filigree_shadow

I like all these notes except the jasmine, and I can't smell any jasmine in this! The citrus note and the plum are prominent when it's wet, but as it dries the darker notes get stronger. It turns quite perfumey, as you'd probably expect with those notes, but it's perfumey in the best way possible. Smells like very expensive perfume. Not at all like generic department store perfume. It's elegant and beautiful, and it's definitely more of a nighttime scent than a daytime one. I can't point to any one note in particular -- it's very well-balanced -- so I can't really tell you what this smells like. I just know I like it.

When I'm close up to this scent, I smell the moss, but I can't smell it in the scent that wafts up from my wrist. It mostly smells like a creamy red currant when my wrist is the usual distance away from my nose. Very sweet and very red. I like it a bunch, but my skin butchers that cream note and turns it into plastic. I'm super sad about that because if it weren't for that I would want a bottle of this. I love the patchouli and moss with that sweet red fruity scent. The sweet red currant really is the strongest note on my skin, even when it's dry, and I have MB: Bloody Mary for this type of scent -- that one works really well on me, so I'll just stick with that one.

I've had this decant for a looooong time, and I'm just now getting around to writing a review for it. I've tried it a couple of times, but I've never worn it. To me it smells like a very calming, relaxing scent. There's a distinctly soapy quality to it, but it's rather pleasant. It's herby and smells light purple. I looked at all the other reviews and most of them mention lavender, so yeah, I guess that's probably what it is. Never got a big blast of it, though, and generally lavender is pretty obnoxious on me. Of course, this oil is probably 4 years old at this point, so it has probably changed somewhat. This isn't a scent I'd wear, but I like it fine.

Considering the state of the economy and other worldwide woes, I think we all need a little extra dose of good luck. A sweet, comforting base of dark chocolate and brown sugar with thirteen herbs of good fortune, including nutmeg, Tonka, allspice, star anise, Jamaican and African gingers, devil’s shoestring, lucky hand root, and thyme. When it's wet, the anise in it is the strongest note, making it smell like licorice. Like licorice and... and root beer. Ginger? Absent. Other spices? Gone fishing, evidently. This smells like what it would taste like if I had one of those root beer-flavored hard candies in one side of my mouth and a piece of black licorice in the other side. It's not as bold as that would be, but that's the general feeling. When it's dry, that whole licorice-root-beer combination goes away and I'm left with a vaguely spicy scent over a base of anise. Good grief. What a mess. Well, I guess sooner or later my skin chemistry was going to have to foul up one of these Thirteens, and it looks like this is the one.

Eek, this one is not good on me. Smells dusty and musty. Yikes. It makes me think of my grandmother's sweater that has been sitting in a drawer all summer and she didn't wash it before she wore it in the winter and she smells kind of like a musty sweater. There is no way I can get away from that association with this -- that's exactly what it smells like to me. So, no. Not gonna work for me.

I have no idea what the most prominent note in this is. Must be a combination of things because it doesn't smell like one thing in particular. A bit of tobacco and musk, but it's slightly sour. Not in a bad way, to be honest. It just smells a little off. I don't dislike it, but there are other masculine scents I like better. Generally perfume oils smell different on my husband than they do on me, so I'll hand this one over to him and see whether he likes it.

This started out very perfumey (from the frankincense, I bet) and then turned slightly less perfumey. It's herby without smelling like any particularly herb -- it just has that sort of harsh, kind of bitter scent I associate with herby scents. I guess that's from the sage and galangal. It seems like there's a little bit of pepperiness to it, too. It's not floral or resiny or woody; this is one of those ones that's hard to put into a category. To me, it kinda just smells like a generic perfume. It's not bad, just not a standout for me.

I generally like the leather + berry combination, and I like it in this. The leather is really soft, though. Not very prominent on me. I'm not sure that I'm crazy about the cognac in this, which is odd to me since I figured leather and cognac would smell good together. It's a softer scent than I imagined it would be, probably due to the cream (which thankfully is not turning to plastic on me in this one like it usually does). Plus, when I read "brown paper bag" I didn't think that would be one of the notes involved, but I'd swear it is. There's a dry papery note in here too. It ends up being a sweet creamy fruity scent with a leather undertone. Quite lovely. I like this, and it works. The only reason I'm not going to look for a bottle of it is that I think I already found my leather true loves, which are Nanny Ashtoreth and Le Père Fouettard. I think Miller vs. CA would definitely grow on me if I wore it often enough, but... damn, I just have so many bottles. I'm trying to be super picky these days. In a death match between this and Nanny, Nanny wins. But I like this. Crap. I'll keep the decant and wear it a few times, and later I'll decide whether I need more. That seems reasonable.

