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The nectarine is fairly strong at first, but it smells like nectarine + green. Not really a juicy fruit, it's more subdued. Later it's a mossy, musky scent with a little twinkle of nectarine that honestly smells more like peach to me.

 

I don't mind this scent at all, but if I'm looking for something similar to this scent I'd pick Tamamo-no-Mae over this one. So I guess not a bottle upgrade this time.

I adore plum blossom, and it loves me right back. Smells fabulous on me. Budding Moon smells a lot like Kitsune-Tsuki on me -- another one I like a lot. Similar to Fire Pig, too. (I guess plum blossom and peony is a winning combination for me.) I probably love the bright fruity-florals better than any other kind of floral, so for me this one is great. It's very bright right at the beginning, but after an hour or so it settles down into a lovely soft musky floral.

 

btw... if you love the plum blossom in this and would like to try something even sweeter and more plummy, try Midwinter's Eve.

The first time I wore Chaste Moon I loved it. It smelled soft and creamy, with some very light florals over the top. Just very light and pretty. I've tried to wear it since then and I keep being disappointed because about an hour into it, it develops an artificial plastic-y vanilla scent. For the first hour it's great, but then... not so great.

 

So, I guess I'm going to have to finally give up on this one. I feel sad about that because I actually have some nostalgia associated with this scent from that time I wore it and it was great.

Cold metal and leather, with a little bit of spice. Also, it seems a bit hazy. Not pointed at all. I would like that sort of scent all right, except that something about this particular scent smells like nail polish remover to me. So this one's not going to work for me.

Great nighttime scent! It's a perfumey floral that smells purple to me. Not lavender or violet, but a bright, royal purple. It smells like a happy scent. I don't really get much amber or musk from it, but that's okay because I think it's pretty just as it is.

Bitter vetiver. That's what it smells like to me. It's a dark, gritty scent. Although I like this scent, I like other vetiver blends better. This one seems a little too masculine for me to pull off. Also, it's really strong.

I don't think I smell the herbs in this, but it smells mostly like a spicy (saffron) honey scent. A little sweet from the resins, but not too much. It also smells dry. It's not the bitter herby scent I was imagining it would be at all -- it's a lot smoother than that.

 

I like this one.

Hmmm... lavender and leather, a little bit of citrus, and some fabulous patchouli. Yep, this smells awesome. Exactly the sort of scent I'd like to smell on my husband. Perhaps I can persuade him to get a bottle.

 

I personally would not be able to wear this scent. Not that I don't like it! Only because as I've been sitting here testing it and seeing how it dries down, every time I sniff it I start singing the Pet Shop Boys' song "Casanova in Hell" in my mind. And then I start humming. And before you know it I'd be quietly singing the song. And frankly, I do not need to be absent-mindedly singing, "And above all... his erection... will live... in... history," while I'm out in public somewhere. But my husband never absent-mindedly sings anything, so he'll be safe.

OK, so I have this problem with snowy/slushy blends in that they all basically smell the same on my skin. The exact same cold scent. Occasionally I might get a whiff of a berry or some wood or something, but rarely. I keep trying them, hoping for some lucky combination in which I can smell something OTHER than snow/slush, but it's been pretty disappointing.

However, in this one, I can smell something other than cold! I think I hit the jackpot this time. I can actually tell there are resins in this! I mean, they're still fairly indistinct and covered by snow, but I can smell them! And it smells great!

Before now I've had only two snowy blends in my BPAL box: Snow Bunny and Snow-Flakes. I seriously would not mind adding this one at all. I like it a lot.

Sweet, pretty, soft, and vaguely reminiscent of dryer sheets. Mostly because it's a clean floral scent plus it smells soft. Not that I have dryer sheets that smell like this. I wish!! I think it's very pretty, and although I don't wear floral scents that often, this is exactly the type I'd wear. Soft, light, feminine, and not heady at all.

 

Very nice!

I guess when gunpowder and ozone-y notes combine, they smell sharp like an herby scent on my skin. I can smell a little bit of lime and wood, but no blood and barely any Snake Oil. Mostly just an odd sharpish scent. It does seem slightly salty, and I like that part of it, but I think the gunpowder + sea air is a no go for me.

I smelled the eucalyptus and ozone in this straight off. It definitely has some tang to it. The eucalyptus backs off after a few minutes, and then I get a minty scent that, mixed with the ozone, smells kind of like a minty fizzy alcoholic drink to me. Like gin and tonic and mint. But I bet it's just the ozone giving me that impression.

 

It's refreshing, cool, and crisp. The floral notes come out a little later but they don't dominate at all. It ends up smelling a bit like a soap scent to me, but that's probably because usually I only use mint-scented products in the shower or bath.

 

I truly do like this scent, but whenever I smell it I just sit here wishing I had a scrub with this scent.

This scent reminds me a bit of the Dogs Playing Poker series... maybe because of the tobacco leaf. It's dark and musky, but it has a sweet haze over it from the frankincense. It seems like I can't really smell the lilac, which is disappointing because I usually like that note.

 

Personally, I'm not a big frankincense fan, but I'll hand this over to my husband and see how he likes it.

This is a bright, citrusy scent that smells fun and a little fizzy. The gin part of it isn't too strong for me at all, and the fruits smell juicy and sweet. I know it's called "Golden Wave," but it smells more like an orange-colored scent to me.

 

Great summertime scent! Very playful and cheery.

