Thaleia

Thick, creamy cheesecake with thyme, lemon zest, and sugared pear. (Wow - it's been a long time since I've done a first review!) I've always loved the Beaver Moon scents (it all started with Beaver Moon 2005, as I'm sure it did for many of us ...) and this does not disappoint. In the bottle, it smells like butter rum with a sharp green overtone to it from the thyme and lemon. I don't get much of the pear at this point. Once I put it on, though, the lemon comes out right away and I get a creamy lemon meringue/sugar scent with only a whisper of green. It's not until it dries down that I get any hint of pear, the same juicy sweet pear as in The Perilous Parlor. It dries down to a creamy sugared lemon meringue dessert (not quite a pie, or a cake, but not quite a cheesecake either - the cheesecake scent is there, but it underlies everything else) with an side of pear juiciness. All the different notes (some of which I wouldn't immediately think to blend together) come together so well. It wears pretty close to the skin for me. For a lemon scent, which I usually associate with warmer weather, this is surprisingly good for fall. Very uplifting for the shorter days coming up - and just in time for the Daylight Savings time change!

This scent is what I wanted both Silentium Amoris and The Reaper and the Flowers to be. I have a ton of SA from last year's anniversary, and don’t know what to do with it all now that I’ve found this. SA is definitely more assertive, and a little of that goes a very long way (it actually burns if I put on too much - skin doesn't seem to like ylang ylang as a main note in a scent). R&F was really sharp and green, grassy, and bitter, while this one’s gentler, probably from the addition of the ‘numinous mist’ note I love from The Unicorn and Leanan Sidhe. Of course I get lots of roses, because I always do (skin chemistry and all that), but they’re tempered by the mist and the faint addition of lily. A gentle, melancholy scent - so beautiful.

After everything I'd heard about everyone's beloved Shub, I was so excited to get it when it came back to stay. I've had this particular bottle for a while now, which I've tested more times than I'd care to admit in the pursuit of trying to convince myself that I like this blend - but every single time I've tried it, I get sharp ginger and nothing else. A little goes a very long way, and even then, it's so strong and very nearly headache-inducing, and actually drowns out all of the other scents I've got on (when I'm trying other things and reviewing), or whatever else is in the immediate vicinity. The drydown is actually kind of okay, but everything leading up to it ... Sigh. I say this every single time I pull out my bottle of Shub, but 'maybe next time it'll work on me'?

Like Hermia, I too am short and brunette, so of course I had to get her first of all the new MND scents. This blend has got to be something like the lovechild of Pink Moon 2007 and Hymn to Proserpine, which are, incidentally, two of my favourite scents. It's not as heavy on the amber as HTP, nor as dark purple; the floral isn't straightforwardly 'happy' like Pink Moon, though the hint of peppery spiciness plus the simple clean floral smells almost like a carnation note to me. If I were to assign this scent a colour, it would be a rose-pink dusted with gold. Yes, Hermia is a warm, assertive floral, with a fieriness tempered by warmth, whose beauty lies in the simplicity of the individual notes and the complexity of the way the notes come together. She's definitely a girl who can make all of the boys fall in love with her. And the girls, too, apparently - she's joining my list of favourite blends.

First of all, I love the label art. Very apropos. It starts out very sharp and green, light and rather empty ITB and initially on, but that thankfully fades away quickly, as I think I'd have gotten a headache if it'd stayed like that any longer. It blooms into a sweet, light, creamy floral that's quite lovely. The vanilla both sweetens and warms the floral, and that's what I think makes this blend. This scent is - dare I say it - so hott.

I should not be as amused by this scent as I am. This isn't your standard prison-issue moonshine; it smells classier than that. Rather, it's a sparkling sweet citrusy drink with a hint of apple underneath. The citrus recedes and the apple comes out more on drydown, and it ends up smelling like an apple-champagne type cocktail drink with a shot of sugar as a sort of pick-me-up. What would that be called, I wonder? Whatever it is, it's really good and I LIKE it.

I've recently fallen hard for Beth's carnation note, so I reached into my box o' 5ml love and gave this a try again after a few months. It came as no surprise, then, that I just about died when I tried it just now, and I can't really remember what it was that left my poor bottle unnoticed for so long. I've always been a fan of wild berry, and I have loved the amber note since I figured out what the note smelled like. Musk works for me in most blends, but there's the odd blend where I prefer it weren't there. Anyway, carnation comes out on top, followed by wild berry, and warmed by amber on the drydown. The musk is hardly noticeable at all, though I get whiffs of it now and again. I know the carnation is listed as 'spicy' here, as in Frumious Bandersnatch (which is another scent I've got to re-try, possibly tomorrow), but it's not, really. Whatever spiciness the carnation is supposed to have is tempered by the sweetness of the wild berries (and, I'd imagine, the musk that's hiding) and the warm amber. LOVE. I so don't know why I haven't used this more.

