surlygurl

The scent starts out dusty and woody. In my sample the Pine smells like Cedar in that it's a bit sour and pencil shavings-y. Juniper is a bright, clean note cutting through. Not sure what Hemp smells like. On the dry down, this becomes Tibetan incense, but sweeter. Very college town head shop nostalgia. Up close, it's incense. The throw, however, is dusty woods 😕 Edited for the correct woods.

I'm not sure why I got a decant of this - none of the 3 elements really work on me - but I have it a try. And I'm so glad I did! It's..... hard to describe. The almond blossom is clean and smooth, but spikey with salt. Patchouli is either a miniscule amount or a different type (white patch?), because it keeps the blossom from going to powder. At the wet stage it's an ok scent; once dry, it's delightfully clean and unisex. A white scent without vanilla, believe it or not!

This is a masculine leaning scent in a bracing aftershave way. Lime is out in front while the sandalwood/ ginger provide background. Eventually the lime melds into this background and a tapestry is created. It's now (on the drydown) a sandalwood aftershave - same sandalwood in the olibanum/ sandalwood/tansy trio, but with ginger lime uplifting the fuzzy woods. Definitely unique.

This one is pretty strange on me. Clove always takes over on my skin, so it start with the Clove Show but is immediately brought into line by *something fruity*. Are peppercorns fruits? That must be what is doing it. I don't smell pepper or amber, just high energy clove trying to do its thing while the other elements sweeten and...... something. It would make a really good incense. I will retest this on a different bodypart and return with new insights!

This is pretty! It's a pale yellow sugar scent that turns golden yellow smelling as it dries and beeswax comes out. What it reminds me of is a honey lemon drink from my local boba shop, with crystal popping boba for extra sweetness. No tea, no tartness, just sweet summertime goodness.

Ok, this is different. Fresh on, I couldn't figure it out (I don't look at the notes right away). *Sniff sniff*. My first thought? "Angry pineapple" 😂 Oh dear. So I checked the notes. Once I fanned the oil and got some sillage/drydown, I could smell a light lavender in the background. Behind what, you ask? Behind wind blowing out of a frosty cold forest. No smell of trees or snow, just the cold dry air. It's not entirely forlorn - your warm cabin is a little ways around the bend, with fruits and cognac waiting.

What everyone else said. It's all lilac, but with a center of blushing pink bleeding into the outer lilac purple. Later in the drydown there is some sugared cream blending in, eventually overwhelming the lilac (if that's possible!). If you're a big lilac fan, this scent is a dream come true.

Ok. Here goes: In the vial it was a tad scary, but I applied it anyway. It was lighter on my skin than expected, almost like the listed scents were sitting on a bed of high pitched frankincense. No sign of vetiver or ashes. Petitgrain and moss balanced each other so the champaca could radiate. Keep in mind that I'm guessing - this scent is so well blended that I can't really identify individual components. As it dried, it became softer and the unlisted frankincense gave it a light ginger ale background. Something lightly soapy in there too, but not enough to be offensive. Now that it's dry I get the ashes in combination with the rest. Vertiver is still a mystery here. This scent is a morpher, but it's always clean. If scent had a color it would be light greenish yellow.

Wow. Reading the above reviews I have to wonder if my nose is broken 😂. Once applied, I thought "this must be one of the vertiver-heavy ones" because it was so dark. Like, almost a scrubber with something promising underneath. The dry down calms it down tho it still stays dark. It's been about 30 minutes and I can smell the musky greens, but no specific plant. There's a sweetness at this stage. I can see this scent being a hit with folks.... just not with me.

This is fun! Fresh on, it reminds me of apple zots. Bright and fun. As it dries the apple fades far into the background and the scent nearly disappears. It rights itself after a few minutes and the apple is mellowed - by what, my nose can't tell. On my skin, this is all Varying Shades of Apple. It would be good for a girl in grade school who wants to smell like her idea of a teenager.

