Shollin

First sniff: Clean, crisp, and just a little powdery. Wearing: A lovely rainwashed-air scent, pale and wispy and beautiful.

First sniff: Heavy, powdery, “old lady” floral. Wearing: Rose is always hit-or-miss, and I can’t wear iris at all. The result? Heavy, powdery, “old lady” floral. The other notes sounded fascinating, but they’re hiding behind the ones that don’t work.

First sniff: The crumpets may be rebelling, but they definitely aren’t revolting! This is a fantastic buttery-cakey scent with a great big dollop of berry jam. Wearing: It’s more sharply fruity on my skin – the cakeyness isn’t softening the berryness like it did in the bottle, and there seems to be a little splash of really rich alcohol. It’s like a crumpet liqueur.

First sniff: Insanely fruity (mostly melon?), with a nice waft of deep spicy dragon’s blood tokeep it from being too hyper. Very nice. Wearing: I really like this! Layers and layers of bright juicy fruit. Given the notes, I expected it to be super-citrusy, but it seems to be more about soft fruits like peaches and plums.

I'm trying to decide what would best keep me sane through the twelve-hour workday ahead... gotta be there from noon to midnight, give or take a bit. It'll probably either be Jester, 'cause it's the cheeriest scent I have, or Twilight, 'cause it's warm and soothing. Or possibly Spooky, which just rules all around. Any thoughts?

Orange Blossom, from Single Notes. First sniff: This is quite a bit more subtle, darker and less sweet than I expected. The scent from the vial reminds me quite a bit of Lush’s Therapy massage bar, or the inside of an orange peel. Wearing: Ooh, yum. It picks up a tiny hint of sweetness and a nice sharp edge on my skin. I need to wear this one and the Honey single note layered together sometime just to see what it does. As with all the single notes I’ve tried, my brain is immediately going “Oh, that’s what that note was in <insert name of blend here>” – in this case it’s Succubus and Masquerade. I don’t think I like it quite enough to wear by itself, but I’ll definitely keep it around for layering purposes.

I thought I remembered this! From Beth a while back. Of course, it all depends on your chemistry as to whether it'll be all "HEAR ME ROAR" on your skin, but according to the lady in charge, it's in there. From my experience, it's a fantastic slightly-earthy spiced vanilla, and if I didn't know the slight earthiness was patchouli, I'd never know. Y'know?

It's one of the Dream Formulas, in the Somnium category of the Lab's site. Here are the reviews.

First sniff: A little bit of dust sprinkled over warm, woody richness. It’s very reminiscent of Jazz Funeral – that same smooth-wood warmth. Wearing: Green warmth, soft spices and a poof of dust.

A base of cocoa absolute and white chocolate with thirteen baneful and beneficial bits: cardamom, fig meat, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile, sandalwood, catnip, clove, and a bundle of five blessed blossoms and herbs. First sniff: The third Thirteen is fruitier and spicier than the others I’ve tried. Mostly spicier. The cardamom is really strong – in the decant it reminds me of what might happen if you mixed cocoa and chai. Wearing: Yep, cocoa and chai. Spicy, herby, and not quite my thing.

