Muppetk

Bottle: Cherry candy? Wet on me: Cherry-flavored tobacco?! 5 minutes in: Okay, still cherry flavored tobacco, but less obnoxiously strong. 10 minutes in: something round is coming out below. Make a musk? Almost like a faint cinnamon on me. 25 minutes: Okay, the tobacco is entirely in the background now and I'm thankful for it. (Why did I buy this without reading the description? Jump first think later. Dumb. I'm not a big tobacco person.) But it's reminding me vaguely of a macaroon. I don't like Macaroons either. To the swap pile, Robin!

Initial/wet: Yup, have to agree with the "lemon pledge" assessment. 5 min later: cheery lemon candy. Where's the florals? 15 min later: very very slight floral behind all the lemony-ness. It's very odd. In order to sniff the florals, I have to approach it from the side. If I sniff directly over, just lemon. If I sniff from the side, I get slight flowers. 45 min: lemon scent is 75% gone, and the little bit of floral stands out slightly better. Nice, but very light. I'll have to give this a try during hot weather, it disappears a bit too fast during normal temps.

Bust out the dzang dzi! This scent honors the zombies of Chinese lore. Mandarin orange, white musk, mango, and white sandalwood. Nice. Very nice. First few minutes: smelling mostly mango/mandarin scent. Nice, not obnoxiuosly sweet the way fruity can be. Later: this scent stays fairly consistant, though fades relatively quickly. This is one I want to try combined with skin moisturizer to see if it lasts longer.

First impression: ooh, sandalwood! 2 minutes later: Where'd the sandalwood go? Now it's all light and airy. Very slightly sweet. 5-10 min later: and now a slight lemon scent has joined the party. And a very slight spicyness. Overall: interesting scent that's hard to get a handle on. There's almost a coolness to it. Intriguing. Probably good for warm weather as it's so very light.

First impression: STRONG men's aftershave. Wet on skin: some spiciness and sweetness are joining the men's aftershave party. No bergamot whatsoever. Sad. Then again, my skin just seems to eat bergamot. That happened with Alice too. Drying: Hmm. Spiciness/baby-powder sweetness is about equal to or possibly slightly stronger than the "AFTERSHAVE" scent. Maybe that's the juniper? Doesn't work on me (yup, "traditionally masculine" is right). I bet this would smell yummy on my boy though. Oh well. This scent is proving to me that as much as I like gender-bending, I'm just not into "traditionally masculine" scents. Or at least not ones this strong.

First impression: strawberry bubblegum (?!?) but with a slightly sharp edge. 10 min later: the same but nearly gone. Apparently my skin eats this one for breakfast. Off to the swap pile this goes.

First impression: Roses!! Pink ones! (why pink? I don't know. Maybe because it's purely rose but not as deep and rich as roses can get.) And a touch of apple. (The notes say pear. Maybe that's what I'm smelling. But it says apple to me.) Later: This is pretty! And fairly consistent. Few morphs/changes in scent. Somewhat light. Probably a decent spring/summer scent. I'm surprised to find this is gender neutral. On me it's very feminine. Overall: very pretty. Probably a keeper.

First impression: Pleasant, light. Reminds me of Estee Lauder's Pleasures. A good spring/summer scent. Later impressions: This scent is remarkably stable on me. No morphing. But my skin does seem to be eating it up awfully fast. Quite nice though.

Interesting. In the bottle and initial on my skin: ick. There's a burnt peanut smell going on. 5 minutes later: Different! Transformed entirely! Reminds me of... LEx Talionis or maybe Rapture. Smells like "perfume" with a slight warm undertone. 5 min later: The "perfuminess" has faded slightly and the soft warmth underneath (I'm guessing the myrrh) is slightly more pronounced. 5 more minutes later: (No, I am not able to stop sniffing for more than 5 minutes at a time.) This is starting to smell very familiar. Maybe because I'm sniffing every 5 minutes? Maybe it smells like one of the local pagan-type stores? But it's nice. And once more the upper floral scent has taken the lead over thebase/myrrh scent. 5 min later: Now there's a slight spicy undertone. Very very interesting. 5 min later: morphed again. Now there's a pronounced rose scent. 45 min after initial sniff: Wow has this gotten pretty. Very rich! Ok, I officially like this one. I'm not as in love with it as some other scents, but I like it very much!

First impression: Eeek! Sweet! Overwhlemingly sweet. A few minutes later: It turned into anise on me. Great if you happen to like anise, but I really really dislike anise. I refuse to use it or anything that resembles it (fennel, licorice, etc) in my cooking. an hour later: Oh this one so does not work for me. It doesn't morph beyond the anise, even washing it won't get it off. Glad to see there's so many people who like this one! I'd hate for it to feel completely unloved, 'cause I am so not loving it! Trade!

First impressions: yum! Like sticking my nose in a bouquet of fresh flowers plus something else familiar. Maybe like apple juice? *checks the note list* Yup, that's a hint of apple I'm smelling. after 5 minutes: baby powder, strongly, but not completely overpowering the rest. 15 min: baby powder is less strong, but so is everything else. Very nice though. 30 min: faded further, but I can't stop sniffing my arm. 35 min: vowed, "This is the last time I commit an imp to a circular swap without sniffing it first." I love this! Baby powder has faded slightly more, richer floral scent, mostly rose I think. Gosh this is pretty. I'm going to have to check out the local Occult store's Libra just to see if it might be similar. Falling in love with discontinued scents is a very very silly thing to do. Final word: Yum. This would be a keeper. Except I already said I wouldn't. Doh. (I'm a Leo, maybe Libra is balancing to me?)

First impression on me: Strong and familiar. Can't tell if I like it or not. A few minutes later: not quite so strong, strong note of Lily of the Valley, but with something else. Interesting. So I look up the notes. No help there. So I look up the reviews, and yes, by now it has morphed EXACTLY into dryer sheet. Bummer. 10 minutes later: sniffing again. Looking for those incense notes I was promised. Nope. Still fabric softener. 15 minutes later: Nope. No incense. Almost nothing at all. My skin ate this one! I'll try again some other time of the month. Phoo.

Yum. Yumyumyum. YUMMY! On me it comes out mildly sweet but herbal. I like Sweetgrass (I think) or clary Sage but more complex. I'm guessing that's the purple sage note that I'm smelling. I loooooooves this one. This is one of the few scents I've tried so far that stays relatively true over the course of a few hours. The funny thing is, to me, it smells exactly like the local New-Agey store I used to frequent about 10-15 years ago. I used to go so often 'cause the smell of the place just made me happy and relaxed. (For the curious, it's Past Times, in Forest Hills, NYC. Pretty sure it's still there. At least it was 2-3 years ago.) So happy with this one.

First impression: Earl grey tea! It smelled exactly like a slightly sweet/complex earl grey! I started getting really excited about this. 2 minutes later: My skin ate the bergamot (unhappy!) and all that was left was a slightly complex/nice baby powder. Nice, but not remotely as exciting. I now hate my skin chemistry. 2 hours late: a pale, lightly sweet scent leftover. Stupid skin chemistry. If it stayed the way it did in the first minute I would've LOVED it.

I really really wanted to like this one. It sounded really good. But the initial scent had that same overwhelming feeling that Grog has for me. (It felt like being punched in the stomach.) I looked up the notes and sure enough, rum was in the list. I forced myself to not wash it off because I could smell good stuff underneath it. The problem was, the rum scent didn't go away on me for about an hour. My hand smells gorgeous now, but I can't stand the initial hour of overwhelming rum. Oh well. I guess this is a trader.