Lucchesa

I had a very different experience from starbrow. On me, Apostrophe of Time is mostly neroli. I can smell the sage and the lemon peel, but the neroli overwhelms the bergamot, the amber and the labdanum. So on me, this is big-ass neroli, with undertones of lemon and clary sage, and the throw was all neroli. It lasted about half a day before needing refreshing.

Minna is so good. I tend to think of white patchouli as the more stripped-down lady-like variety, but the patchouli here is full-throated, and on wet I get lots of patch backed up by cognac and bourbon vanilla. The tobacco comes in as it dries down and warms up. I don't get tea but it's an ephemeral note on me, and the sage is present but barely. Really, this is a patchouli blend, and an excellent one, with good wear life and more throw than I usually get. Unisex and super sexy.

Lydia is wonderful on me -- I'm sorry I only have a tester. It's an almost spicy patchouli with dark sweet opium. Awadh is apparently oudh (just google) but it's only adding richness, nothing fecal here. The labdanum keeps it lighter than the other notes might suggest. Dark sweet resiny patchouli goodness, total win.

Honey musk is a stunning note I wish we saw more of. It's really the star here. Green tea is a note that my skin likes to devour, so on me Lady Una is honey musk with faint traces of vanilla and blackberry leaf (not the fruit -- it doesn't go berry candy, it's a very different note) and presumaby whatever fae spices might be, something faintly herbal I would guess. Absolutely gorgeous and a beautiful summer scent, though it's one I can imagine being worn year-round.

I love Ask the Nearest Hippie! I am usually the nearest hippie in most situations, but I almost never indulge anymore in what is now a legal substance, and I was afraid this blend would be all about the cannabis. And indeed it is, for the first ten minutes. Patchouli, vanilla, and the dank green must of weed. And this was definitely going in the not safe for work pile when the cannabis faded out of the picture entirely, leaving me a gorgeous dry patch and vanilla bean. It really is a close cousin to Banshee Beat once the pot accord burns off. This is much more wearable than Stoned Griffin, which was a surprise hit on me but definitely not for leaving the house in. Really beautiful with good wear life, and if you are at all a lover of patchouli and vanilla, you must try this. I don't know what took me so long.

Leather, leather, leather. Dusty leather. Strong. The booze and tobacco are there, but afterthoughts. Saloon #10 is all about the leather, and apparently I need my leather cut with something softer because this is kind of overwhelming.

I had the feeling that Bawd would be one of the roses that works on my skin. I was right. Bawd is, however, almost all rose on me. The "raucous red velvet musk" is curiously quiet on me, not my usual experience with red musk. The patchouli is also barely there. This is mainly full red rose and peony with a little vanilla, and my skin eats it up within three hours.

Joyful Dalliances in the Underworld is underwhelming on me. It starts out cherry cognac with that fiery note, whatever it is, inherent in the word "aflame." (You know that note, it's in things described as hearth flame and whatnot.) Then I get apricot and low-key vetiver, like Depraved with vetiver replacing the patchouli, and the leather is faintly apparent. It never gets any stronger on me. I was hoping for A. leather, B. cherry cognac, C. smoky vetiver. I get mainly fruit, and my skin eats it quickly.

Candle scents are one of my favorite categories, so I do not know how I missed this one. It's gorgeous, with unusually good throw on me. Lots and lots of beeswax with a soft, dry patchouli grounding it. This is reminiscent of Lights of Men's Lives plus very well-behaved, non-gnarly patchouli. But the patch is not the star here; the beeswax is. Gorgeous.

This Tattie Bogle was a gift (thank you!!!) so I don't know its vintage. The gunpowder is the most prominent note on me, especially when wet. Gunpowder that's in a very unsafe place with warm hay and bone-dry woods. If you lit a match, this would explode, and there would be lots of fuel for the flames. The drydown is softer, bright autumn day, cologne-like, definitely on the masculine end of the unisex spectrum, but still with that bite of gunpowder.

I don't do jasmine and would never have tried this had it not been included as a frottle in a recent decant circle and generously shared with participants. Mrs. Wilson is almost all jasmine on me, with the citrus in the background. But it's THAT jasmine, the one that is the exception on my skin, the one that is rich and round and sweet and creamy and altogether gorgeous. I have occasionally found this jasmine in other blends but I wear florals so rarely that I can't tell you offhand which ones they are. If you love the smell of jasmine and it goes all cat pee on your skin, TRY THIS. I'll be passing on my decant because big ole florals just aren't me, but I can still appreciate how gorgeous this is.

I was afraid Mead Moon 2020 would be too fruity on me, but I was buying the shirt so I wanted to at least try it. Now I'm considering a bottle. I agree with everyone here who says this is so cunningly blended that you can't pull apart the ingredients except for the honey-forward mead. This is a warm golden honey -- it isn't effervescent on me, which is good because that descriptor usually doesn't work for my skin. The blackberry doesn't turn into candy, and the citrus is a very light touch, as are the spices. This doesn't read like a Weenie or autumnal scent, nor is it particularly boozy. It's a gently spiced, gently fruity, midsummer honey, and it lasts all day. It makes me want to go to a Renaissance faire out in the countryside and pretend that modernity hadn't happened.

@FuryI'm wearing Mead Moon today and loving it! Golden mead fermented with gruit, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger root, sweet-briar, lemon, orange slices, and blackberries. It doesn't specifically say honey, but it's a very honey-forward mead.

