modillian

Frau Holle when it was fresh was a fir scent mitigated by slushy/snow overtones, but after a couple years of aging it's morphed into a more purely fir scent which remains surprisingly nice.

I find Megaera (Orris, black amber, bergamot, plum and grapefruit) is an even BETTER version of Lucky You (Ruby red grapefruit, crushed green leaves, blue poppy, and star jasmine, lower notes of sandalwood, amber and musk), though it's a bit fruitier. Cheshire Cat (Grapefruit, red currant, dark musk, Roman chamomile, delphinium, and lavender) or Kitsune-Tsuki (Asian plum, orchid, daffodil, jasmine and white musk) may also fit the bill. And a request: Anything resembling Hugo Boss's Deep Red for Women? To me it smells almost chocolate-y with a some florals and a heady waft. The 13 series might be appropriate for what I'm looking for, but there are so many of those by now that wouldn't even know where to start. Scent description of Deep Red: Green and sensuous, with citrus, woods and spices. Rich fruity fragrance with powdery undertones. Contains Black Currant, Tangerine, Ginger Blossom, Freesia, Sandalwood, Cedarwood and Vanilla. I'm pretty sure it's the combination of the foodyness of the currant and vanilla that translates as "chocolate! " to my nose, with the tangerine imparting a fresh sensation and very little detectable wood notes. I've already tried Megaera, Cheshire Cat, and The Candy Butcher, which are good but the last two were too foody for me (I want to nom off my hand when I wear them!) So if y'all've got suggestions for anything else that's...mmm, chocolate-and-floral-seeming(even if chocolate isn’t a listed note, LOL), or currant-tea-floral that doesn't have too much musk in it, that would be helpful for me.

A sepulchral, desolate scent. Long-dead soldiers, oath-bound; the perfume of their armor, the chill wind that surges through their tower, white bone and blackened steel: white sandalwood, ambergris, wet ozone, galbanum and leather with ebony, teak, burnt grasses, English ivy and a hint of red wine. Smells pretty nifty first on. Something rich, woody, and green-spicy. Could be excellent for a man as well as a woman. I can't smell the notes individually, but the wine isn't detectable, let alone sour as I'd fear, the ambergris doesn't overpower everything else, and neither does the ozone. It's wonderfully well-balanced. The longer it wears on, the richer and headier the perfume gets. After a while the ozone gets a bit more distinction, but not annoying or sinus-irritating at all. Seriously, I would not have pegged myself as liking this as much as I do. Not like a cemetery at all, but beautifully alive and unfolding like a flower. After 4-5 hours it wears down to just the ebony, teak, and grasses, but before then it was so wonderful I'd recommend The Black Tower to just about anyone as an example of smooth, complex, heady, unisex scent. If you like this I'd recommend Kubla Khan and Thanatos too, maybe Tavern of Hell for something girlier with the same sophisticated, woody "feel". Amazing, just amazing. I don't know how often I'd actually wear a scent like this, it's not a very "me" personal scent, but it's be great in a burner or a room scent or to perfume laundry and clothes, etc. I am honestly so shocked by how much I like The Black Tower, since half the notes rarely work on me, but it works anyway!

*Note, patchouli generally does not work on me, and chocolate-ish things only work half the time. If you love patchouli then you might be wilder about wearing Tezcatlipoca than me. Omg. OMGZ?!?! I'm smelling...chocolate? And flowers? And wood?! And maybe a little musk? This is insaaaaaane and yet good. Aha, looking at the description, maybe not musk but leather, the oily kind. I am so shocked that I like this, I expected it to completely blow up in my face. The chocolate fades from topnote to midnote pretty quickly and the incense/patchouli scent is on top. Still, this is insanely good, and I can bear patchouli stank when it's mild like this. The flowers are detectable but also a midnote, something pungent like moonflower or jasmine or freesia. After an hour the woods and flowers balance themselves out, chocolate and leather as a minor back notes. There is surprisingly little throw as well. Someone compared this to Snake Oil, and I can see it since they're both in the foody/incensey category. I put SO on my other arm to compare. Tezcatlipoca is spicier and drier with that more BO stank of patchouli while SO (mine aged 1 year) is more roundly vanilla and sweet musk. It dries down to rather smelly patchouli so I'll need to take more time to consider whether to keep it, since Tezcatlipoca is so wonderful otherwise. This is maybe not a body scent for me but would be insanely wonderful as a room scent/clothes scent/in a locket.

Wet: Smells...antiseptic, with a touch of steel wash basin and medicinal soap. I'll wait it out. Dry:...still nothing but antiseptic with a vaguely citrus tinge. Reminds me of Black Opal with the mineraly-ness detectable under the cleaning fluid. I'm guessing this is copal? If it is, I'm not impressed, because it drowns out everything else, even the incense. I have no idea why this smells so odd on me. After a while some weak florals rise up and Xiuhtecuhtli makes a good imitation of Black Opal plus Antique Lace, but it's waaay too late to save this oil from the swap-bag.

