blu°

Agreed! Especially when the wheather is still a bit crisp, yet sunny and bright. I've recently tested Kumiho for the first time on just such a day, and it was a perfect scent-wheather-match. It totally added to and enhanced my joy about one of the very first spring days.

I found Blood Countess too evil to wear myself.

Today felt a bit like the first step into spring, it was sunny, bright, yet still a bit crisp and quite windy. The sky looked like it had been brushed clean, so blue and nice... I've been wearing Kumiho (white tea and ginger), which I received as a frimp with a swap package this morning, and it was a PERFECT (!) match for the weather. It enhanced the beauty of a first really bright day after the greys of winter, and made me feel even a tad happier each time I caught a whiff of it. Blissful!

Wonderful. Today is one of the first really sunny, yet crisp and slightly windy days. The sky looks wiped clean and everything is so bright! When I sniffed my new imps and decants this morning to decide which to wear, I instantly decided for Kumiho. It's fits the weather perfectly and is giving me an extra-spring-time-new-things-kick today. I'm not sure how often I'd wear a scent this bright and high-pitched, but I do enjoy it immensely today. It's indeed slightly bitter (wonderful), and somehow I had been thinking there was jasmine in here, although it was a weird thought since BPAL jas doesn't work on me at all, and this does. I'll have to see how much wear I get out of my imp and consider the option of a bottle later.

There you go!

This is a very sweet yet mild floral, juicy and lush, and have I said, that it is very sweet? Even though the vanilla and rice might make it smell like dessert, it doesn't really do so. Not a foody scent on me at all. In the beginning it's a burst of plum blossom (not plum, but plum blossom for me) and then you notice that its flowery sweetness is grounded yet somewhat intensified by the vanilla-rice-combo. After a while the plum blossom becomes a bit less prominent and mingles with the other notes to create a lovely sweet candyish smell that is utterly delicious. Sadly, I think, on my skin this doesn't work entirely well - I smelled some sharp almost acrid note today while testing LiaRf. However, it is wonderful in my hair. It might be a bit much for certain occasions and is more of a scent for a lazy day in spring or early summer that you spend in a park or somewhere outside with your lover or some friends than sth to wear to work.

Somehow all the wine blends end up smelling very similar to me, maybe I amp the dark red fruit notes. Makhanitis turns out much nicer than I would have hoped, since I do not wear champaca well (sigh). That said, I can hardly smell it in here. All I get is a very dark purple wine-tinged fruitiness, maybe somewhat tuned down by the sandalwood. While I like it, I like The Blood Garden much better for a wine scent on me, and I hardly ever wear that one, since I mostly feel like the wine notes are too loud for any given mood or occasion.

It's not quite easy for me to decide whether this is a love-scent or merely a not-totally-unpleasant one. First of all, there's bitter autumnal florals. Chrysanthemums smell really bitter to me, so together with the marigolds the bitterness makes sense. The bitter floral scent is not unpleasant, but maybe a bit bodyless? Behind it, I can sense the other notes, but they really stay behind the florals, and don't seem to be present in the (only subtle) throw. Close to my skin I can smell a very nice vanilla-amber-incense, no sandalwood, though, and only the tiniest trace of cinnamon maybe. The way those warmer notes stay close to the skin reminds me of Sapphics and The Illustrated Woman, and I can see how someone might think there was pine sap in Flowering 'Mums. ETA: I've come to the conclusion that this is much more suited to be worn outdoors with a fresh wind blowing around you than indoors. It really comes to live when you move around in fresh air, while sitting at home it just seems to vanish on my skin somehow.

This one is not for me. I can see how it would be pretty on other people's skin, but it's not a scent I like to smell on me. I, too, find it to be similar to Harikata, which also wasn't for me, although I think I liked it a bit better. The white gardenia is not a lush laid back gardenia, but rather high-pitched and a bit soapy, almost like a lily to my nose, - maybe the rice paper adds to that impression? Tissue, for me, lacks a bit of substance. I'm iffy on honey, and even if it is light in Tissue, it's still the only option for a base note and is giving it its body.

