Naamah_Darling

This is just so odd. It smells like wintergreen, but there's also pine mixing with the florals and the icy ozone-ish note to make a sweet, cold pine note that's not unlike mint, itself. In the bottle it's cold and faint. On my skin it's not much stronger. This is a very subtle scent. For all that, it's not a low, earthy scent; usually perfumes this high-pitched are also very loud, but this isn't loud at all, it's just a whisper. This is clean and cool and brisk. I'm getting a strong sweetgrass note from this somewhere in the middle, under the minty fir smell and the snow smell. A hint of understated florals. I don't like wintergreen scents, but this is very nice. I think the herbal, grassy tinge and the sweetness of the florals are enough to offset the medicinal wintergreen smell. This is clean, light, and feminine. Definitely one to try if you like clean or minty smells.

Oh! This is so not even close to what I was imagining! In the bottle, it's a friendly, lively scent. The patchouli is the base note, kept from filthy skankitude by the cumin's spice and the juicy green of the moss. It's all tied together by the neroli, an unexpected tangy floral that takes this from kooky to pretty. On, this is like watching bugs fight. Fascinating, and so hard to tell what the hell is going on! This is the same moss that's in Zombi, for instance. It's very earthy, dank, and green. The patchouli is behaving itself, blends beautifully with the moss for a rich, loamy cologne smell. Cumin and neroli are an unlikely but delightful pair, giving it a sort of slapdash charm. The throw is not sugary, but it is a sweet scent, pleasant and friendly. Closer, that's where the patchouli's dirty tinge starts making itself known. This is masculine, but easily a scent that women could wear. It's earthy and green in a mossy, mulchy way, a growing and sort of primordial scent that's not animal but rather vegetal. I love it. Unexpected, strange, and certainly the unlikely hero of this series. I've never smelled anything quite like it.

In the bottle this is herbal and a bit woodsy, a green scent but not overwhelmingly cologne-y. There is a bit of sweetness, promising incense. Very pretty. On it's much nicer; it becomes cut wood, aged, and dry herbs, an arcane and mysterious scent, underscored by a waft of incense. This is a clear, pleasant scent, and it has a lot of depth. There is less green here, and more of a dry herbal scent with the odor of sandalwood and amber coming out more strongly the drier it gets. As it wears, the incense becomes predominant, and that's when it is truly lovely. Close in, skin-warm amber with a hint of woody, smoky sandalwood and just a whiff of herbs. This is the smell of a box where ritual supplies have been kept. Deep and mysterious.

No, I don't think this is going to work on me. In the bottle, it's strongly verbena, which I should have recalled smells like lemons. Under this is the lavender, the two meshing for an herbal crush of scent. There's sweetness here, the iris, underneath it all. It doesn't smell very masculine to me, not in the bottle. On, this has more subtlety than by rights it should. The topnote is definitely the verbena with the lavender right behind. The sandalwood and iris mix together to make it slightly sweet. I think I'd like this better if it weren't for the lemon. The throw of this is very much like I just spent an hour weeding my front garden, which is thronged with verbena plants. I love the smell of lemons and lemon verbena, truly I do, but lemon has never been a scent that appeals to me as a personal perfume. The lavender gives this whatever cologne-like edge it has. It's likeable enough, I suppose. Thankfully almost no citrus has staying power on my skin, so as the verbena fades it becomes a poised and refined scent that is just a little stuffy. There's a hint of powder from the iris, and an essential sweetness. This is very mannered and a little stiff, but it means well. Much like Johnathan himself. Very well done.

This is so floral it's not funny. Immediately on opening the bottle a cool raft of flowery notes assails me; most prominent are the rose and jasmine. The strong citric tinge of blood orange makes this soapy. It goes on with more subtlety. The musk and frankincense give it a hint of depth it wouldn't otherwise have; the magnolia is a fresh, wet, heavy note. There's a fresh greenness here, like crushed petals. Overall, the very picture of lush beauty on the verge of overripeness. A flower so fully-bloomed it seems the petals will fall at one touch. The orange keeps it from being too sweet, but only just. This one is more interesting the drier it gets. Once the florals die back a bit and the citrus fades, it's very strongly incense and musk, and it lasts forever. This phase of it is beautiful, but I don't know if it's worth getting slapped around by the flowers. In the end, it's just like Lucy: pretty, but doomed, and at its most alluring when it's half-dead.

