Lucchesa

I'm interested in learning more about the carrot seed note, but Solitary and Abhorred didn't give me enough to go on. At the beginning, I did get the bitter carrot seed with some patchouli and balsam. Dark, bitter green and black notes -- I'm really not able to make out the white tea at all. But soon enough the patch takes over, and it becomes almost a single note patchouli, dark and wild, which is no bad thing. Maybe the carrot seed is keeping it from sweetening at all on my skin.

I received a barely testable bottle of Rapture Pig as an Ajevie freebie and applied a tiny drop to the crook of my elbow. This baby is strong! Think CD Hope on steroids. Jammy, sugary rose. This is so far out of my wheelhouse, yet I understand its greatness. If candied rose is your thing, this is amazing. It is hard not to smile with this wafting around. And yes, the label art rocks.

A generous PIFer recently gave me a chance to try some scents that were not quite in my wheelhouse. I love lilac and woods, but rose is problematic on me. And while I enjoy the black tea note, my skin tends to obliterate it. As I might have guessed, Spirit Board is all rose on me. The lilac is there, but it's like there's one sprig of lilac in a bouquet of pink roses. The woods are surprisingly quiet, and I can't make out the tea at all. This would be beautiful on a rose lover! It's too overwhelmingly floral for me.

Testing blind, I got caramel, rosewood, and cognac. The latter is obviously the rum, though it smelled a little more upscale to me, while caramel and rosewood is a pretty good approximation of what teak is like on my skin. I'm not surprised I'm not getting pipe smoke; I can't smell Hellfire at all. It is the most elusive note for me. This is comforting, a man who is elegant and confident but not threatening. Thanks to the generous PIFer who sent it my way!

Hypatia came to me thanks to a generous PIFer. Roses aren't usually in my wheelhouse, but rosewater tends to be more reliable on me, and it's really pretty here, shading this scent feminine. The white musk and oud are soft rather than strident, and I don't know what makes amber crystalline, but instead of the usual glowing warm note of amber, Hypatia feels cool -- the cool of logic, of the sparkling order of the universe. Lovely and lasting. I'm so glad I got to try this!

Oops, I neglected to review this, so this is retrospective, but I swapped it away because I unexpectedly amped the acacia, which drowned out the lovely beeswax on me and made this more of a high-pitched honeyed floral. I'm glad so many other people are loving it!

Song of Hope is a cousin to another recent love, Pleasure Boat. Both star my favorite floral, carnation, backed by amber and vanilla. The ambergris here is quiet on me -- actually, this is a quieter blend than you might imagine from the notes. It wears close, and the leather and spices are subtle. Like Pleasure Boat, this one melds into something you can't easily pull apart, more of a russet carnation brocade than Pleasure Boat's golden one, and it's absolutely lovely.

Phallus Devotion on me is a really spicy oudh (agarwood) blend. It's not the fecal oudh, but it is that distinctive down and dirty woody smell of well-behaved oudh, with its terrific wear length. I can still smell traces of it the next morning. The patchouli and mahogany are there, but this a raw mahogany, not the polished wood scent of most mahogany blends, and I can't make out the rosewood on me at all. Earthy saffron and a peppery nutmeg bump up the spice quotient. Gender neutral, potent, and kind of in its own category.

Soceraphobia should be good on me, but it isn't. It goes on sour and harsh, like the last quarter inch in the carafe of an ancient Mr. Coffee that's been left on for an entire workday. Not a pleasant phase. It does get nicer as the vanilla pokes its head in and smooths things out a bit, but before long the vanilla turns back around and exits, and so does the entire scent. Really short wear time on me (not unusual for my skin to soak up coffee and smoke notes quickly).

Foolish Wooden Cucumber is a treatment at an upscale spa with blond wood everywhere and cucumber water in fancy dispensers. The cucumber is light, refreshing; the vanilla is also light and not too sweet, though it does sweeten after a couple of hours as the cucumber wears off. A perfect summer scent when you need a little rejuvenation.

Lilac is one of the few florals I really enjoy, and Penis Admiration has a lot of lilac. It’s surprisingly feminine given the name. On my skin I don’t get much wood, smoke or resin, but the lilac eventually melds with the vanilla and tonka, and the rest of the components are probably what are making this blend a little darker and smuttier than lilac and vanilla would suggest. Pretty decent wear length on me, too. I will definitely keep this decant to wear when the lilacs are blooming.

Back into the golden forest for this review. Kommt Mit Zacken is lots of sage up front, and I would have sworn there was an evergreen note in here as well. Sunshine and sage in a forest glade as the amber comes out, then the tobacco, mmf, and the soft musk, everything with fuzzy edges like a low-hanging sun is dissolving the contours. This is gorgeous and lasts a really long time on me. Bottle worthy.

A Gaulish giant, believed to be the Gaul’s parallel to the god Mercury. Wild sage and hyssop, marigold and frankincense, lemon verbena and tobacco. I hate to be first review and not a rave, but Erriapus is not working with my skin chemistry. You know those high-end, French-milled lemon verbena soaps? That's basically what I'm getting, with a bit of musty marigold. I wonder if my skin has started turning sage into soap -- I got soap from The Crescent Moon, too. That would be tragic. After about an hour I start to get a little tobacco and frank but it's too late to save this on me.

