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Balsam of Peru, skin musk, and honey are three notes I like a lot. Recently I've had to rethink several of my perfumes in these categories, so I was excited to test Miles. In the vial: Very close to my ideal scent in that category (Giant Vulva, Velvet Nudie, I'm lookin' at you!), but with a noticeable tingle of black pepper. Wet: Very nice! The honey isn't overwhelming, the skin musk doesn't go slightly skanky on me the way it occasionally does, and the pepper's keeping in step. This might finally be what I hoped Giant Vulva would be: the honey-balsam-musk scent of my dreams. One hour: The balsam has taken the foreground, with a pleasantly warm and spicy impression. The honey and skin musk still smell nice together, but somehow less feminine than in Giant Vulva. I'm not getting any noticeable pepper, but maybe that's what's working so nicely with the balsam. I quite like this. I bought a bottle of this.

I love grass and clover notes, so I commissioned a decant of this. In the vial: Magnificent outdoor field scent; I so hope this one works on me! Wet: Heathery sort of scent, reminding me of The Host of the Air and similar field type scents. So far, so good. Hour and a half: Much calmer now, and there's a citrus peel type of note that wasn't there before. I like it very much, but it no longer smells quite so much like grass and clover under the sun. I didn't get any detergent/laundry scent, though.

One or two iffy notes weren't enough to scare me off this one, with its amber, patchouli, and fruit base. In the vial: Wow, this smells great! Lovely round amber, fruit, evergreen, tea, and soft musk. Wet: Wow, this one's hard to describe. I get a lot of notes fighting for supremacy. It smells very pleasant, though, herbal and unsweet florals with patchouli-amber-musk fruit and evergreens all represented. One hour: A gentle, well-blended scent. I get something I think is the mugwort or maybe the yarrow, an appealingly bitter herbal scent over something almost minty in impression that reminds me of white amber. There is patchouli, there is evergreen, there is the darkness of black currant. There is almost no sweet, even though I think I would probably characterize this as a fruity scent. It is simultaneously dark and silvery; fascinating! Two hours: Yep, definitely a matured dark fruit scent with a lot of silvery herbal underpinnings. Although it isn't as elegant now, I can wear it better than an hour ago. It will probably be pretty stable for a while now. Five hours: Dark fruity-patchouli with interesting silvery herbal notes overlaid. I like it enough to keep the bottle.

I wavered over buying this because I have so many honey scents already, but I couldn't resist the promise of white ginger. In the bottle: Inexplicably, this smells quite fruity and tropical, with strong cherry-almond overtones. Wet: More floral and honey now, but it retains that suggestion of cherry-almond. I hope it stays this nice! Hour and a half: Still tropical floral, like tiare only without that foody caramel richness. This is very beautiful, an intensely sweet floral that nevertheless isn't sugary, foody, headachy, or overripe. If this stays this way, I will love my bottle. Four hours: Beautiful tropical floral on a background of honey. This is the nicest tropical floral I think I've tried in the whole catalogue. Definite keeper. Well, I love Honey Moon 2013 immoderately. It's the nicest a tropical floral has ever smelled on my skin! There's honey, but not enough to cloy, overwhelm, or render foody the beautiful floral note which I think must be the Hawaiian white ginger. It doesn't smell like jasmine or gardenia, so it must be white ginger, right? I still have no idea where that initial cherry-almond impression came from; it was pretty, but it went away pretty much immediately. I will treasure my bottle of this!

SINGLE NOTE: SUMATRAN RED PATCHOULI Sexy, dirty, much-maligned and much-loved patchouli… oh, how you get a bad rap. Though some associate you with head shops and Dead show parking lots, you really are so much more: You are utilized in Chinese medicine to normalize the flow of qi. In aromatherapy, you are used to diffuse stress, bring comfort and succor, and alleviate depression. You inspire lust, passion, and carnality, and create a veil of sexual intrigue unmatched by any other fragrance. You correspond with Saturn and Earth, facilitating grounding, stability, and protection, as well as the acquisition of property and money. You form the oft-unrecognized basis of innumerable perfumes, adding a unique depth and sensuality, sometimes imperceptibly. Your olfactory profile is incredibly fluid, ranging from mossy and gritty to wine-rich and voluptuous, and you age like a glorious silver screen goddess. So the next time someone tells you that you smell like an unwashed hippie, Patchouli, just smile your enigmatic smile. The enlightened know how amazing you are. This is an answer to prayer. Red patchouli is my favorite patchouli note in the whole catalogue! I bought three bottles of it unsniffed. In the bottle: Very intense patchouli, very dark oil (can't see through the bottle). Wet: Needs time to settle in; it's dark and tannic right now. This is for patchouli lovers, not the patch-curious. I can tell it's going to be worth the wait for total drydown, but patience is required. Hour and a half: Lovely slightly menthol patchouli, still a little too strong for perfect arm-chewing nomminess, but very nice. On me it's the same as the red patchouli in Anne Bonny. Four hours: Yep, this is the one. Slightly menthol, arm-chewingly wonderful patchouli. I am thinking of diluting this with about 10% carrier oil. It's a little stronger than I want it to be. But the nuances of this particular patchouli note are exactly what I was looking for, and I love it.

