"Listen...do you smell something?"
May. 31st, 2014 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feldmanI've been sniffing around, and here are my thoughts:
BPAL The Sea Foams Blood: Blood rising through an ocean wave. Or warm lightweight musky baby powder, for the sophisticated anklebiter. Not my speed, so off to the swap list.
BPAL Miskatonic University The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls. In the vial it's straight up Irish Coffee, on the skin it becomes a Nutty Irishman, and the amaretto scent replaces the coffee. In the drydown it turns sharply powdery and strong, and will linger. If I apply a smidge I can enjoy the first phase without being whacked in the face with the second half.
BPAL Hellfire A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass. The website says it's a new formulation, but I'm not sure which one I have. Many reviewers get a lot of smoke off Hellire, but I get more green. On the skin it develops a spiky note like the twang of nitrous oxide, very peculiar and lingering; if it can be said to be smoky, it's a faint acrid electrical smoke, like solder without the rosin sweetness. The scent built momentum through day and lingered on clothes and skin for a long while after--and I adore it.
House of Gloi Apothecary Old books, bubbling concoctions, herbs and creaking floor boards! A pure essential oil blend of: Lemongrass, rosemary, blood cedar, sweet basil, lavender and the tiniest drop of vetiver. My grandmother had a double lot that ranged from deep shade to blinding sun, and which had never seen a weed&feed chemical: a bit of grass overwhelmed by ivy, crabgrass, purslane, mullein, plantain, smartweed, foxtail, dandelion, pickerbushes, Queen Ann's lace, chicory and thistle (just from a brief image search). Mowing said lawn began with hauling the electric mower from a cool damp basement that smelled of the clay soil and the stale oils from the last round of mowing. Wet, this hits that gnarly herbal funk right on the nose, which is enough to pull it into the Very Exclusive VIP Lounge that is "I could buy a bottle of this". On skin the scent turns delicious and gains a sweetness like nibbling clover flowers, eliciting positive unsolicited comments from the spouse as well.
Conjure Oils La Maceta vibrant marigolds, scarlet geraniums, green leaves and fresh soil smile up at you from their terra cotta home. On paper, this is a scent I was looking forward to, as I dig marigold stank and soil notes. Alas, this either went really south on my skin or was a labeling error. From the get-go it's pure date filling, at first very dried fruity, then slipping stale into a note that isn't so much vanilla as a half-heartedly vanilla'd sugar. There's even the slight stink of granular white sugar, which may in fact be a facet of the marigold note writing the first few letters of the murderer's name in drying blood before expiring. Partner upon taking a whiff of the drydown, “Too sweet. Way too sweet.”
Conjure Oils Thor The scent of lightning, quick-tempered hail and a drinking horn filled with honey mead. This one's as advertised, fresh and sweet, an enjoyable honey that isn't treacly or a dusty pollen bomb, paired with a wet rain scent. This is a pleasant and reassuring scent, so if it's Thor, it's from the perspective of Jane Foster, PhD eating baklava and getting her feet rubbed by huge warm hands.
Etat Libre d'Orange: La Fin du Monde (sample from Lucky Scent) Popcorn accord, carrot seeds, cumin seeds, sesame, black pepper from Madagascar, freesia, vetiver from Haiti, sandalwood, kernels of ambrette absolute, orris absolute, styrax, canon powder accord. This one evolves around the harsh notes: cumin, canon powder, black pepper. Interesting, but each phase also off-putting. I get nothing grassy, grainy, floral or sandalwood. On the second try it remains very interesting. There's heat to this scent, and I'm getting the sandalwood and roasted grain this time, along with the black hulls of pepper and black powder adulterating each other. Ultimately I enjoy its difficulty, but I don't enjoy the scent, so it's in the swap pile.
Next up: some of the BPAL prototypes fromsynecdochic's recent decant circle.
BPAL The Sea Foams Blood: Blood rising through an ocean wave. Or warm lightweight musky baby powder, for the sophisticated anklebiter. Not my speed, so off to the swap list.
BPAL Miskatonic University The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls. In the vial it's straight up Irish Coffee, on the skin it becomes a Nutty Irishman, and the amaretto scent replaces the coffee. In the drydown it turns sharply powdery and strong, and will linger. If I apply a smidge I can enjoy the first phase without being whacked in the face with the second half.
BPAL Hellfire A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass. The website says it's a new formulation, but I'm not sure which one I have. Many reviewers get a lot of smoke off Hellire, but I get more green. On the skin it develops a spiky note like the twang of nitrous oxide, very peculiar and lingering; if it can be said to be smoky, it's a faint acrid electrical smoke, like solder without the rosin sweetness. The scent built momentum through day and lingered on clothes and skin for a long while after--and I adore it.
House of Gloi Apothecary Old books, bubbling concoctions, herbs and creaking floor boards! A pure essential oil blend of: Lemongrass, rosemary, blood cedar, sweet basil, lavender and the tiniest drop of vetiver. My grandmother had a double lot that ranged from deep shade to blinding sun, and which had never seen a weed&feed chemical: a bit of grass overwhelmed by ivy, crabgrass, purslane, mullein, plantain, smartweed, foxtail, dandelion, pickerbushes, Queen Ann's lace, chicory and thistle (just from a brief image search). Mowing said lawn began with hauling the electric mower from a cool damp basement that smelled of the clay soil and the stale oils from the last round of mowing. Wet, this hits that gnarly herbal funk right on the nose, which is enough to pull it into the Very Exclusive VIP Lounge that is "I could buy a bottle of this". On skin the scent turns delicious and gains a sweetness like nibbling clover flowers, eliciting positive unsolicited comments from the spouse as well.
Conjure Oils La Maceta vibrant marigolds, scarlet geraniums, green leaves and fresh soil smile up at you from their terra cotta home. On paper, this is a scent I was looking forward to, as I dig marigold stank and soil notes. Alas, this either went really south on my skin or was a labeling error. From the get-go it's pure date filling, at first very dried fruity, then slipping stale into a note that isn't so much vanilla as a half-heartedly vanilla'd sugar. There's even the slight stink of granular white sugar, which may in fact be a facet of the marigold note writing the first few letters of the murderer's name in drying blood before expiring. Partner upon taking a whiff of the drydown, “Too sweet. Way too sweet.”
Conjure Oils Thor The scent of lightning, quick-tempered hail and a drinking horn filled with honey mead. This one's as advertised, fresh and sweet, an enjoyable honey that isn't treacly or a dusty pollen bomb, paired with a wet rain scent. This is a pleasant and reassuring scent, so if it's Thor, it's from the perspective of Jane Foster, PhD eating baklava and getting her feet rubbed by huge warm hands.
Etat Libre d'Orange: La Fin du Monde (sample from Lucky Scent) Popcorn accord, carrot seeds, cumin seeds, sesame, black pepper from Madagascar, freesia, vetiver from Haiti, sandalwood, kernels of ambrette absolute, orris absolute, styrax, canon powder accord. This one evolves around the harsh notes: cumin, canon powder, black pepper. Interesting, but each phase also off-putting. I get nothing grassy, grainy, floral or sandalwood. On the second try it remains very interesting. There's heat to this scent, and I'm getting the sandalwood and roasted grain this time, along with the black hulls of pepper and black powder adulterating each other. Ultimately I enjoy its difficulty, but I don't enjoy the scent, so it's in the swap pile.
Next up: some of the BPAL prototypes from
synecdochic's recent decant circle.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-01 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-01 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-01 11:21 pm (UTC)It is fascinating what scent memory can do to make you either love or loathe the way the something smells.