greenranger

#81 I only ordered one.

Orange and citrus, over frankincense. Not just orange, I think..? There might be a tart berry or three in this, like Acai or something. A fruity, juicy, tart scent, with a hint of spice, that might be the frankincense or it might be something else I haven't identified yet.

As it dries, I begin to think there may be a flower or two in it as well. It stays mostly on the fruit side, although it is beginning to be less juicy and more dry.

It dries down to a dry resin, sweetened by just a bare hint of the fruit.

I'll get to the review, but, this story is actually pertinent:

The forum took its extended naptime about the time I was dealing with this so I didn't end up posting about my bees in the rant section, or anywhere else.

I had a hive of bees in my wall. They were entering in a spot where the stucco met the stonework, in an out of the way place where we didn't have to walk past the bees. Therefore, I ignored the hive for a while because my life was complicated and bees were sort of low on my list to deal with. They weren't going to cause the house to fall down, so I ignored them.

Therefore, when I finally got a beekeeper to come remove them, the hive extended, inside the wall, from floor to ceiling. Mostly, brood, not honey. It was a much larger job to get them all out of the house than the beekeeper had expected(or I, for that matter), and she worked on it for 5 hours one day and had to come back again to get them all.

So, my house had a huge hole in my wall, on the inside, since that's cheaper to replace than the stucco. My house, it smells of honey, and wax, and a sort of faint...muskyness? Bee musk, or something. Not unpleasant. Just different.

How did Beth manage to capture that in this scent?

Not exactly, mind you, since the oil smells actually much more pleasant. However, the slightly musky beeness is in this, overlayed with a lot more sweetness than my hive had.

I can pick out the coconut, and if I look at the list of notes, more become apparent(Or I think they do. I suppose I can be suggestable). Mostly, though, this makes me think of bees. My hive wasn't a killer swarm; they were actually way too busy making babies and feeding them to be interested in me. Therefore I could get fairly close to them without them even caring, and sort of got used to having them around. This can be my souvenir. Something to remember my little friends with now that they have moved on.

.......yum.

Sweet and sultry, with enough depth and tartness to not end up cloying.

I have to see if it manages to stay that way, but, wet this is very yummy.

I get mostly lilac and maybe the delphinium and wisteria from this. The lavender is not there, nor is the ginger. It is a soft, pale blue floral type of a scent for me.

Sweet and soft, with the chestnut and rice powder on top. The flowers are sort of there...far far in the background.

A powdery and clean scent. I agree there's something similar to snow white in the feel of this, but, I have no idea what.

The flowers in this actually manage to not get kidnapped/vanished by the ambergris.

A strong start with cranberries and thyme and something else. It softens pretty quickly quickly into a tart red fruit scent with enough wood and herbs to keep it from being foody.

Wet, this is a light and fresh aquatic.

As it dries, the freesias are trying to take over, and there's some water note in here that isn't playing nice. Though I like the look of freesias, I have never been fond of their scent. I don't think this one is for me.

Resin and ginger, with a little leather and possibly a little cream.

Drying there's a citrus-like note coming forward....asuhi perhaps?

One of the stronger, brighter shungas that I have tried.

Anise and vanilla, with a distant background of delicate florals.

I like this one now, and I can only imagine how it will age.

Very delicate, and I can smell the tea. Not what I was expecting, given how myrrh and vanilla tend to be so powerful(in a good way!) on my skin.

I do wonder how this will change, if given a little time to age?

Spicy woody honey. There's enough pepper in this to give it some kick, and enough wood for structure. The honey and a sort of general background mixture of the other notes keep it from being just a spicy stick of wood, hitting you over the head.

This dries down to a honey and sandalwood scent. It lasted all night long on my skin. Mmmmm.

It was floral, for a moment or two. Then the fir covered it right up.

Fir trees and resin.

It goes on sharp with citrus, incense, and I could have sworn there was patchouli.

Drying, it starts softening immediately and becoming more floral. I'll need to try this again to make up my mind, but, I suspect this is a love it or hate it scent.

On me, this is starting out sort of delicately...which given the notes is a bit of a surprise. I didn't know that anything with rose/jasmine/vetiver AND red musk could be capable of that.

The problem I have with the shungas and lupercalias, is that so many of them smell so good, and even the ones that shouldn't work at ALL on my skin are also nice, that I have horrible troubles making up my mind.

Very interesting. I can smell the lilac, but, on me it isn't that prominent. There's something green backed up by the vanilla and tonka.

Olive blossom and amber smell a bit like olive oil to me, or at least the olive oil from the Lab. I can smell just a little cardamom and bergamot, and maybe the lily. The snowball seems to be just a hint of coolness.

On me this isn't very strong. It's almost a skin scent, faintly sweet with the honey, slightly musky, with just a suggestion of incense. Although it seems faint, I do like the scent. It's warm and sweet and (on me at least) subtle.

The olive oil is strongest at first, and then the leather shows up.

Um. This isn't a dry leather or a dry wood. I suppose it is the olive oil, but, it smells, shall I say, wet? Smooth and wet leather and wood.

Beeswax, frankincense and wine...of course I had to try it!

On me, the wine and roses are strongest, with the beeswax still very apparent. The frankincense is a sweet resiny background to the other notes. Except for one worrysome moment when it was freshly applied, the roses are behaving. They do smell like rose petals, rather than roses, somehow. I don't know how.

As it dries, the roses and wine step back, and now it is all about the beeswax. Yum.

I like the tiger on the label.

Citrus, lychee and cypress to start. It does smell metallic in some way.

As it dries it smooths out just a little, but it still smells very ...energetic? It is energetic and upbeat.

Sniffed in the imp, VETIVER.

On me, this is another hot fragrance, in that it is almost the scent of heat. I can almost perceive steam or heat distortion. The vetiver is still the most identifiable note, but, it is becoming more blended. It's still HOT, and there is a sharpness to it as well.

Very sweet rose, to start, and the rose heats up like it is going to amp....and stops at warm sugary rose.

I don't know lychee well at all, so the sweetness is probably that. I'm pleased that the rose is being controlled by the other notes. However, since all I can really smell is warm sweet rose, it's nearly a single note floral on me.

I almost detected the jasmine for a minute there, and then it blended into the rest of the scent.

I amp jasmine in other things, so this is most unusual.

It is starting off rather sweet, with just a little sharp pepper edge. As it dries, the woods start to be more apparent.

This is interesting. I wasn't at all sure what I'd get from this, as Jasmine usually overpowers everything, but this is...interesting, and not really all that floral. I'll have to try it again.

My first impression was of heat, rather than scent.

Actually, that's my second impression as well. It smells like heated air, rising off of something spicy and sort of orange scented.