mymymai

ITB: This is much more foody than I had anticipated. It strikes me as thick cocoa, beeswax, and a touch of aquatic patchouli.

 

Wet: On my skin, it's still sweet, but it's taken on more of a powdery tone.

 

Dry: It's like light, powdery patchouli, beeswax, and just a hint of chocolate and rose. It's interesting.

ITB:I get wet parchment, pimento

Wet: It's oddly watery and resinous, like cucumber wrapped in pimento leaf, wet paper, cold fig tea, and long burned-out sandalwood.

Dry: It gets sweeter as the fig warms up and mingles nicely with the sandalwood, ink, and parchment. It's rather pleasant.

ITB: It's musky with tones of aged dirt (not messy, but like dirt in an attic), and resinous wood.

 

Wet: There's a perfume-y aspect to the scent at first on my skin, but I an still detect a fragrant wood, red musk, a touch of dust, and now a nice leather note.

 

Dry: After a while, it's more of a nice, fragrant wood, a nice musk, and a faint impression of leather. It's pleasant, actually.

ITB: It's rich, warm cocoa made with whole milk. I can picture of sugar swirling on the surface and on the bottom of the cup. It's rich, warm, and very foody.

 

Wet: It's very much similar to the in-the-bottle sniff, but it smells like there are fluffy marshmallows melting on top of the hot cocoa with a dusting of cinnamon on top. Okay, this is making me really hungry.

 

Dry: It's now warm cocoa powder, sugar, and the lightest impression of cinnamon. It's still very wet, but it's a nice winter scent.

2013 Version

 

ITB: It's like a warm chocolate-laced pastry with a dusting of licorice. I'm a bit surprised at how foody (but pleasantly so) this smells.

 

Wet: Warm gaufrette with delicious black licorice, a touch of leather, but I don't get coal. It's more like coffee to me.

 

Dry: It's still nicely foody due to the guafrette and licorice. I get a little coal now, but it is a nice pairing with the other notes. It reminds me of a hearty winter meal (pastry, coffee) in the middle of winter, near a crackling fire.

ITB: I remember sniffing this the first time I opened it and falling in love, completely and instantly. It's a fabulously gorgeous snow note with a well-balanced grapefruit, underneath which is a faint, innocent white floral.

 

Wet: It's even better on my skin as the neroli and tones of mandarin peek out underneath the snow, the light florals, and grapefruit. I can't stop sniffing my own wrist.

 

Dry: There's now a warmness, perhaps a subtle vanilla, that I'm picking up under the pristine citrus and snow notes, but still made feminine with very faint freesia. If you don't have a bottle of this, you may want to consider getting one or five.

ITB: Strong black leather and very old, earthy patchouli. Interesting.

 

Wet: It's black leather, patchouli, cedar, and champaca, but it's rather cologne-y. I was hoping more of the resins and tea would come out, but not yet.

 

Dry: I tried this one and failed to write down my impressions. Leather, rose, cedar, and something of which I'm not fond. The note was unsettling once I applied it and I kept wondering if there was one my doom notes in here despite the really masculine black leather. Sure enough, there's petitgrain and I know now why I really dislike Leather Phoenix despite really, really wanting to love it.

ITB: I would expect the dark chocolate to be the top notes, but instead it's the pink pepper that is reminiscent of bubble gum, with the addition of light clove, a dark cherry tone from the daemonoropos, and then something faintly chocolate.

 

Wet: Yes, this one is interesting. The cherry quality of the daemonoropos is strong on my wrist, then the pepper, then the chocolate. I don't really pick up the myrrh or labdanum, but there is a faint spice to it, which might be from the clove.

 

Dry: As the scent settled, the myrrh became apparent. In fact, even after 7 hours of wear, I remember thinking that I smell wonderful - like myrrh and dark cherries with a light drizzle of chocolate.

ITB: It's delicately musky over the strong resins and styrax. I really like this so far.

 

Wet: Wow, it's really interesting. I get absinthe-quality wormwood, styrax, light amber, a drizzle of bergamot, and faint vanilla. It's complex but equally beautiful.