How exactly does one represent the rage of a groundhog who's allowed to go back to bed for another six weeks? Heck, if I were allowed to go back to bed for another six weeks, I'd be happy, but I suppose I wouldn't be so happy about having to wake up to check if I could sleep more. I'd settle back in bed with a huge cup of chocolate chai tea. I don't get much cherry, but if I do, it's in the background. It's mainly chocolate, caramel, and cardamom ITB and initially, and the musk and spiciness comes later. The cardamom turns into a cinnamon-esque spice that makes me want to sneeze, but thankfully it goes away after a while (wish it would go away more quickly, though). It dries down to a warm chai scent, which is nice, but I could do without the spicy cinnamony thing in the intermediate stages. Makes a nice room scent, too.

Humid and frosty at the same time: an aquatic floral with hints of Lurid’s ozone and Ozymandias’ stone ruins. Not as humid as New Orleans or Bayou, because of the spike of frost and aquatic notes and that hint of decay, and it actually is very nice. One part Lurid, one part Ozymandias, and a dash of hothouse blooms from the antebellum Deep South and you’ve got Kumari Kandam.

Already ITB I can tell this will be a LOT better than the previous formulation. A lot less Tootsie-Roll chocolate and a lot more Terry’s Chocolate Orange, which is what a lot of people seemed to have gotten from the previous versions. I’m so glad that this one is much better for me – sweet chocolate oranges in the cool, crisp English afternoon tea air. This is a perfect foody chocolate scent, which I haven’t been able get from Beth’s other chocolate blends. Subtle and refined, yet fun and sexy as hell. The drydown is a perfect, perfect creamy rich milk chocolate with a sweet, delicate vanilla undertone. Rawr! Beth better not change A DAMN THING before April 13, 2007!

I was really impressed by the near-universal accolades for this scent, and that definitely helped me to decide to get a bottle once it was made GC. It smells gorgeous ITB – so far I wasn’t disappointed. When I tried it on, though, I was disappointed to find that it smelled fake and plasticky and weird. It could be any of the following: a. hormones, b. I had scented lotion on, or c. I’m one of the very few unlucky people for whom this scent does not work at all. I washed my hands, tried it on again, then put it on as my scent for the day, and NOW I’m getting what everyone else has been talking about. This is a dusky, shadowed lily, stately and elegant, who knows she’s better than you, but feminine and sexy at the same time. I'm probably one of the few who's getting the hint of darkness, and after a few seconds I get a bit of the creamy vanilla that other people have mentioned. It's mostly lilies until the drydown, when the vanilla comes out and sweetens the whole blend. It takes a while for the sharp floral scent of lily to calm down and for the vanilla to come out, but when it does, it’s totally worth the wait. I wonder if aging this would make the notes blend together better. Regan, for example, is another vanilla floral that gets better with age. I hope it's the same for Black Lily, because it's good now, but I'd imagine that it'll be great later. Yes, I'm definitely enjoying it now.

Black musk and calla lily first, then everything else comes afterward. I can see how this can be a sex kitten scent for those moments where you want to feel sexy, beautiful, and naughty all at the same time. Once the other notes come out, I definitely smell peach blossom and wisteria topping the musk and lilies, which I love. It’s almost reminiscent of Kindly Moon, what with the peach blossom and wisteria, but headier and more sexy while KM is sweeter, innocent, and nostalgic. This dries down to a pretty, soft peachy floral. Peach is the note that stays on me the longest. It’s less musky and sweet than Katharina, and less floral on the final drydown than Kindly Moon. I love it!

I have never been able to wear dragon's blood resin in large amounts, because it sweetens every blend that’s in it way too much for me. This blend is primarily the golden apples of the Hesperides, sweetened with DB, white musk, and hyacinth. I can definitely tell that the DB is there, because this is sweeter than other apple blends (Creepy, Punkie Night) that I love, but for a scent that contains DB, it’s really nice. I thought that Beth’s apple was completely lost to me after The Hesperides went all wrong on me, but it turns out that maybe it was just everything else in TH because I’m doing fine with apple blends now. Drydown: it smells like sweet apple juice – not quite apple cider, because it’s not spicy enough, but more like the apple juice I used to drink as a kid. I’m definitely keeping the imp, and am debating a bottle, but I’m not sure yet.

When I first smelled this at a MNS back in June, I was so underwhelmed because it was not what I expected at all. Maybe I was having smell overload or something at the time, because I didn't smell much of anything ITB. When I put it on, I got a kind of weird incensey smoke and dry desert sand, but there was also a weird something else I couldn’t place. Now that I have an imp of my own, which I received in a swap today, I’m getting a very fresh, clean just-out-of-the-shower scent. This is not the cinnamon I’ve gotten from other ‘dry desert sand’ scents. This one has the ozone note in Lurid that I love so much and I’ve spent the entire morning huffing my arm. Seriously. Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair. This scent is fit for a king.

I got an imp of this in a swap, even though my bottle's set to arrive on Monday, because I just could NOT wait. And I was not disappointed at all! All I've got to say is this: BEAVER MOON LOVERS, REJOICE. No joke, on me this is exactly like Beaver Moon. There's a very slight difference initially (Beaver Moon is a smidge sweeter while Cockaigne is more foody and a bit spicier), but the drydown is EXACTLY THE SAME. Another plus is that it has better staying power and throw than Beaver Moon. I am so not kidding. If you liked Beaver Moon, you'll like this. Maybe it's just me, but wow. *huffs wrist* I think I've found myself another favourite.