Shollin

First sniff: Storm just smells like those bright blue mentholyptus cough drops in the vial. Hopefully it’ll improve with wearing. Wearing: Oh yes, much better. It still smells like eucalyptus, but it’s gone from coughdroppy to lively and refreshing. It went faintly floral as it dried, but disappeared quickly and didn’t make much of an impression.

First sniff: White pine… but there’s something sweet embracing it, softening the edges and warming the wood. Pine to me usually smells very cold, but Golden Priapus is a warm, approachable pine. Wearing: The vanilla explodes on my skin. I’ve had the same reaction to a couple of other scents where vanilla was somewhere in there but not the main note, and it’s a lovely effect. Pine is still very prominent, but that initial burst of vanilla is just gorgeous, and once it fades a bit the pine is lovely and soft, not the cold, distant, crunchy-snow scent it usually is on me. I’m honestly not entirely sure what prompted me to order this one, considering how little pine and I usually get along, but whatever it was, I’m glad I listened. It goes warmly smoky after a few minutes, and the overall effect is simply glorious.

First sniff: Another flowing herbal – I think I smell orange, mint and something that’s either cherry or sweet almond. It’s an interesting mishmash – will be interesting to see what it does on my skin, because I have the feeling Calliope is another scent that will shift constantly on me, like Voodoo or the Ace of Swords. Wearing: The scent on my wrists is definite citrus, but I can’t figure out what. It keeps shifting between orange and lime. Calliope has a chill minty edge that makes my nose cold, and a deeper greenness underneath.

First sniff: The Red Queen is a much subtler scent than I expected. It’s cherry, there’s no question of that, but it’s a deep, understated, mature cherry – the richly sweet black cherries that come out in summer, not the candied things you put on sundaes. Wearing: A bit brighter on my skin… now the texture is more like cherry candy than the actual fruit, and the edges are a bit sharp. Sniffing my wrist directly I definitely smell the dark smooth wood underneath. It stayed subtly sweet for several hours. Lovely.

First sniff: The Dormouse is a green, herbal sort of scent that reminds me of a fresher, cleaner version of The Apothecary. It’s brighter, and there’s a hint of mint in the afterscent. Wearing: Beautifully green, soft, liquid… it smells much more like green tea on my skin than in the bottle. Very pleasant.

First sniff: Oh dear heavenly wow. Sudha Segara is amazing. It’s gingery… sweet, rather than biting… and the milk softens and blurs the edges into flowing gold. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything quite like this. Wearing: It’s more subtle on my skin than I expected, but I feel like I’m inside a swirly golden aura of sweetness. The scent directly on my wrists is a tiny bit soapy at first, but quickly softens to match the aura. It’s very warm, very soothing and very quiet.

First sniff: Dessert. By a campfire. With wine. Spices and fruit and sweetness and a bare hint of liquor. And warmth… enveloping spicy warmth, being close to a fire on a cold night surrounded by friends and laughing your head off about nothing in particular just because you’re having fun. Wearing: There’s a darker base note that pops out immediately on my skin and makes me think of dark cocoa. The wine is more prominent on my skin, floating along the top, but it’s sweet and light, not the heavy grapey wines of some other blends. And around the edges there’s a wonderful dusting of spices. Harvest Moon is delicious.

The current downpour isn't supposed to let up until tomorrow afternoon (thanks, Jeanne) and if I don't get my new stuff today (which is a moot point, because it WILL be there when I go check the mail in the monsoon), I'll be wearing Dana O'Shee. When it's wet and miserable outside, I generally gravitate toward a scent that feels like a hug.

First sniff: Very strongly floral, and very pretty. There’s an interesting undercurrent of something darker and more mysterious. Wearing: Sweet jasmine above, with a hint of white musk underneath. If the scent of Magdalene were white rather than purple, it would be very much like Ave Maria Gratia Plena.

My guy attacked my neck when I wore Ravenous.

First sniff: Are there such things as chocolate-covered flowers? That’s what Old Sybaris smells like in the vial – a hint of deep purple flower under sweet smooth cocoa. Wearing: The first touch on my skin is all chocolate – it’s more aggressively sweet than the other chocolate scents I’ve tried. It’s very slightly powdery too, and after a few minutes the florals start to peek out again. While it was drying, it turned old-lady-powdery for a couple of hours, but by the time it settled completely it was back to cocoa and flowers, and the end result is fantastic. Lovely stuff.

