Lucchesa

Upright evergreens give way to realistic rose. Rome, I'm in love! For daytime wear while sipping cappuccino on Via Veneto.

I was not at all familiar with papyrus as a scent, and it smelled not aquatic to me (which on my skin = soapy) but bright and definitely reedy, and almost had a hint of lemongrass about it (or is there a little lemon peel in the frosting? That's how I make it...). The beautiful soft myrrh began to bloom as it dried, and only dry did I get the vanilla frosting beginning to emerge. What I assume was the papyrus did not last as long as the myrrh and vanilla. It's lovely, all in all, gentle and springlike, with low throw and relatively short wear length, which is typical for me. ETA: I'm retesting this as someone is selling a bottle, and it has lasted all day this time.

In the imp and fresh on my skin, The Balcony reminded me instantly of Blood Kiss. Vetiver is rarely good on me, and Blood Kiss is one of the exceptions to that rule. The other shared note is honey, and Blood Kiss has wine where The Balcony has bourbon. But on my skin the vetiver vibe from both is very similar, and predictably it's the strongest note. It's only been on about half an hour so I may have to edit with wear length, but I think it will be sexy and long-lasting on me. However, since Blood Kiss is GC (though OOS at the moment), I probably don't need to chase down more of this rare blend.

Lear is all cedar drowning out the bay and sage as if mansplaining.

Why do I torture myself this way? Serving Tea after Coitus is beautiful. On my skin the almost citrusy green tea is the most prominent note, blending with the plum and honey. And within an hour, like every other green tea blend, it's gone, with just the afterglow of ambergris lingering on my skin. Sigh.

So, I put this on my left elbow today, with three other scents on wrists and other elbow, and an hour or so later walked to the post office. And let me preface this by saying that I almost never get throw with anything I like. Oh, big bad vetiver might pitch all over the place, but amber, vanilla and carnation? Never. The clerk on the other side of the counter said, as she weighed my package, "Oh, you smell good! What are you wearing?" And my heart did a little dance of joy. It was definitely Startled Toad; the shunga on my other elbow had already faded as green tea scents always do on me, and Hades and Hedylogos may have been supporting players, but another five hours later I can still smell the coconutty goodness of Startled Toad in the crook of my elbow. This is the first coconut scent I have loved. It Sifts from Leaden Sieves was too dry, the Pearls too faint, but this is lovely. Lemongrass can be shrill on me but it is positively gentle here, just suggesting a citrus note. This is a sweet patchouli and weaves together beautifully with the amber, carnation and vanilla. And it has throw! I am excited about finding a bottle. And then I'll get the label art! (I had to look it up after you all were raving about it.)

This was a Lab frimp, not on my radar screen at all. And if I had read the reviews, I probably would have avoided it because everyone says gingerbread and the Lab's baked goods note is terrible on me. I knew it was supposed to be Lovecraftian incense, so I was surprised when the imp smelled foodie. Wet on my skin, I was getting lemony hazelnut. After a bit I got the ginger cookie, but not that pastry note that so hates my skin, and now, a couple hours later, I can finally perceive the incense wafting over the ginger. Fascinating and really nice. I'm not sure I need a bottle, but I may replace the imp when I use it up.

I was really excited about this -- the notes sounded perfect. And they are -- Aristocratic Couple is gorgeous. But really, really quiet. Even just after application, I have to get my nose really close to my wrist to smell it, and the cardamom is ghostly faint. I guess the aristocracy is just out of my league and I'm going to have to stick with Grand Guignol for my boozy apricot pleasure!

With the pumpkin and beeswax, Bunraku Theatre feels more like a Weenie than a Shunga. This is pumpkin without the usual pie spices, though, wandering through a hay maze on a crystal clear autumn day with that chunky golden light you get when the sun is near the horizon. It's lovely, though the tobacco is amping a tiny bit more than I would like, which on the plus side gives it longer wear length and a bit of throw.

Calliope is screechingly herbal on me. Verbena has a habit of taking over, and combined with the lavender, mint and really loud thyme, the herbs drown out the softer scents on my skin. I don't get any almond and very little bergamot. I'll pass this imp on.

