hobbitballerina

Oooh, Highwayman. I originally got this imp for my husband, since he loves leather, and it smells great on him, but I wanted to give it a try for myself today. In the bottle: LEATHER. And vetiver. But mostly LEATHER. Are you here for LEATHER? Wet: LEATHER. And florals. And what I presume is vetiver -- a sort of sharp green earthiness. A whiff of something sweet and heady. Dry: The leather has stuck around, but it has mellowed and sweetened, which I think is the jasmine, since my skin loves jasmine. There's still that green earthiness, but it's sweetened, too. No rose that I can smell. There's almost a sense of floral incense to it -- perhaps that's the cinnamon working with the florals? Overall, I love this. It has an incredible staying power on me. I keep getting whiffs of it as I move around, and it is so perfectly sexy and androgynous, which I love. It works on my husband, too, but it's a totally different experience on me, much sweeter. He gets more of the green earthiness, and I have this sweet incense note that he doesn't get. I can see how this is masculine to some people, but to me, this is a dangerous lady with a brace of pistols, a leather jacket, and a deadly smile. I love it. When we come into some cash, I suspect a full sized bottle is in order.

This is my holy grail of pumpkin scents. It smells to me like what autumn is supposed to smell like: warm, rich, sweet, spicy, rolling in glorious pumpkin goodness. I wore this constantly the year I got it, then realised that it was an LE and I would eventually run out. Since then, I've been carefully holding on to it, only wearing it when I absolutely must be the Pumpkin Queen of the day. Wet, this one is warm and rich, a whole lot of pumpkin and vanilla and spice, like diving into a pumpkin crème brûlée head first through the crust of nearly-burnt sugar. As it dries, the citrus of the blood orange and neroli come out, sweetening the mixture, but then the ginger grows, warming it and darkening the whole affair. It becomes downright sexy on me, like wearing a slinky dress of deepest bronze slit up to the thigh and walking into a room hip by hip. Like I said, Pumpkin Queen. A very particular kind of Pumpkin Queen. And it lasts. I often can smell it lingering on my clothes and hair the next day. Utterly glorious and yet, it has a darkness that keeps it out of the territory of generic autumn candle or Bath and Body Works pumpkin lotion. It is not a Pumpkin Princess, she's a damn Queen. BPAL almost always knocks pumpkin scents out of the park for me, and this one was my gateway drug. The first hit is always the best, I suppose!

I recollect that when I eagerly first put Fearful Pleasure on in 2008, it smelled glorious at first then turned into an overwhelming bomb of smoke and bitterness. I suspect some of that was my body chemistry at the time (being in a miserable relationship and feeling trapped does that to you), so I put it away for ages. I hauled it back out recently, dusted it off, and on this oddly autumnal day in June, popped it on. Wet, it was the glorious cider I remembered, sweet and warm and shimmeringly burnt orange, the perfect representation of autumn. I braced myself for the dreadful smoke. Then, as it dried, the smoke came, but this time, it was a warm smoke, heating up the edges of the oil and bringing the spices out, tamping down some of the sweetness. It's still with me, seven hours later. I could smell it gently wafting around me at the library, and even at the grocery store. It's delicious without being overwhelmingly foodie. It's warm and sweet without being cloying. It smells like autumn, like October in the apple orchards of Virginia where someone's burning hardwood in their fireplace somewhere nearby and there's a promise of a cold snap on the wind. It smells like pulling out your favourite quilt on the first chilly night. It's fantastic. I suspect it could be worn by a man as well -- and he would be the Autumn King, I think! In short, I am ever so glad I saved this one for a time and place where I could appreciate it. I've been hiding away my other crowning autumn scent, Pumpkin V from 2006 (which is the world's most amazing pumpkin ever), but this seems like it's in the running for October's crown. What do you mean I have four months until Halloween to go?

