Drarra

This came to me as a frimp from the lab. I was skeptical, but most of the notes are good on me. Except jasmine, one of my floral nemesis-es. In the imp: This is creamy and musky. I suddenly understand "skin musk" (which I hadn't smelled before). Wet on my skin: This is initially very sweet. I initially presumed it was from the amber, but from reading other reviews, the pink musk is probably a contributing factor. As it dries on my skin, the sandalwood and skin musk come out to play. I'm really not noticing the jasmine. Dry: This becomes slightly sweet and musky on my skin. The jasmine completely fades into the background. It's a very pretty, feminine scent. It lasts like crazy on me, even overnight. Overall: This scent isn't me, but I like how it showcases the musks. I should really pass this along to my sister, but I like it too much to do it!

This was one of the two Courtesans that appealed to me. I did not get a bottle unsniffed, because there are a few scary notes in there - namely caramel and muguet. Sweets and florals don't get along with my skin. Still - tobacco? White sage? I had to try it! In the imp: This is a hard nut to crack. I'm having trouble distinguishing each ingredient. I'm getting a meld of slightly sweet, yet floral things. Wet on my skin: This is a strangely floral musk. I can pick out a hint of tobacco, and I recognize the frankincense binding everything together. I smell the sweetness of caramel, which seems to be held in check by the tonka. On top of this, I get the floral notes. I recognize the muguet, and its sister must be the black orchid. This is a dark, feminine scent. Dry: I can still pick out the caramel and muguet, but neither is overwhelming, which surprises me - my skin amps sweetness and flowers. The caramel and muguet are a strange mix, yet somehow they temper each other. I adore the musky, slightly tobacco base of this perfume. My final verdict surprises me: this is a floral that I can and want to wear! I see a bottle of it in my future.

My skin loves to amp sweet notes. Let's start out with that as a disclaimer. In the imp: There is a caramel-edged mint and sage over a base of pale musk. This could be quite lovely. Wet: Minty, musky... caramel? Dry: Caramel. Nothing else, just sweet, drippy caramel. Apparently the other notes were too delicate to survive the traditional amping of the sweetness. I was disappointed. This promised a unique, interesting blend, but my skin chemistry ruined it. For the record, the caramel is a nice smell... but not what I want to smell like.

Tobacco is my new scent love. It took a little longer to find it, but now that I'm looking, a number of the scents I adore have this divine note in them. Looking at other recs, I think the Salon may be my next stop.

In the bottle: The "neon discharge" is coming across as ozone to me. It's a very potent top note as I'm sniffing. Beneath it, I can still smell the wood and smoke. It smells like a smoky room to me - but not cigarette smoke. Maybe these were pipe smokers? This is not a sweet tobacco smell. Wet on my skin: Initially, I get lots of the ozone (which is fairly normal for my skin) and the cologne, although these fade. The wood smells very polished (note: it does not smell like lemon furniture polish, so I can't identify the polish note more), not very natural. After a few minutes, the polish is fading, the woods warming. I wish I were better at this so I could identify which wood it is! The smokiness is also mellowing things out. Dry: The door has been open for a while, and the meeting room is airing out. This is not a smell it from far away scent. This stays very close to my skin. I've had it on for several hours, and I have to sniff carefully. What's left on me is a the smoke grounded by warm woods. Thoughts: This doesn't seem terribly masculine to me, but that's not surprising; it's typical of my skin chemistry. I think this is going to be great for the days when I want to wear a warm, woody, smoky scent without sharing it with the world. This was a good selection for me; the descriptor of tobacco smoke had me a little worried at first!

In the bottle: The smells like wood, smoke and sweet tobacco. Wet on skin: The tobacco is coming to the foreground with the opium swirling just behind it. The incense is starting to peek out and add to the smokiness. It's all blending with the tobacco to be sweet - in a resinous way. Dry on skin: As this dries, I'm smelling more of the dust. It's blending together, and I'm getting a dusty tobacco. This isn't as oppressive as I would have expected; I thought these notes would come together to form a heavy smoke, but it's forming a smoke cloud where the wind is constantly coming through and circulating just enough for you to catch each note. Final thoughts This is delicious. I bought a bottle unsniffed based on the notes (they're all win for me), and this one definitely paid off. If you like woodsy tobacco scents, this is for you. It reminds me of Velvet Bandito.

