ofthegood
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Just got a well-aged bottle of this because I'm a sucker for prototypes! In the bottle, I could definitely sniff a mix of mint-citrus-lavender notes - mundane, but still pretty. The minute it hit my skin, I was thrown into a strong sense memory, because this reminds me immensely of my grandfather's Stetson cologne! It's not a dupe, by any means, but it didn't surprise me at all when I googled Stetson and the top notes are lemon, lime, bergamot, and lavender. This doesn't deepen like Stetson, because it's not backed by vetiver/patchouli/tonka/amber (though after several hours, I feel like the drydown has something a little deeper). So it's like a light, feminine Stetson, and close enough that I feel deeply nostalgic wearing it. My grandfather slathered his cologne on every night before bed, and bedtime hugs always smelled like this. I miss him so much! It's a pretty blend with my skin chemistry, soft and fairly unisex, but definitely meaningful for me!
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The description for this one sounded really promising, since I've recently been loving the soil/stone scents. The reviews were all over the place, so I didn't have any idea what to expect! I knew I might not like it the minute the bottle opened and I got a whiff of a very rich foody smell - it reminded me of one of the 2010 Yules, but I can't remember which one (one of the foody ones that I didn't like). It was sweet and a little smoky and had a strong hint of generic-Christmas-candle-potpurri spiciness that made my stomach churn a little. I applied some before I could change my mind. Wet, it was super-foody and sweet, with undertones of sharp smoke and bitter vegetable smells. The sweetness faded quite a bit in dry-down, though it's still there, and the smoke kept amping up. The foodiness is still there in the spiciness, and I never really got as much of the woods/soil as I'd hoped for. It really smells like I've just blown out something from Yankee Candle, all generic holiday spice and smoke.
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Chocolate, orange blossom honey, and pomegranate. This one really surprised me, because I'm generally not a foody scent lover and the inclusion of chocolate, honey, and pomegranate really concerned me. In the vial, I got a lovely blend of cocoa-honey sweetness, but it wasn't cloying... it was like the dry scent of cocoa powder, with the golden touch of honey and a little floral-fruity touch. I still dabbed sparingly, but it stayed nice and dry-sweet! Whew. The chocolate faded, and the end result was something faint and golden, sweet and floral. Very pretty. I'm glad this one wasn't a foody monster!
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Note to self: look up what a 'sufganiyot' is before you slather this on. I wasn't expecting the blast of warm, buttery, jelly donut sweetness that greeted me - from the rest of the description, I'd expected more like Liberty or Hanerot Halalu. And while I can detect the beeswax and olive oil and fruits... mostly, I get the donuts as the oil dries and develops. It's quite dead-on, just not my cup of tea, and each whiff overwhelms me. The good news, for me at least, is that the donuts are eaten by my skin pretty quickly, and I'm left with a scent that's far closer to what I'd hoped for. The amber comes out to play and overwhelms the sweet foody smell. But it also drowns out the delicate beeswax and olive oil notes that I really like. It's pretty once it's dried, golden and warm, but I wouldn't make it through the foody period to wear this regularly. (This review is for the 2010 edition.)
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This blend made me say GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF and run for the soap and alcohol. Alas, it hung around even after I scrubbed and scrubbed. Patchouli and feral animal urine. If I force myself to get past that, I can definitely smell the leaves and the coffee. But... yeah. Urine.
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Wow, this one really morphed! At first dab, it was fairly light and feminine - floral and fruity and bright. But it lost those notes during dry-down and developed into something rich and almost masculine - musky, darker, and potent. I definitely got a whiff of the leather from time to time, but it was subtle. Thankfully, the patchouli didn't really come out to play much at all. I'll have to try this one again, to see if it morphs the same way. I like a little intrigue with my scents, as long as every stage still smells good!
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Man, I was so excited about this blend - I love black tea scents and really hoped that this would be magical scent for me. But I never got a whiff of tea, but... patchouli, patchouli, patchouli. It was present in the vial, but just kept developing and lingering during wear, overpowering anything else I was looking for. Definitely a dark blend, and the patchouli makes it earthy. But not the spicy masculine black tea I was expecting, AT ALL. The final lingering smell on my skin was musky, dirty, sour, incense-y patchouli. It was like head shop in a bottle.
