Lucchesa

Wolf Moon 2021 is gorgeous!  Lots of green grass on a structure of sandalwood and balsam with just a touch of sweetness from the beeswax.  After a little while the warm furry muskiness and the ambrette nuttiness move in.  I'm not getting much juniper, which is good because it's a troublesome note on me.  Green scents hardly ever work on me, but this one is a keeper. 

Tobacco and Pine Needle starts out as sharp pine and a little sharp tobacco.  Generally, pine sweetens and softens on my skin; that doesn't exactly happen here.  It does transform into a cologne-y tobacco, as the previous reviewers also experienced, with a pine backdrop.  I happen to enjoy the more masculine spectrum of scents, so this isn't a problem for me.  It's not a sweet, chewy tobacco; it's a drier one. It doesn't last as long as I would like, but I am going to hang onto the decant because I suspect it will mature into something really worthwhile. 

I get just a breath of cardamom and a lot of warm, long-lasting amber. I wish the cardamom were a little more prominent on me, but it is still a cozy skin scent that I can derive comfort from for hours.

Cucidati is a very wearable foodie.  It started out marzipan with some bright citrus and spice, then over 20 minutes or so it gradually warmed into a sticky, boozy fig and date.  I gave my decant to my sister who actually makes cucidati, but I will be on the lookout for another one as it's as mood-lifting as a tray of holiday cookies. 

Gingerbread Witch could easily be a Weenie.  Pumpkin and apple and mulling/gingerbread spices.  I didn't get any rosemary, which bummed me out.  Nice, but not remarkable on me.  

Maybe This Is Your Wilderness? Honeyed patchouli with cypress, black pine, and tobacco absolute

I was gifted this by a super generous forum PIFer and accidentally misplaced it until yesterday.  Cherry Cream Pie Chypre smells wonderful when first applied.  Lots and lots of cherry, a little cream, hardly any crust.  Just joyful cherry pie filling.  I went for a long walk -- actually a series of three medium walks -- and completely forgot to check in on my wrist.  Many hours after application, I raised wrist to nose.  What is this?  Oh, right!  The crust notes had finally emerged. Still wonderful. Cherry pastry, a skin scent, but still going strong.   

I'm a fan of Antikythera Mechanism, but the pumpkin spice version went strangely awry on me.  Maybe the smoke note from Hearth (or, worse, Smokestack) was used to smoke the vanilla.  The end result was a harshness I wasn't expecting from a panoply of reliable notes.  Sad face. 

4 hours ago, roseus said:

The Illustrated Woman from CD might work: Skin musk, smoky vanilla, pine pitch, patchouli, Indian resins, golden honey, and tobacco

Good suggestion!  I love Illustrated Woman! (And Golden Priapus, but amber likes me.) 

But I hope the Lab is taking notice because a forest snake would be gorgeous!

Wet, this is all sweet spicy carnation.  Love!  An hour later, I'm still waiting for the patch and frank to join the party.  Did I forget to send the invitations?  I'm not upset to have a pink carnation single note, but I was really hoping for the whole menage.  (I want some of puellacaerulea's hippie patchouli!)

This is really lovely!!!  It starts out on me all palo santo, with that (to me, very welcome) tinge of licorice.  Gradually the frankincense catches up to the palo santo and eventually overcomes it.  My favorite stage is when the two notes are right in balance, about an hour in, but it is a calming and meditative scent all the way through, and if you like both of these notes, you can hardly go wrong here. 

I usually avoid the champagne note, but the 15 minutes of fume was so positive on this scent that I had to get samples of all the GB monsters, and sure enough, this is really fun.  It's sparkling and fizzy and struck me as very much like ginger beer.  Effervescent, kind of nose-tickling.  I'm not actually getting much lemon, but the overall effect is festive.  Bright gingery champagne. 

Ghost Milk is really, really quiet on me.  I resisted the impulse to reapply it ten minutes after initial application because I'd put on a normal testing amount and should be consistent.  It actually lasted about 12 hours or so -- a really long time for me -- though at a very low skin level; I needed to get my wrist right up to my nose to smell it.  I do not get the slightly funky goat's milk note at all (which I enjoy in scents like Harlequin Milk) but rather a generic sweet vanilla creaminess with a whiff of marshmallow and white chocolate.  A cozy soft vanilla scent, but it is too faint on my skin for me to need more. 

16 hours ago, twilighteyes said:

 

Another reason I miss Seattle.  YEAR ROUND FARMERS MARKETS.

Go, Seattle!  But in fairness my sister moved back to northern California from Seattle to have YEAR ROUND FARMERS MARKETS with actual fruit and vegetables -- citrus all winter, tomatoes for months -- that do not include kohlrabi or rutabaga.  

