valentina

Sol Invictus is a sharp, herbal-floral scent when I sniff it -- it smells very much like warmth and pollen to me. When it hits my skin, what I instantly think of is sunflowers! I think that's probably the saffron and helitrope blending together. After it dries down a while, I also pick up a citrusy element lingering behind the gold herbal-floral smell. I pick up very little resin in this blend, mainly the gold-orange smells. This is seemingly the anti-cold, anti-dark smell of the Yules -- it's the antidote to the short, dark days of December.

I've been a bratty child and Krampus is here to switch my butt with a big old belt! In the imp, Krampus almost makes me sneeze, because it's like sticking your nose in a dusty closet full of leather boots. There is also the peppery pungency of the red musk, which can not be mistaken. On my skin, Krampus really blooms hot and peppery-musky, then dries down and morphs a bit into a dusty sharp musky smell with a bit of leather and wood. Normally leather is a monster on my skin and takes over, but not here. This is your perfect anti-sweetness-and-light holiday/winter scent. No sweetness or spices or snow or pretty green trees. Just down and dirty, bend over and take your swats! It's something a man could wear beautifully, and a woman could also wear it when she's not concerned with being all sugar and spice and everything nice, but rather, just the opposite. I am getting into this way too much... I'll stop now, you probably get the idea.

I hesitated trying Winter of Our Discontent because it has a lot of typical no-no components for me (evergreen, rose, clove), but how could I not try a scent with such a name? In the imp, I smelled a lot of greenery and spice. I didn't even test it for a while, because I was convinced it wouldn't work -- and at first, certainly, the evergreen scent is predominate, with a bit of dark, spicy resins thrown in. Amazingly, this scent mellows as it dries down and is so complex and well-blended that it's difficult to pull one specific component. I can smell the rose, but I can also smell the greens, and the cloves and frankincense. It's probably another good unisex fragrance -- I think it could smell great on a man, but it's also resiny, smoky and a bit floral, so it's lovely dark, smoldering wintertime scent for a woman. I really enjoy this scent and of all the decants that I've tried, I think that I may have to order a bottle of this.

In the imp, Haloa is such a pretty, round, buttery, gold sort of smell. When it hits my skin, and for the first 10 minutes or so, it remains very round, buttery, smooth and foody. Sweet and yummy, somewhat like Cockaigne. Then the wine and myrrh kick in with my body chemistry and goofy things start to happen. Wine can go very sour and wino-ish on my body, and myrrh gets powdery, and they blow away the smell of the sweet cakes. This is something to truly pout about, because this is a gorgeous scent that I think could be much-loved by anyone who can wear it on their skin.

In the imp, Snow-Flakes is pungent and sharp -- very edgy, like a snowflake. On my skin, it starts out extremely green and sharp, in a piney or juniper-ish way. It's almost pungent. After it dries down, I detect what seems like white musk, for it's a bit powdery -- like the dry powder on a mountainside -- and an almost wintergreen mint quality. Again, this scent seems really angular, very cool, both green and white, like new snowfall on a forest. I think it could be very unisex, as I don't find it terribly feminine or masculine. The description of this scent truly captures its essence, for it truly does capture both radiance and desolation. Brilliant!

I am pinned to the mat! I cry "uncle!" You are lucky I am not booking a flight to darkityland right now!

I am rather relieved that you aren't doing a darkitysnark fajita round-up! I am really hungry after reading your blog and I want to impersonate a relative of yours and come over to your house... lucky for you, I'm a half-continent away.

