tartchef

(approaching this with trepidation - amber & citrus could be a disaster...) Wet, Aelopile is very much HELLOOOOO verbena! There's a quick flash of something soapy, but that thankfully vanishes within minutes. As it dries, the verbena eases off & allows the oud & cedar to come forward, a lovely woodsy, sticky resin scent. I love this stage, and wish I could stop the drydown here & now. After an hour or so, though, the stickiness fades, and I'm left with a strangely mushroomy, rooty scent - really odd, not entirely pleasant. I'll try reapplying & see if another dose of oils helps things along a bit - right now, Aelopile is a candidate for the scent locket or the swap pile, I'm not sure which... ETA: Nyerp. Even with another application, I still end up smelling like fungii. ETA2: Oh now this is maddening. I'm sitting here, 9 hours later, and there is the most heavenly trace of scent on my wrists - smooth, warm cedar, with a sweet, crunchy resin over top. Absolutely divine. But I smelled like mushrooms for the bulk of the day. But... but... I smell really yummy now. Do I keep this? Oh, the suspense!

It's taken me ages to get around to testing this - the plum & lychee notes got me all excited, but moss is becoming a really problematic note for me, and I had premonitions of Kiyohime going utterly rank on my skin... Turns out I was right. The moss & seaspray combine & produce an unfortunately realistic interpretation of public toilets - a haze of "Ocean Fresh" air freshener over distinctly damp & mildewy tile, and someone clearly hovered & missed This may hold the record for time from application to washing-off-NOW - under a minute, possible less than 30 seconds. Such a shame, too - the imagery is lovely, and it sounds like a gorgeous blend... ah well.

Mmm, yes, I can totally see where lostluckkitten is getting bell peppers - wet, the Norn's Farmhouse has a very green, vegetal feel to it, faintly bitter. The sage is prominent, but not overwhelming, and the nettle & chervil add to the tonic greeness. Within 5 minutes, though, it totally morphs, and the green gives way to this incredible woodsy cinnamon/spice, almost medicinal - hello, horehound! The dust & ashes are kicking up, and I'm getting very faint wafts of an herbaceous, apple-like note, very likely the chamomile. It's a wild tangle of sun-baked weeds & herbs rambling over broken wooden fences - not verdant & green, but a late summer scent, when the earth has hardened & the stems dried & only the hardiest plants survive. Really dry & natural, the scent your hands would pick up if you went digging amongst the weeds, the sun beating down on your back... I adore Beth's botanical blends, and this is a fantastic addition - light & dry enough for the dog days of summer, I hope... Edited to confirm that yes, The Norn's Farmhouse is perfect for late August! I keep reaching for it - that spicy but green, slightly medicinal feel cuts right through the hot, humid air without being cloying or overwhelming... delicious!

The original Dragon Moon was a surprise hit for me, She Who Destroys Dragon's Blood (it goes horrible lilac-scented toilet cleaner with my chemistry), so despite being a bit wary, I had to give this year's vintage a shot... Wet, DM '08 is almost exclusively peppermint & frankincense, an odd but pleasant combination. The mint is sweet & sugared, the frankincense a fine silky powder, very different from how it usually reacts on me. As the oil dries, the sugariness fades & I'm getting more of the magnolia & herbs, a nice mishmash of scents, none overwhelming the others. The bergamot & cedar add a faint, almost tart edge, but the overwhelming feel is a jumble of flowering herbs. It goes a bit bitter & faintly soapy on me after an hour or so, as the dragon's blood finally emerges. In the end, DM '08 is very similar to Beth's recent wildflower blends - I'm thinking specifically of the Norn's Farmhouse, Jasmine Cottage, & the East - but not as good with my chemistry. If you wear dragon's blood well, Dragon Moon could be a deeper, more grounded floral - alas, on me, it's ultimately unremarkable. Glad I got to try it, though!

Mm, sweet & fresh, but with a dark lurking note that's going oddly... caraway? Whatever it is, it fades quickly, thank heavens, leaving a very true "seafoam" scent - airy & frothy & wet, clear watery green, kelp & sand swaying in the current. Very evocative, a lovely natural beach scent... ETA: Oh The aquatics are turning on me. After a few hours' drydown, I'm left with a weird vegetal note, akin to the celery soda note from Christmas Rose. Phooey.

