Order of the Dragon reviews!
I thought I'd post my reviews of the OOtD scents before they go down forever.
The Bloody Sword, Lab description: "A distillation of force, conquest, power and fury: dragon’s blood, myrrh, black pepper, labdanum, benzoin, leather, fire, and steel."
I have no idea what I'm smelling here. A high, sweet, sharp perfume with an undercurrent of incense. I suspect that's the dragon's blood and pepper mixing with whatever the Lab uses for its fire and steel notes, and all of that layered over the cold incense oils. The benzoin is right there, a familiar traditional perfume scent, but the rest is folded so carefully around it that this doesn't come across as a traditional perfume, even in the bottle.
On, out comes the leather and the pepper, with the myrrh behind. The dragon's blood is a juicy sweetness here, fronting this scent along with a strong dose of labdanum (rockrose resin). I assume that's the vaguely ambery, soft resin note here. This is very much not the masculine, intense scent I had expected. It's actually quite soft and rather feminine, which I had not anticipated at all! I guess I see "leather" and think "MANLY."
This is powerful, but it's not raw battlefield power. It's firelight shining on an embroidered coat of arms. It's symbolic power, power that goes deeper than sheer physical force.
That said, this is not a powerful scent. It's fairly modest and I had to apply quite a bit to get any appreciable throw from it at all. The drydown is beautiful, mostly dragon's blood with an incensey undertone and just a whisk of something metallic.
Count Dracula, Lab description: "The essence of nobility, brutality and true Will made flesh and propelled through the eons by an ever-burning hatred: black patchouli, neroli, tonka, cinnamon, bitter clove, leather, black musk, coffin wood and fiery ginger. "
This is rich in the bottle, dark and slow. Patchouli, musk, and the spices come out ahead. There's definitely ginger, and a strong underdraft of leather. Usually I can't smell leather in the bottle, it only appears once it's on my skin. This is promising!
On, it's a rich shadow of a scent lit by a blazing halo of furious spices. And I mean "furious." This smells really, really angry. Like Shub Niggurath's pissed off brother. The fiery spices are a perfect match with the raw but torpid power of the earthy black patchouli. The leather adds just the right touch of villainous gloating. Fucking perfect.
It stays just this good, a spicy, dark drydown. The patchouli stays earthy but crisp, never gets that gross murky tinge, probably because of the musk and spices. It's a wonderful scent!
Quincy Morris, Lab description: "Rough on the edges, but possessing the true essence of valor and nobility of spirit: tobacco, vanilla, white pear, cedar, rugged musk and saddle leather."
The leather is forefront, sweetened by tobacco and a little pear. The musk is rich and lively.
It becomes delicious when body heat warms it and the notes separate. Vanilla and pear are present but not overwhelming, lending the whole a sweetness that's not quite sugary. Tobacco leaf and saddle leather mix. This is the same leather from Dead Man's Hand, it is not the De Sade leather note. De Sade's leather is smoky boot leather. Quincy's leather is the slightly chlorine scent of rawhide or suede. The cedar comes out after a while, not overwhelming. It's mixed in with the tobacco. A manly scent, but not a crude or impolite one. Just a little rough.
On the weardown I get sweet leather and subtle cedar, with a musky flush and just a faint, faint whiff of blonde tobacco. I swear, I smell this, I feel a scratchy, manly jawline. It's masculine but not in an overt, cologne-y sort of way. It's just, "Oh, hmm. Here's what this guy actually smells like." Fascinating and yummy.
I could smell like this. I'd be happy to meet a man who smelled like this. And I 'd be happy to Do Things to him. Yup, Quincy's a winner all around. Definitely one of the good guys.
The Castle, Lab description: "A distant whisper of pine, wet moss and dry leaves passing through vast halls and winding dungeons whose scent bears the memory of blood, faded splendor, imperial elegance and stunning violence. "
I'm going to go ahead and say what this smells like to me, because by golly, that description gives me nothing. It's high, clear, and sweet, also very bright. That's dragon's blood, faint but true, overlaid by something resinous, a woody and pale pine or redwood. It's cold, foresty, but not pitchy or too green, and almost squinting bright. It is very autumnal, and very clear. Remote. A bright landscape, viewed from a distance.
