sabina_k

Nooooo! I was so excited to try this, because I think vanilla and cedar are PERFECT for each other. I was imagining this as pretty much just a vanilla and cedar blend, and if it had been, I'd have gotten a bottle or five. But no. I didn't know what balsam and sassafras smelled like, so I didn't factor them into my calculations. Turns out, they don't like me. This smells, to me, like a cheap wooden table that has been scrubbed with vaguely vanilla-scented soap. VAGUELY.

So, without knowing any of the notes in this before I tried it, my overall impression was: Grape soda. (Over either dark amber or musk.) Oh well.

This was a frimp, and I left it for last because in the imp it was NOTHING but nutmeg, and while I like spice smells, this was far too intense. I actually said to my sister as I was applying it, "I'm probably gonna hate this, but you have to try them all because sometimes they change." ...Yep. This is beautiful! It reminds me of a really nice, expensive, spicy pastry from a bakery. I'm getting the amber, saffron, nutmeg and sandalwood mostly, and I think the amber and sandalwood are provinding the sugar and dough to my imaginary pastry, somehow. It's a weird idea, I guess, but I love it! I'm not getting any citrus though. Actually... this sort of reminds me of my beloved single imp of Three Witches, with the sugary cinnamon and clove. This could be the GC substitute Ive been looking for!

Man oh man. Rose scents just do not tend to work out on me- I've tried Dee, La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente, Catherine, Persephone, Zombi, Titania, Viola, Whip, Alice, and Ouija, and of all those, only Ouija worked at all on me. Until now. Rome, somehow, is a fantastic rose on me. Not cloying, loud, sickly, or sour, like it so often tends to be, but just nice and... rose-y, like the smell of an actual flower. I don't know what it is, but since I liked Ouija, I'm guessing there's something about rose plus woods that works well on me. I think the woods calm down all the harshness of the rose and make it behave a bit. Rome is definitely "rose with x y and z" on me- the other notes seem to compliment or hold up the rose, without really vying for attention themselves. I'm keeping this one around!

Imp: Soap! Initial application: Soap! Drydown: Green tea and lemon scented SOAP. I don't know what it is... I was looking forward to this once, but it does NOT work on me at all. I like tea scents, but something about this one just totally failed to work for me. It also took a lot of oil, comparitively, to make this broadcast- it's a pretty light scent.

I tried this a year ago, disliked it, and then looked at the description again and thought, "how did I not love this"... so I gave it another try. Initial: Honeycomb. Not just honey, somehow- my brain automatically goes to honeycomb, like those chunks of comb that come in a jar at the farmer's market. And that's it- just honeycomb, nothing else. Then: Honey honey honey and a slight hint of... anise? That can't be right. Must be the pepper and ginger playing tricks on me. A few minutes: Oh thank god, the honey is chilling out to let the milk and clean linen in a bit. I think I may have overreacted to the HONEY intro the first time and given up too fast. Basically, this is a more gentile Sudha Segara, without the astringent ginger note and with a 'clean' undertone. Still no tea that I can smell, but eh. I like this enough to hang onto the imp this time around, but it's definately a cool-weather scent; strong honey plus summer heat makes me feel sticky and unshowered... I think this would layer excellently with Dorian, btw.

I get a sort of tamed cedar- I think it's because the dry, light cedar is paired with darker vetiver- with an acidic citrus laid over it. I don't know what saffron smells like, so I can't pick it out. Every so often I'd get a hint of vague sweetness that could be the amber, but mostly this blend isn't sweet at all. The impression I get is sharpness, from the dry cedar and sour tangerine which predominate on me, but it's kept under control by the vetiver and amber in the background. I'd wear this when I wanted to project non-sexual power, if that makes sense- the lack of sweetness makes this a very businesslike blend to me. I'm keeping my imp.

Initial application: Like others, I'm getting pretty much nothing but cedar from this. Not a single note that registers as golden. I actually love cedar, but it needs to be paired with something distinctive and contrasting, and I'm just not getting that here. A few minutes later: Oh thank goodness, I'm getting some amber now. Ok, amber and cedar is nice; however, the throw is fading fast on me already. I don't think this is going to stick around long. On someone with a different chemistry, this could work really well, but not on me, I guess.

This smells like strong roses, pomegranate juice, and ACID to me. The pomegranate is just soooo acidic on me, and the roses are too cloying. Persephone is nice at first, but it's pure headache on my skin.

The Babylonian Goddess of Dreams, who bestows the power of Oneiromancy onto her priests. This blend opens up psychic sensitivity during sleep and aids in the understanding and correct interpretation of portents and symbols. I just got a frimp of Nanshe, and although I haven't tried it out yet, I have to weigh in and say- there is DEFINATELY lemongrass in this. I have a bottle of pure lemongrass oil that i use as a room deodorizer, and this smells exactly like that, but slightly sweeter.

This started out as honeycomb with a little licorice, for some reason. I also got a slight clean undertone which must have been the linen. I only ever got the vaguest hint of tea. After a few minutes the licorice became pepper and the scent wavered between honey and pepper for three hours until it died. Very interesting, but I'm not wild about it- honey's just so cloying on me. It's not horrible, but I don't want to smell like it all day.

Inspired by and created for my beloved Tedwin: my eternal, beautiful, wicked Dorian Gray. Refined, elegant, and lovely, with a noble bearing and seemingly gentle air. This blend is an artful deception: a sweet gilded blossom lying over a twisted and corrupted core. A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea. I've only tried it once so far, but my initial impression was of someone washing out a teacup with lemon Pledge. It wasn't that strong or annoying, really, but it was almost all lemon until two hours later, when it finally became a faint vanilla tea. ETA: Tried it twice more, and both times it really calmed down with the lemon. It's still a strong note, but the tea and musk are just as prominent. It's all very sweet, almost like frosting. (But refined, gourmet frosting, not grocery store cupcake frosting!)

I'd heard some bad things about Jack, so I was a little aprehensive about it, but I completely love it. It smells like sweet, clove-y butter in the imp, but the butter lets up once it's on my skin, and it becomes a really nice spice sweetened by the peach and mellowed by the butter. I didn't ever get a distinct pumpkin, but I think it was there underneath the butter, giving it a kind of nuttiness. I put it on at 7pm, and when I woke up at nine it was still there, but it was mostly peach with just a little spice and butter. Jack rocks.

Blah. I don't know exactly what dragon's blood is supposed to smell like, but I think that on my skin, honey and vanilla are exactly the wrong things to pair it with. I'm getting a heady sweetness from the dragon's blood, which would be nice, but the honey and vanilla amp it up and make it really cloying. I can see what the people saying 'cherry cough syrup' mean. There's also an unpleasant powderiness from the honey or vanilla. I'll give this one more shot, but then I'm trading it away and getting a less crazy-sweet dragon's blood scent.