First sniff: Very interesting! Neo-Tokyo is a pale, clean scent with a slight hint of citrus, yet somehow carries an undertone of smoke. Wearing: It’s greener on me than in the vial, and a bit more firm. The predominant scent on my left wrist is bamboo – for any Lush fans who miss their Bamboo soap, this is very reminiscent. There’s a lovely sweetness floating over the top of the green. This scent is the very early days of spring, when it’s still chilly but the trees are just beginning to bud.

First sniff: Soft, rainwashed blue-green, somewhere between fresh and floral. Wearing: A very cloudy floral – that’s the only way I can think to describe it. It’s definitely not sunny, it’s a bit too solid to be misty, and it isn’t quite dark. I can't pick out any specific notes, which is usually the case with me and florals. It didn’t make much of an impression, sadly. It’s pretty, but not quite me enough, despite my rabid Celtophilia. I wonder if I got the reformulated version of Old Dublin, because this was entirely floral on me, no greenery in sight. I loved the sound of the misty forests, but I just got flowers.

First sniff: WOW. Absolutely perfect daffodils, with tiny dewdrops shivering along the stalky leaves. It’s very true to the rather odd blunt green-yellow scent daffodils have. Wearing: This is seriously amazing. I’ve never smelled anything this daffodily that wasn’t an actual daffodil. I wouldn’t have thought a Daffodil single note would be the sort of thing that would smell good as a perfume – daffodils have a very unusual fragrance – but it’s fantastic. (And the word daffodil looks strange as heck when one has typed it seven times in quick succession.) It went a bit powdery as it dried, and vanished within a few hours. I’m still blown away by it, and will definitely hang onto the imp.

First sniff: Big purple moonlit flowers over a darker base. There’s a sweetness to Queen Mab that I wasn’t expecting… but now I see there’s jasmine in the “ingredients” list, and it makes sense. Very cool, very pretty, and the sweetness is very subtle. Wearing: Deep, rich, royal purple, but there’s a faint hint of powderiness sprinkled over the top… hopefully that won’t take over. I can smell the rose in among the other flowers, but it isn’t overpowering. I’m reapplying before I go to work (about 20 minutes after initial application) because it’s already faded to the point that I really have to sniff my wrist to get any hint of it. My skin seems to have trouble holding onto deep purple complex florals – Phantom Queen vanished on me too, the first time I tried it. On reapplication, again the rose pops out immediately, the centerpiece in a big bouquet of darker flowers. I can’t quite decide what colour it is – it’s not nearly brash enough to be a red rose, nor girly enough to be pink, nor shy enough to be white. It hung on very well the second time – I can still catch a faint aura several hours later. It’s very pretty, but I’m not quite in love yet – I’ll rewear and see if she reels me in a bit more.

First sniff: Dragon's Milk definitely matches its candy-red colour. It’s very sweet (not quite to the point of being sickly), but also very deep – it’s cute and cuddly but you wouldn’t want to get on its bad side. Wearing: Oh heavenly wow. My skin might hate many resins, but it LOVES dragon’s blood. I suspect it senses a kindred spirit. This dragon is a brighter red than the one in Dragon’s Heart, a young, playful dragon, with the personality of a huge rambunctious shaggy dog who doesn’t realise his size and knocks you over every time he tries to say hello. The sweetness seems to cling close to my skin, and the aura is smooth vanilla surrounded in red warmth – utterly glorious.

First sniff: Oh, I like this. Embalming Fluid is fresh and clean and light, mostly green tea with the barest hint of lemon. Wearing: The lemon is definitely more evident on my skin, but green tea envelops and calms it, turning the whole into a very cool, smooth, fresh scent that I enjoy immensely. It seemed to fade pretty quickly, but I’ve gotten used to that with citrus scents.

