Kimbernunk

This was massive screaming juniper and pine for about two hours, and then it all of a sudden shifted to ozone and dirt. WEIRD. I like it now that it's been on for quite a while, but I was enamored of the first phase. I don't really notice any dirt or moss - just the screaming bright juniper/pine and then the ozone. I'll keep playing with my decant, but I don't need a bottle.

I feel like this is 1/2 the bestest, juiciest orange ever picked right off the tree and 1/2 exactly the smell that comes out of a fresh knob of ginger right when it's been cut. There might be a hit of orange blossom in here too, but it's a sort of subtext behind the fruit orange and the ginger. Absolutely awesome, uplifting and zingy. Really, zingy. This is definitely joining my anti-SAD arsenal!

This was all lemongrass for the first hour, very warming and uplifting and herbal and more or less what I remember wanting Arcana to smell like. It seriously took something like three hours for this to fully settle on my skin and stop changing. It's predominantly a lemongrass scent, but with a metallic, airy feel to it. The ozone is there and very pretty - I tend to get along well with ozone, and this is no exception. Somehow the tonka manages to keep this from turning into lemon pledge, but it doesn't smell like candy on me either (and my skin is megasweet). I've never really smelled anything quite like this before, so I'm having a difficult time with it. It's herbal, metallic, uplifting, pretty, and androgynous. I like it. The bottle artwork is really pretty too.

I'm amping the plumeria like madness on this one to the point where it's reminding me, somewhat surprisingly, of Thalia (which is almost a plumeria SN on me). The musks are only slightly noticeable and VERY airy (there has to be a lot of white musk here) to the point that my nose keeps reading it more like an airy ozone than it does a musk. I'm not noticing any of the sandalwood or amber. Pretty, not totally my thing. I'll keep playing with it though because there's definite potential.

To start off, white sandalwood and skin musk are two of my favorite of favoritest notes. Jasmine is number three on my dealbreakers list, behind ylang ylang and moonflower. Jasmine pretty much always turns on me. I'm in dead shock. Because there is jasmine - like, really, jasmine - in this BUT IT DOESN'T SMELL LIKE SOAP AND OLD LADIES. So score a billion to the skin musk and white sandalwood for yet again keeping bad flowers at bay (see: Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills for the skin musk/white sandalwood combo that makes the rose really pretty and not like soap and old ladies). Anyway, this is my first experience with pink musk as a specifically listed note, and I have to say that it really does smell pink at first, a soft pink. Anyway, it all blends and settles after about an hour and it's a soft musk, softly-woodsy and slightly warm floral scent. The myrrh doesn't show up specifically - it's either barely there or just magnificently blended in. Anyway, this is loverly if more feminine than I usually wear, and I could see it going the way of a bottle if I end up reaching for the imp often enough. The skin musk/white sandalwood combo is so swoonworthy I think it could be combined with pickles and cat pee and still be wearable. Also also, this has lasted me for something like 9 hours and I can still smell it just a little. But I didn't slather. It's not a strong scent, it's just there and lovely and wonderful.

The orchid in this was really, really quiet on my skin. The apple blossom was prominent when wet, and then settled in to blend beautifully with the mossy greenery when dried. Definitely a Celtic-feeling scent. It had a brief and fortunately short-lived lotion stage on me before really settling out. The blend stayed fairly close to my skin, but smelled gorgeous and stayed for the afternoon. I could see this turning into a big bottle come Springtime - something about this scent really says Spring to me.

The radiance and desolation of winter. For me, this was a near-sugary very wintergreen blast at first - almost like wintergreen gum. Then it calmed down - the wintergreen-ish note calmed down a bit and something aquatic showed up on top, and the slightest hint of something in the background (for a moment at one point I thought it was skin musk, but I only smelled it once and if it was there, it was faint). Very clear, clean scent, very lovely.

(obviously, this is the '09 version) This has a bit of sage-y greenness to it for the first three minutes that promptly runs off to hide. Not sure what the deal is there - my skin usually really likes sage. Anyway. There's a definite frosty note to this - I can't decide if I think it's peppermint or wintergreen. It's a topnote to a very powdery amber/woody base. It's sort of sweetly woodsy powder on me. I hate fresh amber - aged amber is much smoother on me. Once this ages for a year or two, it should be smoothe and woodsy and amazing - right now, all I can smell is potential.

