astarinel

I like the Rose blends way, way more than I expected to. Unlike Red Rose, White Rose is very cool and creamy. Wet, it's a resinous vanilla tea. I think the coconut is what gives it that creaminess, though I'd hesitate to say that it smells like coconut. It does smell like rose, although I agree that it's a very soft, white rose. The vanilla tea aspect of it reminds me of Dorian, but with resins added instead of Dorian's musk. White Rose is also creamier, and the rose is definitely present although not prominent, which impresses me because my chemistry tends to amp rose all over. Sweet, cool, and lovely. I'm definitely picking up the Unity set, although Red Rose will probably be passed along to my boyfriend. I love White Rose, and I also like how they complement each other when layered.

This is one of those scents that I like very much but is not "me." The clove is very strong at first, backed by the musk, but the rose comes out a tiny bit as it dries. This is a very subdued red rose, and the rose is more... fresh than headily floral. If I didn't know it was rose, I might guess a different floral or herbal component was responsible for that sort of fresh green edge. On the whole, it's very warm and spicy, and I would honestly call it masculine. The fir, tobacco, and clove tend to hit my nose that way, though. It reminds me of the sorts of blends my boyfriend wears a lot, and if I get the set, the Red Rose bottle will probably go to him. Layering it with White Rose definitely brings it closer to my scent ballpark, and they're really lovely together in a way that ensures that, if I got the set and bequeathed Red Rose to the boy, I'd probably have to steal it back occasionally.

At first, I didn't really like this. As an experienced perfume oil wearer, though, I recognize that just because I don't like something in the bottle/wet does not mean it will not smell fantastic later, so I persevere. This... reminds me of Snake Oil. I'm not really loving it wet, it's mostly amber. However, as it dries, it gets stronger and more awesome. About an hour later, I love it. But I'm not a huge fan through the wet period... although its resemblance to Snake Oil leads me to believe this is a problem aging will cure, as fresh SO can also be a little weird at first. I may bottle up, see how it ages, and release it later if it continues to disappoint me for the first half hour of wear.

This started out... pleasant. I know that sounds like faint praise, and I suppose it kind of is, but that's pretty much what I got out of it. It was soft and sweet, a little creamy. The rose behaved, which is something of a miracle for my skin, and it was a gentle fruity floral. However, it faded quickly and became quite powdery. Not baby powder, really, but more like a very expensive dusting powder. Still pleasant, but too soft and powdery for my taste.

I love mums, and was always kind of disappointed by how deeply Mum Moon failed on me (thanks, opium notes!), so I was looking forward to trying this. It starts out bright, warm, spicy floral. I started to put it on the list to more carefully skin test at length, but as it dried it faded to essentially single note incense. Not even amber incense or anything special, really, just like I'd been burning some generic incense in the room and the scent had clung to me. Which wasn't bad, really, but wasn't at all what I was looking for. Skin chemistry fail, again. Looks like I'm not meant to wear the mum scents!

All gardenia, all the time. At first it's a very nice, strong gardenia, but that's really all it is. As this dried, I was hoping to get more of the honey and light paper scent, but it ended up just fading to nothing within an hour. I asked someone to smell a couple test patches, and she couldn't even tell I'd put anything there at all.

This... is good. This one was a relief to me after trying a bunch of Shungas and Lupercalias and having round after round of fail. Philommeides definitely reminds me of Aglaea at first, as the peach wine note is dominant while it's wet, but as the other notes come out the bright, juicy wine is tempered with first a bit of citrus and then some faintly sweet florals in the background. It stops reminding me of Aglaea and starts reminding me of The Gaoler's Daughter, although more tart and bright and less sweet and creamy. As a person who loves peach scents, this could be one of my new favorites -- a little more in your face peachy than Fae, and a little less creamy and subtle than The Gaoler's Daughter.

...? Where are, uh, all the notes I was envisioning? (en-smelling?) I was expecting this to be rich and sweet, and while it is kind of sweet, it goes on light and tangy with sort of a citrussy bite to it. I'm going to agree with the previous reviews that were getting something aquatic out of this, because that's the sort of feeling I'm getting from smelling this. Honey and beeswax are some of my favorite notes, and try as I might, I cannot find them in here anywhere. It smells like a citrussy aquatic floral and would have had me emailing my decanter to make sure I had the right scent if I hadn't read this thread first. This one kind of puzzled me, because I fully expected to love it and only barely restrained myself from ordering a bottle unsniffed. I'm glad I did, because as it turns out, I'm not going to even be keeping this decant.