I've been meaning to try this one for a long time, and I finally secured some. In the bottle I didn't smell much at all. It seemed a worrisome, thin smell, but I went ahead and made a batch of my sugar scrubs with some and then forgot about it. When I found the sugar scrub days later, it still didn't smell like much. I worried more, but as we all know the skin test is everything. In the shower this was more a citrus scent than anything else, but it was still pretty faint. I was surprised enough to wonder if I'd gotten a bad bottle or something; I bought this one second-hand, and it's the old formula that still had some mineral oil in it. But then after I dried myself, the scent started to pop up off my skin. It was my old buddy patchouli! The reason I wanted this one in the first place was to see if it could fill in the gap my old massage oil, Desert Essence Love Massage & Body Oil, left behind when it was discontinued. With patchouli, ylang ylang, and citrus in both of them, the match is pretty good. This isn't as intense and sweet as the Desert Essence, but I love it anyway. It's like the patchouli in Tricksy, only at least an order of magnitude lighter. And even though it's very light, the patchouli was very persistent and stayed on my skin for over 12 hours. So now my love affair with patchouli has been rekindled, and I'm going through my stash looking for things I can layer over this bath oil. I think I need a newer bottle, though; my skin and I like the reformulated, post-mineral oil bath oils better.

Honey and myrrh are two of my notes of love, so I really wanted to try this one. In the bottle: Myrrh, sweet but not sweet enough to be honeyed, and with a slightly tart or astringent floral note. Wet: There's a lot of floral character to this, and it's not a typical floral. It's dry, slightly bitter, like a meadow flower. The honey is in there, but it's slow to show itself. This needs to work for a while. One hour: Medium intensity myrrh, almost no honey, and an unusual floral, not sweet at all, kind of flat. This might need some aging. Two hours: That dampish impression is gone, but the floral remains. Still no sign of honey, but the myrrh isn't too heavy so it doesn't absolutely require honey for lightening. Still think it needs aging. Five hours: I like it, and it has a lot of potential. The floral note is more like a root, with a flat sort of impression like orris or lotus root. I didn't get much honey for the first few hours, but it's getting a bit sweeter now. Overall I do like it and will age it a bit to see what happens.

I wanted to try this one based on the beeswax and musk. Rosewood and labdanum are okay notes for me, not spectacular, so I don't know where this will go. In the bottle: There's something intense and unsettling at the top of this one, something I haven't smelled in any other scent. I am not sure I will like this one. Wet: Whatever that is, it's still there, although it's calming down now that it's on my skin. I really don't know whether this one is going to work out; it's really unsettling still. Half an hour: Oh my, what a change! It's smoky-tannic, but that's just a top note. Beneath is sweet beeswax and musk with some wood in it. This is a little bit woodier than I'd like, but it keeps the beeswax and labdanum from running away with the scent. Two and a half hours: Very much a beeswax-musk scent now, with some wood. This one's not bad at all, but it's a bit more honey-like than I expected. Labdanum doesn't like me as much as some other resins, and it contributes a sort of stickiness here. Five hours: a sweet, almost foody beeswax scent with a bit of wood. I think it is this sweet because black musk goes so sweet on me. The musk hasn't gone to powder, though, which black musk often does on me. I like this phase; the labdanum and other off notes are gone now. But what a ride it was getting there! I might re-home this, depending on how many people fall in love with it, or I might age it for a while to see what happens to that disconcerting initial note. It really bugs me that I cannot put my finger on what it is. But the musk and beeswax at the heart of this scent are very pleasant.

This was the 2013 Bats Day scent that appealed to me the most based on notes. Blackcurrant, rose, and dark musk are all good for me; hopefully the tonka won't be problematic. In the bottle: Well-balanced fruit-rose scent, not too sweet, not too intense, with some nice musk base. I do not notice any tonka. Wet: The fruit-rose has given way a bit before the musk which has an interesting, not quite metallic tinge to it. And I think there's a hint of something citrusy in here too, but bitter, like yuzu or grapefruit peel rather than orange or lemon or lime. Half an hour: Sweeter than before; the fruit and rose have turned a bit jammy, like they've been cooked and concentrated. And for the first time I think I'm getting some tonka, which adds a sort of indistinct richness in the middle register. The impression of citrus is retained, too, but it is milder than before. Two and a half hours: More musk than anything else now, but still a nicely balanced and enjoyable one with that splendid chewy blackcurrant note which is no longer jammy. I like it at least a 4. Five hours: I wonder if there might be a bit of patchouli in this; it's giving me the impression of being a lovely round fruity patchouli blend now. I love this phase even though the impression of rose is gone. Really glad I have a bottle of this!

