paperdoll

Initial Sniff: Watery ginger and gardenia. Wearing: This actually stays quite true to the bottle scent on my skin. The gardenia is spiced by ginger and is floating over a watery base. Final Impressions: I've loved the Lady ever since I read Anne of Green Gables - inspiring me to seek out the poem and later a poster of the Waterhouse painting. Aquatic scents don't normally work with my chemistry, though. Anyway, it works! This is a beautiful, everyday sort of scent. I do not find this to be sad or wistful... it is a little more like Anne Shirley playing the part of the Lady, with her bright red hair and leaky boat.

Initial Sniff: In the vial: sweet musky almonds. Wearing: he almond note is very short-lived, and fades away almost immediately. The jasmine stage is next, and when that fades we are left with a deep, pretty sandalwood/musk/spice scent. So this moves from almost foody to very floral to hippie incense. Final Impressions: This is a fascinating scent - it moves and changes with every breath. I like all the notes, and I'm terribly intrigued by how the story plays out on my skin.

Initial Sniff: Dark orchids and currants swirled with incense. Wearing: This starts out as a very heady blend of incense and fruit. As this dries, it calms down a bit and the orchid and poppy come out to play with the currant and incense. Final Impressions: This is very beautiful once it has dried. I like it, but there are other blends with the same dark feel to them that I enjoy more.

Initial Sniff: Green herbs and smoky, spicy apples. Wearing: Oh man, this quickly turns into something Not Good. The apples turn sour, like apple cider that's on its way to being vinegar. This stage lasts for about an hour before it calms down. The amber takes over in this final stage, and it is quite lovely. Final Impressions: The vinegar stage is so bad. It ruins this scent for me.

Initial Sniff: Magnolia and cinnamon with a mandarin twist. Wearing: Oh magnolia, how I love thee! Smoky and spicy and long-lasting... Final Impressions: This is the perfect "going out to the bar with the girls" scent. It is smart, sophisticated, beautiful, and just a little bit bad. It is good to live in the Deep South.

Initial Sniff: Honey and almond. I am in sugar shock! Wearing: Mmmm.. the rum comes out and heats up this sweet, blend. This is positively viscous... thick and swirling with sweet honey. It starts off foody, but the drydown is somehow not. Yummy and warm. Final Impressions: This isn't really me, but I'll save my imp until next winter for a glorious bath or perhaps a massage bar!

Initial Sniff: A sweet cloud of flowers and vanilla. Wearing: This one stays fairly true to te scent in the vial. It is a very pretty scent, sweet and innocent. The color association on this one is an explosion of shades of purple. Final Impressions: I've never been able to wear vanilla without it going to baby powder on me. This is the exception. I'm not sure it is me, but I smell good!

Initial Sniff: Mossy and herbal with a touch of earthy fruit. Wearing: My skin just sucks this up, so it is really hard to review this before it fades away. This is sligtly mossy, slightly figgy, and slightly herbal. I never got the ginger. Final Impressions: This is a very green scent, and it is very nice. if this had any staying power on me at all, I imagine that I would find it very pleasant indeed.

Initial Sniff: This is lighter than I expected in the vial. I can really smell the apple blossom. Wearing: At first this one is really iffy - the apple blossom dominates and that doesn't work all that well with my skin. But the the amber blossoms. OMFG! The drydown of this is a wonderfully complex, rich, and deep amber that is spicked with the creamy peper of carnation. Final Impressions: My list of bottles to buy just keeps getting longer...

A change from my usual review format: Leanan Sidhe = Irish Spring + Bounce + deodorant. This did not work on me. It was a soapy, powdery mess.

Initial Sniff: Ginger and sandalwood and spices and flowers and herbs and juniper (really!... I think...)... dang, there's a lot of stuff in here! Wearing: This is exotic and gorgeous. This is foreign and unusual in a comfortable way. This is smooth and soft. This is intellectual and savvy. It smells like nothing I've smelled before. Final Impressions: Put this on your wish list. NOW!!!!

Sweet tropical fruits burst through deep, wet rainforest boughs, enormous steamy blossoms, over thin mountaintop breezes, mingled with the soft, rich golden scent of Peruvian amber. Initial Sniff: Ok, I definitely get the mountaintop breezes, with a touch of a citrussy fruit and maybe a flower or two. It is very fain, and I'm not getting any amber from this. Wearing: Um, ok. True to the bottle for about 5 minutes, and then gone. Final Impressions: Fleeting.

Initial Sniff: An old-fashioned garden with herbs, flowers, and a broken path around a small fountain. Wearing: Some herb really kicks it up at first - sage, maybe? But then the rose arrives. And drowns out all that is good about this fragrance. Final Impressions: *sigh* I still can't wear rose. I don't know why I keep thinking that will change.

Initial Sniff: Tea with honey and ginger in the vial. This smells yummy. Wearing: As this dries, the sweet tea smell is tempered by the spicy pepper and ginger. The two sides of this fragrance (the sweet and the spicy) are in perfect balance. Fortunately, the vanilla never came out to do the evil things it usually does on my skin. Final Impressions: A beautiful fragrance that manages to be spicy and fresh at the same time. This scent is crisp and energetic... I loves it!

Initial Sniff: Cinnamon and golden amber and some sort of sweet grassiness. Wearing: Oh my. My skin loves amber, and this is no exception. The cinnamon spiciness stays in the background while the amber dominates. As it dries, the sweet grass (or whatever it is!) comes out to play. This is a sun-drenched savannah with a playful breeze ruffling the lion's fluffly mane and the tall grasses. Final Impressions: Oh, why did I not buy a 5ml of this? This reminds me a little bit of Sin, but much happier. I love it!

