bambi

In the bottle, this smelled strongly of both a very sweet almond blossom and neroli. On the skin, the blood orange weaves in and out a tiny bit, but this stays extremely sweet and very much an almond blossom scent. It's very pretty, but definitely not a mature scent. It smells slightly of bubblegum, giving me visions of tween fandom energy, exactly as it was meant to evoke. Medium throw on me.

In the bottle, this smells very strongly of dragon's blood, musk, and florals. On my wrist the grapefruit comes out for a brief second, then all but vanishes. I think it's still there, in the background, giving a slight tartness to the scent, but this is all dragon's blood and flowers on me. I can pick out the honeysuckle a bit before the lilac joins in. The dragon's blood softens a bit, and at this point I thought, "wow, what a nice springy floral." And then... "oh, no." This is terribly strong. Like, headache-inducing strong. I'm not sure which floral I'm amping, the lilac or the honeysuckle, but it is overwhelming. I had to wash it off. I wish it had stayed at the pretty-spring-floral middle stage ?

I figured today was as good a day as any to test this out, what with the domestic terrorists storming DC. This is absolutely a positive, uplifting scent. In the bottle, it starts out as a big wave of citrus, but more pithy, like the peel instead of the fruit. When I put it on, that slight bitterness disappears, and I get a smattering of gentle herbs, citrus, and lavender. As this sits on my skin, the citrus continues to sweeten a bit and fade slightly, leaving me with a very gentle herbal scent, rounded out with soft citrus. For me, this worked as intended. I certainly felt compelled to stop doomscrolling twitter, though whether that's because I really just wanted to continue sniffing my wrist is undetermined ?

This is so lovely. I wasn't certain at first about it. In the bottle, I got a burst of powdery amber. It was so powdery, it made me nervous to even try this. At second sniff, though, I got notes of citrus and cedar, which made me brave enough to put this on. The amber immediately fades to a manageable level upon application, and I get a very orangey floral. Clearly orange flower, and maybe tuberose? I've never smelled tuberose before, but there's something floral outside of the orange flower going on here. A sweet, thick note starts to creep in, which must be the honey, but it's not overwhelming. With time, the beeswax starts to show itself, and the cedar seems to always be floating there lightly in the background. Another example of a scent with cedar that just works for me. Citrus and cedar must be my magic combination ?

In the bottle, this smells of amber and something SHARP. Probably the lemon peel. After application, the amber disappears, and I can smell lemon and the clary sage. It's not as sharp as it was in the bottle. After several minutes, the amber makes a gentle comeback, leaving me with a soft, glittery, herbal citrus. I agree that it's quite strong, so not something I'd slather on.

In the bottle, this was immediately MUSK to me, with strong tendrils of citrus woven through. Red musk is not my favorite form of musk, but it was worth risking it for the blood orange and tangerine. Upon application, the mimosa blossom hot me like a bunch. Sweet, powdery, with almost a honey note. It mixed with the musk and overpowered the citrus. The resulting scent is a musky, powdery floral. Very feminine, very pretty, and with very orange (like the color) vibes, even for lack of a citrus scent. Very pretty, but not for me.

This ended up not at all what I expected. In the bottle I immediately get pink grapefruit, pepper, and salt. The grapefruit smells so fresh. Sometimes we get grapefruit as a dessert in the lunch provided by my work, and this smells exactly like that. Immediately upon application, I get a sharp burst of citrus before it abruptly vanishes. Something musky and sweet makes its way into the mix, which I think is the ambergris. The consistent note here on me is the pepper. I can't smell it so much as I can feel it. It leaves my nose a little itchy-tingle-y. It's fun. The overall impression I get of this scent is a sweet, powdery distant ocean with the tingle-y pepper.

So herbal and pleasant. The lavender jumps out initially, but the other notes quickly join in, making this smell like what I imagine an herbalist's shop might smell of. The almond joins the herbs a little later, adding a hint of earthy sweetness, which immediately shifts this into old-lady perfume territory for me. Thankfully, that stage doesn't last long, and the orange comes along to balance everything back out again. This ends as a warm, floral/herbal, orange-y scent, which is quite nice.

I have tried my imp out multiple times, and there's still something about this scent that I can't describe. It starts off quite soapy on me, but a nice citrus-y soap. I love yuzu and mikan as citrus scents. The kaki makes an appearance, sweet and fresh. Kaki is one of the best things about autumn in Japan, and you cannot change my mind about this. Suddenly, the soapy note becomes quite masculine. Perhaps the tea is making it behave that way. The cherry blossom gives it a strong floral edge. The combination of all of these things together confuses my nose, I think. It's fruity, soapy, masculine, and sweet. I don't dislike it, but it's something I'm glad I only have an imp of.

This started out as a very strong grape on me. As it dried, it became more generally dark fruity and metallic, which I wasn't sure I'd like, but something made me keep sniffing. The clove made its way in, and this became almost an incense-y wine scent. The leather (and maybe the oak) worked to ground the scent, and pushed this out of feminine and into a more gender-neutral scent for me. It's nice, but not something I'd wear.

