Lucchesa

I wear a lot of scents I consider unisex, but my initial reaction to Mad Hatter wet was that it was too cologney. And then the pennyroyal came out, and I hadn't realized that pennyroyal was going to be mint, which is a doom note for me. The black musk of the drydown is very nice, but overall this is just not me.

Red wine is not one of my favorite notes because, duh, it smells just like red wine. That being said, Lilith is my favorite of the red wine blends I have tried so far. I always love the myrrh-black musk combination, and to my nose there is something spicy in this blend that's not accounted for in the listed components. The rose almost turns sour on my skin, but not quite. It's actually very beautiful; it's just not something I would wear.

An unexpected frimp in a decant order from a generous forumite! I am quite fond of the apiary, and I adore chestnuts. Roasting chestnuts is one of the most divine smells ever. This was one of the most anticipated scents on my wishlist. Alas, the odds that I will ever find a reasonably priced bottle are sadly slim, so I'll treasure this decant. I love the taste of raw chestnut, and I bit into a horse chestnut once. Really bad idea. I wasn't aware at the time that it was poisonous, but it tasted so ghastly that I spat it out immediately. And when I put Horse Chestnut Honey on my skin, I had a flashback to that experience. Maybe it was my imagination in overdrive, but for a moment I could almost taste the bitter toxicity of horse chestnut. This sensation passed quickly, and then it was honey, warm autumn honey. And soon after that, chestnut. Like marrons glaces made with honey. (Are there any marrons glaces blends in the catalog?) More honey on me than chestnut, but gorgeous, and like all the apiary blends, it has good throw and lastingness. Chock full of win!

Peach IV is the only one of the bunch I have tried, but it's a beauty. On wet, it was peach and oudh, lots of oudh, but within five minutes the oudh had stepped back to let the rest of the ingredients shine. Peach and wood and incense, and the peach is not overly sweet on me, just a hint of sweetness. I don't know what musk seed smells like, and I'm not getting much pitch. Not a lot of throw (which is usual for me) but it wears a long time. Very nice.

I would never have tried Sentimental Initiation without all the reviews telling me not to be afraid of the red musk. And they were right. Red musk is there, adding its va-va-voom to the mix, but it doesn't obliterate the other notes, and the mix is just gorgeous. The gentleness of the myrrh and black musk manages to manifest; the clove is present but not overpowering; I'm not getting much patch, nor much mandarin or vanilla except a kind of roundness. This isn't a sweet blend, but it is well balanced. I always get good throw and staying power from red musk (although usually all I get is red musk) and I suspect this will last all day. The decant was a gift to me, and I am giving it away, but I will be on the lookout for more in the future.

Snap-Dragon-Fly starts out on me with plum pudding, the Lab's lovely deep rich plum note, faintly boozy and spicy. But the plum is gradually supplanted by not raisin but grape, plus some of the pastry note that rarely works on my skin. Fortunately I don't make out any suet, which would turn me off even though I know intellectually that it's vegan suet. I know there was a Christmas Carol Yule with just plum pudding and holly -- I need to find some of that one. That would be perfect.

A whirling mélange of multicolored musks with wasabi, rooibos, heliotrope, and mastic. Chaotic wet is a screaming match of musks. There's stompy red musk and screechy white musk and gold musk and pink musk and lord knows which other musks and they are all trying to make their point as loudly as possible. So I get a ton of throw, and I never get a ton of throw unless red musk is amping its lungs out. It's kind of giving me a headache. An hour later the musks have agreed to disagree and I'm liking it much better. It has a fruity quality now. I can't pick out any wasabi, and I'm getting no skin irritation; I was worried about that. I'm not so familiar with the other notes, but it's kind of a flirty summery scent now. Still, I don't want to have to go through the opening again to get here. I have all the RPG imps; this is not one I need an extra of.

