Allumina

A classic Victorian men’s cologne: a lavender fougere, with hints of lilac, lime, and citrus musk. Hoping to like this one more than I did. Smells and stays, very “clean” like expensive cologne. I think it's the lavender I'm not too fond of- I get lavendar and musk and no citrus. It smells nice, it just isn't spectacular.

Verrrrry aquatic. Low throw. Clean and soapy (My coworker said it smelled like "Irish Spring") Up close I get something almost floral. Not getting much ozone, not much morphing. Kind of reminds me of walking on a beach. Pleasant, but I don't know if it's something I'd wear.

Eau de girl. Starts out all almondly, then the heliotrope/frankencense makes it perfumed and girlish. The vanilla eventually comes in- warm and girly, no cinnamon anywhere. It smells nice, but is not for me.

I wanted to try this again, after reading all the good reviews here, and I rationalized that I maybe just put a bit too much on the last time I tried it. However, I've had the imp for a couple of months now, and all I still smell is a super strong blast of headachey, perfumed, manly man cologne. No woods, no leather, just something highly perfumed (the rosewood?) and man smell. (and I normally love masculine perfumes) Off to swaps.

In the imp it is all honey. As soon as it hits the skin the honey disappears and it's all veviter, which I love. Within a couple of minutes I get what I guess is the poppy, which is floral and sharp and perfumed and old ladyish; It's not pleasant. After a while it calms down a bit and I get the barest hint of cherries and vanilla, but the floral and the disappearing veviter keeps me from liking the oil as a whole.

I was really hoping for the rosemary on this one, but on me it was all roses, a hint of citrus and a bit of herbs. It's pretty and soft, but I'm not really a floral person, so I'm swapping it.

At first, I don't get any incense at all- it's all ozone-y aquatic, and a bit soapy. It eventually gets dusty, and develops a weird note that's almost fruit like despite not being sweet. Hmm. It's kinda interesting, and dark, but I'm not captivated by it.

This one really grew on me. I loved the description, and was actually disappointed that it wasn't all in-your-face anise. I wasn't too crazy about the throw, which was strange and sort of powdery old lady-ish, but again, it grew on me. An intial bloom of anise with a bit of veviter sadly fades away, into murky, hard to define forest-y smells. After a while there's a hint of anise candy. Dry down is a touch foody and actually kind of sexy. Interesting and unusual and just plain neat- more of a scent that I like smelling on myself rather than thinking I smell amazing in it. Keeping this for sure.

Wet this is all sandlewood with patchouli (yay!) under it, which makes me quite happy. Unfortunately, as it dries I really don't like the throw- kinda weird and perfumed. I think it's the frankincense which doesn't play well with me. Up to my nose it's nice and resiny though, but not spectacular. Fades to faint resins. Eh. Off to swaps...

No spice or fire- turns to cherry-ish soap on me. The fact that I get zero spices out of this is reallly disconcerting. Thank you dragon's blood and my wacky chemistry.

Almost, but not quite. Herbal but way too sweet. First all eucalyptus, then all pine sap, then some sort of sweet, resiny green thing with pine mixed in.

This was one of those scents that confused me. Usually I'm not big on florals, or "perfumed" notes at all- I picked this out because I read reviews that mentioned dirt. Wet, this gave off a superstrong “perfume” blast with an undercurrent of dirt, but luckily this fades quickly to dirt with some sharp, strange floral notes that smell surprisingly good. I find this perfume sexy, though I have no idea why.

Definitely smelled the linen part, which was weird, but interesting. This was oddly perfumed tea, with a large throw. It made my friend sneeze. I got honey, but no pepper or ginger. I ended up giving this to my roommate, as it smelled a lot better on her than it did on me.

No more orange blossom for me, as my body chemistry hates it. This was bitter, syrupy-sweet cough syrup.

I was really excited about this, but on it immediately turned straight to sandalwood, with no almond. And stayed that way, with just a hint of musk. Didn't smell great on me either.

I can smell the leather and the rum and it's dark and smoky, but despite that not me. And there is the faint tang of cough syrup.

Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. Orange Blossom and I do not get along. (It frequently turns to cough syrup.) That being said, this was orange-y and girly, but in a “sexy” way. It wasn't bad, but two people told me it smelled “old”, like grandma old.

Sweet and wistful describes it to a t. In the imp it smells so much like pear that it's disconcerting in that pear jelly belly sort of way, on the pear is still the top note but fades into a pretty floral.

Bright sparkling light floral. Reminds me of the "body mist" type perfume they sell for little girls. Nice, not for me.

This was one of the first imps I tried and very influential in helping me recognize notes that don't go well with me. Amber usually always turns strongly perfumed and powdery. Dragon's Blood turns to cherry soap. Heavy florals give me a headache. Additionally, black currant reminds me of cassis, which I'm not fond of. I'm sure this could be lovely on someone who isn't me. Wet: hello, florals. Dry: amber perfumed floral of death. With cassis. Shudder.

I have since learned that Dragon's Blood always turns into sweet cherry soap on me, but this was one of the first scents I tried. It starts with tons of veviter, which I'm a big fan of, then calms into spicy and dragon's blood. I almost like it, and can smell the cinnamon (yay!), but then the db makes it sweet and soapy.

This didn't smell dark to me at all, actually. I smelled dirt, but it was too fresh and wet loamy, if that makes sense. I was hoping for a drier, darker scent. It almost worked, but the drydown became a bit too powdery and perfumed for me. My chemistry seems to screw up all the dirt notes- the same thing happened with Death Cap. Someday I will find a dirt note that gets along with me....

I can't place the main note, but it smells like that wet/marine note in a lot of commercial perfumes. Close up to my wrist, I can occasionally get the smell of something harsh, kind of like the smell of pencil eraser rubbings. The whole thing smells vaguely floral to me (what a surprise) and wafts a whole bunch. I don't smell any ozone.

I really wanted to get along with Death Cap, but couldn't. Wet, it smelled like freshly washed mushrooms, which was intriguing and had me sniffing my wrist constantly. Unfortunately, when it dried down it became sweet and headachey floral with a hint of baby powder. There was still the dirt note, but too sweet for me. Curse my chemistry.

In the imp, I didn't smell chocolate at all, but on, it turned directly into a single note of sweet milk chocolate. It was very true to life, but I'm not a big fan of milk chocolate. (I tried the imp on randomly not knowing what it was!)