Delirium1009

In bottle/imp: Sweet, spicy, and slightly soapy dragon’s blood.

 

Immediately on skin: This is… interesting. The cherry is there, but it’s not overly sweet, and the clove is just slightly spicy. The myrrh is coming through and adding a resiny sweetness. The dragon’s blood mellows out the blend and makes it all a bit soapy. It’s not as intense as I thought it would be.

 

After a few minutes: This is mostly dragon’s blood and myrrh and a little teeny tiny bit of cherry and clove. The myrrh adds a nice depth to the dragon’s blood; it’s resiny, sweet, and comforting.

 

Overall Impressions: I was expecting this blend to be very intense and feel very vital and red, but it’s sort of disappointing. They myrrh comes out nicely, and I like the way it blends with the dragon’s blood, but it’s a very mellow scent. If you like myrrh, try this… it’s nice.

In bottle/imp: Wine and ozone with a bit of fresh grass.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a lot smoother when I put it on. The wine is the strongest, with the woods blending in and then a touch of leather. There’s an salty clean quality from the ozone as well.

 

After a little while: This isn’t nearly as masculine as I was afraid of. It’s definitely on the unisex side, but it’s very complex and rather sweet. The red wine is still strong, but this is very ozone-dominated and that is now the strongest note in the blend. It’s a very heavy, strong mix of ozone, red wine, and leather with a touch of ivy on me after wearing for a little while. There’s also a touch of woods, but it’s calmed down from when I first put it on.

 

Overall Impressions: This blend is on the unisex to masculine side, but I think it would be very wearable for a woman. My chemistry amped the ozone, but the wine, leather, ivy, and wood sneak in there as well. It’s very complex and quite the experience; it smells dark and strong, like the description suggests.

In bottle/imp: Fruity, juicy coconut.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very fruity scent. I have no idea what the note is that’s doing it since it doesn’t really smell floral. The coconut is strong, but there’s a dripping, sweet and tart quality to this blend as well. There is a little nuttiness, but this isn’t a creamy scent like I was expecting.

 

After a little while: The coconut has faded a bit, and I’m left with a slightly tart sweet fruity floral scent with a slightly warm base. The iris is much stronger now, but it’s blended nicely with everything else so this isn’t really a flower-dominated blend. Instead, it has a crystalline sparkling type of quality to it due to the mix of the white musk with the warmer notes of coconut and hazelnut. It’s slightly tart and powdery, but not in a generic baby powder way.

 

Overall Impressions: This scent is not what I was expecting at all: I thought it would be much smoother and creamier, but it’s rather tart and sweet. The mix of notes creates an interesting effect… it’s very hard to describe. The notes all come through, but this is blended to the point that they all combine to create something more than the sum of the blend’s parts.

In bottle/imp: Creamy and almost aquatic, but more so “mineral-y” than anything else.

 

Immediately on skin: This manages to be creamy and warm, cool and rocky, and dark all at the same time. It’s fantastic! This is absolutely wonderfully blended, and the notes are a mystery to me except for some vanilla or vanilla musk that makes the whole blend slightly warm and creamy. There’s some type of musk in this… maybe a mix of vanilla and blue musk. The rest of the blend smells like what you would expect from the description “geological darkness.”

 

After a few minutes: This hasn’t morphed much, but it’s deepened on my skin. It’s a very creamy cooler musk blend with an almost aquatic, hard feel behind it. It’s very hard to describe. I definitely get vanilla or vanilla musk, and I think blue musk as well. The vanilla in this sort of reminds me of the vanilla note in Death Cap, though this is mixed with musk and rocks as opposed to dirt. It’s just slightly sweet and warm, but it has a cold, hard feel to it overall.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a genius blend… it really evokes the image of a cold stone flashing with inner brightness. There’s a mixture of soft creaminess and cold, hard minerals that makes this unlike anything else I’ve smelled. It’s really a brilliant and beautiful scent.

In bottle/imp: Herbal sage and musk with a touch of sweetness.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very herbal scent fresh on my skin. The sage comes out and mixes with a hint of berries, creating a slightly piney scent. The musk is very evident, giving a dark, dry base to the blend.

 

After a few minutes: This morphs very quickly into a sweet, juicy, musky berry scent with a little bit of green herbs. It’s bright and sweet, and just a touch tart. After a while, it fades to a light green berry scent. This faded fast on me though (within 2 hours).

