Lucchesa

Trappings of the Tea House smells exactly how I imagined it would. No cinnamon, just quiet tea, sandalwood, a little vanilla. I seem to be anosmic to the pink pepper note, so I didn't expect much of that. Unfortunately, tea is one of those notes my greedy, greedy skin eats right up, so many Shungas do not last well on me, and this is no exception. It's lovely while it lasts, though!

Silk Road is one of those scents that smell like my BPAL decant boxes: a little bit of everything, and a lot of Beth. I somehow ended up being given two imps of this, one in good condition, one that's been around the block a few times and contains a deeper-colored oil; I'm testing the latter one. It lives up to its name beautifully: spicy and exotic, yet warm and comforting. You can imagine wearing this while traveling by camel caravan. Notes? Spices, incense, sandalwood; I'm not getting the strong blast of cinnamon some reviewers mention. This is a perfume that would be absolutely appropriate for a work situation; I get no throw at all. Yet after work, you could reapply, go out to dinner, and if the object of your desire got close enough, Silk Road would be quite seductive. I'm not going to cry because it's unobtainable; there are other "Arabian Nights" scents (Bast, Bengal) that push the same buttons for me. But it is a good reminder to buy backups of GC faves as they may not be around forever.

This is a really old imp of the Lovers from the original Tarot series, and it is a skin scent on me. I think there very well may be orange blossom in here, and maybe lotus with its bubblegummy twang. The only GC scent it really reminds me of is no help at all -- Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo. But that aggressively optimistic teenaged girl band sweetness of ACJM is just one thread of this scent. I'm delighted to have tried it and will be passing it along so someone else gets the privilege.

2016 Pere Noel, and it is just lovely. Sweet orange and tangerine dry down into something soft, bright and happy. It is foodier than I'd imagined (I don't think of citrus scents as foodie, but maybe it's the hint of anise that suggests biscotti on my skin). It also has some throw, which is rare with my chemistry -- I wore it to a school meeting this morning, and I could smell it wafting up from my wrist on the table. Extremely cheerful, appropriate to any kind of daytime situation. Three hours later Pere Noel is much faded but still keeping its character.

Lavender always fades quickly on me, so while Light and Swift starts out with a lovely lemony lavender, within half an hour or so it is a bright citrus scent with just a hint of lavender (I have no idea what elemi smells like so I can't comment there). This is sunshiny and very enjoyable. It does NOT go into cleanser or Lemon Pledge territory. I wore it to a morning meeting about the college application process at my son's school, and it was perfectly appropriate in that setting. Three hours later, it is barely perceptible on my skin, which tends to gobble up citrusy notes. Great daytime scent!

This looks like a really aged imp; it came in a swap. Exactly one imp containing rhubarb -- this one -- has ever passed through my hands, so I was curious to try it. Wet I got mostly oak and chamomile. Eventually the fig leaf comes into play, not as fruity as the regular fig note, and what must be the rhubarb, kind of tangy, a little sweet. It's an interesting blend, wood-fruit-dusty chamomile, no throw on me and not particularly long-lasting. I don't see this getting much wear on its own but will try layering with the other RPG blends.

Black Temple Burlesque Troupe started off badly on me. There was something about the tobacco note that was going wrong, kind of the way that Snaky-Hair'd Moirai goes wrong on me. But within 15 minutes, it had smoothed itself out and was playing background to the cocoa and the black musk. This is one of those lovely, lemony black musks on me, so much so that Burlesque is close to what I was hoping Delight and Consternation would be, a musky dark chocolate-lemon scent. It also makes me think I should keep Snaky around to see if age tempers the tobacco issue. A temptress shimmying up and down a pole in a dimly lit club. Delicious!

Every once in a blue moon Jasmine works on me. I never know when, and it's one of those things where when it's good, it's really really good, and when it's bad it's horrid. I tried this because some of the reviews said it wasn't that jasmine-dominated, and I love the other notes, especially the star anise. Frankly, I'm not getting a lot of star anise here. But the jasmine is so beautiful. I don't know why it's behaving on my skin, and I'm not even particularly a fan of florals, but it's so nice to have a chance to experience, oh, THIS is what jasmine is supposed to smell like. I'm getting lots of throw (always true of problematic notes; they don't just go wrong, they go wrong loudly). Gorgeous, creamy, sensual jasmine. I won't wear this one much and I definitely don't need a whole bottle, but I'm delighted to be able to feel the jasmine love once in a while.

