Fragrances -Unlisted Brand - Slumberhouse - Norne
ghoulnextdoor 3/5/2013 4:10:00 PM
Black night forests frozen in time; tarry, resinous pines and greenest firs and crisp midnight air, tiniest pinpoints of starlight. Woodsmoke and loam, lichen and fern, and musty mosses creeping, creeping over fallen logs and worn stone paths. Spiders webs tangling high in the branches, dust settling on the strands. Time has slowed and finally stood still in this forest while the world outside advances and evolves and moves along as is the world’s habit whether one interferes or not. This is a still, solemn, forgotten wood, without any birth or growth, and yet undying.
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Lip Treatments -Kiehls - Lip Balm #1
ghoulnextdoor 1/2/2013 8:56:00 AM
This is my all-time, hands-down favourite lip balm. Probably for everything it is not, rather than what it is: for example it is not mentholated or tingly; there is no noticeably flavour or smell (perhaps slightly vanillic...but it's really quite subtle); not chalky or waxy; and not tinted or otherwise embellished in anyway. It's a nice, plain simple no bells or whistles lip balm. The texture maybe be similar to vaseline as other reviewers mention...but it does not go on greasy and sinks right in. If you've got severely chapped lips, I'd suggest a medicated product instead of this one, but for everyday moisturizing, this is a spot on choice. I think I picked up a pot or two of this for $5 a piece or so, which isn't too spendy, especially considering how long it's lasted.
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Fragrances -L'Artisan Fragrances - Safran Troublant
ghoulnextdoor 6/5/2011 5:38:00 PM
Oh, this is such a wonderful scent. It doesn't feel spicy to me at all, and barely rosy, just a hint. What I do get is a comforting sweetness, though not at all sugary or cloying. A creamy sandalwood pudding, a warm bath lightly infused with milk and rose petals and a deep, enveloping hug. This smells like the grown up version of nightly rituals - bedtime stories and and being tucked in for slumbers , sweet dreams and all.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Lancome - Magie Noire EDT
ghoulnextdoor 5/7/2011 9:55:00 PM
Straight up Bánh mì. It sprays on a promising, yet vaguely astringent oriental, but within seconds it is the various components of a Vietnamese sandwich. Cilantro, daikon, pork belly, chiles, pickled vegetables, right down to the yeasty tang of a crusty baguette. There must be something wrong with me; no one in their right mind would make a fragrance that smells like this. However, sometimes one is just in the mood for a sandwich, and this is certainly complex and delicious. Therefore -2 stars.
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Fragrances -Serge Lutens - Five O'Clock Au Gingembre
ghoulnextdoor 4/23/2011 12:04:00 PM
Strong, fiery ginger steeped in sticky, honeyed amber, wound with wisps of smoky lapsong souchang. Yet for all this deep, dusky luxuriance, it is surprisingly sheer...as if a silken scarf had been dipped in this concoction, and hung in a sunlit window to dry. The scent clings to the fabric and is lightly released as one knots and folds it about ones throat.
4 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Unlisted Brand - TokyoMilk - Dark No 17 Arsenic EDP
ghoulnextdoor 4/12/2011 3:14:00 PM
Though unimpressed at first, I resampled this at another MUAer's insistence and and became instantly smitten, when I realized its sweetly-clean -yet-vaguely-musty scent reminded me of just-snipped, green marjoram, straight from the garden. And oddly enough, I love fresh marjoram so because it reminds me of some dusty Christmas ornaments my family used to unpack every year for hanging on the trees. They were linen sachets, embroidered with angels and full of very old herbs and potpourri…they smelled like “antiques” - that sweetly decayed, fusty fragrance that clings to old doillies and such. ( I actually think they were from Avon though, so they couldn’t have been that old.) I am not sure how this smells of fresh green sap/nectar and pleasingly dusty, yet it does, and so very prettily!
