Tintagel

[Heaven_Star]

According to legend, the birthplace of King Arthur. The scent of a castle's great hall in the midst of joyous feasting. Spicy mulled wine flowing through the musky heat, warm leather and bright clash of armor, the damp branches of Cornish hawthorn, blackthorn, juniper, English elm and bayberry, and the magical tingle of dragon's blood resin.

 

Bottle: Sweet mulled wine and dragons blood. Super rich.

 

Wet: more sweet mulled wine and dragon's blood. The leather comes in pretty fast and there's a sparkle of armor at the top sharpening it and stopping it all becoming too heady. The woods start to come out a bit here, too. All of the notes are sort of coming out one after the other and trying to find where they're going to fit in the blend.

 

Dry: Beautiful sweet dragon's blood.

 

This smells like a sweet, valiant heart. It's doing well aging in my collection, and it's the first dragon's blood blend I really love. I was super sad when it was DC'd!

[Soupy Twist]

Morphers make me want to tell stories, so this isn't like one of my typical reviews.

 

Gorlois is dying, and he is dreaming, and he knows they are one and the same.

The duke sees himself approaching his stronghold of Tintagel, where his wife Ygraine is securely barricaded from the forces of Uther, the king who would steal her away from her husband. Dream-Gorlois strides easily through the stands of cedar and juniper which ring his castle, and he is welcomed at the gate. In the great hall, the fair Ygraine awaits him with open arms, and he crushes her in a mighty hug. She helps him to remove his battle leathers, which smell of his skin and his sweat. He orders a servant to add elm boughs to the fire to take the chill from the icy room. Ygraine hands him warmed wine. The spices are so familiar on his tongue that his heart cries out in longing, in warning.

Ygraine gazes lovingly at the Dream-Gorlois, the stranger who wears his face, and suddenly she knows, she knows this is not her husband, and she is paralyzed in her terror. The Dream-Gorlois smiles, an impossibly wide smile — the smile of a demon. His mouth bristles with ten-inch fangs. The fair Ygraine is frozen, turned stone, turned to wood, to polished cedar, and the monster raises a taloned hand and begins to rend her into shreds and shavings. Her screams are lost in the beast's roar. It continues to change, to shift, until there is only a red-gold dragon standing atop a pile of sawdust, dripping cherry-sweet slaver onto the stones. A baby begins to cry.

Gorlois is dreaming, and he is dying, and he knows they are one and the same.

[LizziesLuck]

I collect the Wanderlust scents - this one took quite a while to find!

 

It's an interesting scent - spicy and rich, a bit woody, a bit boozy. But the spices make it smell a bit like a bulk food store on my arm. It's not in any way bad, in fact it's an extremely pleasant scent, it's just not something I would reach for often. Happy to have my little imp of it, luckily do not need to search out more!

[dementia_divine]

This is an old, aged imp.

 

In the imp: The spicy mulled wine stands out to me the most, with some berry and an evergreen note in the background.

 

Wet: The spicy mulled wine is the strongest note, but I’m also getting lots of dragon’s blood. Behind those notes, I can smell a bit of waxy berry. Then, after only a few minutes, it smells like mulled wine, dragon’s blood, and evergreens. It makes me think of the holidays. Far behind these notes, I get a bit of leather, and there’s a hint of something sharp in the background that I’m thinking may be the armor note.

 

Dry: This is really strong on the dragon’s blood (the cherry floral variety) and wine (which is far less spiced now) on me. I’m no longer getting the wonderful juniper and tree notes… or anything else, really.

 

Verdict: This smelled so promising in the imp and when it was first applied. When the forest-y notes went away, it had a holiday candle vibe to it on my skin, and then my skin amped the dragon’s blood and wine to the point that it just got to be too much for me. On a positive note, at least I didn’t fall in love with it, since it’s discontinued and hard to find?