ND¢

In the bottle: Buttery and creamy and I wondered if I had the wrong one. On me: No, there's the wood. A wood overtone for once, and there is a tangy sweetness... The butteriness I smelled earlier fades on me to a warm background, which seems to do well with my skin (Red Lantern) and the perfume continues to be strongly herbal and woodsy. Lots of ambiance, evokes the fall sort of nicely. A strong scent, not at all unfeminine. Just fresh, evocative. A keeper.

For the sake of thoroughness, I have Old Port-Au-Prince. In the bottle: Light and sharply of sassafras, I think. Got a good bit of sassafras/clove (evocative of Big Red). I can see the bay, too. It reminded me of my reaction to Jack: so strongly asserting the smells that they almost seemed like imitations. Waiting for some dissipation to see how that progresses, it... stays prominent. I think I'd have gone for bay/clove without the sassafras, because the latter two seem to overpower each other on me. I'm not picking up rum on me. Or butter.

In the bottle: Definitely the garden of blooms and not the dry earth or mosses. On my skin: I almost didn't put it on due to my disaffinity with floral scents. The herbs have a slight presence, making it not purely floral. It smells like jasmine, I think? With something organic and dark (the mosses and herbs maybe struggling to come out from behind the jasmine?) Enough to give it a darker tone than some of my other floral scent reviews (Thalia, Languor) but richer than Dragon's Bone, which also smelled floral on me. Given the reviews on the forum, I think I'm in the minority in not reacting as expected with this one. I thought it'd be less bloom and more... the rest of it.

In the bottle: Sweet and musky, dark. On me: Sweet musk. I immediately compared it to Vechernyaya (which I remember as being quite musky) and they're completely different. Vechernyaya is light and crisp and businesslike and professional. This is muddled, burnt caramel musky. After a while I got a weird, cherry response, but maybe that's just me smelling sugary things. It would fall into the category of scents like Hellfire '05 and Red Lantern on me, definitely evoking some sort of emotional response. But if I were going to go for that effect, Red Lantern 'went' better with me.

My bottle is Old Kathmandu, just for thoroughness' sake. In the bottle: Spices and a hint of a vague herbal cleaning solution. On me: Spiciness and sassafras. There is a cedar smell, but it's not as strong as all that. Depraved turns more strongly cedar on me for a while than even this, right now. I feel like whatever made Yggdrasil smell like Icy Hot to me is in this, too, or else the cedar smell doesn't seem as fresh-cut cedar as I'm thinking. The Icy Hot smell fades pretty quickly, and I'm left with a sharply wood-scented wrist with spices. Bit of sandalwood, too, yeah. Then the wood fades and the spices become more prominent (though this is a gentle perfume.) Then it's almost entirely a light, crisp cedar. No, there's the spice. It is an 'atmospheric' perfume.

I didn't think I'd ever like a scent that had to do with food. How naive I was. In the bottle: Thick, rich caramel and spice. On me: The spiciness of tobacco and some sort of, well, smuttiness keep the rich caramel from getting out of control. The currant may be lending some sweetness, but it's very subtle if I can even smell it at all. This smell really does capture a sort of soporific delirium, an indulgence. I love it.

In the bottle: Potting soil. Wet: a super-strong smell of fresh, rich soil, with a hint of something like camphor that was previously mentioned, and a mushroom scent. Dry: Pretty much like mushrooms planted in dirt. I feel like if I put on a lot of this and went out, people would wonder if I was just digging in the garden/myself out from the grave. Very simple. Hard to imagine smelling like this. But oh, I would.

In the bottle: Something sweet but not floral and underneath, alcohol (sort of vodka-ey or rubbing alcohol-ey.) On me: Minty smell? What? Maybe that's pipe tobacco. I'm getting the leather. Okay, it's not minty now. A different leather than in Dee; a shiny leather. I confess I can see why people talk about it being lecherous, decadent.... It is sort of provocative, like it wouldn't be an appropriate smell for a business lunch. It dries down to a sweeter, incensy note. My impression is that this smells sexy in a classy/decadent way. I suppose I do get the sweet liquor impression, too. This is one of the most complicated I've tried yet. Glad I got two imps of this, because it's going to take some wearing before I decide to order a bottle even though, at the moment, the impulse is to order one. ETA: I would test this against Dee and check the similarity if I was more motivated right now.

In the bottle: Herby. On me: It is woody, but also spicy. A lot of the reviews make it sound like this is exactly what it's like walking through a dewy forest, but on me it's not a natural enough smell to really get there. Forests are more muted, subtle and complex (I'm surrounded by them and smell them when I walk out my door.) I also didn't think it smelled like a cleaning solution. It's the sort of holiday herb-spice scent I like. Come to think of it, I wonder if I could wear it with a bit of Hearth 2005 as a holiday smell.

In the bottle: a bit musky, fresh-smelling. On me: More musk and amber than anything. It is a warm smell, and appealing. I truly don't get any leather or plains grasses in this one, and based on the reports I hoped they'd be in the forefront. I'm disappointed I didn't have the ecstatic reaction shared by so many... but he's a tricky one, that Coyote.

