Lucchesa
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Everything posted by Lucchesa
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Sadly, the Crescent Moon is not working well with my chemistry. It’s quite high-pitched and a little soapy on me, as if some white musk and aquatic notes had wandered into the mix. I need to go through my spreadsheet to see if my skin has reacted this way to copal in the past. I’m not getting identifiable amber, which would usually dominate drydown on me, and only the faintest hint of sage and juniper. Strange because these notes should have been gorgeous.
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All Ruinous Disorders has had a year to age now, and when I first apply it to my skin, I get Coca Cola. All those gorgeous complex notes, and my skin gives me coke. It mellows into something richer, dark and sweet, in which I have trouble picking out any of the individual notes. I'm not getting the strongly green scent other reviews mention, which may be my skin and may be the aging process. It's totally unisex, more comforting than sex bomb, and I get a little throw with it which I don't often get from my chemistry. Don't be put off by the "smoked" or "blackened" descriptions; this isn't a vetiver blast. It's cola. But better.
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Mmm, An Encampment of Shepherds is nice, and definitely unusual. Rose tobacco is a beautiful note I would like to see more of -- it's that sweet blonde tobacco, and while rose is always iffy on me, it does not turn sour here. Nothing indolic about this oudh, just a warm woodiness that balances the dusty terracotta note. I really don't have anything else like this; I would not have thought of Flickering Lantern, but it is true this is in a similar vein but without the beeswax notes. Lovely!
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My notes for this said only "Try again," so I am. I think Indian musk must be similar to red musk, or at least that's how it's behaving on my skin. In other words, this is all about the musk for the first hour or so. After that, I begin to get resins and some dark woods, but it's still dominated by the musk. I can't make out bergamot or ambrette. My overall impression is of red musky woody resins, dark and unisex without a lot of sweetness.
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Pumpkin Spice Sanguinem Menstruum
Lucchesa replied to RedPersimmon's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
I won a half decant in a FB PIF and got to try this!!! I totally agree with Red Persimmon that this is a morpher; in fact, my experience was quite similar. PSSM started out all pumpkin spice on me, then the honey joined the pumpkin spice. The spice faded as the red musk emerged, then the red musk faded as the opium poppy emerged. The final drydown is all honey and opium poppy. I don't get (or miss) the metallic blood notes. I also don't get the headiness or staying power of regular SM (not something I wear to work!). I think this has the possibility of aging really well, though, and knitting the pumpkin spices together with the goddess on the rag. -
Pop-out Eyeball Glasses HG is fun, fizzy, bright and lemony on me, with a side of blueberries. I can't say I can really make out the black currant, but it's not like I miss it. This is glorious, with great throw and wear length -- I could still smell it in my hair 24 hours after application. It would pair delightfully with Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat.
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Dead Leaves, Bourbon Vetiver, Nagarmotha, and Vanilla Absolute
Lucchesa replied to ladymeag's topic in Halloweenie
Dead leaves, subtle vetiver, and mostly what must be nagarmotha because I don't recognize it as any of the other ingredients. Tbere's something almost citrusy on my skin here, which may be what is striking other reviewers as an ozone note. Vanilla is present, again subtly, in the drydown, but I was hoping for more vetiver, more bourbon and more vanilla. I'll retest in a couple weeks to see how it's settling down. ETA Four years later, DL & sweet long-lasting vetiver, gorgeous! -
DL, Black Tea and Tobacco Leaf, or as I like to think of it, Leaves3, hits my skin with a strong rich black tea note dominant. "Enjoy it while it lasts," I tell myself, as my skin invariably eats up tea notes the way my daughter devours honey nut cheerios. So I settled back and waited for the tea to disappear. And waited. Drove half an hour, still there. Taught a class, still there. It was as if the tobacco and dead leaves were pinning the tea to my skin, making it impossible for it to leave. So while I didn't get quite as much of the French tobacco note I was hoping for from ladymeag's review, I did get an unexpectedly long-lasting tea note that was beautiful with a ground of tobacco and dead leaves. Of the leaf pile blends I've tried so far this year, this one has the least powerful dead leaves note.
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Oudh is hit or miss on me. Here it's hit. At first all I got was honey and dead leaves, which is a pretty killer combination, very earthy, not too sweet, and then the oudh weighed in, doing its warm, sexy, deepening thing without being all dirty diapers. I don't get much throw from this, which is normal for my skin, but I get a kind of rich warm autumn honey, with the leaves and oudh backing it up. Really nice!
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Dead Leaves and Maple Sap is beautiful and long-lasting on me, with a little throw (something I rarely get with my skin chemistry). It's a lovely balance of the dead leaves note with some live leaves and maple syrup, but it's not too sweet, and it does not read as foodie on me. It reminds me quite a bit of October, which is a win in my book. Autumnal, long-lasting, and work appropriate.
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This is really nice in the vial, dead leaves with warm sweet coffee. My skin kind of ate it up, so I'm going to rest my decant a couple weeks and try again because I really want this to work on me!
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Lust was awful on me. Lust and Malice each have four notes, three of which are patchouli, myrrh and ylang ylang. Malice substitutes clove for Lust's red musk, and that makes all the difference. Ylang ylang is never my favorite note, but after an initial blast of tropical blooms, it settles back to let the patch, myrrh and clove duke it out. So this is not a floral blend on me, but a spicy resinous one. It takes a long time to settle the balance between the three components, so that sometimes when I sniff my wrist the clove dominates, sometimes the myrrh or the patch. I actually enjoy that quality in a scent. It keeps things interesting. The late drydown is a soft, dark myrrh/clove skin scent, very beautiful. I didn't have high hopes for Malice, but it works surprisingly well on me.
