Lucchesa

Given the notes, Etude de Deshabille should have been fabulous on me. Instead, it was kind of meh for a while -- subdued patchouli, subdued amber, not much tobacco. Then the primary note became...oudh? There's no oudh in there, I know. Cashmeran is not oudh, right? I was expecting cashmere, something like the wooly note in Two Sheep and Two Goats, but something in here went indolic on my skin. I was really excited for this one, and it just didn't work on me.

One of my favorite American Gods scents -- any scent, really -- is Mithras, with blood, honey, milk and oil, so I hoped this would be a relative. And sure enough, For the Joy of It is Mithras's ne'er-do-well uncle. It starts out all whiskey on me, sharp and a little sweet and very alcoholic. Of course, I knew it wouldn't stay there, and it softened within minutes, with the honey and/or mead sharing center stage with the whiskey. There's a lovely drydown of coppery, honeyed booze, and it lasts all day. I don't get sweat, or if I do, it's not unpleasant. After half an hour or so after application, it's safe for public consumption. Perfectly unisex, and while it doesn't evoke the same deep emotional connection as Mithras does for me, it's very good.

The Mysterious Rappings Polka is one that I didn't get a decant of because I had to draw the line somewhere, but I was watching the reviews. Then I was gifted a decant by an ultra-lovely forumite, and I'm so glad I got to try it. It's really interesting, and I mean that in a good way. It actually reminded me somewhat of An Encampment of Shepherds from the recent Weenies, which had rose tobacco and oudh instead of rose musk and tobacco. So there's definitely a rosy tobacco note, which does not go sour on me as rose sometimes does, but here it meets toffee and bay rum. The pepper keeps the toffee from becoming ridiculously sweet, and the rum stays pretty mellow, and it all works together surprisingly well. Good wear length too, and pretty unisex despite the rose. A keeper!

Schönperchten goes the way of most lavender blends on my skin: it starts out with a strong and lovely blast of lavender, which disappears fairly quickly, leaving me with minty snow that flirts with soapiness. I can't make out much bourbon vanilla or amber, and the whole scent has a pretty short wear time on me. But that is totally typical of my skin's chemistry with lavender, and with snow, so your experience will certainly vary. I love to try lavender scents though they usually break my heart, but I don't wear mint at all and wouldn't have tried this had it not been for the generosity of a local forumite. I'm happy I got to test it, but I'll be passing it on to someone whose skin is kinder to these notes.

Harper is the exception to the rule that tea rose is terrible on my skin. I get sweet pink rosebuds and pale incense as the predominant notes, with a bit of bergamot and what on me is more a vanilla-tinged oudh than a vanilla-tinged musk. It's a very friendly oudh, though. If Harper had a color, she would be an opalescent pale pink. I get a bit of throw but the wear length is a little less than average. I love to wear this in spring, or on outrageously sunny days in February when spring seems a distinct possibility.

I wasn't sure I really needed another spicy dark chocolate blend, so I didn't order a decant of Schiachperchten, but I was given one by an extremely kind forumite. And of course I need another spicy dark chocolate blend. Duh! I wasn't familiar with the green cardamom note but it smells like cardamom to me. I sometimes am anosmic to the lab's pepper note, but there is definitely a pepperiness here under a very dark chocolate, and the whole thing smells more complicated than just three notes. It isn't super long lasting, but it is fun to wear while it lasts.

Allen's Big-Eared Bat, given to my by a superbly generous forumite, did not smell at all how I expected. Tobacco flower can be really sharp and screechy on me, and I expected rosehip to be a kind of high-pitched, tart note as well. This smells more like sweet, mellow tobacco with warm, rosy sandalwood. I like this much better than I thought I would! It wears close to the skin but lasted reasonably well on me.

I'm very fond of Frostbitten Snake Oil, and I generally love wood notes, so Kapitelplatz Chess Match seemed like a no-brainer. And it's really nice -- a woody snake oil with a touch of sweet snow note. I don't find it too masculine at all, but I wear a lot of unisex scents. However, unusually for a SO blend, it's very faint on me. I get no throw and no staying power from this at all. That may improve with age, as SO always does.

