Shollin

First sniff: Er. Pungent. Quite pungent. And looking at the notes, it seems sweetpea has struck again, because the rest of it looks lovely. But something in here gives the whole blend a sharp soapy weirdness. Wearing: Well, on my skin it’s soft soapy rather than sharp soapy, but it’s still soapy. Stupid soapy. The rest of it is a soft, peaceful floral, and quite lovely, but that soap note just won’t bugger off, and I can’t ignore it.

Brian (Corinthian) has been known to post "shipped through" notifications in the Lab's Announcements subforum... but it's been a while since it was updated (January, I believe). Your best bet, as themerrybaker mentioned, is to keep an eye on the "I got my order" pinned topic in BPAL Chatter.

First sniff: Dragon’s blood, meet Big Red. Big Red, meet dragon’s blood. Hope y’all get along. Wearing: This is more sweet than spicy, which is rather unexpected. It’s very cinnamon-candy-like.

First sniff: For some reason I was expecting Niflheim to be way green, like Yggdrasil. Looking at the description, I have no idea where I got that impression. And it was way off, because Nif is really all about pale flowers and misty darkness. Wearing: Tiny white flowers and flowing water. Beautiful and misty and mysterious.

First sniff: Darkdarkdark and spicy. Wearing: Spicy patchouli with a decidedly red overtone, which was nice... but it faded very quickly and didn’t make much of an impression.

First sniff: Aquatic. And… that’s all I got. Wearing: Fresh air, ozone and seaspray. It’s subtle (no in-your-face ozone here) and really nice.

First sniff: The ghost of a bride-to-be, still wearing her moonlight-white wedding gown and clutching her faded bouquet. Outwardly elegant but nervous underneath… she’s still expecting her groom to arrive at any moment. She doesn’t realise. Wearing: It’s not just her… the entire banquet hall is a ghost. Formal place-settings and floral centerpieces all frozen, awaiting a celebration that will never come. Perhaps when she understands, she’ll become the sinister presence of the poem, wooing in death the lover she never knew in life, but for now… she doesn’t know, and that innocence is breathlessly sad.

First sniff: My concept of incense clearly doesn’t extend to Kyphi. I’ve never smelled anything quite like this, and I definitely wouldn’t have classified it as incense. It doesn’t even smell resinous – it’s dark, liquid-smooth and sweet, almost candylike. Wearing: Smooth, sweet, dark and mysterious. Goes sweeter and more syrupy as it dries… but the dry scent is somehow reminiscent of… coconut?

First sniff: Evergreen evergreen evergreen. Cold and snowy and piney. I’m not getting even a hint of anything else. Wearing: ...Until I put it on my skin, and then there’s a truly bizarre nutty undertone. It’s still piney piney piney, but the nut thing is really strange and distracting. Once it dried completely, it was simply glorious. Warm, nutty, woody, with the evergreen as a soft afterthought. I never expected to fall in love with this scent – I actually picked it up for my guy, who smells great in pine. I might have to get an extra imp for him, ‘cause I’m keeping this one.

First sniff: So light I almost can’t smell it. What I can make out smells very specifically like lime zest. Not lime-flavoured anything, or even lime juice, but the green confetti you get with a microplane grater. Wearing: A sudden flurry of pale purple flower petals, settling into a truly gorgeous nonpowdery floral aura with a hint of white musk. And the wrist-scent is all that plus lime, though the lime doesn’t waft at all. I wonder if my guy would consent to guinea-pig this one for me, just to see what it does…

First sniff: Oh, this is pretty! It’s bright and cold and sparkling. Wearing: Oh how I love white musk, and the Evening Star is a glorious pairing of airy white musk and earthy patchouli. It’s nose-ticklingly breezy.

One I haven't seen mentioned yet is Rapture, which reminds me of afterglow without actually smelling like sweaty bodies. Two scents that apparently smell like sex to my guy, because of *ahem* happy associations, are O and Siren (but I have the old version, before the apricot was added). I've also been told by an ex that Ravenous is SexyAsHell on me. I also find Hunger incredibly sexy, but other people think it smells like orange creamsicles, soooo...

First sniff: Floral-fruity, but with an oddness underneath. The jasmine is very much in the forefront… I hope it doesn’t dominate the whole time. Wearing: Yeah, it’s jasminey. And fades very quickly. I enjoyed this one when I sniffed it at coulrophobe’s, but it isn’t impressing me this time around.

I wore Midnight Mass to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve (without reviewing it at the time) and it seems very strange even to consider wearing it at any other time. First sniff: Incense perfection. It’s very much church incense, warm, resinous and a tiny bit cedary. Wearing: Just a swipe on my wrist for review purposes, as I still feel a little strange wearing this when it’s almost May Day! It’s still incense perfection, and there seems to be a hint of chill underneath. Like incense smoke on a hushed, expectant midwinter’s night. It’s lovely, but I very much suspect I’ll only be wearing it once a year. It's too important.

