Many Tears Were Shed

[Lycanthrope]

A sister’s grief: carrot seed and blue musk, grey with labdanum, bitter frankincense, champaca blossom, and salt.

I'm a sucker for aquatics. I, however, have had terrible fortune with Carrot Seed blends. I don't know what it is (possibly a run-in with the carrot seed CO2 extract when I was a younger wolf).

This is immediately salty-aquatic like Pool of Tears aquatic, with a swiftly apparent sweetness. I think possibly that's the blue musk with the top notes of laudanum (cistus). There is frankincense here and it's probably adding to the first sparkle. It's combining well with the wry twist of salty aquatic and giving it a bit of a complementary high smoke, incense note. I'm probably getting champaca, as an equally higher toned white-yellow floral note, as parts of me are going Khajuraho? What? And that's likely the influence of that note. I love Khajuraho, for its sultry-sweet over the top exotic note.

I'm not getting too much carrot seed directly, although I'm sure with all these high notes, it's layering and helping to ground something here. The labdanum / cistus is also providing some depth and grounding.

This scent is a very nice aquatic, slightly different from aquatics I have. It reads more light and top-note-ish, and I think because of less purely rich grounding notes, it burns off on me pretty fast. But, it seems light, inoffensive, very beautiful. I think extremely wearable for work.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

i have, over the course of the last four decades, been in many "new age" type stores, hippie shops, head shops, occult emporiums, etc etc, whatever you want to call the places that sell crystals, incense, and interesting decorative doodads.

 

the ones with a large incense selection have a fairly similar base smell. the combined fragrance of all those different incense types... and i love that smell. there were things i picked up at Rhiannon's store (Blue Moon?) in Carrollton back when i was in college and they kept that smell for months and i adored it.

 

mostly Nag Champa, with a little sandalwood, and a bit of some of the other more popular Airs scents (Egyptian Musk, China Moon, Kashmir, and Tropical Ocean).

 

it is crazy how much this smells like Rhiannon's shop. the second location, the bigger one, with the big fountain and the claw-foot tub. and cow-print bathroom. and basement. i liked the smell of the old location (the smaller one, across the street) better, for whatever reason. but this is straight up 1996 new age shop.

 

there's definitely some of the headache-inducing acquatic type notes going on in here, and it smells salty. but it doesn't smell like a perfume... it just smells like how everything you own might smell if you either owned or burned that much incense, constantly. with salt.

 

i can't stop huffing my arm, but it is making my head hurt. i want to love it, but i don't think i can wear it.

[LizziesLuck]

I have no idea why I felt the need to try this. None of these notes are what I usually go for, and I hate salt. But I'm trying to branch out! Be brave and adventurous. So here goes...

 

 

Wet: Something a bit green, hmmm, really interesting! Immediately intriguing. It almost reminds me of one of the Lab's snow notes, but not quite. I'm liking it much more than I thought I would.

 

 

Dry: A really nice aquatic. I didn't think I would ever type those words, I usually hate aquatics, but this doesn't turn to dryer sheets on me like they usually do. There's something a touch floral, something very slightly incensey. But mostly a slightly salty, pleasant aquatic on me. It's a little smoky too. Overall, I kind of like it, but can't really see wearing it. I was curious about the carrot seed, but I don't think I can pick it out in this, so I still have no idea what it smells like.

[zankoku_zen]

Blue musk, carrot seed and salt. This reminds me to a cross between When Stars Are Weeping and Silence. It's got some of the same, eerie, silent qualities of Silence but not as floral as When Stars Are Weeping. It's a somber, blue sky sort of blend. Low throw, low wearlength.

 

Ugh, but in some ways, this is the beauty of perfume. Hauntingly beautiful, silent and yet present. So good.

[Blood onmy hands]

I love the lab's blue musk and still miss the Silence blend that featured blue musk so front and center (it's like an aquatic, slightly powdery musk and the smell of a perfectly still, clean, manmade pond and cold stones). This is blue musk, but I think the 'salt' note is adding a sharper quality to it that I'm not liking, and the labdanum and champa throw in a warm, powdery, headshoppy amber and nag champa incense feel that I don't love mixed with the cleaner aspects of the scent. I like some of the notes separately, but it doesn't work for me all mixed together.

[Convallaria]

I feel like I can smell candles, for some reason. If you sniff closer, it's that "clean" musk, with a bit of incensey edge. Afterward, though, the smoky edge goes away and it settles into something close to a neutral body cream. I love the opening, love the concept, but it lasts so short I'm not sure it's full/partial bottle-worthy.