Mmmm, I've got a couple... For warmer weather, Sudha Segara & The Lion. Both fade to a glorious faintly sweet & spicy skin scent. For something a bit more special, I wear Judith & Holofernes. Tzadikim Nistarim is wonderful, too, but just a bit more botanical. Once the weather cools down, anything with frankincense - Temple Viper, the original Aries, especially. Honorable mentions to White Rabbit, Kumiho, Bastet...

So yes. I like this one. To be a bit more specific, The East is a glorious mess of impossibly delicate wildflowers & flowering herbs, dancing in the summer sun... there's a red currant bush in full fruit, and the jasmine tea is just a faint brush of scent, adding a cool depth without overwhelming the rest of the flowers. The prototype had a faint trace of something incensey that I can't detect in the GC release, at least not yet... it may surface once the oil's had a chance to age. Its absence pushes The East into slightly more feminine, cottage-garden territory, but still absolutely glorious.

WHOA. Man-fume to end all man-fume! Don't get me wrong, it's gorgeous, but too butch for even the mister to pull off... musky, steely, full-tilt testosterone ETA: Fairnymph's totally right - this is Bond, James Bond, but definitely the grittier Daniel Craig version... a flawless tux, a Beretta, and a fleck of blood...

I had to give Baghdad a shot - rose is historically awful with my chemistry, but I wear nearly all the other notes here beautifully... alas. While it's not the screaming Rose of Doom that I usually get, neither is it the exotic swirl of spices & flavors that I'd hoped. Baghdad is sharp & dry, the rose & bergamot shoving things firmly into the realm of bath product. Maddeningly, I get tiny whiffs of the nutmeg & saffron, taunting me from behind the metaphoric shower curtain.

I'm wearing Haloes today, aged about 6 months, and I'm struck by how similar it is to Glowing Vulva & Antikythera Mechanism... it's lighter than GV, and there's a trace of apricot & lily of the valley at the edges that make it more feminine than Antikythera, but the oak & vanilla mimic GV's teak & creamy amber almost to a T... (For those who haven't read the reviews or made the inference already, GV & Antikythera are very similar - Antikythera is less thick & cloying, but there's that same vanilla-&-rich wood-what-IS-that response.)

Wow. Amazing. I tend to shy away from leather notes, but the promise of anise & frankincense was enough for me to give Robotic Scarab a whirl... It opens with the same sharp masculine note from Mechanical Phoenix, but instead of exploding into man-fume, it's burnished by sweet anise & a glorious incense into a stunning shining copper scent - I can nearly feel it in my mouth, like biting down gently on a thin plate of metal. There's a faintly fruity edge, akin to cider, and the leather is old & worn thin, not the fresh leather jacket of, say, Whip. It fades quickly, though... Masculine, but not exclusively so - this is the scent of intellect & industry, of shining cogs & pinscrews scattered across a sheet of blotter paper covered in scribbled notes, figures, diagrams... ETA: Again with the wow... the extended dry-down is throwing all kinds of stuff out there - I'm getting wafts of cherry, smoke, BIG anise, pipe tobacco... wow.

(I have to wonder just how many resiny incensey woodsy scents I need to try/have in my collection... doesn't stop me from try9ing new ones, though! ) A nice thick oil, like honey in the vial... always a good sign. Once on, Midnight Mass is a beautiful frankincense-based blend, with touches of myrrh & smooth sandalwood & cedar... this is what I hoped Cathedral would be on my skin If Heavenly Love & Earthly Love, Valentine of Rome, Anne Bonny & Black Forest weren't all gorgeous on me, I'd absolutely be adding Midnight Mass to my bottle hoard, but it's similar enough to these favorites that I think my decant will be just fine...

Ooo! Fresh & green & zipppy, all juicy bamboo & something green & tannic... There's a trace of soapiness lurking at the edges, making me inclined to mix this into a shower gel or salt scrub... The hibiscus is nothing more than a faint blush, a touch of sweet fruitiness with a tart edge. Lovely!

