angelamaria

I was so infatuated with this blend. I bought as much as I could get my hands on, unsniffed... In bottle: sweet vanilla mint! Very vanilla, and a soft sweet mint. Where snowblind is more mint than vanilla in the bottle, this is more vanilla than mint. Very yummy, tipping towards foody. Wet on skin: yum! Definitely a sweet candy vanilla mint. Beautiful and yummy and so foodily wonderful; smooth and creamy and minty. This blend makes me want some sweets right nao. The mint strengthens as it dries, keeping more on par with the vanilla. Dry: this becomes a slightly dusty vanilla mint. Sweet and beautiful and refreshing in a very smooth and creamy way. However, as it stays longer on my skin, that horrible, horrible plasticky note starts to come out for me. Verdict: I really, REALLY wanted to get this to work. Not just because of the blend itself, but because I, er, ended up with multiple expensive bottles. D: I even tried a scent locket for it, but in the end...I have to let it go. I like how blends become so personal on my skin, and can't remember to be fussy enough to put it in a scent locket.

In imp: very pink! I'm getting the slightly spicy carnations and pepper, a kind of sweet dusty sugar scent. To my nose, it feels rather fizzy. Wet on skin: low throw, quite faint. I'm getting sugared daisies now and some fizzy pink pepper. The carnation has gone quite faint, but then again the whole scent is faint on my skin. Dry: my skin must be eating this up, or it's otherwise burning off really quickly. It's almost all gone, with a faint sense of "pinkness". What's left is a dainty, almost fragile scent, beautiful and pink and fizzy sweetness. Verdict: it's a very nice scent, but sadly not lasting or "present" enough--and I have a number of fragile scents already. Pass!

In tester: herbal, cologney. There's a slight citrus feel to this, but pretty well blended and creamy. I think there's some sort of woody note that is slightly minty/cool--maybe pine? Wet on skin: this is definitely minty and creamy at the same time on me. I'll admit to wanting this to be like The Girl, which some have said based on the testers that have been out at WCs, but it's not. It's not very close either. It's nice as it is though, somewhat cologney, slightly ozone-y, with a hint of greens and woods. This does feel like something from the Phoenix Steamworks line, which I suppose is apt given the name and description. Dry: something sweeter comes up when it's finally dry, and it loses the specifically cologney aspect--although it's still bright, bubbly, and almost metallic and minty. It's still not The Girl. After a couple months, I actually went back to retest the, er, tester to see how it ages. It's still not The Girl Color impression now (slightly aged) is a faint yellow, and it's gotten this dusty/powdery feel to it, slightly ticklish to the nose but not overtly so. In comparison to The Girl, though, this is lighter, brighter, dustier, while The Girl is deeper and more grounded. I'd say that The Girl, Lyonesse, and Pale Student of Unhallowed Arts are all similar in impression, however, Lyonesse is a golden orange, The Girl is a golden yellow, and Pale Student is a lemon yellow. Verdict: it's pleasant, but not really doing it for me, even on its own and not compared against other blends. I know I mentioned The Girl SO MANY TIMES in that review, but really looking at the blend on its own, it just isn't something that I would wear regularly.

I tested this blend twice, one a day or two after receiving it, and another after it's been sitting in my drawer for a while, bit less than a month. In bottle: the first time I sniffed this, it was very herbal, and reminded me strongly of this cologne I used to wear as a child, called Angel's Breath. It was mostly white sage and lilac. On my retest, it seemed to have grown creamy--something I never thought of it being before--and while it retains its herbs, it was more floral now, more feminine, sweeter, and really more to my liking. Wet on skin: on my first test, I thought it was cologney, a clean and herbal floral, bright and young but not tipping over to the "kiddie" side. On the restest, however, the creaminess does stay and the cologne feel has disappeared, and I fell quite in love. It still has a "cool" feel to the blend, but nothing as chemically as cologne--it's soft and subtle and refreshing. The white musk is divine, and I suppose it giving that nice creamy feel. The lilac does have a touch of powder but it played well with the blend. Dry: definitely an instance of a blend coming into its own after a bit of rest, the first time, this was all powdery lilac on me, enough to tickle my nose unpleasantly--but this all but disappeared on the retest. A powdery feel is still there, but it just lends a softness to the light, uplifting, and feminine scent, a beautiful mix of that clean white sage, lovely white musk and beautiful everlasting flower. Verdict: I'm so glad I gave this a retest! What I'd instantly set aside earlier, I'm so getting a backup for now.