I have my satellite radio in my car and it is such a novel experience for me, because I'm used to playing CDs all the time and generally controlling what I listen to. I have all my presets so I can move around if a station that I'm on is playing something that I don't like. But today, at noon, it was like a train wreck. I wanted so badly to change channels but something was keeping me there. Before the signal came over the radio, the digital read-out was telling me "Stevie Nicks." Then I was "treated" to Stevie playing the piano and talking in this dreamy-stoned-stream-of-consciousness way about Rhiannon, what a beautiful name, and how she loved her story, oh Rhiannon, the name, the story...and then the music rose a bit and she began to sing "Rhiannon rings like a bell in the night..." but all I could hear was "baaaaah-baaaah-baaaah." The woman bleats like a goat. I swear the reason she wears those long floaty dresses and big-ass platforms (even when they weren't in style) is to cover up her cloven hooves. (Hmmm... french manicured hooves?) So then I did switch channels, because vomiting and driving just don't go hand-in-hand. If I have a bitch about Sirius, it's that whoever is doing their music blends gets into a rut and they play the same stinking people ad nauseum on any number of channels. For instance, for the last two weeks, Dave Matthews and Coldplay were getting flat worn-out. Now they're on a kick where if they can find an excuse to play Bob Dylan or Springsteen, they will. It is wearisome. I switch to jazz or electronica when that happens. I also get a kick out of the Met Opera channel, especially when they're playing the ending of an opera, and the announcer is talking about what's happening on stage during the curtain call, describing the costumes, what the audience is doing, and all that festive stuff. It reminds me of listening to golf when they're broadcasting from the actual green that the players are on, and they're whispering "and now, for a birdie on the 16th hole..." I don't think they do that anymore when golf is on TV, do they? The announcers are in a remote truck somewhere? It's not like I watch a lot of golf. Maybe they do it even if they are in a remote truck, because it's just fun to whisper melodramatically. If they did a wrap-up of a Stevie Nicks concert over the radio, the announcers would be saying: "And now, the audience that actually purchased tickets to see Ms. Nicks are standing and applauding, and their companions who came along as part of their martial obligation or who simply lost a bet are removing their ear plugs. Ah, Ms. Nicks bows again, and oh, now a lovely, lovely curtsy with her long flowing gown, oh my, her mammoth platform shoe just ripped a piece of her dress! Oh well, no one will notice on that tattered hemline anyway. Oh, and how lovely, how dramatic! Now the goat-herding Australian Shepherds and Border Collies are escorting Ms. Nicks from the stage..." Oh, that was just too mean. I did see Fleetwood Mac in concert once because the guy I was dating got free tickets, and I was never so bored in my life as when Stevie was on stage doing her Welsh-witch ballerina swirling around bullshit. I think we left before the concert was over, because it did make me want to go drink beer and listen to the blues at The Zoo Bar. If anyone is a fan of Ms. Nicks, sorry, but that faux witchy woman behavior always drove me crazy. If she'd just gone with the California hippie chick all hopped up on coke image, I would have a lot more respect for her.

I always liked Lucy Lawless, and now I like her even more. That was the most hysterical thing I've seen in a long time! I'm sending it to all my friends who have had to listen to me rant about Stevie for years.

Reupholstery! I am impressed! What a disaster I would make of such a project. The chairs look great, I love that material. And the dishes on the wall look great. If you have cool collections, why not display them?

In the imp, Clio smells like an antique store with some freshly-oiled old wood. It's rich and deep. On my skin and in the initial stages of drydown, the "dusty" note, that I can amp like nobody's business, came to the forefront along with lavendar and orange. It's sharp and intense. Now I'm in a dusty antique shop with lavendar and orange sachets nearby. But Clio is an unusual one! It morphs into a richer, darker patchouli-orange smell that on my body, is very much like Ravenous, except the orange smell has the upper hand. And then a spicy green element blooms after a bit more. To me, this is a scent that would be good on a snowy day; I see Clio as having a certain sharpness and angularity to it, versus a lot of the rounder, more voluptous scents that I typically wear. I am really pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy Clio!

