magdalene

in the bottle: dirt. With some roses. wet on skin: THIS is what Burial should have smelled like! In my head, anyway. The roses keep the earth smell from smelling too...umm...earthy. And the dirt keeps the roses from being too sweet. dry: you got your dirt smell in my roses! You got your rose smell in my dirt!

I'm just going to quote amaltheagray's review of this: " r'lyeh is EVIL CTHULU GRAPEFRUIT. it is the GRAPEFRUIT OF DARK UNHOLY DEEDS." Truer words have never been spoken.

in the bottle: uhh, limes? wet on skin: wow, I was really not expecting a citrusy kind of scent. Although I am pleasantly surprised by it. Limes and incense, whoever thought those two smells would knock me off my feet? dry: this is a very boy-like scent, but I think I might give it a shot for awhile.

in the bottle: candied lavender. wet on skin: whoever said that this smelled like Lavender Pastilles has got it down pat. The musk warms up the chilliness of lavender, with the pennyroyal keeping everything in check. dry: more than a bit masculine for me, but I'd love to smell this on my boyfriend.

in the bottle: sweet peaches. wet on skin: still peaches, with some patchouli coming out and around the edges. This is an enormously playful scent, like the younger and more wistful cousin to Machu Picchu (or Machu Pikachu as my friend calls it). dry: very sweet, very summer-like.

in the bottle: soft pear. wet on skin: such a light rose takes center stage, quietly ushering the pear back into its seat. Plumeria makes me sneeze, unfortunately, and that comes up behind the rose, with fig in tow. dry: such a ripe scent, bursting at the seams, everything clamouring to get your attention.

in the bottle: juniper. wet on skin: this isn't really a 'dirt' smell to me, by any stretch of the imagination. The juniper basically kicks everything else's ass. Dark pine. dry: juniper and pine don't last very long on my skin, so there wasn't really much of a change as it dried.

in the bottle: hmm. Soap. wet on skin: I should really just finally learn that aquatic scents and I don't get along very well. This is a light and clean scent, however, and I can totally see how others would dig it. Just not for me. Too green, too watery. dry: washed it off.

Named in honor of the most notorious female pirate to ever set sail. Wicked, cruel, beautiful, intelligent, resourceful and dangerous: a true role model. A blend of Indonesian red patchouli, red sandalwood, and frankincense. in the bottle: frankincense and patchouli. wet on skin: this is like Cathedral's wicked little sister sister. And I adore Cathedral! dry: sandalwood pulls everything together into a glorious heap of happiness. This is a keeper.

in the bottle: wine. wet on skin: A handful years ago, I made friends with a married couple who were heavily into wine. Over time, they have introduced me to the sheer decandance of opening an extremely expensive bottle and getting absolutely soused on it. Good times. heh. This is the exact scent of a peach wine we tried from a local New Jersey winery. Soft and gorgeous. dry: amber warms this up a touch, but not overly so. This is probably the truest wine scent I've ever smelled.

in the bottle: plums and pomengranates. wet on skin: ooof, there's some apricots in here too. This is very much a juicy scent. It reminds me of a couple weeks ago, when I taught my boyfriend and his brother the proper way of opening and de-seeding a pomengranate. Little, ruby-jewelled seeds spilling all around my fingers and staining everything they touch. dry: fortunately, the apricot doesn't overpower everything within its reach. The plums keep it nicely in line.

in the bottle: peppermint on my tongue. wet on skin: this is the scent of eating peppermints, if they didn't have the sticky and cloying sweetness of sugar to them. Fresh and clean, with a slight menace underneath it all. dry: didn't last very long, as most minty scents do on me, but it was quite nice while it lasted.

in the bottle: oooh, bergamot. wet on skin: this is precisely how my father smelled to me, when I was a very young girl and he was my entire world. He would come to my mother's house on Friday evening, right after work, with his muddied work boots and Marlboros in the front of pocket of his t-shirt. Swing me up into his arms and I would wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in his shoulder, astonishingly happy, because my daddy was finally there to get me. dry: I'm not getting any vanilla or anything even remotely resembling Snake Oil, as some other people have mentioned in their reviews. This is a warm and masculine musky amber, tempered with bergamot.

in the bottle: spicy violets. wet on skin: this is such a clean scent, I really wasn't expecting that. It's a sweetly potted African violet, left out on the back porch during a full moon. Alone in the dark, with the stars shining. dry: the greeness of this comes and goes, as vetiver tends to do with me, but the violets stay true and don't go all old lady-ish on my skin.

in the bottle: sweet cherries, lost in the woods and unable to find their way home. wet on skin: the cherries in this are simply gorgeous. Far too often, cherry scents can seem artifical and sticky. But, this oil just smells like the jar of bourbon-spiked marachino cherries I have in my cupboard. Beautiful, with a slight kick of "I can mess you up for the rest of your natural born life." dry: it becomes warmer on dry-down, like a chocolate covered cherry.