In tester: the first word that came to my head was "interesting". It's smooth, and has a lot going on but not quite too much to be complicated and confusing. It feels gender neutral, with the resins and incensey feel but with a deep floral note (that is not too feminine) to sweeten it up. Wet on skin: definitely sweeteer on my skin, and the incense kind of disappears somewhere, replaced by a definite powdery note. Over that powder there's a syrupy sort of sweetness going on, although not quite foody. I think, I few months back, I'd be saying this would be a keeper, but it's a bit too powdery and a bit too sweet for me now. Dry: and yes, when dry, it's all gone to powder for me. I'm somewhat mistified, I have no idea which note is the culprit here. I can't get anything else other than the powder. Someone/something stole my perfume! Verdict: not for my skin chemistry.

In bottle: orange zest! And then amber and vanilla, nicely honeyed. Oh where are you, linden blossom? Wet on skin: oh, there it is. Orange zest and linden blossom, amber and vanilla, in that order. Quite creamy, and so far the ambers are playing nice with my skin. This is quite different in "flavor" compared to the other blends I've tried with linden blossom, with the exception of Privilege: this is quite "present" and grounded. I'd say it's in the middle of Privilege and The Unicorn, for example. Quite full-bodied, with a hint of mintiness that is almost like pine--but it may just be the orange zest playing with my nose. Dry: I was sort of hoping the orange zest would play it down a little, but this is definitely an orange zest and friends sort of blend. That's not too bad, since I like orange notes, but I will admit to expecting something slightly different from this. It doesn't morph on me--the ambers behave--but really, I keep going back to the orange zest and thinking, "why are you so prominent?!" Creamy orange and linden blossom. Much later on, the vanilla starts to strengthen, very similar in feel to Celeste's bourbon vanilla. Verdict: I didn't quite expect this, but I love this! I especially love how the vanilla came out in the end, I loved the vanilla in Celeste but eventually that wasn't meant to be. I'm happy it's here and with such nice friends, even if the orange zest is being a bit of a bully.

In decant: leather, musk, and a hint of the narcissus. Wet on skin: at first dab and sniff, the first thing that comes to mind is it's a cleam fresh-from-shower scent, of herbal soap and water. Very quickly the leather kicks in and the result is sweetly-smelling herbal leather. Like someone newly-showered throwing on leather clothes. Dry: I love this leather blend, it's beautiful, and I'm not getting much of the patchouli at all from him, which for people who don't like patchouli so much, is good. It's a softly herbal, softly spicy leather, and I think this is one of the nicer leather blends. Verdict: I like the scent a lot, but this isn't something that I would wear.

In decant: a dark floral, rich and luxurious. Very midnight-ish in feel. Wet on skin: a definite rich dark floral, voluptuous and full-bodied, but not cloying. There's a sweetness present that doesn't overwhelm. I think that this has quite the opportunity to be "too much", but it's not, it's all wonderfully balanced, soft and inviting. It's a soft-smiling woman opening her arms to you for a reassuring hug. Dry: a soft, dark and friendly floral. Very well-blended, and doesn't morph on my skin and staying true to its scent. Very soothing and spot on with the introspection. Verdict: I definitely like it, and I debated getting a bottle of this, but eventually I decided I likely wouldn't wear this as much as my other floral blends as I enjoy lighter blends than this.

In bottle: a very nostalgic sort of scent, a hint of melancholia, soft and deep. My untrained nose is pretty bad at recognizing what exactly I'm smelling, but the nearest thing would be resins. Wet on skin: old/antiqued wood, old photos that give it a slightly chemically feel, but oddly, this chemically note kind of soothing, reassuring. I'm getting resins and a hint of leather. Color that comes to mind mind would be deep green--which I half expected based on the description--but there's a mix of that deep antique brown color. Dry: doesn't really morph on me aside from a further "softening" of the scent, with the deep green feel receding. Definitely gender neutral, although more on the masculine side for me. After a couple of hours I'm getting a pleasant sort of resinous powder, very soft. Verdict: I really like this, although I'm not entirely sure if it's more of a psychological "like" (because of the actual idea behind it) more than a real "like" for the scent. It's soothing, but I don't see myself reaching for this much due to my own tastes in what perfume to wear.

