Lucchesa

Evidently I never reviewed Blood Kiss. Wow. It seems like you either love it or you hate it, and I love it. It was the first vetiver blend I fell in love with after scents like Rumpelstilzchen had me running away screaming. It's one of the very few red wine scents that works on my skin, and the clove stays joined at the hip with the vetiver so that it doesn't go all spice cabinet. All that darkness -- wine, vetiver, clove -- is tempered by the sweetness of cherry, honey and vanilla, and probably opium as well, which is usually both dark and sweet on me. It all combines into one of the most unabashedly sensual scents in my collection. I don't wear this to work because it has some throw and I would get distracted by sniffing my wrists. Blood Kiss makes me feel ridiculously sexy. Think Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger. It's a brilliant Halloween-month scent, too. Just, love.

Rose, there's definitely rose in Black Cat, and powdery myrrh. I'm not getting mint like so many other reviewers -- which is good, I'm not big on mint -- but there is definitely something herbal, and I would not be the tiniest bit surprised if it were catnip, which I think is in the mint family. This is not something I'd wear for the notes; I hardly ever wear rose blends unless they're sugary. But I may keep the imp around for its voodoo properties.

I tested Yuletide 2014 without checking the notes, and they wouldn't have helped because despite having a big holly hedge in my front yard, I really don't know what holly berries smell like. I thought I was smelling cranberries, with some evergreen around the edges. Too fruity for me! Not much throw (which is normal for me) and my skin ate it up within about three hours. I do agree it would make a lovely candle scent.

Tum on me was warm honey and dark fruit. I didn't specifically get grape like everyone else seems to have, but after reading the review thread and resniffing the imp (it's evening now and Tum is long gone), yep, it does smell a lot like the grape note in Bess. I like it but don't love it, so it will go to swaps for someone else to try. Tum wears close the the skin, which is normal on me, and has about average wear length.

I tested Muse of Fire blind, and it struck me as an effervescent fruity floral. Champagne came to mind, as did pineapple. I also think there may be jasmine or jessamine in here, because I got a little bit of cat pee. Other than that, I can't identify any of the florals except that on me they read as tropical and bright in tone. I think in the future I won't try sugared florals unless I have a little more control over exactly which florals they are. Good wear length, though.

The Torture Queen goes on all chrome on me. It's a chilly scent, a little higher pitched than I usually wear. Gradually it settles down into a cool, sophisticated floral, surprisingly unisex. Gardenia is a good note on me, white tea always disappears rapidly, and vanilla musk has been wonderful in the past, but here there seems to be some crystalline or white musk in the mix that doesn't mesh with my skin as well. The late drydown is all ambergris, as is usually the case on me, which I love. Very little throw and only average wear length on my middle-aged skin.

I would not have tried Solanine had VetchVesper not A. suggested I might like it and B. frimped it to me. So thanks, VV! It has a lot more flowers than I usually wear, but none of the ones I avoid out of hand -- tuberose, jasmine, etc. Wet, Solanine is a very green floral, and I agree with all and sundry that this is a poisonous green. It made me think of the wicked queen if she had tried to poison Snow White with a basket of flowers instead of an apple, but I think Dark Alice's mention of Poison Ivy is more apt. The green smells like snapping a vine that you're pulling out because it's trying to overgrow your garden. Morning glory comes to mind. I'm not getting identifiable rose or lily, which is fine, just a pretty heady mixed bouquet. This definitely seems like a Rappaccini's Garden kind of scent. I'm really glad I got to try this one, and while it's still too floral for me to chase down a big bottle, I will be keeping my decant for my Poison Ivy or hedge witch days!

Casanova is a strong, citrusy men's cologne on me. I wear a lot of unisex scents, but this bordered on too masculine even for me. And it's a higher-pitched cologne scent than what I usually wear. The leather didn't really emerge on me until drydown, and then it was really nice, but while wet it had so much throw that it made me self-conscious (I don't usually get much throw at all, so I'm not really used to broadcasting my scent in other people's faces). I think this would be terrific on someone with a more masculine presentation and a lot of self-assurance.

