torikitty

I have bottle #26. In the bottle, I immediately smell green and herbaceous, something bitter. During drydown, it starts to mellow, but a floral note starts to make an appearance. I think there might be some lillies in here. Maybe a hint of rose, but still something bitter and green. The sweetness of the dead leaves hangs out in the background, but it's not enough to play off the floral bitterness.

Butterscotch and French Tobacco. Absolutely divine. 2 things you wouldn't expect to work well together, but are absolutely perfect.

I forgot that this was a LSSB variant. I think the white tea covers up enough of the lemon sugar that it's easy to see these 2 as entirely different. Citrusy Snake Oil is an accurate description, but the tea on my skin amps more than the citrus, so it's not as sweet as I'd expect. It's pretty and light, but interesting enough for me to hang onto.

This immediately smells perfumey to me. So much so that I've been hesitant to try it out. During drydown, the perfumey-ness starts to calm down, but acrid sweetness makes me expect to not like this. It takes about 10 mins for it to completely go away, then I can smell the dry, crackley leaves. The sweet tobacco starts to make an appearance, or maybe that's the tea? Yeah, it's more tea. Like a mix between Earl Grey and black tea. So a mix of dry leaves and dry tea leaves with a hint of sweetness at this point. Eventually the tobacco warms up, and brings an earthiness to the pile of leaves we've got swirling around here. However, the sweetness ends up feeling like a masculine version of a cologne. It could be unisex, but my chemistry doesn't make this enjoyable for me.

I've had this for a while. I'm surprised I forgot to review this. I think I read other reviews, and kept hoping I would try it and like it.

 

Yes, definitely orange. I'm a huge orange lover. I grew up in Southern California, eating oranges straight from the orange groves. I have high expectations. On my skin, this ends up smelling like oranges soaking in water and an older man's cologne that's sweet. Overall, it's kinda gross to me. I would attribute this on the masculine side, but I know most people would disagree with me. It might just be a note that my chemistry is turning it into something masculine.

I'm not very familiar with all of the different woods/trees, but I figured I'd give it a shot. If anyone would know, it would be you guys. Has anyone smelled/tried the seasonal Mrs. Meyer's Iowa Pine scent? I love it! I snagged more bottles since they are on sale. It's the perfect pine scent to me. I'm wondering if there's anything similar. I'll take a look at the previous suggestions, too.

 

ETA: looking closer at their verbiage, it's also got a hint of clove and cedar.

I love bourbon and apples, so I knew I would have to try this. It doesn't seem to last very long on me, though. My scalp must suck it up, I couldn't smell anything after an hour. It's not nearly as sweet as I was expecting, nor as appley. However, I did grab another bottle, it's a must-have for apple lovers. I feel like it's got more of a dry bourbon-soaked wood note, so, like oak mixed up with some apple bread or oatmeal. I'll have to keep working on the description for this. It's awesome, but hard to describe.

 

ETA: Trying this again, I figured out that it reminds me of generic autumn/apple candle smell. It's something I would expect to smell walking into Hallmark in October or November. Not to say it's bad, but it smells more generic than boozy to me.

I was expecting more of gingerbread, but the above poster is right. It's closer to ginger beer with a hint of cardamom, but no fizzy or fermented notes. It's nice in it's simplicity, but doesn't seem to stick around for very long. I can see this being worn year round.

Mrs. Z_Z provides insight I'm sometimes need. I'm so glad I read her review before swapping this off. It deserves a proper review. I WISH it was strawberry and tobacco, I feel like that blend would be amazing!

 

I couldn't remember the notes when I first received this in the mail, so my husband tried it, and it smelled horribly feminine on him. Now I know why.

 

Trying it on myself, there is a greenish note that I can't pin down. It could be coming from the steel or blood snow note. Like, kinda acrid and resiny. I would guess there could be a hint of Dragon's Blood, or maybe it's a really different note that I'm unfamiliar with would be red tobacco. To me, this is overly sweet, like super artificial candy with a plastic background and red musk. I really wanted to like this, but it's not working on me.

 

I've been sitting on my 2015 bottle for a while, hoping that it would age into something I could enjoy. Trying it last night, it was surprisingly mild-smelling on my skin. There was a note that ended up smelling like sweet spit on me. If I had to guess, I'd say it was the heliotrope. There's not enough of the other scents to overpower it. It ends up being a light, smoky lemon spit flavor on it. I'm sure someone else will enjoy this with different chemistry.

This smells amazing, unfortunately, for some weird reason, I morph the all the gingerbreads into incense. This smells like the perfect blend of Snake Oil and gingerbread, very alluring. After 20 minutes, I turn this into sweet, spicy incense with the faintest hint of Snake Oil. Hopefully this will work for someone else.

