lights, camera, tea

[scentedink]

Sweet Anthem - Spring 2014 LE p2 - Lolita EDP

Lolita - Sea Salt, Black Currant, Cherry Blossom, Tonka Bean, Rosewood.

In the vial, it's sweetly floral and a little fruity - unsurprising, given the notes. Once on the skin, it's... pretty much sea salt at the forefront. (whyyyy. I will never not be slightly bitter that sea salt smells like something weirdly citrus. I do not understand how they got this note and decided to call it sea salt.)

Thankfully, the sea salt has mostly faded about an hour or so in. It gives way to sweet, and floral, with just a hint of what I think is the rosewood when I sniff deeply. The scent doesn't seem to be as strong at this point, and there are times when I think the sea salt is coming back. (nooooooo.)

But two hours in and Lolita has turned impressively powder on me. I actually don't mind it, but wow, I was not expecting that at all, haha. I wonder if it's the cherry blossom, because that's the only note I haven't experienced in another of SA's perfumes before? It's holding steadily at powder into the fourth hour now. Iiiiiii don't think it is going to turn away from powder any time soon. (Though SA perfumes have ridiculously long wear times, so who knows.)

Aaaaand nope, a good six hours later, still powder. Fainter powder! But still powder. Now I'm really curious what yuningrey will think. |D

CONCLUSION. Not really for me, though to be fair, I wasn't expecting it to be in the first place? (see: sea salt, black currant, cherry blossom.) I surprisingly did not get any of the currant at all. yuningrey has amped fruits in the past though, so whenever she tries it, this should be interesting.

Lolita will be available for preorder February 1 from Sweet Anthem! Yup.

[scentedink]

Sweet Anthem - Spring 2014 LE p1 - Poppy EDP

Poppy - Cocoa, Clove, Red Flowers, Opium, Turkish Musk

In the vial, it's sweet, but mild enough the base alcohol is actually noticeable, and why I was worried about an alcohol fume-induced headache. But once dabbed on my wrist, it turns surprisingly nutty. I can't tell right now how much sillage it has because, uh. somehow the bottle continued to leak despite my being sure I'd tightened the cap! And my keeping it mostly upright! (I ended up taking off and rescrewing the cap on completely just in case it was due to the cap being on at an angle.) It definitely carried from the leaked vial though, ahaha.

The longer it's on, the smokier it gets. And then it gets sweeter, and more floral, and yup, the sillage is definitely blooming now. I'll definitely have to try this in other formats, ye. Because for the most part, it is hovering at nicely smoky, mmmmm yes, good.

It's been... about an hour now? and a bit of incense-ness has started coming out. Very reminiscent of temple incense for some reason. Is that the opium, I have no idea, but whatever it is, it's a really nice accent. (associations-wise, this scent is totally turning into the like the dirty b side of sheila to me, it's great.) Two hours and the incense is definitely the forefront of the scent and holding steady now.

It mostly seems to stay at incense 'til it hits drydown - and it's about five hours later now that it's finally fading. It gets slightly more powdery the longer it's on? The powdery aspect is, admittedly, not my most favourite part, but at least at this point, it's pretty faint. (I probably should have paid more attention to it in between, but I got distracted, whoops.)

Overall, A++, would wear again. Poppy will be available for preorder February 1 from Sweet Anthem.

[scentedink]

So I got a pleasant surprise in the mail today! My SA list package came today, and it is so shiny. So, so shiny. (Isn't it pretty? Excuse the cam pics. A photographer, I am not.)

I received samples of the spring LE's Poppy and Lolita, as well as Anastasia, all in EDP format, as well as a solid of Anton. I'm actually a bit wary of testing these out because of the EDP format; Poppy leaked enough in the packaging that I think if the leaked perfume hadn't mostly stayed in the plastic baggy, I might be worrying about perfumer's alcohol-induced headache. (As it is, it is still a bit dizzying. Meredith tends to do pretty high concentrations though, and I did take the vials out to wipe them down, so that might be it, ahaha. I'm sure it'll be better once I can control how much perfume is floating around in the air!) But hoooooly hell, boy does alcohol have impressive sillage.