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I keep trying the Lab's manuscript/library scents (The Book x2, Buggre All This Bible, etc) and keep being disappointed by how instantly they disappear on my skin, if they ever bother to turn up at all. But hope springs eternal, and I am stubborn. And my persistence is finally repaid in The Manuscript. Not only does it stick around, but it has some throw, which I hardly ever get with my skin chemistry. Soft brown leather, a little dusty, ink and paper, and that ineffable chilly note that may be what anchors this to my skin. I love this -- I'm so delighted I got the opportunity to try it!
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In the imp and wet on my skin, The Gorobble was all caramelized sugar. Like a marshmallow roasted by a perfectionist into a gentle golden brown. I wanted that burnt marshmallow, and it took about half an hour for the smoky scent I was hoping for to emerge on my skin. It's really nice if you're fond of slightly smoky foodies, but I prefer the current Lilith Scorched Marshmallows.
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I can smell the lovely blackened woods notes in the imp, but on my skin everything gets drowned out by the cloying sweetness of the dragon's blood. DBR does that on me, all too often, but the other notes sounded so lovely that I had to take a chance. I think this would be gorgeous on someone who can wear dragon's blood.
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Dragon's blood is not usually my jam, and red musk tends to take over, but the other notes tend to be good on me, and Bloodlust works surprisingly well on my skin. It reminds me of parts of both Blood Kiss (without the honey-vanilla thing) and Wrath. The red musk is kind of drowning out the DBR, and that's fine with me, but the patch and vetiver are keeping the red musk in check. I only get a tiny hint of cinnamon. This is a powerful scent, not for the faint of heart, not for the vetiver-avoidant. I like it.
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Bloodlust Bonbon started out all Bloodlust on me -- really, all red musk, taking over as red musk tends to do on my skin. Then I got some DBR, a little smoky vetiver, and half an hour later, yes, out comes the cacao, making this a little deeper, smokier Bloodlust, not ever really chocolate-y. I get only a little throw from this, but it lasts a long time and it really warm, sexy and lovely.
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I was hoping for more glowing firewood, possibly some roasting chestnuts, and less sherry cobbler. Wine notes are often too sweet on me to begin with, and this is combined with fruit, the apples and oranges of the extended description. So on me this is a warm fruity sherry (I do not get spice - not a mulled wine sort of thing), and only after two or three hours does a smoky "hearth" note become prominent. So the late drydown was lovely, but overall it was much too fruity for my tastes.
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A super generous forumite frimped me a tester of this. So good. So rich. So...French. I want to bathe in it. You can't bathe in a tester, sadly.
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I loved last year's Zip Line; this one sounded too foody for me. But I added it to my decant order after the first two reviews, hoping for a nutty sweet patchouli scent. Sadly, on my skin the patchouli and hay are missing in action. Lots of very sweet butterscotch rum candy and funnelcake, no patch. Zipline Part II reminds me a great deal of Grog (and when I want to wear Grog, I'll wear Grog). I don't know why my skin has it in for the poor defenseless patchouli, but yeah, this one's too foody for me. But foody lovers who are worried about the patch should give it a try!
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I don't wear a lot of lavender because my skin eats it up, but I do think it's beautiful and love to try lavender scents. This one is lovely and gentle, and I can see it being a good sleep scent, especially because (as is usual with my skin) I didn't get a lot of wear length from it. I generally get an opening blast of lavender, and Puppet Kitty is no different in that regard. Then it mellows into a skin musk with warm wafts of what must be the cotton and wool notes, with a gentle background of lavender.
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This is so beautiful! I've been wearing it with October, and it's a delightful combination. This is mainly fresh maple leaves and sap on me. The cedar is evident on first spritz but quickly softens, and the pine and moss are just a gentle backdrop to the glorious maple leaves. They're not dead leaves, but they're bright red touched with green in my imagination, still clinging to the tree.
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2015 All Souls. I have been avoiding this one because the currant cakes in Eat Me are a complete disaster on my skin. But this All Souls gives me just a whisper of currant and cake but is mostly lovely sweet incense - definitely not a foodie blend on me. No throw (which is normal for me) but good wear length.
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Dead Leaves, Red Musk and Neroli introduces me to a new animal: reticent red musk. When it hits my skin, all I can smell is dead leaves (the wonderful gorgeous dead leaves note I love) and neroli. I expected this to be more like red musk, red musk and red musk, so this is a surprise. After about half an hour the red musk begins to emerge and it becomes exactly the scent I was hoping for, the fruitiness of the musk balancing the bitter citrus of the neroli, all smothered in the lovely pile of dead leaves. But for some reason, my skin eats this up in a little over an hour. I'm delighted I got to try it, though.
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It's so interesting to read the early reviews for Dead Leaves, Bourbon Vanilla and Myrrh because I am having the opposite experience of most of my peers. I get very little in the way of dead leaves from my decant and lots of bourbon vanilla and myrrh. The drydown on my skin is entirely vanilla and myrrh, which is a lovely combination -- looking through my spreadsheet, I don't see it in a lot of places. But I was hoping for some dead leaves as well.