Lamia

Whoa, this is so NOT what I'd expected! It started very almond-y and grainy, like almond glop you'd wipe in a dough for baking. It turned, er, is that tropical fruit peeking through? Papaya, maybe? No, it's not tropical fruit any more, it's regular fruit, no wait, it's.. uh ... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SCENT? It's crazy, that's what it is. It's sweet and scruffy and uh... hm. I don't need more than the imp I have, but what a fun, entertaining scent this it!

This smells rather a lot like perfumed mochi. It does soften, but it's so not me. Trade bag.

Utterly charming and sweet, feminine and pert. Which I'm normally not (laughs) I made a retro 50's dress from red-and-black skull bandana fabric, and this is absoloutely the perfect scent to wear with it. I do enjoy wearing feminine scents that don't squeal "Gooey!", but rather wink at you saucily as you skip by, leaving crushed enemies in your wake.

This is chocolate, but chocolate liquer. It mellows to chocolate with maple syrup, and perfumed eau de toilette, and eventually to peach with a nibble of clove. It's like that recipe I made with peaches, poached in honey and cloves and red wine. But with Ghirardhelli cocoa powder dusted over it just as it's served. mmmmmm

I don't pick up the licorice at all, huh. Wet, it's quite almondy, but immediately upon application, the three ingredients are easily discernable. This smells remarkably like Kabuki (cherry, red musk, and star anise) but with electricity. It's a cleaner, sharper scent - apparently white sandalwood is brighter than red musk, who knew? This is quite yummy. The sandalwood and star anise fade quickly, alas, leaving a pale ghost of sakura to hover about.

Sorrow! In the bottle, this smelled creamy and fruity like... like... blueberry ice cream! Yeah, baby, bring it! On skin, the creamy disappeared, and the blueberries leapt to the fore. It quickly became soapy, but a sharp cruel soap, not a soft girly soap. Soon came a medicinal smell, but that lasted for only a few seconds. Now it's just sort of, I dunno... blueberries and vanilla and ginger, but the grease-cutting dishsoap version. I am so sad, I had such high hopes for this one. Ah well, of all the fruit scents to not have work on me, I suppose I'm ok with it being blueberry, considering how well all of the other fruit scents work on my skin. I will wait until after Dragon*Con, and test it again, just in case it's my chemistry making things all hinky. EDITED TO ADD: Yep, a week after D*C, and it is still All Blueberry Yogurt, All The Time. Ah well.

I tried this in field conditions (specifically Pennsic), and it was hilarious how this smelled EXACTLY like cumin. "My god, it smells like I'm cooking Indian food!" I exclaimed to everyone's amusement. I had to have this, and traded for it. Home, and clean, it STILL smells like cumin, like I have taken a shower and started to make dinner. There are some quiet scents in the background that round this out somewhat, but it is primarily just the smell of cumin. Thankfully, the combination of ingredients that create this scent manage to NOT include the stale-sweat part of cumin's smell, for which I am grateful. This imp cracks me up.

Put me into the pile of people who wish that this worked better Husband says "smells like Old Lady Perfume", and he's right - this reminds me a bit of my grandmother. I've no idea why, since there are resins and patchouli and all sorts of delectable ingredients, instead of her preferred florals. This isn't nearly as dark as expected. I really like it, but am content with my imp, and won't be needing a 5ml.

Chaos Theory 4 CMV (905) arrived today *squee* (a seperate order from the previous CT4 reviewed around page 1or 2 of this thread) Originally in the bottle, it smelled like a Witchcraft shop. This was likely due to all of the imps that it had been shipped with. Resniffed at home over the lunchbreak, it was alllllllllll bubblegum. Like Bubblicious extrajuicy bubblegum, the kind that, when you were a kid, came in a wax-papered piece in a wad that was so large that it stretched your jaws to plonk it in your mouth and made you work HARD to get it chewed up and ready for blowing bubbles. It stayed bubblegum for a little while, and then turned sugary, candied violets perhaps? That didn't last long, and developed an aquatic note, similar to Spell Of Amorous Love, although still sugared but without chemical sweetness. Now, the sweet is fading, and a bitterness is starting to peek through - decorative bitter wood soaked by overlong exposure to a bubble-bath'ed tub, perhaps? Call this a less complex, somewhat sugary, meekly bitter younger sister of Spell Of Amorous Love, my favorite of the Shunga line.

In the bottle, this smelled pleasantly of musky florals. On skin, it was immediately floral, then started souring. Briefly, it was an acceptable floral, but then soured strongly, like rotting flowers. I didn't get any sandalwood or other woodiness, and the only musk was in the bottle Ended up wiping it off with alcohol, I don't do well with sour florals *cries for now being BPAL-less for the rest of the day*

Delectably feminine without being cloying. On skin there is a bitterness, but the scent aura ("throw?") is sweetly rose with none of the aggressively girly putridness expected from sugared roses. Not an everyday scent, but a good feminine floral.

This is curious. Unidentifiable in the bottle. Wet on skin I smell cedar...? and creamy vanilla/amber? This takes about an hour to settle down and become pleasant, but after about 2.5 hours it's almost gone. Ah well.

This is vanilla-orange fudge. Oh, how I love you, vanilla orange fudgey goodness!

For whatever reason, this smells like, banana pudding on me.... *fidget* My husband says he really likes it, so I'll keep the imp, but I won't be looking for another one. (Bananas??? Where did BANANAS come from??)

