gypsyjolie

wet, this is a lovely soft lavender and a fruity white fig. Fruitier than I was anticipating. drying, the fig burns off a bit and the vanilla/benzoin steps out of its shadow. The first hints of patchouli emerge , adding to the snuggliness of the scent. The patch is restrained. THis is sweet and soft and feminine. full drydown - so so pretty. soft, gentle, cloudy lavender, woody patchouli (which stays in the background), hazy benzoin and powdery sandalwood.

I get more incense than spice, but this is a soft, creamy, vanilla candlewax scent, with a touch of incense and softly smokey aspect, like candles just blown out and still warm. Lovely.

Bright but dusky - red musk, orange (tangerine), and the sweetness of honey. The mint dances at the top of the scent. That and the sexy red musk keep this from being candied or fruity/foodie and firmly in perfume territory. I really love this scent. It's lighter and airier than I'd expected from the notes. A red musk for summer? It vaguely reminds me of Couple Consulting An Enpon, another favorite of mine, with the sexy base, a fruity aspect, and the mint topnote making a perfume that should be heavy but isn't and should be foodie but isn't. Apply sparingly! Good throw.

This is a stunning bright beautiful lavender! Many lavender scents are calming and dreamy-soft for bedtime, but this one feels energizing to me. Herbal sharp-ish lavender at first, then the resins come up to round out the scent. The oudh is adding to the throw (as oudh does as it warms on the skin), with an woody, almost leather-ish warm note. The benzion is a resiny sweetness. Both are fainter backdrops to the gorgeous lavender. This is almost but note quite a single note lavender. Bright, herbal, cleansing lavender - not particularly sweet or musty-floral as some lavenders can be. Good throw and excellent longevity (thanks oudh!). Unisex, herbal, energizing. Outspoken for a lavender blend. If I wore this to bed, I'd probably have vivid, creative dreams. How I wish I had not missed this in release!

Ninon on me is a sun-warmed vanilla/amber/hay, with a deep richness that I think is tobacco, and the lavender is herbal and dances on top of the warmth of the rest of the scent. This is sort of earthy, and entirely not-floral on me. I love it. It's like summer, but womanly and lovely. No scent of rose at all (YAY!). Must buy a bottle!

I don't get any patchouli or cinnamon or infernal spices - just headache-inducing HONEYSUCKLE and sharp ginger. When dry, I get some red musk under the HONEYSUCKLE, but not enough to save this blend for me.

The antique patchouli and blood musk, and that "oily" smell that vetiver has when it first applied start out this scent. Yuck, it's fairly awful on me when wet. But I know to wait for vetiver to chill out, so I do. 15 mins later this it TOTALLY different. The vetiver has become sweetgrass, the patchouli smoothed out, the blood (dragonsblood) has calmed into an almost fruity red smell, and this is now a deep dusky red musk-y blend that you can't hardly tell what notes make it up. The lavender is definitely a player, a topnote that tickles the edge of your nose, but it works here to add complexity without being all medicinal. The sandalwood just adds a dry woodiness. Sexy! This totally reminds me of Snake Charmer now, but comparing the two side by side, this is a more herbal (lavender) and SC is more plummy. Since plum doesn't really love me, I might like this better, especially with a bit more aging. Sadly, not a ton of throw on this (or Snake Charmer either for that matter).

Wet, this smells like Smut 2010 plus leather. As it dries, more sandalwood and honey come out. There is something to this that reminds me of Hellhound, especially after it's been on a bit. Also, this is like Violens but red musk instead of white musk and strong leather. A cowboy violens? I think this will age very well, and I can tell you after wearing it to the gym that it LOVES it when your body heat goes up. I had it on one wrist for about six hours and thought it had disappeared, but 15 mins of the treadmill and suddenly I was getting gorgeous wafts of red musk and leather and sandalwood. It made me reconsider and pull this back out of my swap pile.

