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Showing results for tags 'The Nutcracker'.
Found 19 results
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HARLEQUIN AND COLUMBINE French vanilla, red currant, sage, balsam, rosewood, mandarin, lemon peel, pomegranate, and cedar. In the bottle: This is such a well-crafted blend that it's difficult to pick out individual notes. But the sweetness of the French vanilla and balsam are most obvious, with hints of the pome, the cedar, and the sage underneath. Wet: The sage, the rosewood, and the cedar all combine for a heady, woodsy aroma. But slowly the vanilla and balsam re-assert themselves and twine gently throughout. The dry-down: This has become a sweet, but not too sweet, wood and herbal blend, tempered by the fruit notes. Luckily, the currant does not try and stomp all over the scent, but hangs back with the other fruit notes. Later: The lemon peel and mandarin are coming forward now to give this a brightness which it did not have earlier. Citrus notes don't work on me as well as they used to. Still a nice scent, but I may wear this in the scent locket so as to escape the citrus note issue. Would have liked this better without the citrus.
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THE ARABIAN DANCE Leather, coffee, hazelnut, tobacco, and Middle Eastern spices. I was looking at this and going...omg.... leather, coffee, hazelnut.....TOBACCO!! NO!!! Cause I amp tobacco in a horrible way......but I decided to gird my loins and try it. In the words of one of the fellow will call goers "You smell like sex."
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THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS An empire of jellybeans, rock candy, sours, lollipops, gumdrops, peppermint sticks, held together by taffy mortar. Kingdom of Sweets is definitely sweet! In the bottle, it straddles the line between candy-ish fruity goodness and citrus-scented bathroom cleaner; but luckily on my skin it tips over to the candy side. If Pixi Stix could somehow be carbonated, you'd get Kingdom of Sweets. Lovely and sweet and bright and fun, it's not a scent for every day but it definitely feels festive and somehow fizzy. I'm glad I took a chance on this! edited to fix a misspelled word
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THE SOLDIER Red musk, vanilla cream, black tea, black pepper, leather, and pie. Creamy red musk, leather, and black tea are the strongest notes on my skin. The black pepper note give the scent a little snap to it. The more I smell this, the more I love it. I think this may be a very popular scent with the red musk & leather note lovers out there.
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THE RUSSIAN DANCE Florentine iris, black tea, labdanum, patchouli, champaca flower, benzoin, and ambergris. The Russian Dance is one of my favorite parts of the Nutcracker, and the combination of notes intrigued me. Wet: Sharply floral, with black tea astringency. A few minutes later: a little bit of the champaca flower is showing through now. It's still rather sharp, but is starting to mellow a bit. It is a fairly bold scent, if that makes any sense. I smell the patchouli now a bit; a little bit of an earthy undertone. I like it, but I'm not sure how often I will wear it.
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MOTHER GINGER From beneath her skirts emerge eight gingerbread children: gingerbread, French vanilla, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and marshmallow cream. Mother Ginger has an airy freshness and openness to it. I sometimes find the "baked goods" type of ginger scents a little heavy due to the butter, the batter, the other spices... This is unlike those, being smooth and light; in fact, an uplifting ginger. So good!
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SUGAR PLUM FAIRY Queen of the Kingdom of Sweets: sugar plums, vanilla-infused sugar, tiare, amber musk, apricot peel, and a light dusting of cacao. I knew it would be good, but if I had any idea it was this good I would have ordered more bottles. Sweet, mouthwatering, smells how watermelon Jolly Rancher candies taste. The scent just glitters and dances and gets better, deeper as it settles. The tiare and musk round out the sweetness. The apricot peel enhances the fruit factor, keeping it from being too candy sweet. No cocoa as of yet, which is just fine by me.
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HERR DROSSELMEYER Magus, toymaker, and Godfather to Klara. An enigmatic man, seemingly somewhat sinister, but bearing a gentle air and a sincere love for children. This scent is dignified, refined, but dark, and hints towards esoteric mysteries and the secrets that tie mechanics to magick. Pipe smoke, sweet leather, woods and linen. Wow, I can't believe I'm the first one. ohhh the pressure. Anyway, I got to try this one at the will call. I mentioned how much I love clove and Forest suggested that I try this one. It doesn't have clove in it, but it has that same dark heft to it. Deep and dark are the best ways I can describe this one. I get the tobacco, tobacco - not smoke, but not so much of the other notes specifically. It really is deep and complex. mmmm I like it. It's not entirely masculine, but would smell nice on a guy. A dark, mysterious guy.
