lohengrin

In the decant: I have no idea what to make of this. It's fresh, but at the same time almost makes me think of rootbeer? No clue. On skin, wet: Weird! Now it's gone almost piney? And just the faintest hint of something vaguely foody. I just. This is all over the place! On skin, dry: Oh, hello dryer sheets. Ffff. Curse of the aquatics strikes again! After an hour: Yeah, once it dries it's all dryer sheets all the time. I knew it was a risk, trying an aquatic, but the black coconut and citron lured me in. Alas, it's a total fail on me.

In the bottle: Department store perfume. Damn. Skin musk is usually a safe-ish one for me, so I'm surprised. On skin, wet: Same as in the bottle. At least it's not super strong, so it's not giving me a headache. On skin, dry: Ah, there's the "clean" scent I get from skin musk. On the down side, that is ALL I smell. After an hour: Same as the initial drydown. I was really hoping for skin musk + honey from this! Or even the cane sugar! Some sweetness, is the jist of what I wanted. I don't hate it and it's not causing any bad reactions so I will give this one another shot in a month or so, but. Disappointed.

In the decant: Slightly fruity, with no one fruit standing out, but with a distinctly musky undertone. On skin, wet: More musky, less fruity. Kinda threatening to go perfumey. On skin, dry: Perfumey as all get out. No fruit. Just musky department store perfume blech. After an hour: I need to wash this off. :/

In the decant: Pumpkin and marzipan. Oh, how I wish it would actually smell like this on me, but I see that "spiced" in the description so I know it won't. On skin, wet: Sure enough, as soon as it hits my skin it's all cinnamon with just a tiny hint of marzipan. On skin, dry: No more marzipan at all. Just cinnamon. After an hour: Well, it looks like the thyroid meds haven't changed my chemistry enough to make me stop amping the crap out of cinnamon. *GRUMP*

In the decant: COTTON CANDY, HOLY CRAP. Nothing else, just cotton candy. On skin, wet: Still very strongly cotton candy, but warmed up by a lovely sweet vanilla. Hints of popcorn--or maybe wood, it's too faint to be sure--are peeking out, which worries me, though. On skin, dry: The popcorn-maybe-wood note never gets any stronger. The vanilla is about neck-and-neck with the cotton candy now. After an hour: Much the same as the initial drydown, though it seems to alternate between vanilla and cotton candy rather than blend them, somehow. I have to say, getting a decant of this was an afterthought, but this is an absolute stand-out scent. I MUST have a bottle!

In the decant: Baked goods! Super foody, with maybe just a liiiittle bit of musk. No tea. On skin, wet: Still extremely foody, and the musk is just a background note. Still no tea. On skin, dry: Same, but the musk has come back a little stronger. Now it smells basically the same as it did in the decant. After an hour: The foody cakey note is by far the strongest, and the musk and tea just don't make enough of an impression to differentiate between this and my other bakery scents. So, very nice, but not a keeper for me.

In the decant: Unfortunately, this just smells like men's cologne to me. This is usually a bad sign. On skin, wet: Yeah, this is all generic cologne on me. No leather, no parchment. On skin, dry: No improvement on drydown. Super disappointed! After an hour: Eventually a little bit of leather peeks out, but overall it's still very much department-store-cologne on me. Sadness.

In the decant: Tea! Little whiffs here and there of honey & lemon (verbena), but just barely. On skin, wet: More lemon verbena, but still mostly tea. On skin, dry: Very lemony tea, with just a hint of sweetness. After an hour: The lemon verbena has died back down and the honey has gotten stronger, but it's still a tea scent above all. I love it. ;_; Finding a bottle... will be a challenge.

In the decant: Straight-up chamomile. On skin, wet: Still mostly chamomile, but maybe with a hint of vanilla. On skin, dry: The chamomile has faded to the background and this is now mainly smoky. No sweetness, and I don't smell *vanilla*, per se, just smokiness. After an hour: And the chamomile is entirely gone, leaving this as just a smoky scent. It's nice, but doesn't stand out from other smoky blends for me.

In the decant: Chocolate and a tiny whiff of fig. On skin, wet: Chocolate and maybe a bit of cubeb. Showing signs of turning to cocoa powder on me already... *wary* On skin, dry: Chocolate, cubeb and even a bit of fig. It's yummy! My god, could it be? A chocolate BPAL that works on me? That hasn't happened since Freak Show. After an hour: Actually, the fig/chocolate combo reminds me a lot of Freak Show. The cubeb definitely gives it a bit of something else, but I shall have to deathmatch them. Still, I am very pleasantly surprised by this one.

In the decant: Bubblegum and cayenne. I have no idea why, but it's exactly like bubblegum that was chewed after someone ate a spicy meal. On skin, wet: Same as in the decant. SO WEIRD. On skin, dry: And now it just smells like cinnamon. This scent is really baffling for me. After an hour: Red hots. Just red hots, like every cinnamon BPAL ever on me, except this isn't supposed to have cinnamon in it. WHY, whyyy?! I was so looking forward to this scent and it's not only not worked on me, but not worked in really, really weird ways.

In the decant: Honey and tart fruit. On skin, wet: Same as in the decant, but mmmmaaaybe there's a tiny whiff of ginger. Maybe. On skin, dry: This is well-blended and it's hard to pick out notes, now. Honey, certainly, but a more musky and less sweet honey, if that makes sense. After an hour: Still pretty similar to the initial drydown, though there's a slight sharpness to it that's potentially offputting. The currant never turned to candy on me, at least, but this really actually could use a little MORE sweetness. Will give it a second test, though.