So far none of the new SNs have captured my heart, but Sweet Alyssum is one of my favorite garden plants. Wherever I encounter it, I stop to smell it. I was thrilled to see it come out as a SN and bought a bottle unsniffed. In the bottle: Really does a good job of capturing the sweet, soapy, almost minty delight that is sweet alyssum flower. Wet: A lot like night-blooming jasmine, only sweeter and less astringent on the back of the throat. There's a bit of sharpness to it, like it might want to veer into headache territory, but even as I sniff it's warming up to me nicely and that sharpness is diminishing. One hour: This has blossomed on my skin into a warm honeyed floral. If it can hold on and not go overripe, this will be quite a triumph. Two hours: I like this quite a lot. It is a little indole-ish, not quite crittery, rather like honeyed musky floral. Some of the nuances I smelled in the bottle are not present, but it is much more wearable this way: no potential for headache. I will try it in the scent locket too and see which way I like it better, but I'm pretty sure I will want to wear this one. It is definitely a keeper. I think this is my new favorite SN!

I've had varying luck with different types of chypres; between that and the orris, I wasn't expecting to like this one at all. In the vial: Orris and something fruity-tangy with a touch of floral. This smells nice. Wet: Yep, that fruity-tangy impression remains. But there's a warmth too, I think maybe the benzoin. One hour: This is pretty. There's a pronounced floral, an almost peppery soft jasmine, but it's kept in place by the benzoin which seems like the dominant note on me. The overall read is a bit tart and herbal, probably from the chypre, but not in a bad way. Seven hours: This stayed pleasant and the orris never bothered me. Now only a tiny bit of something like patchouli is left. So far this is the surprise of the season for me. There's always one Luper that works on me even though it shouldn't, and this may be it.

There are some great notes in this, but I'm wary of the white tobacco. Most tobacco does bad things on my skin. Not too sure about the tuberose, either. In the vial: Roses and jasmine. Wet: Lots of florals in this; I'm getting the tuberose and jasmine first, though. But this is pretty and might be okay on me. One hour: A pleasant floral blend dominated by tuberose and jasmine, with a noticeable vanilla component. Not my style, but nice on my skin. Fortunately, the white tobacco is behaving beautifully; it's contributing just enough tannin to keep the florals in check without being obvious about it. The musk isn't being obvious, either. Six hours: Nothing left but a breath of tuberose. This is a pretty, gentle, reasonable mixed floral, but not for me.

This one's full of wonderful notes -- and my worst note, the dreaded hay absolute. But when I opened up my package of decants, this was the one I could smell before I opened anything, and it called to me. Hay absolute or not, I can't resist trying it. In the vial: Rose, honey, pomegranate, fig; this smells good enough to eat! Wet: Rose and honey, so far. I also get some pomegranate tartness in the background. One hour: This is nice overall, but there's a thick powdery note in it that has a slightly blue cast to it. (Maybe that's an aquatic, the morning dew?) That might break the scent for me. Two hours: Rose and fig, but softer and thicker than expected. It's not as heavy as Lucifer and Hetairae in terms of figginess, but it's still dense. I think the vanilla and soft musk are contributing to that impression. There's a touch of wood about it; I can only assume that's the hay absolute. Normally hay absolute is the kiss of death to me in scents, but this time I'm not getting the rotten-haybale impression at all. Which is great, and a relief, because I'm a big fan of most of the notes in this. Three hours: A very pretty, soft, rather thick rose and fig scent.

This has several notes I love, plus one that dislikes me. In the vial: Bergamot and a little champaca, but not sharp so I guess I must be getting balsam too. Wet: Amber and a floral, possibly the champaca, possibly the rose, not sure. One hour: I like amber-balsam mixtures, and bergamot goes nicely with them. But this one isn't quite in my zone, and I think it's because of the champaca. The champaca smells like a particular type of Indian incense to me, very blue and sharp, not a happy scent. Six hours: This turned quite nice after the champaca burned off, being a mostly balsam, amber, bergamot scent, clean and not too heavy on the amber. Surprisingly, the rose didn't contribute much for good or ill in this one. But the champaca did it in for me.

I was really unsure about this one because brown musk doesn't usually like me at all. But never let it be said that I wouldn't try a scent with honey, myrrh, and patchouli in it, so here goes. In the vial: I think this is going to be too brown. I get galbanum, patchouli, and cumin. Wet: Oh yes, very brown indeed. Brown musk is not good on me, and this one has gone over to animalic already. I'm getting the galbanum too, which smells like green asafoetida. But there is something else going on, something about the cumin, or possibly the cumin plus patchouli, that's actually making my eyes want to water with its intensity. Two and a half hours: This hasn't changed much at all: pungent menthol patchouli with cumin, heavy aromatic galbanum, and brown animalic musk. The musk isn't the tangy weaseljuice ferret musk of the late lamented Frumious Bandersnatch, though; it's less domesticated and more powerful. I never did get any honey or myrrh (two of my best notes) off this scent. Yet although I thought all day about washing this one off, I didn't. I am fascinated by it. It is the smell of the sneakiest, most obnoxious, poo-flinging, cute endangered species monkey you can ever imagine.