sarahmarie

So, my skin amps and does weird things to tea. It gets kind of soapy or something, and sort of sharp. I know this - Dorian fails on me, for example, because of it - but I keep trying. I should maybe stop. This is actually a really great, clove smokey smell on me, with just a hint of the cake. I was so hoping for that, basically, and I got hopeful. But then the tea...the tea blooms into a super strong amped up thing that overpowers everything else. If you are someone who likes these notes and can play well with tea, I think you should try this. It comes so close for me, and I think it's just my chemistry that sinks it.

This was such a surprise for me! I tested it at VT WC. Caramel is a note that I often try for and often fail with, and this one starts to go the way of the badness - but after a while, it settled down and was straight up delicious. With the cookie and apple, it's delectable - not cloying, just a really yummy perfect balance of slightly buttery, browned, sweet, apple. So good.

This is so great in the bottle and initially on my skin - that sparkley strawberry smell with cotton candy underpinnings, bright and sweet. But several of the notes in this are iffy on me - strawberry, though I love it and keep trying, and cream, which I also want to have success with but tend to turn a bit flat and strange. Those things happened here, sadly, and it just doesn't work. But, if these are notes you do well with, you will adore this. I am tempted to keep it based on the bottle photo alone, buuuut many scents call to me...

I love this painting and I love some of these notes, while others were a super questionable decision...but I'm glad I went for it, as this one is quite nice on me! The jasmine doesn't run away with me, it's just pretty and sort of a nice, round, deep note. I get a lot of clary sage and I am really pleased with that! Those are the primary notes on my skin - the oudh is present but just the most stand-out of a nice, grounding base that's really nicely blended. I'm really digging this one, and I love that it's very unique and a departure from some of my other seasonal choices.

I really love this in theory, but in practice it may be too strong for me - it triggered a migraine. I want to try it again, because I definitely see the beauty of it, but it is Very Powerful and something in it may not agree with me! My impressions, though, are of an incensey brown-red scent, very musky and resiny with major depth. I bet it will age beautifully, too!

I love both strawberry and beeswax, and have had mixed success with them in various blends - but I was really hopeful about this! I am not disappointed. For me, fruit notes often go really high and sharp, or else plasticky. But this one doesn't do that, and I think it's because it has such a nice grounding in the beeswax. It balances it and keeps it from running wild. The candy is there too, sort of vaguely - it sweetens up what otherwise might be a sharper strawberry on my skin. It's a surprisingly powerful scent with staying power - I can still smell it on one of my wrists almost 24 hours after applying! I am so happy that this one worked for me. If you like strawberry or beeswax, I think it is a must-try!

So, I often cannot wear chocolate perfumes even though I love the idea in theory. I was nervous about this, but I'm glad I gave it a try! This wears well on me. The chocolate stays chocolate, without going weirdly plastic, though it is a drier, more cocoa-like smell than a richer kind. I'm okay with that though, it makes it feel more wearable and versatile. The cinnamon is very subtle, just warming things up a little, and the dry down is lovely - close to the skin, with a warm feel that smells a bit like it has amber in it on me. Very nice.

I tried this when I got it at will call, but I somehow never wore it again and forgot about its existence! But I'm glad I discovered it again. This is a nice one! In the bottle it's very strong and throws a lot, but it settles right down as it dries. On me it's warm and sweet, a nice blended pear-wine hybrid that wears pretty close to the skin but doesn't go all weird the way both of those notes have done for me in the past. It's grounded by a warm, dry quality that keeps it from being too cloying. So glad I hung on to this and didn't overlook it forever!

This one invokes pink, turquoise, and pearls to me, perfectly mermaid! I saw someone compared it to Pink Snowvballs in their review. Wet on my skin, I do detect some similarities, but it is dramatically different to my nose. It's perhaps a similar pinkiness, but clearly aquatic and more...perfumey, by which I probbaly mean floral. Now, I am not a floral person and aquatics often give me headaches. This one, though, is so gentle and light that it works for me. It's pretty and girlish, but I think it can be thought of as sophisticated too. I'm glad I went against my general scent type and got a bottle of this!

I had a baby this summer and my name is Sarah, so this one just kind of fit and I bought a bottle. So glad I did! It's so comforting. It is semi musky/animalistic and a little bit prickly, but only in the safest, strongest, most soothing way. It's hard to explain! I can tell you I wear it to bed sometimes because it feels warm and comforting, and it wears close to the skin (not enough throw or strength to bother the baby!)

Candle wax, smoke, red sandalwood, a dusting of kitchen spices, and a dribble of vanilla ice cream. To me, the candle is the star of this show. It's the perfect candle scent, suffused with love and glowing. The sandalwood and creamy spice is there and beautifully blended, and all together it is really just perfect and lovely. It's a very warm, safe, comforting sort of scent - or rather, those are the feelings it evokes for me. I think Ive been looking for this scent for a long time and didn't even know it. Beautiful!

Raspberry sherbet dotted with orangesicle, merlot gelato, pink cotton candy, and iced lime. It's been a while since I've written reviews, but I'll try! I didn't think I would like this, because fruity, colorful sounding scents like this rarely work on my skin - usually they get really sharp and tart smelling, and sort of...generically fruity. This, though, is very different! I am so glad I got to try it at NEWC. This scent smells very much like gummi bears in the bottle...but on my skin, it becomes a smoother, lighter-but-with-depth sweetness. It's primarily sherbet and cotton candy, I think, which is a lovely scent combination for summer time. I've been wearing it a lot lately. Definitely worth a try if you're someone who hasn't had luck with fruity scents in the past, but like the idea of this type of scent!