Daemonorops, if you're taking perfume dork notes, is one of the genus of plants that produces dragon's blood resin. It's a member of the rattan family, and blah blah blah. So, basically: a slightly different sort of dragon's blood. This is pale and floral in the bottle, almost anemic, with the rose a cool and distant second to varied small flowers. The musk isn't all that present. On, it's more subtle, a slightly soapy floral with strong undercurrents of incense. The musk comes out at once, but it's low and very dark. It's not a soft, boozy musk, it's a very understated note. Primarily, this is sandalwood, flowers, and ritual incense. It has a sour, almost sickly undertone to it, but is still very beautiful. As it settles, it changes a lot, to a strongly incense inflected floral with no one note dominating. It is ultra-feminine, and definitely one to try for those who like white florals. Very ladylike and demure, a little brittle, and just a bit soiled. The incense provides just the faintest hope of redemption.

Very light florals in the bottle, heavy on the lily. The osmanthus lends it a very perfumey scent, along with what I think is the musk. On, yes, the musk comes out, not a dark musk, but a light one. The plum and lily are next, with a faint draft of incense. This is already soapy on me, so I don't think it's going to work, but it is certainly pretty! It dries not quite as offensive as I was afraid. Florals just hate me, and I was hoping that all the other lovely notes here would pummel the flowers enough to make it wearable, but alas, that's not to be. There is a persistent undertone of incense, but it's not really smoky so much as simply crystalline, and there's no trace of honey, which should have pasted down the flowers enough to make them play nice. I'm not getting the spice at all, which is a shame. The florals here are rich and fleshy. That must be the lily: heavy, wet, and faintly sour to my nose, like pickles. This is why I don't like florals. Pickles, baby powder, stripper makeup, it always goes wrong somehow. There's something very funereal about this scent as well. Probably the lilies again. Overall, a light musky floral with overtones of incense. Ideal for someone who likes their florals traditional but with a bit of depth.

I'm going to go ahead and say what this smells like to me, because by golly, that description gives me nothing. It's high, clear, and sweet, also very bright. That's dragon's blood, faint but true, overlaid by something resinous, a woody and pale pine or redwood. It's cold, foresty, but not pitchy or too green, and almost squinting bright. It is very autumnal, and very clear. Remote. A bright landscape, viewed from a distance. The greenery comes out more on warm skin, and a touch of something dank and grubby. Rotten wood? Sandalwood? Old leaves? It's a faint, perfumey version of some half-remembered outdoors scent. I'm getting none of the sweetness or foodiness that others are claiming, just a very clear, crisp outside smell. I can see where the "elegance" is coming from. This is a high, bright perfume, the topnotes are green and gold, it's very poised and dignified. But it's got this sour, moldering edge to it. As it dries it softens, and then it is very pleasant, very dragon's-bloody, and very pretty. It loses some of that bitter, acrid brightness and just becomes a slaty, metallic, cool smell with a remote sweetness hovering around the edges. Going back and reading over the review, this is not the castle. It's the approach to the castle from the first sighting of the distant tower to the approach through ancient and dark woods, and then inside. It's the olfactory equivalent of traveling music and a montage. Wow. Wow. I have to say, maybe not a personal scent for me, but certainly an Experience. An admirable example of the perfumer's art, and most evocative.

The leather is forefront, sweetened by tobacco and a little pear. The musk is rich and lively. It becomes delicious when body heat warms it and the notes separate. Vanilla and pear are present but not overwhelming, lending the whole a sweetness that's not quite sugary. Tobacco leaf and saddle leather mix. This is the same leather from Dead Man's Hand, it is not the De Sade leather note. De Sade's leather is smoky boot leather. Quincy's leather is the slightly chlorine scent of rawhide or suede. The cedar comes out after a while, not overwhelming. It's mixed in with the tobacco. A manly scent, but not a crude or impolite one. Just a little rough. On the weardown I get sweet leather and subtle cedar, with a musky flush and just a faint, faint whiff of blonde tobacco. I swear, I smell this, I feel a scratchy, manly jawline. It's masculine but not in an overt, cologne-y sort of way. It's just, "Oh, hmm. Here's what this guy actually smells like." Fascinating and yummy. I could smell like this. I'd be happy to meet a man who smelled like this. And I 'd be happy to Do Things to him. Yup, Quincy's a winner all around. Definitely one of the good guys.

