Shollin

First sniff: Bright citrus with a resinous base.

Wearing: Very strong lemon, and possibly pine or cedar underneath – something sharply woody. It’s a wake-up sort of scent.

My impsie beheaded itself in the mail, so I’m sort of trying this based on the scent of the little baggie my swapper sent it in, and swiping said baggie on my wrists.

First sniff: It’s very strongly aquatic, clear turquoise seawater. Much brighter than I expected.

Wearing: It gains some depth on my skin… now it does smell more like underwater than like the sparkling surface, but there’s still plenty of light. (Not that I’ve ever smelled underwater, y’know, because it’s hard to smell when you can’t breathe, but that’s the impression.)

First sniff: YES YES YES. It’s that damned elusive fig. Fig is a very weird note to me – any time I read a scent description and see it in the notes, it leaps out as really obvious, but if I don’t know it’s there I can’t figure out what it is. This is it, firmly pinned down for me in a decant from the lovely and talented Brumbjorn. And it’s mouthwateringly gorgeous, which doesn’t hurt.

Wearing: Wow, this is good. It’s perfectly rich and dark and … squishy, but in a fuzzy teddy-bear way.

Butterfly Effect CDXXXIII (from Elri)

First sniff: Soft watery-blue with a jolt of… something. Licorice? Spice? Something unexpected.

Wearing: I’m guessing there’s lotus in here, but I don’t know what else. It’s definitely aquatic. And as it dries, it blossoms into the figgiest fig that ever figged. It vanishes completely before the evening’s out, but the dry stage is exquisite, and I’m so keeping it.

Butterfly Effect XI (from zenvodunista)

First sniff: The afterscent is lime, but the primary note seems to be something fairly funky. I know Beth left civet out of the Chaos because so many of us react badly to it (possibly the understatement of the year), but I’m guessing this might be a black musk, ’cause I sometimes get a similar funk from that.

Sniffing again a few days later… Where was my brain? This is leather. It’s leather and lime. And now I’m laughing because it reminds me of the Ray Stevens song about the pansy pirate who doesn’t like rum and asks for Perrier with a lime in it.

Wearing: Ooh, there’s some vanilla in here too. Vanilla, lime and leather. How entirely bizarre.

Last reviewed by cybra111.

First sniff: Okaaaay… this is spicy red chocolate. It’s red chocolate. I swear. It makes absolutely no sense to my nose.

Wearing: It’s pretty spicy until it dries, but by the end of the night, it’s a perfect rich-not-sweet chocolate cake with just a little somethin’ extra. Closet is still my favorite Monster Bait, but this is one I’ll hang onto for chocoholic moments.

First sniff: Dum-da-dum-dum-GUM. Fruity pink bubblegum.

Wearing: Oh, much better! It’s total bubblegum in the vial, but on me it’s fantastic juicy tropical fruit. It didn’t last very long, but I didn’t put a whole lot on, fearing the bubblegum effect. I’ll know better next time.

First sniff: Did you ever watch The Electric Company as a kid? You remember that person at the beginning yelling “HEY YOU GUYYYYYYYS”? This is the citrus equivalent. It’s really bright, really loud and really silly. Electric yellow-orange.

Wearing: This is just fantastic. It’s Suuuper Citrus (and you have to say that in an sonorous, self-important comic-book narrator voice), with just a little bit of bittersweet.

First sniff: Oh, damn and blast. This sounded so very exquisite, absolute perfection unless the sweetpea ruined it… and in the vial it’s all soap. *grrr*

Wearing: On me it’s a bit more vanilla than soap, but it’s still quite soapy. Curse you, sweetpea!

First sniff: Nutty-musky. There’s cherry in here, but it’s nicely subtle.

Wearing: It’s very, very rare that I buy a full bottle of a GC scent unsniffed. I fell in love with the King from his description and made an exception… and I think I was right. On my skin, it’s lavender and musk, mostly that wonderful shimmering white musk I love so much, with a hint of woodiness. Simply brilliant.

First sniff: Stunningly beautiful. Deep, dark-golden and elegant.

Wearing: Rich and golden and regal and wonderful… but it’s just too much. The throw is seriously strong, and it’s a big scent to begin with, so it comes off as being too loud. Which makes me sad, because it really is beautiful.

First sniff: After the loudly buttery-sweet Drink Me, Eat Me is quite restrained. It’s definitely sweet, but in a subtle white way, much quieter than the brazen hussy that is Drink Me.

Wearing: Ooh, there’s the fruit. It’s still primarily a sugary scent, but the berry part blossoms on my skin. It lasts a surprisingly long time – I was still getting wafts at the end of my work shift. Much love for Eat Me.

