porcelina

i always say that i am NOT a foodie scent person but then every once in a while something comes along that i just have to have anyway. THIS IS IT. strawberry sufganiyot is the most spot-on, accurate, true-to-life, DELICIOUS foodie perfume i have ever tried. it is unbelievably accurate and it is actually kind of dangerous to wear because it makes me REALLY WANT A DONUT. last month, i had the most delicious strawberry paczki from our local donut shop (i had never eaten one before because i am leery of jelly-type donuts... but this was a HIGH-QUALITY DONUT, like seriously) and this smells 100% exactly like that tasted. it's scary. I LOVE IT.

heavy on the patchouli with beautiful woods and touches of pepper. it's lighter and drier than i was expecting and i don't think it's very heavy at all. a really lovely scent!

these gingerbread scents are killing me. i wish i'd bought them all. sin is perfect to combine with ginerbread- the result is warm and ultra-spicy, grounded with a little bit of patchouli. i will wear this a lot in the winter months!

wow, this is an odd combination of notes. i really like the lemongrass note even though it is not something i'd personally tend to wear... it is super fresh and citrus-y... then there is a light floral component and smooth, creamy vanilla amber and coconut rounding it out. it's very nice but not really my kind of perfume.

i wanted to buy this for the name alone because it cracks me up, but also the notes are spot-on for my tastes. and it doesn't disappoint! it is actually kind of striking me as a more masculine o because of the sexy honey and musk combo with the addition of a very nice leather note. i really like it.

i am so happy i finally nabbed a bottle of sweet potato musk. i was searching for it for ages. it is in fact weirdly wearable, and it smells fabulous. it's foody but in a way that i can wear as a personal scent- the musk component elevates it to a perfume, kind of like how the elephantine colossus (my all-time favorite) is very foody but has beautiful red musk to balance it out. it's sweet, gooey, a little spicy and positively decadent, and now i finally have a thanksgiving scent!

woooooahhh this a dark dark dark, blacker than black aquatic. it is like a raging black sea where some awesome sea monster is lurking under the waves. the salt-tinged smoky vetiver mixed with the lighter mint and citrus is unconventional but it works. it's cold, dark and aggressive.

gingerbread cathedral... omg. so so so good. it's perfect. i have this little gingerbread house incense burner that i bought at the chicago christkindlmarket and obviously it's made of wood and doesn't smell like gingerbread (except when i burn gingerbread incense in it!) but this reminds me of that. the sweet, spicy gingerbread mixed with the churchy incense and resin notes is so perfect. i love it so much and i wish i had bought a second bottle! great throw, but i wish it lasted longer. if i had more, i would totally try this in my oil burner as a perfect holiday room scent.

this is very sweet and warm! there is a sweet resinous quality that i really like and vanilla + pink peppercorn is a lovely combination. my problem is the saffron... i want to love it, and the blend smells so good in the bottle, but saffron always goes flat and weird and plasticky on my skin.

balefire is the perfect autumnal atmosphere spray. it smells like wood and burning leaves and gorgeousness! i will be using it a lot this fall to set the mood for the season.

totally my favorite dragon con acquisition thus far. it's so pretty! the peach is very soft and sweet, and the vanilla orchid note is so pretty. i don't notice the rose very much but i do get a lovely golden touch of hay. it is like a bottle of summer sunshine. i think this would pair well with peach viii as a perfume.

i think i was expecting this to be like peach cotton candy, but it is really just a very sweet, sugary peach scent. the peach is fresh and sweet and the sweetness is distinctly sugary and not syrupy- the sweetness is drier and fluffier or something. if pure sweet peach is what you want, then this is what you need!

this is basically the classiest atmosphere spray in my collection. the orchids, musk and amber blend together seamlessly to create a scent that is golden, sophisticated and luxurious. i sprayed a teeny bit on my sweater to sniff more closely. the orchids are a silky floral note, and the amber is sweet and polished. there is a teeny touch of smoke, but i wouldn't have picked it out if i hadn't read the notes, so i would not say this is a smoky scent. i just sprayed some in my office and it smelled so good that i was thinking it's too bad this was never made into a perfume. but then i realized that as a perfume, the floral notes would never work on me! so i'm pretty happy to have this as a room spray. it automatically makes any space smell totally sophisticated. i completely agree with LiberAmoris that there is a gatsby-quality to it! i love it.

oooh peach viii is a real winner for me! i normally don't care for florals but i knew i had to get this as i thought the cream/peach blossom/frankincense combination would be kind of awesome and one of the winners from this year's d*c exclusives. i was right! i don't get a lot of frankincense, and the jasmine is very light, which is how i like it. the scent is dominated by fluffy cream with hints of sweet peach and jasmine. it's SUCH a lovely smell and is beautifully feminine and it lasts a decent amount of time on my skin, surprisingly. such a soft, pretty scent... i will treasure my bottl!

