Shollin

First sniff: Oh, my. I sniff and whine. Is there bitter almond in this? Because that’s the main note I’m getting. Maybe it’s the pipe tobacco. It’s a lot lighter than I expected – Herr Drosselmeyer might be a little gruff sometimes, but this scent is sitting on his lap listening to stories and getting a big warm hug. Wearing: Well, mrf. I knew there was a reason I wanted to try an imp before getting a bottle… it’s because leather almost never works on me. This is a nicer leather than most others I’ve tried, but it still isn’t something I can wear.

First sniff: Tea. Beautiful soft tea and gentle floral. There’s a tinytiny hint of soapiness way off in the background; I’m hoping it stays there. Wearing: Spirits is quite different from any of the catalog tea scents, though it reminds me most of Kumiho. It’s decisively clean. A keeper.

First sniff: Fresh fruit soaked in spiced wine. It’s much, much fruitier than the 2004 version, but still so completely autumn. I joked a few days ago about capturing the ideal scent of the Yakima Valley… and I think this is it. Apple orchards and vineyards and wine and here and there an unexpected plum or pear tree. Wearing: It’s a spicier scent on my skin, but still mouthwateringly fruity.

First sniff: Soft, lush, heady-sweet floral with a dash of resin. This is what Lilah’s trailer at Carnivale smells like – perfume that is All Woman, darlin’, and don’t you forget it, plus a hint of the smoke from her hookah. Wearing: An explosion of vanilla, retreating into soft lush flowers. It’s a vanilla floral, like Regan or Antique Lace, but where Regan is youthful and bubbly and Antique Lace is soft-spoken and genteel, Bearded Lady is languid and sensual. And I simply adore all three of them.

First sniff: I don’t smell much from the bottle. There’s a faint almond scent – I guess it’s the bitter variety, as the sweet kind always smells like cherries to me. Wearing: Earthy greenness and dark almond. It’s very intriguing – I have to keep sniffing – but not quite me enough, I think.

A huge bouquet of squished rose petals: Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose… …and just an itty bitty bit of green grass. I always love finishing off a category. Two, Five and Seven is the only Mad Tea Party scent I hadn't tried (as always, until Beth makes more!) First sniff: As advertised, this is layer upon layer of rose rose rose. Sweet roses, elegant roses, soft roses, powdery roses. It’s a very textured scent – there’s a lot going on here, even if it is all rose. Rose Red is a singular red-velvet bloom in the snow, quiet and simple and so very, very elegant; this is a riot-of-color rose garden. Moment of tangent: I totally have the “Painting the Roses Red” song from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland stuck in my head now. Anyway, moving on… Wearing: The Wars of the Roses seem to have coalesced into a calm, gentle, slightly sweet amalgamation of roseness. Roses are very, very hit-or-miss on me. I tend to dismiss them as floofy powdery girliness, and most rose-based scents do seem to be floofy powdery girly on me, but there have been a handful (including the aforementioned Rose Red) that are So Freaking Great that I have to rethink my position… and happily, Two Five and Seven is one of the latter. Welcome aboard!

First sniff: Good Lord, this is floral. And not some coy soft floral, either. This is big honkin’ flowers of floralocity. Wearing: Still big honkin’ flowers in the initial wet burst, but it softens quickly. Alas, the drydown is powdery sweet floral, and just doesn’t work on me.

... A deep, resonant scent, both comforting and soft: lovers’ roses, solemn chrysanthemum, dark vetiver and dazzling cactus flowers. First sniff: Softly, greenly floral, with a tiny hint of mint? Wearing: Santa Muerte has an absolutely amazing aura. It’s soft-edged but powerful. Green fruit and gentle flowers. It really is deep and comforting, and I just adore it.

First sniff: Oh, wow. I was expecting a sinus-clearing blast of Red Hots cinnamon, but this is gorgeous sweet almond. There’s definitely cinnamon in the background, but the almond is dominant. Wearing: Ah – there’s the Red Hot-ness. Phooey. All Night Long did this on my skin too. As it dried, it went weirdly floral for a while. I’ll stick with Eclipse for cinnamon almond happiness.

First sniff: Big flowers and sweetness. Versailles reminds me of Venice, with an added punch of sweet citrus. Wearing: YAY. Citrus and amber and a soft burst of flowers. Oh, I like this a lot. It’s bright and showy and flashy and fantastic.

... Dry white sandalwood and soft Siamese benzoin over a lugubrious blend of myrrh, Moroccan rose, mastic, tomb moss and a thin whiff of Greek incense. First sniff: Oh, how interesting! Is that benzoin, that vaguely slinky note right at the bottom? Wow, Thanatos is complex. I can’t pin down much except “wow.” I expect very strange things from this one. Wearing: The primary impression is one of warmth. I get a tiny hint of rose once I know it’s there, but for the most part it’s a warm resinous aura. I like.

First sniff: Lavender and something sweeter. I used this during my Thanksgiving travels and slept like a log, but didn’t get around to doing an official review until now. Wearing: zzzzzz*snork*wha? Oh, right, sposta be writing a review. Isspurty. *zzzzzzzz*

First sniff: Definite Guy Scent. Herbal lavender, lurking patchouli and just overall guy-ness. Sinfully attractive. Wearing: Ooh, it’s a guy scent, yes, but it’s one I can get away with wearing. The tonka amps beautifully on my skin and the end result is a wonderfully warm sweet lavender. This is very happy stuff.