Wet on me, Western Diamondback is an even sweeter Snake Oil, which was not what I was expecting from dry components like sage, leather and sandalwood. So, tonka, leather and Snake Oil at first, and it's gorgeous. Like SO on me, it has a little throw (and I rarely get much sillage). If you like these ingredients, you can hardly go wrong here. The sandalwood and sage help keep the balance, but on my skin they stay well in the background. Gradually the leather and friends fade away and I'm left with Snake Oil, which does not last as ridiculously long on me as pure SO does. I will be retesting this but may be heading for a bottle purchase. So delighted I got to try this!

The Ta-Ta features four of my favorite notes, and I was very excited to be gifted some. At first, all I got was soft, warm leather and soft warm tobacco, seamlessly melded. And that is just fine with me -- it was beautiful in that wet stage, cozy and unisex. It took about an hour for this to develop and for the carnation to bloom on my skin. Leather, tobacco, spicy carnation -- not quite Spanked Revisited, one of my top ten, but up there. Really, really good. I never got a lot of coffee, and in another hour it was mostly gone, but this is well worth reapplying.

Plumeria and champagne dominate Thalia on my skin, with what almost seems like a citrus note. The pear remains in the background, so on drydown Thalia is a high-pitched fizzy floral that reminds me of a ditzy blonde -- kind of a Gracie Allen scent. Fun to try, but not for me.

ITI, Fearful Pleasure smells like apple cider that has orange slices floating in it. Wet, it was initially orange flower water on my skin, but as it dried down it bloomed into apple cider, oranges, and woodsmoke. It's a very nice autumnal blend but doesn't replace Samhain in my affections.

The Pearl in the Volcano is super lovely on me. I tested it this morning without glancing at the notes, and I got creamy fruity warm goodness. There's also a rich throaty quality which must be the touch of vetiver; I would not have identified this as a vetiver blend at all, but it does have more depth than I usually associate with shungas. And it passed the yoga test; I applied about half an hour before yoga and it was going strong throughout class, even giving occasional whiffs of gentle throw. It does not remind me of Young Pine Saplings, which my skin curdled. I love the Lab's rice milk and almond milk blends! Potential bottle for sure.

Like Lycanthrope, I'm kind of confused by Silk Strings. I tested Initiation Sentimentale yesterday, and THERE was some wisteria. That wisteria hit me over the head; here I have to sniff hard to find it. The clove is gentle on me, as is the frankincense, and the green tea note is what comes through most clearly on my skin, really lovely and grounding. But Silk Strings did not pass the yoga test. I applied about half an hour before my class and halfway through yoga it was already faint. So my skin devours yet another tea blend.

Azathoth is black, charred vetiver on me and lots of it. Then the cedar comes out to meet it, and it's a forest fire. (I say that like it's a bad thing, but it's not, necessarily.) Then I can make out the saffron, but it's all very, very dry. I put this on last night about an hour before bedtime, and then thought that it was one of those vetiver scents that needed at least two hours to develop into something gorgeous, so I stayed up another hour, but it never quite got there on me. What this scent needs is something juicy and sweet, something like, oh, tangerine. That would be perfect. But I'm getting no citrus here at all. This was a swap frimp, so I have no idea how old it is. It's possible a lab-fresh imp would have a lot more tangerine on board. I may keep this around for days when "forest fire" matches my mood, but I suspect one imp will last me years.

Most of these notes are reliably terrific on me. Then there's jasmine. And what do I get from The Caterpillar? Indolic jasmine. Nothing else wet. No neroli, no bergamot, no carnation, just stinky old jasmine. Eventually some incense emerges, but with my chemistry The Caterpillar's jasmine is an invasive species crowding out all the other plants, including the patch and vetiver. I love the concept, but it doesn't work on my skin.

I love lilac, sandalwood, benzoin and clove. Champaca can amp weirdly on me, white tea disappears, and I rarely smell the lab's pepper note. And I wasn't sure if I liked wisteria or not. So this was an experiment. It turns out that wisteria is kind of overpowering on me, and it's the main player in this scent. Wet I get strong spring florals, sandalwood and an almost citrusy white tea, and my hopes are high. For me to enjoy this scent, the non-floral components would need to hold their own with the flowers. But they don't; the sandalwood and tea fade quickly in drydown, and I'm left with armloads of purple flowers. I never make out either the pepper or the clove, and I don't get much benzoin, either. Some lilac, a little champaca, and lots and lots of wisteria. If you adore wisteria and lilac, this is a glorious combination of the two. But it's too floral on me.

