fairestrocza

Not quite the sweet pear I was hoping for. I can smell it when wet, but by dry-down this is all chocolate all the time. On the plus side, white chocolate is my favorite chocolate note, and this will be great for layering.

Powerful throw.

Sweet and spicy.

 

Dan Les Coulisses is dominated by red musk (the drier variety from scents like Witch Dance rather than the juicy red musk from Smut), with a prominent spicy note in the background. I'm guessing the spicy note is a combination of the pink pepper and red leather accord. I can rarely pull off leather notes, but this one is behaving. I can't pick out the orris, bergamot, or currant. Medium throw. Fits the image well.

Beneath the Kotatsu is absolutely beautiful.

The cedar is very subtle, and grounds the scent without playing a prominent role. The vanilla is warm, with no hint of plastic. The orange blossom and iris are sweet and subtle.
This began as a subtle floral with medium throw, and settled down to a slightly closer scent dominated by vanilla.

Truly a beautiful blend.

The throw: Not root beer, but Sarsaparilla. Sweet and effervescent, with a hint of Tombstone and Smut.

Up close, there is a touch of coffee, some of the incense, and a more flat, slightly bitter smell.

 

The 5-year-old says I smell like "you and honey."

The husband says I smell like a fox (he didn't know the name of the scent). He tried to eat my arms.

 

It is fairly complex, and I think I like it, but I'll want to wear it again a time or two before making any final decisions. I'll definitely be enjoying the decant.

This starts out as a sweet/spicy floral. Just when I thought Cordelia might go into the keeper box, it turned soapy. I now smell like I washed with the purple seashell soap at grandma's house. It is a nice, fancy soap scent, but not what I am looking for from a personal fragrance.

On me this was almost pure sandalwood. Sandalwood is a scent that I like, but I find it to be a bit too dry here.

I didn't smell anything that made me think leather (a note that is generally not my friend). I did, however, have a major allergic reaction to something in this blend. The sneezing, watery eyes, and nasal doom mean this one goes in the swap box.

This one is mainly plum, with a touch of fresh ginger. The plum is a little too (sickly) sweet for me, and I've never done well with the lab's fresh ginger note (though I love the spicy/foody version).

I'll have to pass on this one.

Fresh and outdoorsy. I get mostly evergreen, with just a bare hint of the other notes. I'll use my imp, but probably don't need a bottle.

This one seems to be just on the edge of greatness, but something goes just a little cloying and soapy. The lily is probably the biggest problem here for me. The cassia is lovely, and not overpowering. The myrrh is behaving. Pomegranate and tamarind are always just a little off for me. I'll probably need to wear this a few more times before I know if it will behave or not on a regular basis.

Starts out as a surprisingly nice, but shampoo-ish, smell. It starts to take on a vegetative scent up close, with some nice rose in the throw. The skin scent takes on a bitter quality, and the rose starts to turn. This one had some potential in the beginning, then dried down into the hot mess that was always doomed to be based on the notes of doom.

Wet: sweet lemon candy. Dry: lemongrass and sandalwood. Beautiful, but a bit bland and uninspiring. I'll keep my decant, but won't need a bottle.

(eta: ... except that there is a subtle complexity here that is pretty enthralling. I might actually need a bottle. I'll see how quickly the decant disappears).

An odd combination of fruity-sweet and peppery. At first, there was a wet-burned-vegetation scent, and I thought I was going to hate this, but after that note faded, and I wore this a bit, it started to grow on me. The different aspects of the scent seem to be at war with each other. In the end, I think this may be a bit too masculine for me.

Jasmine and lilies are not my friends, so it is no surprise that this was terrible on me. When an aquatic aspect emerged, it was the final kiss of death. This is the anti-me scent.

I will be wearing Vixen tonight for our first Holiday party. It is one of my favorites, and seems to fit the holiday mood.

Maybe my toddler will sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in homage to my bpal

This starts out very foody. The rice note reminds me of one of the Shungas from a few years back (Ronin? Harmise?). It starts to develop a borderline plastic vibe a la snow-white-gone-wrong. As it dries, the cream turns into the evil sour milk of Candles Moon 2010 (granted, that one did mellow out, but it took over a year to get there). I never notice anything that I identify as cherry. Part of me is tempted to hang on to my decant to see what happens with that cream note in time, but I just don't think this one likes my skin chemistry.

Wet, Little Flora is warm, slightly spiced creamy note with a breath of incredibly realistic peonies in the background. I was prepared to add this to my (very) limited collection of florals I can wear, but then it dried.

