Floria

This was a gamble, since neroli sometimes doesn't like me, but it sounded so pretty I risked a decant. In the imp, the most noticeable note is a lovely sparkling pink grapefruit, a bit like the top note of The Phoenix At Dawn but colder and less sweet. On my skin, it was more floral, but not particularly sweet, with a bit of cold sharpness. At this stage, it smelled more like a wintery 51. You might get a sweeter effect if your chemistry likes neroli better than mine, but the sharpness did enhance the wintery impression. This is definitely a *winter* dawn. It's not the best on me, but it is evocative.

I get mostly butterscotch. I'm not a connoisseur of old book scents, so my nose may not be parsing the old paper accord properly, and I did apply quite lightly this morning (wearing it to work), but still - mostly butterscotch. It's a very nice, wearable butterscotch, without the heavy syrupy quality that ruins some sugary blends for me, so I'm glad I got to try it, but I was hoping for a little more complexity. Maybe a bit of aging will bring out the other notes.

Titania and Maiden are both very pretty girly scents. Belle Epoque if you're interested in something not quite so floral.

Ameles Potamos is a little bit salty. Octopus and Windward Passage are both very oceany to my nose.

How Doth The Little Crocodile reads as woody chocolate peppermint to my nose. I'm not sure if I'd call it a "warm" scent, but it's certainly not a chilly/menthol mint.

I can definitely see the "pearl" quality, since this does have a sort of creamy smooth shimmer to it. To me it smells like coconutty violets. Florentine iris must smell different from iris reticulata or the big bearded irises in my backyard. I don't get much hazelnut, but it may be enhancing the nuttiness of the coconut. It's an interesting combination - reminds me of some of the candied violet scents I've tried, but the smooth nutty element sets it apart.

Sybaris (violet, tonka, clove, and a bit of incense) is great if you like violet candy.

Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss.  Keeping in mind that my hormones are a bit out of whack at present and my skin's been very dry lately... This perfume seems, to my nose, to be composed of two accords, which I'll call the Sweet and the Dry. The Sweet reads as a very nice floral vanilla. The Dry is a bit salty, a bit woody, and reminds me a little of Cathode - possibly because of the shared ambergris + moss. The white sandalwood may also be responsible for the dryness of Dry. The Sweet and Dry fluctuate in relative strength during the drydown. When Sweet is ascendent, I rather like Lyonesse - I'm not crazy about the Dry accord, but as a secondary element it does make the perfume more distinctive and multidimensional. When Dry is ascendent, it's less wearable for me - just a touch too redolent of brine-encrusted dried wood.

If both Dorian and Embalming Fluid went a bit floral on you, it looks like your skin might have issues with light musks or tea. Have you tried any light musk scents without tea or tea scents without musks? Have you tried The Great Sword of War? (Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict.) It's interesting. Less sweet than most red musk scents I've encountered, with a slightly cologne-like citrus top note over a slightly foody base.

My non-floral recommendations: * No. 93 Engine is resiny but bright, not rich or incensy. It's not quite like anything else I've tried. * How Doth The Little Crocodile is an interesting take on chocolate mint with a bit of a smoky wood/oakmoss undertone. * Rogue is a very simple but wearable leather blend. * Paladin is also leathery, but softer and sweeter than Rogue. * Embalming Fluid is very refreshing for summer - like under-sweetened lemonade made with real lemons. * If you don't amp the apple blossom, Baobhan Sith is delicious sweet grapefruit. * Dana O'Shee reminds me of oatmeal soap, but creamier. * Tombstone is a great non-floral vanilla with a bit of rootbeer. The cedar adds to the ambiance but doesn't make itself obnoxious. * Dragon's Milk combines dragon's blood resin with vanilla and honey and winds up smelling, to me at least, a bit like slightly spicy red licorice. * Eclipse is worth trying if you like Chimera - I found them to have a rather similar feel. There's a bit of heliotrope, but I find heliotrope more of a soft, slightly foody floral than a perfumy one. * Plunder is full of spices. * Shub-Niggurath is a very popular blend of resiny-incense and foodie ginger. * Mary Read has a bit of woody patchouli, so it may not be your thing, but it's such an evocative scent I had to mention it. Something in the notes really does capture that sunbaked wood/salt spray/hint of tar smell of a wooden boat. (There are other notes as well - it doesn't leave you smelling just like a deck plank.)

