cadenza

In the imp, it smells very citrusy, but not a warm foody citrus, more like an astringent, herbal citrus. On me, that citrus is backed up by something else--something slightly aquatic? All I know is that it smells like Embalming Fluid but works better on me. Not as bright and sharp. *goes to look at the description* Ahh, aftershave, that must be what's calming down the embalming fluid! I love it (yes, I keep sniffing the crook of my elbow), and my husband the perfume-hater bends so far as to say "it might be pretty okay in small quantities." Yay!

A creeping, wet, slithering scent, dripping with seaweed, oceanic plants and dark, unfathomable waters. Conversation my husband and I had (starting with "Herbert West--Reanimator"): Him: Herbert West--Reanimator is the best name ever. Me: I have a perfume named Herbert West. Him: Oh really? Me: I have a perfume called Cthulu, too. I don't think I like how it's going to smell, though. Him: It's Cthulu. I don't think it's supposed to smell nice. Me: Let's try it! Him: ...are you sure you want to do that? It's Cthulu. He'll stay forever. You'll be stuck smelling like Cthulu. Me: Let's try it! I open the imp and we both sniff it. Him: Wow, that smells soapy. Me: Yeah. I apply some. Me: Still smells really soapy. Him: Yeah. Me: I keep hoping it will at least turn into an evil soapy smell... Him: Um, nope, still just soap. Off to swaps it is!

Sugar Cookie 2012 In the decant, it smells super-super sweet. Just sweet. And that's the first note that hits my skin, and then the lovely warm baking spices burst into being, giving the sweetness a context: cookie. I smell a lot of cinnamon, a good deal of nutmeg, and some clove as well. Well, now it's been an hour and a half, and it hasn't morphed at all. Which is pretty astounding, considering that my skin used to gobble up spices and amp sweet. Which means I think it smells delicious, but I'm betting my partner is going to HATE IT. (He has this weird resentment for most pie and cider spices. Oh well. That means half an imp is the perfect amount for me.

This is the 2012 version. First impression: OMG how did Beth get that eggnog into that bottle? It smells like boozy eggnog, thick and sweet and boozy and slightly spiced. On me: It starts out as that same boozy eggnog, only more booze and less eggnog. As it dries down, though, everything recedes except a peculiar sweet note that I can best describe as "pink." It's chemical/candy-like and is slightly reminiscent of cough syrup and of cherries (though not cherry cough syrup), but not quite either. And all of a sudden, the pink note drops out completely and I have slightly spiced, sugary cookie or cake or something: it mostly smells like sweet, slightly spiced sugar cookie, but the rich egg nog makes it a little too "eggy" to be a cookie, with just a hint of very dark rum at the back. I am hoping my husband will like this one, because he likes sweet, foody scents on me, and I want them to have interesting and complicated things going on. We'll see. All in all, I think this is a keeper, although the heavy foodiness of it screams "Yule" and "winter" at me, so I don't think it's the kind of thing I could wear year round.

This one really doesn't work on me: in the bottle it smells very floral, and I am not at all a floral person. On me it starts floral, and slowly turns sharper and sharper sour, like a sour lemongrass festival (not in a Lemon Pledge way, just sharp and sour) backed up by gardenia. It also has a little bit of a dark, dirty smell. I think this might work for someone who likes florals, likes standard perfume smells (as that's what the gardenia smells like in the background) with a little bit more punch and earthiness to them. But mine is going into swaps.