The greenery comes out more on warm skin, and a touch of something dank and grubby. Rotten wood? Sandalwood? Old leaves? It's a faint, perfumey version of some half-remembered outdoors scent. I'm getting none of the sweetness or foodiness that others are claiming, just a very clear, crisp outside smell. I can see where the "elegance" is coming from. This is a high, bright perfume, the topnotes are green and gold, it's very poised and dignified. But it's got this sour, moldering edge to it.
As it dries it softens, and then it is very pleasant, very dragon's-bloody, and very pretty. It loses some of that bitter, acrid brightness and just becomes a slaty, metallic, cool smell with a remote sweetness hovering around the edges.
Going back and reading over the review, this is not the castle. It's the approach to the castle from the first sighting of the distant tower to the approach through ancient and dark woods, and then inside. It's the olfactory equivalent of traveling music and a montage. Wow. Wow.
I have to say, maybe not a personal scent for me, but certainly an Experience. An admirable example of the perfumer's art.
The Brides of Dracula, Lab description: "Unquenchable desire, seething lust, malevolent sexuality, and voracious hunger lurking beneath a shimmering veil of unearthly beauty: gleaming skin musk, honey and white amber, plum blossom, osmanthus, sandalwood, calla lily, and a light, sensual blend of Eastern spices."
Very light florals in the bottle, heavy on the lily. The osmanthus lends it a very perfumey scent, along with what I think is the musk.
On, yes, the musk comes out, not a dark musk, but a light one. The plum and lily are next, with a faint draft of incense. This is already soapy on me, so I don't think it's going to work, but it is certainly pretty!
It dries not quite as offensive as I was afraid. Florals just hate me, and I was hoping that all the other lovely notes here would pummel the flowers enough to make it wearable, but alas, that's not to be. There is a persistent undertone of incense, but it's not really smoky so much as simply crystalline, and there's no trace of honey, which should have pasted down the flowers enough to make them play nice. I'm not getting the spice at all, which is a shame.
The florals here are rich and fleshy. That must be the lily: heavy, wet, and faintly sour to my nose, like pickles. This is why I don't like florals. Pickles, baby powder, stripper makeup, it always goes wrong somehow. There's something very funereal about this scent as well. Probably the lilies again.
Overall, a light musky floral with overtones of incense. Ideal for someone who likes their florals traditional but with a bit of depth.
Lucy Westenra, Lab description: "A wanton beauty, corrupt, hypnotic, seductive, and feral: magnolia, iris, Moroccan rose, frankincense, crushed jasmine blossom, blood orange, tobacco flower and white musk."
This is so floral it's not funny. Immediately on opening the bottle a cool raft of flowery notes assails me; most prominent are the rose and jasmine. The strong citric tinge of blood orange makes this soapy. I can't help comparing this to a powered-up version of Lucy's Kiss.
It goes on with more subtlety. The musk and frankincense give it a hint of depth it wouldn't otherwise have; the magnolia is a fresh, wet, heavy note. There's a fresh greenness here, like crushed petals. Overall, the very picture of lush beauty on the verge of overripeness. A flower so fully-bloomed it seems the petals will fall at one touch. The orange keeps it from being too sweet, but only just.
This one is more interesting the drier it gets. Once the florals die back a bit and the citrus fades, it's very strongly incense and musk, and it lasts forever. This phase of it is beautiful, but I don't know if it's worth getting slapped around by the flowers.
In the end, it's just like Lucy: pretty, but doomed, and at its most alluring when it's half-dead.
Wilhelmina Murray, Lab description: "Tea rose, white sandalwood and a flurry of pale, virginal blossoms, smeared with a smoky, blood-soiled blend of myrrh, hyacinth, Daemonorops resin, dark musk and blackcurrant."
Daemonorops, if you're taking perfume dork notes, is one of the genus of plants that produced dragon's blood resin. It's a member of the rattan family, and blah blah blah. So, basically: dragon's blood.
This is pale and floral in the bottle, almost anemic, with the rose a cool and distant second to varied small flowers. The musk isn't all that present.
