brilliantcat

Rose AND jasmine... this could be very very scary indeed as those are both generally death notes on me. I'll give it a try anyway in the name of SCIENCE!

Imp: It smells so good in the imp: sugared note that must be the lily, vanilla, and leather. Please smell like this on me!

Wet: Definitely leather, a nice suedey leather softened up by a slight hint of floral and a smidge of vanilla. So far, so yummy.

Dry: Oh boy. I was NOT expecting this! No rose, no jasmine, just sweet leather with hints of spice and the barest trace of blink and you'll miss it floral. It's also got some resiny depth. I think I may need a bottle!

Imp: Soft, delicate florals and frankincense.

Wet: Slightly spicy rose and lily backed by the frankincense. So far the rose isn't amping like crazy and it smells quite pretty. It's different from what I usually like but if the myrrh and frankincense keep up their end of the bargain, this could turn out to be a surprise winner.

Dry: I should know better than to trust rose from stomping all over everything else. Although the frankincense has managed to retain a foothold and it smells rather pretty. Too bad I still haven't come to terms with rose.

Imp: VERY strange. I don't even know how to describe it. Sour, bitter, spicy...

Wet: It actually reminds me of my favorite Indian restaurant. Odd. I know there's no cardamom in it but it's screaming cardamom to me! In the background I get touches of citrusy bergamot.

Dry: This is one of the more interesting blends I've ever tried. I still strongly am reminded of cardamom, which must be the way the bitter clove and bergamot are interacting. It's slightly sour and bitter and a little smoky and I can almost get a slightly floral note in there.

Imp: The snow note reads as pine to my nose.

Wet: Chilly pine and I really do get the "snow". Beth is magical. I feel like I'm standing ankle-deep in slushy snow under a pine tree.

Dry: Nothing but that piney snow note. It smells vaguely high-end soapy. None of the other notes make even a brief appearance. Not bad, but not bottle-worthy.

Imp: Creamy, pumpkin-y, and citrusy!

Wet: Oh wow, it takes on an almost pastry-like scent in addition to the citrus fruits and creamy pumpkin with faint hints of spice. I honestly thought this would be my least favorite of the Flosses but at this point, it's winning by a mile.

Dry: And it's turned into the spicy, overly cinnamon-y pumpkin note from the other pumpkin blends. Curses!

Imp: Spicy pumpkin and cherry.

Wet: All pumpkin and spice.

Dry: This has turned into muddled pumpkin and cinnamon and I don't even know what. I've had terrible luck with ALL of the pumpkin blends this year

Imp: Spicy, sweet, pumpkin goodness with subtle smokiness.

Wet: Smoky spicy pumpkin with a hint of licorice.

Dry: It smelled AH-MA-ZING for most of the drydown with that smoky maple and the spices blending into a beautiful exotic mix that my husband said reminded him of Indian food Then the black licorice got uppity and took over and I started smelling like those nubs of strong, strong licorice my great-grandma used to have. Blergh. That said, I want a smoky maple SN because holy cow, that mix of sweet and smoky and caramelized unf. I love it. It made this blend and had the licorice not gone Godzilla, would have made it so incredible /le sigh

Imp: Whoomph, I get cologney black musk and no amber!

Wet: Inexplicably, I smell lime. I have no idea why, though after reading the other reviews it seems quite a few people got lemon so maybe my sniffer isn't entirely broken. I still get the masculine cologne that I know is the black musk. I hope the amber tones it down as it warms.

Dry: The black musk is not playing nicely. I do want to test this on the husbeast as these type of scents usually smell really, really good on him

Edit: I had forgotten I had applied this, took off my sweatshirt and something on my arm wafted to my nose and I almost swooned! Wow, rich amber and hints of musky darkness. I think monthly hormonal changes are playing a bit of havoc with my skin chemistry but I have to get these last Weenies tested so I can get my order in... but I digress. It smells as good on the husbeast so we need a bottle to share. If this is what ghostly apparations smell like, then I want to cuddle one!

Imp: Supersweet foodie vanilla chai with slight pumpkin hints and fruit.

Wet: Spicy, spicy delicious chai with hints of mango and pumpkin. Primarily chai and I loooove chai

Dry: My skin has eaten the mango and most of the chai except for the cinnamon. Bad skin!

Edited: got a little too excited and hit post early

Imp: Opium, definitely I've been dying to find an opium scent I love!

Wet: I can make out the opium, sherry, and cologne. I like it so far.

Dry: Dusty, incense-y opium, a hint of boozy sherry, maybe a smidge of tobacco... perfect. Except there's that dastardly cologne in there mucking everything up. If not for that, I would be in love. Sads

Imp: Heavily expensive soap/perfume.

Wet: Rose and incense.

Dry: And back to expensive soap in short order. Not for me.

2012 version

Imp: Pure, fresh apple with a hint of nuttiness.

Wet: Gorgeous, crisp, just-took-a-bite apple backed by nuts, perhaps some hazelnut in there? In any case, it's delicious and redolent of fall.

Dry: Fall in an apple orchard. Bottle, please.

Imp: Something floral, but subtly so. A hint of musk. This is surprisingly light in the imp.

Wet: Incense and what smells like ink? Or maybe that's the books. The floral I was getting is nearly undetectable now. I can catch the musk intertwining beautifully with the incense but there's a slight harshness, perhaps the parchment?

Dry: Gorgeous incense but something is giving the impression of cologne. This seems to happen with many book/parchment type notes, which makes me terribly sad. I'm an unrepentant bibliophile and I desperately wish these type of scents would work on me

Imp: Definitely reminiscent of Snake Oil, but sweeter and smoother.