This works perfectly on me, but somehow I don't like the combination of florals (which reads "blue" to me, and "blue" scents don't work on my skin, which is different than the salty and bitter oceanic or refreshing water notes, which read as "clear" to me.) Something about the jasmine here is different, much less grating and biting, and the latter of which I am learning is the way I prefer jasmine, funnily enough. I didn't know what olive and champaca blossoms smelled like, just their stem-y biproducts, but I do not like them here. :/ What a disappointment!

I like vanilla. I love orchids. Ginger gives me pause Bah Humbug! It's the freaking ginger, it smells like my grandmother's housecleaning fluid! I've tried a few ginger blends and ALL of them have flopped on me. I give up on ginger!

Wooo, grassy and musky! Reminds me a lot of Coyote with some Death Cap dirt and spice thrown in. Not my type of thing at all, too much of the sweetgrass in there.

In bottle: Insanely sweet. Wet on skin: Insane potpourri. Just insane. Supersweet fake fruits like in air fresheners, and then spiciness like cinnamon that's completely impersonal. Insane potpourri is all I can think. Aw man, I really wanted to like this one. Plum is so delicious on me in Megaera, and I like carnation single notes, but this just turned into the supersweet fake potpourri my father's mother likes to use. Also, it's making my wrist itch.

In bottle: smells acetonic, not good. Wet on skin: completely delicious. O.o Soft and resinous, with a very sweet note in the middle mixing with the lower resins. Ah, the supersweet note is the berries and the slight powderyness is the rose. The is beautiful, a powdery-soft perfume perfect for a girl or woman emulating a wintery puff of snow. Similar in theme to Snow Bunny. Unfortunately, the wood notes don't show up enough, and eventually the sweetness amped with the white amber reminds me too much of the sickening sweet pea note even if it doesn't quite achieve the Herculean nauseating quality. I won't be keeping it, but I can appreciate the artistry nonetheless.

Floral, somber, purple-y in the bottle. We on skin, still "purple" with quiet herbs in the background. Ah, and maybe a pinch of patchouli. The rose is quiet, only backing up the benzoin. Gentle, lolling, a round and complete scent. It's reminding me of Phantom Queen, but this isn't nearly as flat-out sexy. It's more...not comforting, but solid, sturdy. This is the candles lit when it's your bedtime but your parents are staying up later; the scent drift through your slightly ajar door along with the dim candlelight, their murmured voices. When you get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, the moon greying the kitchen, you wet your hands in the sink and smell the lingering perfume. Here, the myrrh amps over time to softly melt into the rose and benzoin to be a perfectly calm and soothing scent. After a while the moss invokes a slight acetonish tinge (moss and I do not go together), which would be the only drawback to this lovely GC scent. Thanatos would be perfect as a bedtime scent for me, no astringent lavender that's supposed to be somnolent but ends up irritating. Thanatos would be an amazing room scent too.

Smells like licorice in the bottle! Smells like LEATHER WOAH BABY on the skin. Like, not finished leather, but the unfinished stuff on the inside of a glove or inside a coat or pocket, with the little nubs. Raw leather, the low softness and the higher tannin-y waft. No detectable licorice. Ten minutes later it's developing a kind of mealy...breadness? Cakeness? A grain-ish sweetness. Which must be the gaufrette. But so much leather, blargh! No licorice for me. :\ ETA: DOUBLE BLAAARGH, had to wash it off after ten minutes, too yucky.

In bottle: Oooooh, so different than R'lyeh! Spicy and aquatic, but not as dank with ambergris. Wet on skin: Ohhhhhhhhhhh! I like it! More powdery than R'lyeh, more floral. More of a waft too. This reminds me of my grandmother's fancy soap, but in a very good way. Something slightly nasal, like a lily going on, but not too much, just to cut the powderyness. More of an aqua-floral than a straight-up aquatic to my nose. Gets extremely wafty, inducing a mild headache. It's not exactly a "me" scent, may have to relegate it for dress-up or show-off purposes only. It works alright on me, but may go to the swaps simply because I can't imagine reaching for this as even a 10th or 15th choice when I want to wear perfume.

The oil is perfectly clear and runs like water. Smells like in this order: vanilla, sugar, mint, plastic from the shrink wrap. Good, interesting, but not something I'd wear all the time, since I am neither a candy-cane person nor a minty person. A good scent, though, and I'm sure I'll use up my tester. ...Then again, the longer I wear this the more I like it. It's very wearable. Refreshing, familiar...hmm. May need to invest in a full imp after all. 8D <---sign of the crazy bpal collector. It stays on as a soft skin scent for more than eighteen hours. However if I want others to smell this I'll need to reapply every five hours or so, and I really do want that. ETA: Must Find Bottle! I really like this one for the vanilla-y musk and the lightness of the mint, and the other ones seem too minty for me.

Mmmm, I still love Polyhymnia for woodiness. It reminds me of fancy old wood furniture with just a touch of lemon polish.