sd357

I had high hopes for this bottle - I absolutely adore mosses and cypress and tobacco. But I opened up the bottle to sniff and all I could pick up was the caramel. On, it's the same. Caramel/butterscotch. I just don't like foody scents - and I had truly hoped the caramel note in this wouldn't be something that my skin would amp up like crazy. So off to the trading stash this bottle goes.

When am I going to learn that as much as I love amber, it just doesn't work on my skin? This is a very pleasant scent, but doesn't work on me. Worse yet, it starts to smell a bit rancid over time on me. This one will be getting traded off to someone who can appreciate the artistry, because my skin most certainly doesn't.

Wet: Usually, most of the notes in this scent work on me. But this is just… off… somehow. I pick up the notes, but "deranged" fits them well - either the opponax doesn't agree with me, or it's just the way these don't quite blend together for me that doesn't work. Dry-down: What's going on here? I'd already written this off as not working, but it's blending nicely now... I think I need to change this to a like! Dry: Where'd it go? Rats. Ah, well. Appropriately named, but not something I'm going to be wearing on a regular basis.

This is a much lighter scent than I expected it to be. It goes on as a light musk, with the leather and cigar tobacco slowing coming up during dry-down. Dry, it's just a hint of a wonderful cigar sitting unlit next to a leather easy chair. One of my most favorite ever scents.

I'm a Taurus. I groaned when I read the scent description - rose? Florals? How could Beth do this to me? How could the woman who gets scent interpretations right all the time reduce me to rose and florals? I ordered a bottle anyway. And I take it all back. This is a gentle Taurus, not the bull-in-the-china-shop-stops-at-nothing Taurus. This truly is a rooted scent; herbs and herb-like florals that somehow manage to convey peace, calm, being centered... Wet, it's a quiet scent. Unassuming. So I tried it. Not much throw; herbs with a bit of rose come out as top notes here. Dry-down: Other florals that I can't quite place come up. It's a scent that makes me stop, think, sniff again. Wonder how it feels so grounded. Dry: Sadly, it's almost gone. After only 30 minutes. Until I sniff again. And then it's there - a scent reminscent of beloved posessions stored in a trunk scented with a sachet of herbs. Nicely done, Beth. As usual - an unexpected twist that shakes up preconceptions and resettles them.

Beckons all giant creatures from gargantuan reptiles and humongous moths! These babies are sure to crush everything from dollhouses to shopping malls! Can even be used to summon colossal robots in a pinch! A sweet and crisp vanilla mint! Wow. Oh, wow. I guess I ought to actually post a review. But I'm still sitting here going... Wow. In the bottle: Crisp, minty, with a warm hint of vanilla. Wet: Exactly the same. My first reaction was that I now understood why the vanilla mints are so popular. But I expected it to turn on me... Dry-down: The mint blends with the vanilla, smoothing together... Dry: It's still minty vanilla! Wow... I'm off to order a backup bottle. Or three. Because vanillas don't usually work on me, as much as I love 'em, and I don't usually like smelling like mints. But this is marvelous...

I've tried Blood Kiss a few times now, and I honestly can't decide if I like it or not. In the bottle, I don't care for it all that much. But in true addict fashion, I know that the bottle scent hasn't got a thing to do with how it smells on me... Wet: This is complex, and I can't figure out a) what it smells like or whether or not I like it. The complexity itself is fascinating. Dry-down: I can start to pick up clove, cherry, musk, traces of a deep bitter vanilla, dragon's blood... Dry: As it starts to mellow, I like it more and more. Black wine cherry vanilla dragon's blood? But the next sniff, I don't like it. And then I sniff again, and I do... Since there are so many other scents that I absolutely adore, this one will be off to the swap pile, even though it's a tantalizingly complex scent.

Wet, I pick up the pear and the sweet pea. I don't normally go for florals or fruits, but this is a very clean green. It smeels like the best shower products possible - I adore it. Dry, it keeps the same scent to it - it's a wonderful change of pace from deeper scents I usually like. A very surprising win, here!

Wet: damp incense and florals. Nice in the imp, ok on me. Dry-down: more and more floral. This is a scrub-it-off-me-it's-making-me-sick-to-my-stomach sweet floral. I didn't make it to dry. It amped up so strongly and sickeningly that I took lemon juice to it. Wow. Totally unexpected. I'd love to know what note or notes ramped up like that.

Wet: yummy - green and woodsy and warm and amber and musk all at once. Dry: it stays just about the same, but blends together much more nicely. This is a real find, because I adore amber but it usually doesn't work for me, so an amber scent that works on me is marvelous.

This goes on cinnamon and incense. The clove starts to come out on drydown. It's too strong at first, but once it dries down, the clove and cinnamon are nicely balanced. I really like this one.

Wet: a light sage and bay leaf. I usually pick up cedar early, but not here. Dry-down: Here comes the cedar - this is the perfect scent to store with my sweaters. Where are those BPAL dryer sheets, durn it? Dry: a perfect blend of cedar, sage, and bay leaf. I adore this scent. I want to roll in this scent. I am *so* glad this is a GC!!!

Wet: sweet, comforting, pine-y. The woods are marvelously softened by the chamomile here. Dry-down: the woods and the rose come up more, in a marvelous blended scent that is fast becoming one of my absolute favorites. Dry: A wonderfully light blend of woods with a hint of rose that is softened perfectly by the chamomile. Almost no throw, however. I love this, but I'll need to find a way to get it to last longer!

I love the way this smells in the bottle. Sadly, however, it smells like stale, dusty herbs on me.

Wet: It starts out deep, soft, slightly smoky - very, very faint. On dry-down, the cinnamon starts to come up, then, when dry, it settles into a very sensual smoky blend with just a hint of cinnamon in it. I absolutely adore this. There's a 5ml in my future...