In the decant and on while wet, this is a very thick, rich, foody vanilla to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. This is when I begin to worry, because although I love vanilla, there's a particular vanilla that does not love me back and I fear this may be it. As it dries, the first other note to emerge is the ginger, followed by a sort of thick fruitiness I assume is the date. These are both still playing second fiddle to this rich, cakey vanilla. Although the vanilla recedes as it dries... there's something. Odd. I wouldn't say plasticky, as I would have re: the Snowblind debacle, but there's definitely something going a bit weird/sour/off in this scent. Everyone I made sniff it agreed that it was faintly unpleasant. Not bad, but not something I'd like to smell for any length of time. Sadly, not a keeper.

Eat Me smells unpleasant on me, too, which was disappointing considering how many people recommended it. My favorite cake GC is, by far, Cockaigne. It smells like delicious buttery cake. As far as cake LEs you haven't mentioned go, I actually really liked this year's Halloweenie, Huesos de Santo, which is a very delicious custardy orange cake with a slight anise kick. And, although it isn't "cake," Sugar Cookie is quite good with a definite sugar-topped cookie feel. Midway is also very cake-y foody, but it has more of a sugary doughnutty sort of cake to it. I love cake-scents. Good luck!

Seconding Mr. Nancy if you like your lime with a foodie twist. If you prefer florals in the background, I'd go with Whitechapel which is very strongly lime softened a bit with lilac to my nose. For herbal lime, try Envy.

I have a bottle of JL '05, and just received a bottle of JL '08. I wanted to post this, in case anyone was curious about year differences. To me, they smell quite similar in terms of quality. A very warm, glowing golden scent dominated by amber. The '08 version is a touch lighter and sweeter. If I were pressed, I'd describe the scent of the new bottle as a paler, pink-tinged gold, while the '08 bottle is a darker, more orange-hued gold. Both last a long time, and seem to almost cling to skin. However, the JL '05 is significantly stronger both in the bottle and in terms of its throw after I put it on. I would say that the perfumes are identical, with the only difference being that the amber strengthened and deepened with age. I'm probably going to grab another bottle of the '08 to age, just in case.

Personally, I get a nice fresh dewy green grass from Mag Mell, with a touch of warmth from the amber.

DCCIX - 709 Apple. The first thing that hits me is definitely apple, similar to the juicy apple of Poisoned Apple, with nice throw. When I sniff hard, there's something buttery or cakey behind the apple, sort of like an apple tart or apple cake. This is sort of foody without being overpoweringly sweet or cloying, it's pretty light and the apple is a little tart. It's also somehow faintly floral, which makes me think maybe apple blossom or some other sort of gentle, sweetish floral, because it's not prominent at all. As it dries, the apple seems to mellow a little and the cakey/buttery notes come out a bit more.

The thickest, richest vanilla I've ever tried is Monster Bait: biggerCritter, FWIW. I'll second Antique Lace and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, too.

Someone recently was asking for recommendations of quirky, strange scents, and Eisheth Zenunim fits that bill for me. I spent the entire time I was wearing it waffling between liking it and hating it, and I'm still not entirely sure which side I come down on. So, I'll call it "interesting" and let it go. It starts off mostly peach on my skin, a similar peach to Imp and almost a similar feeling to Imp for me, then it starts to develop this sort of weird honeyed saltiness, which I think might be the ambergris and honey? I definitely did not get any cocoa, and as I wore it the patchouli got more prominent. When I got the peach and honey, I liked it, and I even appreciated the faint saltiness tempering the sweet peach. But combined with the patchouli, it ended up being sort of an odd version of Imp. YMMV with this one.

First off, this reminds me a little bit of Mme Moriarty for two reasons. Both have the red musk as a very prominent note (and I like red musk, but my favorite red musk scent is Red Moon, if that gives you an idea of what I like going along with it) alongside patchouli and dark fruits, and both seem to be very popular scents that I find mediocre. I mean, it's nice? I like red musk, I like the dark fruitiness I get alongside it, although the patchouli in here is a bit strong for my taste. However, I don't find it fantastic. Perhaps this is just not my genre of scent, but if you like Mme Moriarty and similar dark/fruity/musky scents (Smut and Midnight Kiss, I'm looking at you guys here), you will probably like Marianne. If, like me, you tend to err more towards the golden/amber/vanilla side of the scent spectrum, Marianne will probably seem very similar to those other scents and nice but not different or spectacular.

