astro_noms | perfume review(ish) – Common Brimstone sampler

The owner and creator of Common Brimstone, Naomi Clark, is also a writer, and her creativity shines not only through her written works but also through the perfumes she creates. I had a chance to try a couple of her scents last year (Dusk Blade remains my favorite to this day, the plum notes are amazing, the Mat Zemlya is far too patchouli-ish for me, so I can't really judge), and I finally got around to getting a sampler pack to try some more fragrances. I ordered a 5-pack sampler, and let me tell you, picking just five was HARD. IMO, it's hard to judge perfumes when you don't know what the individual ingredients smell like, so I'm not sure how useful any of these will be to you.

Court of the Dragon - a rich and gentle blend of violet and hyacinth with a heart of myrrh and frankincense, fading away to dragon's blood and benzoin.

I don't know if it's the hot day we had today or maybe my body chemistry, but this faded really quickly - like, literally minutes from application to the smell being very faint. It really is a gentle blend that's not too sharp or overwhelming. It's got a clean, kind of soapy smell that goes very gentle very quickly - starts off with a sharp note of... I guess the frankincense or myrrh, because it reminds me of the kind of shop that sells incense and crystals and tarot cards and stuff, but that fades and leaves behind a nice clean smell. I realize I'm repeating myself here, lol, see above, re: this not being very useful.

Dunwich - blends hay, cedarwood and oakmoss to create an earthy base, with allspice, bitter orange and a light dab of patchouli rounding it out.

It's very much a masculine scent, which explains the "if I met a guy who smelled like this, I'd climb him like a tree" comments I've heard. ;) The cedarwood is the strongest smell, and I had to get my nose really close to the perfume to pick up the others. The allspice is there underneath, though, and for once, it's not the patchouli that's the strongest. Applying it very sparingly is definitely recommended, I think even the small dab on my wrists was too much for the first time. When it faded a bit, it was into something very much of the "climb him like a tree" variety mentioned above.

Mongolian Deathworm - starts out strong with almond, frankincense, cinnamon and cardamom, but mellows out beautifully with vanilla and palmarosa.

It definitely starts strong with the almond. The second thing I smelled was the cardamom, and it was a nice sharp note. That one lingered for a long time, and I got hints of the frankincense as well. Didn't really catch the vanilla, but there were hints of something that I guess was the palmarosa (I had no idea what that was, but wikipedia tells me it's a kind of lemongrass?). The cardamom was the most pervasive note, with the others faded down to very vague hints that nevertheless made for a lovely scent.

Noir - coffee. Lots of coffee, with a dash of whiskey for good measure, a touch of sandalwood, and a helping of nectarines and apricots to finish.

I think this might be my favorite, although Sweet 'Sinthe is close up there at the top as well. The fruity smells are there, but fairly faint, and when the coffee fades out, it kind of blends into something deliciously like walking into a room where a good coffee maker is brewing good coffee, with hints of... chocolate? or maybe it was the whiskey? Whatever the combination of scents is, it smells fabulous and I couldn't stop smelling my wrists when I was on the train the day I tried it out. An amazing smell for a morning pick-me up.

Sweet 'Sinthe - creamy caramel and clementine swirled together with peppermint and star anise, with a shot of absinthe holding it all together.

The peppermint was initially the only smell I could identify right off the top, but it's blended with the others so it's very subtle. When I put it on again, there was a kind of alternating of scents, and it went back and forth between minty something and almost like a spiced cookie kind of scent (I'm guessing that's the star anise and possibly the caramel). It left me smelling my wrists compulsively to try and figure out which scent was which and to get more of the awesomeness in my nose. It feels almost like a cool breeze, like the feeling you get when you take a deep breath after eating a mint.

Mirrored from Tangents and Digressions.