I'll probably be testing them later this week! After the remnants of the leaked perfume fade away, yup. Look forward to it!

[scentedink]

L'Aromatica - Desert Man

Hurrah! Got to the last of my three L'Aromatica samples that I had.

Desert Man is sun-bleached woods, sagebrush, musk, myrrh, sweetgrass.

In the vial, it's very sweet, almost soda pop, which I think is the sweetgrass? ngl I don't actually recognise most of these notes, but well. sweet. sweetgrass. There's something

Once on the skin, wet, it's... pretty much just still sweet, and possibly some myrrh as well??? It's sort of... a very summer, sweetly fresh sort of scent, if that makes sense, at the moment.

Drying down, it just gets sweeter and sweeter. I think I'm amping something, possibly the myrrh? Because it's definitely got the sort of sweet warmness I associate with myrrh, though probably the sweetgrass is not helping either. This is WAY too sweet for me ahahahaha whoop.

To be fair, also, it's been like a year since I first bought these samples. I think I actually tried Desert Man in store and liked it? But I'd tried a bunch of stuff at the same time that might have led to scent mixing. Either way, it's... definitely not working for me now, unfortunately.

But it might be your thing! If so, you can get Desert Man at L'Aromatica (Etsy).

[scentedink]

L'Aromatica - Bourbon

Fortunately, I did not end up with the hilarity I got from Nick when I tried Bourbon tonight. Then again, Bourbon is a woods perfume, and like I said before, Loreto? A++ at woods.

Bourbon's notes are cedarwood, balsamic woods, pipe tobacco, clove, bourbon vanilla, cognac.

In the vial, Bourbon's weirdly almost soda sweet? over the woods! I don't know what be causing that. Not bad, just... curious.

Once I apply it to my skin though, the clove and cognac start coming out, mixing with the woods. Mmmm spiced woods. It's really delicious. The cedar is the more prominent of the woods at the moment. There's the sweetness of the balsamic woods a little, but for the most part right now, it's cedar and spice.

Drying, the spices start fading away and both woods come out more and more, until it's pretty solidly woods. There is, I think, the pipe tobacco as well, but it's very faint. I'm not sure whether I'm imagining things or not, or wrongly attributing a part of the scent to tobacco, but whatever.

Either way, this is niiiiiiice. And I'm regretting not having gotten a 5ml of Bourbon while the Black Friday/SBS/Cyber Monday sale was on. (I should have tested all these earlier, ALAS.) Well, I'll probably pick up a full size at Renegade SF if I can. (The sale would have covered shipping pretty much, so hey.)

Like Nick, Bourbon is available as a general catalogue scent at L'Aromatica (Etsy)!

[scentedink]

L'Aromatica - Nick

A'ight, so. Loreto, the perfumist behind L'Aromatica is one of my favourite perfumists, not in the least because my custom from her is delicious and my go-to scent. She does some really nice woods. I've been meaning to review her stuff for awhile, but I tried a lot of her scents in-store rather than at home with a sample vial.

But I did finally get some vials! Of stuff the store didn't carry, but which I was curious about. And so after letting it sit for uh. like, a year, pretty much, I finally am getting around to testing them. (Yeah, I'm slow.)

So I'm starting with Nick. Notes are wet earth, pipe tobacco, pungent spices, wisps of incense smoke, mossy stones.

In the vial, Nick is pretty much green, with an almost peppery? herbal? tinge underneath it. Not a sharp green, thank gods, which I can't abide by, not that I was expecting a sharp green in the first place. I think that herbal-ness might be the incense smoke or even the pungent spices? There's something familiar about it, anyway.

Wet, on my skin, the moss definitely takes prominence, with the incense smoke and what I think? is tobacco lingering in the background. Okay, the more I sniff it, the more I wonder whether what's lingering in the background is mostly incense + spices, because it's... actually reminding me of Chinese herbal medicines. Not getting any wet earth so far.

