Lucchesa

You know how sometimes the moment you first sniff a new scent, you feel an instant emotional connection with it and pray it won't fall to pieces when you put it on your skin? And then when you do, it's even better than it was in the imp or bottle and you're flying high on a new love? That's me with the Emperor's Beard. And I'm not even particularly fond of facial hair (fucking hipsters). Resniffing the decant, I'm not even sure what grabbed me. It's sharp tobacco, almost camphorous patch, sharp pine needle. But these are notes that tend to soften beautifully on my skin, and within minutes the tobacco becomes the most gorgeous sweet tobacco, and the patch and the pine just spread out a musky blanket beneath the tobacco tree and lounge. I'm not able to pick out the bergamot or sandalwood, but who cares, this is gorgeous on me. It would smell magnificent on a guy too, if I had one who would be willing to try it. Bottle.

I hope Lights of Men's Lives is anywhere near as good on you as it is on me. You did see that Liliths dropped, right?? Decant circles can't be far behind.

This was a gift from an incredibly generous forumite, and I wish it worked on me better. It struck me as a bright, summery scent and I tested it again yesterday. It goes on with a potent dose of lemon balm, reminiscent of a citronella candle; this phase might be good aromatherapy for concentration. After an hour or so, the lemon shifts into the background on me, and it morphs into an orange blossom-dominated scent, which goes somewhat soapy on me, as orange blossom sometimes does. This lasts a really long time. The faint bit of clove I'm getting is more like clove bud than the actual spice. Decent throw and good wear length, but an orange blossom that doesn't agree with my chemistry.

I tried Phantom with Wanton on the other wrist, to try to get a handle on attar of rose. It is not, I think, a rose that works well on me. Here I get old lady rose and powdery myrrh. On the plus side, the ylang ylang isn't taking over; on the minus side, neither is the black musk. It's much better in drydown when all the notes come into balance, but it is still not a rose I'm excited about wearing.

I'm beginning to understand that attar of rose is not one of the rose notes that works on me. I get a lot of throw at first, which is all rose and, presumably, palmarosa, which is supposed to be rose-like. I'm getting no patch at all and just a little sandalwood. It's not terrible, it just bends in the direction of old lady rose on my skin. Not for me.

I wear a lot of unisex scents, but Spider reminds me strongly of an aftershave my dad wore in the 70s, which settles this one squarely in masculine territory for me. I'm getting mainly lime and bergamot; the ginger is not at all doing the weird foodie thing it sometimes does on my skin, but is sharp and clean. I'm not getting much in the way of either vetiver or nutmeg. Fresh, citrusy cologne -- I could imagine wearing this one if it didn't remind me so much of my dad.

I was frimped a sniffie of this with just enough to skin test. It was very promising in the vial, plum and oudh and dark musk; the vetiver and patch are of the smooth varieties, not the gritty, smoky, or hippie kinds. But it just wasn't spectacular on my skin, which damped down all the loveliness. I ended up with subdued plum and a kind of generic melange of the darker notes as a faint skin scent. It didn't disappear entirely; it was just set at a very low volume on me. Maybe if I had enough to slather, the scent might have ripened better on me. I'm really glad I got to try it!

I absolutely love the goat's milk note, and My Baby and a Baby Goat is full of win for me. I get good throw from this when wet, which is rare for my skin, and excellent wear length. On me, this is mostly honeyed goat's milk with a sweet musk in the background. It is a pure comfort scent, a guaranteed smile scent. Thank you, o generous-frimping swap partner!!!

I was given a nicely aged decant of Loved to Death by an incredibly generous swap partner. Given the notes, it should have a slam dunk on me. Instead, it was interesting. I tested blind, and i would have said vanilla, honey, cacao and maybe sassafras -- I think the latter two notes were how I was reading the smoked aspect of the vanilla, and I think that's what some reviews are calling anise. It reminded me a little of the Scroll. Maybe it's Ceylon cinnamon. The clove never was clear on me, and it definitely read more like honey than beeswax. Good wear length. I'm delighted I got to try it and my budget is glad it was idiosyncratic on my skin.