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THE SPANISH DANCE Chocolate, orange blossom honey, and pomegranate. I let this little gem settle down a few days before writing a review. First of all as usual the cocoa globes are so thick that if you don`t mix well the oil you won`t get it in its own glory. After mixing: there is a blast of orange blossom at the start that made me nervous, but it fades fast in a lovely floral honey together with a dry pomegranate sweetened by cocoa. That`s it and it`s gorgeous!! It`s not foody but it will satisfy cocoa cravings and it`s a must for pomegranate lovers too.
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THE NUTCRACKER Klara’s most prized Christmas gift. Broken by Fritz in a fit of jealousy, repaired by Drosselmeyer’s magic: frankincense, black mission fig, and galbanum. The first thing I think of when I apply The Nutcracker is frankincense and hot sugar. Like someone drizzled something sweet over smouldering incense. The frankincense is definitely the most prominent note here-- rich, earthy brown, faintly peppery. Stately and humble at the same time. But the sweetness in here is more surprising. It's seems linked to the fig for sure... chewy, purple, dried fig with a crust of sugar. These notes have a lot of depth and are very evocative. Definitely a purple-brown scent. Kind of bruise colored. It's a pleasant, warm and unusual scent. Despite having many other frankincense-heavy scents, I'm not sure I have anything that's really like this. (I still have never been able to figure out what galangal smells like, despite having tried it in probably a dozen scents. It's something that slips completely under my radar).
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DANCE OF THE MIRLITONS Marzipan, Burmese rosewood, white sandalwood, Somalian rose, tonka bean, rum accord, and white musk. I am excited to be the first to review this one! It's got a lot of notes that I like, although I'm not sure how the actual combination will play out. Initially: spicy almond extract, a little bit like Eclipse, and quite sweet. The rum is coming through now. Pretty strong throw. A few minutes later: I'm getting some rose now. It really seems like there is some cinnamon in there too; I accidentally touched my wrist to my nose and it stings a little like Saw-Scaled Viper does for me. This is really interesting! After about 10 minutes: lots of rose, maybe a hint of the sandalwood. I'm not getting much white musk or tonka bean. The sweetness has largely disappeared. Overall, I like this quite a bit. I am wondering how it is going to smell in a few hours... Edit later: It is reminding now a bit of Black Phoenix, in a good way, since that is one of my favorites.
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VALSE FINALE ET APOTHÉOSE The return journey: three honeys, white mint, and apple blossom. Valse Finale et Apotheose - Well, this one surprised me. I didn't expect much from this at all, as apple blossom tends to go soapy and some honeys turn to poopy diaper on me. White mint is one of the only mints I can wear, but otherwise, it just didn't appeal to me. I was quite pleasantly surprised when I first applied it and it smelled... pretty?! Totally not what I expected! I smell gorgeous, sweet, smooth honey and a bit of white mint and the faintest trace of a floral that doesn't turn soapy and disappears completely upon drydown. The mint also disappears not long after drydown, leaving behind the subtle scent of honey on my skin. This is definitely a scent that stays very close to the skin, but when its wet, it's particularly pretty. I may try this in a scent locket to keep that "wet" scent going throughout the day.
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THE WALTZ OF THE SNOWFLAKES The Snow Queen and Snow King greet Klara and the Nutcracker Prince as they journey through the Enchanted Forest: vanilla-laced snow, graceful and sweet, with fir needle and black pine bark. Finally got it! It smells somewhat off in the bottle, like rotting sweet vanilla orchids(cloyingly sweet) in a cold forest of compost... but once I put it on my skin, it turns to the nicest mix of vanilla and pine. It stays that way for a while, the pine becoming more intense and the sweetness of the vanilla toning down to a more manageable level on the drydown. I can't say how long it will last, but it's lasted a good 3 hours on me so far, which is long for a BPAL. It almost smells like balsam sachets mixed with some vanilla extract. I LOVE this scent! It honestly smells like vanilla essential oil or extract, not perfumey, mixed with pine resin.(I do like some perfumey scents, but this is very natural smelling.) I love it! (I can't start a new topic, so hopefully I'm doing this correctly, mods feel free to move!) ETA: Other than a slight cool smell, I'm not smelling the snow notes. It does smell like winter pines, but beyond that...