Wasabi, pu-erh and Touareg teas, green cedar, myrrh, white sage, khus, frankincense, and coriander. Green and weird. I don't know how else to describe this scent. Something in it smells vaguely aquatic to my nose, but it also smells like a super-sweet powder, with a bizarre spicy kick from the wasabi and coriander. Green, peppery, powdery water. See? I told you. Weird.

Let me preface this by saying that I often like vetiver. A few types of vetiver are BLECH ARGH on me, but often it smells like a dry, smoky, grassy scent on me. Sort of like tall reedy brown grass that somehow got a bit singed on the edges. It's quite appealing, and nothing at all like the hideous grossness that other people describe. Velvet Tiger smells like that vetiver I just described (dry, smoky tall grass) with tangerine and cinnamon. The cinnamon is not too strong, and the tangerine/orange notes lighten up the scent a lot. It seems like I can smell the licorice in it too, but just a little bit. It gives the tangerine note a little extra twang. This isn't something I'd wear every day, but it's something I most definitely like.

I smelled pumpkin straight off, and then a few minutes later it disappeared. Ends up smelling like red musk, berries, and carnation. (Thank goodness no jasmine.) The musk and the fruit seem to be the dominant notes. I think the pumpkin is holding down the red musk just a little bit, and I bet the fig is helping out with that too. But when it's dry I can't pick out either of those notes individually. I'm a sucker for red musk blends, and I like this one. It smells more playful than red musk usually smells because of the berries.

At first it smells like pastries, but then it smells like cookies. Cookies with some spices on. The spices are not too strong at all, they're very enjoyable (and I'm a gal who doesn't like spicy scents). Argh, I have so many foodie scents! Do I need another one? Hem. Haw. Wibble. This one smells really good, but my other ones smell really good too. On my skin, this one smells close to something I already have, but for some reason the name of it isn't coming to mind. I guess I don't need another one that smells so similar to something I already have.

Hm, apple blossom? So why does this smell peachy on me? I'm sniffing pretty hard, and I can't turn that peachy scent into something that smells like apples no matter how hard I try. Nope, it just honestly really smells like peaches on me. The florals are there but not prominent -- can't pick any single one out -- and the musk, amber, and sandalwood give it a good firm base. But mostly it seems like a soft fruit scent. Not a loud one, a soft one. Pretty and feminine. It wears fairly close to the skin. I like this, and I'll definitely keep my decant.

I sort of expected the jasmine in this to overpower the other notes, but it doesn't. The tea rose does. It seems like I can smell a little bit of vanilla bourbon, but mostly it's a soft rosy scent. It's a good rose, but it doesn't seem like there's much else going on.

This decant has been sitting in my "to test" box for about 18 months. I kinda forgot it was in there. It's not one I would have set aside to age because generally I don't try to age florals. I guess it just got lost for a while. Anyway, this smells like ROSE. Basically, just rose. A wee bit of myrrh, but not much. It doesn't smell like a cute pink rose or an innocent white rose, it's smells red and a bit thorny. Slightly greenish. Not dewy or soft.

I wish I had written down my thoughts about Dionysia when I first got the decant 18 months ago. The only thing I remember about it was thinking that it had benzoin, patchouli, and mahogany in it, so I'd give it a while to age. But now I don't remember what it was about the scent that I disliked when it was fresh. I'll tell you what I do know, though: The aged version is FAB. Raspberry notes sometimes go weird and chalky on me -- it's not. Frankincense sometimes gets too high-pitched and sweet on me -- it's not. This is all deep and beautiful with a plum overtone. The throw isn't super strong, but it's basically exactly at the level I like: I can catch whiffs of it from my wrist from time to time, but I don't feel like I'm sitting in a cloud of it. When I put my nose directly to my wrist, I don't like it as well (it's a bit too sweet), but the wafty scent is great. A deep, dark, sweet plum.

