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smellsgood2014-08-11 12:15 am
vicki_rae) wrote in smellsgood2014-08-11 12:15 am
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Seven reviews. Not sure how useful this will be to anyone else since my only exposure to notes was a fun afternoon sniffing oils at Whole Foods. Suggestions on how to improve gratefully accepted.
LITTLE SISTER IS WATCHING YOU, ICE, JUNE 23 1868, CHANNEL SNOW, SHUB-NIGGURATH, ENTERPRISE OF THE NIGHT, THE GATEKEEPER.
Really pleased me that I was right about the three I expected to like, and also about the two I though I might dislike. My skin generally really held onto all of these even after washing so in the future I'm going to test verrry carefully.
LITTLE SISTER IS WATCHING YOU
Electric, aldehydic cherry blossom.
In the vial: Cherry blossoms, florist shop greenery, not sweet.
Dry: I like this a lot. Still cherry blossoms but the sharpness has faded and there's a hint of sweet. A strong scent memory of the inside of my adored great-aunt's cedar hope chest scented with the sachets she make. I'll keep using the vial and possibly get a bottle of this.
ICE
Razors, cold metal, icicles, and her diamond-tipped claws: eucalyptus blossom, crystalline musk, white ginger, mint, and elemi.
In the vial: Fresh spicy.
Wet: Ginger, something else which is probably the eucalyptus and mint. Slightly sweet. I like this a lot.
Dry: The ginger faded a little and it's more of a blend. Home run. I want a bottle of this.
JUNE 23 1868
True love renewed by night in an English garden: moonflower, Nottingham catchfly, Casablanca lily, evening primrose, night-blooming cereus, Queen of the Night, muted by the sepia tones of tonka, tobacco absolute, bourbon vanilla, and costus.
In the vial: Floral.
Dry: Gorgeously floral even though I don’t recognize any of the specific notes. The floral isn't sweet, and it's not dying things floral. If this was music, it would be glorious higher notes without being shrill opera singer. I want a bottle of this.
CHANNEL SNOW
Benzoin, black pepper, white sandalwood, olibanum, ambergris accord, galbanum, and O3.
In the vial: Incense. Considered skipping it but hoping for black pepper.
Wet: And yay the black pepper came out to play. The sandalwood is still there but it's not in-your-face sandalwood. The pepper sharpens the blend and reduces the sandalwood. It's an old wooden drawer used for a long time to hold a box of spilled pepper and an unburned sandalwood candle.
Dry: Pepper, sandalwood, pencil shavings. Nothing something I'd wear very often but this is nice.
Later: The sandalwood is taking over so this is a no. If BPAL had something basically sweet without much in the way of any other notes, I'd like to try layering to see what happens.
SHUB-NIGGURATH
The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices.
In the vial: Ginger. Food spicy.
Wet: Ginger plus a sharp spicy incense at skin sniffing distance. The throw is a nice ginger spice blend with significantly less incense than the skin to nose distance.
Dry: The sharper incense is getting stronger so this is a no. I want my spice to be a little bit sweet and not veering into unwashed hippy incense. Another one that I wish I could layer with a little sweetness.
Annoyingly, my desk did what my skin didn't :) I managed to get imp spit on my fingers and rubbed it on the wood before I noticed. It was glorious for days, spicy with that slight sweetness I wanted. Maybe I should get a bottle and just keep scenting my desk?
ENTERPRISE OF THE NIGHT
The scent of vice and darkness: flashing neon, oil-tinged petrichor, fading perfume, smeared lipstick, and the faintest touch of gunpowder residue.
In the vial: Cheap perfume.
Wet and Dry: Really cheap perfume. Definitely no.
THE GATEKEEPER
A dry perfume, solemn and riddled with ancient, whispered secrets: brittle bones, the well-worn leather spines of forgotten books, crumbling papyrus, and the warm, strange scent of yellowed, crumbling manuscripts.
In the vial: Wow is that description accurate and not in a good way.
On me: OH HELL NO. I couldn't get rid of it with alcohol wipes or three determined dishwashing soap attacks. I finally partially buried it into something I could stand by dumping on a big blob of my mother's floral scented liquid hand soap and using the ground coffee from an unused k-cup as a scrub.
Note to self: listen to instincts in the future.
LITTLE SISTER IS WATCHING YOU, ICE, JUNE 23 1868, CHANNEL SNOW, SHUB-NIGGURATH, ENTERPRISE OF THE NIGHT, THE GATEKEEPER.