On, it's more subtle, a slightly soapy floral with strong undercurrents of incense. The musk comes out at once, but it's low and very dark. It's not a soft, boozy musk, it's a very understated note. Primarily, this is sandalwood, flowers, and ritual incense. It has a sour, almost sickly undertone to it, but is still very beautiful.
As it settles, it changes a lot, to a strongly incense inflected floral with no one note dominating. It is ultra-feminine, and definitely one to try for those who like white florals. Very ladylike and demure, a little brittle, and just a bit soiled. The incense provides just the faintest hope of redemption.
Dr. John Seward, Lab description: "Penetrating and gifted, vulnerable, with just a hint of opium-blurred delirium: poppy smoke, champaca flower, tonka, sandalwood, ginger, white pepper."
This one has hardly any smell in the bottle, very little throw. It's sweet tonka and smoke with a yummy hint of ginger and a little of the pepper's sweetness. The flower is there, very faintly. All the notes are present, but it's so very quiet and subdued.
This is lovely once it warms up. Sweetly smoky, woody incense with ginger spice and creamy tonka. The pepper is lively, as always. You know, I enjoy pepper in perfumes, which I didn't think I would, but its spiky sweetness is always so charming to me. The champaca flower is sweet and damp, and it blends, oddly enough, with the ginger. This is a very rich and actually quite feminine perfume. You know, sexy, drugged stupor and all that.
Dry, the flower and the ginger are quite candylike, an odd combination. It gets more floral as it wears on, but it's such a sweet floral, sticky, that it's not powdery at all. I really like this. Girly and candylike, yes, but it's a nice scent, rich and layered and a little overheated, just like I like them.
Johnathan Harker, Lab description: "A respectable gentleman’s scent: lavender, iris, white tea, verbena and white sandalwood."
No, I don't think this is going to work on me. In the bottle, it's strongly verbena, which I should have recalled smells like lemons. Under this is the lavender, the two meshing for an herbal crush of scent. There's sweetness here, the iris, underneath it all. It doesn't smell very masculine to me, not in the bottle.
On, this has more subtlety than by rights it should. The topnote is definitely the verbena with the lavender right behind. The sandalwood and iris mix together to make it slightly sweet.
I think I'd like this better if it weren't for the lemon. The throw of this is very much like I just spent an hour weeding my front garden, which is thronged with verbena plants. I love the smell of lemons and lemon verbena, truly I do, but lemon has never been a scent that appeals to me as a personal perfume.
The lavender gives this whatever cologne-like edge it has. It's likeable enough, I suppose. Thankfully almost no citrus has staying power on my skin, so as the verbena fades it becomes a poised and refined scent that is just a little stuffy. There's a hint of powder from the iris, and an essential sweetness. This is very mannered and a little stiff, but it means well. Much like Johnathan himself. Very well done.
Carfax Abbey, Lab description: "The scent of abandoned places, of desolation and emptiness: heavy woods and thin dusty herbs touched by the wafting incense of a nearby chapel."
In the bottle this is herbal and a bit woodsy, a green scent but not overwhelmingly cologne-y. There is a bit of sweetness, promising incense. Very pretty.
On it's much nicer; it becomes cut wood, aged, and dry herbs, an arcane and mysterious scent, underscored by a waft of incense. This is a clear, pleasant scent, and it has a lot of depth. There is less green here, and more of a dry herbal scent with the odor of sandalwood and amber coming out more strongly the drier it gets.
As it wears, the incense becomes predominant, and that's when it is truly lovely. Close in, skin-warm amber with a hint of woody, smoky sandalwood and just a whiff of herbs. This is the smell of a box where ritual supplies have been kept. Deep and mysterious.
R. M. Renfield, Lab description: "Unhinged: moss, cumin, patchouli, Balsam of Peru, and neroli."
Oh! This is so not even close to what I was imagining!
In the bottle, it's a friendly, lively scent. The patchouli is the base note, kept from filthy skankitude by the cumin's spice and the juicy green of the moss. It's all tied together by the neroli, an unexpected tangy floral that takes this from kooky to pretty.
