Elrianra

Booze notes indeed, just popping the lid off my decant for a sniff gets me dizzy. This is a dark, sweaty oil - it's thick with smokish cloy and overly sweet notes, like cheap whisky or wine - sweetened to hide a bitter taste and yet in its own way pleasant. I like it but not for any reason I can discern. It just is... hot. There's no other word for it, this scent is hot. Now when they say booze, they mean booze. This is almost a soda taste-type of scent, like root beer - dark and sweet, like a cola maybe. It goes directly to the back of your throat and knocks you sideways in a manner that both demands submission and attention. It's sweet but not overly sweet and it has a swarty after-effect to it that is discombobulating. As it warms up, the sweet tone fades a little and it turns more musky and well... smutty. It's hot and raw and very plain that it expects some severe attention for a while - it also makes my palms itch to go eat berries however, which really makes little to no sense to me at all. But I find amusing. This may be a sweaty kind of scent, but it's the enclosed spaces with candles and smoke and a bottle of cheap champagne and flowers sweaty. Not at all an outdoors kind of scent. Which may, actually, explain the berries thing after all... It has a little more throw that what I'm used to liking but this is a scent that defies disliking. It keeps dancing between sugar sweet and mind-numbingly musky, it's like being drunk and trying to dance: you never know where you're going to end up, but it's all good no matter what. As it fades out, it gets a spicy tang to it like dry sweat and no real surprise there. It mixes very well with my sweat, toning down the bitter tang of my own body and covering it with a sticky lazy scent that is extremely intoxicating to me.

CDXXXIII (433) In the bottle, this is tangy and sharp with an almost ozone note in it and the fruits are sweet and nectar-y. On me wet, I smell peaches and orchids I think... cool and wet, like a garden just rained on. As it dries, the florals flare up into a bright bouquet of red and yellow and whites, sweet and pungent and quite over-eager to make themselves known; then it's a blast of fruit and berries that hits me, swinging up in a wet blast of freshly cut fruit salad with a dollop of soft sugary florals to mellow them out and a hint of something akin to an aquatic note that's blending the fruits to an almost smoothie-like smell. It warms and the fruits and florals settle down into a sweet but vague freshly picked blend that every woman wants her kitchen to smell like every morning when she opens the windows the first time. Over time, this softens and goes powdered sugar on me. You read that right, powdered sugar - not at all the unpleasant powder/soap scent some herbals notes take a blend, this is just getting softer and softer without losing it's sweet-and-shy tone. It lingers for hours after application but doesn't have any real throw to speak of, simply being notable but not definable from any distance.

Warm and peppery in the bottle, the musk and tonka mix nicely with tobacco and patchouli for a heady spicy blend. My skin takes the tonka, patchouli and cassia in a wet blend of sweet spices. As it dries, the cassia and plum really come out in a blast of powdery floral and fruit. The benzoin - a scent that is camphorous in nature - also comes out making this very medicinal and throaty. As the scent warms, the musk and tonka mix with the benzoin and patchouli, leaving the floral and fruit notes in the background to create a very heady smoke blend. While this is warm and interesting, it gives me a headache. Byebye Phoenix.

Now HERE at last, is a serious PERFUME from BPAL. Smokey and floral and sweet and tangy all in one, where the notes blend together in that dizzying Macy's-Sales-Lady scent way. Ironically, this smells incredibly like one of my MOTHER'S favorite perfumes. Well, in the bottle at least. Wet on my skin, the throw isn't too terrible and the notes are separating a little. I'm getting a sweet-sticky tang of what I assume is the champagne; the rubrose, hyacinth, ylang ylang and poppy hover just above that while the base is a musky and dusty floral mix that I assume is the jonquil, tobacco flower and poppy. There's a faint herbal tang to this that makes it slightly warmer than any of the florals account for but that very well may just be the musk. I want to lick my wrist and savor this wet oil. As it dries, it gets more smoky, like a garden-flower variety incense - both floral and smoky, the musk dampens the scent and the boozy note is almost gone. By the time it's warmed up, I seriously just smell an incense-y type of scent, floral and smoke with a dash of musk for depth. From there on out, the smoky tones hold the front all throughout this one's life and death. Pleasant but a little disappointing really...

