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It turns out I like Alice for completely different reasons than I thought I'd like Alice. I picked it out because of the honey and the carnation and the bergamot, and because can that many very different people be completely wrong about it? But on me it's all rose rose rose until about five hours after application when it's a faint, but lovely, honey-carnation scent. (Had I not read there was milk in the description, I would never have known it was there at all.) I bought Alice in spite of the rose and ended up loving it because of it -- and I was previously all-but-phobic of rose scents (mostly for allergy reasons). I don't know why it works but it absolutely does, and because it's so different from my usual scents I'm looking forward to buying more of it.

I have finally found my first "Where have you been all my life?!" scent! From start to finish (and it does last a fair while) it's a delicious balance of apricot and musk - at first more apricot than musk, at the end more musk than apricot, but always both present and balancing one another out. The orange blossom, while it does peek out from time to time, really just adds something to the blend, it doesn't change the interaction between the apricot-musk duo. It's not a complex scent but I don't think it's meant to be - the musk keeps it from being particularly girly, the apricot gives it a pleasant sweetness. Just perfect.

Elegba smells... pretty much exactly what you would expect from coconut, tobacco and sweet, sugared rum. Both in the bottle and on my skin, really, though in the bottle it comes across as quite a bit sweeter than it does once it's applied. Generally rum hates me with the red hot fury of a thousand burning suns, and spoils any party he's invited to, but Elegba has mellowed him out considerably. I'm definitely keeping the imp, but I'm not yet convinced it works well enough on me to want more than that.

Chaos Theory II: DVIII (508) From the moment I received this I loved it, but I had a devil of a time figuring out what was in it. It was light but with a good deal of throw, sweet and slightly fruity, but also strongly floral. (And I don't like florals, in general, but this one is extremely pleasant.) It's almost exactly the same on me as it is in the bottle, and lasts a good few hours, retaining the faint sweetness all through, which for me and my ravenous skin chemistry is quite a long time. So I took the bottle to work and passed it around. One person said it smelled just like it contained Ecuadorian Rose which is apparently -- and I'll take her word for this because my knowledge of roses is limited to "they're often red" -- large, extremely fragrant and sweet. Two other people were positive it contained almond, but as the CT2 blends don't contain nut oils I'd guess there is perhaps a touch of cherry. There's also a second floral scent that I can't identify but is definitely not rose, and I'm convinced there's also a touch of spice. All in all an absolutely lovely blend. I'm not at all sure I'll manage to use it sparingly despite not being able to acquire more.

The longer I have this scent, the more I love it. I was unsure at first, but now I attribute that to the fact that I received a few foody scents at the same time and the scent of it was a shock compared to what my nose had come to expect. It really is a very fresh and complex herbal that stays true to its original scent as it dries down. Each time I sniff I pick out something slightly different but it isn't the scent that's changing, just my attention to the particular details of it. I can smell the lemon when I think about it -- and quite like it; it works well in this blend -- but it doesn't jump out at me or become sharp. I'm very glad I chose to take a chance on this one, and particularly enjoy wearing it as hand cream. It's become very popular with the people I work with.

Arrr! Avast ye, matey! This be the scent of pirate rum! This was a delicious, sweet, rich buttered rum in the bottle, and an absolute delight to sniff. The moment it hit my skin, it turned to pure, bitter alcohol and stayed that way until I couldn't bear it any longer and washed it off. I was so looking forward to it, too. On the bright side, the imp found a new home with a friend who it suits far, far better.

Oh sweet, sweet Vinland, you break my heart... The upside: Vinland becomes the absolutely most gorgeous scent on me. Not merely a bowl of berries and some cut flowers on a table, but fresh berries in a meadow in the midst of the woods. Sweet and green and just a hint of floral. I almost couldn't believe it! The downside: For about an hour. Then it powders out and vanishes. I've tried it three times now, and each time it does the same. (Except for between my breasts, where the scent lingers nearly three times as long; I don't know what kind of mojo I've got going on down there but I figure I should go with it!) The other upside: I decided to try this scent only because it was at least a little Canadian and the listed notes seemed not offensive to me. And discovered that berry works on me in a way I never would have guessed. So now at least I get to go through the catalogue and track down some scents that I might previously have overlooked. Vinland, oh Vinland, why did you have to taunt me so?

A crisp ozone-tinged breeze. The scent of the first gentle rain before the storm. Tempest is one scent that is nearly identical on me as it was in the bottle: Very fresh, very clean and a little wet, like walking on a lakeshore while the sky grows dark over you and a storm rolls in. (I don't get ocean from it at all, it's very much freshwater on me.) The first time I tried it I was disappointed it didn't last long, but then I realised it was during the one week a month where every single thing I put on turns to powder in two hours or less. This time it has much more staying power -- I can smell it wafting up to me as I type this. This was a gift imp from the lab, and I'm so very glad it was because it wasn't even on my list to try! It's quite lovely and not overpowering on me, and I'm definitely thinking about picking up a bigger bottle.