EVENING CICADAS AND RED PEPPERS IS ZOMGMAZING AMAZING, REALLY I TELL YOU, IT IS AMAZING So. When I put it on, it's all wintergreen with a hint of something sparkly underneath. Something red and sparkly, like the color China Glaze Ruby Pumps nail polish, but in smell form. But the red is hushed, because it's under the white/green of the wintergreen. But as it sits on my skin and soaks in and makes friends, it changes. Slowly, the red creeps out from behind the curtain. And it's kinda like a freshly-chopped, late-summer red bell pepper, but it's sweeter than that. Tangy, even. And there is musk. Not a red musk that beats one about the head and shoulders saying "HI DAMMIT I'M SEXY NOTICE ME!!!!!," but a softer musk, one that's content to twinkle and shimmer and play and flirt, one that's sexy without actually needing to proclaim it with the aid of a bullhorn. And there's something slightly floral that hides in the back, and there's still a hint of the frosty wintergreen, but just a hint. Just so as to provide the reminder that this is winter looking longingly back at summer, rather than full-blown summer. This reminds me strongly of a winter version of the Zieba Tree. It's not exact by any means, but the overall feel is something of the Zieba Tree plus the frost note. Medium throw, long-lasting. I put this on at 1, and it's still pretty strong 8 hours later. A+++++++, easy top ten spot.

This stuff smelled really nice in the imp. Woodsy vanilla with a bit of sarsaparilla. Lovely. My skin chemistry hated it. On my skin, it smells like a pile of hamster bedding after someone has poured a bottle each of fake vanilla extract and root beer on top of it. So awful. So so awful. This is definitely one of those vanillas that my skin won't put up with. Very sad. I'll stick with Lyonesse- my skin likes that vanilla much better.

wet: generic department store men's cologne dry: the mist note is the most noticeable to me - I love and adore the mist note beyond the bounds of reason, so I was happy that the mist was the strongest. It's like "wet gray floral non-ozone fresh air" if that makes ANY sense to anyone else. The mist floats over a base of skin musk and fur (which is a note I'm coming to appreciate quite a bit). It's a soft scent, slightly sweet, and definitely damp - not soaked, not even really a true aquatic, but softly wet anyway. The throw was pretty close to my skin, but it lasted for HOURS. I could still smell it the next morning when I held my wrist up to my nose. Happily, I love this stuff, like I thought I would, and have proved to myself for about the tenth time that it really is worth skin-testing everything.

I like it. I LOVED it for about the first hour, while the grass was really strong and the puppy fur* and wildflowers** were much lighter. I've been wearing it for about three hours now, and it's much more strongly soft puppy fur and wildflowers with a little bit of sweetgrass. It is a ridiculously cheerful happy scent in either version. I like it dry, but really love it wet, so I'm thinking I may scent locket it. *I think the fur note is the same in Sarah and which is the little bit of something in Sarah that goes slightly sweet on me. I really like it - it's reminiscent of the skin musk note, but slightly different - warmer and cuddly **I'm 99% sure this is the same yellow-ish floral in June Gloom '09, which I LOVED

This really does remind me of Samhain, minus some of the fruitiness. I do wonder if these are maple leaves - there's a distinct sweetness that I wasn't quite expecting. The woods are less strong than I was expecting as well. Mostly this is leaves - lots of them, fallen on the ground in huge colorful piles of red and orange and brown - and a sort of misty rain topnote. The fruit is almost like someone has baked an apple pie and left it on a windowsill to cool - it's not strong; it's rather like it's wafting in from the distance. Lovely lovely oil. I prefer this to Samhain, I think.

Skin chemistry is weird. This isn't a dark green or any sort of foreboding scent on me. It's a fairly medium-to-light green, and very airy. It reminds me very strongly of Host of the Air, but not so heavy on the flower stems as Host is. This is, on me, like sitting in a grassy field in May. That is to say this stuff is GORGEOUS, but not what I was expecting. My skin seems to be eating the sage (which is weird, because while I don't amp sage I certainly don't usually demolish it, either), and that gets rid of the menacing feel. So to sum up, this is gorgeous, I love it, I think it's an excellent addition to my library of green scents, but it doesn't feel like Autumn to me (at least on my skin).

For me, the sandalwood is dominant throughout. It begins as a rosy sandalwood scent - the roses seem to float on top of the sandalwood and give it a pink, slightly floral quality. This was a brief, albeit lovely phase. Then it has about an hour where the mosses come out and hide the rose. At this point, it's predominantly sandalwood with a mossy, green, ever-so-slightly astringent tone. It smells very dry. Finally, the cypress blends in just a little, tones down the moss, and rounds out the sandalwood. It's overall a very woodsy scent, but not like pencil wood - this is a creamy, soft, very pale wood with hints of the greenery that would once have lived with it. It's soft, close to the skin, tranquil, and gorgeous. This is absolutely a "like skin but way better" type scent. It's like serenity in a bottle - very calming, very soothing. I am absolutely in love, as I thought I would be. As a side note, it strikes me as the early-Autumn cousin of Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills. It's warmer, dryer than Lines, but has something of the calming sandalwood/other wood combo that I adore in Lines.

