jehrichardson

In the Imp: Citrus with a complex ground of tea and leather. On the Skin: Very consistent. Citrus, tea, leather. It is bright and refreshing. There's a touch of sharpness, but the leather and amber keep it friendly. After a While: Nicely blended. As expected the top notes fade, citrus giving way to tea, then leather. The tiny bit of floral sweetness keeps this feminine. Verdict: Keeper! Mmmm!

In the Bottle: Spicy warm musks! On the Skin: Musks! Warm and sweet! After a While: Musks! The sandalwood comes forward a bit, and the spice notes keep it interesting. Verdict: Yum. Keeper. Seems like a softer version of my signature scent, Bulgari Omnia. Mmmm.

In the Imp: Spicy jasmine. Yum! I'm excited for this one and I really want to like it, I used to live in Venice and do miss it so. On the Skin: Jasmine again, with a citrus freshness and a bit of woody deepness. This may be too much jasmine for me. Root beer? Ah, smelled the wrong test patch. That's Tombstone After a While: A bit more woody deepness. The rose is pulling through a bit. I'm not getting the fruitiness, but that's okay as I'm not generally a fan. Verdict: Keeper! This is a wearable jasmine, and it's easy to imagine Venice and luxury and debauchery. Mmm. I'm considering this for big bottle status, but I'm gonna need more money.

In the Imp: Rose! High and clear and sweet. Like roses in the garden, faded a bit by the sun with blowsy blooms that have been blown open. On the Skin: Very consistent, rose. Rosey rose. After a While: I'm almost starting to get a deep tone of wood in there. Just a tiny bit, as though it's grounding the rose. Verdict: Delectable! I want a big bottle, but first I've got to get imps of all the other roses to compare. This is going to be fun! (many aeons ago when I was a soapmaker, one of my favorites was to make a vanilla patchouli soap. people never figured out what the two notes were, they blended perfectly and awesomely into a delicious rich fragrance. I'm getting the sense that I'll be able to do this with this rose. next time I get something too bitter, too deep, then I'm going to layer it with *this* rose, sit back, and wait for the magic. can't wait!)

In the Bottle: Root beer and cedar. Must be the sassafrass. I'm getting the vanilla warmth and sweetness. No balsam yet. On the Skin: Root beer with a minty medicinality. After a While: The cedar and balsam pull ahead continuing with the vanilla sweetness. I'm still getting root beer though. Verdict: Extremely interesting and it is easy to imagine the wild west. I'm not getting wide open spaces though, more like baked wooden buildings, root beer, and dust. I like it a great deal, but this isn't a keeper. I just don't like root beer!

In The Bottle: Smells sweetish, berryish, a bit generic. On the Skin: Much more berry and a whiff of drugstore perfume. After a While: Drugstore perfume and soap. Verdict: Not for moi. I suppose I can't like all of them.

In the Bottle: Shalimar by Guerlain On the Skin: Shalimar by Guerlain After a While: Shalimar by Guerlain Verdict: Shalimar by Guerlain. One of my favorites, and particularly beloved by my mother. I may have to get a bottle for days when I miss her. For those of you who aren't familiar with Shalimar, it is a deep and rich mixture of exotic eastern florals. Like Scheherezade made into a deep syrup. The Arabian Nights condensed.

In the Bottle: Apricots! Loud and clear! Not a sweet scent though, rich and jammy. This smells how apricots should smell, and rarely do. On the Skin: Apricots with a whiff of clove way in the background. I'm not a fan of clove, but I think that it's what is grounding this scent, keeping it from being cloying and sweet. I can smell it at quite a distance. This is lovely! After a While: Apricots and clove, obviously. Also getting a few subtle musk tones. The clove is pulling ahead. Verdict: I don't like clove and I thought the apricot would smell like a candle shop. What a surprise! It's lovely! This is really unusual, and I'm considering springing for a big bottle. Might just splash this around the house and pretend that my home usually smells this lovely. I feel a bit like a teenybopper huffing this. Very odd... alternating between the March Hare on my right arm, and Destroying Angel on my left.

