Falathwen

I decided to wait and try this first on Easter morning. It is a soft, warm, and bright jasmine and remains consistent as it dries down. Jasmine often amplifies on my skin, but in this blend it was not overwhelming. The other notes remain in the background, though I can pick out the honeysuckle if I try. This blend reminds me of the scent of lilies, though there is no lily note in it.

Strongly almond at first, this soon began to dry down and developed into a sweet, almost powdery spice scent. I was reminded of the cinnamon in Chimera which is almost like a cookie. There is something deeper, like clove, in the background. I noticed a slight cooling effect, though I could not pick out mint in the scent. This blend was great for a rather trying day. I felt very stable, calm, and feminine wearing it.

This blend is light and floral on me…and almost aquatic. It gives a strong blue-green impression. I am reminded of tree blossoms. This is the first "white floral" blend I have tried that did not get amplified beyond bearing by my skin chemistry. It fades rather quickly as it dries down, but does not change much. It would be a lovely scent for a summer bath.

Sadly, this scent does not evoke pacing the deck for me. I am getting the same air-freshener effect that I had from Lightening, though I think I can detect Bay Rum in the background.

When wet, I thought I could smell pine, musk and berries. There is no pine in this blend, so it may be the sage I was noticing. This is surprisingly ladylike: a wild tea-party in the woods with fair folk. It is mostly berry as it dries down, but I love that note. I catch wafts of sage from time to time. This final stage last a long time.

This is the woods before the leaves have come out. At first, this blend is like the scent of bark after a rain. There is a sweet, almost grassy background. As the blend dries down, floral notes come forward. I can pick out the violet and chamomile, but they do not overpower. This blend could easily be worn by either a man or a woman. . It is complex, but not heavy

Like JJ_J, my paternal great-grandparents all immigrated to America from small villages which were within five miles of Prague. In fact, that is all I know about them. I have been eagerly awaiting this blend, though lilies have been hit and miss with my skin chemistry. Thankfully, whatever lily notes were used in this blend did not go wrong on my skin at all. This was such a light and uplifting scent. It wears close to the skin and reminded me a bit of Undertow without the mint. There is a greeness to this blend, which may be the crocus and a velvety rich sweetness from the lilies. Lovely!

I notice that a lot of scents I like, though not all by any means, fall into this category. Even so, it is a hard quality to define! My list would be: Eos (I sniffed the imp but am still holding out on trying it until Easter) The Hermit The World The Star Apothecary Old Dublin Dana O'Shee Sea Of Glass Maiden Desdemona Undertow Sudha Segara Ultra Violet

At first this blend was very woody and rather bitter. I noticed the cedar and lilac most strongly. I could not pick out the other notes in the blend. For a while it was a dense and strangely heavy scent on me, but I was bemused when the drydown turned out to be a light aquatic note.

This was a gift imp from the lab. I do not follow the path of Voodoo, so I will be passing this on, but I always give each blend a try. At first, this was cinnamon, wonderfully fresh and deep, like a newly broken stick of cinnamon bark. As it dried down, some sort of dark musky scent appeared in the background. It was warm and pleasant. I did not notice the intended effect on my husband or I.

This was a gift imp from the lab. I was hesitant about it because alcohol notes tend to bring up bad associations for me, but I thought the other notes sounded intriguing. Yikes. At first this smells exactly like the preserved fruit in cakes along with mint. Lemon then appears and clears away the other notes entirely. Later the mint comes back, along with a hint of soemthing almost floral which I am guessing might be hyssop. I was hoping the cardamom would come forward, but it remained in the background with the anise. Altogether, this stage was sweet and astringent. It reminded me of the flavor of the fennel and candy mix they offer at the door of Indian restaurants. After this stage, the blend faded quickly to a sweet soap scent.

This blend was not what I was expecting. I thought it would be a rather earthy aquatic, lightened by lily. Instead, it is a very light and clear scent. It called to mind an old fairy tale in which there is an enchanted bathing pool in the woods. It is made of cool marble and is surrounded by a verge of flowers and then the woods. That is what I get almost exactly from this blend: clear cold water, white lilies, and faint wood notes in the background.

This is a hard scent to review. I had two different experiences with this blend the two times I have tried it so far, so I will describe both. The first time, when wet I thought I could smell sandalwood and a hint of mint. A faint fruit/floral (possibly lotus) scent came forward, with the sandalwood remaining as an undercurrent. This blend was calming…like Coiled Serpent it felt more like a meditation oil than a perfume. The drydown was almondy, with just a hint of soft evergreen. I seemed to catch a different echo of scent each time I sniffed my wrist. The second time I tried it, the wet scent was a light sweet cinnamon. As it dried down, wafts of some sort of evergreen (perhaps alder?), almond, and mint came forward. The drydown was soft and woody - like sandalwood or perhaps vetiver. Both times, this scent was light and evoked a calm mood.