Nope, I'm not divorced. Two weddings, same guy. A bit of background: My husband's parents immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan about 35 years ago. He and I had a traditional American church wedding in Tennessee in early June (and I swear I'll get pictures of that posted one of these days now that I have them back from the photographer), and to honor both our traditions, we gathered with his family in Colorado over the weekend for the walima, a celebratory feast the groom's parents hold after a Pakistani wedding. From my sister's e-mailed photo album: And here's the link to the pictures. Brace yourselves for an explosion of sparkly color! So as Jen said, Friday night was the mehndi - sort of like their version of a bachelorette party. Traditionally, the night before the wedding, all the women gather to celebrate with the bride, and there's food and dancing and singing and the bride gets her hands painted with henna paste. And the men are very much Not Invited, though apparently that varies depending on how religious the guests are. In our case, it was a ladies (and young boys) only thing because many of Z's older relatives would have been scandalized if the women were dancing in front of the men. The whole thing was quite an experience. Twelve zillion people I'd never met, many of whom Z either didn't know or hadn't seen in years, probably half of whom were not native English speakers. And in addition to learning the names, I had to remember which honorific to use. For someone who's older than you but of the same generation, you add "baji" (for a woman) or "bhai" (for a man) to the end of their name - it's sort of like the Japanese "san," as far as I can tell. Older generations tend to be "auntie" and "uncle" (or "mamu" in Urdu) no matter how - or if - they're actually related to you. And all the honorifics apply whether you're addressing the person or speaking of them to someone else who cares about that sort of thing. So I had to sort out Deeba-auntie and Uzma-baji and Asid-bhai and Khalid-mamu and Sabina who's just Sabina because she's younger than me. I also have four nieces and two nephews I hadn't met before Thursday, and I had to get them all sorted out (though that was pretty easy because Z talks about them all the time). (Also, aren't they CUTE?) (Sorry for all the parentheses... this is how my thoughts are running at the moment.) Auntie and Uncle (as my parents-in-law have asked me to call them) brought all my traditional clothes back from their last trip to Pakistan. In addition to the yellow shalwar kameez I'm wearing in the mehndi pictures and the orange lehenga I wore to the walima, I also had two less formal shalwar kameez in midnight blue and in pink. I dressed that way all weekend, which earned MAJOR points with Auntie, and since there's been some tension regarding her only son marrying an American girl, especially after her oldest daughter married an American guy, I'll take all the points I can get! Shalwar kameez is insanely comfortable and flattering pretty much no matter what you look like. On the other hand, that gorgeous beaded walima outfit was HEAVY. The dupatta (the drapey thing on my head) was about fifteen pounds, and I'm wondering if the neck pain I woke up with this morning has something to do with that. But whatever, it's not about comfort when you're the bride, it's about looking amazing and showing the doubting family that the American girl can fit in. There had been some tension about that before this weekend, but while we were there, the only person who said anything was my eight-year-old cousin Mannan. I have to tell that story because I'm so insanely proud of my nephew. Mannan came up to me while we were all hanging out at Auntie and Uncle's house after the walima. "So you're Zaiem-bhai's wife?" "Yes I am." "But you're American." "Yes I am." "I thought Pakistani people were only supposed to marry other Pakistani people." "Well..." I dragged that "well" out for as long as possible, trying to figure out how to basically justify my existence to this eight-year-old boy... And then my BRILLIANT five-year-old nephew Zan leaps to my defense. "Hey! My papa's American!" "He IS?" And I left them to it, because I didn't want to make a big thing, but I thought it was amazingly brave of him to stand up to his big cousin on behalf of an auntie he'd only met two days before. He's totally my hero. So the weekend was amazing, and all the food was incredible, and I got big points for dressing like the family and getting up to dance at the mehndi and learning a few key phrases in Urdu or possibly Arabic (it's hard to sort them out, actually, because the cultural and religious traditions are so intertwined that sometimes Z says he can't tell whether his family is doing something because they're Pakistani or because they're Muslim). And I think this is my last wedding for a while. I need a nap.

First sniff: Marguerite is quite the prim and proper lady, all genteel roses and sweet gardenia. Wearing: Gently, sweetly floral, with a whole lot of rose and an undercurrent of gardenia. Roses rarely work on me, but this is really nice.

First sniff: Earthy, musky, fruity and quite dark. Wearing: Everything else disappears into voluptuous red velvet. I’m drowning in Marianne’s skirts. To be sure, there are worse fates.

First sniff: A light, sweet, elegant floral. It’s very airy and floaty and a little bit green, and fits the lovely lady in the absinthe tank perfectly. Wearing: Jasmine explosion! That sudden flurry of white sweetness fades quickly to a lovely wispy greenness.

