thekittenkat

In the imp: Each time I sniff, I pick up another one of the scents in this oil. Wet: I'm getting a hint of the frankincense but mostly the orris root is overpowering, which I was afraid of. Now there's some of the rose and the sandalwood. The rose is lovely and sweet (I love white rose), and I hope that it can overcome the dreaded orris root. The Dry-Down: This is fine, except for the orris root, but not as lovely as I was hoping. Instead, I'll go back to the White Rose from the Unity set. And, it's a very dry scent. I never got the neroli or the patchouli.

In the imp: The moss and the cypress are dominant. Wet: The dry leaves spring out first, but the roses aren't far behind. And now the sandalwood comes swirling through, then proceeded by the cypress. This is indeed a very dry scent, but the moss and what lingers of the roses gives it that faint touch of sweetness. The dry-down: This scent invokes the poem which inspired it in a faint and sad and sorrowful fashion. In the end, it seems to be a bit powdery on me, and how appropriate considering the roses. And that's really okay.

In the imp: Some citrus, some dry flowers, some amber. Wet: There's a nice spiciness, the myrrh perhaps, when I first apply this, but it's quickly subsumed by those dry flowers. And the sweetness of the citrus and blood orange lingers like the last of the summer. There's a coolness on my wrist which must be that winter wind. The dry-down: Once again, everything starts to blend together. But it seems to be fading faster than I would like, not unlike how I wish that summer would linger longer. The last notes are the amber and myrrh, and they seem a bit sharp. I wanted more blood orange from this.

In the bottle: Autumn leaves, sweet resins, rain water. Wet: I'm getting some vetiver, as in a smokey note, as if someone had been burning autumn leaves in the distance, but the rain has now put the fire out. According to the wiki entry on agarwood, lightly infected wood, sometimes cultivated, produces an (allegedly) inferior oil with a vetiver, sandalwood, and patchouli character, so I think that's where the faint smoke note may be coming from. Otherwise, very resinous from the opoponax and also very sweet from among the opoponax, the labdanum, and the oakmoss. There's woods and leaves and water throughout the blend. The dry-down: The resinous smell of the opoponax and the sweetness of the oakmoss are the dominant top notes, but the water note and the leaves are still present down in the blend. Overall, I would say that so far, this is a lovely oil that stays mostly the same throughout, only changing a little. At least on me it's "what you smell is what you get". At no point, do I get a rush of patchouli, which is just fine with me. Of the leaves' notes, I'm picking up a sweet gum note, very nice. This will be a wonderful autumnal scent: a little sweet, a little spicy, a little resinous, with autumn leaves and rain and wood.

In the imp: The sweetness of the rosemary, distinct pine and pitch, faint pumpkin, all present and accounted for. But where's the tomato? Wet: Oh, here it is! The sharpness of the tomato, or like tomato leaf, is the first obvious note, but the pumpkin is already starting to soften that. But here comes the pine and the pitch blasting out of nowhere, and bringing the rosemary's sweetness along with them. The Dry-down: This is quite yummy! Everything is starting to finally blend together. I must admit that I was sort of hoping for a pine and pumpkin version of Planting Moon, but this is lovely without evoking that scent at all. Going to be a grand autumnal scent.

I'll have to agree with the other reviewers that this is indeed a pinkish-white-nude polish. It's very subtle, and would be good for a workspace where my fav blue/black/green/glitter combo would be too much. It dries fast, but looks like it will need at least two, maybe even three coats, to impart any colour at all. Just a touch of shine and gloss.

In the bottle: Yummy honey, orange, and apricot. Wet: Lots and lots of the blood orange! A bit sharp, but the honey is starting to smooth it out. The dry-down: This is pretty much blood orange on me all the time. The honey and apricot and tonka are keeping it mellow, though. There might be a faint hint of the gardenia. I love to eat blood oranges in the winter-time and it's wonderful to find a good scent of blood oranges. And that I really like Thalia as the muse of comedy (though not so much the pastoral poetry, which is fine, just in small does) makes me happy that I love this oil.

In the bottle: I'm getting a lot of the tea leaf, some of the mum, the sweetness of the sugar, and underneath there's the cherry and the apple. A bit like a very sweet tea that has elements of apple cider in it. Wet: My goodness, but this is lovely! It really smells of autumn to me, up in the north Georgia mountains, in some of the valleys yet not built up. It's very well blended. The dry-down: Still lots of tea leaf and apple, but the sweet sugar is keeping this mellow. There's hints of wheat and sage, and some creamy note, which must be the rice milk, down at the base. The florals seemed to have blended together. I'm not really getting any hazelnut, which is fine with me. Sadly enough, it's fading away a bit, so I'm thinking scent locket on this lovely oil. The bottle art is rather fantastic!

