Invidiana

On me this came out to two things: lilacs and wintergreens, even there is neither lilac nor wintergreen listed in the notes. On their own and mixed with other notes, lavender and anise each turn out lovely on my skin, but I think the combination of the two just went all wrong in this case and turned into a thick fog of Easter lilacs and wintergreen mints Again, both lilac and wintergreen are lovely notes on thier own and in the right blends, but in this case the bouncer at the Tavern of Hell kicked me out.

This is a really strange morpher on me. At first, I'm intrigued by the contrast of cold aquatics and memory of tropical flowers and incense. As time passes different notes get their turn to come to the surface; ocean, incense, florals. However, in the end it just turns into an extremely sweet tropical fruit/flower/incense cocktail that gets to the point of being cloying. If it could have stayed in its first stage the whole way through, I would have been a convert.

This is way too butch and heavy on me, but it evokes De Sade alright, of whom I'm a huge fan (ever read his diary? You'd think people didn't put that stuff on paper in those days!). I like smelling it, just not on myself; I'd rather be doing reprehensible things with a gorgeous guy who has it on

This was one I wanted to try for a while and LdyKnight was kind enough to include a surprise imp of it in my package When the first note of something says "grapefruit", I usually think astringent, but that might just be from one too many bad candle experiences. But the fact alone that it's vampire related meant I *had* to try it. Vampire Tears isn't astringent at all--it's Froot Loops! Like lemon lollipops and Froot Loops. And for those of you afraid of honeysuckle, I didn't get any at all. Doesn't exactly make me think of vampire tears, and while it isn't something I'd put on for fall and winter I'll definitely be hunting a bottle of this come spring.

This is velvety red rose made sexier by dragon's blood (which gives the rose a lovely deep berry-ish undertone on me ) mingled with light woods. If dragon's blood reacts similarly on you, you DEFINITELY ought to try this--it's like a rose-berry cocktail with an evergreen sprig. The Dole is just one of the many examples of how Beth can work her magic with rose and turn it from the eau de old lady we all dread to something gorgeous in the right blend

Wow. Since I've read a couple books involving Chinese whorehouses and opium dens (hey, The Good Earth is pretty raunchy stuff!) , I couldn't resist because I needed a piece of the debauchery without turning into a ming ji (top whore in the district) This is rich, sensual, decadent, spicy, provocative...it must be an aphrodisiac. It's like savoring a pleasurably high-calorie dessert in a smoky room in Shanghai, with incense and opium vapors circling overhead. The Asian spices give it that final mysterious touch that begs for just one more sniff (and another, and another...) A keeper for sure

First off, do not do not do not be scared of the "dusty black wool." This isn't Grandma's ancient sweater that's been stewing in mothballs since the Nixon era. If anything, the "wool" component is just a general softness that tempers the black pepper to give this blend a pleasant hazy smokiness, like a room that had a fire going the previous night and still has some smoke clinging to it in the morning. I loved the sweet creaminess of the tea with cream and beeswax, which was very comforting. All in all, this blend is soft and sweet yet at the same time eerie and ever so slightly unsettling--a perfect contrast

I would describe this as a reddish-purplish autumn scent with flashes of gold; spicy dark fruits--the pomegranate, elderberry, black cherry, plum and apple--all blended togethe with spices with just a tad of dryness from the wheat, sorghum, tea leaf, sage and bamboo. The hazelnut, shagbark and hickory add a rich nutty and woody undertone for the finishing touch. A very deep, rich and complex autumn scent that is also deliciously sensual!

This is warm, rich, sweet Irish coffee...I can just taste the Bailey's ...and it seems like there's osmething delicious baking in the background, but maybe that's just one of the aftereffects of the coffee mixing with the wood. As for the "dusty tomes", I'm a bibliophile and I love the smell of old books; in this case, there's just a whisper of it here, just enough to give the air of an antique library but not an overdose that makes the whole scent dangerously dusty and musty. The wood notes blend beautifully with the coffee, and again might be repsonsible for the "baking" undertone but also have a faint yet distinct presence all their own that only makes the blend richer. Can't wait to see how this ages!