Mmm, foodie. Tested blind, I was thinking caramel and hot buttered rum. So the coconut was unobtrusive on me -- with my skin chemistry, if you hated coconut, you'd be fine with this. Now three plus hours later I can tell there's coconut since I'm looking for it, but it's still faint. The tobacco is one of those lovely warm golden chewy tobaccos, not one of the tobaccos I amp to an unpleasant degree, and it plays a supporting role here. Elegba is comforting but also kind of sexy. I like it!

This is one of those quiet, warm, radiant desert spice scents I love so much, that give you the feeling of traversing the Sahara on camelback... Musk instead of myrrh here -- I love skin musk! The honey isn't overpowering, and the cinnamon, ginger and cloves are spicy but not foodie, more like coming across a caravan of spice traders among the sand dunes than making pumpkin pie. No throw; this one lies close to the skin but it lasts quite a while. Very nice.

Funny, I got bubblegum in the wet stage on blind tasting and wondered if there was lotus in the blend. Nice to know I wasn't going nuts. This dried into a blend with a lot of sweetness from the sugar crystals balanced with an understated musk. I never got any juniper -- maybe white juniper is different? -- but there was a note that reminded me of Nevertheless She Persisted, maybe the oudh, with that glinty metallic feel to it. I still can't distinguish iris. This is a really useless review, isn't it? It's pretty and lasted a long time on me, but I don't need more than a decant.

Delacroix's Death of Sardanapalus is a hot mess: violent, chaotic, sensual. He took source material from Byron and made it even crazier and more apocalyptic. The composition makes no sense at all -- where is the rest of that horse? The head of the academy of fine arts called him in to tell him to tone things down or he would be blackballed from future exhibitions. The perfume captures all of this perfectly. Wine, cognac, incense, spices, it's chaotic at first, everything vying for my attention. But it settles down beautifully into a sort of mulled wine scent, almost cozy and holiday-like, and quite long lasting. I will wear this every time I teach French Romanticism.

Lovely! It almost had to be, with these notes (I am getting better at this...) Only the saffron had the potential to ruin things, and it has reminded a subdued earthy note grounding the high-flying citruses. The sweet mandarin plays beautifully off the bitter neroli, and the honey and vanilla remain in the background. Citrus blends (and things with evanescent names like Cheshire Cat or Phantasm) have often disappeared quickly on my skin. Like the Flashing of Light seems to have excellent staying power and even a little throw. I can imagine wearing this year round -- it's bright and warm and would cheer up a winter day beautifully.

I have to respectfully disagree with the reviewers who find cake or pastry in Zarita because the Lab pastry note is a disaster on my skin (Eat Me, Halfling, Feeding the Dead, etc.) and this is a delight. So if anyone else has that issue, you need not fear it here. Instead, it's something like an orange blossom pudding. I think the berries are a slightly sharp note that keep it from getting too sweetly foodie and gives it a more grownup quality. I'm not getting much carnation, and I'm not sure I would recognize iris if it hit me over the head with a hammer. This is mainly a sweet creamy citrus that, unlike most citrus blends, does not disappear on my skin within an hour. It is going strong after two hours and I wouldn't be surprised if I can still smell it on my wrist tomorrow morning. I'd love to try the original, for comparison's sake, but this is a win for me.

Rose, carnation, jasmine, amber, mmm. There's really only one thing that could go wrong here. And tragically, it does. The patchouli stomps all over the flowers, as it did recently with the rose and jasmine in For Each Ecstatic Instant. Maybe it's the same patch. Maybe it's the patchouli floral combination that doesn't work on me. Patchouli and I get along in some spicy blends, like Uruk and Sin, and some fruity blends as well. But here... well, I'd like to be able to smell some rose and carnation, without having to wait for an hour of drydown. Is that really too much to ask?

I love reading other people's reviews partly because I'm fascinated by the diversity of responses but also because often someone will pinpoint for me exactly what it is I'm smelling. When I put on Coin Trick, my response was "fancy perfume." But the reviewers who said it smells like the scent samples in magazines or catalogs nailed it. That is my experience -- it smells like a 1980s copy of Vogue. Which is a coin trick of sorts. It has pretty good throw and wear length on me, too. I'm just not sure I would ever wear it.

