mountainwitch

Why is it that I can take something as complex as this scent, with all of these different elements--grapevine, pomegranate, even old friends plum and date palm--and end up with plumeria shampoo? That's just not right . . . I want to smell all the other great notes!

Blackberries. I love blackberries . . . Bewitched was the first fragrance I ever tried, and I'm still crazy about it. Here I get some of those same lovely blackberries . . . But the heather turns into pure dryer sheets on me. Ultimately I end up with berries and dryer sheets. Just can't do it.

A fig scent that goes super-sweet on me. Just over-the-top figgy sweetness--actually, I smell like a dead ringer for a Fig Newton. I used to like Fig Newtons as a kid, but I don't really want to smell like one now.

This one smelled way better on my boyfriend; the sandalwood balances out the sweetness and gives the whole fragrance a little more bite. Funny, because I figured the sweet notes would have made this one very feminine . . . That's not always the case! I guess Adam can do this one as well as Eve.

One of my favorite Wanderlusts! Unlike Maenad, the strawberry doesn’t turn into powdery Pez on me. Instead I get a rich, decadent scent, edged with sweetness and gold. This is utterly fabulous.

Berries? There were berries in this? I don't get the iris either, everything being overwhelmed by amber and more amber and then some amber after that. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as for about the first 30-45 minutes this smells like wonderful and golden.

But sometimes amber does a sad transformation on my skin, becoming a bitter, powdery smell. Unfortunately, Florence has one of "those" ambers. Sad!

This one turns into a perfect mulled wine, flavored by a little smoke. Like a good red wine, this is a rich, full-bodied fragrance--at once woody, spicy, and sweet. It's a little too much for everday use for me, but it's going to be perfect for the right cold, gray autumn day.

Indicolite has composed the perfect review of Kyoto for me.

At first I am overwhelmed by very sweet cherries, and then the anise becomes "star" of the show. Too much "licorice" for me; as far as cherry blossom scents, I think I prefer Kitsune-Tsuki.

Apparently bubbling underwater madness smells a lot like a dark-tinged floral perfume. But that's okay--R'lyeh is one to swoon over, and not just because I've lost too many sanity points. This is a dark, almost juicy fragrance that lasts forever on me (literally, it lasts overnight). I keep coming back to my imp of R'lyeh again and again--as the lab, with its understanding of the great mysteries, is apparently aware. They sent me another frimp with my last order, too. No escaping the madness . . . And I don't mind a bit!

Herby and sharp at first; I definitely get a similar note to Intrigue and Khajuraho. This softens into something warm, a little mysterious, undeniably exotic. I don't always like fig scents--Eden in particular turned into pure Fig Newtons on me--but this one is an entirely different matter.

Harvest Moon is the first “lunacy” I’ve ever ordered from the lab. Was it ever worth it . . . I can’t get enough of this fragrance; it’s sweet, balanced, and complex. Some of the notes are so subtle that I didn’t notice them until I tried the blend on top of a moisturizer; that’s when the apples finally appeared, crisp and sweet. Sometimes cherry tends to dominate blends I try, as does plum, but that doesn’t happen here. The overall result is sheer gold, warm and glimmering as the sun on a bright September afternoon.

Someone kindly included just a little of this as a freebie in a swap. Wow, what a freebie . . .

This is the smoky, woodsy scent I've been looking for. Most of the others just don't work with my chemistry at all, but this one meets the description exactly: fir, woods, incense, and real bonfire smoke, not the strange burning-house scent that I've gotten from scents like Brimstone.

I want this one. I want a whole bottle of this one . . . I want this LE to come back!

I was nervous about this one, as I had tried Seraglio first, which just about beat me over the head with the super-sweetness of almonds. First whiff confirms . . . Yep, sweet almonds.

The super-nutty stage, however, passes after about ten minutes. What is left is something exotic, honeyed, very warm and pleasant. This has a kind of golden seductiveness that reminds me a little of Khajuraho, but lighter and less sharp.

