forspecial_plate

Mostly woods and a touch of powder that comes across as slightly papery on my skin....but not as much as, say, Mr. Ibis. Still, I'm not crazy about paper/powdery, so at first I didn't like this all that much. Later on as it dries the sandalwood comes out stronger, which almost wins me over. It's a lovely sandalwood that keeps nuzzling my nose, still slightly powdery, but not bad. Still.....for this kind of thing, I think I prefer Chintimani-Dhupa with its exotic twist. I wanted more of the herbs.....mint and lemon peel would be great, but they run and hide on my skin. It's okay, plenty of other herbal/woodsy scents in the catalogue for me to love!

Out of the different lily notes that Beth uses, there are one or two (maybe more) that start out as SOAP and develop into SOAPSOAPSOAP on my skin. Guess what? Witch Queen has that note. It drowns out everything else in the scent and also 'ruins' my nose for any other scent, for a couple hours, even after I wash it off. I think after a long while the other notes might come out, but I just can't get past that soapy lily. It happened with Sepulcher and Kostnice too, if I remember correctly.

The Shivering Boy is lovely.......bright and frosty grapes with some winter greenery and resins. : ) It's in the current Yule LE's.

I really like this scent. It's fairly potent and long lasting, and I would call it masculine, but not completely out of the realm for women (from the reviews, sounds like at least some of the girls around here like it!).

It smells zingy to me, with a touch of ozone, rather metallic (I have no idea how Beth does that), and I personally smell a touch of lime in here too. Overall the effect as others have said is cologne or after-shave, with an industrial flavor, which sounds totally weird, but......just read the description. If you think that sounds good, you would probably like it.

Comparison time: this reminds me of Scarecrow's industrial counterpart. Metal Scarecrow. I'm not sure if they even share any notes but the feeling of it kept reminding me of Scarecrow, somehow. I almost want a whole bottle of this, even with my new, more strict decants-not-bottles rule.

Edit: Forgot to add.......there really is a motor oil note in this. I can definitely smell it. And oddly it works!

Santa Muerte.....this is quite a nice scent, mostly floral for me, but I like it. Mostly what I smell is rose and chrysanthemum, which I recognize from Mum Moon. I'm not getting much else, can't really pick out the vetiver. I like this, it makes me feel classy. I will enjoy wearing this again!

This is quite lovely and if you like the old Hunter Moon, you might really like this.

It starts out, in the 'wet' phase, as a bright and lively grape-ish scent, with a delicate frost and a touch of winter greenery. Later on it deepens, and becomes a frosty foresty grape scent with resins. Very nice! It's like the winter counterpart to the older Hunter Moon which I love. Definitely bottle-worthy, this one.

Lilith……this has the same myrrh note as Penitence and Omen, and lots of it. It’s too sweet for me and comes off powdery on my skin. I can’t even smell the other notes, even after giving it time to develop on my skin a little bit. Not for me!

(later) Hmm, I looked up the other notes in this. I like black musk, red wine works sometimes, and I’ve been more open to rose lately. So after I read those, I decided not to wash Lilith off. And I keep sniffing my wrist where I tested it. I like it more now, and it might be growing on me. I think the rose is coming out, just a little bit. So, long story short, I might like this enough to keep the imp.

(over an hour later….) Okay, the black musk finally overcame the myrrh. It’s still somewhat powdery, but I do actually like this. I guess I’ll keep the imp after all!

Bess…..at first, this smells just plain weird on my skin. I can’t even make sense of it. Later, it settles down into something light, herbal, and slightly fruity. It’s not bad, really. Just not doing a whole lot for me. Reminds me of Himerus a little. Nope….this one’s just not for me.

I ended up wearing Doc Buzzard for NYE, just a couple teeny dabs and some in my hair.

For Christmas Eve, I wore Premature Burial, which for me is actually really light and clean, kind of refreshing (especially considering the name and concept behind it!). It reminds me a bit of Demeter's Wet Garden, only better and longer lasting.

Pruno! The scent (well, one of two scents) that commemorated Paris Hilton's brief stay in the pokey.

LE but not hard to find!

Wow, thread merged at lightning speed!

I'm going to an impromptu lunch-time meet 'n sniff at Moonarcana's tomorrow, so I imagine we'll be testing all sorts of things up and down the arms. I'm looking forward to trying Emathides again because I know she has that.