Initial Sniff: An aquatic herbal with a touch of floral and fruit. Wearing: I'm really going to have a hard time with this one - the notes are impossible to pin down. It starts out mossy, with aquatic notes in the background. As it dries, the herbals come to the forefront (sage, maybe?). After several hours it is just a quiet, green sort of scent. Final Impressions: This is a very introspective scent - don't wear this to a party! It smells different (in a good way). Oddly, I received an unsolicited compliment from one of my employees when I was wearing this. She has never mentioned my perfume before (or since). She is one of the people I most admire for her maturity, sagacity, and willingness to speak up for what is right, even if it is an unpopular view. She keeps herself apart from the extreme clique-iness of our workplace, but people often go to her for advice. I just find it so interesting that my "hermit" at work would recognize her scent!

Initial Sniff: Heavily almond with some cinnamon. Wearing: Oh my. The almond disappears almost immediately, leaving nothing but cinnamon red hots. And an itchy red rash. Final Impressions: I don't mind the red hots smell, but I do mind the rash. Off to swaps!

Initial Sniff: Wow. Herbs and fruit and sunlight. Wearing: Wet, this is all about the fruit. It starts out slightly sticky, but quickly dries into a slightly spicy, slightly smoky, sunbaked herbal fruit mixture. There is something ever so slightly honey-ish about this too. This is so sunny and fresh! Final Impressions: This is the second blend recently that has reminded me of Queen of Spades. I'm not sure why, because they really only share one common ingredient (amber), but there are definite similarities. While the Queen of Spades rules over the North, this is her younger cousin who rules the South... the QoS is quite solemnly regal and her sheer presence is her power, while Tenochtitlan wears her hair down and has a captivating laugh that makes others do her bidding. They are both gorgeous blends! And I agree that Beth's Mexican blends have been nothing short of magical.

Initial Sniff: Patchouli and musk dominate in the vial. Wearing: My skin tends to amplify patchouli, and this is no exception. As it dries, a bit of the musk peeks out, and I think the orris is what is making this blend so dry. The myrrh never makes an appearance. Final Impressions: I expected to love love love this blend based on the description. While it is interesting, I'm not quite as excited as I had expected. I'll definitely hang on to this one for a while to see if it grows on me.

Initial Sniff: Something floral, something fruity... something like Venom, also a little like Queen of Spades. Wearing: I really can't pick out a single note in this one. I'm guessing orchid, jasmine, plum, red musk, and something citrus. I could, however, be completely wrong and not be at all surprised! This is gloriously red in a non-firey way. It stays pretty true on my skin (just like Venom!), and fades a little faster than I would like (also just like Venom). Final Impressions: I likes it. Oddly enough, i don't like it as much as either QofS or Venom, which are two of my favorites, but I like it well enough in its own right.

Initial Sniff: Pine! And I'm pretty sure I smell the white musk. Wearing: Hmmm... not so much. The musk has gone all funky on me (as white musk is wont to do). The florals have come out to play, and the pine has faded into the background. This is a very chilly fragrance indeed. Final Impressions: This is chilly, but in my mind it is not as aloof as Snow White. It's just - chilly. I'm very glad I got to try an imp of this, but it really isn't me.

Initial Sniff: Creamy sweetness with those lunar oils and some other floral. I can smell the butterscotch when I think about it, but it isn't what first occurred to me. Wearing: To quote Lit Chick: OMFG. This actually stays pretty true to the scent in the bottle on my skin. This has fantastic throw and staying power, which means I am enveloped in a sweet creamy floral lunar cloud all day long. Final Impressions: Like Belladonnastrap said, this is a huge moon on a starless night. But I'm going to add puffy cumulus clouds floating lazily in front of the moon, glowing silver as they pass. I was so scared this was going to smell like Snow White but it doesn''t really. It smells a little like Spooky, but not really. It also smells a little like Blue moon - but not quite. Just try this if you can!

Initial Sniff: Woah!! That's some leather, baby. Harsh raw leather, Wearing: This stays very true to the bottle. This is timeless brown cowboy leather - boots, saddles and the like. There really is an oiliness to the scent as well. Crazy. It lasts forever. Final Impressions: Wow. This absolutely embodies the concept of Dead Man's Hand and is truly a work of art. Can I wear it? Maybe. Will my man wear it? Despite my pleading, no.

Initial Sniff: The almost cedar-y smell of white sandalwood... and maybe an herb or two. Wearing: This sandalwood is dry and dusty, and only gets more so as it wears. I don't smell anything but sandalwood in any stage of this scent. Final Impressions: Normally I love sandalwood, but this one (like Rakshasa) just doesn't do right on me.

Initial Sniff: This smells like fresh green soap in the vial. After dedicated sniffing I can identify all of the elements, but it is very well blended. Wearing: Fresh green soap on my skin with an almost astringent quality - I seriously thought that grapefruit was a major component of this blend until I reread the description. This fades to a lightly sweet musk. This does not have great staying power. Final Impressions: I had high expectations of this oil, but they were not met. The creamy peppery gorgeousness of Beth's carnation was nowhere to be seen, and the delicious fruity sweetness of the plum never came to life on my skin. I would love to smell this on someone whose chemistry makes this blend sing!