marared

Oddly enough, I had never tried Dorian until this evening. It was about 95% what I expected from the notes given, but it was a little more cologney than I thought it would be. It has virtually no throw - it sticks close to my skin and is barely noticeable. The cream is the most noticeable, with a vague hint of citrus in the background, and it smells quite tasty, but I can't convince myself of whether or not to get a bottle. If I do, it'll g straight into the aging box...

I think this pretty much clinches orris root as a death note for me - everything I've ever tried with it turns to soap. This blend is all rose soap, and nothing else. Well, maybe a little bit of neroli - but rose and orris root are stomping over them all, even the patchouli, which normally stands out pretty well on my skin.

This is a citrussy amber scent. Very warm and yellow - almost closer to foodie than floral, strangely enough. It puts me in mind of fresh yellow cake that isn't too sweet, with some citrus zest in it somewhere. Not very strong, not much throw. I'm definitely going to enjoy the imp, but I don't think I need a bottle.

Tested a bit of Coldie's bottle. Szepasszony is too cold of a scent to be comparable to this (nor does Sze have a citrus drive to it); this is much warmer, like Lightning or Tempest but not with quite so much ozone. It's got a very smooth background that's vaguely vanilla, but not quite. I liked it, but I don't hafta have it.

Coldfire had a bottle of this with her the other night, so I skin tested it as long as I was sitting there. It's a sweeter leather than I'm accustomed to from other blends, and for some reason I get a coconut vibe from it (and she did too, after it had been on my skin for a few minutes). Not like tropical coconut, or the coconut in Snake Charmer, but kind of a dilute coconut oil, if that makes sense. Not my thing overall, though.

Interestingly, this is one of the very few rose blends where the rose doesn't get amped up to intolerable levels. I think Moroccan rose specifically might be the factor here; I had tried a Body Shop Moroccan rose that was also very nice on me. It plays nicely with the myrrh, but that's really all I smell in the end - rose and myrrh.

I smell woody patchouli, mostly, sitting on top of an orange. I can't pick out the carnation, and I'm not familiar enough with ambergris as a scent to find it either. The patchouli dies down after a couple of minutes, though, and stays close to the skin. I think this is something where I'll keep the imp and finish it off, because my skin kinda likes it, but it's not quite awesome enough to justify a bottle.

Loud sweet clove - first application is all clove clove clove. I immediately thought of Winter of Our Discontent when I first sniffed it, although this isn't nearly as bitter. Aaaaaand, a couple minutes into drydown, there's the violets. Oh, soapy violets, you overwhelm everything in your path. No tonka, no incense, just violets beating up on the clove.

This is Hunger's slutty sister, I think. This is the *dirtiest* patchouli I've ever smelled - every other lab patchouli that I've tried has generally been far more refined and smooth and mellow, where this is leafy and earthy and it'll clobber you in the head with a spiked heel in a dark alley if you look at it the wrong way. It's overpowering the ginger (the redheaded tarty sidekick) and the orange blossom has practically no chance. My skin likes patchouli, though - it doesn't really *amp* it too badly, but it does get played up a lot in my chemistry. It also *does* have a resemblance to Snake Oil, with a faint play-doh aspect under it all that I also get from SO at the wrong time of month.

I looooove my Fearful Pleasure. There isn't much in the way of autumn here though - it hits the 90s through September, and it's November or December before I really even have to start wearing a light jacket. Won't stop me from my smoky appley goodness though.

I have no idea the age of the bottle I bought, as it was on ebay, but enough people said it aged well and I love honey and blackberry, so I gave it a go. I get the buttered popcorn impression, although it's not something that would have occurred to me on my own. I barely smell the blackberries, but the vanilla bean is definitely in there, as is the tea (and strangely enough, the tea is far more noticeable on my right wrist than it is on my left - they're almost two entirely different scents!), but the primary impression is of honey. But not the super-sweet sticky syrupy honey - it's very ... natural. Like a honeycomb instead of drizzled honey. I like this a lot. Not as much throw as I would like, but just an excuse to slather, right?

It's LE and gone, but Host of the Air should still be easy enough to get, and that's one of the greenest things I've ever smelled.

I wore B&BW's Jasmine Vanilla to a number of shows in the past. It always put noses in my cleavage without fail. I haven't been to a show recently, though, and no idea what BPAL I'd wear. I'm considering my options for the weekend-long power metal festival in early October. Patchouli loooves me, but I think those blends might be a little overwhelming for such close (and overheated) quarters. I'm almost definitely bringing Morocco, and it's the right time of year for Fearful Pleasure as well. Maybe Love's Philosophy too.