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very nice berry scent deepened with musk and with a touch of herbs. It’s a very happy scent, much like Baneberry, but with a little more depth.

In bottle/imp: Sharp and slightly smoky opium with a bit of florals.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very bright, sharp opium and floral scent with a slightly creamy, warm undertone. The lily of the valley and opium are the strongest notes, and sure enough the opium is a bit sweeter than in other blends I’ve tried (I wonder if it’s just described as sweet and it’s due to the other notes or if it’s a slightly sweeter type of opium). There is a very light, warm note in this that is taming the sharpness a bit and I think it’s more the red sandalwood than the vanilla, though the latter is lurking here as well.

 

After a few minutes: This smells like a smoky and slightly floral creamy sandalwood blend. This blend has gotten sweeter with wearing, though I can’t pick out the opium note any longer. There’s a smokiness to the blend, but it doesn’t really smell like opium to me... it just sort of lies over the rest of the scent.

 

Overall Impressions: The notes in this mesh together very well to create something sweet, smoky, warm and slightly creamy. There’s a floral feel to it, but it’s not overly perfume-y at all. I like this, but it doesn’t really stand out to me. I find it to be very nice though, and it seems very wearable and would be a nice close skin type of scent.

In bottle/imp: A very strong herbal, resin, and citrus scent.

 

Immediately on skin: This blend is just so raucous with all of these notes. It’s strong and very loud if that makes sense; the notes all come out and seem to vie for attention. I get dry herbal notes of the rosemary and lavender, smoky, resinous frankincense, and the lemon verbena all at once. The neroli is a little more blended than the other notes, but it’s definitely there too.

 

After a few minutes: This has morphed into a subtler and more blended version of what it was when I first put it on. It’s still a very herbal frankincense and lemon verbena scent, but there’s a warm smoky, earthy feel to the whole blend that ties it together.

 

Overall Impressions: This blend starts very loud, but settles down quite a bit. It’s very herbal with the frankincense and lemon verbena coming through strongly, but as I wear it, it morphs into something a bit subtler and earthier. It’s very bright and not very sweet. It seems to be a more cheerful scent once it dries down.

In bottle/imp: Dry, strong dirt with a hint of spiciness.

Immediately on skin: Why oh why did I even try this one? I HATE strong patchouli scents! The patchouli is super strong and very dry. There’s a very heavy almost wood feel to this blend, and a light warm spiciness from the sandalwood. In the background lingers a light resinous note… but mostly this is dry, woody dirt.

After a few minutes: This has settled quite a bit, but it is still a very heavy, dry patchouli scent. The sandalwood and frankincense both blend in nicely and add a warm, spiced, smoky feel to this. It’s not too complex, but it is nicely blended.

Overall Impressions: I’m not a fan of patchouli at all, but I can see how some people would like this. It’s very strong and dry with a very slight sweetness to it. The red sandalwood and frankincense add a nice depth to the blend.

In bottle/imp: Sharp cypress with streaks of incense smoke and deep resins.

 

Immediately on skin: Right away, I notice this is very sweet and resinous with a hint of incense. The resin/incense scent is very thick and there’s only a hint of cypress and a little olive blossom lurking.

 

After a little while: This isn’t as complex anymore; all I get now is a hint of incense and lots of either frankincense or myrrh (or maybe both). It’s very sweet, resinous, and a little smoky.

 

Overall Impressions: If you love incense or resin scents, give this one a try. Unfortunately turned into a strong resin scent on me, but I think my skin likes to amp myrrh. It isn’t a very complex scent upon drydown, but at first it’s very promising.

In bottle/imp: Cold, powdery, sweet, and musky.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a cooler scent with a sweet but powdery feel, resins, and a thick slightly spiced undertone. The oakmoss and grey amber creates an interesting combination: powdery but lush and slightly aquatic. It’s very perfume-y and strong.

 

After a little while: This has gotten rather flat… it’s become a sweet grey musk scent with hints of myrhh. I was hoping for more complexity, but it has really gotten rather unimpressive.

 

Overall Impressions: I’m not a fan of grey amber since it’s such a sweet, powdery musk note on me. In this blend, it really seems to take center stage with the oakmoss lending a hand to make it a bit more green at first, but that faded away pretty quickly. This is a musky grey amber scent after that with a lot of myrrh and resin in the background. It’s quite unremarkable on me, but as I said, I don’t like grey amber that much anyway.

