bifemmefatale

Best chocolate blend EVER. Creamy milk chocolate with a hint of cinnamon and the slight molasses tint of the brown sugar. Rich, tons of throw, lasts and lasts. Not bitter like Candy Butcher or dry powdered cocoa like Underbed. LOVE.

Wet: All brandy with a hint of cinnamon under it. Yes, weirdly enough I get cinnamon and not nutmeg. *shakes fist at skin chemistry* Within minutes, it dries down to milk-almonds-vanilla, then slowly fades off to a faint vanilla without much throw. Lovely, but too ephemeral for me.

Pinched starts out just as I had dreamed--the perfect marriage of Misk U and Underbed! Coffee backed by a hint of cinnamon and a wreath of tobacco smoke and woods. Then five minutes into drydown, something-one of the woods?-goes PURE SOAP on my skin. Woe is me! Figures, as usual it's lovely on my daughter. But she can't have it. Off to the swaps...

Girly pink! Sugary-sweet florals with that creamy-spicy note from dragon's blood and a hint of musk on dry-down. This is as feminine as Pink Moon without smelling anything like it, really. Sadly, on drydown it starts to turn a little bitter on my skin, which has never liked gardenia. Still, fans of Pink Moon and Midway, take note!

The snow-covered foliage of the Black Forest and the fruit and woods of apple and almond trees. Wet: Pine/juniper/almond/apple. Christmas tree and sweet fruit, but not overwhelmingly fruity. This is close kin to Snow Moon, but sweeter and no florals. Drydown: Much the same all the way through. Sweetened Xmas tree. Verdict: I like it a lot, but love Snow Moon more and have a bottle of that. Swap

Peppermint, a hint of violet, a bare touch of vanilla, and a faint, clean aquatic. This isa good interpretation of the scent of snow, alright, but not me. Swap.

Wow, once again Beth's blend perfectly matches the description. Wet: dusty woods! A hint of cedar, patchouli, but very light, and DUST! The Leather shows up as this warms. Dry: After about 10 minutes the red musk comes out, softening all the dusty wood and turning this sexier. To me this is masculine, but not overpoweringly so. This is a cool, sexy bookshop-owner, low-key but attractive. Can't see myself wearing this much, but I give it a thumbs-up.

CT3: II (2), CTIII: II (2) Swapped reedsong for this one. Wet: *Huge* amounts of fresh-cut juicy green grass, with dirt underneath. BPAL's dirt note doesn't actually smell like dirt on me most times, but whatever this is does. This is the strongest wet grass scent I've ever tried. It reminds me of Demeter's Grass. A little later, a light floral and something akin to green pepper come in. Others have thought the floral was gardenia, but my skin amps gardenia and this is not it. Maybe shea. Whatever it is, it's subtle and the green pepper sharpness is almost off-putting. Dry-down: Definitely shea, coming out more, and white musk, subtly blending with the grass, flowers and dirt. This is lovely. A cool May morning in a garden after a rain, when all the plants are still damp. I don't know how much I'll wear this, but of all the CTs I've tried so far this is a favorite.

This is a cool, green rose scent, with the glads and lilies tipping it towards soapy on my skin, but not entirely. The juniper is not really recognizable as such; it just adds a light, pleasant spiciness to the wet stage. The sweetgrass is what makes this smell green and cool, I think. Pleasant, but remote and refined, which is not me.

I am so sad about this scent! I looove fig, coconut and ginger. But when I put this on, I get orange peel buttercream, which turns into orangey plastic when the cardamom starts to emerge. We hates it! No coconut, no chocolate, barely any fig. Only when I layered it wit Underbed did I get something wearable. Bah. Swap.

Swapped for an imp of this, fell in love and tracked down a bottle. It's the only Lunacy I've loved so far. In the imp: Spicy-piney-sweet On: A blast of pine, almost a deal-breaker in its pungency, but after a few minutes it settles down and a sweet pineapple scent creeps in, mingling nicely with the remains of the pine. I think it might be the chrysanthemum and whatever citrus (grapefruit?) Beth uses as olfactory shorthand for icy. I don't really get too much florals until the end of the drydown, which is good. Lovely, complex, spicier and fruitier than the description implies, and my new favorite cold weather scent. Just goes to show you that you never know what you'll love until you try it.

CT3: XCVI (96) This is not my bottle, but I got a partial imp to identify notes. In the imp this is a distinct olive green, like good olive oil. First impression: Green, herbal-pungent: that sharp, almost nutty herbal that's in most of the voodoo blends. Vetiver maybe? Plus dark musk, for sure, smells like the musk in Smut but not sweet. Drydown brings out a nice sandalwood, but that voodoo herb note lingers too much for me. Would be a nice blend for a guy, I think.

On: CEDAR! Huge amounts of cedar, backed with bits of amber and sandalwood. Fresh cedar sawdust like a small mammal cage, dry and thick. I like cedar a lot, but in this blend it's almost overpowering. On a guy, I think this could work. On me, it's too sharp. I'll stick with Tombstone if I want a cedar note-it's tempered with sweetness there.

I love BPAL's incense blends, but I remembered not liking this one in the imp when I smelled it at Convergence. Still, when I got a frimp of it I thought I'd give it a try. Sharp and resinous in the imp. Something funky/musty. Have a feeling it's the rose geranium. On: Frankincense!....soap. Dies off to nothing buy lily geranium soap in minutes. Ack. Swap.

Oh, yum! This is not what I was expecting at all--it's wonderful! Sweetgrass and amber, touched by the softest of leather notes and a light, subtle musk. It's delightful! This is the sweet, spiced amber of The Lion, but softer, more reserved, and blending so perfectly with the doeskin and musk that individual notes are hard to pick out. I adore this! It doesn't have a lot of throw, but there are days when that's a good thing. Must get more than the partial imp I have!