Red wine is a tricky note on me, but I love opoponax and yes, the name is awesome. The Ghost of Clytemnestra on me is a very dark, blood- and resin-stained wine with some dark evergreen notes grounding it. It's powerful, both in terms of throw and wear length and in its very essence. This is no Alice or Maiden. Clytemnestra evokes ancient blood rituals, links to primordial powers. She doesn't seduce; she enslaves. Do I like it? Not as an everyday scent. I like my opoponax syrupy; everything here is harsh and unrelentingly dark. But I will definitely keep my decant for situations where I need to play a bitch goddess. Here's the link to the image this scent was supposedly based on, but IMO it's not very good. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Downman_-_The_Ghost_of_Clytemnestra_Awakening_the_Furies_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg This perfume is a far better work of art than the Downman painting.

I've worn Karikkotsu a couple of times lately as it's the only imp in my car right now and I removed my purse imps for TSA recently and haven't put them back (going to do that as soon as I finish this review). Fortunately, Karikkotsu is beautiful and work-appropriate. She knows she's out of the league of everyone else in the room, but she's only a tiny bit condescending about it. I've been burned by black oudh lately, but white oudh is something I need to seek out: very polished, elegant, even snooty, but not indolic. I don't usually wear iris, but it works here, tying together these pale, dry components. And although my middle aged skin usually drinks things right up, I get better wear length than many earlier reviewers, so age may be helping with that.

Wet, the galbanum hijacks Pottery Phoenix on me. It's the unfamiliar note to me in this trio, and I wish I could describe it because it does connect with a scent memory playing around the edges of my consciousness, but I can't pin it down. I've even googled it and am getting impressions like "very fresh, vegetal and sharp," but it's not helping me be any more specific. It settles down in 30 minutes or so and then the sandalwood and myrrh come through; the drydown is very nice but less distinctive (I have other sandalwood and myrrh scents I prefer).

Winter (de Tuin Van de Vicaris Onder Sneeuw) kind of went backward on me, in terms of seasons. It starts out very wintry, with a blast of the minty snow note that I don't care for as much, and then the strong conifer notes, with lots of juniper. It's a blast of January, but as it dries down, over about an hour the juniper and other evergreens soften and recede and what I'm left with is the dead leaves note, so I'm back in early November. Maybe the fellow in the painting is unearthing the dead leaves as he shovels away the snow.

Honeyed cedar. So good! If those two notes work for you, don't miss The Pillars. Woods and honey myrtle with the resins in the background, just beautiful. I didn't get great wear length from this, but I was in a hurry and applied straight out of the shower without any moisturizer, so I suspect lasting power is normally pretty decent.

In the imp Slaugh is delightfully rootbeery, but it goes on minty on my skin, which I had forgotten had happened once before with sassafras -- Laudanum was straight-up toothpaste on me. I'm not a fan of mint. Eventually the toothpaste vibes settled down enough for me to appreciate the tonka and black tea, and the champaca was perfectly well-behaved, but the drydown would have had to be incredibly fabulous to salvage the scent for me. I'll be passing this decant on.

I will retest The Dream is Big Enough for Everyone in a couple more days because today my skin just ate up the patchouli. I got honeyed fig and creamy redcurrant with a base of warm feminine oudh. I'm hoping a little more age will allow the patchouli to come forward; right now it's a little sweet for me, though very lovely.

I'm very particular about foodies, and the operative word that attracted me here for me was "scorched." So when I first applied Scorched Marshmallow and all I got was milk chocolate, graham cracker and warm marshmallow, I didn't think it would work for me. Too sticky sweet. But within minutes, the smoky note emerged on my skin, and the combination with the s'mores scent was glorious. I got better throw from this scent than I usually get and good wear length too. It's not heavy; the sweetness and smokiness stay in a nice balance on me, and it's a wonderful sweet campfire scent. Win!