Holy moly! Lush heady florals for days! Sniffed in the bottle I get Gardenia and possibly Carnation. Since it was pretty potent, I put a dab of oil on my wrists and rubbed. Gardenia - lots and lots of it. Some red spice. Pretty but overwhelming. The next day I decided to search this site for reviews. With some help, I came here and read all of them. Ok. So I have the rorschach scent 😅 Second test, a teeny weeny touch on my chest/ belly. Aaannnddd...... it's plumeria. "There are many varieties available, each with a unique scent. Frangipani flowers may smell like roses, Gardenia, pineapple, plum, citrus, ripe banana, coconut, grapes, ginger, candy, or spices". The basic scent I remember from a trip to Hawaii and a long ago bottle of frangipani perfume oil. A keeper, just for those tropical floral days. Maybe if I apply it behind my knees it'll smell like bananas 😅

This is one of those odd scent that doesn't smell anything like the listed notes. In the bottle, it's a mish mash of notes. On my skin, it's an imported Nepalese incense I used to buy at a head shop/ import store in my college days (way back when). Very specific. Kinda creepy. As it fades..... it fades. Nothing peeks out or comes forward. I wouldn't mind having more than my decant for nostalgia's sake, but not a full bottle.

Oh this is fun! It's those pineapple hard candies first and always. Prickly pear might be adding to the fruitiness; if so, it's subtle. Pumpkin peeks out on the drydown, but it's overwhelmed but the fruit candy. Green musks? Dry grasses? They lend a slight greenish vibe, like a pineapple with the green leaves still attached (visual reference). It becomes a liiiiiittle darker/ more autumnal once it dries, but that takes a while. And until then? Pineapple candy for *miles*. The throw is outrageous! Definitely a fun early summer scent.

This is much better on my skin than in the decant, tho I expected something different from the description. Bright aquatic with all those fruits reads on my skin as 'sunken pine forest'(?!). Maybe the drydown will bring out more fruits. Either way, I'm enjoying this.

This is lovely. White florals, including a non-indolic light jasmine, create a soft carpet of springtime. The Snow note is pure melted snow. An aquatic. A very clean and soft aquatic. It almost leans toward soapy, but never goes there. As it dries the aquatic note fades and gentle flowers fill the air. It's a beautiful skin scent.

This is lovely. I'd forgotten the scent description and the decant had none, so on it went. Oh my. It starts off an ok blend, but the sandalwood really pops as it dries down. This might be the best sandalwood scent I've ever tried 💕

Ok here goes! In the decant it's all cozy, fuzzy sandalwood. On my skin it becomes a big cloud of sandalwood. It lingers and lingers. And lingers. Just when I'm getting tired of it, the blue tansy peeks out. As the sandalwood fades, the tansy comes forward more - but never entirely. It's now an herbal woods, simple and soft. Eventually they both fade, but this beauty lasts longer than most of the labs duets & trios. If you like the sandalwood from Pottery Phoenix, Violens, or Chintamati-dhupa, do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle.

DEATHLY PRIDE Godolphin Horne was Nobly Born; He held the Human Race in Scorn, And lived with all his Sisters where His father lived, in Berkeley Square. And oh! The Lad was Deathly Proud! He never shook your Hand or Bowed, But merely smirked and nodded thus: How perfectly ridiculous! Alas! That such Affected Tricks Should flourish in a Child of Six! (For such was Young Godolphin's age). Just then, the Court required a Page, Whereat the Lord High Chamberlain (The Kindest and the Best of Men), He went good-naturedly and took A perfectly enormous Book Called People Qualified to Be Attendant on His Majesty, And murmured, as he scanned the list (To see that no one should be missed), "There's William Coutts has got the Flu, And Billy Higgs would never do, And Guy de Vere is far too young, And . . . wasn't D'Alton's father hung? And as for Alexander Byng!- . . . I think I know the kind of thing, A Churchman, cleanly, nobly born, Come, let us say Godolphin Horne?" But hardly had he said the word When Murmurs of Dissent were heard. The King of Iceland's Eldest Son Said, "Thank you! I am taking none!" The Aged Duchess of Athlone Remarked, in her sub-acid tone, "I doubt if He is what we need!" With which the Bishops all agreed; And even Lady Mary Flood (So kind, and oh! So really good) Said, "No! He wouldn't do at all, He'd make us feel a lot too small." The Chamberlain said, "Well, well, well! No doubt you're right. One cannot tell!" He took his Gold and Diamond Pen And scratched Godolphin out again. So now Godolphin is the Boy Who Blacks the Boots at the Savoy A sooty licorice incense with coconut and bay rum. After much anticipation, this arrived in the mail yesterday. Three of my favorite notes blended together? Heck yeah! Travel shock (bottle) and headcold (me) aside, I tore into the package & tested it. In the bottle: Coconut cream. Seriously. It smells thick & fat-laden and slightly floral. I'm familiar with all the bpal coconut types, and the only other time I've smelled coconut cream was in a chaos theory. It's not one of my faves. I also get a tiny bit of "bay rum" - I thinks it's allspice. On the skin, this is mostly coconut cream. When I sniff up close there's a little allspice and an herbal black licorice kick. The licorice/bay rum compete for attention under the coconut cream for a while. As it dries, the bay rum & licorice fade into the coconut. There's not much throw. I hope this ages into something less cloying, but I won't hold my breath. eta: This is more like it! 2 weeks of aging & the coconut cream mellowed, the licorice took a big step up, and the bay rum is the 'glue' that holds it all together. I *knew* this would be a winner!

