TrailerTrashPrincess

well, now i guess it is my turn... first, a pronunciation: (pronounced 'sheep-r') now let me begin, if i may, (not a hijack, this is history!) by saying that i LOVE Chypre fragrances. Chypre de Coty being one of my most favourites of all time... i have several bottles, of varying fullness, from a 1917 original (long since empty. but i believe in the ghost of perfumes past.... so... i keep it. in sortof a shrine.) to one i bought myself in the early 80's that is still sealed in the box. i also have several other oil blends that are true Chypre... as it is a distinct category (sometimes, i learned from shopping at Ulta and Sephora this category is called "Mossy Woods"). once upon a time i wrote a very impressive research paper on perfumes and their affect on memory and as such included lots of research about designers and some history... blah, i'm babbling. but there's so much to be said about a scent with this much HISTORY. on with the review: Chypre is the French name for the island of Cyprus, birthplace of Venus, the goddess of love. Cyprus also being in the region where most oakmoss comes from. according to Coty (who as far as anyone knows made the first commercial perfume to be put in a pretty bottle) a chypre blend should consist of oakmoss, labdanum/Vetiver, sandalwood, "fresh" notes (frequently fruits. commonly bergamot) and sometimes patchouli. and every blend i've ever encountered that claimed provenance from the original has a definite woody-conifer (evergreen type tree things) scent..... that for me always turns into a dusty suede/leathery powder in the drydown. including this one. if Coty had made a masculine version of the perfume, it might smell something like this. vetiver and mosses and .... trees. not pine, not maple, not elm... nothing that instantly jumps out as being common to where i'm from. maybe it is a real cypress? or maybe the fir which would make sense.... as amber, the stone, is fossilized resin/sap from the fir tree but amber, in scent, is generally from the "rock rose"/cistus/labdanum (depending on who you ask), which does grows in Cyprus / the Mediterranean & "has a warm, leathery amber scent and is also an efficient fixitive for fragrance." (says my scent dictionary thingy) is it wrong of me to love this just for the scent, with no real intention of ever using it for gambling? this isn't by any means something i could wear for everyday, but this is such a magical memory-smell. maybe a collective unconscious memory (says the always longwinded and melodramatic Empress o'the Trailerpark) ETA..........sorry if this is too long or just too much. Mods, edit me and slap my wrists if you need to.

i SO wanted the butter and sugar and butterscotch... even the whiskey! i got this yesterday as a lovely GWP from a formumite... in the imp, it smells like Buttershots -- which i lovelovelovelovelove. as soon as it hits my skin, then i get the dark, spiced rum that's so nummygood with still a little buttershots sweetness on top. within five minutes, though, it turns into Malibu (coconut rum).... spilled on the carpet Malibu.... which is wierd. if this didn't have the evil coconut in it, it'd be perfect. that didn't stop me from slathering myself into a rumcloud last night right before i went to sleep, though. i will hafta get a bottle, even if it never touches my skin, cuz it smells SO GOOD wet. AND i must get a bottle for my best girlfriend who's pregnant, and plans to breastfeed, and who is seriously missing her rum.... oooooo, maybe it'll go in a scent locket today! edit: my friend (who i still plan to get a bottle for) was admitted to the hospital a few days ago (and had her baby, c-sec, 2mos early, a few days later) anyway. i took an imp of Grog up to the hospital for her, just to sniff, to hopefully cheer her up. we spilled a teeny tiny little droplet on her blanket, and the whole room smelled SO GOOD for hours. the nurses must've thought somebody had brought in a bottle. various members of the family tried it out, and it stayed lovely on almost everyone. i guess i'm just (coco)nuts.

as i've said before, i *heart* bay rum... i don't get any here.... this is ALMOND. with a side of Brimstone. i get the tiniest bit of something that might've been near a bay leaf and a clove pod once, or had it described to them with great longing... but.... mostly ALMOND.

so sad! in the vial, it smells delish. on my skin, powdery vanilla, plastic and sawdust. pooh!

i *heart* Dragon's Blood... but for some reason the lab's Dragon's Blood and my skin just.... don't get along. the Dragon's Milk is okay, so... i try this one. and this is beautiful. the amber doesn't go all baby powder, instead smells more like how amber really actually smells, and the Dragon's Blood smells more like the resin i'm used to. i've had this imp for months, and i can't believe i waited this long to try it! this seems like it would be good for an everyday sort of scent, for days when smelling like dirt or coffins or miscellaneous odd things might not be the best. i may or may not get a bottle, but i'll certainly get another imp when this one starts lookin' a little puny.

this was one of those ultra-full imps... so of course it spilled a little when i was opening it... wet, dry, it doesn't change: hours later my fingers and the label all still smell like Old English Lemon Oil.

in the imp (i don't know whether this is the original or the re-release) i smell an undercooked funnelcake, without the sugardusting and saltwater taffy... as soon as it hits my skin the saltwater part of the taffy jumps up to the surface... then just as quickly disappears... to be replaced by coconut, cheap oily vanilla lipgloss, and plastic. whatever's in Underpants that goes all ick on me is in this, too. hours later, the mentions of it smelling like BBW warm vanilla sugar aren't wrong, i've got that same plasticky coconut waxy smell that lotions and gup in that scent give me.