Two and a half years later... "The Old Ways" for me is Leanan Sidhe. Misty and very, very Celtic feeling, and has the sort of misty quality that works well with that song (and with Courtyard Melody, as well).

I'm going to let this one age. For a long time. Then I'll see what happens. When I tried it now, it smelled woodsy and herbally and slightly grassy and very strongly like vetiver. It wasn't bad, and it was actually sort of centering, which is good because I've been very all over the place lately. Unfortunately, after about an hour and a half it turned to sweaty body odor. Like the smell of someone who's been on a treadmill for a long, long time and has been sitting around afterwards sans shower. So like I said, I'm going to wait on it for a while and see what it does after a year or so. Or I'll use it in an oil burner. I don't want to smell like I've been on a treadmill unless I actually have been.

Slightly boozy MINT. REALLY MINT. I love it wet - it really does smell like a well-made mint julep. On me, it's GONE. One minute flat. I guess my skin wanted a drink!

Herbally carnations. There's a slight honey sweetness in the background that is *for once* not taking over everything. It's actually really, really lovely. The milk note gets a bit stronger after about an hour, but it stays pretty much in balance. I can see why this stuff is so popular! It's feminine without being cloying.

Started off cinnamon bubblegum, ended up strawberry hard candy. VERY sweet, VERY pink. This is actually the closest strawberry has ever come to working on me, but it's just not my type of smell. Will be passing it on.

This is really interesting. I didn't get any of the grapefruit anyone mentioned. I did have about five minutes early on where all I could think was "Irish Spring?", but then my skin chemistry got ahold of it. It's really dark, aquatic, almost brooding. Very much oceanwater instead of seawater or rainwater. It almost smells thick, somehow. Very nice - I really like it! It's a dark blue type smell, if that helps at all.

Wet, this was really fruity with a slighty aquatic backdrop. Very pretty, if a little on the sweet side for me. As it dried, the scent itself dried out a bit - the aquatic became slightly more prominent but a little 'breezier' (hello, ozone), the fruits calmed down a bit, and I noticed a slightly floral backdrop. I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I really like it! I can see wearing it a lot in September, while it's still warm enough to work with bright fruits like peach and pomegranate, but on the edge of fall and cooler days. This could be a bottle purchase.

I got this as a frimp from the lab, since I never would have ordered it on my own (even with the Arthurian name). Vanilla is *awful* on me! Or so I thought. Foody vanilla is AWFUL on me - really foody vanilla blends tend to go way plastic on me. But BPAL is nothing if not forever making me re-evaluate my preconceived notions, and this is another case of that happening. Like others have mentioned, this is a very non-foody vanilla. On me, it's vanilla with a floral/sandalwood undertone; the marine and musk notes are hiding slightly under that. It lasted all day, with a nice throw - not too overpowering, but strong enough that I noticed it. I honestly really love it and can see the imp making it into heavy rotation - this may end up being a bottle purchase. So to sum up, I'm shocked and impressed - there is a vanilla that works on my wonky skin!

I love the whole concept of this perfume! To me, this was more of a honeydew than a cantelope. The melon was far and away the strongest note, and everything else combined to make it sweet, slightly tea-like, and almost musky on me. It does actually twinkle, in a sense - champagne notes tend to 'sparkle' on my skin a bit and I really noticed that here. I'm assuming the slight musky scent I was getting, which makes NO sense based on the note list, may have been hormone skin getting in the way. However, even with that problem, this was still a really nice scent, if a little too sweet for my usual tastes. I'll retest once my skin has calmed back down and amend this if necessary.

Oh wow. Okay. So in the bottle this was very sweet, syrupy berries. I have to agree with the 'pie filling' sentiment. When I put it on, there were a few minutes of woahmuskyhoney. Then it settled down to a really glorious blueberry/raspberry/honey combo with a really strong golden musk base to anchor it down. This phase is excellent and mouthwatering yummy. It's a *little* foody, but not too sweet or sticky. After a couple hours, the berries faded and it spent a few more hours in musky/honey/fig combo, which was okay but nowhere near as nice as the first few hours. I think when I wear it I'll keep the bottle near me so I can reapply when it hits this phase. Overall, I like it, which makes me happy because I had my doubts about the honey raging out of control. Also, this reminds me very strongly of Bewitched, but whereas Berry Moon is golden and honeyed, Bewitched is more green and herbal and planty. The berry/musk combo in both of them is quite similar, however, which I think is why my brain went to Bewitched.