I didn't get lemon from this at all. I got grapefruit. It smells like the same grapefruit top note I get from Manhattan. Maybe because of what else is in with it, I'm not sure. The citrus scent fades out after an hour so, as citrus notes do, and what's left is a really nice musky skin scent. It's not loud at all, it's sweet and clean-smelling. I wouldn't say "fresh" because it's too musky to be fresh. I can see why people have described it as smelling like soap, but that's not what leaps to mind for me. It's just nice and soft.

Creamy, sweet violets. Personally, I really like this scent. I've worn it several times while just hanging around the house, and I enjoy it. I like violets -- it's one of the few floral notes I truly like and don't just tolerate -- and this sweet soft version is pretty. The creamy part of the chocolate note goes a little bit wonky on me after an hour or so (creaminess tends to do that on me), but unless my nose is right next to my skin I don't notice it. So that didn't bother me too much. My husband, though... not his fave. He walked in the room about an hour ago and said, "Something smells weird in here." I said, "Does it smell like wet dog? Because the dogs were just out in the snow." He said, "No. Smells like BPAL. But one I don't like." I held out one wrist. "Nope, not that one." Held out the other wrist. "It's that one. It smells better close up, but from the doorway it doesn't smell good." Poor White Chocolate and Sugared Violets. Voted icky by the hubby. (Also, he could smell it from the doorway? Damn. I just put some oil on my wrist. I thought the scent was just in a small little area right around me. I couldn't even smell it that well. Sheesh, I wonder if I'm bowling people over with my perfume without realizing it.)

This is sweeter and bolder than I expected, and it also smells a bit sportier than I would have imagined. Sort of like cologne, but without any kind of twang. It's smoother than cologne smells to me. It's actually kind of fresh scent, but usually when I think of fresh I think "green," and this isn't green at all. Personally, I'm not really getting musky or sexy from this like other people did. It's one of those scents that I like and I find entirely pleasant, but it's not enough of a standout to make me want a bottle of it. It's what I think of as an everyday scent, not something for a special occasion, but something you could wear all the time.

Nummy. I'm pretty sure I can smell all four of the listed notes for this scent. Probably the most prominent one on my skin is the wood note, but it's not the sort of scent that you sniff and think "That smells like wood." Yeah, it has a woody tone, but it doesn't smell like a stick of wood. The coffee and pipe smoke are really good in it. My husband tried it on when I got the decant a long time ago, and it got the raised-eyebrows "Ooooo!" reaction from him. So now he has a bottle of it. It's too masculine for me, but it smells GREAT on him. He loves scents like Misk U, and this one has a similar feel.

Pink, cloudy, and sweet (but not teeth-achingly sweet). It smells fluffy and girlie. The cherry and strawberry in it are there, but they're kind of a backseat to that fluffy sort of marshmallow-y scent. They just make it smell PINK. I loooove this one. I think every time I've worn it I've gotten a compliment. Other people like it too. This was the only "Velvet" scent that I bought a whole bottle of, and I'm super glad I did.

Yep, clove for sure. Dry wood and clove. The clove is a trifle overpowering for my taste, but I don't really like spicy scents. People who like spices should definitely try this, though. It's warm, dry, and very pleasant. It doesn't smell particularly masculine, either, if you were worried about that.

Smells just like the description says: red jelly. It's quite wine-y at first, but that only lasts for a few minutes on me. Then it's a bright fruity red scent. I've tested this three times, and all three times it had almost no staying power on me at all. Fades out within 30 minutes. So it's not a keeper for me. I like the scent, though!

Smells like alcoholic cherries when it's wet. Then it smells like pastries. Then after an hour the only thing left is soft apricot with just a hint of pastry crust. Interesting. I like it. Smells yummy. (Not when it's wet. It's a bit harsh when wet. But I like it a lot when it's dry.)

Fruity and very sweet. I'm sitting here sniffing trying to pick out which note is strongest, but I don't think I can. I wouldn't have guessed there was violet or pear in this -- those are pretty distinct on me, and I can't smell them. Just a wee bit of coconut. It's not too fruity, like FRUIT. I think the caramel and floral notes keep it balanced.