On, this is like watching bugs fight. Fascinating, and so hard to tell what the hell is going on! This is the same moss that's in Zombi, for instance. It's very earthy, dank, and green. The patchouli is behaving itself, blends beautifully with the moss for a rich, loamy cologne smell. Cumin and neroli are an unlikely but delightful pair, giving it a sort of slapdash charm.
The throw is not sugary, but it is a sweet scent, pleasant and friendly. Closer, that's where the patchouli's dirty tinge starts making itself known. This is masculine, but easily a scent that women could wear. It's earthy and green in a mossy, mulchy way, a growing and sort of primordial scent that's not animal but rather vegetal.
I love it. Unexpected, strange, and certainly the unlikely hero of this series. I've never smelled anything quite like it.
The Carpathian Mountains, Lab description: "Mountain air and the scent of crisp snow blanketing the mountain’s flora: Scottish fir, beech, cembra and mugho pine, rhododendron, currant, honeysuckle, raspberry leaf, dwarf juniper, sedge, meadow grass, snowdrop, rose bay, lily of the valley, starwort, lichen and mosses."
This is just so odd. It smells like wintergreen, but there's also pine mixing with the florals and the icy ozone-ish note to make a sweet, cold pine note that's not unlike mint, itself. In the bottle it's cold and faint. On my skin it's not much stronger. This is a very subtle scent. For all that, it's not a low, earthy scent; usually perfumes this high-pitched are also very loud, but this isn't loud at all, it's just a whisper. This is clean and cool and brisk. I'm getting a strong sweetgrass note from this somewhere in the middle, under the minty fir smell and the snow smell. A hint of understated florals.
I don't like wintergreen scents, but this is very nice. I think the herbal, grassy tinge and the sweetness of the florals are enough to offset the medicinal wintergreen smell. This is clean, light, and feminine. Definitely one to try if you like clean or minty smells.
Anyone else scrambling to make up their minds about what they want before the update vanishes? I know I am, and I hate to think I'm alone!
(I'm crossposting this in a couple places, so my apologies if you see it twice. As compensation, have a picture of a vampire cat.
The Bloody Sword, Lab description: "A distillation of force, conquest, power and fury: dragon’s blood, myrrh, black pepper, labdanum, benzoin, leather, fire, and steel."
I have no idea what I'm smelling here. A high, sweet, sharp perfume with an undercurrent of incense. I suspect that's the dragon's blood and pepper mixing with whatever the Lab uses for its fire and steel notes, and all of that layered over the cold incense oils. The benzoin is right there, a familiar traditional perfume scent, but the rest is folded so carefully around it that this doesn't come across as a traditional perfume, even in the bottle.
On, out comes the leather and the pepper, with the myrrh behind. The dragon's blood is a juicy sweetness here, fronting this scent along with a strong dose of labdanum (rockrose resin). I assume that's the vaguely ambery, soft resin note here. This is very much not the masculine, intense scent I had expected. It's actually quite soft and rather feminine, which I had not anticipated at all! I guess I see "leather" and think "MANLY."
This is powerful, but it's not raw battlefield power. It's firelight shining on an embroidered coat of arms. It's symbolic power, power that goes deeper than sheer physical force.
That said, this is not a powerful scent. It's fairly modest and I had to apply quite a bit to get any appreciable throw from it at all. The drydown is beautiful, mostly dragon's blood with an incensey undertone and just a whisk of something metallic.
Count Dracula, Lab description: "The essence of nobility, brutality and true Will made flesh and propelled through the eons by an ever-burning hatred: black patchouli, neroli, tonka, cinnamon, bitter clove, leather, black musk, coffin wood and fiery ginger. "
This is rich in the bottle, dark and slow. Patchouli, musk, and the spices come out ahead. There's definitely ginger, and a strong underdraft of leather. Usually I can't smell leather in the bottle, it only appears once it's on my skin. This is promising!
On, it's a rich shadow of a scent lit by a blazing halo of furious spices. And I mean "furious." This smells really, really angry. Like Shub Niggurath's pissed off brother. The fiery spices are a perfect match with the raw but torpid power of the earthy black patchouli. The leather adds just the right touch of villainous gloating. Fucking perfect.