In the bottle, The Lion is a spicy, outdoorsy-dry amber. It very, very much evokes the hot dry savanna, with the big cats sitting around in the shade in the middle of the day. On my body, it starts out ambery and spicy and then - bam! - it turns really dry and dusty. It's sharp, almost acrid, dusty spice. Something about the dry, dusty BPAL scent amps up on my body with extreme efficiency, to the point that it becomes the focal point of a scent. The gold and warmth of the amber went buh-bye, like a lion ate it for a snack. I waited to see if the dry smell would back down, but it didn't -- it stayed put for several hours, then burnt off, but took the rest of the fragrance with it. The Lion isn't bad on me, it's just not golden and warm -- it's a hot, dry blow furnace.

Well. With great anticipation (and probably expectations), I tested Dragon's Milk. In the bottle, it was very sweet Dragon's Blood with an additional touch of creamy vanilla. Once it hit my skin, and upon initial drydown, it was Dragon's Blood and vanilla, and reminded me a teense of Snake Oil, only sweeter. Then the Dragon's Blood blew up and took over. And then it blew up and took over some more, until it was really overwhelming. After about a half-hour, it was pure Dragon's Blood. I'd received a frimp of Dragon's Blood from the Lab with my order, and I dabbed a bit on my other hand to compare. No difference. My body chem simply allowed the Dragon's Blood to nuke out all the other components of the scent. I was sooooo hoping this would be another classic scent for me, because it is for so many people, but this wasn't the one. Unless you're someone who has similar "issues" with Dragon's Blood, this is a lovely scent in the bottle and I'm sure, on the body. It's just not for me.

In my office, we draw names for the holiday Secret Santas. It's a small office, we know each other well, and we like to be creative in our endeavors. Several years ago, the two support staff in the office decided that we shouldn't have just one day of Secret Santa, we should have stockings and 5 days of Secret Santa gifting. This was met with great reluctance by the professional staff, as we're typically very busy in December. However, over the years it has evolved into a process that is much-loved by the professional staff, and the support staff would like to end it. (insert sadistic laugh here ) It seems that a number of people become fond of the notion that there could be a week of gift themes, some seriously clever hide-and-seek games that include notes and clues, wicked funny gag gifts, and general opportunities for creativity, giving someone shit or just good humor. And in all of it, we're really pretty nice to each other. We had a gift limit that used to be at $10, then went to $15, and has inched closer to $20 in recent years. We don't really eat out as a group or shell out money to buy gifts the rest of the year, so we take this in stride. The support staff has come to hate the expenditures (even though they are paid more than entry level professionals), the time and the effort involved to keep up. Too bad. We like our little reindeer games. Last year I drew my troublesome, loud, insane co-worker's name. She fancies herself as a bit of a foodie, and when she sent out her "hints for Santa" email -- something else we all do, which is a bit of a creative writing and/or humor opportunity -- mentioned that she always wants things for the kitchen. I gave her small, polite items 3 out of the 5 days, with the intention being to throw people off of my trail. Usually the over-the-top gifts that include notes and gags are instantly blamed on me. (Why? ) But her last two gifts did go over the top, and of course, she DIDN'T GET THE JOKES. The first one addressed her tendency to rant and rave at people rather harshly, especially people outside of this office. I gave her a citrus reamer and a tube of Boudreaux's Butt Paste. An accompanying note said something about now she had both the tool and the remedy when she wanted to ream someone's ass, but then felt guilty afterwards. She didn't get the humor. She was happy to have a reamer, but was mainly mystified as to what she would do with a tube of Butt Paste. (This is diaper rash ointment, BTW.) I did catch a number of other staff people huddled in other corners of the office, laughing about the gift and talking about how she truly didn't get it. For the final day's gift, I was able to secure, at T.J. Maxx, a piece of cutlery at an astonishingly cheap price. The item was a 6 inch stiff boning knife by the A.B. Dick company. The note on her stocking said: "Pardon me, but are you having a Merry Christmas, or is that a 6 inch boner in your stocking?" On the package, another note said: "Santa heard you'd like a stiff Dick for Christmas." She was befuddled by the jokes but elated to get some cutlery. Everyone knew it was either me or my coworker Scott who had her name, since we're the only two who would risk her ire by leaving such notes. Scott high-fived me when he realized it really was me who had her name; he enjoyed the jokes the most, except maybe for the guy that my coworker always "flirts" with by hollering his name and sticking her tits in his face. He nearly peed his pants when he read the stiff dick note. She kept saying to him: "But no, look at this boner!" And he'd laugh harder. And then she'd say: "Have you ever heard of the A.B. Dick company? I hadn't." And he'd laugh even more. He had to leave. So this year I have Scott's name. He's getting little things from me for the first part of the week -- fun little things that he'll like, but I'm saving most of my money for an item that I'm bidding on in eBay. I hope I can get it for a good price. If I lose this auction, there's plenty of others out there. Scott is a Gen-X'er, but his musical tastes tend to be Boomerish, and he loves Led Zepplin. Most of all, Jimmy Page. And I introduce you to the Jimmy Page action figure: http://wizarduniverse.stores.yahoo.net/feb063823.html (Sorry, the hyperlink doesn't work on this computer) He will absolutely die. He will freaking love it. This is what I love about eBay, doing a search for Jimmy Page items resulted in this little gem. I am so excited.

