fufu_berry

Kaidan (Boom!/Irredeemable - Rosehip, plum blossom, white sandalwood, jonquil, and amber-laden incense) has been the best "floral" for me - plum blossom is gentler and more herbaceous than other florals I've tried, the rosehip gives a floral quality without becoming too OMG ROSE, and jonquil is a bit more earthy/musky than overtly floral (at least on me). En Eski Ask Siiri (Lupers - juniper, tamarisk, almond, lavender honey, sesame, myrrh, olive oil, cedar, and rose) was also pleasant - the rose is heavily tempered by earthier notes like sesame, cedar, and almond. It also has a creamy/nuttiness that might appeal if you like "cozy" scents. Cherry blossom scents like Kyoto (cherry blossom, white sandalwood and star anise) and Kabuki (cherry, red musk, and star anise) have worked well for me too, since they're not the kind of high-pitched, white floral or perfume-y rose kind of scents that usually give me a headache.

ETA scent notes - also, Kumari Kandam (Thick incense, clay, stone, and hothouse blooms with a spike of frost, a hint of decay, and heavy, dolorous aquatic notes) - according to my long-ago review, what I got was "Kind of a smoky/candle herbal floral with a little bit of sweetness and just a hint of something acrid."

This came off as a very floral Earl Grey to me - I definitely get the citrus-y scent of bergamot, but maybe also a touch of jasmine? It bothered my nose a little, and I'm allergic to jasmine, so that may have been the culprit.

On wet: PLUMMITY PLUM PLUM? Have I mentioned lately that I am plum?

Drydown: Still basically plum SN - this plum is super fruity and sweet too.

Dry: Just a hint of sandalwood. I was hoping the sandalwood would keep in the plum under control (I like plum, but I amp it waaay up), but not so far. Not a hint of mint anywhere.

+15 min: Whew, ok, the plum is getting under control and more woods are coming out. Still no sign of mint.

I'll have to see what this is like after a couple hours -- the plum blast opening was really intense and unpleasant, but if this keeps getting woodsier it might be a keeper.

In the decant: Worn leather.

On wet: Worn leather.

Drydown: Some of the balsam coming out; still no cinnamon.

Dry: Pretty much the same. I didn't really get any cinnamon from this, but the leather and balsam are a nice combination. It's a pretty simple scent, but the balsam adds a lot of warmth to the leather.

Something purple inspired for Marie?

Gotta be purple for Marie! Purple Phoenix, Bruised Violet Compound (which also works with her being a doctor), White Chocolate and Sugared Violets might be possibilities. The GC scent Marie also has violet in it which is kind of a fun coincidence.

I've been pondering my friend and my Buffy/Faith costume scents some more...I'm thinking maybe Black Temple Burlesque Troupe (sexy, dark, tobacco, a little dangerous) for Faith and perhaps Blood Amber (like the idea of blood + something quintessentially feminine) for Buffy?

Another one of the box of chocolates one time was Dark Chocolate, Tulsi, Turmeric and White Ginger, which sounds like it might fit the bill!

Okay! So I'm going as femme Jayne (from Firefly) for Halloween this year. I have most of the costume together...I just can't decide on a scent! Any ideas? I have a fairly extensive collection of bottles and imps. I was thinking maybe Tombstone or Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener? For that sort of old-west feel. But I'm not sure! Soo, any suggestions?

I think Tombstone would be a great choice. Fighter from the RPGs (Leather, musk, blood, and steel) might also be a good choice (or an addition to Tombstone, for a little bit more "hard edge" that I associate with Jayne).

It's that time of the year again...since this thread was so helpful last year for my Halloween costume (No. 93 Engine for my Drive costume) I thought I'd bump it up and solicit some advice for this year for me as well.

A friend and I are doing Buffy and Faith, which has been a costume dream of mine for a while (I'm Faith, she's Buffy). I saw some ideas for Buffy characters in another thread, but most of them were scents I either don't have or didn't work for me. Thoughts? My likes and dislikes can be found in my signature wishlist link; my friend likes amber, sandalwood, musks, doesn't like cocoa or vanilla.

Awe two cool options but I feel she had to be more candy like...licorice, gummi bears, a little chocolate, frosting, sprinkles. And maybe mint.

It sounds like some of the things from Lilith's Pickman Gallery might fit the bill. I'm thinking particularly of Cykranosh (Sour gummi bears, cherry cordial, and apricot preserves), Love (Marshmallows and rose sugar with whipped vanilla cream and a hint of strawberry) and Uncle Brian (Raspberry sherbet dotted with orangesicle, merlot gelato, pink cotton candy, and iced lime).

I really wanted to love this -- gin is a note I like a lot, and the idea of a fruity scent appeals to me, especially for summer -- but the blueberry and papaya amped way up and drowned out the gin and lemongrass. It just got too sweet and heavy for me.

I have a decant of the 2008. This one had promise (copal, spice, woods, tobacco) but all I got was roses and hairspray the whole way through. :/ Won't be getting any of this year's.

Something in this went really wrong on me. From wet to dry, I mostly got an overwhelming high-pitched smell, something like ammonia. Not pleasant! Most of the notes in this I know are good on me, so I suspect either the petitgrain (which I haven't tried before) or some combination that hasn't been in my other scents. Bummersauce

Realized I hadn't review this!