First sniff: Dark blue… baby powder. Mrf. Wearing: Yes indeedy, this is vicious violet vengeance, and my skin just doesn’t do violets. It fades really fast, too.

First sniff: Definite orange blossom, definite oakmoss. The rest is a bit sketchy. It’s a very complicated scent. Wearing: Sort of a guy’s aftershave scent. Dang. It smelled so promising. It’s not unpleasant by any means, just rather… ordinary. It faded through a nice green oakmoss phase, but by the end of the evening was back to aftershave. I don’t love it enough.

First sniff: Like a laboratory, or a magician’s workroom. Wood paneling, soft incense and mystery… but a lighter scent than all that implies. Wearing: Rupert Giles. If I hugged Giles, he’d smell exactly like this. Not the early “I’m so stuffy, gimme a scone” Librarian Giles, but the Mage who arrived during Willow’s vengeance quest. DUDE. I have to find a darker-edged Ethan Rayne scent to go along with it.

First sniff: Just powder. Violet generally waits until it’s on my skin to go powdery, but this seems to be making a preemptive powder strike. Wearing: Powder, powder, powder. Maybe one of these days I’ll find a violet scent I can wear. The image of soft flowers and autumn leaves is really beautiful.

First sniff: Oh, I don’t like this, and I don’t know why. It’s unsettling. Dark and creepy and unsettling and very, very cold. It isn’t that I don’t like the scent itself, but it gives me instant creepies. But I try everything on (and have found more than one unexpected love that way), so… Wearing: Cold, dry and still just creepy. When I first read the poem, it reminded me very much of Aragorn in the Paths of the Dead, and I’m getting that sense again. It’s quite ethereal, fading very quickly on my skin… and as it fades, it’s done a presto-change-o into a soft, welcoming, vaguely vanilla-ish guyscent. Wha? Am I suddenly smelling Aragorn instead of his dead soldiers?

First sniff: My first impression was of a colder Antique Lace, but where Lace is vanilla and floral, Opal is a much subtler vanilla and… mineral. Ever so slightly metallic. Wearing: It’s vanilla underneath and smells like rocks taste. I was a weird kid, I sometimes put shiny pebbles in my mouth, and Black Opal reminds me of the taste of quartz. I really like it.

First sniff: Dark Christmas spice. Wearing: Ah. I saw musk and honey in the description and failed to note the “spice, spice, spice and more spice” that followed. I’m learning that my skin amps the hell out of cinnamon, and seems to be doing the same here.

First sniff: I’m so bad at distinguishing different types of flowers. Beatrice is a rich, round, soft floral, and that’s all I can figure out. Wearing: Soft. Bright. Alluring. And utterly mysterious. Please don’t go powdery, Lady Beatrice – I want to love you! Ooh… OK, this is good. Getting sweeter and richer – almost fruitier – as it dries. No powder in sight, bless her heart!

First sniff: Nose-tinglingly spicy, with a dark rich undertone. I get a weensy hint of orange once I know it’s there, but the cinnamon is pretty overwhelming. Wearing: Very, very cinnamon! That’s about all I can smell on my wrist… and I never got much else out of it, unfortunately, because the other notes sounded divine.

First sniff: The ghost of a flower beside a clear pool. It’s far more aquatic than floral, to my nose, and very pretty. Softly blue-grey. Wearing: The moment it hits my skin, I get the same “I know this flower!” reaction I’ve read in so many other reviews. And like everyone else, I can’t figure out what it is… but it’s wonderful. It’s a little like daffodil, it’s a little like tulip, it’s a little like a rose… but the real scent is a fabulous combination of all the best parts of flowers, a nonsoapy lily, a nonpowdery violet, a noncloying jasmine. It’s like a Platonic ideal of Flower.

I got three decants in a swap from OriginalWacky. Whee! CCCLXXXII (last reviewed by cuervosueno) First sniff: Ooh, hey. This is nice. It’s a guy fragrance… maybe lavender and white musk, with a little bit of green, even green tea? Very understated and… blast, I can’t use “elegant” to refer to a guy scent, but that’s the only word I can think of. Wearing: I think there’s a bit of lime in here too, maybe – a hint of citrus that isn’t at all sweet. I really like this. CCCLXXXVIII (last reviewed by sarada) First sniff: Dead leaves and woodsmoke. It hovers just this side of being sharp, and though it’s not exactly my kind of scent, it’s intriguing as all hell and I’m very curious to see what it smells like on me. Wearing: Wet incense just at first, but it quickly morphed into something warm and dark and sweet and so very, very familiar. Another winner. DXVI (last reviewed by cuervosueno) First, I must mention that this oil is BLUE!!! Gorgeous pale aqua blue. I’ve never seen another blue oil and I’m thrilled. Also, this is number 516… and it’s still not the highest number I’ve seen (unless I’m missing something, one of coulrophobe’s oils wins that prize for being number 680). Craziness. A very good year for ze Chaos. First sniff: Oh, sweet lady of lavender heaven. And something a bit sweet hanging around the edges, which is just gorgeous. I’ll be sure to try this one on before bed. Wearing: I have a lavender-vanilla lotion that smells very similar to this. It’s a sharp herbal lavender right at first, then swallowed up in warm rich sweetness. Just amazing. Yay Chaos!

First sniff: Sadly, this smells like strawberry bubblegum. Wearing: Still strawberry bubblegum. It’s just too sweet. Developed a bit of a plasticky, Strawberry Shortcake thing as it dried… I kept looking for the tea note, but it never came to the party.