This scent is the biggest morpher of the bunch so far. Fresh on, it's lemon peel, woods, and white tea. Nothing spectacular. Something between spa-like and cleaning product. Mmmkay. Then it warms up/ dries down and the carrot seed sashays out like a wealthy model vacationing on her lover's yacht in the French riviera (carrot seed always does this on me lol). Woody lemon peel wants to be her friend but is kept at a distance until drydown. Davana - which isn't a note I'm familiar with, but is used in high end perfume - and the white musk come out in their finery to mingle with the lemony riff-raff, and they wind up becoming best of friends. At extreme drydown, this is quite soft and subtle. Lemon peel carries the whole thing but, at this point, it reads as "freshness with a bite".

If you love orange blossom, try this. Buy this. Beg/borrow/(don't steal, that's not nice). It's beautiful. Fresh in the decant and on the skin, it's orange blossom and bergamot. Very clean and very loud. I keep waiting for vertiver to rear it's head and turn the scent murky, but vertiver is nowhere to be found. At this stage it reminds me of 4711 cologne water that I had as a girl. Then it fades. And fades. Pretty soon it is a faint skin scent. A beautiful memory. Time to buy a locket!

On my hair this is mostly jasmine. It starts with a lilac/ jasmine cloud, but the lilac rapidly fades into the background. I don't detect any honeysuckle, but it might be what's helping calm the lilac. It's gorgeous and a definite bottle buy!

How could I resist a perfume poem to power tools 😘 ? First on, it's mostly sawdust - sort of a tween version of Magus. There's a sweetness backing it up; it doesn't read as lavender but I'm guessing that's it. The *motor oil* note probably adds sweetness as well. As it dries the sawdust departs and resins (bloop of Schwarzer Mond) comes out. Eventually that disappears and I'm left with lavendar and a touch of soapiness. It doesn't last very long and it presents in layers rather than a blend, but aging might fix that. Verdict: I like it more than I thought I would. Possible bottle, but it'll need more testing. Can't wait till it ages a little!

When this first came in the mail it was pear first, then overwhelming champaca. Now that it's recovered a bit, it's entirely different. Pear is there snuggling with champaca, and the dandelion lightens it and gives it a milky, sappy shadow. It's really well blended. Strangely, it smells familiar and I can't figure it out. The pear/champaca combo reminds me of khalkokorustes, but this has a more head-shoppy vibe at first, then turns slightly soapy. I'll have to do a side by side comparison later.

I bought an imp of this after rediscovering my old original imp, and was surprised that they smell similar - perhaps even the same. On my skin it vibes as a soft grey scent, foggy and cold. Earthy. It doesn't scream 'jacket' or anything else. It's the same leather that's in Violens. Excellent layering scent.

I remember having an imp long ago and not liking it, but taste change. When an imp of it arrived recently, I decided to take a chance. In the vial: not bad, kind of pretty. On my skin: not baa... NO. Just *no*. Smokeless burnt earthy things. And teenage boy body spray. Forever. I can't pick out individual notes or nuances; its just bad. Why can't it be beautiful like the very first whiff? Even a locket wouldn't save it now. :-(