Shollin

First sniff: Soft florals and a touch of sharp wood. Wearing: Lily of the valley always goes to Instant Soap on my skin, and it’s done the same here. Sigh.

First sniff: Very calm and soothing. I was expecting an aquatic scent (imagine!) but this is more floral. Wearing: This isn’t exactly a me scent, but I really like it. It’s gentle and comforting.

First sniff: Is there fig in this? It’s resinous and dark-fruity, and it seems fig shows up quite a lot paired with resin. I can never identify fig unless I know it’s there though. A bit of powdery floral sprinkled over the top, too. Wearing: It’s decidedly floral on my skin – all the darkness is gone. There’s a tiny hint of something earthy grounding this scent, but the top is all flowers.

First sniff: Wow, this is bubblegummy. It’s the same pink bubblegum from Jailbait, with a heaping helping of bright fruit. Wearing: I don’t know about this one. It’s sort of nondescript on my skin – no aura, and I don’t get much sense of it when I sniff my wrists. It’s still vaguely sweet, but… the Mojo just didn’t grab me.

Should be the last of my back-to-back posts for the moment. A decant labeled "Exp Blend (I)", orangey-red in the vial. First sniff: Berries! Berries and honey? But darker than you’d think. Grapes, maybe – the kind that are so purple they’re almost black. Wearing: Oh yeah. This, I like. There seems to be a little bit of cinnamon in this one too, but mostly it’s grapes and honey. Which sounds pretty darn good, come to think of it… *wanders off to the kitchen*

First sniff: Primarily floral, with a little kick of spices in the background. Wearing: The musk comes out immediately, and the scent goes warm and furry. The florals are still there, underneath, but the aura is musk and spice. I'm liking this one.

Another decant, this one labeled "Exp Blend (?)" and the oil is deep red. First sniff: Someone has clearly made a liqueur out of caramel apples and put it in this vial. It’s so intensely sweet as to border on boozey. Wearing: Caramel apple liqueur. That’s the only way I can describe it. And maybe a teeny hint of cinnamon – I’m not sure if that’s actually there or if I just expect to smell it because I associate apples so strongly with cinnamon. It goes cinnamon-ier as it dries, and the final result is something like a very very sweet Three Witches.

First sniff: Dizzying darkness and bittersweet orange blossom. I know this scent. I’ve been here before. Wearing: I dabbed a little on before bed so I could concentrate on it... This is powerful. I’ve never felt a strong pull to the Egyptian pantheon – I was a Greek mythology nut when I was younger, and have since gotten to know the Celts to some extent – but this blend resonates in a way I can’t really describe. It’s dark, enigmatic, and heady.

How odd... this wasn't minty to me at all. First sniff: Holy mother of all that is coconut! And there’s a hint of rum in the background, and a tiny bit of citrus. It’s a tropical drink. Wearing: After I put this on, I got a little worried about wearing it to work. The rum is just too sharp on my skin – it overpowers the coconut and smells rather like I splashed Myers on myself.

First sniff: A very soft, pretty floral. Wearing: Super-feminine. Gentle flowers that make me feel like I should be wearing a billowy dress. As I’m not a fan of billowy dresses, or of feminine florals, this Grace isn’t really me, though she’s lovely.

First sniff: Sharp. Severe. Dark and angry. I’m a little afraid to try this on. Wearing: There’s a hint of mint or licorice around the edges, but the center is dark, dark, dark. I’m pretty sure there’s vetiver in this, based on the overall murkiness, and dragon’s blood, based on the colour. It reflects the card very well, and as such, is not something I want to wear.

First sniff: Sweet and gentle with the tiniest hint of sharpness around the edges. It reminds me of herbal tea. Wearing: Oh, this is beautiful. Honey-sweet, flowing, slightly floral, with a tiny hint of spice underneath.

First sniff: <ahem> COUGH DROPS!!! That is some serious eucalyptus. Hoo boy. Wearing: Well, I don’t think I can wear Jabberwocky as perfume, but I’m definitely keeping it around for when I have sinus trouble. This stuff is better than Vicks. Smells better, too.

First sniff: Sigh. I really wish this smelled like sex-with-a-bad-boy the way some of y’all have described. Instead, the vetiver – as it usually does – turns it into a swamp. And not sex in a swamp, either. Just a swamp. Wearing: OK, this is better. On my skin it’s less dank, more leathery. There’s even a weird hint of chilly mintiness floating around the edges… dunno what’s up with that. This leather seems to be more Dead Man’s Hand-ish than De Sade-ish; it’s the smooth saddle kind rather than the rough jacket kind. I do prefer DMH to this one (and I can't even wear DMH - I keep it around for nostalgic sniffing purposes), so it’s off to swaps… but I’m glad I got to try it, and glad the vetiver reined itself in when it got out of the vial.

