Lucchesa

My first vulva! (There's a phrase you don't get to type every day.) This was a tester from a generous swapper, and thank you so much for sharing, because this one is really hoard-worthy. A sweet, creamy pale pink floral, perfect for a walk through a Japanese garden in full bloom. Sweet pea is always a good note on me; cherry blossom can go plastic, but I needn't have worried because it's quite realistic here. Ethereal in tone and yet with good presence and a little throw. No wonder this is impossible to come by.

Re-testing because I realized I'd never reviewed this and because of the above review that likens it to Red Lantern. And I see where LizziesLuck is coming from -- there's something in the opening here, which my notes describe as acrid, that is similar to the opening of Red Lantern, caramel but initially sharp tobacco. They don't share any notes, and I wouldn't have made the connection on my own. The similarity doesn't last; Lysander develops into quite a nice summertime blend, not masculine but androgynous. The lilac and lime are prominent on me, the violet non-existent. If you like Whitechapel, this is likely to be lovely on you, too.

Oh my goodness, this aged decant is beautiful! It is sweet, I concur on that, but other than the coconut I have trouble picking out any of the individual notes. The pear is subtle, as if it has been caramelized with all the other notes. It reminds me of Startled Toad -- haven't tested that for a while, though (hoarding my quarter decant). Rich, warm, sexy but still daytime appropriate.

This is a lovely warm resiny blend, with the bourbon vanilla very much in the background. But I have so many resiny blends that unless this absolutely knocked my socks off, I wouldn't need to go in search of more. I do love Christina Rossetti, though! ETA Oh my, this lasts a long time and mellows into such a beautiful grounding scent. So much loveliness, even in scents that don't wow me right off the bat.

Pumpkin, straight off the bat, that lovely, buttery BPAL pumpkin. Pumpkin and honey. Pumpkin, honey and vanilla. There might be a hint of pumpkin pie spice in here that makes it read as "pumpkin-y," but it's subtle. Not a big morpher, and it lasts a good while. I recently reread an early review of Baron Samedi where I mentioned that I had no intention of ever smelling like pumpkin. Ha! OK, I admit it, I was clueless and wrong. Golden, autumnal, I would smell like The Witches any October or November day!

This is an unusual combination. It's all almond extract at first, but once the almond fades, which on me is always pretty quickly, it's not the least bit foody. I agree with velvet that the something about the woodiness resembles cedar early on, and almond-cedar is novel to me. It ends up faint leather with really well-behaved oudh and woody patchouli. I don't find it too masculine, but I dig a lot of unisex scents.

Oh my, this is gorgeous. Orris doesn't usually do anything for me, but I want all the honey musk and all the rice milk, and gardenia is a floral that tends to be creamy and just lovely on me. Yes, this is quiet but not muted, if that makes any sense. It has a fully formed personality. Honey musk is inobtrusive but also damned sexy, so this would transition beautifully from an office situation to an intimate tete-a-tete with the object of one's desire.

I'm not sure if I smelled lavender on first application because I knew this scent was supposed to describe a full-grown Lilith and I associate Lilith with lavender or if it's actually in there. For me there was a kind of lavender-tinged cloud floating above the deeper notes. I'm going to need to retry this when I'm not freshly showered because even though I did apply a base of unscented lotion, this disappeared on me right away. Still, it is deeply beautiful, and I could sense the love and care that went into this creation.

Whoa, this one is floral! What was I thinking? But the honey begins to enter the scene on drydown, nice light clean honey, not sexpot honey, and it is a honey floral in a gorgeous late spring meadow. Honeysuckle may be one of the wildflowers. I'm not familiar with dandelion as a BPAL note, but I don't get the smell I associate with pulling the damned things. Very nice spring daytime scent, appropriate for public consumption.

