Cleolinda

I'll be honest, I hated this when I first tried it years ago. Very sharp, loud sandalwood back then; I immediately tried (tried!) to wash it off. But I reorganized my stash this weekend and pulled the imp out again to see how it had aged--I'm not sure how old it is, but several years, certainly. Now it immediately goes on very calm and smooth; I think maybe I can smell the vanilla, but hardly any cocoa at all. It's mostly a very soft, mellow sandalwood that starts to get pleasantly powdery as it dries down, with a sweet myrrh that gets less perfumy as it goes. If the cocoa vanilla is still there, it's more that it rounds the scent out. (I wonder what it would be like layered with Bliss.) So yes, maybe hold on to this one, forget about it for a few months, and try it again.

This was really strange in the bottle--that buttery, almost salty vanilla that people are getting (the sandalwood and ambrette?), but then a sweetness that I swear almost smells like bubblegum (the vanilla itself?) would swirl out now and then. They're slowly blending as it dries down on my skin, with the warm butter-vanilla scent dominating at first, and then something lighter, cooler, and more perfumy (slightly floral?) rising up through it. I think that's the oudh taking over, judging by the other reviews, and after a few minutes it all starts smoothing out; the "salty" notes are still there, but calmer, and it's becoming a sweeter, dreamy vanilla sandalwood.

This reminds me a lot of Dorian, too--Dorian without the musk or vanilla, but a similar (citrus? something in the fougere, blended very closely with the lavender) sweetness. I don't smell the amber so much as feel it? A softness or warmth. And it's really interesting that it seems to be a riff on Dorian, because both the descriptions mention "temptation." It's like Thomas Sharpe, as a scent, isn't the temptation himself (well, he might be), but is tempted to give into his better nature--the soft amber that's sort of floating around and pleading with the fougere as they settle in together. Basically I've just been sitting here huffing the back of my hand for five minutes straight.

Someone gave me a bottle of Oneiroi they didn't want, so I have no idea how old the oil is or how that might affect the scent/effect. Mine smells strong and soapy (probably the lavender-jasmine combination), and there's an unpleasant herbal note that I think is the mugwort. All I know is that I've used it for two different weeks where I've had a lot of stress-related insomnia, and this stuff knocks me out. Occasionally I wake up in the middle of the night and put a little more on (I tend to wear oils on the backs of my hands), but that does it. I also tend to have anxious, vaguely unpleasant dreams instead of full-on nightmares. I either don't remember them when I have Oneiroi on, or they're pleasantly boring.

On me, this smells exactly like those hard strawberry candies you get in Christmas food baskets, you know, with the cheese and the jams and the summer sausages--the ones where the red and green wrappers actually make them look like strawberries. This is a good thing.

Fruit and sugar sounds so like me (and I love BPAL's pear note), but the floral is coming out kind of perfume-y on me. I'll have to wait until it dries down a bit more to see, but I may need to use this one as a room scent rather than on my skin. I'm a sucker for the foody-candy scents, though, so I hope the flowers die down a bit.

BLOOD MOON ... The feral scent of the heat of the chase, deep woods, undulating musks, brushed by forest herbs, crushed grains, and touched by blood-dimmed lunar oils. Wow, this is really nice--I was expecting dragon's blood, and I'm still not sure that I don't smell it in there somewhere. But yeah, "cinnamon soda" is a good way to put it. It's a rich scent, but it goes on very light--almost faint, despite touching it up three times, which I think is actually good. It would be so easy to over-apply this if it were too strong, and cinnamon tends to irritate a lot of people's skin, so "light and rich" is a really interesting way to go with this. I think I'll wear it to the midnight Harry Potter screening tonight and see what people think--but it's light enough that I won't be that Reeky Perfume Woman you hate when you go to the movies.

On me, it's all fig and pomegranate with an overtone of chocolate that settles down as it dries and sinks underneath the fruit. I get so many compliments on this one; I let a friend of mine sniff my collection of bottles, and she said that this one was her favorite of all of them (and I have Dorian!).

Mmmcaramel. Kind of a burnt-sugar edge to it, but in a creme brulee kind of way. On the drydown I started to smell sugared fruit, but I was testing it very lightly. This seems like a great oil to try blending with. Also, I let a friend of mine smell the bottle, and it was like watching a cat on catnip. Hee.

I got the entire CN set last night ("No, seriously, I can sell whatever I don't like..."), and this is the first one I put on. I thought the idea of an oil that smelled like carnival food was dumb. Well, O me of little faith, because it's not this cacophony of greasy food; it's cotton candy and cake. Mmmcake. I can smell plain sugar underneath that, kind of the way I smell it in Shub--what's that, the sugar tart? Other than that, it's very harmonious and well-blended. And like they're saying, it's very true. What you smell in the bottle is what it smells like on, and it doesn't change much, if at all. And that's a good thing.

Wow, I am really having a lot of luck with my testing today. On me, Snake Charmer's this light vanilla-coconut with a swirl of something mysterious and sweet--I think that's the plum; it's slightly fruity. There is something that's making my eyes water, but I think that's the amber; that element has mostly died down, now that I've been wearing this for several hours.

Oh, wow. I was a little disappointed with last year's Samhain just because it was so dark and bitter-strong on me (I'm mostly a fruit-foody person). I think this is exactly what I wanted Samhain to be. I can smell a dark, spicy apple note that almost smells like fallen leaves, but it's floating just under a layer of something moist and light--I think that's the aloe/floral. Wow, this is wonderful.