bristlecone

Szepasszony always smelled a little like a glass of lemon-lime soda to me. I wish I bought a bottle before it got discontinued. (At least I still have my imp.)

I should love this. In the bottle, I do love it. But I'm getting mixed results on my skin. The first time I wore it, it was a lovely dirt scent with touches of water and greenery. The next time, it smelled like dog shampoo. Don't ask me; I don't get it either. Both times I wore it, it had all but disappeared an hour or so later. I'm not giving up on it just yet, though. I really want it to work for me.

Something about this reminds me of a lotion I got from Bath and Body Works 12 or 13 years ago. I can't remember what it was called but it was a short-lived limited edition and had "mountain" or "breeze" or something to that effect in the name. The Little Sparrow is sort of powdery but fresh at the same time. I don't really smell seeds per se, but there's definitely something about it that makes me think of dried grasses, warm breezes, and woods. I think it's going to make a great spring-into-summer scent.

This kind of thing is right up my alley. I was a little wary of the fir, which has smelled overly menthol-y and medicinal on me in the past, but it's divine here. I can pick up the freshness of the ocean water and the sweetness of the flowers. It's difficult to find a scent that truly smells like a rugged, forested coastline, but this one comes pretty close. May have to get a full bottle.

I received this as a frimp in my latest order. Wet, this smells like a tart, shiny, crisp red apple. Especially the skin of the apple. Dry, the apple backs off a little bit and I can smell the other notes- floral but also a little milky. Unfortunately it doesn't have a great deal of lasting power on me. But I am enjoying it anyway!

Serpentine green herbs, glistening red currant, sparkling yellow lemon rind, green musk, lime, and snakeskin. I think that if I hadn't already fallen in love with 51, then Serpents would have been a bigger hit with me. Don't get me wrong; I do like it. But I can't really smell the red currant and the lime isn't as tangy and crisp as I was hoping it would be, so it's mostly about the green musk. Which is a very nice musk indeed, but I like having some other stuff to balance it out. 51 does a better job for me in that respect. I might see if my friend is interested in trying my imp. If not, I'll keep it for myself, but probably won't invest in a bottle.

I got this as a frimp in my latest order (along with Hunger, which I thought was funny). I opened it tonight to sniff it and the lid split in such a way that repairing it wasn't possible, so I decided to just use up the entire contents in one shot. I dabbed some on my wrists and dumped the rest in my oil burner. Wet: Orange and something else. It reminds me of an orange/sandalwood lotion that Bath and Body Works used to have in their aromatherapy line, only richer and sweeter. Drydown: I just now read the notes. Red patchouli? Okay, I guess I can see that. It's getting much earthier and "dirtier", but in a good way. The patchouli reminds me a little of cinnamon, but without the "bite". Whoa, and now it's getting stronger. Not so much on my skin, but the scent from the burner is filling up my apartment. I just blew out the candle because I'm starting to get a headache. Verdict: I like this, but probably wouldn't buy it, because I don't see myself wearing it often and the headache issue is a problem.

A friend sent me a decant of this a long time ago and while I'd sniffed it and tested it, I'd never actually worn it for a full day. Today seemed like a good day to give it a chance. I get a lot of ozone in the beginning, which gives way to the mint, and there's something that smells almost fruity in there too- like melons, specifically. Eventually I pick up something that smells almost like vanilla, strangely enough. Might be some combination of the musk and mint that's doing that. I've had trouble with frankincense in the past (I'm almost certain it's the note that sometimes smells like pickles on me), but it behaves here. This is a cold, white scent to me, but reminds me more of ice than snow.

In the bottle: Grapefruit and something chemical... like cleaning fluid. On my skin, wet: Grapefruit and menthol? Plus some musk. It borders on unpleasant without actually going there. On my skin, dry: Wow, this is pretty! I get grapefruit and orange and there's a little bit of that menthol note underneath it, and some sort of velvety wood/resin scent. It's really not very strong; I have to hold my arm up to my nose to smell it. If a scent could be considered translucent, I think this would qualify for that term. I think that someone who doesn't normally like citrus scents could still enjoy this. (Edited to add that I'm suddenly getting a lot of musk in the drydown. It reminds me of the musk in Buck Moon.)

