Voleuse

2009 version: This is so amazingly delicious. I'm a fan of the spicy apple cider (Verdandi is one of my favorite blends), but this has a hint of cream that encompasses the spices, muffling them gently. It's so soft, especially for such a cidery blend. It doesn't strike me as overpowering ("holiday candle"), and it seems to sweeten over time.

Salt air wafting in from the bay. Rain falling on rain-soaked leaves. This is intensely aquatic on first sniff, but in a minute, it settles into the salt-water freshness of Penthus. Or perhaps Bayou? I don't know why, but those are the two GC scents that spring to mind when I sniff this. There's a hint of greenery that rounds the blend, almost but not quite edging into soapiness. It's faintly foggy, cool and damp at once.

Hm. This is fruitier than other 13s have been; the chocolate is a faint grounding note, rather than the predominant one. I like the complexity of it--there's a pink fruitiness to it, as well as a hint of pepper and florals. The chocolate--a dark, barely sweet chocolate--is a little more prominent over time, but it never does more than balance the fruitier notes. It also fades quickly on me, so overall I don't have a strong reaction to the blend. It's nice, though--just not for me.

This is AMAZING. The pomegranate starts out intensely sweet, but the jasmine balances it perfectly, lending a smooth, round floral note. In the end, I'd call this a jasmine blend, but the pomegranate keeps it from running rampant (as jasmine often does). I kind of wish this was a tea blend, because it's beautifully juicy even as the jasmine lends some sophistication.

The first note that strikes me is orangey, but the pumpkin is a rich, buttery undertone for the blend. Interesting! This is such a strange blend to my nose--not in a bad way--because it alternates between the cool sweetness of the citrus and the warm pumpkin and ginger. I think I catch a bit of rounder, sweeter mango, as well, but this never quite settles down for me. It's a bright, fleeting scent, like a cool, sunny day just before the sun starts setting.

Ruthless, unfeeling, and inhumanly violent: tobacco, sharp woods, frankincense, and bunn. Oooh, resinous woods are what pop in this blend, sweet and spiky with a hint of smoke. This is very different from what I expected: sexier than the description would imply, sweeter than most woodsy blends, and dominating, despite the sweetness. There's something herbal and rounding, underneath the woods and incense. I'd say this is gender-neutral, but I think it's definitely something menfolk would find masculine. I would not mind a bottle of this at all!

Almond and a hint of musk. Cool smoke. Slightly artificially-sweet. Underneath it all, it's akin to a rich incense, but it stays close to the skin. Weirdly, this reminds me of a bookshop, a small, independent one that has incense stocked in the corner.

This, on first application, is dirt and dust and incense, though the dirt and incense quickly trade places in prominence. The dirt cools to a dirt-scuffed stone, while the incense warms the blend overall. The incense does carry a halo of musk that intensifies, though it never wholly overtakes the dirt/stone note. After a while, a leather note starts to bloom--not a shiny leather, nor a suede, but a brown leather, soft from long use. This becomes trusty leather and faint incense, with a hint of scuffed stone beneath it. Neat!

Huh. On first application, this doesn't smell pumpkiny to me. Instead, it smells like squash, baked and honeyed and mashed into a delicious, spicy mess. The perfect autumn meal! Over time, the cinnamon-spiciness becomes more pronounced, while the squash fades to the slightly-sweet background. Huh! This is nice, but not at all what I expected.

Aquatics, sharp and green and vivid. This is a very cool, very outdoorsy sort of scent, like standing at the edge of a lake. Over time, the greenery gets a bit swampy on me, which is a bit overwhelming. I agree with those who compared this to Cthulhu: this is dark and swampily cool. It has more moldering leaves, to my nose, but it's nice and almost wind-kissed.

On first application, this smells exactly the way I expected, based on the notes: cool cherry and round almond with the barest hint of coconut. To my surprise, the almond DIDN'T morphs the scent to cherry plastic on my skin, as almond usually does. The cherry laces together with something a little sharper, staying sweet and real. The almond fades almost completely! In the end, this is a warm, sophisticated, cherry-tinged cream. Lovely.

This is a heavy spice on first scent, leavened by a quick-blooming vanilla incense. Over time, I catch hints of cocoa, ground-up and darkly sweet. I keep thinking this should be a spicy cake scent, but it hovers in the realm of spice and incense, warm and redolent.

Ah, this is pretty. It's sweeter and more sharply flowering than I expected from the description--not flowery, really, but things growing lushly in the evening time. It smells greener over time, with a hint of lemony sharpness and tea. Very bright and clean, in the end.