Severin is another leather blend I was way too skeptical to order myself. Tea and leather? Why in the world would anyone want to smell like tea and leather?

What a shock. The leather reminds me of De Sade, but this time it's made even more interesting--and oddly appealing, almost edible--by the addition of tea. On me the scent seems to last for hours, and I know I need a bottle of this . . . Unless I break down and order a bottle of Loviatar first!

Super-sweet candied almonds. The other notes never really become as prominent as I was hoping, and what does stand out on my skin is almonds and more almonds--and an overall fragrance that is just tooth-achingly sweet. An interesting blend, but just not what I'm looking for.

Apparently I’m all about the ecstasy. There's just a faint hint of leather here for me, and I find it only after a good long time and some dedicated sniffing. Meanwhile the roses are full, rich, and luscious . . . They smell real. They're a little strong for me, but overall I like this scent.

I usually like myrrh. And this is a nice myrrh . . . Thick and rich and almost enough to make me forget about the vetiver.

Almost.

Not for me, but this is another blend that can make for a good masculine scent, given the right chemistry.

Huge red roses, damp with a warm summer rain, in full and gorgeous rain. I literally unstoppered the imp and thought, "Wow! Those are some proud roses!" While that description might not be the most helpful, I will say that this is the most intense rose I've gotten from an imp yet, and the rose seems to last forever.

A friend ordered this. It certainly wasn't on my list; I mean, it's just leather. Why would I want to smell like leather? I'm not one of those people with a huge collection of leather, y'know, I've got a couple of leather jackets, but it just doesn't sound that interesting; how often do you want to smell like . . . *sniff*

Wow. I love this scent.

The description of this is dead-on. I get all three notes: rich dark chocolate over oranges and cherries. It's not really a warm, spicy blend, like some of the cocoa blends I've tried with other essential oils; Vice is more of a lovely dark chocolate liqueur. Wow . . . This is a keeper for sure.

Bay. Bay, bay, bay, bay . . . And then rosemary. These two herbs just march all over me. Eventually the other notes come out, making for a more rounded fragrance, but overall not for me. I'll pass this on to the boyfriend, who already wears one blend of bay rum; that in mind, I think it will work.

For the first twenty minutes this is all dandelion, and it’s fabulous. I want a dandelion fragrance! The memories of being a kid again, pulling up bunches and bunches of those plush golden flowers . . . It’s absolutely amazing, and then, suddenly, I smell like beer. Dandelions and beer. I smell like I've been sitting on a quilt spread on warm grass in the sunshine, ready for a fourth-of-July picnic--and while that sounds like a lot of fun, I don't really want to smell like the victim of a party foul.

OK, so there are already 13 pages devoted to the love (and, on occasion, the dislike) of Dorian. But I have to add my own mash note . . . OMG why didn't I buy 10 ml of this when I still could?! (I hadn't tried it yet, but that's not the point.)

Dorian is just divine. At first he’s all warm sugar; then the pale musks slink out, sexy and seductive. Dorian is distinctive, long-lasting, and utterly perfect. What a sinful success.

At first this one goes on very sharp and very sweet. Not bad, but not particularly remarkable . . . And then, after about 30 minutes or so, the sharpness dies away. What's left is rain . . . Real rain on spring flowers. It's very faint, just a skin scent on me, but the likeness is just unbelievable.

At first very sweet and tart, like the sap dribbling from a fresh-cut Christmas tree, cut with the sharpness of ozone. I've tried this twice now, once fresh from the lab and once aged from a trade. In the fresh version, the sharp fir fades a little to reveal the mosses and earth--and then, just as it gets interesting, vanishes completely. In the older version, it seems both sharper and longer-lasting . . . It just turns into musty, earthy wet pine.

Juicy grapefrruit with the bite of ginger. What a fabulous combination! Unfortunately--and I've noticed that my chemistry does this to other grapefruit notes too--it has completely vanished within the hour. At least with some other grapefruit blends, what's left behind when the star of the show disappears is still pretty interesting on its own. In this case, though, grapefruit takes everyone else with her when she leaves the party.