In the imp, Salome is jasmine, but with something else cutting its power, and I can't quite figure out what. The color of the blend is rather dark -- not as dark as Snake Oil or Smut, but still, a rather dark, resinous looking blend. Once it hits my skin, it's mainly jasmine with almond. Almond and jasmine are often monsters on my skin, and almond really likes to take over, but bam! Jasmine pins almond to the mat! After a few minutes, a dark, resiny background begins to form, probably a result of the sandalwood and musk, and it begins to smell very much like a jasmine incense. The oakmoss is alos really there, and while I normally don't care for oakmoss in a scent, here it really works to add some depth and a bit of a darkly green-outdoors scent to the fragrance. This will probably sound weird, but on me, Salome smells like Snake Oil if the vanilla in Snake Oil was removed and replaced by jasmine. I did not expect to like it, but it's really very exotic, very nice -- I am a fan of both Siren and Snake Oil, and this blend has elements of both. Amazingly, it's going on the "buy a bottle" list.

I first received a decant imp of Pumpkin Patch 2 as a frimp in a swap, and then I swapped with the Divine Ms. Sookster for a bottle, because I love it that much! It starts out as a chocolately, nutty, pumpkin. After a bit it turns spicier on me, but remains rich, dark and completely yummy. It's not a tremendously sweet scent, I think because the pumpkin cuts the sweetness of the chocolate and hazelnut, but it's very "round" and warm, with a certain richness. It's rather hard to describe, except it's a nice comfort scent that still has a certain lickable sexiness to it.

O is my "second skin" scent, so I thought La Petite Mort might be second skin with a little oomph on me. In the imp, it's much more of a floral, powdery scent, rather genteel and femme. When it hits my skin, it's pleasantly floral and sweet at first, but then what is apparently my nemisis, myrrh, kicks in. For a resin, myrrh seems to go very powdery on me -- it really overpowers the round, buttery floral of the ylang-ylang and what I think is honey and maybe pale musk. It isn't terrible, but because the myrrh is such a bully, I think La Petit Mort won't be the "second skin plus" scent that I hoped it would be. My body chemistry does terrible things to my expectations! For anyone who likes O and can wear myrrh, I think this would be deadly sexy.

