comearoundruby

Cinq is amazing. The roses and the cookie, somehow not cake - oh no, it's solidly the delicious buttery solidity of shortbread, play together so nicely and so well. There's something in here that reminds me of a slightly more grown-up Katrina VanTassel... but only a little more adult. If these are tea roses then they are red ones.

it's actually terribly tricky to review something i love so so dearly. and dorian might be my absolute favourite bpal scent. i was expecting something slightly masculine with all of the musk notes, especially as i cannot at all wear most musks. so it was a hell of a wonderful surprise when on my skin dorian becomes this amazingly comfortable sweet tea - hot tea, real tea, proper tea - but yet utterly complicated by some deeply lurking vanilla. it's absolutely wonderful, and quite feminine, at least to me.

i wanted salt, seaweed, ocean breezes....i've got soap. a very nice soap, but soap. in the bottle: wet soap. wet on skin: freshly washed hands dry some time later: post-bathtime all and all though, i think i might like it. i mean, it isn't as if i don't like the smell of soap. because i do. but not for wearing everyday.

in the bottle: green tea gone cold, there's just enough of a lemon hint to make this very crisp and cool. wet on skin: amazingly, precisely like the bottle! dry: the lemon comes out quite a bit more, but never approaches the cleansing agent stage. this begins to smell more like a lemonade than a green tea, but it hardly matters because it's still absolutely gorgeous. over all, this is a wonderful "clean" scent, there is a crispness here that is balanced by the tiniest hint of floral. it's crisp but still soft.

in the bottle: something minty and sharp, not a soft mint at all. with the faintest idea that there might be something anise-like back there, but maybe only to my nose. wet: the almost-anise completely disappears leaving a pretty little rose and some sort of cold mint behind it. dry-after-a-bit: there's a light spiciness that seems to come out as the oil dries, it never completely takes the prime position of the minty-rose, but it's decidedly more noticeable. overall: a lovely and quirky little blend, but i'm slightly afraid it's going to go to powder at any second. but so far so good.

in the bottle: impossibly juicy sweet melons, somewhere between a cantaloupe and a honeydew wet on skin: very sweet honeydew, no hint of cantaloupe any longer. dry: something a little darker comes out to balance the bright sweetness of the melon. all and all this is a wonderful, truly beautiful, blend for anyone who Really loves melons - which i do. but it's probably not the very best of scents for someone who only slightly loves melons.

in the bottle: my first thought is of asian candies, then i realize that it's not candies at all but peaches. wet on skin: unlike many others, the peach is not the overtone. instead there is a lovely soft musk with a peach hiding just behind. dry: the musk has settled into a smooth base for a very light fruity-floral to dance on. a beautiful scent. very very summery.

in the bottle: a very light rose, a tiny rose, an almost invisible smell that could be anything at all but is only probably rose. wet: oh there's the rose! and a lovely rose it is too, perfect and red. but it's not the scent of your nose right up to the petals, it's the scent of the rose being next to you, somewhere in the room. no leather at all to my nose. dry: there is still no leather to my nose, but there is something just behind the rose that might be it. all in all, a very very lovely rose blend. i agree with whomever mentioned this as a back-up for rose red. it's not the same utterly pure Rose of rose red, but it has the same strange similar "redness"

In the bottle: absolutely pure and straight-up butterscotch. Delicious. Wet on wrist: butterscotch and something very close to, and yet simultaneously not at all, fresh baked bread. Still delicious. Dry: A while later: there is still a butter here, but somehow the scotch as gotten a bit lost. The bread and or pastry portion has drifted into something a little more mellow and there is the faintest hint of cherries somewhere just below the butter. And it's still quite delicious.

In the Bottle: Cake. Oh wonderful delicious amazing cake. There is something faint underneath that is almost a currant, a small tickling of berry, but mostly it just screams VANILLA CAKE. Which is a wonderful thing. Wet on Wrists: More cake. Mmmmmm cake. Dry: I'm not sure I can properly explain it, but it seems to go from finished proper and obviously baked cake to gooey yummy cake batter. The currant notes are ever so much more noticeable.

I'm not one to particularly care for florals, as they always seem to go a bit headache inducing on me, so I certainly never would have chosen this on my own. However, hooray for free imps! The Ghost is surprisingly lovely really. In the Bottle: something green and very far away. Like the prettiest garden you've never seen because it's tucked away behind some very imposing wall. I found it impossible to separate any individual notes, just this entire garden collective entity. Damp On Wrist: Nose which thought it did not like florals is finding itself terribly confused. This is beautiful. A few of the individual flowers are coming out a bit more, but in a very subtle sort of way. Dry-Some-Time-Later: drowned flowers. Not at all unpleasant, but very much as if someone shoved an entire garden underwater. Quite aquatic. All and all, this is a very intricate little imp. It's a very sweet fragrance, not in the sense of candies or somesuch, but sweet as in temperament. Sweet, but just a little distant.