Invidiana

Ha, I am not "nice", and you could probably guess what's on the way to my doorstep from this year's Inquisition. However, there are many "nice" scents I adore, and this is one of them. I'm not getting any lemon or florals at all, really; what comes to mind when I wear this is a sparkling winter scene of snow-covered evergreens with the added candy sweetness of spun sugar. Now I love evergreen scents, but for anyone who's afraid of them this is a good one to try as it's more of a background evergreen. I'm also a dessert foodie, and I think this is a great holiday choice for dessert foodies who want to try "icy" winter scents. Even though Santa will probably put a lump of coal in my stocking, I still think I deserve this!

Oborot starts off pungent at first, to the point where I was seriously wondering whether I should swap it, but the trick with this one is that you have to give it a chance to dry down. It is strong, so just a little will do for women at least. But once it dries down, you reap great rewards. The pungent haze clears and you can really feel the entire scene through the scent; the dark evergreen forest, the salty spray of the ocean, and the resinous sweetness of the incense that balances the first two out. There is also an unmistakable feral quality reminiscent of that in Wolf Moon, a fierceness that I can best describe as seeing this entire picture through the eyes of a wolf. I can imagine this was probably a very difficult scent to blend, but it was done with a great accuracy that really brings out its complexity and beauty.

Trust me, this is definitely not the scent of soggy leaves! Falling Leaf Moon really was everything I hoped for and more. It starts off initially cool and dries down to a beautiful scent of warm, dry fallen leaves and wood with just a hint of aquatics in the backdrop. For anyone who fears patchouli, I'm not getting a prominent patchouli note; it blends in very smoothly with the rest of the notes. I can swear I'm getting a hint of cinnamon in the drydown, which must be a part of the "fallen leaves" accord to give that warm crackling feel and just adds to this scent's autumnal beauty. Absolutely gorgeous!

This is an absolutley lovely beryy suitable for any time of year. Anyone afraid of rose, I didn't really get any in this blend--maybe because my skin amps sweeter notes and the rose is on the low end of sweet in this instance considering the note list--but even if it's there it just melds smoothly into everything else. It's just a lovely pinkish-purplish mix of wild huckleberry and strawberry warmed up by the frankincense and just a whisper of anise. Juicy and delicious

I love anything with molasses in it, to eat or smell. I was crossing my fingers for the molasses to amp on this one, and since my skin tends to amp sweet notes, it did Wet, it's a very dry and woody scent reminiscent of an actual stable, but quickly dries down to a delicious blend of the molasses, maple oats and apples with a cozy backdrop of hay, grain and wood. The musk warms it up more and further adds to the coziness; I didn't get carrot peelings but that's probably because carrot is pretty sweet and blended harmoniously with the other notes. Gunpowder is delicious!

This blend evokes a sinister Christmas tree. The musk, wood and leather are the standout notes; the wooden switches must be made of pine or some other evergreen, because I definitely am getting evergreen and the red musk warms it up and makes it more animalic. There is also a resinous sweetness to this which is a welcome surprise I didn't expect, probably brought on by the mingling of the musk and wood. I'm relieved that the leather is subdued and wearable for a woman, not prominent masculine leather like Iago or De Sade, which are both sexy-as-hell man scents but would just be too butch on me.

This is a lovely, haunting scent that manages to blend an icy winter breeze and boughs of frozen evergreen with the tangibility of musk and warm woods. The mingling of the musk and wood notes creates a soft and eerie blend truly evocative of soft black feathers. The florals are not very prominent on me, just a "feathery" bed for the other notes. As this dries down on me, the warmth of the woods and musk slowly comes forth with just a hint of chill wind and evergreens in the backdrop. This is cool and mysterious, and at the same time has a raditating come-hither warmth.

This takes a while to settle on me, but I'm real glad I gave it a chance. For the first 5 or so minutes I had it on, the booze and musk and sugar rabidly competing with each other so I was getting something different every half a second and it confused me to death. I gave up and let it go for another 5 or so minutes, and then I got what I was hoping for: the three entwine in a harmonious blend that's equal parts boozy, musky and sugary, and a hundred percent downright sexy. It gets even better as it dries down more--a really steamy and "touch me" scent. Smut indeed, heh heh

I usually hate--and I mean hate--lemon verbena as a dominant note, and it looks like one of the dominant notes on the list here, but strangely I didn't get any at all I sniffed this without looking at the note list, and I got a sense of plum and/or cherry blossom that dries down to a hazier and very slightly spicy version of itself as time wears on, like a road in the red light district of Shanghai lined with blooming plum and cherry trees. Guaranteed it's my skin that worked this unique magic, so no one take my exact word for it unless you have the same DNA, because I see it came out as a lemony floral on most people. In my case, I'm pleasantly surprised!

Very peculiar, this (I think I have Yoda syndrome today). Starts out as a bright pepermint gum scent that dries down to something smoky and still slightly minty. Maybe when leather mixes with either frankincense or star anise on my skin, peppermint gum is what happens. It's an interesting and well-blended scent that really does evoke a scintillating scarab in some weird way, and I'm glad I tried the imp, but it's just not one that screams my name.