This is such a fun topic. Can I pick your brains for a character from the urban fantasy queer romance novel I'm working on? Yuliya is an American-born Ukrainian ballet dancer, 25 years old and just getting her big break for the first time in a faerie-patroned ballet company. She's a spitfire, sharp-witted and clear-eyed, and dances like a firework going off, all speed and sharpness, turns that will give you whiplash and jumps that defy gravity. She has a love of bright colours and bold patterns, orange being her favourite colour, and presents in an aggressively feminine way -- the highest of heels, floral prints, tight skirts, exclamation point pink lipstick. You never get to forget that she's a woman, and woe unto you if you treat her as lesser because of it. She's smart, though she doesn't think she is, and wickedly funny. She has an anxious turn to her, finding interactions with new people panic-inducing, but has a hard facade that doesn't let it show. She's close to and protective of her mother, and is Jewish in that way of many Eastern European immigrants -- she'll gripe and complain and pretend it doesn't matter, but when the chips are down, that's her identity and heaven help you if you give her an ounce of crap about it, because you'll be meeting the business end of her high heels. Physically, she's on the short end, all lean muscle, with honey brown curly hair and big blue-green eyes. I feel like the knee-jerk is something bright and femme and floral, maybe Vasilissa? But I'd love input.

Usually, anything with ozone is a no go for me. I got this as a frimp, and on a whim, tried it yesterday since it was hot out and that seemed a good match. Who, boy, am I glad I did! In the Imp: Dusty incense. I have no idea how this manages to hit desert dust, but it does. Wet: Hello, incense! Warm, amber incense being burned on the ruins of an ancient Egyptian temple out in the desert. Glorious and thick and sweet and sexy as all hell, if that's your thing. Dry: The sweetness stayed, as did the incense. For hours. It just wafted around me all the time, and I loved it, utterly loved it. One of the characters in our ongoing novel projects is an undead Crusader who spent formative years in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and this strikes me as being very him in the best of ways. It's an intellectual kind of earthiness, something long gone and glorious. Fits the description to a t. When I have actual cash incoming, I suspect this will get a full bottle, and it might replace Midnight Mass as my go-to incense scent. Utterly glorious and totally wearable. I feel like I could wear this to teach and not overwhelm folks with it, and while it has a feminine edge to it, it's not an exclamation-point feminissima scent. Almost unisex, really, in a sexy androgynous way. Like a woman in armour. Glorious.

Oh, I wish I liked this one -- or rather, that it liked me! In the Imp: Lemon Pledge. Nothing else, just aggressive Lemon Pledge. Wet: Wet is actually gorgeous. It's earthy and almost masculine, probably the sandalwood and cedar and patchouli playing together. If only it stayed this way because ... Dry: Now it goes all old lady perfume, and a touch rancid to boot. It's decaying jasmine and sickly Lemon Pledge, heavy and musty and just off. My husband noticed it was smelling weird and told me to go wash it off. I'm glad I did, because when I went to go clean it off, there were red patches wherever I had applied it. It won't give up the ghost, either -- I can still smell it on me. I might have to shower to get the rest off, and treat the allergy patches with topical stuff to get the inflammation to go down. This one is no good for me. At all. It should have been. I love jasmine and cedar and patchouli and sandalwood. It's that damned lemongrass, I think. This one is getting sent off to someone else post haste. Alas.

Any recommendations for intense, warm vanilla? I really love the warm amber+vanilla combo in Lyonesse, but my skin just eats it up completely and it's gone within an hour. Same goes for the vanilla in Hunger. My skin loves jasmine and amps it, so anything involving jasmine will dominate over everything else. Any thoughts? I was thinking about trying Dorian, admittedly.

Oooh, Yorick sounds totally intriguing, actually! I don't know if it would work, but I think I'd be willing to give an imp a try, it just sounds so cool. And I hope I'm awesome, thank you! Actually, weirdly, I think I have a frimp of that somewhere that I've never tried (for reasons unbeknownst to me). I'll have to give that a try!

Vicomte de Valmont is one of my favourite things in the catalogue, hands down. It is sex on a plate -- refined sex on a plate, mind you. This is a dandy's cologne, the thing you smell on his handkerchief before he ravishes you and you both heartily enjoy it. I gave this one to my fiancé when we first started dating on a whim, and it has been a sure-fire winner ever since then. Just smelling it on a man makes them seem infinitely more charming and delightful. And this is one some ladies can also pull off, with the right kind of personality. Valmont is decadent and delightful. Clean, a little aquatic, and a whole lot of refined, elegant sexy. This is what a naughty Mr Darcy smells like, in my brain, and that is definitely a good thing. I can't get enough of it on my man.

