miss_rynn

This scent confused me at first, but the longer it is on the skin the more sense it makes. It's a whole lot fresher and brighter than I thought it would be. I was originally picking up the lavender note as a tea note; it's not a harsh, medicinal lavender, but more like the kind of dried lavender that you'd keep in your knicker drawer to keep everything faintly scented. It reminds me of the lavender and lemon shortbread cookies I made as a wedding favour for a friend's wedding - not too sweet, a little herbal, and a little citrus. The ale isn't heavy or yeasty or overpowering; it's a bit more like a wheat beer than a standard beer. The sweetness I'm getting is more from the cakes than the lavender. It feels to me like it's in the same family as Mother Shub's Stygian Nougat (my favourite Yule scent ever), even though they smell entirely different. I think the lavender between the two is similar. In any case, sweet without being cloying, wheat ale rather than dark or yeasty, dried lavender instead of madicinal. Well worth a try!

Super cidery! It's got that bubbly, effervescent quality that you get in perfumes with champagne as a note. It has a bright, crisp apple rather than a mulled apple. I'm not getting much buttercream, but it's there if I look for it. It has a nice cake note, the kind of sponge cake we have at Christmas time in Australia (the same type you'd get in a lamington at a CWA bake sale), but for me the cider is kind. I think I'm getting spice instead of whiskey. It's a dry, fruity scent with a touch of cakey sweetness to temper the sharpness of the cider.

Super quick review! This smells to me like a hot slice of fresh baked honey-oat bread spread with fresh melty butter. It's not exactly foody or boozey on me, but very warm and cozy. It's the scent of sitting bundled up on the couch infront of the fire with a hot cup of something spiked with rum.

I'm a fan of this, but I've always been a little overwhelmed by Eat Me unless used sparingly. For me, it works best when used with another atmo to temper the richness a little.

This is super cinnamony for me. It's a sweet cinnamon, though, not too harsh or bitter. It tends to be just a little throat tickly, but delicious all the same!

When I first sniffed it on the air, it was a dead ringer for Samhain 2006. After a minute or two, it's Pumpkin Queen 2006. Oh myyyyyy. The spice mix is very much like Samhain, even down to the hint of apples, but it warms up to a rich pumpkin sweetended just enough to make you think that there is some divine cake in the oven. It's not overly sweet or sickly, and it's not cinnamony/gingery enough to be dry and sharp. I love it. If you loved Pumpkin Queen '06, I strongly suggest this to you

Eat Me, in any form, seems to be just over the "too rich" line for me. That being said, though, once the scent fades a little it does become a cloud of baking and vanilla following you along. This one has gotten me a lot of compliments, though. I suspect that I will be using this more as we (in Australia) are moving towards summer, because even though it is rather rich and heavy it has a musky sweetness that I suspect with cover the smell of being hot and sweaty and gross. My advice for application is through the hair closest to the back of the neck. It is a little less wafty, and lets the body heat warm it gently enough to not be all in your face.

I really, really don't like strong mint scents. They just don't work for me. Given the reviews, though, I thought I'd take the chance. And I am certainly glad I did! The mint adds a very soft freshness to a delicious vanilla aroma. It doesn't smell so much like cake to me, but more like a vanilla *sponge* cake. It's more of a light, airy cake smell. I adore it, and I'm a little sad I waited as long as I did before trying it, because MAN it's a nice scent, and I would love a second bottle. It doesn't last or linger as a room scent as a lot of the other sprays, but it's still amazing for a quick room scent pick-me-up.

This is like the child of O and Jezebel on my hair. It's got the same O honey and amberish thing going on, with the muskiness I pick up from Jezebel. I towel dry my hair, spray two pumps on my hands (and this one is more like a spray than a stream), rub my palms together and work it through my hair mostly underneath and at the ends rather than the top of my head. My hair is fine but I have a lot of it, and it tends to get greasy after a day or two, but when applied to the lower part of my hair it doens't come across as greasy at all. The scent lasts noticably for one day, but I can still catch drifts of it on the second and third day. I was a little worried to try this, as the Honey HG goes on a little ashy on my hair, but it really is quite lovely. Languid rather than smutty.

On me this is all pecan all the time. I find it quite bitter, but I think that's because it smells like fresh pecans, rather than the kind you buy in packets at the store. It's a very strong scent, but not quite my cup of tea. Any nut fanciers will really like it, though!

I really like this! I agree that it smells a little like stale booze, but not bad stale - it smells like you've just finished a christmas dinner with friends. It comes across as sweet mulled wine to me, as if there's a pot of it on the stove. It's a great comforting scent rather than being overy foody or boozey. Lovely!

I tend to amp any alcohol scent like woah, put this is really, really nice. It smells like something between gingerbread cookie dough and shortbread. Very much a cookie scent, with a touch of spiced rum to give it a really Christmassy feel. I think it works so well because it's a very subtle scent - it's great if you want to add a bit of sweetness to your life without the need of a strong perfume.

