crazyredhead17

In the imp: Fruity!

 

Wet: Fruit with a hint of booze

 

After a few minutes: Fruity with a bit of.. soap?

 

More skin time: Fruity soap. Juniper, which is a part of gin, doesn't play well with my skin and that's where I think the issue is. Well, that and everything else should work really well on my skin.

 

It's even giving me sort of a soap-taste in my mouth. Blech.

In the imp - sugary citrus

 

Wet - Tart pink grapefruit, lime

 

A few minutes on - I caught a whiff of cleaning fluid (bad grapefruit). Teeny tiny hint of something herbal.

 

And now, I'm having to really press my nose against my wrist to smell any of this. The cleaning fluid is gone (yay!) but it's very faint. Getting more green and less citrus, too.

 

A little strange on my skin, for sure.

In the bottle: Winey, almost.

 

Wet: Red, spices (more like mulling spices).

 

After a few minutes: Not sure where the wine went (not really a problem).. it's shifting into a vaguely fruity cider. Can sniff a bit of pine in the background.

 

It really is like Christmas in a wee little bottle.

 

Although.. after sitting for a fair bit of time on my wrist, it's settling into just about all cinnamon, with a little bit of pine. Rats.

In the bottle, this is floral, but kinda dusty. I can definitely pick up the vetiver, as well.

 

Wet, it's strongly vetiver, florals in the background.

 

After a few minutes on, this is.. medicinal? Metallic, almost.

 

Fifteen minutes or so - delicate florals with.. metallic notes, almost like hair dye.

 

After half an hour or so.. it's faded a lot but still floral with a side of unpleasant. And a little bit of spice.

 

Every so often I get a whiff of something promising, usually followed swiftly by something a lot like hair dye. Such potential, such silly skin.

I went to Whole Foods this morning. The thought of buying the solid perfume got me moving and out of the house early, only to find that they didn't have the solid in the Spanish Amber. They said that they have been ordering it every week when they place their orders, but it never comes in. They did have the spray, so I tried that, but I really wanted to buy the solid. I quite like it even though I've never tried Spank, so I can't compare them. I think that I'll try calling some of the other Whole Foods in the area.

 

I've found Pacifica stuff at Sephora (although Spanish Amber isn't listed on the website). You can also find it (and the scent in other forms, and lots of other scents) on Pacifica's webpage here.

In the bottle: Like smelling a freshly made Eggnog Latte

 

Wet: A beautifully rich coffee, with creamy eggnog.

 

A few minutes on: Lightly spiced coffee

 

It's getting a generically spiced creaminess.. which is similar to how Eggnog smelled on me. The coffee is there but it's faint.

 

On the right person, this would be awesome.. but not so much on me.

I'm pulling random things out of my "waiting to be tried" bag without checking notes first. Sage, lavender, cedar, and leather are some of my least favorite notes, so saying that this blend is seven shades of awful is an understatement.

(Imp and Wet thoughts were jotted down before I found the description)

Imp: Promising.

Wet: Floral with something I can't pin down.

As it dries: Cinnamon (Carnation, I'm guessing) and manly cologne

The cinnamon-y carnation fades into manly cologne that doesn't work on me.

Not for me.

In the imp: Apples

 

Wet: Appley! Bright, juicy apples

 

As it dries, the apple stays pretty pure and very wet, possibly the dew and mist. There is something deeper as well, probably the oak bark.

 

A few minutes later, and the wood is coming on fast.

 

And smelling.. burnt? It's burnt wood and sweet burnt apples (definetly not baked apples).

 

Even with the burnt smells.. it's still rather pretty, just not something I'd reach for often.

In the Imp: Dragon's Blood (uh oh)

 

Wet: Florals?

 

A minute or two on and the Dragon's blood is going to cough syrup. And it's playing bad with something else. Urgh.

 

Roughly five minutes on it's going to a sexy blend of red musk and vetiver.. with cough syrup in the background.

 

If things that are usually pretty potent on my skin can't keep dragon's blood from being awful.. I think I'll just give up on the blasted note.

Yeah, well, if it is popular it is bound to be an utter failure on me (though there are a few exceptions to even this rule, fortunately!).

 

That sounds like me.. except Inez was a generic perfume on me.

 

At least it wasn't sandalwood hell, but it wasn't anything special on me.

In the imp: Men's cologne, and something in it is making me headachey (probably the jasmine), although jasmine, lavender, and bergamot all tend to be death notes, so I'm not crossing fingers on this one.

 

Got a couple of drops on my palm closing it again, so I'll review it for as long as I can take the jasmine/lavender show.

 

Wet: Lavender with a side of jasmine.

 

As it's drying: I can smell the bergamot, but it and the lavender and jasmine are making me queasy. Time to go scrub this puppy off.

 

eta: I managed to get this on my husband (no easy feat) and it smells really nice on him.

In the imp: Very slinky incense

 

Wet: Incense

 

As it dries, the sugar cane comes out and makes it a very sweet scent. It takes about 10 minutes for the incense to extract itself from the sugar.

 

It's pretty, but.. before I put on the blend my nose and sinuses were clear, and now I'm all congested. It's pretty, but it's giving me the same reaction I get from incense of the unlit variety (once burning, the lit stuff gives me different woes).

 

It's really really pretty, but I'm going to have to migrate to the bathroom to wash it off and blow my nose.

In the imp: Sweet, fruity floral

 

Wet: Floral explosion (please calm down, please calm down)

 

As it dries: Very very floral. There's a hint of fruit, but it's mostly tropical blooms.

