Gin

I didn't know what all the Glowing Vulva hype was all about until recently when a forum member sent me a little tester of the perfume. I didn't hesitate to snap up the bath oil, and now I'm kind of regretting only getting one bottle. The bath oil is just like the perfume: cream and amber and teak. It's not as strong as I find the perfume to be, but it's still beautiful. I'm not usually stingy with the bath oil, but this one might be reserved for post-bathing moisturizing only. I hate the thought of it going down the drain!

I have not yet tried this in the bath (I'm kind of afraid I'd be tempted to drink the bathwater ) but on my skin, this is a deep, dark chocolate, with a hint of fruit, reminding me of Dark Chocolate and Cherry from the '09 Lupers, with an added drizzle of caramel. I love the fruity-chocolate-foody oils, but usually, they're just cute, not sexy. Gula is sexy. It's not corner candy shop, it's silk sheets and expensive European truffles. I wish I had bought 2 bottles, because I suspect this is going to be used often.

Bat is full of soft, sweet flowers. I can pick out the moonflower, phlox, and orchid, but I can't really identify anything else. It makes me think of Midnight, though Bat is maybe not quite as cool.

Bitch! I've been wanting this for forever. I smell geranium and maybe clary sage. This is very much in the same realm as Holiday Stress Relief. I don't get mint, but pennyroyal maybe. This has a watery aspect to it--not to say that it's weak! It smells like grassy herbs soaking in water. Slightly muddy, too. I don't know yet if it helps my PMS, but in spite of it's sour bitterness, I find it calming.

Bette is a gorgeous, sweet plum in the bottle. On my skin, it gets a little muddled--the plum recedes and a floral emerges. The floral could be orange blossom, but it doesn't smell like orange blossom, just a sweet floral. Then the berries come out and bring the plum back, too, and they all swirl together to create a pinky-plum colored berry-plum-amber-floral that's stunning.

I am powerless to resist Lab gin, so I was super-excited to get ahold of Bathtub Gin. It's fizzy gin, all the time. I can smell the nutmeg when I inhale deeply. It doesn't sound like an appealing combo--I favor fruity-gin blends--but it is so good.

Ohhh... this is delicious. The patchouli and vanilla combine to produce an almost cocoa scent. The vanilla is so good and sweet. The hemp and patchouli give it a little bit of a smoky, earthy (but not dirty) feel. Seriously, so divine.

Florals and musk, very perfumey. I expected this to be darker and heavier, but instead, it's very high-pitched. I'd be willing to bet some aging would do Arachnina good, but I don't know that I'm willing to wait it out.

Anne Beany! How could I pass it up? In the bottle, it reminds me very much of Grog, mostly rum and butterscotch. On the skin, it was very much like Grog, too, until I noticed that my normal rolling technique had not actually blended the oil very effectively. Giving the bottle a bit of a shake resulted in a much stronger cheesecake presence and makes me love Anne Beany even more. Except that it makes me hungry for cheesecake with butterscotch topping.

Without checking notes, I would have sworn this had grape in it. Now I think it's honeysuckle (?) interacting with the other notes. Now that I'm picking up on florals instead of fruit, I can smell the roses and dried leaves (and maybe still some grape). I like the unusualness of this, but I'm not sure I'll wear it much.

Caramel cream and teak. Every now and again, I get a waft of apple blossom and a little musk. I'm kind of surprised by how 'meh' I feel about this one, because I thought it would be amazing. I just expected it to be a little bit louder. It'll be good for those days that I don't want my perfume screaming, "SMELL HOW GOOD I SMELL!"

Vetiver jumps out of the bottle as usual. I'm halfway tempted to abandon testing altogether, but I soldier on, and I was rewarded for my tenacity. Yeah, it's still predominantly vetiver, but it goes from dirty vetiver to glowing vetiver. It's warm and comforting, bronzy.

I love Agape so, so much. Apples and cream and sugary carnations. It's light and creamy and beautiful. I will be very sad when my bottles are used up because there's nothing else quite like it.

I get an initial blast of mint and then I get the menthol-pine-snow, too. No tuberose 'til later, when it softens considerably. This is pretty, but I never seem reach for the cold/snow oils so I'm afraid this'll head to swaps.

Wet, I didn't care for this. Lavender and something slightly cinnamonny. Dry, it's herbal (still lavender) and rose. Surprisingly pretty!

Path of Dreams starts with a huge blast of jasmine and wisteria. I feel like it fades from the air pretty fast. On fabric, the ume and bergamot are revealed, and maybe a hint of wood. My first impression was of sadness and jasmine, but as I gave it more time, it became less sad and less jasmine and I like this quite a bit more than I expected.

Oh my gosh, this oil is like syrup. It goes on a little sharp, but the drydown is beautiful. Beautiful, crystalline blue musk and resins.

OMG. This is the Holding Back The Night oil I was most looking forward to. It is GORGEOUS. The coconut and pear and tiare... it's really just heavenly. Sugary sweet fruity-floral. Reminds me of Nymphia.

The idea of castoreum really, really scared me. Like my fear of ambergris, I think it was unfounded. No scary beaver butts here, just tobacco flower and vanilla over sandalwood and teak.

Oh, I love this. Wet, it smells like marigolds to me. I have really good memories associated with the smell of marigolds. Dry, it's mandarin/tangerine-fruity and it's a touch soapy. Normally, soapiness would send me running, but it's not *that* soapy, it just brightens the scent a bit. If the musk is here, I'm not smelling it. This is so much lighter, brighter, and fruitier than I expected from a blend with red musk.

This is aggressive when wet--very sharp. Dries down to soft, powdery musk and amber and bay.

Smells like a Snake Oil variant to me--mostly musk and a bit of vanilla. A little less powdery and a bit warmer, though.

I don't know what I was thinking when I read "Port Jelly", I guess I was thinking nautically, not boozy. But it worked out fine, it's good, fruity red wine, not dry and sour white. Dries down into a tart red scent--I'd guess cranberry, maybe with some red currant in the mix. There's something slightly waxy in here, too, if I smell close--I totally understand SnowWhiteMoon's mention of lipstick. Maybe huckleberry? Anyway, it's really good, a very pleasant surprise.

Ghoulish starts off as super loud maraschino cherries, and the next thing I know, it's gone and I'm left with very light coconut.

Aw, where's the apple? And orange? I get a ton of plumeria and gardenia, but hardly any fruit at first. Th apple eventually makes an appearance, but it stays low while the flowers continue to sing. I'd much rather have an apple-orange-lemon Snake Oil than a plumeria-gardenia Snake Oil (though of the florals, they're two of my top picks), but I'm going to have faith and keep this snake around for a bit and see how it changes over time.