magdalene

in the bottle: dirt. With some roses. wet on skin: THIS is what Burial should have smelled like! In my head, anyway. The roses keep the earth smell from smelling too...umm...earthy. And the dirt keeps the roses from being too sweet. dry: you got your dirt smell in my roses! You got your rose smell in my dirt!

I'm just going to quote amaltheagray's review of this: " r'lyeh is EVIL CTHULU GRAPEFRUIT. it is the GRAPEFRUIT OF DARK UNHOLY DEEDS." Truer words have never been spoken.

in the bottle: uhh, limes? wet on skin: wow, I was really not expecting a citrusy kind of scent. Although I am pleasantly surprised by it. Limes and incense, whoever thought those two smells would knock me off my feet? dry: this is a very boy-like scent, but I think I might give it a shot for awhile.

in the bottle: candied lavender. wet on skin: whoever said that this smelled like Lavender Pastilles has got it down pat. The musk warms up the chilliness of lavender, with the pennyroyal keeping everything in check. dry: more than a bit masculine for me, but I'd love to smell this on my boyfriend.

in the bottle: sweet peaches. wet on skin: still peaches, with some patchouli coming out and around the edges. This is an enormously playful scent, like the younger and more wistful cousin to Machu Picchu (or Machu Pikachu as my friend calls it). dry: very sweet, very summer-like.

in the bottle: soft pear. wet on skin: such a light rose takes center stage, quietly ushering the pear back into its seat. Plumeria makes me sneeze, unfortunately, and that comes up behind the rose, with fig in tow. dry: such a ripe scent, bursting at the seams, everything clamouring to get your attention.

in the bottle: juniper. wet on skin: this isn't really a 'dirt' smell to me, by any stretch of the imagination. The juniper basically kicks everything else's ass. Dark pine. dry: juniper and pine don't last very long on my skin, so there wasn't really much of a change as it dried.

in the bottle: hmm. Soap. wet on skin: I should really just finally learn that aquatic scents and I don't get along very well. This is a light and clean scent, however, and I can totally see how others would dig it. Just not for me. Too green, too watery. dry: washed it off.

Named in honor of the most notorious female pirate to ever set sail. Wicked, cruel, beautiful, intelligent, resourceful and dangerous: a true role model. A blend of Indonesian red patchouli, red sandalwood, and frankincense. in the bottle: frankincense and patchouli. wet on skin: this is like Cathedral's wicked little sister sister. And I adore Cathedral! dry: sandalwood pulls everything together into a glorious heap of happiness. This is a keeper.

in the bottle: wine. wet on skin: A handful years ago, I made friends with a married couple who were heavily into wine. Over time, they have introduced me to the sheer decandance of opening an extremely expensive bottle and getting absolutely soused on it. Good times. heh. This is the exact scent of a peach wine we tried from a local New Jersey winery. Soft and gorgeous. dry: amber warms this up a touch, but not overly so. This is probably the truest wine scent I've ever smelled.

in the bottle: plums and pomengranates. wet on skin: ooof, there's some apricots in here too. This is very much a juicy scent. It reminds me of a couple weeks ago, when I taught my boyfriend and his brother the proper way of opening and de-seeding a pomengranate. Little, ruby-jewelled seeds spilling all around my fingers and staining everything they touch. dry: fortunately, the apricot doesn't overpower everything within its reach. The plums keep it nicely in line.

in the bottle: peppermint on my tongue. wet on skin: this is the scent of eating peppermints, if they didn't have the sticky and cloying sweetness of sugar to them. Fresh and clean, with a slight menace underneath it all. dry: didn't last very long, as most minty scents do on me, but it was quite nice while it lasted.

in the bottle: oooh, bergamot. wet on skin: this is precisely how my father smelled to me, when I was a very young girl and he was my entire world. He would come to my mother's house on Friday evening, right after work, with his muddied work boots and Marlboros in the front of pocket of his t-shirt. Swing me up into his arms and I would wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in his shoulder, astonishingly happy, because my daddy was finally there to get me. dry: I'm not getting any vanilla or anything even remotely resembling Snake Oil, as some other people have mentioned in their reviews. This is a warm and masculine musky amber, tempered with bergamot.

in the bottle: spicy violets. wet on skin: this is such a clean scent, I really wasn't expecting that. It's a sweetly potted African violet, left out on the back porch during a full moon. Alone in the dark, with the stars shining. dry: the greeness of this comes and goes, as vetiver tends to do with me, but the violets stay true and don't go all old lady-ish on my skin.