How did I never review Bast? It is rarely out of my ever-shifting top ten. Amber, honey, cardamom, myrrh: Bast is golden, like the last rays of the setting sun. The cacao is dry, adding depth and richness, and the bourbon vanilla is snuggly, but this is not a chocolate or a foodie blend. It's an aureole of sensual warmth and radiant light. Bast is the rare blend I can wear all year round for any occasion. I can wear it in Sacramento in the summer when it's 103 degrees; I can wear it to heat up a dreary Seattle February. I wear it when I want to feel ridiculously sexy; I wear it to feel effective and confident at work. Bastet is grown-up, powerful, secure in her own skin. She's, well, a lion goddess. Wear it and channel her.

Ill-Mannered Dragon is strong! I am a big fan of Dragon's Milk, and Dragon's Milk with coconut and neroli sounded fantastic. But dragon's blood can go hugely cloying on me, and it does here; I was hoping the bitter neroli would temper that saccharine quality. For the first 45 minutes or so, the neroli barely shows up, and the vanilla and coconut get subsumed in the overwhelming dragon's blood. I get little hints of coconut and vanilla until finally the bracing neroli puts in an appearance, but it's too little, too late. I'm going to try this one again in a few days, when it's not fresh from the mailbox (a generous wishlist frimp from a lovely swap partner), because I really want this one to work, but the dragon's blood resin may simply be too overpowering here.

I think I've finally found the pipe tobacco blend I've been searching for! Frank Burns goes on surprisingly sweet and does not read as masculine at all on my skin. Rich, sweet, fruity pipe smoke is the dominant note -- cherry tobacco? Not quite what my grandfather smoked, but lovely nonetheless. The booze and woods are in the background, and there is no revolting cigar smoke; the pipe tobacco is really the star here. It rides close to the skin, but given how my skin tends to obliterate pipe smoke blends in about ten minutes, I am thrilled that this one is sticking around. Good thing the groundhog saw his shadow because this is a terrific winter fragrance. Win!!!

I had this in my cart. And then for some reason I hesitated, and it was gone. What was I thinking?? There is not a single note here that’s even a question mark. They are all win. Cardamom, almond, coffee, coconut. I was thrilled to be offered a decant in a swap, and yep, it is just about perfect. All the chocolate, the coconut, the almond —seconding VetchVesper on the Almond Joy thing. The cardamom and coffee are kind of comforting background noise. Good throw, and I rarely get throw. Just, agh, going to find a corner to weep in now.

I did not have the same experience the other reviewers had with Montes Harbinger. In the imp, I can individuate almost all the notes -- the various citrus, the delicate green cognac and rosewater from A Spirit, Katie, the musk, the mugwort. Wet on my skin the grapefruit was prominent, but as it dried down the two components I was least excited about came to the fore: white musk and mugwort. I never got the almond blossom; the mugwort simply overpowered it -- and the neroli, the tangerine peel, and everything else. Evidently I amp mugwort. This is the first mugwort blend I've tried, and I'm going to have to be careful about it in the future.

I don't know how Beth does it. Wet, Coimetrophobia is damp earth. Soil. Loam, turf, dirt with bright green moss growing on it. It's the most astonishingly realistic sensation. And within about a half hour, it has developed into what smells like it ought to cost $180 a bottle at Nordstrom, something incredibly elegant and urbane. It's the scent your butler chooses for you after polishing the marble and mahogany in your drawing room. I had no idea graveyard dirt would become this stunning! So delighted I got to try this decant.

I ended up with two imps of Kyoto somehow. Cherry blossom can go plastic on me, but here I barely get the floral at all. It's just a faint suggestion of cherry blossom, with sandalwood and quite a bit of anise. No throw and average wear length on me. I like anise and sandalwood, but it's a little simple for my tastes. Good enough to keep one imp, but I can swap the other.