I received this bottle as a holiday gift, and I've been putting off this review. In the bottle: this smells dry, incensey and a tad musky. It's right up my alley. On my skin: One word sums this up. Daemonorops. I cannot wear dragon's blood resin, as it turns to soap on my skin. Overpowering soap, even enough to beat out red musk. My skin's take on this makes me want to cry. (Curses, why must you destroy one of my beautiful resins?) Fortunately I have a scent locket coming, and I suspect this scent will be oft-used there.

I just received an imp, it was labeled from the lab as "Fire of Love". When I sniff it, it smells like "Dance of Death" to me. The oil itself isn't as dark as my Dance of Death, but I know the oil color can change a bit... I'm getting super confused. Can anyone help? Just want to know if they really smell that much alike or if the imp was mislabeled.

In the bottle: This is smelling slightly sweet in an incense way. They different notes are blended together in such a way that I just barely can make out the leather accord. It smells slightly toasted. Wet: Wet on my skin, the brown musk comes to the forefront. It slowly dries, and I can smell the sweetness of labdanum mixing with the toastiness of the sandalwood. It's funny, I can usually pick out clove pretty well, but it's very nicely blended into this scent. Dry: This is a beautiful, warm mixture of scent. It doesn't throw off my skin powerfully, and I almost feel like it's my little dancing secret. I can smell this about 8 hours after initial application. It's hugging my skin closely, a faint musky sandalwood scent. I think I need a full bottle of this.

I tried this on for the first time last night, and I love it. So much so that I wore it today! In the bottle, I smell patchouli melding with honey, and some greens swirling behind it. The more I smell, I can pick apart the individual plant notes: the lavender, lemongrass and the hint of balsam. I think it smells delightful. On my skin, this is dark and delightful. I get lots of myrrh and a hint of lavender. The perfume is nicely blended, and I'm having difficulty picking out individual notes. I think it is worth noting that while I generally amp anything with honey or beeswax (and it stays put for a LONG time), I can't pick out the honey note. That suggests to me there is just a touch. I love this. For some reason, it is very reminiscent of "The Phoenix in Summer" to me, but without the ozone. The funny part about that is they don't seem to share any of the same notes!

In the bottle, I smelled lots of citrus and the cardamon. I love cardamon, so I dabbed a tiny bit on my hand. Wet, I smelled like fresh lemons with a touch of benzoin. All of a sudden it dried, and it became baby powder. This is the first time I've gotten anything to go powdery on me. I keep sniffing just to make sure it's real.

Bony Moon 2011 In the bottle: I smell lots of sandalwood. I smell the cedar just beneath it, combined with some green herbs. Wet on skin: The cedar is blooming. At this point, I'm smelling more cedar than sandalwood. This is very a delicate-smelling, pale, luminous wood. Almost an old, weathered white wood shining in the moonlight. The herbs are blending with the woods, lending an herbal, nearly floral feel to it. Just dry on the skin: The herbs are moving to the front of the perfume. The sandalwood is setting as a base, the cedar just a hint in the background. Still a rather cold, woody blend. Is it weird that this is making me hungry? Later: This has warmed up; it's no longer cold. The herbs are slightly sweeter, and I get LOTS of cedar as a base. In my case, this is a good thing; my skin loves cedar. When it first dried, I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I was having a definite moment of hesitation. The longer this dries, the more beautiful it's becoming on my skin. The herbs are becoming less green and more spicy. I love it. If you enjoy woody blends, this may be an excellent selection for you. I can't stop sniffing my test! 4.5/5