I have no idea what I'm smelling here. A high, sweet, sharp perfume with an undercurrent of incense. I suspect that's the dragon's blood and pepper mixing with whatever the Lab uses for its fire and steel notes, and all of that layered over the cold incense oils. The benzoin is right there, a familiar traditional perfume scent, but the rest is folded so carefully around it that this doesn't come across as a traditional perfume, even in the bottle. On, out comes the leather and the pepper, with the myrrh behind. The dragon's blood is a juicy sweetness here, fronting this scent along with a strong dose of labdanum (rockrose resin). I assume that's the vaguely ambery, soft resin note here. This is very much not the masculine, intense scent I had expected. It's actually quite soft and rather feminine, which I had not anticipated at all! I guess I see "leather" and think "MANLY." This is powerful, but it's not raw battlefield power. It's firelight shining on an embroidered coat of arms. It's symbolic power, power that goes deeper than sheer physical force. That said, this is not a powerful scent. It's fairly modest and I had to apply quite a bit to get any appreciable throw from it at all. The drydown is beautiful, mostly dragon's blood with an incensey undertone and just a whisk of something metallic.

This is rich in the bottle, dark and slow. Patchouli, musk, and the spices come out ahead. There's definitely ginger, and a strong underdraft of leather. Usually I can't smell leather in the bottle, it only appears once it's on my skin. This is promising! On, it's a rich shadow of a scent lit by a blazing halo of furious spices. And I mean "furious." This smells really, really angry. Like Shub's pissed off big brother. The fiery spices are a perfect match with the raw but torpid power of the earthy black patchouli. The leather adds just the right touch of villainous gloating. F***ing perfect. It stays just this good, a spicy, dark drydown. The patchouli stays earthy but crisp, never gets that gross murky tinge, probably because of the musk and spices. It's a wonderful scent!

Buttery! Spicy! Pumpkin-y! And . . . fruity! How playful this is in the bottle! And how amazing it is on! This combination should not work, but it does. I remember having scratch and sniff stickers as a kid that smelled like this. I don't remember what the stickers were actually supposed to smell like, but this is the smell of them. Warm pumpkin combines very naturally with pomegranate's perfumey fruitiness to create a sweet scent that is warm as laughter. On drydown it becomes more stable – a warm spiced pumpkin scent underneath a strong fruity blast of pomegranate. This smell is very candylike, and also candle-like, which is far from unpleasant. The extreme weardown is the most yummy and comforting warm pumpkin smell, perfectly between foody, spicy, and earthy.

Of course this is chocolatey and pumpkin-y in the bottle, but once it goes on a heady nutty aroma comes out, very much like nutty chocolate spice cookies. It's a tasty, lickable, biteable smell that makes me hungry. The nut scent is very toasty, and not at all almondy (in other words, it does not smell like cherries). I like this one the best so far, of the Pumpkin Patch scents I've tried. It's very, very delicious-smelling! I love the spiced pumpkin note the Lab uses – it's such a perfect balance between food/not food.

This is warm, spiced pumpkin and sweet apple spice all swirled together. It smells in the bottle exactly like it smells on my skin: sweet, spicy, edible. The spices actually come out a lot as it heats up, pushing the pumpkin and the apple back a little bit. A very festive holiday scent that's ideal for warming you up on a cold, cold October night! The pumpkin wears to a smooth, warm pumkin that's more like a candle or a candle-warmed real pumpkin than a pie pumpkin.

Oh, man. This is . . . wow. A holiday smell, for sure. It's all hot spice and greenery, actually rather Christmasy. I like it very much in the bottle, though it strikes me as more of a room scent than a body scent. On, it's pure luxury. I cannot imagine a more comforting smell. Yes, I can smell the pumpkin, and I can smell the apple, too. The patchouli is very soft and very dark, a subtle infusion more than an overt scent. The spices are warm and drifting, mixing freely with the smell of live evergreens. As it wears, it becomes more perfume-y, much more spicy and sweet, with the apple and pumpkin taking center stage along with the spices, and something that is really wonderfully sweet and round and smooth and not at all familiar to me – the mullein, perhaps? Such a friendly holiday scent. Beautiful and comforting.

This scent really sounds like a good match for me. It's an odd scent, very odd, musky and smoky with just a trace of sugar-cookie sweetness. A lingering scent, one that gets caught in the nose, at once fresh and dirty. On, wow, I can't really describe this adequately. This is a fast and furious foxtrot of booze, spice, and woodsmoke, wild, sexy, and just a little dangerous. The throw is appealing, booze and sugar, but close in it's not so friendly. The spices mingle with booze for a real kick, and the musk is a livewire jolt to the sinuses – this is a very alive and active scent, energetic. Like doing flaming shots of carbonated alcohol. It's a light scent, not heavy or earthy, but that shouldn't be mistaken for lightness of tone. This is a dusky, shadowy scent all the way, firelight and leaping shadows, and crazy, hard partying. The drier it gets, the spicier it becomes, and yes, there's a resemblance to fresh autumn air. This is a perfect fall scent, wild and a little dangerous, slightly wistful the way you feel wistful when you know the fun has to end and the night's winding down, and sexy like cuddling up with someone who's been in the woodsmoke. I get a strong dose of apple cider from this, too, rum-laced. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. I could go with a mug or two of spiced cider right about now. God, this is glorious. Just glorious.