And okay, the moss pretty much faded as it dried, and now that it is dry, all I'm getting is Chinese herbal medicine. And it is pretty much on point for Chinese herbal meds, which is kind of hilarious but alas not something I want to smell as. THIS IS KIND OF UNFORTUNATE I admit I was hoping more for the wet earth + pipe tobacco??? And I don't think the wet earth ever even came out, whoops.

This... is probably definitely a more typically masculine scent, yeah, with how the greenness of it came out before everything turned to herbals. But man, of all the things I was expecting from Nick? hahaha, that was not it, whoops.

Nick is available as a general catalogue scent at L'Aromatica (Etsy).

[scentedink]

Villainess-Paradise Misplaced [Soap]

The first of two parts, here is my impression of the general catalog Villainess soap Paradise Misplaced!

The bar is measured by Villainess to be around 3.5oz (99g) by weight, 3in by size. It has an opaque taupe coloring, and has a generous amount of green tea leaf mixed in. The scent is a "sweetly creamed coconut with touches of mango offset by crisp green tea."

Dry, it looks rather unassuming, and is pretty much a very square block of soap. It smells good? I don't get any mango, but the coconut and green tea are a nice combo. It feels very solid.

When I used it in the shower, it was really, really good. It makes a smooth and silky lather, composed of tiny white bubbles, and the tea leaf acts as a great exfoliate. The scent gets a bit stronger, but isn't overwhelming at all. Still couldn't smell any mango. After I used the soap and dried off, I felt really clean, but not dry. The scent is a faint suggestion at this point, but still extremely pleasant.

Basically, all I'm thinking right now is, where has Villainess been all my life, and why don't I have more of their things.

Paradise Misplaced is available in multiple formats at Villainess!

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Wintervale

The final installment of my reviews on Haus of Gloi's Yule Collection is here!

Funny fact: I accidentally swabbed this yesterday, and loved it. I was also confused, because I had meant to retest Snow Wolf.*

Wintervale is the latest Yule offering from Haus of Gloi! They released it for the 2013 season, and it's fantastic.

Wintervale is described as: Snow covered blue spruce boughs, frozen woods, crystalline sugared violets and sharp wintery air, all wrapped around a minty mug of hot cocoa.

Which kind of makes everyone go ?????? because how do you get all these greens to go along with the chocolate.

Er. This is going to be hard to explain.

In the vial, I get all of the winter woods with the violets and the ozone and ice. There's this faint undercurrent of minty hot chocolate, but it's not very prominent.

In the wet test, you get bowled over by the blue spruce, whose sharpness is accentuated by the ice and ozone. It makes me think of Snow Wolf, but greener.**

And finally, in the dry down, everything kind of does a seven part harmony-the bruce steps down, allowing the woods and violets to shine, meanwhile the ice, snow, and winter air melt in the presence of mint and chocolate.

If you have typically amped chocolate, then you'd definitely get more of the cocoa. On me, Wintervale goes ...well, it's namesake and it's beautiful.

Wintervale is available in the same formats that literally everything else has been offered in

*I goof like this all the time. I'm considered a pusheen by my brother. Ah, life.

**Which, as you might have noticed, has tend to work out for me better.***

***I am eyeing all of the gourmands dubiously as I say this, because of. Well, if you didn't know by now why I'm doing so, you clearly haven't been reading the earlier reviews.

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Waning Sun

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I blow a party blower for myself, the kind that goes "boooooooo!" Or rather, I would if I had any.

The penultimate review is on Waning Sun, described as so:

As winter draws near, the sun begins to wane and grow ever dim. Chrysanthemums, bone white sandalwood, dusty beeswax and juniper berries.

Which sounds amazing. It is! Just not in the way I expected it to be.

In the bottle, as it was only sold in 5ml dark amber glass bottles, it smells candy sweet, with a hint of floral. I'm guessing the sugar impression comes from the sandalwood and beeswax. It was interesting, as I was expecting something greener.

