paperdoll

Shattered: A scent as sharp as glass shards, and as brittle as a broken heart. The formula came to me - quite literally - in a dream, and is named after, and created in memory of, the last poem that I ever wrote… almost ten years ago to the day. A blend of white champagne notes, grapefruit, lotus, slivered mint and crystalline aquatic blooms. Initial Sniff: I sniffed this without reading the description, and couldn't pick out a single note. It is a little sweet, a little citrus, a little floral, a little sharp... you get the picture! After reading the description, I can pick out all of the notes, but they are masterfully blended! Wearing: This one stays fairly true on my skin. None of the notes decides to dominate over the others, they all play nicely and smell wonderful. This is a very refreshing scent for the summer, I guess because of the mint and grapefruit. Final Impressions: This is simply gorgeous. I WILL have a large bottle!!

Roadhouse: Truck stop sleaze. Weedy dandelion and hops with a whiff of tobacco and hemp and a swirl of booziness. Initial Sniff: Mmmm... I can really smell the dandelion in this one. I can tell that there's more than that in there, but I can't pick out any other individual notes. Wearing: When wet, the hops realllllly stand out, and the tobacco makes an appearance too. I smell like a roadhouse, and a drunk redneck spilled a beer on me. As it dries, the beer smell fades, and the dandelion again comes to the forefront. Fina Impressions: I love the weedy drydown smell, but I will be mindful of the initial beer stank and will allow appropriate drying time if the beer smell is not desired! I am surprised by how much I love this - it's a definite keeper!

As light and innocent as your first time should have been. The fresh scent of lotus hidden behind lightly scented flowers, amber, and citrus. Initial Sniff: The floral and citrus notes are prominent. I'm not sure what lotus smells like, so I won't say definitively that is what I'm smelling, but it is floral. If this were a color, it would be a light, bright orange/melon color. Wearing: This is equal parts fruity and floral on me. It almost has a berry scent to it. Very light and summery, it fades quickly. Final Impressions: While this is nice, it's not really my style. It's just... I don't know. Pale, indistinct, wallflower-esque, I guess. Pretty enough, but not special.

Initial Sniff: Honey and herbs. Oh dear. Wearing: Yeah, honey doesn't work on me. Whoever likened the herbal base in this to aloe baby wipes was dead-on. Add stinky honey-poo to the mix, and you have the smell of a diaper change. Final Impressions: As a bonus, i'm apparently allergic to something in this - the angry red welt on my arm is very stylish.

Woah. If you handed me an unlabeled imp of this, I would have sworn it was Milk Moon. Upon wearing, this is not nearly as thick or cloying as Milk Moon. It also has an awful lot of coconut in it (= plastic on my skin). To sum up: Coconut Milk Moon Lite. If that sounds good to you, go forth and order!

This smells like a posh perfume. (I'm not familiar enough with Chanel No.5 to know if that is an apt comparison or not.) Definately reminiscent of dry, searing winds over a desolate, scorched plain.

Initial Sniff: Mmmmm. Juicy plum with a hint of spice. Wearing: Wet, this smells like a candle. Strong spice competing with strong, dark fruits. As it dries, the plum goes away completely, leaving a dry floral spice behind. Final Impressions: I was really excited about this, because Beth's carnation is the most amazin creamy spice EVAH. Plum is almost always a Very Good Thing as well. Unfortunately, this partcular combination doesn't really work for me.

Initial Sniff: Delicious gooey fudgey brownies. Wearing: Delicious gooey fudgey brownies. Final Impressions: Delicious gooey fudgey brownies.

Initial Sniff: OMFG. Sweet, thick, absolutely sexual. Honey, musk, and orange.... *pant* Wearing: Ummmm... I get peanut butter. With tuberose and geranium. Seriously. It is an odd and foul combination.It is like I dipped my arm in peanut butter and sprayed it with some floral perfume. After an hour or so the nuttiness fades and the honey and myrrh come out to play with the florals, and that is quite nice indeed. Final Impressions: Sorry, but the drydown is not worth the hour I sent smelling like Jif Extra Chunky. At least it was good for a laugh!

Initial Sniff: Pine, snow, and girlie perfume - exactly as advertised! Wearing: This starts off beautifully... the same exquisite pine and snow that I love in Skadi, but with a sweet playful floral in the backround instead of Skadi's sweet crisp berries. Pretty soon, however, that sweet playful floral grows loud and obnoxious, obliterating the beauty of my snowy pines. I'm also getting a hint of plastic and chemicals. Final Impressions: I just have to give this one another try. It's just too pretty when it's wet to give up on it. edited for stoopid typos.

2005 smells exactly like 2004. *shudder* Cold, unfeeling, antisocial plastic. With flowers.