I love the Love Lies Bleeding plant a great deal -- I've planted it a lot over the years, and I know that the "flower" itself really doesn't have much of a smell at all, so this scent is evocative of the visual nature of the plant and maybe also of its history. It's impressionistic rather than realistic, and I love that notion. But as a result of being so into this plant and knowing a bit about it, I'm going to over-intellectualize this review, so here goes: Since Love Live Bleeding blooms were worn by Swedish knights on the front of their armor to symbolize fidelity, I expected to smell Dragon's Blood, since knights and dragons just go together in my head -- and I do pick up a bit of Dragon's Blood, but not to excess. I also expected to smell a bit of amaranth, since Love Lies Bleeding is an ornamental amaranth, and I do get an undertone of a slight grainy smell. (A prior review mentioned a smell of roasted grain, and I have to believe that's the amaranth in the blend.) There's also a whiff of dirt, but again, it is slight. What I mainly smell on my skin when this scent dries down is akin to a blend of rooibos tea that I drink, which includes the red rooibos tea, but also rose petals, sunflower petals and blue mallow petals. I also smell iris and maybe a little violet -- flowers that might all be growing around the Love Lies Bleeding. It's a red-blue-purple-ish smell, very deep and velvety, but also very organic. I think it's a wonderful olfactory picture of the plant -- very vivid, very lovely.

In the bottle, 13 smells very complex, for there's chocolate, vanilla, citrus and floral/herbal elements present, but no once scent is predominate. When I first put it on my body, I get a lot of chocolate and vanilla, but it's not especially sweet -- this is the smell of the beans, not of the sugared confections. Then the orange element kicks in and I have a dark chocolate orange smell, with a dusting of nutmeg, for 10 or 15 minutes. That is nice -- it smells like a gormet dark truffle. Then my body starts amping the sandalwood, geranium and lavendar, and everything goes sour. Bummer, bummer, bummer. My body just can't hold the sweet and tart contrasting elements of this scent, and the complexity is muddled into something that just doesn't work for me. I love the simplicity of the label art, I loved the look of this bottle sitting on my shelf, but my bottle of 13 will find a new home where it can be properly worn and loved for its complex beauty.

Congratulations!!!!!

I got my CnS on Friday for my order of 13 and a set of imps. And then the Lunacy/Anniversary update arrived later on that night, and what to do, what to do? Actually, I'm not in as much of a quandary as some people, all of you lucky/unlucky ones who are able to wear a lot of different fragrances. (I say lucky because you get to wear a lot of different things, but it's unlucky for your bank account.) I'm still more jazzed about the new GC scents that showed up in the Halloweenie update, Mania, Horreur Sympathatique and Love Lies Bleeding -- they're in the imp pack. And I've also never tried Misk U, La Petite Mort or Nosferatu, so they're rounding out the six pack o' imps. I just know a GC bottle order is going to emerge from that set of imps. For the sake of my bank account, and maybe my sanity, I feel rather fortunate that the GC scents seem to be my favorites and LEs don't tempt me that much. Except for the Lupercalia update last year, the LE releases usually don't work that well on me. I'll be interested to see if the release for Valentine's Day LE scents will be as wonderful for me as last year's. (I suppose it makes sense for someone with a forum name of valentina, huh?) And usually by the time that update arrives, I am ready to indulge myself -- it's the dead of winter, holidays are over, I'm in the midst of the legislative session. Ah, fingers crossed. The election is tomorrow, and it's about time. I'm sure anyone here in the U.S. is probably sick of all the political ads, yard signs and mailings. Tomorrow I meet friends for coffee at noon in a downtown establishment, and it is always nuts downtown over the lunch hour on election day. Usually there's different candidates for some significant political office standing on the corners of the main downtown intersection, their supporters waving signs, whooping it up,and all that nonsense. Actually, it's pretty funny to watch. I remember several years ago, I was walking down the street, and a candidate for U.S. Senate was on the corner. His wife was with him, and I wasn't really paying attention to them until I got relatively close, and I looked up and caught her giving me the most wistful, plaintive look. She looked like she wanted nothing more than to just join me and walk down the street, away from the noise and glad-handing. The life of a political spouse -- you get to be with your mate once in a while, but generally, they're always "on." People dream of being famous, but really, I think it's more of a nightmare than a dream. And say, you of the female persuasion, do you shave your armpits? A couple of years ago, for whatever reason, I decided to let my pit hair grow unchecked, starting in November. I think I relented and shaved it in late February. By then, I'd tired of it and the novelty had worn off. I had never, ever done that in my life, and I just wanted to see how long it would get. I felt so Euro. And it didn't turn into man-like pit pelts, anyway. But it just seemed a little nasty and sexy to let it grow, since in general I'm a rather groomed creature. So do any males shave their pits? I have a gay friend who once drove to Denver (about an 8-hour trip), checked into a motel, shaved down his entire body and dyed his brown hair plutonium blonde. Now, WTF? I never did figure out if the shaving/dying project was the reason for the drive, or he decided to do it while he was on his little road trip. I asked him if he enjoyed being a girl, and he said it was entirely too much work. I bought a Sirius radio car kit and installed it on Saturday, proof that it's so easy that a monkey could do it. I actually felt rather accomplished and it's fun to have even more options of stuff to listen to than what I already have going on in my car. I have the presets all established: two jazz channels, one acoustic singer-songwriter music, one trance/electronica, alternative rock from the 90's, a channel with only Canadian musicians, CNN news, Talk Left (of course, no Faux "fair and balanced for me), and the Met Opera. That is what is fun about satellite radio. And if I don't like anything on the 100+ channels, I shut it off and listen to Bob Schneider, for they don't have an "All Bob" channel yet. Howard Stern, no, I don't listen to him. Nor the comedy channels. On a long roadtrip (maybe to Denver to dye my hair and wax my entire body ), I'd listen to comedy for a change of pace, but generally, music is where it's at. It's Monday. I don't want to work, but I suppose I should get coffee and consider it.

