lefthandmade

Holy crap, this one is almost scary. It's definitely banana and definitely earth or graveyard dirt even. Can I wear it? Probably not. But is it what it says it is? Oh yeah. Is it art? Most definitely.

i'm putting on snake charmer as we speak...

Oh wow this one is different. At first it reminded me a little of PUMPKIN II (08) because I got buttery/cakey/leathery stuff but it only took a few moments for the cake to disappear and now I have licorice leather and smoke on my wrist. Very strange, and it keeps changing between more leather and more smoke. Chimney smoke, not incense smoke. It's not at all bad. Aaand there it transformed into play doh. Man what a strange experience. Obviously not a bottle but if I want a really fast ride through this landscape I have a decant to help me. I washed it off with a baby wipe but when I smell my arm now I get pure leather that apparently refuses to leave. I like leather so I don't mind. It's just very unusual.

Mm this is good. I get the clove right away, and the mandarin. There is a little greenery in there but it's not overpowering. The rest of it I can't really pick out but it's good. I like it. It's not sweet and not really that spicy either, but I really like it. The longer it stays on my skin the better it gets. It's in THE CLOD AND THE PEBBLE and FREDERIC area but smoother and not so powerful. It might just be a bottle in here. I have to test it a little more.

Immediate reaction: It's dark and sweet and when wet I get roses way back there but it's not really roses, more like a cousin of roses. There is a sharp note in here that could probably be lavender. I'm waiting for it to calm down a little because it's kinda overpowering. Behind it I can sense some smoother notes though and it may be worth the wait. Oh yeah it certainly is. Oh man this my be bottle worthy goodness. No more rose-cousins but sweet and warm and delicious.

I put her on and I'm thinking that I don't know what it is but even if she's not bad this is not where I am right now. She's a little sharp for me. Uh oh wait. She may have been sharp wet but on dry down she turns into this wonderful stuff. I was gonna wash her off when I started sniffing the air, wondering what that gorgeous smell was. And it came from my arm. Oh my. And to think I almost put her away for aging. Or worse, throwing her in the swap/gifting pile.

Smoky and all vetiver in the vial and as it goes on but after drydown the spices come out. The myrrh sweetens it just enough. It's really beautiful although not at all on the sweet side. It's not on the loud side either. And yeah, oddly otherworldly. I like it, a little surprised because I don't usually like smoke or pepper, and I'm wearing it for the second day in a row. There might even be a bottle in the future for this one.

MIDNIGHT MASS 2008 I was immediately reminded of CATHEDRAL but it's not quite as sweet and woody, it's slightly more smoky. Because of this I had MIDNIGHT MASS on one wrist and CATHEDRAL on the other while testing it. They are less alike than I thought they would be when I first sniffed MIDNIGHT MASS in the bottle. CATHEDRAL is lighter and sweeter and it doesn't have the smoke thing going on to the degree MIDNIGHT MASS does. Usually i'm a little weary when it comes to smoke because some smoky scents hasn't worked on me but this one dries down to sweet and resiny gorgeousness. It outlasts CATHEDRAL and when it dries completely it's much better too. Who knew?

It's softer than I thought a scent with red musk in it would be, and it's not very sweet. That said though, the red musk is in there and it is a sweet scent in a way. But it's sweet in a baby sort of way. It's like smelling the top of a baby head, that kind of soft. I can also detect a citrus-y thing back there, but because it's mandarin the citrus also has a softer quality. All in all this is a lovely blend. It fits the celebration of a new baby perfectly without losing the feeling of the grown up lady Lilith herself.

the wine note is deep and red and gorgeous. it doesn't stay long, after just a few minutes it gives way to leather softened by rose, and it stays that way for a long time. i don't really get the other florals except they soften and deepen the rose a little. wanda is absolutely gorgeous. i'm getting a bottle.

At first I was a little skeptic because it had a little pepper-y edge but that was clearly just my imagination playing tricks on me. Maybe it's the brimstone, but I think it was the smoky edge this scent has that threw me there for a minute. Once I was past that, I liked it. It's hard to get a hold of the bourbon vanilla but it's way in there with the bay rum. I don't think this is a masculine scent necessarily, although i can easily see it on a guy. It's not very sweet but not all that dry either. I think smoky is at the forefront for me. After drydown this one sweetens and deepens a little. I like. Which is good because when it was fresh from the mailbox I was terribly disappointed. I didn't think I could wear it but I can. After drydown it's downright gorgeous. Sadly, it doesn't last very long on me. Just after gorgeous it starts fading.

