Lucchesa

This is a powerful leather scent, and it makes me, as a vegetarian, a little uneasy (I know no cows were killed in the production of this perfume, but it's not really what I want to smell like. It's that realistic.) I'm not sure what red moss smells like, but it has a musky edge to me. Pretty good throw, which is characteristic of scents I'm ambivalent about. I'm swapping this with someone I hope will appreciate it more.

A shadowy, unapproachable forest of maple, birch, dogwood, cypress and pine softened by a garland of New England wildflowers: bergamot, columbine, rue anemone, blue violet, creeping phlox, bloodroot, toadflax, and pixie moss. This is sweeter than I expected and sunnier. I didn't get any evergreen notes, which can sometimes take over completely on my skin. Just a nice balance of greenery and floral scents, a little bergamot, some violets peeking out. Quite lovely!

AE is deep and dark and orangy when wet -- I smelled a lot of bergamot, which is a favorite note of mine. But on drydown something cologne-y takes over. I'm guessing this is the benzoin because I had a similar experience with Nun and the Courtly Lady, and bergamot and benzoin are the shared notes. It becomes quite lovely when thoroughly dry but very faint on me, despite my having reapplied it. And since I don't like the drydown phase, I'll probably swap this one.

I'm so glad this happened to someone else in the first few reviews or I would think I was nuts -- on my skin, this turns into cedar chips. In the imp I can smell the orange and the patch, but despite the fact that there are no cedar or other conifer notes listed, my chemistry makes cedar out of the various ingredients. As it also does with Cathedral -- I just assumed the ancient church was built with cedar beams or something. I have cedar scents I like more. Swaps.

On me, this is a pretty aquatic floral, mostly hyacinth. I was hoping for a stronger fir note, but I guess the forest is a little ways off of the seashore. No throw at all. Very nice but not something that I imagine reaching for often.

I have the "old" gnome, very pale in color. It smells as if someone mixed ginger ale and root beer on my arm (but without the stickiness, fortunately). I don't get any pepper, gear oil or smoke. Very odd and not particularly what I want to smell like, though from other reviews it looks like people are enjoying this quite a bit. I will keep the imp, as with all my RPG scents, but won't be seeking out more.

This has really good wear length and throw for me, which is unusual. Sadly, I'm ambivalent about it. My husband called it "interesting." The description calls it conflicted, which I found dead on. I felt like the three notes never reached a detente and decided to work it out. They just kept duking it out, vying for dominance. I'll need to test this one again -- if it does stick around, it will definitely be a bright summer scent.

Arcana is unusual and lovely. Wet it was sharp and dry - lemon verbena and lavender and rosemary? I'm still not certain I can identify frankincense. Neroli is usually good on me, and it showed up in drydown. This feels very Renaissance to me and kept my interest over all of its stages.

Another gorgeous lily blend! My skin amps lilies and soaks up most everything else, so I am Learning to Love Lilies. On me, this is lots and lots of lily of the valley. Not sure what Syrian hibiscus smells like but I really don't catch the apple blossoms or much sandalwood. There's a kind of acid green note I'm attributing to unripe fig which keeps the lilies from being overbearing. Still, even on drydown this is mainly lily of the valley on me. Less fruity than Queen of Hearts, less grassy than The Reaper and the Flowers.

I love carnation, and Alice is my happy place, so I have been meaning to try Maiden for some time. In the imp I smell the tea and rose, and wet on my skin tea and rose are in the foreground. I get some carnation, but it's the very quiet florist's carnation, not the spicy carnation I love in Alice. BPAL tea notes are often lemony on me, which is great because their lemon tends to go all Lemon Pledge on me, so for a while I get lemony tea and rose and the faintest hint of carnation. But as it dries, the carnation gets spicier and more assertive. I was afraid this maiden would be too faint and virginal and retiring, but no. This is the maiden who can get the unicorn to lay his head in her lap but then clambers on to his back and rides hell for leather through the forest for safety when the hunters approach. And Maiden got me through a whole Zumba class with lovely lifts of carnation while Hellfire, which was on my other wrist, just rolled over and went to sleep. Maiden has catapulted herself to the top of my summer scents list.

I tried Hellfire yesterday and am retrying this morning to see if I get the same result. (For the record, I haven't showered yet.) Hellfire just disappears on me, within minutes. I think the notes are beautiful, but after a quarter of an hour I have to make wrist contact with my nose and really concentrate to smell anything at all. Apparently my skin wants all the hellfire for itself. This just doesn't work for me, alas.