This smells amazing on my husband. I would have guessed that the sandalwood he would have amped, but instead the tobacco wins out. It's such a comforting, manly smell that doesn't stray into nasty cologne or woodsy notes. Yay!

By coincidence, I tried another blood musk after just having tried one I liked. In the bottle, I smell something that makes me think of wine. On the skin, I can smell the patchouli and the musk. It's sweet and kinda incensey. Shortly afterward, something with a medicinal edge shows up, and ruins the whole thing for me. I guess I really don't enjoy benzoin. It ends up reminding me a lot of a Citronella candle.

I haven't smelled the original Sanguinem Menstruum, so I didn't know what to expect. I managed to snag TTP's leftover decant. It's nice. It's a sweet musk. I don't know that I would describe it as pumpkin spice, though. I'm really enjoying it, though. The honey isn't overpowering, nor is the floral. I truly amp mostly the musk.

Winward Passage, Denna, The Storm, Sea of Glass, La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente, Kumari Kandam, The Zieba Tree, The Haunted Beach.

If you like curry, I'd totally recommend The Jeweled Spider. It's amazing. I know curried goat is the last note in the listing, but with the cigarillo smoke, it floats to the top for me. There's also an earlier Pumpkin that smells a bit like curry, but you'll have to read through the Pumpkin Patch reviews to find it. I can't remember the number.

Everyone's review of butterscotch and dirt that is well-balanced pretty well sums this up. "Dirt" being patchouli mixed with anise. Kinda along the same lines as Fortuna Annonaria. I was lucky enough to get a hair gloss that a lovely forumite created using a bottle of this. Highly recommend!

Kinda like an appley, autumn fall scent you'd expect to smell in a Hallmark store. Somewhat generic and not intrusive. It's really pretty, and I love it!

Awesome, milky chai. The throw is pretty low, though. Sweet, vanilla goodness on the skin. This actually reminds me of Harigata II a lot, just less coconut.

Creamy, sweet sandalwood. Cinnamon is really hard to pick out, and the amber isn't taking over. The patchouli is just light enough that it's enhancing the sandalwood, instead of overpowering it. In the end, I think the amber ends up killing it for me. It goes sickly sweet, and it's not enjoyable.

Pumpkin eggy goodness. I'd almost say pumpkin french toast. There is a good amount of nutmeg. I'd say this is heavier on spice than on pumpkin.

I've got bottle #22. It's very bright fruit at the beginning. I heard a few people say they smelled apples, another saying they smelled a typical asian fruit like durian or passionfruit. I think I agree with the latter. The tangy fruit starts to pull lightly floral, maybe honeysuckle? Maybe sunflowers or marigolds? It's a yellow floral. And honey. This is not working for me, either.

I got bottle #15. I tried this on the other day, and was having a hard time identifying notes. I'll give it another shot.

 

In the bottle: Rose? Rose oude? Is Rose oude even a thing? There's something from the garden in here. I tend to stay away from the garden/rooty/weedy kinda smells, so I can't pinpoint what GC smell might be in here.

 

Drydown: It does sweeten up quite quickly, but there's still that stinky oude hanging around. The rose calms down. It begins to take on something minty or eucalyptus-like. Samhain is struggling in the back to get out. Maybe there's some rosewood?

 

Dry: The rose is angling towards more of a sweet, powdery floral. Eventually the Samhain is there, but it's still under a layer of powdery rose. It's pretty, but it's not for me.

Fruity snake oil. The pomegranate isn't as loud as I expected, nor is the snake oil. Sometimes fresh snake oil can smell a bit heady and overwhelming, but not here. It feels really wearable, although the pomegranate warms up to candy-ish levels. Not necessarily a bad thing, depends on how you like your snake oil. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dark red fruits.

 

ETA: overall, this is light, and didn't stick around very long on my skin. Maybe just a few hours.

I'm such a sucker for tobacco. Even when all the other notes don't particularly call me, I'm still willing to try it for the tobacco.

Wet: musk, perhaps of the red or blood variety. I don't really know the difference. I can smell the cypress in the background.

Drydown: Oh, hello, tar. Why are you here to ruin this party? Darkness and Decay, indeed. Cypress is still hanging out, just kinda waving from the back of the room.

Dry: The birch tar and cypress have combined to create this interesting platform where they work together to hold up the musk and hint of tobacco. In an oddly bright red, but in a dangerous way. I feel like this leans masculine on me, with the tobacco, tar, and cypress holding back any sweetness. The musk is slowly trying to round out these scoundrels, bringing a bit of sweetness. I didn't expect this sort of change. It's still too much tar and cypress for me to enjoy, though.

 

Much later: It's sweetened up significantly. It ends up smelling like an slightly evil version of Smut on me. So, I guess there's blood musk in Smut, and I'm amping the musk here.