Kimbernunk

This was jasmine and cinnamon on me, with maybe a *touch* of dragon's blood, but I think the resin instead of the straight dragon's blood - dragon's blood resin can be awesome on me, but straight dragon's blood is lilac-bubblegum-stench. This was really strongly jasmine with a hint of spice - honestly, the closest comparison I can come up with is Lush's Sex Bomb. I like it quite a bit (and I think it does as advertised ), but as some people have said, it's STRONG. A tiny, tiny dab is really all I needed to smell swirls of it everywhere.

Wet, this is lemongrass with a hint of sandalwood. It was gorgeous. And then my skin played with it. It morphed like 6 different times before ending up as rose and cedar. Cedar actually works well on me most of the time (somehow, I don't usually turn it into hamster cage scent, which is what I was afraid I'd do when I first tried cedar blends). Rose can either be really good on me (i.e., when other things mostly drown it out so that I get a very, very faint rose scent that I only notice if I really think about it), or it can be ZOMGWOAHPOWDERFLOWEROFDEATH, which is what it did here. So I ended up with powderflower and a hint of cedar. Not so good. Strangely, I never even got a hint of jasmine or patchouli. I may try this in a scent locket, because I really liked the wet phase.

Smell sanctified! A blend of pure, pious frankincense and graceful myrrh. Frimp from the lab. This is a nice, woodsy/incense blend, with a touch of sweetness. It doesn't smell quite like church incense to me (Midnight Mass has that down absolutely dead-on), but it's nice, slightly sweet, slightly resinous, slightly smoky. I'm not typically one for incense blends, but I will definitely keep the imp around. Overall, I prefer Midnight Mass and would be more likely to go for a bottle of that.

This started out very misty/dewy, in a way that reminded me strongly of Leanan Sidhe. It was citrus for a few minutes. In the final stage, which has lasted for hours and shows no signs of ending soon, it's a lemon-y citrus peel with some sort of herb (my nose keeps thinking parsley, actually) and just enough floral mixing with the mist note (a favorite of mine) to keep it soft rather than sharp. I almost wonder if I'm smelling lemon blossom in here, as there's something about this that reminds me slightly of the Zieba Tree, but without as much musk or the strong orange blossom note that Zieba has. I'm loving this one!!

GC summer favorites: Rosalind: a hint of berry (like Body Shop's old Dewberry scent) smothered in sun-warmed, recently mown grass. The Zieba Tree: the orange and lemon blossoms give it a citrus-y feel, and the musks and everything else make it shimmer as though you're looking at things through the swirling heat coming off of pavement on a steamy day Vixen: the patchouli, orange blossom and ginger combo smells almost sweaty and super sexy Shanghai: on my skin, there don't seem to be any base notes in this one - it's all bright tea and lemon verbena Tweedledee: citrus candy. nuf said!

Overpowering at first - very strong and woody and herbal/minty. It dried down to a very piney scent, with some strong mint (probably wintergreen) in the background. I like it, but it's not a runaway winner with me - if the pine were more balanced with other woods I could see liking it better. It might be a really nice autumn room scent.

Nocnitsa. It's all pine trees and night air. Very clean and refreshing and woodsy. If you're willing to deal with apple in with the trees, then the Hesperides and To Autumn (the last one is an LE from last Halloween) are great scents for outdoorsy feelings. ETA: I'd also second Yggdrasil, which is super woody and herbal on me - like stomping on roots and leaves. A couple of other really GREEN scents are Envy, which is super herbal, and Rosalind, which is more grass in the morning than trees. You could probably do a lot with layering to get the exact feel you want. Another scent that doesn't get a ton of love but which screams outdoors to me is Sunflower (one of the salons) - sunflowers are the epitome of the non-floral flower, and the scent smells exactly like the outdoors in August - leafy and slightly burnt.

With the acknowledgment that I have really wonky skin, Leanan Sidhe was a dead-on ringer for Silky Underwear to me. Weirded me out, but it's really similar on me.