Ooo. Black tea and... anise? Fennel? Something my nose is identifying as vaguely licorice... faintly medicinal & vaguely spicy, not the nose-searing wasabi from my sushi lunches... The honey is barely there, a clear, clean honey like the one in Selkie - not the salty deep honey of No. 93 Engine. The longer this wears, the more throw I'm getting - it's melding into a faintly soapy scent, but it's surprisingly pleasant... I'd want my husband's laundry to smell like this, clean & fresh without that "Mountain Spring" dreck... super comforting, like wrapping up in the duvet after it's come in from airing out on the clothesline. This will be fantastic on my husband, I think, and I suspect I'll be reaching for this myself in the hotter weather. I was hoping for a bit of a sinus-searer, which Nostrum remedium is not, but I can't say I'm disappointed ETA: OH. A salt scrub made with this would be absolutely DIVINE.

I'm with iiinterstate on this one - the concept sounded cool, but I have an aversion to smelling too much like dessert (flashbacks to my days as a pastry chef & coming home reeking of buttercream/chocolate/burnt caramel...). I needn't have worried, though - S3 is far more than just a nice rootbeer scent... Straight out of the vial, yes, there's the vanilla & rootbeer & cream soda that everyone's talking about... But very quickly the oak steps up & cuts through all the sugar with a deep, burnished leafy note - it plays the same role as the teak did in Glowing Vulva, a touch of umami to bring things down to earth. The rootbeer finally admits that it's actually sassafrass, and a touch of tangy butter peeks out - cultured European butter, not the pale supermarket stuff. What's really getting me is the onycha - it's part of a snail shell, how cool is that?! It's adding a faint resiny note that's working so nicely with the sassafrass & oak... I expected this to be a forum favorite, and it looks like I'm right - but I didn't expect it to work so differently, and yet so well on me. Ultimately, alas, I think the butter note will be a deal-breaker - I appreciate it intellectually, but am having a difficult time not visualizing my hands smeared in Plugra I'll pass my imp along for someone else to try, but I may try & track down a bit in a few months from someone who's aging a bottle, just to see if the butter element calms down...

No. 93 Engine just had to be tried... frankincense, beeswax, saffron, YUM! In the vial & wet, there's this strangely familiar scent - sweet-tart-faintly powdery, sort of evergreen & citrus with a crumbly resin background... As it dries, the crumbliness smooths out, and the spiny evergreen needles give way to glossy leaves. The sage emerges, just a trace, as does the frankincense & beeswax... the lemon balm is still a bit punchy, a high crunchy citrus note that masks the other layers somewhat. Shame, because what I can sniff underneath is amazing... the beeswax note here is especialy fabulous, creamy & waxy with a touch of strong honey. Married with the frankincense & other resins, it's the perfect dripping-candles-at-Mass scent I'll hang onto my imp & see if a few weeks of aging bring the lemon balm in line - if it works, No. 93 is big bottle material! ETA: So I posted my review, then went downstairs & carried a big basket of laundry back up. That small bit of activity must have upped my body temperature by a magic half degree, because suddenly all the lemon balm is gone & I am awash in possibly the most divine honey & incense scent ever made... Holy crow, Beth, this is stunning. It must be the mastic, throwing off this amazing smoke, and the honey is salty & waxy & just... gah! So, lesson learned. Do your laundry! ETA much later: Holy hell. A bit of aging & No. 93 just keeps getting better & better. The lemon balm calmed down about 3 months ago, and the rest of the notes have melded into a stunning bright resinous scent that is absolutely divine. This is giving aged Sri Lanka a run for its money

Oh no! What kind of allergic reaction - hives, rash, headache? We have a whole thread devoted to the various reactions folks have experienced over in the FAQ section... Looking at the notes in Medea, maybe the cypress or labadnum? Perhaps the black currant?

I don't have a working camera handy, but the Lab labels for the Pharmacopoeia & Steamwords imps are fantastic!

Nyomnyomnyom... 'scuse me whilst I rub my cheeks, cat-like, over my wrists... Silky smooth exotic wood, rubbed smooth from years of handling... luxurious & yet functional, if you can imagine. So many of Beth's wood blends have a touch of harsh sandalwood, but not this one. The vanilla & tobacco are a faint veil of fragrant smoke that's permeated the woods somewhat, adding to the sense of age & use... It could be simply the power of suggestion, but there is the slightest tinge of something warm & metallic, barely perceptible, the cogs hidden within... A pretty spring day isn't doing this justice... I can't wait to slather this on in winter ETA: As to the Glowing Vulva comparisons, Antikythera is far lighter, and much less thick & sweet. They are certainly in the same vein, the vanilla & teak combination being really distinctive, but with very different feels... If you found GV just a hair too cloying sometimes, as I do, Antikythera is a spectacular alternative. And GC, to boot!