It's a cold day and my skin's a bit dry, which may be affecting how the scent develops. That said- I get mostly tea rose out of this. There's enough complexity that it's not a solefleur, but the tea rose stands out the most. (Keep in mind that I do tend to amp rose, especially when the perfume is fairly fresh, which this is.) It's a bit tangy at the beginning, but thankfully not as shrill as some roses can go on me, and dries down to a rather sweet, fruity tea rose that isn't too soapy. I do get the effect Ghost of a Rose mentioned, how it develops differently on different wrists - it faded a lot faster on my left. It's not unpleasant, and I'm glad to find another rose that behaves itself, but I wish I got more of a mixed floriental effect. I already have an imp of London! I will hang onto this and see if it gets more complex with a bit of aging.

This is a very well-blended scent once it's had a chance to dry a bit. The cake here is buttery in the vial but not on my skin, and it doesn't have the odd red-musky quality of fresh Eat Me - maybe the incense dries it out a little? The incense is fairly subtle, not sharp or head-shoppy, and blends well with the cake base. There's a slightly heady floral quality when it's fresh, that could be the incense itself or the interaction between the incense and fruit notes. The currant is definitely present, but it doesn't take over like the currants in fresh Eat Me do - maybe it's a fresh vs. dried fruit thing? Sugared fruit notes can sometimes be too much on me, but this behaves itself. Eta: I think there might be myrrh in this. There's a slightly bitter-almondy quality in the early drydown that I associate with myrrh.

Dorian has that dandyish quality to my nose - it has sweetness from the vanilla, but the tea and musk make it a bit cologny and not too girly. Schrodinger's Cat is a fun unisex herbal-citrus.

Pomegranate - love it as a fruit, have mixed feelings as a perfume note. It's okay in La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente, but in Eve, To Adam In Paradise it turned into cough syrup. I mostly got this to see if pomegranate worked on me when not combined with potentially problematic florals (rose doesn't always like me). In the bottle, this is pomegranate city, with a worrisome hint of potential cough-syrupyness. Just applied, it briefly goes dry chypre, and I wondered why I bothered, as I'm not much of an oakmoss fan when it's the star of the show. But then the scent warms up, and the pomegranate takes over again, supported by the other notes. The pomegranate is not a candy-sweet fruit at all. It's a bit tart, with an almost bittersweet edge. This makes the scent a little more sophisticated and adds to the "autumn evening" feeling, but unfortunately, I have very strong negative associations with the smell of cough syrup. Fortunately, it never falls over the tipping point of being too tart or bitter or medicinal too enjoy. The resins and chypre are definitely the supporting cast, with the resins lending richness and the chypre adding a bit of darkness to the base. The chypre is earthy and not too bitter. This is not a powdery scent at all during the wet phase, but in the far drydown as the pomegranate fades, the resins get a bit powdery and the chypre goes a bit dusty. Still not Powder City, however. This is definitely fruit + resinous chypre to my nose, not resinous chypre + fruit. It's interesting as a sophisticated, grown-up red fruit scent, but I wouldn't recommend it if you don't like the idea of smelling like classy pomegranates.

This reminds me of BPAL's red musk blends, despite the lack of musk. I think it's the rich sweetness of the pumpkin and amber over the incensy base. This pumpkin isn't as foody as some, but it's definitely rich pumpkin, not vegetable pumpkin, and it's rather sweet. There's an overlying blanket of rich, mellow sweetness, with the cinnamon and dry incensy note underneath that. The non-pumpkin ingredients assert themselves a bit more in the drydown. It's not overwhelmingly spicy.