As for tomorrow night......well, I may not wear any scent at all! Lately I've been going 'bare' more often, something going on with my nose, I'm not sure why.....but scents have been getting on my nerves a little. I may dab on just a little bit of Djinn, since it's usually my going-out-at-night scent. We shall see. Also the party I'm going to is with a leather crowd and they discourage the wearing of cologne/perfume.....not that I've ever been much of a conformist.......but I know I would stick out like a sore thumb, so we'll see. If anything it will be something dark and/or smokey.

How about some Black Phoenix? It has hints of cherry and almond, and possibly a little booze as well.

[i've never tried Fruitcake]

This smells mostly of caramel on me, and yet it's a dark scent, very heavy on my skin. Suffocating, almost.

Actually the first time I tried this, I loved it. I thought I had found a new favorite. Then I wore it again yesterday and it creeped me out somewhat. Hard to explain but I got such a sinister feeling from this scent. I don't get it. Caramel seems like it would be somewhat cozy and warm, kind of sexy, right? This scent is like burning red eyes peering at me out of darkness. I can't see the figure these eyes belong to, and I'm not sure I want to.

Something else I don't get, I read all the other reviews and nobody else smells lemon in this? To me there is something very tart underneath the caramel that reminds me almost of lemon.....almost but not quite. I think this contributes to the foreboding atmosphere of the scent. I don't smell mint at all, and the tobacco is very well concealed too. Usually tobacco stands out to my nose a bit more. Maybe the 'lemon' is coming from the other herbs, somehow.

Overall.....I'm just not sure what to make of this. I want to love it, I really do. But I may have to wait a while before I can try it again.

This is much lighter than I expected, and starts out with a *poomf* of powder. The powder fades mostly away after a few minutes, though. The vanilla aspect of this reminds me more of Underpants than anything else I've tried. I was a little afraid of the cotton note because I find that I don't like paper/cotton/linen notes. In this case, it's not very noticeable to me, unless that's what the powder was. I can pick out the tobacco, but I don't think I ever did smell the cognac. I think the Indian musk is giving this an exotic flavor, and maybe that's reminding me of the saffron note in Underpants (combined with the vanilla).

This is a great scent that I will definitely enjoy wearing again. Very light and sophisticated.

Edit: I tried this again and it smelled very soapy, almost as bad as lily smells. : ( Will probably trade my decant.

When first applied, this actually reminds me of candied cherries more than grape. I know this because I just made fruitcake yesterday and I sniffed the cherries. That's what Blood Phoenix smells like when wet, with maybe a hint of grape blended in. The very first time I wore this, right away it reminded me of Black Phoenix. Maybe that's intentional.

However.....as it dries, a real incense quality comes out. I can't pin it on any one note, but it's probably the dragon's blood and/or poppy. I could possibly smell the opoponax in there. But really, none of these stand out in particular. It's a candy/red/incense scent that reminds me of Hellion, but more candy sweet than that scent, a little less smokey. It's pretty light, especially for a scent with red musk......which I couldn't really smell either, now that I think about it.

I've worn this a couple times now and it always reminds me of Chintamani-Dhupa. I tend to amplify sweeter notes so I was a little surprised that this smells so woody and incense-y for me. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do. I'll happily wear this again! I wore it to work tonight and it was nice and soft.....subtle with wood and incense, and some sweetness from the foody elements. Good stuff.

At first I get a strong blast of ozone. Ozone sometimes gives me this almost choking feeling....not a horrible thing....it's like when you have air blowing in your face and you get that reflex of not breathing in. I get that with Archangel Winter, just a little bit. This is one of the stronger ozone scents I've tried.

After a while, the ozone settles down and the scent becomes sweet to me......it keeps reminding me of sugared grapefruit. I have been known to amplify sweet notes, though. Or maybe they just stand out to my nose. Anyway this reminds me a lot of Kingsport, except this is a dry scent. If this is snow, it's definitely not sticking together.....it's too cold for that! This scent lasts and lasts for hours on me.

As far as I know, Libra is not in my chart, although I could be wrong. I was really just attracted to the notes listed here, although it had the potential to be much too sweet. Fortunately that isn't the case! I have discovered that I like rose sometimes, and that's mostly what I smell in this scent. The supporting notes add a nuance of sweetness, especially the cherry which does peek out in little flashes. But really, rose is the star of the show here. And that's a good thing!

I've only tried this once, and I imagine that with repeated wearing the other notes will make themselves known. I will enjoy getting to know this scent.

Well, I've worn this enough now that I should be able to give my impressions.

