Three from Arcana

Arcana makes both perfume oils and soap which they sell in a few shops and through several e-tailers. These are three random oils I picked up through a decant circle. I'd never tried Arcana before and was particularly impressed by the throw and staying power; both of which were excellent for perfume oils.

Caffeinated Death -- "Caffeinated Death Perfume (Limited Edition): A fatally wired combination of cocoa absolute, coffee, chai spices, Bourbon vanilla and white cognac. You can sleep when you're dead." Available at The Soap Box Company.

Okay this? This is what I was hoping for when I bought Miskatonic U back in the very first Picnic in Arkham line. Misk U had a cream note, but this one doesn't. It's all coffee and spice and cocoa and it's smooth but sharp at the same time. I was worried that it would be too foody, and at first it's a bit much. But about ten minutes after the dry down, it mellowed out and became this dark, vibrant scent with a decent throw and some serious staying power. It's hard to describe what it smells like; the coffee is the dominant note on me but this isn't like how my clothes smell after a few hours spent in a coffee house. I used the word smooth above and that's what this is; I suspect it's the vanilla and the spices that make it a lot more than just some fake latté scent. If you normally don't like chocolate scents, don't be put off by that cocoa absolute; this is 100% bitter cocoa, not a Hershey's bar.

I think my only caveat is that while it's a great nighttime scent, all dark and mysterious, it's a little too strong to wear while going out to dinner. For an evening spend wandering through late night gallery shows or a coffee house poetry slam followed by a quick jaunt to Rick's Dessert Diner, on the other hand, it's perfect.

Black Amber -- This is a layering oil designed to be worn either by itself or with something else to bring the particular note into prominence. Although Arcana (or maybe it's just the retailers) seems to refer to the whole line as single notes; some of them aren't. I've heard that Arcana is discontinuing their layering note line and, in fact, there's only one--pomegranate--still for sale at The Soap Box Company. However, Magical Omaha still has many of the various notes, including Black Amber.

This is, as the name suggests, a very dark amber. It's got a faintly sweet note, but it's not as sweet or as simple as the cheap Temple Essence Amber Butter I picked up somewhere along the line. There's an almost smoky/woody undernote to the Black Amber, as if there's just a faint hint of sandalwood in there too. I love it; amber is one of my favorite base notes and one of the few, along with sandalwood, that I'm perfectly happy to wear on its own. While some ambers can go powdery, this stays resiny and true. Also, it has staying power like crazy and a pretty good throw for a perfume oil.

Finally, I layered it with my custom perfume from Funkier Than Thou--reviewed here--and it brought out the amber like crazy and toned down the fruit a bit. I like the difference, it makes the oil more dark and nighttimey (what, "nighttimey" is a perfectly cromulent word!).

Black Tea -- another layering note, also available at Magical Omaha.

Remember how I said some of these were blends and not single notes? This is a blend and one that doesn't actually smell like black tea at all. It smells like...well, perfume. A very nice, green perfume, but nothing at all like the strong black tea I was hoping for. Tea scents tend to fade really quickly and I was really hoping for something to amp up the tea notes in a couple of tea based blends, but this isn't it.

I'm not much for the green family, although back in the late '80s I wore Perscriptives' Calyx a lot. Greens are nice in the spring and summer and they can be uplifting and casual. If you're looking for something like that, as weird as it sounds, Black Tea would be worth looking into. It has one hell of a throw and stays on for a good long time.

My only caveat is that this might not be Black Tea. I got it as part of an Arcana decant circle and there's a slight possibility that a mistake was made and I got something else.

PS. I think I just found a reasonably priced perfume from a perfume house that I want to try. *cries* There goes my indie cred.