forspecial_plate

Dee's label is different from the other GC's. I don't know if you can see in this pic (cell phone pic, sorry), but it looks more like the older GC labels, and there is a greyed out alchemical symbol in the background.

 

There are potential problem notes here but they work together like magic.

 

Galbanum is green and rooty. On its own it is overpowering and not pleasant, but here it is tempered by the sweet fig. Fig also has an earthiness that compliments the galbanum.

 

Fig can be too sweet and sometimes reminds me of bananas (thinking of Lucifer which was unfortunate), but here it is balanced by the resins.

 

I like frankincense but it can sometimes be too heavy. It has a way of taking over the entire fragrance. In this scent I have a hard time even picking it out, but I know it's helping to hold together the other two notes.

 

Overall impressions: I applied heavily and the galbanum did stand out, but like I said it struck a balance with the other two notes. Sometimes the most simple scents are the best ones. Oddly after a while this scent seemed to fade away to nothing but I think maybe my nose just got used to it. The Nutcracker is everything I was hoping for. There is a Christmas candle aspect....just a little bit.....but it's a quality I enjoy. This is a winner!

This was disappointing.....I really wanted to like it and it just doesn't work for me. The verbena seems to be the strongest note, or maybe the cistus is contributing to that herbal/citrus aspect. The mint is pretty strong and long-lasting, and I am getting the feel of the brown musk too. I already knew I don't really like brown musk or brown anything really, but I had to try this because the woods and herbs sounded nice (especially pine, a favorite note). But what happens is the scent smells like there are one or two notes too many, and it just never settles into something I like. It's not offensive, and really with all the verbena and stuff behind that, it reminds me of Nyarlathotep, which I like a lot more. I will keep wearing that and Wolf Moon '07 (I really wanted Howl In The Darkness to be like a deluxe Wolf Moon that I would fall in love with).

I've had this little decant in my "to be swapped eventually" pile for months, and just decided on a whim to try it again. I can't remember what I didn't like about it, but now I really like it.

 

It's odd because I think of orange and tangerine as top notes, and vetiver as more of a heart or base note. But in Velvet Tiger, those roles are flip-flopped. When first applied, I smell this herbal, slightly ashy vetiver, with almost zero orange. But as the scent dries, this warm, glowing, spicy citrus comes out and it strikes me as wonderful and delicious, round, but still kept dry with the spice. Later I can smell black licorice, too, but not very strongly. The throw seems to be about medium.

 

I do like vetiver, and the vetiver in Velvet Tiger reminds me of that in Baron Samedi (one of my favorite GC scents). So it's no surprise to me that this is kind of a love-it-or-hate it scent, based on a few other reviews that I read. I'm really glad I gave it another chance and I might even hunt down a partial bottle. It's in the same family as Baron Samedi and Mad Meg, so I may not need more than the decant that I have, but I do enjoy it.

Spices and woods always get my attention, and this is one of my favorite spice scents from the lab. My imp is 2 or 3 years old and for me, everything is balanced just perfectly. I think it was a little more sharp when it was new.

 

Clove and cassia can both be tricky but they are very well behaved here. I do think of this as a simple scent, just spices and little else, but that's all it needs to be for me to love it. I don't pick up much tea or sandalwood, so I think of them as supporting notes.

 

I know I can always wear this when I can't decide what to wear. I love this scent and I have a bottle coming from the lab. : )

I was hoping this would not be sassafras single note, even though I like that note, I wanted to smell all of these things in the scent. When I first tried this, it was indeed a very light and sweetish sassafras single note, with a little bit of smokey tea in the background. It seemed to disappear almost completely on my skin. I put it away for a while (a few weeks).

I tried it again tonight, and applied a lot, probably too much. It's stronger now, and it's still sassafras, with tea and tonka, and I think the champaca is adding to the sweetness of the scent, but I can't really pick it out as a note. Overall this is really great, one of my favorite scents from Halloween or maybe the whole year. The sassafras is the same as in Laudanum, but this is sweeter and there is a kind of buttery, almost coconutty quality. I still think the tea adds a little smokey quality. Love it!

