Shollin

First sniff: Somehow Ahathoor seems darker than Khephra, which doesn’t make much sense. It has the same sort of warm enveloping presence, but shadowed. Wearing: Darkened amber (I think it’s amber, anyway), gentle spice and an edge of sharpness. And… ooh. A few minutes of drying and the aura is just fantastic – I feel like my skin has a soft bronze glow. It develops an incensey undertone once it dries completely, but that’s only apparent right on my skin.

First sniff: Fruity! Bright yellow-gold fruit hanging heavy in a sunlit grove. Wearing: Yerevan smells like summer, like juicy honeyed sunlight filtering through the trees. It’s raining cats and dogs here at the moment and this is a great comfort scent.

First sniff: A clean, softly sweet, indoors on a rainy day scent. I get the same “politeness” from Saint-Germain as I do from Wilde. Wearing: A clean-laundry sort of comforting, a cool breeze on a muggy sticky day.

First sniff: I’m having a very hard time figuring out how to describe Khephra. It’s… a big scent. I don’t mean strong, or overpowering… but it has a certain presence. I think the main note is amber, but it’s hard to be sure. Wearing: Warm, deep, musky and almost dark. It’s still just defying any attempt to describe the actual scent. I can’t even put a colour to it, and usually that’s where my mind goes when it can’t figure out the notes. I know it reminds me of The Lion, and I know I like it, but that’s all I can pin down.

First sniff: Baku smells, to my nose, almost exactly like Badger’s Sleep Balm – mostly lavender, with a deep green undertone – but a hint of mint above that the balm doesn’t have. Wearing: Licorice? Where did that come from? Hrmph. Licorice and I don’t get along – it messed up Kabuki for me and I’m hoping it stays in the background here. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be doing that, and it’s darkening the rest of the scent into a stormy grey. Grrr. That said, I’ll keep it around to use if I find myself in need of warding nightmares off, as its main purpose isn’t just to smell nice.

First sniff: Cool, wet blue-green. Very aquatic… most appropriate for Neptune. Wearing: Even when wet this doesn’t have much throw, but the scent on my skin is lovely and soft, slightly powdery and very calming. I’m sorry more people didn’t get to try the outer planets – the two I’ve worn so far have been great.

First sniff: Ra makes me think of marigolds, though I don’t really know what they smell like. It’s a warm, soft, golden scent with a touch of floral sweetness. Wearing: Ooh. Instantly there’s a wonderful deep – almost animal – warmth that reminds me very much of The Lion. I suppose that might be amber. It’s sweet and lightly floral and gold gold gold. and then... ARGH! After drying down for just a few minutes it turns into nothing but flowers… powdery girly flowers. Stupid flowers. I think I’ll be sticking with Tum – sunset is much more my speed than dawn anyway.

First sniff: Ooh, wow. Naughty cherries. This is The Red Queen’s wayward little sister who goes out in a leather bustier and spike heels. (I look it up, and OK, so it’s not cherry, it’s almond, and my nose has betrayed me again. Whatever.) Wearing: Salome is seriously gorgeous, and very sensual – a deep red aura of musky cherries. It develops an incensey undertone as it dries, which doesn’t show up in the aura but is very apparent when I sniff my wrist.

First sniff: Softly sweet red fruit. Rage in the vial definitely isn’t living up to its name… maybe it’s something like Katie Kaboom, quiet and sweet on the outside but watch out if you tick her off… Wearing: I like it. A lot. On my skin it’s still sweet red fruit, and very warm. I’m still not getting rage (probably a good thing as I’m about to head to work), though it seems to be going spicier as it dries. It faded pretty quickly, and I didn’t notice it much at work – I need to try it again.

First sniff: Just lovely. Herbal, green, flowing, with the slightest hint of soft lemon, and I’m pretty sure there’s lavender in here. It’s a calming scent – almost forcefully so, as if it’s deliberately slowing my breathing and releasing the tension in my body. Wearing: Somnus has quite an aura when it’s wet – the same flowing herbal as in the vial, with just a touch of silky powder. It reminds me of the smooth moonlit purple of Unseelie, though not quite as dark. And I slept like a rock. Definitely using this one again. ETA: I wore this one again Monday night (April 18) after a rather crappy day, worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep because my brain was racing and wouldn't shut up... and it knocked my hiney out. I Somnus!

First sniff: Syrupy-sweet, with a very strong burst of golden fruit asserting itself in the afterscent – it’s almost pineapple, but not quite. Tum is one of those scents you can almost taste as you smell it, a burst of yellow sweetness just in the back of your throat. Wearing: Strongly sweet, bright gold, very juicy. It was a bit too sweet for the first couple of hours, but dried down to a nice warm fruity golden sweetness that wasn’t screaming – I just need to be a bit more restrained next time I try it on.

First sniff: Dull reddish-brown, earthy and chilly… this serpent is coiled in sleep and isn’t at all interested in waking up. Wearing: Incense burning over cold earth, when wet on my skin. It goes slowly sweeter and warmer as it dries, taking on the almost-fruitiness I associate with dragon's blood, and the scent-colour gets brighter. In its final stages, I really like it, and I wasn’t expecting to at all from the vial-scent. (Plus, it got me off my bum to do yoga for the first time in a couple of months, which definitely warrants re-use!)