In the Bottle: Freshly turned soil, fresh and clean and nutritious. The good black stuff, where you feel that you could sit directly down with a spoon and take sustenance directly from the earth. On the Skin: Delicate. This is not dirt, this is soil. This is earth. Healthy and nutritious (how I get that from a scent, I've no idea). This is sweet and thin. It lies close to the skin. There are woods in this soil. How unusual! Like the garden, I can smell clean laundry nearby, flapping in the sun and wind. After a While: I feel like I forgot to wash after gardening and I'm still dusted with sun-clean soil. Soil fades to linen. Verdict: Despite myself, I love it.

In the Bottle: Well, it does smell strangely of weather! Sort of lightning in a hospital in the tropics. Pleasant though, I like it. On Skin: Whoo eee... Deep Woods Off exactly! This is bug spray. After a While: The bug spray smell is fading, now it smells of India. Mothballs with humidity. Little room mosquito vapor machines. Background of spicy woods. Fresh air when the air is rich with wetness and distant resins. I would never have though that this was how India smelled, until I'd visited. Wow. This is like travel in a bottle. It softens and sweetens with time. Verdict: I've used a lot of words with negative associations here, but I'm charmed by this scent. It's a keeper, but I think my imp will be enough

I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to like *anything* in the bottle! Bottle: I love the concept behind Pepper and eagerly snort at the bottle. Hm. Smells like a muffin candle in a candle shop. One where they add "butter" and "vanilla" to "Something" and call it "Something Muffin". Euch. On the Skin: After a minute the artificial butter flavoring goes away and we start getting spices. Roiling and exotic! I'm getting lots of cinnamon now, not my favorite. The florals start pulling ahead. So feminine! After a While: Fades quickly into soft sweet woods, very lovely! Verdict: Keeper. Not my favorite, and takes a bit of faith to put it on. The end game is lovely, but the first half hour is ooky.

In the Bottle: Coconut lotion. On the Skin: Old lady soap and coconut lotion. After a While (only 5 minutes): Old lady soap Verdict: Nope. Not for moi. (Several days later, I try this again. It's too sweet, too coconutty, and too old lady-soapish for me, but I thought it might make a good layering scent for anything too dark, too sour, too musty. Alas, it no workie. This may seem weird, but after 15 minutes it smells like soap and of all things, burnt plastic - like a mutilated Barbie in the bath. Weeeeird.)

Bottle: Like Aeronwen, I really don't like it in the bottle. Or rather, in the Imp. Dusty incense, a bit sour and bitter. Ew. Freshly Applied: There we go! Incense and lemon flavoring. Sweet and rich! Not a strong scent, but that's fine. Wood notes are in there... softened by a bit of vanilla/honey. After a while: Soft sweet woods. Incense. Smells like a lemon walked through a while back. Almost starts to have floral sweetness. Lots of complexity. Verdict: Keeper. I really like it - might even love it. If I tear through the imp quickly, I'll buy a proper bottle of this.

Bottle: Oh no... I don't like it! Old wet laundry, bitter earth, and caramel flavoring with overtones of mildew. Saccharine green topnotes don't help - this must be the fig and tarragon. Under it all I detect musky wood. (two days later: delicious in the bottle - wondering if some off-aromas gathered during summer shipping? Now, it is warm sweet woods. Delicious!) Freshly Applied: The mildew and bitterness fade quickly. Caramel flavoring smell rapidly morphs into musky woods. This is a strong scent, and as the minutes go by I like it more and more. The musk and myrrh warm up, and the cedary redwood starts appearing. I can't find the nutmeg or orange. After a While: Warm and musky woods with vanilla tones. This is delicious! I keep sniffing my wrist. It smells warm and familiar, consider spiking husband with it. Mmm. Find myself leaning on my own wrist at work and basking in the glow of this scent. Starting to get some apricot tones as it matures. Verdict: Keeper. I love it.