On my skin this was a dense floral scent, both rich and sweet. The violet stood out most strongly, and something that seemed like gardenia, though that is not in the list of notes. Unlike most floral blends this did not go powdery as it dried. Instead it became creamy, which I am guessing is the influence of the Tonka Bean.

First applied, this seems to be a lovely blend of evergreen and lily of the valley. There is a faint sense of water in this… It reminds me of a visit to a lake in Ireland where we walked along the wooded shore and examined the ruins of a monastic community that once existed there. As it dries down, I do get a scent surprisingly reminiscent of the scent of old books (I did a sniff check after reading the reviews above!) but not at all musty or dusty.

This was a gift imp from the lab. I will pass it on, since I do not follow the Voodoo path, but I wanted to give it a try for fun. Cinnamon and rose … and something green? It is intriguing and almost creamy. Perhaps there is vanilla in it? It works well for a while and then turns to powder. It had no effect on my husband.

This was a gift imp from the lab and I was excited to try it, despite the somewhat dubious reviews, because vetiver seems to work better with my skin chemistry than most and because I am of half Bohemian heritage and find the folklore of that area very interesting. I had different experiences to the two time I tried it. Both times, the initial impression when applied is as someone aptly said, not unlike moter oil. That passes almost instantly and I get a blend as dark as its color but strangely compelling. The tangy vetiver and sweet/sour myrrh are evenly blended with the musks. I do not recognize the mullein. The first time it dried down it was almos sweet, t like black licorice and then smelled exactly like really dark root beer. I loved that. The second time, there was a bitterness…almost like civet hidden in the sweetness. I am going to give it another few tries though, because I liked the root beer effect.

This blend completely surprised me by going tropical. Somehow the orange/cherry/cocoa combination became the scent of pure cocoa butter on my skin. I adore the scent of cocoa butter, so it was not a problem. Like other cocoa blends, this remained consistent on me and faded slowly.

I had to try this scent because one of my favorite scent memories is of my old summer job in a tiny flower store. When the lilies bloomed, the shop was filled with their heady fragrance. I literally felt carried away by it. Sadly, my skin chemistry argues with the scent of lilies. On me, this blend was very light. First, it smelled like sweet orange candy. That was actually fun, but the scent quickly went dry and soapy as it dried down. It faded to nothing rapidly. Sigh. Updated to add that I tried this blend in a locket and enjoyed this scent much more. In the locket I had about the same response described by others...sweet, orangey lilies.

This scent was surprisingly colorful to my mind’s eye; it was like a floral tapestry of pink, purple, green, and golden brown. When I first applied it, there was a breath of mandarin that quickly blended with the dominant rose and lilac. There was a lush and sweetly complex background; it was hard to pick out most of the individual notes in the swirl. The dry down was very powdery, but I expected that because the blend contained both amber and rose which tend to do that on my skin.

This was a light and bright floral. My skin tends to amplify both carnation and rose, so as a pair they balanced each other well. The carnation’s freshness kept the rose from going powdery on me, so the blend remained consistent and lasted a long while. The tea stayed in the background on my skin.

When I first applied this it was quite bitter. The almond was apparent along with a green scent that was almost minty. I have a hard time picking out individual spice scents. The honey note came forward as it dried down, smoothing out the bitterness. This blend was quite complex but not heavy. As someone mentioned, it reminded me of a spice store…the notes do not sit easily together, but the combination is strangely pleasant. I like how this blend was felt both fresh and warm at the same time. The last stage remained consistent and lasted for hours and hours.

The carnation and plum are well-met equals in this blend. It is sweet, but also sophisticated and deep - which is probably the effect of the musk. I kept sensing rose in the dry down, but that is not listed as a note in this blend. The final scent was soft and powdery. For me, this would be a "going out" scent rather than a "daily wear" scent

This was surprisingly light and brisk. The tea note smells exactly like the Irish Breakfast blend my husband and I prefer…I actually went and sniffed a tea bag to test this notion. His skin ate this blend up quickly, but it would work on either a man or a woman. On me, tea and ginger were strongest at first, with nose-tickling pepper in the background. The milk and honey came forward as it dried down, but overall this was not a particularly sweet scent. The last note of this to come out on my skin was the vanilla, which made the fading scent a bit powdery. I have no idea where the linen note blended in - I have an easier time picking out notes that I recognize from other blends. I think this scent will be fabulous in the hot weather.

Lent begins tomorrow. I was planning on not using scents on the fast days, but was trying to think of appropriate blends to use during the other days. Here are some I came up with - note: I own some of them, but not all. Carnivale (for today, of course) Cathedral Tears Danse Macbre Kostnice Death The Hermit Magdalene I was wondering if anyone had other suggestions.