Shameful Secret
Category: American Gothic
Quantity: sample
Description:
SHAMEFUL SECRET
We all come with a past. Certainly, some have more to hide than others. What we do with our lives is of no concern to them. Nobody need know your secret. Hide your shame. Stand tall and proud as it turns your stomach sour. Sweet milk, raspberry cream, absinthe, cassia
Review:
In the bottle: I smell cream, cassia, raspberry, and absinthe, in that order. It’s an interesting mix.
Wet: It’s a little bit bitter, but very herbal, from the absinthe; yet very sweet from the milk and cassia. So far, the raspberry is still very far in the background.
Dry: It turned sweeter, more fruity and juicy, but still with a tiny bit of bitterness/sourness underneath, but it’s really whispered like a secret.
Verdict: Oh, I love this one! It fits me so perfectly, how could I give it a bad review?
Gravy
Category: Signature Scents
Quantity: sample
Description:
GRAVY
Gravy is Good Judy's signature scent! This is some awesome sauce!
Two warm, buttery vanillas folded into creamy cocoa butter and poured over spicy warm resins. Soft and glowing. Warm and comforting. Nice and sweet, with something a little mysterious and dark underneath.
Review:
In the bottle: I smell a mix of spiced vanilla and cocoa butter. It’s very yummy, like warm cookies or cake.
Wet: A warm and very buttery vanilla, with a note of chocolate, and some resins underneath.
Dry: It still smells like warm cake, with a resin under-note. It seems worthy of Mary Jo’s bakery.
Verdict: Gravy is very decadent, and it opens my appetite. However, it’s not as decadent as Atomic Cheesecake, but it has an interesting (or even sexy) spicy aspect.
Key Lime Pie
Category: Mary Jo's Bakery
Quantity: sample
Description:
KEY LIME PIE
A southern Florida treat loved by all. Fresh, tart key limes blended with sugar, egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk, all poured into a lightly baked graham cracker crust. This one will make your teeth ache!
Review:
In the bottle: An intense smell of sugary graham crust.
Wet: Sugar, cream (or milk), egg, and graham. The lime is very subtle.
Dry: Overall, it doesn’t have much throw, and the lime note quickly fades away.
Verdict: It’s sweet and creamy, but not for me. Another one in the “future soap” box...
Yules: Rose Red 2010
Category: Limited Edition
Quantity: bottle
Description:
ROSE RED 2010
The perfected winter rose, dew covered and freshly cut.
Review:
In the bottle: A velvety red rose, fresher than in a flower shop.
Wet: It’s a bit too strong at first, it’s annoying for my nostrils; however, it gets better after 10-15 minutes.
Dry: It’s much better now. It’s a delicate floral scent, feminine, romantic, and almost a sacred rose.
Verdict: For those who might be turned off by its initial strong throw, my advice would be to let it dry completely before judging it. It becomes subtle and almost sweet over time.
More reviews: Limited Edition: Yules: Rose Red 2010
My list of reviews so far, to be updated as I write them.
BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB:
Limited Edition:
Sleepy Hollow: Katrina Van Tassel
Yules: Lick it Vigorously
Yules: Rose Red 2010
Yules: Snow White 2010
Yules: The Nutcracker: Klara
Ars Amatoria:
Kabuki
L'École Des Filles
Lolita
Lucy's Kiss
Maiden
Bewitching Brews:
All Night Long
Dana O'Shee
Follow Me Boy
Hurricane
Jolly Roger
Love Me
Diabolus:
Kumiho
Marie
Villain
Excolo:
Persephone
Illyria:
Rosalind
Mad Tea Party:
Alice
Eat Me
Mouses's Long And Sad Tale
The Pool Of Tears
Tweedledum
The Unicorn
Marchen:
The Grave-Pig
Picnic in Arkham:
Herbert West
Rappaccini's Garden:
Baneberry
Hairy Toad Lily
Sin & Salvation:
Faustus
Lust
Oblivion
Wanderlust:
London
GOOD JUDY:
Limited Edition:
Diamond (April 2009)
Fruit Judy
Hanami (Spring 2009)
Ostara (March 2009)
American Gothic:
The Corruption of Having Lived
Forbidden Desire
Shameful Secret
Sins of the Past
Spectral Evidence
Splintered Love
Anime & Manga:
Gosurori
Shoujo
Uke
Curio Shop:
Cursed Cameo
Mephitic Vapors
Pickled Punk
Spirit Bottle: Lhunassi
Voodoo Doll
In The Mood:
Jolt
Love Potent
Lullaby
Woobie
LGBT & More:
B
Femme
Mary Jo's Bakery:
Bread Pudding
Cannoli
Chocolate Chai Muffin
Key Lime Pie
Punk:
Gothic
Pop
Resinate:
Honey Patch
Smooth & Neat
Signature Scents:
Gravy
Starlite Oasis:
Atomic Cheesecake
Lava Rocket
Mond-O-Rama
Unreleased Blends:
First Creation
Atomic Cheesecake
Category: Starlite Oasis
Quantity: sample
Description:
ATOMIC CHEESECAKE
It’s all about the pinup. With their peek-a-boo poses and pouty lips, these blonde bombshells, buxom brunettes, and randy redheads are the ultimate art of seduction.