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I found this oil nauseatingly foody. Spice, sweetness, butter, nuts, baked goods... it's all there. Too foody for me, by far. I couldn't test anything else for a while after I'd smelled this. Ugh.
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This was sweeter than I expected, but not particularly foody - just soft, and creamy, and pretty! The vanilla was the main note throughout, and I kept getting a hint of coconut in there, too. I got more mint than pine/fir, and wished for more trees and snow during wear. Overall, it's a scent I'd prefer in a bath product (it reminded me of something from Lush, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was) or a dusting powder that would linger throughout the day. My officemate may have fallen in love with this, though. It certainly is lovely, even if it didn't compel me to buy a bottle! And the reference to the scent from the Aria... yes, I can see that relationship as it fades!
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In the vial, this was a very aquatic men's cologne/aftershave smell. On my skin, it immediately developed to more of a green, ozone, and soap scent, and got sweeter and soapier as it dried. At one point, it really reminded me of bathing with Irish Spring. Not a terrible thing, but a strong and fairly generic scent on me. Drying down, the dirt started to emerge and it was like... washing my hands with Irish Spring after planting bulbs? It just kept getting softer, quickly losing the sharpness from the greenery and the ozone. Having loved Shadows of What May Be, I desperately wanted more of the raw earth and plant smells to come out. But it faded into soapy powdery generic blah.
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This scent... just confuses me. I mean, the description alone is pretty overwhelming. But the oil is very complex and I had an ever-changing response to it as it dried and developed on me. I still can't decide if I like it or not. There's definitely a lot of elements that make this oil "golden," and that's the color it immediately evokes. Honey, beeswax, amber, polished wood, golden coins... very rich. At first, I definitely got a lot of the beeswax and wood, and was pretty pleased. But then some other notes popped up, and it turned into more of a masculine cologne-y scent... and that beautiful waxed wood scent was drowned out. It wasn't bad, just more generic and less nuanced. Further development brought out some notes I didn't really like - maybe some of the salty, metallic, peppery ones. Overall, this was just weird. I liked it... I didn't like it... I sort of want to keep trying to figure it out!
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Klara’s most prized Christmas gift. Broken by Fritz in a fit of jealousy, repaired by Drosselmeyer’s magic: frankincense, black mission fig, and galbanum. This smelled lovely in the vial! I didn't get the fig, but a nice sweet incense smell. On skin, the fig still wasn't there - ever. I definitely see why other reviewers are thinking there's cedar in there, especially while the oil is still damp and fresh. It's a dry, masculine scent with a hint of incense and smokiness and spice. The smokiness grows as it settles, and it makes the blend really dry and maybe a bit stale, almost like incense or a scented candle that's going out. Any sweetness that I picked up at first disappeared. I can see the Nutcracker - masculine, woody, a bit of stale resin/incense from Drosselmeyer's magic and repairs. It's just not the lovely fragrance on skin that I was hoping for from the description and the vial.
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This is a fairly foody scent, especially when it dries down and all of the sugar and marshmallow come out to play. It starts out more ginger (a sharp, bold ginger, not gingerbread cookies) but develops a sweeter and spicier profile as it dries. I don't really enjoy it either way - too much ginger, then a cloying sweetness. Blech. As much as I love to eat these holiday sweets, I'm not in love with them surrounding me all day. I feel smothered by Mother Ginger.
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At first, this was leather, like I'd just walked into the leather store at the mall and was surrounded by hundreds of items made of tanned cowhide. Whoa. It was like putting on a new leather jacket for the first time. Then the coffee stepped up, and a bit of the hazelnut, and I was teleported from the leather store to a coffeeshop, still wearing my new leather jacket. Drier still, the tobacco and spices came out to play. This scent is so rich and warm! It's the vaguely fruity smell of unlit cigarettes and some nice exotic spices. The more this settles, the more I love it. Mmph.
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This is so crisp and light! It definitely came out of the vial as a strong green floral, but quickly faded during drydown to soft floral prettiness. I couldn't pick out specific flowers, which would probably the mix of wildflowers and dandelions and such. It's just... a field full of grass and flowers and springtime air. Really feminine and gentle and young and very evocative of spring. Unfortunately, I found that it was so crisp and light and gentle that it faded almost completely in under 4 hours. All that was left was a tiny breath of soft floral air, and a tiny hint of the myrrh that I hadn't really picked up during wear. Still pretty, even as it disappears entirely!