This goes on fruity, then quickly becomes a soft floral on me. The plum blossom would be responsible for both the floral and fruity aspects, and then the vanilla sandalwood comes in and makes this so soft and almost creamy. I don't get any nutmeg, but it's very pretty regardless.

Simple and straightforward, this smells exactly as described. Sweet and tart apples with the deeper and tart cranberries, and then just a touch of spice. Fruity and beautiful.

Beautiful and comforting. This oil is very lavender-focused on me, with the other notes lending a helping hand. The patchouli grounds, the sage gives a little herbiness, and the vanilla sweetens. It brings back a vivid memory of eating a lavender macaron with vanilla ganache filling.

This is wonderful. It smells exactly as it's described, though I'd say there's some cinnamon in there? I've found that certain types of cinnamon irritate my skin, while others don't (it amazed me that there are different types of cinnamon to begin with tbh), and, luckily, this one doesn't appear to be the irritating type for me. It did initially give off generic-apple-spiced candle vibes, but the milk note gave it a sort of creaminess that made it something more special.

This is quite pretty. Initially, the sake stood out, with a airy, boozy note. The wood and apricot join in quickly, giving this a fruity and airy, yet strangely grounded, smell. It smells strongly of spring.

I'm beginning to think that perhaps cedar actually works with my skin chemistry ? Cedar is such an overwhelming smell for me, so I'm always scared to try perfume oils with cedar in them, but they always turn out so well that I'm starting to thing I should be seeking it out. Initially, this smells strongly of vanilla and cedar. The sandalwood joins in, and this becomes a soft, vanilla wood scent. It's not at all overpowering, and I like it a lot.

I am not usually a floral person, but my friend let me try a bit of hers, and something about this scent worked fairly well with my skin. It's soft, ethereal, floral, and feminine all the way through. It's probably not something I could see buying for myself, but I'd absolutely wear it if it was given to me.

This perfume oil morphed rapidly on me. In the bottle and upon initial application, it smelled of lemon pine-sol, then quickly lost its astringent edge and started to smell like lemon-drops. The lemon drops stage was fascinating. It was sharp, but sweet. And herbal edge started to creep in, which rapidly changed to an herbal floral. Quickly thereafter it changed to a floral soap scent. Finally, true to its name, it disappeared completely from my skin. I disliked the beginning and end stages of this, but rather liked the lemon-drops and herby lemon scent of the middle stages.

Melon! Initially, that's all I can smell. As a person who loves perfume with fruit notes, this was amazing. It dried down from a screaming melon to a much softer melon with hints of other fruits. Every so often I'd get whiffs of pine and a strong citrus. I never got any of the florals, but perhaps the flowers were what stopped this from screaming FRUIT every chance it got. Love.

In the decant, I get some sort of gingersnap or gingerbread cookies. Maybe a citrus note hiding in there somewhere? I can't be sure, as the scent of baked goods overpowers anything else. Yum. On my skin... Oh no. Chemicals. Cinnamon always smells like this on me. I don't know why I expected anything different. Still, I cry.

Lovely. Initially it was quite herbal on me, with the mint and the lemongrass taking the forefront. As it dried, it softened considerably (most likely the lavender's doing) into a soft, minty citrus. Very refreshing and easy to wear.

This scent did not morph on me at all. From the beginning, I got a rush of cedarpinecitrus all together and all wonderful. Cedar tends to be an overpowering note, but the citrus and evergreen-y smell from the litsea cubeba balanced it, and something sweet that I couldn't place seemed to be holding it all together. I really enjoyed this, and the fact that it didn't morph doesn't bother me at all.

I was lucky enough to try this because a friend of mine has a very precious couple of imps of it. The notes are not at all in my preferred scents (patchouli? dragon's blood? leather? vetiver??), but something about this just WORKED. The vanilla was the stand-out note for me., and there was a slight floral note to it. Perhaps the vanilla flower mixing with the fig? The amber came in a little later, and this became amazing. Very sexy, yet extremely wearable. Sweet, but mature.

Absolutely beautiful. Pomegranate tends to be a rather sharp fruit scent for me, but this is very balanced. The initial scents is all plum on me, but quickly the other notes join in. The amber, frankincense, and saffron make it a deeper scent, and it definitely has a metallic note. I assumed the metallic note was the limonite accord, though I had no idea what that was, so I looked it up, and its a form of iron! So I wasn't going crazy ? This dried down to a deep plum scent that I couldn't stop sniffing.

This is lovely. Quite sharp at first, which would be the lavender and probably the tobacco? On the skin, the lavender is still in the forefront on me, with a woody note backing it up. I'm not sure what that would be. The pomegranate isn't terribly strong on my skin. The woody note then shifts to a floral and the tobacco makes a comeback. The copal, sandalwood, musk, and amber bring so many different layers of softness and a distinctly "perfume-y" feel.