Lucchesa

I wonder if The Initiator is getting stronger with age.  I did slather, having read the reviews, but I was rewarded with quite nice throw and decent wear length.  It's a beautiful churchy resin scent, mostly frankincense, with some sweet gum, which does not smell like bubble gum on me; the cinnamon barely registers on my skin.  Lovely for meditation or anytime you want to harness that whole western spiritual tradition thing. 

So much yes to Wolfenoot which I had never heard of before this very moment. 

Big Red chewing gum!  Eventually the clove struck more of a balance.  It's like the potpourri my mother used to buy at Christmas.  Or, knowing her, immediately after Christmas, on sale, to use the following year.  What Santa's workshop might smell like. 

I don't have particularly sensitive skin but can't, for instance, wear Inferno because it gives me a skin reaction, and I had no problems with Cinnamon & Clove.  It wears close to the skin (normal for me) but lasts a few hours. 

Something in Great Basin Woodnymph goes badly awry on me.  Instead of grass and hay and dry cacao, I get urinal cake.  Hints of the other notes, but mainly that sickly public toilet smell.  I wasn't in a position to scrub it off, and eventually it mellowed to something more bearable, Tonka has never done this to me before -- some kind of weird combination effect?  I'll be passing this decant on to someone whose skin chemistry will let them wear it more gracefully. 

Lights, Camera, Something is lovely on me -- a lemony lavender with lots of cardamom and soft vanilla, which is not as foodie as it sounds like, even though, as usual, the lavender is fugitive on my skin.  It's comforting and uplifting and lasts a good long time. 

It's All So Damn Beautiful didn't quite work on me.  It's overbalanced towards the oakmoss and petroleum on my skin.  The lavender is just a whisper on me, which is not uncommon with lavender for me, but I was hoping for more opoponax and amber, which also barely registered.  It is lovely and unusual in the imp, so like doomsday_disco above I may have to try it in my scent locket. 

I love this! Sweet chocolate and lots and lots of beeswax. Good throw and great wear length, both of which are unusual for my middle aged skin. 

I tested The Crossed Keys blind, and it started out really green.  I was sure it would have ivy or dandelion or grass or some such note -- I totally see where Irish Sea Mermaid got cucumber.  Is that gum acacia?  This smells nothing like, say, Penitence (frank & myrrh) on me.  This is a blend where the parts are subsumed into the whole and can't be pried apart.  And the whole is kind of quiet and still and cool.  I'm super glad I got to try it (thanks, @Teamama!) but it's not something I see myself wearing often.  

This was passed on to me by a generous forum friend, so it's not my usual thing.  I got a lot of orange blossom and sweet rose bound by a creamy vanilla.  The sandalwood was missing on me, nor could I pick out the labdanum or prune, and if I could have picked out the notes I would have wanted at the forefront, those would have been the ones.  But if floaty orange blossom-rose-vanilla sounds like your thing, soft and creamy and innocent, that's what I got, with relatively good throw and great wear length.

I was gifted this in the recent blind bottle swap.  It is so beautiful.  I know it was created for surviving constant stress of the Trump presidency, but we are still slogging through its aftermath, and there is much in my life I have to endure with patience and toughness, neither of which comes naturally to me.  As a bonus, unlike many TALs, Perfer et Obdura comprises notes that are ones I enjoy wearing as perfume.  That's how I applied this today, no ritual, and I'm finding it a grounding sage and vetiver scent.  It's as stable as an oak tree with a soft carpet of leaves at its base. Sage to me smells like righteousness, in the most positive sense of the word, so Perfer is upright and strong and earthy, and it's helping me just keep putting one foot in front of the other, which is what I need to do today.  Thank you, @aphrodisms!!!

@Em- I just submitted the Winter Holiday Card Swap for moderation. Thank you! 

I limited it to sending either 5 or 10 cards -- that seemed more doable than 2, 5 or 10.  I'll let you bigger brains know if I need help with the matching!!!

2 hours ago, Vanesa said:

I am not up for participating in swaps right now, but I'm happy to help with matching for this or anything else.  I've never done one with that many combos, but I'm happy to beat my head against it until it works.

Thank you!!!  I did think of a way it could be done. We could open 11 slots for people willing to send up to 10 cards, 6 slots for people willing to send up to 5, and multiples of 3 for people willing to send 2. Everyone in each group would send to everyone else in that group. Do you think that would work? 

@skyelyric @Dark Alice Do you have the bandwidth to run the Tacky Ornament swap this year?  If not, I can take it over but I don't want to step on anyone's feet. 

