amyw

I had this in my "maybe swaps" box from long ago, and when I looked at the notes, I thought, but why? Why would I swap this, as it's full of notes I love? I must try again because maybe this is a mistake. Black patchouli can sometimes be a bit much, though in the right blend it's fantastic on me. And honey, vanilla, and amber? YES PLEASE. I tested Banshee Beat on the other arm, given all the comparisons to it. Maybe I shouldn't because Banshee Beat is super strong on me and FMAFMWP is light on me, so the throw from a little drop of Banshee Beat is occasionally interfering with my nose. I don't get much patchouli at all, mostly the vanilla amber and honey, and it's like if Banshee Beat and O had a baby who grew up to be sexy. Less patchouli than Banshee Beat, and less sweet than O. KEEPING. And I've resolved to keep only scents I truly love.

I tried this at C2E2 today. I thought I might get the plastic note others have mentioned, but it was not so. Hooray! It's very sweet in the bottle and on my skin it also starts out very sweet, but within a few minutes it settles and deepens just a bit. It has almost a ... spice note? As if I am smelling vanilla bean flecks floating in melted vanilla ice cream, which give it an earthier quality and temper any out of control sweetness. Pretty big throw on me too, as I could smell it pretty strongly for quite a while after that. The Mr. really liked it, and after the initial sweetness wore off, I really liked it too, even though I would not say I am (often) a foodie. If I'm going to wear a foodie scent, it can't be sickly sweet, and on me, this wasn't. I thought it would be because I tend to amp sweet. Contemplating a bottle.

Unfortunately on me VILF becomes just vetiver and leather, but mostly vetiver. On me, vetiver is bitter and kind of BO-ish. After a while, VILF gets a bit powdery. Ah, well. VILF and my skin do not get along, I guess because I amp vetiver and what my skin does to it makes it not a great thing to amp. Once in a while I try a blend with vetiver in it hoping that the other notes will keep it in check, and I'm almost always wrong. ETA: I just realized vetiver is not listed. I wonder which note smells like vetiver on me?

This is not my usual sort of scent at all, but ages ago someone sent me a decant with a swap. I hadn't even looked at the notes when I tried it and I thought it was gorgeous. Then I looked at the notes and knew I never would have gone out of my way to try it, as I'm a resin/vanilla/heavier musk type and not at all a florals type. On my skin, I can detect the skin musk, the ginger, the florals, and a tiny bit of the sandalwood. Maybe a bit of the tea too, but not much. It's a clean, light, very very pretty scent, and everything I can smell is very well balanced. Nothing predominates. I can see the comparisons to Hungry Ghost Moon, and to me this is a bit like HGM but without the smoky vanilla. I'm not a fan of smoky vanilla anyway, so I wasn't a huge fan of HGM. This stuff, though, is fantastic on me.

I'm still forming an opinion about this one. I've used it twice as an after-shower moisturizer in place of my usual application of LUSH's Vanilla Dee-Lite body lotion. Most people seem to think it's heavier on the cream note, but I'm getting more of the teak, and a bit of amber and lotus. The cream was heavy on first application but then it fades away - or maybe it still smells more like cream on my legs and less so on my arms. I started with my legs, after all. Overall, it's definitely much softer/lighter and without much throw. I tried it last night and in the morning, it smelled like powder. I usually get powder when I'm about to start Shark Week, but that's definitely not the case here. I'll update as my thoughts on this evolve.

I'm not sure why I love this so much and why I've been reaching for it so often lately, since enough of the notes are very much not my thing that the list never made me think I had to have it. I got it because of the reviews and the comparisons to Snake Charmer and Mme Moriarty, but even so, it's more a cousin than a sister to those too on me. I can see the comparisons to Marianne as well, mostly because of the red musk. I love vanilla but I'm usually enh on smoky vanilla, and I'm generally not a fan of clove unless it sits way in the background. Too many clove cigarettes in the 90s, I guess. Balsam is okay, and I love Beth's patchouli but no one else's so far. Love red musk too, and I really like orchid, but I do amp it. So as you can see, when I read the notes, it wasn't a blend that jumped out at me and said, 'you must have me!' Anyway, none of the notes I don't like much kill this blend for me at all. It's more orchid than anything other single note, as expected, but the red musk, patchouli, and even the smoky vanilla round it out really nicely. Yum! The clove behaves and adds just a touch of spiciness, and I think I smell some herbs and frankincense in there too. Lots of throw, and sexy as hell. It's already started to age nicely and I expect it will get even better. So glad I bought some before the 'Weenies went away.

