Leopard403

When Blossoms in Springtime is wet, it is super-foody. But as soon as it dries, it smells just like the prior Vulva scents. Unfortunately, on my first full wear, it has given me a tremendous headache.

Blooming Rose is a lovely, well-blended floral that will be a perfect Springtime scent. Rose is prominent so you know it is there, but it is clear that this is a mixed bouquet. There is a slight undertone of fancy floral soap, which is probably related to the lilac, but somehow that works FOR it rather than against. I'm not sure what "white honey" is, but normally I amp all kinds of honey and I don't recognize the usual stuff in this at all because this is all girly flowers. Very dainty, but suprisingly long-lasting on me!

I gravitate toward rose scents, so I was really looking forward to Elizabeth of Bohemia. It turns out, I think, that I love rose, but don't love oude. The resinous scent under this rose is very cloying, and in fact this smells exactly like the time I had a brilliant but short-lived idea to make my own rose-scented gel candles. Elizabeth smells exactly like that, very much an in-your-face I AM A FAKE THING BUT I SMELL LIKE ROSE! scent. So though the rose is deep and lush and lovely there is a sort of chemical undertone that just ruins it.

At first, The Last Unicorn has a murky, muddy, vegetative scent about it; almost a dirty aquatic but not quite. Luckily this is a short first impression and the scent blossoms into something amazing. It is complex and seamless, so well-blended that no one note stands out above the others. It smells a little dainty, a lot sad: This is one of those incredibly evocative scents, and knowing the inspiration for it, it just all makes sense somehow. I could be a young girl again, wearing this scent and crying over the book and the film for the first time. But it works for me now as a woman, a little older and wiser with a little bit of Molly Grue inside of me, because this scent is wistful and peaceful and gentle and lovely. SO beautiful. I quite think it would work as a unisex scent, too, which means it is damned brilliant on top of everything else.

As I sniffed and sniffed at this--both wet and dry, both in the imp and on my skin--I thought "Why do I know that scent? What is it, what is it?" I read and reread the notes and pondered quite hard, and it just wouldn't come to me. I just sniffed again and it finally came in a sudden clear blast: It's a fresh pine tree.

This is pretty. The base is clearly minty, though the other notes smell more like citrus fruits than "yellow petals" to me. It feels sort of fuzzy and fizzy, more of a yuzu or blood orange citrus than a brighter orange or lemon scent. This is actually what I expected Yellow Snowballs to smell like. I find it a bit too masculine on me, but it would be lovely on a boy in springtime.

All sandalwood and tuberose on me. It is a high, white floral, as so many of the prettier Frankenstein Yules seem to be on me. Bummer.

I could have written this review myself. I am totally striking out on Yules this year.

I just don't get it. A Companion of the Same Nature is composed of scents that I love, that are magic on my skin. It's true that I tend to amp amber and that it has the risk of drowning everything else out, and I was willing to take a chance here because it sounded lovely. If I could have put money on which of my Yule decants I would love best, it would be this one. I knew I was in trouble when the decant arrived and the oil was a rusty orange color. That's usually the first bad sign, but I tried to disregard it. So I was so disappointed when, upon the first few sniffs, I could barely bring myself to put this on my skin; and once on my skin, it didn't get any better. This is a super-strong generic "perfume-y" scent that encapsulates everything I dislike about most bestselling eau de parfum sprays. So though I have a very full decant to swap away, I also have a headache and a broken heart.

Glad to say that on me, this is chocolate with gingerbread in the background rather than the other way around. It is gentler on my skin than many of the lab's "spicier" blends, too. Love.

I too get laundry detergent, but it is nice laundry detergent. Too masculine for me, but would be great on a guy.

Wet, this is a high white scent with no identifiable notes; just a mishmash white floral. Dry, it settles down and smells like expensive French-milled soap. Quite nice, but not really noteworthy.

Wet, this is all juicy pear. As it settles on my skin, the vanilla comes out with a very soft rose. (And I mean soft: I amp rose, and I can barely tell this is there. Maybe the "rose musk" is the secret!) I don't smell any honey or red currant, and the gardenia is only noticable if you know to look for it. Overall, this is a mild vanilla pear with slight floral overtones. It is quite pretty, but it doesn't last on me.

What is that on MAISON EN PAIN D'ÉPICES? It looks like an old sanitarium, but that can't be right, can it?

Agreed. I love Two, Five and Seven but it is a fresher, slightly redder rose scent and there is something identifiably green underneath. (Be careful, too: To my nose, as it ages, that green turns into beer. ) I also love Viola but in addition to the tea rose-y notes, there is something purple about it as well. When I think of it, I always picture the color pink swirling with the color lavender. It is more little girlish than the typical old ladyishness of plain tea rose. Ouija is really heavy on the wood, and I haven't tried Euphrosyne.

Wet, this doesn't smell like much of anything to my nose. On my skin, it is a rather bland aquatic. Not really my thing.

Wet, this is delightful. Like a Christmas tree decorated with superpink candies, crowned with tiny, rare nightblooming flowers. On my skin, all I get is salty boiled peanuts. I hate my skin.

Wet in the imp, I actually smell roasting marshmallows. On my skin, all I smell is the burning. Bummer.

I avoid lavender. I find it not just medicinal and reminiscent of a good facial, but totally overwhelming: Put lavender in a blend and I will not smell anything else. And yet I got my decant of Nightmare and fell in love with it, only remembering once I checked the notes that there was lavender in it at all! On my skin, now that I know it is there, the lavender is soft and powdery, almost orris-like when it combines with the other notes. The vanilla grounds the scent well so that jasmine peeks around the corners, and the gentle notes that could easily have been overpowered by the lavender or amber are all present. Beautifully blended, this smells expensive, not "spa-like" at all.

I received Chokecherry Honey as a frimp from the lab. I tend to be wary of the lab's honey note as it is always very "high" on my skin, so much so that it doesn't really smell like honey at all but more like a bright amber-and-citrus note. But this combination is a winner on my skin. This is smooth, sultry, real honey like a mouthful straight from the jar. I don't get any cherry (or cherry cough syrup), but there is a juicy red tartness under the honey that is quite decadent and balances out the sweet honey. And it lasted forever: After a hectic ten-hour day I could still smell it on my ears and neck when I flipped my hair.

On me, after an initial burst of crisp apple-y goodness, The Green Apple of Venus smells just like Avobath.

I think this is my favorite Weenie of 2011. Very evocative of Autumn, but it doesn't make you think of dead leaves and the "dying" aspect of the season. Rather, I get the warmth and the comfort of the season, the burrowing and the waiting of Fall, smeared very thick and bright. This is complex and well-blended, which makes it sophisticated. There's something about it that makes it feel French and expensive, one of those well-kept secret scents. Very much the kind of scent that could simply be the way a modern woman smells, rather than the way a woman's perfume smells. Plus, on me it has great throw and lasts all day. Love!

On my skin this is a lot nuttier than I expected. It is complex--a little foody, a little floral--and unfortunately I just find all of that confusing. It really is a gorgeous scent, but there is something too busy and slightly generic about it.

When freshly applied, this is all crisp, juicy green apple, evocative of the slices I eat for lunch most days. On the drydown it is much more complex, though after about ten minutes the blue musk makes it smell identical to Under the Harvest Moon.

I can't figure out how the notes end up this way, but: On me, this smells just like Lush's Avobath bomb.