In the bottle: LEMON. Followed by coconut. It's like the best parts of a pina colada! Wet: OM NOM NOM lemon and coconut. My husband is going to hate this (because he hates coconut) or TMI I'm excited because I just tested Boo! 2012 a few days ago and it went all lemon-y on me in a Lemon Pledge, totally gross way, and this citrus note is not like that at all. It is delicious and fresh and fruity and sweet, backed by that delicious coconut. Drydown: When I sniff directly at my elbow bend, the citrus has gotten much less sweet. When I sniff from throw distance, it's sweet coconut with slightly sickly-sweet artificial lemon behind it. Not so sickly-sweet that I don't want to wear it, mind (oh my god, where am I gonna get the money for a bottle of this, it's like summer sunshine in the best way), but how much the lemon complements the coconut and how much it it instead seems to vary as it dries. While I'm waiting for it to dry, I'm going to scroll up and look at the consensus and the actual notes. Heh. It's LIME rind, okay, fine. I imagine some of the lemon/lime scent also belongs to the tea and possibly the mint(probably a lot of the front/top of the note: the freshness), although I barely smell the ginger. I am guessing the thing that smells chemical and gross on me is the champaca, as I do not like florals and they return the favor. My husband just got home, so here's his verdict Husband: It smells like a bathroom. Me: Husband: It smells like the kind of soap or potpourri you put in a bathroom to cover...scents. Me: Husband: Specifically, it smells like the kind of soap or potpourri my mother puts in bathrooms to cover scents. Me: I want to post this before bed, so I'll post my final notes on dry scent, throw, and wear length tomorrow. But I think, in conclusion: And

Goddamnit. Boo! 2012 does NOT work for me--too over the top sweet, and then it turns to Lemon Pledge. But. It has dried to pretty much SN sweet vanilla (with maybe some of the cream amping the sweet? Not sure, as *gasp* I have not tried anything else with cream in it), and my husband just came home, hugged me, sniffed the air, asked, "Are you wearing perfume?", sniffed my wrist, and smiled and said, "I like it. You can keep this one." So, umm...help? I think it is the same vanilla from Morocco and MB: Tokyo Stomp, because wet it has that same slightly-too-sweet, slightly chemical smell, but it's definitely stronger in Boo! Any suggestions for something to try that is mostly that sweet vanilla note, but has some more complicated undertones to tone down the sweetness just a tad and satisfy the spice-lover/fruit-lover/foodie in me?

This one does NOT work for me in any way. In the bottle/first on my skin: there is just too much sweetness going on. It smells fake-sweet to me, like candy sweet--something chemical rather than authentic. After that: Hello, Lemon Pledge! Plus a little sugar. Eventually the Lemon Pledge recedes, and then it's just a SN vanilla, or possibly two vanillas, and while I love those notes, I like them much better with other things I like, not sugar-shocky rancid lemon pledge. Oh well, that means more for someone else! Off to the swaps!

In the imp: Wow, the first sniff smells almost exactly like Harvest Moon 2006, until it's completely covered up by an overpowering, bright apple note. Here's hoping on my skin it dries down to less apple and more spices and yumminess! On application: First sniff on me is actually a rather tart apple scent, almost lemony. Wet: After a couple of minutes, the tartness mostly disappears, sitting at the back of the scent just enough to balance out sweet apples and spices to make a very authentic cider scent. I am torn between "YUM" and "I smell like potpourri." Drydown: Ten minutes or so into drydown, a grassy note emerges. Uh-oh. This is not a good, dry grass, harvest-y note: it's what that note turns into on me: sour grass. Please go away, grassy note! Oh good, it's going away, although I still catch whiffs of it at the bottom of the scent. This one doesn't appear to morph much on me: it's a very, very apple cider scent, with just a hint of some other harvest notes lurking in the background. Somewhere between a potpourri scent and an apple one. Pretty.

Sad. There is something in this scent that doesn't like me, for sure. My first whiff was pure berry-and-spice-and-vanilla gorgeousness, and it stayed that way for approximately two minutes on my skin. Then I think the acai berry turns to lemon wax on my skin, and pushes all the other scents away. It's weird because unlike other notes that don't work for me (I'm looking at you, jasmine), I'm not amping something horribly unpleasant, it's just like the wear length is exactly two minutes for all the notes except the sharp, mutated, gross-smelling lemony wax. Those first two minutes make me want a scent locket, though. Super jealous of all of you for whom it works well.

