Miss Lynx

It's funny -- when I ordered decants of some of this exhibition's scents from a circle when it first came out, this one caught my eye momentarily because of the clove (I love spicy scents), but then I looked at the rest of the notes and mentally wrote it off as likely to be too masculine. I should really know better at this point... Because here's the thing: of the ones I thought were likely to work on me, almost none of them did. Mad Meg was nice, and Cleopatra Testing Poisons not too bad, but the rest went straight into the swap box once I'd tried them. And then I happened across this one at a meet'n'sniff, tried it, and... wow. This just might be not only my favourite of Exhibition Three, but possibly the entire Salon. I think part of the secret to its turnaround on me is black musk. I should know by now -- black musk may be traditionally a "masculine" note, but something about my skin chemistry makes it go really sweet, and men's scents relying on black musk for their manliness tend to get a abrupt sex change when they hit my skin. So on me, The Smiling Spider is a really lovely, earthy, spicy, slightly sweet scent that smells kind of like an Indian spice and incense shop, in the best way possible. It is not at all masculine on me -- quite the reverse. It's not a traditionally girly scent by any means, but there's nothing about it that smells at all unfeminine on me. It's very much in the same ballpark scent-wise as Mad Meg and Priala, both of which I like. I'll have to at some point try all three of them on together and do a side-by-side comparison to see what my favourite is. Because I am very tempted to spring for a bottle of this, but I don't need to have too many scents that smell that much alike, so I should really narrow it down to just one of those three... But either way, The Smiling Spider and I have very definitely made friends. Grade: A

Fig, dark myrrh, amber, redwood, nutmeg, tarragon, black musk, and sweet orange. This looked like such an odd and interesting combination I couldn't resist ordering a decant. It smelled quite promising in the vial - warm and ambery and complex - but on, it's a little... odd. Not unpleasant, just a bit confusing to the nose. Like all the various notes are vying for dominance instead of just playing nicely together. And the redwood note (at least, I think that's what it is) seems a little funky in that way that wood notes can sometimes go on my skin. My first impression apart from that is that while this might be one of the Ladies of the Grindhouse, it would really fare equally well on a gentleman. On me at least, it's a pretty gender-neutral sort of scent, with a strong woody-herbal-earthy undercurrent tempering the sweetness of the orange and fig (and fig is one of the less sweet fruit scents anyway). The longer it settles in, though, the more the notes seem to blend and harmonize, and the sweeter and spicier notes come out a little bit more. The amber and musk seem to draw everything together and mellow it all out a bit. Now it's turning into more of a rich, warm resinous scent, a bit reminiscent of Haunted, but more complex and interesting. But there's still a bit of a dry, slightly "off" note that bothers my nose just a little. On the whole, not bad, but I have enough other amber-musk scents that I like better that I think I'll pass on this one. Grade: B

This sounded more promising to me based on the list of notes than it appears to be in reality. Most of the notes are things I like, but somehow, it's not quite coming together for me. I do like it when first applied -- it's sweet and fresh and a bit mysterious-smelling, with suggestions of hidden depths -- but as it settles in, it seems to go somewhere I'm not so crazy about. There seems to be a strong aquatic note in it, and I'm not sure where that comes from -- maybe the ambergris? And I don't tend to do so well with aquatics -- they tend to go overly sweet and a bit synthetic-smelling on me. Though interestingly, the cloying-aquatic version of the scent seems to be predominantly coming from the crooks of my arms, while on my wrists it smells more like I'd expected it to -- a more balanced scent, grounded by patchouli/cocoa depth. It's not the first time I scent has smelled very different on different parts of me... but unfortunately, that version of it doesn't seem to have nearly as much throw as the other, so if I were to just wear it on my wrists, I'd hardly be able to smell it at all. It's frustrating -- I really like the way it smells on my wrists! This scent also has a distinct resemblance to Ebisu Making Love As Two Octopuses Look On, from the special Salon series earlier this year, which I also had a similar like/don't-like reaction to. Since Ebisu seems to smell different on me at different times, maybe I should experiment a bit more with this one... Grade: C+ to B+, depending...

