Lucchesa

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.

There are probably too many "blossoms" in the description for Elegant Vulvas to work on me, but it's a vulva, so I gave it a try. This is one of those sweet creamy florals that star in the lupers, and the lotus makes it a little too bubblegum sweet for me (teak is also the sweetest wood note on my skin), but I appreciate what a beautiful scent it is. On me it's mainly lotus and marshmallow honey with cherry blossom; the amber and teak take some time to develop. This scent evokes the temptation of girlish innocence.

Mummies of Mexico City is dusty frankincense and copal on me. There's a hint of sweetness but more like dusty beeswax candles than the lace note from Antique Lace. It never gets that sweet on me. Definitely atmospheric, the near-deserted church of my childhood with a few elderly ladies in mantillas. A skin scent for most of its wear length, which is pretty long.

The Golden Hour is lovely. It's an old-fashioned perfumey amber with soft vanilla underneath, and possibly a floaty floral of some kind that meshes with the creamy vanilla. It's not complicated, but it's as sweet and glowing as a favorite childhood memory.

I love Haunted, and I'm also quite fond of Haunted Pumpkin Patch though I struggle to recognize Haunted in it. There's a bit of spiciness I wasn't expecting, with a hint of pumpkin guts and some mature, woody vines and a lot of black musk. The amber is a low warm tone behind it all. I think of Haunted as autumnal anyway, and this bumps up the fall factor.

The oudh is strong in this one, overpowering all the other notes. I can barely make out the dead leaves note, which I love. OK, I'm going to be honest, I can barely make out any of the other notes. I sometimes amp oudh, and I'm doing it here. On me, this is a slightly mossy, hempy oudh. Not fecal, but down and dirty. I love the DL note (and hemp and frank), so this is a fail on my skin.

Venus Caelestis is lovely, and the name is quite appropriate. Testing blind it was sweet frankincense and amber on me -- I'm getting very little lemon or myrrh. I think the sweetness is the lotus more than the sugar of the sugared lemon note. Once I know it's there (and I can't tell blue lotus from any other color), I can parse it out, cool and round. There's something a little ethereal about this blend, though it lasts well on me. I don't think I have anything else really like it.

Une Folle Entreprise is all violet in the imp, which worries me. There are notes here I love -- patchouli, anise, licorice, tonka -- but this seems dominated by the ones I'm ambivalent about -- violet, iris, silvery musk (which to me means high-pitched white musk). If you're good with those three notes, this is probably a lovely blend on you. I got almost no licorice or anise, and barely any patch or tonka. This does have a silvery feel, kind of ephemeral (and in fact it became a skin scent very quickly on me), pale hyacinth gray in color.

I didn't think I'd ever gotten my hands on Mag Mell, but I looked through my untested imps and there it was. It looks to be a very well-aged imp. In the imp, it's bright lemon verbena and ginger mellowed by amber. The amber doesn't show up much on my skin, though. It starts out verbena and ginger, then the ginger cedes place to the grass. And then we have the cleansing droplets of summer rain, the bit that worried me, the bit that takes this into aquatic territory, which on my skin means soap. So it ends up a mildly soapy, grassy verbena, kind of a high-end spa scent. I wish I got some sage here. This is really nice until it is highjacked by the aquatic note.

I put this on yesterday when I was really rattled and angry. Our dog had slipped out while my husband had the sliding glass door open and was spraying a model airplane. She usually doesn't wander far and comes back when called, but we couldn't find her. He, my son and I were all out yelling for her. She finally came trotting out of a neighbor's yard. When we got her back in, I said she could no longer be outside without being leashed. "Yes, that's clear," my husband said. And then, as I headed downstairs to my office to give a lecture, I saw the sliding glass door was WIDE OPEN again, and my husband in a different room. So, Isychia. It's not the kind of thing I would have chosen as a scent -- ylang ylang is not me. I'm not sure what elemi or blue tansy smell like. It's a little bit tropical floral, a little astringent, a little citrusy. I was able to make out the chamomile more as it dried down. I think it helped me get my heart rate down so I could do my job. I'll have to try it again when I'm not in a panic situation, as part of the stated use of putting my own spiritual facemask on before I can help others.

The Imperfect Enjoyment has indeed aged beautifully, and I wish I had more than half a decant of it. It reminds me a little of Blood Kiss. Blood Kiss without the vanilla, cherries or honey. There is a sweetness here, though. I'm not sure where it's coming from, and it's very dark, but it's there. It's a smoky, sexy, clove-infused patchouli and myrrh. Gorgeous.

Crumpled Wrapping Paper smells just like wrapping paper. But not crumpled -- more like when you've just taken the plastic off a fresh roll and the ink it at its strongest. It's amazing to me how Beth recreates such a scent. Also, why. Once it's dry it's quite subtle, and the wear length is not great on me. But it's super interesting and realistic and I'm glad I got to try it.

Wet I got lots of orris, dry and powdery with a trace of bitterness on my skin. Gradually it was taken over by the coconut, and the combination worked surprisingly well on me. Soft tropical coconut with the orris keeping it from going foodie. I like this one!