[scent review] get a snootful
Jun. 30th, 2014 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feldmanUpdated the swaplist, for perusal.
Guerlain: Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune grapefruit, lemon and bergamot juice, whose aroma then is melting in patchouli, sandalwood and vanilla
Opens with citrus pith with sandalwood, pleasant but ephemeral, and the sandalwood/vanilla drydown is unimpressive.
BPAL Centzon Totochtin Bittersweet Mexican cocoa with rum, red wine, and a scent redolent of sacrificial blood.
In vial: dark chocolate, rum, a little wine. On skin: cheap chalky chocolate with whiffs of rum and powdery musk, disappointing and clingy
CB I Hate Perfume: Russian Caravan Tea black tea, bergamot, and a hint of smoke
If this is tea, it's lemon-flavor powdered Nestea.
Montale: Intense Cafe coffee, rose, amber, vanilla, white musk
Coffee and rose on a foundation of musk, with a sillage that's intense but not in a good way. The rose is harsh and unpleasant and I could never pin it down: it's not fresh, dried, oily, juicy, spicy or pale, just a hard edge. The coffee is a powdery crema smell, and which I might like in a different blend. There's also no development of this scent, it's just that stinky attempt at rose droning on while the coffee dissipates into dryness.
Conjure Oils The Pernicious Parasol cherry, plum and apricot are cloaked in black vanilla and slathered with bitter almond, tart green apple, d'anjou pear and the tiniest tinge of cassava
In vial: orchard fruit. On skin: the fruits gain an edge as the top notes burn off, like a smooth patina eroding off a rough surface. An unconvincing vanilla comes to the fore but quickly shuts its mouth when given a flinty look from a thin parsimonious almond. It's not a pleasant scent (on me, I think it could develop quite differently on someone else) but it's an interesting ride. It's a dreadful bridal shower attended by humourless WASPS on one side and the low-sodium salt of the earth on the other, only in the form of a tree-fruit tart made with overwintered cellar scraps and the dregs of the baking pantry.
BPAL Horn of Plenty conjure bag, so no description. notes gleaned from the forum: sweet and dark. It smells like candied cherries, or cherry candy (take your pick) with a rich warm vanilla-scented tobacco beneath it
In vial: tobacco and tart cherry with a spike of acetone. Trusting in the metamorphic power of skin chemistry, I try it on. On skin: the cherry turns away from fruit and zooms toward maraschino, a translucent fragrance of cherry tangential to the actual fruit and only detectable on the inhale; the exhale is a smooth pale chocolate, dutched, low cocoa/high cocoa butter content...maybe a waft of praline.
CB I Hate Perfume: Wild Hunt leaves, crushed twigs, flowing sap, fallen branches, old leaves, green moss, fir, pine and tiny mushrooms
A mild sweet 'woodsy' scent, but the woods here are a copse of trash trees at the back edge of a parking lot.
BPAL Roadhouse weedy dandelion and hops with a whiff of tobacco and hemp and a swirl of booziness
Fluffy dandelion and edible herbals. On skin the dandelion is delicious, and heady from the hemp and moist leafy tobacco note.
BPAL Iago malevolent, dark and shadowy: sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver
I tried a dab of this on a work day, which demonstrates I sometimes have the cojones of an idiot: it was too bold a move, but it worked out anyway. The oil is dark, and leaves a yellow mark if not rubbed in, even with a dot from the end of the imp wand. The scent is not kidding around. Thick black hide smeared in cut grass on the pebbled side and musky suede on the skin side. There's an occasional hint of pork rinds, but that only makes me groove on it more. This scent is the platonic aroma of the buffalo hide pants of Turkish oil wrestling, and I love it.
(decant fromsynecdochic) BPAL AF8 prototype, so no description. notes gleaned from the internet: lilac based floral
In vial: lilacky, which makes me happy, as lilac season zipped by me before I could score an armful of them. On skin: briefly lilac, then melding into a chalky sugar candy scent that's probably violet, but is underscored by something that brings to mind peony, maybe. I'm not keen on florals, but this one is a delightful Willy Wonka mezzo-soprano floral with a lilac jingle stuck in its head.
Guerlain: Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune grapefruit, lemon and bergamot juice, whose aroma then is melting in patchouli, sandalwood and vanilla
Opens with citrus pith with sandalwood, pleasant but ephemeral, and the sandalwood/vanilla drydown is unimpressive.