I found a decant in my giant pile whose label had turned solid pink, making the words disappear. I had no clue what it was and couldn't figure it out by sniffing or trying it on... I eventually sent it off as a frimp, so maybe someone else can solve the mystery. And for blackheartedangel, if you're looking for reviews of Y'ha-nthlei, voila. I think the search engine sees the hyphen as a "minus" sign, so it's hard to find.

First sniff: Wonderful candy-sweet mint. I’ve been fighting the creeping crud for a couple of weeks and this feels amazingly good to my sinuses right now. If I didn’t know it was an incredibly bad idea, I’d be tempted to pour the whole bottle straight up my nose... Wearing: It’s pure candy cane, at least at first. When the original Lick It hit my skin, it went from peppermint to something very like Sugar Skull within minutes. For now, it’s making my nose very tingly and very happy. …Ah, here we go. There’s that warm burned-sugar thing happening underneath. And… oh, dear, it’s going plasticky, which the first one never did. I think I’ll stick with the original.

First sniff: Berries and dark honey and a fantastic deep sweetness. Wearing: Gorgeous honeyed fruit. Seductively sweet. The berry develops a crisp tartness as it dries.

Be good, or Krampus will toss you in a river! Sinister red musk, black leather, dusty rags, and wooden switches. (2006) First sniff: It’s all leather and musk. Very intimidating. Wearing: Pretty much straight leather. I discovered a couple weeks ago that my guy and I both amp leather like crazy, so we really can’t wear it. Sadly.

(2006) First sniff: Piney sweetness, chilly and green and bright with the promise of a sugary dessert somewhere far off in the distance. Wearing: Someone’s set up a Krispy Kreme in the middle of the woods, and there are indeed Hot Doughnuts Now… the only problem is, you have to tramp through miles of snow to get to them.

First sniff: High-pitched and hyper, a citrusy-ozoney brightness with some very light musk underneath. Wearing: It’s the White Rain hairspray note from Stardust, and a lot of spinny neon craziness.

Haloa 2006: First sniff: This is seriously rich, cakey and buttery and a little fruity. Yum. Wearing: On me it goes immediately to grapes and green wood, like my arms are entwined with grapevines. The cake-scent disappears completely.

First sniff: Powdery flowers dusted with snow. Wearing: It’s sweeter than I expected, a very gentle, quiet sweetness shining through the cold.

First, I must direct your attention to Ask A Ninja’s interview of the Blades of Glory stars, in which they speculate that Black Ice would be an excellent name for a rock band, or possibly a cologne. It’s roundabout the 3:15 mark. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, my sweetheart hit a patch of black ice a couple of winters ago and flipped his car over a snowbank… so I came into this scent with a serious bias. First sniff: Very very cold, and menacing, and generally not my friend. It’s freezing darkness, stranded on a winter’s night, unhappiness all 'round. Wearing: Slushy cold… you know the noise your boots make when you have to slog through that nasty grey snowy-icy-slushy stuff in the parking lot when it snowed hard a couple days ago and no one’s cleaned it up properly? I’ve been hearing that noise a lot over the past few weeks, thanks to the winter storms that keep shooting through Washington state, and it’s exactly what this reminds me of.

First sniff: Wintergreen, cold rocks, and dirt. Wearing: Wintergreen, cold rocks, and dirt. The mint is a bit softer on me, and the dirt isn’t as dusty, but it’s still pretty much wintergreen, cold rocks, and dirt.

First sniff: It’s quite a bit warmer than I expected, and something almost-vanilla is the main player there – I guess that must be tonka. There’s a very warm spiciness to it too, and a very subtle sweetness in the afterscent. This should be really nice on me; ginger likes me a lot. Wearing: Oh, this is really nice. Golden wood paneling in a cozy study with a big patch of sunbeam warming the golden wood floor. It’s all warmth and coziness and soft ginger and sunlight on polished wood. It’s the retreat of a dignified older gentleman who’s generally very serious but keeps a secret stash of candy and a few good stories for when his grandchildren visit.