cordia #4: Lady of Shalott, Lilith, Love Me, Magus, Othello, Undertow, and Whitechapel. I hadn't written reviews for ANY of these yet, but the only one I didn't have was Undertow.

Lady of Shalott - The scent of calm waters just before a raging storm, limned with achingly-beautiful blooms, an icy scent, but somehow warm, and mirror-bright: bold gardenia, crystalline musk, muguet, water blossoms, clear, slightly tart aquatic notes and a crush of white ginger. The gardenia is prominent, but I don't mind it as much as I usually do. The ginger and musk is a nice combination -- they keep the floral notes from being too heady. It's slightly aquatic as well... kind of reminds me of flowers floating on a pond. Very pretty.

Lilith - Mother of Demons, Vengeful Fury, Darkest Seductress, Queen of the Djinn, Goddess of the Gate. Red wine, myrrh, black musk, and attar of rose. This smells very fruity and sweet at first. It doesn't smell like fury to me. Can definitely pick out the red wine in it, and the rose is there too. This reminds me a lot of Wanda, except that Wanda smells entirely of red wine on my skin, and in Lilith there's a little bit of rose too. I like this one better than Wanda, but when it's dry the wine scent is still a little too strong for me.

Love Me - A commanding, dominant oil that increases sexual magnetism, creates an intense and irresistible air of attraction, and amplifies potency. I can't comment on how well this works for its purpose, but I like the scent of it. It smells spicy, like cinnamon, but not overly so. There's also something powdery underneath the spice. Maybe some kind of wood, too. It definitely smells like it would attract people, I've been sniffing my wrist compulsively since I put it on. I like this a lot, even just as a perfume.

Magus - An ancient blend, swollen with arcane power: galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood. I read frankincense and cedar in the notes and thought I wasn't going to like Magus. I'm surprised to find that I do like it. It's in the same vein as Aureus and Cathedral, but it doesn't smell as much like a pencil box as either of those do. The frankincense doesn't get overly sweet on me like it usually does, and the cedar doesn't smell quite as peppery as usual. This is kind of comforting and soft. I like it a lot better than Cathedral.

Othello - Arabian musk with two roses and a bevy of Middle Eastern and Indian spices. I don't think this is masculine. I see what other reviewers mean about the fabric softener, though -- there's something crisp about this scent. It actually reminds me of a soap scent. It's not my favorite rose blend, but I like this better than some others.

Undertow - The Dark Side of Air: a high pitched, tangy, clear scent -- light China rain deepened by murky vetivert. I smell some kind of mint in this, or possibly eucalyptus. I can't really smell any vetivert in it. It's definitely high-pitched and tangy, like the description says. It does seem airy, too. It's not the kind of scent I wear, but it smells pretty good. After it dries it smells less minty and much sweeter. It reminds me of Pez.

Whitechapel - A gentlemen's blend, possessed of dignity, charm and refinement, but in truth masking a corrupted, hideous, soulless core. White musk, lime, lilac and citron. This smells strongly of lime at first... but most blends that contain lime usually smell mostly of lime on me at first. There's a little bit of lilac underneath the lime that starts to come through as the lime fades out, and the lilac keeps getting stronger while it dries. But as the lime goes away a lemony scent takes its place, and I don't care for lemon. It makes the lilac smell sour, and I like lilac so much that I don't want it to be altered like that.

The parts of this that I like are things I can find in other oils I like better: I can get my lilac fix from Cordelia, and for a clean crisp masculine citrus scent I prefer Villain over Whitechapel.