Shollin

First sniff: Oh HELL yeah. Why on earth didn’t I order this sooner? It’s been on my wishlist for ages. Ahem. It’s white tea and ginger, plain and simple… but a grillion times better than the B&BW handsoap I used to have in my bathroom (and I LOVED that soap). Wearing: I don’t know what makes ginger work so damn well on me, but it SO does. The tea gives it a freshness that makes it more than just a spice scent. Ah, Kumiho… you were worth the wait.

First sniff: Wow. This is a big chaotic mishmash of spices and figs? and almonds? and herbs and flowers, but mostly spices – I definitely smell cinnamon. It’s a loud bazaar where every hawker is trying to get your attention to buy something fragrant. Wearing: On my skin, Silk Road stages a very sudden explosion of flowers that quickly subsides into spice again. Cinnamon is still the dominant note. Followed by… carnation? Eh? It reminds me quite a bit of Queen of Sheba, but less almondy. Queen of Sheba didn’t quite do it for me, and… this really doesn’t either, unfortunately.

First sniff: Frozen lime and lavender. Wearing: Oh so very lavender. Wonderful dark-purple lavender lavender lavender. With just a little bit of citrus, and just a little bit of powderiness. I slept like a rock - well, until my resident fatcat started begging for breakfast - and Quietude had faded by morning. Looks like Somnus has some competition in the knock-my-hiney-out category.

Bless you, OriginalWacky, for this decant. I'll preface this review by saying I have had an incredibly crappy day. One of those days where every single thing in your entire life just irritates the living hell out of you for absolutely no reason. I was seriously considering taking a mental health day from work because I just didn't think I could deal with it. And then I grabbed my brand-new little implet of Corazon, which arrived in the mail just this afternoon. First sniff: Golden-red warmth with a touch of sharp-edged fruit. Wearing: Corazon is perfectly lovely, and exactly what I needed today. It’s fruity-fresh and calming, with just enough herbal greenness. I’m sitting at my desk with nose glued to wrist, slowly remembering that I’m human. This really did give me exactly the lift I needed to face the world again. We loves it, preciousss.

First sniff: It’s “that Greek honey note” again… it appeared in Athens and Delphi, and here it is in Hetairae. There’s something sweetly powdery dusted over the surface – powdery flower petals or something similar. Wearing: I’m suddenly craving baklava. This is honeyrific, warm and sweet but not cloying. I think, though, that overall I prefer Athens, and Hetairae is very similar to my nose. ETA: Ahem. To my nose, Hetairae is very similar to Athens. It isn't anything like my nose.

First sniff: Leanan Sidhe is a bit floral, mostly herby with an aquatic tinge. It’s very pretty, and very ethereal. Wearing: It’s more floral on my skin, a very sweet floral like honeysuckle. After it dries a bit more it shifts from honeysuckle to honey and flushed skin, and it’s definitely growing on me… actually, it’s more like it’s seducing me. I’d dismissed this one as a girlie floral – pretty, but not me – and then a half-hour later it sneaks up and pounces me with otherworldly passion. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Sounds like Andra and Electra are my scent-twins on this one. First sniff: It’s a sweet-white-flower orgy! Seems like if there’s jasmine anywhere in a scent, that’s all I can smell from the vial. Jasmine, jasmine, jasmine. Wearing: It’s still pretty much pure jasmine in the wet stage. I’m waiting for the other stuff to kick in and tone it down a bit, because the rest of the notes sound amazingly wonderful. As it dries, I’m getting a hint of amber off my right wrist, but it’s still mostly jasmine.

First sniff: Deep. Warm. Powerful. And entirely swoon-inducing. Holy cats this is good stuff. Wearing: Dragon’s Musk makes me smell really damn good. I’ll have to wear and compare, but I think… I might like this even better than my top-three staple Dragon’s Heart. I was sniffing my wrist all night during a crazy day at work and this just made me smile every time. It’s so, so me.

First sniff: Ooh. Green, green, green and brightly cold. Wearing: Don’t know if my guy will consent to guinea-pig a scent named after the Night Hag, but Nocnitsa is exactly the sort of evergreen that smells great on him.

First sniff: Wet mint and sugar. I’ll have to wear this one again on Derby Day! Wearing: Juke Joint is quite a bit warmer on my skin. It’s not boozey, which is a relief – just very sweet and very minty. Good stuff. It got more and more sultry-warm as the evening went on.

First sniff: Who knew Discord could smell so innocent? Eris is obviously up to something, but she’s trying to distract me by smelling like one of the Shakespeare girls, all flowery with a hint of melon. Wearing: When wet on my skin this is pure honeydew. Wonderful. And in the drydown, now she starts to show her teeth – just a hint of sharp spice, still hiding behind the facade of sweetness. This definitely isn’t the Goth-chick Discord of the very silly Hercules TV series – she’s a lot more subtle than that.