In the decant: Lime! And a little bit of tea. On skin, wet: Same as in the decant, very lime-heavy with just a bit of tea. On skin, dry: Hard to say, now. Mostly tea, and the lime has burned right off, but there's something else here that I can't quite pin down. After an hour: Dangit. This has gone totally soapy on me, and I don't know why. None of the notes listed are ones that usually go soapy on me, but there it is. Harsh soap, too, though at least it's a bit faint. Very disappointed.

In the decant: Coconut and light florals. On skin, wet: Florals go poof and this is coconut and... something else that is too faint to identify yet. On skin, dry: HELLO ANISE. Wow. That took over in a hurry. A little coconut remains, too, and overall I really quite like it. After an hour: The coconut comes back out and melds nicely with the anise. Will need to deathmatch it against Harigata II, though.

In the decant: Light, sweet florals with a hint of a heavier, darker floral underneath. No vanilla. On skin, wet: Same as in the decant, except a little heavier on the stronger floral. Pretty, but generic. On skin, dry: Heavy floral perfume. After an hour: Stays true to the initial drydown, unfortunately. Not for me.

In the decant: Leather and wood, a little cologne-y. On skin, wet: Much the same, but more wood and less leather. On skin, dry: And there's the olive oil. Definitely very fruity, as others have said, and it's totally taken over. After an hour: Pretty much nothing left of the leather or the wood, and I wish they'd stuck around to balance this scent out a little. As it is, it smells kind of like fancy hand soap. I actually like it, but I'm not sure I like it enough to get a bottle.

In the decant: Woody. A touch of clove, and an odd note that must be the maple leaf. On skin, wet: Similar to in the imp. The odd note is stronger, and now I can definitely identify it as being leafy... but like wet, decaying leaves in late autumn. It's not an unpleasant smell, but it's definitely weird. On skin, dry: Both the clove and the wet-leaves note are totally gone, this is all wood all the time now. After an hour: Same as the drydown. It's nice, but nothing really distinguishes it from other woody scents.

In the bottle: A nice, even mix of peppermint and vanilla. Sweet and nummy. On skin, wet: The peppermint is much more dominant on my skin, with the vanilla hiding in the background. On skin, dry: The strength of this faded pretty quickly, though it's definitely still there. And still more mint than vanilla. After an hour: It never does smooth out to what it was in the bottle and I would have liked more vanilla, but it does start to balance out a bit again around the half hour mark. It doesn't seem to have faded any further, either. But I'm concerned it's too much like my aged bottle of Spooky, so deathmatching will occur.

In the bottle: Rum. SIGH. On skin, wet: Still very much a rum scent, with maybe a hint of caramel sweetness. On skin, dry: The sweetness is pretty much gone, and this is just slightly-smoky rum. After an hour: No significant change. It's a nice enough scent, but like the Tonka SN before it it's just not what I was looking for. I wanted sweet, warm, comfy vanilla and I got smoky booze.

In the bottle: Orange, heavy on the peel. On skin, wet: Same as in the bottle. On skin, dry: Still more or less the same. A little fainter now but hanging in fairly well for a pure citrus scent. After an hour: Still hanging in there! And still very orangey. Really, of the three single-note accords I've tried, this is the only one that's actually smelled anything like I expected/hoped for.

In the decant: Sweet, green floral. On skin, wet: Same as in the decant. On skin, dry: This really is just a sweet green floral on me. There's a very slight hint of tartness, but not enough to make much of an impression. After an hour: No real change. I feel like I can almost smell the honey and currant, but not quite, because the dandelion just runs roughshod over everything else. No trace of wine, either. Dangit. :/ (On the up side, it didn't turn into OMG CANDY on me despite the currant, so that's a change).

In the bottle: Coconut. Closer to fresh coconut than toasted coconut. On skin, wet: Little bit of coconut and a touch of something green, but the latter is still too faint to make out clearly. On skin, dry: It's just a touch suntan-lotion-y, but still quite nice. Mostly it's coconut, and the hint of green has come out just enough for me to say it's definitely cucumber. After an hour: No change from the initial drydown. It's not quite what I was hoping for (coconut, tonka and woods) but it's definitely interesting.

In the bottle: A little perfumey, and a little woody, almost. On skin, wet: Still a little perfumey and sort of woody, now with a hint of pepper. On skin, dry: I'm getting a very fresh/clean scent that other people seem to be associating with the balsam, but it's actually identical to how Sara Pezzini smells on me (minus the leather) so I think it's actually how skin musk turns out on me. There's still a little pepper and a little of that sort-of-woody scent. After an hour: Fresh and clean and just the faintest touch of pepper. No honey, which is disappointing, but it's still quite interesting and may save me from having to buy a bottle of Sara Pezzini.

In the bottle: Grains & spice. This seems at risk of going gingerbready. SIGH. On skin, wet: Definitely gingerbready. ARGH! Why must spices do this to me? On skin, dry: And now for some reason it's almost entirely lemongrass. There's a bit of sweetness, presumably honey, but mostly it's lemongrass. After an hour: Alas, the lemongrass went bye-bye and the gingerbready scent took over again. There's still a little hint of coolness underneath, but it's too faint to even tell if it's lemongrass or tea. Sadness! I had such high hopes! My black tea dream scent continues to elude me.

In the decant: Mango. Maybe a tiny bit of musk, but mostly this is a fruity scent. On skin, wet: Mango, and definitely just a touch of musk. On skin, dry: Still pretty much exactly the same as the wet scent. No tomatoes, no fig, just slightly-musky fruit. After an hour: Wow, this one did not morph at ALL. It's pleasant, but nothing special and not worth hunting down a bottle.