Lucchesa

I was frimped a sniffie of this with just enough to skin test. It was very promising in the vial, plum and oudh and dark musk; the vetiver and patch are of the smooth varieties, not the gritty, smoky, or hippie kinds. But it just wasn't spectacular on my skin, which damped down all the loveliness. I ended up with subdued plum and a kind of generic melange of the darker notes as a faint skin scent. It didn't disappear entirely; it was just set at a very low volume on me. Maybe if I had enough to slather, the scent might have ripened better on me. I'm really glad I got to try it!

I absolutely love the goat's milk note, and My Baby and a Baby Goat is full of win for me. I get good throw from this when wet, which is rare for my skin, and excellent wear length. On me, this is mostly honeyed goat's milk with a sweet musk in the background. It is a pure comfort scent, a guaranteed smile scent. Thank you, o generous-frimping swap partner!!!

I was given a nicely aged decant of Loved to Death by an incredibly generous swap partner. Given the notes, it should have a slam dunk on me. Instead, it was interesting. I tested blind, and i would have said vanilla, honey, cacao and maybe sassafras -- I think the latter two notes were how I was reading the smoked aspect of the vanilla, and I think that's what some reviews are calling anise. It reminded me a little of the Scroll. Maybe it's Ceylon cinnamon. The clove never was clear on me, and it definitely read more like honey than beeswax. Good wear length. I'm delighted I got to try it and my budget is glad it was idiosyncratic on my skin.

The generous boyfriend of a generous swapper let me have a tester of Lordy, which I've been eyeing for a while but the reviews are all over the place. (Thank you!!!) Wet, I got an aquatic cologne that made me wonder if the 1950s FBI agent was wearing Aqua Velva. I'm not sure I've ever even smelled Aqua Velva, but that was what my brain served up. There's something about an Aqua Velva man. 90 minutes later Lordy has developed into a skin scent on me, a light cologne with hints of leather and coffee and probably paper too. It's very nice, smooth and unisex. At first I didn't think I needed a bottle, but it's rather appealing in this phase. I'll try it a couple more times and see if it continues to grow on me.

Imp of indeterminate age. I don't love the wet phase of Anne Bonny on my skin. It's sharp, dry frankincense, sharp dry patchouli, sandalwood threatening to turn into pencil shavings. Not a scrubber, but not making my heart sing. Then it dries and the magic happens. It's still dry but no longer sharp and has become something beautiful, more than the sum of its wet parts. Roseus captured it perfectly: sun-baked. I think I'm going to want to smell like this in the dead of winter, dry and warm and fierce. Applied before leaving the house, Anne Bonny will be perfect by the time I get to work.

My grandmother had these hard pink soaps in her pink and burgundy tiled bathroom that were shaped like Mackintosh roses. You weren't actually supposed to use them; she had normal soap too. Harlot on me smells exactly like those soap roses. Old-fashioned rose soap with the tiniest edge of cinnamon. Not terribly long-lasting on my skin.

Snake Charmer Resurrected was a frimp from an incredibly generous swapper. Wow. Yet again, I fall for the unattainable. But oh my, this one is marvelous on me. Not surprising as the notes are full of nothing but win, but some of those exotic spice blends go awry on me anyway (Morocco, you break my heart). Gorgeous dark plum, sexy spices and musk, and the lovely nuttiness of ambrette and coconut. Sweet, smooth, spicy, and mostly a skin scent on me (as is most everything on my skin), so for me this one is work appropriate. I don't actually smell Snake Oil here, and I don't get the crazy wear length of SO either, but staying power is decent. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Are scents ever RE-resurrected?

A sniffie of Mme. Moriarty passed through my hands once and seemed like it might be a red musk blend I could wear. Thanks to a super generous swap partner, I now have a testable amount, and it turns out I was right, although on balance the madame is a little fruitier than my usual taste. Red musk tends to amp to high heaven on my skin, and indeed for the first couple of hours, the throw was all red musk. But when I sniffed my wrist I got a much more complex picture: red musk to be sure, but red fruits and vanilla too, and a little patch. I don't think I'd wear this to work -- it's pretty sexy. But it is surprisingly wearable for me, and I like it a lot.

