calivianya

In the vial: Woodsy! Resiny! This has promise. Wet on my skin: More of the bitter, dusty wood. It reminds me of the Lab's white sandalwood note. I'm also getting amber and maybe patchouli? It's interesting, but we'll see how it plays out. Dry: The dust and patchouli take over for me. It's like patchouli coated in sawdust. It's not bad, but it's not great either. Aureus is a 'meh' scent for me.

Wet on my skin: Cold, regal violet. It's definitely the mint giving me the cold aspect. I don't get any osmanthus, orris, or opoponax right away. Drying: Ugh, I'm always hoping that I will one day find a blend where the violet will behave itself. Unfortunately, Brusque Violet is not this blend; it goes powdery almost right away. It smells a lot like baby powder, and the baby powder smell doesn't go away.

The stone note in 13 Hours is translating to dust on my skin. It smells old, that's for sure. If you guys can do roses, moss, and ivy, 13 Hours might be a good blend. It's not for me, but life happens.

Wet: lavender, peppermint, and sweet bright things! 10 minutes: Okay, it's cute and fluffy and bright, but I think it's already disappearing. Dry: Yep, it's gone. My skin ate this one in under 20 minutes. All I can smell is something vaguely plasticky where it was, and that's only if I put my nose directly over the application site.

Wet: My first impression is that it reminds me of An Altar to Cold, Rigid, Dreadful Death! That first sniff is heavy on the frankincense and woods. 10 minutes: It's like An Altar, but it's so much more. It's starting to smell almost exactly like Cathedral on me. Dry: No, wait, even more is making an appearance. It's Cathedral with leather. It's a dominatrix in leather at the altar on the day of a funeral delivering a eulogy. I agree that it's a very solemn blend. It's really good, but I have so many scents that are similar to this one that I don't know if this is worth keeping.

First off, I want to say that the main reason I ordered a decant of this is that I LOVE the stone note in Black Opal. I hope that one and this one are the same note, and I hope it's awesome. Wet: Dirty flowers rolling in a dryer sheet. Really? Ugh. Maybe it's mothballs, not a dryer sheet. It seems like it's getting more pungent by the second. Something about this is really, really foul. 10 minutes: Okay, whatever that horrid nastiness was is starting to resolve. Now I'm getting old roses covered in dust and... something. I'm not really familiar with the ivy note, so that's probably what that other note is. Dry: The rose hips amp up even further, and at this point it's all roses and dust. The best word I can use for the scent at this point is "boring," sadly. This one's not a keeper for me.

I am so excited to try this! Oh, yeah. Even just sniffing the decant yields a similarity to Dorian from this blend. In the vial, it smells like Dorian with a less overpowering level of sugar and vanilla. I am suitably intrigued. Honestly, what this really reminds me of when it starts to dry down is The Bow and Crown of Conquest. They have a lot of similar notes: both share leather and white musk, Jareth has oude where TBACOC (laziness much?) has cedar, and Jareth has tonka where TBACOC has vanilla. I'm going to have to death match these two because just from memory, I'm quite certain that I don't need both. Jareth is basically TBACOC with lilac instead of carnation and sage.

I bought a bottle of this because it's a Lace and I've loved all of them so far. I'm not sure the notes are going to do much for me at all. In the bottle, this is syrupy-sweet strawberries and alcohol in a bad way. It smells a little like the time a friend of mine decided to marinate some strawberries in Everclear. Wet on my skin, it's more of the same plus the addition of tea rose. The strawberry starts to disappear quickly, leaving this more of a sweet tea rose/champaca blend. Unfortunately, the strawberry comes back with a vengeance on the drydown. I had a feeling that I wouldn't like this because of the strawberry, and I wish I'd listened to my instincts. This smells like a 12 year old girl to me - all pink and glitter and experimenting with her mother's makeup for the first time. I can't imagine seriously wearing this perfume in any situation.