A dusky moonlit peach on me; I believe the jasmine, musk and ho wood are mainly responsible for adding a shroud of mystery to the peach, which on its own can potentially turn cloying (bad body cream experience). For me, this is a good summer scent, because I dont do the pina colada/mango/papaya thing. It's lovely and ethereal.

At first, when this is wet, there seems to be a sharp lemony undertone, but give it a chance! I was a little wary, afraid it would go all lemon verbena-ish on me...until the drydown. It just turns into the most wonderful honeyed-golden-fields scent...the lemony undertones go away and the honey intensifies with the drydown. This is absolutely wonderful and the perfect summer scent for people like me who don't do scents (i.e. pina colada) that are stereotypically "summer".

This is like a sweet, almost fruity smoke with added body from the leather. Like a non-flowery tropical city in a haze of cigar smoke, overshadowed by something sinister (that must be the snakeroot, whatever that is--how can something called snakeroot not be sinister?). I've never been to Havana, but this scent goes hand-in-hand with how I imagine it.

I'm not a huge orchid fanatic myself--I don't hate it, I'm just not insane about it--but I resolve to try every imp that comes my way, so I gave this a chance. If I was to wear an orchid-dominant fragrance, this definitely beats the pants off any other orchid scent I've ever come across; it's got an intriguing purplish darkness to it. While it's not my holy grail, I can tell it would be for diehard orchid lovers.

This is another dark floral along the lines of Midnight, with all manner of tings that don't bloom until the moon comes up. I wanted to love it so badly, especially since New Orleans is the birthplace of Anne Rice and the setting for many of her novels. Like all of Beth's blends, I can tell it's extremely well crafted, but unfortunately something--and it's probably the combination of two or more notes in this, because none of the ones listed react like this on my skin in other blends or individually--turns into a cat pee undertone with my body chemistry. *sigh* At least I have my Midnight.

I could have sworn there was clove in this (which I love) but I guess that's just the leather and incense blending together, and I'm sure the rosewood and tonka are responsible for a bit of it. A lovely, mysterious and intriguing scent; reminds me somewhat of Samhainophobia.

Though this is a strong rose as Black Cat is, what sets Rose Red apart is the fact that it's more of a deep, velvety, voluptuous rose. As it dries down, there's a crisp snowy feel and at the same time what seems to be warm spices underscoring the deep rose, which I imagine to be a rich burgundy in color.

Very rose-y, and while there I'll stress there is no BPAL that ventures into old-lady rose territory, it's just too strong a rose for me, like sticking my nose directly in a bouquet of them. Too bad because I love black cats, ah well *sigh*

Of all the fabled seven deadly sins, I'd say that if there was one I could identify with the most, it'd definitely be wrath, and Wrath is definitely a fitting scent for me, too (greed isn't that far off, either...have you seen the bottles on my bookshelf?) I don't know, I'm not feeling Languor...a little too much of a green floral for me...I would have wanted a darker opium den scent because I'm just personally attracted to darker stuff. As it dries down it starts to get the "cat pee" effect on my skin ...so Languor doesn't agree with my personality or my body chemistry. Oh well. I'm not too lazy to seek out stuff that does

First of all, I love the story Rappaccini's Garden by Nathaniel Hawthorne, so I have to try all the scents in this series at one time or another. I'm also a huge fan of Remus Lupin and cried when Voldemort finally took him down This is a dry, smoky and sinister wood...definitely smells like something that would be poisonous, something in the garden told you not to touch but you did anyway. I can definitely detect plenty clove in here, and I both amp and love clove. If Lupin was real and smelled like this I'd be all over him

I actually have reverse ego problems--often not enough confidence--so I think I could use a dose of Pride. This really does bring to mind rabitdhauteur a la The Devil Wears Prada...not an in-your-face rose like I feared, but not a "me" scent either. Maybe the scent that will help give me a confidence boost is out there by a different name *sigh*

I think we could all use some sort of horn of plenty in this recession I'm detecting red fruits, a hint of wood and smoke...it really does bring an actual cornucopia filled with apples, cherries, berries and pomegranates sitting in front of a warm fireplace. It gets even more fruity-berry delicious as it dries down and still retains a nice warm base of wood and smoke...this is the number what imp that's convinced me I need a bottle?

I don't live too far from Manhattan, so I definitely had to try this imp when I got it, because I wanted to see if it had anything at all in common with my personal impression of that part of New York. It's not really me; a very bubbly white-tea-and-grapefruit scent that I can definitely see Carrie Bradshaw types wearing, but on the whole I generally gravitate towards darker, more sinister stuff. The amber does come out more on the drydown, but I would have loved the leather and amber notes to really be dominant.

Juicy and delicious--what is this stuff? It reminds me of those giant cinnamon gummy bears that stick to your teeth like Jujubes, seriously, on me it smells exactly like them I have heard that cinnamon helps spark male arousal, so I"ll have to test that out for myself...

Hecate is one of my favorite ancient Greek deities, and I was crossing my fingers for this one...it didn't disappoint! This reminds me of these chewy Italian almond cookies my aunt used to bring over when I was a kid, and I nearly ate the entire box. However, it isn't all innocent dessert foodiness, as much as I love dessert scents--there's the deep, dark, rich play of amber and musk in there, making it into a deliciously sweet darkness...another to add to my GC wishlist!