In the imp, it's straight up acai which worried me because acai was the note that ate Australian Copperhead for me. On, however, the acai calms down a bit and I can definitely smell the tea, which is going a little astringent on me. It definitely smells like a light tea with hints of jasmine and a lot of fruity acai. It's nice, and I can definitely see where the "asian Dorian" comparisons come from, but it's ultimately a bit too light and fruity on me, and the tea continued to have a bit of a too-sharp edge.

I liked this blend, but ultimately didn't love it. The entire time I was wearing it, I kept sniffing my wrist thoughtfully and thinking "huh, this smells like something I already have, what is it?" and after I few hours I figured it out: the plum in Dionysia reminds me of the plum in Frumious Bandersnatch. The plum is by far the most prominent note on me, backed up by a bit of spicy woodiness. This is all about wet, purple fruits, and it's quite sweet. Ultimately, however, it ends up being a bit too simple on me and I prefer FB for my plummy needs. A nice scent, and I may keep the imp, but definitely not a bottle purchase.

A very foody, buttery caramel. It was incredibly, overpoweringly sweet on me, with almost a nuttiness that made me think of caramel popcorn or cracker jack or something. This had a lot of staying power on me, and a decent amount of throw that made me crave caramels for hours. I don't really like smelling like "single note caramel" and I was really disappointed that the other notes seemed determined to hide behind a thick, gooey wall of caramel. While I like foody scents, too much cloying sweetness or buttery scent is definitely a deal-breaker, and this falls into the cloying range. ETA: Tried it again after a few months before swapping it away, no change. So apparently the amount of caramel wasn't an age or mixing issue for me, it's just that my skin is all, "Caramel? YES! TURN IT UP!"

Absolutely gorgeous. By far my favorite of the Grindhouse ladies I tried! On me, this is primarily about the amber. And, to my nose, it seems to be the same amber that's in Jacob's Ladder, which is absolutely phenomenal now that it's aged some (I have a bottle of JL '05 which is spectacular now). Swirling around the amber are spicy carnation, an underlying musky note, and hints of woodiness. My skin, which generally amps vanilla in a good way, does not seem to find anything especially vanilla about Inez. I also want to note, this is probably the closest substitute I've found for Et Lux Fuit, my all time favorite. It has the same sunshiny golden warmth, although the woods make this a bit "drier" feeling than ELF. A winner and definite multiple bottle purchase for me before the carnival leaves town!

Chimera (cinnamon and honeysuckle) and Sudha Segara (ginger, milk, and honey) are both warm spicy blends to me that stay clear of incensey notes. Chimera is a bit more floral, while Sudha Segara is more creamy.

Of the retail salons I have tried thus far, this one was the surprise winner for me! I expected it to be nice, given the notes, but I wasn't expecting it to be swoon-worthy. First: Probably my favorite scent, period, is Et Lux Fuit, and in the imp, this has kind of a slightly similar feel to me which is awesome. On my skin, it has a great spicy-golden vibe with the honey and carnation mixing, with a sort of creamy light musky feel in the background. I can't really pick out other notes, but it's very light and has decent throw and staying power. It stayed pretty constant throughout wear, and continued to be, to my nose, somewhat similar to ELF. I love it!

I generally like resinous scents, although I like them a little more balanced with other notes. Nevertheless, let's try it! In the imp, this is quite strong and very heavily incensey/woody. On, it continues to be quite strong with a lot of throw, and starts out pretty true to what I smelled in the bottle. However, given some time, it first started to warm up and then suddenly turned a bit unpleasantly sharp. I wish I knew what was doing that, so I could avoid that note in the future, but it began to border on chemically-cleanerish and I eventually had to wash it off before it gave me a headache. Quite strong throughout, though. This had a lot of throw which started off good and then quickly became very bad.

Oh, I was so hopeful about this given the other reviews! I am one of those people who love love loves vanilla -- Dorian and Antique Lace are near the top of my GC Top Ten. I'm not saying Haloes went bad on me, because it didn't... it just didn't go particularly good. In the imp I can get a little of the vanilla, but on the whole it just smells slightly sweet and well-blended. I don't really get any specific notes. On, it starts off very gentle and light, with continued smoothness. I want it to smell like... more, I guess. It's somewhat of a golden scent, which is usually right up my alley, and it's a bit sweet. On the downside, I think I'm getting a touch of soapiness from the lily which is one of my personal chemistry woes. Unfortunately, I can't see myself even keeping the imp of this one.