IV Both in the bottle and on me this one smells like cottage cheese and cat food mixed with some weird wood. It reminds me of one of the steamworks scents but I don't know which one since they didn't work on me and I gave them away. I'll let it rest for a while and see if it changes but I don't think it's for me unfortunately. Previously reviewed by Aerinha. LXXVII This one is very fruity/berry and i'm not ruling out some musk in here. And tea. It's a little like DORIAN only with berries/fruits. It's very good. Glad I decided to play and i'm gonna pretend this is the one that was destined to come to me. It dries down to pure DORIAN, almost a little too much for me. I'm not really a DORIAN fan from before. Not sure what to do with it but I can always let it sit for a while and try it later. It wasn't that bad, before drydown it was downright gorgeous for a while.

From the vial and wet on the skin I get rum, which is strange because there is no rum listed with her. It's probably the caramel playing tricks on me but in the initial stages she does remind me slightly of ELEGBA even if she calms down very quickly and gives room for something I can't really describe. Is this the teak? She stays close to the skin and maybe she's a little woody but I think I get the skin musk, and the cream. I'll let her do her magic on my skin for a little while and check on her later. I braved it and put her on both wrists and behind ears and even in the cleavage. I don't think she can go wrong on me. Ooh i'm getting apple now, from the inside of my wrists, blending with caramel and something interesting happens. She's not a candy girl, oh no, she's very sophisticated. She reminds me a little of RED LANTERN, only she's cleaner and nicer. Oh crap there her cream goes sour on my wrist. Let's hope she gets past that stage and that's all it is. ELEGBA did back in the day. Aaand we're back. She recovered and it didn't take long. No she is very very gorgeous. A bottle is already ordered. Just before posting this i layered her with RED LANTERN and it's a very good combination. Suddenly she's a very bad girl, but without losing her beauty.

I've had this one for ages so it's possible it had time to age and become something it wasn't when I actually revceived it. When it first came to me the civet (and the reviews) scared me away from it and made me reach for other imps in the batch instead, leaving this one to age in the dark, and I found it not long ago when I was searching through my stash to see if I had something with red musk. It's deep and dark and sweet and sexy.. It dries down to a velvet-y red musk heaven I can't tear my nose away from. I sense a little SMUT, one of my all time faves, only without all the sugar. It's absolutely gorgeous now. Maybe it always was but I didn't take time to test it for real, maybe it's become this good because it had time to age. I don't know. But I know it's bottle-material now.

Mmm yes in the vial and I love all the ingredients but on my skin she was horrible. She is clearly not for me. After a few minutes she went completely sour on my skin. She totally broke my heart. Oh Inez, how could you...

On me this one is very very subtle and the red musk is very hard to pick out, it's so well blended I can't pick out notes if you paid me. It's very shy and very subtle and absolutely gorgeous. Let's see what happens to it when it dries a little. A few hours later: I've had to re-slather a few times during the afternoon since it's not really a stayer, and I can recognize the cedar whiff when it's wet now, and also how the red musk comes out a little later. I'll probably be able to recognize more notes when i've worn it a few more days. It's a blend that keeps changing and it keeps things interesting all the way even if it dies an early death on my skin. I still love it. I can just bring a roller bottle with me when I wear it so I can reapply when I need to.

I was worried about the lotus root when I read her description, but I couldn't pass her up on my quest through the land of the red musks so I braved it and ordered her. And i'm very glad I did. I didn't give her time to settle, I had to swipe some on my wrist as soon as I opened the box and she came on in a gorgeous swirl of red musk. She gave me a couple of minutes to enjoy and then she morphed into something that reminded me a little of bubble gum. I realized that was the lotus area so I was a little weary and waited for the nausea lotus usually brings me, but it didn't come. This lady is utterly lovely. A little bad and a little innocent, but with the intent of giving you pleasure. And man, does she ever.

