sonderland

In the bottle: I’m mostly getting the nutmeg and the clove, it’s a sweet spice smell. First time on: Once again, my skin is really bringing out the spices, though there might be the tiniest smidge of peach in the background. After a while: There’s a really nice, warm pumpkin smell that’s lingering on the baseline. The main smell is still sweetened spice; the last time I wore this, the-mind-of-beckz pointed out that I smell like a pumpkin spice cinnabon, and she’s not wrong. The smell has an almost crisp feeling to it. It smells like a bakery on a chilly fall day. Overall review: I loooove this. It’s seasonal, it makes me smell like a delicious confection, and it’s not even limited edition! I’m glad I bought a full bottle.

In the imp: It has a very grassy smell, I might be smelling the hay. First time on: Suddenly: spice! I’m getting some of the patchouli and a little of the buckskin, but it’s mostly a spicy tree scent. After a while: The pine has eaten everything else. It’s the same thing that happened with Occupy (when the pine and smoke smells completely obliterated the chocolate and burbon vanilla). There’s a little juniper and possibly some elder bark floating in the background, but it’s mostly just pine, pine, pine. Now it’s been about two and a half hours since I put it on, and I can barely smell the perfume at all. Overall review: I’m giving this one away. So far, Voodoo is the only perfume I’ve tried with pine where the pine hasn’t turned overpowering, probably because of the clove and vanilla in that one. If I liked pine more, I’d probably keep it, but I don’t, so I won’t. This would work better on someone whose skin chemistry is different, or who likes foresty smells more than I do.

In the imp: Sweet, smoky rose. First time on: I’m still mostly smelling the rose, but there’s something drier, almost chalky in the background…it smells a little soapy to me, but I tend to associate flowery smells with soap. I’m also getting a little of what might be lemon. After a while: Yeah, that was definitely lemon. For a while, it turned into…not quite lemonade, but definitely a subdued lemon-in-a-drink smell, with some rosewater in there. The rose eventually came back out again, but the lemon stuck around. I was told that it kind of smelled like tea with lemon in it. Overall review: I’m kind of ambivalent about this one. It’s a nice scent, but I already have Lemon Scented Sticky Bat for when I want to smell like lemon, and I’m not all that crazy about perfumes that have a mainly flowery smell. I’m glad that the smoke I smelled in the bottle never made itself apparent on my skin, because I have a bad history with smoke bases. I’m trying to be choosier about what I keep, so I’ll probably be giving this away. It was nice to try out, though.

In the imp: The first time I opened this, It reminded me a lot of Snake Oil, which is awesome, because I love Snake Oil. Smelling it again, I’m getting the lighter, candy-ish scent that I associate with patchouli. First time on: I’m still getting some patchouli, but now I’m smelling more of the red musk, and some of the herbal/plantyness of the ylang ylang and the myrrh. It mellowed out pretty quickly, but that might just be because of where I do test patches; I test perfumes on the backs of my hands, so the scent doesn’t permanently fuse with my watch. After a while: The patchouli is still there, and it has a decent amount of throw on me, but close to the skin it smells like…pine. There’s no pine anywhere in the item description, and it could be that I’m smelling something herbal that I’m not used to, but to me it smells like pine, because that’s what my skin chemistry is bringing out. Oh biology, you so crazy. Overall review: I was disappointed in this one, because the first whiff led me to believe that this might be a passable substitute for Snake Oil until I get my next batch, but sadly, it was not to be. It’s not that it smells bad, per se, but it’s not really for me. Looks like this is another free sample that I’ll be passing along.

In the imp: It’s a sort of slightly woody/smoky cherry scent. I might be smelling the currant but, as I am unfamiliar with how that smells, it smells like cherry to me. First time on: I’m still getting the cherry and the woody smoke, but there’s a deeper muskiness to it. It’s not exactly sweet, but it’s close. After a while: This reminds me a lot of Red Queen, which smelled like cherry cola spilled over an antique desk. Dragon’s Heart smells less syrupy, but it still has that cherries-and-wood smell. Overall review: I was surprised by this one. I like it a lot more than I expected to, given the fact that the description doesn’t really talk about the notes in the dragon’s blood resin itself. I don’t know if I’d get a full bottle of this, but I’m keeping the imp.

In the imp: Smoke and dried flowers. First time on: The plant scents are coming out a little more, but there’s still smoke in the background. I’m getting more of the lily and the iris, as well as some of the resinyness from the copal and the labdanum. It’s turning a little sweeter. After a while: It’s back to mostly smelling like dried flowers, with just a little bit of the resin and tonka. It doesn’t have much throw, and it’s been fading pretty quickly. Overall review: My overall reaction to this one is…meh. It’s not as bad as I expected; smoky smells and I do not have the best of histories, and the first time I ever opened this, smoke was all I got. It was more interesting than that, with the sweetness of the flowers and the resin notes, but smoke and flower-based scents are not really for me, and this perfume was essentially all smoke and flowers. Not only that, but it didn’t have much staying power on me, and the tonka was never that strong. Looks like this is another imp for the giveaway pile.

A pounding heartbeat coalesced into scent: demonic passion and brutal sexuality manifested through myrrh, red patchouli, cognac, honey, and tuberose and geranium in a breathy, panting veil over the darkest body musk. In the imp: I think I’m getting the honey, the red patchouli, and a little bit of the cognac. First time on: Whoof, the flowers have really come out. They’re pulling back a little, though; now I’m mostly getting what’s probably the body musk. There’s also a lot of the geranium and a little of the honey. After a while: It’s very subtle. I’m getting more of the honey and the tuberose than anything else. Overall review: It’s…okay. It doesn’t have much throw on me, and it’s a little too flowery for my tastes. Plus, I’ve already got a friend who’s interested.

In the imp: Grapefruit. Sweetened a little by the currant, but that grapefruit is strong. First time on: Yeah, still lots of grapefruit. I’m also getting a little of what might be the musk and the delphinium. After a while: This smells a lot like Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat. The grapefruit is still eating everything, and I can’t even smell the lavender. Overall review: This one is kind of disappointing. I think my skin chemistry makes citruses really overpowering in these, and, while I like some citrus scents, I don’t really like this one.