My CCXXIV arrived today BIG YAY! I'm not sampling right now because A) the "Vixen" I put on this morning is still noticeable and B ) I am at work which normally wouldn't stop me except C) the boss is here grrrrr But snuffling the bottle, I first got "fruit...soap". A second sniff says currant? pomegranite. There is a subdued hard snap in there, like ethyl alcohol or nail polish remover, but I have to work hard to detect it. I adore Beth's fruit scents, they work so beautifully on me I cannot WAIT to get home and try this *excited* EDITED TO ADD: My husband said (when I stuck a damp wrist under his nose) that it smelled like "fruit candy". My partner took multiple sniffs while suggesting "tropical fruits....smells like fruits from South America." It quickly turned to tutti-futti, but not a cloying chemical over-sugared tutti-frutti - rather a multi-fruited syrup of boiled-down fruit salad. It's not an everyday scent, but I'm not unhappy to wear it

I thought I had reviewed this, but apparently I was waiting for a second test. I'd originally traded for this from WWindy, and my notes say "greenly astringent", but I'd tested it while cycling, so wanted to wait and retest. The retest is STILL greenly astringent, without being mentholated or medicine-y, and is more like a homemade astringent plaster than something you get from a bottle at the pharmacist. This is green like a stained glass panel, rather than the green of a plant. Trade bag.

I'd tested this in the shop at our first Will Call, and my notes say "pleasantly caramel-y, turns into Band-Aids". I recently received a half decant as a frimp. In the bottle, it's sweet without being cloying. On skin, it starts sweet, yet rueful. It does turn again to the scent of Band-Aids, and eventually fades to a soft subdued pine. Hours later, it's so faint as to need nose-on-skin to smell it, and it's a ... yeasty scent? I think that's the almond milk with pine. Trade bag.

This reminds me quite a bit of "Wulfric The Wolfman", and "Forbidding Foyer" - chocolate and cognac and vanilla. DELICIOUS! I get no apple, but a companion said "hmmm...caramel?" What smells to her like caramel smells to me like burning sugar, I can see how they're similar. There was, briefly, a blush of something floral, shortly after application, but that wenbt away quickly, leaving only the glorious cognac-y chocolate scent. Divine!

In the bottle, this was a fruity thick sweet scent. On skinn it reminded me of old cinnamon bark, and quick turned into something...minty? No, it's...metallic? AHA - mentholated cinnamon! There's a medicinal chewiness in the background - I want to gnaw the air over my wrist nommm nommm nommmm and there's a hint of leaving the nurse's office. This is an amusing scent, and not a daily wear, but I do like it very much - the Haunted House series is BRILLIANT!

This scent cracks me up My grandparents lived for a large part of my life in a retirement community in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. The Jersey Devil wasn't something that I was terrorized with, but it was a small part of my youth. I kept expecting to see the damn thing pop out from between the trees when we were driving there. And my grandfather grew tomatoes - actually, he grew a LOT of stuff (you should have seen his battles with the rabbits and deer!) but his were the only tomatoes I would eat. So: Pine Barrens? Tomato? Jersey Devil? Yay grandparents and happy childhood memories! This started sweet in the bottle, with an unpleasant tang. uh oh I thought, I don't want this to be gross. Fresh, it was processed and chemical, but that changed quickly to an unusual clay-dirt scent. Not a vetiver/patchouli earth scent, but a clay-ey sort of dirt, which, considering the Pine Barrens were mostly sand, seemed more proper to me than a moist earth scent. Quickly, tomato leaped out, but a fresh sun-warmed tomato instead of an anemic pink slice thrown onto a burger. This tomato scent lasted for quite some time, which made me a bit nervous (since I loathe tomatoes), but that faded as well, bringing forth a sweet fruit. For about half an hour I wasn't able to track this, so who knows what happened in the interim. I assume the fruity scent to be the cranberry. The cranberry has lasted longest of all, but within 2 hours, this has faded almost completely. There was no pine in this for me. While I'd like to keep this because of the happy associations, it doesn't wear well on me. Trade bag.

This is very masculine. Like I've borrowed daddy's deoderant and body spray masculine. It evolves a LOT in the first 90 mins (woodsy, herby, no pine or green detected), and is a very quick fade - within 20 hours it's barely noticeable. How funny that I put it on and went ... soap? wait, no, men's deoderant, no, hang on it's changed AGAIN... Trade Bag, as should the husband ever decide to wear scents, he'll be wearing the Iago I bought for him, TYVM.

This is an unnerving scent for me. Fresh, it reminded me of something unpleasant from my youth, and I couldn't put my finger on it. No idea why. This quickly changed to a sort of light scent, and evolved rapidly and repeatedly, too quickly for me to even take notes. None of it is Bad or icky on my skin, but I don't like it, probably in a knee-jerk response to that first unrecognizable but unwlecome scent memory. I got no apples, no caramel from this. Trade bag. Isn't it amazing how important scent is??

Oh, this is NICE! Fresh it smelled of tobacco, vanilla and dirt. About 20 minutes later pine developed. BPAL vanilla seems to work very well on me, and this is thick and dark. A direct sniff seems almost mentholated, with black pine and tobacco, but the scent aura is murky vanilla. Yum! Someone in an earlier review said that this reminds them a bit of a brandy caramel sauce, and I can certainly agree with that.

Very lemony without any eyewatering cleanser. A mild fresh lemon.

Exactly as expected - flowery with a dusting of cinnamom. Smells like a twee teahouse, with lace doilies on all the backs of all the chairs, dried roses in little glass vases on dainty tables with crisp pink tablecloths, and a wall display of fussy teapots and cups for purchase. Turned quickly to an overpriced gift store with scented candles. Quick fade, thank goodness. Trade bag.