It stays just this good, a spicy, dark drydown. The patchouli stays earthy but crisp, never gets that gross murky tinge, probably because of the musk and spices. It's a wonderful scent!
Quincy Morris, Lab description: "Rough on the edges, but possessing the true essence of valor and nobility of spirit: tobacco, vanilla, white pear, cedar, rugged musk and saddle leather."
The leather is forefront, sweetened by tobacco and a little pear. The musk is rich and lively.
It becomes delicious when body heat warms it and the notes separate. Vanilla and pear are present but not overwhelming, lending the whole a sweetness that's not quite sugary. Tobacco leaf and saddle leather mix. This is the same leather from Dead Man's Hand, it is not the De Sade leather note. De Sade's leather is smoky boot leather. Quincy's leather is the slightly chlorine scent of rawhide or suede. The cedar comes out after a while, not overwhelming. It's mixed in with the tobacco. A manly scent, but not a crude or impolite one. Just a little rough.
On the weardown I get sweet leather and subtle cedar, with a musky flush and just a faint, faint whiff of blonde tobacco. I swear, I smell this, I feel a scratchy, manly jawline. It's masculine but not in an overt, cologne-y sort of way. It's just, "Oh, hmm. Here's what this guy actually smells like." Fascinating and yummy.
I could smell like this. I'd be happy to meet a man who smelled like this. And I 'd be happy to Do Things to him. Yup, Quincy's a winner all around. Definitely one of the good guys.
The Castle, Lab description: "A distant whisper of pine, wet moss and dry leaves passing through vast halls and winding dungeons whose scent bears the memory of blood, faded splendor, imperial elegance and stunning violence. "
I'm going to go ahead and say what this smells like to me, because by golly, that description gives me nothing. It's high, clear, and sweet, also very bright. That's dragon's blood, faint but true, overlaid by something resinous, a woody and pale pine or redwood. It's cold, foresty, but not pitchy or too green, and almost squinting bright. It is very autumnal, and very clear. Remote. A bright landscape, viewed from a distance.
The greenery comes out more on warm skin, and a touch of something dank and grubby. Rotten wood? Sandalwood? Old leaves? It's a faint, perfumey version of some half-remembered outdoors scent. I'm getting none of the sweetness or foodiness that others are claiming, just a very clear, crisp outside smell. I can see where the "elegance" is coming from. This is a high, bright perfume, the topnotes are green and gold, it's very poised and dignified. But it's got this sour, moldering edge to it.
As it dries it softens, and then it is very pleasant, very dragon's-bloody, and very pretty. It loses some of that bitter, acrid brightness and just becomes a slaty, metallic, cool smell with a remote sweetness hovering around the edges.
Going back and reading over the review, this is not the castle. It's the approach to the castle from the first sighting of the distant tower to the approach through ancient and dark woods, and then inside. It's the olfactory equivalent of traveling music and a montage. Wow. Wow.
I have to say, maybe not a personal scent for me, but certainly an Experience. An admirable example of the perfumer's art.
The Brides of Dracula, Lab description: "Unquenchable desire, seething lust, malevolent sexuality, and voracious hunger lurking beneath a shimmering veil of unearthly beauty: gleaming skin musk, honey and white amber, plum blossom, osmanthus, sandalwood, calla lily, and a light, sensual blend of Eastern spices."
Very light florals in the bottle, heavy on the lily. The osmanthus lends it a very perfumey scent, along with what I think is the musk.
On, yes, the musk comes out, not a dark musk, but a light one. The plum and lily are next, with a faint draft of incense. This is already soapy on me, so I don't think it's going to work, but it is certainly pretty!
It dries not quite as offensive as I was afraid. Florals just hate me, and I was hoping that all the other lovely notes here would pummel the flowers enough to make it wearable, but alas, that's not to be. There is a persistent undertone of incense, but it's not really smoky so much as simply crystalline, and there's no trace of honey, which should have pasted down the flowers enough to make them play nice. I'm not getting the spice at all, which is a shame.