This was one of the Ladies of the Grindhouse that I was most looking forward to -- plum and pomegranate are generally very good on me, and when you add in benzoin, frankincense and patchouli, it just sounded like a recipe for greatness. Not entirely certain about the plum blossom or mahogany, as my skin amps florals, and woods are kind of hit and miss, but on the whole it sounded very promising. First impression: this scent epitomizes everything I love about what BPAL can do with fruit notes - which I never thought I could ever like before discovering BPAL. It's got an almost syrupy sweetness, but it's tempered by a dark incensey depth, and the contrast between the two sets off some kind of mind-altering harmonics that make it smell absolutely intoxicating. Very appropriate to the name -- it's not a boozy scent as such, but I feel like I could get drunk just from inhaling it. Unfortunately, as it settles in, there's a bit of an off-note, which I expect is the mahogany. Wood notes are sometimes OK on me, and other times add a a certain unpleasant funkiness to a scent that smells a bit like mildew or rot. This one isn't too bad, but it does mar the scent a little. Also, the raspberry is a little bit cloying... On the whole, I think this is a case of like but not love. It's great in the early stages, then goes through a phase I don't like so much, then eventually settles into a final phase where it's nice, but very similar to the way a lot of BPAL's fruit + incense scents end up (Urd, Purple Phoenix, etc.). And while I do very much like that fruit + incense combo, I have so many other scents of that sort that this one really doesn't stand out that much. Grade: B/B+

This was the one of the Ladies of the Grindhouse that appealed to me most on first glance, though Dionysia was a close second and several of the others looked pretty exciting too. But I have a serious love of spicy scents, so this one really stood out. And spicy it certainly is -- a bit like Three Witches plus patchouli. The patchouli gives it a bit of an earthy undertone that TW lacked, though I think for it to be perfect, I'd have liked a bit of some kind of resin or musk to round it out a little. As it is, it's a pretty sharp, aggressive scent -- the tea adds a note of acidic tartness to the spices, and the carnation is very cinnamon-like, so it really just adds to the spice blast instead of contributing any sweetness like you might expect from a floral. It's not an especially feminine scent -- I'd call it more gender-neutral, not that that's a bad thing by any means. And it has a very definitely Indian feel to it, like a scent you might encounter in some kind of sachet in an Indian clothing store. Unfortunately, it doesn't have too much in the way of staying power -- I've had to reapply it several times over the course of the day. But even with that, and with the lack of resinous depth that might have made it really perfect, it's still pretty appealling to me, and a definite keeper. Maybe bottle-worthy, maybe not, we'll see. Grade: B+/A-

Golden amber, vanilla musk, myrrh, cedar, carnation, and red sandalwood. It's funny -- this was not one of the Ladies of the Grindhouse that initially made me gasp "Oh my gods, YES!" upon reading the description -- those would be Clémence and Dionysia, and to a lesser extent Aeronwen. But it definitely caught my attention nonetheless, and I wasn't about to miss out on it. Amber and musk are pretty much my Holy Duality, and form the basis of many, many scents I like, and most of the other notes in here sounded good to me too, though vanilla can sometimes be dodgy. However, I think I may actually like this one better than any of the others. There is a stage, right early on when it's first applied, when the vanilla is a bit excessive and threatens to go off in an unpleasantly foody direction -- it's almost like the caramel note that has killed many a scent for me (caramel in perfume smells like nasty artificial flavouring on my skin). But then that fades, and what is left is the most gorgeous, warm, resinous, musky incense scent. The cinnamon-like carnation gives it just a touch of spice, the myrrh gives it depth... It's just perfectly balanced. It's very reminiscent in some ways of Fenris Wolf, which also has red sandalwood, amber and musk, but it's a touch sweeter and more feminine. It's also a little like a lighter, softer, Schwarzer Mond, and there are faint echoes of Al-Azif in there... or maybe a non-gingery Shub? And all of those scents are on my personal A-list. Inez was the last of the Ladies that I ordered decants of that I tried, and yet it's the first I'm posting a review of, because I'm still trying to decide what I think of the others. But this one I'm pretty sure is love. At first I thought I probably wouldn't get a bottle since I do have other scents that it strongly resembled (i.e., all the ones I just compared it to above), but given that I've managed to use up half the imp already through repeated wearings, I may have to revisit that possibility... Grade: A

I ordered a slice of this from a decant circle even though I'm not a big fan of Snake Oil in general (it turns to Play-Doh on me). And I'm glad I did, because I like it much better as a soap than as a perfume! I guess in soap form it's not on my skin long enough for my skin chemistry to do anything bad with the scent. The texture is also amazing -- super-rich and creamy, very moisturizing. I can't say it's my favourite of the BPAL soaps I've tried -- that honour definitely belongs to Shub. But it's certainly quite nice, much more so than the perfume of the same name. Grade: B+

