Shollin

First sniff: Someone has ground up a Thin Mint cookie into a fine powder and blown it straight up my nose with a blowgun. Chocolate and mint and…well, what else do you need, really? Wearing: Chocolate. Mint. Happiness. Sadly, as with just about every mint, it doesn’t last…but I think it’s good enough for long enough that I’ll just learn to deal with it. Yum.

Pumpkin with tobacco, champa flower, carnation, and tonka. First sniff: A pumpkin base with a gorgeous rich deep sweetness. I never expected to like tobacco, because I always figured it just smelled like cigarettes, but it seems to add a really nice deep, woody, almost-spicy note to anything its in, and paired with tonka its just fantastic. Wearing: Oh, instant love. Smooth pumpkin underneath, sweet dark richness at the core, hovering just this side of spicy. Love.

First sniff: Pumpkin, very ripe juicy fruits, and tea. It’s caught somewhere in the middle between sweet and savory. Wearing: I keep thinking this should be spicy, but it really isn’t; it’s just that I associate spice with pumpkin. The pumpkin in this is provides a very smooth base layer to boost the fruit and tea. I smell like either dessert or breakfast, and I’m not sure which.

First sniff: Pale but solid, a cool, clear night-air scent. Very pretty. Wearing: Crisp cold air, glittering stars. It might snow in a few hours, but for now it’s the absolute crystalline perfection of a clear winter night. And unfortunately it’s just as fleeting; the aura extends no more than half an inch off my skin, and within an hour or two it’s gone completely. Sigh.

First sniff: Very chilly. Lemon and cold air. Wearing: Lemon and mint, warming up just a little, but still the general impression is “chilly.” It takes an hour or so for the grounded sweetness of the tonka to develop, but it makes for a very pleasant warm undertone. I wasn’t super impressed with the initial chilly lemon, but now I keep happily revisiting my wrist.

First sniff: A sweet rose that threatens to go horribly poofy the second I put it on me, with a darker, stronger base underneath, and maybe a few drops of tea. Wearing: POOF! But it seems to be calming quickly. The initial burst of powderose didn’t last too long, but the rest of the scent didn’t grab me.

First sniff: Cloyingly sweet floral. Hrm. Wearing: I’m really trying not to let my opinion of the party influence my opinion of the scent, but this reminds me of a certain politician’s personality… it’s fake-sweet and cutesy, but underneath there’s just not much there.

First sniff: Oh, this is just amazing. Cool sweetness, fresh flowers, green fruit. It’s a complete mismatch from the note list, and I’m hoping the danger notes behave themselves on my skin, because in the bottle this is simply gorgeous. Wearing: Wow! Rich fruit and warmth and flowing honey-sweetness. I’m thrilled that it stayed like this all day.

First sniff: For a “hint,” the wine in this is pretty strong, on a backdrop of flowers. Wearing: Wine and flowers all day long. Not my thing.

First sniff: Pure frozen violet. Wearing: Frozen violets, icy mint, and a hint of cream. Ooh. This is nicer than I expected; the violet never goes old-lady-powdery, and combined with the little splash of cream, it’s very pretty.

Mystery, from Bewitching Brews: A swirl of shadowy incense smoke and the lingering perfume of cloaked strangers. The version I tried is a prototype. First sniff: This has an almost citrusy edge to it, a pale wan light in the close darkness. There’s an oppressiveness to the darkness of this scent that feels like being inside Robert Jordan’s Waygates, the dark pressing in against the circle of lamplight like a living thing and nothing in sight but the crumbling paths and your own party huddled together against the blackness. I will try it on to see what it does on my skin, but for now it’s decidedly creepy. Wearing: Dried lemon fighting off the darkness, almost dusty. Upon drying it becomes a thin sort of lemon-soap scent that doesn’t particularly appeal – but then, my skin goes through phases where it turns everything to soap, so I’ll give it another shot.

