jewelbug

Snake Oil Series CCCLIX This one starts out floral (rose??), and I have trouble picking up the snake oil, at least on me. As it dries, it takes on that pseudo-powdery scent that could either be a musk (black?), or perhaps a black amber. This seems like there was a pretty light hand with the Snake Oil, but maybe I am just amping the other notes. It is very pretty, but I don't see it getting much wear in my rotation.

Wet, this was like a very woodsy scent, lighly spiced with cassia. Dry, it took me a while, but if you've ever been to a Penzey's spice store, this smells exactly like walking into one of those. Wood displays with a mishmosh of dried herbs and exotic spices. Its sort of what I imagine an old traders ship would smell like, you know, if it didn't have all the dirty sailors. Really pretty awesome how much it smells like that. Late in the drydown, I get a lot more honey, and the penzey's scent has tamed quite a bit. Never really got wine or booze out of this, though. Overall: I enjoyed the experience, and I love cassia. The exotic spice/herb combo was pretty neat..but as much as I like shopping at Penzey's, I don't want to wear it everyday as a perfume.

Posting because its just not right to not review your own chaos, and I see Zee-Zee beat me to it. CCCLXL? (360): BOTTLE: smokey dorian?; WET: Smoked leather, perhaps some anise, and dorian--Black jellybeans and dorian? DRY: still smells a bit anisey but a wood note comes out--sassafras, maybe? Ends as a slightly darker dorian, sassafrassy, and maybe a touch of anise and leather (though I wonder now if that's just the sassafras?)? CCXCIII (#293): BOTTLE: light rose + dorian? WET: sweet light floral (not sure if its rose, as I am not good at identifying florals, but if it is, its a light one), more florals than Dorian to my nose. There is something dry underneath, maybe a sage or one of the orreratory scents form DDLM? DRY: Dorian with gentle sweet rose and dry sage is my best guess.

As a hobby beekeeper, I love this idea. I do have Paduan Killer Swarm, which I bought simply for the bee reference, and turned out to LOVE. There are also all of the honey scents, but I am embarrassed to say that I haven't tried them all yet! The smell of beekeeping would be awesome to capture--fresh cut lumber (the hive bodies and frames), resinous propilis, pine needle smoke, a plethora of pollens, beeswax oozing wildflower honey, with the hint of burnt honey you get in the honey house when you use the uncapping knife.

Wet: Pumpkin and Fruit Loops Mid-Dry: sweet fruity pumpkin with a tough of sweet vanilla Late Drydown: huh, where did the pumpkin go? I get a light fruit-loop laced floral.

I finally treated myself to a bottle of this, as the cartoon movie of the last unicorn was/is a childhood fave of mine, and I've been coveting these scents since released. I wasn't sure this would really be my sort of scent, but had to get it just for the link to childhood memories. Happily, I like both the memories AND the scent. In the bottle, i smell pretty much straight up cocoa butter, whcih gave me pause, as I don't really need more chocolate scents....immediately on, that cocoa butter smell continued strong for a few minutes, overpowering anything else, but by about 5 minutes in, this was LOVELY. The butter backed off, and the coconut and some light fresh florals (i'm not usuall a floral person, but these were not the beat you over the head type). It pretty much stayed that way on me, and lasted well over 12 hours, which is quite impressive for such a light bright scent. A beautiful blend, this strikes me as summery--light sweet, and even a bit cooling, if that makes sense. Love it, and so glad I treated myself to a bottle. I'll be wearing this often since its the dog days of summer now.

Wow! Decided to skin test this today, and it is INCREDIBLE! I've always liked carnation based bpals, so I guess this was a no brainer... This is spectacularly rich and spicy, almost incense-y in its depth, but with a nice almost-creamy-sweetness and even the barest hint of vegetal-ness (if that is a word). I'm so kicking myself for not ordering two bottles of this! Sexy, sexy single note.

This goes on with a definitely lemon edge. Lemon over some sweet florals, slightly green, and quite fresh. Once it dries down, it reminds me very strongly of the clean sweet scent that the Queen's Croquet Ground leaves in my living room. Am I crazy? Perhaps, but that's what I smell! Not really aquatic (but I rarely buy those, so maybe I wouldn't recognize that?), not really mossy, just sweet, clean, pretty, and very much like the BPTP roomspray TQCG. Verdict: I like it, and I admit that I bought this just for the name, thinking the notes didn't sound like me at all. But its very different from my normal picks, and really fresh, sweet and pretty.