 

A few minutes later, and it goes a bit soapy. It's fading fast and it's barely been on. There are still some heady florals floating around though. No sign of the wine or dark chocolate or even the honey - the sweet I'm getting is flower sweet.

 

20 or so minutes, it's a sweet floral that'll be perfect for spring. I'm not sure what my skin did to the wine, honey, or tobacco, though, as I tend to amp those. No complaints about the lack of ampage though.

Imp: Sweet and pretty and oh I hope this works on me.

 

Wet: Fresh and green.

 

Maybe 1 minute on: Sinus headache from florals of DOOM!

 

arg.

 

But then the headache fades (er, okay) and when I sniff my hand it's a very very sweet floral.

 

A few minutes on, and it's sweet and.. not floral? I think the amber is coming out (I'm not entirely sure what amber smells like, but it usually "feels" fuzzy and this doesn't scentfeel fuzzy.. but it's not patchouli so I'm drawing blanks).

 

It's settling into an amber-y tea scent. Pretty, but not something I'd reach for. At least I don't have to wash this one off though.

In the imp: Fruity but feminine.. lightly floral.

 

Wet: Orange scented honey, with roses.

 

And after a few minutes of the other notes promising to behave (and smelling gooood too boot), the sandalwood says "screw you all" and comes out in full force. And I think the honey is starting to turn. It's heading towards the land of playdough honey and burnt wood.. and it had so much potential! Stupid skin.

I neeeed to work through my to-try imp bag, because they're breeding, and I have to shower tonight, so there's no better time to try things that might not work.

 

In the imp: Musky

 

Wet: I couldn't bring myself for a close sniff when a further sniff was a combination of Ack! and ewww.

 

This might not wait until my shower to get washed off..

 

As it dries: There was a touch of florals before this, er.. scent formed. I swear I smell rubbing alchohol.. and fake cherries.. and it kinda smells like a wound that just been freshly treated in a sterilized room in a doctor's office. Maybe a dentist's office, because the fake cherry is reminding me of some of the treatments they'd do when I was a kid.

 

Ick.

In the decant: Custard!

 

Wet, this is very custard-like. Makes me want to eat my arm.

 

As it dries, it gets a little spicier and a little bit more floral. It's still a vanilla custard scent, but it's kept back from going cloying on my skin. Pretty! But my decant will do for me.

I usually love aquatics. Usually.

 

In the decant: Soap.

 

Wet: Soap.

 

Dries to: that floral soap you find in hotel bathrooms. Something I generally avoid smelling like, since it gives me an awful headache. It's just like someone dragged a bar of that soap across me or something. Not a keeper.

In the vial, this is a sweet peach scent.

 

Wet, it's all peach and patchouli.

 

Unfortunately, as it dries the peach and patchouli is completely obliterated by the neroli. So much so that it gave me a sinus headache.

 

And then, about an hour or so of a neroli enhanced headache, the cocoa absolute came by and did it's thing. Saying that my skin eats cocoa absolute is a bit of an understatement - blends with cocoa absolute in them just get swallowed up whole within an hour or two (sometimes a lot less if there's a lot of it in a blend), after which point sticking my nose to my wrist only got a very light whiff of neroli.

 

If only I could keep it wet forever.

In the imp: Piney.

 

Wet: AAAAAAH! PINE!

 

And it spends the next few minutes making my eyes water despite the fact that I'm trying to keep my arm away from my face.

 

As it dries, there's a lemon-y scent. And then a few more minutes pass, and the pine/lemon are blending into an herbal-ness that would be really awesome if it didn't give me a headache.

 

Except there's an aftersniff of BO.

For me, Gennivre is a great spring/summer scent, as is Olokun. F5 is really nice, but I'm not sure how easy it is to track down.

 

I also have to second or third or so Undertow and Nuclear Winter and the Lick It's.

In the decant, this is almost straight butterscotch.

 

Wet, I can smell the caramel and the salt and the popcorn. As it dries, I get a coffee vibe from it, and it seems like it's the first super-foody scent I really like (and want to eat).

 

Sadly, my skin went all NOMNOMNOM on it and now I can only smell it faintly if I shove my wrist under my nose.

 

Keeping my decant though - I plan to use it to scent some unscented lotion since it fades fast on me.

I haven't reviewed this yet? Bad me.

 

Side note: my decant is well aged (at least a year, probably more like two), and my bottle is about two months old and untouched and aging)

 

Fresh in the bottle: Fresh, and almost grassy (not trying on the fresh though, as I vastly prefer it when it's aged).

Aged in the decant: Kind of a sultry vanilla

 

Wet: Smooth and creamy with a bit of peanut (which is the vetiver - I don't know why vetiver always goes on peanut, but once it settles? )

 

And once the vetiver settles, it's this gorgeous scent of sexy - I can't describe it but I can always pick it out of blends from it.

 

At any rate, once the vetiver de-peanuts, this is a deep but creamy, sexy scent. I can pick out the coconut, and now that I've retried Snake Oil I can pick that out too.

 

I love it, my husband loves it, and it is a totally sexy blend on my weird ass skin.

In the imp: gingery sweetness

 

Wet: Gingery bananas?

 

*checks notes*

 

*eyes skin*

 

The banana was shortlived. Thankfully. There was also a blast of pineapple, and now it's settling into a spicy, creamy, sexy scent. I think it'll be perfect for those long summer nights. *wink*

Wet: Spicy spicy boozy rum.

 

On a few minutes: Sharp citrus. The grapefruit is desperately trying to go cleaning solution, but it's being kept in check. Sorta.

 

As it dries, the pineapple is coming out more. It's settling into a spicy sweet fruity scent. This'll be perfect for summer.