raisin

The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices. This just smells like gingerbread candle to me. There's something kind of pleasantly bitter that works it's way through after a little wear, but darned if I'm going to smell like artificial baked goods to get there.

This one is tough to place. While I get hints of gunpowder woven in, fading in and out of prominence, mostly it smells like very classic perfume to me. On first sniff, it reminded me of my grandmother's bathroom and the perfumes she stored there. (I mean that in the best possible way.) There are just some incredibly classic notes here, exactly like a fragrance version of red lipstick. I never get the fruits, and I couldn't pull out any of the flowers specifically. It's mostly musk and smoke and spice, with a floral feel that keeps it pretty feminine to me. The gunpowder is about the only note that seems to wander from the pack. It definitely keeps morphing, and while it starts out very strong, I like the stages as it starts to settle down. Alas, shortly after I get there, this fades to a whisper. Utterly gorgeous and sexy, though. Definitely makes me feel like a Roaring 20's Femme Fatale, if only for an hour.

This goes on very tough and spicy, and settles into something that's mostly nutmeg on me, with some clove, dried tobacco and some kind of manly cologne. It's a little autumnal/Christmas-y in terms of the spices, but not especially foody. Certainly a Strong Man scent, in a very classical, man-with-a-leopardskin-tunic-and-waxed-handlebar-moustache kind of way. It's gorgeous, and I think I'll be wearing it more often when it gets colder. It's really a fantastic blend. I hope I'll be able to find a bottle someday!

Oh, I love this one. I get the juniper when it goes on, but it's mostly a fresh, fizzy note on me, which was something I had been looking for but didn't expect to find here. It doesn't have a whole lot of throw, but it lasted a full day without getting swallowed. I adore it. Definitely a new favorite for the summer. ETA: After finally trying Twenty One, I can pick up a bit more of the fizz and spice in this one by comparison. Bathtub Gin has a lot more throw, and I certainly prefer it, but it's good to know there's something similar in the GC for when my bottle runs out. And it will.

This is mostly a smoky leather vanilla on me... remarkably similar to Bow & Crown of Conquest. It's less sweet, more smoky, and doesn't seem to last as long, but same general vibe. I really, really like it. I'm tempted to pick up a bottle, but I'm not sure I could justify having both this and Bow & Crown when there are so many other, different scents I'm interested in. Still, though, I will enjoy having this imp around.

Have to kind of ditto the "nightmarish overkill of cinnamon and something really stinky" review. It goes on syrupy, nauseatingly sweet (I'm assuming this is the dragon's blood. Based on this, that note does not agree with me at all. I will be steering clear.) and it winds up sweet CINNAMON which was slightly better but still on the wrong side of tolerable. I will be unloading this imp as fast as I am able.

I was so hoping for something dark and earthy, and it went on smelling more or less that way, but I wound up with something freakishly sweet instead. This goes almost entirely clove on me (and a very, very sweet clove) with a touch of another sweet note that I can't place, but has popped up in some other blends that border on too sweet for me (it's reminding me slightly of Verdandi, but I don't see any similar notes). I don't love it, but I may save my imp for the fall, when smelling like a Christmas ham may seem like a better idea.

Still on the hunt for my perfect linden scent, and while this comes significantly closer than The Unicorn, that phase doesn't last long. It goes on in a beautiful tea leaf and linden green, and then I got that dreaded lemon candy phase all the reviews made me worry about... but that only lasted a few seconds (thank god) before I was back to the linden and tea. So wonderful! That, alas, fades all too quickly. At that point, I have a raw blonde wood scent that sticks around for hours. It's pretty and I like it, but I'm wondering if I can experiment to stretch out that initial linden fragrance. Overall, totally fresh and great for spring/summer.

The "dumpster diving" and "capable of defending [yourself]" bits made me think of the Neverwhere line. Anesthesia or Door in particular, as they're both really lovely but kind of muted. Sorry to recommend unimpables, but... they're nice? This makes me think about the Wanderlust line for whatever reason. Something like Venice or Rome or Paris or some of the other very, very old cities.

An allegorical expression of the ineffable, indisputable triumph of death, generally expressed in medieval artwork as a violin or flute-wielding skeleton leading a procession of dancers to their graves. Black cypress with oakmoss, frankincense, oude, and a sliver of toasted hazelnut. This is one of the more intriguing blends I've come across! It's not anything I would have picked out for myself, but it's fantastic. When wet, there's a slight dirt-like dryness, a touch of pine, but I certainly wouldn't have been able to pick out many notes. As it dries, it leans toward the piney masculine side of things (I'd go nuts for a dude wearing this) but it's beautiful and shadowy and complex. I wish it lasted a bit longer, but it'll be great to wear when I need a break from the more fragrant blends. This one's awesome. Definitely a bottle candidate.