On my skin, clove is the strongest note, followed by soft leather and a hint of olive blossom. This dries down into a gentle leather and clove blend that is a skin scent on me. It's quite lovely and quite unisex, and I imagine it will age really well.

Dance of Death, a frimp from a generous forumite, was not on my wishlist, maybe because all four notes can be iffy on me, orris in particular. So I'm a bit surprised that I am enjoying it this much. Yes, the orris is bone-dry, dusty, and overwhelms the blend when wet, but soon enough the myrrh and black musk emerge with a velvety quality. The patch is in hiding for the first hour and very subdued thereafter. This isn't the sort of thing I usually wear, but it is rich and strange, and I'm definitely keeping the imp.

Medea was a frimp albeit one I might well have chosen. I was hoping the incense and cypress would temper the florals more. Wet there is some sharpness from cypress and myrtle, I think, but as it melds with my skin it becomes a complex, heavy floral dominated by opium poppy. Coloristically, it's a very dark reddish purple, almost black. The evergreen and myrrh have receded entirely as identifiable notes and are just contributing to the feeling of complexity. It suits the character of Medea beautifully, but as I'm not planning to murder my offspring, I'm not sure where I would wear this one.

Scholars' Tower is gorgeous in the imp, a sort of masculine-leaning smoky, woody, incense-y amber, with a lovely balance between sweetness and smokiness. But as with so many of the library scents (Buggre All, FPS The Book), my skin just eats it up in no time. Sigh.

The Red Queen is quiet woods and fruit on my skin. Wet, it's cherry with just a bit of currant, and as it dries the woods become more and more prominent, edging the fruit into the background. It smells like polished mahogany; if there's cedar it's well behaved on me and doesn't turn into pencil shavings. This is a much drier, more restrained scent than The Phantom Calliope, my favorite cherry blend. Phantom Calliope is juicy and social; Red Queen is aloof, even sardonic. No throw and my skin eats it up fairly quickly.

On me Lust turns into sickly sweet red musk. I guess that's the ylang ylang? No patch in evidence nor any detectable myrrh. I suspect they may emerge in an hour or two, but I may not let this go on that long. I can see how this would be great on someone who doesn't have my problematic relationship with red musk, but Lust is not for me.

"Ooh, pretty," was my first reaction to Yemaya. It's sweet honeydew with a little floral and rounds into melon candy (one swap partner sent little green melon hard candies that tasted just like this smells). No aquatic soapiness on me. Fun, summery, girlish -- this would make a terrific gateway BPAL for my preteen niece.

Wet, Yorick is loamy black soil, deep and dark and rich and a little mysterious. As it dries I get the hint of a floral, not one I can easily put a name on, and the earthiness softens -- still recognizably dirt, but really lovely. It lasts fairly well on me. I'm learning that I quite enjoy the Lab's dirt note. Zombi made me inexpressibly melancholy, and the foody component of Penny Dreadful didn't work on me, but Yorick is very wearable. As an earlier reviewer commented, though, it doesn't really feel like a going out scent. More of a stay at home and read Thomas Hardy scent.

I'm on the fence about The Cat. It just arrived in the mail today, though secondhand, not fresh from the lab, so I probably should let it settle and test again next week. In the bottle I got a lot of benzoin and was very happy. But on my skin the cedar took over and really hasn't let up. It's a nice cedar, and as it dries it gets warm around with edges with some honey and benzoin. 90 minutes in I'm still waiting for the black musk to emerge. Ok, now about 2 hours in, The Cat is coming into its own, which is kind of amazing because with my skin, many BPALs are toast well within two hours. I'm starting to get the musk, the cedar is backing off, it's turning into a lovely warm deep comfort scent, but still with an outdoorsy vibe from the cedar. And it lasted nine hours. I think The Cat and I are going to be good friends.