Casablanca

First, in the bottle and wet on my skin, I get blue spruce as the strongest note, but its needles are woven with lavender threads.

After drydown, I get lots of a somewhat woody-toned berry, which I take to be the yew berry. After a while, I find that this berry has taken over.

Bergelmir has an overall quality of faraway, remote conifer woods, perhaps slightly haunted in the tales of a few villagers, with a distant smoky quality.

I like it! For me it's wintery, but nature-based and a bit moody, rather than having any sort of constructed holiday vibe.

From the bottle, Blue Unicorn Moon reads to me as lots of pink bubblegum mingling with blueberry.

On my skin, especially when wet, it's similar. The way the bubblegum combines with the blueberry reminds me of the lotus and blueberry in Jinbari from last year's Lupers. That was my favorite lotus -- it smelled very pink, and a little fruity and bubblegummy, but not strongly bubblegum. This reminds me of that, but with more gumminess. I just also get a fruity-floral tone to it, which I associate with pink lotus.

I get a little sweet vanilla, barely, but the pink bubblegum + blueberry is really up front and center.

Like Jinbari, this blend is very potent on me at first. But Blue Unicorn is mostly gone from my skin in under an hour. I can still find it, but it's faint. (However, if I apply it again, the second dose lingers much longer.)

This is super fun and playful.

Softly cool (not chilly at all), fresh, and herbal.

 

First on my skin, I get mugwort, bay, and green tea most prominently, with blue juniper and powdery iris hints, on a blended, complex background.

 

After a bit, sometimes I get whiffs of fresh lettuce and cucumber, sometimes tropical ylang ylang and cooler flowers.

 

Once Blue Moon dries, I mostly get a soft, floral aloe.

 

The powdery quality lingers. Sometimes it seems to come from the iris, sometimes from the herbs. Maybe it's a bit of both.

 

This is a low-throw, personal skin scent.

 

Overall, I'm getting the clear, moonlit pool in an herb garden that I sought. I wish it were less powdery, but I'm liking it.

Pink Fuzzy Handcuffs is intensely pink rose on my skin, with a vanilla cream hint. It reminds me a great deal of Rose Mallow Cream from Solstice Scents, if one took away the mallow.

 

I was also hoping for more cotton candy and vanilla sugar, but I'll see how it settles over more time.

Sugared lemon-vanilla cream, swirled with a little waxy honey, atop a barely detectable Snake Oil base that will perhaps come out more with age.

 

I worried about the mentions of lemon, but it's soft and plays nicely.

 

Lovely.

 

2018:

 

Body, Remember is a surprise because I get all listed notes from the first inhale. Strongest on me is a very green and syrupy sugar cane, followed by a more floral than usual champaca (it seems like there might be other hidden flowers with it), dark coconut, and a musky and almost woody ambergris-ambrette mix.

 

An appealing blend that would be interesting to pair with The Pleasure of Aristocratic Women, with its coconut-almond-teak thing.

Wet on my skin, Alabaster Vulva strongly features the Florentine orris butter from Mythological Scene, one of the Unicorns. That note grew on me over time, and I'm pleased to find it here.

 

A silky vanilla and narcissus blend is draped over the iris butter, like some lingerie tossed lazily onto a pale, satiny cushion. A waft of summer bergamot now and then lifts a corner of the draped silk, like a breeze from a sunlit window that no one is troubled to close.

 

This reads as privileged, idle, floating, and refined. Love it.

Wild Rabbit has a dominant -- but delicate -- vanilla floral white tea.

 

Behind that is a sort of chewy, waxy support that I assume is the honeycomb. It seems to be how beeswax notes might smell without their smoky and hot-melting tones: it's plain, pale, and soft, and somehow malleable.

 

I barely pick up sandalwood.

 

A curious blend. Mostly I see it as a variant of vanilla flower white tea.

Sweet coconut-speckled amaretto!

Lab almonds tend to turn to amaretto on me: not boozy, but the almond syrup sense of an amaretto. This becomes a buttery amaretto swirled with freshly shredded coconut.

The honeyed amber is also a player, adding a lot of smooth, almost creamy warmth. Even in the top phase I get a hint -- a grounding influence -- of the teak I love.

