Lucchesa

Obsequies is quite a bit better on me than I had expected. Usually when there’s a longish note list and I think, “I hope it’s not all rose,” it’s all rose. Here I barely notice the rose. The initial standout notes were myrrh, pale honey, saffron, and what I thought was balsam but is obviously terebinth pine. The patch isn’t appreciable until much later.  But this is really about the whole, not the parts. It’s a warm, dry scent, subtly spicy and woody, kind of a cousin to Bastet. It’s got good throw and wear length, both of which are rare on me. I tested Cherry Red on the other wrist and the combination was surprisingly wonderful. 

Lots of maraschino cherry right off the bat. This lasts for an hour tops as the bing cherry edges its way in. Gorgeous rich dark red cherry. And then that melds seamlessly with a fruity red musk as if it were a cherry musk. This note usually takes over on me, but the cherry pins it down nicely, while the musk gives it some throw and staying power. I love this — I am sure to reach for it during cherry season!

22 hours ago, doomsday_disco said:

Is anyone hosting a Valentine's swap?

I think a Valentine card swap would be pretty fun.  

I could do a card swap! 

Lots of spiced vanilla pumpkin and not much mouse. Hardly any sandalwood, sweet pea or amber. I agree with z_z’ assessment that it’s quite like a vanilla pumpkin spice latte. I’m going to try this again next fall and see what it’s settled into.  

Soft, green, fruity and dewy. Grape never works on me, and it didn’t occur to me that there might be grapes on the vine. Actually, the fruit sensation is more like melon on my skin. Like Missanneshirleyofgg I wanted the autumnal notes — vines, soil, coffee, thyme — and got an innocent springtime meadow scent instead. Definitely pretty, but not what I was hoping for. 

Skeleton Hands starts out as a sweet, nutty sandalwood on me and gradually softens into a warm boozy not-quite-gourmand. This is my sweet spot with foodie blends — I prefer them combined with woods or resins, here both. I don’t get the smokiness or tattoo ink, and at one point the bourbon cream threatened to curdle as all cream notes are doing on my skin lately, but it only flirted with spoiled milk. Mostly it’s a solid comfort scent, perfect for fall. 

The Season of Forgiveness is interesting in that I love all the listed notes, and after seven years in the decant, they have become so mellowed and unified that I can hardly pick out a single one. Bare hints of clove/spicy carnation, a backdrop of warm pine similar to that in Golden Priapus, and a lot of warm glowy atmosphere that makes me think there’s an unlisted amber note in here. I love this but not for the reason I thought I would, i.e. the expression of the particular notes, but rather for the overall warmth and beauty that subsumes the components. 

Unfortunately I amp the rose resin in Its Own Sweet Will, and that’s all I get here. Rose and galbanum. No fig or, sigh, chestnut; no spices. I’ll try letting it rest a couple weeks to see if it balances out at all. If not, I’ll avoid rose resin in future!

Strawberry is not my usual jam, but every other note here is a winner, and I was curious. A Portrait is a really fun, sweet, upbeat scent. It was all strawberry at first, and then the sugared patch emerged, reminding me of Bears of Berlin. I get some syrupy labdanum but really couldn’t make out much in the way of carnation. So lots of sweet burstingly ripe strawberry with sweet patch, and it lasts a long time on me. I can’t imagine wanting to wear this innocent a scent often, but I ought to — it feels like a good counterweight to nihilism. 

Winter card swap is awaiting mod approval!

Great list, @a_bear! I would add:

Haunted — black musk and amber 

Penitence — frank and myrrh

Sloth — vetiver and myrrh

 Dirty — clean linen

 Squirting Cucumber

 Anne Bonny - Frank, sandalwood and patch (unless sandalwood and patch count as wood)

On 11/3/2022 at 5:08 AM, Missanneshirleyofgg said:

Is there a winter solstice type card swap? 

Yes, I’ll put it up soon!

Illuminati Cotillion starts out as pale incense, dry rose petals, and gentle wood, the latter two combining to give a sensation of rosewood.  Unfortunately, I never make out any pipe tobacco, which is a scent that is always very fugitive on me.  (I would LOVE to find a good pipe tobacco scent that lasted more than 20 minutes on my skin!)  The rose goes a little sour on me, as rose + incense often does, but if the combination works for you, this is a lovely rose/wood incense, perfect for world domination. 