In the vial and when it's wet, it smells almost exactly like Szepasszony to me. If you put unlabelled bottles of each under my nose and asked me to identify which is which, I'm not sure I could. It's a citrusy, almost effervescent scent, almost like lemon-lime soda. Dry, it's a different story. Szepasszony stays ozoney/citrusy on me pretty much from start to finish, while Ether turns floral. I like florals but the notes in this just don't really do anything for me. They seem kind of "muddled" and a bit too muted. There isn't a lot of throw or lasting power here and it makes it difficult for me to really form much of an opinion about any of it. It's not really "there". I guess Ether is a great name for it!

I just applied this a few minutes ago and so far it's a near dead ringer for the Midnight Pomegranate scent at Bath and Body Works. Seriously, if you want a very good idea of what Fruit of Paradise smells like, go to your closest B&BW and sniff Midnight Pomegranate. Though I must say that when I pull my wrist away from my nose, I catch whiffs of something that MP doesn't have... something almost citrusy. That may be some aspect of the pomegranate scent that Bath and Body Works wasn't able to capture. Or maybe it's the amber that at least one other reviewer has mentioned. This is gorgeous but I'm wondering if I should have ordered it, seeing as how I have trial sizes of the MP lotion and body spray. Oh well... if nothing else, I now have a beautiful pomegranate scent to use in my oil burner.

Candy charcoal, winter lilies, parma violet, a sprig of cypress, a poof of chimney dust, and holiday sweets. From the description, I thought this would be a floral with a touch of anise (the candy charcoal) and some underlying foody notes. I wasn't quite sure how they were going to pull off that motley crew of notes, but it sounded good to me, so what the hell. Unfortunately, that's not what it is at all. I blame myself... I should have waited for reviews instead of making assumptions based on the written description alone. I mostly get a syrupy burnt-sugar scent which eventually morphs into something akin to chocolate or caramel. I couldn't pick out a single flower, though there's something slightly powdery in there that I couldn't identify. There's no anise. (I'm one of those rare people who actually likes anise.) It's not horrible. I'll probably keep the bottle. But it's not what I was hoping for. I'll try it again on a different day to see if I enjoy it more.

This might be what Utrennyaya would smell like if you took out some of the mint and replaced the violet with almond. No wonder I like it (Utrennyaya is one of my favorite General Catalog scents). The almond is a bit unexpected and you wouldn't expect it to work with the other notes, but somehow it does. There's just two things I could do without: 1) There's a brief stage in the early drydown where it smells like men's aftershave or cologne. If I had to guess, it's due to the lavender, the verbena, or some combination of the two. 2) It fades pretty quickly (after two or three hourse, I have to hold my arm against my nose to smell it).

I'm also a Virgo, so of course I had to get this, despite not buying any of the other zodiac oils. This reminds me of so many things. My first impression was that it was like Ides of March 2007, but much less green. That was what I thought when I sniffed it in the bottle. When I first dabbed it on, something in it reminded me of Ochosi, a bottle I sold off because it did not work for me at all. Thankfully the resemblance was weak. Then something made me think of Pontarlier- probably the fern. I thought I got hints of the late great Mantis as well. Now that I'm seeing people mention vegetables and fresh earth, I know what they're talking about. It's a tad on the soapy side on me, but I can live with that. It smells like I've just washed my hands with some aromatic soap and dried them with a clean, fluffy towel. There are definitely worse things to smell like. I'm glad I bought it.

Wow... this is like Penny Dreadful Lite to me. I can appreciate that, because as much as I love Penny Dreadful, sometimes it's a bit much. I would say that PD is better for cooler days, and BH for warmer weather. I get light florals (esp. the peony, not so much the rose) and a dusty, slightly powdery greenness at first. It is earthy, but lightly so. After half an hour or so, it turns pleasantly spicy. The final drydown is where I catch resemblances to Penny Dreadful... something sort of lily-like (I'm guessing?) and perfumey. I guess they share at least one note. I like! I'm glad I got this frimp.