I tried Matthew 18:10 largely on the strength of the first review. I wanted that strong activism! And I loved the idea that in an hour there was no sign of the fruit. Of course, I got fruit and lots of it -- rich dark-red berry. I don't get much in the way of throw, which is sadly the way of my skin, and although the warm wooly sandalwood does emerge, it is still primarily a fruit scent on me. Glad I tried it, though!

Venus Murcia is green, green, green! Even the color in the bottom of my tester imp is greenish-blue, just gorgeous. And she's a morpher. At first she's all grass, freshly mown grass, and smells like that week in spring when everyone has mowed their grass for the first time since fall because it has gotten just too long to ignore. Then in the next phase the herbal honey comes out to roll around in the grass, and the final drydown is all musk, what must be green musk, lovely and lasting. What a gorgeous springtime scent!

I never tried the earlier version of the Wild Men of Jezirat al Tennyn. This one is sweet, spicy, and clove-dominant on me. The patchouli is very smooth; don't let it scare you away if you are not a patchouli fan. I think the moss and ambergris kind of keep it in check. I'm not head over heels in love with this, but I like it a lot.

Wet, The Norns' Farmhouse is green grassy herbs, a backdrop of flowers and woods, and apple, apple which becomes more and more prominent as it dries. It reminds me a little bit of a lighter Samhain, and I second the previous reviewer's likening this to Fearful Pleasure. The sharp greenness softens as it dries, the woods and herbs get a little deeper and darker against the apple note, and the ash becomes apparent -- I like this stage a lot. Unfortunately, my skin eats this one up, and it's gone in a little over two hours. I think this imp was pulled last summer or fall, so I'm not sure further aging will help with wear length on me, though I may keep it around for a while and try again in a few more months.

I am enjoying Hymn to Proserpine more than I expected to. Pomegranate is an iffy note on me, and it's the fruit I associate most closely with Proserpine. But wet, the amber is stronger than the fruit, and it's a really lovely amber, one of my favorite notes. I can smell the sweet tart juicy pomegranate underneath, but the amber keeps it well in check. (Obviously this is a well-aged imp.) So for the first couple of hours at least this is a warm amber scent with fruit undertones. By the third hour or so the pomegranate is ready to take center stage, but by this time it has smoothed into a really mellow pom that works nicely on my skin.

Wet: Jasmine. Why am I testing Euphrosyne? Great throw, of course. Dry: Oh, right. I wanted to try a vanilla-gardenia-rose scent, with maybe a little well-behaved jasmine tagging along. And this is a creamy, non-indolic jasmine, but there may be no such thing as well-behaved jasmine on my skin. From time to time I get whiffs of the scent I was hoping for, but then the jasmine shuts it down. Super pretty if this kind of sweet creamy white floral is what you're looking for.

Vanilla Orchid is a soft, sweet white floral on my skin. It is definitely orchid, with just the barest hint of vanilla, so don't expect this one to be foodie -- we're talking about the flower here. Orchid is a pretty heady note, and florals are not really my jam, but I will keep this imp to help my nose differentiate the note when I find it in other blends (for instance, I first tried this while testing Rigorous Love, and it helped me understand which part of that blend was the vanilla orchid). If you like white florals, though, this is a gorgeous one.

On me, the Great He-Goat starts out all vetiver and patchouli, and as it dries down I get the amber and black musk smoothing out the rough edges of vetiver and patch. Carnation is a great note on me; pom and ginger are iffy (though I was looking forward to trying smoked ginger); I don't really get identifiable portions of any of them. This is dark and retains a bit of the initial harshness. It works well on me, though, and I will keep it for future Goya lectures.

Wet, I could smell that rich, round syrupy opoponax, and I knew I would love this one. There are so many beautiful dark notes here -- black musk and myrrh are in the foreground on me, with the opoponax, while vetiver and tobacco are supporting players. I'm not really getting the green notes (hemp, sage, moss); this is a lush, velvety black scent on me, and it's absolutely lovely. It becomes a skin scent on me fairly quickly but lasts a long time.

If I really had to pick just one: The Lights of Men's Lives, inspired by the fairy tale Godfather Death. The wax and smoke of millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death's shadowy cave. Warm beeswax, a hint of vanilla, some smokiness -- this one is absolute magic on me.