Cassia is the first one to come to the forefront but once it's on it's sexy sexy red musk, with a juicy sidekick i'm thinking is the plum. The warm scent of tobacco (a note I never thought I would like after I stopped smoking but it's very different from what I thought it would be, it's warm and brown and comforting) comes through as a backdrop everything else is played against. This one is sailing right up there as a favorite and it's physically painful to know it's so hard to get more of. I just mixed a little bit with some jojoba oil and scented my hair with it. Man I smell gorgeous!

Oh this is a future favorite, I can already tell. It's sultry, smoky, spicy and sexy, and the red musk is a little sharp here but I bet it's gonna be amazing with a little bit of age even if it's gorgeous now. There's another sharpness that is very strange and it stays and stays. I know it's the patchouli but it gives me visions. It's like burnt wood and suddenly it changes into sweetened turpentine, and then it changes again and I get a fruity side of it. I had this image/feeling/vision, kind of a calmness you can't trust, something like an unsettling shadow in the corner of a cozy room. after drydown it mellows and it's close to the skin, smooth as silk and still with a little bite. I love it to pieces.

There is no doubt that without the dragon's blood this one would be very dry. It's sharp and loud and there is something here I can't put my finger on. It is a little blood-thirsty. I suspect the ginger is making me nauseous but I hope hope hope i'm wrong. On and it has settled a little bit. It's sweet and musky and pepper-y but there is something in there i'm not familiar with. I don't get red musk. I get musk but not the red one that I love so much. And i'm not getting cinnamon either, that I love equally much. And I get this twisted little note up there to the left. It doesn't make me nauseous now and I can let it sit and dry for a while. Dry, and it has mellowed out a great deal. I can smell the dragon's blood, still with a weird little twist. No musk. No cinnamon. Man what a strange scent. Maybe it's only strange on me. I can't say if it's a huge hit or a huge miss at this point. It still has me on my toes, intrigued, curious and slightly disgusted. But wanting more.

This was a huge disappointment for me because i thought it would be so gorgeous one me. In the bottle I get the rum and it's very nice, but once it hits my skin, the pineapple comes out. I had forgotten how I feel about pineapple: I like to eat it but the smell -not so much. I wore it for a while and I like it much better than TE PO, but there was something in there that made me nauseous. I have enjoyed the rum in other scents like ELEGBA and GROG, but here it has this sidekick that I just can't take, and i don't know what it is. I will let it age and see if it gets better with time though.

In the bottle it smells like the doctor's office and i'm thinking noooo... On I get almond and something else that could be lime and/or vodka, but it mellows out and sweetens a little. Oh there's the orange water, mint isn't really there except for a chill in the air. I'm not sure if I like it. Right now i'm not a huge fan but at least i'm not running to the shower. It reminds me of something but I can't touch it. Oh! What's this? A little spice in there? Cardamom? Hmm maybe I like it after all. Nope. Had to wash it off. The vodka makes me queasy... crap. Well I guess it will make a nice gift for someone some time down the road.

Oh man this one is gorgeous all the way. I expected the cedar to be sharp, but in the bottle and wet on my skin it's very woodsy, yet still smooth, with a whiff of spice in the background. When drydown starts the rose comes to the foreground with the spices and it's so very very beautiful. An instant love!

Aah it's the huckleberry that gives the sweetness here! It comes on very strange and I get the parsley as an interesting herbal note in there and i'm thinking ouch. When it enters the drying phase it's not a bad scent though. A little floral, a little fruity/berry, and pretty sugar-y. Oh there's the tangerine! I can't tell the florals apart, meaning I can't smell the rose. I'm a rose lover so that makes me a little sad. It comes across as a very clean scent on me though. Optimistic and clean. And not very powerful. I have to put my nose to my wrist to really smell it, but i find my wrist up here very often. I like it. I was worried there in the wet stage if I would but I do. It smells good on me. It's going to be gorgeous on warm summer days.

At first I get wood, the sharp smell of wood floor with tar, or tjæra dørk, to put it in sailor norwegian. Or tarred deck is closer to it because I get a whiff of salt sea air too. Not as much as in other pirate scents I have tried but i can sense it there in the background. As it dries a little, a citrus note rises towards the sky and disappeares, leaving a sweetness behind. Now i get the rose but it's very faint. No booze though. Looks like my frederic is a sober man. After drydown it's a gentle but spicy rose scent with a lot of air. And I love it. I had no idea it would end up here. Man am I glad I got this one!