On me, too, this smells creamy and almost buttery at first and then after a couple of minutes on my skin goes very dry, even dusty. I know there's no cinnamon in it, but because of the dustiness it makes me think cinnamon. So far I like it. I'm not quite sure what it is I'm smelling, I can't really make out the ginger - which is usually much less dry on me and has a tendency to go cloying -, nor the date, nor the oud or oakmoss. It's just a warm, dusty, spicy-sweet something, a bit too dusty maybe. The only other things this reminds me of right now are TAL Determination, and maybe The Potter's Field. They all seem to share a terracotta-tinged dustiness. Will have to give this a full-day full-application test before I decide whether I like it enough for a bottle or not. ETA: After my full-day-test yesterday, I don't think I'll need more of this. It's not that I don't like it, I'm quite fascinated by it... At first it makes *my* head turn and look for the carnival food stands. It totally smells like there were some stands selling crêpes or roasted almonds nearby. Some hours into drydown I get a glorious dark smoky incense/burnt firewood smell (must be the oud), which made me sniff my wrists almost continuously. It was really beautiful, but somehow I didn't feel comfortable with it. I'd much more wanted to smell it on a man that I'm cuddled up to, or standing next to on top of a wind-toppled hill. The scent is not at all cologney or distinctly masculine, just more of a smell I'd enjoy on somebody with the strong shoulder to lean onto than on myself. Smelling this on me was getting on my nerves a little yesterday with the scent's beauty and its not-being-a-me-scent, lol. I'll definitely keep my decant, and if I had the right man to put this on, I'd buy a couple of bottles for sure.

Soft, pink, clean and fluffy. Very slight hint of men's cologne, but that doesn't take any of the fluffiness. A bit cleaner smelling than my usual preferences, but it's balanced nicely by the vanilla musk Becomes nicer with dry down, skin-musky, just as Gale has said. ETA: Love, love, loove the scent this leaves on my sweater's sleeves days after application on my wrists. So soft and snuggly, and slightly boy-ish.

You might want to give Séance a try.

I've been layering SU solid perfume with Antique Lace, which is a powdery vanilla-cotton scent, so a bit in the same vein as SU, even if it is no match. Rose Moon made for a nice layering scent for SU as well, I think, but it's more different from the other two. You might also like to try Dana O'Shee. It's a subtle soft scent, too.

Snow White is limited, but currently available as part of the Yule update. Not so sure, if it would be fitting for your mother, though. It strikes me as more of a soft, snuggly one. @Ahania: Hey, you beat me by two minutes!

I'm surprised to see there's no almond in this, because I thought from first sniff all through its wearlength that the main note I smelled was almond. It's probably the red musk together with something. I hadn't identified red musk at all before I saw the notes' list. So much for my notes identifying skills, lol. Sniffing it from the decant this was the most pleasant scent among the phoenii, but on my skin it is a bit cloying, I fear. Not totally unpleasant, but too much not me for me to be enjoying it. It's a golden-orange yet not intensely coloured scent in my mind. Pretty sweet and quite a bit sticky, although there are dry-er, spicier ingredients mingled into it. It most reminds me of Sagittarius 07 for some reason.

This smelled so dark, sharp, bitter and heady from the imp that it took me a while to gather the strength to test it. From the imp I get a very dark and bitter wine note and some headiness. It smells like something the witch stepmother of snow white or some character along those lines would wear. Very feminine and very 'evil'. I'm quite sure it's not a scent I would feel comfortable with, but am nevertheless intrigued as it's quite unique and seems to nail the concept. Once on my skin, the thick bitter wine begins to breathe and loses some of its density. I get some purplish notes now, yet the overall scent remains an ashy dark one. No weight here, no juiciness. It's thin and smoky, yet heady, and I can really make out the night-blooming jas now, a note that always goes soapy and sharp on me. When I sniff it close, that sharp soapiness overpowers and threatens to trigger a headache. The throw is a lot less aggressive, even gives off an illusion of sweetness. Mostly, the wine and jasmine are held in check by the sandalwood, patchouli and myrrh here. The attar of rose is bitter and slightly sour and adds to the bitter nature of the wine note. So, this is totally not a scent for me, but I really think it matches the concept of a gem black widow figure. It's got none of the fluffy hair I felt in Smiling Spider, and no liveliness.

Oops, I think I can officially announce that I amp cinnamon to no degree now. (That's probably why it doesn't really smell of lovely cinnamon anymore in blends that have a lot of it). Miss Lupescu right after application and during all stages that followed on me smelled mostly like a more refined Chimera. Less sweet and creamy than that one, but with more of the wood, patchouli and soft flowery almond blossom. However, what I mostly smell and what throws around me, is Chimera's cinnamon note. The musk underneath - thankfully - is not black or red, nor civet - as far as I can tell. It reminds me a little of the Smut musks - slightly creamy, almost vanilla like. The amber possibly helps with that outcome. It's a sweet, skin type amber. The wood and patchouli seem to keep Miss Lupescu from being a too in-the-face animalic sex-blend, adding some dry woodsiness for self-control and reason, and incensey mystery, too. I can't really make out the almond blossom as a note, but I can imagine how it adds to the sweetness in Miss Lupescu, and to the feeling of lightness that remains despite all those heavy base notes. So far I really like this blend, better than I like Chimera, as that one goes a bit over-the-top sweet after drydown.