In the bottle, this is strong and sweet but medicinal. There's spicy and sugar and something else that I can't place, smoky really. It's thick and heady and confused but precise all at once. I'm not sure I want to try this on... Uh! It's oaky and dizzyingly sour - no, rancid. It smells like rotting fruit or flowers, the smell of a late autumn orchard - sun warmed sweet-rot, decay. There's something pepperish in this that makes my throat itch and I know I've run across before but I can't place. It's infuriating but more so because I was hoping this scent would work out of me.

In the bottle, it's cinnamon with a spray of mint and sugar; honestly, it smells like cinnamon gum tastes. Once on, the cinnamon tones down and leaves a dusty scent behind, more herbal now and not so foody. There's something else I can't quite place, it's green but not floral. Hmm. I can't stop sniffing at my wrist, it's pretty and inspiring and lively. After it has dried out, there's a citrus tang to it, like clove oranges and at the same time distinctly not. It's sweet and spicy with a touch of dusty to it, but not dust. More like... hmm. Ground cinammon, really. Even on the die down, this scent was cool and vaguely spicy with a sweet almost tender cloy to it. Not much throw at all but absolutely wonderful all around. Oh I like this one very much!

This is heavy and musky, with a drop of clove or pepper in it. Almost a boozy type of scent, it reminds me heavily of the rum my friends drank when we were out camping. Once on, there's musk and a tang of... sandalwood perhaps? Or patchouli? I'm not sure, it's a wood that's more Oriental than not. But I can't put my finger on it. Bamboo, perhaps? As it warms, the wood and musk blend lightly and create a halo effect over my wrist and hand despite the small drop I dotted onto my wrist. It hasn't got throw exactly, more like cloy. It maintains a nice woody, smokish aspect throughout it's admittedly short life. The final die down is soft and smoky with a final tang of musk and sweat before it fades away completely.

In the bottle this is sweet and strongly floral; the dragon's blood has a sticky quality to it that is at once sugarish and pepper-like. The only floral I'm really picking up is galbanum, which is a superbly rotten sweet to me. Once on me, this smells like soap; not nasty store bought soap but specialty handmade soap - it's lilac prominently with a touch of lily to liven this up a bit while the galbanum just sulks in the background as a sweet scent still. My eyes are watering within a minute of trying this on, holy hell this is strong - this has a throw like a major league pitcher. As it dries, the soap scent lessens - slightly; now it's powdery soap, like your skin smells just after a nice hot bath. Still not exactly what I'd call radiant, although it is piercing my sinuses with thousands of little white-hot pokers... It doesn't lose the powder-soap tang as it warms, which is a challenge what with the windows open in the hope of not killing myself with this one, I do admit. All told, it's too strong for me and I have to say enough is enough: this scent simply is not for me.

In the bottle this is sweet, sticky, and has an odd spicy-nutty smell. I am definitely picking up the almond and cinnamon off the bat. Candy-ish and rather unpleasantly like a nutty cough syrup. Once on my skin, the gammoning takes a nice step into the foreground, making me smell rather like a box of Red Hots or Hot Tamales. Ironically, as this one heats up, the smell cools down a little. The almond is in the background, barely detectable unless I stick my wrist right under my nose while the cinnamon is a nice spicy flare in the foreground. Wikipedia describes neroli as "a refreshing and distinctive, spicy aroma with sweet and flowery notes" which accounts greatly for the sweet undertone in this blend, though I don't detect any floral. The neroli and cinnamon are blending quite nicely. Over all, this really does smell like a cinnamon candy but not in an objectionable sort of way; it's insolent and proud, but not mean. At the end of it all, I still smell rather like hot candy, but it's a beautiful and ironic twist in a blend. I find it delightfully wicked. After a repeat wearing, I found that neroli attacks my sinuses and I wind up with a very evil migraine for my troubles... so I had to nix this one from a repeat purchase.