in the bottle: sweet cherries, lost in the woods and unable to find their way home. wet on skin: the cherries in this are simply gorgeous. Far too often, cherry scents can seem artifical and sticky. But, this oil just smells like the jar of bourbon-spiked marachino cherries I have in my cupboard. Beautiful, with a slight kick of "I can mess you up for the rest of your natural born life." dry: it becomes warmer on dry-down, like a chocolate covered cherry.

in the bottle: sweet pumpkin. wet on skin: I was so certain that I would love this one, as I'm a great fan of spicy pumpkin scents. But, I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this. I don't dislike it, per se, but I'm not in love like I thought I would be. It just smells like a slightly amped up Jack to me. At least, on my skin. When it's in the bottle with the lid closed, it smells absolute divine. However, once it gets opened, all that happiness goes away. dry: this warms up, with the apple pushing its way into the foreground, which is very nice. The buttery scent that seems to follow all pumpkin scents isn't exactly my favourite thing in the world and the apple cider seems to shove it out of the way. I'm unsure if I'm going to keep this or not. I don't think I'll wear it, but I'm loathe to swap or sell it.

in the bottle: spicy sandalwood. wet on skin: 'The Beautiful One Has Come', indeed! This is a lush scent, with the different sandalwoods mixing beautifully with the myrrh. Right before I wrote this review, I reviewed Lear, which is an incredibly masculine scent. This is its antithesis: utterly feminine. dry: very soft, very light. This would be a good scent to wear all year. During the summer, its softness wouldn't be too heavy for the hot weather and during winter, it would warm you right up.

in the bottle: mmm, regal and bold cedar. wet on skin: this reminds of swimming in cedar water. Good water. When I was wee, my family would go on outings into the Pine Barrens where a lot of cedar water flows. I would swim through warm water, then dive down to the bottom to look up at the surface of the stained water. It always looked like blood to me. dry: the sage sharpens up the cedar a bit with a slightly biting edge. A bitter King Lear on a bloody throne. This is gorgeous, but a tiny too masculine for me.

... Our Grand Guignol perfume is a shot of sweet apricot brandy; just enough to settle your nerves after a ghoulish, gory brush with the macabre. in the bottle: an alcoholic apricot, down on its luck in an alley with an almost empty bottle of brandy at its feet. wet on skin: I used to really like the apricot scents, especially March Hare, but one day I woke up and everything was changed. Apricot smells suddenly became overly sweet and cloying, getting caught in my nose and making me choke. Grand Guignol, unfortunately, is full-on apricot with a slight brandy-like sweetness. dry: The boozy aspect of this came around a bit, towards the end, but not enough to make me want to wear it again. hoom.

in the bottle: all gardenia and jasmine. wet on skin: the vanilla peeks its head out for a bit, peering through all the flowers in this garden, but decides that today is just not the day and swiftly hides its face again. Sadly, because I think the vanilla would have smartened up the florals on my skin and kept them in line. dry: every so often, I get a little kick of tea rose, but not enough to make me want to keep this one.

in the bottle: massive honeysuckle. wet on skin: This is all honeysuckle and opium, and I'm not getting much vetivert though. It's not as woody as I thought it was going to be (from the lack of vetivert, maybe?), but the honeysuckle is one of the best I've smelled. dry: There's the vetivert. A bit late for the party, much like I usually am, but finally here.

in the bottle: sweetly floral. wet on skin: This is a very earthy scent, lots of florals, with some sweetness to balance everything out. Unfortunately, it's a little too heady for me and that's quite upsetting, as I so wanted to love this scent. dry: I think it's the cocoa that's turning me off from this one and the candy quality. It's too sticky sweet for my tastes.

in the bottle: pure ginger, fresh. wet on skin: The ginger gets tempered a bit by some resin note, making it darker and bringing it deeper. There's also a slight sweetness to it, but not as much in Gingerbread Poppet. This is definitely Gingerbread Poppet's evil twin. dry: All of the notes mingle together in a glorious rush. The throw is nice, but unfortunately not terribly long-lasting.

in the bottle: Fresh cut rose. wet on skin: This is indeed the perfect winter rose, freshly cut and wrapped prettily in a clear plastic box with baby's breath and greenery. dry: the greenness of the scent disappears after a short while, along with the slight plasticky smell. All in all, this is just plain rose. I managed to finally procure a bottle of this from Joseybird on an LJ sale, after stalking countless eBay auctions that went far beyond my reach.

in the bottle: lemony rose, but not sweet. Very tart. wet on skin: The rose mingles very nicely with lemon, something which I could never have predicted. dry: Apple peeks its head in, towards the end, but it's very faint. Something I expected since apple is such a light note. This is a very crisp scent, very playful and full of mad turns.