This was the first BPAL soap I tried, and I had a very mixed reaction to it. The scent was absolutely gorgeous -- Al Azif is one of my favourites, and the soap definitely lived up to its promise. It left just enough scent on my skin to be happy-making without interfering with whatever oil I might be putting on later. But the texture was a little off-putting -- very scratchy and gritty, and prone to crumbling into pieces as it was used. Before too long I had not a slice of soap like I'd started with, but a little heap of soap fragments. The scratchiness I could get used to -- it basically made it like a soap and scrub in one -- but the crumbliness was kind of annoying because almost every time I used it, bits fell off and I had to try and retrieve them before they went down the shower drain. I suppose both the scratchiness and the crumbling were due to the sandalwood powder, which also probably accounted for the scent being if anything even richer and more lovely than the Al Azif perfume oil. All in all, I still liked it -- I'd just have liked it more if had held together better. Grade: B+

This has been my favourite of the BPAL soaps I've tried so far -- rich, creamy, and best of all it smells like Shub! It's not nearly as crumbly as Al-Azif and has a much smoother texture, though perhaps not quite as rich as Snake Oil. It did break into two pieces eventually, but only once the slice had already gotten fairly thin. All in all, if I had the disposable income to be buying BPAL soap regularly, I'd order a couple of dozen bars of this. Grade: A

Absolutely heavenly... This is a silky, light bath oil which disperses in the water rather than just floating on top, with a scent I really wish I could get just as a perfume! It's like the love child of Madame Moriarty and Midnight Kiss. The latter is pretty much my all-time favourite BPAL scent, and the former is a top ten contender, so the scent of Luxuria could well have been formulated specifically for me. It's rich, decadent, sexy and almost edible -- definitely lives up to the name! Grade: A+

The description of this sounded quite appropriate for the particular place I'm at in my life -- the ending of a six-year relationship, with all the attendant emotional baggage and practical hassles (moving etc.) that brings, while also being tight on money due to moving costs and an expected payment from a client not having arrived. So I was really, really happy to get my package of TAL decants with this in it at the peak of that time. After looking everything over, I decided this was definitely the one to try first. I applied it to my wrists as I do with perfumes, but also to my heart, solar plexus and third-eye chakra points. First impression: even just as a scent, this is lovely. There's a strong lavender top note, with an undercurrent of warm incense. It's both relaxing and somehow cozy and comforting at the same time - just sniffing it makes me feel better. Having now worn it a number of times, I can say that it also works very well in the sense of banishing despair and grief and helping you find happiness. It's like a scent antidepressant. I'm not sure how far I've really gotten on the banishing poverty front, but the big payment I was waiting for did come in, and I've got a fair bit of work on my plate right now, which should also help. Of course, getting the work done in a timely manner is another story entirely, but I think that's where other TALs like Clarity, Concentration and Determination might come in... Anyway: overall, very pleased with Anthelion. I'll definitely be looking to pick up a bottle of this, and would recommend it to anyone else who's dealing with a difficult time in their life. Grade: scent A, effectiveness A

I tried this for the first time on Friday night, the opening night of Pride weekend. I was going to Funkasia, an outdoor dance centred on South Asian music (Bhangra, Bollywood tunes, etc., most of which I really like), which was part of the Pride festival kickoff. I am just recently out of a six-year relationship, and while not exactly ready to start dating again, felt like maybe a little bit of female attention would at least boost my confidence a bit and make me feel better. Scentwise, I really didn't like it at first, and had second thoughts about putting it on, but decided to try it anyway. It's very strongly floral at the outset, which seemed kind of odd and jarring to me. I can't think of any dykes I have ever known who liked floral perfumes... It just seems like more of straight-girl scent. But I also knew that with the TALs, it's not just about the scent itself, but the magical correspondences, so on it went despite my wrinkling my nose at the smell. Thankfully, the floral blast faded pretty quickly and it soon became a soft, barely-there incense scent, which was hard to pick up over the remnants of Voodoo Queen that I'd had on earlier. Now, I should perhaps preface the following with saying that despite being out for around 25 years, I've really never had a lot of luck meeting women at things like bars, dances, etc. I tend to feel very socially awkward in settings like that, and most of my relationships have been with women I've met in completely different settings. I like dancing, but I've never exactly been the sort of dance floor goddess who attracts a lot of attention there. Which is why it was so surprising that, at a certain point in the evening, I caught the eye of a very attractive woman who was dancing near me and we exchanged smiles, and she moved in a little closer, and by the next song we were dancing up really close to each other and starting to get acquainted... It wasn't the kind of setting where you can have much of a conversation, but we did talk a little bit during some of the quieter lulls in the music, the highlights of which were her complimenting my dancing and telling me I was beautiful. Nothing too dramatic came of the encounter, because after an enjoyable several songs worth of dancing together, she seemed to sort of lose her nerve and just said it was nice meeting me before disappearing off into the crowd. I was a bit worried at first that I'd said or done something wrong, but she was kind of young and had said it was only her second Pride, so I think she was just nervous. Oh well. Probably just as well since I wasn't entirely sure how ready I was for anything more anyway, though at least exchanging phone numbers or something would have been nice. Still, it was a pretty unprecedented thing to happen to me, and definitely fun, so I think Q7 is a keeper despite the excessive floralness of it. Grade: scent C+, effectiveness A

