Magda

It smells so, so pretty in the bottle, but the second it hits my skin, the jasmine and pine start fighting it out to see who's the strongest. It's an epic battle. In the end, they both win, and I lose.

I frantically washed this off about twenty minutes after applying it, and what stayed in my skin went back to a pretty floral. It's like the soap my grandmother used to use, elegant and very clean smelling. Not soapy, but clean and fresh. I can tell there are flowers but I can't pick them out, and it smells a little like frost on green leaves.

I'm not sure how I'm going to wear this. Dab it on and then rub most of it off? Apply half of half of a drop? Put it on and wash it off like I did today? I'll figure something out, though, because despite my initial misgivings (and looming migraine during the jasmine vs. pine portion of the experience) I really, really like it now.

In the bottle and wet on my skin, it's all sweet green melon. I'm hoping for the peony to come out to play eventually since it's one of the few florals that I think smell nice on me.

It takes a few hours, but a hint of florals comes out eventually. Sort of. It's still mostly melon.

However, it is the most delicious melon I have ever smelled. I'm not usually a melon fan, but I'm going to layer this with Squirting Cucumber and smell springy and delicious.

In the bottle, it smells like cologne. I can't say what type, exactly, except that my dad wore it when I was little. Not very helpful, I know. As soon as I apply it, I smell something that is either brown sugar or maple syrup, depending on the sniff. It's all brown sugar cologne for a while, very woody and dry except for the syrup overtone.

I was worried that the strawberry would turn plastic on me, but it doesn't. It comes out after about ten minutes, just sweetening things up with a soft, subtle glow. The teak, which is what made it smell so much like cologne to me, retreats into the background and it's all mellow strawberries and thick sugar with a hint of something herbal and green around the edges--the blackberry leaf, maybe.

It's sweet, but not edging into girly. There's powdery musk and dark woods in the background, making this almost unisex. The strawberry is delicious and I love it so much more than I expected to. I'm not getting any florals, which despite my love of violet is just fine by me. I think they may be somewhere in the background, bridging the gap between the woods and the sugared strawberry.

I'm kind of in love with this blend.

Right out of the bottle, this is dry, woody incense. Then, o hai there, honey and musk. I'm glad you came by. I love you.

I was a little worried that the kush would make me smell like weed. I'm glad that isn't the case.

It's not the same thick amber I love so much in Hermia and Hymn to Proserpine, but it's still quite lovely, a little bit powdery but not overly so. I'm barely getting a touch of the red currant, which is a good thing in my book, just enough to make the blend a little sweet.

Everything blends so well together as this dries that it's hard to pick out any one note. I feel surrounded by a sexy, mellow cloud. It may just be the power of suggestion, but this makes me want to go out and find someone to have throes of violent passion with. Yum. A definite keeper.

In the imp, it's all sweet, juicy pear. On my skin, though, it turns into pear scented soap. Sometimes Lily of the Valley turns soapy on me, so I cross my fingers and hope the soapiness is just a phase.

In theory, this should be an amazing spring blend for me. I love pear, I love the way real little lilies of the valley smell, I love musk, I like rose sometimes, though I don't think I have anything with bois du rose except Longing, which I haven't tried, yet. If this turns out more fruity than florally, we'll have a hit.

It's getting soaper with time, to the point that I can actually taste soap in my mouth. That's no fun at all. I hold my hand away from me for a while, but it stays sudsy, soapy lily of the valley on me and it's quite unpleasant every time I forget and bring my hand close enough to my face for the soap taste to fill my mouth again.

Washing it off, and off to swaps.

In the bottle and upon application, it's all sweet cherry-almond. The cherry retreats after a while and it's a fantastic smoky, buttery almond until it turns to baby powder. Sad pants. I would love this if the smoky almond stage lasted longer than half an hour.

When I was in high school, I read somewhere (Sassy, probably), that Courtney Love wore a combo of cucumber oil and watermelon oil as perfume. Whether this was true or not, I have no idea, but I thought it was a very cool idea (this was before the explosion of cucumber melon lotions and candles), but I didn't like the watermelon oil when I tried it. I did, however, love the cucumber. Love, love, love.

So, when I saw Squirting Cucumber added to the GCs, I ordered an imp and I love, love, love it. I don't know why I haven't reviewed it until now. I suppose because there's really not much to say, not a lot of notes to pick out. This is fresh, dewy cucumber with a slightly sweet cut grass note behind it. Mostly, though, it's just cucumber, and despite the fact that I'm usually all about ambers and musk and darker scents, this is one of my top ten favorite BPALs ever.

First there are thick, green blooms, hanging high over everything, sweet and sharp. Then I catch a hint of aquatics and brace myself for the inevitable morph into burnt black pepper.

Usually, aquatics turn on me within a matter of minutes, but as this is drying it doesn't smell like burnt pepper, it just smells fresh and icy. It's strange. Is this an aquatic that I can actually wear? It's very slushy, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I've never been able to wear aquatics without my skin turning them horrible, so the question of liking or not liking them has never come up before.

