Lucchesa

Where is the evil? This is a lovely summery floral, something my mother would have worn, whereas from the name I was hoping for something my mother would have been slightly unnerved by. I love Baudelaire and was expecting a little more "mal" from Fleurs du Mal, something deeper and debauched.

I safeguard my Screaming Mandragora frimp because I know I'm unlikely ever to get another one. It's marvelous on me, managing to be earthy but not heavy. There's a balancing fruitiness and acidity, almost a cotton candy scent in the imp that becomes richer as it dries. I wear it when I want to be grounded but optimistic.

Alice was the first bpal scent I fell madly in love with, and it is still my go-to feel-good scent. I travel with it; I wear it all year long; it buoys me when I catch a whiff of it. Pulling out the stopper invariably raises my mood two or three notches. Just thinking about Alice raises my mood. Love it! It is sexy in a light, flirty, but not little-girl way, delicious in an Earl Grey tea with marzipan cookies way. When I was home for the holidays and put it on to go out to a family event, my mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, said, "You smell wonderful!" I also have the hair gloss, and also adore it.

I wanted to love Hunger -- I found it gorgeous and lush in the imp and wet. And it is very long lasting -- I could put it on at night and still smell the traces on my wrists doing downward dogs in yoga the next morning. It dries to something deep -- the black narcissus? - which, as the previous poster mentioned, just doesn't agree with me. I can tell it must be fantastic on many users; I'm just not one of them. ETA OK, I wrote that over a year ago, when I was just beginning to go beyond Alice. I retested it in fall and loved it. It's this devilish combination of virginally sweet, which I associate with orange blossom, and drop dead sexy. And given that my skin eats up so many blends, I appreciate its staying power. It's not 100% me, but it is damned fun to wear.