Babylon

Ahh, here is the soapy floral version of the patch for my wonky skin. It starts off absolutely wonderful... pumpkin with a dry Southwest feel. Sage and dry sweetgrass, and cactus blossom. The latter unfortunately keeps amping and eventually takes over the blend. It's a strong, heavy, voluptuous floral, like rose, and like a couple rose notes, turns soapy. I hate my skin chemistry, because this was so unique smelling before the soap. Will give it another try in a week or two and see if there's hopefully any difference!

Betty Baker said it perfectly in her above review: This smells like Christmasween! Or Wintereenmas if you're a gamer and enjoy Ctrl+Alt+Del references. Wet: Pumpkin and white chocolate (which smells like dark to my nose!) and caramel and a light, light touch of juicy pomegranate. Dry: Cozy comfort food in a bottle. Pumpkin pies, hot chocolate, melted drizzly caramel and cream that isn't going plasticky on me. Much stronger throw than the other Pumpkins I've tried so far, #1 and #2. I have to get a bottle or two of this, it will be *wonderful* to wear all winter or anytime it's a chilly day.

Well, it's official. Carnation seems to really amp on my skin. Of all things! Wet: Delicious pumpkin, spicy/juicy carnation, and a hint of tobacco and champa if I don't sniff right on my wrist. Dry: Carnations. And a tiny bit of squishy pumpkin, but not much at all really.

At first, it's buttery pumpkin and pears. A new kind of dessert? It smells scrumptious. Don't worry, the butter quickly disappears! As it dries, the grapes and jasmine tea come out. Now I'm not one who amps jasmine, but in this blend, I can't even smell it at all. The grapes don't smell like fake-grape or candy to me, more like fresh fruit. Dry: This is the scent of fall, but not traditional fall with cozy spices and hot cocoa. It smells like a vineyard after the harvest, a few white grapes left, but mostly the smell of dried vines (that's the tea leaf that's doing that for me). It smells like an autumn pear orchard. It smells like a pumpkin patch. The pear is first to go, followed by the grapes, leaving me with pumpkins and dried vines (tea). Beautiful, subtle, and I'd say sophisticated.

Virgo definitely smells like a vegetable garden! There's no smell of dirt to me, and the valerian doesn't smell overpowering at all. It just adds an earthy quality that blends in so well with the other notes that it's difficult to distinguish. Think of a muggy summer day, working in your vegetable garden. You can smell your fresh veggies, stems and leaves and roots of weeds you've pulled, and the scent of sweet honeysuckle wafting over from your flower garden. Add to it a sort of greenhouse feel (humidity and heat without ozone or aquatic notes), and that is the essence of Virgo. This is a fun and unique scent, and I will treasure it in the winter when everything is dead and I feel like spring will never come.

*sigh* Rich honeyed roses with a light touch of creamy-citrus orange blossom. The smooth sandalwood appears on drydown, adding warm sexiness to an already voluptuous blend.

Now I'm thirsty!! Fresh, juicy peaches resting on amber and sandalwood. You can't go wrong with Tamora!

Light floral grapefruit! The grapefruit is tart as usual, but is softened by those helpful flowers. It is somewhat sharp, like geranium, immediately upon application, but that burns off after about 10 minutes.

Very lemony citrus at first, but Severin quickly dries down to a sophisticated leather and dry tea leaves smell. This is a wonderful scent for leather-lovers!

Dusty, powdery heather with a hint of berries. My name is heather, so I was anxious to give this a try in a dorky sort of way. Unfortunately, heather doesn't work on heather.

I'm getting the spicy smell as well. Spiced honey and lilies. It's not a bad scent at all, but there are other honey blends I like more.

Minty rose that dries to powdery violets and sandalwood. Given the notes, I was reluctant to try it on, but it's actually a great scent, and the rose doesn't go soapy!

Anubis starts off as a honeyed sharp herbal scent, but warms into dried leaves and myrrh as it dries. I do like the scent, and will probably get a bottle for the name alone, as I'm an Egyptonut.

A little goes a very long way with Inferno. Completely cinnamon-covered almonds, and nothing else. It's making me a bit hungry, too.

The Sleeping Beauty. A gentle, lovely scent, slightly soporific, but beautiful in its quiet repose. Plumeria and white pear, Damascus rose, tuberose, magnolia and evening dew. Pear, rose, and plumeria. It starts off very light, and after about 15 minutes, all I can smell is the rose. Well, at least it didn't go soapy!

I love the smell of Lilies of the Valley, but the rose in this blend is sharp and overpowering. After about 5 minutes, it also goes soapy.

Mint julep! And it's a very delicious smelling one, I might add, though I feel like my breath should smell heavily of alcohol when I sniff my wrist and then exhale. The bourbon does fade after awhile, leaving sugared mint.

Sharp, overpowering floral perfume. My skin mangled this scent!

Definitely not floral, I don't smell any tuberose or geranium! What I do smell is spiced sticky sweet honey, with myrrh and a touch of patchouli. I'm also getting something that smells like Milk Moon 07, that delicious pineapple-milk scent.

Completely delicious. Golden amber, incense, and dark fruit that doesn't smell sweet or juicy at all. This is actually somewhat of a warm, dry scent.

Mandarin and currants, geranium, sweetly floral dragon's blood and deep black amber. Dried, the amber blossoms and becomes rich and thick, and the dragon's blood finally tempers down. I think Wrath smells more like "rage" than rage, this is a very sweet scent on me.

Also called Gallows Literature. A dime novel rife with melodrama, horror, madness and cruelty; a ten cent analogy of vice and virtue in conflict. Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam. Penny Dreadful is the lemony ginger of Shub-Niggurath, covered in freshly turned moist earth. I love the Lab's dirt note, and this one feels especially "fresh and moist".

Mata Hari is... sitting in a garden of roses and jasmine, drinking a cup of coffee.

Abhisarika is creamy roses and orchids. It smells very innocent and springlike to me, and would be a good one to wear during winter when you want to smell full, blooming flowers again.

Lemon hard candies.