 

Dry: It's a soft musk and sweet vanilla that bring a subtle vulnerability to a scent is not something I'd classify as overtly feminine in the delicate sense due to the the styrax, labdanum, and wormwood. I like it.

ITB: It strikes me as slightly masculine on first sniff from the bourbon vanilla, I think. There's also a note that's a bit disquieting underneath the bourbon vanilla, but I'm not sure what it is yet.

 

Wet: Ah, it's it pikaki that I'm not responding well too, which is a top note on my skin. I remember it from the sampaguita single note that came out a couple of months ago. Under that, I can pick up the pink pepper, some tuberose, and the bourbon. Overall, it's a bit too strongly white floral for me.

 

Dry: It's pikaki (jasmine) and faint amber,but the jasmine completely overpowers anything else. Sadly, in the swap pile this one goes.

ITB: Wow, it's really, really rich cheesecake with gobs of sugar and a faint lemon glaze. It's rather foody, but the lemon makes me really intrigued.

 

Wet: There's more lemon and some thyme on my skin. In fact, the sugar takes on a flight Fresh's Brown Sugar quality to it with a subtle hint of cheesecake and graham-cracker crust.

 

Dry: After several hours, I get lemon-tinged creme brulee with a hint of graham cracker. It's nice, even for a foody scent.

ITB: It's a sweet, lightly resinous scent with a pleasant undertone of warm leather.

 

Wet: Warm Ceylon cinnamon tea with fragrant balsam underneath and a deliciously supple brown leather, which provides a harmonious base for both of these two scents. It reminds me a light leather-adorned male clerk in a tea and spice shop during late afternoon.

 

Dry: It's soft, pleasantly spicy with some faint fragrant wood and leather underneath. This is most certainly a keeper!

ITB: Soft and sensuous - the Indonesian oils and frankincense pair beautifully together, while the vanilla and orris seem to layer over everything like an ephemeral veil.

 

Wet: The Snake Oil are much clearer with the scent. It seems to enhance the oil, sugar, and vanilla notes even more with resinous and slightly sweet tones of frankincense, orris, and a touch of copal.

 

Dry: It's gorgeous when dried as well with its Indonesian oils, vanilla, and softy enticing resins. I'm a little worried I might not have enough of it.

ITB: It's rather sweet and floral - sugared blood orange, gardenia, fragrant plumeria, some lemon, ripe red apple, and vanilla-infused Indonesian oils.

 

Wet: Yum - juicy red apple covered in vanilla, heady Indonesian oils makes a gorgeously sweet base for the lemon peel, faint blood orange, and sugared plumeria. Delish!

 

Dry: It's sweetly floral with a lightly candied citrus and apple tone underneath the vanilla and sugar. Once dried, it's gorgeous!

ITB: Indonesian oil, sweet, almond-coated myrrh with faint marzipan undertones. I'm not getting any mandarin, though.

 

Wet: Strong almond/marzipan with vanilla and a hint of sugar. Under all of this, I get the mandarin paired with the Indonesian oil, lending a slightly citrusy (but not citrus sweet) tone to the heady oil.

 

Dry: I echo the impression that this is a much softer Snake Oil due to the addition of the almond and myrrh. It's sweet and slightly foody without being too juvenile.

ITB: It reminds me of white sage and soap suds for some reason.

 

Wet: I still get something else along with the white sage. Now, it's rather floral, but it still has a "clean" tone about it. There is also something that reads slightly like musk. I wasn't anticipating this much complexity from a single note.

 

Dry: t dries slightly more herbal, but there is the white floral aspect that still is relatively strong.

ITB: Oh, this is resinous and darkly enticing: patchouli, opoponax, and heady tobacco with black musky tones underneath.

 

Wet: On my skin, the patchouli and tobacco are a bit stronger, giving me the impression of dark, inky blackness set against woods in midnight.

 

Dry: After 12 hours, it's tobacco and patchouli - dark, smoky, with a touch of musk.

