absinthetics

Tahitian vanilla flower and white sandalwood with honeyed patchouli, cacao, and mallow flower. Chocolatey and sweet. This is a lighter and more etheral version of Black Temple Burlesque Troupe. It is not as cloying and much less earthy. The patchouli is very mild. Though you can pick up some of the honey note, it is not a very honey scent. As it dries, the mallow flower and sandalwood kinda dance around the cacao. I do love foodie scents, but sometimes you get a weird look when wearing them, or someone asks who is baking brownies. This probably wont get those questions, but will definitely cause people to smile as they pass by. =)

Glistening red apple and a drift of dark, smoky black copal, saffron, galbanum, sweet orange rind, and myrrh. This is very much like black apple however the sweet orange rind and saffron pop up and make it a totally different scent. It's dark but sparkling.

A staircase ascends past jutting balconies towards a crumbling ceiling as misshapen shadows creep through the gloom. Ancient dark wood, decades of dust, floorboards oozing with red clay, and a roaring fire that casts no warmth. This atmo is very different from the other house themed atmo. This is much drier and more dusty. There is a sharpness to the dark that even has a slightly peppery scent to it.

A house as old as this one… Becomes, in time, a living thing – it may have timber for bones and windows for eyes and – sitting here — all alone – it can go slowly mad. It starts holding on to things – keeping them alive, when they shouldn’t be – inside its walls – Some of them good, some are bad… and some… Some should never be spoken about again… This atmo spray is dark, old wood that has been wet and cold for a very long time. There is something else to it, a creeping, inky shadow to it that tempers it from smelling like just elements of a building. There is spirit here.

Red musk and red apple with bourbon vanilla, tobacco absolute, Indonesian red patchouli, black clove, and khus. A gorgeous scent that really begins and ends in the notes that are listed. There is not much surprise in what you would imagine this scent to be, and that to me was excellent! The red musk is there, tinged with apple. The vanilla softens and sweetens along with the robust quality of the sweet tobacco. The patchouli is sweet and not overpowering. While the clove gives it just a bit of punch. This is GORGEOUS.

DONNA CON VENTAGLIO Donna Con Ventaglio, Gustav Klimt. A white chypre with bergamot, rose otto, ylang ylang, tonka absolute, lotus root, blood orange, white fig, rock rose, mate, and violet leaf. A deep, dark scent actually, for something with such bright notes. The liquid is blonde but there is a sort of darkness to this scent. Other than that, it smells exactly the way one would expect with the notes listed. The rose is tempered by the violet, fig and blood orange. After it dries a bit, the blood orange really comes out, along with the lotus. This is a dark, citrus scent that is very mature.

A stately brick mansion glowing with warmth: bay rum, fine whiskey, white carnations, and hearth wood. Oh what a beautiful, warm scent. It smells like a place where dinner is cooking, and all candles are lit for you to sit with loved ones. There is a sweet spiceyness that must come from the carnation. This sweetness becomes foody from the bay rum and whiskey notes. But underneath it all you get some of that hearth wood that settles it all down some, but not after first being quite foodie.

Red apple, blackened honey, and opoponax. This is just incredibly gorgeous. The red apple is dark and very apple-y and it's just slathered in honey. It's the deep dark apple of only certain apple pies, with something, I imagine it's the opoponax, that makes it more of a fragrance than something edible.

Green apple, bergamot, vanilla orchid, and tiare. A gorgeous and slightly sharp green apple, made only sharper by the bergamot. The vanilla orchid and tiare take that sharpness down a notch but it very much feels like there are two things going on here, rather than a smooth blend between the two qualities.

I can't get enough of this scent. I generally do not like jasmine, but I am an avid foodie and I do like some of the softer jasmine blends. This jasmine note is soft and pretty and the vanilla makes it this creamy sugar that is just the right type for me to handle the jasmine here. I am really glad that I went out on a limb to try this. I'll probably be picking up a few more bottles, I was truly surprised by how great it was.

I do get the impression that this is primarily saffron. It doesn't last all that long on the skin but the saffron note is delightfully complex. I've been looking for a saffron heavy scent for a while and this definitely...well, just wow. I can't wait to age it.

With so few notes I was curious to explore what complexity Beth had mixed in here. And it is surprisingly complex. I love both of these notes, and honestly they both shine. The Chrysanthemum note is like the Tea atmo from a few Halloween's ago I believe.

This scent is gorgeous. The sweet, creamy, spicy assuages my foodie desires...but I love lilac. And the touch of lilac in this is subtle and just utterly beautiful.

BLACK ICE Lovely, dangerous, slick, and bitterly cold: chilly white sleet-like notes with a hint of vetiver, a breath of smoky asphalt, and winter wind. In the bottle: Vetiver for sure. This scent is unique in the Yule category, in my opinion. It is cold, but by being a cold 'perfumey' scent. It's interesting how I can pick up the 'winter wind' aspect. This scent is hard to pin down, it is light and airy in some way. Wet: There are things in here I could not tell from smelling the bottle. There is something dirty and almost acidic. I suppose this is where the asphalt comes in. It's a little plasticy and man-made at first. But I can already tell it's disappearing upon dry down. Drydown: The Vetiver is calming, and I once again can percieve that chilly, air feeling to it. The airy feeling though has finally become 'cold' somehow. The perfumey is becoming a bit more ethereal and less 'in your face'. I have to be honest, I didn't think I would buy another bottle of this until it was completely dry. I really enjoy it at this point, it's calm, and cool and delicate, yet a vibrant 'perfumey' blend. This would be great on a boy, too. It starts to remind me of being outside on a brutally cold night. This scent is definitely a wrist-sniffing scent.

