Diana

Graveyard Dirt = Dirty Dirt. It was a LE from last year, so kind of hard to get. Zombi: Rosey Dirt Alone (available until Friday): Spicy Dirt. Cardamom & Patchouli and dirt. This is one of my favorites. Penny Dreadful: Gingery Dirt. I didn't like this one as much, but I think the ginger was off on me. Burial: Piney Dirt.

Gluttony, definitely, and I'll second Red Lantern. It's SO YUMMY.

I was a bit scared of this one. Aside from having fantastic notes, it has opium in it. That note turns into screaming hell on me. But now that I've been wearing it all day, I can say with confidence that I'm SO SO SO glad this package got here before the Lupercalia scents went away, because I need another bottle of this STAT. In the bottle: sweet & spicy. I can tell that there's caramel in there, but there's something sharper in the background, sort of perfumey-like. Wet, on: HOLY HONKYBISCUITS. Rich, sweet caramel, luscious coconut and just a touch of the amber + tobacco notes. This is so sweet and sexy and naughty and yummy and I just want to drink it. Initial dry: The caramel & coconut are still there, the tobacco gets a bit stronger and slightly overtakes the sweeter notes. Drydown: just a hint of the drier golden notes and a wee tiny bit of sweetness. Absofuckinglutely beautiful!

Wet: Cinnamon & lavender. Weird combination, and not something I'd think of putting together. Initial dry: still very lavendery with a hint of cinnamon. Drydown: the cinnamon stays on as the prominent note, getting warmer & sweeter as it dries. The lavender fades away slowly, giving an overall clean-ish scent. It's oddly comforting and lovely. I could see this one getting a lot of wear.

Wet, this smells promising. Like there's a citrus-herbal base. Then it dries. It's jasmine. Not that I don't like jasmine in blends or in small amounts, but that's pretty much all I get out of this. In very large quantities. Ow.

Wet, this is mostly a cacophony of melons. Cantaloupe is strongest, and there is just the teensiest hint that there are other fruits in this. As it wears, the other fruits come out to play. This is so sweet and juicy and fun and cute that it's like rolling around in a vat of Tropical Fruit Skittles. Smell the rainbow of fruit flavor! YUM.

Let me start off by saying I was raised Catholic. I did 12 years of Catholic School. I'm familiar with the Swingin' Censor of Doom. Church never had it this good. This is a warm, amazing resiny blend. This frankinsence (which I'm picking up as the main component here) is golden, almost sap-like. There's a nice sweetness to it, good throw, and all-day stamina. This is nothing like the OMG I'M CHOKING DEAR JESUS HELP ME stuff they use at church. IT'S MUCH BETTER. Maybe if they used something closer to this, I'd still be Catholic!

This is a hard one to describe. It reminds me a lot of pefumes my mom loves. I think I'm going to have to get her a bottle of this. Going on, it does smell like a mineral of some sort; a cool stone-like quality. It is sweet, but dry and fairly faint. I think there's sandalwood, musk, tonka and violet in this. But not sugary or foody. Musky and soft. Very feminine & pretty. I'm at a loss for words today. If you've ever smelled Bill Blass Nude before, it reminds me a great deal of that. Skin, but better.

This is an unusual one. It starts off slightly sweet with a slight touch of ozone, and something dark and mysterious and deep and brooding in the background. As it wears on, the dark note must be a resin (galbanum, I'm guessing!), with just a touch of the wood + ambergris. It's almost burnt smelling, but not in a bad way. Just something dark and foreboding, lurking. The sweet note, which is most likely the wine, doesn't totally disappear, but blends in more and more with the other notes as the day goes on. The ozone is almost undetectable now. This is really hard to describe. It is really unusual, and slightly reminiscent of Lurid because of the ozone & sweet notes, but Lurid gone wrong. Beautifully done.

Queen made me feel super confident. It seemed to be mostly vetiver, which is not something I really enjoy, but it worked for me regardless. I like Water of Notre Dame as a calming potion. Plenty of the Voodoo oils seem to be for calming or fortification; grab a couple and experiment. They are easy enough to get in imps that you should be able to narrow down one that you find works the way you'd like it to. White Light is an oil that really does require specific actions to be taken for it to work. It's not a "use as perfume and be swell" kind of oil. Most, if not all of the TALs are in the category of "magical use" not "perfume." If that still seems up your alley, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, if you can track some down! You may also look into the Panacea blends. They are aromatherapy blends; use them by applying them and inhaling them, not necessarily wearing them as perfume, but you could do that. Moxie is great for confidence, Lustration or Succor might help with inner peace. Wearing something that you love and treasure and you find to be a very "you" scent is also a great way to go! If it makes you smell good and that in turn lifts your spirit, I think that kind of achieves what you want. Good luck!

