vyola

Hmmm. De Sade + Queen = Iago? That's what my nose is telling me. Which seems to indicate that the long-lasting, sweet-earthy-heavy note in Queen may be vetiver and/or black musk. I never thought of myself as a musk fan before but I've had some lovely experiences lately with various kinds (ah, Phobos, I love your white musk!) and I'm going to have to see what else works for me.

Come to mama! I love florals and they love me. The sweeter and headier, the better -- rose, lilac, violet, gardenia. Blood Countess is all heady, juicy sweetness on me, ripe and dark. On my skin it gives me some of the plum and a spiciness that must be the opium along with the floral/berry notes and I keep getting wafts of the most wonderful juicy berry. It's like a dishful of bruised and over-ripe red and purple fruits with just a bit of sugar to sweeten and draw out the juices. Somebody described this as a feminine Tintagel and I can see/smell the resemblence. It doesn't have the golden, candle-light feeling but it's lush and rich and very happy-making for me. Not powdery at all as some of the white florals get on me; rather, this is ripe and drenched. I get the imagery of the name, too. I feel like I'm leaving a scent signature behind me, seeping into tapestries and velvet hangings, waiting to tease passers-by and remind them of my presence. I feel great. Sometimes slaughtering all those virgins is totally worth it.

Note: this imp was labeled "Old Dublin" A mixed experience. Reviews made this sound like Tintagel's younger cousin so Mom and I were eager to try it. It's greener than Tintagel and I get more cinnamon from it. The rose comes through as it dries, goes away, comes up again. But alas! It has no throw and no staying power on either of us. I had to put my nose right up against my skin to detect it and it was gone from Mom in less than an hour, from me in less than two. This might be something to add to lotion or oil and layer along with Tintagel.

Opening the vial, my first impression was -- HOLIDAYS! Candles and cider, greenery and warmth. I brushed a little on my wrist, then rubbed the other wrist across it. A cloud of scent surrounded me. My mood instantly picked up. It's... it's food-y without smelling like food. There's no cinnamon or clove --it's warm without the fuzzy, buzzy sharpness I associate with those notes (notes I generally do not care much for), and it's winter-forest without being piney. Definitely an indoor woody smell -- firewood but not smoke -- unlit pipe tobacco with dried apple in it? I don't know how much throw it has on me -- I felt surrounded in a warm envelope and made a good attempt at inhaling my wrist, muttering "I smell good!" for hours. The cider notes warmed and mellowed out though I did not identify "cider" until this morning. I put it on at 8 pm last night; there was still a nice light scent at 7 am. And my mood was still great. Mom's scent wore off in a couple of hours (we'll have to test with a heavier application) but did not turn at all. It didn't deepen and mellow out as much as it did on me, though. But she did have the same mood lift. She really wants to try it out as a holiday room scent. Dad grumbled a bit about the house smelling good without any actual food being served to him but he seemed to like it well enough.

I adore lilac and rose so I was hoping for great things from Ouija. My only disappointment is that it isn't as "big" a scent on me as I'd like -- the throw wasn't nearly as all-enveloping as Tintagel. This is a sophisticated, grown-up fragrance to both of Mom and me, sexy and mature, with a lot of facets. The lilac came up first, very sweet and heady. It began to mellow out and got a little powdery -- the white rose? -- but it isn't baby powder or old lady rose. It's more Myrna Loy in a backless dress, sitting at a vanity, whisking a puff over her shoulders before slinking off to a nightclub. Mmmmm, come sit by me. After a while, the wood warmed up and the oak came through, then the roses made a comeback. Lilac drifted up again, mixing with the wood. About this time, I decided to put on a little more. Right then, my father came up and I had him take a sniff of my wrist. "Oh, no!" he said as soon as he did. Uh-oh. But then I had him sniff Mom, who had not put on any more and he liked that. So this is definitely not a fragrance to waft by him until it's calmed down a bit. Ouija didn't last through the night on me; there was the barest whiff around me in the morning. I'm going to have to layer it and refresh it when I use it but I don't mind -- this was another mood-elevating experience. I got very chatty and self-satisfied breathing it in.

Wet, I get a warm, foody scent, rather like eggnog. Clove, nutmeg, sugar -- very nummy. As it dries, there's a bit of baby powder but it mellows down into a more resin-like note, with some incense or maybe sandlewood. This is a nice, dark, bronzy-gold scent that feels appropriate to the long, dark, winter. Bonus points - Dad likes it so either it isn't clove or he doesn't dislike clove as much as he thinks.

Hmmmm, I'll have to take exception to the 'sleek, dark, and ominous'. This is pure violet to me, clean and green and sweet. It's soft and a little wet, like fresh-picked flowers still covered in morning dew. Lovely, with little wafts of sweetness eddying up around me as I move.

Sweet and floral usually does so well on me and Sacred Whore smelled so good in the imp. But as soon as I swept it across my wrist, it sent up all these lovely flowers into the air, got smoky for a second and then settled down on my skin as -- Aw, nuts. And I mean that literally. I smell like walnuts. The only thing that's gonna want to debauch me is a near-sighted squirrel or a particularly desperate chipmunk. *sigh* Mom smells pretty good -- heavy florals with just a trace of the nuts like a warm background (she doesn't think it smells like walnuts but can't figure out what it does smell like to her) and it seems to have pretty good staying power. But I'm all nuts and -- this is most frustrating, I get occasional faint whiffs of the floral but it keeps getting overpowered by walnut. ETA: After refreshing Sacred Whore, I finally got more of the rich floral floating about me and really enjoyed it. Yes, my skin still smells like walnut to me, but that isn't what everybody else thinks I smell like and they aren't sniffing right against my skin anyway.