In the wet phase, the chrysanthemums make a fleeting appearance, but are promptly steamrolled by the juniper berries. They're green, they're mean, and they're strong. They're tempered by all the other notes' sweetness, but they're definitely at the forefront for quite a while.

In the drydown, I start smelling the sandalwood and beeswax. The chrysanthemums pop back up, fresh like daisies, and are pretty much here to stay.

Verdict? I ADORE THIS PERFUME. I can see why it sold out so quickly, but I'm surprised that it's even a winter scent at all. I get the impression of green tea, and summer rain in a fragrant garden. So no, I don't understand why it's released with the rest of the Yules, but I am not complaining.

Waning Sun was a 2012 Yule Reverie scent, upgraded to 2013 Yule Seasonal scent, but was only sold in 5ml format due to component availability, and ended up selling out within an hour or so of the initial Yule stock going live.

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Three Treasures

Why am I putting up two reviews in two hours?

Well, why ask why?

(The truth: Snow Wolf as supposed to be posted yesterday, but it disappointed me so much I couldn't bring myself to write about it. My life is a joke, pretty much.)

So here's the one I was planning on doing today!

Three treasures is described as:

Sacred gifts of frankincense, myrrh and gold. Smoldering with warmth and brightened with a touch of mandarin rind.

Literally here for this. I heart resins likes you don't even know.

I was mildly concerned about the mandarin! Because of my tendency to amp certain things to the point that they're unpleasant. Also, the concept of a gold note confuses me.

In the sample, the frankincense and myrrh dominate, making a rich and almost amber impression. The only thing stopping it from possibly being too resiny (as if that was ever an issue) is the faint trace of mandarin.

On my skin, the mandarin opens up and balances the other three perfectly, making Three Treasures a warm and bright scent. Like juicy candied orange peels, which is one of my favorite things.

As the perfume fully dries, the orange rind starts dominating, which could have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that citrus fruits are my favorite fruits.

If you like the resinous/balsamic family and are fine with hesperides, I'd suggest this one! Otherwise, it might turn out badly for you in the drydown.

Three Treasures is in the same format as everything else, as always.

(Apologies for the short post, but my nose is kind of dead at this point, and I never seem to find enough things to say when I like perfumes. Other than, "You know what you should do? You should buy this for me."

But uh, that's probably not what you're here for, either.)

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Snow Wolf

Man, I had this incandescently furious post about Snow Wolf. It had a Forrest Gump misquote, it had a William Shakespear's Caesar reference, I was going to BURST INTO ADELE'S ROLLING IN THE DEEP. WE COULD HAVE HAD IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL~

Then I retested Snow Wolf today, and the entire post god necro'd.*

When people talk about the Haus' Yule line up, they generally talk about Snow Wolf. All the casual comments I've seen around the internet have been nothing but positive about it.

Here's what the official flavortext says:

Bristling and prowling, lonesome and haunting. Three howling firs, white frankincense, vanilla bean husk, tainted by droplets of blood cedar.

Amazing right? YuninBlack and I have been psyched about it for MONTHS. But skin chemistry is a treacherous, treacherous thing.**

In the vial, it smells like a sophisticated car freshener. You know, the green cardboard pine tree cut outs you dangle from the mirror? Yeeeeeeeeeeah.

Yesterday, I put it on and it immediately morphed into a sickly, alcohol-laced vanilla. It was quite honestly the worst follow up to the Rosy Cheeked review. Hence my "I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE CAKE AND WAS DECEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVED" post.

Today? The pines and cedar banded together and banished the vanilla to the dark. It's a rich, true to smell impression of winter woods in Michigan, with sticky pine sap and freshly dropped needles in the snow. Alternatively, this is the Christmas tree your Christmas tree wished it smelled like. The white frankincense plays second fiddle to it, and doesn't quite tamper down the pungent pine I get off of the drydown. In fact, the same vanilla that terrorized me in the first test ends up having a stronger presence than the frankincense.