Schmendrick is growing on me. I'm getting more of a general cologne vibe than any of the individual components. It's certainly not foodie on my skin, though the caramel (and maybe the sultana?) is there in the wet stage. I was hoping for a chewy sweet tobacco, but the tobacco also gets subsumed in the overall cologne feel, along with the sage and sandalwood. This definitely leans to the masculine side of unisex, and it has better than average throw and staying power on me.

Apparently I never reviewed this. It is gorgeous. I pulled it out this morning for some reason -- I needed some aromatherapy for a long grueling drive. It starts off (of course) with a blast of lavender, but that never lasts on me. Still, it was nice, as was the citrus and the cypress, very high end spa treatment. Then it warmed up with the amber and patchouli, each note clear as a bell, then they all meld together into a harmony, becoming one thing, mainly amber-patch-cypress, that almost had a leathery bent to it, which is I think why so many reviewers are describing it as masculine. I think it's perfectly gender neutral and since it's still available, I may need to pick up a bottle.

Halite is not aquatic. My Country has aquatic and rose notes. If you can’t do aquatic like me, definitely go for Halite Phoenix. If you love ocean and rose, you might prefer My Country.

My decant of Gingerbread & Lemon Sugar started out exactly as advertised. Sweet lemony gingerbread, more of a gingery gingerbread than a really sticky molasses gingerbread. And it lasted this way for an hour or two before my skin turned it into... banana bread? Oops, banana is really not for me. So I loved how it started out but not where it ended up. But I'm thrilled I got to try it thanks to a very generous forumite!

I don't even remember what update Melancholy Inferno is from. I received it from the Orphanage -- many thanks!!! -- and was interested primarily for the unusual tomato leaf note. I love that smell! But all I really get here is charred red musk. I laughed when I read the first review describing it as a tame starting point for folks afraid of red musk. My vial or my skin must be the exception. Red musk and burned wood -- I really wanted that tomato note so badly!

The Madam is not in my wheelhouse, but was kindly given to me. I imagined the jasmine would ruin it, but no, it's the rose, going all sour on me. I'm not actually getting jasmine at all, but the rose/sandalwood combination is going wrong on me, and no amount of patchouli, tonka or musk can save it. Oh well, I didn't have high hopes for this one, and I'm delighted I got to test it!

I'm so glad I got the chance to try this long-discontinued scent. It's all berries at first, a tricky note on me, as it usually ends up as berry candy. The musk helps keep the berries in check, and it's reminding me of Bewitched. Unfortunately, I get hardly any carnation, my favorite floral note. I suspect it's faded with age and would have been more of a player a few years back.

I didn't buy To My Dear And Loving Husband because champaca is usually terrible on me and agarwood is oudh and can be stinky. All the other notes are well within my wheelhouse, though. I was lucky enough to be given this by a marvelous forumite. The agarwood behaves here, and at first this was really promising, with the vanilla-copal-patchouli combination reminding me of Kabe Ni Mimi, with tea, except that bourbon vanilla is more reliable on my skin. Tea rarely lasts on my skin though. And then the champaca came out to ruin things. Champaca is rarely quiet on me, and it upsets the balance here. I'm so glad I got to try it, and it almost worked! I think this would be lovely on a champaca fan -- don't be scared by the agarwood, it's just a deepening note here, not a fecal one.

Kabe Ni Mimi just missed my short list of Lupers I was buying decants of; a super generous forumite gifted it to me. Similarly, it kind of just misses on my skin. My first impressions of Kabe Ni Mimi were vanilla, copal and gnarly patchouli. Now that I know it's there, the sandalwood is obvious, too. The opening is promising, and the late drydown, mostly that vanilla sandalwood, is gorgeous, but it goes through an awkward phase on me where the vanilla-patch-copal combination is just not gelling on me. Some vanillas go weird on my skin, and that's happening here for a time. If I could eliminate the middle, this would be a great scent.

I don't usually wear fruit-only scents, but fig and cherry are two of my favorite fruit notes, and an ultra generous forumite passed this decant on to me. It's a satisfying dark chewy fig well balanced at first with a rich red cherry. There's a slight almost Jolly Rancher tartness to the cherry, an earthiness to the fig. Delicious! But because I wear fruit so seldom, I will probably pass this baby on.

I'm surprised no one has compared Die Flamme Reinigt Sich to Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke from the most recent Yules. They are very similar, or more precisely, Die Flamme is similar to what C&HS smelled like last December. Now, months later, C&HS is richer and rounder, though still not chestnutty enough for my tastes. This is lots and lots of bonfire smoke with the nuttiness of roasting chestnuts and slightly bitter acorns. After two or three hours, the smoke has receded somewhat, as have the nuts, and I'm left with a smoky frankincense note. Amber, cedar, labdanum and vanilla are missing in action on me, unfortunately, but I have a feeling this will age beautifully.

Tiresias on me is caramel and woods (which could be teakwood, but I checked the components, and no, it's caramel, sandalwood and patch). Then it's caramel, woods and tobacco. Caramel can go off the rails on me, but this is really nice; the woods restrain it, and then it melds right into the sticky tobacco, which I adore. So it ends up not foodie at all on me. I'm not getting cinnamon, currant or lily of the valley, but those are the three notes I wasn't particularly interested in here anyway. After an hour or two it's a skin scent of caramelly, woody tobacco with a slight hint of spice -- delicious.