Lucchesa

I need to stop trying things with names like The Ghost, Phantasm, Cheshire Cat... They just fade away like their names suggest. If you like white florals, The Ghost is really pretty. For about 10 minutes. Then poof, it's gone.

Deadly Nightshade Honey is the first apiary blend I've tried. In the imp, there is a harsh herbal smell which softens as soon as it hits my skin. For quite a while it maintains a dominant herbal note, something sharp and green playing off the sweetness of the honey. Then the balance shifts and after a couple of hours it is almost all honey. This is really interesting! Season-wise, it seems like a May-June smell, although it also plays well in the punishing late summer heat we've been having.

Eros is like a gentler Delphi. The myrrh is not too pronounced, and the sweet resins are softer than Delphi's incense on me. I'm not sure I can really differentiate the lilac here, but it adds to that gentle feel. A lovely blend, but not long-lasting on me; I will enjoy the imp but don't need a bottle.

Hellcat is a strange little morpher on me. Wet, it was all the hazelnut almond rum buttercream amaretto Frangelico marzipan goodness I was hoping for. It smelled exactly the way I expected it to. Not that I want to smell like a girly hazelnut liqueur cocktail all the time, but yes, I want that option, and I can't wait to wear it during the holidays. But the drydown surprised me. It got, well, dry, and the notes merged into something that on my skin was a lot like - leather? I wonder if that's the "bite"? I still like it a great deal and appreciate the sense of humor in the way the scent and its description play out perfectly on me.

Greed is not for me. Did anyone else have a skin reaction to this? No welts or red spots, but the area where I applied it definitely felt itchy and warmer than the rest of my skin -- still does, though I scrubbed it off an hour ago. It must be to something unlisted because I have tried all these notes in the past with no trouble. Fortunately I wasn't loving the patch-oakmoss combination anyway, but I would have liked to see how it developed.

If Grief were a color, it would be a very pale, silvery lilac shade. If it were a sound, it would be a whisper. I love lily of the valley; here it is perfectly blended with the hyacinth and the other floral notes I'm not familiar with (though hydrangeas are blooming all over Seattle right now, so I will have to take a huff next time I pass a bush). Light, pretty, gentle floral -- very like what in my grandmother's lexicon would have been a toilet water, or eau de toilette. A skin scent perfectly appropriate for all those springtime occasions when you're not actually supposed to be wearing any perfume.

L'Agonie is sweet! Blood orange, apricot and honey, all of them ripe and dripping. I am unable to perceive any oudh here, which is fine with me. I love dragon's blood though which adds a spicy depth, and the vanilla is there anchoring everything and lasting and lasting. Perfectly lovely!

This is lovely, very soft and gentle. I have been amping clove lately and was worried about it being the first note, but it stayed quietly in the background. It's beautifully blended, actually; aside from the sandalwood it was hard to pick out specific notes; I never got much carnation, to my chagrin. Unfortunately, it has very little staying power on my middle-aged skin. I'm delighted I got to try it, but I will probably be passing it on.

I retested this today because I recalled it being awful on me and wanted to know why. Roses, sandalwood, frankincense, all good notes. But I was correct -- this goes dramatically wrong on me. Somehow, when the blend hit my skin, it went sour, and then during drydown there was a definitely urine smell. I didn't actually wash it off my elbow -- I was in the car smelling the crook of my arm, trying to figure out what note was so awful, I was busy -- and right now, 11 hours later, it's kind of pretty; the cocoa has stuck around, and a breath of flowers and tobacco. But no way am I going through the urine stage again to get here. I know some people get cat pee from jasmine, but a. there's no jasmine and b. jasmine is usually fine on me. I blame the kantuta blossoms -- maybe the cactus flowers, but Dia de los Muertos is great on me. ETA: 2013 version

In the imp and wet, The Raven is all violet, all the time. Black musk can be a problem on me, but it stays resolutely in the background, as does the neroli (which I love) at first. As it dries down, the sandalwood and neroli begin to play more of a role, balancing it out in a way I prefer to the almost single note violet of the wet stage. Really lovely once I can get past all the violets.

I think my gender-fluid son might find this unisex (the way he finds my black brocade jacket unisex), but I don't think my husband would go for this. It's beautiful on me, though. Like the previous reviewer, I didn't get any juniper or much patchouli, though the latter may be grounding the later stages. At first it was all floral -- I'm sure I couldn't tell you what an orchid smells like, I'll have to cross compare with another orchid scent to parse it out. As it dried down, the clean mix of white musk and bergamot became more and more prominent until ultimately the orchid had faded completely, replaced by musky bergamot. Lovely in every stage.

Congratulations!!!!

This is one of my favorite GC citrus scents so far. So many of them go into cleanser territory on me, but in this one the grapefruit stays bright and cheery. The supporting notes are lovely and gentle; no harsh ginger here. I don't think it reflects the source material of the Scottish vampiresses very well; on me it is very summery and upbeat. I need more!