There is something about this so otherworldly that for a moment it puts you in a waking dream. Reading the somewhat long list of florals in the description you may think, oh no, is that gardenia?! (yes, I run away from my aunt's gardenia soaps too) but at least on me it was anything but. I'm guessing it was the blue musk that really provided the surreal air of this scent, because there was just something about it that grabs onto you and can't let go, and I got a little of that (though not as prominent) in Under the Harvest Moon as well, which also has blue musk. The florals in this are just an ethereal veil for the shadows of olibanum, clove, tonka, oakmuss grounded in a haze of blue musk. I can't really pick out one dominant note in this blend--it's just pure enchantment and a true bottled version of "encroaching darkness". A masterpiece!

My skin normally loves everything--and I mean everything! Of all the bottles on my stash list and all those I have from other etailers, every single one loves me, and I love them all back. Until I encountered this vengeful groundhog. In description and in the bottle, it seems like the type of sweet foody scent I like--though I couldn't help but notice that at the first bottle sniff I sensed some sort of weird undertone, but I assumed my skin would just amp all the good dessert-y stuff and it wouldn't show up. Was I ever wrong. Most of the delicious-sounding stuff quickly faded, save the cinnamon, but even that--one of my favorite notes--was overpowered by this very strange and powerful overtone that made me borderline nauseous. I don't know what it was, but it must be the blend that consitutes "cranky groundhog musk". Musks usually do wonderful sexy things on me, but whatever this was, either the type of musk in itself or the way it blended with the other notes on my particular skin type just made me sick. I will never, ever put on anything inspired by the nether parts of enraged animals ever again.

I love both autumn and John Keats, so how could I resist? This is a cornucopia of autumn-foody goodness (very appropriate considering the label is a cornucopia) The bark, leaves and galangal add a wonderful outdoors-in-October undertone while the apple pulp and nutmeat are responsible for that rich, warm, irresistable aroma of a pie just out of the oven. Love!

In contrast to the feral, spicy Blood Moon '05 (which I also absolutely love), this is a more--dare I say meditative?--blend. I think it actually embodies the religious connotation really well with the swirl of incense, which, combined with the blood notes, makes it deep and thought-provoking. If I could compare it to a song, it would definitely be Peter Gabriel's Red Rain; dark, spiritual, meditative like I mentioned before. There is also something undoubtedly human about this scent, the warmth of human flesh that mixes beautifully with my skin and is reminscent of the humanity of Christ referenced in the description. A wonderful and respectful homage

Lilith Victoria is sexy and comforting at once, if that's even possible. It's not exactly foody, even though the vanilla flower gives very slightly foody undertones, but that only adds to its beauty. Thankfull I'm not getting any fennel here, because I can't stand it in food so I don't exactly think we'd be friends in perfume terms either Wherever the fennel is, it probably blends in with everything else well enough so that it's not headache-inducing. The lavender isn't the in-your-face lavender of cheap bath salts but really what grounds the comforting part of the blend. Lovely!

I love red velvet cake, and this isn't just any red velvet cake, it's the red velvet cake. This blend takes foody to a whole new sexy height! You definitely get the delicious cake and gobs of cream cheese frosting (drooling yet?) but the harmoniously mixed backdrop of Dorian, Doc Constantine and Snake Oil make it not just tempting in a food-craving sense but also very enticing. If you're going out on a date and you want him to wish he could eat you alive, this is THE scent to wear!