In the bottle: So floral... but I put it on despite misgivings. On me: So it doesn't matter to me that I can't tell the difference between plumeria and lily/honeysuckle. It's killing my nose. The floral screams I'M A FLOWER. It's not subtle. I don't smell pear, champagne, just this sweet floral smell that's flooding my life. I had to wash it off. Couldn't even let it settle in. Based on the other reviews I'm sure this is a beautiful floral for someone who can wear them. It did smell elegant and 'rounded' (apart from how poorly I reacted to it.)

In the bottle: Not really getting patchouli. It does smell bizarrely like those chocolate oranges you smack on the bottom to get them to fall into pieces. On me: The (orange blossom?) scent is actually quite apparent, overshadowing anything else. I also do get the ginger, albeit faintly. Nice, authentic ginger smell. Where's the patchouli? That sort of reddish spiciness, is that the patchouli? The chocolate-orange thing, was that it? As time goes on, it gets a little sugary, like a red soda crossed with vanilla almost. This one seems to react well with me, but I'm not sure it's my style. Also, the patchouli in this has nothing to do with the patchouli in Depraved. That is an earthy green patchouli, and this is a red one. No, I have no idea if there are 'red' and 'green' patchouli. There just are. That's all.

In the bottle: No patchouli whiff and that's sort of surprising considering patchouli's tendency to win EVERY thumb war, if smells had thumbs. On me: Wet, I just smell musk. As in, that's all I can smell in the world. WHOO STRONG. Fortunately it evolves into a scent safe for humans after about a minute. A light musk, complex, crisp, somehow seeming to have depth without being overpowering. The patchouli must be nearly nonexistent in this one. My fellow said he could smell it faintly, so the problem is clearly that all my... taste... is in my... mouth. Um, insert nasal equivalent. This does smell like the sort of thing you'd spend seventy bucks on in Nordstrom and get a cheaper, tawdrier scent out of (I don't know if I'm allowed to mention the one it reminds me of.) But I'll keep the imp, because there are occasions where musk would serve me well. It lasted forever, too, even through the Dr. Bronner's treatment.

In the bottle: A gum-like, candyish smell, with something herbal or medicinal very, very faintly behind. On me: Bubble gum, cotton candy, with something like the waxiness of Crayola crayons. It does take me back to the things I liked as a child, but regardless of the potential voodoo hoodoo that you do, Auntie, I can't smell like candy or gum.

In the bottle: Oh my god. Johnson's Baby Shampoo. Suddenly I'm remembering sitting in the tub with my mom washing my hair, wishing she'd fill the tub more so I could be warm, wishing there was any truth to the saying 'No More Tears.' On me: Sadly loses the completeness of that smell, which becomes adulterated with floweriness. Far as I can see, orris is a root of some species of iris (Thank you, Wikipedia) so it's funny that this smelled like Johnson's Baby Shampoo to me, since according to WP orris root is 'the substance left out of products that are labeled hypo-allergenic.' All right. I freely admit that I am ignorant about scents and can't toss around the jargon that others employ (accurately or no), so I look up a lot of stuff. Okay, but the review. It is iris-y. I now accept that iris has a smell. The sage would come out on its own if the iris wasn't stronger, but it is there behind, keeping me from going NO! A FLORAL! Not by much, though. As an hour wore on, it smelled more like No More Tears again. Would that it could have smelled like that the whole time. I'm going to trade this one off for another DC scent I think, because although I love the fact that this goes Johnson's on me, the twenty-nine year old me has passed into other pastures.

I confess I have really high hopes for this one. In the bottle: Pleasantly foresty/musky, not overpowering, smells like a dryer sheet when I breathe out. On me: Oh my lord, it really does smell like leather. Spiciness, fresh-cut wood and a touch of leather. The spiciness and wood takes over, but the leather comes out from time to time. Not the raw leather smell of a leather goods store, a faded, more cultured-seeming smell. It has a sweetness, but not a candy sweetness or a floral sweetness. I ordered a bottle of this unsmelled, so I sure am glad it's good. I bet it would be great on a man. Too bad the bottle is for me.

This was a strongly flowery perfume, so admittedly I didn't really expect it to work for me. In the bottle: How anyone could say this does not smell like pure lily I don't know. Those huge, reeking lilies. On me: I'm actually sneezing, so I had to wash it off. What I could tell before I was overwhelmed: I think the lily reacts somehow with my skin and overwhelms any other possible scent. There is a breath of rose, a hint of something darker, but it won't come out. Incense, something blacker.