In the bottle: It smells very green to me, with an undertone of "purple" (something wine-y?) Possibly the purple smell is the white peach, as I always tend to misread peach notes as something else. On application: Very green and woody (the rosewood, probably), with the slightest sweet undertone. After a minute, the peach begins to float up and become noticeably peachy. Ten minute drydown: It's gotten very sweet and flowery--mostly peach and sandalwood, with that green, rosewoody smell still strongly behind it. Half hour drydown: I am now amping the "rose" in "rosewood" like crazy. Green and rosy with just a little bit of sweet behind it. Where did the pretty peach smell go? Dry: An interesting, complicated scent. The peach scent comes in and out, sometimes balancing out the green/rosy/woody scent, and sometimes overpowered by it. My skin apparently snarfed up all the sandalwood. Spouse Verdict: "You smell like Fruit Stripe bubblegum. That's mostly a good thing, although it has a bad connotation because it smelled really good and only tasted good for three seconds. That's an exaggeration, it was probably thirty." No/Maybe/*Yes* Conclusion: All in all, a pretty, complicated, sophisticated scent that would be very work-appropriate. Not really very "me," but since the spouse likes it, I'll probably keep the bottle I have and pull it out occasionally. 6/10

I describe this scent to people as "a Thin Mint, but with vanilla." My husband says it smells like a baby doll fresh out of the packaging (oh, well, with a smell this good I don't care what he says!). I have had this since it came out, and it is my go-to "I need a mood boost" scent. It's very nicely aged by now, and so it smells pretty much the same wet all the way through dry-down: perfectly mixed warm vanilla and mint. It has a medium throw on me, and an 8-10 hour wear length. I like to put it on right before bed and waft off to sleep in the warm, comforting foodie scent, and wake up to the faded, faintly there scent lingering on my pulse points.

I am sad that this was discontinued, and was just thinking about it today. (I gave away my only imp to a friend who needed it more than I did.) It smelled like evergreen forest, rain, and just enough rose to temper it all on me.

In bottle: WAAAAARM. Oh, it smells like the description—layers on layers of summery grasses and things. On, wet: Mostly green things, with flowers behind them. I can possibly pick out the orange peel, but everything else is a top-of-the-scent crush of nose-tickling and warmth. It smells rather like being out in a sunny meadow in August, after a good long, sticky hike up a foresty mountain. Drying: two levels—one that makes me think of summer lake-water (the heliotrope? I think it’s a familiar scent), and still the warm layer of herbs. I can detect a hint of that clear, bell-like amber note, as well. It’s beginning to shape into a scent, but I’m not sure what I think of it as a whole, yet. More drying: The amber comes through clearer and clearer (mmm, amber), with herbs, heliotrope, and crushed orange mashing together over the top of it. A first-hint-of-autumn-breeze over the top of a hazy summer scent, at the moment. Verdict: Pretty! A kind of cool, iced tea-at-the-pool scent, amber and well-blended flowers and herbs. It makes me a little sneezy, and isn’t quite my style, but this is definitely something I’d wear when I want to feel relaxed and confident.

In the bottle: Very heavily of barely-sour grape juice, with a little bit of sweetened flowers lingering at the back. On, wet: Mmm, the grape juice warms out and spreads under the flowers. Sweet and pretty. Drying: Smells like flowers and fruit syrup. I’m not much of a flowery person, but if they stop poking sharp little spikes out of the fruit syrup, I will be very, very happy with this scent. More drying: Hmm, it’s turning into sweetened grape juice with a nice light layer of flowers lurking under the surface. Verdict: This is a VERY sweet fragrance, very strongly grape juice-y on me, with just a hint of flowers behind it. I don’t really want to smell like grape juice (although maybe it will tame down later? who knows), but I do like the way the flowers interact with the grape-y smell. Okay, but not for me. (Heh, and on looking at the notes listed--what the heck, nose? It *still* smells like grape to me, even now knowing that it's supposed to be peach.)