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GROßVATER TANZ The evening’s celebration winds down with a traditional German folk song: rice porridge, candied fruits, heavy cream, powdered clove, and Lebkuchen. Yummy!!!!! This is exactly as I had hoped. It has the creamy, spicy, mealy scent of the porridge, and some candied citrus in there too. The cloves are not too strong, and overall It is very reminiscent of festive holiday cooking. It doesn't have huge throw on me, and has faded a bit in the 2 hours that I have had it on, but it is very delightful while it lasts.
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KLARA Honey dusting powder, mandarin, iris, ylang ylang, tea rose, and carnation. I ordered a bottle of this one unsniffed, as I am a huge fan of sweet florals named after ladies such as: Katrina van Tassel, Zarita, the Doll Girl, Hope and Faith, and of course Alice, who is the queen of this group. I must say that Klara absolutely reminds me of Alice. Both have a beautiful underlying base of rose and carnation, with hints of honey. I think Klara is sweeter, and Alice smells woodier to my nose (from my 2005 bottle), but they are extremely close in scent. All lovers of Alice should try out Klara!
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THE RAT KING The Nine-Headed nemesis of the Nutcracker Prince. Dust, wood and feral musk with a fang-sharp undertone. In the bottle: Definitely a sharp, woodsy aroma... kind of a hint of pine, I'm getting, and this smells very earthy, almost like my Aveda Brilliant humectant pomade, so it has a definite hair-salon upscale styling goop hint to it. It does have a somewhat chemical tang to it. On my skin: The initial 'Aveda' aroma fades somewhat and this obtains a very light, somewhat birch-like barkiness, and on top of that is a very, very animal-like musk. Kind of like the scent of a small animal like a rabbit or guinea pig, that light aroma that reminds you that this is something alive, and not just a fuzzy toy... I'm not sure it really works out on me at this point, as it's still a bit chaotic and unsettling. There's definitely a dusty powderiness to the blend, and it brings to mind a craftshop with little rats scurrying around... After a bit of time to dry and mature: This is like the woodsy elements of Geek, without the sharp leather and with much less smoke. I get that very delicious hit of light forest that I adore in that oil, but the feral musk has a definite civet-like swagger that doesn't work out on my skin. However, that said, this is definitely a unique aroma which brings to mind a malevolent rat in all of his feral glory! This may be a swapper in the future.
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THE WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS White musk, Madonna lily, jasmine sambac, ylang ylang, bourbon vanilla, and clove. This is a pretty scent that is for the floral lovers. It starts off ylang-ylang, then a well-behaved jasmine, then lily, all sitting on a very light base of vanilla. The vanilla comes out a bit stronger as it dries, with a touch of clove, and soft musk. This is quite pretty so far, very graceful and sophisticated. It starts off a very potent floral but the drydown is so soft and pretty!
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THE CHINESE DANCE Green and black tea, King mandarin, violet, blackcurrant, and wormwood. First impressions: citrus, clean, green, fresh, sparkly, gender-neutral. No particular note dominates. The teas are definitely present but they balance each other out, so the black tea isn't too astringent and the green tea isn't too powdery. In some ways this smells light and summery, but there's also a deeper scent underneath that's herbal and earthy. Wet on skin: there's more sweetness from the mandarin and violet now, and at the same time the sharpness of the tea comes forward. I still have a strong "fresh, sparkly" impression. Dry on skin: I love that the slight bit of fruitiness is still lingering. I think that may be the wormwood as well as or instead of the king mandarin. It's both citrusy and green, in the way litsea cubeba is. The green tea is soft. There's a slightly bitter earthiness that blends in with everything else in a way I like. It lingers as an earthy tea for a long time. Some of the complexity fades, but not the refreshing quality.
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THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT The moment of passage between the waking world and the swirling mist of dreams: black currant, frankincense, blue musk, mugwort, and wisteria. I didn't have high expectations for this scent. When my decants got here and I sniffed the imp I was surprised how much I liked it. In the imp it's very pretty in that musky-dusky floral kid of way. I smell quite a bit of frankincense and musk and a maybe spiced floral. I like this more than I anticipated. On my skin – this is sweet and resinous smelling. Something is reminding me of expensive hand soap. After dry down, this is soapy enough that is is outside of my range of preference but it is compelling and very pretty.
