I am really trying to get a relationship with this scent. But the scent is interferring. As a researcher, I must figure out whats 'wrong'. Or can it ever be wrong...so far, all bpal scents have amazed me. This one does the reverse.
In bottle:
First snif gets a feeling of "Ok, I am done with lavender." There is a sharpness to the lavender + ink + oudh combi that makes my brain go wtf in loops. Sniffing more, I get an image of a dark beautiful yet dead fairy hiding nearby. Clean. The inky musk is probably what I should avoid from now on...
On skin:
The unsettling tone remains. Gets warmer (amber), but there is something in the corner of your eye that to me remains unsettling. Thereby: annoying (in my personal taste). An image of a a whip comes up but vanishes to a dark, smokey, shiny, slinky scale of black without a trace of earlier images.
After one hour:
Ok, finally warmer, more balanced. The fairy doesnt seem evil now. Behind the curtain of beauty, she's really a monster. This is not the right scent for me. Too much lavender + inkstuff.
Conclusion (before aging)
This is okay for me as a decant, but I had a different image based on the initial description... Maybe thought it would be dark, but sweeter. The ink isnt working for me, and the lavender is very sharp. Unfortunately, this scent just doesn't fit "me" (at all).
For me this is too dark and dominating.
I will put this to rest and see what happens in a year or so, because I have the feeling it gets warmer in time.
When the scent was just new, it lingered 24hours, but fortunately it doesnt atm.
Conclusions after aging: In fresh, I didnt like this scent at all. Not because it isnt well-blended. It is. But because it was annoying, in a way (lavender + ink combi).
After 4 months, the scent is more balanced, warmer, ripe. It remains slinky. Slightly irritates my sensible skin if I put more than one drop at the wrist, as a side note.
After 7 months, this is more balanced, but also more boring, on my skin. The too sharp lavender has calmed down, but with it, it lost a bit of its speciality. However, for me, this works MUCH better now.