i didn't buy this during the update because i don't like icy/minty/menthol/eucalyptus type scents. but i read some reviews and got ahold of an imp... and.... its violet fabric softener. still not entirely sure how i feel about it, but it certainly isn't at all what i expected.

i've had this for awhile, just hadn't had the occasion to review it... when i was little, my stepfather taught me how to roll ciggies... so i grew up knowing the smell of tobacco very well. in the imp, this is tobacco and hairspray. as soon as it hits my skin, the tobacco crawls under the table, the hairspray dries, and something subtle, floral, very pretty-- happens. sortof the smell of lots of very expensive perfumes blending -- but in a good way (smells like my grandmother's sunday school class) this is a familiar sort of smell, something i'd want to wear to feel snuggly. probably not something the description would make anyone else feel, but i grew up around that whole clubbing atmosphere... so... in a very strange way, this makes me feel little. i need more, this partial bottle isn't gonna last long...

initial sniff from the imp: ugh! unbrushed teeth and bad BO. (that's the Jasmine shoving herself in my face and stepping on my feet) i try putting it on (i know better) and in less than five minutes i'm scrubbing at my hands with raw sugar & olive oil to try and slough off the ick. i never got any lime, but jasmine and i are bitter enemies. i may be bigger, but she's stronger.

i don't like ginger or tonka so this makes me wary.... but cypress, fig, patchouli, rose...maybe they'll outweigh the bad? wet, fresh from the imp on my skin: Cypress, with the cedary tang that's so yummy. initial impression: this smells like the inside of my gramma's cedar chest (that's a good thing) decades of bath powder, chanel no 5 & cedar. hours later, that's still what i smell. gramma's cedar chest. Chanel no#5 with a little bit of the powdery/talc-y smell and cedar. i fully expected to hate this... so much that i only put the tiniest, teensiest droplet on the far side of my arm so i have to twist rather strangely to sniff it.... i think maybe i'll slather some more on now, and go to bed.... and remember being little and spending the night at gramma's house. (except, being from the south, its Mawmaw's house)

my favourite scent for about two years in the mid/late 80's was in a spray (like a windex or cleanser spray, not a pump-on-the-top like most perfume) bottle... it was called Chill Out. however many years ago BBW came out with their "Flowering Herbs" i was soooo happy, cuz it smelled almost exactly the same as my beloved Chill Out... now that both of those are long gone.... now i have Nosferatu! at first, this is that same scent.... it changes, of course, by the end of the first hour there's a specific floral note (heirloom roses, not hothouse roses) but that same rich, earthy, herb-y base is still there. this is my next 10mL !

i've been doing some purchasing and some swapping and thought maybe i ought to make a place where people can give their opinions.... so. here goes...

sniffed from the imp: ugh. jasmine and ginger. i'm feeling brave so i try it... i keep hoping this is going to do something interesting, but my arm simply smells like i haven't showered in a month (i have, mind you) i usedta work at the renaissance festival, and this smells vaugely like the ginger beer served there (i haaaaate ginger beer)... so, yeah. i think this is how i smelled at the end of the (100+ degrees outside)day, working RenFest, the day a guy spilled his ginger beer on me. now, like then, all i want to do is go take a shower and scrub this off.

i *heart* bay rum. too bad i don't get any out of this imp.... i don't get tobacco leaf, either. all i get is tropical flowers. there might be a little bit of a wood or resin somewhere behind it all that'll come out in another few hours, but so far... too Barbie Takes A Carnival Cruise Vacation to the Caribbean for me.

wet in the imp and fresh on my skin: this is the garden we had when i was little! rich Georgia soil (and a little bit of red clay) that has been used as a garden for 20+ years. loamy, rich, fertile. tomato plants, okra, sunflowers, zucchini.... all the leaves from what we grew... and a little bit of rain. moist, lush, rich Mother Earth. once this touched my skin, it blossomed into the way our garden smelled after a heavy rainstorm -- but within ten minutes the smell was completely gone. *poUt* i'll treasure this imp, bring it out occasionally to sniff, just to be able to *remember* and keep it near the jar of soil from that garden that i keep with me. thank you, Beth. for again gifting me a memory.

at first: Tylenol and Atomic Fireballs as it dries down, the cinnamon gets itself under control and goes from being bright red candy cinnamon to brown baking cinnamon. the spot where i put this oil is a little itchy, which might just be a random thing cuz i'm not allergic to anything but cats =^. .^= final drydown: smells like the cinnamon brooms i love so much! very faint and almost no throw. i like it.

in the imp and fresh on my skin... all i smell is dry if that makes sense. i know there's a scent, but i can't figure out what it is cuz the back of my throat is too busy trying to figure out where the artificial sweetener came from (fake sweeteners make me incredibly thirsty and nothing makes that dry feeling go away) as it dries down, i get a violetty/white floral that quickly turns a little soapy and powdery. i get no musk or patchouli final drydown: this reminds me of these violet candies (square, about lifesavers size, come in a metallic purple paper wrapping, been around for over a century, can't for the life of me remember who makes 'em-- they're hard to find outside of New Orleans, but some airports have 'em) that i usedta love... i smell the way i remember those tasting. oh. they were these! Chowards Violet Mints.