I'm getting mostly sweetness from this scent. I don't know what it is. I'm familiar with the smell of chamomile, or at least the dried herb. That doesn't seem to be quite what I'm smelling here. Whatever it is reminds me of cotton candy or some kind of sweet marshmallow root. It's more herbal than a really sugary scent, but there's definitely a lot of sweetness. Perhaps fig is doing its thing here, like it did in Lucifer (which is much sweeter on me than I expected). After a while the clove comes out, but not too strong. The mixture of sweet and spicy says 'autumn' to me.

Overall, I do like this. I think of herbal meadows, not 'green' really, but more of an autumn golden scent. It's almost like a lighter, sunnier Samhain or Samhainophobia. It seems suited to rituals, or meditation. I took a chance because if this weren't my sign, I probably wouldn't have gone after it. I'm glad I did.

Edit: I wanted to add that I can't pick out dandelion very much if at all in this scent....at least, not like I know it from One To Tie, Two To Win. This is totally different from that scent on me.

So far, out of the new Salon blends, I like this one most. It's interesting that some are comparing it to Voodoo Queen......it reminds me a little of Doc Buzzard. Well, more than a little, actually. It's somewhat sharp and woody, and a bit resinous. It's emphatic.....you definitely know it's there! I think I can smell all the notes except orris.

For the first 10 minutes or so I really loved this. Then after that I thought it was a bit on the sharp side, and the clove was trying to take over but never quite did. I agree with all those who said this will age well, and this is my most likely bottle candidate of these.

I love this scent. I thought it would be juicy somehow (maybe because of the name?), the same way that Nocnitsa smells 'juicy' or fruity to me. Not so with S.P. This is a dry pine that comes across as sharp and slightly soapy, but in a good way. It's a comforting smell to me. It reminds me of the woods in some BPAL aquatic blends, minus most of the aquatic, but perhaps there's still a bit of salt air left in there, giving this a bracing, eye-opening quality.

This wears a bit harsh on me, but I guess that's the idea. It's a bitter, hateful scent after all! I was very attracted to the notes but I'm afraid the clove is just a bit strong. Clove does that to me sometimes (but not every time). Overall this reminds me a bit of Djinn, oddly enough. However, if Djinn is like fire, Troll is like fire that's been doused with rain.

Oh and one thing I learned from the Smiling Spider....if the clove is too strong, wait a couple months and try again. I ended up liking that one a lot more after some aging. Hopefully that will happen with Troll, too.

I have found that rose is a note that I quite enjoy sometimes, it (usually) doesn't turn to soap on my skin as it does for other people. I couldn't wait to try this and Peacock Queen, I was really curious about how they were different. Here's what I found.....

Basically, Peacock Queen is rose, and Rose Red is rose plus other stuff. I read some of the other reviews, but still this smells somewhat different than I was expecting. I smell rose plus some cool, frosty condensation, and also a bit of a green smell, but *not* like the 'crushed green stems' smell that I get from other bpal scents (Orpheus for example). No, this is closer to the green note that I smell in Snow White. As a matter of fact, for something called Rose Red, this smells more green than red to me.

Bottom line......I like this! I think I like Peacock Queen just a little better. I may end up getting bottles of both.

This smells good, I wore it to Thanksgiving dinner. It is what it is.....smells like gingerbread. To my nose there is the slightest scorched element, like the cookies are slightly crisp on the bottom. I have very little complaints about this scent.

However......I have to admit, Shub-Niggurath has spoiled me somewhat. Gingerbread Poppet is similar but less complex, and doesn't last as long or have as much throw. I bet if someone were heartbroken by Shub not working for them, they might do better with Gingerbread Poppet.

My first impression was 'lotus!', but that could be the sugared plums. It has a fruity sweetness that's almost like candy, kind of the way lotus smells to me. But it's the long dry-down that really impresses me about this scent. The fruit note deepens, and the 'candy' aspect fades. This scent might start out almost whimsical, but on the dry-down, it seems to mature and deepen.

I know I talk a lot about 'masculine' and 'feminine' qualities of scents. I realize this is totally objective. Today I was thinking.....I really should stop worrying about whether something is feminine or masculine. If it smells good to me, why not just wear it?? Midwinter's Eve is almost a womanly scent in my opinion, but I like it. And if I like it, I should just wear it! Why make it so complicated when it's not? Same goes for Snow White, which I find a bit girly, but I really like it, too.