Sugar! Caramel sugar, sweet white sugar, rich brown sugar, I can smell them all, straight out of the bottle! It goes on a little more smoky than I thought it would, this is definitely a sweet smell but it does have some depth. The fruit notes, if there are any, are very light and very faint, politely in the background. Mostly this is delicious sugar – it smells like cake batter or cookie dough before you've added the flour, when it's just the wet ingredients and sugar all creamed together. With time, it does indeed develop a slightly fruity tang, but it's a faint one, and it is indeed quite candylike.

This is a completely crazy scent – butter rum coconut peppermint cookies! Tasty, tasty, tasty-smelling; festive holiday fun. Minty! This is super-minty on, warm and smooth, like those little butter mints they serve at weddings. One of those tasty smells that just begs you to take a nibble here, a nibble there. It settles down to a really neat scent that is equal parts rum and coconut with just a dusting of cocoa; the mint is almost all gone. I like this. It's cheerful, playful, frisky, and fun, and it evokes lots of nice holiday memories. Mmm! Cookies!

What a fiercely funny scent! The cinnamon and pepper front this in the bottle; this is a spicy blend with a real kick to it. It zip, zip, zips right out of the bottle. With a scent like this, it seems like the oil should be a bright color, but it's not – just pale yellow. It goes on like a holiday air freshener – sharply cinnamon with a warmer, subtler undertone of cloves and a flick of pepper that takes it from sweet to sassy. It's bold, interesting, and just a little reminiscent of hard candy. Once it settles, the pepper fades a bit and the cinnamon and clove settle into a swirly, spicy dance. This one is all heat and fire and warmth, the perfect scent to liven up a chilly October evening, or one to rock in the new holiday season with a red-hot punch of saucy spice. This isn't currently available, so you'll have to find someone to sell you a decant or a secondhand bottle, but it's definitely recommended for those who love cinnamon-based scents. This is very brash and intense.

This is sweet and hazy in the bottle, fruity and herbal with just a hint of incense smoke and musk, no overt green scent of any kind. It smokes up when it goes on, and the fir comes out faintly but not obnoxiously. This is rich and layered, and very golden. The herbs and smoke keep it from smelling too feminine but the throw is a sweet musk tinged with a hint of greenery that is definitely rather girly. I like it quite a bit, though I'm not sure where exactly the persistent fruity note I'm getting is coming from. It smells a bit like apples and a bit like melon. I'm guessing it's the incense mixed with the musk. Very nice.

Just you try and pry this out of my cold, dead hands! In the bottle it smells just gloriously of pumpkin and spices, with just a hint of razzy orange and a faint draft of husky amber. It goes on biteable, yummy, ferociously tasty! The orange peel is the genius note here. I'll be damned, this may be one of the most warmly perfect blends I've smelled yet. I was in Bath and Body Works the other day, sniffing at their pumpkin-flavored stuff, but this slaps the knockoff bottom shelf pumpkin perfumes right to the floor. I need to order another bottle! It's diabolically grand, a warm, biteable cookie of a smell with a huge jack o'lantern grin. I love it. Not for those who don't like pumpkin, but for those who do, it may well be the ultimate Halloween scent.

