Lucchesa

Most of these notes are reliably terrific on me. Then there's jasmine. And what do I get from The Caterpillar? Indolic jasmine. Nothing else wet. No neroli, no bergamot, no carnation, just stinky old jasmine. Eventually some incense emerges, but with my chemistry The Caterpillar's jasmine is an invasive species crowding out all the other plants, including the patch and vetiver. I love the concept, but it doesn't work on my skin.

I love lilac, sandalwood, benzoin and clove. Champaca can amp weirdly on me, white tea disappears, and I rarely smell the lab's pepper note. And I wasn't sure if I liked wisteria or not. So this was an experiment. It turns out that wisteria is kind of overpowering on me, and it's the main player in this scent. Wet I get strong spring florals, sandalwood and an almost citrusy white tea, and my hopes are high. For me to enjoy this scent, the non-floral components would need to hold their own with the flowers. But they don't; the sandalwood and tea fade quickly in drydown, and I'm left with armloads of purple flowers. I never make out either the pepper or the clove, and I don't get much benzoin, either. Some lilac, a little champaca, and lots and lots of wisteria. If you adore wisteria and lilac, this is a glorious combination of the two. But it's too floral on me.

On my skin, clove is the strongest note, followed by soft leather and a hint of olive blossom. This dries down into a gentle leather and clove blend that is a skin scent on me. It's quite lovely and quite unisex, and I imagine it will age really well.

Dance of Death, a frimp from a generous forumite, was not on my wishlist, maybe because all four notes can be iffy on me, orris in particular. So I'm a bit surprised that I am enjoying it this much. Yes, the orris is bone-dry, dusty, and overwhelms the blend when wet, but soon enough the myrrh and black musk emerge with a velvety quality. The patch is in hiding for the first hour and very subdued thereafter. This isn't the sort of thing I usually wear, but it is rich and strange, and I'm definitely keeping the imp.

Medea was a frimp albeit one I might well have chosen. I was hoping the incense and cypress would temper the florals more. Wet there is some sharpness from cypress and myrtle, I think, but as it melds with my skin it becomes a complex, heavy floral dominated by opium poppy. Coloristically, it's a very dark reddish purple, almost black. The evergreen and myrrh have receded entirely as identifiable notes and are just contributing to the feeling of complexity. It suits the character of Medea beautifully, but as I'm not planning to murder my offspring, I'm not sure where I would wear this one.

Scholars' Tower is gorgeous in the imp, a sort of masculine-leaning smoky, woody, incense-y amber, with a lovely balance between sweetness and smokiness. But as with so many of the library scents (Buggre All, FPS The Book), my skin just eats it up in no time. Sigh.

The Red Queen is quiet woods and fruit on my skin. Wet, it's cherry with just a bit of currant, and as it dries the woods become more and more prominent, edging the fruit into the background. It smells like polished mahogany; if there's cedar it's well behaved on me and doesn't turn into pencil shavings. This is a much drier, more restrained scent than The Phantom Calliope, my favorite cherry blend. Phantom Calliope is juicy and social; Red Queen is aloof, even sardonic. No throw and my skin eats it up fairly quickly.

On me Lust turns into sickly sweet red musk. I guess that's the ylang ylang? No patch in evidence nor any detectable myrrh. I suspect they may emerge in an hour or two, but I may not let this go on that long. I can see how this would be great on someone who doesn't have my problematic relationship with red musk, but Lust is not for me.

"Ooh, pretty," was my first reaction to Yemaya. It's sweet honeydew with a little floral and rounds into melon candy (one swap partner sent little green melon hard candies that tasted just like this smells). No aquatic soapiness on me. Fun, summery, girlish -- this would make a terrific gateway BPAL for my preteen niece.

Wet, Yorick is loamy black soil, deep and dark and rich and a little mysterious. As it dries I get the hint of a floral, not one I can easily put a name on, and the earthiness softens -- still recognizably dirt, but really lovely. It lasts fairly well on me. I'm learning that I quite enjoy the Lab's dirt note. Zombi made me inexpressibly melancholy, and the foody component of Penny Dreadful didn't work on me, but Yorick is very wearable. As an earlier reviewer commented, though, it doesn't really feel like a going out scent. More of a stay at home and read Thomas Hardy scent.

I'm on the fence about The Cat. It just arrived in the mail today, though secondhand, not fresh from the lab, so I probably should let it settle and test again next week. In the bottle I got a lot of benzoin and was very happy. But on my skin the cedar took over and really hasn't let up. It's a nice cedar, and as it dries it gets warm around with edges with some honey and benzoin. 90 minutes in I'm still waiting for the black musk to emerge. Ok, now about 2 hours in, The Cat is coming into its own, which is kind of amazing because with my skin, many BPALs are toast well within two hours. I'm starting to get the musk, the cedar is backing off, it's turning into a lovely warm deep comfort scent, but still with an outdoorsy vibe from the cedar. And it lasted nine hours. I think The Cat and I are going to be good friends.

This is one of those pale, creamy, sweetened florals that the Lab does so magnificently. And lilac is one of my favorite florals, so I jumped at the chance to get a partial of this (already had a decant). Wet it's honeyed cream and lilac, with maybe the tiniest bit of cardamom around the edges. It doesn't morph a lot on me, and it lasts for a long time. A springtime, daytime, garden party scent, very feminine, light enough to wear to work or anywhere else for that matter. Just ridiculously lovely.