Pure, unadulterated cheesecake, vanilla bean, vanilla musk
Review:
In the bottle: It does smell like cheesecake! I smell cream cheese and vanilla.
Wet: It’s pretty much the same as in the bottle. It’s very creamy, rich, warm, and decadent. If it’s based on a real cheesecake, I want the recipe.
Dry: I smell the vanilla musk a little better, but it’s still a lot of cream cheese. Overall, it stays true from beginning to end.
Verdict: It smells delicious! It’s like a real cheesecake, served fresh and tender; it’s only missing the berry sauce.
Pop
Category: Punk
Quantity: sample
Description:
POP
Break out the Dickies and the studded belts! Faux-hawks. Thin ties. Skinny jeans. Chuck Taylors. Eyeliner. Cotton candy flavored cherry-red lipstick. Pink and black. Trucker hats and skull jewelry.
Review:
In the bottle: I smell cherry, something sweet (like sugar maybe?), and a bitter under-note.
Wet: It has turned darker, with a spicy bitterness like clove or pepper. The cherry is almost absent.
Dry: The cherry came back, and I still smell clove… Why am I thinking “cherry cola”?
Verdict: Frankly, this isn’t my thing. I love cherry, and I love spicy scents; but I’m not sure I like the two together. This one just doesn’t work for me.
Pickled Punk
Category: Curio Shop
Quantity: sample
Description:
PICKLED PUNK
When two become one, what once was is now forever...only never to be. Ghastly to some. Fascinating to others. A medical marvel to all. This bicephalic form floats, peaceful, in a man-made womb with a view…perfectly preserved for your curiosity and pleasure. Tangerine, pink pepper, talc
Review:
In the bottle: A lovely, spicy tangerine. I doesn’t smell too fruity or too sweet, but not too spicy either; it’s well balanced.
Wet: It’s orange on my skin! I should have thought about it, it was orange in the bottle. The tangerine is juicy and fruity, but it’s mixed with a spice, and I’m not even sure it’s pepper. In fact, it smells like clove on me. It reminds me of those Christmas ornaments made of whole oranges picked with clove.
Dry: I finally get some of the talc, which separates the ingredients a little bit. Therefore, I can smell the pink pepper better, or at least for what it really is. However, there’s not enough tangerine left (at least in my opinion, and I love tangerine).
Verdict: I can see there’s an interesting concept behind this one, and the smell of it is also very interesting; but unfortunately, it’s not enough to convince me. It works fine as a gender-neutral blend, but it doesn’t suit my skin type very well, and it doesn’t last very long. Too bad.
Hanami
Category: Limited Edition (Spring 2009)
Quantity: 5ml bottle
Description:
HANAMI
Hanami is the Japanese tradition of viewing the flowering trees. When the Sakura (cherry) and Ume (plum) Trees blossom, spectators arrive in throngs to view the ephemeral and beautiful flowers and picnic on foods and sake. The Hanami tradition is as anticipated and celebrated as Leaf Season in America.
Sakura blossom, ume blossom, sake
Review:
In the bottle: This smells like spring to me, and walking through the apple and cherry trees in bloom. Although, in this case, it’s cherry and plum…
Wet: The flowers are exploding under my nose. The plum came first, and then the cherry.