Wet, this is seriously juicy fruit... not sure I'd have guessed apricot, more like nectarine or pear, but FRUIT. This starts to dry and the fruit is joined by the red currant, which makes this now smell like a red Jolly Rancher candy. Sweet and a bit tart and RED and fruity. Then the oddest thing happens - the vetiver comes out in all its dry grassy glory, and the two scents stand side by side - red fruity candy and dry sweetgrass. They don't meld at all, equal in strength in some sort of staring contest. After another 10 or 15 minutes, the vetiver beats back the candy just enough to be more dominant and then it gets ... greener? smelling. Still grassy but not as dry, almost sharp or oily smelling. With the candy still bouncing in the background.... This is weird and frankly, unpleasant. I feel like I am sucking on a red Jolly Rancher in the heat of August, smelling the spot on the mostly dry lawn where my brother changed the car's oil and dripped some onto the grass by accident.

Yes, this does smell like sugared cereal - like Fruit Loops, that slightly lemon-y highly sugared, slightly powdery smell. It gets more herbal (chamomile) and less "fake lemon candy"-esque as it dries, and gets softer and more baby powdery (orris?) and still stays very sweet. This is a comforting baby skin type scent. Decent throw for such a soft scent.

I got to try some aged Nanny. It is really sexy! Soft worn leather is the main component, with a gleaming polished wood (or wood + beeswax/honey, perhaps?). It's not so sharp a leather as many BPAL leathers are on me, but I never get flowers or berries distinctly. Just a warm woody sweetened beeswax-y almost musk-y leather. It's very comforting and would be good on me or my guy. Low to medium throw, long staying power.

This starts out as a very clean scent at first. The musk is the first thing I smell and it is a clean pale Egyptian or white musk. Yuck. Luckily for me, Violens warms up as it is on, the (soft, not chemical) leather peeking out and the sandalwood get more incensey and less dusty/dry. The Musk loses its sharpness and something makes this blend get sweeter. It's very unisex, neither masculine nor feminine, or rather, it's sort of both. It is clean and soft and lightly sweet... but the leather and sandalwood ground the scent nicely. This is a really nice non-floral, non-foody scent. it's calming and spa-like to me. Decent throw, and lasts 5+ hours on me. Glad I got a bottle!

First sniff: a blast of strong vanilla and some sort of floral. on, wet: Within minutes, the floral dies down and the amber comes out. Now it's a (french) vanilla and slightly spicy amber. dry: hello leather! this is a worn, warm leather, with the amber and vanilla 15 mins: The vanilla died down. I'm getting most warm, spicy amber and delicious worn leather. The vanilla sweetens things up but isn't a mega player any more. 30 mins: primarily nice worn leather, with some amber-vanilla sweetness. This has almost no throw and fades within an hour on me

In the bottle and wet, I get mostly the sharp, herbal/floral of the angelica, with some sweetness of sugar underneath. No pepper. As it dries, the angelica is taken over by the coconut and the scent warms and sweetens. After 10 minutes, this smells like the powdered sugar-covered dried coconut flakes. Not fresh, milky coconut or toasted coconut. It's sweet and dry and definite coconut, like macaroons. Then the pepper amps up and adds some bite to this, the combination almost but not quite smelling like anise or cardamom... though it never takes over the coconut. After 20, the coconut and angelica make peace and the undertone becomes a white sugared dry coconutty-floral with the pepper dancing lightly around as a topnote. I really like this scent. It doesn't read as foody to me once it is on for a bit, despite the heavy coconut. It's very summery, and the throw is decent. I love the pepper/sugar combination.

Moonlight shining on the Quickening Tree, the heat and wax of sacred candles, the milk of ewes, Brigid's blackberry, the sting of keening wind, and the last flutter of the Cailleach's winter snow. in bottle: beeswax and a hint of cinnamon wet on skin: This becomes a cooler scent, as I get an icy throw from the oil on my skin. Cool The blackberry peeks out from under the beeswax, the cinnamon disappears. Waxy cold blackberry under a layer of ice. dry on skin: This does smell like a just snuffed out candle, plus that scent of cold air. The coolness topnote versus the warmer beeswax-y bottom note is really striking. Not much blackberry, just a tiny swirl of it that does seem to grow stronger and stronger until after 30 mins I can definitely smell it. After it's been on a while, it warms up into a beeswax candle and slightly creamy tart blackberry. There is the tiny hint of cinnamon. Pretty, cool, waxy scent. Not a lot of throw.