First sniff: Holy hell. Forgive me, Beth, for I doubted that anyone could take pineapple, cherry, custard, toffee and buttered toast (let’s not even mention the turkey) and make it all smell amazing and not just a big jumble of stuff. And this is amazing. It’s pineapple and cherry and almost a butter-rum note and I WANT TO DRINK IT!

Wearing: Whoa. I actually just smelled toast. On my skin it’s buttery and, yes, bready. It smells quite a lot like bread baking. The sweetness is almost completely gone.

First sniff: Breathtakingly glorious. Dragon’s blood, bright fresh air, soft flowers and flowing water.

Wearing: This is by far the lightest dragon blend I’ve ever tried. It’s airy, flowy and blue-grey, not the heavy red sweetness I’ve come to expect from dragon’s blood… an honorable and respected ruler of weather and water, not a scary fire-breathing beastie.

And here’s a tangent: I was absolutely delighted to see that Macha’s dragon has five claws. Most Chinese dragons have four; the five-clawed dragon is a symbol of the Emperor.

First sniff: This one is dark and mysterious too, but in a feminine way. There’s something sweet and seductive under the swirling darkness.

Wearing: Whatever is in this, it’s strong, and a little bit boozey.

First sniff: The very first whiff is dark, slightly sweet and warm… and it makes me think of chicory coffee. It lightens up a little during the inhale and develops an almost floral overtone, but the dark, dark base reins it in.

Wearing: Darkly sweet and warm and wonderful. It’s so fantastically rich.

First sniff: And once again I’m transported to Foody Heaven. It’s a Sugar Skull sort of sugar, a fantastic golden warmth and a wee bit of incense.

Wearing: Astonishingly, I don’t love it on my skin at first. The wood is quite prominent (resists underpants joke) and it’s very very rummy. It calms down as it dries, and it’s quite pleasant sweet wood at the end.

First sniff: Warm furry darkness with a squeeze of lime.

Wearing: Well, so much for the lime. Now it’s all spicy dark and it’s going a little bit funky underneath.

First sniff: Warm wood and cold dry dirt. It’s a dusty scent rather than the moist potting-soil of Graveyard Dirt.

Wearing: So here’s the thing. I’m extremely claustrophobic. And there are few things that wig me out more than the thought of being buried alive. It’s happened on Buffy, it’s happened on CSI, it’s apparently happening next week on Bones… and inevitably, after watching said episodes, I have a really hard time sleeping for a couple of nights.

The actual scent of Premature Burial is rather nicer than I expected; I generally don’t do dirt, but this has just enough warm wood to be pleasant. But it makes me think about the reference, and as such, it’s far too creepy for me to enjoy wearing.

First sniff: It’s a big, enveloping scent, but it’s much lighter than I expected. The scent is quite strong from the vial, but the overall impression is lightness. I’m not explaining this well.

Wearing: Oh, don’t go soapy right away! Give me a couple hours’ enjoyment, at least?

No?

*pout*

First sniff: Like being nestled in the center of an enormous pink flower with soft fluffy petals. Beside a stream.

Wearing: It’s tiptoeing right on the edge of being too sweet, but I think it’ll be OK. It’s very pink and poofy. Alas, it didn’t hang around long enough for me to really like it.

First sniff: I first smelled Usher in an enormous jug when I visited the Lab back in February and dubbed it a Definite Guy Scent. In this much smaller quantity, it’s hard to get a handle on, but it reminds me of rain and grass.

Wearing: Mint! Soft white mint and watery green.

First sniff: Sylph is a beautiful, pale green, floaty scent with a tiny-bit-minty aftertaste. It’s quite subtle.

Wearing: It’s quite a bit mintier on me, and still decidedly green.

Scent: The scent is dark and resinous, but I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to the way it smelled.

Usage: I’m trying to lose weight… I’m only about 30 pounds above what I should be, but I’m having a very hard time fighting off snack attacks that jump me when I’m not hungry at all. I anointed a piece of seashell with Determination and asked it to be my anchor, my focus… my magic feather, so to speak.

Results: I carry the shell in my pocket and touch it when the cravings hit, and it seems to ground me. The scent is actually clinging to the shell quite well several days later, and it’s another reminder of what I'm trying to accomplish.

First sniff: Freezing-cold crunchy-snow piney piney piney. Winter in a vial. And all the flowers that are supposed to be in here are completely swallowed up in pine.

Wearing: Well, now the flowers are showing up, and they’re… soapy. Goldangit! One of these days I’ll find a cold pine scent I can actually wear.

First sniff: Yikes, that’s sweet. (For the Lush fans, we’re talking Rock Star soap sweet. Creamy Candy Bath sweet.) Very pink and very loud and very sweet.

Wearing: It’s just way too sickly-sweet. I’m 0-for-3 on the Phoenixes.