paperdoll

Initial Sniff: Orange that somhow manages to be sickly sweet and bitter at the same time, on a bed of unidentifiable flowers and greens. Wearing:The sweet orange fades into a more floral and green scent as it dries. I think there is light myrrh in here, giving a lightly sweet resiny base to the scent. This fades away to nothing in about an hour. Voodoo Effects: I'm not feelin' it. Final Impressions: This scent is more of a dark orange with green around the edges than red. This is not objectionable, but it is nothing special on me.

Initial Sniff: This is sharply herbal in the vial. I really can't pick out any individual notes, but I do smell a vague sort of mintiness. Wearing: The initial herbal phase is very nice, but as it dries it turns to roses. Blargh. The roses pass into something distinctly more unpleasant - baby powder. Double Blargh. Final Impressions: Blargh. 'Nuf said.

Initial Sniff: Clean herbal floral soap. Wearing: This isn't at all soapy on me. It is just clean and beautiful. Lightly herbal (something sweet - perhaps basil?), lightly floral (heliotrope? poppy? honeysuckle?). Final Impressions: This is GORGEOUS! Many reviewers have used the word "beguiling." That sums it up perfectly.

Initial Sniff: I smell juicy sweet orange and strawberry. This is young and playful! Wearing: Candy sweet when wet, the soft florals and lightly herbal lemon verbena temper the fruit as it dries. This fades very quickly, unfortunately. Final Impressions: I can't believe that strawberry isn't listed as a component of this blend! I put this in the same category as Jailbait, Maenad, and Hollywood Babylon - I like them all, but Lolita is my least favorite of the group.

Initial Sniff: Lavender and sweet tea! Wearing: This sugary sweet tea is lightly spiked with lavender. If this is a gentleman, he is wearing a pastel suit and a frilly shirt. He is Fancy. Final Impression: This is so nice! Beth continues to surprise me with notes I think I don't like (in this case, lavender). I'm not sure it's a big bottle puchase, but I'm not giving up my imp!

Initial Sniff: In the vial, this is cherries and pipe tobacco. Wearing: Mmmmm... the pipe tobacco and leather really come out as this dries. This is warm, cozy and smoky. This lasts and lasts, too, getting sweeter and even more mellow as it wears. Final Impressions: I'm so glad Jasminepearls swapped me an imp of this! I don't think I'll wear it enough to have justified a full bottle purchase, but I shall savor every drop in the imp!

Initial Sniff: Very heavy on the almonds, but I detect a bit of the neroli. Wearing: The sweet almonds and neroli/orange peel dominate for the first hour or so, but slowly give way to the sandalwood and spices. The scent is beautifully sweet incensey spicy for several hours. I really can't smell the rose until the scent has faded to the point where it is almost gone. Final Impressions: This is beautiful! Finally - a rose scent I can imagine having a big bottle of! Of course, that is only because I can't smell the rose, but still...

Initial Sniff: This is very pretty in the vial. The myrrh warms, the mandarin sparkles, the rose and jasmine are lush. Wearing: ROSE! and jasmine. Sadly, the myrrh, mandarin, and musk all desert me and I am left with screamingly loud florals. Final Impression: Stupid body chemistry! If you can wear rose, give this one a try!

Initial Sniff: Rose and cinnamon. Yup. Wearing: ROSE! ROSE! ROSE! Final Impressions: I still don't like rose.

Initial Sniff: I definitely smell the peach and the amber in the bottle, but there is more there, I just can't differentiate the notes. Wearing: At first, sticky sweet peach dominates, but as it dries the amber and sandalwood take over. The drydown is gently floral with heliotrope, gently sweet with peach, and overwhelmingly golden warmth. Final Impressions: This is just gorgeous. I was really wary of the peach at first, but this works so well with my skin.

Initial Sniff: I can smell the tea, a hint of leather, and something citrus - either lemon or grapefruit. Wearing: This is predominantly citrus on my skin. As it dries, I smell like iced tea with lemon slices floating on top. It fades quickly. Final Impressions: Iced tea is good to drink, but not to wear.

Initial Sniff: Lavender and frankincense. Very strange. Wearing: This is actually not bad. Wet, it smells almost like carnation - a spicy floral. Dry, it is just a nondescript floral. Final Impressions: This one really surprised me. I dislike: rose, white musk, and lavender. But I do not dislike this blend. It really is different. I don't like it enough to keep it, but I liked it much more than I expected!

Initial Sniff: FROOT!!! I say, FROOT! Wearing: Roughly an hour after application, I picked up my fiance from work. When he got in the car, he said "woah, you got the car cleaned!" He then looked around at my dusty car in confusion, looked at me and asked "oh my - is that you?" This is all artificial fruit on me. Think a cardboard strawberry on a elasticized string. Final Impressions: um...nope. Not for me!

