sarahmarie

Okay, this is a blend I was nervous about: I love the coconut and the caramel aspect, the currant would probably be good, spice can be sexy - but amber tends to hate me. It goes sharp and weird on my skin and smelling it is a bit like banging my head against the wall. So you can tell I really wanted the caramel and coconut part to work out, here, right? In the bottle I can see the comparisons to Misk U - it's the sweet, lightly buttery smell that feels similar. On my skin, the amber immediately pops up, sharp as can be. Uh-oh. I wait for the drydown, and hope. Aaah. After about 15 minutes, the amber does settle down quite a bit, and the sweetness is emphasized. There's a spicey, amber background that makes this sexy and keeps it from being excessively sweet. It's very nice, but it's not my favorite - my ambivalence about the amber keeps me from thoroughly enjoying this scent. Still, I'm glad I took a risk on it - I'm going to give it another try and some more time to see what it does on my skin, because I really *want* to be able to wear it!

Oh dear...this is just too piercing for me. It's very sharp and clean, to the point of freaking me out a bit (I get headaches, so I have to be careful.) Smelled too much like cleaner to my nose and I wasn't brave enough to wear it. I'm sure someone with a less frightened nose will give it a good home!

A tropical, floral perfume, deepened by the sweetness of banana leaf. Don't worry, this isn't an overwhelming, superripe, fake-smelling banana - it's perfect. It adds just enough depth and sweetness to keep this oil from smelling overly "perfumey". I see this as the perfect perfume to go with a big, bright, flowered dress (or bathing suit!) on a hot day.

Now, normally I am not a flower person - but Shadow Witch Orchid isn't really flowery. It's a smooth, rich, tart/sweet scent that just happens to be associated with a flower. I don't know what orchids smell like in "real life", but this is certainly what I would *imagine* when trying to think of what one would smell like. It's rich and deep and clean on my skin. If I had to compare it to something I'd smelled, it would be nice baby shampoo, but mysterious. Mysterious baby shampoo, for the witch babies among you. (I generally try to avoid drawing comparisons to other smells, especially when they're generic-sounding products, but I couldn't avoid calling it mysterious baby shampoo! Plus, this is like, the best mysterious baby shampoo you'll ever smell. ) I love Shadow Witch Orchid and I'm thinking this is going on the big bottle list. How exciting!

I really like Peacock Queen - and oh, the label is fabulous, too. Peacock Queen is rose perfume - and by that I mean, it's more perfumey than Rose Red, and it's straight-up rose. It's not complex, but I didn't want it to be - I just wanted a rose I could love. And I do really like this. It's too soon to say if I'm in love with it, but I know that it works better for me than Rose Red does. Now, I think Rose Red is the more...distinctive, unique rose of the two. It's sweet and green and very very strong and rosey on me. It's a rare and perfect rose, budding and new. This seems to me to be very different from your average rose perfume concept. Which is all cool, except that on my skin, sometimes Rose Red can be a bit overwhelming. This is why I only have an imp of it (though I debated getting a bottle). The Peacock Queen didn't become overwhelming like that - it's a bit more reserved, I think, a bit quieter. I'm glad I have a bottle of it. It feels more "everyday" for me - in the sense that I can wear it anytime, that is. I put it in my hair and it smelled great there - on my skin there was a hint of soap but I'm going to assume that was a fluke, because I want it to be. In short, I hope to fall in love with Peacock Queen with time, and right now we're in a definite stage of Like.

It's been said - a lot - but this is a lot like Skadi and Talvikku, just without the berry/birch and with a softer sweetness that's very subtle. I actually had to compare it to Talvikku on my other arm to really be able to tell the differences - but compared, they are much different. Talvikku is sharper and more perfumey, Snow Moon is soft and sweet. It's a very nice blend, and while I feel like I have a lot of icy evergreen-y perfumes now, I'm planning on keeping the bottle and just decanting a bit from each so that I don't have *way* more than I could ever use. If you like the slushy evergreen scent but want something a bit softer and sweeter than the other options, see if you can get your paws on some Snow Moon!