The proto I tried at NEWC smelled like red velvet cake on me, mostly, so I was a bit surprised to find that the bottle I ordered smells very very intensely of honeyed, boozy snake oil when first applied to my skin. Like, really intensely, you guys. As it dries, that blends with a more identifiable wine scent, definite tobacco, and the slight scent of dry, warm florals. It takes a while before anything discernably cake-y or frosting-like emerges, though I'd say I can pick that up now. At this point it doesn't throw honey like crazy, so my husband may actually be able to be in the same room with me (poor fellow, he hates honey scents). Regardless of the honey, this scent is really gorgeous. I'd even go so far as to call it FUCKAWESOME. You want some, you really really do.

Did I review this? Guess I didn't. I loved loved loved the Gorobble in the bottle and when it first hit my skin. It's toasty marshmallow-y goodness all around. But on me, it very quickly and summarily went very, very burned - and nothing else. Juuuust burnination. So sad.

This is everything I wanted in a Halloween scent, for real. It smells just like trick-or-treating on a perfect, crisp night, crunching through dry leaves. I get sweetness, light smoke, dead leaves and crisp air. There is the tiniest hint of pumpkin. It's Halloween in a bottle, to me. I love it.

I love this one! It's very fizzy, a bit sweet, unidentifiably pink, and it's boozy but not overwhelmingly so. Bon Vivant failed miserably on me, so I was nervous... but this one stays true and non-plastic and fun! I'm in a pink place, it makes me happy.

At first I thought this was alllll champagne, but it's not! As it dries down, I am smelling a vanilla-ish smell, and I can see it as cake now that I see people calling it that. Sadly, this combination of notes dries down kind of plasticky on my skin, but it was fun getting there, anyway.

Wow, this really kind of smells like A BIRD! I mean that in a good way, it's pretty amazing. It smells soft and feathery, sort of warm, almost a little dusty. I don't really detect individual notes well in this blend, except for sandalwood - mostly, it's just blended perfectly to invoke "bird" for me. I love when perfume paints such a vivid picture!

On my skin, White Pumpkin Extrait is sweet and buttery, and different from how others are describing it. To me, it's a buttery pumpkin - not unwearably buttery, but buttery - layered with *white chocolate*. I am probably crazy, but that is what I smell. It's possible it's a very sweet vanilla. There may also be a light white musk note, but it's not prominent on me at all. I like this, but don't love it - pumpkin and I have a funny relationship wherein I always want to love it and only sometimes do. I will probably pass it on to someone who will enjoy it more.

Mine says nothing about strawberry on the label, just "wad of chewed up bubblegum". I wonder if it's a different scent? It smells nothing like strawberry to me, just straight up bubble gum. Very spot-on, just not what I was hoping for - I wanted a candy strawberry scent.

Wet on my skin, Mabon 2010 smells like grape to me, with some warm, dry florals (almost like dried flowers, actually) and sort of a hay-like smell. After about a minute, I smell apple in there too. Dry, the florals gets stronger, along with some more apple. This scent is warm and dry, very evocative of a fall harvest celebration. I don't know that it's *me*, but it's nice.

Wet, Blue Pumpkin Floss is berry and light spice, sweet, and features a bit of pumpkiny scent that is not buttery (yay!). It's pretty strong and candy-like, and I like it. As it dries, though, the spices amp ridiculously on my skin (from this update, I have relearned the lesson that spices, while I love them, tend to take over when my chemistry is involved). After about an hour, I smelled this again and found that the berry had also amped quite a bit, leaving me with a WHOA STRONG BERRY SPICE. I kind of like it, but it's not quite evocative of blue pumpkin floss on me.

Apparently, I amp cinnamon/spices. I have noticed this before, but more so with Pumpkin Latte. This oil goes on super spicy, with a backdrop of non-buttery (!!) pumpkin sweetness and just a hint of coffee. As it dries, it just gets SPICIER. It doesn't burn my skin or anything, it's just like WELL HELLO THERE CINNAMON. As it dries, the spices fade, leaving behind just the subtlest hint of sweet espresso. I really hoped this would be a coffee party on my skin, but sadly, my chemistry came between the espresso and I. I'm going to try this again and maybe hope that it changes after a bit of time, because I really wanted this one to work for me. But I'm bummed. I just wanted some espresso in my latte!

A lot of people have been saying this is a very red-musk-SN type scent on them, and I was braced for a musk smack-in-the-face when I put it on. But people! Oh my goodness. Infernal Lover doesn't wear that way on me at ALL. It goes on almost completely NON-musky, just honey and cream (perfectly blended, sweet and soft). The musk does bloom after a few seconds, but it remains light, soft, and well-balanced. It's exactly as Beth described it. I smelled Infernal Lover again a few minutes after it dried and then a few times throughout the day. All day, it remained true - red musk, honey, and cream. The cream played nicely on my skin even though cream does not always do that, same with the honey (and the musk, for that matter, though red musk tends to wear well on me). I am a very happy camper.

This scent smells like a moth to me! I know, that's weird, but really - it's dry, and sort of...well, I'm not sure exactly, but it's evocative. It smells like a spicy, woody vanilla with a hint of booze on my skin wet, but as it dries it becomes something I really cannot quite put my finger on. I don't really know what tonka and Egyptian musk smell like, so maybe it's those two things that end up strongest on the drydown. I'm not sure. I know it's like a warm, slightly spicy wood smell on me, with a hint of sweetness from the vanilla. Something about it is odd... I'm not sure if I love it, but I like it and I think it has awesomeness potential - if not on me, then on others.