So very much sweeter and softer than Saw-Scaled Viper. Pretty much as advertised - it smells like you've been baking in the kitchen all day while wearing Snake Oil. The gingerbread is warm and sweet and lightly spiced, not screaming dry ginger, and more like a gingerbread cookie than a yeasty loaf of ginger and bread. It does turn ashy on my skin after a while, so I suspect that there's an extra vanilla note in the gingerbread part of the scent (the vanilla in Snake Oil doesn't turn ashy on my skin). It tends to round out the sharpness that can be present in fresh Snake Oil. It's actually not too rich or foody - the foody notes are tempered by the musk and spices in Snake Oil. Highly recommended!

This is fabulous! It starts off with a bright apricot note without being overly fruity, and dries down to a skin-like honey and sandalwood. I find that a lot of the bath oils tend to be a bit too over the top for me, but this one works really well. It adds to you own skin scent without clashing or being perfumey. The orris tempers both the woodiness of the sandalwood and the sweetness of the honey. It really is a lovely bath oil.

This is way, way better than my expectations. The released version is lovely for about 5 minutes, then turns into a bitter, ashy mess. The prototype is an entirely different beast. It's a masculine sweet scent on me. I amp leather out the wazoo, so I suspect what I'm getting is a background of the book leather. I also usually amp coffee like woah, so I am delighted that it's behaving itself. The leather gives it a similar character to Dorian (though not as sweet or citrussy). It smells like a young, dashing scholar who has just spent a few hours pouring over arcane tomes while drinking sugared coffee. This is AMAZING.

I get a nice, fluffy kind of coconut, with a hint of sweet cinnamon. I found that the released version was a little too harsh and rough on me, but this is a nice and subtle scent. Foody, but not exploding with cake.

I'm not a huge fan of fruity scents, but this is lovely! The honey note - particularly while it's wet - is very similar to the herbal-sharp honeys of Rappaccini’s Apiary. On the dry down the apricot blooms, but it's not a thick, gooey, over-ripe apricot scent; it's more a lush, fresh apricot. It is really true to being a white apricot rather than a yellow apricot - white apricots are fresher, more delicate and less cloying. Pairing it with a lighter, brighter honey than the thick, rich honey notes in scents like 'O' makes this an utterly brilliant pairing of notes. The barest hint of cayenne grounds it, and stops it from being overly sweet.

Absolutely no chocolate. An almost floral, slightly sweet scent with a base of BO and a slight tinge of pepper. Son, I am disappoint.

I'll freely admit that I only got this because of the tentacles. A girl can never have too many tentacles! This starts out as chocolate and prunes, with a floral back. I know that sounds weird. I normally associate prunes with constipation (what can I say?), but I have to say that the prune-and-chocolate combo works really well. As it dries down the chocolate fades, what is left behind is a heavy but not overpowering prune/musk/floral scent with a touch of something herbal and sharp. Basically it dries down to a very complex perfume on the skin that is a little sweet, a little green, and on the dark end of the scale. A nice, grown up sort of a scent.

I got this as a frimp in one of my recent orders, but I avoided trying it until now because of the disappointment I felt with Choke Cherry Honey. This is sweet, to be sure, but it's a light and bright sweetness rather than a heavy, sickly sweetness. It's obviously a honey scent, but there is a green component to it, something like crushed leaves and stems rather than herbal. I'm getting some weird scent memory of this that I can't pin down, but I have dim memories of one of the tropical islands I visited as a child, but also as a spa-like beauty treatment. Maybe somewhere between a fancy sun screen lotion and a botanical moisturiser? I know that sounds odd, but it has that fresh and clean but also sweet feel to it. There is a faintly bitter undertone that acts to ground it. This is seriously impressing to me, and despite my bad reaction to Choke Cherry Honey I think I'll look more into the honey series.

Turns to ash on my skin. Bitterly disappointed. Poop.

This smells super similar to Hony Mone on me; kind of a sweet fruit and herbed honey.

I'm surprised this hasn't had more reviews - it is definitely my favourite of the 2012 Yules. It has a herbal/resin scent that isn't overpowering or sneeze/headache inducing over a rich and sweet almond. To me this comes across as almost nougat incense. It's not too sweet, not soo herbal, not too dark, and certainly not too bright either. This doesn't scream Christmas to me - instead it's a scent I will wear all year round. Delicious.

This smells to me like salty lillies. It's not a soapy aquatic, and it's not really an incense scent either. I think I like it as an oddity rather than something I'd wear frequently.

2012 version! There is a hint of sweet, stewed pear. It feels a bit like the way that a pear extract for cooking would smell. It does have a floral feel (which I think is a bit like how apples can smell like roses), but it's mostly a thick, drippy, musky vanilla. If this reminds me of anything, it's Antique Lace. Take that with a grain of salt, however - the vanilla/foral thing of AL was never something I much enjoyed, so my memories may be a little sketchy. Regardless, it smells like an old-fashioned lady's vanilla perfume - very Victorian in feel.