First sniff: Grapes grapes grapes. More red than purple – this scent and the scent of Caterpillar are almost the same colour. Lady Macbeth is somewhere between Concord grape juice (very rich and tangy) and red wine – it reminds me of the scene in Fantasia with the centaurs dancing and stomping grapes in a huge wooden vat. Wearing: When wet on my skin it still smells like grape juice – not the grocery-store Welch’s sort, but the really good kind they sometimes have on hand at wineries so the kids can get in on the tasting too. (Random tangent: the Biltmore House has amazingly good grape juice. I’m actually rather glad I was underage when my family went, because I’m not a huge fan of red wine, and that juice was darn good.) It deepens immediately, shifting away from brashness. I’m enjoying this more than I expected to now that it’s calmed down a bit – it reminds me of the deep fruitiness I liked in Bewitched, though the Lady is much warmer. When it dried completely it was very like port wine, Communion wine – rich and deep and round. I was expecting a candy-sweet scent from the reviews, but on me, it definitely isn’t. Fruity, very much so, but not too sweet.

First sniff: Three Witches smells exactly like a cinnamon broom. Wearing: Mmmm. Mulling spices and Christmas potpourri. It’s all cinnamon if I sniff my wrist directly, but the aura is deeper, rounder, more complex, with maybe a tiny hint of baked apples underneath. It’s a pleasant scent, but not something I particularly want to smell like.

First sniff: Slow-flowing, lazy, murky green with the heaviness of humid summer air and the barest hint of sweet flowers twining around the trees, thickly crowded and draped in Spanish moss, that grow from tangled roots along the bank. Wearing: The scent of Bayou is very familiar. It feels like a hot summer night, utterly still, with the persistent buzz of cicadas rising from the dark woods. About an hour after I put it on, I figured out why it’s familiar… it reminds me of bug spray. Not the sharpness of Deep Woods OFF, but one of the newer softer varieties, Skintastic or somesuch. I don’t know if it actually smells like bug spray or if it’s just an association with hot still summer nights, but there’s definite bugsprayness.

First sniff: Strawberries, yes! Bright and cheerful and bubbly and fun. Wearing: I can smell the champagne immediately – it’s tickle-your-nose fizzy, and cuts the sweetness of the strawberries nicely. Bon Vivant lasted a good long while on my skin and was lovely the whole time.

First sniff: I don’t know how a scent can be simultaneously red and calming, but Red Moon definitely is. It’s a very happy sort of calming… it makes me breathe slower and smile. The citrus gives it the barest hint of an edge, but for the most part it’s round and soft and beautiful. Wearing: I love this. It’s warm without being overly slinky, somehow calming and exciting at the same time. I can’t pick out specific notes, but it’s smooth and warm and red and just delightful.

First sniff: Pumpkin pie drizzled with caramel! Sweet, spicy, bakery. Much younger and brighter than Samhain – there’s no mystery to this one, it’s pure holiday fun without the ritual. Wearing: Just yum. Jack smells like a way-better version of a specific Yankee autumn candle – I think the one I'm thinking of is called Harvest. Warm, creamy pumpkin pie, far more spicy than sweet. It lasted a good long while at work. I like. ADDED June 10: Jack II First sniff: I don’t remember ever smelling the peach in the original Jack, but here it’s very prominent. Very fruity. Wearing: Pumpkin and peach, with spices. I really like both versions of Jack.

First sniff: What is in this that smells like Christmas? It’s deep, vibrant red and flavor-spicy (rather than heat-spicy), and there’s something underneath that smells almost like grape. I like it quite a bit, but don’t have the visceral reaction I was hoping for… Wearing: Red, red, red. There’s a very solid, grounding base to this scent – not an anchor, but a pillow you’d wrap yourself around to sleep. It's making me a bit tingly now that it’s drying, and I’m beginning to doubt the wisdom of wearing a scent called Lust to bed when the object of said vice isn’t with me… Yes, I like this a lot. It reminds me a bit of Dragon’s Heart in its solid “bring it on” redness, but its heat is more overtly sensual. It’s inspiring a very odd combination of smoldery and shy.

First sniff: Tall grass, and there’s a weird soapy note around the edges. The overview makes me want to sneeze. Wearing: Scarecrow might be the most intensely yellow scent I’ve ever smelled. There’s still an edge of soapiness, but the center is huge fields of yellow grass waving in the wind.