This is a tropical beach vacation scent: a novel almondy drink served in a coconut shell under a frond-thatched, teakwood bar.

Bagatelles opens on me as equally an herbal lavender and a black tea. There's something borderline medicinal or astringent here, without being quite either. It brings to mind a Victorian doctor with a carpet bag carrying all-for-what-ails-you.

The bergamot lifts the blend somewhat, but supportively, rather than as a strong force.

I never smell benzoin significantly.

This is charming and pleasant, with an old-fashioned mood.

 

 

ETA: This reminds me a lot of Tyrannophobia. I think it's the same black tea.

Dalliances opens on me as beeswax dominant, and the beeswax is beautiful. I'd been picturing it having a White Bees Swarming sort of honey, but instead I get a saucy, caramel-toned honey that isn't at all gourmand or candy-like. This opening is gorgeous.

 

Within a couple minutes, the white patchouli ghosts in, dry and a little dusty. I like this stage, too.

 

Before long, though, the beeswax and caramelish tones burn off my skin, leaving a white patchouli dominance with a backing of sweet honey. The blend is much less striking then, but still pretty.

 

I'm glad I bottled this! But because my favorite phases are so far short-lived, I think I'll stop at one.

Fortuna Dubia immediately reminds me of having a cold.

It reminds me so, so strongly of an herbal tea I might make and then gooey up with honey for comfort when I'm feeling germy. As long as I can still sort of smell anything, I think I would reach for this, and also for Audumla (herbal milks), to help me feel better. And a hot toddy.

Herbal honey, smoothed with amber.

Champaca, jasmine, and lavender are three of my favorite notes, so I had to bottle this. I shared it with a friend last night.

 

On her wrist: Strongly lavender. A serene, balanced herbal-floral lavender, with an almost vanillic champaca warmth along the edge, on a dim other-floral backdrop.

 

On my wrist: More evenly champaca and lavender, with champaca just slightly stronger. The jasmine is also very subtle on me, and is like some vague floral scenery.

 

An hour later, it's mostly a soft champaca on me.

 

 

This Fortuna is tranquil. I'll probably want a backup.

Lots has changed in a short time. new list!

 

1. TKO massage oil (sweeter than perfume oil to me)

2. Stekkjarstaur

3. Moon reflected in every rice paddy

 

Bit of a gap here because I adore the top 3 yet only enjoy the rest.

 

4. Antique Lace

5. Devos Unicorn

 

 

I like to pair Moon Reflected HG with last year's Luper Maiko with Hair Unbound perfume:

 

Goats milk, coconut, rice milk, honey carnation, and sugar.

 

 

I miss my TKO MO, too.

If you can find it, possibly the LE Heavenly Spark:

 

The echoes of the incense smoke of hundreds upon hundreds of years curling around roses and oak branches.

 

The rose doesn't dominate on me, but its mood is definitely smoky and pensive and a little mystical, and I can see it reminding of rosary beads.

Oooh, this sounds fun! (And I am always looking for new scents to love!)

 

My top 5 (at the moment, anyway...I love so many it's tough to narrow down), in no particular order:

 

Dorian

Antique Lace

Recalcitrant Dragon

De Vos' Unicorn

Zorya P

 

....there are at least another 4-5 that barely got edged out of this list

 

If you might get into the addition of a light, airy exotic musk to a soft vanilla tea, try Ashlultum:

Babylonian musk, vanilla tea, tonka, tobacco, coconut, hyssop, and lilac.

 

I liked it when I first wore it, but it grew on me into a love and repeat wear. Last time, I got a stranger's compliment on it.

Coconut TKO, as others have said.

 

Except something else, too. There's a hard candy smell mingling with the lavender that reminds me of something I tried last year.

 

Maybe Pere Noel? Yes, just checked: Pere N. also had a "lavender candy" note. Otherwise, it was quite different. But the hard lavender candy smell in Daybreak makes me think a little bit of winter because of it!

LunasMuse:

 

For Illustrated Woman, try the current Lilith, Do All the Good You Can:

Madagascar vanilla and sweet patchouli with Yule pine, white fig, and almond blossom.

This smells so pretty in the bottle. It smells to me there like an aquatic tulip sort of Luper, with a light edge of hibiscus.