But yes, I do like Snow Wolf. It doesn't smell like Christmas to me, but it does smell like Winter. The kind of frosty, perfectly White Winter that is more idea than reality, the kind you can only catch glimpses of during the season if you tilt your head just right, and believe.

I'm keeping my sample, that's for sure. Sorry Yun, at least you get the other extra?

Snow Wolf is available in the usual two formats!

*I'm actually kind of disappointed? It was a BEAUTIFULLY terrible review. So terrible, I'm embarrassed now to even link to it. Maybe it can be like. A blooper.

**I'd liken it to the snake in the grass in the garden, but that would. Make me the snake? That's where the metaphor falls apart: the center cannot hold.***

***Well, theoretically, it could have. But it would have made absolutely no sense.

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Rosy Cheeked

Moving down the line to the sixth installment! I hope this has been an entertaining ride for you, filled to the brim with schadenfreude because nothing has worked out for me. Yet.

Rosy Cheeked is described as:

Pink grapefruit, fir needles, juniper berries, rosemary, a sprig of parsley and bright winter lilies.

I expected something bright and fruity, with green.

MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED.

In the vial, I smell a wreath of rosemary and parsley twined around a heart of juniper. A heady herbal smell with a solid base of berries.

On my wrists, the grapefruit and fir needles jump to the forefront, and are tempered by the notes that had a stronger presence in the vial. The winter lilies are faint, but hands down the perfect floral to accompany the rest of the ensemble.

I am in love with this perfume guys. I did the initial test yesterday, went to bed smelling like it, woke up to traces of it still on my wrists. It wore off sometime by mid-morning, so I just did a second wet test to confirm what I thought of it yesterday. It's so bright and cheery, grapefruit and green and everything I wanted. I think it might be even better for bath products, which the Haus does put it in.

Rosy Cheeked is available in 1ml and 5ml as usual.

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Plotters Breakfast

What is wrong with you, you must be wondering, and how did you come up with the third review in 36 hours.

I'M TRYING TO FINISH ALL TEN BEFORE THIS FRIDAY, this is a non-judging area, don't judge my life choices.

Also, the answer is showers. Lots and lots of showers.

I keep hoping for a HoG perfume to sweep my nose off its feet. If it had feet. So far, no contenders yet, even as we near the midway point. IS IT THEM, OR IS IT ME? Are we doomed to play as lovers in a Shakespearean play? No? Well then, EVENTUALLY I'LL FIND MY PRINCE.*

Plotters breakfast is described as:

Oatey porridge, stove smoke, kindling wood, a hint of gunpowder and pinch of sweet pipe tobacco.

YuninBlack combined her order with mine, so that I could try out everything we agreed on getting before shipping her the ones she wanted to keep. This one was one I wasn't so hot about, but she liked the concept. So look forward to some of her thoughts in this collection! ...In January, because it'll be in her Chinese New Year's care package AHAHAHAH.**

In the vial, I kind of did a double take. I smelled smoke and burning wood, but also something that was almost rancid and sour? Definitely fermented, and saccharine.

"...W H A T," I said flatly.

I am very eloquent okay.

So I was like, okay, well. Let's test this one. So I did a swipe and.

I think Haus of Gloi perfumes and I simply just don't get along. THIS SADDENS ME GREATLY, because all of their other products are pretty gr8, not even gonna front. I'll be going through those other things sometime in December, as potential gifting ideas.

Wet on my skin, Plotters Breakfast is all smoke and wood and gunpowder. Some of the tobacco peeps through? I'm pretty sure that there was never any porridge in this.

Oh, but the beginning drydown is all sweet tobacco laced smoke, with burning wood and a sharp bite of gunpower. IT WAS SO GOOD TO ME. But then d i s a s t e r struck. Later in the drydown, something RIDICULOUSLY SWEET REARS ITS HEAD that reminds me of the wine/fermented berry juice double combo from glogg. How it accomplished that, I'm not sure but I'm drowning in a puddle of tears.

