ladymeag

This was so sharp in the bottle it repelled me from really settling on notes other than "sharp aquatics." On the skin - Sharp. The ozone is completely drowned out, on my skin, with florals and laudanum before it turns in to the sharpest, most floral soap ever. People who've liked other lightning-and-ozone scents should give this a try, skip it if you've had any trouble with aquatic notes or "soft" florals.

In the bottle - boozy hay and vetiver with a light citrus back On the skin - First up, some boozy, peppery vetiver. The bergamot comes forward as it dries down and the vetiver calms down, giving this a classic cologne feel without the usually accompanying migraine. The throw/sillage of this one is pretty intense and rooms smell like it a little while after I walk out. Definitely not for the faint of heart or small spaces. More like this, kinda, or at least related: Great Sword of War, Dracul (ha!,) Trevor Bruttenholm

In the bottle - leather and warm (but not sharp or sweet) cinnamon. In fact, the cinnamon is so not-sweet and spice-like that it almost smells like cardamom with the balsam. On Me - Warm leather (I agree, very much like the leather of Peter Quint) with a bit of dry balsam, and a bit of spice. The cinnamon becomes more apparent as it dries down but never reaches screeching or red-hots levels like many cinnamon blends do for me. It's not the same kind of leather-spicy that Spanked is - it's warmer than that. I'm not sure what's keeping this from being very dry but really isn't. The leather seems to stay pretty strong as it dries for me but the spice really warms up, as well. On my spouse - Vanilla chai masala. Whatever is keeping the scent from being dry on me is making it very sweet on my spouse. Almost all of the leather disappears at first and it's mostly sweet spicy calm cinnamon and balsam. He describes this as "vanilla chai tea incense - it's not like tea but more like someone was trying to make a scent-a-like incense." At full dry down the leather is back but not nearly as strong as it is on me. Overall, a nice warm spicy scent. More like this, kinda: Spanked, Peter Quint, Dee, Iago

Do you like Sonnet d'Automne but wish it was a little deeper? Do you like October but wish it was a little lighter? This is like the two met in the middle. In the bottle: Slightly sharp, green, definitely leafy but more like the kind of wet leaves that fall of a tree and stick to everything than dry, falling leaves if you know what I mean. On the skin: The first few minutes of this made me afraid it was going to go soapy. There seems to be a light vanilla-type musk in here somewhere, I think. As it dries, it brings out that musk campfire-and-mossy-woods smell that October has that I love so much. I think this one is only going to get better (and smokier) with age. As it is now, it seems like it will become part of my procession into early winter with Sonnet d'Automne, A World Where There Are Octobers, and October.

I had high hopes for Haute Macabre - I liked so many of the notes! - but it also was a pretty major fail on me, as well. Also, the leather scent to end all leather scents - DeSade? Smelled awful on me. I aged it for years and it never got better for me, I had to swap it away. You may have to keep poking

Here to second Rogue, Iago, Red Rider, Perversion (though sweet,) and Spanked. I'd like to add, for consideration, Dee and Captain Cully. If you're into hunting down LEs from previous years, Peter Quint.

Aureus, Love's Torments, Anne Bonny, Violens If he's okay with cinnamon, Plunder. If you want something that's deep and warm (heh) Fenris Wolf. Reading the notes of other things he wears, there's no sandalwood but you might give Great Sword of War a try.

If you like French Tobacco that's the note, to my nose and a few others in the review thread, that's in Antikythera Mechanism.

Oh, my. This is very sexy as far as I'm concerned. In the bottle: Very deep, earthy patchouli. But not sharp like the Sumatran Red. On Me: Wet it's very strong and very woodsy. As it dries, it picks up more woods and a little pepper. My spouse described this as a "peppered whiskey barrel." At full dry-down it's very earthy and woodsy patchouli. No sharpness at any point, which is usually where patchouli fails me. I would also highly recommend layering this with French Tobacco Single Note, if you have it - it's an amazing combination. On My Spouse: Wet it's very peppery and earthy. As it dries down it picks up a little more woods but it also picks up a sweetness. At full dry down it's like sweet woodsmokey peppery patchouli. My spouse described full dry down as "patchouli-scented heavily peppered mango chutney but in the most fantastic way." I'm glad I bought two bottles - if it's this good fresh, I can only imagine what it will be like months or years from now, as it should age about the same way the patchouli in Sin does.

In the heat, I like to wear "clean" scents - Neutral, King Mandarin, Gnome. Sounds like for folks who like florals, 'clean' florals work out pretty well, too. You won't need the additional help of booze-related scents, since you'll have plenty of that. For dancing, I like to wear something I find sexy, like Sin or Satyr, but others might find those too heavy in the heat. For actual travel, like being on the plane, I usually avoid wearing scents at all to keep from bothering other passengers who might have different allergies or migraine triggers than mine.

So, you're looking for a vanilla amber musk (since you don't pick up the orchid at all)? Have you tried O (Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla?)

