Invidiana

This really is sexy and suckable, so much so that I had to keep from sucking the spot on my wrist that I put it on It's a gorgeous, deep, juicy black cherry, not overly boozy at all. It's sweet with the right amount of tartness to keep it from getting cloying. Reminds me of Celestial Seasonings' Black Cherry Berry tea. Love!

YUM After losing Marshmallow Poof on Ebay by a hair, I had to snag a botte of this both to tide me over until I found Marshmallow Poof and before it, too, ended up with skyrocketing bids on that evil institution called Ebay. And then I sniffed Boo and totally fell in love. It isn't linen on me at all, but this lovely spun sugar with caramelized overtones that I desperately wanted to lick. The linen notes must be there somewhere keeping it from going into cloying territory, but it's just the loveliest slightly caramelized vanilla spun sugar scent on me...I want an edible version of this!!!

A dark, sinister thicket full of gnarly rogue things entwintining themselves around the tree trunks. Though evergreen isn't listed in the notes, it's probably the combination of a few or all of the actual notes that gives it an evergreen-y feel, making Carlin great straight through the holdiay season (not like I care, becasue I wish it was Halloween every day). The anise--anise of which does wonderful things on my skin--isn't too prominent but gives it just a tad of sweetness to keep it from crossing over into hyper-masculine territory. This is my type of green scent, not a fresh-cut grass green but a deep, dark blackened green. If I could describe it in three words it would be...evil Christmas tree!

Wow. Flat-out gorgeous and a perfect winter blend. I'm getting that same delicious sugarplum note in Midwinter's Eve, except in a warmer blend with the come-hither touchability of white musk and just a hint of a lighted Christmas tree glowing softly in the background with the added sweet warmth of the benzoin. This isn't a frosty winter blend, but rather the warmth of a Christmas party with candles flickering in the windows and heaps of sugarplums on the table. Delicious!

Essence of a violent winter strom striking the depths of a pine forest? It's in the bag. As a huge fan of raging storms, anything that can capture one in a bottle has my vote entirely. I definitely get the cypress, in both the sense of being frozen by hail and subzero temperatures and singed by lightining. There is a wildly alluring play of heat on cold in this--the frozen hail, ozone and deep cypress vs. the warm olibanum and the electric shock of lighting. Yes!!!

This is what I'd call a "delicious woody" scent, if that category even exists. It's the rich piney darkness of a Christmas tree with fresh sap still oozing and candied orange peels in the background; definitely reminds me of tree shopping at that time of year with a keg of hot cider to warm up freezing customers. The wood moss and vetiver only make the whole Christmas-tree experience richer, and the orangewood is probably what contributes to the pleasantly sweet orange-peel tinge without being too overbearing. Makes me want to curl up by the fire!

Mmmmmm...the sleeper hit of my Halloweenie haul! Yummy and foody and a tad buttery with a whiff of incense. I love the golden malty depth beer notes give to foody and/or wheaty blends (think John Barleycorn) and the beer in this makes it even more delicious. Why can't they just feed these to the living instead?

Mmmmmmm, a bunch of yummy things stuffed into one bottle Like enjoying pumpkin pie and pumpkin ale around some honeyed candlelight outside on the asphalt in the shadows of Mischief Night! Delicious pumpkin, honey and malt beer with the right amount of spooky darkness overhead. Like kerikeri said, great smoky autumn scent, and I'm a sucker for smoky autumn scents. LOVE!

I definitely get the rose, but it's not overpowering; rather, it blends beautifully with the other notes to really encapsulate the feeling of longing. In relation to the poem's title and theme, the cinnamon in this is perfectly appropriate, like that spark of passion not quite extinguished but still drowned in too much sorrow to blaze fully. The frankincense and musk contribute to this blend's ghostly quality of lost love, and I do get the trace of bay rum that might be the last drop in a bottle that had been drunk down all the way out of misery the night before. Beth certainly has a way with scenting literature, and this is no exception

Not moldy at all, but more of an "antique" white fabric scent that isn't your great-aunt's mothball-filled closet. Julia Stone is delicate but still manages to be eerie (eerieness being my personal prerequisite for florals as without that element they just get way too girly) just like, say, a rotting once-white antique wedding dress that has been exposed to the elements for a long stretch of time. This isn't the stench of rotting fabric, but rather the evocation of such an image, and definitely deserves some attention!

I was a little worried about the rosemary and tomato--I can't stand rosemary in food--but since my skin amps sweet stuff and the pumpkin is the sweetest note in here, turns out I didn't have to worry after all It's like sitting outdoors in a pumpkin patch on a crisp fall day eating a slice of pumpkin pie; there's enough foody goodness in here to balance the sharpness of the rosemary and tomato, and the pitch adds nice depth. This one is strong, so unless you want to be a walking human pumpkin patch, just a dab will do ya!

Chunky fruit punch with a generous splash of booze! Fruity and tangy with splash--but not an overpowering amount--of booze; just plain mouthwatering; I just can't stop sniffing my wrist; there is definitely blood orange in this, or some sort of dark citrus that adds a heaping dose of sexiness There defintiely has to be cranberry in here too, probably with other tart red fruits. This is delicious, flirty and slightly naughty, just like a Halloween party spent in a provocative Catholic-schoolgirl-gone-bad outfit acting like a tart around the boys and secretly spiking the punch!

