Lucchesa

Well-aged decant. A Demonstration of Affectionate Excitement starts out similar to Cathedral, with cedar and that frankincense that mimics cedar. I'm not sure I could differentiate the ho wood, but there was that fresh sharp bamboo note. So: opening: cedary frankincense and bamboo. In the next stage, the bamboo receded and the myrrh and beeswax began to partner with the woods and frankincense, so kind of a honeyed Penitence. Gradually the woods began to fall away, leaving incense and beeswax, with the latter lasting longest on my skin. Lovely at every stage.

Welcome, @a_bear! Hi, everyone! Good workouts! @Amazonia, my daughter has a heavy bag in our basement. It was what she asked for for Xmas last year. I have no idea what to do with it so have just left it alone, but she uses it regularly. I like wearing manly man scents, too; she tends towards softer and sweeter (Daybreak and Irish Coffee Buttercream are favorites of hers). @Madame Mew & a_bear, thanks for the yoga suggestions! Today's WOSOTD: A Demonstration of Affectionate Excitement. It happens to be the first scent in my decant box, and I kept it but never reviewed it, so I'll remedy that now. It started off woody, then softened and sweetened quite a bit. A friend I hadn't seen for a while wanted to walk the lake, so I rode my bike to meet her, and we did the 2.8 mile circuit at something more like a stroll than a workout rate for me. But it was a gorgeous sunny day and was wonderful to be out. Then I rode my bike to the post office and back home, which got my heartrate up more. And after that I walked a few blocks to a friend's house because she wanted my dog to check her backyard for raccoon smells. Abby decided the raccoons had moved on.

Negative COVID test results landed this morning! (As I was 99.3 percent sure that they would.) Today's WOSOTD: Dead Leaves and Vanilla Incense. It really felt like early fall this morning. I walked the dog to the local bookstore, about a mile away, to buy a birthday gift for my mother in law, then Abby wanted to continue on to the pet food store a couple blocks farther and get a treat. When I got her home, I went back out and walked to the natural food store for a bottle of wine and some goodies for the gift. (Abby can go in the bookstore but not the grocery store, and we had a traumatic incident this spring with her being abducted by a do-gooder who thought she was uncomfortable tied up in front of the supermarket.) Anyway, 5 miles according to my step counter, not sure how long because Abby can be poky, but definitely a lot of time out in the bright sunlight, which emerged midday from the gloom of the morning. DL & VI was nice but its staying power was not up to that of Elf, which lasted and lasted. Maybe a better yoga scent than walking.

Dead Leaves and Vanilla Incense is a lovely, light DL blend with just a hint of vanilla on me and the kind of incense that is sometimes described as white or pale. It strikes a nice balance between the earthy leaves and the ethereal incense, barely sweetened by the vanilla. Wear length on me is probably a little less than average, though.

Awesome workouts, everyone. And CLOSETS, @VetchVesper! @Amazonia, a 4.2 mile walk with hills and headwinds in 51 minutes is badass enough for Lady Death Savage, to be sure. Today, Elf! Another walk, this one north to the little frisbee golf park about 1.3 miles from my house. 38 minutes all told -- I would have gone a bit longer but had to get back home to take my husband for a COVID test. @Madame MewYoga sculpt sounds interesting! Do you hold the weights or are they the kind you wrap around your arms with velcro?

I'm in too! I love this idea!!! 1) My main goal is to preserve my mental health by getting outside as much as I can. A week ago I couldn't go outside because of wildfire smoke, and it just about pushed me over the edge. So, grab a walk whenever it's not pouring down rain. Subsidiary goals: try some online yoga, cardio or strength training. My daughter's school has a daily 20 minute fitness class I could try. 2) Today's selection: Gacela of the Dark Death. Flipping beautiful! Foresty scent to get me outdoors. 3) I walked around Green Lake. About 3.5 miles total from my house. Takes about 45-50 minutes. 4) I'm so glad I got my workout in today! Gacela is a good autumn hiking scent. Or autumn staying indoors scent, but we don't care about that. Yay, @VetchVesper @Madame Mew & @Amazonia!!! (Is ping pong a euphemism?) Yay, Wanda, Antikythera Mechanism and SO!

Testing blind, what I got from Soul of La Traviata was deep dark plum and black musk, and maybe some currant. I don't know if the citrus notes haven't survived in my decant or got swallowed up on my skin. I thought there might be a hint of a floral but could never have specified orchid. But this is really a dark fruit/musk beauty, decidedly purple.

My Magic Circle, on my skin, is jasmine sambac. Jasmine with jasmine and maybe an undertone of oudh. And jasmine. Nice jasmine, but jasmine.

VetchVesper kindly shared a decant of this with me, and I totally agree with her assessment. The first note I caught from this, what I expected to be the first note listed, was that incensey light red musk (maybe getting the incense vibe from the tobacco?). I'm not getting orange blossom, which is completely fine with me, or much in the way of tangerine, but there is a little almond blossom, and the sweet patch, honey and amber combine with a pale tobacco to make a scent that is breezily sexy and really, really pretty. This wasn't on my radar at all, and I'm so glad to have it!

Pegasus Junk is very appealing and foodier than I expected. I was especially interested in trying the rice note -- when I cook basmati rice, it often smells like I"m popping popcorn, so I think that's where people are getting that association. So I get lemony white tea, toasty rice and orris. The tea note fades first on me, but it's replaced by that toothsome salt note and the dry woods, and once it reaches this stage it stops morphing and lasts a good long while. I never get much in the way of amber.

Libertarian didn’t work well on me. I suspect juniper among the evergreens. Grass, sharp forest, resin and spices.

Tested blind, my first thought was blackberries and cream. Then I realized they were all enrobed in chocolate. I was thinking the berry version of a chocolate covered cherry, and there’s booze in those, right? So maybe I did smell the bourbon after all. But that’s my impression. Chocolate covered blackberry cream. Berry notes always go too sweet on me, but if berry and chocolate are notes that work on you, and you like the thought of them side by side, you should seek this out.

A Commentary + my skin chemistry = fruity red musk. The fruity red musk subsumes the apricot. The fruity red musk laughs in the face of citrus and clove. The fruity red musk hands vetiver its ass on a platter. Fruity red musk uber alles!

Liaison 2015 is one of those scents I can't come close to finding all the notes in. Powdery black musk and sandalwood are there. Tea I never count on because my skin tends to devour it. It is decidedly not floral, nor can I find the spice, honey or frankincense, but they are probably all blending together to create the soft, sweet backdrop of this clandestine encounter. Definitely a black musk blend, for lovers of Haunted and the like.

A ridiculously generous fellow addict gave me a decant of this. I get why it is so beloved. It's lavender Dorian, basically, but what a lovely thing that is. I think of Dorian as already having vanilla, and I can't honestly make out the snowdrops. Comforting lavender with sweet sexy Dorian. The lavender doesn't last long on my skin, but then again, it never does.