This is well-blended enough that it's really hard to describe. I smell no rose when it's on, but I do smell a bit of just about every other note except maybe the pepper. The orange is very very subtle, for which I'm glad. I don't actually like the common citrus notes that much, at least not in perfume oils. They're fine in other things, but I don't like smelling like orange, lemon, or lime myself. It has no throw currently, so I have to get up really close to smell it, but what I smell is really beautiful and has huge aging potential. I think it will get deeper and stronger as it ages and I'll have to update this as the process goes on. It actually reminds me a tiny bit of Snake Charmer, only with apricot and a very light hint of orange instead of plum. Looking at the notes, I have to wonder why it reminds me of Snake Charmer, but there it is. It's very pretty now, but I also can't wait to see what it becomes. ETA: I realized what it really reminds me of. It's not that it reminds me of Snake Charmer directly. It's that it reminds me of Mlle Lilith, which in turn reminds me of Snake Charmer.

I asked my partner to smell this and he said, "hmm... Old Spice." I'm not sure what it is, but he's probably right. It does smell like a men's cologne I've smelled years ago, but I don't remember exactly what it is. It could very well be Old Spice, which supposedly has notes of vanilla and jasmine in it. It doesn't seem extremely floral on me at all, even though jasmine often screams at the top of its lungs on me. I do think I smell more tea rose than any other floral. Not unpleasant at all, but not my thing either.

I happen to looove Bordello, and this is very close to it on me. I thought it was almost a dead ringer until I compared one on each arm, and now that I'm smelling them side-by-side, so to speak, I notice that Countess Willie has a slightly darker edge to her. I can pick out a tiny TINY bit of chocolate, a smidge of the bite of the ginger, and a bit of musk. None of those are present in Bordello, as expected, but this makes them a bit more obvious. This is definitely bottle-worthy and will be perfect on days when I'm in the mood for a slightly less sweet Bordello-esque scent. The Countess, she is yummy. I was pretty sure she would be given those notes. And apparently many prostitutes like amaretto.

This changed a bit and got better as it dried down, but I'm getting a bit of Lemon Pledge. I do wonder if this will age well. If citrus notes fade and mellow with age, will cubeb? For the moment this isn't working on me well enough to get a bottle, but I will cellar it and try again soonish. ETA: Okay, an hour later and the lemon faded almost completely. Now I smell the honey and cardamom. Much MUCH nicer, but still not a very me sort of scent, and I'm guessing at least for now I'd have to put up with the hour of Pledge. I do like honey but whether or not I love a scent with honey depends on the other notes in the blend.

There may be a tiny bit of an earthy fur/pine note in the background, but otherwise this is a dead ringer for Lambs-Wool on me. Mostly apple/apple cider, and quite nice!

Lemon juice or alcohol has worked for me in the past.

This is a decant of the original, by the way. I think I would love this if it didn't have almond in it. It's quite faint, and it smells like carnations, vanilla, and... almond. I don't detect any of the suspected cinnamon, which is odd because that usually amps and burns and makes me ill. I also don't smell any patchouli, which some have said is heavily present in the resurrected version. I do, unfortunately for me, smell almond, which is not a note I'm fond of. Or if it's not almond, it's a very similar note. I'm glad to have tried this highly coveted oil, but now I'm also pretty sure I don't need to buy a bottle of the resurrected unless I'm getting it for someone else. If you like almond, carnations, and vanilla, then you'll probably like this a lot.

This is so pretty! I'm so glad I took a chance on it, as it has one of my notes of death in it. That would be jasmine, which often screams jasmine soap once it hits my skin, but not this time. I'm not big on florals, but peach blossom and mum are exceptions to this. I love the peach blossom in Tamora, for example. Peach Moon smells like a thin, delicate peachy tea smell in the bottle and on me during the dry-down, but then the peach blossom note deepens and blends well with the tea note, and the musks, mum, and ho wood give it a little more body and just a tiny bit of a spicy smell. It has pretty good throw too. I put on a tiny bit but I can still catch some wafts of it now and then even when I don't have my nose right there. I think it's fading quickly, though, so we'll see.

Add me to the list of those on whom Boo smells like Midway. Midway has a touch more funnel cake on me, but other than that, almost a dead ringer. I bought a bottle of this unsniffed and I think that will be (more than) sufficient, as I have two bottles of Midway Resurrected. That does mean I like it a lot, as you might guess from having two bottles of its doppleganger.

This smells like damp leaves with a bit of slightly sweet wood notes underneath. It's nice while that lasts, but I knew I was taking a chance with the "wet" part, as almost all aquatic type notes become soap on me. I put this on the SO and he doesn't like it enough to keep, as he's a foody type. It's very nice and very evocative of autumn before it becomes soapy leaves on me. Skin chemistry FTL.

It's not exact, nor is it technically GC, but Eisheth Zenunim smells a lot like Freak Show on me. Just swap a bit of peach for a bit of fig.