In the bottle, this smells almost exactly like Tattered Lace to me, except Mourning Lace has a little spicy clove to it too. Wet on my skin... what just happened? This went so masculine almost immediately. The clove became the most prominent note, backed up by oak and frankincense. Isn't this supposed to have vanilla blossom in it? I'm not getting any. This is positively smoky, and not in a good way. I like frankincense and clove as a combination (I love the hair gloss!), but I think the oak threw a wrench in that lovely combination. I've never smelled clove cigarettes, but this is what I imagine an ashtray full of clove cigarette ash would smell like. It is really sour and burnt-smelling to my nose. I am so disappointed; I really expected this to be a winner. I'm going to keep it a while before giving up on it, but I am really not crazy about this scent right now.

That happened to me, too. I had two charges on February 10th, and I was shocked because I thought they had somehow charged me for someone else's orders. I went back through my charge history, and there were two orders I'd never paid for - one that I received on Jan 10th and another I received on Jan 21st. I had one order a whole month before I paid for it.

Cotton candy! Wet on my skin, this opens a lot like The Wiley Grasser minus the flowers and pine. It smells like that cotton candy note plus maybe a little strawberry or some other red fruit. I want to eat it in this stage! Unfortunately, the good stuff doesn't last. It goes plasticky, like one of those little waxy strawberry candies you can get at the dollar store. Such a promising beginning, but it really falls flat on my skin.

This spray smells of happy! Really. My mother expressed an interest in the room sprays, so I got this for her with my last order. She sprayed it in her hall bathroom and had me come and smell it. It seriously smells like she's got a garden in her bathroom, one that she just finished weeding. It is very much a dirt scent, but the citrus and florals make it bright. I want to say there was some movie I've seen that had animated flowers in it that jumped and danced as people passed by, because that's what I'm picturing when I smell this scent. It is not my favorite room spray as I prefer musky/incense/woodsy smells, but this is just so uplifting to me that I can't help but like it. I know I'm going to be sticking my nose in her bathroom to smell it every time I visit.

Oddly enough, while this scent is wet I am also getting something a little like vetiver. I am guessing it's the interaction between kudzu and gingergrass. It's like grape soda plus vetiver. I'm a little scared. It calms down on the drydown, and stays a pretty consistent grape-flavored ginger ale. I was hoping for creamy ginger goodness, but I'm apparently not going to find it here.

I passed on this one initially, but after all of the rave reviews I tacked a decant onto one of my decant circle orders. Wet: Whoa! Pear to the face. I seriously feel like I just got smacked in the nose with a wet, overripe pear. It's not a pleasant smell at the moment - it's honestly sickening. I am going to wait it out, but I am very tempted to wash it off. Well, as it starts to dry down, the honey becomes stronger, though the pear is still overpowering. It's more tolerable at this point. On the drydown, it is true to most scents with honey on my skin - honey becomes the dominating factor, with the pear a close second. Now, this scent I like. It's very understated and lovely. I'm not sure it's worth waiting out that godawful wet stage for it to get here, though. ... Oh wow. I was just trying to figure out what that awful cat litterbox smell was - it was like Jack just used the litterbox and he walked by me or something, but he's been here this whole time. It's this perfume. It smells nice up close, but the waft is dirty litter box. I'm going to get rid of this decant ASAP.

I don't know if this will help you, but the Lab's honey and beeswax notes smell pretty much identical on the drydown on my skin. I can't tell the difference after about 30 minutes - they're both a sweet honey-ish scent, though sometimes the honey goes more powdery than the beeswax will. Maybe it's just my skin chemistry, but if you've tried and liked the Lab's honey I don't know if you can go wrong with the Lab's beeswax.

Hemlock Honey from Rappaccini's Garden smells a lot like sweet pine on my skin. I'm also going to second the recommendation for The Illustrated Woman.

I find The Bow and Crown of Conquest from Sin and Salvation to fit this category exactly. It is indeed haughty-smelling, but also sexy. It's like the hot aloof person that you want so bad but won't spare you a glance.