The florals here are rich and fleshy. That must be the lily: heavy, wet, and faintly sour to my nose, like pickles. This is why I don't like florals. Pickles, baby powder, stripper makeup, it always goes wrong somehow. There's something very funereal about this scent as well. Probably the lilies again.
Overall, a light musky floral with overtones of incense. Ideal for someone who likes their florals traditional but with a bit of depth.
Lucy Westenra, Lab description: "A wanton beauty, corrupt, hypnotic, seductive, and feral: magnolia, iris, Moroccan rose, frankincense, crushed jasmine blossom, blood orange, tobacco flower and white musk."
This is so floral it's not funny. Immediately on opening the bottle a cool raft of flowery notes assails me; most prominent are the rose and jasmine. The strong citric tinge of blood orange makes this soapy. I can't help comparing this to a powered-up version of Lucy's Kiss.
It goes on with more subtlety. The musk and frankincense give it a hint of depth it wouldn't otherwise have; the magnolia is a fresh, wet, heavy note. There's a fresh greenness here, like crushed petals. Overall, the very picture of lush beauty on the verge of overripeness. A flower so fully-bloomed it seems the petals will fall at one touch. The orange keeps it from being too sweet, but only just.
This one is more interesting the drier it gets. Once the florals die back a bit and the citrus fades, it's very strongly incense and musk, and it lasts forever. This phase of it is beautiful, but I don't know if it's worth getting slapped around by the flowers.
In the end, it's just like Lucy: pretty, but doomed, and at its most alluring when it's half-dead.
Wilhelmina Murray, Lab description: "Tea rose, white sandalwood and a flurry of pale, virginal blossoms, smeared with a smoky, blood-soiled blend of myrrh, hyacinth, Daemonorops resin, dark musk and blackcurrant."
Daemonorops, if you're taking perfume dork notes, is one of the genus of plants that produced dragon's blood resin. It's a member of the rattan family, and blah blah blah. So, basically: dragon's blood.
This is pale and floral in the bottle, almost anemic, with the rose a cool and distant second to varied small flowers. The musk isn't all that present.
On, it's more subtle, a slightly soapy floral with strong undercurrents of incense. The musk comes out at once, but it's low and very dark. It's not a soft, boozy musk, it's a very understated note. Primarily, this is sandalwood, flowers, and ritual incense. It has a sour, almost sickly undertone to it, but is still very beautiful.
As it settles, it changes a lot, to a strongly incense inflected floral with no one note dominating. It is ultra-feminine, and definitely one to try for those who like white florals. Very ladylike and demure, a little brittle, and just a bit soiled. The incense provides just the faintest hope of redemption.
Dr. John Seward, Lab description: "Penetrating and gifted, vulnerable, with just a hint of opium-blurred delirium: poppy smoke, champaca flower, tonka, sandalwood, ginger, white pepper."
This one has hardly any smell in the bottle, very little throw. It's sweet tonka and smoke with a yummy hint of ginger and a little of the pepper's sweetness. The flower is there, very faintly. All the notes are present, but it's so very quiet and subdued.
This is lovely once it warms up. Sweetly smoky, woody incense with ginger spice and creamy tonka. The pepper is lively, as always. You know, I enjoy pepper in perfumes, which I didn't think I would, but its spiky sweetness is always so charming to me. The champaca flower is sweet and damp, and it blends, oddly enough, with the ginger. This is a very rich and actually quite feminine perfume. You know, sexy, drugged stupor and all that.
Dry, the flower and the ginger are quite candylike, an odd combination. It gets more floral as it wears on, but it's such a sweet floral, sticky, that it's not powdery at all. I really like this. Girly and candylike, yes, but it's a nice scent, rich and layered and a little overheated, just like I like them.
Johnathan Harker, Lab description: "A respectable gentleman’s scent: lavender, iris, white tea, verbena and white sandalwood."
No, I don't think this is going to work on me. In the bottle, it's strongly verbena, which I should have recalled smells like lemons. Under this is the lavender, the two meshing for an herbal crush of scent. There's sweetness here, the iris, underneath it all. It doesn't smell very masculine to me, not in the bottle.