In bottle: vanilla, resins, caraway, musk and amber. Slightly boozy, slightly foody but not overwhelmingly so. There's a hint of jasmine peeking out. Wet on skin: I'm getting the vanilla absolute and resins, with a faint powdery touch. It's well-blended with the other notes playing with each other, and if I think hard that's when I can detect caraway and a bright bergamot. Very beautiful, relatively womanly without being "out there". As it dries, a leather-like scent comes up that gives it a sexy punch as well as making it a little less feminine and more neutral, but still on the feminine side of the spectrum. Dry: vanilla absolute, caraway, with white musk and amber, and bright bergamot. Almost unisex, but very sexy and womanly without being over the top or "inappropriate". This blend made me think of Liz, even though there is definitely no smoky leather here and they are quite different from each other--but the feel is very similar (strong sexy woman). If you like Liz, this is a definite must-try. Verdict: keeper! I knew on first sniff that this was likely to be a keeper, and it definitely is. Love it! To add: I love yeahbutnobut's list of blends to try if you like this. 4/7 are blends I have in my collection, and the other 3 are masculine scents that I passed on since I wouldn't wear them, albeit I did like them too. Hee! Spot on.

In decant: clean, almost green, and almost herbal. My first thought was that this would be great as soap! Maybe I should expect a more floral feel from this, but that wasn't in the initial list of things I thought of when I sniffed it. Wet on skin: oh, this is nice. A green floral--green and white, to be specific, clean and fresh, in a got-out-of-the-shower kind of way and not in a fresh-cut-stems way. I'm pleasantly surprised by this. The mix of herbs and florals in this blend must be contributing to this almost-creamy, very wearable clean and feminine scent. Loving this! Dry: clean and fresh. It's a subdued scent, one that you would get close to sniff, but is irresistible once you do (I kept going back to it!). I'd call it a fresh light floral with a bit of herbal undertone. Verdict: keeper! Very surprised with this one, I didn't think this would work, but it totally does. Love it!

In decant: dusty orange, both in color feel and actual scent that comes up to me. Wet on skin: orange, and the dustiness recedes a bit. There is an almost-minty feel to this, which is giving it a sort of brightness that seems quite in tune with the midday idea for this blend. Fruitier--meaning, not just citruses now--which probably means it's just the pomegranate showing off--but it's primarily an orange blend. Dry: sadly (well, for me), it goes back to a dusty orange when dry, and it seems like a more prominent dusty note now than it was in the decant--maybe the amber has something to do with it, but golden amber has been all right on my skin in the past. Verdict: nope, not feeling this one! It's a shame, I do like orange blends.

In decant: soapy florals and citruses. I didn't expect it to be this strong, although I think I should have expected it. Wet on skin: soapy, almost grandmothery florals and citruses. The citrus should have given it a bright edge, but while it does peek out, the florals are definitely going to town here. Slightly boozy, with an old fashioned feel. Dry: soapy florals--more "white" than anything else, but this isn't your delicate or dainty white--this is a bold sort of white. And a heavy touch of almost-boozy fruit feel to it for me, and definitely soapy. Verdict: I expected this to be the most promising of the anniversaries, but oh well! Definitely not for me.

In decant: green and citrusy, with a definite "juicy" feel--seems to be crisp apple. Wet on skin: green fresh note, apple, and citrus. This is actually cool to the skin, and slightly minty--maybe there is a hint of eucalyptus here, or a different slightly-medicinal mint. But the overall effect is not medicinal--sweet juicy apple. Apple juice with ice? Dry: well, it's morphed into a soapy apple. The green-ness is gone, as well as the citrus feel, and what's left is the sweet soapy apple that is going faintly grandmothery over time, which leads me to suspect some white musk element here. Verdict: pass! The wet phase was nice but this just didn't work out.

