Czarina

In the imp: sweet, sweet. I want to bathe in this. Wet: oh, sweet gardenia (actually I see that it is lily), incense. Dry: the cranberries come to the fore, but the incense and lilies remain. Outstanding scent, very well balanced.

In the imp: incense. Wet: Opium and incense. No florals at all. Drydown: Warm smoky incense, and an interesting sort of patchouli. I’m getting the jasmine now. Above-average throw on me. This is Sexy Plus. The Other Woman, indeed.

In the imp: OMGMINT! Wet: Lemon mint, with honey and tea notes coming up. Dry: Honey and tea. The lemon and mint are gone within half an hour. Below-average throw and staying power on me.

In the imp: Oh dear. Synthetic aldehyde smell. This isn't gonna work with my body chemistry. Wet: Yep. It smells like Chanel No. 5. Dry: Still smells like Chanel No. 5, only with the slightest hint of amber. Synthetic aldehydes are so, so, so not me. Thank goodness the imp was almost empty, it spares me the trouble of swapping it out. Let me note that I think this is a brilliant interpretation of a mirror in scent form. It is a very nice scent, just has a main note that does not work on my skin.

In the imp: choking smoke. Wet: pencil shavings, cedar, sandalwood. Cocoa, fig, something green that must be the palm. Dry: the pencil shavings have calmed down into smoky woods without the graphite. The cocoa and fig have blended together smoothly. It’s hard for me to catch the palm because I don’t have a good sense of what palm smells like. Very, very interesting.

Very fresh and soft. The orchid came through very cleanly for me but I couldn't catch the juniper berries at all. This turned rapidly into baby powder for me. True, sophisticated, elegant baby powder, but baby powder still. Sigh. I'm too old for Love's Baby Soft.

In the imp: grassy, grassy, grassy. Reminds me of Herbal Essence shampoo from 1972. Wet: Ten minutes after application I catch a distinct top note of silvery lemon. This is a lighter scent, suitable for the office (fortunately). Drydown: More herbal, still lemony. I never could catch the ginger and fig. Low throw, less-than-average staying power on me. But extremely pleasant.

In the bottle: sweet resin. Wet: sweet! And resin! And bubblegum (separate from the sweetness)! And something sharp and tangy, possibly the blood note. Dry: resin and incense, with the bubblegummy sweetness fading away. Heady. Sultry. Lovely. Good throw. Now I'm catching gardenia notes. Despite the initial bubblegummy note, this doesn't come across as foody at all on me. In fact, if this scent were named Hump Me, that would be about the right note for the atmosphere this creates around me. Later: None of the other notes have died out but a cherry note has emerged. Maybe that's what good bubblegum turns into when it dies and goes to heaven.

In the imp: resin and smoke. It's a deepish red. Wet: Urgh. It smells like powdered bricks. Very odd. As it settles down it starts to smell more like an actual perfume, but not at all floral on me. I'm getting resin/incense but the smoke is fading away. Dry: the iris is emerging. This is quite the morpher, but I don't really care for anything that it's changed into. ETA: As time goes by this is developing a nasty note that is reminiscent of the ugly mess that Chanel No. 5 always becomes on me. I wonder if that's the copal.

In the imp: Feh. Cloyingly sweet. Ack. This stuff goes on my body? Wet: OMG an explosion of honeydew goodness. How can something that smelled so awful in the imp smell so heavenly in the open air? Oh, right, the concentration. I'm not getting any of the grape notes. Dry: Oh, wow. Salt. There is an undernote of the ocean, salty and tangy. This cuts the sweetness of the melon and makes it more interesting. Slightly above average throw, this will need to be reapplied during the day. Note: this is the exact combination of scents that also appears in prosciutto e meloni, but I do not smell like an appetizer. Yep, this one works really well on me.

What about Bonfire Night?

Olokun, defintely. The Lab description of it makes it sound like a dark, murky scent with seaweed and rotting fish in it, but it has a sort of a salty-frothy-cucumbery lightness to it, like the top of the ocean, not the bottom.

In the bottle: Huh? Smells almost floral. Wet: Wow! A fruity aquatic. I'm catching melon notes, and an absurd reminder of the Oscar de la Renta scent I wore in the early 1980's <shudders at memories of the early 1980's>. Heavenly and confusing. Dry: The fruit is receding, and the aquatic notes are coming forward. Not masculine on me, but I think my guy could get away with wearing this. From the copy describing the "atmosphere" of the scent, I was expecting this to be much darker and muddier. To me this smells more like the top of the ocean than the ocean floor.

In the imp: a definite pear scent, not too much else going on there. Wet: Musk and bubblegum with a hint of ...honey? Drydown: the coriander and the poppy start coming out and the pear recedes into the background. Light and pleasant, while at the same time a full scent. It didn't seem to have much staying power on me, however. Lovely scent.