Wet: I am quite reminded of SO but the hemlock adds a dirty green touch and I sense a bit of the cedar incense creeping in. Those notes combine to give this a chilliness I hadn't expected.

Dry: This definitely reminds me of SO and Womb Furie but with a slightly bitter undertone from the hemlock, smoothness from the honey, and woodsiness that isn't present in those blends. I will probably want a bottle of this, especially as I expect it to age beautifully.

Imp: Pumpkin, spices, woods.

Wet: This is the first of the pumpkins not to go full-blown pumpkin pie/cinnamon on me! That feel is still there, but much muted. The black amber is turning things a smidge cologne-y.

Dry: The pumpkin pie and cologne are vying for domination. It smells rather masculine to me. This is a definite no.

Imp: Black pepper plus the spicy cinnamony pumpkin I've come to know from this year's Pumpkins.

Wet: I actually think the black pepper might balance the super-cinnamony pumpkin. I get a faint hint of citrus.

Dry: The sweet, spicy pumpkin pie is kept in check by the black pepper but I don't get any of the other notes. Overall, this isn't anything special to me.

Imp: Cinnamon and spice. Definitely the pumpkin pie vibe.

Wet: Heavily cinnamon backed by the hay, which is getting roflstomped by the cinnamon. No leather at all to my nose, which is disappointing. I love leather blends.

Dry: Along with the cinnamon, it inexplicably becomes soapy in the drydown. Definitely a no

As soon as I read the notes I KNEW I had to get my hands on a tester of this. Vanilla? Plus more vanilla? AND EVEN MORE VANILLA?! With the spicy pumpkin I love? No-brainer.

Imp: Creamy vanilla pumpkin buttercream with just a hint of spice.

Wet: Oh dear. I smell like a Yankee Candle. Not that it's bad, exactly, just not what I was hoping for. I can still smell the creaminess of the vanilla hovering around and I'd probably get a bottle based on this because I am definitely a foodie and this is certainly that!

Dry: It remains candle-ish and while that's not bad, it's not what I was hoping for. I'll probably keep my tester but that's all.

Imp: Coffee, true coffee and not a sweetened up version. This is black coffee, the scent of the grounds as you're pulverizing them. Unf. I catch a hint of something green and perhaps almost herbally lurking under the coffee... the oak?

Wet: On me it smells essentially the same. This one is pretty foody but that hint of woods holds it back. It's definitely not sweet. I'm kind of in love already.

Dry: Wait. What happened?! The cologne has shown its unwanted face. I could cry Dare I hope that someday there will be a Black Coffee SN?

Imp: Sweet pumpkin latte, heavy on the sweet.

Wet: Wet, this deepens into something more complex. I still get sweet pumpkin latte but now the patchouli is making an appearance, especially in the throw. Up close, it's almost tooth-meltingly sweet.

Dry: Oooh! The super-sweetness backs off as it dries and warms on my skin and I begin to get the woods and patchouli a bit more. The mental picture I get is sitting on a log in a damp pumpkin patch, sipping at a spiced coffee. Unfortunately that phase lasted only a few minutes before it morphed to straight cinnamon. I can just barely get a hint of patchouli if I try, it's CINNAMON. Sadly this one is not going to work

Imp: Soil and greenery! It made me inexplicably sad, because while I'd love to work on my yard/garden, I'm often too sick to be able to. It's very evocative.

Wet: Less straight-up dirt, more herbal greenery and a hint of spice. Now rather than smelling like working in a garden, it smells like someone who's just worked in their herb/spice garden and come in from the cold. It definitely has a colder feel to me, it's not a spring scent by any means.

Dry: I can still smell soil, a bit of greenery, and now something's gone powdery. This one is not for me.

I get salty, aquatic, slightly sweet... it reminds me of the breeze across the water or perhaps very, very fresh seafood. It certainly doesn't smell fishy, it smells of the sea. No incense yet, shall see what occurs with this very interesting concoction as it warms. Oddly enough, I never really get any incense. It remains a tantalizingly sweet/salty aquatic. I rather like it!

It's quite astringent and medicinal in the imp, due to the lavender and pine. I get nothing of the other notes until it hits my skin and then it brightens with the addition, just a drop mind you, of the mandarin. It still smells like some sort of tonic that should be in an apothecary claiming all sorts of ridiculous things. Blergh, it has warmed into a repulsive approximation of just what I think the repulsive little beasts smell like when smashed. I have no idea what hates each other in this as I was expecting loveliness from lavender, lilac, and patchouli. Sad

Wow, sniffing this in the imp, it is definitely not what I expected. I get some green herbally notes and a smidge of the coconut. It does put me in mind of a hairy spider, oddly enough. Boy does this one pull a morpher on my skin! The sweet, dry tobacco comes out, I get some of that tasty patchouli, and there's the coconut doing the tango with the vanilla to create, yes, a caramel-ish feel without the nausea-inducing sweetness most actual caramel blends cause on me. I notice someone else mentioned that so I guess my sniffer isn't broken. Despite smelling like a horrid, creepy, HAIRY spider, I think I need a bottle of this gorgeousness!

ETA: Upon retesting, this starts off stridently cologne-y and verging on soap. Age has not been kind. It does dry down into a pleasant, soft, coconutty scent but I'm not fond of how this one has changed.

Sexy, love of my life, powerful red musk in the imp turns to smoky, alluring, incensey, just a touch of red musk wet on me. SWOON. Heady, alluring, a little dirty and just what I want to smell like all the time. I need bottles!