Evergreens, juniper and spruce... a dash of birch I think even... in the bottle it's all shaded forest scents; a bed of old needles and pine cones underfoot with moss and dirt. Bitter and rotten-sweet at once in the bottle, it remains the same on my skin, mossy and lichens. As it dries, it turns piney again, and eventually winds up smelling like a discarded but still green Christmas tree. Not exactly what I want to smell like and I don't really know how to describe it better. I found it a bit to sharp and bitter and, well, dusty for my tastes. Alas, I'm not a juniper.

In the bottle, this is a blend of musks and dragon's blood resin that grab your throat and squeeze tightly while a heady mix of herbs and grains swim around your sinuses, leaving you feeling drunk. It's dazzling, red amber with spices pulling you deep into a trance. On my skin, the musks leap to the forefront and broadcast their presence with bold certainty in their power. Behind the musks lays a tangible web of confusion as the herbs and woods and grains mix to remind me of a summer night in a meadow surrounded by old woods. The dragon's blood is sticky and I can taste it, this is a sexual scent, dominant and possessive and absolutely giddy with its own power. At once alarmingly overpowering and delightfully exotic, with just enough of a relatively understood undertone to make it pleasant and even companionable. After the initial heat of contact with my skin and the flush of warming flavor, the scent cools down - both in strength and overtone; shifting to a peppery smoke, like a fire in the woods, the herbs singed on the outside of the fresh kill roasting over those flames. I want to lick this scent, to taste the wildness of it, because it doesn't unravel so much as shift into a different focus so you can see the next layer beneath it. A maze of different after images with each breath of it. I wouldn't dare dab this scent on before leaving the house, the scent of it is tangibly arousal and desire with enough wildness to it to seem like a challenge, a vixen's scent if ever I encountered one. And yet, the come hither of it, the absolute flirtation of the blend is in a very strange way endearing. Smelling this is like drinking whisky warmed by the afternoon sun, not hot - not yet - but heated, sweet and lazy and strong. Not quite bitter and not quite sweet, woods and grains and animal all bound together in this sunset-amber honey.

This is cool and sweet but bitter with a touch of longing, in the bottle I can smell something floral faintly through the fir and birch - like standing at the edge of a frozen river, downwind of a small garden in the first frosts, with a bank of trees between you and that haven of tamed beauty. The tulips and crocus are pushing their blossoms through the ice stubbornly while the rose lends its branches to shelter some of the more tentative florals, a heady blend from which I can't pull dahlia or narcissus or chrysanthemum. Once on, the ice melts a bit, as a weak winter sun shines down on the garden. The birch sap trickles slowly down my arms while the rose petals pool thick and heavy in my upturned palms, a soft snowy blanket for the other flowers to lay upon - at once a low note and yet a patient one, certain of it's own beauty and willing to share and let you see and smell and feel the other flowers as well. The fir wavers in and out of distinction, not a large tree at all but saplings, swayed by the softest wind. It's all there in ever changing variations of floral and wood and ice, all at once cold and inviting and beautiful with just the slightest hint of lazy waiting.

In the bottle, this is smoky and thick - the frankincense and myrrh are a heavy base note topped out by gardenia and lily and another floral that I assume is the cassia. The rose is tangible but not as high as the other florals, mixing with the myrrh slightly to sweeten the incense tang. Once on, the myrrh and frankincense take over, stepping into the foreground swiftly as they always do with a throw that could knock out a horse. The florals are faint and heavy at once, as though the air is too humid to support their sweetness. As it begins to dry, it goes acrid - sharp and pungent, it rasps in the back of my throat like smoke and curls around the insides of my sinuses as though I'm choking on it. Overpowering but not completely unpleasant. It's the same effect as Black Lotus had, and the only commonality is myrrh, therefore I must assume the overwhelming smoke-scent is the myrrh. Which is a shame as I like it a lot, but my skin amplifies its effect exponentially until it's an uncompromising smokescreen. Still, I give it more time, it's still early and I hope the myrrh will settle down. After a while, it does and the result is surprisingly fractured: the myrrh is a smoky middle-ground that's mixing with the gardenia and cassia while the frankincense is a softer undertone for a base than I expected, the lily and rose are high notes that are both sweet and full bodied like I always expected a blush wine to be. This is still tart and a bit dry on me, lovely but decidedly not for me. Alas, the myrrh fouls this up on my skin.