Dirty is clean, clean, clean! I love to put my laundry on the line on a sunny, breezy day, and this captures that smell. I agree completely with DiesMali: the linen of the description has been laundered with organic detergent. The good stuff. For a light airy scent it lasts surprisingly well on me (which is rare).

Undertow is not for me. I had hoped the juniper would balance out the mint, but wet it was unpleasantly minty, and on drydown I got a kind of juicyfruit smell, which must be the lotus. Juniper stayed way, way in the background. Swaps!

Death Cap is a little weird. (I know, who buys a perfume named after a poisonous mushroom then complains of its weirdness?) Wet on skin, it reminds me of that potting soil with the little green balls in it - Miracle Grow? As it dries it becomes a sweet floral, almost fruity but with a tinge of decay. It's really very pleasant though I wish it had more throw.

Antikythera Mechanism is lovely, a soft vanilla not going all weird but held in place by tobacco, teak and oak. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on me, fading quickly to a soft generic vanilla. I wanted to love it because of the name, and I will definitely use up the imp, but I'm not sure I need more.

Yep, this smells like a yoga studio. Woodsy patchouli with a side of patchouli and a patchouli chaser. Gorgeous if you love patchouli. Not my thing.

Desire should be terrible on me. I avoid black musk and black patchouli, and vanilla can be a problem. But bergamot and I are in love, and neroli is usually on my side as well, and they keep all the other notes in line, including that big red rose that threatens to crowd everything else out. On drydown, the citruses and rose are dominant, I'm not getting black musk or patch at all (thank goodness), and everything else is playing gorgeously around the edges. I thought for sure this would be straight to swaps, and instead it's bottle-worthy!

Wintergreen or whatever the minty note is just doesn't work for me. Fortunately there are other woody scents I love. This one goes to swaps.

I wanted to adore this because it is so beloved, and these notes should be fantastic on me. And tragically on my skin it smells like those coca cola bottlecap candies that were a thing when I was a kid. SO disappointing.

Nothing vicious here at all, on me. Sweet orange gives this a fruitiness that reminds me of Akuma. Usually I amp lily but here it's overpowered by the orange note; maybe it will show up on further drydown. Nice but not exceptional; I'll keep the imp but won't buy a bottle.

Horrible on me. Just awful. Not that I loved it in the imp; it reminded me of this awful artificial hot buttered rum paste my parents used to keep in our refrigerator in the 70s, that you mixed with rum and hot water. Yes, I'm that old.. Sicky sweet, no woods at all. Had to scrub off within 2-3 minutes. ETA Retesting another imp I was frimped because those notes should be reasonably good on me. And I don't know what was wrong with imp #1 or my skin chemistry that day, but tonight Kill-Devil is playing nice. I'm still not getting a lot of woods, and it's a sweeter scent than I would normally wear, but I'm not perceiving anything artificial and not running to scrub it off. It's quite pleasant, actually. Fresh sugar cane and honey.

I want to thank whoever suggested wearing oils on the less sensitive skin on the backs of my arms. After several days of trying a bunch of new scents, including at least one without listed notes, Baron Samedi, that I reacted to, I woke up yesterday with my wrists and inner elbows feeling sensitive, like they were just getting primed to itch. I was afraid I was going to have to go cold turkey to keep my central nervous system from freaking out about all scent, not just cinnamon or whatever I was reacting to. So I put lots of calming lotion on my wrists and elbows, but I put some lovely No. 93 Engine on the backs of my wrists so I can still get my endorphin rush from the fragrance. Seems to be working so far!

A funereal bouquet laid on cemetery grass: longiflorum lilies, white rose, chrysanthemum, and carnation. Lilies love me. I love carnation. But the lilies did not want to let the carnation out to play, though they were perfectly happy to play with the rose. So on me this was nearly all bright white lilies with some rose. Even on dry down. Not unpleasant -- kind of gorgeous, in fact. I could see what an earlier reviewer meant in saying it would work well for a bride. But I was hoping for the moderating factor of lovely, spicy carnation. Oh well, I will definitely keep the imp for power floral moods.

My skin is slightly sensitive to something in this, so I won't be putting it inside my elbows or reaching for the imp too often, but especially given that I have zero interest in pumpkin scents, I think this would be a lovely, rich, spicy scent to wear for the holidays.

This is me sitting in a pile of cedar sawdust in my father's wood shop. A powerful and comfortable memory. As it dried down the sandalwood and galangal came into play. I'm not familiar with high John so I can't comment there. Definitely an imp I will reach for again; not sure I need a full bottle.