Whoa holy sweetnes, Batman! I totally wasn't expecting that. I love cinnamon, but it's not very cinnamon-y on me, and all I can smell is a thick, sweet, honey-like scent. It doesn't smell like honeysuckle to me, and I don't know what copal is - but it's definitely too sweet on my skin. Off to swaps with this imp!

Wow - something about this one is really surprising. It smells very much like white tea - which is unusual, because on my skin all the tea scents I've tried have gone pretty much immediately to major floralsville. Kumiho just sweetens up, with a touch of that floral aspect but not enough to pervert the smell of *tea*. That's exciting and new! I smell only a touch of ginger, but it's just enough to give the scent some spice, and I like that. I'd love to smell more ginger on the drydown, but we'll see. This is a strange scent to me, for reasons I can't really put my finger on. But it's definitely a nice one.

Tons of almond, tons and tons. Almond + musk = not really my thing. It's dark and strong and piercing, which some might like - but it just disagrees with me, so there's not a lot I can say about it!

A piercing, radiant perfume: dragon's blood resin, lily of the valley, lilac and galbanum. I really wanted this to work out for me, but sadly, it's just really too floral and soapy on my skin. It could be really lovely and deep on someone whose skin doesn't do this to floral scents though! I can see the potential and the beauty in this one, but my skin kills it dead.

I tried my sisters' bottle while I was visiting. On me, this smelled a lot like Skadi, but with a sort of powdery perfume mixed in instead of a deep, sweet berry scent. I know that's sort of exactly what the description says, but that's what it smelled like to me! It was a nice scent - very cute and girly, and very appropriate for a snow bunny to wear. As a non-snow-bunny myself, this isn't on the must have list for me, but it's cute and I'm glad I tried it.

I got to try my sister's bottle of Lick It while I was visiting for Christmas! It starts out a bit weird on my skin, but as it dries down it goes through a period of perfect candy cane bliss. I love it, love it, love it. Unfortunately, soon after this brief period of perfection, the mint vanishes, leaving a nice sweetness which fades soon after that. It just disappears completely! I may get some anyway, because I love that brief period of candy cane perfection, but I'm not sure if I need a whole bottle since it vanishes on me so quickly. Sigh!

Oh! This wasn't one that popped out at me based on reading the description, but I am so glad the goblins chose this scent for me! Clearly, they know me better than I do. Fee (how to do the accent mark on the computer? I don't know) is a lovely surprise. It's honeydew-riffic, and light and happy with florals that stay nice on me. I know people are making the comparison, so I'll say this: Dorian didn't work on me and Alice smelled pretty soapy on me, but I think the honeydew is helping to counteract that chemistry issue, because Fee smells so pretty on my skin. It's sweet and girly and happy and while those things aren't always my deal, this is *perfect* for me somehow. Good job, goblin scent-pickers. I am pleased.

Warm, unique, and very strong-smelling. Dragon's Blood does have a floral aspect, but it's smooth and warm and resin-y. I put on just a teeny bit, and it was really plenty! I really like Dragon's Blood, but I'm not sure if I can wear it or not - it may be a bit too strong for me. I'll have to give it another try to be sure.

I really only get rose and frankincense on my skin -most likely because those are two notes that like to amp on me, and the frankincense takes over on the drydown, like it normally does. I really love the rose in this, though - it's beautiful. For that alone, I will give it another try, but I'm really not sure about it yet.

The '05 version I was hoping Sugar Cookie would be spicier, because I kept reading about it's spice. But it's not very spicey on me at all. Still, it is a dead-on sugar cookie scent, absolutely accurate. It's sweet and vanilla with butter, but not the butter that made me ill in Gluttony or Jack or Shill. It's a gentler butteryness, adding some salty "flavor" without being overwhelming. Sugar Cookie turns a little bit odd on my skin. It's not a huge change, it's not necessarily one I can't live with...but I was a bit disappointed with my chemistry with it. It just turns a little too flat and sweet, and there's a slight hint of that plasticky smell people get sometimes. I think I will try layering it with Three Witches and see if that works better for me.