Agh, not in my wheelhouse! Really, really far from my wheelhouse! Pulled at random from my GC imps to test, and I couldn't remember what was in this one. Tuberose is a particularly bad flower on me, jasmine can be problematic, and I generally don't do straight florals. I would have guessed there was some lotus in here, because there's a bubblegummy quality on wet, which is probably the frangipani, since it's the note I'm least familiar with. This is what floral lovers would probably consider a marvelous, long-lasting, luscious floral. It is way too floral for me!

I agree with PeculiarHeroine that Mr. Ibis captures the quality of the character beautifully, but it just doesn't work on my skin. Too quiet, too reserved. The vanilla is faint, the musks are faint, the sandalwood is faint; my skin just eats it all up. I'll pass this imp on to someone who will be able to appreciate it better.

Mrs. Grose is cinnamon spice tea on me, with gentle hints of rose, similar to the rose in Hope. Lovely, but as so often happens with tea notes, my skin eats it up much too quickly. 3 hours after application, it is detectable only as the faintest wisp of spice. If it had better staying power with my skin chemistry, I would be on the lookout for a bottle.

I'm so excited I got to try this, thanks to a generous swapper who sent me a tester. Wet, it's very buttery. Butterscotch, maybe buttercream, but the butter is the primary note on my skin at first. Then the almond note emerges and it's butter, sugar and almonds, caramelizing in a pan. Which is pretty heavenly. And very sweet. Finally it mellows into honey cake -- and I often have a problem with the cake note going weird on my skin, a la Eat Me, but this is beautiful -- with buttery almondy frosting. It has just a bit of throw and better than usual staying power (my skin eats lots of blends, but usually honey ones will last). Delectable!

Simplicity and innocence, gleefully despoiled! Sugared rose. I received a tester of this from a very generous swap partner, and in the imp it's exactly the smell of my grandmother's pink-and-burgundy-tiled bathroom, circa 1978. Grandma grew roses, but she also used rose cold cream or rosewater bath products or something just like this. Roses are hit and miss on me, but the dusting of sugar on this one prevents it from going sour. It's delicate and achingly beautiful, with surprisingly good throw. Absolutely lovely.

Nutmeg? Not on me. (And blackened nutmeg sounds so divine; sigh.) Everything else is lovely, though. It's more masculine when wet, drying down into a perfectly unisex, perfectly sexy smoky sweet amber-tobacco-vanilla. Unfortunately, my skin is eating it up rather quickly. I would think Mars the Avenger would be a little stronger than this. It's beautiful if now faint, and I'm delighted I got to try it.

Wet, this is all opoponax and black musk on me. Deep and dark, mysterious and a little musty. As it dries down, the other notes come into play, though I never do get any cedar, so don't be worried if that's the note that scares you off. There's the smoky sweetness of opium and patchouli and bourbon vanilla, a slightly herbal touch of geranium, and maybe just a bit of a crystalline quality from the white musk? I don't usually get along with white musk, but this blend is sensational. As LizziesLuck mentions, it is a darker blend that is nevertheless appropriate for daytime wear, when we want to channel our inner gothic heroines or demon bitch goddesses at work. I'm so delighted I got to try this decant!

Frimp fresh from the Lab, and it goes on in that blast of marzipanny goodness I love in almond scents, which nearly never lasts. The almond fades and the bay rum comes into play, then the rum fades and the clove takes over. I'm not sure I ever make out any of the rootbeery scent of sassafras; it's subsumed by the clove. This is a lovely festive holiday scent to brighten the Thanksgiving-to-New-Year's corridor.

Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin. Frimp fresh from the Lab. Rogue is much nicer than I expected. I can't wear Fighter - it has that raw uncured leather smell that resembles red musk and takes over on my skin. This is a lovely soft leather backed up by rosin and hemp. The leather dominates on the inside of my wrist, the hemp and rosin are more apparent on the outside of my wrist, for what that's worth. I'm sure this would smell great on a guy if you had one who would consent to wear scent, but I think it smells pretty great on me. Average wear length and not much throw.