In the bottle: Herby with a hint of spice. On me: The spiciness immediately manifests itself, though I still smell clean wood and greenness. 'MMMM,' I said, putting on more. The spiciness does outweigh the wood, but is such an appealing spiciness that I was pleased about it. No tobacco yet, though the balsam is clear. Elemi is supposed to smell like fennel (thanks, Wikipedia) and I suppose there might be a hint of that. As it continues to dry, it smells less green and more spicy, definitely like opium and light, religious incense as it mellows. It is quite soothing. I didn't get any ginger. Tobacco at the end, as the incense fades. One of the most 'complete' smells I've tried yet. Really fulfilling. I've got to look out for a bottle of this one somewhere.

In the bottle: Buttery and nutty with an herbal tang (how odd.) On my skin: I was expecting the butter/nut smell to overwhelm everything and was already disappointed in advance, but actually, the pine is there, and seems carefully calculated not to overwhelm the nut smell. I'd have had the pine/cedar a little more present, or the alleged smoke more present. Something to make this feel less like a foody scent. I'm not quite getting cedar yet, but maybe soon. As time passes the pine comes out more strongly and the nuttiness recedes a bit. It'd be a lot nicer if it wasn't so ungodly butternut smelling for about half an hour. Then it goes back to nutty. By this time the cedar is present, faintly, but commensurate with how much is left of the smell at all. The final ghost of it on my skin is a musky honey, and that's kind of nice.

In the bottle: very much a fir tree smell. There's something darker about it, almost harsh but not unpleasant. On me: The fir smell takes on something spicy and also a sweetness, like berries. I'm not getting the moss or dirt or air or whatever they're talking about. I really expected this one to be darker. It's more of a spicy-herb green than anything, and it does smell very nice when I stop thinking about what I thought it'd smell like. This one gets compared to Yggdrasil a bit, as I recall. It's more tree-y, less mediciney, but the berry-ness keeps it from being a straight forest scent. Good staying power. I like this one, but it's not my style. I really wish it had been.

Got this one for free with my first order. Now, I generally would not think much of the idea of a flower/sandalwood perfume. I don't like floral scents, but on it went.... In the bottle: The sandalwood (like the patchouli of Depraved) is not as horribly overdone as cheap perfume and incense. It makes me think 'so this is what sandalwood should really smell like.' It does have some floral note, not at all sharp, so that must be iris? It's not at all overwhelming. I might concede a vaguely herbal 'tone' to the sandalwood. It smells sort of sexy in a feminine but not girlish way. On me: I actually liked this a lot, but it's not my style. A really round, golden overtone of frankincense that seems lightened by a subtle flower (nothing sharp or sweet. I don't recall iris having a smell, but whatever.) The sandalwood stays subtle and nice, and the faint herb smell persists.

In the bottle: Vitabath, or some overly herbal shower preparation my mom had when I was a kid. Just enough sharpness to give me a negative impression because it's more like the sharpness of herbal soap (and because what I was expecting was rain.) On me: My fellow said it smelled sort of like ozone, but I didn't get that. Or rain, or breeze. It's not a bad smell, you know? But it's not RAIN. It's a little floral (but very light, not flowery.) Like a classy floral dryer sheet. I'm not a floral kind of girl, but this would be the one to go for if I was, because it's not childish or heavy. Oh well, guess I'll go on searching for that smell of petrichor....

... Dry black teas, Earl Grey, and leather. In the bottle: I'm thinking 'what is this, Lemon Pledge.' Then I breathe out and realize it's bergamot. Five minutes later I'm still standing there sniffing; it's pretty interesting. I don't smell any leather. On me: A bit lemony and the bergamot is lessened but now I can smell (sort of) what they're talking about with the leather. To me it smells like a flat bottom note that keeps the lemon/bergamot from being out of control. I can't stop sniffing it. Light, but compelling. No sharpness. Then I started to think I was smelling the leather. Seemed to fade to a ghost of a pleasing old man quickly. Less staying power than anything else I've tried, and that's disappointing. I ordered a bottle right away.

You know, I don't really like the smell of patchouli, associated as it is with cheap incense and pseudo-hippies and all those great connotations. I couldn't remember why I ordered this as I opened it. In the bottle: But it's not a heavy, awful patchouli. It's green-smelling almost, and what they're calling apricot does come through, lightening and sweetening it (but not enough to make it sharp like whatever the sweet note was in Jack.) I had my fellow sniff it and he said, 'Dandelion.' It was complicated. My favorite so far. On me: Can definitely smell the apricot, or peach, whatever's lightening this. It combines well with the patchouli, making a unique smell out of what may be the most played-out one in the world. It dries down to, of all things, vague patchouli and freshly cut cedar, then back to plain (still light) patchouli with a cedar hint. Great, fresh, simple and sexy.

In the bottle: Some super-berry smell. Very one-dimensional. On me: The berry loosened up somewhat to include a note I couldn't identify. I guess that's supposed to be champagne? It's not sour like champagne, but it's round, adds some dimension... like the barrel a white wine was stored in. MUCH more subtle. This would be a perfect perfume for an outgoing party girl, out with her friends at the center of an evening's partygoings-- which I am not. When I let it sit for a while, the champagne does come out a bit. Toned itself down surprisingly well.