Lucchesa

I would never have chosen Nevertheless were it not for the conjoined Elizabeth Warren and Joan of Arc connotations. Oudh is the poopy one, right? And wet, I got that slight whiff. I decided I didn't like it nearly as much as I like the senator. But as it dried down, the oudh settled in to a warm note that, with the frankincense, did battle with the cool notes of steel and iris, and it was beautiful. I kept smelling my wrist in surprise. It's a strong, grown-up perfume. I can wear this. I was delighted to get a decant of this while it's still available from the Lab. It's definitely going on my bottle long list.

Another lovely scent that my stupid middle-aged skin just sucked into oblivion. And I was so looking forward to the hazelnut!

I love Manhattan wet -- classy and citrusy, the pink grapefruit note bright and clear instead of going all cleanser on me. The notes blend beautifully, no weirdness from the mint. And then... it's gone. My skin just eats it up. I will try slathering and hope it helps it last a bit longer.

I'm a big fan of both neroli and of the Lab's gorgeous snow scent, so I took a chance on The Snow at Dawn. And of course I'm not going to wait until winter to try it. It almost never snows in Seattle anyway. So here I am in July wearing Snow at Dawn. I applied it about 4 1/2 hours ago and it is now starting to fade, which on my skin is phenomenal wear length. Pretty good throw, too, which is unusual for any scent I like. And I like. I like a lot. On me it is mostly snow and neroli, the one cool and crisp, the other warm, a little bitter. You wouldn't think this would work, but it's kind of magical. The orange blossom and gardenia are definitely in the background. After about 90 minutes the sweetness of orange blossom became more apparent -- still morphing at a point when most blends are disappearing on me. And every time I caught a whiff of it, I felt happy. Hopeful even. And since I'm loving this in July, it's clearly going to work for me year round.

Snake oil has lasted Nearly twenty-four hours now (No, I've not showered.) Ghostly vanilla All that's left of the famous Indonesian oils.

I was frimped a sniffie of this with a single delicious test inside. This is not my usual kind of scent, but I'm so delighted I got a chance to try it. It smells exactly the way you'd imagine from the description. Like marshmallow creme and strawberry jam. It's sweet and fluffy and I feel like I should be wearing a pink dress with a million ruffles, and maybe some black high-tops with fluorescent green laces.

I guess I never reviewed Defututa. After it had passed into my culled imps, I got it out this afternoon when I was trying to figure out if it was champaca that was ruining a couple of other blends for me. And yes, it was the champaca. I don't get any cinnamon at all here, just jasmine and honey vanilla at first. (I can't claim to know what olive blossom smells like.) And it is very nice for about 45 minutes until the champaca takes over and tries to drag the whole ensemble into motel soap territory. It's not terrible, but I think I would be willing to swap it after all.

I have no problem with rose, but apparently I have a problem with champaca. This was frankly more strongly floral than I expected a cleric to smell; I wanted to get more of the incense. I didn't love this the first time I tried it, and I got it out again today when Paramatman was going weird on me to see if it was the champaca I was objecting to. Yep. Champaca takes over on my skin, and it smells like cheap soap that's trying to imitate expensive soap. Cleric is a more complicated blend than Paramatman and there are a number of other notes that kept the champaca from being quite so annoyingly dominant, but it still ruins the scent for me. I will keep my imp, as I keep nearly all my RPGs, in case my goth younger son should ever want them, but I will never reach for this one.

So, I wasn't really sure what champaca smelled like. Now I know. This was beautiful in the imp and wet, but quickly a note took over that reminds me of the hard miniature bars of soap in a cheap motel. Evidently that's champaca. I put Cleric on my other wrist to test, and after about half an hour that note begins to dominate Cleric too, which may be why I didn't love it. About an hour after application if I sniffed my wrist, I could make out the orange blossom and sandalwood peeking their heads around the corner to see if it was safe to come out yet, but no, champaca continues to bully them into submission. I learned last night that this has been quietly discontinued, but for me it is no big loss. I will add champaca to my notes of no, thank you. Edited to remove an extra a from champaca.

I had unfortunately already ordered a decant of Humanite when I skin-tested Nocturne. I have very few scents with tuberose in them, but I'm coming to the conclusion that it's never going to work on my skin. A shame: Nocturne is beautiful in the imp.

In the imp, a darker scent than I expected from such a pale oil. Must be that caramelized vanilla getting down and dirty with the fruits and flowers. Intriguing, as I had hoped. But on my skin, as I ought to have known, TUBEROSE. Tuberose stomping all over everything else, getting its own way. Tuberose? We're finished. Done. I keep being tempted back by the company you keep, but never again.

Black Lily is strongly lily with the hint of something darker - maybe a dark musk, which doesn't usually go well on me, but lilies are one of the flowers that work best with my skin chemistry, and this is beautiful. Low to medium throw, but I bet I'd get more if I slathered (I usually don't get much throw at all from most scents). Very elegant and worldly, a night at the opera or whirlwind weekend in Paris kind of scent. It is fading faster than I hoped but is still definitely a keeper.

A shot of pure, self-indulgent euphoria! A scent that is very, very wicked in its own way: the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate. Yep, milk chocolate. Cadbury's, past its sell-by date. I can understand why some people enjoy this, especially when their skin chemistry makes it seem creamy and not stale, but this is not for me. ETA scent description. I did it!