A serious, studious scent: fig, night-blooming jasmine, red sandalwood, bourbon vanilla, oak bark, leather accord, and black amber. This scent is soft and sweet. I'm a huge fig fan and it's a great note in this scent. The bourbon vanilla supports it sweetly, as does the black amber. The leather lies in the background for quite a while, but the jasmine is there, lingering during the entire duration of the scent. I'm not a jasmine fan, but this scent makes me want to give it a try and see what I am missing.

Gleaming black and iridescent green: black patchouli and vetiver with green amber, oudh, tobacco flower, elemi, and champaca. There is something sharp and un-gentle about this scent, and it remains rather cold and hard. I'd say stony but it doesn't feel earthy or even dry. It's like wet black marble. None of the notes really pop out, certainly not the champaca. If you don't like green notes, don't fear, as I don't get a green feeling out of this at all.

Blinding white in the noonday sun: white mint, eucalyptus, glittering elemi, white tea, silver fir, and camphor. Bright! White! Not as shocking as I thought it would be, in fact there's more tea than mint and eucalyptus. I don't get any fir from it, which I like. I don't know what camphor smells like, though.

Vanilla-infused jasmine with honey, Bulgarian rose, white frankincense, and a cascade of lush gardenia blossoms. I get more gardenia blossoms in this than jasmine. There is a hint of rose. The honey is not there for me. This is a light, white floral that sticks around. It is not something to be missed or ignored like some other white florals that are too fragile to enjoy for long. I personally love gardenia, so that vanilla-jasmine makes it a little sweet. I was surprised at how much I liked this considering I do not generally like rose.

SNOW-FLAKES Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, Even as the troubled heart doth make In the white countenance confession, The troubled sky reveals The grief it feels. This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field. The radiance and desolation of winter. Crystaline, brital, beautiful, unique. In the bottle: Delicate, the most ephemeral mint. (But with something fruity sweet just lingering on the outskirts of oral perception.) Wet: The notes are so very very hard to pick out. Their is something Juicy hiding in there, and something sweet. The mint nearly disappears on the skin. It's a perfect winter scent without the pine and even without the mint. The mint disappears to leave just that subtle chill that makes this a gorgeous winter scent. I have to admit it reminds the nose of Snow White. That juicyness is still in there... whatever it is. Drydown: There is a mysterious sharp note that blooms later, it takes this to neither floral, nor fruity... It is not accosting either. It's just... pretty. This scent is .. magical. I can barely pick out any note, but the way the smells mix together.... Huzzah. Well done! Trully a piece of art.

Gleaming metallic gold flares of a powerful imagination. The gilded sheen of a muse’s kiss, the glimmering, vivid glow of a story burning to be told. This is a metallic nail polish that clearly has some yellow to it, but resides in between a silver and a sunlit yellow. One coat does the trick! Edit: Wow. I have had this on since the 22nd, and it is now the 28th and it HAS NOT CHIPPED! This is some crazy dark magic! WOW!!! There is some wear at the tips of the nails, but I mean... I have not been kind to them. I go to the gym every day, and I have cooked for the holidays and it has stayed on!

Wow. This is absolutely true to life. You can even smell the salt of the ham and the juices are a little less juicy because, well, it's a day old, right?

Swirled grey and purple in the gloaming: snowdrifts shadowed with opium tar, wild plum, Siamese benzoin, champaca resinoid, muguet, and carnation. The snow in this is dry and dusty. There is no mint note, nor pine. It is a darkish scent, definitely purple. The champaca note is a bit bitter and I don't smell any of the carnation until the dry down. It's a little green and odd as it pops out with the wild plum and opium tar.

Wow! The alcohol note in this is strong! There are other foodie notes in here that I am trying to discern as it dries down. Maybe some cake....

Gurjum balsam, rose geranium, opoponax, violet leaf, brown leather accord, and patchouli. This is a gorgeous scent that morphs into so many beautiful qualities. The rose and opoponax are at the forefront with the violet leaf giving it a bit of a bite. The brown leather is barely there and sits in the background giving it a mellow backdrop with the pathchouli. For a moment the rose comes forward upon drydown, but it is slowly occluded by something almost a little spicy.

Beware… of Crimson Peak. This is the scent of dread, of admonitions from beyond the grave: inky vetiver and black musk with carrot seed, elemi, and frankincense. This scent is a cry in the night. Bright, dark, biting and scary. It feels like walking into a black room, that moment of panic when you realize you can't see a thing, can't even feel for the light switch. The carrot seed and elemi make it leave you with a feeling of sadness after the fright.