Wow! I was originally kind of worried that this would turn into Screaming Floral Death on me, especially with my scent nemesis ylang ylang involved. In fact, I didn't order a decant of it at all when it was first introduced, but much later when someone was doing another decant circle for the Stardust scents I gave in, all the while telling myself it was probably pointless. But I'm glad I did get it, because it's actually much nicer than I expected. It's not really my usual sort of scent, being more floral than my usual tastes, but it's nowhere near what I was expecting. I guess the musk and incense notes and what not are there in enough strength to counterbalance even the dread y-y. It does capture the character pretty well, in that it's strongly feminine but also kind of dark and evil-smelling. And there's even something faintly dry and dusty and decay-like lurking somewhere under it all, like the witch's true age peeking through the veneer of youthful beauty. Very well crafted! Not sure if in the long run I will keep the decant or not, as I have so much BPAL these days that I'm getting really picky, but I'm very glad I got to try it. I think this is the only scent other than Glasya in which ylang ylang has ever failed to turn into SFD on me! Grade: B

I feel a bit odd reviewing this after reviewing the Buggre Alle This Bible, because so many people compared that one to this one, and I'll be doing it the other way around. But I agree that there's a definite similarity. Of the two, I like this one better... The BATB had that same incense-and-old-paper aspect to it, but this one feels more... alive, somehow. Maybe it's the musk that livens it up. Whatever the cause, my reaction to that one was just sort of ho-hum, but this one is really kind of nice. It's not so much a "me" scent, as it is a bit on the masculine side (though actually, not all that much -- I could get away with wearing it), but it's something I'd love to smell on someone else. It's funny -- everyone talks about how dead sexy Crowley is as a scent, and I'd have to agree, but this one's actually kind of sexy in a different way -- and "I have a brain as well as a body" sort of way. I might want to shag someone who was wearing Crowley, but I'd be more likely to actually date someone who was wearing this. Er, assuming in both cases that the person was a good match for the scent, that is. Grade: B+

Well, this smells like... pretty much exactly how it's described. Old paper, dry leather and incense. It's a fairly soft and gentle scent, and pretty gender-neutral -- there's nothing especially masculine or feminine about it. But that's about all I can think of to say about it. It's reasonably pleasant, but not particularly exciting. Scents with that old-paper note often appeal to me for times when I'm going to be copying out books of shadows (in most of the more old-school Wiccan traditions, you hand-copy your books from your teacher's copies), but this one is not really as interesting as Clio or the Lurid Library or some of the others. Grade: B

This is an interesting scent -- it's got an intriguing mix of traditionally feminine and mascluine notes. The leather/wood combo is at the base of a lot of men's scents, but here it's overlaid with a very feminine amber/berry/floral mix, giving the scent an oddly androgynous and sort of contradictory feel. A bit like a more femmey version of Loviatar. I think it does capture the character pretty well, and honestly, this would be a great scent for a pro domme. It's a bit come-hither but with a definite don't-fuck-with-me undertone. Definitely would be an appropriate choice to wear to any sort of kink event, or anywhere else you want to make a very dominant impression. It's not exactly my usual sort of scent, but it's not bad -- there are stages to it that I really like and stages I don't like as much. Haven't decided whether to keep my decant or not, but I'm glad I tried it, as it's definitely unique! Grade: B