Initial Sniff: Aquatics with mint. Wearing: The aquatics really beat the mint into submission on my skin. The mint disappears within a half hour and I'm left with an aqautic with hints of florals. Final Impressions: I brought this over to Fyre_in_Winter's place, and when she opened the imp, she immediately said, "This smells like Ice Queen!" I would add that it also wears a bit like Ice Queen on me. And wolfie, I get florals too, so you can come out of your corner now!

Initial Sniff: Evergreen and those aquatic snow-slush notes. And sap. Wearing: For the first hour, this is very true to the bottle scent on me. Then the sap note starts amping up a bit and then it turns oddly sweet. They drydown is very unbalanced on me. The evergreen and snow are still there, but they've been smothered with a thick coat of sweet sap. Final Impressions: A beautiful scent which I hope will be beautiful in my oil burner!

Initial Sniff: Warm, sweet amber with a hint of florals. Wearing: This starts out true to the bottle scent. As it dries, it warms up and the light floral notes and sweetness become a little more prominant. Then it fades, and I am sad. But then it comes back! And it is glorious. A slightly sweet, lightly spicy, deliciously warm amber that I can still smell 12 hours later. Final Impressions: I was so excited by this description, and it has totally lived up to expectations. A gorgeous, gorgeous blend!!

Initial Sniff: Dusty musk. Wearing: This is very interesting. It goes on dusty musk, but quickly dries to a slightly musky, woody, earth scent. There is something almost pine for a moment, then that fades into the earthy background. It is almost completely faded after an hour or so. Final Impressions: This is't at all what I was expecting. If musky earth sounds like a good thing to you, then you must give this a try. I'm going to have to test it again!

Initial Sniff: Very soapy and floral. Not what I expected. Wearing: This starts out magenta - bright flowers in the sun. There is a phase where it smells like something is burning, then it turns into Dollar Store fancy guest soaps. Final Impressions: This so doesn't work on me.

Initial Sniff: I'm so hungry now. Wearing: Puffy cotton candy, sticky candy apples, greasy funnel cakes, buttery caramel popcorn, big soft pretzels with salt... it is all good things. This is so delicious. It stays true to the bottle scent all day. Final Impressions:

Initial Sniff: Cool, clean, and slightly citrussy in the bottle. Wearing: This is very cool and crisp. It stays fairly true to the bottle scent throughout its time on my skin. Final Impressions: Where's the amber? I was hoping for something much more complex and interesting than this, but it is nice all the same.

Initial Sniff: Holy Orange, Batman! Wearing: Wow, that sure is orange. Final Impressions: Orange.

Initial Sniff: Yummy flowers and honey(?) in the bottle. Wearing: This is predominently rose and lily on my skin. Final Impressions: Rose continues to be the bane of my existance, and lily and violet aren't any help.

Initial Sniff: Citrus and eucalyptus in the bottle. Very nice. Wearing: There's that metal! This is the scent of a barrel of brand new shiny nails, the scent of your hands after you run them through that barrel, letting the nails clink together in a metallic rainshower, leaving your hands slightly greasy and covered with tiny prickles of blood. This is the scent that feels like the tast of a new filling in your teeth - not the new fancy composite fillings, but the old mercury amalgam... you know, the tang of metal and blood that linger after your office visit. Final Impressions: I didn't get any wood scent at all from this - it was all metal. Very cool and interesting, but with an element of pain that makes it less enjoyable. I'll give it to the man, perhaps he won't mind the edge.

Initial Sniff: Very citrussy in the bottle, but not in a sunny way... this manages to be dark and dry despite the citrus. Wearing: Initially a strong hit of cirtus, the frankincense quickly comes out to balance the fruit. As it dries, I smell a little of the ambergris and dry grasses in the background. Eventually the citrus fades entirely leaving a strange frankincense/ambergris finish behind. Final Impressions: I like this one, but I'm not really sure it's me. It is definitely different and interesting!

Initial Sniff: A strange combination of Snake Oil and Venom in the bottle. Odd. Wearing: This wears a lot like Snake Oil on me: spicy vanilla amber that goes slightly powdery. However, this is different somehow. It almost has an egde of tropical to it... Bombay meets Phuket, Marrakesh meets Fiji, or some other such nonsense. I can't put my finger on what exactly is different about it, but it is something... Anyway, I did experience a moment of plum - I was reaching for something and my wrist was briefly in front of my face, and I smelled a very strong plumminess. I took a closer sniff and it was gone! Strange, that. Final Impressions: A twist on an old favorite, much like Tropical Skittles. Taste the rainbow, my friends. It is lovely.

Holy buttered popcorn, Batman! 'nuf said.

Initial Sniff: Very dark. Mostly cedar and pine. Wearing: Ooh. This is so lovely. The cedar and pine are still there, but the cinnamon, leather, moss, and to a lesser extent the patchouli come out to play too. The result is a sinfully dark,spicy, ever so slightly sweet concoction. After an hour or so, the patchouli really come into its own, which is too bad, but this really is gorgeous. Final Impressions: Sleeper hit indeed.