In the bottle: That's a lot of musk, alright! And yummy orange, too. Wet: The amber and ambergris are romping around with those plant extracts, while the musks and orange lurk in the jungle. The Dry-down: The black amber has won the fight, and for me, this is too much like Velvet Tiger, alas, which did not work on me. Hmm, the musks and the orange are still there, but reeling away. I'm going to try this in my locket and also see if the bf likes it. I really wanted to like this. ETA: I looked at my review for Velvet Tiger, and it was the licorice in that oil that didn't work on me. What's in EOM that is the same or similar note, I'm not sure, but this isn't working on my skin. I have to go and wash this off. If it doesn't work in the locket or on the bf, it's off to the swaps/sell pile.

In the bottle: Lots of pretty florals and the sugar, too. Wet: The sugar and the honey have kind of smothered the florals. The dry-down: Muscari is known also as grape hyacinths. And phlox in many varieties is one of my favourite springtime flowers. The daffodils must be giving off the light green note. Even though I have a dogwood tree in my front yard, I've never noticed much of a scent from dogwoods, although I like the way they gleam through the light green buds and leaves of springtime woods. Still a lot of the sugar and the honey, but the floral notes are a bit more prominent. And the strawberries seem to be those tiny wild ones that I have found in meadows. A very sweet and lovey spring moon oil, rather lady-like.

This is for the '05 edition, courtesy of the DD July trunk show. In the bottle: Just like gingerbread, with all the spices! Yum! Wet: Ready to eat my wrist! The clove and the cinnamon are strong, but the ginger of the gingerbread is the top note. The dry-down: Still a lovely scent, but getting a subtle dusty note now--perhaps is just from all the spices? I wish this would stay as good on my skin as it was in the bottle, where it was foodie heaven. If I really want to amp gingerbread, I may have to try this in a scent locket. It's changed from fresh-baked to cooled-down gingerbread, still yummy, but you know it's better when it's just come out of the oven. Nevertheless, this is going to get some wear, not just around the winter holidays, but anytime I need to sniff that wonderful ginger note. I'll make a suggestion and say that this should return for the next Yule update.

This bottle with a new label came from the July DD trunk show. I love bats. I wish that I could have bought this when it was on the site to support the Bat Conservation International charity site. (I can always just make a donation.) Bats live in my bf's area, so we can see them fly around at twilight. I'm really happy that they are there, chowing down on insects. In the bottle: I'm getting a nice mix of florals, but the lemon, and the sage and thyme are prominent notes as well. Wet: Sweet florals, a lot of sage, and a snap of lemon. There's a tingly coolness and at the moment it has good throw. I'm typing, but I can still smell it. Just lovely. The dry-down: I adore honeysuckle, and it's the most obvious of the floral notes. The lavender is right behind, though. But at the same time, all the notes, both floral and herbal, are slowly blending together to make a delicious bouquet. If I were a bat, I would dive right in. As an earth-bound human, I'm just content to wave my arms about and take in deep breaths of this wonderful spring-like oil. But I'm not sure where that cool feeling is coming from, not unlike the coolness I get from Beth's snow note, but there's no snow or ice or rain in here. Unless, just think, the cool note is the dew that's fallen in the night and has made the night-blooming flowers even more attractive to bats and humans alike. And, did I mention the sage? Lots of yummy sage here.

Last Yule, I only ordered The Winter Maiden bath oil, because I loved all the notes, and sure enough it was a winner. Later on, I got a decant of The Ice Prince and could only hope that it would return in the next winter update from the Post. But due to my wonderful fairy, I now have a bottle of my very own from the DD trunk show. In the bottle: The musk and the plum are the top notes, but I can detect the snow note. Wet: The lily of winter and the bergamot have poked their heads through the snow. The pine and the musk are combining to make a deep note, but lovely at its heart. The dry-down: The scent of the bath oil is fairly consistent throughout. All the notes have come together in a lovely, soft blend, with the snowy pine boughs as a top note. I'm just using this as a body lotion oil, but I suspect it would be lovely in a bath. I rarely take baths, preferring showers, but I might have to just try the Ice Prince in a warm bath come winter-time. Like all the other Trading Post bath oils that I have tried, a little goes a long way to soften the skin. It evens softens my elbows, and that's rather amazing. For layering, I think any of the snowy and conifer Yules would work, esp. if they aren't too sweetly floral. Snow Moon, Cloister Graveyard, and Death of a Gravedigger are other layering combinations that might work well with The Ice Prince.