Regular Cathedral smells like cedar chips on me, but I thought Gingerbread Cathedral might be nice, and I was not wrong. I really enjoy the gingerbread note in general, and it's really nice with the cedar my skin turns Cathedral into. Very holiday in spirit. The gingerbread lasts only a couple hours on me, and then it's back to all cedar.

Dumb Cake 2014 was not what I was expecting, probably because I hadn't looked at the notes in a while and imagined it was purely foodie. In fact, when I applied it, I could smell the cake note, but within a few minutes the cologne was first and foremost, and I was getting really good throw, which is unusual for my skin. It definitely skews to the masculine side of unisex whereas Dorian, to me, sits right in the middle. I'm not getting much ash. I like this one but it was definitely a surprise.

An utterly feral, thoroughly rousing perfume. Red patchouli sweetened by orange blossom. This is an aged imp. I put on Ravenous and got nothing. Well, not quite nothing, but not much. So I figured it would go straight to swaps, and kind of forgot it was there. Within 15 minutes, it was the most beautiful orange blossom scent I've had the privilege of smelling, similar to the note in Hunger. It's now several hours later and still going strong. The patchouli is really just a grounding note here, on me; this is really all about the orange blossom. Sweet and lush, a little bit creamsicle. Lovely!

I'm always excited when I find a red musk blend I can wear. I got a bit of hazelnut wet only, with patchouli, vanilla, and red musk. The oudh and leather never really emerge on me, unless it's the red leather that's essentially identical to red musk on me, but Spider Witch dries down into quite a nice red musk-vanilla-patch blend that is mostly but not entirely about the red musk.

Honey! Honey and saffron. Honey and saffron and tonka, but this is predominantly a honey blend on me. And I love honey blends, so this is marvelous. I would love to get a bit more tobacco, but Pussy is soft, sexy and satisfying as is.

I put on Judith Victorious this morning without checking the notes, and I would never have come up with most of them. All I sussed out was the mandarin. There is definitely something warm and golden about this scent, which I would have pegged as amber of some kind. I assumed there was caramel in here somewhere. I wouldn't have guessed the warm nuttiness was chestnut flower, but it's gorgeous, and I am on board with chestnut anything. After consulting the notes, I was thinking I didn't have much experience of golden musk, but a quick search of my database shows me it's in my beloved Elf. I'm not getting much lily, if any. So -- a warm, glowing, caramelly scent with a hint of citrus and musk. It's gorgeous. Once upon a time, I was writing a dissertation on Old Testament heroines in Renaissance art, so trying this was a no-brainer, but I really like it. If I ever see a bottle for sale, it's mine.

I really wanted to love this because I love the painting, but this is the minty snow note that doesn't work on my skin (which I would have known from reading the reviews, but oh well, I wanted to try it). After a couple of hours, it's slightly minty dirt with some soft resins, but not worth getting through the wet stage for. Death of the Grave Digger is going to have to find a new home.

This is Your Wilderness (decant from the original release) is a real morpher on me, and fricking beautiful. It starts out sharp evergreens, so much evergreen, pine and cypress. Golden Priapus is a favorite GC of mine; I love the pine note. But there is nothing soft about it here. In your face pine, no honey, no patch, no tobacco. In a couple of hours (this is a long lasting scent) the balance is shifting, and the patchouli comes to the forefront. It's a dry patchouli tempered by a dry and not particularly sweet honey. The tobacco must be perfectly melded with the patch; I can't make it out. You're still in the woods, but in a clearing, so the evergreens have receded. (I love kakiphony's evocation of the hip aging hippies wearing this.) There's an elegant austerity to this scent, which is a quality it shares with the only OLLA I'm lucky enough to have a bottle of, In Templum Dei. It's strong and forthright, not lush and beguiling. It would be an excellent confidence-boosting scent.