Disclaimer: My hormones/body chemistry is a bit in flux at present, your skin and nose may vary. A lot. That being said, I mostly got this to see if I could wear BPAL's dry grass note. It's interesting. The opening note is very reminiscent of a light vetiver - the botanical, grassy kind in some of this year's Song of Nature blends, not the heavy smoky Malediction-type vetiver. Makes sense, vetiver is a grass. The drydown is warm, a bit dry (but not sandalwood dry), and very sweet in a non-foody way. Maybe sweetgrass synergizing with the amber? If there's musk in here, it's pretty subtle. This is definitely an autumnal scent. Between the soft earthiness and the warm sweetness, it manages to be outdoorsy and cozy at the same time.

This is a foodie pumpkin, not a Jack O'Lantern pumpkin. It reminds me of Jack, but without the peach note and the buttery-spicy quality is not as strong. There's a bit of warm sweetness to the blend that might be beeswax, but it's not an overpowering honey scent. It's very mellow and well-blended. I'm a bit disappointed that this doesn't smell like Jack O'Lanterns, but it's very pleasant and autumnal.

This is a strange one. Not quite as headshoppy as I'd thought it would be when I ordered it. The resins have a kind of syrupy quality that synergizes with the bitter almond in an interesting way, to give a dark, rich, bittersweet effect that's almost chocolaty. It doesn't really smell like chocolate as such, but it has a similar kind of bitter/sweet/aromatic/rich balance, if that makes any sense. And then there's the cumin. Which doesn't really synergize with the almond-resin-chocolate accord, but stands on its own as kind of a contrasting element. (Unless the patchouli is backing it up - if I sniff closely, there's something a little bit woody behind the dusty-savory spice.) I keep sniffing this and thinking of something like chocolate with chili powder. Mole sauce? Dark chocolate in a dusty spice and import shop? I'm not entirely sure I enjoy smelling like cumin, but it does make the perfume more complex and distinctive.

If you like licorice, To-Day Will Die To-Morrow (Siamese benzoin, white lilac, tuberose, aniseseed, and white carnation) from the current Garden of Proserpine line is a good, unconventional sweet floral. The benzoin and anise give it an almost candylike base.

When just applied, this is primarily floral. I get a lot of damp, dewy, slightly indolic lilac, and, a bit disappointingly, not much carnation. The florals soften on the drydown but don't disappear. At this stage the anise and benzoin come forward - these two sweet notes have merged into an almost candlylike accord. The anise dominates, with the benzoin taking a supporting role, but it's more complex than pure licorice. It's a femme floral that's sweet but not syrupy, and the anise and benzoin base is a nice change from musks.

Pumpkin Masala Rooibos (Rooibos tea with red ginger, green cardamom, fennel, peppercorns, almond, and licorice, sweetened with coconut sugar and jaggery) was a Yule LE from a couple of years ago that might be up your alley. It's sweet and spicy with a hint of a creamy foody undertone that reminds me a bit of Indian rice pudding.

At first, the sandalwood is very dry and a little dusty, but after the other notes come out to play it's much more wearable. The black pepper seems to serve as a bridging note, merging the spiciness of the leather accord with the dryness of the sandalwood. The leather isn't harsh, and it helps balance out the dustiness of the pepper and sandalwood. In the early drydown stage, it's a rather butch scent, although not MANLY. Later in the drydown, the flowers and resins come out and it gets sweeter.

Many top-heavy citrusy scents become less so as they age, in my experience, so letting Rigorous Love sit around a while and retest it wouldn't be a bad idea.

White peach, lily of the valley, jasmine, rose, iris, osmanthus, tangerine, white wine grape, and cream accord. I was a bit worried about this because of the rose, but everything else is good to great on me, and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a decant. The rose behaves itself in this! Hurrah! Overall, this reminds me of a fuller-bodied Titania - it's a similar blend of flowers and summer fruit, but Titania is lighter and cooler and has a pronounced pear note, which La Vague lacks. La Vague is plusher and more perfumey, and while I didn't notice the cream as a separate note, it does have a creamy quality. It's a bit like Titania's glamorous fuller-figured big sister. Unfortunately, it dries down to perfumed Creamsavers to my nose, which isn't bad, but is somewhat less interesting.

Rigorous Love is great for summer, with the brightness of the lemongrass and mimosa. My mom always gets pina coladas out of it. It also lacks the sort of "lotiony" effect I sometimes get out of Snow White.