I have a confession to make: I was expecting to hate this perfume. The descriptive words of "sugared with vanilla" were enough to scare me away. I'm not a fan of sweet or foody scents. The Lab sent a frimp to me with my last order. After staring at it for a month, I figured I'd give it a dab and find out what all the fuss was about. In the imp: this is scary sweet vanilla. I can't imagine wanting to smell like this. Wet: Wait, spices? I like spices! The vanilla has turned into a ghost, and I'm smelling lots of wonderful spices. Dry: This is not sweet on my skin. While a breath of vanilla remains, I'm smelling lots of spice and, for some odd reason, cedar. ...I like cedar. My verdict: This isn't my favorite, but I'm going to use the imp. I might even wear it today and see what happens with an extended test. I'll give it a chance and see if it grows on me enough to need a bottle. Plus, I've heard that aging this scent is where it really shines... and since I have lots of other scents to love, that will give my imp some time to grow up.

My skin does not like dragon's blood resin. I love dragon's blood resin, so I had to try this anyway. Maybe the frankincense with temper it on my skin! Besides, I love all the notes in it with the exception of magnolia. I love the smells in the imp. Dragon's blood, cedar, herbs. I put it on my skin, and for half a second, I had hopes that the dragon's blood resin wasn't going to turn to soap on me. Unfortunately, my skin must like to disappoint me. I amped the magnolia, which turned this in to a big soapy, floral mess on my arm. I can smell a hint of the sage (yum... sage!). I don't smell any delicious frankincense or cedar underneath this. I really, really wanted to love this on my skin. Perhaps it's time to learn my lesson about dragon's blood resin and my body chemistry...

This is my favorite GC so far. In the bottle: I didn't know Death was so sexy! The black musk is amazing. Beautifully dry with warmth and a subtle hint of sweetness. Wet on skin: Wet on me, it smells like the bottle. Only my skin is blending it and making it oh so delicious. Dry: I think the musk and the myrrh make this scent on my skin. Combined with the orris, it turns into an incense type of smell on me. Not the word I would have selected, but when my dad mentioned it, he was definitely right. I can't get enough of this scent. For me, this scent throws well, and it lasts. If I put it on in the morning, I can still smell it whirling about me when I go to bed. This goes remarkably well with my skin chemistry. I think it's love!

In the bottle: I smell evergreen. A pine forest in a bottle. Wet on skin: More evergreen, and I smell like a holiday wreath. This isn't a bad thing, since greens are one of my favorite holiday scents, but it's a little odd emanating from my skin rather than from a tree. Dry: The resins really ground the greens. I can't really smells them for themselves, but I can smell how they are tempering the greens. With their help, the berries are coming out to play. I feel like my own walking Yule festival in this scent. I will need to play with this scent more. I don't get the herbals that other reviewers are mentioning. I'm not sure if that's my skin amping the evergreen and mistletoe notes or if my nose is not catching them. Overall, this is such a great holiday scent for me. I can also see myself loving it in a warmer...

I wore this scent yesterday for the first time, and it was fantastic on me. The cedar wasn't overly woodsy on my skin, nor was the frankincense too resin-y. The overall effect was dark, somber and delicious. Reading reviews, I may have to look into Cathedral.

In Bottle: I hardly smell the lavender. The sandalwood and tobacco are prominent. There's a smoky, slightly sweet incensey smell immediately present. Although after applying it, the lavender is easily identifiable in the bottle. Wet: I smell warmth and smoke immediately, and the sandalwood is prominent. I get a lot of the tobacco, and the incense is hiding just beneath that scent. Almost too much sandalwood at this point... Drydown: Sandalwood quickly fades and nag champa takes the prominent position, making it smell sweeter. The longer it dries, the more the tobacco is smoking over the sweet smell. Apparently my skin is different from a lot of others. While I can tell there is lavender in the blend, it doesn't become sharp or anywhere near prominent on me. It's all nag champa burning in the corner, while the scent of the tobacco shop next door floats through the window. Men have LOVED this scent on me, and I've gotten several comments about how good I smell while wearing it.