I got this as a frimp, and it didn't appeal to me initlally as much as Nostrum Remedium did, but I actually like it the better of the two. I was worried that the sassafras would make it too root-beer-ish, but really the vanilla is the dominant note here. There's definitely a touch of sassafras, but less than there is in, say, Laudanum. Mainly it's a warm, earthy vanilla, with oak grounding it. The reference to "CO2 butter extract" initially confused the hell out of me -- I wondered if maybe CO2 in this context was some kind of shorthand for cocoa (as in, CO2 = 2 x "co" = "coco"), because the idea of carbon dioxide butter just didn't make much sense to me. But apparently (based on googling it, anyway) it actually refers to butter oil, extracted using caron dioxide. The things you learn via BPAL... Anyway, I can't really pick up butter as a distinct scent in here, but at least it doesn't have that horrific fake-butter smell that's in a lot of the foodie scents. I also initialy had no idea what onycha was, but apparently it's a form of snail membrane(!) which the ancients for some reason put into incense, either as a fixative for the other scents or possibly for its own scent, depending on what source you read. I have no idea what it's supposed to smell like -- one source said that if not prepared properly, it smells like fishy burnt hair, but nothing about what it smelled like if it was prepared properly. Another source said that several other incense ingredients were sometimes referred to as "onycha" even though they technically weren't, including gum tragacanth, spikenard and labdanum. The latter might make sense here -- it's a warm, deep, musky resin-scent, and I could see that being part of this one. All in all, this was a pleasant surprise. Not necessarily likely to become a top favourite or anything, but it's pretty nice, and the vanilla doesn't doesn't seem to be turning into Play-Doh on me the way it sometimes can. Grade: B

This smells pretty much like a generic tea scent to me -- I'm not getting any kind of wasabi kick from it (not that wasabi has much of a smell anyway, except for when it's searing your nasal passages after you eat too much of it with your sushi), and only a slight bit of honey. It's not bad, just not very interesting. As it settles in, it's not even clearly identifiable as tea any more, and just smells like a generic sort of herbal-bath-product or shampoo type scent. Meh. Grade: C+/B-

I knew I had to try this one as soon as I saw the notes, as spicy-musky scents are nearly always heaven on me. The only possibly dodgy note in here was the dragon's blood, which is kind of hit and miss on my skin, depending on its company, but with these notes as companions it seemed pretty safe . And it really is very nice. Warm, dry and definitely very evocative of a desert baking under the hot sun -- a perfect summer scent! It's not too aggressively spicy -- I didn't get any skin burn from it. The spices are just enough to give the dominant musk/resin/tobacco combo a gentle kick. Very reminiscent of a fair number of other spicy-musk BPAL scents, though. I kept thinking "It's like a toned-down Plunder... No, it's Red Phoenix without the fruity sweetness... No, it's a deeper, dryer version of The Lion... No, it's a more butch version of Scherezade, or maybe Morocco... No, it's Leo with a touch more spice and without the lemony note..." Really, it's a little bit of all of these, which lends it a strong sense of familiarity for anyone who collects spicy scents. And that is the one reason I'm likely not about to spring for a bottle of it -- I really like it, but it's so strongly similar to many other scents I already have! I'm a sucker for scents in that general ballpark, and I have at least an imp if not a bottle of all of the above (two bottles, in the case of Red Phoneix), so I have to ask myself: do I really need yet another bottle of spicy musk? Still, for anyone out there who hasn't found their perfect spicy musk scent yet, and particularly for male BPALers (or women who tend to favour scents that would normally be considered masculine) who find some of the others a little too sweet, this one is highly recommended. Grade: A

It's rare when a Lunacy scent actually works on me, but this one definitely does. With such a complex blend of ingredients, I really wasn't sure if I'd like this or not -- it could have gone any of a number of different directions. Especially when dragon's blood itself is a pretty unpredictable note on me, sometimes good and sometimes bad. But this is definitely a dragon's blood succcess story -- kind of a spicy-sweet incensey herbal, very much spring-summer in its warmth and freshness. The lavender, bergamot and mint give it a fresh brightness, and the sage, resins and cedar counterbalance that nicely with an earthy warmth. It's a bit reminiscent of Blood Moon (one of the handful of other Lunacies that work for me), but a bit lighter and sweeter, more suitable for spring than fall. There's a touch of similarity to the late lamented Rage as well, but it's spicier and more complex than that one. All in all, a really well-balanced, lovely, complex scent. Which is very much making me wish that I'd gone for a bottle instead of a decant... Time to start stalking the swaps for one, I guess. Grade: A