In the bottle: ALMOND! with some leather and vanilla? On Me: Wet this smells like a marzipan coated leather coat - it's got that overwhelmingly sweet almond smell that marzipan carries. As it dries down more of the leather comes forward but unfortunately brings a bottle of Windex with it. I'm not sure but either the vanilla or leather is providing a chemical smell, which could lean it toward being a DeSade style leather (which is all chemical on me.) As it dries, I pick up more of that Captain Cully style leather but the sweet almond pushes the scent into cloying. Candied almonds in a leather coat, perhaps? ] On my spouse, this smells like insulin (used to live with a diabetic, will never forget that smell,) and leather. Overall, if you thought Captain Cully wasn't sweet enough or was too dry, this might be the scent for you.

Antikythera Mechanism, most obviously when aged.

You might want to post this over in this thread

On wet: Uh, evil Tootsie Rolls? No really, it smells like slightly dirty, slightly dark Tootsie Rolls. Spouse says: cherry Tootsie Roll pop. Initial Dry: Dirty Tootsie Rolls, but the chocolate is edging out of Tootsie Roll territory finally. Mid-Dry: HI I'M PATCHOULI, HOW ARE YOU? Full-Dry: Yep, very heavy on the patchouli, there's a hint of sweetness behind it but I mostly smell like a bus full of hippies that someone gave lollipops.

Blends with banana - which I've needed to wear gloves and a mask while decanting. But I'm pretty sensitive to real bananas, too. Florals trigger migraines.

This smells stunningly like a cake that's make by a local gluten-free bakery (Corina Bakery, in Tacoma, WA for the curious.) They call theirs the Aztec - it's a deep, rich chocolate with dried Anaheim peppers, rich chocolate frosting, and a heavy dose of vanilla and cinnamon. For me there is no morph here, it is what it is in the bottle and on. The chocolate is a rich, creamy bakery chocolate - not the dark, earthy chocolate nor a sweet milk chocolate. Prepare to desire chocolate for eating pretty immediately.

Well, here's the ten I ordered: French Tobacco Single Note All Five Box of Chocolates scents Sic Erit Olisbos 2013 The Sound of Insects Chintamani-Dhupa Zoomable photo here

If anyone is interested, the art on the 2013 Sic Erit label is Charles Joseph Natoire's Cupid Sharpening an Arrow.

I'm going to have to third the Holy Whatness of this scent. This is amazing and beautiful and I want more. In the bottle: Sweet and earthy - like a nice, rich, moist vanilla pipe tobacco On Me: Up front, creamy vanilla - non-foody. I think this is my holy-grail vanilla. As it dries down, it picks up an almost black mission fig sweetness and depth; earthy, warm, a little fruity without being overly sweet.

I think it might say something about me that a number of the RPG scents had a major fail on my skin but the ones that don't work well together or alone. Today, I wore True Neutral Gnome Rogue and it was delicious. Bright, slightly musky but clean leather with ginger and woods. Neutral and Rogue together are also amazing. Gnome and Rogue, also good. Neutral Gnome is so bright and effervescent it's almost painful (in a good way? )

I'm glad I went in to this scent expecting nothing - a friend sent me a decant and I had no expectations at all, I hadn't even looked up notes before I tested it. I don't get the books or the vanilla others get but I adore this scent anyhow. In the bottle: I almost didn't try it because immediately it smelled of Halls cough drops. The yellow/white super-strong kind from decades past. On Me: This starts out smelling a little like wet leaves and then turns into a warm, moist leather scent that I described to my spouse as a "green leather ... spa." When it dries down it falls into that moist scent of a Pacific Northwest fall night - decaying leaves, a light breeze, neither warm nor cold. It's beautiful and amazing and reminds me of mortality itself. Spouse says: Barbasol On Spouse: Wet, it smells like a musky leather-bound Dove chocolate. Spouse compared it to The Seekim. Then after a few hours of wear and dry-down, it picked up a sweet, decaying leaves note. I can definitely smell the balsam here but not the vanilla. It loses the leathery quality in dry-down.

A helpful thing if you are buying in the For Sale or swapping in the Swaps forums - create a wishlist of stuff you want to try in the Wishlist thread over in the Wanted forum and link it in your signature - when I sell to someone, I always take a peek at the wishlist to see if I have something else floating around that they want.

You've got some great recommendations but I'd like to add Elegba (coconut, tobacco and sweet, sugared rum) to your list for something a little deeper but coconutty. For me it's a not-too-sweet fruity coconut scent with a little depth and a darker edge than the usual bright coconut scents. I'd also like to second sunshinedailybliss's comment that many people (myself included) with allergies and migraine triggers have luck with BPAL. I've learned that most florals still trigger migraines for me (especially rose, lily, and jasmine) but a few (orange blossom) are fine. If I avoid florals? I don't have a migraine or allergy issue with BPAL, just scent preferences.

In the bottle: Orange oil, no doubt about it. On Me: This is definitely bright. The first time I wore it, I had just been peeling clementines for my child and had a lot of trouble determining (even after washing my hands several times) if it was the clementines or the King Mandarin I was smelling. I had to test it again another day. It picks up a bit of complexity as it dries but remains very firmly orange-pith. It smells like a million things to me - scraping the pith of orange peels to make candy or marmalade, peeling clementines for eating, afternoons picking up oranges under an orange tree I once had, and holiday boxes of oranges. Sadly, it doesn't last very long on me - two or three hours and it seems to be gone completely. Though, that reminds me of having a box of clementines around - perhaps I'll just peel another.