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Fragrances -Creed - Angelique Encens [DISCONTINUED]
ghoulnextdoor 4/1/2011 11:17:00 PM
This is the classy, yet mysterious woman in the film noir who is instantly pegged as the murderer because she’s beautiful and slightly “off”. You later find out she is hiding a terrible secret that has nothing to do with the murder, maybe her twin sister drowned in Monte Carlo and she has stolen her identity in order to escape a lecherous suitor, or something like that. It smells of some sort of enigmatic green flower whose essence has been preserved to deepen and darken before it is crushed with a handful of strange, sweet herbs and left in an antique potpourri dish in a dusty lady’s boudoir. A rich, beautiful, timeless scent, for lipsticked and rouged facades masking dark, dramatic pasts.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Unlisted Brand - 10 Corso Como
ghoulnextdoor 3/29/2011 12:46:00 PM
10 Corso Como is all dry, lofty sandalwood, smoky desert resins, and earthy, weirdly off-kilter - almost alien or at least otherworldy- florals. It calls to mind a mysterious, aromatic wooden chest, unearthed by a strange sandstorm. At once both sensual and spiritual, and without a doubt a very, very handsome scent, I find myself frequently craving it and nothing else will do.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Fresh - Cannabis Rose
ghoulnextdoor 3/18/2011 9:15:00 AM
This is quite lovely. Sort of an earthy rose with a luminous plummy/jamminess to it. Reminds me of a watercolour painting...maybe ladies picnicking in the gardens on a late spring morning.
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Fragrances -Kiehls - Original Musk EDT
ghoulnextdoor 3/11/2011 6:48:00 PM
I do think this is the perfect musk; it hasn't got that lofty sneeze- inducing quality that I associate with egyptian musk, and it does have a that tiny edge of skankiness, and an underlying bittersweet something that keeps a scent that is mostly warm and clean from becoming bland and common. Kiehl's musk is exactly what I imagine 1974 to smell like. Astrology enthusiasts wearing embroidered caftans, attending endless Tupperware parties. Now, I wasn't born until two years after that, but I am fairly certain this is the scent that permeated my early years.
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Fragrances -Gucci - Flora by Gucci EDT
ghoulnextdoor 3/5/2011 8:19:00 AM
I have seen multiple reviews in which Flora is described as "girly". I will go one beyond that - this smells exactly like a perfume that might be included in a "big girl's makeup box", maybe something Mattel made in the 80's for little girls who loved playing with Barbie. This smells like a 6 year old's idea of what grown up ladies might smell like when they go on dates or shopping or whatever imaginative fancy 6 year olds come up with. I cannot even really pick out specific notes - just a cloying, strangely apricot-ish scent with something fresh/vaguely ozonic floating underneath. I don't necessarily like to write reviews about scents that I do not like, and so I won't say I hate this. I think this would probably be nice for high school girls, but anyone older than that might feel silly wearing it.
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Fragrances -Christian Dior - Hypnotic Poison Eau Sensuelle
ghoulnextdoor 2/24/2011 6:34:00 PM
I wore Hypnotic Poison exclusively for years and years. It is a weird scent; many people note a comparison to rootbeer, but I always thought it smelled like an otherworldly confection comprised of bitter almonds, laced with anisette. This new version is very similar, but in the opening notes there seem to be some airy florals floating about that lighten it up somewhat. After that it is exactly the same scent as the previous Hypnotic Poison. Other reviewers mention that this version seems to be "lighter" or "less potent", but I don't find that at all. I never found the Hypnotic Poison to be overwhelming though, so perhaps I am a poor judge as to that aspect of it. Overall, it's a lovely, unusual scent - but I would think it's no more or less so than the original.
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Fragrances -Christian Dior - Midnight Poison
ghoulnextdoor 2/24/2011 4:14:00 PM
The bottle and the ads would have you believe this is a heavy, or mysterious, or intense sort of scent and I do not believe that to be the case at all. It opens on a strangely medicinal note…sort of a syrupy camphor + black licorice…both of which sound rather troubling, don’t they? And yet somehow seems to add a certain edge to what lies at the core: that dark, honey-ed wicked stepmother base, very reminiscent of the original Poison. Unfortunately this aspect doesn't last very long and it soon becomes a warm yet powdery, rosy, vaguely vanillic amber.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Dawn Spencer Hurwitz - Cathedral
ghoulnextdoor 11/18/2010 10:41:00 PM
Musky myrrh and warm woods and cool, damp midnights and it smells like Barbara Steele doused herself in Drakkar Noir prior to being locked in a mouldering tomb for all eternity. Which is to say she smells like a sexy lady wearing a man’s slightly sleazy cologne. Which circles back and makes it classy again? Yes, by my logic, perhaps.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Schwarzer Mond
ghoulnextdoor 11/1/2010 7:11:00 PM
Wicked, brooding resins and that dark lurker patchouli. Imagine this blend sinuously winding it's smoldering way from a dab on your wrist, slowly, sweetly up your arms, across your shoulder, to rest - a seductive haze at your neck like an antique suede choker, infused with the scent of it's former owner - the Countess Villainess What's Her Name. You know the one; she was bad news, she was.
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