in the imp: i can't even begin to describe the smell. sortof like dried flowers that have gotten wet. on my skin, drying down: violets, gardenia and sandalwood. the violets fade quickly, the gardenia* gets amped up and a woody, resiny base note lingers. hate the first hour, but after that it's pretty. *my skin seems to think lots of things ought to smell like gardenia.

on first sniff, in the imp -- all i get is black pepper and ashes (i got a bouquet of carnations while i was in the hospital, once, and they were pretty but smelled so awful, all pepper and fire and mold -- so i'm guessing i just don't like that scent) and that stage lasts for about five minutes... then everything becomes Strawberry Shortcake! the dolls from when i was little, where everybody and everything was scented with their namesake scent, and this was the one i loved most. somewhere between fresh strawberries, strawberry lipgloss, strawberry kool-aid and strawberry incense sticks this would have been my favourite perfume when i was little!! now, i like it, i'll probably get a bottle and wear it when i'm feeling very little or very silly. i'll just hafta remember to not sniff it for awhile when i put it on cuz that first part is very unstrawberrylicious.

i'm bound and determined to trudge my way through and try every single little imp i've got at some point. i read somewhere that there's something in jasmine that, if in large quantities for most people, or even tiny amounts for others, smells like human. um.... *flush* anyway. i've never much cared for that jasmine scent. pretty flowers and all, but.... wet, fresh from the imp all i got was JASMINE -- like Jasmine Guy came over, drank all my tequila, tried to make out with my other half, threw up in my shoes and then passed out in the bathroom with the door locked. thankfully, that faded into jasmine soap and a vaguely unshowered smell. i feel like i've been leaving nothing but bad reviews and that makes me sad! i love the mastery of these oils, but i have very specific likes and dislikes and odd skin.

since we have the same first name, i was hoping to at least enjoy this scent a little bit... but, nope. the nosegods decree that there shall be only one Dana in this house... and i'm bigger, so i win, and the imp can go live in the swapbox until it get adopted. all i get is artificial vanilla, fake almonds, fresh plastic and dry cleaning chemicals doing a wierd konga on my skin & they all take turns being up front. thankfully, there's not much throw and i only used a teeny little bit.

ok, i've had this for awhile and it has been completely unappealing everytime i've sniffed at the imp.... i'm feeling brave (or stupid. pick one).... i dig it out (i love the way my hands smell after digging around in my BPAL boxes!) and open the vial... children's Tylenol. fake cherry thick alcohol mediciney all the negative things about being little and feeling icky and somebody trying to pour that (#&@ down my throat. *cough* *shudder* i swipe the impstick on the top of my wrist.... pause.... sniff.... ok, a little less medicinal, more maraschino (sp?) with something unhealthy -- either evil or rotten or really really black musk -- underneath somewhere half an hour later.... there's very little scent left that i can detect. and what there is... seems to be a weensy bit of cyanide (ok. almonds) and fresh morning air with the tiniest bit of baby powder-scented-something. really just sortof ... eh. i'll try this again sometime and see if i'm still as undecided. otherwise it'll be off to the swapbox with this one. that being said, i can see how this would be highly appealing to a whole buncha people. just... not me. Black Phoenix is just too.... clean.

as soon as i swipe the imp-wand across my skin... oh, Ugh! this is like Brimstone - New Improved, Now With BLACK PEPPER I hate pepper. hate hate hate won't use, don't have in my house, can't stand, send it back to the kitchen it has two little specks on it, nevermind i wouldn't eat here anyway, i'm leaving HATE pepper. white, black, pink, red, orange, plaid. don't care. hate. about two minutes later, i can relax -- the peppery wet ash smell is completely gone and the scent keeps changing. for a second i thought i smelled rubber or latex but as soon as i went to sniff again it was gone. something keeps remind me of Blood Pearl. a lot. a really really whole lot. like enough that i dug out an imp of it to compare the oils -- similar, but not enough so that i think they're the same thing. wait, it keeps changing.... incense and lily ? maybe? with just the teensiest bit of citrus (the rind or oil [zest] & not the sweet juice) i like it! doesn't seem to have much staying power on me, though... as barely an hour after i put it on i have to smoosh my nose against my arm to smell it. final barely-can-smell-this whatever it is, smells so much like a very expensive (i only ever bought one thing -- a pair of earrings) store i lovvvved to go in and just *touch* everything and breathe in that smell....

i also really really like Herr Drosselmeyer. reminds me of my first stepfather and the custom blended pipe tobacco he smoked. there's something in that oil that goes a little bit iffy on me on the final drydown, though, but only *sometimes* i got a bottle of Kether from the Sephiroth collection.... and it turns into all the good parts of Herr D. but none of the bad -- very tobacco leaf, pipe smoke and warm snugglies. that's what i'd suggest [=