First sniff: Like Tiphareth, this is a very dark scent… but where that one was herbal and resinous darkness, this is a feral darkness. <irreverence warning>Perhaps God’s feminine side is a bit of a wild woman?</warning> Wearing: The darkness in this reminds me a little of the dark-plum/prune-juice scent of Masabakes, when first on. There’s a bit of floral sprinkled over the top, too, just a touch that feels powdery. It’s interesting, but not really me.

First sniff: Tiphareth is dark, mysterious and powerful, with a definite woody-resin overtone. Wearing: It’s more of an herbal scent than a resin scent on my skin… dark and deep and full.

First sniff: Reviews of the voodoo blends don’t seem to stick in my head, for whatever reason, so I had no idea what to expect from Van Van… and I definitely wasn’t expecting bright happy bouncy citrus. It’s lovely and uplifting. Might be one to wear when the world is driving me nuts. Wearing: Well, blarg. Instant baby powder. I re-sniffed the vial to make sure I wasn’t nuts before, but no… it’s definitely bright citrus in the imp, and then goes all baby-powder floral on my skin. Stupid chemistry!

First sniff: SweetTarts! Powdery and fruity. Wearing: Tenochtitlan smells wonderfully exotic on my skin. It’s warm and fruity and the powder has disappeared.

First sniff: Oh my goodness. I was expecting pencil shavings, based on a comment elsewhere, but this… this is a tree. A soaring, ancient tree, bark and leaves and even a bit of the soil around its roots. I’m blown away. I don’t know yet whether I want to smell like a tree, but I could see using this in an oil warmer to turn my apartment into the Muir Wood. Wearing: This is one of those scents that you can taste as you smell, and it tastes like the woods. My skin generally doesn’t get along too well with wood scents… BUT redwood is different. It’s not at all sharp, like cedar and white sandalwood get on me… it’s not aggressively cold, like pine and juniper… but it’s not warm and soft either, like red sandalwood and whatever kind of pine it is that works on me (the one in Golden Priapus). It’s an entirely different beast, and it’s thoroughly wonderful. I CAN smell like a tree and be quite happy about it.

Despite being very well wrapped, the imp I swapped for managed to break in transit... so instead of a gentle waft for my first sniff, I got the full force of Saturnalia in all its green glory. First sniff: When I opened the envelope, all I could smell was vetiver. And, as y'all have no doubt gathered from reading my other reviews, vetiver and I really don't like each other. Wearing: Vetiver… and how. There’s a bit of a powdery sweetness around the edges - from the violet, I’m guessing - but it’s dominated by vetiver’s swampy greenness. Sounds like it was much better on some of you, and I'm a bit jealous... but given my experience with the notes, I didn't have my heart set on this one.

First sniff: Evergreen piney cedar. Cold and aloof. Wearing: It’s not overly sharp the way cedar can be on my skin, but it’s too masculine to be me. I bet my guy will smell great in it though.

First sniff: Very white, very fresh and very cold. I always misidentify bergamot as grapefruit at first sniff, but it’s softer and less sharp-edged. Wearing: Much like in the vial… the aura is a chilly white glow.

First sniff: Contrasts. A light green scent… dusted with cinnamon. It’s fresh and airy and yet somehow still reminds me of church. Wearing: There’s definite cinnamon in here, but I can only smell it if I sniff my wrists directly. It went decidedly resinous over the course of the evening, in a less-than-pleasant way.

First sniff: Hrm. Love Me is definitely an animal scent. Here’s hoping it’ll behave on my skin. I did a second “first sniff” quite a while after the first, and now it smells like dragon’s blood and patchouli. Much more promising. Whatever animal note I was smelling before definitely isn’t showing up now. Wearing: The aura is dragon’s blood and sweet almond! There’s something earthy or woody underneath, I can smell it on my wrist but not in the scent around me. I put off trying this for a long time based on the first first sniff, and boy was that unwarranted. I like muchly.

First sniff: This is soft and floaty, and the tiniest bit astringent – medicinal, even. I’m having trouble identifying any of the notes. Wearing: It’s floral on my skin, a very soft floaty floral. I think I smell jasmine in here, but it’s very restrained. As it was drying, it reminded me quite a bit of Blue Moon. It’s subtle, but pretty, and I think I’ll hang onto it.