I had to overcome my aversion to vanilla to try this, because it just sounds like such an appetizing and unusual combination. I'm fairly horrified of anything vaguely foody, but I LOVE tea, and I spill at least three cups' worth a day on myself, so I'm planning to try every single tea scent.
First impression: fortune cookies that are lightly flavoured with orange, dunked in black tea! It doesn't smell like orange, but I think the ginger must be giving it that little kick as it often comes across to me as citrusy. This starts out as a very mild, sweet, gingery vanilla tea. Not too much vanilla -- not enough to make me queasy, the way vanilla usually does. Just enough to add a slightly sweet edge to it. I don't smell any of the pepper or linen in the bottle, but when it hits my skin all kinds of interesting things happen. The lemony scent comes out more -- I think the ginger is playing tricks on me again -- and I think that the thing that takes this out of being too sweet is probably the light crackle of white pepper. I don't get the linen until drydown, when there's a vaguely crisp, fresh scent underneath, and the full, rich scent of lemony tea comes out. I feel like I'm in a tea shop sampling all the different containers full of tea, and they're all blending together on the tip of my nose!
This is much sweeter than my usual favorites, since I go for wood, incense and very heavy, dark scents, but the list of ingredients in this is too much to pass up. Running over all of them in my head is a delight, as I envision a table set for tea, and the teacup is running away from the creamer while a crisp ginger cookie dances with a jar of honey. This is a real wrist-sniffer...each stage reveals a new marvelous layer, and you keep coming back for more to see what happens next! It's an adventure, that's for sure. I don't know what it smells like to other people when I'm wearing it -- probably the lemony ginger smell and the milky sweetness more than anything -- but I certainly enjoy watching the story unfold as it dries.
ETA: I never remembered to edit this to say that for some reason White Rabbit wound up scampering away from me. My initial impressions were replaced by a strong scent of burning plastic and sour milk and...I don't know, I'd like to try it again some day to see if my nose changes again but I really dislike the "milk" note so it was probably never meant to be.
This post has been edited by sarada: 10 February 2006 - 07:52 PM