Wet: Oak and nutmeg - woodsy spicy.

Drydown: Beeswax amps way up. Beeswax tends to go vanillic on me (which I don't like, but may be a plus for others), but the sandalwood and leather seem to help keep this a bit more earthy and not too sweet.

Dry plus: Leather comes out, still very creamy from the beeswax and a little sweet with the nutmeg. I would probably like this a little drier, but I still enjoy it when I can handle a bit of sweetness.

Obatala is coconut and shea, which I think would go with cocoa butter.

Haha, I have the opposite problem. Wand caps put way too much oil on for me! I have to use toothpicks with the wand capped bottles I have to avoid od-ing.

Gosh I hate wand caps. I only have a few, from bottles that I bought second hand. I wish like hell I didn't eat up oils so much, then I could enjoy a good wand cap, but with my current slathering modus, they are useless. And annoying, as my usual routine of figuring out what I want to wear involves opening many bottles and sticking the cap under my nose, which is a bit dangerous with the wand cap sticking up...

I had a similar issue to SSDB - when I sampled Turkish Village at C2E2, I got a lot of delicious coffee and a light incense background, but I tried it again a couple days ago, and it was fuzzy sweet roses (a weird description, but that's all I can think). It wasn't terribly unpleasant, but it wasn't too great either, and it faded fast. I'm going to give it one more shot, but if that doesn't work out it's off to swaps!

Bumping to say that Temple of Dreams is a beautiful fresh basil on me.

On wet: Red musk? Seriously, this smells exactly like red musk.

Drydown: Ginger, specifically red ginger (as in Inextinguishable Hatred) which is light and effervescent on me.

Dry: Red musk and ginger. Somehow the patch+orange blossom combo = red musk on me, which is fine, but it does dominate the scent.

Hour plus: Still red musk and ginger. I like it, but it's not terribly complex. I'll stick with my imp for now, but it's quite nice.

Wet: Juicy tart plum. A good start!

Drydown: Still plum.

Dry: Ack, something is getting really perfume-y and headache-y. I haven't had any problems with musk, and the plum seemed fine, so it must be the combination of fruitiness and carnation. Gonna have to scrub. :/

This is all lilac all the time on me. It smells like something I used to use as a kid - maybe a scented eraser? Not my favorite.

On wet: Dark musk, something spicy and smoky (must be the pepper and clove), just a hint of wintergreen, and a faint sweetness.

Drydown: The sweetness and spices amp up a bit, but the neroli doesn't get overpowering like it sometimes does on me. At this stage, it's like a lighter Rumpelstilzchen, which is a favorite of mine.

Dry: Musk comes out a bit more, and the whole thing really settles together.

Several hours plus: Still getting most of the components - musky, spicy, and faintly sweet. I really like this a lot. I probably have a slight preference for Rumpelstilzchen because of the vetiver and woods, but ODofFC has much better staying power. Glad I sprung for a bottle of this!

In truth, the only reason I tried this was for the character - I have been positively inhaling Irredeemable for the last couple weeks, and Kaidan is my favorite character (the mini-story about her background literally brought me to tears). Florals and strong fruit scents have generally been extremely fail on me, but since there weren't any allergy notes in Kaidan I thought I'd give it a shot.

On wet: Tangy is the best word - sweet, but also a little zesty. I would associate this most with the plum.

Drydown: Some floral-y sweet notes coming out, but nothing that's making me headache-y or weird like florals usually do.

Dry: A little bit of the sandalwood coming out to ground it. No incense, so it's lighter and sweeter than I would have pictured for the character, but my skin often eats smoky scents, so not too surprising.

Several hours plus: Finally the incense comes out! Resinous and light, fortunately no powder from the amber.

Yay for trying new things! I don't know yet if I need a bottle of Kaidan, as sweet fruity scents are waaaay outside my wheelhouse, but I am actually enjoying it.

Pet Magah Bird from the Yules had guava and other fruits...I haven't tried it personally, but the reviews seem to fit the light and fruity theme. Obviously this is an LE so it won't help with your order, but it seems like it might be up your alley.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this, but it's so lovely. It opens with a blast of soft mint, which dissipates pretty quickly on me. After the mint opening, it just gets kind of tart and fresh and creamy and it's so hard to describe. It has good staying power on me except for the mint top note. It's perfect for spring -- light and refreshing, but not soapy or cologne-y.

Oh wow. I had just started reading Irredeemable before C2E2, and so I was really wanting to try these scents, particularly Alana Patel. On wet, I got a lot of the "faded perfume" - kind of astringent, a little floral, but not heady at all. Quickly, the gin came to the forefront, very bright and effervescent, but the perfume-note is keeping it from being too cheery. This is *not* happy drinking, which makes sense given the state Kaidan finds Ms. Patel in. The "cigarette smoke" is more like a tobacco note on me - I didn't get any smoke smell, but my skin always eats smoke notes, so it may just be a factor of my chemistry. Overall, I love this scent - it's elegant and gritty at the same time, and fits the character perfectly. Yay!