This was unpleasant and strong for about an hour, and I was considering washing it off, but something kept me from doing so. After an hour, it changed and I started smelling strongly of having been sitting in mud planting violets all day. The violets are in very moist soil and in the shade on what is otherwise an incredibly bright sunny day. This smells like the whole violet plant (including dirty roots!) rather than just the flowers. I like it. This isn't my normal thing, but I like it. It'll be great in late summer.

This is absolute dead-on freshly-cut cucumber. Just cucumber. I don't smell grass or anything else. Just cucumber. I really like it because it is intensely refreshing to me. Unfortunately, my skin likes it too. It eats it. It's really faint really quickly. I can see using it when I'm roasting to death hot in July/August, but I'll have other stuff ready to go on half an hour later - this just disappears on me.

This was a disappointment. Wet, it screams LIME!!!!!!!!!!!! at the top of its lungs. I love this. It's playful. Unfortunately, it only does that for about ten minutes. Then the lime gets tired and goes *poof* and is replaced by a light lilac scent. The lilac is subdued and not in the mood for screaming. I imagine it's tired of having to listen to the LIME!!!!!!!!!!!! and is just in the mood to mellow out for a bit. After 45 minutes, it's gone. It didn't even make it a full hour. Sadness.

This is a really nice balance of apricot and orange blossom, with the white musk giving it a base that allows it to stay longer than it might otherwise. It's quite sweet from the apricot, but not overpoweringly so. I've discovered from a few different tests that this blend is super-dependent on my hormones: if I'm nearing the red tent phase, the white musk goes really sharp on me. If I'm not, it's much quieter, and I can smell the other two notes a bit better. I got this imp at the same time as I got an imp of the Zieba Tree. I find the two scents to be very similar. While I like them both, I think I'll go for a bottle of the Zieba Tree faster - I sort of prefer the apricot/clove combo in March Hare to the apricot/orange blossom combo here, and prefer the orange/lemon blossom combo in Zieba to this. This is nice, however, and I'm sure there are days I'll reach for it.

This is fruity, sticky and extremely sweet on me, like I'd accidentally just dumped a entire thing of nectar all over my hands. I assume this is the kumquat - I don't think I have kumquat in anything else and it's really really strong. I can't smell the orange blossom too much, and the tea and pepper notes are MIA. This is a little *too* sweet for me for most days (I'm more of an outdoorsy-scent girl) but I can see reaching for this on certain days when I'm in the mood. I will definitely be holding on to the imp.

This is *super* strong when I first put it on, and it's almost entirely mist and dew, which are notes I'm starting to recognize from other scents (notably To Autumn and The Hesperides). They're notes that I quite like, but they're *really* strong when I first put it on - almost headache-inducing. It quiets down after about 15 minutes - on me, this is still primarily misty/dewy, but there is a hint of something slightly herbal in the background. It's not an overwhelming scent on drydown, but faint and verys spring/fall wet/damp, like it's been raining recently and everything outside is now misty and cool. I like this quite a bit on its own, but I really like it as a layering scent - it's a way that I can take almost any other scent I'm in the mood for and make it misty smelling on rainy days when I want to mimic the weather outside. Good stuff. If I go through the imp fairly quickly, I could see needing a bottle.

When I read the scent description, I knew this was one I needed to try ASAP. I'm also stymied on trying to encapsulate the experience in words - spending a good chunk of the day with my nose on my wrist confirmed my love for it, but did not give me particularly adequate descriptors to use here. So. This stuff, it is beautiful. It really does almost shimmer - the resins and sandalwood and musk don't weigh the scent down. On me it's mostly lemon and orange blossoms, with a hint of sweetness in the background that seems to be from the peach/davana combo. The resins/sandalwood seem to be there only to make sure that the scent actually lasts on my skin (and it did last for a good five hours before I felt like I needed to reapply). The musks just 'sexy it up' a bit. I don't know specifically what musks are in there, but I can pretty much definitively say that if there is any red musk, it's completely drowned out by everything else (red musk = guaranteed F- on my skin). To sum up: citrus-y, soft, sexy/clean (yes, both and at the same time), slightly out of focus, and glorious. Those are the words that this scent brings to mind. It's amazing and I'll be snagging a bottle ASAP.