This one really surprised me--it was not at all what i expected given the list of notes. In the bottle, this is most certainly a chocolate blend, which is what I have come to expect from 13's. Chocolate and some lovely spicy smoky fruity things. Wet, it is less chocolate (though still detectable), with some really spunky pink spicy smokiness going on. I really like it. As it dries, the chocolate seems to fade, and it starts to smell more and more like Pink Moon 2005 to me. Which I totally don't understand, since I'm not aware of any shared notes? Not that I mind, since I love PM05. To make sure I wasn't going nuts, I swiped some of this 13 on one wrist and my Pink Moon 05 on the other--the similarity is uncanny! Pink Moon has some floral to sharpen and differentiate it, but the base of the two scents is remarkably similar on me. This 13 ends up smelling like Pink Moon 05 had some vaguely chooclate/vanilla babies. Yup, so that's the verdict: a slightly foodier Pink Moon 05. I likey!

In the imp, and first on the skin, this is very strong lavender, with a bit of currant watching from the sidelines. Its the sort of lavender that is very clean smelling--probably because I have a lavender castille liquid soap with this particular lav in it--its a sharp, sorta medicinal lavender, if that makes sense. As it starts to dry, the lavender backs off and this goes very sweet. The blackcurrant gets stronger, but not in the least overpowering. I don't know what notes are responsible for this part, but there is definitely a melancholy sweetness to this--there's something "off" about the sweetness that I think helps w/ the impression of sadness, though I have no idea what note (magnolia?), or combo thereof, it is. There's also a pseudo creamy-butteriness to it (not the foody type, but I don't know how else to describe it). Overall: fascinating scent. Its sweet, calming, melancholy and beautiful. I'm going to keep the imp around at least for a little while to contemplate it and decide what to do! I think Beth did a fantastic job capturing this one!

In the bottle, this smells of super sweet honey--just like huffing honey from the jar. When this goes on, it is instantly a lemony herbal honey. Later, the tarter lemon/herb parts burn off, and i swear it ends up smelling like honey with a smidge of white chocoloate. Overall: a very nice honey blend, very sweet, quite "true" to real honey. I was hoping to get a wallop of cardamom (which I love), but never smelled it. Even so, this is really pretty. Simple, sweet, and easy to wear. I can see myself going to this as a standby on days when I just can't make up my mind.

This is a lovely coconut blend. It smells like a cool, creamy coconut cocktail, and underneath there are wisps of non-invasive gentle flowers on the breeze (I am not a big floral lover, so this is subtle and very nice). A wonderful summer blend, not like suntan lotion, and not the 'coconut rum' scent that often goes plastic on my skin. I don't get coconut from snow white, and so this doesn't smell like snow white to me at all. Which is just fine, as snow white went wonky on me after it aged. My only complaint is that it only lasts a few hours on me--a very understated scent that fades quickly. But its thoroughly enjoyable while its there.

I was so excited by the list of notes in this blend--clove, vanilla, carnation,and sandalwood especially. Sadly, this comes off as a very musky (where'd that come from?), masculine cologne on me. I like it (moderately), for a man, but DH was unimpressed by it. So, off to a better home this goes..

This was just a big fat no on me. I thought that it'd be hard to go wrong with vanilla/cream, but this paticular vanilla note seems to be the one that goes "faux" on me. The result smells SO MUCH like a spray I had in middle school--one of those "if you like this, you'll love this" imposter type sprays...and on me it smelled like a cheap, waxy vanilla candle. I didnt' like it in middle school and I don't like it now. And so, Detestable Putrescence has failed on my skin. To the swap pile!

In the bottle, this is the most delicious blend of dry cocoa, heavy dark musk and rich tobacco. On me, its musk, all musk, all the time. I can barely smell the the cocoa or tobacco, which were the two big reasons I bought this one! The musk is strong and goes very powdery and perfumey on me almost immediately. I think I'm gonna hang onto it despite these results...I'm hoping that a little aging will help to take the edge off and give the cocoa and tobacco a better chance. I'm also hesitant to judge right now, since I'm pregnant and the hormones might be changing what it would otherwise smell like on me. Overall: Not for me right now, but hoping aging and better hormones will have it smelling more like what it does in the bottle!