The Worst Pillow is all coffee on me at first. As it dries down, it gets sweeter -- the caramel comes out, and the creamy vanilla. This isn't particularly good coffee. It's weak, pale brown coffee, and your choice was either dry non-dairy creamer or a little vial of vanilla-flavored creamer, so you chose the latter. This coffee would not taste great. But even crappy coffee can smell marvelous, and so does this. Good wear length on me though the strength of the coffee note faded in and out.

Another marvelous BPAL chocolate blend! You can see the cocoa globules in the imp, but this is not as dark and dry a chocolate as some I've tried. I'd call it maybe a 55% dark chocolate, not a 70 or 50%. Sweet, warm and comforting, with the almost nutty golden tonka and caramel becoming more prominent as the chocolate wanes a bit. I got good wear length from this, but my imp has had a year or so to age. Delicious!

I was lucky enough to try a decant of this, but given that everyone reports cocoa absolute stuck to the bottom of their bottles, it might be missing some of that note, no matter how stellar my decanter was. But this isn't about the cocoa anyway; #occupywallstreet is big, bad (filthy friggin') patchouli. If there's tobacco, it melds seamlessly with the patch; if there's bourbon vanilla, it cannot shout loudly enough to be heard above the patch. It seems similar to me to the patchouli in Depraved, which I recently bought a bottle of; otherwise I would be going in search of a bottle of this, and I may anyhow -- it's pretty great. To think, a little over a year ago, I was totally patchouli-avoidant. Ha! Good throw and wear length.

My decanter frimped me an empty of Courtesan with Secret Lover with just enough oil for a skin test. I was happy to try it; I didn't get a decant of it because of the jasmine, but it seems that here at least jasmine honey is a note I can wear. This is a classic Shunga. Green tea, pale musk, fruit blossom, citrus, check. I love this class of scents. Bright, cheerfully sexy or maybe sexily cheerful, perfect for a sunny spring day. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with tea blends, my skin eats this one up within 90 minutes. It's lovely while it lasts -- not even the jasmine can ruin it.

I'm a total sucker for vanilla fig milk. Orchid and ylang ylang were big question marks, but I put it on my wishlist anyway and was generously frimped a decant. So lucky! Love and Sleep is a soft fruity floral, lush and lovely. Wet it was a little too sweet for me, and fig milk is not as earthy as the regular fig note I adore, but the drydown is just so beguiling. This definitely shares a family resemblance with Poor Monkey, though Love and Sleep is sweeter, more innocent. Definitely a Luper in the sweet creamy floral mode.

In the imp, I got amber, myrrh, and cinnamon, and I was quite excited for Maidens in Repose. But on my skin it goes through a soapy phase that lasts about half an hour. The pale incense, maybe? I can still smell the cinnamon, but it's overwhelmed, and the star anise is not apparent to my nose. It finally settles into an enjoyable cinnamon-amber-incense scent, but there's still a hint of soapiness. I'm so glad I got to try it, but this one is just not working with my skin chemistry.

My favorite summer gelato combination is dark dark chocolate and tart lemon sorbet, so I was looking forward to this one a lot. But it just isn't working on me. I rolled the decant, which has the requisite brown globules, but I'm not getting chocolate as strongly as I would like. Vanilla custard with a little bourbon sauce served at a table with a single rose in a vase, yes. Oudh, not really. Lemon, nowhere to be found. I just can't make it out at all. It's quite a pleasant scent, just not what I was hoping for.

I knew I would love A Wild and Naughty Girl, and I was right. Bittersweet chocolate at first, spiked with a little clove and tobacco, grounded by patchouli. As it dries down, the tobacco comes to the fore, and the chocolate, patch and clove play backup. Gorgeous, comforting, sexy; it makes me want to run wild half-naked through the pouring rain or make other equally poor choices. I wish I'd gotten a bottle when I had the chance.

The Scapegoat is primarily a leather blend on me, too. It's really good -- soft cozy brown leather with balsam and resins in support, perfectly gender neutral. If I didn't have a bottle of Prosperous Flowers of the Elegant Twelve Seasons, which shares the leather and labdanum notes, I'd be queuing up for a bottle of Scapegoat. Right now it doesn't last on me as long as Prosperous Flowers, but I suspect age will improve that. I seem to be anosmic to the pepper note, so you may get a more peppery bite. Another win for the Fool!