Doomramen

On me, Tweedledee is neon, bright, glowing, and hot and cold at the same time. It reminds me of an exhibit I've seen at some science centers, where you touch a hot pipe in one hand and a cold pipe in the other, and then touch a room temperature pipe with both hands and your brain is like IMPOSSIBLE! because, well, it feels both hot and cold. I'm not sure how much I'll be wearing tweedledee, but it's so damn interesting I wouldn't be able to give it up.

I tested a tiny sniffie frimp of this. I hadn't tried white sandalwood before. I don't think I like it, since I'm getting incense and thinking "yik" instead of my usual "mmm" There is a floral component that is sour and milky at the same time. Not like sour milk, but like unripe plums in cream (gorgeous). The honey adds sweetness without being cloying. The throw seems sweet and fresh and lovely. It's going powdery on my skin. I've been waiting for the amber to assert itself (violently, as it does on me), but it hasn't yet. Sniffing it up close bothers my nose. The throw is warm and lightly foody. I'm finding it to be much more scholastic than a foody floral incense blend ought reasonably to be. It makes me feel like going to class, but I'm not in school anymore, so I can't. That's probably just weird scent associations. I don't think I'll be seeking more out, but if it comes to me, I might wear it and it would make for a lovely bath.

The Dragon’s Isle: smoke and fire, earth and wind. The rage of the elements blasting over a primordial paradise. The imp smells like one of those caves, in movies, that turns out to be full of dinosaurs. Thus inspired, I will tell a story that mirrors my experience with this scent. There is a young woman accompanying her father on an expedition into some caves on an otherwise deserted island. She has become seperated from the group, and found herself, quite suddenly, in a muggy chamber full of dinosaurs, waterfalls, massive exotic blooms, ginormous trees, and a little bit of wild onion or garlic. Excited, she gathers up some flowers. She adds a flower she'd had tucked behind her ear to the mix, and runs to find her father. As soon as she leaves the chamber, all of the flowers except for the one she came in with instantly die. None of the explorers believe her, and she drops the flowers. She accompanies the explorers further into the caves, into a cavern slick with ice. Soon though, the ice cave opens into the dinosaur cave. The air is crisp from the breeze from the caves, but again thick with flowers, and sweet water, and peat. Then the explorers whip out the soap and start washing thier hands. The girl is far enough away from them, though, that she can focus on the beauty of the cavern, at least some of the time.

This was a frimp sent with a gift to my girlfriend, but I've fallen in love with it, so I've been wearing it alot. Preconceptions: This was one I'd been curious about, but hadn't made my first order cut. I hadn't tried BPAL when I considered this. I thought I'd like opium and mandarin. I figured the vanilla would be faint enough to be acceptable. I thought I wouldn't like sandalwood (wrong). I feared all flowers but orchid. (lily of the valley seems to be an acceptable flower) I can't pick out notes, except for the occasional "hey, incense." I can tell that they are all there, though, and each plays a part. OMG this is perfect. lovely. gorgeous. It is being excited, and feeling clean, and springtime, and open windows, and being in love. Running for no reason. Wearing skirts that flare out when you spin around. I'm thinking of getting a big bottle.

This is a bad week for me and new scents. Shub is lovely in the imp. Vibrant, lovely color, tasty cookie smell. On me, just POOF! If I get close, I smell ginger, and sometimes lemon. The ginger note, while barely detectable on my skin, seems gorgeous. It has the same dusky earthiness as ginger root. It smells grainy. I'll try it again later, of course, just in case my nose or chemistry is off. And I'll swipe some on my ginger obsessed girlfriend. But for me, just eh.

Concessions: I'm not partial to (non BPAL) vanilla scents. Nothing new I've tried this week has worked. I tried this because it's popular/beloved and I've been trying to broaden my exposure to scents I'm not necessarily drawn to. I tested it on my left wrist, which tends to soften and simplify. When I sniffed inside the imp, my first thought was that antique lace is the most perfect name for this blend, and this blend is the most perfect scent for the name antique lace. On me, though, it's just vanilla. BBW, Body Shop, ole teen standard vanilla. ew. It is the kind of too strong too sweet vanilla that gives me a pudding-up-the-nose sensation. I never get baked goods from vanilla, just pudding. It's been a few hours since I put it on, and isn't so VANILLA anymore. But it isn't turning into anything particularly fabulous, by my heretic vanilla-hater standards. Oh, and now it's turned stale and kinda metallic, like an old room full of clock parts. Maybe it's blending with the shub I washed of a while ago? Like everything else this week, I'll wait a bit and try again. I'm reasonably sure this isn't for me though.

Thalassa smells lovely in the imp, sweet and wet and almost citrussy. On me it seems to be missing. Like, it's almost aquatic, almost floral, almost citrusy (not sure where I'm getting that from) It is almost sweet. There is some frankincense, bit it isn't doing anything interesting. It is a bit smokey, but not all there. No kelp, no salt. Nothing in particular. Weird.