Initial Sniff: This smells fantastic - a green herbalness, a resinous muskiness, a sweet grassiness... there is the slightest hint of a mint note as well. This seems more unisex than masculine to me. Wearing: The frankincense and what I am assuming is ambergris (a spicy musky note) take center stage when wet, but as this dries the green notes really take over. The basil sweetens up on my skin, and the result when this is dry is a beautiful sweet green scent with some musk and resin undertones. Gorgeous! Final Impressions: I am so pleasantly surprised by this! I just had no idea how beautiful this would be on my skin. I'm adding this to my 5ml wishlist!

Malevolent, dark and shadowy: sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver. Initial Sniff: Strong leather and musk with a hint of vetiver and perhaps lime? Very masculine and dark. Wearing: This starts out beautifully, with a smoky leather musk scent with interesting spicy and citrus undertones. Soon the vetiver overpowers everything, unfortnately. Final Impressions: If only the wet stage lasted longer! I like vetiver, but this smells the same as every other blend that contains more than just a breath of vetiver... dang chemistry! I'll have to convince the boy to give this a try - he doesn't like earthy scents, but this is just too delicious!

Initial Sniff: Candy sweet apricots! That's all I smell in the vial. Wearing: This is mostly sparkling fruit, but there is a slight floral undertone as this dries. I can't smell the musk at all, and it all fades within a couple of hours. Final Impressions: This is young, fun, and sparkley. I like it, but not enough to keep it. This is the first blend with white musk that works on me, so it is nice to know that white musk is not always the devil!

Initial Sniff: Yup - that's cedar! Wearing: Yup - that's still cedar! Dirty cedar, at that. Final Impressions: Cedarific! I'm going to pass this on to the boy.

Initial Sniff: A delicate, watery, sweet floral. Wearing: This is very pretty. The sweet pea dominates at first, but after a while it is pure rose. Final Impressions: I don't wear rose well, and this scent is no exception. It is truly beautiful in the initial wet stage, though... perhaps a bit too delicate and wistful for my personality, but it is really beautiful.

The scent of warm, glowing jack o’lanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove. Initial Sniff: Mmmm... hot creamy buttery spices with a hint of peach. Smells like a rich peach cobbler. Wearing: Oh, there's the pumpkin! This smells like autumn baking, what with the spices, the pumpkin, and the butter. The peach adds an interesting touch as well, and this dries to some sort of non-descript foody spicy sweetness. Final Impressions: I like it! It is nothing I'll wear often, but I'll keep my imps. Additional Note: I have one imp that is definitely Jack II, and one imp that was swapped to me as Jack I. There are subtle differences between the imps during the initial wet stage, but once they dry they are indistinguishable. I'm not sure if the Jack I imp is actually Jack II or if they are really that similar! So this review is for Jack II and possibly Jack I as well.

Initial Sniff: In the vial, I smell a strong patchouli with a touch of orange. Wearing: Initially the patchouli and orange are very strong, but within minutes the carnation starts to dominate. I love Beth's carnation - it is spicy and creamy - just gorgeous! The other notes provide an interesting base for the carnation. Final Impressions: This is fantastic! I love it!

Initial Sniff: In the vial this is sweet fruit with a touch of spice. I can see why people say grape, but I'm really not sure what fruit this is. Wearing: At first the fruit is overpowering, but as it dries, a beautiful golden glow of myrrh starts lighting the red and purple fruits from behind. The result is a gorgeous sweet glowing sunset - as it ages, the resins become more prominent, appropriately darkening the blend until it fades away to nothing. Final Impressions: This is the first of the stations of the sun that I have tried, and I must say that I am impressed. This works beautifully on my skin.

Initial Sniff: Mmmm... warm musk and dry spices. This is wonderfully exotic. Wearing: This has excellent throw. The musk is really warm and beautiful, and the spices make me feel fascinating. This also has good staying power. Final Impressions: The tone of this scent is similar to Vixen... there is a very grownup sexiness at work here. I like it a whole lot!

Initial Sniff: Super sweet fruity bubblegum. This is not a bad thing. Wearing: Remember Lik-M-Aid? The white candy sticks that you dipped in the envelopes of tart candy powder? Glitter embodies the sweet chalkiness of the stick and the bursts of tart powder. Final Impressions: This is interesting... and odd. I'm not sure it's me.

Initial Sniff: Pine, herbs, fresh-cut greenery, and a little something citrus. Medicinal is a good way to describe this scent. Wearing: This stays fairly true to the bottle - it is so fresh and green! This sweetens a little on my skin as it dries. Final Impressions: Refreshing and green - nice, but not spectacular.

Initial Sniff: All I can smell is almond with a touch of cinnamon. This smells yummy. Wearing: The cinnamon really takes over and dominates for a couple of hours, after which I can finally smell the powdery heliotrope. It remains a sweet and foody scent throughout the day. Final Impressions: I like this, but it is nothing overly special on me.