This is a great unisex scent if you like cabins in the woods and woodsmoke. If not for the way it swings between the perfect smoke and then something sickeningly sweet, I'd wear this when I'm staying indoors and curling up with my favorite mug and book. Oh well, OFF TO YUN IT GOES.

Plotters Breakfast, like always, is available in the two formats I have always listed for the previous ones.

*More like, eventually I'll topple the patriarchy, but that's. Not what you're here for.

**I still have her birthday present to send. IT'S JUST SITTING ALL TAPED UP IN MY ROOM, JUDGING ME IN ITS LITTLE CORNER.

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Parkin

WHAT'S THIS?!?! A DOUBLE UPDATE?

TL;DR the benzoin was like a dementor, sapping all of my energy. If I let it follow me into sleep I would have woken up in a cold sweat, gasping for A BREATH OF FRESH AIR.

...That wasn't a exercise in hyperbole, don't look at me like that.

The next one on the list is Parkin!

Haus puts it like this:

Glorious ginger cakes celebrating Guy Fawkes Day! Brown sugar, black treacle, oats, a peculiar blend of white spices tossed with chopped roasted chestnuts and coated with the lightest of icings.

At this point, I know that this can't end well for me. IT'S A GOURMAND, MY NEMESIS. Alas, I did not know that when I initially ordered. FOILED YET AGAIN.

In the sample, it was like everything that would give you a sugar high, followed by a sugar crash, and topped off with a sugar coma. Or well, cavities.

I swabbed it on my wrists, and was like, WELL. AT LEAST I NOW KNOW WHAT SUGAR COMAS from Haus of Gloi smells like. The oats and nuts are like a faint idea and are quickly swallowed up by the this trifecta of doom and disaster diabetes, brown sugar, black treacle, and light icing. It's like, so I herd u liek mudkips* so we made one out of a base of sugar, dumped in some more sugar, then delicately drizzled some melted sugar on top! ENJOY.

The spices are nice! I wish they were more present. It's literally the only thing that isn't making my stomach cramp from the suggestion of all this sugar.

Entering drydown, the white spices manage to hold on for dear life as everything else is swallowed up like a poor barnacle clinging to the underbelly of the Moby Dick of sugar. I think there may be some oats at this point, but the nuts are still MIA. Perhaps they were the krill to the white whale of sugar plowing through the seas, SCARING ALL THE NARWHALS, GIVING EVERYONE TOOTHACHES.

YUNINBLACK, WOULD YOU LIKE MY VIAL OF IT AS WELL.**

But yes, as usual, Parkin is offered in both the 1ml and 5ml formats!

*I know, I know, old meme is old, STOP BRINGING IT UP. DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR SUPER DESPERATE MEASURES, DONTCHA KNOW?

**Readers, she said yes. ❤ 

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Hearth

Gourmands are EVERYWHERE during Yule. So it shouldn't surprise you that the third installment going up today is another one from Haus of Gloi.

The Haus' take on it:

The warm glowing center of home. Autumns last apple pickings, warm bread, orange rind, various fire roasted nuts, cracked black pepper all nailed down by an oozing sticky benzoin.

I was a little confused by the description, but I thought it would be interesting to try out. This smells like two different things in the sample, and then something else on my skin, I kid you not.

On the applicator that's attached to the cap, I smell an overwhelming sweetness, which is mostly the bread, nuts, and benzoin, it comes out very warm and dessert. It's very unpleasant imo. When I sniffed the imp itself though, I get mostly the oranges and black peppers, making a clean, greenish body. I liked this version a lot more.

In the wet test, the first things that come out is are the nuts and benzoin declaring war on the black pepper. When it goes into the mid-west phase though, the black pepper triumph, and all of the sudden, all you can smell are the black peppers laughing maniacally on their astringent and super spicy throne. I can't smell the apples or oranges at all when I put it on my skin, which baffles me to no end, because almost always amp fruits the most. If there was a trophy for amping fruit notes, I would win the gold every year.

At the final drydown, all you're left is with this faint memory of roasted nuts on a toxic bed of benzoin. Guys, this benzoin haunts my nightmares. It's like frosting had a baby with icing and then doused it in MORE POWDERED SUGAR who ever thought this was a good thing. W h o.

