Northernminx

I expected this to be a lot sweeter than it was. Warm and glowing, certainly, but in the way of wood and incense. This reminds me of an old book store I was in during a New Orleans summer, slightly dusty, lots of warm cedar smells and sun slanting through the windows. It is definitly warm, but a little too earthy for me. Off to swaps.

Aw crap Lemon verbana... It's like a big huge warning sign that has yet to stop me from trying every scent anyway, but it's still neon orange and ugly and flashing "Minx, lemon and you don't get along." Well I tried again. Maybe just maybe... Nope there's that lovely pledge smell that my chemistry makes out of anything resembling citrus. Like Darkmother I hate it when a gorgeous complex scent gets wonkied by my chemistry. Sigh. Off to swaps with the phantasm.

One of the few civet blends that hasn't smelled like ...er...dirty diaper... on me. This was a pleasant surprise in and of itself, but overall this one just didn't do much for me. A faintly musty earthy scent at first, this dried down into the vague incensey smell of opium. The opium itself is great, not overly strong but actually just sort of sits there on my skin without really making me notice it much until it skitters away. Off to swaps with ye.

Hrm... heliotrope and lemon grass? Those were the only notes I THINK I was able to pick out and even then I'm not certain as I'm not very good at pegging notes. Warm, bright, sunny, and cheerful. This did what most lemony scents to on me when they don't go pledge and turned into lemon parfait. A nice, bright and illuminating scent but not for me. I will note that while I enjoy trying the tarot oils, I don't use them in any sort of ritual way so I can't quite comment there.

This doesn't last terribly long on me, at least not today but it is gorgeous. Warm and golden and exotic, like a cat slinking around the temple. Initially a burst of cherry and almond, fades into sultry amber and lots of yummy lotus. I didn't get a lot of spice on this, but warm golden lotus, very soft, slinky, sexy and uber-feminine. Definite keeper.

I didn't get much rose from this, rather a rich, warm golden dusky musk. This was exotic and faintly spicey with a hint of floral underneath. As others have noted it didn't strike me as particularly masculine scent. Exotic, gorgeous, warm, but not really masculine.

Prim, proper, and haughty. Lots of rose in the bottle, this is a formal, almost stiff rose scent. I didn't get much narcissus, mostly just rose but it's a rose that refuses to be ignored for as long as this scent remains. Very much a nice and neatly tucked in, proper feminine scent that leaves no room for anything else. This didn't last terribly long on me despite it's backbone. I am also apparantly rather allergic to narcissus as I keep sneezing. Hrm...off to swaps with ye.

Desperately wanted to love this one, the berries and amber with a touch of floral were GORGEOUS when I first applied. Rich and yet refined and I was totally thrilled. Something in this powders out on my chemistry though and I now smell like rather expensive baby powder. It's not an unpleasant smell but I want the first phases back so this one goes off to swaps much to my dismay.

A little bit citrus, sparkling and bright in the vial. On me this was very musky, and very masculine, golden smooth, and sophisticated but masculine. This was sort of a non-vanilla Golden Priapus to me, very rich and heady and as with Queen of Diamonds, I get the scent of what I imagine a ritzy upper class commerical perfume SHOULD smell like - but never manages to. Gorgeous but decidedly male so I think this one will either get tried on Jake or swapped.

I was really uncertain about Queen of Diamonds at first as citrus notes tend to overwhelm scents with my chemistry. The grapefruit was apparant in the first few minutes but quickly faded down into a light floral, icy and chilly and reminding me of a slightly less intense version of Szessapony. There's a touch of orchid, not really getting much rose and a faint underlay of the lemonbark and mandarin. This is proud, crystaline, regal. I have to agree it was the epitomy of a department store expensive perfume - or rather what those perfumes want to be so I'm still not quite certain on this one. It's gorgeous just not really...me.

Eucalyptus in the bottle, a little medicinal so that had me worried. Wearing this is gorgoeus however, lots of mint, fresh and light eucalyptus and a faint chilly sweet floral under all that. Crystaline and cold and beautiful without being over-powering. This was particularly nice today as I have a cold and for some reason found this extra soothing.

Has anyone thought to ask beth if there's a common base note? It would seem to me that she couldn't be using the same base note or oil in all the blends as it would rather defeat the purpose of having soooo many different blends. I don't think she uses carrier's so wouldn't the blends be made up of the scents listed in them? I also noticed a lot on the list were foody/spicey scents so it's possible that whatever is used in those blends is reacting badly with chemistry - or that you're skin chemistry when you tried them was running that way. I'm not sure if you tried them all around the same time or not. It's also possible they're mixing with any scented soaps you might be using (you mentioned lush so that's just a guess.) I don't particularly find a lot of incense notes in most of the blends unless they are supposed to be incense-ish but as has been pointed, chemistry goes a long way to amping up certain notes. I do get a "generic BPAL" smell from my box but I figure i'm storing 16 5ml's and over 30 imps in there so it's bound to have all sorta mingled up in one waft of BPAL. Oddly I've found only one blend so far that has smelled like that scent and I can't for the life of me recall which one that was.

