filigree_shadow

Usually when I try a new perfume, I try to figure out which notes are prominent and which ones I like, or which ones I could do without, or whatever. I can't even tell you what I smell in this one, because when I sniff it all I can think is that it smells like Vixen Lite. It very definitely has a Snake Oil vibe to it, but it smells more like Vixen than Snake Oil to me, only softer. It's not as bold as Vixen. I think of Vixen as a nighttime scent, and this is like the daytime version. I know they don't have anything in common other than patchouli, but on my skin they're similar.

I love Snake Oil and Vixen, and I already ordered 2 bottles of WILF. It's just going to get better with age -- 2 bottles can't possibly be too much.

Dammit. Plastic coconut.

The same plastic coconut scent I get from Snow White and Spooky. The thing is, coconut isn't always bad on me. Sometimes it's just fine. But sometimes it does this dreaded artificial weird plastic thing.

Tiki Princess v3 works on me beautifully. This one doesn't.

Eep. Powdery blue sort of menthol-ish minty weirdness at first, and ends up smelling like evergreen powder. I don't think this one agrees with me. It's too bad, because the other Blue Moons I've tried have been pretty good.

It smelled like perfumey jasmine at first (one of my least favorite floral notes), but then turned into lily (one I usually like). The clove is really soft but noticeable, and after a while the vanilla comes out more. It was heading in a good direction -- elegant and sophisticated -- and then BLAMMO. It went crazy. Overly sweet hazy perfumey floral mess.

I don't know what happened. I think maybe the ylang ylang kicked in. That's usually problematic for me.

Sweet, candyish, and a bit fizzy. It doesn't really smell pink, though, it smells more like orange candy. Innocent and cute.

Dandelions and lilacs. Not overly floral, and a bit grassy. That's what it smells like to me. Like the backyard where I grew up.

I'm not a fan of dandelion scents, but I know there are lots of people who love them -- definitely try this one. It smells very true.

Sweet, musky, a little soapy. Not very strong.

I'm kinda underwhelmed by this, and I thought I'd like it.

Maybe I'll try it again later.

I don't really smell any fruit in this. It's dark, dry, slightly green, and smoky.

After about 45 minutes, I kept catching wafts of it from my wrist, and I didn't know what I was smelling so I asked my husband if he'd just put on Samhain. That's kinda what it reminds me of from a distance -- dark and smoky like that.

Cold notes amp unreasonably on me so I usually don't like wintry blends, but I've found that ones that also have berries are usually my favorites. This one is a favorite for sure. It smells chilly but not starkly cold, and the sweet berries are soft and nice.

Snow Bunny is my all-time winter favorite, and I'll have to do a side-by-side test to see whether I like this one better. It's been a long time since I tried a winter blend that I thought was even close enough to as good as Snow Bunny to do a death match.

Soft, sweet tea with citrus. The violet comes out more when it's dry, and I like violet so that's good. It's mostly sweet and fresh-smelling.

Surprisingly, I think this one is my favorite of the "Dance" blends. Probably the one I consider most wearable from day to day. It's the sort of scent I don't have to be in any particular mood for, it's the kind of thing I enjoy all the time.

Ginger, and something kind of cakey (not like gingerbread, more like yellow cake) and faintly spicy, and Sprite. But the fizzy lemon-lime soda scent is really only noticeable if my nose is close to my skin. From regular wafting distance I can't really smell the fizziness -- which is great for me because I don't usually like fizziness.

It's a much different scent than Gingerbread Poppet.

I may have reviewed this for a previous year; I don't remember.

I got a decant of this just in case it smells different than my MWE 05, and nope! Still smells the same. Very sweet plummy goodness. Very very lightly floral -- just a breath of flowers. Pretty much just bright pretty plum. It doesn't seem to be quite as strong as MWE 05, but that's probably because I use more oil from a bottle and I'm just doing a decant test here.

This scent is one of my favorites to wear in the spring.

Mr Vandemar creeps me out in Neverwhere, but this scent doesn't.

The imp-sniff is very metallic, almost like oiled machinery, but when the oil is on my skin, it doesn't smell like that. It smells dark but not dank, peppery but not spicy, and smoky but not like something is burning. It smells slightly creepy but not unhinged. To be honest, I find it kinda comforting, and wouldn't mind having this as a room scent, even though it's a little too masculine for me as a perfume.

The pepper is pretty strong, so if you like peppery scents definitely try this.

Kinda stinging. I think if this had all those notes except iris, I'd like it fine. It's doing this weird thing where it smells powdery, perfumey, and stinging (like almost metallic) all at once.

Man, this is just not my day for perfumes. Nothing I've tested today has worked for me.

I like the saffron and amber in this, making the scent smell warm, but the red musk and ozone combination really doesn't smell all that great on me. It just smells a little weird.