Dry: I’m still getting a lot of the flowers, but with a little bit of sake as well. It’s strange, but it smells a bit like spray net…
Verdict: Hanami has a serious, mature feeling. I don’t doubt this could be an elegant Japanese woman’s favourite perfume.
Lullaby
Category: In The Mood
Quantity: sample
Description:
LULLABY
Sleep judy. A quiet and relaxing blend to ease your tension and calm your thoughts. Peaceful sleep nourishes the spirit and soothes the soul. Lullaby does just that, without having to sing a single note. Lavender, chamomile, mandarin, jasmine, ylang ylang, rose.
Review:
In the bottle: Hmm… Chamomile, mandarin, lavender, and some other flowers float toward my nose. There’s something comforting and soothing about it right away, that I can not explain to myself, but it seems to work.
Wet: As soon as I put it on, a bitter smell came out of it, so I was quite worried; but, fortunately, it didn’t last long. It then turned into a soothing blend of flowers. The lavender is soft, which is a good thing because I usually don’t like it much, and the mandarin adds a warm touch to it.
Dry: After drydown, I smell the rose and the jasmine a little bit better. The floral scent is stronger, but the drop of mandarine is still there to complement it.
Verdict: At least this one keeps its promises, it’s very calm and peaceful. It could work, to a certain extent, as a neutral blend, even though the flowers make it a bit feminine. On a personal note, the first time I tried it, I was tired and overloaded with work, so it wasn’t a very good time to try it on, I didn’t work much that day (I guess I could have used a little bit of Jolt). But right now, I’m on vacation, and fully able to appreciate it. Would I wear that often? Probably not, but it was fun to try it and see what it does.
Jolt
Category: In The Mood
Quantity: sample
Description:
JOLT
Wake up! Get revved and ready to go go go! Cuban coffee, black tea, double shot of espresso, spices
Review:
In the bottle: It’s spicy; I identify clove and pepper.
Wet: More clove! There’s some dark, maybe even black, coffee behind it.
Dry: Finally, I get the black coffee and black tea, but it’s still very spicy.
Verdict: Overall, it’s masculine-neutral; interesting, but just not my thing.
Bread Pudding
Category: Mary Jo's Bakery
Quantity: sample
Description:
BREAD PUDDING
Warm bread soaked in milk and eggs and spices. Baked golden bubbly and served drenched in an ooey-gooey vanilla rum sauce. Delightfully rich and satisfying!
Review:
In the bottle: I smell a mix of bread, eggs, spices (especially cinnamon, yum!), vanilla, and a bit of rum.
Wet: This really smells like french toast (or “pain doré/pain perdu”; as usual, please forgive my french) with spices, and some sort of a rich vanilla sauce, with a strong sugar undernote.
Dry: Yeah, old bread or old cake soaked in a preparation of milk and eggs to remove dryness. It took some time, but I finally got some of the rum back. And as usual, the perfume turned sugary-sweet on me.
Verdict: Not bad; but maybe a little bit too “french toast”, the ressemblance is just too obvious for me. Other than that, it’s lovely, and so yummy that it makes me want to bake.
Love Potent
Category: In The Mood
Quantity: sample
Description:
LOVE POTENT
Ooh la la! Love is life! Good Judy’s Love Potent is a precursor to the ultimate experience in life. Love for life. Love for yourself. Love for another. Male, female, and everyone in between…however you love, whomever you love… let love shine from the deepest, darkest part of your soul to the infinite far-reaches of the universe. For without love, we have nothing. Rose, spiced musk, bay, violet, gardenia, jasmine, ginger
Review:
In the bottle: Spicy rose and flowers.
Wet: At first, it’s a spicy mix of rose, violet, gardenia, jasmine. Then, I get a faint scent of musk and bay.
Dry: After a while, musk and ginger take over the flowers. I’m still getting a little bit of violet, and maybe another flower, but I don’t know which one.
Verdict: This is sexy, and maybe even empowering; but unfortunately, it doesn’t last very long. The two times I’ve worn this one so far, I kept adding some more on my skin, so the sample is already half-empty. Because of that, I hesitate to buy a bottle. Otherwise, it’s lovely.