I need to take some time to get used to this one. It seems a bit meek and unexceptional. I haven't tried orris before, and I think that's part of it. I'll hold onto it and try it a few more times and see if I start reaching for it. On, the scent reminds me of being at the opera, where lots of older, wealthier women are wearing just a little too much perfume, and the scent mingles into one odd too-much-perfume scent. Meskhenet is like that, but missing any sharper floral or alcohol components. It is soft as a whisper. I think it smells good on me and I'm just not used to it. My guess is that it is lovely, but in a more delicate more restrained sort of way than I tend to be, and that as a result I'm not drawn to it as magnetically as I am most blends I've tried that work nicely on me.

In the Imp: My first sniff today made me think of the wild men from the painting dressed to the nines lounging around in a posh victorian parlor. My second sniff today (I was clarifying that initial impression) was cola. Definitely carbonated, either Mr. Pibb or too-syrupy rootbeer. On me, last night: clove studded soap. On me now, wet: clovey, spicey aquatic the aquatic vanishes! it is just cloves. possibly cloves and a splash of cola. And the aquatic is back again. I'm not sure if its the ambergris, or the moss, or just me misunderstanding my nose. Cole slaw? wierd. and undertone of coleslaw, possibly pickles. (buh? I liked the clove studded soap better...) And suddenly it's nice! It's gone full circle back to the evil in the parlor scent. I imagine this is close to what it is supposed to smell like. After a moment, I'm pretty sure the amber has turned feral and started eating the gentler aspects of the scent. For a moment it was amber, spice, and pepper. The oakmoss is fighting back! This scent really morphs on me. The one consistent aspect is the cloves. Its back to clovey aquatic. There is a burst of vanilla and it smells like christmas cookies! It's quieted to a clovey skin scent, like after washing with last night's clove studded soap. I'm pretty sure the change in soapyness had to do with switching test arms. On me, the only reliable thing about this scent is the cloves, which are just a bit much for me. Where on earth was the patchouli? I'll have to try this on the girlfriend. She has more spice tolerance than me, and amber doesn't go weird on her skin like it does on mine.

I ordered Anne Bonny based exclusively on the name. I guessed that I wouldn't like sandalwood (the incense gives me the dumb) and that the patchouli would remind me of this enemy roommate I once had. I bought hellcat too, because people called her that, and I figured I could layer them for a pirate in the bakery sort of smell. I figured pirate in a bakery would be a nice consolation for loathing Anne Bonny. But I was wrong. If someone made a custom perfume for me, without asking what scents I like or what I think I want to smell like, it would probably be Anne Bonny. All the components blend into one perfect, smooth, well rounded scent. I can't pick anything out, or even analyse how it changes. It doesn't really smell like anything, though it seems terribly historic. It is so much more than the sum of its parts. I've noticed it smells better on my right wrist than on my left, and it occasionally goes acrid/sharp, but that tends to cool down after a while. In a few days, though, I know it will be UTTERLY PERFECT. So perfect, in fact, that I'm waiting until then to wear it, so I can appreciate it fully.

I practically danced with glee when I sniffed this in the bottle. It smelled like happy pink candy fun. On, it smelled slightly soapy, and slightly powdery. It wasn't bad, but it was more a baby scent than a little girl scent, and seemed to be how baby powder ought to smell. Then evil mutant amber came and gobbled it up. Oh, I hope I'm not double posting!

Black Phoenix smells like syrupy cherries in the bottle, and I expect that it will smell like softer cherries, and probably spices or incense, when I put it on. At first it smells like strongly fragranced detergent, with a hint of cherry. The cherry fades, and it smells like evil detergent. The next time I smell it, it is just evil. I', guessing that there's amber in it, because it has the same scary sharp wet spice smell that everything I've tried with amber has eventually turned into.

A scent as sharp as glass shards, and as brittle as a broken heart. The formula came to me - quite literally - in a dream, and is named after, and created in memory of, the last poem that I ever wrote… almost ten years ago to the day. A blend of white champagne notes, grapefruit, lotus, slivered mint and crystalline aquatic blooms. I tried Shattered over and over again, hoping that it will be predominantly mint or grapefruit if I just try it one more time. It starts out on my skin as a fuzzy, muted grapefruit with occasional glimmers of mint. It has an undertone of dried flowers, softening the grapefruit. Then the grapefruit goes away and it smells like cheap brand flower scented handsoap. I love grapefruit and mint together. I wish I could have gotten more of them.

I'm not sure what I think of The Lion. I'm pretty sure it smells like sticky spices on me. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a good smell. Maybe this means amber isn't good on me. It might just be that when I smell it, I think I'm not supposed to smell like that. I will be trying it again, though, just to be sure.

In the imp, Aizen Myoo is sharp, intense citrus. Like stabbing a grapefruit with a fork and the juice squirting into your eye. I love sharp citrus though, so that doesn't bother me. It only gets stronger when I first put it on. I can smell the yuzu, which is grapefruity, the mikan, which seems similar to tangerine, and eventually the cherry blossom. It almost smells peppery. After a few minutes, the citrus softens, and absorbs the cherry blossom. I think that the cherry blossom is still there, but it blends with the citrus (which is now more palatable.) If my first test was accurate, this dries to a soft, gentle tea scent with a slight hint of citrus: incredibly wearable, gentle and sophisticated. I could see myself getting a big bottle of this.