BPAL Centzon Totochtin Bittersweet Mexican cocoa with rum, red wine, and a scent redolent of sacrificial blood.
In vial: dark chocolate, rum, a little wine. On skin: cheap chalky chocolate with whiffs of rum and powdery musk, disappointing and clingy
CB I Hate Perfume: Russian Caravan Tea black tea, bergamot, and a hint of smoke
If this is tea, it's lemon-flavor powdered Nestea.
Montale: Intense Cafe coffee, rose, amber, vanilla, white musk
Coffee and rose on a foundation of musk, with a sillage that's intense but not in a good way. The rose is harsh and unpleasant and I could never pin it down: it's not fresh, dried, oily, juicy, spicy or pale, just a hard edge. The coffee is a powdery crema smell, and which I might like in a different blend. There's also no development of this scent, it's just that stinky attempt at rose droning on while the coffee dissipates into dryness.
Conjure Oils The Pernicious Parasol cherry, plum and apricot are cloaked in black vanilla and slathered with bitter almond, tart green apple, d'anjou pear and the tiniest tinge of cassava
In vial: orchard fruit. On skin: the fruits gain an edge as the top notes burn off, like a smooth patina eroding off a rough surface. An unconvincing vanilla comes to the fore but quickly shuts its mouth when given a flinty look from a thin parsimonious almond. It's not a pleasant scent (on me, I think it could develop quite differently on someone else) but it's an interesting ride. It's a dreadful bridal shower attended by humourless WASPS on one side and the low-sodium salt of the earth on the other, only in the form of a tree-fruit tart made with overwintered cellar scraps and the dregs of the baking pantry.
BPAL Horn of Plenty conjure bag, so no description. notes gleaned from the forum: sweet and dark. It smells like candied cherries, or cherry candy (take your pick) with a rich warm vanilla-scented tobacco beneath it
In vial: tobacco and tart cherry with a spike of acetone. Trusting in the metamorphic power of skin chemistry, I try it on. On skin: the cherry turns away from fruit and zooms toward maraschino, a translucent fragrance of cherry tangential to the actual fruit and only detectable on the inhale; the exhale is a smooth pale chocolate, dutched, low cocoa/high cocoa butter content...maybe a waft of praline.
CB I Hate Perfume: Wild Hunt leaves, crushed twigs, flowing sap, fallen branches, old leaves, green moss, fir, pine and tiny mushrooms
A mild sweet 'woodsy' scent, but the woods here are a copse of trash trees at the back edge of a parking lot.
BPAL Roadhouse weedy dandelion and hops with a whiff of tobacco and hemp and a swirl of booziness
Fluffy dandelion and edible herbals. On skin the dandelion is delicious, and heady from the hemp and moist leafy tobacco note.
BPAL Iago malevolent, dark and shadowy: sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver
I tried a dab of this on a work day, which demonstrates I sometimes have the cojones of an idiot: it was too bold a move, but it worked out anyway. The oil is dark, and leaves a yellow mark if not rubbed in, even with a dot from the end of the imp wand. The scent is not kidding around. Thick black hide smeared in cut grass on the pebbled side and musky suede on the skin side. There's an occasional hint of pork rinds, but that only makes me groove on it more. This scent is the platonic aroma of the buffalo hide pants of Turkish oil wrestling, and I love it.
(decant from
synecdochic) BPAL AF8 prototype, so no description. notes gleaned from the internet: lilac based floral In vial: lilacky, which makes me happy, as lilac season zipped by me before I could score an armful of them. On skin: briefly lilac, then melding into a chalky sugar candy scent that's probably violet, but is underscored by something that brings to mind peony, maybe. I'm not keen on florals, but this one is a delightful Willy Wonka mezzo-soprano floral with a lilac jingle stuck in its head.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 03:56 pm (UTC)It's fascinating to me the transformative factors of skin chemistry and flora, which then feed into layers of cognitive machinery involving culture and memory and aesthetics...all set in motion by a very ancient sense that's part touch, part tasting-at-a-distance.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-04 12:36 am (UTC)Now that I'm feeling better, I can test the samples you sent me. I have high hopes for the Guerlain grapefruit.
Love "tasting-at-a-distance." What a marvelous, marvelous way to phrase that.