This has been my signature scent for about four years now, and I'm only just reviewing now. Jezebel is one of those perfumes that surprised me. Out of the bottle, it was very, very sweet, with a low note of something aggressive. On my skin, it's all honey and orange blossom, with a thread of sultry rose running through it. It's very decadent, very lush, and extremely sexy. The lasting power is amazing as well -- this one will take me from morning to night, and still be clinging to my skin. Jezebel is not a polite perfume. It demands attention, and a little goes a long way. But it's such a marvellous experience that it's worth it. Sweet, lush, sexy, a little powdery, and definitely the scent of a bad girl who is looking for a good time, but only on her terms.

This is so intriguing, I have to try! I'm 32, a PhD candidate in Religious Studies writing a dissertation on New Orleans funerary traditions, and I'm engaged to be married this November. I'm a pretty classic INTJ, very reserved, very analytical, I dislike emotions in public and like to keep my distance from people unless we're actually friends. I feign friendship badly. But for all that, I think I am rather loyal and devoted, and I'm a warm and giving person when in the presence of my true friends. I've been told I have a biting wit and a sarcastic streak a mile wide, and I like to think I'm funny. I'm very bookish, by nature, but I have quiet passions for cooking, knitting and spinning, and ballet. My fiancé and I met through Tolkien role-play and in my spare time, I'm an amateur speculative fiction writer, tending towards the Southern Gothic and urban fantasy -- I'm a giant nerd, really. My ideal self wanders through the world in gothy, elegant Victorian clothes all the time and carries a black goth parasol as well as a pair of stompy boots. (I tend to default to jeans and nerdy t-shirts, but I clean up very gothy and elegant.) I love cats, coffee, exploring old cemeteries, and reading historical romances, believe it or not. I'm Jewish, actively so, and I'm bisexual, though I'm just as likely to say queer. As far as astrology stuff, I'm an Aquarius with Capricorn Rising and my moon is in Scorpio. In Chinese astrology, I'm a metal dog. In Harry Potter terms, I tend to sort either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. Jezebel has been my signature scent for a long time, for what that's worth.

I'm getting married on 1 November, and we're having a Halloween/Victorian gothic feeling wedding in my parents' front parlour, so I'm starting to think about scents to wear. My fiancé loves Jezebel on me, and all things jasmine. My go-to for events is usually Angeronalia, the LE from Yule 2007, and for daily wear I tend to gravitate towards the various formulations of Midnight Mass, Jezebel, or Lush's Lust. I've tried a bunch of different things, looking for a good wedding day scent -- Harlot, Morocco, Rapture, Mata Hari, Hunger -- but nothing's really worked. I love Lyonesse, but my skin eats it up and I have no throw or staying power. I've thought about Dorian, since I love vanilla, but I'm afraid that vanilla will vanish on me like Lyonesse and Hunger do. Any suggestions for this bridal stumper?

Oh, I love Lyonesse. I really do. In the bottle, it's sweet and golden, and on my skin for the first hour, it is absolute bliss. It smells like all my fond memories of Cape Cod in summertime feel, golden and sweet and heady, with a breath of the sea to them. It makes me feel like a queen. The amber and vanilla in this is really grown up, it's not foody at all. Sweet and sophisticated and utterly ladylike. I said it made me feel like Jackie Kennedy. And then, after about an hour, it's utterly gone. I wrote a glowing review on my Tumblr about it, and then the next day, when I put it on to wear all day instead of just to test, it was gone by the time I had left the house and gotten to my destination an hour away. My fiancé smelled my neck and said something smelled nice, it was just faint. Granted, my imp is very old, I think over five years old. (It ended up at the bottom of a box of imps and was forgotten.) Maybe it's lost potency. But I've noticed that my odd skin chemistry just gobbles up vanilla and leaves nothing else. I'm tempted to try another, newer imp of Lyonesse, that's how much I love that golden hour. I just need better staying power and a bit more throw than what I got out of that old imp.

This one is weird on me. I think my skin eats up vanilla, because while I got vanilla in the imp, on my wrist, it's all powdery floral. It has no throw, either. And it's all disappointing, because my two favourite notes in the world are vanilla and orange blossom. I put this on a few hours ago, and it's just kind of vague "perfume" scent, like scented soap, nothing standout about it. If it smelled like the imp on my wrist -- luxurious vanilla and orange blossom with a sharp floral note in it -- I'd be happy. As it stands, it's just kind of "meh" with my chemistry, which I suspect might be rather strange in general.