Without knowing the notes (except for violet, of course) I was able to pick out the mint (mostly because of a high coldness to the scent than any obvious mint smell) and some kind of wood. These do some interesting things to the violet and lilac, keeping it from going definitively floral. I think I get the lavender moss (I'm not terribly familiar with this note, so it's tough to say for sure) and the musk. Those two help to do interesting things with the flowers as well. (I definitely need to keep an eye out for more purple musk scents. I liked this one!) It's certainly unique, and I'd say it's definitely a feminine steampunk scent (the sort of thing that belongs to a gal with a bustle and some fancy ray gun). This may go very nicely with my next steampunk costume!

I think I'll need to be careful with this one. It goes on a little lemony... not the verbena note that I like okay, but a similar lemon to Venice. That sort of mellows out, but a few hours into wear, I'm getting occasional whiffs of that floraly Venice lemon, and I don't love it. Nose to my wrist, I can still pick up on what makes this blend beautiful. The white tea is prominent, and I'm getting some hints of green that I can only guess is the bamboo, and some green tea notes (a bit more similar to the sweetness of matcha than the more bitter kind). So that part is beautiful. I just wish that were more evident in the throw, instead of the lemon.

Well, I'll be darned. I got a frimp of this and gave it a quick skin test, and instantly recognized the major player, even though I couldn't place it. It smelled exactly like some kind of plant or flower, I was certain, and then it hit me: rose. Only not the artificial rose fragrance note I can easily place (and kind of despise). Rome smells like actual roses. Sadly, that's all I get from this, but I'm impressed anyway. I may have to rethink my veto on all blends that list rose as a note. This still isn't for me, but it is very pretty and I'm sure I can find a nice home for it.

I get something totally foody here. Like others, I get lemon instead of orange. And then there's something buttery, a little cocoa, and a smidge of black tea. It's cookies at a tea party on me. I'm hoping it'll morph into something I like a little better, but I doubt I'd have the patience to get through this stage.

I'd go with Dormouse, as it's intellectual (well, it's got tea and comes from literature), unassuming, understated, but still sweetly feminine. And, like blue jeans, it sort of goes with everything. For me... I am basically the nerdy librarian type. From Wisconsin, did the Boston thing for a computer science major. I absolutely adore traveling (Germany and England have been favorite destinations), and spend a lot of time on my own reading (Jane Austen <3) and sewing. I prefer tea to coffee. I sort of deviate from all that by living in Los Angeles and working at a visual effects studio. I'm also a bit of a beer snob.

Not being terribly familiar with most of these notes, it's tough to say what's prominent, but wow... this is one seriously gorgeous aquatic. It is exactly evocative of a lake at night, during the summer when everything's alive and growing. I get mostly the water (cucumber mainly smells watery to me, with just a little green) and the plants and trees at the water's edge. It's very vaguely floral, but only enough to sweeten it up some, and entirely underneath the water. This is just so fresh and undeniably feminine (unusual for an aquatic) without being girly... I was looking for something exactly like this, and I'm really pleased to have found it. There's a cold, kind of minty note in here (reminds me of the nights near the lake, when the temperature drops considerably once the sun goes down) that makes me think this will be ideal for summer. What a beautiful blend!

This was such an extreme journey, I needed to dig up this thread. In the bottle and for the first five minutes of wear, I got the most glorious pine. I wish I knew exactly what it was, because I've been trying to identify it for months, actually. There's a stretch of freeway here in LA that smells exactly like this at night, all green and pine with that hint of Vicks VapoRub. I adore it, and I'd been hunting for something similar. Just at the point where I'm loving this smell, and super happy I've discovered it, I remember that this isn't actually anything I want to smell like, and bam! The scent changes. The pine disappears almost totally, and I'm left with that very cold smell of winter, which I've missed (again, LA). I love the way that winter seems to freeze all smells, and that's exactly what I get from this. It's clean and cold and neutral enough I can actually wear the scent at this stage! It may be perfect for hot summer days.