Yikes, this one doesn't smell right on me. Almost acrid. There's a little bit of chocolate, but there's also something bitter combined with something that smells like a bathroom air freshener. (That would be the pom acting up -- it apparently gets a huge kick out of making me smell bad. That's one of its favorite tricks. Does it all the time.) The whole combination smells extremely OFF.

Not cool, pomegranate. Not cool at all.

This smelled mostly like apple blossom on me at first, and then... oranges? Why am I getting something that reminds me of orange, or orange blossom? Is that what rhubarb smells like?

Like everyone else, I figured that something with patchouli, dark musk, and leather would be pretty dark, but this totally isn't. It smells mostly like fruit with a soft musk behind it. Not bad, but not what I was expecting.

The apple blossom is the strongest on me at first. Can't say I really smell any mint. After about 5 minutes, the apple blossom fades out a little, and honey comes out. Honey with a sweet apple tinge to it.

Honey often has a play-doh scent on my skin, but it appears to be behaving in this one. It's nice and smooth. When it's dry, sometimes when I sniff it I smell all honey, and sometimes all apple. Weird.

A fellow of infinite dirt, of most excellent drydown.

I don't even know why I bothered to try this. Soil notes amp so much on me -- way past the borderline of enjoyability. This was just bleah dirt for two hours, and then BEHOLD! A pretty, lightly spicy, ghostly earthy scent. I don't know where the hell that came from, because I assumed I would just continue to smell like sweet black dirt until I washed my wrist. I like it after a couple of hours, but no way I'm living through that dirt nightmare just to get to the good part.

It's the same on me as everyone else.

Snake Oil plus caramel/burnt sugar, something that smells a bit nutty, and gentle spices. I wear Snake Oil and the various Snake Pit scents with alarming regularity, and this is one I'd have in the standard rotation if I had a bottle of it. I'm generally not a huge fan of the burnt sugar scent (like Sugar Skull), but it's light enough in this that I like it more than usual.

Vinland smells like a soft berry scent at first, but then some grassy, sort of meadowy notes come out when it's dry. I like the berry in it, but grassy notes often aren't a favorite for me and usually end up hurting more than helping a blend. I don't mind this scent -- it's soft and pretty, and I can see why people like it -- but it doesn't suit me personally.

I ordered a bottle of this straight away because I knew I was going to LOVE it. I love all those notes.

I eagerly put some oil on, prepared to take in a big whiff and fall over ded of fabulousness, and... well, that didn't happen. Instead I raised and eyebrow and wondered if it was going to morph at all. I mean, surely the fabulousness was just around the corner, possibly in dry-down. Sniffed later. And again later. Nope, it doesn't change.

On me it smells similar to a sharper and less licorice-y version of Le Père Fouettard. I read all the comparisons to Spanked, but it's been like 4 years since I smelled Spanked and I have no idea what that smells like anymore. I do know that this is a leather note that I like -- sleek, dark leather -- but I expected it to be warm and nutty too. It's kinda not. It's black leather, some bitterness from the coffee I guess, and some faint spices. The coffee does come out more when it's dry, and I like that, but...

I don't know. This scent is unusual. I think I'll have to wear it a few times and see how it goes.

I like all the notes in this except ivy (and I don't know what hyssop smells like), so I expected to like this. I didn't expect to like it quite this much. The patchouli is stronger than I thought it would be, and for me that's a good thing. It smells dry but rich at the same time. The dryness of it reminds me of Chrysanthemum Moon or Crypt Queen -- other fall favorite of mine. And it really does smell autumnal, for sure.

Very nice. It needs a little while to age, but I already like it a lot.

I bought this back when I was unable to resist anything with red musk in it and basically bought everything red-musky. Fast-forward to a couple of years later, and these days I honestly have to be careful how often I wear red musk blends or I'm going to get burned out on it. I'm a lot more picky about these now.

But! Red musk + fruit is one of my favorite combinations. Sweet fruits with it give the musk a playful quality that I don't really get from it when there's no fruit note in the blend. I like this mango in this, but I like strawberry better (e.g., in Mania and Hollywood Babylon), and I'm not sure the tea note in this is my favorite.

So, although I like this, I'm going to let it go. *sigh* It's pretty, but I like others better.

Anything that has rosewood in the list of notes is going to be an automatic must-try for me.

This one has a strong rum & almond scent in the beginning, but the rum mostly goes away after about 10 minutes, and the drydown is kind of a woody, almondy, rosy scent. Unfortunately, one of the times I tried it, it went kind of powdery, and another time the rose in it smelled like a soapy rose.

I'm going to let this settle down for a while and try it again in a few months because I'm not willing to give up on it yet. I feel like it can be better, it just hasn't gotten there yet.