shark tooth is so weird to me that at first i am wondering if my bottle is mislabeled?? the first thing i notice is a big blast of FRUITINESS! i pulled out my bottle of sn ambergris accord to compare but i don't really smell the ambergris in this. dry, i am getting some sweetness and maybe a little wood, but nothing overtly cedar-y. there's no discernible patchouili. this is very odd and i am not entirely sure what i'm smelling!

when i first sniffed staurolite, it really did make me think of rocks! "mineral musk" is such an odd description to me, but when you smell this, especially wet, you realize that it's quite apt! as it dries, the tonka sort of softens everything out. i don't get a lot of oakmoss- maybe just a tinge of green? and i do not smell the vetiver at all, which is good, because i'm pretty sensitive to vetiver as a major component. staurolite dries down to a soft, dry musk, maybe a teeny bit powdery. pleasant, but not my type of scent.

i ordered three bottles of wild dandelion, unsniffed, because i adore the dandelion note in roadhouse and several other of my favorite bpals and have always wished i could wear it on its own. it does not disappoint! it's just SO GOOD and i don't know how but it really does smell like fresh fresh dandelion stems and leaves, a touch of golden flower and aaah it's so amazing. the green is a deep, slightly spicy, FRESH green dandelion scent and it is so accurate and gorgeous. i will wear the heck out of this in spring and summer.

this myrhh! AAAH! it's gorgeous. sweet, deep and resinous with a touch of citrus. myrrh can be smoky but i don't get that here. it is so rich and i agree that there is something here that reminds me of black musk. there is so much going on here- it is an incredibly complex single note. i love it.

WOW! i am not usually a fan of citrus scents but king mandarin is really something else. it is SO bright and fresh and cheery that it seriously makes me happy to sniff, and it is such an intense orange- i feel like i can smell the WHOLE orange, the skin and the pith and the juicy flesh. as it dries on my skin, though, it starts to smell a teeny bit powdery. the amazing, fresh tartness i get at first just does not last. could be a good choice for a room scent, though.

passion flower smells kind of like a lush store to me! it's a very sweet floral and right away it smells very soapy with a citrus edge. that's basically it.

this vetiver is so rich and thick that my 2.5-year-old bottle was actually kind of difficult to open, because the area under the cap was kind of sticky! the oil itself is very dark and oh my gosh a little goes a LONG way. if you love vetiver, you will love this. for me... vetiver is in a number of scents that i enjoy, to add a sense of smokiness, i think, but when it is the dominant note in a blend, i don't tend to enjoy it. it's interesting to get to smell it on its own; i can really appreciate its complexity as a single note. the oil itself is very dark, and the scent itself is dark and somber, as well. it's gritty, earthy and very smoky. it almost smells savory; i can see where some might think it smells like bacon! (i have gotten that myself from a couple of vetiver blends.) i don't think i will ever wear this but i enjoyed being able to smell vetiver on its own and i like having it in my SN collection.

this is a white floral and crisp tart apple scent to my nose. the apple is fresh, tart and juicy- i feel like i smell the skin and the flesh and the leaves and blossoms of the apple tree, all at once! the floral and fruity components actually work really nicely together and make this a lovely, fresh, springlike scent. as it dries, the tartness kind of mellows and it smells more blended- soft apple-scented flower petals. it is clean and fresh and i can for sure see where some might think it smells like soap or shampoo, although it is not overtly soapy to my nose. it's nice but due to the significant floral component, i don't think i could wear this one. one more thing- it has very impressive throw!

i cannot think of what else i've smelled spanish moss in. maybe graveyard dirt! i think there may be something somewhat similar in graveyard dirt. it also smells masculine to my nose and i think it may be a component in certain manly bpal blends it smells green, very clean (not soapy) and slightly spicy. OH WAIT! i just looked it up and spanish moss is a component in vicomte de valmont, which is my husband's very favorite bpal. it definitely has a clean, masculine cologne feel to it, while remaining fresh. very nice, and i wonder if my husband might like to wear it sometimes as a change of pace. i love the single note series because i feel like i am learning so much more about the notes that are in my favorite bpals! i feel like my nose gets an education every time i test one out.

omg. so there is definitely some olibanum (which i just learned is also known as frankincense!) in midnight mass because that was the first thought i had when i sniffed this. it is a gorrrrrgeous, resinous, woody sweet scent. there is a teeny touch of smokiness. it wears on my skin like a beautiful incense, but a pure resin incense, sticky and heavily-scented. i cannot stop sniffing my hand; this is too good. it is complex enough to wear as a standalone scent but, like almost all the SNs, would layer amazingly with another blend- i am thinking vanilla, other resins, leather, etc.

it was helpful to try on both the east african and sumatran red patchoulis simultaneously, so i could compare and contrast their scents. they both are obviously patchouli, but sumatran is a sweet, woody patchouli- a cuddlier and friendly patchouli! it is earthy, but not dirty and it is sweeter and more mellow than some of its counterparts, and has a touch of spice. it's a very wearable patchouli and smells amazing and complex all on its own, but could also be gorgeous layered with a vanilla blend, i think.