This started out its journey on my skin by instantly turning to soap. I was not amused. However, after about 20 minutes it turned softly white floral - not piercing headache white floral thank goodness - and developed a touch of herb. Despite the soap start, this has really gotten lovely - it's almost too light for everyday, but would be lovely for formal occasions. I quite like this. ETA a few hours later: This really is fantastic - it's grown on me quite a bit. It's close to the skin and a nice white/green mixture, slightly sweet, clear, and clean. Really wonderful stuff!

This smells on my skin like a stale cookie made entirely out of artificial ingredients. Obviously, I'll be passing this imp on. It has too many good things in it, therefore it will be fantastic on someone else.

This was a psychic frimp from the lab - I'd been dying to try it for a while and just hadn't had the chance. Wet, this is very sharp and bright lemon verbena and green tea. I don't notice the honeysuckle at all. I was worried for a while that it was going to be too sharp altogether, but then after about 10-15 minutes the honeysuckle shows up very slightly as a sweet top note. At this point the blend goes from being sharp to just being bright and cheerful and lovely and wonderful. Green tea is one of my favorite notes and that's the predominant thing in this blend (on my skin anyway) - the combination of the lemon verbena and honeysuckle make it slightly sweet and lemony, but in an herbal rather than a foody way. I'm in love - this will have to be a bottle! 5/5 (and great enabling, labbies!!)

I really like this wet. It's green and herbal and slightly metallic. It's sort of tricky somehow. Dry, there's a hint of leather that I can smell if I mash my nose to my wrist. It's mostly drowned out by something that I want to say is either ambergris or black amber, which is cloyingly sweet and overpowering everything else. The greens and herbal scents are pretty much gone. It's very masculine and still has a slightly metallic tang. It's interesting, to say the least. My skin makes everything unreasonably sweet, so that's probably why it has gone so sweet on me now. I may retest in a couple of weeks and I might kick around using this as a room scent. Otherwise, it may end up in the swaps pile for someone else to sniff and love!

This is a very warm, juicy fruity scent on me. It's a touch foody, but not quite. The clove note is just pronounced enough to keep it from being too cloying on me. I'm enjoying the imp and will see how quickly I go through it to decide on a bottle.

This starts out very green and citrus on me, and then morphs slowly into a very lilac-y scent. It's like the full in-bloom lilac bush in the middle of a very green field. It's very Springlike, and mentally conjures up swirling images of purples and greens with hits of orange from time to time. I am enjoying this immensely and think it will be in heavy rotation during the Spring months.

In the bottle, it's extremely herbal; the stems/lavender scents are really prominent. Wet, I keep getting whiffs of neroli, which I adore. I love this stage. My partner thinks I smell like dish soap, which I find laughable because whatever random dish soap we have right now (some Palmolive 'fresh' stuff, IIRC) smells like ozone and flowers, and much more like a commercial perfume than the lovely lovely neroli wafting off my arm. Dry, there's an orange component, something slighly herbal and almost grassy, and just enough musk to keep everything present on my skin. This is just glorious, and has earned itself an immediate spot in my top 10.

Y HELLO THER FREESIA WUT ARE U DOING TO MAH NOSE? I'm really sad with this one - green musk is one of my favorite notes, and I can't smell it at all. Actually, I can't smell ANYTHING except freesia. This is my first attempt with a BPAL containing freesia, and I'm learning that I apparently amp freesia to the exclusion of EVERYTHING else. I'm going to save the imp and let it sit for a while and see what happens. At the moment though, I have to say that I was hoping for a lot more green musk and anything resembling citrus. I'm a bit weirded out that I'm not finding any of this!

Adding another recommendation for Marcilla. It's more citrus to me to begin, but once it's settled in it's a really lovely lilac scent!

Wow do I love this! It's strongly blackberry and sandalwood to begin with, and develops a definite bright orange blossom note as it sits on my skin. I don't notice much amber mint at all - there's something in the background that has a slight minty tinge to it, but that's about it. For all this is quite fruity, there's something really dead sexy about it. I think it has something to do with the way the red sandalwood grounds everything and keeps it from going too bubbly. It stays very sensual.