In the bottle, peaches. Heavenly, glorious, ripe fresh picked peaches. If there's musk or amber in this, it's just holding the light sweet note of the peaches up. No myrtle whatsoever. Once on, the peaches still maintain the high note, the musk and ambers are detectable in a faint whirl, like hot sunshine and a faint gleam of fresh sweat - not at all unpleasant. My hands smell like I've been picking peaches all day. When I said I had a notion this would smell like Peachtree Schnapps, I had no idea I was right. This scent is sweet enough to make you drunk. Warming up, it tones down very slightly. The peach lightens and the musk and ambers smooth out, filling in the blank areas from before. Now it's sweet but full, the body of it is smooth and warm like tonic. The myrtle is a soft green smell in the background that makes it just a bit bitter, like an alcohol. Peach wine indeed, this is intoxicating and delicious.

In the bottle, it's slightly bitter; the incense rides out calmly and brings all the florals with it in a decadent array of solemnity. The amber and leather aren't detectable to me, in the bottle. Once on, the smoky incense and soft amber are the highlights. I can pick up whiffs of floral one moment and then it's all smoke the next. A second later, the leather is on top of it all; I think that's the oakmoss too, oh my. Urngh. It heats up and the leather comes out, this isn't as rough as I expected, it's more like a memory of rough - it's harsh and smoky but residual. The amber and florals are a high note in the background but the foreground is smoke and leather, with the amber supporting in on a smooth glass surface. This is both calm and violent; it has a vicious tenderness to it that's both arousing and subtly menacing. This is an absolutely brilliant scent, bringing both cruelty and class out in one fell swoop.

In the bottle, the first thing I smell is a blast of warm honey - sticky, sweet, absolutely and delightfully playful and delicious. Followed closely by the slightly heavier sweet scent of amber, which deepens and thickens the honey so it's more like bee-made tar than honey now. The vanilla's there but it's artificial smelling, like those vanilla wafer cookies you can get at the store. (the ones so sweet that considering buy a package gives you cavities) Once on, all I can smell is the vanilla-amber. It's not either one alone, it's both together. It's sugar sweet and thick and heavy. This isn't how I would describe the smell of sex; yes, it' thick and heavy and overwhelmingly in charge, but it's not the feral-primal lusty scent I was expecting. As it warms up the honey comes back out, helping to soften the scent slightly but it just gets sweeter. It's cloying but has throw at the same time. The closer you get, the thicker the honey and amber is, the hard to pull away again. Like a whirlpool of sweet sticky candy syrup. It cools down again almost immediately, the honey letting go of a good amount of the sweetness. It's still sweet, just not overwhelmingly, dizzyingly, sickeningly sweet now. The vanilla has an odd effect in this one that I can't quite put any other way than "tainting" the scent. It drags it down and makes it dirty. The amber and honey were pristine, a golden sweet, sun kissed smell but the vanilla walks all over them, tracking it's funky addition like muddy footprints. It's sticky and over-sweet, like amateur candy - it's a vanilla honey taffy poured over my skin. Oh I don't like this, it's too foody. Too sweet and perky and happily oblivious of it's own overly powerful drive to take over. No, definitely not the scent I was expecting - not the scent I was hoping for. I got this with doubts, due to the description, but everyone else has loved it. I should have known it wouldn't work for me.

In the bottle, this one smells like the dry laundry detergent my mother used when I was a child. I cannot stress enough how non-soothing this smelled. Still, I tried it on. Mistake. This smells like soap, it's medicinal and cold and sterile. There's absolutely nothing floral or soothing in this blend. Within minutes, I can't stand it anymore and it has got to go.