Plunder this morning, and I haven't decided yet for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm thinking about Minotaur, or Pinched W/Four Aces. Can't decide!

I love this, a very well balanced fir and vanilla, just like the description says. I was right to go straight for a full bottle. Love it! Sometimes vanilla turns on me, and I can smell that slightly dusty plasticky quality threatening to come out in this scent, but it’s held in check by the wonderful pine and fir.

 

There is a minty, slightly menthol quality going on here, and sometimes it reminds me a bit of some kind of therapeutic muscle ointment (in a good way). It’s a very light scent on me so I’ll be applying a little more heavily than I normally do. I’d be perfectly happy to walk around all day smelling like a Christmas tree, but that’s not what this smells like to me. The fir is actually subtle compared to something like Stranger In Camp. The vanilla reminds me a little bit of coconut, and more than once I’ve thought of suntan lotion, especially after the drying down of the scent. Overall, this is a winner!

 

 

Short version: minty amber/floral (not rose) with white chocolate, hints of evergreen from the hellebore and mint. Strong enough to wear on its own, but will also layer beautifully with other Yule scents. Read on for the long version.

 

I took a bath with Victorian Virgin, and then rubbed it along my collarbones after the bath. I wanted the full-on double-rainbow all the way experience. I loved how the oil felt on my skin. My hair does get oily so I did shampoo and rinse off after the bath, and it did leave a slippery film on the tub, so be careful not to fall if you use it in the bath. On to the scent......

 

First of all, if you didn’t already know, Christmas rose isn’t really rose, it’s hellebore. This isn’t a rose scent at all. If you remember Christmas Rose, the Yule scent from 2 or 3 years ago, you might recognize it in this scent. It’s a sweet, greenish floral scent, and combined with the mint, it goes high up in my nose and reminds me a little bit of evergreen. But don’t let that scare you, I don’t think anyone is going to smell this and think, “Pine!!”. I never did pick out honeysuckle, so maybe it’s combining with the Christmas rose or just supporting the other notes.

 

Overall, this is a minty amber scent, with a big shot of the aforementioned hellebore, and I can smell the white chocolate, too. I’m not a big fan of chocolate or cocoa in my perfume (with a couple exceptions), and the white chocolate here is different. The amber/floral combination makes me think of another Yule scent from the past, When The Winter Chrysanthemums Go. It also reminds me a bit of Cloister Graveyard, which makes sense. I think this bath oil can layer really wonderfully with a lot of different Yule scents. On its own, it lasts at least a couple hours, maybe 3 or 4, but it's not quite as strong as a perfume oil. It’s still pretty strong, though.

 

This is a great interpretation, through scent, of the painting. I love the lab’s Salon scents and I hope we see more bath oils of this nature!

I'm pretty sure Baron Samedi has vetiver even though it's not listed. It took me a long time to recognize it, but for me it comes out in the dry-down. If you like spicey almond and/or bay you might want to try it.

Alright, I am hoping someone knows this one!

 

I am looking for a BPAL alternative to Cie by Jacqueline Cochran, released by Shulton (link one, two, and three). It was my mothers favourite perfume when she was 19 but it has been long since discontinued, and she would absolutely flip if I could find a replacement. Can't find notes, but it's described as a floral blend... EDIT: I found a review of Cie which describes the scent as "an Aldehydic Floral with a full white floral heart and mossy, Chypre elements. It's very elegant, understated, yet rich and voluptuous, sweetly golden-honeyed as well as fresh, woodsy and green. It's totally multifaceted, full of sunshine, warm, soft, natural and intelligently blended."

 

Barring that, her second favourite perfume is L'Air Du Temps by Nina Ricci, which is a spicy floral blend, once again I don't know the notes. Are there any BPAL that are similar to that?

 

Basically these are her two previous favourites, so I want to find her some similar scents, and anything in that similar scent vein is welcome! I want to surprise her as part of her Christmas presents.