I have an awful lot of house-cleaning to do today, so I thought I'd give Determination a try on that occasion. So far, I'm good, and even the pause for a cigarette on my balcony right now felt a bit weird, as I'm all about going on with the chores... Anyhow, I had to stop for another moment to comment on the scent, because I remembered so many people disliking it, and had been a little wary to order it because of those reviews. It is earthy, and smoky, but in the most lovely way, and I like it a LOT! On me it smells like a smokier Aureus. Maybe if you took that and added the resiny-smoky Voodoo oil base. A warm, dry, spicy-woody-earthy scent. It feels like a light reddish brown, maybe a pastelle terracotta. I'd totally wear this to work or to the gym (if I ever went there, lol) or other occasions that are connected with getting things done. Will report back tonight on whether I accomplished everything I have to do today.

Initially in the imp and fresh on skin, this made me think violets, a bit along the lines of Ivanushka... definitely powdery, less musky, more brown in colour. After drydown I still get powdery, but no violet. It actually smells a lot like some of those fine japanese incense sticks now. Bright, incensey and a bit dusty. A light, dry, not overly sweet incense blend. ETA: I bought a bottle of this, because I love its fine kodo incense scent. It feels shy and like hushed voices, and I love it.

Testing Love's Torments and it reminds me more than a little of The Cracked Bell. They probably wouldn't smell similar in a side-by-side test, but I get a very similar feeling from LT somehow. Smoky and dark, yet cool, and (for whatever reason) even a bit metallic.

This, as many reviewers above have already pointed out, is an especially nice vetiver blend. I can't always handle vetiver. Sometimes it is just too dark and thick and oily, but together with the sandalwood and neroli it has a dryer, cooler finish while still remaining dark and smoky. Love's Torment ends up a woodsy, smoky, earthy, cool scent with a citrus tinge to it. Somehow it reminds me of The Cracked Bell. I'm looking forward to wearing it to work tomorrow and seeing how it feels as a day/outside scent.

I tested Glamour (thanks to a generous swapper!) a few days back at a formal occasion at my work place, and I certainly noticed an effect. First: The scent is like a more rosey Charisma to my nose. A bit stronger and more sensual, too. However, I didn't concentrate on the scent and had something else on as a perfume, too, so I might be totally wrong there. I think it primarily worked on the way I felt and interacted with the people I met. More open, more flirtatious, more power, too. I certainly felt attractive that night.

Oops, tested this yesterday at home and then again today, and I swear, I did NOT smell any ambergris yesterday. Today it was ZOMG ambergris gettitoffme right after application. Luckily the ambergris didn't stay so loud, but was made a bit more suave by the resins and spices, but it's still way more ambergris-y than I like to wear. Apart from the ambergris I get a very light cold note (coriander?), a lot of incense, some of the spices, something that might be the gold (it's similar to some Steamwork scents) and after drydown a hint of vanilla. It's actually a well-blended, nicely layered scent. I really like the incense notes together with the light cold and foody ones, but the ambergris is a definite dealbreaker again.

This totally doesn't work for me. The poppy, black amber and thick black incense combine to form a thick lump of sweetness that seems to hover closely above an otherwise perfect blanket of rose geranium, rosewood, lavender and benzoe. I think I might have liked this with a less black incense, quite less poppy and without black amber. Somehow the (very!) sweet poppy together with the thick black incense and black amber makes me think of plum.

I only did a very quick test of this today, and as it's not quite my type of scent, I'll leave it at that, I guess. However, I was still amazed at how well the scent captured today's winter light. It was kind of sunny, but a bit misty/hazy, and VERY cold. The little sun that came out gave a pale icy pastel yellow light. There's A Certain Slant of Light gets incredibly close to this kind of frozen sunlight on a winter's day. Scentwise, I really thought I smelled grapefruit, but apparently none is listed. The ozone does indeed smell slightly metallic and a bit bitter. Overall the scent stays light, hardly any throw, and not a very long staying power as far as I can tell.