Holy sex. Because this basically is sex in a bottle with a melange of many of my favorite notes all swirled into one incredibly provocative blend It's a fiery scent with that "languid, melancholy" air added by the balsam, which nicely balances the brilliant crimson eruption of red musk, the deliciousness of vanilla, the mystery of incense and the earthiness of clove and patchouli. It's like blazing embers on a winter's night, a flame that just won't quit no matter how anyone tries to extinguish it. Mircalla is pure intoxication

Yes, I do believe I detect a *hint* of white rose but it just blends so harmoniously with the rest of the notes there's no trace of Grandma in this whatsoever. It's just what the titlie implies by "unheavenly"--a "heavenly" sweet, creamy blend with a dash of sweet spices corrupted by a haze of some sort of smoke; makes me think of a beautiful city full of majestic Gothic marble buildings and ornate storefronts that appears otherworldly from a distance, but upon closer inspection the visitor realizes this place is actually full of brothels and disease and general madness. Reminiscent of the moral price attached to luxury in Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Beautiful!

Nice, another creepy floral! If sphagnum moss and peat sound scary to you, believe me, it just adds an eerie earthiness to this blend and by no means makes it end up smelling like a swamp. The earthy notes actually make it sexier, something of a white floral haze shrouding a murky, moss-covered graveyard. This ghostly and mysterious scent brings to mind spirits materializing in the mist. Anyone who's sworn off florals obviously hasn't given the ones in the Literary Vampire Series a try!

Wow--this is an out-and-out sexy, slightly spiced berry, made only more delicious (but not cloying) by the honey and more alluring by the dianthus and lavender. Like a really expensive top-of-the-line jam or cup of berry tea. I think the lavender lends it a sort of intoxicating "lover's swoon" type feeling which is very evident int the poem and highly alluring. It's one of those juicy, reddish-purplish "eat me alive" blends that is just incredibly gorgeous and sensual

Oooooh, this really is a cold, abandoned Gothic church which at the same time has a very "touchable" feeling; I believe that's the white mist congealing into flesh note, which probably has something to do with white musk or skin musk, both of which I love . It's a beautiful clash of cold stone and warm flesh, dark and light, life and death. Sarah is a very mysterious and come-hither blend, another one that's going to make him want to come just a *little* bit closer to see what exactly that perfume is. For those of you afraid it might smell too much like Sunday Mass, fear not; the liturgical incense is just a faded memory in the background and doesn't invade your nostrils.

This is an eerie dark floral along the lines of Midnight. I was a little worried about the grave soil, but no dirt shows up on me; it's probably a background note that tempers the heliotrope and blood accord to keep them from getting cloyingly sweet. The way the blood accord turns to a berry-spice scent on me adds an edge to this blend; definitely not a pansy floral, but more of an evil garden waiting to eat you alive

I was a little nervous about this one, but finally caved because of both my love of vampires and the blood accord and knowledge of what wonderful things dragon's blood does on me. The gamble was worth it. Again, maybe it's my skin that amps sweetness--and dragon's blood is sweet and turns into a deep spiced berry on me--but Lord Ruthven isn't butch on me at all. I'm really getting that wonderful sweet and spicy blood accord at the top, with shadows of leather and a faint whiff of cologne in the background. I'm not letting any guy borrow this when it comes out as such a deeply sexy womanly scent on me!

Wow. This is the apple to peel, core and otherwise mash all other apples into sauce . I do have the type of skin that amps sweet stuff, so apple is one I especially have to be careful with since it can potentially turn into pure sugar on me. Not here. The ruby-red cranberry blending beautifully with the apple in the forefront and *hint* of cider in the background make this into one juicy and delicious treat that I'm so tempted to take a bite out of, except I need to remind myself that if I did that I'd actually be taking a huge chunk out of my wrist. It's the Apple Queen to that same year's Pumpkin Queen!

Fear not: this isn't a gaudy 70's perfume dominating your nostrils but rather the faintest whispers of one, wrapped in the haze of white musk and covered in a certain frostiness. For some reason it makes me think of a glittering disco that suddenly had a window break and a blast of snow come rushing in. An icy, come-hither scent.

On me this is a melange of sweet, spicy and shadowy dark fruits; if there was such a thing as a "firefruit", Rage would be it. Dragon's blood comes out like tangy, bloody spiced berries on my skin, and that fruitiness furthered by the mandarin and blackcurrant turns absolutely delicious, with the black amber keeping it in sexy, not cloying, territory. Not really getting much floral stuff, but I don't think something too floral would be appropriate to embody the scent of rage anyway. Considering seeking a bottle of this...if one ever surfaces.

Eris is a very fierce candylike scent--I'm particularly getting Watermelon Jolly Rancher--but the spices still keep it in "fierce" territory. I have no idea whether watermelon is a prominent note or the watermelon-like essence comes from the mingling of one of the florals with the fruit; usually I'm not a huge fan of watermelon, but the way it's fired up by the spices here makes this blend an exception. This is where I thank my skin for amping things like cinnamon

This is exactly what it says--frosty night-blooming flowers . The whtie mint isn't too overpowering or antiseptic, just gives the right frostbitten touch to everything else. I could swear there were juniper berries or some form of juniper in this, but it must be the mingling of other scents playing tricks on my nose. It reminds me of going Christmas tree shopping on a frosty night with the previous week's snow frozen over to ice; cool, crisp and enchanting.

Oh yes. I love almond, and almond loves me. I'm getting the sense there is also almond flower in this because there seems to be a light floral backdrop, as if this is one of those wedding croquembouches studded with white flowers. And the caramel just makes it flat-out decadent. I need to resist biting myself!