First sniff: The Living Flame smells fruity to me – sweet red berries with a hint of something deeper and the barest brushing of soft petals. It’s not an aggressive red; it’s a softer red, like red tulips or those gorgeous coral-coloured azalea blossoms. Wearing: Fantastically warm and sweet, deepening to soft furry musk. This is just wonderful.

First sniff: Sweet aquatic flowers. Big ones. Wearing: Desdemona is very pretty, very sweet-floral, and ultimately, probably too girly for me.

First sniff: Brimstone smells like… burning herbs. “Peppermint smoke” was my first thought – that’s not quite right, but it does smell like the smoke from burning dried herbs. Wearing: It’s just an odd scent – lighter than Djinn, but along the same lines.

Thanks to Sheila for the decant! First sniff: All Saints’ is much lighter than I expected, and very aquatic. Wearing: The resin comes out more on my skin, but it smells more like spice than like incense. This is an intriguing scent. It kept shifting throughout the day, ending in a wonderfully warm enveloping resin. Very, very nice.

Thanks to Eoywin for the decant! First sniff: Oh. My. Gods. Butter, booze and spice. Nutmeg, especially. All wrapped up in warm cosiness. Wearing: Warm and enveloping and comforting. This is a happy scent, and I needed a happy scent the day I wore it.

Oisin is pronounced oh-SHEEN. It's Gaelic.

Thanks to gingersnapp for the decant! First sniff: I have never met a rose scent that made my mouth water… until now. Just taking the tape off the imp cap released a burst of deliciously lush rose-petal satin. Rose Red smells like walking through my grandmother’s back yard in the sun between her beds of rosebushes… and for possibly the first time I’m getting a tactile impression from a scent (usually if I have a weird other-sense thing I get a colour or an image)… smelling this scent makes me think of touching rose petals, that perfect soft smoothness that nothing manmade can match. Wearing: I was hesitant about trying RR because generally roses are Not Me, but… holy wow. This is utter rose perfection.

First sniff: Fenris Wolf is deep, dark, blood-red in both colour and scent. Wearing: It’s so powerful in the vial that I was expecting to be knocked over by the aura when I put it on, and fortunately that isn’t the case. This reminds me of my beloved Dragon’s Heart. It’s not as warm, but it has the same fierce confidence.

First sniff: A round, full dark-floral with just enough sweetness and an undertone of resin. Wearing: Now this is odd. When I put Crossroads on, I get almond. Nope – make that ALMOND! It’s very strongly sweet-almondy, with the dark flowers underneath. The almond died down pretty quickly as it dried, and over the course of the night, it became a lovely resinous dark floral.

First sniff: It’s tart, it’s juicy, it’s loud, it’s RED – Akuma is BERRY, hear it roar! Wearing: Tart juicy red berries bouncing hyperactively off my skin. There’s not a hint of sugar to sweeten them, and no trace of an earthier scent to hold them back – this is just a fruitbasket orgy.

First sniff: Coyote is a very dry, subtle, beige sort of scent. Wearing: Beige is really the only adjective I can find. It doesn’t smell dusty, but it reminds me of dust, or of sand blowing off bare rock. It’s rather bleak. BUT… after an hour or so (this is a very slow-blooming scent), it’s decided to be warm, and ever so slightly sweet, and wonderfully soft, and at this stage it’s even better than Haunted. I kept wondering during Spanish class who was wearing vanilla hand lotion, and I think I was smelling the aura of my Coyote.

First sniff: Oh. Oh, my. White Rabbit smells amazing in the vial. It’s warm, and deep, and comforting, pure black tea with the barest hint that someone waved a lemon in the direction of the vial. Wearing: I haven’t yet met a tea scent that I didn’t love. This scent is much calmer than his namesake – I can’t picture him hopping around gasping “I’m late! I’m late!” He’s sitting by the fire slowly enjoying his tea with nary a glance at his pocketwatch… he’ll get there someday, and the Queen can bloody well wait.

First sniff: Holy patchouli, Batman! And something cooler and green-tingly above, like mint or pine. Wearing: Another one I’ll have to try on my guy… strong evergreen juniper with the happy earthy patchouli underneath. Omen is quite a bit warmer than I expected, especially considering the juniper – evergreens usually smell like crunchy snow on my skin, but this is a lot more relaxed. Sadly, it turned into green baby powder over the course of the evening.

The Storm Moon marks the darkest portion of the year. A season of long, impenetrable nights and turbulent tempests. A raging, electric and wet scent: slashing rain notes, rolling thunder, and sharp, cold winds layered by a breath of softly wafting lunar incense, a hint of Luna’s blooms, and the brittle herbs of winter. First sniff: Perfect rain-washed air – not the scent of a storm approaching, but the wonderful clean watery scent that lingers around the trees and the grass after a soft spring rain. Wearing: I’m just in love with all of Beth’s storm scents… Tempest was the first to win my heart, but they’re all just wonderful. I really do need to sit down and sniff through them one of these days, because I’m sure I don’t need to keep every single one, but they’re just lovely and Storm Moon is no exception. There does seem to be a deeper note in this one that isn't present in the others.