2008 version:

 

In bottle/imp: Sweet but dirty musk.

 

Immediately on skin: Musk… rather dry but sweet too. It must be the different ones all working together on my skin. There’s definitely a boozy note, but there’s also something dirty… Makes me picture an oiled up, hot stripping mechanic or something. But in a good way, of course.

 

After a little while: This is a very heavy sex scent. If you walk into a bedroom where you know a couple of people (or possibly a group) were going at it for the past 8 hours and had some incense burning and open bottles of booze lying around, this scent is what you’d expect it to smell like. It’s deep, smoky, musky, and thick. And dirty… very very dirty.

 

Overall Impressions: Now I know why people say this isn’t a work appropriate scent. It’s sweaty, hot sex bottled... not the sweet kind of sex at all. I don’t know if I could pull this scent off, but I want to try.

In bottle/imp: Jasmine and grapefruit swirled together with a hint of warm rose.

 

Immediately on skin: On my skin, this is a blend of jasmine and grapefruit with a base of chilly white musk. It’s rather bitter, and not very sweet. It has a cold, dry feel to it.

 

After a little while: The grapefruit fades almost completely after a while, but the jasmine, rose, and white musk all remain. I’d say this is a jasmine scent mostly, and on the cooler side because of the white musk. This is rather dry and not very sweet with that smoky feel that I get from the lab’s jasmine. The rose-swirled amber is present, adding a hint of rose and trying to add some warmth to this, but the cooler white musk wins out.

 

Overall Impressions: I don’t really like the lab’s jasmine on me, so I don’t really enjoy this, but it’s an interesting cooler jasmine scent. The grapefruit might linger more on other people’s skin, but on mine it dissipated rather quickly. There is a hint of rose, but the rose-swirled amber doesn’t quite blend in with the rest of the scent.

In bottle/imp: Green grass, heather, and moss… with a touch of the ivy.

 

Immediately on skin: This is very green, but it’s a mix of different green scents. I’ve never smelled a clover note before, but this scent has a mix of grassy green and more aquatic green notes. In this lush blend also lurks lots of sweet and almost herbal heather and soft, flirty rose. It’s strong and a little on the sharp side because of the grassy note and the heather, but the other notes do a good job of cooling it down and making it a bit smoother.

 

After a little while: This is just such a pretty scent. The sharp grassiness has calmed and what remains is heather, cool moss and ivy, a hint of girly rose, and a base of sweet, warm carnation. The heather note is almost soapy, but the other notes are all so cool and calm that they create this very smooth fragrance.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very beautiful scent to me. It’s very fresh and cool with a good bit of green aquatic moss and ivy notes and some herbal heather balanced by the softness of tea rose and carnation. It’s a little grassy at first, but it is very complex and balances out beautifully after just a little bit. This is going to be a great spring time fragrance.

2008 version:

 

In bottle/imp: Thick, sweet, dark resin.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like sharp white roses and thick pieces of molasses scented resin. The roses smell fresh, but there’s definitely something sharp there, and the resin smells almost like molasses or caramel… though darker, like it was burned.

 

After a little while: This softened on my skin within a few minutes of putting it on. It turned into fragrant, fresh white roses and a bit of sweet golden resin. The scent is very fresh, and the resin is not thick at all any longer. The white rose is just slightly warmed by the scent of the soft resins.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very pretty scent, though it had to settle into my skin before I got the soft white rose and delicate resins in the description. It’s very feminine and fresh, and not overpowering in the least. It’s slightly sweeter too than a regular rose perfume would be.

In bottle/imp: Cypress with a very herbal feel and a hint of sweet flowers.

 

Immediately on skin: This is very sharp and herbal, with a dark green woodsy feel coming from the cypress. There’s an airy sweetness that creeps out as well… it’s very light and wafting.

 

After a little while: This scent has gotten so much more complex… the cypress has faded somewhat and the frankincense has come out, along with the rose. There’s also something lightly spicy about it, which is nice. It’s a slightly smoky and dark wooded scent with hints of sweet resins and rose.

 

Overall Impressions: This scent starts out rather sharp, but smooths down with wear. The feel of it is more unisex… it’s completely wearable for women and I think it would smell great on men too. Upon drydown it’s quite complex, so I think that others might amp different notes.

