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EL DIA DE REYES (LE, Yule 2007)
Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar.
( Review )
Verdict: A bag of brownie mix may not seem like the ideal perfume, but El Dia de Reyes is unexpectedly wearable and wonderful. The powderiness creates the sense of a delicious, silky second skin; the dry cinnamon makes for a more mature, less straight up foody scent. This isn't a personal favorite, and I wish it stuck around longer, but it's a delightful, sensual, delicious scent and I enjoy my decant.
THIRTEEN (LE, Purple Label/4.13.07)
A base of cocoa absolute and white chocolate with thirteen baneful and beneficial bits: cardamom, fig meat, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile, sandalwood, catnip, clove, and a bundle of five blessed blossoms and herbs.
( Review. )
Verdict: I find this scent easy to describe but impossible to convey. Chocolate and rotting herbs may seem disgusting, but Beth manages wonders. This is an intense, deep, organic scent. The scent of rotting vegetation sometimes sits on the line between disgusting and enticing; Thirteen has just crossed that line. It's cocoa without being foody, herbal but not dry, and unusual but somehow amazing. It's my favorite Thirteen, one of my favorite chocolate blends, and I cherish my imp.
SNAKE OIL (GC, Ars Amotoria)
By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
( Review. )
Verdict: I keep returning to Snake Oil, hoping that now that I've tried again, now that it's aged, it will be as miraculous as everyone else claims. Sadly, in two years it just hasn't worked out that way. I love the concept, and long for those ghostly whiffs of dark vanilla, but the oil itself is pretty unremarkable on my skin. I'll save my imp for oiling my hairstick—as that dries down, it releases more potent tendrils of that beautiful dark vanilla for days, a much more satisfying way to enjoy the scent.
(On a similar note: Boomslang, the only Snake Pit I've ever tried, also does a perfect disappearing act on my skin after ten minutes, leaving not even a whiff of Snake Oil behind.)
KUBLA KHAN (GC, Bewitching Brews)
Through sunlit caves of ice, roses unfurl amidst dancing waves of serpentine opium smoke and amber tobacco, golden sandalwood, champaca, tea leaf, sugared lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, leather, dark vanilla, mandarin, peru balsam, and Moroccan jasmine.
( Review. )
Verdict: I picked up Kubla Khan for my love of the poem that inspired it. The perfume is a partial match: it beautifully represents the golden facade of the pleasure dome, and the opium smoke begins to hint at its shadows, but the perfume never delves into the darkness beneath. This complex, well-blended, golden scent is a bit too perfumey for my usual tastes, but I keep my imp handy and when the mood strikes, it's lovely.
O (GC, Ars Amatoria)
The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.
( Review. )
Verdict: Without doubt, O is a true delight of a perfume. It's a personal favorite, easy to love, and adored by the boyfriend. It's sensual without being overtly sexual, so it's easy to wear and great for snuggling up with. There is beauty in this simplicity, and O is certainly greater than the mere sum of its parts.
Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar.
( Review )
Verdict: A bag of brownie mix may not seem like the ideal perfume, but El Dia de Reyes is unexpectedly wearable and wonderful. The powderiness creates the sense of a delicious, silky second skin; the dry cinnamon makes for a more mature, less straight up foody scent. This isn't a personal favorite, and I wish it stuck around longer, but it's a delightful, sensual, delicious scent and I enjoy my decant.
THIRTEEN (LE, Purple Label/4.13.07)
A base of cocoa absolute and white chocolate with thirteen baneful and beneficial bits: cardamom, fig meat, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile, sandalwood, catnip, clove, and a bundle of five blessed blossoms and herbs.
( Review. )
Verdict: I find this scent easy to describe but impossible to convey. Chocolate and rotting herbs may seem disgusting, but Beth manages wonders. This is an intense, deep, organic scent. The scent of rotting vegetation sometimes sits on the line between disgusting and enticing; Thirteen has just crossed that line. It's cocoa without being foody, herbal but not dry, and unusual but somehow amazing. It's my favorite Thirteen, one of my favorite chocolate blends, and I cherish my imp.
SNAKE OIL (GC, Ars Amotoria)
By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
( Review. )
Verdict: I keep returning to Snake Oil, hoping that now that I've tried again, now that it's aged, it will be as miraculous as everyone else claims. Sadly, in two years it just hasn't worked out that way. I love the concept, and long for those ghostly whiffs of dark vanilla, but the oil itself is pretty unremarkable on my skin. I'll save my imp for oiling my hairstick—as that dries down, it releases more potent tendrils of that beautiful dark vanilla for days, a much more satisfying way to enjoy the scent.
(On a similar note: Boomslang, the only Snake Pit I've ever tried, also does a perfect disappearing act on my skin after ten minutes, leaving not even a whiff of Snake Oil behind.)
KUBLA KHAN (GC, Bewitching Brews)
Through sunlit caves of ice, roses unfurl amidst dancing waves of serpentine opium smoke and amber tobacco, golden sandalwood, champaca, tea leaf, sugared lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, leather, dark vanilla, mandarin, peru balsam, and Moroccan jasmine.
( Review. )
Verdict: I picked up Kubla Khan for my love of the poem that inspired it. The perfume is a partial match: it beautifully represents the golden facade of the pleasure dome, and the opium smoke begins to hint at its shadows, but the perfume never delves into the darkness beneath. This complex, well-blended, golden scent is a bit too perfumey for my usual tastes, but I keep my imp handy and when the mood strikes, it's lovely.
O (GC, Ars Amatoria)
The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.
( Review. )
Verdict: Without doubt, O is a true delight of a perfume. It's a personal favorite, easy to love, and adored by the boyfriend. It's sensual without being overtly sexual, so it's easy to wear and great for snuggling up with. There is beauty in this simplicity, and O is certainly greater than the mere sum of its parts.