This is one of those scents that just doesn't change much on my skin all day, other than fading over the course of several hours. Apricot. The brandy is there, but it's mostly apricot. But the apricot is nice and sweet, but light. It's not syrupy, cloying or overpowering. It's lighter and more delicate than March Hare, which was a bit TOO fruity, if that's possible. The alcohol note makes it a little perfumey and almost drinkable. I can't drink this, right? I think this is another keeper!

There isn't any one oil that has both pineapple & coconut in it, but Elegba might be a good one to try. It has coconut + rum.

Heh. What have you got? Something nice and elegant like Rose Red could work, if that's the statement you're looking to make. Unless you want to be controversial and wear something like Shill.

I totally agree with that sentiment! On me, musk-based scents (Dorian, Snow White, Scherezade, Snake Oil, etc) tend to be the strongest & longest lasting. A lot of the spice/resin/woodsy scents are similar too (Lust, Sin, etc) in that regard.

#2/300 In the bottle & wet, I think the first thing I notice is the smell of Melissa. Very sharp lemony herbal smell. I love. There is an overlayer of sugar to this, it's almost like lemon wedges dipped in sugar, or like the wet stage of Spirits of the Dead: a very powdery lemon tea mix. There are a few herbal notes, which probably comprises the Dittany & angelica. I'm not getting any wormwood that I can tell. There is a soft underlayer of vanilla musk which reminds me greatly of Antique Lace/Morocco. As it dries, the melissa becomes a little less evident, and there is more of a generic herbal undertone mixed with a vague honey smell. Now it smells like a triplet to Antique Lace & Morocco. The vanilla musk is really taking off at this point and it's hard not to see the resemblance. At least for me. This is really quite lovely. Of course, I'd always say I wish the melissa/lemon note lasted longer, but that's the nature of a top note.

Time for Diana's wild stabs in the dark! That's a tough one. The piney note in that I really only associate with other LEs like Skadi and Snow Bunny. Thanatopsis is heavy on the piney, but it's not quite the same note, and the drydown is totally different. But it is very lovely! ;D Flower Moon lists: tulip, daffodil, violet, dewdrop, rhododendron, iris, daisy, and a mix of California wildflowers. There aren't really any with quite this same combination, though. Tulip: try Amsterdam Eos to me smells like tulips + daffodils Maybe Veil? A quiet scent, soft, calm and enigmatic. A perfume of mystery, of whispers, and of secrets behind secrets. White sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender and ylang ylang. I'll have to sniff my bottle again and see if it reminds me of anything.

#2/300! OH HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. <--- that pretty much sums up my entire review. Wet; this smells dizzyingly fruity & incensey & spicy and even vaguely leathery, though there is no leather note. I swear it smells like cinnamon + cherry incense. klfdshag! Drying: ok it's not cherry it's plum, DUH. The scent becomes a little less outstading. The sandalwood & floral notes come up to the foreground. It's a sweetened sandalwood, slightly flowery (not bad AT ALL), slightly dusty and powdery. This is sexy sandalwood with a spicy kick. It is so beautiful and right up my alley. I'm glad this came in a 10mL bottle, and now I'm contemplating another!

I spilled. So might as well review it. I've got Holiday Moon on one arm and Fee on the other. Wet: mmmm. melon. Honeydew, fresh, wet, succulent, juicy. Holy crap this smells so REAL. Drydown: the melon note dies down a lot but doesn't entirely go away. It picks up a sugary, creamy smell. Almost like a very light caramel. This is my childhood summers, sitting on the porch after being in the pool, eating melons in the sun. Not flowery at all. Just sweet and yummy. This is total perfection. PLEASE BRING THIS BACK.

In the bottle, it is kind of ozoney and wierd. I can't really smell it too well. On the skin, it is bright and zesty, but there's almost something bitter in the background. I wonder if this is the Oude? I don't even know what it is. I saw it in the description and thought "oude? huh? whatever. *click*." It's almost like the pithy part of a lemon rind. Initial drydown: wow. OZONE. I tend to shy away from ozone notes because they often smell like airfreshners to me. The scent overall is a greenish yellow cacophony. More dry: The ozone is actually nice at this stage. It's like fresh air rather than artificial room spray. The citrus notes have died down significantly. I wonder if the green note I'm getting now is the bamboo or green tea. It doesn't smell like TEA tea like Severin. This is very clean & fresh & spring-like. Not my typical choice of scent, but I like it. =)