Smooth & Neat
Category: Resinate
Quantity: sample
Description:
SMOOTH & NEAT
The aromatic flavoring of a fine liqueur, extremely sensual and smooth with a wonderful warming finish. Served neat. Patchouli leaves, bright orange citrus, smooth vanilla, and a splash of hazelnut liqueur.
Review:
In the bottle: Patchouli, orange and hazelnut liqueur.
Wet: Warm orange and sweet vanilla, for the most part; everything else is in the background.
Dry: The patchouli and liqueur come back, but it’s still smooth. It’s not the aggressive patchouli some old ladies are so fond of…
Verdict: It’s well balanced, smooth and clean, with a sweet dose of vanilla and orange. However, patchouli smells old on me, so the sample will probably become lovely soap material.
Splintered Love
Category: American Gothic
Quantity: sample
Description:
SPLINTERED LOVE
Secrets grow like thorns around the hearts of lovers. Desperate to hide the truth, the spiny garden grows larger, depleting love. Love fails to germinate, to grow. The sewn fruits are bitter. The heart fractures. The splinters cut deep. Rose, pink pepper, spikenard, pomegranate
Review:
In the bottle: At first sniff, I smell rose, with pepper, and a little pomegranate. I don’t know what spikenard is (I’ve heard of its historical uses, but I’ve never smelled it), so I guess it’s the fourth ingredient I can’t quite replace.
Wet: At first, Splintered Love is all sweet. It’s a nice blend of rose and fruity, juicy pomegranate.
Dry: After a while, it turns bittersweet and spicy; I suspect pepper to have something to do with this metamorphosis. Hours later, all that remains is bitter pomegranate leftovers.
Verdict: Oh, I love it! The concept behind it is interesting, and it smells awesome, could I ask for more? Splintered Love goes in my “to buy” list.
The Corruption of Having Lived
Category: American Gothic
Quantity: sample
Description:
THE CORRUPTION OF HAVING LIVED
Surviving isn’t necessarily living. You fight for purpose, surrounded by the walls of the Old Manse, its endless rooms, trapped and all alone. Nobody left but the voices in your head. Talking to you. Trying to understand. Rationalizing. How did this happen? Why? You have the rest of your life to ponder. The answer is already yours. You’ve chosen your path. You must live with your choice. Fig, black currant, calla lily, vanilla sandalwood
Review:
In the bottle: It’s a moderately strong smell of fig, currant, and sandalwood.
Wet: It’s much softer on my skin, and much more floral (probably the calla lily), with a touch of vanilla, and something sweet and fruity in the background.
Dry: Not bad, it’s floral, yet fruity as soon as the fig comes back, with a little bit of bitterness and darkness.
Verdict: I love this one too! So far, except Forbidden Desire, the American Gothic collection suits me well, and I think I still have 2 samples to try... I'm impatient to see if they're as good as the ones I have tried so far!
Chocolate Chai Muffin
Category: Mary Jo's Bakery
Quantity: sample
Description:
CHOCOLATE CHAI MUFFIN
A cakey, not-too-sweet, muffin flavored with chocolate powder and chai spices. This muffin is scrumptious!
Review:
In the bottle: Oh my! Spicy chocolate! Those warm, exotic spices seem delightful when mixed with the cocoa.
Wet: As soon as it touched my skin, it turned into bitter spices, with an subtle note of musk. There’s a little bit of chocolate behind, but it’s not as strong as in the bottle.
Dry: After a few minutes, it turned herbal; that’s weird. If you are familiar with the (fake) chocolate essence sold for soap-making, mix it with spicy herbs, and that’s what you get.
Verdict: Honestly, I feared that it would be the cousin of Forbidden Desire; but fortunately, it’s not as sweet, and its spiciness gives it a very sexy aspect.
First Creation
Category: Unreleased Blends
Quantity: sample
Description:
FIRST CREATION
N/A
Review:
In the bottle: It’s very soft, a little bit floral, with something sweet, such as vanilla or honey.
Wet: It’s already more herbal, lemony, maybe even with a spicy background note, but I can’t find what it is.
Dry: Still soft, creamy, lemony, and floral. It’s a bit old-lady-ish, but it smells clean and soft.
Verdict: Yes, it’s a bit old-fashioned, but it smells good; and the ingredients are very mysterious!