At first, I really liked it during the wet test. The things that came out did a pretty good balancing act? When black pepper was given reign in the drydown, I kind of despaired, because while I do like greens, I don't seem to be fond of the pepper in this one. If the apples and oranges came out to play, I feel like it could have balanced better, alas.

Hearth is currently available on Haus of Gloi's website, in their standard 1ml samples and 5ml bottles.

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Glogg

The second installment of the HoG Yuletide offerings is here! Sit down with some popcorn to jpeg with, because you'll need that for when you topple out of your chair laughing.

Today I'm reviewing Glogg!

The Haus' delicious flavour text:

Cheerful red wine, spiked with Yule spices and fermented berry juice!

Okay, I admit, GOING INTO THIS I expected something different than what I actually got?

In my sample, I get this delicious hint of sweet spices, but I am mostly bowled over like that last pin taunting you in your bowling alley that is ultimately decimated by the bowling ball you threw, imbued with the special brand of anger that only getting denied your rightful and destined strike can inspire by the sweet and sour and tangy combination of red wine and fermented berries.

It went pretty much like this:

I fish out the sample. I then sniff the vial without uncapping, and am pleasantly surprised. I then proceed to open the cap to sniff it again, and go "WHAT IN TARNATION IS THIS?????"

(Ladies and gentlemen, I come from the Midwest. I'm allowed to be an extremely embarrassing hillbilly every now and then.)

Anyhow, when I did the wet test, it devolved shortly into insanity.

...cinnamon insanity.

This isn't your sugar and spice and everything nice variety of cinnamon, either. That's for wusses.

No, what I got was THE RAGING INFERNO OF ANGRY CINNAMON, reserved only for hot cinnamon gum, tic tacs, and those damn hot tamales candy that I only ever see sold in movie theatres. THAT FIERY AND SPICY CINNAMON STRAIGHT FROM HELL. It smells exactly what those fire engine red candies taste like.

So apparently, that was one of the "yule spices" they mentioned in the description.

(Are you laughing yet. Are you? Because if you're not, then I'll need to turn in my comedian card. :( Lie to me, tell me you enjoyed this post.)

So yeah! Another sample tossed into the swaps pile. It can keep Eggnoggin good company.

You should always read other people's reviews before deciding something is now for you however! I've tested multiple perfumes and have found that while nothing ever goes "bad" on me, I do tend to amplify certain things like crazy. Otherwise this should have been named something like "Dem Hot Tamales, mmm."

Glogg is currently available on Haus of Gloi's website, in both 1ml and 5ml sizes!

[scentedink]

Haus of Gloi Yule Collection 2013-Eggnoggin

Winter isn't coming, for it's already here at the Haus of Gloi!

This is the first of a ten part series from YuninGrey on the Yuletide seasonal offerings from Haus of Gloi, or HoG, for those who love to abbreviate, or love to be lazy.

So without further ado, here's my impressions of the first perfume sample I got from HoG, Eggnoggin!

The Haus describes it as:

The Haus 'nog! Cream, sugar and a shot of dark rum topped with fresh grated nutmeg.

My thoughts on it: Well, they certainly nailed what eggnog tastes like, in scent form. I sniffed the oil upon opening the cap to the sample, and was hit with the unmistakable scent of eggnog.

But when I did the wet test on clean and moisturized skin, the dark rum and cream overtook the nutmeg, and the sugar definitely didn't help. In fact, the rum and sugar seemed to push the scent into...cough syrup territory. Don't ask me how, but it did.

The scent faded quickly on me, and in dry down I mostly got the cream and a milder rum. However, the overly saccharine impression still lingered.

To be honest, I didn't like this one at all. It was way too sweet for me, although I should have expected this, as I don't actually like the taste of eggnog? Unless it's in pancakes. But fans of eggnog should definitely try it out!

Eggnoggin is currently available on HoG's website, in 1ml samples and 5ml bottles.