I didn't want to dive into a full bottle of this, since I have Alone for spicydirt, Zombi for flowerdirt, and Graveyard Dirt for dirtydirt. Perfumey dirt? I am not so sure, so imp for me. In the vial, it's a weak earthy scent. Wet: soapy dirt. Kind of an oxymoronic combination, but yes. Soapy & dirty. Initial drydown: The soapy note kives way to a gingery kind of scent, but there's still a bit of of sharpness to it that I'm not too fond of. Also, dirt. Drydown: The dirt note morphs a little, into a musky patchouli of sorts. Sort of like a milder Urd. The ginger becomes a bit more cinnamony, but very faint. In fact, the perfume as a whole is fading quite a bit now, though I've only had it on for about 4 hours. There is still a very slight tiny sharpness to it; possibly the ginger. I love the drydown, but it did take a while to get there. I would like this more without the soapy note, which I'm guessing was the ginger all along. It's nice, but for me, I think Alone fits the bill of spicydirt with much more enthusiasm.

I got an imp of this, thinking that I'd like it, but I was worried it would be too similar to Catherine, of which I already have a 10mL bottle. My fears have been assuaged. They are only very remotely similar. Going on, this is very strong rosemary. Not terribly medicinal, but very green and herbal. There is a beautiful rush of fresh, sweet lemon. There's a bit of a hint of grape, but it's mostly lemon & rosemary for the first 20 minutes or so. Sadly, lemon is a very transitive top note, so that is gone after 15-20 minutes. The rosemary seems a bit woodsy and earthy, which made me wonder if it was thyme instead of rosemary. But this stage only lasts a few minutes as well. The orange flower is appearing, but not very strongly. After the lemon departs, the rose comes out. But rose-fearing folk rest assured, it isn't very strong or overpowering. There is a bit of grape, but not juicy, purple, or candy-smelling. I'm not able to detect any mint, but it just might be lurking in the mixture of rose & orange flower. The final drydown seems to be a sweet, soft, barely-there rose, a slight grape note, and just a hint of rosemary. I've had this on all day, and I'm still getting pretty good throw from it. I am in love with this. I want to slather it all over everything and swim in it. It's not overly floral, not overly fruity. It's clean and fresh and amazing, like being outside on a warm spring day where the breeze brings in wafts of various aromas of plants & flowers.

I am in total love. I ordered an imp of this because I was insanely curious, but didn't want to dive into a 5mL. Ozone notes tend to go really bad air-freshener on me. In the vial: It's sharp. Almost minty. Wet: This must be the Bulgarian lavender. I must say that judging from this, it is greener and more herbal than traditional French of English lavender. It smells almost like an evergreen with a slightly menthol note to it. There's a quick spike of something sweet in the background. Dry: The lavender softens, and the black currant becomes a sweet, almost candy-like base note. There is a soft musk to it that blends perfectly with the lavender. If there is any ozone or resin note here, it is really faint and well-blended. Hooray! I really like it. It's like Antique Lace having an orgy with Lolita or Jailbait. Candy sweet, but not overpoweringly so, layered under a soft, skin-like musk. This is definitely going to warrant a 5mL.

In the bottle, I could easily tell this was the blend MIT CHOCOLATE. I have a special chocolate sense, much like a spidey sense, except MORE DELICIOUS. This stayed true all day and had pretty decent throw. Bonus. Imagine you are holding a less buttery version of Jack, walking down the street. Coming toward you is someone carrying a vial of Bliss and a jar of Nutella. WHAM. You smack right into each other! "you got jack in my bliss & nutella!" "you got nutella & bliss in my jack!" it really is two great tastessmells that tastesmell great together. i am very tempted to bake a nutella pumpkin pie. PP#2 doesn't smell quite *that* sweet or foody, but it's really rich and a nice, comforting smell, especially if you have PMS and you want to knock over little kids and steal their chocolate. not that i'd know anything about that.

Bottle: Fir/pine Wet: Fir/pine Drydown: Fir/pine. Well then. To be a bit more loquacious, it smells a lot like Skadi or Snow Bunny, but without any of the berry/fruity/citrus notes. I don't ever get any of the floral notes, nor can I pick out any birch. It's just a chilly wintery fir tree smell. It's nice enough, but I rather like this with the added notes in other bottles I already have.

This is the 2005 formulation. I didn't like last year's (2004) version at all. It had a cinnamon note, which was fine, on top of a vanilla base that turned into total play-doh on me. This is completely different. It smells almost boozy going on, sort of a buttery rum scent. Throughout the day, it becomes less boozy, but remains kind of a buttery caramel. It's nice, but to me, it's like Gluttony Lite. Much better than last year, but if you want sugary, buttery, sticky sweet, stick with Gluttony. It's cheaper & available all year.