In bottle/imp: Cedar and lilac with dry herbs in the background.

 

Immediately on skin: This is very cool and herbal with lilac and cedar. That’s really all I smell… it’s hardly sweet, but cool and dry as well.

 

After a little while: The lilac has died down and the cedar is still very strong, but the other floral notes in this keep it from being too dry and woody. The ozone is also very evident now and is almost overpowering the cedar. This is a lot less dry now that I've worn it for a while; the dry herbalness that I experienced is gone now, and the scent has gotten a bit more watery or airy.

 

Overall Impressions: I was expecting more from this blend honestly... definitely more of a complex scent and not as much cedar. It's very woody at first, and while that dies down, the cedar is still very evident. The ozone note comes out too and overpowers the more delicate floral notes. It's a scent that reflects the name and poem for sure, but I don't think it's anything glorious on my skin.

In bottle/imp: Moss, tea, and a touch of alcohol.

 

Immediately on skin: This is very fresh, crisp, and green. The green note is definitely moss, but there’s also something else there like the smell that comes from fresh green stems. There’s a bit of alcohol in this from the rice wine as well.

 

After a little while: The alcohol rice wine note has faded almost completely, and what's remaining is a sweet, creamy and fresh moss scent. I don't know if I smell the green sandalwood, but the black tea, tonka, and moss are evident. There's a cool and almost aquatic green or blue feel to this, but also a nice freshness from the tea. The tonka seems to be the base of this... it's slightly creamy and works beautifully with the moss. There's almost a fruitiness to this, but it isn't too sweet.

 

Overall Impressions: I really like this scent. It's fresh and mossy with a unisex feel and a slight sweetness. It's a fresh scent with an aquatic and almost fruity tone, and is green but not in a sharp way; this is a very smooth scent.

In bottle/imp: Fresh, crisp apple blossoms and just a touch of citrus.

 

Immediately on skin: The apple blossom is the strongest note here. It’s fruity, but more like smelling an apple than actually taking a bite out of it. There’s a touch of citrus, but it’s very light. This blend is very fresh and bright.

 

After a little while: This smells much like it did when I first put it on, but now it’s a little sweeter. The champagne grape has come out, but it’s light and not overpowering at all. If there’s the rose coming out in this, it’s just adding it’s touch of freshness to the blend because I can’t pick it out.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a fresh, crisp fruity floral blend. The apple blossom is a really nice note, and the hint of lemon and champagne grape give this a very sweet but not overly sweet quality. This is a very spring-like fragrance. A warning though… it does smell like air freshener! But it’s not in a bad way at all. It’s just very crisp, lovely and uplifting.

In bottle/imp: Roses, a hint of lilies, and a warm base of carnation and heliotrope.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like a mix of rose, sharp lilies, and creamy warm flowers. The roses are strongest, and the lilies are soapy, but very fresh smelling. The carnation hasn’t shown up on my skin, but the heliotrope is lingering softly in the background.

 

After a little while: This has definitely turned into a thicker scent… the vanilla amber and beeswax are evident now. The rose and heliotrope blend with this almost resinous amber and beeswax combination to create something deep, warm, and sweetly floral.

 

Overall Impressions: This definitely improved as it sat on my skin, but the rose is just a bit too strong for me. It’s a very sweet and thick floral blend, not as light as I was expecting. Overall, though, it just didn’t impress me too much.

In bottle/imp: Very fruity with a lot of guava and touch of citrus and sweet flowers. VERY sweet.

 

Immediately on skin: This reminds me of Tanuki, only this is much sweeter and fruitier at first. The guava is quite strong. Even after only sitting on my skin for a moment though, this morphs: the grapefruit comes out, and also something warm and smooth in the background. I’m not sure if banyan fruit is supposed to smell of fig, or has a slightly different scent, but fig definitely could be this background note.

 

After a little while: This is such a lively, sweet, fruity fragrance. There’s a hint of fresh feminine flowers too. The grapefruit and lemongrass have faded again, but they are subtle and soft and blending nicely with the guava and earthy fig. The floral notes are very pretty and temper the fruit; they make it more feminine and wearable.

 

Overall Impressions: This scent is so much fun; it’s fruity and almost flirty. The citrus is stronger at first, but it fades gently and blends well with the sweet guava and banyan fruit. This has a nice smooth base from the banyan fruit, and the flowers are airy and light. This is much prettier than I was expecting.

