Shollin

First sniff: Honeysuckle. White and yellow blossoms growing rampant, tumbling down the length of a fence in summertime in the South. Pure, luscious honeysuckle. Wearing: Sunwarmed summer heaven… the scent that lures you to pick the little flowers and put them in your mouth and suck the nectar out of the end, ignoring that Mom-voice in your head nagging you that you don’t know where that flower has been. It’s fresh, it’s sweet, it’s clean. If I had more than the implet I’d try to figure out how to make a linen spray out of this stuff – I can imagine curling up in a nest of honeysuckle-scented sheets in early summer, and it’s giving me happy shivers. To sum up? I LOVE THIS. cupide430, you are on my happy list forever.

First sniff: Very soft, pale floral. Wearing: Still a very soft, pale floral. It’s nice enough – the jasmine doesn’t fight its way screaming to the surface and drown everything else out, as it is wont to do on my skin – but it’s just not me.

First sniff: Sweet almond or cherry, dusted with… nutmeg? There’s an odd kitchen-spice note in here that caught me off guard. Wearing: It’s a very bright scent with a weird soapiness underneath.

First sniff: What an odd scent! I can’t pin down anything about it – it’s just a warm presence in the vial. Wearing: It’s sort of musky, vaguely soapy, but it really doesn’t smell like much – it’s more of an aura. I can smell the warmth (and I know that makes no sense) but can’t track down any particular fragrance. I do like the aura effect though.

First sniff: Happy scent! This smells fruity and earthy, though I know there’s no fruit listed. It’s very warm and rich, and I really like it. Wearing: Ah, now it’s floral. A very light, sweet floral scent that goes sweeter and floral-er as it dries. I liked the vial scent quite a bit better – wish the amber and patchouli had stuck around.

First sniff: Very, very sweet. Syrupy-sweet. This doesn’t smell like any flower I know of, but I’ve never smelled heliotrope in person. Wearing: Still seriously sweet. It’s just at the very edge of being cloying. As it dries, it becomes less sweet, but also starts to go powdery. I’ve noticed heliotrope and gardenia paired together in quite a number of scents, and now I’m wondering if the sweet-white-flower scent I identify as gardenia is really a combination of both. At any rate, it’s not me. Sounds like it was a lot sweeter on me than on most other folks. Odd.

First sniff: Ooh, this is nice. I can’t pin down any of the notes, but it’s fresh and bright with maybe a hint of fruit. Wearing: Good stuff. There’s a little bit of spice in here too, but it’s mostly fresh and fruity – more like pear than anything citrus or berry.

First sniff: How lovely. This scent is so gentle, so elegant, so understated… and so amazingly beautiful. Soft flowers and the barest breath of vanilla. Wearing: Antique Lace is a soft-spoken, genteel lady. A wonderful warm, gentle, rich scent that lasts and lasts.

I got a decant labeled “Experimental Blend (minty),” a dark brownish-red in the vial, from... someone. I got experimental blends in swaps with three different people and didn't keep track of which came from whom, but none of them has posted in this thread, so I can't really check. First sniff: There is a little bit of mint in here, but mostly… and I’m drooling as I type this… it smells like dragon’s blood, musk and vanilla. Wearing: On my skin it smells like Snake Oil lightened with a hint of mint… and as it dries, it smells like Snake Oil plus a heaping helping of The World’s Best Vanilla. Wowie wow. I shall treasure this.

First sniff: Loudly resinous. This isn’t going to work on me… but I have a policy of trying everything on, so here goes. Wearing: Ladies and gentlemen… we have frankincense, or at least something that reminds me very strongly of it. And frankincense bears a deep and enduring grudge against me. Off to the swaps.

First sniff: Cloved oranges! Orange spice happiness. Mmmm. Wearing: Cinnamon and orange and spice and yay. I dabbed a bit of this on my wrists and behind my ears, and used the remaining bit on my fingers to rub on the two dollars I had in my wallet. We’ll see what happens. No visible effect by the end of the day, but my wallet does have more in it now... 'cause I hit the ATM before work. Love the scent whether it works or not!

First sniff: Darkly resinous… not sharp enough to be incense, but the same feel. Deep and earthy. Wearing: Urd reminds me of a particular bit of sidewalk on Capitol Hill in Seattle, where my guy lives. There’s an African-imports store called Cowri that always smells like a particular kind of incense, and whatever it is, I think it’s in Urd. The scent on my wrist is almost too sharp-wood-y, but the aura is wafty and mellow and smells like the sidewalk in front of Cowri, where the guy in the Rastafarian hat always hangs out. Groovy.