This is, indeed, a very pink sugary blend! It's actually a bit startling--it's like the grainy sugar you find on churros mixed with the sugared doughnuts, all with a hint of tart cherryness underneath. It's a chewy pastry, the perfect temperature, the perfect texture to complement a strong, bitter coffee in the morning. Over time, it mellows into creamy frosting and doughnutty crumbs. Super-food and delicious!

Oh, wow. This is sage and incense, smudgy smoke and...something is turning to Vasoline on me. Huh. What is happening? Noooooo. I love smoky scents, but this went medicinal and oily on me. Alas! I get some smokiness, and a bit of sweet sage, but Vasolineness never completely goes away.

Wow, this is verdant scent. As soon as I apply it, it springs out, grass and trees dripping with dew. I'm not really familiar with the trees listed in the notes--I've not spent a lot of time on the East coast--but this is certainly evocative. It's not piney, as I expected based on the spruce. Over time, the florals quietly emerge, lending an extra sweetness to the blend. Cool and green and laid-back and slightly flowery. I like it.

Yummmm. This is actually all spices at first, bready nutmeg and spiky cinnamon, before the pumpkiny syrup comes through. The coffee, when it appears, is stronger than I expected--definitely the heavy burned-ness of espresso. The milk lends a creaminess to it, because I suspect it could easily morph into coffee grounds. Over time, this becomes slightly stale coffee (which is not a bad scent to my nose) and cinnamon sugar. It's kind of like...if the McDonald's iced vanilla latte (again, I have positive associations with this) was triple-injected with Starbucks' pumpkin spice syrup. In the end, this does end up being coffee grounds and cinnamon, but it's a pleasant and cozy sort of scent.

Oooooh. Y'know, I had forgotten how much I liked vetiver and musk together, all smoky and sexy-like. This gets sweeter over time, though it smells a bit flowery to me, so I'm not sure what's sweetening the blend. This balances as a masculine sort of blend, but it's subtle and sweet enough that I think I could wear it on a daily basis. It's more musk than vetiver, and a smoky-sweet musk at that. Awesome. Sexy. Delicious.

Oh, yum! This is a gorgeous, sharp sassafras at first--almost too sharp, in fact--but the brown sugar quickly asserts itself to balance the blend. (And neat, it's very distinctly brown sugar, not just sugary.) I don't get any plum from the blend, but there's the barest hint of clove-smokiness to it. This is yummy, sweet and spicy, like microbrew root beer in the best way.

For a brief second, this is all mint, and then it quickly blooms into WOW, eucalyptus! There's a quiet floral sweetness behind it, but it's a good while before the violet is fully evident. It's kind of like...sitting under a eucalyptus tree as a stiff breeze rustles the branches, hinting at the garden beyond. Very cool and eucalyptus-green, with a hint of dampness. When the violet finally comes out, it's a halo around the eucalyptus, like a violet pastille, slightly chalky as it melts on your tongue.

This is definitely supposed to make me think "classical masculine," what with the musk and the incense. It's not as heavy as it could be, though, and there's a hint of soapiness that surprised me. Over time, the soapiness (I think it's the amber reacting to my skin chemistry) gets stronger, until it overwhelms everything else. Darn! I liked the first sniff of this, but it's definitely not one I can wear personally.

This is quite soapy on me: like a pleasant, slightly-fruity body wash. The vetiver lends it a grounding note, making it a unisex scent rather than a super-girly one, but over time, the vetiver becomes more dominant note. (I should note that I like vetiver in general.) Overall, I think this is pretty well balanced, but the fruits are a bit muddled and indistinct (that is, I couldn't tell you what fruits they were without reading the notes list). If you're afraid of vetiver, you'll probably want to steer away from this.

This is quite peppery at first, but it's balanced by the coolness of the coconut: a weird but not off-putting combination. It sweetens after a little while, but it's kind of like sprinkling something tart over icy-cold coconut milk. Like lounging under the shade of a bar overlooking a beach. Interesting.

Huh. I expected this to be sweeter, for some reason, but the cardamom actually takes precedent on me. It's not sweet at all, but rather headshoppy with a hint of smoke. There's barely a hint of vanilla, almost not enough to matter. Over time, it weaves together with the musk to make a fascinating, rather masculine incense.

For some reason, first sniff of this made me think "jelly beans!" It's kind of a chewy, sweet scent, though the denseness dissipates after a little while. It gets less honey-sweet, too, in favor of a lighter floral sweetness. This is a sunny breeze sort of scent, with the sweet pea note falling predominant on me in the end.