I think I like it. It's a lot brighter and fresher than most things I wear, but I'm really becoming fond of how it's crisp without edging into girly. It's a unisex crispness, and behind that is the (not at all unpleasant) scorched earth/thick mineral scent that pervades the desert during the first few minutes of rain.

I'm definitely going to keep this imp, since this is one of the most interesting scents on me I've tried.

Wet on my skin, it smells like Sweet Tarts. As it dries it becomes a bit more floral, but it still has that candy sour scent.

It takes about half an hour for the sour candy to go away, and then there are florals that are so, so familiar, it's killing me that I can't place what they remind me of. There's a hint of green tea in there, too, and maybe just a hint of vanilla. Overall, it's a soft, round floral, something that would smell very nice on a young girl or an older woman who wants a soft, innocent scent.

Wet, this is very sweet and green. It reminds me of the sweet clover soap my grandmother used to use.

As it dries, it stays soapy clean and sweet, but there's a hint of something sour creeping up in the background--I think it may be the apple blossom, but it never comes out fully. It's soapy clean, a pretty green floral, but not for me.

My first impression is of burnt caramel, which I'm sure is the mint/caramel mix.

It calms down into a cool, syrupy sweet scent after a bit, but my hand is burning where I applied it. That never happens--I can wear the heaviest cinnamon and not even turn pink.

It's a strange scent. Not unpleasant, I just can't decide if it's crisp or foody, if it's cold or warm. It gets better as it goes on, morphing into thick caramel, then pulling back down to sweet, smoky warm goodness with a herbal edge.

I'm going to need to try this a few more times before I can decide what I think of it.

Wet, right out of the bottle, it's all grapes on me. Then it turns into grapes mixed with cocoa powder, which is odd. It turns to lemon after about ten minutes, then a beautiful, light incense ten minutes after that. Sadly, in another ten minutes it's gone entirely. I would have liked a lot more of its final stage.

Unfortunately for me, Pisces blends usually equal one of two things--aquatics or vetiver. Aquatics touch my skin and turn to burned black pepper. Not a good smell. Vetiver hates me even more than that, amping up to ridiculous, nauseating levels of ooze and slime.

I am so, so glad that Beth made a non-aquatic, non-vetiver blend. It's a quiet, meditative blend, which I personally feel reflects my sign better than bright aquatic notes. In the bottle it starts of soft and herbal, and wet on the skin it stays that way, fresh and blue-green until it dries into a soft, resiny floral. The opium poppy makes it powdery without being baby powder, the florals are sweet but not at all overwhelming, and the grains of paradise and moss lend it an herbal undertone I wasn't expecting. It's a beautiful, gentle scent, and I think very reflective of the sign.

Right out of the bottle it's all sweet pine, which makes me very happy. There's a hint of trunk and sap along with the needles, and then it sweetens up -- berries and flowers hiding in the middle. It's very similar to Dublin without the rose. I don't generally buy multiple bottles of anything, but I may need to with this.

In the bottle it's pure dandelion, which I love. As a little girl, that was my absolute favorite flower (to the extent that my father wouldn't even weed the dandelions from the yard because I'd sob if he did). Once it goes on and starts to dry, the clove comes out which makes me very happy since my second favorite flower as a girl was carnation. I get just a touch of sage and I can't isolate any of the other notes, though there's something sweet in the background holding this all together.

Overall, this is a very soft, clean scent that smells like springtime to me, much more so than any of the usual floral spring-y scents.

In the vial and on my skin it smells like sweet, fresh-cut wood, switching to strong sandalwood and cedar after just a minute. It's a very cool scent, much more wet than what I'd been expecting. Even after the incense comes out (the frankincense I'm assuming), it's still not a dry scent. It's kind of like a damp version of Cathedral.

I don't really do the whole masculine/feminine categorization of scents, but I think this is probably unisex. It's soft and sweet, but not "girly" at all. I'd like to smell this on just about anyone.

Sharp green leaves, the way they smell when you pull them apart. What? I'm not the only girl who climbed trees and plucked leaves and pulled at their veins, am I? It's wet and sharp and cold. I don't get any smoke or sap upon initial application.

About fifteen minutes later and it undergoes a sudden change. It goes from sharp greenery to dry leaves. The leaf note is still the strongest but it's not longer green and wet, it's much warmer and that plus the sap makes me think of scarlet maples in full color. There's just the tiniest hint of smoke in the background, like your neighbors a mile away are burning their leaves.

This is one of the most interesting scents I've ever tried--I don't think anything has morphed this quickly and completely on me before. It's nice in both incarnations, but the final dry down--both cold like autumn air and warm like dried, sweet leaves--is absolutely lovely and even better than I anticipated. This may well be my favorite Halloween 2007 scent.

