divadienst

wonderful. i get why so many people seem to start with it (i also ordered an imp as part of my first order) and why it has twenty-eight pages of reviews. i like how many different situations it seems to suit; it is feminine (but? and?) less heavy/voluptuous than other scents i've tried, and one could wear it for a special occasion or every day and it wouldn’t feel out of place. i have worn it now about four times but i think i still need to work out how much i need to apply. in the bottle and when it's wet it smells very faint, and i always have the feeling i haven’t applied enough so put more on, but then as soon as it’s dried all at once it seems to become much stronger and i feel like i’ve applied too much! i seem to do well with rose, bergamot, and honey, so perhaps something must be going on here where they all converge in one scent and my skin really amps the whole thing up. maybe less really is more. or could that be the carnation? is that just what carnation is like? more discernment is required and there are probably a lot of scents i'm just not familiar with. that said, other reviewers have described alice as 'spicy' and, though my skin seems to bring the whole thing forth, that isn't a word i would use for it. i will need to spend more time with it to decide if i could go in for a whole bottle. i have a few other rose scents (othello, the rose, spellbound, etc) and i've really liked them all so far and all feel like 'me' in various ways, but realistically my purse will only ever let me commit to bottles of just one or two.

okay, my project to keep a record of the things i’ve tried begins! let's go! i came cross an imp of this for £5 on ebay and i went for it because i was simply so intrigued; partly by the name (as madrid is a city i have very fond memories of and that means a lot to me), partly by the fact no one else has written about it for so long and i wanted to be able to investigate and report back. in the bottle it was very sweet (not in a bad way per se - just that i knew i'd have to be careful about not putting on too much). i also knew at once that i had to save it for the right occasion and that it wouldn't suit the very dark and wet english february it arrived to me in. then, about a fortnight ago, i finally got to try it out on the first few warm days when the sun finally showed its face. from the bottle there is a lot of red wine - then upon the skin cloves - then as it settles down the wines seems to come back. thankfully i don't find the wine plasticky as some others seem to have. i am not sure about the mimosa; i don’t get much, so either it's simply not a scent i'm familiar with or the wine and cloves are too strong, which may well be the case. it’s quite all-or-nothing; it's not one of those that is strong to begin with and then gradually fades and softens. while it’s on it has a good throw, but then after about five or six hours it seems to disappear all at once. i'm really glad to have this imp and i will enjoy wearing it on spring days or summer evenings sat out on a restaurant patio or at the theatre or anywhere else its boldness and sensuality wouldn't make me self-conscious (!). that said, i don't think it bothers me much that it's so old realistically one wouldn't be able to get hold of a bottle, and there are other imps i've tried that i'd be inclined to save up for and bottle sooner.