Pine tree in a bottle...interesting but a bit scary. I'm not a pine bough sorta girl you see. Of course I know better so I tried Mistletoe out today and am so very glad I did. Dead on pine forest scent but this is lighter than I anticipated. Crystal snows, light winds, evergreen boughs. This settles into a gentle undertone of pine and the faintest whisp of green and white flowers. delicate, not overpowering, fresh and clean but long lasting. Beautiful.

Bright red berries in the bottle, this managed to go to a little more plum on me. Juicy, ripe, gorgeous plums. There's a sweetness to this with the sugar, keeping this from being too tart. This is similar to Jester on me for a while but the floral and cool sweetness really come through as this dries down. Gorgeous, totally gorgeous.

Well I was very torn on this scent because as others have noted it seems to dry very similar to Dana O' Shee which is one of my absolute favorite oils ever. That should have meant I instantly loved it but I try not to keep things TOO similar around. I ended up having to put this, Dana O'Shee and Black pearl on different parts of my arm to test the differences (by the way they layer nicely ) In the bottle, very coconut with a trace of a light floral. On my skin, I don't find this as cold as others do but rather a warm, glowing scent. it's wintery, but because it's light and a little creamy it's not really a cold scent. It's more curled up under a warm blanket or the sometimes strangely warm breezes we get after it snows. This is decidedly just a bit lighter, sweeter and a touch more floral than Dana O'Shee. I've heard there's Lily musk in this and it seems to be peeking through under that warm buttery goodness. A definite keeper

I wanted to love this so very much. The berries never really show up on me and my chemistry ate the pine and then there was just this wierd grapfruit like smell. I'm not huge on grapefruit and I'm just sorta crushed my chemistry hates this one so much. Where's the snow? Where's the pine? Where's the berries? Why do I smell like frozen grapefruit? :Sob:

Gingerbread, gingerbread, Gingerbread. This is less sweet than I thought it would be and a little more spicey, but still very very yummy and a dead ringer for the actual thing. The clove and spice are more predominant as this dries down but there are still hints of nutmeg. Gorgeous, yummy, and everyone keeps thinking something is baking as I walk by

Deceptively light in the bottle, I sort of wondered if there would be anything to this when I put it on. Yuletide stayed elusive for a bit and then suddenly there was a pine tree on my wrists. Deep green, crisp, evergreens, cool and refreshing. The pine never got as strong as it does with Black Forest on me, which was thankful as I love a smell of evergreen - just not that much. Holly berries worked there way in during the dry down, warm and glowing, bright and juicy. I can still smell the evergreen under it so I'm feeling rather like a Christmas wreath but I'm loving it. A definite keeper for cold winter days when something clean and bright but not summery is a must.

This dried down into rose fairly quickly for me, but a sort of sick, sweet, sticky rose that I couldn’t quite stomach. Something in this just hated me, and the whole combination was a cloying, smokey, almost gagging concoction. I tend to be wary of black musk as it can get really heavy on me but I was hoping the myrrh and rose would soften it up. I KNOW it’s not the blend itself since it was GORGEOUS in the bottle but on me, oh dear my skin does NOT like.

The theory at the office today is that Beth went out to a rose garden, plucked one last frozen bloom off, and liquified it in a blender to obtain this scent. The description does not lie and for all my stunned adoration, I can't figure out how she did it, but did oh she certainly did. Gorgeous, lush, dew covered fresh off the bush shining beautiful rose. There is nothing dry or dusty or powdery about this flower, it truely is the scent of a fresh cut perfect rose, stem and all. It brings to mind a past visit to a rose garden in Switzerland where all the roses were nourished with melted glacier water. This is the bottled scent of that garden, green and lush and beautifully chilly. A keeper? Are you kidding me I'd bathe in this if I could. Perfection. I don't think another rose scent will ever live up to this one again.

Lots of peppermint and mild musks at first this was a little almost medicinal for the first few minutes. An undercurrent of spruce and greens came into play under that before the whole blend sweetened into sweet apple maybe? Something fruity that I can’t quite place. yumminess. Mmmm definite keeper. Light, cool, wintery and lovely, feminine. I thought this would be a lot colder on me, but after the initial zap of ice this is cooling without being overly distant, subtle, and reserved and a bit less frosty than I anticipated with my chemistry.

Dead ringer for the real thing, warm and sweet and a touch of spice. This is absolutely gorgeous and lots of staying power without being that cloying overly sweet smell some foody scents get. Definitely a keeper.

Plum plum plum! Fruity and bright and lush. This reminded me of a more eastern Tzadikim Nastarum. I love the musks grounding this one a bit, soft and exotic and positively ripe. Very nice!

Lots and lots and lots of Jasmine. For some reason it overpowered almost everything else in this blend for most of the wear time. I was about to give up on it when the myrrh popped up and softened this into something mysterious and soft and smokey. Gorgeous, dark floral but not quite me. Off to swaps

tooth-ache sweet in the bottle, I was a little afraid of this one but since I don't have anything inherantly against foody scents, no worries. On application? Holy moses this is like strapping a sugar cookie to your wrist! Sweet, almost overly so on me. I was impressed by how dead-on sugar cookie this really was, just like I had a plate of them fresh baked on the counter. Wierdly my chemistry didn't much like this and after about twenty minutes this soured and went rancid on me. Sour sugar cookies? I don't think so. Gorgeous and unique scent but I'll find someone who will properly worship it since my skin is silly.