I received a tester of this as a freebie from a generous forumite! In my review of Hemlock, I wrote that it would need a sweetener for it to work on me. Well, let's see if honey is the sweetener I was looking for. Wet on my skin, this is a very green, bitter honey. I'm definitely getting the pine-y smell I associated with Hemlock from this blend, but it is about 50/50 honey/hemlock on my skin right now. Sometimes honey goes a little bit play-doh on my skin, and that happens here. Fortunately, the play-doh honey doesn't stay play-doh for long - the hemlock makes a strong resurgence and the blend becomes mostly hemlock with a teensy bit of powdery honey in the background. I'm kind of digging this right now. I'm not sure that I'd want a bottle of it, but it's going to need a re-test, and maybe a deathmatch against The Illustrated Woman, before I make up my mind. I think those two are going to be incredibly similar on my skin, and I already have a bottle of The Illustrated Woman that I barely wear.

Huh. I've never thought about what I should or shouldn't wear to class before. I feel like if people are allowed to come to class with turquoise hair and pajama pants, I can wear whatever crazy scent that I want. If there's no dress code, there's no scent code - or at least that's my logic. I've gotten compliments but I've never heard a complaint, so I guess I'm fine.

Persephone is really true to its description right after application - it is a juicy pomegranate with rose. I get the chemical smell some people mentioned a few minutes after I put it on. The chemical smell does resolve on the drydown, and Persephone ends up being mostly rose. Despite the love of the scent name, I wasn't expecting much from Persephone, and I'm glad. It's just not for me.

Grog smells very buttery and rum-y in the vial. Unfortunately, I have ruined myself for rum and rum scents due to an episode of drinking too much coconut rum one night. The smell makes me sort of queasy. This one's not for me.

Wet on my skin, Casanova is a sharp, bright lavender/lemon combination. It's much more cheery than I'd expect for a sexy librarian. After a few minutes, darker notes start to appear. This is still a very high-pitched scent, but there is a little bit of leather lurking with tonka in the background. At this point, Casanova is a very headache-inducing cologne on my skin. Something about this does not agree with me, and I think I'm going to wash it off in a minute. Well, I got lazy, and I'm glad. After about 20 minutes more, Casanova smoothed out and now smells eerily like The Bow and Crown of Conquest, which I love. However, since I already have a bottle of that, Casanova is not a keeper.

I just got to try Antique Lace for the first time, and I am in love. Okay, here's the thing. I think that the perfumey/floral part of Antique Lace smells a lot like Lady Death: Savage. I just attempted layering Lady Death: Savage and Black Opal to get something close, but Black Opal's vanilla is too cold and Antique Lace's vanilla is warm and creamy. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that maybe Boo and Lady Death: Savaged layered together at at 2:1 ratio would smell a lot more like Antique Lace. Has anyone tried out this combination?

An incredibly, incredibly generous forumite let me have some of this to test. I am so pleased. On my skin, I am getting this beautiful soft vanilla, musk and linen combination with just the faintest undertones of floral perfume. I don't usually like floral notes, but these are so unobtrusive that they just add depth to the scent and don't take over. As the scent dries down, the vanilla just becomes more pronounced and deep on my skin. It is very sensual - it's a lovely vanilla caress. It just feels so elegant to me. I could easily see myself wearing this on my wedding day, if I ever get married. I am unfortunately off to modify my top 10 and add Antique Lace to it. I am now one of the hordes who really hopes this come back one day.

Wet on my skin, this is a blast of cold floral! I think I am getting the white musk, champaca flower, and fir needle the strongest. It is an interesting combination, and I'm excited to see where it goes. However, it starts to sour within ten minutes. I'm not exactly sure which component does the souring, though I strongly suspect it's the grey amber. That doesn't always go well on my skin, and it's not going well here. Ugh, this is totally nasty on the drydown; I'm going to have to go wash it off.