I made moussaka for dinner tonight and it was yummy. I can't eat lamb unless it's ground up and heavily spiced (I don't like the way it smells), so normally if lamb is served at my house, it's because I'm cooking Greek or Indian. For a white woman in Nebraska, I tend to do better at ethnic than whitebread meat-n-taters-midwestern. I am re-testing La Petit Mort and I have determined that myrrh is my nemesis. It goes powdery on me every time, damnit! I am also going to try something that has ylang-ylang in a different combination. I've always assumed that I didn't like it, but I'm beginning to think in another blend, it might work. This last order of mine -- 13 and an imp pack -- wasn't one of my greater success stories. I'm glad that I ordered imps and not bottles! But BPAL, when it works, really works. I went to Omaha yesterday to buy some Arcana soap at Magical Omaha, and I picked up some of their scents for a friend. The owner gave me a bunch of Arcana samples, and they don't work on my picky body chemistry. None of them. But like I said, when a BPAL works on me, it's beyond glorious, and I'll take that any day. I think that men are somewhat predictable creatures, especially the ones in my general age range, probably because I've simply been dealing with them for so long. But younger guys, I don't get them. There's the young guy at work (25 or 26) who very earnestly flirts with me, although we all know he's just a little poonhound. The senator he works for isn't much better, so my friend Ron and I call the young staffer "little dog" and his boss "big dog." Little dog has been emailing me lately, just being friendly and chatty, but his notes read like he's using a thesaurus for every other word. He's trying really hard, it is kind of sweet and I'll give him credit -- he's a bright guy, and I think he likes having a conversation about something more than drinking beer and watching football. I'm good practice for him, because some day he's going to meet a smart woman in his age range who can have conversations about things he talks about when he visits with me. I think he's afraid to show younger women his more intellectual and artistic side, and that's sad. Then there's a guy who works at the health club I go to; he's the weekend front desk person. I think he's a grad student, so he's early 20-ish. His parents are professors, he's really smart, kind of chunky-but-cute, very friendly. Or, I should say, he was very friendly -- he spent a ton of time talking to me a few weeks ago and was trying to get me to take tai chi at the club. He already does tai chi, but wanted to try a different instructor, since he'd never taken from the guy who teaches at the club. I'd taken a session with this instructor, and while the guy knows his stuff and is very nice, he is almost incomprehensible as a teacher. Anyway, the front desk guy and I got into a big discussion about eastern disciplines and I gave him the name of my yoga teacher and told him to call her if he ever wanted to drop in on one of her classes. I told him I just didn't have time to add a tai chi class to my schedule. All was fine until about two weeks ago -- now he won't look at me, just types in my member number when I give it to him, halfway rolls his eyes at me when I walk through, and acts like it's a relief to see me leave. I want to say, "Pardon me sweetie, but WTF?" All I've ever done was be polite to him and chat with him a little bit. Christ, I'm old enough to be his mother, maybe he figured that out, but there's no need to act so strangely. But you know, maybe he's nuts, or maybe he now has a girlfriend, so he's rather immaturely blowing off everyone that he used to get attention. It's really sad -- sometimes I think my intentions can be misinterpreted simply because I try to treat people as actual human beings. I work around the legislature and I'm fairly immune to being treated as a cog in the machine, as a means to an end, but there are times when a thank-you would have been nice, and then there are the times when a thank-you or a simple acknowledgement meant everything in the world. So I try to be genuinely cordial and polite to people; that's all. Everyone deserves that much, and it is a goal of every day of my life, although I forget about it entirely too often. I was telling a friend the other day, I read things that I wrote when I was much younger and think they are alarmingly rational, considering what an interpersonal pinhead I used to be. It would be OK to be physically younger and cuter again, but hell, it's true -- I'd never go back to being younger because never again do I want to be that much of an emotional retard. Nor would I want to return to dealing with younger guys who were even bigger 'tards than me. Not that as people age, they necessarily mature emotionally, but a few do, and damn, they come as a relief. All of you who are young and self-aware, you're pretty amazing. There's quite a few of you on the forum, showing you are smart about more things than how to smell really, really good.