This was a very cheery and upbeat lavender on me -- not soporific at all. I think the hops and yarrow added to the bright, sharp herbal feeling. I was hoping that the drydown would reveal the chamomile and a touch of vanilla, but Once Upon a Time really didn't last long on my arm very long. It was gone within an hour. I will try it again as a bedtime scent, as it may affect me differently at night than it did in broad daylight. I so wanted to love this one!

Exactly! Sadly I'm not getting much in the way of carnation or lily, but a very well blended warm rosy floral that reminds me of the perfume my mother wore in my childhood. So it smells like a grownup, in the best possible way. I will wear this when I want to wear Perfume with a capital P.

I amp certain tobaccos, and this is one of them. So when I first put it on, Flickering Lantern was a little beeswax and a LOT of tobacco, and no rose at all. And strong -- I expect scents with names like flickering or ghostly to be very quiet on me, but Flickering Lantern was loud. Two and a half hours later it has calmed down considerably and there is just a trace of rose perceptible. I put on Lights of Men's Lives, which I love, to compare it with, and Lights is quieter and warmer, without the strong dominant tobacco note. So although after drydown they are both lovely, and Lantern seems longer lasting on me, I'm going to stick with Lights as it's easier to come by and lacks that initial blast of tobacco.

OK, don't laugh, but when I bought this in a batch of imps from a forumite recently I was thinking it was an RPG scent. And I want to try them all. Even the nonexistent ones, apparently. Once my order arrived, I realized my mistake and read the notes, which I was sure would be dreadful on me. So today I was putting together some imps for the member in Portland who is collecting for a domestic violence shelter, and I grabbed Troll. Opened the imp. Sniffed. Thought, yep, awful. Vetiver Pine-sol. But I have this policy of skin testing, so I put on a dab and went about my culling. Strong stinky vetiver, smoky pitch, not me at all, safe to give away. I sealed up the package, started making dinner, and about an hour after application got a whiff of my wrist. What was that smell? Could it be... Troll??? Oh, man, Troll had morphed into something really interesting and, dare I say, beautiful. It finally made me understand why some people love vetiver. It was dark and smoky but not obnoxious; the pine had receded and the spices had come into play, smoky and sexy. My husband still wasn't crazy about, but I liked it a lot. I can't imagine using a whole bottle, but I definitely plan to get my hands on another imp.

Sometimes three-letter searches weird out the search engine -- I've had the same problem searching for Hod. Are you looking to buy a few imps rather than take a chance on a bottle? I really like trying things out before buying a bottle, and the lab does 6 for $22 and of course throws in a couple of frimps as well. If your friend likes the cinnamon spiciness of Sin in addition to the sandalwood (I get a lot of cinnamon from Sin, without skin irritation), Plunder might be a good choice. Defututa has the smoky spicy feeling I get from Sin with more flowers. I think Fallen is really beautiful, despite the fact that vetiver is not usually a good note on me. I haven't tried the Little Wooden Doll, but it has rose with amber and sandalwood instead of the patchouli and cinnamon of Sin. Rakshasa is lovely -- rose, sandalwood and patchouli, no amber or cinnamon. Another really beautiful soft sandalwood and amber blend is Vasilissa, which on my skin reads like a white floral. I haven't tried Scherezade but Belle Vinu is very different from Sin on me -- a fruity vanilla sandalwood. Marvelous, just different. Good luck!

These are all notes I adore, with the exception of saffron which can be problematic on me. And yet somehow, though I've tested The Phoenix at Midday twice, it doesn't work. Is it the saffron? Is my imp just past its prime? The blood orange fades right away, and I don't get a lot of the sharpness of either lemongrass or geranium, the warmth I was hoping for here. So disappointed.

Oh my, this is beautiful. I never got much cinnamon, but the scorched honeyed cedar was much lighter than I was imagining, not campfire like at all, and no pencil shavings from the cedar or sandalwood. On the whole there was an airy feel to the blend. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on me at all. Stupid middle-aged skin soaking another lovely oil into oblivion.