The generous boyfriend of a generous swapper let me have a tester of Lordy, which I've been eyeing for a while but the reviews are all over the place. (Thank you!!!) Wet, I got an aquatic cologne that made me wonder if the 1950s FBI agent was wearing Aqua Velva. I'm not sure I've ever even smelled Aqua Velva, but that was what my brain served up. There's something about an Aqua Velva man. 90 minutes later Lordy has developed into a skin scent on me, a light cologne with hints of leather and coffee and probably paper too. It's very nice, smooth and unisex. At first I didn't think I needed a bottle, but it's rather appealing in this phase. I'll try it a couple more times and see if it continues to grow on me.

Imp of indeterminate age. I don't love the wet phase of Anne Bonny on my skin. It's sharp, dry frankincense, sharp dry patchouli, sandalwood threatening to turn into pencil shavings. Not a scrubber, but not making my heart sing. Then it dries and the magic happens. It's still dry but no longer sharp and has become something beautiful, more than the sum of its wet parts. Roseus captured it perfectly: sun-baked. I think I'm going to want to smell like this in the dead of winter, dry and warm and fierce. Applied before leaving the house, Anne Bonny will be perfect by the time I get to work.

My grandmother had these hard pink soaps in her pink and burgundy tiled bathroom that were shaped like Mackintosh roses. You weren't actually supposed to use them; she had normal soap too. Harlot on me smells exactly like those soap roses. Old-fashioned rose soap with the tiniest edge of cinnamon. Not terribly long-lasting on my skin.

Snake Charmer Resurrected was a frimp from an incredibly generous swapper. Wow. Yet again, I fall for the unattainable. But oh my, this one is marvelous on me. Not surprising as the notes are full of nothing but win, but some of those exotic spice blends go awry on me anyway (Morocco, you break my heart). Gorgeous dark plum, sexy spices and musk, and the lovely nuttiness of ambrette and coconut. Sweet, smooth, spicy, and mostly a skin scent on me (as is most everything on my skin), so for me this one is work appropriate. I don't actually smell Snake Oil here, and I don't get the crazy wear length of SO either, but staying power is decent. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Are scents ever RE-resurrected?

A sniffie of Mme. Moriarty passed through my hands once and seemed like it might be a red musk blend I could wear. Thanks to a super generous swap partner, I now have a testable amount, and it turns out I was right, although on balance the madame is a little fruitier than my usual taste. Red musk tends to amp to high heaven on my skin, and indeed for the first couple of hours, the throw was all red musk. But when I sniffed my wrist I got a much more complex picture: red musk to be sure, but red fruits and vanilla too, and a little patch. I don't think I'd wear this to work -- it's pretty sexy. But it is surprisingly wearable for me, and I like it a lot.

I tried Matthew 18:10 largely on the strength of the first review. I wanted that strong activism! And I loved the idea that in an hour there was no sign of the fruit. Of course, I got fruit and lots of it -- rich dark-red berry. I don't get much in the way of throw, which is sadly the way of my skin, and although the warm wooly sandalwood does emerge, it is still primarily a fruit scent on me. Glad I tried it, though!

Venus Murcia is green, green, green! Even the color in the bottom of my tester imp is greenish-blue, just gorgeous. And she's a morpher. At first she's all grass, freshly mown grass, and smells like that week in spring when everyone has mowed their grass for the first time since fall because it has gotten just too long to ignore. Then in the next phase the herbal honey comes out to roll around in the grass, and the final drydown is all musk, what must be green musk, lovely and lasting. What a gorgeous springtime scent!

I never tried the earlier version of the Wild Men of Jezirat al Tennyn. This one is sweet, spicy, and clove-dominant on me. The patchouli is very smooth; don't let it scare you away if you are not a patchouli fan. I think the moss and ambergris kind of keep it in check. I'm not head over heels in love with this, but I like it a lot.