Dry, this is very stem-y in a way that reminds me of Rose Red - for some people, this should be fantastic news (and I would say that anyone who has Rose Red in their top 10ish bottle list probably ought to track down a tester of Little Flora). Unfortunately, on me that stem-y note hints at the smell of stale chewing gum. Skin chemistry fail, big time.

(2012 Version)

In the decant it smells bitter with a hint of evergreen. Yules of this ilk are often risky for me, and this one is an instant turn-off on the skin. Something is making me think 'bathroom deodorizer' - maybe a lily behaving badly in there? It dries down to a soapy floral with a hint of something spicy. Not for me.

The first time I tried this, it started out with a blast of candied cranberry, with another sharp red scent. The second time I tried it, the cranberry was missing, and I got a blast of vetiver initially. There is a woody note that peeks out for a moment, and some ozone. Not a huge fan, though I can see how this would capture the season for some people.

Gelt starts out with a strong, powdery cocoa note. The chocolate starts to deepen and get less powdery as it dries.

... and then a weird funk develops. I can't quite place the funky scent, but the images it brings to mind are a musty cellar or damp socks.

Ah well. At least I finally got to try Gelt. I think I'll be sticking with El Dia de los Reyes for my hot cocoa needs.

(eta: someone upthread mentioned an herbal note, and I can see where they could go with that interpretation of my funky background note).

The tree farm starts off with a blast of evergreen. I generally like piney notes, but here there is a softer note in the background that probably improves the scent for other people, but detracts for me personally. The evergreen scent completely disappears within minutes, to be replaced with a powdery/talc note behind a developing amber (I think the powdery note is something other than the amber... maybe related to the cocoa). The hot cocoa is undetectable up close, but when I wore this last night, I kept catching faint whiffs of cocoa, and it took me a while to figure out that it was probably bpal and not coming from somewhere in my house. The powdery note also disappears rapidly, leaving a delicate amber scent.

I expected a much more aggressive scent out of Hell's Acres. I think I'll have to wear this a few more times before I decide if I need more. The drydown is lovely, but maybe too similar to other items in my amber collection.

I'm about to slather on some Hemlock for our Christmas Light Hanging Extravaganza!

Nothing says Christmas for me like Hemlock.

Halfling

Green vines, with the watery pumpkin note from Pumpkin Princess, and just a hint of the sweet-decay scent of some of the leaf blends. Dirt/soil never appears for me. On non-pulse points, there is a fairly nice balance to the notes, but on pulse points, my skin amps the aquatic aspect to the exclusion of everything else. My bff asked me to please never wear this again. I agree.

That gasoline comment from the first review kinda got it my head and stayed there. I wonder how my impressions would have changed with out that little tidbit in my head.

Wet: Yup, something automotive, but oddly compelling nonetheless.

On Skin: Starts out the same as the imp smell, and I start to wonder if I really need perfume that achieves a scent I can get just by helping the husbeast with his car.

But then that harsh wet note starts to fade, and I start to smell something vegetative that I can only assume is the rhododendron.

A bit more time passes, and ... holy bpal, it smells exactly like rocks. There is a wall of purple shale in one of our canyons, and at the top of the wall there are some awesome (if you're a geo-geek) boulders with glacial striations. This is the scent that gets stuck in my nose scrambling up and down the 'path' to the top of the shale wall.

A bit more time passes, and this starts to remind me of a harsher Staged Moon Landing.

... and finally, a bit of ozone emerges, but I can only assume that this is how ozone is supposed to smell on people with the right chemistry, because I think this is the first time that it hasn't amped to take over a blend.

Three Swords will need a full day test on pulse-points before I make a final judgement, but in spite of my trepidation smelling this in the imp, I am glad I took a chance on it. I will definitely hang on to the decant for the scent experience aspect.

 

I asked my husband to sniff me (without telling him anything about it), and he said "Is that sand? Or maybe silica?" He worked in the oil fields for a while, and when I asked about the 'gasoline' that people have mentioned, he agreed that maybe that is why he associated the scent with sand/silica, but he thought the smell was closer to an engine additive or fuel injector cleaner, though he could see where people might get a petroleum impression.

I should have known that this one would be a no-go for me. Snow-capped Mountain Air = ozone = soap and/or dryer sheets on me. I was hoping that the other notes would ground it, and on the skin it does warm up a bit, but only to the point of warm-from-the-dryer dryer sheets rather than fresh-from-the-box dryer sheets. If I inhale very deeply, I can get a faint hint of the trees, but my skin just likes to take the ozone notes and amp them to the tops of those snow-capped peaks.

 

eta - after several hours, the ozone starts to back off and I get some sweetness, which is nice, but still not worth fighting with the ozone.