In bottle: sharp floral, slightly sweet and slightly citrusy. Wet on skin: light floral, citrusy and summery, and the sharp note in the bottle is thankfully note present. Smoothed out by faint, soft spices, and a yellow/golden scent, which seems apt. There's a slight powderiness that is coming out, but it's faint and not overwhelming, rather pleasant really, a nice mix with the aforementioned spices--so far. Dry: at this point I started looking at the review thread, and this shows you how much my nose has to learn--when I read amber, that's when I realized that YES, this blend has a nice smooth amber. Which also explains the dustiness, but it's not all gone to dust. Amber, and a bouquet of yellow/golden flowers, creamy and smooth. The amber becomes stronger and more prominent the longer it stays on my skin, too. Verdict: keeper! Such a beautiful scent. My, I seem to really like protos...

In imp: cool floral, slightly heady at first sniff. Wet on skin: whoaaaa dusty floral. Slightly green, somewhat cool, but not minty. A fresh, natural-smelling blend, were it not for the dusty rose, although the dustiness seems to be quieting down. Dry: sweet--almost syrupy sweet--florals, bright and fresh and faintly cloying. A bright and lively scent, and I can see why this is well loved. Obviously, the rose has disappeared for me, but the dustiness has disappeared, or at least has died down enough to not be noticeable and have the fresh flowers and nature scent shine through unheeded. The green-ness and faint resins ground this scent well. Verdict: if this were still available, I'd probably get a bottle, but by now I'm really not looking forward to yet another discon hunt.

A Wonderful Light is an instant must-buy for me (linden blossom and vanilla are absolute win), but I recently was able to test an earlier year's Pink Snowballs so I'm adding that in when I finally make my before-Weenies-come-down order...and hope that this year's Pink Snowballs is just as nice and plays well with me. My other two Yule scents that I have tested and consider keepers are Snowblind and Waltz of the Snowflakes. Why yes, I love vanilla!

It's been a while since I sniffed/tried Ladon, but no--I remember hoping for apple from it, but dry, I got hyacinth and an old-ladyish feel from Ladon, whereas Glittering Apple stayed a crisp sweet/sugary crystalline apple.

White sandalwood, tobacco flower, lily of the valley, white carnation, and magnolia blossom with tea rose, labdanum, and oudh. In tester: tobacco flower, faint lily, tea rose, and carnations. A touch of sandalwood. Wet on skin: tobacco flower, sandalwood, and tea rose. Aaaand the rose is getting dusty, very dusty--the kind that makes me want to sneeze, too. The sandalwood is quite prominent for me, and the lily is fading away--which is a shame. Smoky tobacco flower and sandalwood giving this a faintly incensey feel (though I wouldn't call it an incensey blend), and the carnations are starting to come up. Dry: well, what do you expect? Powdery rose, and that's it--none of the other notes are coming out for me now that the rose has trampled everything to oblivion. Verdict: it's a shame, tea rose can work on me sometimes. Oh well!

In decant: woody tonka, and a bitter, dry note. Wet on skin: very resinous blend with a hint of tonka. Wet, it's slightly salty in feel, an aquatic sort of saltiness, but it's also very dry. "Dry aquatic" doesn't make sense, but this is it. It does seem to be spot on for a Mary Celeste/ghost ship scent. Quite evocative, and I like the smell, but I'm not sure I'd ever wear this. Dry: very woody blend, some tonka creaminess, with a salty dry feel and faint dry greens. Gender neutral and very evocative. Much later, all the creaminess and tonka seem to have disappeared on me, leaving behind old dry oak wood. An interesting development--from a dry and run-down wood with hints of salty aquatics, into a salty old dry wood scent. Verdict: very evocative, and quite pleasing--I'd be super interested to see this get released.