Milk and cream notes are always a gamble on me, but the rest of the components of Ghost Faced Bat are favorites, so I had to give it a try. It's almost glorious: yummy sweet creamy coconut and honey, with the benzoin keeping things from getting overly foodie. But after about and hour, the sweetened condensed milk note turns on my skin. I would probably still put it in my coffee if the alternative were drinking it black, but I would worry a little. The slightly soured milk persists for the rest of the life of the scent, fading in and out somewhat but never retreating entirely. If you love coconut and honey and can handle dairy notes, this should be a dream on you. It has a little throw and good wear length on me.

Blue Ghost Blues was really strong on me at first, particularly the bay rum (bay sometimes amps on me). I often have a hard time picking out the pepper note, but I think it added to the initial sharpness of this on my skin. My first impression was very masculine, a sharp-dressed man in a fedora who'd just applied after shave and lit a cigar. It does soften into something pretty darned comfortable, though decidedly leaning towards the masculine end of the unisex spectrum. Good throw when wet, but wear length was only 3-4 hours on me.

On me, Anubis is perfumey and very herbal (closer to The Apothecary or the dandelion note in The Hare than to something like Bast) in a way that constantly threatens to go soapy but never quite does. I wonder if some of the green note might be papyrus as it reminds me somewhat of bamboo. Anubis is fairly strong and long lasting on me, which is nice, but it's not really working with my skin chemistry and doesn't jive with my conception of the god of the Egyptian underworld, which I don't imagine having dandelions. I'm super glad I got to try it, but I'll be passing it on.

Groan of Mortal Terror is aging beautifully, you all! I regretted missing this in the weenies of a year ago, and I've been trying to get my hands on a decant ever since. Well, I did, and if these are notes you love, you can't go wrong here. At first, wet on skin, I thought it was nice but resistible, since I have a number of similar resin/tobacco blends. As it dried down, it just got more and more gorgeous. Rich, sweet, warm tobacco, perfect for winter. I get a little throw, more than my chemistry usually allows me, and it's still lovely after nearly 8 hours of wear. Nose stuck to wrist...

Oh my saints, I love this, I want the industrial strength gallon-sized version. Cathedral the GC perfume is straight-up cedar on me, but this is lovely sweet incense; I almost want to say rosy. This is not heavy pothead incense; it's gorgeous and ethereal. It reminds me a little of Lights of Men's Lives, one of my absolute favorite GCs, in atmo form Stunning.

Roasting chestnuts is possibly my favorite smell in the entire world. Marrons glaces smell pretty delicious too. I loved last year's Eight Maids a Milking hair gloss with its chestnut milk. So I was hoping this would be *CHESTNUT* and oudh, and instead it's the opposite. Maybe aging will bring out the chestnuts more, but for now, this is all about the oudh, and I tend to enjoy oudh only when it's well in the background.

I don't usually do the foodie atmos either, but I got mini decants of the whole set this year, and Egg Nog Cocoa is a delight. It reminds me of Belgian cocoa powder with just a hint of nutmeg and the richness of egg nog. And it made our pillows smell like tasty beverages, not Jack Russell terrier. Yum!

A super generous forumite gave me a decant of this today because she liked it enough for a bottle, and yes, it is that good. More than seven hours after applying Twelfth Lash, I'm still getting a delectable vetiver and beeswax scent. Wet, it's honey and patch and vetiver (I'm not sure I'm really able to differentiate "blackened patchouli" from "patchouli plus vetiver") with a bit of syrupy labdanum. It dries down into something that's sexy but not smutty, warm and grounded with a hint of darkness. I've been thinking of it as a woman's scent as opposed to a girl's, but I think it would probably smell marvelous on the right man, too. I'm so glad to have gotten to try this!

I always want to love hay notes, but I'm am beginning to acknowledge that they just don't work on my skin (e.g. Hay Moon would be perfect on me except for the hay). Harvest of the Empress is really lovely in the imp, warm and golden with a hint of clove. On my skin, there is more than a hint of clove -- this is a clove-proud scent, wafting over a sundrenched field of haystacks. It has good throw, too, something I don't often get with my chemistry, and it lasts well. But the hay note goes a little soapy on me, and a scent this simple (which is not meant as criticism - pared-down blends can be incredibly beautiful) needs to be in perfect balance. I'm glad I got to try this one, but it's ultimately not for me.