Wasn't sure about this one, as I don't much like the idea of metallic notes, but the sage and incense sounded really nice. Thankfully, as it turns out, it's not really very metallic at all. There's a faint touch of that, but the incense and herbal elements are by far more prominent, which is a very good thing as far as I'm concerned. It's actually got a slightly similar feel to No. 93 Engine, but it's a little less sweet and more masculine-feeling. Not quite to the extent of those scent that practically jump up and shout "Hi! I'm a MEN'S scent!", but it does have a little bit of that aspect to it. Maybe that's partly the slight metallic edge. Later on in its development, it picks up a slightly unpleasant wax-crayon-like note - not sure where that's coming from! I've noticed it before in a few scents that contain fig, but this one hasn't got any of that that I know of. All in all, not a bad scent, but not a great one. It's like a lesser version of No. 93 Engine, or maybe a rough draft of it. It might be better on someone male than on me... Grade: B

I knew this one had potential as soon as I saw the notes. Amber and labdanum are favourites of mine, and oude is like a heavier, earthier version of sandalwood. The only thing I was worried about was whether the verbena would take over the scent, with its cloying lemon-drops presence, and especially depending on what other citrus notes were present (some kinds of citrus are great one me, some not so much). As it turns out, I needn't have worried -- the lemony notes in here are perfectly balanced with the resins, and the result is an intoxicatingly beautiful scent that practically glows with warmth. The cedar gives it a nice balancing touch of earthiness, and all in all the feeling is very similar to Hymn to Proserpine, but without the almost syrupy sweetness that one can sometimes have -- it's got the same gorgeous amber richness, but the sweet notes here are in perfect balance. Love, love, love. If it were not so similar in feel to Hymn to Proserpine, I'd absolutely want a bottle of this, immediately. But as it is, the two are so close that it seems a bit redundant to have both -- though I think I may actually like this one the better of the two. Maybe I just have to do a side-by-side comparison to see whether it might be time to pass on my formerly beloved Hymn to Proserpine to someone else and replace it with a bottle of this one... Grade: A

Wasn't at all sure this one would work -- anything with a mix of florals and resins can go either very good or very bad on me, depending on the proportions. But I think one of the main reasons I had to try it was the fact that the name instantly evoked "There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge!" for me (from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). Anyway... My first thought on actually trying it was that, well, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't exactly happy-making, either. The florals definitely dominate, giving it a powdery, perfumey feel, with an edge of nose-irritating dryness. And after a little while on, it began giving me a headache, so I had to wash it off. I see some of the other reviews mentioning ozone, and that's probably the culprit both in the irritating dryness and headache -- ozone is pretty much a deal-breaker note for me, that kill almost any scent it's added to. Sometimes when it's in with a lot of stuff I otherwise like, like in Lurid, I can handle it for a while, but sooner or later it always gets really annoying. Anyway, final verdict: I've smelled worse things, to be sure, but this one is definitely going straight into the swaps. Grade: D

At first sniff, this is a very bright, sweet, fruty-floral scent, with an undertone of sharp greenness. A bit like a more complex version of Rosalind. Definitely very springlike! It's pleasant enough for the most part, but something about that green herbal undercurrent doesn't quite harmonize with the other notes, at least for me. There's an element of discord which, while perhaps appropriate for the trickster element of the day it's named for, makes it not as enjoyable as it could be. In its later stages, there seems to be a strong honey scent in it -- which I quite like. I also get a lot of the honey note when walking by the shelf the imp is on, since I appear to have spilled a bit of it when trying it. And it's quite nice that way -- maybe the discordant element is more my skin chemistry? Perhaps I'll try it as a room scent and see... Grade: B-

Judging from the description, this looked like one of those scents that might just work nicely and be really pretty, or might turn into screaming floral death, all depending on the proportion of the various notes. It's got rose and jasmine, which my skin loves to amp, but also patchouli, sandalwood and myrrh, all of which are among my favourites and can balance florals really well. And then there's the wine, which can kind of go either way on me. As it turns out, it's kind of in between, but leaning a little toward the SFD side, sad to say. The incensey notes are not strong enough to really offset the florals that much, but it does have an odd sort of sour undertone that balances the killer sweetness just a little -- maybe from the wine? Unfortunately, said sour undertone smells a little like cat pee on my skin. So on the whole we have tons of flowers, with just a hint of incense, and also a bit more than just a hint of cat pee. Not really a winning combination. However, after it's settled in for an hour or two, the cat pee fades, and the incensey notes come up more, and I begin to get a bit of a sense of what this scent could be like, if my skin didn't amp the florals... Or what it might eventually be like if it ages for a while. I've found in the past that aging tends to work wonders on scents like this -- florals get mellower with age, while notes like patchouli and sandalwood get deeper and richer. So, not so good right now, but I think I'll tuck the imp away and see what this one smells like in a year's time or so... Grade: C+ now... when aged, who knows?