I love this one! It smells just like a fir tree covered with snow. I don't find this too masculine at all - though it is something a man could wear. It's just light and evocative and clean, and I think it suits me just fine. It dries down in to something I don't quite recognize but still really enjoy - I assume that's the birch coming through, because I couldn't tell you what birch smells like. Fresh out of the bottle though, it smells like a Christmas tree when you first bring it in from the outdoors and it's radiating cold. or like going out to the Christmas tree farm and wandering around in the snow looking for the perfect tree (while your toes freeze despite your boots), the smell of cold air and snow and trees mingling. It does remind me very much of Skadi, but it feels colder, and more true to the outdoorsy feeling (Skadi felt like being inside during a snowstorm to me - you can feel the chill through the windows, but it's warm where you are.) I bet it makes a fabulous room scent, too.

Sparkley! This smells really sparkley (sparkly?) in the imp. It's fruity and boozey and it almost tingles. On my skin, the cranberry blossoms and sweetens. Apparently, my chemistry wants to turn this lovely sparkley tingling thing into tart candy. It's still good, and when I sniff close to the skin I get more of the tingle, but I had hoped it would stay more true to the imp. I'll definitely give it another go though - it's too much fun to pass up entirely!

I didn't expect to like this one, but I was surprised by it. It's light but has good throw, and the peach and vanilla pop right out. There's also a floral quality, but it stays light and soft. The amber and sandalwood don't really jump out at me, but that's for the best since amber and I don't always get along. I wore just a little bit of this on my wrists and in my hair. It stayed strong for several hours, but it wasn't overpowering - just a light, perfume/shampoo sort of smell that I liked. I'm not a big girly-perfume wearer, so it probably won't be part of my regular rotation. But when I want something pretty and feminine, this is a great choice.

I didn't really expect to be able to wear this, since I'm not a big incense-wearing person, but I had to smell it just because...it smells like church! And I don't do church anymore, except when I visit my parents for Christmas, but it's evocative to me. And Midnight Mass does smell like church...but on my skin, it's mostly just really strong frankincense. My skin amps up frankicense and it can be a headache trigger, so I probably won't keep it. But I can totally see the potential for awesomeness if you can wear frankincense and like incensey smells.

I didn't order a bottle of this initially, because I was afraid of being overwhelmed by sugar. But I got an imp from a lovely forumite, and I fell in love with it. I promptly ordered a bottle and am eagerly awaiting it. It's definitely sweet, and it smells just like candy corn to me - but it's surprisingly light and non-sickening despite the candy smell. It's warm and soft and sweet, and it goes really well with Three Witches (I get no spice from Trick or Treat alone, but with Three Witches it's extra spicy and delicious). I'm so glad I tried this one, and so pleased that it worked out for me!

Wet: It's buttery and spicy, and as it dries the spicy comes out a little more. I like the galangal - that's the gingery note, right? It offsets the buttery pumpkin nicely. Dry: The buttery pumpkin dies down, as it always does on my skin. The butter stops very quickly, which I am grateful for - the buttery and I do not get along. Woods, ivy, and that ginger-y smell all come through. There's a dry, peppery feeling to this blend. It's masculine, but not prohibitively so for women. In the end, I like this, but I don't think it's very me.

Dove's Heart smells like rose to me, too. I get the white flowers too - I think they are the kind that go really soapy on me. And this one does, so I won't be keeping it...but I can totally appreciate the potential effect of this blend from smelling it. It's soft and sort of feathery, with a warmth and sadness to it. I can imagine it being comforting, if I needed comforting right now, and if it didn't have that thing that a lot of voodoo/floral blends have that makes it go really soapy on my skin.

I don't know why, but I was really surprised by how much this oil really smells like apple cider on my skin! It smells most exact and genuine while it's drying down - in the beginning, when it's freshly wet, I find it a little bit odd. I think it's the whole buttery pumpkin thing - wet, it weirds me out a little! But after a few seconds on my skin, the weirdness vanishes and it's all spiced cider goodness. After it's dry, it's more spice, with just a little apple sweetness. I like this one a lot, as has been a pretty common theme so far with the Patch.

Oh - I think my skin hates orris! I've smelled this note before in something, and it strongly disagreed with me then, too - but now I guess I know what it is! It's very sharp, very very strong, and biting to my nose, and it's really headache-inducing. So PP #4 and I really do not get along, and I'll be swapping this bottle for sure.