I'm unfamiliar with palo santo -- a quick search of my database shows I've never tried it in any scent -- but I know that labdanum can have an almost cola-like sweetness. That being said, this was so different from what I expected that I wondered if I'd received a mislabeled decant of Absurd Origin Story. So take this review with a big grain of salt. On me, this smells very reminiscent of cola Willy Wonka Bottlecaps candy from my childhood. Low throw and average wear length.

Embalming Fluid?

I was worried about the shadow oudh here as I've been burned a couple times by black oudh recently. I should have realized that, being a Lilith, it would be a soft, pretty oudh, nothing to fear. I get very little patchouli in Euterpe's Ukulele. It is mostly sweet plum, soft dark oudh, and a gentle floral that must be osmanthus. My skin eats this up fairly quickly, but I suspect age will help the wear length. Maybe the patchouli will emerge with aging as well.

Count me in on the She-Goat lovefest here, from another native Californian. The evergreen notes (juniper and cypress) are most prominent when wet, along with the sagebrush. As always, they soften as it dries, and then I get a warm, dry, sunny outdoor scent that evokes the California foothills in summer, with bees bumbling all around, maybe some dragonflies buzzing, and it doesn't morph much from here. Though I think I can smell the California lilac, this is not a floral on me by any means. I get a little throw from this (more than is usual for me) and good wear length. The She-Goat is a beauty!

Wet, Phantom Queen smells very clean on me. Clean and springtimey, like what Irish Spring soap ought to smell like but doesn't. I didn't get a discrete apple note; this was definitely floral and herbal, not fruity on me. Though I like clover scents, this one has too much dew along for the ride. Try Phantom Queen if you like The Fairies, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, or Glasgow.

A carnivorous enchantress: diverse, lovely and graceful, emitting a sticky, glowing golden, sweet and terminally inviting scent. Its dew is believed to grant eternal beauty and longevity, and restore vitality and vigor to the magician. I couldn't really identify any of the notes when testing, then I checked and saw that was because there were no notes. If I had to guess (and obviously I do), I would say some kind of jungle greenery, honeysuckle or sweet tropical floral, amber and a sweet orange or mandarin, something like Xiuhtecuhtli without the incense. Green and gold in tone. The drydown was lovely and long-lasting, sweet amber and growing things.

I agree with a couple of other reviewers that the combination of black musk (which almost always works on me) and white musk (which rarely works on me) with the golden amber settles into something like fruity red musk -- maybe there's some red musk in a rusty iron note? Actually, the drydown is a little like Smut on me, almost with a cola sweetness. This is not nearly as masculine as Czernobog from the GC -- We Cared is definitely unisex. No throw (normal for my skin) but good wear length. ETA On a second test, I do get some throw. I keep wondering, what am I wearing that has red musk in it? Red musk tends to do that taking the hell over thing on me, but it's actually really nice here.

I wasn't sure The Mournful Influence was going to work on me at first. It was nice, but not outstanding. But the longer it has stayed on my wrist, the deeper and more beautiful it has gotten. The patchouli comes more and more to the forefront, and the resins get warmer and sweeter. I don't find this melancholy at all, and it is more hippie than ecclesiastical on me, but it's gorgeous and I will get a lot of wear out of it this winter.

Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. The Great Sword of War doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Foody or sultry? Right off the bat it's mandarin-red musk-tobacco, with a little chocolate. I never get the tea, but my skin often swallows up tea notes, so that's not surprising; the saffron is quiet, too. The last time I tested this I was certain I knew at least one of the classical herbs of conflict, but now I can't remember what I thought it was. The red musk takes over a bit, as red musk tends to do on me. The result is kind of strange, and I'm not sure where I would wear it, though I love the name and the concept. ETA Jan 2021: I actually do wear Great Sword of War with pleasure -- it's a great scent if you need to do battle of any kind (workplace, relationship) but want to stay calm and grounded and not project any martial intentions. I find it both sexy and comforting.