Ajila

In the bottle – Part cinnamon/Part toilet cleaner – very strange

Wet on me – A kind of spiced citrus tea; warm, but bright

Dry on me – Candied citrus fruits with warm spices

Overall – Lovely; not at all like the description (I’ve no idea where I’m getting citrus notes from), but lovely all the same

In the bottle – Initially sweet (I would have said Dragon’s Blood Resin, but I presume it’s the blood accord), but with a slightly chemical smelling floral in the background

Wet on me – Again with that chemical floral, only now it dominates. Having said that the entire blend appears to disappear on my skin so dominating isn’t hard

Dry on me – Sweet, slightly berryish musk that just sits off the skin

Overall – Oddly this seemed to get stronger as the day goes on (I presume that my nose just doesn’t pick up the top notes very well). On the whole I like it, it’s a nicely intimate, but still robust scent.

In the bottle – Woah; sickly sweet bubble gum, with just a touch of clean leather behind it

Wet on me – Sweet juicy bubblegum with the dryness of the leather and just a hint of pepper

Dry on me – An oddly sweet leather. Very little throw, but lasts a long time on the skin

Overall – I’m a little confused by this blend, I think I like it, but I don’t know if I’d wear a blend I need to have my nose on my arm to smell

In the bottle – Menthol

Wet on me – Dull and earthy, but still with that menthol edge

Dry on me – A dark, green, slightly musky scent with almost an after scent of violets

Overall – I liked it more than I anticipated but it’s still not really me

In the bottle – Sweet sun tan lotion

Wet on me – Warm, oddly soapy coconut

Dry on me – A sweet, soft powdery vanilla, with a hint of musk

Overall – I like this a lot

In the bottle – First a hit of the caramel and then the sharp combination of the honey and the apple blossom

Wet on me – An oddly cold blend. Surprisingly the apple blossom seems to dominate, with a plasticky sweetness sitting behind it

Dry on me – There is a horrible stage where it smells like burning sugar combined with animalistic musks, it finally settles into an almost chocolaty sugar scent

Overall – I like the dry down, but the initial stages kill it for me

In the bottle – A dark, juicy, but slightly peppery blend, which I can only put down to the combination of the fig and the spices

Wet on me – Thick black must with just a hint of citrus from an orange

Dry on me – A soft green, musky blend, which starts out warm and inviting, but settles into a clean linen sort of scent

Overall – It was different to how I expected, and the only note I was worried about, the black musk, didn’t come through, but overall the blend isn’t really me

In the bottle – Lilac, with just a hint of the violets

Wet on me – Violets and what I assume is the purple musk- it’s certainly making my nose twitch

Dry on me – A cool, clean musk scent

Overall – I’ve never smelt anything like this before and I’m sure that there are those raving about it but it’s not really me.

In the bottle – OMG first you get a hit of vanilla and the almost rubbery scent of the sassafras

Wet on me – A layer of thick sugary vanilla, which disappears to leave me smelling like a dentists surgery

Dry on me – At first the rubber of the sassafras makes it very like Tombstone, but then it becomes sweeter, and richer, and creamier

Overall – I like this a lot – a cross between Tombstone and Antique Lace

In the bottle – To me that smells predominantly of vetiver

Wet on me – Soapy vetiver but now there is a ‘fumey’ background and there’s something that seems to hit the back of my throat

Dry on me –Predominantly vetiver; smoky, oily vetiver, but vetiver none-the-less

Overall – I don’t really know what to make of this, but I doubt I’ll wear it often

In the bottle – Bitter green berries

Wet on me – Sharp berries and an appropriately medicinal sort of honey

Dry on me –Argh – stale ashes. It does eventually dry to a sort of molten sugar scent with the tartness of the berries behind it

Overall – It’s a bit of a weird once, but in the long run it’s killed by my skin chemistry

In the bottle – Soapy aftershave

Wet on me – Coldly metallic with a little leather coming through

Dry on me – The leather comes out a little and goes peppery

Overall – I have to say, as much as I love the concept, I’m not having much success with the steampunk blends