Oh, carnation! I think this is one of my new favorite notes. It sticks out to me the most (but on the spicy, not floral, side of things), and there is an added creamy sweetness from the vanilla. That softens the lavender, which is not quite as LAVENDER in this blend as it is in most others, but it's still there, thankfully. The leather seems like the connecting note between the carnation/vanilla (seriously, those two blend together so well... I haven't been a fan of the lab's vanilla in other blends, but wow, does it work here) and the lavender. I get the odd whiff of sage, disconnected from the above. I'd thought at first my Hunter from yesterday was ghosting (it's definitely the same sage note), but it's too strong for that. It's just this nice odd lash of something cold and green and herbal that breaks up all the warm creamy sweetness. I'm surprised to read that there's cedar in this blend. I could smell a little wood in the background, but cedar usually dominates on me, and here that is very much not the case. It's behaving very nicely and just hanging out in the back. I suppose there is a definite muskiness to this one, but nothing I would have been able to identify. It's certainly feeling a bit masculine/unisex, and I think that musk + leather is the culprit, but I'm not able to pick it out from the rest of the notes... the musk is just blended in there and mingling nicely. This one is totally gorgeous. I think this will be a nice spring/summer alternative to Casanova (my true love). It's certainly won me over to carnation (gotta check this one out in other blends), and I now realize I'm not as anti-vanilla as I'd originally thought. Definitely a winner, and it's growing on me the longer I wear it.

I never got the musk or the woods (I had such high hopes, too) but I will agree that it stays away from candy territory. It was almost entirely strawberry with a bit of peach on me. I know some people who will love this, but it's not for me.

Definitely that Mountain Dew sort of lemon-lime, but underneath SO MUCH EFFERVESCENCE. They are not kidding about the "highly caffeinated" part. This one completely wakes you up and leaves you feeling very perky. It was a bit too sugary for my tastes, but I'd definitely be curious about other blends that feature the "fizzy" note.

I tried this one out, and I was sort of pleasantly surprised. I gave it a try for the lavender (which I was hoping would fight off the florals) but alas, I got nothing. The rose was surprisingly well-behaved, and the whole thing was fresh enough that even with rose as my Note of Death, it never went into headache territory. It was sophisticated, fresh, and very pleasant, not soapy or old lady at all... but rose was definitely at the head of the pack, so it was not a bottle candidate for me.

This one is my favorite of the Neverwheres so far. I picked up a bottle, certain none of the notes could go wrong on me, but never expecting they would go this right. This is a fantastic blend. I'd expected the leather to be much much more prominent (Hunter is called "the leather woman" before we know her name) but it plays very nicely here, and seems different from the other leather notes I've encountered. To me, this one seems closer to the warmth of suede. The sage totally surprised me. It makes the scent much colder than I would have initially expected, but in a way that is terribly pleasing. The amber isn't as dominating or golden as I thought it would be, but it's there and very nice. The scent isn't quite as "leonine" as I had hoped, but the result is catlike in a way, and probably works better on me than the golden lion scent I thought this would be. Overall, this is a gorgeous everyday scent that I think will be my go-to for the summer. It's beautiful and natural and I'm glad I got a bottle. It's signature scent worthy.

Whoever said this blend was the feminine Jolly Roger, that's dead on for me. I'm pretty much only getting the salty ocean spray, but there's just a hint of the floral that's keeping this decidedly feminine. (Probably the jasmine... I'm usually a little iffy on florals, but jasmine and I get along okay.) This will probably keep me from getting that bottle of Jolly Roger I was considering. ETA: And the next time I wore it, it soured on me. I'm not sure if it was the salt or if it might be an appearance by the fabled Vile Jasmine That Hates Everyone (I'm more used to Lush jasmine, which I love), but it was very acidic unless I looked for the ocean spray. That seemed to mellow out a bit the longer I wore it, but I was really self conscious getting there. ETA2: I'll give it this: it's not boring. I like this better if I haven't smelled any other perfumes all day. It's still a bit sour and sharp, but that kind of works for the inspiration. I like that it's definitely not going "perfume" on me, and it's the perfect scent for a day when you think you might end up a little sweaty. It's fresh, but it's going more "Sober Irritable Female Pirate" than "Mermaid" to me.

I get a very fragrant, sun-warmed forest. I had to look at the notes to pick anything out, but the redwood is definitely the strong note. I couldn't pick out much else, save for a little bit of lemon (more sweet than tart here) and that only after I went looking for it. This is a really fabulous forest scent. (And for anyone curious, it's absolutely divine layered with Yvaine.)

I'm not familiar enough with any of the flowers or the notes to pick out individual scents, but this is kind of a surprising floral. I'm not usually a fan of florals, but this one is clean and wet enough that I kind of adore it. This puts me more in mind of the scent of the air when you're around flowers, rather than the flowers themselves, and it's cold and wet enough that I would compare it to that air just before or just after a light rain. It is melancholy, and despite all the floral notes, I'd say it's more gray in color than anything. It will make a fantastic spring floral, but I'm not getting the brightness I'd usually associate with spring florals. It's certainly beautiful, though, and I can certainly see myself wearing this often (which is impressive, for something without even a hint of lavender in it).