Foremost in the bottle are the verbena, lavender, and musk. Lemony, zesty, very clean-smelling. Verbena is lemony and herbal at the same time, lavender is a sharp zesty floral with a hint of crumbly herbs. They go well together, I think. There's a whiff of sweetness, too, but ever so faint . . . the coconut. The other notes are too cold in the bottle and I can't smell them. On it goes. Augh! This blasts with a rank combination of verbena lemon drop candy and savage lavender cleaner, a sinus-raping cacaphony of conflicting smells. The vetiver, which I normally love for its masculine authority, combines with the lemon and the lavender to make a smell that's sharper than pine and more pungent than cat pee. The musk, which amplifies anything you put it with, propels this concoction like a nailgun right up my nose. The throw is nothing special, but up close it's so unique my eyes are watering. Underneath lurk the fig and plum, but it's hard to get close enough to smell them. Once it settles a little – and that takes a while – it becomes much more pleasant. It still smells like floor cleaner or hand sanitizer, but at least I can detect the mellow ripeness of fig and the dull, sticky sweetness of the plum underneath the screeching of the vetiver, verbena, and lavender as they have a catfight all over my skin. The coconut unfortunately never comes out. This does dry down to a lovely scent – musk and fig and vetiver, with a faint herbal tinge. But the opening phase is so vile on me I can't conscience wearing it. I hate my chemistry sometimes. I think out of all the concept scents this one is, ironically, the best. Like a barker, it hollers for attention, is generally off-putting, and it clashes horribly. Yet you're drawn in anyway. I hate to end my review cycle on a low note, but this one really didn't work for me, despite the fact that I can wear everything in it but one ingredient. I have to assume that it's the balance of components and not the components themselves that spoil this for me.

This is an astringent and clean musk with a draught of lavender. Wonderful and masculine, yet also inviting. And I mean that. It's very sexually, submissively masculine. When I first smelled it, on Bat Cheva, the sense-image it conjured prompted me to leap from my seat and exclaim "You're my little man-bitch!" Just ask her. (For the record, Babe, I meant Theo, not you.) It smells almost exactly like I expected from the description. This wears a little like Villain, save that this is lighter overall, a trifle more refined, and not quite as deep. It shares the citric twang of Villain, and the musky lavender fougere, but Villain makes me tremble with the force of its restrained power, where this has a lighter touch that only hints at the depth beneath. It bears a passing kinship to Dorian as well, though sans Dorian's cuddly sweetness. The vanilla here is a step down from Dorian's, the lavender fougere a step up, and the musk is, dare I say it, yet more feminine. The tea is what keeps this masculine – clean and dry, chased with bergamot for the citrusy Earl Grey note, and that gives this a dressy manliness. It's unisex, androgynous, even, but definitely edges closer to cologne than perfume. As it dries it sweetens a little, but in a different direction than Dorian. This is the sweetness of florals and pale musk. Quite gentlemanly. Very light, very mysterious. Leger de main indeed. This is a very light-handed scent, sophisticated and cerebral, with just a touch of offhand and unsuspecting sexiness. Recommended for those who like Dorian and Villain, or for those who found those scents an almost-hit, but wanted something just a hair lighter and less sweet. Theodosius: for your irresistible little man-bitch.

This smells like sweetened tea with a twist of lemon and a sprig of mint. Pleasant! Once I put it on, the throw is immediate and fierce: mint and tea, the orange blossom's flowers, and the herbal twang of the lemongrass. Fresh, a little crazy, and very sweet, with just a hint of bite. This is a light scent, cerebral and a bit outré, the open space between the mint and the sugar and the grass is filled with a resonant and almost bitter odor. This smells less like a perfume and more like an odd herbal concoction. Fans of clean, herbal scents like Absinthe and Mantis might enjoy this one. It's light, roomy, and off-kilter demeanor give it an eccentric vibe that's every bit as appropriate to an oddball artist's personality as it is to the dilettante librarienne's. On me, it goes rather powdery, and I'm not a fan of light scents anyway, but this is definitely an interesting scent. It's feminine and kooky, but bracing enough that a brave man could wear it, I think, though it's only barely gender-neutral. Overall, it is notable more for its weirdness than its beauty.

I just want to go on record that I'm deeply opposed to clowns, especially the weeping kind. This is okay, though. Lightly fruity, sweet, a smell just a little like mangos or bananas or Juicy Fruit gum. I suppose that is the guava, but since I have no idea what guava smells or tastes like, I can't say. The pepper isn't immediately apparent but it is definitely there in the after-scent: white powdery pepper! Fun and unusual. On, the floral comes out and the smell is even more reminiscent of Juicy Fruit. This is very female, and just a trifle fruity for me. The pepper is a nice touch, offsetting the sugar. The throw is mostly sugar and fruity flowers. This is definitely a yellow-gold scent, but one with crisp green undertones, an underlying freshness. For all that it has sugar in it, it dries surprisingly light. It gets more floral as it wears, florals and sugars, with that pepper haze still lingering in the background. A faint spice note drifts out, I think probably just the pepper mixed with the sugar, but it's pretty. This, surprisingly, is not soapy on me at all, simply light and smooth. I can see that this is a well-constructed scent, and it's pretty, but it's very much not my thing.