 

EDIT: Oh and as a note, she's only tried Silenti, but she likes it, and wants something similar but lighter.

 

Thank you very much in advance!!

 

For the Cie, and this is totally just a guess, maybe she could try Sunflower from the Salon. Notes are: "Sunflower bouquet, black amber, creeping black moss, wilted greenery, and scorched, dry stems". When I wear it, the flowers are the strongest note, followed by the moss, and there's little if anything scorched that I can detect. I don't wear florals much but I thought it could be worth a shot if you happened across a sample.

I think they switched to the amber bottles around the beginning/middle of 06. My first order was late 05 and the bottles were cobalt, and my second order was when the 06 halloweenies went up and all the bottles were amber. There was some time in between there where they used both. They had to switch to the amber ones because the blue ones weren't consistently ok. I think they switched to the new GC label at the end of 09. Is the label glossy or the old paper ones? If it's glossy, I'd say it's between mid 06 to late 09 which really doesn't help much. If it's papery I'd say it was mid to late 06 when they were switching over. They started using the glossy labels then and were still in the awkward bottle phase.

Hopefully that makes some sense and might help.

Anyone correct me if I have my dates wrong!

 

Reviews for Defututa started in Jan '08, so if the new labels came out in '09, that narrows it down to either '08 or '09.

I can wear these notes separately, or combined with other notes. But together, they are just too powdery and wind up reminding me of household cleanser. It's not quite the soapiness that I get from lily, but almost as bad. Come to think of it, I'm not sure there's anything with ylang ylang that I actually enjoy wearing, so maybe that's the culprit. I like opium and poppy notes, and I like dragon's blood in some blends.

 

I think I just need to go wash this off now. : (

151

 

Bottle purchased from another forum member. This is basically a dual-note scent, clove and frankincense. Or, I should say, CLOVE and frankincense. The clove is very strong and the frankincense is kind of an afterthought. It's possible there is also some vetiver in this, but really, it's all about the clove! Which I like a lot. It's almost too harsh, but I think this will work well for layering purposes. I already tried it with Slaugh and it works really well, although it does nearly overpower Slaugh. So, for layering, this bottle could last me forever if I just want to add a little clove to what I'm wearing, because it would only take a teeny little bit. But I also like it just on its own. It reminds me of both Smiling Spider and Egg Moon, a little bit.

 

Anyway, I'm happy with my frankincense Chaos Theory. I like the simplicity and I am a spice lover, so this fits me.

Cake and incense, yes, but this is pretty far from All Souls. The beer obviously makes a difference. It makes a kind of husky or gritty backdrop....grainy, I guess? Hard to describe. I wore this to work which might not have been the best idea. I hope everyone didn't think I smelled like beer! But I find this to be a comfy, cozy, happy kind of scent. Almost like a bonfire or fireplace scent, maybe because of the incense. And whoa, this stuff lasts and lasts. I'm going on nearly 8 hours and it's still going strong. Yet another neglected scent I should wear more often!

I was in a hurry and couldn't find Samhain (despite the fact that I have 2 bottles and 2 decants.....), so I grabbed Feeding The Dead as I was getting ready for work tonight. As it turns out, I made the right choice! I haven't worn this in a while.

Wad Of Chewed Up Bubblegum smells exactly like bubblegum when wet. Fresh bubblegum that hasn't had all the flavor chewed out of it. Then when it dries it smells the same, but turns a little dusty. Dusty, not powdery. Maybe this chewing gum was thrown on the floor to gather dust. It's a cute scent! Something I'll never have a desire to wear, though.

Smells like Mr. Hyde drooled on my arm while he was furtively trying to dry-hump me in a crowded subway. Not a keeper for me.

If I want to make sure I don't get lotion, etc, on the wandcap, I kinda hold it at an angle over my wrist and tap on it lightly to make a drop fall off onto my skin. If I'm not wearing lotion, I tend to slather. I've just learned not to put lotion on my wrists...lol.

 

There are also caps you can put on the bottle (I can't remember the name of them right now) that will make the mouth of the bottle much smaller so you could pour a few drops out at a time.