Rocking-Horse Fly is green and a little sweet when wet, which surprised me because I thought I'd tested and reviewed this one ages ago and that it was all my dad's woodshop. But I'm definitely getting more privet than sawdust, sap or shellacked wood; it seems more like a green stems and flowers scent than a wood and wood shavings scent. Only after about 45 minutes am I starting to get a whiff of the lumber aisle in Home Depot, under the softer green notes. On my skin it never becomes the totally wood scent I was hoping for, and it doesn't last more than two or three hours on me.

I finally got ahold of a decant of A Savage Veil Severe and Strong, which has had a year to age now. It's really beautiful. At first I wasn't overly impressed -- I got plum, not too sweet, and patchouli, not too gnarly. It was less dark than I expected; I was pleased that it wasn't overly fruity. But within 20 or 30 minutes, I was pretty sure I had blind bottled the wrong Erinye (though I haven't pulled Snaky out in a few months and suspect she may be aging equally well). The tobacco and nutmeg started to emerge, adding depth and spice. A Savage Veil isn't terribly complex, but it doesn't need to be. Its lovely deep notes are in gentle equilibrium, unisex, maybe leaning feminine. Low throw (normal for me) and good wear length

Shamisen is not exactly what I was expecting. Actually, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the notes looked intriguing: wood, and bone, and smoked bamboo... Instead, Shamisen is a clean, bright kind of scent on me, with the rosy edge that, like tinyvulture, I always get from rosewood, and possibly another stealth floral as well. I think the silk may be the clean note, like linen is in some blends. Bamboo can also be bright and clean-smelling, and despite the "smoked" description, on me there's nothing smoky about this scent at all. It's a little too perky for my tastes, though I would be delighted to wash my clothes in it. The throw is low but it lasts really well.

My Amber & Patchouli HG was a gift from an incredibly generous forumite, and I'm not sure what the vintage is. It is exactly as advertised, and these are both favorite notes of mine. It's kind of a dry, warm patchouli with a golden amber, just lovely. It's not super sweet, and maybe not work appropriate unless you already have a reputation as a bit of a hippie. On me, the patchouli is stronger than the amber, which may be a function of age, since a lot of the earlier reviews comment on the patch taking a back seat here. Medium throw and wear length, and it pairs beautifully with any patch or amber scent (I'm wearing it today with Hedonism Bath Oil and Miss Lupescu and I smell so good).

I haven't smelled this Mrs. Meyer's scent, but it sounds an awful lot like Gacela of the Dark Death: Terebinth pine, pitch, and clove.

Shattered Silence is a dark snowy forest scent that eventually mellows into a black musk with the evergreens in the background. It's all sharp evergreen branches at first, with a piney snow note and some moss, and it takes 30 or 40 minutes for the dark musk to begin to be prominent. On me the gin-like juniper note is the most noticeable, more so than the cedar or yew. Juniper is the only evergreen I don't love, so I won't be springing for a bottle of this one, but I'm really glad I got to try it because the concept of wolves howling in a winter is really beautifully expressed. Gender neutral, medium wear length though I applied sparingly.

2018 version. Midwinter's Eve could illustrate that line about visions of sugarplums dancing in children's heads. It is candy-sweet on me. I like plum, but I find myself wearing fruit blends less and less often, and when I do, they tend to be darker than this one. This is as pretty and bright as the Nutcracker Suite, with sugarplum fairies dancing around over a vaguely floral backdrop, nothing I can identify more precisely. I don't find this poignant and melancholy at all; it's more youthful delight in the fun of the holidays. And the sweets of the holidays.

As a lapsed Catholic, I still have romantic yearnings about incense braziers swinging on chains, Latin chants and the like. I expected to love Midnight Mass and tried the 2017 version, which I found disappointing. Ever the optimist, I got a decant of 2018, and it's beautiful! So I don't know if it's a formula change, a skin chemistry thing, a change in my tastes, or what, but 2018 Midnight Mass is a dreamy cloud of ecclesiastical incense. On me, Cathedral goes straight to cedar shavings, while Midnight Mass stays true, slightly sweet, slightly smoky. This could be a meditation blend if you lean towards Western rather than Eastern spirituality. It's lovely. No throw, which is normal on me, and about average wear length.