grrrlennyl

Gothic Horror On: Mostly dusty, with a hint of incense and wood. Half an hour in: This is really interesting. The wood notes aren't going funky on me, and the myrrh is such a wonderful earthy scent. It's also nice and dusty. So evocative. 1.5 hours later: This is much lighter now, but still a dusty wood scent, with a hint of incense. I'm getting the benzoin more now. 2.5 hours later: Yeah, definitely more benzoin, but still a dusty wood scent, too. 6 hours later: Sweet woods and dust. Overall: Just lovely. I didn't think I'd like this based on the notes, but it smells really great on me.

A dusky, yet effervescent mix of pomegranate and black currant candies, with a dusting of sugared pear and white apple. On: Exactly like the description. I adore this. Half an hour in: So pretty. Sugary and slightly fruity. 1.5 hours in: Sweet and powdery. Love it. 2.5 hours in: Fruity and powdery. 6 hours later: Sweet and powdery. Overall: I really, really like this. It's fun, but not childish.

VILF On: Wow. So delicious. Sweet honey, tons of patchouli, musk, and dusty sandalwood. I'm worried about all of the "red" notes and the cedar, but we'll see what happens. 5 hours in: This is great. Incredibly sexy and earthy and delicious. Overall: A keeper. I'm so glad I have a bottle of this.

In Reilig Oran On: OMG. So beautiful. Earthy and mossy and watery. I adore this. 1 hour in: There's a sweetness to the mossiness of this now. It's very well-blended and lovely. 2 hours later: I really like this a lot. It's still earthy and mossy, with a fresh sweetness to it. 3.5 hours later: This is so comforting, especially if I keep reapplying it. 4.5 hours later: Green and not as fresh and bright as at first. Overall. I'm going to keep this and say how much I wear it. I really wish it would stay the same as when I first put it on.

Giant Squid On: Sweet, heady, and dark. I can also get some of the saltiness and the teas. Lovely. 1 hour in: This is disappearing pretty quickly on me, so I'm thinking of putting more on. 2 hours in: I put more on, but this is going sort of odd on me. My skin chemistry is so difficult. I think it might be the juniper berry taking over and making this smell woodsy. 3.5 hours in: This still smells off on me, so I put on a bit more. It's definitely more of a fresh apple-y scent with lots of aloe. I wonder if it's the aloe that's killing this on me. 4.5 hours in: BLAH! Vegetable-y and woodsy. Boo. Overall: My skin sucks sometimes.

Reindeer Poop On: Cocoa, maple syrup, and patchouli? Yum. 1.5 hours in: Soft and sweet, with a hint of cocoa. 3 hours in: Still sweet, but not overwhelming. I'm getting a nice, smooth base of patchouli and cocoa. Overall: This is a really interesting, but simple, blend. I would think I'd be OHMYGOD about it, but it's just sort of meh on me.

Lady Lilith On: Roses, and opium poppy, and musk. Nice. 1 hour in: Just powdery. 1.5 hours in: I added some more because this was fading so fast. I'm definitely getting the mandarin now, which is nice. 3.5 hours in: A powdery floral with a hint of sweetness. 6 hours in: Sweet and powdery. Overall: This is pretty, but just not very interesting on me.

Gold Phoenix On: Wow. I'm mostly getting verbena, with a hint of something sweeter underneath. Beautiful. 1 hour in: Lovely, powdery amber with the citrus scent of verbena. Lovely. 5 hours in: Citrussy amber. So nice. Overall: This is an incredibly beautiful scent, but I'm not sure if it's something I would reach for often.

On: Lots of lavender, with a bit of the honeyed milk (yum) and baby powder. Very pretty. 1 hour in: This is turning to a baby powder/wood scent on me. 2 hours in: Just an odd wood scent. 5 hours in: A powdery, sweet scent. Overall: It's funny how an oil can develop on someone's skin. I don't know where the wood scent was coming from, but it seemed to be that way for a while on me. I wonder if the frankincense or sage were just going funky on me. If it stayed more of a sweet, powdery scent, it would be more "me", but alas...

Quick Grope Under the Mistletoe On: Fruity, spicy wine. And I mean SPICY. Lots of cinnamon and clove, I think. 1.5 hours in: Mostly warm spices with a hint of fruit. 3 hours in: Warm spices and a tiny bit of red fruit. 4 hours in: Just warm spices. Overall: I'm not really warm spices sort of gal, unless there's something else that goes along with it.

On: Heavy, lush flowers. Half an hour later: This seems to have mostly disappeared, leaving me with a faint leafy smell. 2 hours in: Faint flowers. No musk. So sad. Overall: This just went boring on me. It's really sad because I love most of the notes. Sad.

Fuwu Bansaku in Ruined Temple With Black Monster on Umbrella Note: Red sandalwood is a note that goes really awful on me, as is vetiver. I'm kinda scared. On: Wow. I'm getting an almost-burning wood scent, with something slightly sweet (probably the tonka) trying to poke through. 1 hour in: Much sweeter. It's hard to pick out th enotes, but I think I can catch the tonka. No black currant to my nose. However, I am getting a very strong woodsy scent underneath that sweetness that smells a bit "off" on me. 2 hours in: This has turned into a very beautiful sweet wood scent. I'm happily surprised. 3 hours in: This is still really pretty. A bit heavy on the wood note, but still sweet and lovely. Overall: If someone else were wearing this, I'd think it was amazing (at least after the dry down), but it just isn't me.