Imp is really musky on me and not very peachy. Golden musk (which seems halfway to red musk) and patchouli are the main components that I smell on drydown, with just a faint hint of peach, and the amber gets lost somewhere on my skin. It's nice, but for white peach I prefer Belle Vinu and Eisheth Zenunim.

I wanted to love Bewitched because I want all the blackberry. It's sweet berry and green tea on wet, and then the sweet dark musk begins to emerge as it dries. I never get much sage. But my skin eats this one up within an hour (as often happens with tea blends, tragically). It's a gorgeous skin scent for a little while and then, poof, gone.

The raw, untamable power of red musk. Red musk, red musk, and a dribble of red musk. Sigh.

Embalming Fluid really does remind me of formaldehyde. I wonder if I would have thought that if it were called "Lovers Drinking Tea at Sunset" or something like that -- it does have a bit of a Shunga feel -- but the association is there and I can't get it out of my head. Bright-tart lemon tea, astringent aloe, high-pitched white musk. This could be a great summer scent if it didn't make me think of, um, embalming fluid.

Djinn is very acrid and smoky on wet, but it strikes me as a red acrid scent where something like Smokestack is a black acrid scent. I don't care for the wet phase, but dry it is wearable, a sharp gingery incense. I'm going to have to test it one more time to see if the drydown is worth living through the wet phase, but if you like interesting and smoky scents, you should definitely try this.

Blue, Bloody Supermoon is a tough one to describe. I was kindly granted a tester by a generous swap partner because I was intrigued (but also intimidated) by the list of notes. Mugwort and I do not have a good track record, and mugwort dominated the opening on me. Mugwort and sage and maybe a little juniper - strong dry herbals when wet, with the sharpness of tobacco possibly playing a role as well; otherwise I couldn't really pick out the tobacco. There's so much going on it's hard to make out individual notes. As it dried it got muskier and sweeter. On me the plum was more of a grounding sweetness than an identifiable plum, and the subtlety of three different musks was lost on me as well. It's complicated and lovely, and I'm so pleased I got to try it, but it's not the sort of scent I gravitate to.

I was given a tester of this by a very generous swap partner - I had been scared off from the bottle when I learned motia attar was jasmine. And Luna Azul is a jasmine-dominated scent for me. It goes on as jasmine, it mellows into jasmine and fruit and deep dark sweet amber. I never get much frankincense. It is a gorgeous jasmine, it behaves beautifully on my skin, it's soft and sexy and I'm sure it's going to age beautifully, but the jasmine is not a minor player in this scent. If you adore jasmine, find yourself a bottle.

This is a really oddball scent. I couldn't even put Brimstone on my skin -- I learned my lesson with Malediction -- and I expected this to be a vetiver-heavy smoke as well. Instead, as so many reviewers have commented, it's dark fruits and florals with a charred undertone. Maybe the coals are cherry-wood? No throw on me (that's normal) but it lasts well. Nicer than I expected from the notes.

I usually don't do anything remotely aquatic, but this was a recent Lab frimp and I was curious. I'm not getting more than the faintest whiff of sulphur, not enough to make it noxious in any stage. Instead, wet, it's green with a big blast of really lush flowers and a lot of sweetness -- carnivorous plants must use nectar and plenty of it to entrap their prey. In drydown a subdued black musk comes into play, really pretty, and it is smokier on the back of my wrist than on the inside. No soapiness on me at all. I am weirdly fascinated by this scent and so glad I got to try it.

Luperci 2014 is definitely on the more masculine side of unisex, but I like it a lot. Wet it's patchouli in a forest dotted with beehives. But as it dries down, the beautiful balsam becomes the primary note on me. (On me it's quite reminiscent of the balsam in Umlaut.) Earthy, outdoorsy, but with a sweetness as well. No throw (which is normal on me) but good wear length.

Abduction of Proserpine starts out being all about the sandalwood and ends up being all about the fruit. It's the blackcurrant from this year's sufganiyot, yum, and a little bit of pom. I think they smell sort of similar, sweet-tart and blood red, anyway, so it's hard for me to pick them apart. Woody but fruity with just a little tartness keeping it from being overly sweet. It lasts quite a long time but is a skin scent on me (which is normal for my skin).

Writing on the Slate is so beautiful on me! I didn't even order a decant -- I guess the chalk and dust put me off, or I didn't see "candles" in all the other Yule glory. But the fabulous Lorizav sent me a decant in the Imbolc swap, and it's everything I was hoping for. Hanerot Halalu was nice but not transcendent on me; there was an unlisted floral that didn't love my skin. But Writing on the Slate is lovely in all its phases. Wet I didn't find it cloying at all; the chalk dust note tempered the sweetness for me. (Those of us old enough to have used chalkboard erasers will remember how they smell.) Dry, it's definitely in the same family as Lights of Men's Lives (one of my top 2-3 GCs) but less smoky, drier. It's a delicate, nostalgic scent but has some throw for the first hour or two and lasts a long time, fading away to a gentle ghost of beeswax. Love!

My Al-Shairan is a well-aged imp with amber-colored oil. At first it's all sweetness and spice; I can't make out the fruit. As it dries down, the almost overbearing sweetness recedes, replaced by peach and orange peel; it smells kind of like one of those pomander balls at this point. An hour or so in it's a spicy incense blend. I've been on a clove kick lately, but this is primarily cinnamon. It does not, however, seem to irritate my skin. A nice holiday scent, but I don't need more than the imp.