In the bottle – Sage, and quite aggressively so

Wet on me – Predominantly incense but with an oiliness behind it that’s a little unpleasant

Dry on me – Oddly I smell like Brasso with just a hint of incense

Overall – I’m sure on the right skin this is a fantastic scent, but I just don’t want to smell like brass polish

In the bottle – Fresh green meadows full of wild flowers. Similar to Beltane 06

Wet on me – Green herbs, with honey and washing powder

Dry on me – A soft, sweet green scent

Overall – I’m not certain how much this reflects the concept, but I do like it, a lot.

In the bottle – Kind of medicinal but sweet and warm – like some sort of cough sweet

Wet on me – It starts off like cola flavouring (not cola itself, but the stuff that’s in fizzy cola bottle sweets), but immediately it begins to harden as the woods come though

Dry on me – Weirdly, a kind of warm, bitter chocolate with a kind of woody edge

Overall – I think I’m going to have to give this one some thought, because frankly getting chocolate out of those notes is a bit odd

In the bottle – Green and slightly citrusy with a touch of honey

Wet on me – A kind of bitter green floral that I can’t identify

Dry on me – Nothing, poof, gone!

Overall – I expected to love this, but it wasn’t what I expected and then it disappeared

In the bottle – Leather

Wet on me – Warm leather

Dry on me – After about 6 hours the leather fades and the honey and the amber and the flowers begin to make their presence known

Overall – The dry down is gorgeous and the leather is a good leather; warm and clean smelling, but it is a long time to wait for the pay off

In the bottle – Sweet red wine, and the darkness of the myrrh

Wet on me – It’s hard to pick out any particular note, but it’s dark and fiery, and undeniably feminine

Dry on me – The black musk takes over and dominates the blend

Overall – The musk is just too animalistic for me to be comfortable wearing.

In the bottle – It’s more of an impression I get than any particular note, but it’s dry and hot

Wet on me – I didn’t expect this but it smells of soap; a soft, sweetish sort of soap, but soap none-the-less

Dry on me – Fortunately the soap dissipates to leave a dry, sun bleached musk

Overall – Once I had overcome the soap the blend was pleasant enough, but I wasn’t overwhelmed.

In the bottle – Heavy tropical blooms

Wet on me – A sweet but high mixture of blooms. I’m not great at identifying floral notes at the best of times and this blend contains so many notes that I just wouldn’t recognise, it’s a bit beyond me. What I do know is that it is giving me a headache

Dry on me – It disappears almost instantaneously

Overall – This was never going to be my sort of blend so when it disappeared I wasn’t that bothered.

In the bottle – Carbolic soap

Wet on me – Washing powder, quite astringent washing powder

Dry on me – It settles to a softly herbal, musky kind of scent

Overall – Whilst pleasant this scent is really not me

In the bottle – Clean, washed leather and a hint of tobacco, it’s a bit like the tobacco in A Bold Bluff, Herr Drosselmeyer and the original Hearth

Wet on me – The paper is the main note, clean and dry, but touched with the tobacco and incense

Dry on me – A clean, slightly sharp wood scent that fades down to a musk

Overall – At first it’s a little sharp, but I like the dry down. I’ll consider it further, but it seems just a little too masculine for me.

I've always worked on an average of about 15 days for my parcels to get here, although recently they have been faster. Personally I wouldn't start worrying until the middle of next week at least.

In the bottle – Something dark and peppery. I can only assume that it’s the Spanish moss

Wet on me – After a spike of patchouli, it becomes a soapy sort of violet

Dry on me – Mostly soap with a very slight hint of violets

Overall – I wanted to love this blend by the soap killed it

In the bottle – Dusty coconuts

Wet on me – I don’t really know, something sharp and clean

Dry on me – Sweet vanillary coconut with a warm layer of musk

Overall – Another example of a frimp working better on me than the blends I choose myself