I won't get into a long-winded explanation of who Ken Wilber is and why I find his work fascinating, but much of his work would be considered transpersonal psychology -- the study of how people grow and evolve. I get a newsletter from his organization, and they link to various articles in the media that are of interest to people intrigued by transpersonal psychology, spiral dynamics and all that stuff. This is one that I can't resist putting up on my blog, since anyone who's read my rants about my annoying coworker will know that the article made me laugh. But it will also be useful to anyone with an annoying boss, family member, coworker, whacky neighbor, whatever... If you've ever found yourself asking, "Don't they get it?" The answer may very well be, "No." Seriously, what can you do about it, other than laugh? Besides, it hurts less than beating your head on the wall. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../18/MN73840.DTL

Wow, is this a crazy blend. ( Bad joke! Bad joke!) In the imp, Mania is sweet and musky, a lot like Hollywood Babylon. And I had two different reactions to Mania on my skin. At first I put on just a teensy bit, and I got a nice warm voluptous red musk with a sharp fruity, almost spicy, undertone. I thought I was in love, so I put on more than a tiny dot, but not that much -- just a small swipe. Uh-oh! The evil fruity scents just sit there and scream. Seriously -- on me, they really scream -- it's strawberry and grapefruit in some sort of a "Crossfire" debate. The musk sits there and steams away in the background, but that's only evident when I sniff closely enough to get past the dueling fruits. My tendency to be unable to wear fruit, unless it's in just the right blend, continues to hold true, and I do so wish Mania would have smelled the way it did after I used just a teeny tiny dot. I think that for lovers of both fruit and musk smells, this would be a gorgeous, sexy scent full of great juxtapositions.

In the imp, Horreur Sympathique is redolent of honey and wine. Very heady and sweet. Once it hits my skin, it's very round, sweet and grapey. This scent has a lot of elements that I very much enjoy in other blends, but this combination simply morphs in an odd way on my skin. Honey can turn a bit sour on my skin and wine smells can go heavily sweet, and this happens with HS, and the other elements of the scent are simply overwhelmed. I smell like really sweet skunky wine, not too attractive unless I'm out courting a wino. I think for skin types that hold all the elements of the blend, this would be a rich, sweet-fruity-winey smell that would be deep and intriguing.