What else could possibly be more lickable at Yuletide? This is a candy cane perfume, minty, sweet and sugared. First sniff: Bright white peppermint and brown sugar. This smells glorious. Wearing: WOW. It’s nose-freezingly peppermint, with the sugar underneath. Damn, this is good stuff. The peppermint fades quickly into something very similar to Sugar Skull, but warmer and less gooey. It’s just fantastic in every stage.

First sniff: The new Hearth smells like… comfort. Like being wrapped in a blanket beside a big fire and family and laughter and home. On a more mundane level, it’s warm and toasty and a little bit buttery without being too foody, rich rather than sweet. And once I recheck the description and know the pine is there, I can smell it very faintly in the background. Wearing: It isn’t often that I get two different smells from the same scent on my wrists, but it’s happening with this one. Under the warm toastiness I smell a tiny hint of leather on my left wrist and fruit on my right.

First sniff: Fuzzy juicy apricot, with a bit of an edge. This isn’t the pure, joyful scent of the single-note; there’s something more serious to it. And it doesn’t smell boozey, thankfully. Wearing: Very rich and warm. It’s more of a chewy dried apricot now, with maybe a wee sprinkle of vanilla. And yet it somehow manages to be not-very-foody.

First sniff: Complicated and chilly. I can pick out a bit of mint and orange blossom, but that’s the only part I can figure out. Wearing: It’s very sophisticated. It’s not an old-lady scent by any means, but it’s much older than I am, and I’m not sure I can wear it convincingly. It feels rather like I’m insisting, “I’m a grownup! I know what I’m doing!” while toting my teddy bear around by one arm. But it’s a lovely scent, and I’ll hang onto it for those times when I need to feel like I know what I’m doing… or at least fake it.

First sniff: Cream cheese brownies, anyone? I actually made a batch the night of Beaver Moon in its honor, but this is the first time I’ve tried the scent on. In the bottle, it’s amazingly rich and sweet – more rich than sweet, all buttery and chocolatey and yum. Wearing: Huh! Did someone sprinkle cinnamon on my cream cheese brownies? I’m getting a weird spice note I wasn’t expecting at all, and it hangs around for the first couple of hours. It eventually calms down to a very pleasant foody scent… but after serious consideration, I don’t love it enough to wear it above all the other foody scents I love.

First sniff: Powdery soapy flowers, ahoy! I was trying to remember why Erato was the one existing Muse I hadn’t gotten my hands on before the rest of the sisters arrived, and looking back at the notes I understand. Roses – very hit-or-miss. Ylang – usually bad. Sweetpea – ruins everything. Orris – tends to the powdery perfumey side of things. And given all that, I’m still going to try it on, ‘cause I’m just a masochist that way. Wearing: The first breath on my skin is, astonishingly, quite nice. It’s a very quiet, restrained, sweet floral, and it stays that way. Just lovely. I don’t understand it at all.

First sniff: Sweet, resinous and herbal. It smells nothing like church incense, but still reminds me of church. Hushed and expectant. Wearing: This is a very odd scent, and I’m having a very odd reaction to it. It smells rather like someone sprinkled dried herbs on a charcoal fire along with powdered incense. It’s so incredibly not the sort of scent I’m generally drawn to… and yet I can’t stop sniffing and smiling. It’s very calming and thoughtful.

I don’t particularly want to entice new lovers, as I’m distinctly happy with the one I have, but temptation and carnal sin are always fun. First sniff: The candy-red oil screams dragon’s blood, and that’s the first thing I smell – that warm, deep, happy cherry-resin. Wearing: I dragon’s blood. Dragon’s blood and… honey? Or maybe even a restrained jasmine. There’s something wonderfully sweet and light in here that I can’t identify.

First sniff: Light, sweet and… perfumey. I can’t pin down any of the notes. Wearing: It still just smells “perfumey.” I’m having a hard time with this one. I don’t get any coconut, or any musk, and I’m not entirely sure what orris smells like, but this is purely perfumey.

Phantasm, Shanghai and Kumiho all fall into the same clean-and-fresh category for me. Oberon, too, to a lesser extent. But my all-time favorite scent to exclaim "It's SPRING, dammit!" is Titania.

First sniff: WHOA, this is boozey. I’ve never had a proper martini – I’m more inclined toward fruity and/or creamy drinks – so I can’t really judge this on trueness of scent, but it certainly smells like a fancy drink. Wearing: It’s very evergreen and very boozey… make that very alcohol-y, as it’s way more sophisticated than “boozey” implies.