but when I am it's a solid 4/5

wet: absolutely incredible "dark cinnamon" smell drydown, extremely powdery dry playdohsville within a half hour I think it's something to do with the amber because Loviatar did exactly the same thing on me. This was a really big dissapointment because it smelled so incredible wet. In bottle 5/5 On 1/5

wet: dirt with a sweet warm undertone and a hint of pachouli. drydown: peppery sweet damp black soil with a warm, almost nutty hint. After half an hour, barely perceptable but still pretty true to the "fresh turned black earth" smell. This is about as close to advertised as it gets. I dressed up as Samara from The Ring last Halloween and slathered myself in Graveyard Dirt all night (since it fades so quickly) and it REALLY freaked people out. This is not a regular wearing scent by any means, but it's fun to have when I want it and I just can't see myself giving up that imp anytime soon.

wet: exactly as described, very sweet true apricot scent with a dark smouldering background drydown: getting a peppery/papery edge, the apricot is still very true, though it reminds me more of dried apricots then fresh. It's got that sort of amped sweetness and earthy peppery bite of dried fruit. The pachouli also has this really strong dry dirt/earth edge to it, reminds me a lot of Graveyard Dirt (which I really love) and for as much as it smells like dirt it still manages to smell clean. Like damp topsoil. I was a little dubious of this at first, it just didn't call to me and so it sat in my imp box for a couple of months, then all of a sudden lately I keep having this urge to wear it and every time I do I'm totally happy to be surrounded in this scent. This stays very true to the drydown on me the whole time and both the sweet apricot and the peppery/dirty pachouli scent endure. It's making it hard for me to try new scents as I'm always more interested in wearing that then trying anything new. Even The Boy likes it and said immediately that he thought it was a very me scent, so I think I'll be picikng up a bottle with my next order.

drydown: Surprisingly spicy and resinous with a sweet cherry overtone, extremely potent Dryer: strong rich amber with a sweet undertone. I really was not expecting to do so well with the dragon's blood, but ultimately this was not for me. I just know I'm not going to wear it, and so it will circulate onwards.

Bottle: buttery cake and myrrh Wet: burning cake and soap. Seriously for about 5 minutes it smelled like someone left a cake in the oven for too long. Makes my skin tingle. Drydown: kind of a floral incense with a faint buttercreme hint in the background, the floral is fairly soapy and is taking this scent over by the second. The throw is entirely buttercake tinged floral, but if I sniff really close to my skin I get a faint whisper of incense afterwards. Slightly later: smells like "rack o incense" with a heavy floral componant and makes me sneeze. This alas goes into the "get it offa me!" pile. Even after washing it off as much as I could I smell exactly like a head shop (at least that part I don't find unpleasant) which leads me to believe that if I could have sat through the floral there would have been a really nice incense scent holding on for the long haul, but alas the floral as usual did me in.