The one note I was worried about in Four Graverobbers was the dragon's blood resin, which is often sickly sweet on me. It's rather subdued here, more of an overall sweetening of the darker resins than the cloying fruity floral DBR can be on my skin. I like the bite of the galangal, and frank and myrrh are always a good combination on me. It becomes less distinctive the longer it lasts, as the sharp edges smooth themselves out.

Carnation is my favorite floral, so I love Ganymede's Junk. It's got the more delicate scent of clove bud as opposed to spice rack clove complementing the spicy carnation, and a dry white sandalwood sweetened with vanilla. I'm not able to make out any lily of the valley. A must-try for lovers of carnation blends like Alice and Maiden -- or if the rose in those blends put you off.

I got to try this thanks to the generosity of a forum PIFer -- aquatics are not my jam, but I was intrigued by torikitty's assertion that the drydown reminded her of Aegir, a surprise hit on me. And she's right -- the late drydown is very similar to that salty musk of Aegir. Unfortunately, on the way there, it goes through dryer sheet territory on me skin. Rosy ozone, clean clean clean aquatic, not really getting any amber. I'm glad I didn't scrub it off because after a few hours it does get lovely, but it takes too long to get there with my skin chemistry.

I'm not shocked that there are no reviews yet because I feel like this blend was made specifically for me. I love anise, the more the better, and combined with fizzy labdanum and high church frankincense, well, fantastic! There are no surprises here. Lots of anise, sweetened by the labdanum, made respectable by the frank. If you hate anise/black licorice notes, you will want to stay away from this. If you love them, what are you waiting for?

At first sniff on my skin, White Sandalwood, Sage & Bourbon Vanilla was all sandalwood. Next sniff brought me sage, which I know from the White Sage SN is a complex, almost perfumey note on me. And then I could smell the bourbon vanilla, but it is definitely the third note here in terms of prominence. So this is not particularly sweet, yet there's something perfect about the way the vanilla meshes with the dry sandalwood and sage notes. This could be worn by any gender for comfort or confidence.

I'm glad I got to try Castitas, but it's really not for me. I used it as an after-shower moisturizer, and while I appreciate the gentle rice flower and vanilla, the cream becomes distractingly buttery on my skin. Without the cream this would be a win, but it's not a note I can wear. (If anyone cares, it's similar to the cream note in Young Pine Saplings and Phantom Cow.)

I missed Meditation Buddy when the Liliths dropped, probably because I was worried about the rose. I needn't have been. It's a really nice one (second time recently white rose has worked on me; I'll need to remember that). Testing blind, I got rosy sandalwood, that chewy salt note I love, and vanilla. The frankincense is a lighter variety than, say, Penitence or Ann Bonny. I wasn't able to make out much of the candle note, which is a shame because it's one of my favorites, or the Florida water. But there's enough going here to make it interesting. Airy from the frankincense, grounding from the salt, a really unique scent. I do wish my home smelled like this one.

Lilith Nightingale starts out lovely on me, sweet cream and dates. Then it goes sideways on me. I don't know what ayurvedic spices comprise, but something in there is wonky with my skin chemistry. Not enough to wash it off or anything, just not something I was interested in wearing again. Hours later, having forgotten all about it, it's back to lovely. Soft sweet cream with gentle fig and date. No throw (normal on me) but lasts really well.

Totentanz is terrific. Lots of red musk, but the blood variety, which is dry and coppery instead of fruity. Mainly red musk, in fact, which is par for the course with red musk on me. But the other notes are there, pepper and clove tickling the nose, leather and patch. (If I'm being honest, I couldn't make out the opoponax.) Dry, spicy, sexy red musk parading around in leather. It is NOT a sweet scent on me: totally unisex. It's strong, with more throw than I usually get, but it wasn't super long lasting on me. I'm so glad I got to try this!

I let this decant rest only a couple of hours from the mail, so perhaps I should retest, but either it hasn't aged well or my skin is damping down some of the notes that are prominent on other reviewers. On me, Tanuki No Senkimochi is a musky myrrh. Maybe the faintest whiff of anise. Maybe the faintest whiff of cypress. No smoky woods. I would worry that it was my nose except that the Totentanz on my other wrist is so distinct. It does last a long time as a skin scent, but I was hoping for a lot more anise and woods.

The iris ran away with The Grindhouse on me. At first there was a lovely sexy red musk, not too stompy, with hints of vanilla, clove, and interesting florals, but as it dried down, the iris note became more and more prominent until eventually I smelled like somebody's great aunt's keepsakes. Not exactly what I was going for.

Old Buddhist Monk does start out funky, and I'd forgotten there was champa when I bought the decant secondhand. Champa is never good on me, but it isn't actually a problem here. The funk goes away in just a couple of minutes of settling on my skin, and I get a soft, powdery orris and sandalwood. Maybe hiba wood too, not a note I'm super familiar with, but I don't think I smell any balsam. It ends up a skin scent, kind of dry and crumbly, with powdery woods and a hint of champa. I don't think I'll keep this one, but I'm happy to have tried it.