This is my first Funeral Oil, I'm so excited to try it!!! In the bottle: Roses, sweet and subdued; something greener but earthy that I have to assume is the mosses (and maybe the rose leaf?). I can actually smell the dirt, amazing. On me wet: Mosses and dirt, very dusty and subtle. Sweet but in the earthy manner. On me drying: The mosses are really coming out, the rose is there in the background, but it's so pale that it's nearly undetectable. On me dry: Faint roses, dusty mosses, and a base scent of a garden just raked for the first time. It's like standing in a winter garden, beginning the process of turning the soil in prospect of the coming spring. When I say outdoors-y, I mean, it smells like you're standing outdoors. Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - Still faint and earthy, both pungent and soft. It's sweet and yet has that tang of earth and decay like an old garden. Bleak but beautiful... Finale: I love this, it's amazing! Bittersweet but gamely, I don't know what I was expecting but this blew me away. It reminds me so much of being outdoors and working in the garden with my mother that it's uncanny. I'm totally in love with this scent. Absolutely in love. I must get a 5ml!

In the bottle: Citrus and mints, tart and sharp. surprisingly like toothpaste but not unpleasant. On me wet: Soapy, but like a handmade soap with lots of fresh herbs in it. I'm getting mint and I think maybe rosemary - very pungent and witty. On me drying: Mint. Wintermint and a touch of spearmint. Very cool and crisp, winter-ish but not snow-like. Just icy cold and empty of sympathy. On me dry: Sharp, peppermint definitely coming up. Tangy and it smarts the nose, as though reproving me for sniffing too deeply. Still a slight bit soapy, but not at all unpleasant. A clean, cool and refreshing scent; just a tad foreboding. Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - A soft breath of mint is left, but it's otherwise completely faded away. Finale: This one has a bit more throw than some of the others - only to be expected from a mint oil, but it's not too much or too powerful. The only true downside to this one for me is that it's so short lived, barely an hour and it's gone. Ah well, it's still a lovely scent.

In the bottle: On the first breath, it's all cold musk with a very soft touch of floral - I suppose that would be the lily. But a moment later, the hazy smoke of what has to be the frankincense comes out to play as well. On me wet: Very smoky, with a bit of spiciness to it, I think that's all frankincense though. The musk is hardly there and the florals give this a bitter-sweet kind of scent. On me drying: Like sandalwood, frankincense apparently adores my skin. I'm coated in a hazy brilliance of the stuff, the musk is toning it down nicely, but where's the florals? On me dry: Hmm, musky smoke, a soft tang of floral. I went and looked up "osmanthus" on [a href=http://www.wikipedia.org]wikipedia[/a] to see what it's supposed to smell like, but could find no reference to what the oil smells like. Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - Ugh, this one went soapy within half an hour. Smoky but it's lost the interesting smell, bitter and sour... to the point my eyes are beginning to water. Finale: Okay, I liked this one at the start, but now it's a definite no-go. Too bad really... it is so lovel in the bottle...

In the bottle: Oh this is nice, sweet but spicy with a tang of almost citrus to it. I'm definitely able to pull out the cinnamon in this scent, but it all blends so nicely together. Very warm but not hot, very tangy but not foody. On me wet: WHOA, clove and cinnamon in the foreground with a mild tangy spice that's both and neither, I think it's the pepper just barely showing up. On me drying: Hmm, it smooths out immediately almost to just warm and spicy, all three scents mix so cleanly together that I can't say one or another is standing out. On me dry: Soft and just a little sweet, the cinnamon adds a nice contrast to the tangy-ness of the clove and spice of the pepper in that nutty-sweet aftertaste it has. I can literally taste this one in my mouth just breathing through my nose. It's making me want to go eat something fruity to contrast the dusty spice in my mouth. Like a nice tart, juicy Granny Smith apple... This is utterly perfect. Just the right blend of all three scents to make this irrevocably devine. I mean, there is NO breaking it down to one thing or another that makes me like it. Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - Still spicy sweet, this hasn't lost an ounce of it's kick. Hovering around like a playful baby dragon, cute but spicy. Finale: I certainly can't stay up until 4am to continue to review this one, but that's alright. It's made QUITE the impression on me. It doesn't have the throw I expected it to have, and the pepper isn't too pepper-ish, just sort of heats up the cloves and cinnamon, like putting them on a burner. This is lovely and so very ticklish. I was afraid it would make my skin burn or irritate it, but it hasn't in the least. I love this scent and am so very glad I got it!

