sophrosyne

I didn't know what acai berries smelled like before I tried this, and I suspect that I still don't know... First sniff: it's the berry version of lemon drops! Acid-sweet candy. Not sickly, but not as sharp or as plainly fruity as I was expecting. Wet: Ooh, smoke! And this is the first sweet scent I've tried that's actually toned down the sugar when it was on me. Hey, this is nice; smoke over fruit and something else I can't put my finger on. Dry: Lots of lovely smoke, and now I have no clue at all what's underneath it, but it's very pleasant. It's a much more interesting scent than it seemed in the bottle, and it's very moreish. It doesn't last long on my skin, but it does fill the whole room and linger for literally days. It was three days before I stopped catching the last traces of it in my bedroom. And then the snake bit. It was okay the first time. but the second time I wore it, it burned my skin.

In the imp: nearly all cucumber, with maybe a tiny hint of damp grass. Fresh and green and really nice! Wet: as soon as it hit my skin it went a darker green, and turned into green vegetables somewhat past their best, like manky old broccoli. Drydown: dying broccoli and cucumber. Weird. Dry: gone. Vanished completely in an hour and a half. Which, the way it turned on my skin, was not entirely a bad thing.

In the vial: Sweet spices: cinnamon and clove, and something I can't quite identify. Wet: Clove! And there's a faint trace of something else - not fruit, so perhaps the patchouli. Dry: The clove dominates, and anything else is blended rather than detectable as distinct notes, which is fine with me! I love Al-Shairan. The sweetness and spice temper each other, it's beautifully balanced and warm. I think I need a bottle of it.

I don't know what possessed me to get Velvet, since I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to want to wear anything chocolatey - I just liked the sound of the name, I think. Bad choice. Wet: It's cheap nasty chocolate on me. Dry: Chocolate-scented candles. It doesn't like me, and I like it even less.

In the vial: mandarin, but I think I'm getting lemon as well. I can't pick out the fig at all. Wet: Still just mandarin, but it's getting sweeter. Dry: Candied mandarin. Like orange jelly sweets. I thought it'd be stronger than this, but it's quite faint on me, and fades fast, which is a shame, because I could get fond of Carnal.

In the bottle: Wow, that's strong! I'm hopeless at identifying notes, but with Saturn, I can't even tell what type of notes could be in it. I'm not getting wood, though. It's got a sweetness to it, despite the face it does come across as serious. Wet: It's warming up. Getting lighter and sweeter. Still can't identify and notes. Dry: Scented candles. Lit ones: it smells like hot candlewax and - something I'm not familiar with. It's actually quite nice. I wasn't sure about Saturn until I put it on, but it's one I really like wearing. It's powerful and intense, but warm rather than coolly sombre, which was what I expected it to be.