Not an old-lady rose at all but a sweet and creamy rose that isn't too powdery or jarring. You get the sense of some sort of dessert that's rose-infused, maybe a rosewater creme brulee if such a thing exists? Thanks to Beth and blends like this, I've gotten over my phobia of rose

There is a lovely sweet coldness to this blend, and at the same time you do sense the "slant of light" from the white sandalwood and white amber. To me it seems antique without falling into the old-lady trap; more "antique" in the sense of actually travelling back in time and sitting in that same shadowy room that inspired Emily Dickinson, with dusty beams, a thin veil of smoke hanging in the air, and a vase of dried flowers sitting on the table. As a poet myself, I'm especially a sucker for Beth's poetry inspired blends, and this one definitely evokes the essence of that particular poem

This is definitely a "me" scent through and through *flashes fangs* Sometimes Beth doesn't list every single note in the description--there's no list of what comprises "the heat of the chase"--but just the essence of that idea in the blend is enough. Smack me if there isn't any cinnamon, though, because I definitely get overtones of cinnamon which happens to be one of my favorite notes. I'm definitely sure there's dragon's blood too, which turns into a deep spicy berry on me that I just adore. The feral heat of bloodlust is raging here, deepened by the darkness of the woods and musks and made undeniably fierce and sexy. A keeper for sure!

Sigh. Another one I wanted to love so bad because I'm a big fan of creamy scents, and this sounded up that alley. Most dairy notes come out just fine on me, but I guess the way it blended with something just didn't agree with my chemistry at all. Once it hits my skin and dries down it ends up smelling like, no joke, rancid milk and pineapple, exactly what Amoraexcena was getting, it seems. Oh well, no one's perfect, even the girl whose skin can do chocolate.

This is a beautiful chilly honeyed berry on me, and though I know there are no berries in the notes I would guess what strikes me as some sort of berry is probably the Scottish primrose and sea aster. It's possible that those two mixed together produce some sort of berryish scent, or maybe the honey is responsible for working that magic. The contrast between the cold ocean and warm honeyed blooms is especially lovely, which makes for an eerie and ethereal scent reminiscent of a phantom girl upon the crags at the water's edge.

I do agree that there should be more buttery pumpkin goodness with the spice toned down a notch, even though I adore spicy scents. But the scent still fills up my bathroom (okay, the entire upstairs floor of the house) like a charm and really does work wonders softening even my notoriously dry skin

This is a definite keeper for sultry midsummer nights: a coconut breeze blowing aboard a booze-loaded pirate ship sailing the South Seas at midnight with a full moon bobbing above. I sense a touch of seaspray, which isn't listed in the notes but might be my nose picking upon the squeeze of lime. A hazy, diaphanous blend that's light but still manages to be sexy and mysterious. Yarrrr!

Ever since Bath and Body Works released a sugarplum body spray in the mid-90's (which I drained quite easily at the age of 12) I'd been on the hunt for a sugarplum that was still sugarplum but less cloying. I've found it. Midwinter's Eve is all sugarplum spice and snow-covered pine boughs; even though there isn't any evergreen indicated in the description I swear I can smell it. It's like sipping sugarplum tea in front of the Christmas tree with a blizzard brewing outside. I'm ISO a bunch of decants of this because I only have a partial bottle *sniff*

Yesss, the berry spiciness of dragon's blood is here to play with me again. Bloody Sword is spicier than Head of Holofernes, and also has a more masculine edge with the addiiton of the more prominent leather, fire and steel notes. The fire is a viciously beautiful complement to the dragon's blood and spices, and bitter labdanum heightens the sinister feel The leather and steel are a well-tempered backdrop that may evoke a sword and sheath but don't overpower the other notes; there is no I-just-walked-into-Wilson's-leather or extreme metallic tang. I love *bares fangs*

This was downright delicious from the moment it touched my skin. I knew I was taking a gamble because the first two notes in the description--dried blood and boiled wine--could possibly come out to be sharp metallic blood and and dry red wine, but it ended up being the total opposite. I think the "blood" in all of Beth's scents is her GC "blood" oil (am I right?) which involves delicious throbbing dragon's blood which does spiced berry marvels on my skin. Head of Holofernes was overall a deep and slightly spiced fruity/berry scent with the tang of pomegranate for an extra kick. And anyone afraid of leather, it's barely noticeable; if anything, it only adds to the depth and sexiness of the scent along with the tonka but doesn't come out screaming. If Gluhwein is anything remotely similar to this, I'm going to start howling for someone's unloved bottle.....