On, this has more subtlety than by rights it should. The topnote is definitely the verbena with the lavender right behind. The sandalwood and iris mix together to make it slightly sweet.
I think I'd like this better if it weren't for the lemon. The throw of this is very much like I just spent an hour weeding my front garden, which is thronged with verbena plants. I love the smell of lemons and lemon verbena, truly I do, but lemon has never been a scent that appeals to me as a personal perfume.
The lavender gives this whatever cologne-like edge it has. It's likeable enough, I suppose. Thankfully almost no citrus has staying power on my skin, so as the verbena fades it becomes a poised and refined scent that is just a little stuffy. There's a hint of powder from the iris, and an essential sweetness. This is very mannered and a little stiff, but it means well. Much like Johnathan himself. Very well done.
Carfax Abbey, Lab description: "The scent of abandoned places, of desolation and emptiness: heavy woods and thin dusty herbs touched by the wafting incense of a nearby chapel."
In the bottle this is herbal and a bit woodsy, a green scent but not overwhelmingly cologne-y. There is a bit of sweetness, promising incense. Very pretty.
On it's much nicer; it becomes cut wood, aged, and dry herbs, an arcane and mysterious scent, underscored by a waft of incense. This is a clear, pleasant scent, and it has a lot of depth. There is less green here, and more of a dry herbal scent with the odor of sandalwood and amber coming out more strongly the drier it gets.
As it wears, the incense becomes predominant, and that's when it is truly lovely. Close in, skin-warm amber with a hint of woody, smoky sandalwood and just a whiff of herbs. This is the smell of a box where ritual supplies have been kept. Deep and mysterious.
R. M. Renfield, Lab description: "Unhinged: moss, cumin, patchouli, Balsam of Peru, and neroli."
Oh! This is so not even close to what I was imagining!
In the bottle, it's a friendly, lively scent. The patchouli is the base note, kept from filthy skankitude by the cumin's spice and the juicy green of the moss. It's all tied together by the neroli, an unexpected tangy floral that takes this from kooky to pretty.
On, this is like watching bugs fight. Fascinating, and so hard to tell what the hell is going on! This is the same moss that's in Zombi, for instance. It's very earthy, dank, and green. The patchouli is behaving itself, blends beautifully with the moss for a rich, loamy cologne smell. Cumin and neroli are an unlikely but delightful pair, giving it a sort of slapdash charm.
The throw is not sugary, but it is a sweet scent, pleasant and friendly. Closer, that's where the patchouli's dirty tinge starts making itself known. This is masculine, but easily a scent that women could wear. It's earthy and green in a mossy, mulchy way, a growing and sort of primordial scent that's not animal but rather vegetal.
I love it. Unexpected, strange, and certainly the unlikely hero of this series. I've never smelled anything quite like it.
The Carpathian Mountains, Lab description: "Mountain air and the scent of crisp snow blanketing the mountain’s flora: Scottish fir, beech, cembra and mugho pine, rhododendron, currant, honeysuckle, raspberry leaf, dwarf juniper, sedge, meadow grass, snowdrop, rose bay, lily of the valley, starwort, lichen and mosses."
This is just so odd. It smells like wintergreen, but there's also pine mixing with the florals and the icy ozone-ish note to make a sweet, cold pine note that's not unlike mint, itself. In the bottle it's cold and faint. On my skin it's not much stronger. This is a very subtle scent. For all that, it's not a low, earthy scent; usually perfumes this high-pitched are also very loud, but this isn't loud at all, it's just a whisper. This is clean and cool and brisk. I'm getting a strong sweetgrass note from this somewhere in the middle, under the minty fir smell and the snow smell. A hint of understated florals.
I don't like wintergreen scents, but this is very nice. I think the herbal, grassy tinge and the sweetness of the florals are enough to offset the medicinal wintergreen smell. This is clean, light, and feminine. Definitely one to try if you like clean or minty smells.
Anyone else scrambling to make up their minds about what they want before the update vanishes? I know I am, and I hate to think I'm alone!
(I'm crossposting this in a couple places, so my apologies if you see it twice. As compensation, have a picture of a vampire cat.