Wet, The Norns' Farmhouse is green grassy herbs, a backdrop of flowers and woods, and apple, apple which becomes more and more prominent as it dries. It reminds me a little bit of a lighter Samhain, and I second the previous reviewer's likening this to Fearful Pleasure. The sharp greenness softens as it dries, the woods and herbs get a little deeper and darker against the apple note, and the ash becomes apparent -- I like this stage a lot. Unfortunately, my skin eats this one up, and it's gone in a little over two hours. I think this imp was pulled last summer or fall, so I'm not sure further aging will help with wear length on me, though I may keep it around for a while and try again in a few more months.

I am enjoying Hymn to Proserpine more than I expected to. Pomegranate is an iffy note on me, and it's the fruit I associate most closely with Proserpine. But wet, the amber is stronger than the fruit, and it's a really lovely amber, one of my favorite notes. I can smell the sweet tart juicy pomegranate underneath, but the amber keeps it well in check. (Obviously this is a well-aged imp.) So for the first couple of hours at least this is a warm amber scent with fruit undertones. By the third hour or so the pomegranate is ready to take center stage, but by this time it has smoothed into a really mellow pom that works nicely on my skin.

Wet: Jasmine. Why am I testing Euphrosyne? Great throw, of course. Dry: Oh, right. I wanted to try a vanilla-gardenia-rose scent, with maybe a little well-behaved jasmine tagging along. And this is a creamy, non-indolic jasmine, but there may be no such thing as well-behaved jasmine on my skin. From time to time I get whiffs of the scent I was hoping for, but then the jasmine shuts it down. Super pretty if this kind of sweet creamy white floral is what you're looking for.

Vanilla Orchid is a soft, sweet white floral on my skin. It is definitely orchid, with just the barest hint of vanilla, so don't expect this one to be foodie -- we're talking about the flower here. Orchid is a pretty heady note, and florals are not really my jam, but I will keep this imp to help my nose differentiate the note when I find it in other blends (for instance, I first tried this while testing Rigorous Love, and it helped me understand which part of that blend was the vanilla orchid). If you like white florals, though, this is a gorgeous one.

On me, the Great He-Goat starts out all vetiver and patchouli, and as it dries down I get the amber and black musk smoothing out the rough edges of vetiver and patch. Carnation is a great note on me; pom and ginger are iffy (though I was looking forward to trying smoked ginger); I don't really get identifiable portions of any of them. This is dark and retains a bit of the initial harshness. It works well on me, though, and I will keep it for future Goya lectures.

Wet, I could smell that rich, round syrupy opoponax, and I knew I would love this one. There are so many beautiful dark notes here -- black musk and myrrh are in the foreground on me, with the opoponax, while vetiver and tobacco are supporting players. I'm not really getting the green notes (hemp, sage, moss); this is a lush, velvety black scent on me, and it's absolutely lovely. It becomes a skin scent on me fairly quickly but lasts a long time.

If I really had to pick just one: The Lights of Men's Lives, inspired by the fairy tale Godfather Death. The wax and smoke of millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death's shadowy cave. Warm beeswax, a hint of vanilla, some smokiness -- this one is absolute magic on me.

Unexpected total win! I wanted to try Psychodynamic Discharge for two reasons: 1. I love the name and 2. the label painting was included in an exhibition at my museum several years ago and I gave a talk on the artist. But I expected this to be a failure on my skin because red musk always struts to center stage and shouts down the rest of the ensemble. Not here. Here she plays nice. Still sexy as hell in her thigh-high red latex boots, but she lets black leather have the first line, and coconut and red pepper get to share the stage, and rose comes out in the second act. Frankly I'm not differentiating much patchouli, ginger or vetiver but I think they're keeping red musk in line. This is fantastically sexy, with good throw and wear length.