Revisited: Oddly creamy in the imp & wet, like a whole-milk cinnamon steamer, with a dribble of vanilla... Given the heaviness of the elements, I'd expected a spice whallop, but Three Witches is surprisingly tame, eminently wearable... Like Dana O'Shee, but with cinnamon. The clove & pepper are barely perceptible, just grounding things a bit & cutting the sweetness. I really think there must be a bit of musk in here, amber musk, perhaps. Very tasty, akin to Bengal once it dries, but missing the heavy honey note. ETA: Oh jeebus. A few hours later, Three Witches has dried to a dead-ringer for bookstore chai - not the real thing, but the powdered-mix-based stuff, thick & sweet & intellectually wrong but oh so tasty... And then, around hour 3, I get the tiniest whiff of woodsmoke, like you bought a chai at Borders & then drove out to the state park & lit a little campfire. Criminey. I fear I may need more of this come autumn...

Funky... I have an imp & a bottle of Freak Show, both nice & clear. I was frottled a partial from a dear forumite, and the oil is really cloudy... there's a funky film along the interior of the bottle, too. It's a warm spring day here, so I doubt it's something solidifying from the cold. It smells fine in the bottle, compared to the rest of my stash, and I'll skin test it tomorrow to make sure... I'm just curious if anyone else with older bottles has run into this phenomenon?

Original Hex was a heartbreaking disaster on me, all piercing vetiver & pee-musk so I approach '08 with trepidation... Wet, there's that same sweet pine as in Hemlock, a pine branch dipped in clear caramel syrup. It's not as strong, though, and there's a trace of something very clean lurking behind the bushes... witches doing their whites? Once dry, Hex '08 is almost a dead-ringer for Knecht Ruprecht - sweet, fruity evergreen, with a hint of smoke. Strangely benign, given my reaction to the original Hex... I am, against my better judgement, tempted to snag a bottle from the swaps to age... I have a feeling that given a few months to mellow, the darker smoke & incense notes might come out a bit more, and this would be pretty yummy... As it stands now, it's a perfectly nice pine scent, very wearable. ETA: By the end of the day, Hex '08 has faded to a lovely woodsmoke scent, with just a trace of sweetness. Big bottle, for sure...

I'm a ball of distraction today, feeling overwhelmed by all the unfinished projects scattered around the house & all the social niceties I've been whiffing on lately (birthdays, thank you cards, phone calls)... I've got a healthy dab of SRE on the back of each hand now, and it's fantastic! (Thanks aliciastardust!) Wet, SRE was a bitter, non-descript herbal, and I was about to write it off as strictly aromatherapeutic. Within minutes, though, it blossomed into a glorious halo of geranium and pennyroyal, bitter & green & bracing, cutting right through the musty clutter that is my brain There's a trace of something softly citrus, too - not verbena, to my nose, maybe another scented geranium, or lemon thyme... bergamot? I can't say I'm getting much done, sitting here huffing my hands, but I do feel much clearer in the head than I did 10 minutes ago... If this were readily available, I'd get a bottle & make a room spray - I'm wondering if a blend of Pain & Calliope might give a vaguely similar feel... worth a shot if it's even half as good as the original! Bravo, Beth!

(How have I never reviewed this? Oy...) Not dark, campy-eyeliner pirates, but the holystoned deck, sun-bleached canvas snapping in the wind, and the scent of distant islands... This has changed considerably since last summer, the leather & woods & red musk mellowing into a warm undercurrent, with a fresh, clean breeze over the top - the lime & ambergris meld into a slightly salty, foamy note, and the palms & grasses wave about in the sun... Very evocative, much milder than the original description would indicate - this isn't rape, plunder & pillage, it's the equatorial sun slipping below the far horizon marking another day at sea, another day nearer the rumored shores... hammocks swing idly, and someone has coaxed the carpenter's boy to bring out his ocarina for a bit of a song...

(I had a post, but it got eaten) Valentine of Rome is going very clove-like, at least on my skin... clove cigarettes, Lapsang Souchong & Turkish Delight.