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juushikaGYPSY (LE, Metamorphosis: The Moths 2010)
Bourbon vanilla, Egyptian musk, tonka, white sugar, and cardamom.
In the vial: With some hesitation I'd say bourbon vanilla and white sugar—but without the sweetness you'd expect from either. It's a pale, almost arid scent, and I'm really shooting into the dark with the notes.
On me: There's a punch of cardamom at first, spicy and brown and delicious, leaning towards a single note. But within half an hour, the scent develops depth and grows delicious. It's mostly in the throw—at skin-level the scent is a little unrefined and slightly sharp, bourbon vanilla with a bitter, pale white sugar which reminds me of Sugar Skull. But the throw, which I keep catching accidentally and unexpectedly, is spicy and sweet without being too much of either—I wish I could give it a better description, but it's quite lovely and inviting, vanilla/sugar/cardamom but not foody. As it wears, however, the cardamom continues to die down and what remains of Gypsy is quite similar to Dorian (bless the reviewer who mentioned the similarity), that same slightly odd and oddly seductive combination of vanilla, musk, and sugar.
Verdict: I wish that the cardamom lasted as long as the other notes, because it's wonderful and Gypsy's middle stage of cardamom/vanilla/sugar is just divine. But as the cardamom fades, so does Gypsy's magic. That spice is what makes the scent wonderful and unique; without it this is just a cousin to Dorian, and I'm not a fan of that scent. But I'll hang on to my decant for now—perhaps aging will make for a richer, more distinctive oil.
ETA: What a difference a year makes. Aged, I no longer see a similarity between Gypsy and Dorian; Gypsy retains its cardamom through to the end, although the sugar now dies off during drydown (so much so that I sometimes want to layer this with a sweet scent). It has more body and longevity, and the spice pricks the nose and is none to shy, but it's still an elusive scent, something savory and gorgeous that flits off the skin and dances through the throw. It's subtle but compelling, and surprisingly addictive. I'm glad to see this age well.
VANILLA 15 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v7)
In the vial: Sweet, foody/fruity but with a touch of floral, thick but powdery, and it reminds me a bit of Sweet Tarts.
On me: There's a bit of resin/amber as it hits the skin, and the scent on the skin smells less liquid than it did in the imp. All in all, though, not much changes: this is a powdery soft fruity floral with a Sweet Tarts edge. It reminds me a little of the combination of opaque white vanilla and dry florals in Antique Lace, and of the powdery sweet floral of Regan. Scent-color is a very pale, opaque lilac; throw is moderate-low and wear length is fairly short.
Verdict: This isn't one for me. As in Antique Lace and Regan, I find the vanilla and powdery/dry floral combination is a little stuffy and cloying; the fruity Sweet Tarts aspect doesn't help matters. Vanilla 15 is somewhere between vanilla candle, cheap candy, and grandma's soap, yet stays pretty tame and fades in an hour or three: not desirable, but fairly inoffensive, and still one I'll send away.
AMBER 100 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v5)
In the vial: A musty dusty resin. It reminds me a bit more of Heavenly Love and Earthly Love's incense and resin combo than straight up amber. I can't understate the mustiness of the scent. There's another note in the background which I can't pin down.
On me: Smells like ... cooking? With spices. Savory spices. Maybe cumin? As it hits the skin this scent is rather confused: it's a powdery dusty amber with powdery savory spices, and that's an odd combination, however texture-consistent it may be. Things improve during drydown, as the savory spice morphs into something closer to a baking spice. There's some brown sugar sweetness to the scent, and it has a warm resinous base; the powdery musty aspect is still there, although it's leaning more towards spice cabinet than unaired closet. This is in a way a cousin to Gunpowder: it's the scent of foodstuffs or food preparation, but its other aspects (here, resin and mustiness) keep it from being foody. Scent-color is tan and scent-texture is powdery; throw is moderate-low and wear length is average.
Verdict: Application is a bitch, because the first stages of this scent are frankly unpleasant. But the drydown is growing on me. Amber 100 is still a bit strange, a little too musty and powdery even for me (and I love powdery ambers) and there's still something a little odd going on in the background. But the resin/spice/brown sugar combo is ... quite nice, actually. I'll have to give this one another go sometime, to see if both my fondness and interpretation of the notes stays stable, but for now I'm pretty pleased.
ETA: Over a year later, and Amber 100's mustiness is gone, taking with it much of the powder. It's savory spice and brown sugar over a resin base now, with almost no morphing except for some heavy, almost sour spice in the vial and during drydown. Stabilization does this scent many favors—it's still quite strange, something of a masculine and distinctly un-foody take on this sort of spice combination, but everything I liked best about the fresh oil is now consistently and perhaps more potently present, savory and rich without being heavy, made palatable by the touch of sweetness, unusual and subtly fantastic.
AMBER 124 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v5)
In the vial: There's no real scent in the vial—a hint of pale yellow-golden amber, but not much of anything at all.
