awesomeoverlord

VII In the bottle: Heavy on the Dorian, I sense a little bit of light floral as well and a bit of an extra citrusy edge, though that may just be because it's fresh and I'm used to my Dorian with a few extra months on him. Wet: Dear Dorian went strolling through a garden and had a little roll in the meadow --it's that delectable sweet tea vibe, but coated in pollen, and honey, and soft golden flowers. Dry: Dorian settles back into his old ways. The sweet musky goodness I've learned to expect from him begins to emerge upon drydown -- it's not as cologney as I'm used to Dorian being -- perhaps those soft florals are smoothing it out a bit. There's something familiar in here...I swear it's gotta be chrysanthemums -- I got a couple of bottles of Flowering 'Mums in this same order and now that I smell them side by side, I definitely sense that same dry spicy floral in this blend. Like a sexy tea party in a blooming English garden -- complete with a good cuppa, some crumpets and a good serving of naughtiness with a not-so-proper Victorian gentleman on a bed of pretty yellow flowers. Final verdict: YUMMY. For realz. I'm starting to think my bottles fornicated en route and produced this concoction all on their own because the more I sniff it, the more it seems like the love child of my sweet Dorian and my newest Shunga fling. Perfect!

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.

Woodsy resiny scent. No incense here to my nose. It's kind of gritty...some patchouli maybe?

I was surprised at how fresh this turned out to be...The earl grey is really prominent initially, but my skin tends to eat up tea like no one's business. The tea holds on for dear life but eventually succumbs to this weird almost sour citrusy thing which may be the remnants of the earl grey. The sourness disappears eventually, at which point it's really lovely and fresh with just the slightest hint of leather...and then it's gone. Sad. I really wish it lasted longer.

This is...odd. Very dry and woody vanilla, not sweet in the slightest, with an almost nutty metallic kind of tinge to it. The tobacco is nowhere to be seen. I'm a bit disappointed, truth be told -- I was fully expecting to love this one. I think maybe it's the teakwood and oak that are just failing to wow me. Ah, well...

Initially, really dark vetivered cherries. Usually vetiver makes me gag, but the cherries (though not my favorite fruit) are tempering it to manageable levels. On drydown, the vetiver backs off, the cherries emerge and the other notes float around in a fuzzy background -- I'm getting some incensyness as well. Overall, really nice if you like cherries, which, unfortunately, I do not.

Imp: Holycrap!CINNAMON Wet: The cinnamon backs of a bit and the patchouli shows up for a breath or two, but then cinnamon gets fiesty and beats the patchouli down like there's no tomorrow. In conclusion, cinnamon. Dry: The angry cinnamon monster still won't let go, though some of the other notes are timidly beginning to poke their heads through -- it smells kind of like generic potpourri at this point, which I'm guessing is the clove/cinnamon combo talking. Overall, mehhh.

Holy crap on a stick...I really wish I hadn't tried this since there's no way I'll ever get my hands on anything more than this tiny decant...jeez, this is amazing... Imp: incensy sweet smokey perfume -- really nice. Wet: the tobacco comes out, giving it that sexy naughty kind of feel. The cotton is not so much cotton as leather, all with that yummy smoky vanilla. Dry: the tobacco disappears, which saddens me, but it settles in very nicely -- sort of like Morocco, actually, but less powdery and stronger. Mmmm...I want to smell like this forever...or well, maybe I'll settle for smelling like this just on Tuesdays

I really was expecting to like this, but it just smells like overly perfumey rose...I'm starting to realize that I like my roses straight up, I think. This has some sort of odd generic floral feel that I'm not particularly fond of.

I was huffing my wrist frantically, trying to remember what this reminded me of, and then it hit me --The Great Sword of War! This exactly what tGSoW smells like on drydown once the citrus vanishes...must the red musk/saffron combo. Lovely musky spicy incensey goodness

Initially -- CRAZY!CITRUS -- I'm definitely getting the lime. Once it dries a bit, the other notes start to come out and blend rather nicely. I can separate the lilac rather distinctly. It's nice, though not really me, and then it's gone in a couple of hours.