ITB: Oh, that's nice. It's definitely yuzu with really fabulous green, musky tones underneath and subtle notes of lime just below the surface.

 

Wet: It's actually not much different on my skin compared to what I smelled in the bottle. The only difference is that I can pick out the thyme now, although it isn't very strong at this point.

 

Dry: It's light, slightly citrusy with tones of musk, hinoki, wormwood, and thyme once dry. It's lovely both wet and dry - a keeper for sure!

ITB: Wow, that's a really heady, really strong jasmine this scent has. I'm not getting any tea at all.

 

Wet: It's very floral. I'm more than a little overwhelmed by the jasmine is it isn't sweet or subtle, but an in-your-face with significant throw kind of jasmine. I can't smell much else beside that, sadly.

 

Dry: Yep, still strong jasmine, like those Glade air fresheners from the 1990's. I wish other notes had come out, but this is just a bit too much for me as it is now.

ITB: The scent starts with a smoky cologne (thank you , vetiver), followed by leather and bergamot with a slight dash of coffee. It's somewhat masculine, but very interesting.

 

Wet: Smoky vetiver, cologne with something like anise in it, bergamot, smooth sandalwood, a subtle hint of leather and coffee This is really nice!

 

Dry: A number of hours later, the scent is a very subdued combination of sweet sandalwood, , bergamot, a dab of coffee, and vetiver cologne.

ITB: This reminds me of the old-fashioned hard ribbon candy my grandfather used to have out each Christmas. I remember there being swatches of sweet citrus, berry, and peppermint, which is very similar to what this smells like to me in the bottle.

Wet: The bergamot comes out warmly on my skin first, followed by the clean white mint, the slightly sugar grapefruit, the plum, and finally the orange blossom. The smells like a combination of fruits being preserved and made into the toppings for a wonderful set of pastries.

Dry: After a 12 hour day, nothing remains on my wrist, which warrants a re-application assessment after a few dry-down hours. After a number of reapplications, the scent is warm and softly fruity, like black currants laced with orange blossom, warmed in a tart.

ITB: It smells like mulberry and currant slushie with the gentle warmness of ripe fig underneath.

 

Wet: The berry is strong with this one - luscious mulberries, dark and ripe currants followed by earthy fig and the slightly citrus-y snow note. I'm not getting a whole lot of licorice, but the scent still makes my mouth water.

 

Dry: The berry notes die down considerably into something a bit more subtle, like potpourri tinged with fig. Whereas the scent when wet screams berries and warm jams, the dried version is much more subdued and low-key, like someone sipping berry tea sitting near a fire-place.

ITB: Warm and freshly oiled black leather (like Doc Marten leather), the perfume of sugared roses, and sultry musks waft to meet my nose. Goodness, this is a very enticing scent.

 

Wet: The red musk and sugar tones along with very dark roses is more prominent on my skin, but the dizzying scent of leather makes this scent just scream sexy on my wrist. I may need another bottle...or three.

 

Dry: The roses are the most lasting note here, but it is certainly thickly dark roses with hints of deep sugar and faint black leather behind it. It's glorious and I imagine that it will age very, very well.

ITB: Although it isn't present, it smells very strongly of lemon zest and tea.

 

Wet: It's still fairly zesty, but I'm picking up a slight tone of eucalyptus and then something that is just a tad softer under the tea, which might be the ambergris foam.

 

Dry: This is very much a strongly scented white floral tea now. The eucalyptus adds a pleasantly clean and astringent quality to the scent while the ambergris foam tones everything down into a soft and thoughtful blend. It actually reminds me of a combination of Fresh's Citron de Vigne layered over their Sugar Lemon (but without the sugar note).

ITB: It really does smell like sugared plum sushie with hint of currant. It smells delicious!

 

Wet: The cardamom makes its debut on my wrist, adding some depth to the berried fruit sushie. It reminds me of all the lovely smells of Christmas, save pine, but it is wonderful none-the-less.

 

Dry: After a number of hours, the scent is slightly plum-y with a touch of currant. The slushy aspect of the snow note must have dissipated somewhere in its 17 hour run.