Victory

Skin musk is very iffy on me, so I was a little concerned but Coraline is lovely. This is more dry lawn grass than dry grasses in a field with clean, clean skin. Maybe there’s a little moss and a hint of berry, but just a hint. It’s what it says on the tin but it’s prettier and more wearable than you might think. I can see why people mention children in relation to this- not because an adult can’t wear it well but because the scent isn’t hiding anything. It is what it says it is, unlike most adults. I’m a sucker for any dry grass perfume so I’m glad to have tried it and will consider getting myself a bottle.

This reminds me a lot of Hexennacht, although I like this better. The buckskin reminds me of Coyote, which I love. This is definitely a forest scent but it isnt overwhelming to me- I feel comfortable wearing it without feeling like it is wearing me or is overwhelmingly dark. These are the woods you played in as a child rather than the woods that house a monster. This isnt my usual type of scent, but I like it.

This really isn’t my sort of perfume, but I’d always wanted to try it anyway so I was delighted (ha!) to find it in my box of old imps. It’s a very humid white floral. It makes me think of Hell’s Belle and the Deep South- it’s a scent that almost condenses humidity and makes it something you can cut through. It’s definitely sweet but not so piercing as gardenia. If you’re a fan of the damp, humid florals, I think this would be fantastic. As for me, I’m so pleased to have tried it, even though it isn’t something I’d wear.

Leather is very hit-or-miss with me, so I was glad to get an imp of this. Starting out, the leather is strong and dry, which was a bad sign, but as it's dried, the leather gets less dry-smelling. There is a sweetness to it that smells somehow bubble gummy (it isn't bubble gum. I just don't know how to describe it. It's not tonka, it's not the rosewood, what is it?). I like it. It's in the same family as Herr Drosselmeyer- definitely masculine but really comforting for me to wear. I prefer HD, but this is a good second choice should I run out.

Definitely pine-y. A very clean scent. So clean that I think you could be covered in thick mud and as long as you were wearing Elf, you'd smell like you'd just gotten out of a shower. I myself was hoping for honeycomb + berries + musk like FeralFae got, but it's nice for what it is.

Thirteen sugars, honeys, and vanillas dusted with chocolate to help you combat ill-fortune with the raw power of overwhelming sweetness. I'm a honey and vanilla fiend, sugar is usually good on me, and my daughter was born on a Friday the 13th, so this is the first 13 I've gotten- I'm just not a chocolate scent-wearer. And sadly (for me), for the first two hours, it's all chocolate. It's a bitter chocolate, which surprises me since the oil is described as having overwhelming sweetness. Maybe the bitter chocolate is the bad luck that's being burned off. After two hours, I begin to get some honey. It's not the typical Lab honey on me- honey is my bulletproof note, and I'm not sure about this one. It makes me think of the honey in Mead Moon. Actually, the more I think of it, the more I think it must be. This is a somewhat herbal honey. On my left wrist, the scent remains unchanged from here on out. On my right wrist, I do get a softer, vanilla and honey scent. This is much more my cup of tea. It's not hugely sweet on me, though. This just arrived in my mailbox yesterday though, so it's awfully fresh (seriously, labbies. Less than a week after it went up, I got it. It shipped the next business day morning. And so I got to do a first post! I am amazed.) I suspect that as it ages, the scent will lean more toward the right-wrist honey and vanilla scent that I will adore. I can't wait! Actually, the throw is a delicious honey-vanilla. It is sweet, but it's rich dessert sweet, not I stuck a spoon in a bowl of sugar sweet. And the honey loses the herbal cast that I don't love. I'm very happy with this. Edited for spelling. Awkward.

Whoa, that is some serious popcorn! Mouse Circus starts off like a headlong dive into a vat of buttery popcorn, then has brief wisps of cotton candy interspersed with the popcorn, and then returns to popcorn by itself. I love butter popcorn, but I'd rather eat it than smell like it.

Plum can be a hit or miss note on me, so I was a little nervous ordering this. Luckily, the plum doesn't turn on me. Mostly maybe because there isn't a whole lot of plum or currant or cardamom here. Sure, the snowball has a faint purple tint, but the emphasis is on the snowball rather than the purple. And this isn't the snowball from Pink Snowballs, unfortunately. That snowball was like its description- soft. This snowball is piney to me and sharp- there are shards of ice packed into this snowball. You don't want to get hit in the face with this one. Also, not a comment on the scent, but I find the label of this perfume to be virtually illegible. Trying to read dark purple text on a mostly-black background is a tough task.

The only reason I know this isn't Snow White in the wrong bottle is the initial burst of mint. So this is basically Snow-Flakes + Snow White. I like it, but I was thinking it would be a unique scent and it isn't, really.

I'm with Lycanthrope- that mugwort (at least here, since I haven't had this happen before) is stinky. Almost a musty smell. For the first 5 minutes it is all mugwort and then... it's gone. Not completely, if I MASH my nose against my wrist and get lucky I can get a little sniff of snow. I'm really disappointed- it is so frustrating when a perfume disappears within 10 minutes, especially when the first 5 are stinky! I just got my bottle a couple of days ago, so I am really hoping that it will settle down and get more oomph.

I picked up my bottle of Ice Queen on etsy. I'm not totally sure why, since I don't wear pine scents, other than I thought, "heeeeey, this is a 2004 Yule!" But I'm glad I did. Freshly on, it certainly is evergreen, and a cold evergreen to boot, but it isn't the normal total turnoff that pine/spruce/balsam are usually. The snow scent sort of hovers around the edges of the scent and makes it really appealing. I don't smell the flowers or fruits per se, and the musks only faintly, but I'm really pleased.

I've tried Cheshire Cat twice- the first time I did smell the grapefruit, the second time I did not. But both times I thought that the scent made me think of the tumbling of incense smoke from the caterpillar's pipe. The notes aren't separate from each other to me, but still somehow they rise and fall together- they tumble! The scent makes me think of a sorority girl's perfume, not that I think that sorority girls would wear it, but it seems somehow pink and girly and flirty. I have other perfumes that fit that niche that I like better, but it certainly is an interesting scent experience.

Freshly-squished strawberries, wild roses, orris butter, red clover, and unmowed grass warmed by summer sunshine. I got to sniff Self-Portrait with Puffy Stickers at C2E2 and I'm glad I did, because otherwise I'd have given it a pass because the notes sounded iffy. Strawberry is a note that I always want to work, but it doesn't often work. To be completely honest, I am not sure I have ever smelled a realistic strawberry perfume note, even in oils people describe as totally realistic. Here it is a candy note too, but the rose twines together with it and makes it fantastic. Maybe the candy sweetness of the strawberry softens the sharpness of the rose and makes them just work. I don't much smell the other notes, maybe there's some grass in the background but it's subtle and yes, not mowed. The strawberry doesn't last, which is normal for me, so the perfume doesn't linger long, but it's really really good. Such a different strawberry/rose combination from Love, which was like an alcoholic drink! This is my favorite of the Tremulous Songs. Edited for the note list!

You should check out the Recommendations forum (where this will probably be moved).

This makes me think of the Post's Glowing Vulva bath oil, because they both smell exactly like Johnson's & Johnson's on me. As Self-Portrait wears, it does move a little away from that, but it still stays in the territory. Sometimes I can catch a little hint of honey, but it's almost wishful thinking. The good news for me is that I don't smell the dreaded gardenia. Maybe a little florally sweetness yes, but no high pitched gardenia. I'm hoping with continued aging it might smell less and less like baby wash and more like freshly-washed baby (if you see what I mean).