porcelain72

In the bottle: dirty hippie! Initial application: dirty hippie! Drydown: kind of flowery, kind of soapy. It's fading fast, which is surprising given the intensity of the scent upon initial app. I thought I'd smell this hanging around me all day. The interesting thing is, on my left wrist I smell flowers, and on the right incense. The verdict: don't know about this one. It's…nice, but I'm still getting a feel on what scents suit me, and I'm not sure if this one works. I might be willing to give it another try, but if someone requests it for a swap I wouldn't mind giving it up either. EDIT: Upon reapplication, this is growing on me. It's still a bit stronger than I'd like (my eyes actually watered a little!) but I think I may get used to it.

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite books was Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. That has absolutely nothing to do with this review, it's just when I first heard the name "Hecate." Onward. In the bottle this was cloyingly sweet. It smelled sticky, for lack of a better description, and though it didn't smell fruity it for some reason reminded me of the syrup that comes with canned fruit cocktail. It stayed that way upon application, and, fearing I'd be a homing beacon for bees and mosquitoes, I briefly considered washing it off. I gave it a chance, though, and I'm glad I did, because upon dry down it's mellowed into a light incense mixed with baby powder scent (and I do mean light, unfortunately, less than two hours after application it's starting to fade). I wish I could have experienced the almond intensity that most of the other folks on here described, but I didn't get that at all, not even on initial application. Still, I'll hold onto this one.

I liked this one just on name alone, so I was hoping the scent would work as well. In the vial it's floral, but with an odd…almond edge to it? That was unexpected. I took a long bus ride yesterday, maybe that temporarily put my sense of smell on the fritz. Immediately following application the almond is gone, and I'm getting heavy floral, which is troublesome. Florals tend to be overpowering and bring up unpleasant images of funeral homes and mausoleums. However, an hour or so after, it's eased down a bit and is now a light, dusty floral. It suggests a dried bouquet sitting on a bookshelf. And speaking of bookshelves, for some reason or another it reminds me of that dry, somewhat spicy scent of a used bookstore. Of course, that might be a mental thing, associating the phrase "penny dreadful" with books. But it's certainly not unpleasant.

My first review here...I'll work on making them more lyrical as I go along... In bottle: medicinal mint. It wasn't until I saw a few people here mention the name "NyQuil" that it occurred to me: "yes, that is what I am smelling." And yet, I went ahead and put it on anyway. The second it touched my skin, NyQuil turned to pine-scented air freshener. I hugged my SO goodbye for leaving for work, and his only reply was "Wow, that's pine." And yet, I left the house still wearing it anyway. A few hours later...I'm on the fence with this one. There's a nice herbal scent, yet still that unmistakable edge of pine. No further minty freshness so far, thank goodness. I usually reapply once halfway through the day, I don't think I'll be doing that with Belladonna. We'll see if the pine fades and the nice herbal remains before I decide if this is a keeper, or another addition to the trade/give away drawer.