First sniff: Quite a contrast – earthy resins underneath, but sparkling gold above. My nose doesn’t know all the notes, but really likes this. Greed is somewhat reminiscent of the deep brown scent of Lush’s Middle Earth soap… but with a twist of something brighter that I can’t identify (I want to call it lime, and I know that ain’t right). Wearing: On my skin it smells like the part of Malediction I liked – the deep earthiness that couldn’t quite ground Malediction’s sharp cedar. There’s a hint of sharpness, but mostly it’s earthy dark patchouli wonderfulyay. Unfortunately, it goes sharper as it dries, and whatever incensey thing that’s in here and doesn’t like me starts asserting itself. Drat.

First sniff: This scent is very confusing. I can’t tell whether it’s dusty or juicy, earthy or fruity – it smells like a chalice of sweet red wine spilled in a dusty crypt. Wearing: Wet on my skin, the fruity juiciness is definitely more prominent, but the dust always lurks darkly just behind, a reminder that the Nosferatu’s semblance of life is bound to the grave. I like the wine-scent enough to keep it, as it stays in the foreground – the dustiness is a bit unsettling.

First sniff: A cool breeze through a flowering fruit orchard on a day that’s sunny but cold. Vinland is another of those golden scents that I’ve become so enamoured of recently, though it’s definitely the coolest of the bunch. Wearing: Well, annoyingly, of all the wonderful notes in this scent, my skin grabbed onto the rose and kicked it up about twelve notches so that’s all I could smell. Sigh.

First sniff: Dark, rich, fruity-musky and slightly sweet. The fig is very apparent. Wearing: Another strong-confident-woman scent that I absolutely adore. Nemesis is the colour of dark red crushed velvet, and there’s a fruity sweetness lingering around the rich round core.

First sniff: Appropriately, Pluto is dark, cold and mysterious, a woody-resiny scent with maybe a hint of mint? Wearing: I’m almost positive there’s mint in this, or at least something that makes my nose cold the same way mint does. The aura is mint and dark wood, with a hint of incense. I liked this one on me more than I expected to.

First sniff: Mostly powdery rose. Darn. Wearing: A soft aura of rose, as if I’m walking around in a cloud of white petals. It goes a bit soapy almost instantly – rose-scented soap. Sadly, this one is not for me.

First sniff: Hmmmm. It’s dark… sort of citrusy… hovering just this side of incense. Otherwise? I’m baffled. Wearing: Definitely mysterious and dark. The aura is a tiny bit powdery, though it’s much firmer on my wrists, and – yes, that’s definitely citrus prowling around in the topnote. It’s musky and deep and I think I need to wear it again to figure it out.

First sniff: Cool, round floral, soft and flowing. Very promising. Wearing: Something in this reminds me of the Plumeria lotion I used to buy from B&BW. Overall, Sepulcher is a very soft unpowdery floral, mostly rose when it dries. It’s pretty, but might not be “me” enough – I’ll try it again before I send it off.

First sniff: Powdery floral. Maybe it’ll improve on my skin… Wearing: The initial burst reminds me of Queen Gertrude. It amuses me that the thing that scared me away from The Raven for so long was the musk… I never thought I’d have a problem with the flowers, but this is decidedly old-ladyish on me.

First sniff: Eucalyptus incense? Old Kathmandu is dark and resinous, but there’s something cough-drop-y around the edges. Wearing: The initial impression of eucalyptus incense is persisting, and the wrist-scent is pure cedar. And cedar just isn’t me.

First sniff: Sweet, golden and wild. Lying on your back in the middle of grasslands under an endless blue sky. Wearing: Did someone already mention looking-glass cake? The sweetness is almost baked-goodsy, and there’s a faint dusting of cinnamon – very faint, just enough to give it a hint of spice without heat. The Lion is a very light, subtle scent, and doesn’t have a lot of throw, though the aura expands a bit once it sinks into my skin. On my wrists, it lasted throughout work, and was still warm and sweet at the end of the night. I LOVE it. Thanks, eleventhousand!

Sensual, decadent, and enigmatic. Lavender, softly underscored by lotus and spice. First sniff: Soft, light, round and very wet. This scent doesn’t seem to fall into any particular category – the closest is fresh, but that’s not quite right. Wearing: I’ve put Paris on just before work, so I hope the lavender doesn’t make me sleepy… whoops. I can smell the lavender more distinctly on my wrist, but the whole scent is very subtle and light. It’s a very calm scent, which I really hadn't expected from Paris.

Chaos Theory LXXXV First sniff: Mmmmm. Watery flowers, with something in the background that makes this scent really delicious – florals generally don’t provoke an “mmmm” response from me. I think it might even be white melon – it’s very light, subtly fruity and very, very juicy. Wearing: This is beautiful. Entirely feminine, soft, light, floaty, dreamy. It goes sweeter as it dries, somewhat honeysucklish, but stays soft enough that it isn’t intrusive. The final stage is warm and soothing. I can’t figure out what this note is, but it’s lovely – something like a very soft vanilla, but not at all foody. I LOVE this stuff. Thanks for the swap, cuervosueno. Previously reviewed by fairywingmaker, cuervosueno and grrrlennyl.