Sybaris in the imp (without checking notes) smelled almost like milk chocolate and clove. On my skin, the clove really took over and paired with the violet in a strange way. I have not tried a lot of violet blends and this is the only one I have where violet is the primary note, so it may not like my skin chemistry. Clove is usually fine if it is in a supporting role; here it hogged the stage, and there was a kind of stale smell to the whole thing. Swaps box.

I knew I was going to love this because I had ordered an imp from a forumite once and he packaged them up and the next morning found that Tzadikim Nistarim had leaked all over everything else, so he didn't send it but the other imp labels smelled fantastic. But of course that didn't mean it would work on my skin. Happily, it does -- I tried it for the first time this morning. I expected incense -- didn't check the notes beforehand. I could sense something almost citrusy, which I assume is the galangal, and something like a very green new olive oil. Still not sure what spikenard is or what it smells like, and the hyssop was never very strong. But the blend is beautiful. Although the citrusy character faded somewhat, this remained a brighter incense blend than most. Not a lot of throw but at least average wear length on me. This has vaulted into my list of absolute favorites. And I love the tale of the Just Ones, sort of like Jewish bodhisattvas, dedicated to helping humanity. Yes, it may be fun to wear Signior Dildo, but this is righteous, and beautiful.

Super lovely! In the imp almost all I got was incense, and wet you could kind of make out the rose and oak hiding in the background, but I was afraid it was going to be hijacked by myrrh, which happens to me sometimes. And there was definitely a myrrh phase, but it settled into a lovely incense, and over the next couple of hours, the rose bloomed and the oak emerged. Ultimately, about 3 hours in, the rose was dominating, with woods and incense in the wings. A beautiful scent evolution.

A sinister, sinuous incense of summoning, a herald and paean to the Primordial Gods of Darkness, Chaos, Madness and Decay. This is more like what I expected Aureus to smell like (which I'm testing on my other wrist). It reminds me of Bastet, that warm buttery amber and almond feel. So what some people have described as molasses or coconut I'm reading as amber and sweet almond. I like it -- it's very comforting. No throw but a skin scent for my own well being.

Aureus on me is not the golden amber blend I expected. It must have cedar in it, which tends to take over on me. So I basically get wood shavings. Just not a win with my skin chemistry.

These are some of my favorite notes, and I definitely want to burn away sorrow. Wet, despite all the warm citrus notes, this had a cool, astringent, almost minty feel, presumably from the lemongrass. The minty fresh sensation waned in drydown, and I got strong lemongrass and rose geranium and citrus. The notes never quite settled into the perfect citrus blend I am still searching for, and like almost all citrus BPAl it is not long-lasting on me, but I like it a lot and look forward to wearing it in the dead of winter, when I have a cold or am just depressed from not seeing the sun for so long. I think it will be more spectacular then. ETA: 2015 version

I got a bottle of this recently at a great price from a generous forumite, and when Thursday was cool and drizzly, I decided to give it a go. It is beautiful, warm and comforting on me, with something of the plum of Bensiabel but better staying power on me. I usually can't do foodie scents because the pastry note is awful on me, but here it's rice pudding, so I guess gluten-free works for me on an olfactory level. Plummy, a little nutty, a little spicy, a little smoky. I just kept wanting to eat my wrists.

If you tried your Fire Cock in midwinter and weren't sure about it, I highly recommend getting it out now. On me it is such a summer scent. I too was surprised honeydew was not a listed note because that's what the ensemble smells like to me. Juicy, bright, with the citrus cutting the sweetness, the bamboo underlying everything -- this is a fantastic picnic scent. And while it has pretty good wear length on me, it doesn't have so much throw that I can't wear it to work.

Wet this is sweet and juicy and fruity on me. It doesn't scream booze at all, and though it's a Halloween release, it is a perfect summer scent for relaxing in a deck chair with a pitcher of sangria at hand. Unfortunately, like so many fruit scents, it has no wear length on me at all.

I didn't realize that this was discontinued when I put it on this morning. Fortunately, while it's nice on me, I haven't fallen madly in love with it. I think there must be a lot of myrrh in the incense, which can be an iffy note on me but pairs beautifully with the honey and wine and laurel. I will wear this when I teach ancient Greek art. It actually smells quite a bit like Blood on me, so if you love this and can't get more easily, I suggest trying Blood, even though they don't share listed notes.

Vicomte de Valmont smells way too much like a cologne my dad used to wear in the 70s. Lime Brut or something like that - I can almost picture the bottle. And then to add insult to injury, it doesn't last on me at all. Not for me.

I was frimped Versailles by a generous forumite, and it hits a lot of my high notes: citrus, rose, golden amber. The jasmine stays respectfully in the background. This is exactly as gorgeous as I would have expected. And of course, it's discontinued. Sigh.