In the bottle: Clearly a man's scent, a little cool - I think that's the tonka - but with a softer undertone than most colognes. Sweet but not candy-like, more like an endearing scent. On me wet: Still cool, the woods are coming out to play, especially the rosewood which I should have expected from the start. I'm not getting anything but woods and parchment. On me drying: Oh my. The scent is warming up on my skin, that's got to be leather there. Umph, that's leather. It makes me dizzy it's so delicate and yet strict. The incense is there, like it's permeated an old leather jacket and you'll always smell a touch of incense in the coat no matter how old the coat gets... the woods are still there, a little, soft and husky but sweet. The parchment and tonka are sitting in front of me practically, oh lord, this is sexy! On me dry: Sweet but still subtle, the woods are still an obvious blend in the forefront, the leather's sitting back now and just relaxing, letting the woods and parchment play out. Tease that it is, however, it leans forward now and again to kick me in the nose and remind me it's there - as though I could forget!!! Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - The sweet began to fade about 1 hour into it, letting the incense roll out in full force. There's this tangy smell that I couldn't place so I went and looked up what tonka is supposed to smell like. According to wikipedia, "(tonka bean) is known mostly for its fragrance, which is reminiscent of vanilla, almonds, cinnamon, and cloves" ... which does explain a lot to me. The nutty but spicy smell that's been dancing in and out of the incense is tonka! It's playful and cheeky, but not feminine really. 3 Hours Later - Uhrm. The leather has been slipping in and out of the tonka and woods for HOURS now. This blend is complex and continuously in motion. The tonka's settled into a nutmeg-type scent, I think it's both nutty and spicy; meanwhile, the incense is still smoothly coating the leather and the parchment is a crisp scent that makes me want to break out the calligraphy set! The woods are a nice base for this, tranquil and calm, but still solid. Finale: YURNG! This is another of those scents that made me go weak in the knees. The constant calm teasing of this scent was enough to make me mad and, nearly 9 hours after applying it, it was STILL playing with my poor nose. Several other girls took a whiff when I realized it was still playing about my skin and commented on how definitely hot this scent really is. I realize I'm commonly guilty of wearing a man's deoderant, but a cologne? This is a new for me as well. All said, however? Keeper, 100%.

In the bottle: Cinnamon-spicy with a heady blend of musks growling to be let out. Absolutely overwhelming in it's complete lack of mercy, this scent grabbed me and threw me across the room to make it's point. On me wet: The musks are cowering under what I have to assume is the dragon's blood resin. It's sweet and sticky like grape juice, but it's got this spicy/nutty smell like nutmeg or cinnamon sticks... On me drying: The musks are starting to come out, the scent was molten a moment before in the bottle, now it's glowing hot but not red anymore. It's sexy and dangerous, but it's got teeth to it. On me dry: Once it has dried out a bit, it doesn't fade in the slightest, oh no. Instead, the scent has smoothed itself out along my arms - even though I only put a tiny dollop on each wrist - and is cloyingly wrapping it's talons around me. It's like a smoky halo of musk and blood, this smell actually tastes like blood in the back of your mouth. Tangy and alarming, but the musks are sitting right in front of you, daring you to take it further. Absolutely smug in the knowledge of it's own power. But a few minutes later? SOAP! Soapsoapsoapsoap! Just a tinge of what I think is the dragon's blood resin is still peeking through but it's like walking into a room full of Zest soap. Oh no, I don't want to smell like I just took a shower! Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - Hmm, the soapy smell hung around for about half an hour then that too faded, leaving me smelling of dusty sweat, like I'd been working hard out of doors for hours. But in a pleasant healthy way. The musks had toned down from their violent lusty scent to something more subtle and relaxing, just base and there. Not the wildly sexual scent I was expecting at all; more like relaxing near a campfire after toiling in a field all day. Smoky and sensual, but subtle. 3 Hours Later - It's faded out to musks again, just a hint of that spicy smoke tang left to it. Still heady but only upon close contact with my wrists. It makes me a little weak in the knees to smell it, very definitely a "hot" sort of scent. Finale: Well, this has some throw to it - enough to make me a little whoozy, it makes me feel drunk to smell this one, but it's not an unpleasant sensation. I like this, it's hot and passionate and very very tempermental. No kidding when they say it's devastating. I have a feeling this is the kind of scent a black widow would utilize in her craft! I love it hands down, however, and am definitely keeping this one.