Well, now! There's something pretty! You know, I thought this would be really overbearing in the flower department, but it's not. Not at all. The vanilla musk and rice flower are pretty strong, and the hold down the other florals very well. It's much more of a creamy scent than florals usually are, and the honeysuckle isn't too heady at all. The carnation gives it a slight spicy kick that combines with that musk very nicely.

 

Soft, lovely, and feminine. Yes, I definitely like this one.

Is there spikenard in this? Is that one of the "witch-herbs"? Because that's what it smells like to me. I can smell a wee bit of florals, but there's an acrid bitter leafy herby scent over the top, and it reminds me a whole lot of spikenard. (I really, really dislike spikenard, in case you can't tell, lol.)

 

Nope, this one just isn't gonna work for me. And oh yay, I sloshed some oil on my fingers while I was opening the vial. Awesome. Now I have to go wash my hands.

I thought this would be a "green" scent, but it seems like it's mostly musky, in that kind of stinging perfumey way. It's green too, but that's not the dominant part of the scent. I'm not sure what davana smells like, but if that's what I'm smelling in this, I like it.

There's something almost sporty about this scent. Like, slightly aquatic. I think that's why it's making me think of cologne. But it's really pretty far under that stinging-ness. I think the white amber is turning a little powdery on me, but it's not bad at all. I think it's mostly taking the edge off the scent.

I would like to wear this for a day (full-on wearing it, not just testing it) and see how it goes. I think this is the sort of scent that would grow on me. It's so different from what I usually wear, but it definitely intrigues me.

I put a little bit of oil on my wrist to try this, and I liked it so much I smeared some more all over the back of my hand. Hee. It's a very interesting scent! It doesn't smell like any one thing to me, really, it's a very good combination of scents. It seems like I can smell a little bit of leather in it, but it's not overbearing at all. The star anise is very well-behaved, and the frankincense is blending with the metallic notes very well.

 

It does seem like this could easily be a masculine scent, but it doesn't seem stringently masculine to me. It's dark and pretty smooth -- smoother than I expected, anyway, based on the description. On me it wears like a skin scent. I like it.

On me, this is a pretty rose. There doesn't seem to be much else going on with it. Just rose. Not particularly green or thorny -- it makes me think of a soft pink rose. Maybe after 30 minutes or so I can smell the faint hint of something else with it, but I'd never be able to guess what it was. Still pretty much rosy!

I waited a while to try a decant of this because I wasn't sure about the wine grape. I'm not usually friends with grape notes. But in this, it doesn't smell like grapes to me. Maybe slightly, but mostly it's wine. Not too strong, either. Also, usually dragon's blood amps rather unreasonably on me, but it's not doing that here.

 

When I first put it on, it had kind of a stingy cherry quality to it, but that faded out when it dried. What's left is that wine scent. It's not a dry wine, though, it's kind of juicy. It blends very well with the floral notes, and the red musk and resin notes are exquisite with it.

 

This is really very pretty. It's my favorite Phoenix so far!

Gritty cherries. That's mostly what it smells like to me. I think there might be some vetiver in it, and there's also something smooth. It smells a bit like a vanilla-cherry combination, but not like a Blow Pop at all due to the dark notes. I think the grittiness is from the vetiver. It smells a bit herby, too. Kinda sharp and bold. But smooth. Interesting.

When I first put this on, it was a soft, tropical floral. Mostly orchid -- a velvety petaly orchid. It doesn't stay that way, though. The "limestone caverns" part becomes noticeable, the scent becomes more humid, and it turns more perfumey. It gets deeper and a little bit darker.

 

To be honest, I'm not all that sure what many of those notes smell like, so I can't tell what I'm smelling. I do know that I can't pick out a vetiver note, but I can pick out the nicotiana (that seems to always be a highly "perfumey" smelling floral on me and not like tobacco at all).

 

It's a pretty, fairly traditional-smelling humid (but not heady hothouse) floral. Deep, a little bit stinging, but with a nice foundation that seems to be from the wet stone note. This is the kind of floral that I like.

I'm really not very familiar with most of the notes listed for this scent, so I'm not going to be very good at describing it. It actually reminds me of well-oiled machinery, in the best possible way. Not like dirty old gross equipment! It's a sharp, strong scent, and it makes me think a little bit of pencils, and metal, and herbs. I think the resins in it are what's reminding me of a sweet, oily, almost sticky scent.

 

This may sound weird, but this smells like a sacred scent to me. Something that would be used in a religious ritual. It has a pureness to it that I enjoy quite a lot.

This smells mostly like very sweet molasses to me, but not just that. On my skin, it has a sharpness to it that's not unlike herbal scents. It's not sort of sticky sweet smoothness -- it definitely has an edge. Almost like there's something green or reedy under there. I wouldn't say this is a foody scent, although it has some of those characteristics. It acts more like a floral scent on me, and I honestly can't describe or explain what I mean by that, except that it's a certain kind of floaty wispiness that I usually only get from florals. Kind of like a soft cloud. Very interesting scent.

I think cypress and violet are the prominent notes in this one, although it does seem to have that sort of peppery scent that I usually associate with cedar. When I first put it on the violet was soft, but that's definitely the floral note that I smell in this. Can't really pick out a rose note. When it was dry the violet not was stronger, but it seemed more velvety than violet usually is, and I bet that's from the rose.

 

If violet is sometimes a little too bright for you, try this one. It's darker and drier than violet usually is because of the wood notes.