So, I've looked in the Swap Cemetery for card swaps.  It looks like the last one was run in 2012!  Does anyone know who @CardSwap Faery was?  I would be happy to run this one except for one thing.  The instructions are everyone signs up to send either 2, 5 or 10 cards.  Presumably if you send 2, you receive 2, and so on.  That seems mathematically beyond me.  Is there a computer whiz who could help me with the matching?  Or an easy algorithm someone can point me to? 

I'm hoping someone will run the tacky ornament swap for Yule.  I love both your ideas, @twilighteyes!!!

What's a card swap?

Marshmallow Snow is all about the evergreen snow note to me.  A little sharp at first, a little minty, a lot of cool pine.  Very outdoorsy and wintery, very nice. Then, as the pine note always sweetens on me after an hour or so, the whole thing softens, but I never really get a lot of marshmallow.  But if you're looking for a that particular snow note with a backdrop of sweetness, this might be perfect. 

I got to try this thanks to the lovely Teamama, and I'm so glad I did.  It starts out with a lot of citrusy white tea -- the vibe is light lemony tea that you take with a dash of rice milk and coconut milk.  After about an hour, though, the tea's dominance faded in favor of creamy rice milk and some nice husky non-sunscreen coconut.  Simple but sophisticated and comforting.  Although this is a delicate scent, it lasted pretty well on me. 

I would NEVER have tried this except that a decant was passed on to me by a super generous forumite.  It confirms that I cannot wear champaca, pink or otherwise.  Not even the jasmine troubled me here, just the champaca.  Oh well, I tried. 

The Triple Crown didn't start off particularly promising on me.  It was almost harsh stone and crushed greenery.  I didn't get any of the gourmand notes or soft brown musk.  But the drydown is gorgeous.  The storax (liquidambar) comes through, and a little of the patch and frank and sandalwood, and ultimately after a few hours the whole thing is hijacked by a grassy vetiver that I love.  It's perfect for the triple crown idea -- stone, greenery, resins.  Memorable and unusual -- I can't think of anything else quite like this one 

I really can’t wear orange blossom. Applying this was a mistake — I need to keep its upbeat, orange blossom bubble gum carnival vibe for ritual use. As is often the case with components I don’t jive with, it lasts forever on me, and could even be perceived the next day after another blend has worn off. I will re-review when I’ve had a chance to assess its function (and I really need some bounce right now), but it does not work for me as perfume. 

I love this! It starts out all cypress, but the vetiver keeps it from going sweet like evergreens often do on me. The two notes find a fragile balance but eventually the later drydown is almost all vetiver. Very outdoorsy and gender neutral. It paired beautifully with my Earth bath oil that I’m almost out of. Only average wear length. 

Ranger is all forest to me.  I get almost no leather or patchouli; instead, it starts out with bright pine and juniper with something a bit sharp -- the galangal?  It softens pretty quickly and then is primarily airy evergreens, and wear time is somewhat less than average on me.  A nice unisex forest scent, very wearable and work appropriate. 

Muddy Armadillo is a dark and dirty cacao blend, almost as if there’s a bit of hippie black patchouli in there muddying things up. This armadillo is grumbly and growly, prickly but a softie inside. The longer it wears, the more it smooths out, becoming softer and slightly sweeter. Cacao, woods and tobacco is an awesome combination in my book.  If you’re a fan of Velvet or Intrigue in the GC or Wulric from the CD, this is a good bet for you. 

Judgmental the longhorn may be, but he’s awfully quiet about it. This is a lovely unisex blend with that cuddly brown musk vibe and lightweight resins (I’m getting little to no cacao), but it’s quite muted on me. This would be an excellent comfort scent if it were a bit stronger on my skin. 

Gingerbread Wolfman is strong and sharp at first, which I didn't expect from these notes. As it dries down, the gingerbread spice is still there, with some roasted hazelnut and not nearly as much chestnut as I would have like, but it becomes mostly about the honey and molasses.  And it's a very strong, dark honey, like those bees have been gathering nectar from Maleficent's garden or something.  Like many BPALs with a strong honey component, it lasts a long time on my skin. 

Gingerbread Mummy is the coziest of the monsters on me.  Lots of gingerbread with vanilla and pillowy marshmallow, it's like a big gingerbread hug.  It fades down to a skin scent pretty quickly on me, but it stays there for three or four hours, ready to comfort me if i sniff my wrist.  I didn't get any sandalwood.