In the bottle: Herbal, aquatic, some floral. Wet: Not a lot of change here, as I can only say that it's a light and lovely blend of some herbs, some flowers, and some waters. It is a little sweeter than in the bottle, though. The dry-down: The herbs are something sweet, maybe a faint hint of mint. The florals could be calla lily and some roses, the sort of thing one might throw off a bridge. (And yes, I'm thinking of an old song from the '70s. *grins*) The aquatics could be that mixture that one gets when the tide comes in on a wide, lazy river. This is very evocative of the the ghosts in the title, faint, fleeting, here then gone. I put this on earlier this evening, but within a couple of hours it was indeed all gone away. And I slathered too, due to spilling a couple of drops of the precious. A very light and delicate scent, with just a small throw. I like it, but this is something I might wear more in the springtime.

Beth, I read your story first and then scrolled back up to see the label, and I laughed out loud! Seriously, that is a great story and makes for a wonderful label. I'm looking forward to ordering some. And when dogs and cats get in the trash, they always look so innocent! Why is that? Thanks for the story and the laugh--it was very needed.

In the bottle: Pink pepper and the honeyed amber are very keen. Wet: Lots of pink pepper! But very quickly here come the currants and the blackberries. The dry-down: The honey and the amber are now swirling about all the other notes and combining them into something that I can only think of as a spicy sweetness, sort of like a sweet but spicy pink carnation, drizzled with honey, but not exactly that, either. The pepper and the amber keep this scent from being as sweet as Lady Una. But certainly, they are in the same scent family. Perhaps more like cousins than sisters, as it were. If you want to keep the spicy edge of this, perhaps it's not best to combine with the bath oil, as that, I find, amps up the sweet notes. But that, in itself, is a wonderful combination of spice and berry-honey sweetness. I like it best when I combine the perfume oil with the bath oil. That's just heavenly.

In the bottle: Sweet honey and yummy currants. Wet: Why, helo thar currant! The dry-down: That lovely honey note is coming back and mixing with and mellowing the red currants into a wonderful sweet blend on my arm. This is a feisty Queen alright, but she knows when to be a warrior and when to be a lady. Goodness, I want to lick my arm. Layering this with her perfume is just pure heaven. The pink pepper and amber spice things up and my lovely blackberrry has a tea party with the currants. This combination is not as sweet as Lady Una, but it's in the same family. And as always with the Post's bath oils, this oil melted into my skin and left it much softer than before.

In the bottle: I'm getting mostly the orange blossom honey (which is not really sweet at all) and maybe the summer musk (is that the green/herbal note that a lot of the reviewers are also picking up?). Wet: The slight sour note of the honey is the first thing I smell, but now there's some raspberries. And blast it, there's that sharp green note again! The dry-down: Okay, I'm get a whiff of the blueberries, and the fig is mixing in finally, but faintly. The honey and the musk are at last blending together to form a nice base, and yet the berries may be at war with the sharp green note that is slowly fading away. Yes, I think that the berries are winning! And oh here comes the fig in a major way! About time, as August is when figs are ripe around here. (I love me some figs, and how wonderful the bf has a fig tree in his backyard, but the birds and the deer--he has a bit of nice forest behind his house--tend to eat most of them before they get ripe enough to pick, alas.) This scent is a bit of a morpher on me. I was hoping for more of the blueberries, as in my beloved Blue Phoenix, but alas that seems not to be. It's a bit like Lady Una or Tomoe Gozen, but not enough, if you catch my drift. I know that lots of folks have problems with the Lab's blackberry note turning to cat pee on them. Still, I could wish that there were blackberries in this, or at the very least, more blueberries. All in all, though, this is finally shaping up to be a wonderful scent, mostly honey and fig. I might try layering this with just a drop of Blue Phoenix (I so want that to be in the next Anniversary update!) and see what happens. I wish had some SN honey or honey musk to layer on this. Oi, that green note is coming back out again. And it's just a few minutes since I wrote the last paragraph. Dang it! I'll try this in the scent locket, or otherwise layer with other things. I really wanted to love this. The prototype we got to try at SEWC seemed to be sweeter than this. I'm thinking that the summer musk must be the green and herbal note, and that this scent would be lovelier without it. Yet I must note that the label art is elegant, and is the top half of the art on the tee-shirt, which I ordered because I felt sure that I would love this scent; also that the art on the tee was beautiful in and of itself, an Art Nouveau design, which is a style that I have always been fond of. And to end this long review, the fig and the honey have pushed the green note away. Again. A beautiful but morphing scent. ETA: A couple hours later, the honey and fig are still the obvious notes, with a hint of the sweet berries. Very much a skin scent, for all my slathering. I've decided that it's a keeper.