In bottle/imp: Deep, dark, herbal and resinous but a bit dry.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a lot more dry and herbal than I was expecting. The red musk is the strongest note, but blending into that are herbal resins and very faint dry spices. I also get a sweet note that’s hard to identify… but it’s very dark.

 

After a little while: Wow, this has changed! Red musk, violet, frankincense, and some other thick sweetness that I can’t identify. Even though there are other notes that should temper it, they really don’t come through on my skin.

 

Overall Impressions: This is so unbelievably sweet on me, but it’s not the complex smoky deep sweetness I was expecting. I love Dark Delicacies, and I was really hoping for some similarities to that. Instead I got sweet red musk with violet and frankincense. I really hope other people have more luck with this one.

In bottle/imp: Very perfume-y and creamy.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a creamy scent, but there’s other things going on as well. The teak is strong and rather perfume-y and sharp as opposed to smelling of wood. Lotus blossom is usually a very fruity bubble gum scent on me, and I can’t identify it at all here. The amber is present though, creating a golden feel.

 

After a little while: This is a very perfume-y creamy blend with a nice warmth. It reminds me strongly of Haloes, but Haloes is sweeter and muskier than this one. This still seems to have some sharpness to it, but that only happens when I sniff close to the skin; from further away it’s a much smoother scent. There’s a very soft sweet warmth to this, but it’s deep and comes after the teak hits my nose.

 

Overall Impressions: This is nice from further away because the scent that wafts from this is soft and warm and slightly perfume-y. Close to my skin though this is rather sharp from the teak. I like it, but it’s very similar to Haloes and I LOVE Haloes, so I’m not sure if I need a bottle of this one as well.

In bottle/imp: Sweet, syrupy pomegranate wine.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very sweet pomegranate scent… but it’s not just pomegranate, it’s a wine/pomegranate mix, of course. There’s a very nice creamy undertone that gives the pomegranate wine a nice base.

 

After a little while: Fruity, sweet pomegranate and wine. And by sweet, I mean candy-sweet. Like if they made pomegranate and wine candy, it would smell like this.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a nice but very sweet pomegranate wine blend. There’s a little hint of the other notes at first, but when it settled on my skin it was just super sweet pomegranate and wine candy. I tend to amp sweet when it comes to fruit and wine together, so it might have more complexity on someone else.

In bottle/imp: This smells like biting into a fresh nectarine while being sprayed with men’s cologne.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells of fresh, juicy, tart nectarines and the unisex scent of oakmoss, which I usually associate with men’s cologne. This is probably the truest nectarine scent I’ve smelled… it’s tart and slightly sweet and just so juicy. The scent itself is clean and fresh with that lovely fruity bite.

 

After a little while: This scent has settled and smoothed out a lot. The tart crispness has disappeared, and has been replaced by a light, fresh unisex fruity scent. It still smells of nectarine and oakmoss, but I’m guessing it’s the skin musk has really come out now and is what is turning this into a blend that sits closer to the skin. But it’s not really a musky blend.

 

Overall Impressions: I really like the fresh, crisp fruitiness of this blend. At first I was delighted by how much it smelled like real nectarine, but as it settled it still stayed rather fruity. The way it hugs the skin when it’s been worn for a little while is very pretty. This is going to be a great warmer weather fragrance for me.

In bottle/imp: Sharp and clean, like salt water, and powdery ambergris.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very sharp scent. It’s very salty and definitely unisex right now. It’s a bit salty and very clean with an astringent feel and a cold grey amber undertone. I don’t really smell the mint, but I feel it… if that makes any sense. The grey amber is cold and slightly powdery.

 

After a little while: The ambergris seems to have taken center stage … now this is a powdery, dry, cool musky scent with just a small bit of saltiness and a drizzling of honey. The honey is not strong, and doesn’t really do more than add a powdered sweetness to this (which is how the lab’s honey smells to me in most blends). This is a musky blend though now… it started rather sharp, but it’s gotten a lot smoother.

 

Overall Impressions: I don’t particularly like grey amber, so I’m not a big fan of this blend. It definitely fits the picture though. It’s subtly sweet with a powdery, smooth, cold musk feel and a bit of an ocean breeze. The mint doesn’t really stand out in this one.