Iron Phoenix Note: Red ginger and I are NOT friends. At all. Ever. Myrrh and I only get along from time to time. I'm not holding out a ton of hope for this, but I'm willing to be surprised. On: Red ginger like whoa. By that, I don't mean to make it seem like this is an incredibly strong, in-your-face blend, because it isn't. It's staying pretty close to my skin. I just can't really smell past it. Half an hour later: This is pretty bad. I'm getting a tiny bit of nice, powdery sweetness (probably from he dragon's blood), but it's just a lot of notes that don't smell good on me...the darker metals, clove, myrrh, red ginger. This just smells bad on me. Well, bad with black pepper on top. Ha. 1 hour: Blech. Overall: I knew that my old nemesis (red ginger) would kill this. It obviously wasn't a scent for me.

Doll's Eye Infused Honey On: Herbal honey. Lovely. 2 hours later: Powdery honey with an herbal undertone. Overall: This is a pretty straightforward, sweet honey scent on me. Not overpowering or sticky, but...lovely. I'm so glad I have a bottle and I'll definitely be wearing it a lot.

Flora On: Wow. Lily with lots of fruits, with a bit of apple blossom. Half an hour later: Sweet and floral, but with a bit of dusty sandalwood. 1.5 hours later: This is going a little odd/funky on me. It's mostly woodsy with a bit of blossom. 2 hours later: Mostly woods. Overall: Yet another scent where anything smelling like wood takes over. Poor me.

On: So gorgeous. Definitely lots of rose and jasmine, with a bit of something fruity/peppery, which I'm assuming is the pink pepper. Very nice and different. Half an hour later: Such a wonderfully tart scent. 1.5 hours later: Still tart pepper. 2 hours later: Sweet and tart, but faint and powdery. Overall: I love this at first, but the dry-down isn't fantastic on me.

Dungeon Crawl On: Fantastic. Sweet dragon's blood and stone. So great. Half an hour later: All metal and stone with a bit of sweetness. 1 hour later: Dust, metal, and stone. Overall: Another case of me just not liking the way an oil develops on me.

Daya On: So beautiful. Sunny and resinous. Did I say beautiful? Half an hour later: Something woodsy is taking over, which isn't really me. 1 hour later: Spicy and woodsy. Overall: I wish this stayed the same on my skin as when I put it on, but alas it does not. Oh, well...

White sandalwood, beeswax, and frankincense crowned by hydrangea, rose, and kantuta blossoms, dressed with tobacco, cocoa leaves and flowers from the sacred Cactus of the Four Winds. On: Frankincense and flowers. Very pretty. 1 hour later: A bit sharp with some sweetness. Overall: Eventually, this mellowed to a really pretty, soft, sweet scent, but nothing earth-shattering on me.

Agrat-Bat-Mahlaht On: Lots of caramel with a tinge of apple blossom. 1 hour later: Sooooooo sweet with a bit of light floral and wood. Overall: I'm kind of weird about wood scents, and this is no exception. The sweetness of the scent was pretty, but not very interesting on me.

Copper Phoenix On: Warm and slightly metallic, with a bit of sweetness. An hour later: WOOD!!! Overall: Some scents with wood notes just go all crazy on me, and this is one of them, unfortunately. Plus, red sandalwood and I don't get along. It's pretty soapy on me.

Crib Girls On: This is like a super creamy version of the lemon Strawberry Shortcake doll (Lemon Meringue) from the 80s. This is a complete and utter compliment. I am in love. An hour later: Still very strong. Smells the same as when I put it on. It reminds me a little bit of Phobos, but creamier and sweeter. Love. 3 hours later: Amazing. So creamy and lemony. Sigh... Overall: Yeah, a definite keeper. I'm so glad I have a bottle. I have the feeling I'll wear this a lot.

Cicuta On: Slightly metallic, but not in a bad way. I wonder if it's the frankincense. I can catch the rose, too, which I like. It does have a bit of a sharp "perfumey soap" scent to it on me, which isn't bad, but I'm hoping goes away. About an hour later: It isn't as sharp as before which is great. It's definitely a dry scent, and I'm loving the ladylike rose. About 4 hours later: Just a lovely, dusty, rose scent. Overall: This is very pretty and evocative of Nosferatu-esque vampires, but I have a lot of other rose scents that I wear, so I don't think it makes the cut. That said, my entire office smells of beautiful roses and I didn't even put it on at work. Lovely stuff.

On: This is amazing. I've always adored Dorian and like Snake Oil a lot, and the addition of vanilla flower, lily of the valley, and lavender is amazing. I can't really catch the fennel right now, but...yeah. This is great. Overall: Definitely a keeper. I kept getting whiffs of Dorian, but with extra vanilla and herbs, plus a bit of the darkness of Snake Oil. Love it.

A slick gambling perfume. Brings good fortune when playing any card game. THREE JACKS at first: ooo...i don't think i like this. i picked it because, well, i'm going to las vegas in march. that isn't really a good reason to pick a perfume, is it? it smells a bit mannish. i hope it smells better on. on: what IS that? there's something i really don't like about it. it smells like...a garage. you know, motor oil, smoke. it's a bit smoky, which i actually like. it kind of smells like vegas: slick, but dirty underneath. has a bit of a sweet kick to it. an added thought: this is what i'd imagine a really complex perfume would smell like after staying up all night in vegas gambling and drinking. 1 hour later: it was starting to give me a headache, but it seems to have aired out. it's sweet, but in a manly way. smells like a sweet men's cologne. definitely another one i have to let settle before wearing it out. 3 hours later: it's starting to grow on me. now, it's much softer. it's still masculine and sweet, but there's a bit of spicyness or mintyness underneath. i'm liking it. overall: i'm definitely taking this to vegas with me. it won't be an everyday kind of scent. update: this stuff works! i won $1000 at one time in vegas. this is definitely my gambling perfume!