pekeana

Fig, fig, lots of fig -- and the herbs smell like wood.

Kind like it, kinda don't.

GAH!! It's love, people, LUUUURVE.

Snow Bunny does remind me of the dearly departed Skadi, but with a thrill of coconut rind down at the very bottom under the snowy crisp piney-fir notes, and a warm hit of citrus across the top. This is hot shit, baby. Happiness.

Dear Skin;

WTFBBQ, man? There is no suede in a candy cane. Even on Candi Cayne, the stripper, there is no suede. I'm also pretty sure that there shouldn't be any strong musk in here, either, so wtf are you playing at? And why did it take an hour before I could even smell that there was mint in Lick It? I mean, seriously, I could smell zero mint in the bottle. In fact, I couldn't smell anything in the bottle, but my eyes got watery. So what the bleeding hell is the matter with you that you hate Lick It so much?

Of course, it does smell similar to Mad Hatter on me, which, y'know, I like a lot. So maybe it's not such a terrible thing?

But I wanted a candy cane, not dominatrix suede and musk with a tiny little "bip" of mint.

WTFLOLZ,

becky

This has the apple from The Hesperides, rather than the apple from Delirium and Verdandi -- thick, fresh, tart, juicy, green, sensual apple. The spice is very subtle till it hits my skin, and we have a war between the apple and the spice. The apple lasts just a little while -- maybe 20 minutes -- then we have spice. The pumpkin ran away, screaming, scared of the battle between the spice and the apple. It didn't last but an hour on me, at most. Ah, but it's so pretty and smooth in the bottle!

For a while, this was straight up pomegranate single note, then I got a little bit of a burnt nutty quality, then more pom single note, and then finally, it settled into a warm mingling of raw, fleshy pumpkin spice and slightly bitter pomegrante. Overall, not exactly my thing, but it was kind of growing on me when it vanished.

Pumpkin usually doesn't work on me. It either runs away, not to be seen again, or it smells hideously horrid.

In this case, the pumpkin ran away screaming. All I could smell was wood and ivy. *is sad, for she hates wood*

Beaver Moon is strawberry cheesecake -- with a touch of lemon sugar drizzle... not bad, not bad at all. Of course, when I get close and start sniffing my actual skin, I smell cinnamon graham crackers and, well, something not so nice -- rather burnt plastic. All in all, it works, and is pleasant enough.

Remember Cold Moon? Remember Blue Moon?

Nuclear Winter is the green, green, green from Cold Moon crossed with the juniper from Blue Moon.

Oh, hot damn, I love this!

BLOOD.

'Nuff said.

Sri Lanka = blah blah blah wood wood blah patchouli blah blah blah wood blah blah more wood blah patchouli blah blah... with an odd floral note that my skin seems to be projecting on top of everything. I say floral because I smell the pollen off the stamens of the flowers but -- but -- there's not supposed to be florals! Just blah blah wood blah blah patchouli! What's wrong with my skin, omg?

Mmmm... Golden Priapus is Snake Oil Lite on me -- very warm, sugary vanilla atop gentle woods, as opposed to warm sugary vanilla atop patchouli cocktail.

I'll definitely be buying a bottle for those days when Snake Oil's a bit too much. (And no, someone did not hop out of nowhere and hit me over the head with a giant jelly dildo, though that would've been hysterically appropriate.)

Eh... we can say that I'm not particularly fond of the burning scents, s'kay?

In the vial, this actually made me gag. I don't know why.

On my skin, hullo... patchouli, dark, dank cedar, heavy oak, acrid smoke, and something that almost smells like a hint of leather. Maybe the leather is part of the smoke components, I'll never know. Alas, it's *strong*, and I'm having an adverse reaction to it, so it's going bye-bye.

Djinn is very odd to me.

In the vial, it's screechingly sinus-blasting lemon balm and dirty earth/smoke notes.

On me... it smells like lemon. But around the edges, I smell something deeply burnt and scorched like as if the sun had started a fire that burned the ground itself. There's definitely some kind of an earth/dust/dirt component to this, because it smells like scorched ground.

Odder and odder, my friends, the oddity.

Almonds -- toasted almonds... smoky almonds... bitter, smoky almonds over aquatic florals. The almonds have a cherry note when they first go on, then settle into smoky nuttiness. And after a while, some aquatic notes and florals come up beneath it all.

Ace Of Cups has a similar feel to me as Red Devil, and it shares floral components with Sacred Whore of Babylon, Amsterdam, Danube, and Anubis.

I second the suggestion of Black Opal and really have to say that Snake Oil, Dorian, and Dragon's Milk should make your final cut.

You also might like March Hare.

Hello, wintertime woods! Putting on Black Forest makes me remember trampling around in the snow and ice in the woods. It also reminds me of someone, and I don't know who. *shrugs*

It's similar to Jabberwocky, and Skadi.

Um... that's all she wrote. Will be giving the imp to one of my siblings.

Mmmm, I smell similarities between Sol and Anubis -- some of the embalming herbs must be in both, because I get "la slight pickling spice" as an undertone. Also, Anubis is very sweet on me -- like a dip of honey with the herbs and resins. I dunna think it's s'posed to be this sweet. My skin is playing stupid today.

Omen hits my skin with an odd lemon verbena note that sticks around, but is quickly overshadowed by juniper and patchouli... strong patchouli... knock you over with a dead hippie's Birkenstocks patchouli.

I pass, thank you -- I pass out from dead hippie.

Close to the skin, all I smell from Bengal is dusty spices, but far away, I smell sweet honey and cinnamon.

Nice, but I'll have to douse myself in it.

When I pop open the bottle, all I smell is caramel-topped sweet corn. Not so much like candy corn.

After it hits my skin, I get an explosion of caramel, vanilla, and spice. Again, not so much like candy corn.

Alas, it's nothing like candy corn whatsoever, but it's a very pleasant, sweet, sappy confection that's similar in depth to Sugar Skull, but without the fruity bits.

Devil's Night came out of nowhere and surprised me.

In the bottle, it smells sugary, boozy, and leafy.

On me, it smells like bonfire smoke (the good kind where you're dancing around in your Halloween costume around a pile of leaves that's going up in smoke) tinged with the deeeeep, crackling scent of leaves that have lost their clorophyll. After a while, a bit of sugar, booze, and musk come out to play, but it's mostly crackling fire.

Arachne is rather odd. I don't think it's supposed to be as sweet as it is on my skin, but.... I smell soft, gentle florals, bitter herbs, and very young, pretty woods, and something almost fruity that stands out at the top of the scent and screams "I'm sweet and you can't stop me!" I rather like it, but it's a little odd.

Rapture is rose, rose, rose -- but a spicy, warm rose. It melds with my skin and breathes musk, spice, and rose. Alas... again with the skin allergy to the rose, and I have a giant red welt where I slashed the back of my hand with the imp wand. I really love it, but I can't justify the pain for the pleasure.

I definitely smell the lilac, and I feel the extreme flushing bite of the rose (and have the welt to go with it), but I could swear there's some kind of wood in here, too.

All in all, swap pile for the skin allergy factor.