I received a testable empty of this with a decant order, and I wouldn't ordinarily have tried it because of the violet.  Violet never works on me.  Except when it does.  This is ridiculously beautiful.  Plum and petrichor and wistful violet.  I'm not making out the lavender, but there's something almost citrusy behind it, keeping the violet from going powdery and old lady on me -- the osmanthus?  No appreciable frankincense either, but the whole ensemble is steeped in longing.  A brilliant example of Beth's gift.

I got a testable empty of this in a decant order and am surprised by how much I am digging it.  Foodies are my thing only occasionally, though I have found them comforting during the pandemic.  I would never actually eat blue cotton candy, and I avoid fruit punch, but I've recently learned how well the salt note works on me, so popcorn and pretzels are fun to wear.  This is sugary salty junk food, but the sugar bomb fades somewhat and the drydown is something like kettle corn.  Charming!

I got an empty of this with a decant order -- ordinarily I wouldn't have tried it. So please bear in mind that I'm reviewing something that has a low possibility of working on me. Lots and lots of red musk, which drowns out the skin musk for me.  And the peppercorn. The sandalwood blends with the red musk in an incensey way.  The orange blossom gives it the feel of high-end soap, as it often does on me, so instead of a down and dirty red musk, this is a fresh and clean red musk, with decent throw and good staying power. 

For cherry, GC blends you might try include Blood, Kabuki and King of Hearts.  Seconding Blood Kiss, a favorite of mine.  Also The Cherry-Tree Carol among the current Yules.  And since the Liliths are still around, Gen Z and 2020 Aesthetic.  Last year's lupers had a cherry section which was great!  And I forgot Phantom Calliope, another favorite of mine.  Cherry with cardamom.  

Terebinth is one of my favorite notes, and amber always works on me, though I'm not as familiar with the black variety.  Oakmoss can go either way, and oakmoss is what I get most of here.  Oakmoss with some pine and amber notes, and although amber tends to last forever on me, I had to reapply this within about three hours.  I suspect this one will be much improved by aging -- it's not quite coming together on me right now.  

Strong, dark, sweet coffee, rich and true.  Not much throw (standard for me) but good wear length.  This works really well on me.  

Teakwood, Moss and Salt is not what I expected.  I was actually hoping for what some describe as corn-chip salt, because that's an amazing note on me. Teakwood tends to turn almost caramel-like on me skin.  This is nothing like the teakwood in, say, Antikythera Mechanism.  Instead, there's an almost minty, camphorous opening, definitely cool in tone, whereas teak and salt tend to be warm notes on me.  So I agree with the previous reviewers that this is a kind of bracing, spa-like scent.

I'm all about the beeswax, and cedar is a note I love too.  Beeswax, Cedarwood and Bourbon Vanilla does not disappoint.  It's so so yummy.  Beeswax and cedar to start out with, candles lit in an ancient forest clearing.  Then the sweet vanilla joins the mix, softening the wilder notes.  Gorgeous, with good staying power.  If you are a beeswax lover, you need to try this before it goes away.  To quote doomsday_disco, Hnnngh.  

I ordered samples of all the Lux Brumalis because I'm an art historian and so many of them sounded gorgeous or at least intriguing.  This was one of the latter.  I don't do florals in general, but I do love lilac.  Is blue lilac actually a thing?  Because that is what this smells like to me.  Lilac and blueness.  Lilac and cool bulb flowers, lilac and pale ambergris and chilly white musk.  No ambrette that I could make out.  It's super duper pretty and way more flowery than I usually wear.  Low throw (normal on me) but decent staying power. 

Holy peppermint patty!  Wet, this is all chocolate and peppermint on me, against a background of gingerbread spice.  Now, I may have three packages of Thin Mints on the way, but I do not want to smell like them.  Mint is a note I avoid on principal, but I ordered samples of all the Gingerbread Monsters, so I'm out of my wheelhouse on this one.  Mint.  Whoo.  Fortunately, the peppermint faded quickly, leaving a gorgeous spicy milk chocolate gingerbread.  That I can handle smelling like. 

I’m here!  Way to keep on keeping on, @Amazonia!!! I don’t know The Mark, it sounds right up my alley. Alice was my first BPAL love, though, and while my tastes have gone much darker since then, she never disappoints. Definitely more than the sum of her parts.

 Yesterday I put on O the Joy of My Spirit and some nice clothes and biked the seven miles to Seattle Art Museum to see the member preview of the Jacob Lawrence exhibit I’ll be lecturing on next week. I’m not in biking shape, so it took me 45 minutes to get there and 50 to get home (more hills, tireder bones), but it felt almost like real life. I wish I’d brought the bottle because it’s one that needs re-applying, but I love the oddball Nutella in a forest thing. Even in KN95 mask I got recognized (I lecture at another local museum), which is why I was biking in a skirt. Lots of love to to you all!!!