I love carnation -- my all time fave is Alice where I get lots of spicy carnation deliciousness. But Bathsheba's carnation is very understated for me, gradually emerging in drydown. It is a beautiful mix of all three notes, but it is too quiet to be spectacular. I think it would be a very nice skin scent in situations where it would give me confidence and pleasure to sniff it on my wrist and know it was there, but unlike for DiZZySTARdust it has no throw on me at all.

I knew this would be good, with the listed notes. The only one I worried about was myrrh, which can ruin things for me, but I was hoping that soft myrrh would stay in line, and it did. It's not transcendent, but it's very nice. Like Bassmastadroog, I wish it were stronger, but my skin eats up most scent, so I wish that a lot. But it's the kind of thing you could wear to a job interview where you wanted to feel warm and glowing and powerful without broadcasting to the whole room I'M WEARING PERFUME... ETA Put some Bastet on about 2.5 hours ago, super long wear time for my sponge-like skin, and it is still going strong. Love it!

Evening Cicadas and Red Peppers (Yule 2009 blend) reminds me quite a bit of Light Blue. Ebisu Making Love As Two Octopuses Look On (Lupercalia 2008) also has a similar feel for me. My sister loves D&G's Light Blue, and these suggestions are super hard to find. Is there anything in the GC that would be similar? From the website, top, heart and base notes: Invigorating Sicilian cedar melds with the crisp vibrancy of apple and the guileless charm of the bluebell, to evoke the essence of a South Italian summer The freshness of bamboo nestles amid a glorious feminine bouquet of decadent jasmine and delicate white rose. Redolent citron wood is entwined with voluptuous amber and a suggestive caress of musk.. Thanks!

Rose geranium definitely dominates in this blend on my skin; my aunt had a huge rose geranium plant and this reminds me of her house. But it is spicy enough that it doesn't scream feminine floral, and I'm finally getting a BPAL pepper scent that my skin doesn't just eliminate. The other notes support the rose geranium beautifully, though as usual my skin chemistry damps down the mandarin. Vanilla sometimes ruins things for me but if I sense it at all it is only as a shy supporting note. This is lovely and warm without a lot of throw on me, so I could easily wear it to work.

This is really quiet on me, not at all tumultuous or screeching. I don't get much citrus, or pepper for that matter, just a woodsy floral that would be perfect for wearing in places where I'm not really supposed to be wearing perfume. I'll keep it for just those occasions. Lovely if I sniff my wrist, but no throw whatsoever although I usually amp lily.

In the imp: evergreen boughs with maybe a little rosewood. On my skin it remains one of the best BPAL pine scents I have tried so far, clean but not cleanser. But this is a morpher on me. As it dries down, the amber and vanilla become much more prominent. It is gorgeous all the way through, though, and perfectly unisex - the description almost scared me away, but I'm so glad I tried it because it is bottle-worthy on me.

Super good advice, Rachelos! I love buying imps, either from the Lab or the forums, because I haven't invested a fortune so I'm not devastated if a scent doesn't go my way. And the people here are great. I bought some imps early on and the forumite asked what he could frimp me -- extra imps I might want to try, like the ones the Lab always includes in orders. And I said I was afraid of patchouli, and he sent me samples of some patchouli blends, one of which is now one of my absolute favorites. You never know what the combination of notes is going to do with your skin chemistry. It can be magic! I still buy the occasional bottle untested, especially if it's for a good cause -- I'll be ordering some Covfefe soon...

O was in my very first order from the Lab, and I wasn't impressed at the time. The vanilla hit my skin and took over in a very weird way, or maybe it was the vanilla and honey combination, but it just wasn't good on me. So, this morning I saw a necklace of mine hanging in the corner of my office. It's a Japanese necklace with a compartment inside, I haven't worn it for at least a couple years, and looking at it, I thought, "That would be perfect to hold a couple of imps." I opened it up and damn, that's where Fae and Uruk and my original O had gone! O is now a dragon's blood red; I don't remember it being this color originally. And it is freaking gorgeous! The three notes blend together seamlessly, and there's a tiny bit of spiciness, maybe from the amber? It is sexy as hell. Age this one, folks! Age it! It's fantastic.

On first sniff, I didn't read Tisiphone as a floral at all. On my skin the floral notes just begin to creep out, but are still overwhelmed. Black patchouli can be an enemy of mine, and it does me no favors here. Neroli is usually good on me, and I wish there were more here, but the black patch beats it into submission. This is just not distinctive or long wearing on me, either. Swaps.

Siren on me is predominantly a young white ginger - the kind with the smooth skin in the grocery store, not the gnarled kind - with a little jasmine. I can just get apricot, but the vanilla barely makes itself known. I want to drink this as a tea, but I'm not sure I want to smell like this.

Sheol is another of Beth's gorgeous lily blends that work so well on my skin. It is a beautiful bright floral on first application, and as it dries the resins darken the scent, making it richer and deeper. A sophisticated floral -- it never gets muddled as it seems to on other users. And I love the idea of the scent, the reminder that all we have is the brightness of this world which is fleeting.

This was a BPTP frimp that I knew wouldn't work for me when I first sniffed it in the imp. I finally tested it today, and I was right, it doesn't work on my skin. It has gives the weird sensation of being both sharp and cloyingly sweet. And it's giving me the hint of some buried scent memory that is not a pleasant one. My elf is just going to have to find some other occupation besides picking pockets.