 

If I'm testing an oil, cutting the cotton end of a cotton swab and using the plastic part as a wand works well. This way a fresh one can be used each time.

 

Reducer caps?

 

That's a good idea with the cotton swabs. I've been using toothpicks lately, even though I know the wood is absorbing some of the oil. Usually I just use the little bump inside the cap and I'm very, very careful that I'm applying on clean skin (with no oil already on it, or any other skin product).

100

 

[Previously reviewed at the top of this page]

 

.....and I get a totally different impression of this one! If I didn't know I would guess it's a vanilla Chaos Theory, not amber. It smells like lemon vanilla cream with some ginger. I do get a little of the dusty note that Juushika mentioned, but other than that you'd think I have a totally different scent here! This is like a dessert that I would want to eat. Lemon ginger cream pie or something. Yum! Must be a white or light amber because I'm not getting powder at all, just a faint flat dusty-ness. Who knows.

I have mixed feelings! I nearly bought a bottle of this unsniffed because the list of notes sounded just about perfect, and there was no way it could go wrong. Well, I'm glad I tried a decant first, because it does sort of go wrong. I can smell the potential beauty (I pretty much have to try most things with pine), but a large component of this scent turns soapy for me. It's undeniable. It goes a little powdery, too, for which I'm blaming the sandalwood because it does that to me sometimes. I have no idea what's soapy, though, maybe armoise? It's wormwood or angelica and it's the only thing I can think of that might turn soapy like that, especially since there aren't any florals? I dunno, just the combination of notes, I guess.

 

Anyway.....this stuff is strong, lasts a long time, and is tantalizing me with its potential for greatness. Even though it kind of went hyper-soap on me, I am still tempted to get a bottle. I guess I just don't want to accept that this isn't going to work? And I do want to say that if I actually found soap that smelled like this, I would want a lifetime supply.

I'm in agreement with a lot of what was said before me. This year's Lupers were an odd bunch, and this is one of the more odd ones. At first it goes on like a floral perfume, but with something dirty underneath. As it starts to warm on the skin, jasmine comes out strong. Ahh, so this is what it's like for all those people who can't tolerate jasmine! It really tries to drown out the other notes. So far this is a powdery floral that reminds me unfortunately of a cleaning product.....with some dirty notes underneath that I can't quite pin down (probably the red musk and ambergris....but more than that, too).

 

Then something odd happens. As I'm sitting here typing and writing, I can smell the scent from a foot or two away, and I can tell the other notes are trying to come out. There is a tangy sort of wood note combined with the fruit. At this point I'm starting to like the scent, right when I was about to go wash it off. Then it just goes on like that. Up close, too floral, a little sour, some powdery rose. But the throw is trying to seduce me. I'll keep my decant, for a while at least. Very strange scent.

Chilly florals and amber, but a non-pine chilly. Not sweet like Snow White, but more spicy and something weird like anise (maybe the cardamom). Lily is behaving and not turning to soap. This is somewhat elegant and perfumey. Does remind me of Absinthe because it threatens to turn rubbery? But I've never tried the prototype that others are comparing it to. The olive blossom echoes back to Haloa but this is totally different. I like it!

I'm in the "love it" camp. Red musk can be too sharp and gritty. Honey can be cloying and powdery. Put them together and oh my gosh.....they balance each other perfectly. To the reviewer above mine, you are not losing your mind. I smelled coconut, more than once, and I think there's some kind of vanilla-cream note that is impersonating coconut. In fact, that cream note is stronger than any honey that is in this blend (your sniffer may vary, of course).

 

I posted this elsewhere but to me, this is a total head-shop incense perfume, in the best possible way. If I had a honey musk incense that smelled like this I'd be in heaven. As it is, I'll be buying a bottle of this before they leave town! I wouldn't wear it to work, and it's not for every occasion, but this will hold a special place in my collection.

The Infernal Lover reminds me of a beautiful, delicate but complex, spicy/musky honey incense. This might be the only 'headshop' scent I ever need.