Berry Moon, it does not love me. *sad* The bottle is a blast of berry-sweet honey and I got all excited, because the lab's honey typically is very good with my skin chemistry and I was totally going to nom myself. Except... there is some note that doesn't quite agree with me, and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the summer musk - I amp musk a fair bit, although musk usually likes me as well. Whatever it is, it turns almost to a BO funk that holds down the berries - I can smell them under it all, trying to come out and play, but they can't get past the funk. Owing to the fact that it's just past my ladytime, I'm going to give it another couple tests over the next few weeks, because even Penumbra went kinda rank on me earlier this week, and maybe my chemistry is just unusually out of whack this time. I hope so, because I LOVE HONEY AND RASPBERRY AND MUSK AND I WANT THIS TO WORK DAMMIT. *ahem*

10mL of Dionysia and Morocco, oh yeah... *bats eyelashes in the lab's general direction*

I like this a lot more than I expected I would - I was afraid of the artemisia, because I think that's what turned me off in another scent, but this is a nice herbal amber, not too heavy on the floral, very summery scent. I think I'm going to very seriously consider getting a bottle before it comes down - I kinda wish I had gotten this instead of Litha!

The scent is of goat's milk, ripe fig, and a hint of sweet myrrh. This isn't as pungent as the goat milk *cheese* I've tried - I don't think I could identify it as goat milk specifically at all. It's definitely figgy, though. A very nice mild milky scent - I like it, but it doesn't really do anything for me in terms of perfume.

Argh. I thought for SURE I was gonna love this. It's certainly divine in the bottle - a dark and creamy vanilla. On me, it goes a little wonky. I initially blamed the molasses, because it is essentially sugar, and sugar notes don't like me, but it's not the scent of sugar turning sour. Come to think of it, it's not even *wonky* so much as the scent just doesn't particularly agree with me. I think it must be the moss. The vanilla is nowhere to be found now, and the currant and the patchouli are faint in the background, and it's mostly moss and molasses. I don't hate it Off to the box, I guess, and I'll reevaluate in a few weeks, but I don't have a good feeling about this.

I wasn't too sure about getting this as a bottle because sugary things don't do well on my skin. It's usually the sugar note specifically rather than naturally sweet things like vanilla - the cream, though, was a cause for concern. Happily, after 30 minutes there isn't a hint of sour! I smelled cream cheese frosting in the bottle - my favorite kind, hands down. On my skin, I get cream soda - really rich cream soda, and in fact makes me want to go across the street for a four-pack of IBC. It reminds me just a very tiny bit of Mead Moon - the sunniness of the saffron has the same effect as the boozy honey. And it gives this *personality* - straight up vanilla and cream would be yummy, but the saffron gives it that exotic edge. I think I'll have to wear this a bit more and see how it grows on me.

Powdery peach. It's a very nice fresh peach, not loud and artificial, and I can smell the vanilla behind it. The sandalwood, not so much. I think the powdery aspect must come from either the rosewood or the osmanthus, as none of the other notes have that effect, and I'm not especially familiar with those two. This is a very nice *girly* scent, something to wear with a floaty dress and cute sandals.

Fresh out of the imp, it's all musky neroli. mmm. After a few minutes, the neroli fades into the background and it's more of a musky amber with barely noticeable frankincense. Sandalwood? Nope. It has virtually no throw - it doesn't disappear, but it blends and hangs close to my skin. It's warm and sexy. I'd put it in the same family as Hunger and Oblivion, in that it has a masculine quirk to it, but it's perfectly adequate for a woman. If it had more throw, I think I'd get a bottle, but I'd have to slather this to get any effect.

This one morphs quite a bit. It starts out lemony - the lemon is really the common thread through all the stages so far. Not even remotely like Pledge - muted lemon, like a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade (as opposed to the stronger artificial lemon). It then turns a little floral, ALMOST soapy but not quite. As it dries, it gets more herbal - I get the menthol impression, but I agree that it's probably verbena. I don't get any berries at all. It doesn't have much throw, but it hasn't faded at all. It's definitely a cousin of Host of the Air, as has been said several times, although this is much more yellow than green. It's definitely a wonderful summer scent, and I hope there's a full-blown release of this in the future.

I didn't get a bottle of this because I was afraid of the sugar cane - with good reason, it turns out. It starts out as a nice musky honey sweetness - I'm surprised the copal didn't overtake it, but it behaved itself nicely. But after about 30-40 minutes, I guess, it goes a little sour. Not AS sour as sugar is wont to do on my skin, but it's still pretty much unwearable. *sad*

I'd call this a cousin to Mead Moon - it's definitely more herbal than honey (whereas Mead Moon was more honey than herbal), and when I first tried it yesterday, there was something that went a little off about it. I'm not sure which note it is - there are too many that I'm unfamiliar with - and it's still trying to go a little bit wonky, but so far it's behaving itself this time. It's definitely a nice summery scent - I think if I layer it with a little MM to give it a little pep, it'll be perfect. Later edit: nope, it's still going wonky. Sad - it starts out so nice for the first few minutes.

Strawberry bubbleyum, yep. It gets a little greener, and I like the green, but I was hoping for a more natural strawberry, and it just continues to smell ... gummy. I'll give it another couple weeks, but this is almost guaranteed to go in the swap pile.