I definitely get the comparisons to Mme Moriarty and Snake Charmer, although the coconut and incense makes it a little closer - to my nose - to Snake Charmer. It's definitely not the same coconut as SC, and that's listed as black coconut, so I am assuming they're not quite the same. Anyway, those are my top two ever, so it seems a given that I'd like this. And I do, very much! It's younger and girlier than Snake Charmer or Mme Moriarty, but I also agree with Iceblink. It reminds me a lot of Shango as well. I'm also really glad the orange blossom doesn't come out on me. It's not a note I particularly care for and it smells kind of high-pitched and sour on my skin. I don't smell it here, though. I'm glad I have a bottle, although I don't think I need to hoard a ton. I'm looking forward to seeing how it ages, and I think I really get the "chip off the old block" concept with this one.

I got this in a swap and it's YUM. The fruit notes are more prominent in the bottle, to my nose, and it smells a bit sharp. On me, however, the honey, cocoa (which smells more like chocolate than cocoa at this point), and vanilla come forth and sweeten this blend, and the only fruit that I'm sure I smell on myself is the pomegranate. With perhaps just a bit of fig... and all that's more than fine with me. It reminds me a lot of a few of the 13s - a chocolatey, fruity, vanilla scent. That makes it sound more foody than it really is - it obviously has foody notes but it isn't that foody, to me. I it.

This is a rather unusual scent. When I opened and applied some from my decant, I hadn't reminded myself of the notes, and I thought to myself, hm, buttery! Not Jack "pumpkin" buttery, but a little more grounded, earthy buttery. I think that's just the combination of the goat's milk note and the fig. I don't detect the myrrh at all, or not much. If I do, it's way in the background. The goat's milk does have a tiny bit of the sourness I associate with goat's milk, but the whole thing is sweetened by the fig, so it isn't unpleasant at all. Eventually it fades to something pretty close to my skin's own smell, as far as I can tell. It's not a very "me" scent, but it's really well-done. Fig lovers should like this a lot. I'd say goat's milk lovers would too, but I don't know how common that is since there aren't many scents that have that note.

I searched and no one mentioned these, so I'll add my own experiences. These are all on me personally, of course, and not tested on anyone else. On me, Urd and Penumbra smell a lot alike. Tamora also is pretty similar to Underpants, Glowing Vulva, and Haloes, but of that list it's more similar to Haloes than the other two. And No.93 Engine was almost a dead ringer for Schwarzer Mond 2008, although SM might have been a bit more peppery. Both were fresh, by the way, so aging might change this. It didn't make any sense either given that they don't seem to share any notes that I can see.

I received a decant from someone in a swap, so this is aged about a year, and it's very well-blended. It's difficult to pick out single notes, but I will say that on me it's sort of an inversion of Mme Moriarty. Whereas Mme Moriarty is earthy, herbal(ish) patchouli sweetened by vanilla and fruit with a touch of musk, it's the fruit in Penumbra that stands out in the foreground, with the herbal and resin notes in the background to ground it. There's also a small hint of something floral, and I assume that's the moonflower. I'm not big on florals, but that's okay. It's not at all overwhelming in this blend. Oh, and yes, it's very purple to my nose, as others have described. Or I could say it's as if Mme Moriarty and Urd had a lovechild. Given that I love Mme Moriarty and like Urd a lot, I think this smells pretty fabulous. I don't know if I'll seek out a whole bottle as there are things I love more and I'm trying to keep only things I love lots, but I'm certainly keeping the decant.

In the imp and during the first wet stages, the peach blossom is rather sharply fruity. I think that's the combination of the sandalwood and the peach blossom, as it's not a juicy sort of fruity, but rather dry instead. Very quickly, however, it softens and becomes a really lovely, ever-so-slightly fruity, amber-vanilla scent. I don't really get the heliotrope and the sandalwood has receded to the background to give it a little depth. I'm also very glad that while it's got two floral notes listed, it's not very floral on me, as I'm not really a floral type. It's soft and very pretty and while it's not for the days I feel seductive, feisty, or strong-willed, I think I have found a new love. And it's a GC scent, which is a bonus. I got this as an imp from the Lab and I think I need a bottle. And I can't wait to see how it ages.

I will update this if it changes, and it has gotten slightly better in the 30 minutes or so that I've had this on, but right away on me this has a fake strawberry and plastic smell which blends into a Strawberry Shortcake plastic head effect. It also made me itch a bit. I really hope this starts working on me because I LOVE Strawberry Moon 2009 and I had such high hopes for this. However, I think I'm going to end up sad. My chemistry must just not deal well with the white chocolate note and/or the slightly different strawberry note in this one.

I know this was originally posted before Planting Moon shipped, but this past weekend I wore Planting Moon while gardening. It got me in the mood for sure, and I imagine when there's snow on the ground I'll want to smell it again. I'd have to think about other scents that would complement gardening rather than smelling just like it. But I don't think Planting Moon was a bad choice at all.