ismene

I received bottle XII on Saturday. When I first opened it and smelled flowers, I was trepidatious because I normally dislike florals and the feeling is mutual. It's sweet and soft, with a bit of rose and perhaps honeysuckle. I'm sure there are other things, too, but I'm not good at identifying floral notes. When I put it on I was pleasantly surprised to find that this floral actually smelled good on me. I was getting excited about having a floral I could wear on those rare occasions when I wanted a floral, but I thought this too soon. After it dried down, it morphed into a sickly floral dryer sheet smell and ended up giving me a headache. Florals still hate me.

This brings to mind an aged cedarwood box storing peppercorns, on a ship's hold somplace making the trip from the Orient back to renaissance Europe. I mostly smell the wood and the pepper with just a a hint of green. It doesn't smell like I expected, despite knowing the notes; nothing reminds me of a trickster god, or spiders, or Africa. It is a rather masculine scent, but normally that doesn't bother me and I often wear more masculine scents. This makes me think of something an old man would wear for some reason and I'm a bit bothered by that idea. I don't know where it comes from, either. I like the scent, but I feel weird about wearing it with that assocation in my head.

At first I can smell the sweetness of the orange and cherry, tempered by the bitterness of the black tea and perhaps the yuzu. Once it's dried down, it's entirely bitter. Disappointing, because I thought I'd really like this one.

As others have said, this is a very feminine scent. It's also very overpowering on me. At first I can barely smell anything other than the rose, though it's a soft rose. Once it's fully dry it's a rose sweetened with a bit of honey. I never could smell the apple, much as I tried.

I've never had a pomengranate martini, so I can't tell if the description is entirely truthful or not. However, it certainly smells like a cocktail and I'm really surprised that I like it, given that I dislike pomengranate juice. I'll probably order a big bottle - this stuff is fucking fabulous.

It's sweet, yet it's not. It's fruity, yet it's not. Every time I sniff my arm I pick up a different note. I can identify the cocoa and I think the fig, but there are several others I can't identifiy at all. I feel like I'm in a dark, shaded jungle when I wear this. Ok, maybe not a jungle, but I'm definitely in that bar from the "Hungry Like the Wolf" video. A vodka sour and some table-tossing, please.

This scent is a very very pale purple color, like a drop of gentian violet put into a saucer of milk and mixed in. I really like the medieval assocations, but the lavendar is way too strong for me. There's also something sharp and slightly bitter as an undertone - possibly the neroli? It's an interesting and very unusual blend, but too overpwoering for me.

Maenad is even more strongly strawberry than Hollywood Babylon. I'd probably like HB much better if I hadn't tried Maenad first and been so crazy about it. You might like Swank, too. I'll second the recommendations for O, Bordello, and Tamora.

I think I need an intervention. I just spent more than I can really afford on oils. I only meant to get Blue Moon, but ended up buying bottles of Lughnasadh and Havisham as well as a bunch of imps. I'm trying to tell myself it's an early birthday present, as if I won't buy myself anything else before then. I have no willpower when it comes to shopping.

Oooh ... minor hijack... Where is this? Sounds utterly intriguing. It's in Lafayette, IN, which is about an hour NW of Indianapolis. I always spend so much money there...the staff of one of the jewelry vendors knows me by name and I've only been going there a few years!

Oh my. This is going to bankrupt me, because how can I order just one thing at a time? Maybe I can convince myself not to order every month. I definitely need to get Hunter's Moon, though, since there's a big 18th-century reenactment festival nearby each October called the Feast of the Hunter's Moon.

At first this smelled a bit sour to me, but it dramatically improved once it dried down. It's sweet & fruity, but that sweetness is tempered with a bit of spice, probably from the poppy. Very lush and decadent, but it makes me want to lounge about, not rip things apart!

I keep smelling cherries when I wear this for some reason. The almond is very strong too, so the overall impression is that of a fruit-flavored marzipan. Not what I expected and not what I'd associate with a seraglio, but I like it nonetheless. Unfortunately this one fades quickly one me as all my favorites do.

I got the lemon-scented cleaning fluid smell like some others did, which was most unpleasant. The perfume didn't make me as ill as cleaning solutions usually do, but I still couldn't wait to get it off my wrists.

I agree with you about the pine. It's the only note I can smell when I wear it, and in the bottle I can sniff just the barest hint of anything that's not pine. Hee. I like forests, but I don't want to smell like a tree!

In the bottle, I can smell both the berries and the green notes. On me, all I can smell is pine. This isn't the only scent with a pine note that becomes overpowering on me, so I guess it's just my skin. I don't particularly fancy smelling like a Christmas tree, so I'll save this one for scenting the house next winter.

This is what snow smells like. Not snow that's been on the ground for an hour or two and certainly not snow that's gone slushy and brown. This is newly fallen snow with flakes in the air, fairy tale perfect snow that's pure glistening white and holds the promise of an ice queen who'll give you marzipan. Just wait a minute and she'll show up, this scent wafting from her furs...

I liken this to opium smoke in a bottle, though to be accurate it probably smells more like a strong incense. This is one of my favorites, but I think it's heavy enough I won't wear it much during the warmer months. I definitely need a big bottle of this. ADDED March 27: Between this description and my own feeling that the scent is like that of opium smoke, I'll now always mentally smell this whenever I see or read From Hell. ADDED April 8: Having never sniffed Johnny Depp up close and personal (alas), I cannot vouch for this. Definitely a nice thought, though...

To me the oil smells like an entire rosebush, it's so full and strong, with a hint of greenness for the leaves. I'm very impressed that Elizabeth was able to make a perfume that smells exactly like roses, because all the rose scents I've encountered before smell obviously fake.

I love the smell of leather, love that new-coat smell, so I was hoping this would be that scent in a bottle. Unfortunately, it wasn't. On me, it doesn't smell like leather at all. Not even remotely leatherlike. It smells acrid and chemically. It also gave me a headache every time I sniffed even a tiny bit of it, so I'm glad I only purchased a sample and not a full bottle. Everyone else's experiences with it sound delightful and I wish mine had been more like that