On me: Goes on as amber, amber, amber—Haunted's golden amber, without any black musk but with a touch of the lemony note Haunted has when wet, and unlike Haunted more resinous than powdery. Drydown is amber, amber, amber—almost a single note, warm and light and just a touch powdery now, a simple but lovely golden amber. But after a while I'd almost swear there's some cocoa in this, adding a touch more powder and giving the scent a bit more color and body, as well as a bit of sweetness. It reminds me of Gelt, except where Gelt is dry and almost arid this is warm, gentle, and much more welcoming. Scent-color is golden and scent-texture is slightly powdery. Throw is moderate—it's a gentle scent, hard to catch intentionally but floating around in a pleasant, accidentally-noticed haze. Wear length is pretty long.
Verdict: I'm quite pleased. This isn't a bold scent, and its initial gentle, pure amber might be a bit of a disappointment if I weren't such an amber lover. But it dries down to something gently wonderful: the most palatable sort of golden amber, warm and soft—and, unless I'm mistaken, dusted with a bit of light cocoa. There's beauty in Amber 124's simplicity: it's not complex, but it's lovely and the cocoa (if it is cocoa) gives it just enough depth to hold one's attention. I'm quite enjoying this, and it's a definite keeper.
AMBER 184 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v5)
In the vial: Drugstore-perfumey men's cologne, alcohol-based and nondescript.
On me: Goes on as that same miserable cologne, which isn't a scent I know well or much like, so I can't pretend to pick out notes. Drydown, however, is a marked improvement. The alcohol/aquatic/ozone aspect dies off, leaving behind a pleasant but somewhat generic masculine scent. A touch of cologne remains, and I still can't pin down specific notes—especially because it keeps morphing, from spicy herbal resin to something sweeter, maybe by way of musk. Sometimes it reminds me of an unrefined Robin Goodfellow with a punch of excess sweetness. Before too long (an hour or three), though, it fades away. Throw is moderate, wear-length is low.
Verdict: Well that was an adventure. This is a little too masculine a scent for me, and I'm not familiar enough with its general category to pretend to dissect its notes. My general impression, however, is mixed. Amber 184 begins poorly and ends quickly and somewhat overbalanced towards sweetness, but there's a middle period where the scent is fairly pleasant: a spicy, herbal, sweetened amber, masculine and warm, unrefined and indistinct perhaps but not bad. Regardless this isn't a keeper, for me—I'll pass it along.
Bourbon vanilla, Egyptian musk, tonka, white sugar, and cardamom.
In the vial: With some hesitation I'd say bourbon vanilla and white sugar—but without the sweetness you'd expect from either. It's a pale, almost arid scent, and I'm really shooting into the dark with the notes.
On me: There's a punch of cardamom at first, spicy and brown and delicious, leaning towards a single note. But within half an hour, the scent develops depth and grows delicious. It's mostly in the throw—at skin-level the scent is a little unrefined and slightly sharp, bourbon vanilla with a bitter, pale white sugar which reminds me of Sugar Skull. But the throw, which I keep catching accidentally and unexpectedly, is spicy and sweet without being too much of either—I wish I could give it a better description, but it's quite lovely and inviting, vanilla/sugar/cardamom but not foody. As it wears, however, the cardamom continues to die down and what remains of Gypsy is quite similar to Dorian (bless the reviewer who mentioned the similarity), that same slightly odd and oddly seductive combination of vanilla, musk, and sugar.
Verdict: I wish that the cardamom lasted as long as the other notes, because it's wonderful and Gypsy's middle stage of cardamom/vanilla/sugar is just divine. But as the cardamom fades, so does Gypsy's magic. That spice is what makes the scent wonderful and unique; without it this is just a cousin to Dorian, and I'm not a fan of that scent. But I'll hang on to my decant for now—perhaps aging will make for a richer, more distinctive oil.
ETA: What a difference a year makes. Aged, I no longer see a similarity between Gypsy and Dorian; Gypsy retains its cardamom through to the end, although the sugar now dies off during drydown (so much so that I sometimes want to layer this with a sweet scent). It has more body and longevity, and the spice pricks the nose and is none to shy, but it's still an elusive scent, something savory and gorgeous that flits off the skin and dances through the throw. It's subtle but compelling, and surprisingly addictive. I'm glad to see this age well.
VANILLA 15 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v7)
In the vial: Sweet, foody/fruity but with a touch of floral, thick but powdery, and it reminds me a bit of Sweet Tarts.
On me: There's a bit of resin/amber as it hits the skin, and the scent on the skin smells less liquid than it did in the imp. All in all, though, not much changes: this is a powdery soft fruity floral with a Sweet Tarts edge. It reminds me a little of the combination of opaque white vanilla and dry florals in Antique Lace, and of the powdery sweet floral of Regan. Scent-color is a very pale, opaque lilac; throw is moderate-low and wear length is fairly short.