In the bottle: Rose buds and green leaves, extremely green plant, overwhelmingly sweet. Almost a tea-like smell. On me wet: Grass. Lots and lots of grass with a variety of other green smells. I honestly feel like I just slid face first across the ground - it reminds me strongly of the grass stains on my jeans after they've been worn in for hours and hours. I expected my mother to chide me, I smelled like bruised green stalks so much. On me drying: Nothing at all, just faintly green. On me dry: Still just a soft green-ish scent and then, oh my! Roses! Sweet and velvety, the taste of rose petals actually tickles my mouth and nose! So soft and tender and lovely, I only catch a faint whiff every now and again - if the air blows towards my face from my hands or if I'm pushing my hair behind my ear yet again. Blossoms and stalks and stems, thorns and leaves, with grass and a touch of that earthy smell that comes from roots. It's a veritable rose-garden on my wrists and I'm in heaven. Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - No longer green, like a morning garden, it's afternoon or evening now but airy all around. Still soft and delicate, the oil leaves a soft finish on my skin like a goodnight kiss. Already fading but not too quickly. 3 Hours Later - Only so barely there, an extremely faint whiff of rose petals in the last rays of sunshine. No more grass or leaves, just rose petals very mildly there. Finale: Oh my lord, this is lovely! The roses are so tender and shy at first, only coming into awareness with a quiet "hello" and not the rambunctious "BOOYAH" that I had expected. It's a sweeter rose scent than some, not tangy and cloying but quietly lingering and waiting to be found. I adore this, it's so close lying, I'm telling you there's no throw to it at all and it's so patently "fresh cut roses" that it made me do a double take at my wrists. This one is definitely going on my "I love it and want more" list.

A nocturnal bounty of fae dew-kissed petals and pale fruits: white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon. In the bottle: Very light and softly fruity, definitely picking up the grapes and peaches, maybe that's the moonflower that's adding to the flora portion. Sweet but not bubblegum-ish. On me wet: Soapy, very very fruity soap. Like a kid's peach bubble bath. With just a touch of something - ooooh, that's snapdragon! - giving it a touch of a spicy buttery scent. On me drying: Maintaining the soapy buttery kind of scent - it's more like a candle really. It's all floral, no fruit in it at all. Lots and lots of musk rose and snapdragon, luckily the snapdragon is making the sweet pea take a hike. On me dry: Still soapy and very sweet, incredibly sweet. Like sugar-candy or cheap strawberry soda. Final conclusion: 1 Hour Later - The sweet has worn off finally, letting the grapes and peaches come slithering out from under the snapdragon and rose vines. The moonflower's supporting them - with a vague touch of sweet pea somewhere in the background getting tangled with the snapdraggon - and lending it the aura of a garden at moonrise on a balmy night in the mountains. Wild and sweet but tame because of the humidy and air. Playful but secretive, it's like playing hide-and-go-seek with a black kitten in a dark room, trying to locate any one scent in this blend. Finale: While playful and pretty, this scent is way too sweet and soapy to me. Even after the fruits start to come out, it reminds me of one of Calgon's cheap kiddy perfumes - the ones I used up until a few months ago, actually. One of the advantages this one had was very little throw, after the initial soap-assault on my sense(it was bad, my eyes watered). But still, as fun and light-hearted as this blend is, it's not for me.