hkhm

bottle: butterscotch, caramel, coconutty rum. this is rich and boozy! wet: there is the teensiest hint of apple here, but this is an apple drenched in buttery, sweet rum. dry: this is a sugary, sweet lightly apple scent. pure yum.

i'm going to third tokyo stomp. i have to wear less of it than my usual amount becaue the throw is so strong people fifteen feet away will say things like: "who's eating thin mints?" it's pure heaven in a bottle. i don't care for bliss, it smells far too synthetic to me. (edited for spelling idiocy)

ccnow has the worst problem resolution! so, i made my order last lunacy, lots of gc stuff, the two lunacies some yules and phoenixes. well, for whatever reason, the order was declined and i didn't receive an e-mail telling me so. when i found out, i wrote to bpal and asked what might have been going on and bill told me that it was declined because the cvv number didn't match and to go ahead and re-submit it via the little link. cool. so i did. and it was declined again, though i did get an e-mail that time. so utterly frustrated, i wrote to ccnow to ask what was going on, worked out the ordering with bill to place the lunacies order through paypal and i decided to just place a small order for the yules and phoenixes. my thinking was that i'd get my le's now and just add the gc stuff to a later order. so ccnow doesn't get back to me for a while. the new order went through and i breathed a nice happy lite sigh of contentment. when ccnow did get back to me they tell my that my order did indeed go through and they give me the new order number: the order number for second order i made of just phoenixes and yules. there's only about 11 bottles and several hundred dollars to differentiate the two. so now i'm utterly convinced of their suckiness if they can't even tell which order i'm writing about (i replied to the billing problem e-mail which had all the important order numbers) and can't process credit cards correctly the first time. gah!

i spell out both of those names. in fact, the first time i heard someone say b-pal i didn't know what they were talking about. it's always been b-p-a-l and t-a-l to me. of course, that's how i say my username too... h-k-h-m. i must just like initials.

to me, prospero is just grape. no wine, no syrup, just grape.

imp: lightly boozy fruit. not exactly strawberry though... wet: urgh! what just happened here?! this went from light and sweet to ick as soon as it touched my skin! dry: this just smells sour and awful. like someone poured cleaning agents all over some rotten fruit and let it congeal in the fridge. get it off me!

imp: this smells just like a cosmopolitan! cranberry, limey goodness. i can tell already i'm adding a bottle or two with my next order. wet: this is incredibly sweet and fresh. still tart cranberry and sweet lime booze. yum. dry: this reminds me of swank a great deal, which is another of my favourites.

imp: faint, yet sharp, silvery white flowers. wet: i'm wondering if this has some sort of rose among it's notes because it's going all soapy awful on me... dry: well the soapiness fades after a bit but still... this is probably not for me...

bottle: grapes and plums and myrrh. nom nom nom nom nom. wet: this reminds me of a sweeter, less boozy version of bordello. it's all grapes and plums and a hint of fig on me. dry: soft grapes and plums. this smells like a more fruity version of midwinter's ever when dry.

bottle: pepper and ginger. this reminds me of three gorgons a great deal. wet: this smells like sweet, peppery flowers. so dusty sweet and spicy. dry: sweet ginger with a bare hint of dusty pepper. absolutely beautiful!

i've been beat to my rec's of bordello and swank. i've still not tried spiked punch though...

green phoenix is a big yes for green. garden path with chickens is also a great green. my main green scent right now is yemaya. the melon and grape scent is so green to me.

both tweedledee and three gorgons are very peppery on me. those are the two i turn to when i want a nice peppery scent.

reindeer poop? stress relief elixer? i am so kicking myself for not going to the will-call yesterday.

imp: burnt caramel. or maybe just deeply toasted caramel. wet: this smells like toasted caramel and nag champa incense to my nose. there is this sinuous sweetness that just draws you in. dry: okay, this smells like sandalwood with a hint of coconut. this is thick and rich and very long-lasting.

imp: tea and very, very light musk. wet: the lemony-ness comes out and mixes with the tea scent. this is a little strong but otherwise quite sunny. dry: this smells more like macha one dry and all i'm getting is the tea scent.

imp: a sweet, light aquatic. wet: ugh! this went terribly strong and sharp. my skni is just so hit-or-miss with aquatics, sometimes they're soft and sweet other times they're cringe-worthy. dry: this remains a hard-to-define scent. it's strong and aquatic yet almost dusty dry on my skin. odd.

imp: sweet, yummy pear with alight hint of rose. wet: of well. the rose has turned this to cheap guest soap on my skin. dry: what!? the rose vanished! this leaves the most lovely soft pear scent! i'm so torn, that wet phase is awful but the dry phase is lovely!

imp: very faint, like sweet, honeyed flowers. wet: this is so very soft an faint, it is perfect if you just want a hint of perfum on your skin, just a lingering afterthought of a scent. this is very soft, feminine and pretty. dry: still faint. still breathtakingly beautiful soft, sweet florals. this is a very close-to-the skin scent and would be nice for a romatic date with lots of snuggling.

imp: musk and amber over lots of sweet fruity/floral scents. wet: i think it's the freesia i'm smelling most strongly along wih a faint aquatic. there's an almost tea-like green scent in here as well. very sweet/crisp. my husband really likes this on me (might have to buy a few bottles if he likes it when dry). dry: sweet, light floral. my husband and i agree that this is bottle-worthy. i'm simply delighted to find another scent he actually likes on me!

imp: very light honeysuckle. wet: odd. i'm not getting burnt pink by the cinnamon. in fact, all i'm smelling is a light, sweet honeysuckle scent. dry: i can detect a bare hint of copal with the honeysuckle. this is far lighter and prettier than the description makes it sound.

imp: wow. this is the scent of a plate of homemade toffee i smelled when i was at a potluck 20+ years ago. i was too little to know how sublime toffee was so i didn't have any of the chocolate-slathered, nut-encrusted buttery chunk of heaven. but this is what it smelled like. wet: this is very nutty, very buttery... it is a great deal like cockaigne except less cakey and more sugary. dry: this smells very boozy once dry. like somone poured a big tumbler of brandy and set it next to my plate of toffee.

imp: strong, spicy almonds. wet: this has an almost poisonous undertone to it, like bitter almonds... like cyanide. this smells dangerous on my skin. dry: this is increduble once dry! the almond is a bit more tame and all the warm, rich spices entwine beautifully.

imp: kumquats! i love kumquats and to have a kumquat scent... wet: kumquat with grapefruit. this smells like some very sunny juice i might eat with bagels in the morning. dry: very sweet citrus, kumquat and grapefruit primarily. i'll be adding a couple of botles of this to my next order.

imp: i know what i'm smelling is musk and vetiver but the impression i'm left with is like i'm smelling chocolate from some really old candy bar. wet: really strong vetiver. one of the strongest i've even smelled. dry: the vetiver has toned down and there's a nice leather note that is really rich while the musk ties it all together.