Verdict: This isn't one for me. As in Antique Lace and Regan, I find the vanilla and powdery/dry floral combination is a little stuffy and cloying; the fruity Sweet Tarts aspect doesn't help matters. Vanilla 15 is somewhere between vanilla candle, cheap candy, and grandma's soap, yet stays pretty tame and fades in an hour or three: not desirable, but fairly inoffensive, and still one I'll send away.
AMBER 100 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v5)
In the vial: A musty dusty resin. It reminds me a bit more of Heavenly Love and Earthly Love's incense and resin combo than straight up amber. I can't understate the mustiness of the scent. There's another note in the background which I can't pin down.
On me: Smells like ... cooking? With spices. Savory spices. Maybe cumin? As it hits the skin this scent is rather confused: it's a powdery dusty amber with powdery savory spices, and that's an odd combination, however texture-consistent it may be. Things improve during drydown, as the savory spice morphs into something closer to a baking spice. There's some brown sugar sweetness to the scent, and it has a warm resinous base; the powdery musty aspect is still there, although it's leaning more towards spice cabinet than unaired closet. This is in a way a cousin to Gunpowder: it's the scent of foodstuffs or food preparation, but its other aspects (here, resin and mustiness) keep it from being foody. Scent-color is tan and scent-texture is powdery; throw is moderate-low and wear length is average.
Verdict: Application is a bitch, because the first stages of this scent are frankly unpleasant. But the drydown is growing on me. Amber 100 is still a bit strange, a little too musty and powdery even for me (and I love powdery ambers) and there's still something a little odd going on in the background. But the resin/spice/brown sugar combo is ... quite nice, actually. I'll have to give this one another go sometime, to see if both my fondness and interpretation of the notes stays stable, but for now I'm pretty pleased.
ETA: Over a year later, and Amber 100's mustiness is gone, taking with it much of the powder. It's savory spice and brown sugar over a resin base now, with almost no morphing except for some heavy, almost sour spice in the vial and during drydown. Stabilization does this scent many favors—it's still quite strange, something of a masculine and distinctly un-foody take on this sort of spice combination, but everything I liked best about the fresh oil is now consistently and perhaps more potently present, savory and rich without being heavy, made palatable by the touch of sweetness, unusual and subtly fantastic.
AMBER 124 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v5)
In the vial: There's no real scent in the vial—a hint of pale yellow-golden amber, but not much of anything at all.
On me: Goes on as amber, amber, amber—Haunted's golden amber, without any black musk but with a touch of the lemony note Haunted has when wet, and unlike Haunted more resinous than powdery. Drydown is amber, amber, amber—almost a single note, warm and light and just a touch powdery now, a simple but lovely golden amber. But after a while I'd almost swear there's some cocoa in this, adding a touch more powder and giving the scent a bit more color and body, as well as a bit of sweetness. It reminds me of Gelt, except where Gelt is dry and almost arid this is warm, gentle, and much more welcoming. Scent-color is golden and scent-texture is slightly powdery. Throw is moderate—it's a gentle scent, hard to catch intentionally but floating around in a pleasant, accidentally-noticed haze. Wear length is pretty long.
Verdict: I'm quite pleased. This isn't a bold scent, and its initial gentle, pure amber might be a bit of a disappointment if I weren't such an amber lover. But it dries down to something gently wonderful: the most palatable sort of golden amber, warm and soft—and, unless I'm mistaken, dusted with a bit of light cocoa. There's beauty in Amber 124's simplicity: it's not complex, but it's lovely and the cocoa (if it is cocoa) gives it just enough depth to hold one's attention. I'm quite enjoying this, and it's a definite keeper.
AMBER 184 (LE, Chaos Theory VI: Recursive Self-Similarity v5)
In the vial: Drugstore-perfumey men's cologne, alcohol-based and nondescript.
On me: Goes on as that same miserable cologne, which isn't a scent I know well or much like, so I can't pretend to pick out notes. Drydown, however, is a marked improvement. The alcohol/aquatic/ozone aspect dies off, leaving behind a pleasant but somewhat generic masculine scent. A touch of cologne remains, and I still can't pin down specific notes—especially because it keeps morphing, from spicy herbal resin to something sweeter, maybe by way of musk. Sometimes it reminds me of an unrefined Robin Goodfellow with a punch of excess sweetness. Before too long (an hour or three), though, it fades away. Throw is moderate, wear-length is low.
Verdict: Well that was an adventure. This is a little too masculine a scent for me, and I'm not familiar enough with its general category to pretend to dissect its notes. My general impression, however, is mixed. Amber 184 begins poorly and ends quickly and somewhat overbalanced towards sweetness, but there's a middle period where the scent is fairly pleasant: a spicy, herbal, sweetened amber, masculine and warm, unrefined and indistinct perhaps but not bad. Regardless this isn't a keeper, for me—I'll pass it along.