Sugar Skull 2007

In the bottle and wet on my skin it's dark brown sugar, thick like molasses. It's a little overwhelming and not exactly pleasant. After just a minute, though, it lightens considerably and a tiny little hint of apple comes out. It's barely there, but it turns the scent from overwhelming sugar into delicious sweetness. As it dries further, I get a hint of incense, which is maybe just some sort of caramelized sugar. It's fantastic, I have to say.

If you cored a crisp red apple and filled it with brown sugar, snuggled it into a pan filled with more sugar, baked it until it was oozing fruit sugars, then drizzled it with a hint of maple syrup and sprinkled it with sugar in the raw, this is what it would smell like.

Trying this out with a recently enabled ItGlitters, we both thought, "Hey, roses with watery notes, yay!"

She put some on me. I sniffed it. Mmmm, delicate rose and cinnamon.

She put some on her. She sniffed it and made a face. I laughed. "What? You love rose!"

"I like the rose, it's just...butter."

"It's what?"

"Rancid butter."

"It is not." I lean forward and sniff it. "Huh. You smell like roses dipped in rancid butter. Here. Smell me."

I still smell like rose with just a touch of cinnamon. It's quite lovely, actually. ItGlitters had to wash hers off because it was making her ill.

I am on the search for the ultimate lilac. Of course, I'm very picky and have never really liked any lilac scent from any company I've tried. I want a lilac scent that smells like lilacs, not like a lilac perfume. *big sigh*

Actually, I may have found the ultimate lilac, and it was hiding in my imp box all this time. Dragon's Blood, believe it or not, smells like lilacs and sunshine. I've had that imp forever and never really paid it much attention until I was enabling a friend and she said, "I love this one that smells like lilacs!"

All this time, I thought I didn't like dragon's blood resin, and now I'm obessed with it. Dragon's Milk smells like honeyed vanilla with lilacs in the next room. I'm going to have to get imps of all the dragon scents, now, just to see how many of them go lilac on me. Unexpected, but very, very welcome.

My absolute favorite amber scent is Hymn to Proserpine (which is pure amber on me with just a tiny hint of fruit to sweeten it), followed closely by Hermia (much more subtle with a kick of pink pepper that smells like carnation to me after the drydown). Al-Azif also screams amber at me, though it's not one of the notes listed. To me, it's like Hymn to Proserpine with incense instead of fruit, and it's divine.

I also want the ultimate gingerale. Sure, gingerbread is fine, but I'd kill for a tickle-your-nose spicy and fizzy gingerale.

I may get kicked for this, but, Demeter has a gingerale fragrance and I swear you can smell the bubbles! It literally tickled my nose when I sniffed it. Until Beth does one of her own (mmmmm, evil gingerale) at least you have something to fulfill your craving.

Oh, I totally already own that one! It's nice and fizzy, but not quite enough ginger spicy for me, plus it fades so quickly. But it totally works as a great pick-me-up on days when I'm dying for a good, evil gingerale.

I am on the search for the ultimate lilac. Of course, I'm very picky and have never really liked any lilac scent from any company I've tried. I want a lilac scent that smells like lilacs, not like a lilac perfume. *big sigh*

I also want the ultimate gingerale. Sure, gingerbread is fine, but I'd kill for a tickle-your-nose spicy and fizzy gingerale.

I want an "OMG this smells like my skin only way sexier" scent, too. I've tried O and La Petit Mort, and while both of them come close, they're not quite right. Something like Hymn to Proserpine but not quite as fruity with less of a throw.

It's all ylang ylang in the imp, but after a minute or so on my skin the resins start to come out. There's a hint of something sickly-sweet (ylang ylang sometimes goes sour on my skin) and I'll have to wait it out to see if it will overwhelm the blend or mellow down.

Thankfully, it mellows down and it's a sexy, resinous scent, more sweet than dry, but not overly so. I get an immediate body response to it (in a very good way), I think because it smells like this fantastic honey powder that I've quite enjoyed, um, licking off of people. It's that powdery honey scent over a base of resins and musk and, um...yeah. I should maybe stop smelling my arm, now. Only I can't, and I kind of want to lick it, and I haven't had a date in a really long time...

Ahem. Sorry. This is a wonderful scent. I like it a lot.

I won't lie. I got this just because I wanted to smell Beth's interpretation of crumbling stone and hot desert air.

In the imp, it smells like alcohol--not the kind you drink, but perfumers' alcohol. On my skin it loses the alcohol scent but retains the perfumey feeling, masculine at first but then shifting suddenly to a more feminine, classic smell. It smells like my grandmother's bedroom, especially her makeup table where I used to sit and try on all her jewelry--and that's a good thing.

I can't pick out a single note and it doesn't smell like summer in the desert (not in my desert, anyway), but I'm in love with it. It's so complex, or maybe so simple. I can't even tell if it's masculine or feminine--it's both at the same time. It's clean and classic and dry and lonely and sweet and airy and...yeah. I like.