Really pleased me that I was right about the three I expected to like, and also about the two I though I might dislike. My skin generally really held onto all of these even after washing so in the future I'm going to test verrry carefully.
LITTLE SISTER IS WATCHING YOU
Electric, aldehydic cherry blossom.
In the vial: Cherry blossoms, florist shop greenery, not sweet.
Dry: I like this a lot. Still cherry blossoms but the sharpness has faded and there's a hint of sweet. A strong scent memory of the inside of my adored great-aunt's cedar hope chest scented with the sachets she make. I'll keep using the vial and possibly get a bottle of this.
ICE
Razors, cold metal, icicles, and her diamond-tipped claws: eucalyptus blossom, crystalline musk, white ginger, mint, and elemi.
In the vial: Fresh spicy.
Wet: Ginger, something else which is probably the eucalyptus and mint. Slightly sweet. I like this a lot.
Dry: The ginger faded a little and it's more of a blend. Home run. I want a bottle of this.
JUNE 23 1868
True love renewed by night in an English garden: moonflower, Nottingham catchfly, Casablanca lily, evening primrose, night-blooming cereus, Queen of the Night, muted by the sepia tones of tonka, tobacco absolute, bourbon vanilla, and costus.
In the vial: Floral.
Dry: Gorgeously floral even though I don’t recognize any of the specific notes. The floral isn't sweet, and it's not dying things floral. If this was music, it would be glorious higher notes without being shrill opera singer. I want a bottle of this.
CHANNEL SNOW
Benzoin, black pepper, white sandalwood, olibanum, ambergris accord, galbanum, and O3.
In the vial: Incense. Considered skipping it but hoping for black pepper.
Wet: And yay the black pepper came out to play. The sandalwood is still there but it's not in-your-face sandalwood. The pepper sharpens the blend and reduces the sandalwood. It's an old wooden drawer used for a long time to hold a box of spilled pepper and an unburned sandalwood candle.
Dry: Pepper, sandalwood, pencil shavings. Nothing something I'd wear very often but this is nice.
Later: The sandalwood is taking over so this is a no. If BPAL had something basically sweet without much in the way of any other notes, I'd like to try layering to see what happens.
SHUB-NIGGURATH
The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices.
In the vial: Ginger. Food spicy.
Wet: Ginger plus a sharp spicy incense at skin sniffing distance. The throw is a nice ginger spice blend with significantly less incense than the skin to nose distance.
Dry: The sharper incense is getting stronger so this is a no. I want my spice to be a little bit sweet and not veering into unwashed hippy incense. Another one that I wish I could layer with a little sweetness.
Annoyingly, my desk did what my skin didn't :) I managed to get imp spit on my fingers and rubbed it on the wood before I noticed. It was glorious for days, spicy with that slight sweetness I wanted. Maybe I should get a bottle and just keep scenting my desk?
ENTERPRISE OF THE NIGHT
The scent of vice and darkness: flashing neon, oil-tinged petrichor, fading perfume, smeared lipstick, and the faintest touch of gunpowder residue.
In the vial: Cheap perfume.
Wet and Dry: Really cheap perfume. Definitely no.
THE GATEKEEPER
A dry perfume, solemn and riddled with ancient, whispered secrets: brittle bones, the well-worn leather spines of forgotten books, crumbling papyrus, and the warm, strange scent of yellowed, crumbling manuscripts.
In the vial: Wow is that description accurate and not in a good way.
On me: OH HELL NO. I couldn't get rid of it with alcohol wipes or three determined dishwashing soap attacks. I finally partially buried it into something I could stand by dumping on a big blob of my mother's floral scented liquid hand soap and using the ground coffee from an unused k-cup as a scrub.
Note to self: listen to instincts in the future.
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(Also, I love the idea of rubbing perfume oil into your desk.)
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as far as vocabulary, really, the thing to realise is it's ALL kind of ridiculous and arbitrary. if you have an association or it reminds you of something, that's basically HOW the vocabulary of scent or taste or whatever else gets built. if you want, you can keep poking at the "standard" vocabulary until you figure what the standard codes mean specifically to you personally, but your own idiosyncractic vocabulary is just as good and useful, maybe even more so if it's evocative for you.
i mean, i'm not as practiced at scent myself either -- i'm more familiar with wine, but a lot of the same principles apply. :)
anyhow! you and had similar reactions to Little Sister and to Gatekeeper both. Gatekeeper wanted to be interesting, but really was awful on me.
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