weds

I was fortunate to be included in TwilightEyes' prototype circular swap; this was the first one I was keen to skin test from the lot. Vial: Lemon cake in a metal pan, small amount of musk. Drydown: Lemon oil, lemongrass, mint, metal. Early dry: Lemon-oil cleanser, or possibly overstrong lemongrass extract. Later dry: Lemon oil, sugar, some unidentified colder element. Srsly like fifteen minutes after that one: MUSK MUSK MUSK lemonish. (Might be MUSK MUSK MUSK PATCHOULI lemonish.) I really like the sweetened lemon (and, reading above, there could be some lime here that I'm not registering quite right) but I don't think this is something I could wear much. I'd love a version of this with the same citrus note(s), but way more muted.

First, warm apples and cinnamon. Then OMG ROSE, which is actually probably apple blossom as well in retrospect. Now it’s a green, crisp apple with floral overlays and – SNOW GLASS APPLES, IS THAT YOU? The apple is asserting itself more than I remember from SGA, so this might be something to keep for a few months and re-try. Or re-try in a couple weeks. Or both. Man. This is not a bad thing -- if this is the uber-SGA, I'm just fine with that.

I recognize the note which acts as champagne in the Champagne And... scents, but here it's functioning as the salt (and some of the tequila) in a margarita. The lime is fairly subdued, and the whole affair sweetens as time passes. There's a wood cask note I recognize from Mad Sweeney, and that's giving me pause -- wood and I aren't friends. This might need a second round of testing before I can say for sure that this is or isn't for me. EDIT: ... nope. The wood ate the lime, and then the skin ate the wood. :/ Skin chemistry fail. Darn it! Margarita!

In the vial, it's strawberries in vanilla-flavoured cream. Unfortunately, on my skin, it's not much of anything. Sweet and a bit fruity, mildly cakeish, but not particularly nuanced or complex. It stays the same from drydown onwards. Perfectly pleasant, but innocuous and not desperately engaging. Bit disappointing, really. I'm not entirely sure what to do with the imp. Since December, age hasn't done much to shift this one about, but it's not like I hate the thing. It's nice. I guess that's the thing -- it's nice. I wanted more.

Wrote this yesterday for the BPAL Fiends group on Ravelry. Figured it, with minor mods, might be of use here too. I have, at this writing, bottles of 2004 (trunk show bottle), 2006, 2007 and 2008. (I didn't have a clean decant of 2005 available to work with.) I'd been increasingly wondering if it was worth collecting multiple years on their own merits, rather than a queue of things aging to just the right mark. So, yesterday, I wore all four and sat down to observe a bit. Data point: I have a ginger allergy which 2005, 2007 and 2008 did not trigger. When wearing multiple scents with known identical-or-similar components, I tend to lose that component completely and just pick up the differences. This stretches to how I register what’s in the bottle, so I've included multiple bottle-sniff rounds. In the bottle, pre-application Functionally identical. Cassia, dead leaves, clove, woodlands and apples. I don’t get pumpkin at this stage. 2004 is the most forehead-slappingly strong and 2008 the calmest. Drydown 2004 - Fir and honey. 2006 - Pumpkin and butter. 2007 - Apple and spice. 2008 - Apple. In the bottle, 45 minutes after application 2004 - Autumn woodsmoke in humid territory. 2006 - Pumpkin pie and apple cider. 2007 - Red apples and woodsmoke. 2008 - Faint fallen leaves and distant clove oil. On skin, 60 minute mark 2004 - Smoke, patchouli and cassia. 2006 - Cinnamon. 2007 - Freshly bitten apples, cinnamon, cider, wisp of smoke. 2008 - Mild apple, some mint. At this stage, am experiencing some allergy symptoms. This suggests either that one or both of 2004/2006 have the allergen or the oil, past a certain point, is not safe for me to be around. Not bad enough to discontinue, but am pausing for coffee. On skin, while going through the multi-stage Latte Making 2004 - Massive burst of red apple out of nowhere. What the hell? 2006 - Small burst of green apple. Seriously, what? 2007 - Freshly bitten apples, cinnamon, cider, wisp of smoke, a little greenish-mint. 2008 - Where am I? On skin, 120-minute? mark 2004 - Cinnamon-spiced, bright red apples, like the early stages of 2007. 2006 - Cinnamon-spiced apple pie or cobbler or something. Muted. 2007 - Red apple, candy apple, cinnamon, smoke. Mild, but not absent. 2008 - Can you see me? I am over here! I have built a fire! Though allergy symptoms went away while making coffee, one of the more nervous-making ones – slight lip swelling – reasserts itself while I sniff the bottles. I really like what 2004 is starting to do and I'm curious about 2006, but I'm likely to stop the experience shortly. In bottle, 125-minute mark 2004 - Beeswax. 2006 - Honeyed pumpkin. 2007 - Honeyed cinnamon apples. 2008 - Honeyed clove and candy apple. On skin, 140-minute mark 2004 - Beeswax and apple. 2006 - Honey soap. 2007 - Faint honeyed cinnamon apples. 2008 - LOOK! LOOK! CAN YOU SEE ME? LOOK AT ME! I AM JUMPING! ...and then I showered.

In the bottle: WOOD. Wood wood wood wood wood wood WOOD, wood. Spice? Wood. WOOD. I was initially thrown by just how much it reminded me of Mad Sweeney because of that. Burns on application. I can get a little creaminess and a little herbal off of this as it dries down. The wood calms down when dry as well. In retrospect, it's not unlike Stimulating Sassafrass Strengthener. I don't dare investigate this further, because... ...I'm voting that ginger is in there somewhere. My throat started closing after a minute or two.

Pomegranate candy? Of course I went straight to the bottle order. Sharp and effervescent in the bottle, all fizzy pomegranate-flavoured thing (not actual pomegranate so much as "with natural flavouring") with a sliver of Ribena undertones. I was reminded more of Happy Housewife Soaps' Wednesday's Market than anything. And then it started. Wet: Um… I think that’s a blackcurrant… um… Wet, x2: Um… h-hello? Hello? H-h-hello? Wet, x3: Yes, I do believe that’s pomegranate lemon soda! Yes! Yes… Drydown: …h-hello? Wet, x4: I give up. Maybe it’ll smell like something momentarily. Drydown: … sugar. Dry: …… sugar. Dry, 1 hour: Despair. I hath rent mine garment.

Holofernes wants to be occupying a strange middle ground between Blood Moon ‘08, Hunter Moon ‘07, and...anise?! (Tonka, is that you?) No pomegranate to be found. None real, anyhow. In the vial, it was all strange and inexpensive wine. No, not that. Cheap wine. Sparkling carmenere: one of the finest reds of Idaho. I loved the grapey drydown (compare Purple Phoenix, Penumbra, Dionysia), but feared for overfamiliarity (compare Purple Phoenix, Penumbra, Dionysia...). My comfort zone spectrum resembles my bad habits. Fortunately, the blood and leather came and tamed the grape. This surprises me not a little bit, since leather is akin to woe and the need to bathe, but I suppose blood and the skin of dead creatures have a precedent on me. I can't decide whether I've solved the No More Hunter Moon problem or contributed to the All Purple Everything, All The TIme one. Luckily, I have six weeks.