First sniff: Sol is somewhat similar to the Tarot Sun scent, but it’s a bit more reserved and quite a bit sweeter. It strikes me as a yellow floral rather than the citrus/wood scent of The Sun. Wearing: A teensy-tinsy bit soapy beneath the yellowness, but it’s wonderfully bright. As it dries it develops a very happy spice note. Good stuff.

First sniff: Searingly bright citrus over warm wood. Wearing: This is The. Perfect. sun scent. It’s bright, it’s warm, it’s very yellow. It does fade pretty quickly, but the base is a fantastic soft warm red sandalwood that sticks around.

First sniff: The Emperor is a very fresh, clean, open-air scent with an undertone of floral sweetness. Wearing: There’s jasmine in here, definitely – hope it doesn’t take over, but at the moment it’s maintaining its status as a nice fresh scent rather than a sweet white flower scent (which are not my favourites).

First sniff: Very loudly herbal, and not in a good way. It smells medicinal. Wearing: The aura is minty, and I can’t figure out why. It shifts into rose soap pretty quickly, and is Decidedly Not Me.

First sniff: Floralujah! With a pine base. Flowers of the forest. I bet I might even be able to get my guy into this one, as much as he loves pine. Sticky resin-sap under a wildflower base… I can’t smell anything in here that’s likely to go weird on my skin. YAY. Wearing: This is so, so pretty. Wildflowers over a blanket of evergreen. I’m very glad the first few reviews talked me into ordering this one.

First sniff: Sweet flowers! Honeysuckle? And running water. Wearing: This is definitely honeysuckle – crisp, clear and sweet. Really beautiful.

First sniff: Yes, this really does smell Spooky-ish! I don’t know why it always surprises me that milk/cream-based scents are so warm, but Milk Moon is warm and furry and wonderful. With a heaping helping of peppermint over top. Wearing: Oh, don’t go sour. Please don’t go sour. I need to learn not to sniff these things directly on my wrist – the aura is lovely, but the wrist-scent is weird. It went to straight peppermint after a couple hours’ wearing. Spooky is similar, yes… and much better on me, so this one is out.

First sniff: In the bottle it’s almost pure chocolate, but there’s something lighter floating around the edges that I can’t quite parse. It’s almost a pale green scent hanging around the outside of the chocolate. (And yes, I know white chocolate isn’t “real” chocolate, but that’s what it smells like.) Wearing: Chocolate and tea. And a little bit of citrus.

First sniff: Strong, dark, growling ginger – more of a cookie scent than straight gingerroot. Wearing: Evil gingersnaps… absolutely. I think the trick is not to sniff it directly – because it’s too spicy on my wrist, but the aura is warm and comforting and very very nice.

First sniff: Some people swear in their reviews. I am not generally one of them. That said… FUCK YEAH. There is nothing off about this scent for me, it’s just gooey, drippy sweetness with a tiny hint of liqueur and maybe the barest breath of flowers to make it more than just sweet. This is going to smell fucking GREAT on me. Wearing: If there were a flower that smelled like honey – not honeysuckle, but real true honey – this would be it. My skin is amazingly sweet and fluffy now.

First sniff: Aha. This is the sharp, woody sandalwood. It’s much more defined and crisp than the red Mysor variety, and smells much less like something I want to wear by itself. Paperdoll sent me imps of both in a swap, and it’s really interesting to sniff them side by side. Wearing: Yup, this is definitely the sandalwood I smell in sandalwood incense… too close to cedar for me to wear.

First sniff: Yup, that’s sandalwood all right… a soft, warm sandalwood with blurred edges. I can see wearing this one solo – the white sandalwood SN might be too sharp for that. Paperdoll sent me imps of both in a swap, and it’s really interesting to sniff them side by side. Wearing: It’s a bit warmer now; otherwise pretty much as it was in the vial. The single notes never seem to morph much on my skin.

First sniff: Does traditional Bay Rum smell like throat-closingly sweet almond and a little bit of funky musk? ’Cause that’s what I’m getting from the Baron. Wearing: Still almond, still very very sweet, and still a weird animal darkness underneath. His Excellency is not at all my cup of tea.