Ingenue, from Love Potions: A tawdry Hollywood tragedy, the essence of innocence lost amongst casting couch cushions. Wild clover and gentle melon interlaced with violet leaf, water lilies, smooth wooden notes, and blushing rose. First sniff: Very innocent, very young. Bright and floral -- floaty floral, not heady floral. Something watery and turquoise too. A May Day bouquet floating on a clear lake. Wearing: Definitely watery floral, and very ethereal, but brightly, not darkly like Unseelie. Lily of the valley was my first thought on my skin. Despite all my protestations that I'm not a floral girly-girl, this one is so pretty and delicate I might just have to keep it. After reading the description a lightblub flashed and I yelled “Melon!” That's exactly the note I couldn't pin down -- white honeydew, and very wet. It's girly, but not silly giggly girly... there's something a bit wispy about it, like the ghost of a little Victorian girl carrying a porcelain doll. But not at all sad... maybe nostalgic, but not melancholy. It's very pale aqua-coloured. Doesn't last very long, alas.

And here's another raffle prototype: First sniff: Huh? *sniffs again* Hmmmmm… *more sniffage* I… it’s… hmmmm. I got nothin’. Which, I suppose, is appropriate. I can smell something in the bottle, but it’s very clean and very pale and very… blank. Wearing: Right at first, it reminds me a little of Pele. A light, sunny, sort of tropical floral. There’s a lot more scent on me than there was in the bottle, and it’s nice.

Visions of smeared candy red lipstick, torn fishnet and searching, sunken eyes. The scent of an all-nighter: cognac, tobacco flower, dark musk, black rose and clove. Formula 54, a limited edition offered only to forum members. The version I tried is a prototype. First sniff: A brainteasingly familiar scent - I think it smells like something Ive drunk. Its like cherries, but darker and I dont mean black cherries, I mean like Maraschinos dressed up in leather and carrying switchblades. Weird and unsettling. Wearing: The cherry scent is brighter on me its a bit giddy, but theres still something off about it a bleary drunken giddy, not a happy laughing giddy. Not happy at all, actually its a staggering, desperate scent, and its freaking me out a bit so Im going to go wash it off now. EDITED to update scent status, and moved this thread from Up-and-Coming.

First sniff: Dry, brown, crackly, a little bit sweet and a little bit smoky. It reminds me of pipesmoke. Wearing: The sweetness is more pronounced on me; it’s a strange smoky sweetness with some dry wood behind it.

First sniff: Warm, wet, green, murky. Wearing: It’s tropical, but without the usual fruits and flowers – just a huge tangle of green and monsoon rains. I like it more than I expected to.

First sniff: Wind, rain, sea, and a drizzle of lime. Wearing: The lime is much stronger on me, and really nice. Over time the wood and the tiny hint of Snake Oil come out and turn this into more than yet-another-sea-scent, which makes me very very happy. The drydown is just lovely.

First sniff: The wet insides of a cinnamon jawbreaker. Wearing: Very very cinnamon candy, and not a whole lot else.

First sniff: Ooh! This is like a greener variant of One to Tie! It’s spring rather than summer, and the hay is very very green, but it’s the same outdoor sunny happy feeling. Wearing: Fresh wet greenness, grass and leaves and dewdrops, and a little bit of nose-tickly hay.

First sniff: Smooth citrus, soft tea, gentle flowers, and a warm furry backdrop. Beautiful. Wearing: EVEN BETTER OMG. Immediately it’s soft sticky honeyed beeswax and tea and musk and a little spritz of citrus.

First sniff: Tart green citrus and maybe some dry wood underneath. Wearing: It’s weirdly spicy on me, almost the opposite of the bottle-scent.

First sniff: Soft cream and slightly plasticky sweetness. Wearing: Powdery on top of plasticky, and unfortunately fakey-sweet. I really wish iris liked me more.

First sniff: Dry, dark wood, with a glaze of vanilla or tonka. Wearing: Wow, is that the tobacco that smells like tonka to me? It swirls up in a warm haze as soon as I put this on my skin. The wrist-scent is still dry wood and whatever that warm dark slightly-sweet-ness is. I like this one more than I expected to.

First sniff: Fresh and wet and yes, very very green, a bright leaf-green. Wearing: Green leaves, green grass, and wonderfully sweet rich flower petals scattered over. A meadow in a bottle.

First sniff: The essence of green-gold summer, grass and hay and sunshine and laughter. I tested this one to wear to a baseball game the next day and I could not be more thrilled with it. Wearing: It’s so amazing while it lasts, but sadly it doesn’t last long.