I was thinking Pomegranate might be a good layering scent.  I was wrong.  It is a fully rounded perfume all on its own.  It starts with dark pomegranate, which never goes too sweet on me here, and elegant amber. This feels like a classic, old-fashioned perfume that just happens to have a pomegranate component.  It's rich and sophisticated with good throw, though the wear life is maybe a little shy of average.  I have a burgundy velvet dress that this is going to be smashing with. 

@Greenwoodtree I’ve never participated in 12 Nights of Xmas — I just don’t have the budget or the bandwidth that time of year. 

But I *love* the Yule cat idea, @Missanneshirleyofgg
 

Dark Alice and skyelyric have committed to hosting tacky ornament, which is kind of a Yule swap. And I’ll put up a winter card swap next month.  

I was hoping DL, Bourbon, and Bitter Almond would be 2020’s DL & Scotch, my favorite DL ever. Instead, it didn’t wow me then, and wearing it again today, I was still underwhelmed. Dead leaves and almond at first, more a sweet than a bitter almond. Then I get a kind of sweet husky note that must be the bourbon, but it’s kind of non-specific. The dead leaves fade, the almond fades, the bourbon fades. It’s pleasant enough but just didn’t stick around for long on me, and that’s a 2-year-old decant. 

Hurray for the tack hostesses!

I looked through Dead Swaps. The last three years it’s gone up Nov. 1, 2&3. So right at the end of 13 Nights and in the middle of wolfenoot and Krampus gift gathering. It’s a smallish swap, tack, snack, wearable and book or pastime.  @skyelyric and @Dark Alice hosted last year — are you folks up for it this year??

19 hours ago, twilighteyes said:

Who is doing the tacky ornament swap?  I was looking at Yule Cat and Krampus stuff on this etsy shop and OMG DO THEY HAVE THE TACKIEST ORNAMENTS.

When does it go up usually? I have a rough November but could probably do it if no one else steps up. 

This was kindly gifted to me — ordinarily I don’t do tuberose. On me, it’s bright tangy red currant and lots of tuberose with hardly any dead leaves. In fact this is the least dead leafy DL I have ever worn, possibly because my skin’s tendency to amp tuberose is drowning out any leaves. It’s surprisingly pleasant given how little I like tuberose. And it doesn’t stick around terribly long. 

If the apple note here were stronger, it would smell almost identical to the Dawn green apple antibacterial dishwashing liquid my husband bought a four-pack of on Amazon. And I don't use antibacterial soap.  As the apple note is very faint, this is more like laundry detergent. 

Ooky is mostly a somewhat pumpkin-flavored marzipan on me, with a trace of pumpkin spice.  It's very sweet, from the buttercream, and the lemon zest gives it a lightness and brightness.  It's a total foodie, but not a heavy one.  Marzipan is one of my very favorite foodie notes, so I love this.  The cinnamon is perfectly well behaved and in the background; I do not get a skin reaction from this.  It's the kind of thing I reach for when I'm having a crappy day and just need something to cheer me up. 

I completely agree with z_z on this one. Smoky, somnolent, inky, autumnal. I don’t know about poppy leaves — I get the lab’s beautiful opium note, and this pairs gorgeously with Event Horizon.  Elegant, mysterious, femme f$@king fatale. 

Spring starts out as a whole faceful of spring flowers. It’s hard to pick out individual notes but it seems like there are bulb flowers like narcissi and jonquils, big pink smells like peony, big purple smells like lilac and wisteria — all the flowers, all at the same time. It takes about an hour on me for the incense notes to emerge. Not nag champa, which is awful on me. It’s almost an opium sort of incense, but it’s light enough that it doesn’t drown out the flowers. This scent is very not me, and very not September, and yet I really enjoyed testing it. It’s undeniably beautiful, and if you love florals and lightweight incense, you should have this one. 

The clover note in this trio is beautiful and reminiscent of Passionate Shepherd, but in combination with the fern and wild lettuce it didn’t work on me. One or both is too high pitched here. I mostly got this out of curiosity about those two notes — I’ll avoid them in future.