awesomeoverlord

Totally not what I was expecting, but that might just be me and my weird skin chemistry. In the bottle this screams white chocolate. There's other stuff lurking in the background, primarily strawberry but the florals might be in there too, who knows. Once it hits my skin, the predictable thing happens. My skin amps chocolate notes and then eats them. So, this quickly goes from look-at-me-i'm-WHITECHOCOLATE!!! to sugared strawberries with a touch of floral hanging out in the background. It's actually quite lovely, since I'm not really a fan of chocolate notes anyway but a bit too simplistic for my tastes. This reminds me of a sweeter, less green, Strawberry Moon '09. I'm left wishing for more florals to complicate the blend. Very pretty, but if I'm going to wear a strawberry scent I'd rather go with Pink Lace for its more complex smokiness.

I should have known better than to put my faith into something with grapefruit in it, no matter how many of my favorite notes it has. In the bottle and fresh on, this is quite lovely. There is a definite sense of warm sweet sticky rice, balanced with a complex blend of light woods, a bit of floral, and something fresh and fruity, which I'm assuming is the well-behaved version of the grapefruit combined with the sweet ginger. This goes through phases of smelling kind of like Tamamo-no-mae on me, likely because of the candied ginger element and this left me optimistic if not enthused by the novelty of the blend. Still, it was not meant to be. After a couple of minutes, the grapefruit goes insane on my skin and turns into a sour, bitter screech-monster of death. This is the only perfume I've come across that smells smoother if I just bury my nose in my wrist, probably because it somehow allows me to escape the crazy grapefruit top notes.

In the bottle, this is reminiscent of Black Lace but much lighter -- swap out the perfumey musk for clove and you're getting pretty close. My skin tends to amp wood notes, so the oak goes crazy for a little while, but calms down within half an hour or so a melts back into the blend. Aside from this brief period of oaky insanity, this stays pretty constant from bottle to drydown. I'm reminded of Bengal, maybe if Bengal had a brief love affair with Black Lace. Oddly, there's nothing that strikes me as mournful of death-related in this.

I wasn't really sure what to expect here, especially upon smelling my bottle. The reviews had left me hopeful, but I was greeted with a strong wiff of fake (almost sour) strawberries and my heart almost sank. Luckily, things improved from there. Wet, it's still a bit heavy on the fake strawberry candy, but the other elements quickly begin to emerge and temper the whole blend. This goes through an odd period when I can hardly smell it but after that the incense emerges in full force and it's soft, slightly fruity, smoky bliss. In fact, I'm not so much reminded of pink lace as a delicate swirl of pinkish smoke. Lovely. I think I'll be keeping my bottle.

Oh, how I wanted this to work. In the bottle I get the whole spectrum...honey, nuts, berries, pine. All beautifully blended. Though, to temper my enthusiasm, my man simply concluded that it smells like one of those maple bar donuts. It is quite foody to my nose, but in a really delicious way. Sadly, this all disappears when the stuff touches my skin. I tend to amp wood, so whatever woody notes are in here start screeching within about 5 seconds, and from there on out it's all burnt coffee and plastic

Funny. This doesn't hit me as "pink" so much as a "yellow." Very light and feminine and springy, but with a very warm, golden tinge to it (I guess I'd expect pink to be more powdery or sugary or something). If Flowering 'Mums is the fall of lovely golden florals, then this is the spring. I don't think the two share any notes, but there's something in my mind that forges a distinct connection between these two blends...I blame the "yellowness." As my man put it, "It reminds me of a girl, sitting in the park, reading a book with the sun on her back," and then he promptly added, "Yeah, that's not you." Which I suppose it's really not, but this is so pretty and sweet that I might get a bottle anyway and cultivate my innocent girly persona.

This is what I've always wished Snake Oil would smell like... it's the wonderful spicy vanilla without the Play-doh note that I keep hoping I'll learn to love. Smooth around the edges, like aged SO, but lighter. Yum. ETA: For some reason, I'm only able to interpret this scent in terms of other ones. After a full day of wear, this goes through a long stage of smelling like Lilith Victoria (which was basically also a gentler, sort of floral SO on me) and then dries down the same as Giant Vulva. That one came off very bright and almost citrusy on me to start with but dried down to a light sugared skin scent. Same story here.

Gah. NOT what I was expecting. Old lady perfume (I assume that's the tuberose, which never smells right to me) and... pine? Unfortunately, this doesn't change much once the stuff hits my skin. I'm reminded of something out of my grandmother's old perfume cabinet. Yuck. Time to go scrub my wrists.

I was wondering if this would be similar to Giant Vulva, and I have to say, I wasn't wrong. It's kind of half a Giant Vulva -- a demivulva, if you will -- same fresh citrusy sugar cane and soft skin musk, but none of that honeyed deepness that eventually drew me into the former blend, despite initial misgivings. Definitely a light skin scent. The florals hover demurely in the background and the citrusy edge disappears after a little while, leaving behind clean skin scented lightly with soft flowers. Nice, but I'll stick with my Vulva.

Somehow, I expected this to be more floral than fruity -- not sure why...perhaps it's just that Titania brings night blooming flowers to my mind. It is a very light and ethereal kind of blend, but playful because of the fruit. Lightly sweetened, fresh fruit, grounded in gentle florals. Very nice.

Initially, it really reminds me of straight ylang ylang. I wish the lavender dominated this a bit more -- it sort of hangs out in the background, but the jasmine takes over on my skin, grounded in something earthy and herby...maybe the mugwort? I'll take my TKO, as far as sleepy blends go.

I never realized this, but apparently jasmine doesn't agree with me -- this is much to heady, and unfortunately the lavender disappears within the first 5 minutes.

Geez...vetiver...I know there's other stuff in there somewhere, but I just can't get past the vetiver. Not for me.

Wow, really interesting. The pine blends very nicely with the rosemary to produce a truly green, woodsy kind of scent. I'm reminded of a freshly cut Christmas tree. Not something I'd wear, but it's very nice.

Initially, it's cherry syrup. On drydown, though...what a change? The syrupy sweetness is gone, being replaced by a powdery kind of wood. A bit soapy, as others have said. Interesting, but not for me.