A massive tree that held, in its lowest boughs, a nest of bare-breasted men and women. The souls sprawled within the Zieba Tree's branches were trapped in reverie, lost for all eternity in their fantasies. A dreamlike, listless scent, misty and hazed, with wisps of white sandalwood, eddying musks the colors of eventide, shimmering pale resins, davana, lemon blossom, orange blossom, and white peach. In imp: green, with some florals. Wet on skin: green and lightly citrusy--definitely getting the lemon blossom here. It's somewhat understated in feel, soft, and really, really pretty. I would say it's floral, citrusy, and clean, with a hint of complexity since, to me, it changes between a white/yellow/green scent at different whiffs. Dry: soapy, but oh so nice. A soft, clean skin scent, I'd love to drop this into lotion or some such and slather it on myself. I actually forgot about this blend for a couple of months, and wrote it off eventually from my keeper list, but kept the bottle. After revisiting it recently--wow. With a bit of aging, it's not so much green now as soft and creamy and resinous--this one definitely does well aged. It's still green and citrusy and pretty white flowers, but the resins and sandalwood ground this very well and it's certainly become a dreamlike and shimmering scent. Verdict: definitely back on the keeper list! What was I thinking?

In tester: an earthy, grassy note, almost sharp. Something feels familiar. Wet on skin: doesn't change from the tester scent, and I've realized what this reminds me of: Thunder and Blazes! I could swear this was Thunder and Blazes, although I don't have my decant or empty anymore to be sure. The dirt/earth/grass note they share is very, very identical to my memory, and I remember a fair bit because T&B was one of the first blends I smelled that was "weird", or not traditionally perfume-like. Dry: this doesn't change at all for me, from the tester scent down to the drydown. Verdict: interesting because of the T&B similarity, but not for me.

In decant: chocolate, coffee, and...uh, flowers?! This is a weird scent. I get white and/or yellow flowers as the floral notes. Wet on skin: aaaand yup. Chcoolate, a bit of coffee, and some bright florals, with a touch of citrus. It's a bit weird, although it may be just my nose not knowing how to process the scent, exactly. As it dries, the chocolate note is getting noticeably fainter on me, and the florals more pronounced. It's almost too "bright" but the chocolate is tempering it well. This is quite an interesting blend. Dry: well, dry, the chocolate seems to have quite disappeared! Looks like my skin is the culprit here--going from very chocolatey in the decant, to just plain almost-sharp yellow flowers. There is still that chocolate note lurking in the shadows and giving it a sort of richer feel, but not remarkably so, and there is a slightly sour note coming up for me, too, again likely something with my skin chemistry being the issue. Verdict: initially I thought this might be a keeper, but the drydown is too weird for me, especially seeing how it's so different from the decant scent--it will likely be too volatile a blend for me. So, pass.

In decant: creamy tonka and citrus, with some sweet spices and a foody vibe--the cake-y foody vibe. Wet on skin: creamy, slightly resinous tonka. Hello tonka, I do love you. This is still slightly foody, maybe cinnamony, but it's missing the cake vibe now, which is just as well. Sweet but not cloying, and a more vanilla-than-tonka note is emerging. A hint of the citrus also remains, but it's definitely more of a spicy blend now than citrusy. Dry: very sweet-spicy to my nose, cinnamony and creamy vanilla/tonka. Low throw. And...this rather reminds me of a softer, no-carnation Morocco: sweet and creamy spices, soft and inviting and mysterious. And...without the clove-y carnation, too, which is what eventually broke the deal with Morocco for me. As it ages on my skin, the blend gets softer, slightly dustier, but still very lovely. Verdict: I finally tested this proto to see if I should get a bottle, and I'm glad I did. I love it, and it's different enough from Morocco v2 (which is Morocco with lavender, and something I already have) to justify getting it.

In tester: a musky aquatic, salty, and a hint of night flowers; a kind of purple "feel". Wet on skin: definitely a salty aquatic, and doesn't really change from the tester scent for me. There's a slight ominous, "purply" feeling, but it's not exactly dark or menacing, and I wouldn't classify this as a dark scent. It's just not "light" like most aquatics are, but yet not deeply sorrowful and heavy like some other aquatics. Dry: does not really change from the wet phase, but does smooth out and blend together better, and becomes a tad softer. Some people have mentioned Sea of Glass, and I can see that, but it wasn't the first scent that came to mind when I smelled this--to me, it was like a less-sad and less-floral Annabel Lee...but with the flowers there transformed to a lot of salt. Verdict: tempted to get a bottle, but I fluctuate between liking this and thinking it's a bit too somber for me. Maybe I'll retest and think again.