Ethaisa

I was really excited about this one, but didn't quite turn out how I expected. My skin seems to really amp the chocolate and I was hoping for more wax/smoke and books. Which is very strange because I can barely catch a whiff of chocolate in the bottle and I normally don't amp it at all. I'll skin test it again later, when the bottle has had more time to settle from its travels, but this might be one for the scent locket. (I rec'd a copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles - been a while since I've reread any Hardy, so it'll go on the TBR pile.)

Total love. A beautifully blended scent that stays true on my skin from first application to lingering dry-down. The frankincense in this is gorgeous - bright and golden, with a touch of citrus, balanced perfectly with the clove and grounded by the tobacco. I regret I only got one bottle; I think I'll have to hunt down a backup.

Spicy cypress and cinnamon, high and fiery with a long, and almost but not quite smoky dry down. A little goes a loooong way. I suspect this will age well and look forward to trying it again in a few months.

A very sticky, sweet myrrh, with just a hint of frankincense (mostly on the long dry down). This was soo sweet (too much caramel, and I like caramel!) when I first got it, but it's mellowed down into a lovely brightness that I wasn't expecting. This will be lovely resin scent that'll stand up to a bright sunny day but be equally suited to a warm, sultry summer night.

Myrrh and patchouli waltzing on the glowing cinders of clove's smouldering corpse. Wonderful from the first moment, and the dry down is lingering and utterly divine. Need a bottle of this.

I set this aside to age, as something in the blend wasn't behaving on my skin; either the bamboo or the orchid , perhaps - so sweet. But now the musks and patch have melded into this wonderful concoction (tho the red musk remains dominant) underneath a dried clove'd orange. I regret I only have an imp of this; it's amazing.

When I first got the decant, it wasn't too my taste at all, even though all the notes are in my ballpark - it was just too much, too raw, too mary. But now, with a few years aging.. wow. The vetiver has turned to smoke and the black patch and SW have mellowed with the musk into this deep, comforting darkness. Just a hint of balsam, and a drift of ambergris, to round it all out. I'll be moving this into more frequent rotation.

I found the sassafras to be very dominant (also got a 'minty' - yes, definitely wintergreen - note) and the nutmeg unfortunately disappeared once dry. I agree with the comparisons to SSS at this point. There's a hint of dark bitterness in the dry down that might be the chocolate, but it's really MIA. It's not really what I expected, but overall I like it, and since my original Laudanum imps are all quite aged at this point, there's enough difference to my nose that I'll keep it. ETA: quite unexpectedly, hours later the dry down is all deep dark chocolate; very close to the skin, no throw at all, but it's there with bells on.

This settles down into a rather complex but nice spicy cedar-floral blend, fairly delicate but a little too high for me and in final dry down it reminds me of others blends I already have (oddly, White Rose, a fav). I don't think I'd reach for this often, so I'll just enjoy the tester (a little goes a loooong way) rather than get a bottle.

This is amazing, from start to finish. Honey notes don't always play nice on my skin, but the honey here nicely sweetens and rounds everything else. Dark and woody and the leather is luscious. This is going to age amazingly well. Definitely a bottle.

I love pear notes but wasn't expecting to like this, as I'm not always big on the lemon. But.. somehow, I think this is working. Damn, as lovely as this is, it totally disappears on my skin in about 30mins.

I'm not generally a big fan of lotus, and blackcurrant is often a death note. But tested this anyway. There's a harsh almost chemical edge in the imp and wet on skin… and yeah, there it is, the blackcurrant misbehaving. Which is a shame, because the lotus *isn't* going bubble-gummy for once. As I feared, so not for me.

This opens up with a bit of a green watery lemon kick, but settles back close to the skin. Ends up as a really delicate jasmine blend, very smooth and rather unusual, but I have lots of jasmine blends I adore so I think I can resist this one.

I find this is incredibly well balanced; none of the notes overwhelm or overpower the others - as both rose and jasmine easily can do, and neither do they fight it out. Jasmine, rose, patchouli, oudh… these all play so well together. Gorgeous, sensual blend. So glad I just went ahead and ordered a bottle.

I love jasmine and tea notes, so I ordered a bottle unsniffed. So, so happy I did. The jasmine behaves herself like a fine lady at an afternoon tea party: you know she's there but she's gracious and lets others get a word in edgewise. The tea is strong, but mellowed with a hint of cream (the vanilla?) and the amber deepens everything and is especially lovely on dry down. Moderate throw on me in the early stages, but then it settles down close for a long last. May well be my favourite luper this year.

Tobacco and black sandalwood for the win! They perfectly balance each other. Smooth and dark and resinous with a smokey edge (though the pepper was slow to open up, and remained subdued on me.) Lovely wet, and phenomenal on dry down.

Wet, this was all orange and lemon with hints of sweet myrrh. Very incense-y on dry down, when the myrrh got kinda woody and it really resembled a wearable nag champa. After an hour or two the florals are very smooth and the sweet myrrh shines. I really wasn't expecting to like this this much and I'm still amazed at what this does on my skin. I love resin and incense blends but this isn't like anything else I have. I'll retest to be sure, but I very well may be getting bottle of this one.

At first the patchouli is a bit growly beneath the dark, rich sandalwood, but they settle down into a lovely duet that sweetens as it opens up. I caught a hint of dark herbal in the bottle (the immortelle?) but it doesn't seem to come out much on my skin. The vanilla is subtle and becomes a bit creamier on dry down, but the real stand out bit for me develops late: a wonderful soft, drifty smoke. There's a hint of slipperiness to this scent. I'm very much looking forward to how this ages.

So, it looks like I amp currants Berry notes aren't always my friend, but this.. whoa. Which is very disappointing, because otherwise this is gorgeous.

Wet this is all lemon and vetiver, and I'm not a huge citrus fan, so it's rather unpleasant. I get hints of the myrrh anchoring this blend, but as it dries it's mostly the jagged edge of the ravinsara that takes over. Only a little bit of oak moss. An interesting study in contrasts, and he final dry down is really nice, an overall feel of herbs drying in a earth-floored cottage - just not sure its worth with everything that comes before.

Both more ozone and more salt than I was expecting. A very cold aquatic, over all - reminds me of walking into a cold wind, trying not to slip on a slushy salted road in the middle of the night. Wispy incense in the late stages. Very atmospheric and evocative, but not something I'd really wear.

Myrrh & frankincense is almost always a winning combo for me. I was worried about the chamomile note (I'm generally very sensitive to chamomile in general) but it's so faint in this blend I can barely tell its there. The frankincense is dominant when wet, but then the myrrh takes over. The opoponax is deep and sweet, doubling down on the myrrh goodness and the cistus spirals the whole blend down into the warm dark. Definitely keeping my decant; may look for a bottle.

Second try on this one - still getting that leather note, not sure why. I find this very intriguing.

I'm a big resin & incense fan, so this is right in my sweet spot. A little raw and green to start, then darkens down as it dries and gets a little smokey but not burnt, and there's a sweet, faintly floral note to balance that out. Hours later, a hint of brine, as though someone grabbed a bucket of sea water to douse the last embers.

Harsh bitter leaves, almost overwhelming at first, with an underlying dustiness. Mellows considerably as it dries down, and the resins open up, and the dustiness gets more ashy, with a hint of leather. Not really what I was expecting, but I keep sniffing my wrist hours later, so I'll be keeping my decant.