My first impression from the bottle was "aquatic honeysuckle," but I don't get the same depth. It reminds me more of Qui Aime Bien Châtie Bien (daffodil petals and lavender tulips, blonde woods, freesia, and a touch of pale honey) from last spring. There's just a little honey to it, and it's very spring flowers. Also a bit like Amsterdam.

On my skin, it begins the same, but the aquatic tone and tulip thing soon fade. It becomes more its own flower: soft and golden-coral, somewhere between tulip, honeysuckle, and hibiscus, not quite like any of them.

It's very soft once dried, a skin scent. I'm suckered.

Beautiful.

 

I've never smelled bluebonnet so I can't compare, but this smells like a watery blue wildflower to me.

 

It almost smells aquatic, but is primarily floral. In this one way it reminds me of blue musk: mostly floral to me, but leaning aquatic.

 

It has the wild part of the wildflower, too, where it smells like something a bee would crave.

 

Very glad I have this.

Mm, wow.

 

In the bottle I get bourbon vanilla and cinnamon buns. Things are held in check, though. Pretty tame. The ride hasn't taken off yet.

 

Then on my skin, ho-whoa, leather-cinnamon stickysticky buns.

 

The bourbon vanilla and a woody oudh are a solid structure holding this leather-cinnamon contraption in place. As it settles, the leather-cinnamon also calms down and the blend gets very woody on me. It makes me think of structures and platforms.

 

 

ETA: On my friend's skin, this shows no pastry at all. It's all cinnamon leather, with a hint of oudh after drydown. I wore it again to show her the difference on me. She took one whiff, and: "Hellooo Cinnabon!"

 

I'm amping the sticky buns.

In the bottle, there's the textured, golden scent of saffron over the top of an ambery blend. The way saffron feels in my nose often makes me think of the color and texture of dried calendula flowers, like how they might feel rolled between my fingers if I got some. That texture passes over amber and a hint of coconut.

On my skin, the honey blooms instead, a golden-ambered honey. I get a little olive flower sliding underneath, sleek as oil, and a scarce ghost of coconut milk lingers. As the blend dries, the olive blooms in full. It was the one note I was iffy on, and I don't think I really love it here.

This is a mild blend on me: not a puissant, bold Wonder Woman, but a soft, understated presence. I'll see what more settling does.

I passed over this initially because of the cacao, and then purchased when reviews suggested the chocolate is light. Happy to report that it's light on me, too -- just a warming edge to the blend.

 

In order of strength: I get honey, but the cardamom and myrrh are right up there, very close. After them, I get amber and vanilla, and lastly the cacao. There's a dry, textured desert edge that reminds me of saffron, though it's not listed.

 

Very nice, though it goes too faint on me, too quickly. It's probably a good companion on the arm to either Small Brown Cat or Sun's Treasure.

2016 (edit: I mean 2017. What year is it again?) version

 

I don't always get along with patchouli, but I love this.

 

On my skin, it's a sultry vanilla-patchouli pine, at once grounding, soothing, and sexy. Overall I think pine is strongest in the opening, but a soft, smoky vanilla-patch deeply colors it. The blend is woody and resinous, just a little sweetened with the vanilla and a light breath of honeyed tobacco. The patchouli is dark but smooth, and never reads as dirty or even textured to me.

 

I'll need a backup at some point to age.

Spicy-hot myrrh, like, myrrh as the hot blast of air from the desert that smells the sweetest of all, according to the locals. This blend reminds me of a book I read about the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, and a fascination with such an environment of extremes and challenges to live in, and people who do. A little cinnamon edge to a blast of hot myrrh that's also champaca-spiked, golden with amber.

 

I didn't remember the notes for this when testing it, except the myrrh. I loved the hot champaca-myrrh opening. But then after drydown, I realized it smelled like the papyrus from Mr Ibis wrapped with leather. I didn't think they were in it, and thought I must be having a skin chemistry weirdness that would be funny in the morning.

 

But hey, they're there! I wasn't making it up. I remember I had hesitated on Seth because the Ibis papyrus wasn't very good on me. I found him a new funeral parlor where he is more loved. But this myrrh is really the desert, and the champaca a tiger. The lotus is sweet and well blended in. Love this.