Unexpected total win! I wanted to try Psychodynamic Discharge for two reasons: 1. I love the name and 2. the label painting was included in an exhibition at my museum several years ago and I gave a talk on the artist. But I expected this to be a failure on my skin because red musk always struts to center stage and shouts down the rest of the ensemble. Not here. Here she plays nice. Still sexy as hell in her thigh-high red latex boots, but she lets black leather have the first line, and coconut and red pepper get to share the stage, and rose comes out in the second act. Frankly I'm not differentiating much patchouli, ginger or vetiver but I think they're keeping red musk in line. This is fantastically sexy, with good throw and wear length.

2009 413 U.S. 15, and it has aged beautifully. Berry is a troublesome note for me, but it stays realistic and subdued here. Warm fig, soft leather, cognac -- these are the main notes on me, and they are lovely. And Beth is a genius -- I can actually smell paper bag, enveloping it all. The fruit makes this a summer, daytime scent on me, lighthearted, but those sexy notes of leather and cognac are underlying it as well. I have not tried the 2018 incarnation, but I suspect it will only get better if 2009 is anything to go on.

I had Robin Goodfellow once before and it didn't do much for me, so I swapped it away. What was I thinking? Fortunately a generous forumite (thanks, HerbGirl!) frimped me another one, and I am really digging it. Wet, it's surprisingly light and floral, given the notes. Must be the heather and ragwort, notes I'm less familiar with. As it dries, it darkens, with sage and moss and woods making themselves felt. At one point I even thought there was vetiver in the blend. It is absolutely beautiful at this point, a dark mossy forest with flowers and toadstools, where anything might happen. The musk is gentle and not prominent, despite the fact that it's listed first. I'll need to test this a couple more times, but this may be going on the bottle list.

I was lucky enough to pick up a decant of original De Sade in a batch of DC'd imps, right about the time the resurrection was announced. And while it's nice, I'm not totally blown away by it. It's leather all right, kind of new leather, sexy dominatrix leather. I get a little bit of throw and it lasts a good while, but I realize I prefer leather as an ingredient, not as the whole scent. I'll definitely hang on to my imp, and I'm delighted I got to try it, but I don't need more than this.

I swapped for Rigorous Love largely on the basis of surlygirl's assertion that it was horrible on her in the same way that Paduan Killer Swarm was horrible on her. PKS is swoon-worthy on me, so I had high hopes. Which were not entirely borne out, but that's OK. Lemongrass tends to take over on me, and wet, Rigorous Love was all lemongrass. A lovely bright pure lemongrass that didn't go anywhere near Pledge, as actual lemon always tends to do on me. But I had to wait for drydown for any other notes to poke out. Once the lemongrass softened down, in an hour or so, I got coconut and gentle anise and a breath of vanilla orchid. I'm not really experiencing much in the way of balsam or mimosa, but they weren't what I was here for anyway. This stage is quite lovely, no throw (normal for me) but reasonably long-lasting, upbeat, summery, work-appropriate. It's not knocking me off my feet, but it is very nice and I suspect it may grow on me.

I have tried Thorns, been uncertain, swapped it away without reviewing it, and reacquired it at least once, possibly twice, so I guess you can say Thorns has already given me hours of entertainment. Now that I know my mind a little better, well, I'm still not sure about Thorns. I don't really care for its wet stage: it is harsh, astringent vetiver. This seems like the grassy green vetiver more than the smoky black vetiver; anyway, it's strong. About 30 minutes in it has mellowed down to something I can enjoy, a kinder, gentler vetiver against a sweeter floral note. I'm not going to weigh in on whether this is dragon's blood resin or rose; DBR is usually awful on me, but pitted against this much vetiver its sickly sweetness might actually work. So this phase is very pretty, work-appropriate, and lasts a long time. But when I have so many other scents I like from the first drop, can I justify keeping this imp around? Still, it's Rapunzel, which was my favorite childhood fairy tale, despite the fact that Rapunzel is an idiot. I'll hang onto it for now.

I get white cake and frosting and Martinelli's sparkling cider from 10-9-8. My skin is allowing me neither a prominent vanilla note nor any cocoa from the red velvet cake. At least I'm not getting a skin reaction, and I can't smell any cinnamon either. As it dries down, the wisteria comes to greater and greater prominence. This is a really interesting scent, with the wisteria keeping it from being entirely foody, and I think it would be stunning with the right skin chemistry. Which is not, unfortunately, mine.