The Countess went on so well, that I barely needed my usual two coats. It dried quickly, and has no nasty smell to it. This is a dark, rich maroon red, not burgundy, and with no hint of brown, but more like a deep plum shade. I'm very impressed with the colour and the ease of putting it on; it's not too thick, but not too thin, either.

This is for the 2005 version. In the bottle: There's the holly berries, all right! Wet: The berries are still there, but they are falling off various conifirs, pines, firs, blue spruce, etc. There's also some sort of a spicy note. I don't want to call it Christmas potpourri, but it's there. The dry-down: Very lovely, but I'm not sure what happened to the holly berries. This isn't lasting very long on me, and I might have to slather. Here's hoping it gets resurrected. ETA to add: Half an hour later, the holly berries have reappeared, and are very sweet and yummy. However, this is still very much a skin scent on me.

ETA: This is a review of the 2008 version. In the bottle: Oh, this is yummy! White rose on top, the resins as a base note. Wet: Very sweet, just as in the bottle. The rose and the resins are working together and blending together so well. The dry-down: This scent is lovely, and does not really morph. However, it seems to be fading fast. If you like this, you might like the White Rose from the Unity Set. I studied medieval history and literature at university, so any perfume that evokes Chaucer is right up my alley. I just wish that it lasted longer. I think that I will try it in my scent locket and see if it will hopefully last longer. ETA: PoF has become a skin scent; I have to put my nose to my wrist to smell it, but it's still lovely.

Creeping moss, slick granite, murky vetiver, lightning-charged ozone, and icy rain. In the imp: Ozone, ozone, ozone. Just like the air after the lightning strike happens near-by. Wet: The vetiver is floating to the top, but there's also this sweet note; I think it's the moss. But the ozone is still very present. The dry-down: I'm getting a sense of stone deep in the mix, so that must be the granite. And there might be a hint of the icy rain, but not much, alas. I was rather hoping for more of the icy rain. Still mostly ozone with a gentle top note of vetiver. Still, this is a lovely scent, somewhat gender-neutral and possibly bottle-worthy. It's too sweet to evoke the Stormhold for me, though. If it was less sweet and more wet stone, that could be the great castle hewn out of the living rock itself. If you like Line Written, I think you would like The Stormhold. No berries, though.

In the decant: Patchouli and coriander and mint are very, very strong. Wet: Now I'm getting the sandalwood. But those first three notes I mentioned are present, but hiding in the background for now. The dry-down: A morpher of a scent! The tonka bean and the redwood have come out to play. There's also a bright crispness which must be the lemon peel. And a sweetness that's coming from the rosewood. The three woods are starting to meld together. In fact, this is a very complex blend, with so many different notes, yet all working together, but perhaps at different times. As it dries down, I'm beginning to get a dry and dusty feeling (dust on your trousers) but with still a bit of a sparkle (stars in your eyes). No mud here. I'd like to try this on the bf. These gender-neutral scents that smell good on me always seem to smell better on him.

In the decant: Very sweet magnolia,with lovely lavender lurking underneath. Wet: The lavender is very strong and obvious. But there's still the sweetness of the magnolia swirling about. The dry-down: The lavender and the magnolia are starting to blend now. I also get the feeling, the sense, that if I close my eyes, I'm outside, underneath the starry sky, standing on the lawn just next to a lavender bed, and there's a wonderful magnolia tree nearby, blooming away merrily and tempting me to climb its branches just to get closer to the stars. There's a gentle breeze, as well, moving through the lavender bed and causing the flowers and the leaves of the magnolia tree to rustle softly. This lovely scent is very evocative of a spring night in the Deep South. And I should know, because that's where I live.

In the bottle: Various early summer flowers, some aquatics, and a hint of citrus. Wet: The aquatic note is the strongest. But that wonderful citrus note is lurking in the background, and ready to pounce. Don't worry, the flowers are still present as a middle note. The dry-down: Lots of florals (maybe daisies, roses, maybe wildflowers, and anything else floral that might grow by the side of the road in SoCal), but with a gentle rain dancing among the petals and the leaves and stems. Not sure what the citrus is, as it could be several of the fruits--I'm getting orange and lemon for certain, but not sure of any other citrus rind. Fresh herbs--those might be what's giving this a touch of sweetness--again I wish I knew for certain. For those of you who didn't like the old June Gloom, don't worry. At the June SEWC, some of us did a side-by-side sniff and test of old and new June Gloom (I brought my bottle of the later from home, since there wasn't going to be any June Gloom bottles for sale, and TrailerTrashPrincess brought a decant of the original). The original is lemon, lemon, and then some more lemon, veering close to Lemon Pledge. The new version is nothing like, just those fresh florals with a little bit of water on them, and a slight citrus hint. June Gloom 09 is very lovely. And it should get more love.