Miggins

Kali is a complete oddball! The first time I wore it, I got a strong hit of chocolate and red wine. As it dried down, it went through each note in turn: floral (which was really overpowering), balsam (which smelt like cherry Tunes), then honey which was totally yummy. Kali finally dried down to a chocolatey/red wine/tobacco smell, but with a nice sunny feel to it - like sitting in a wine bar on a Saturday afternoon on an August day, sipping coffee and watching the world go by (I have a place in mind and Kali is the embodiment of it).

I had such high hopes for Bon Vivant but my wicked skin chemistry got in the way. It smells so divinely sweet and perky, but on my skin I just thought of red Gummi Bears and the jelly snakes that were in the penny sweets when I was a kid - a “pretend” strawberry smell and sadly no champagne notes for me. *sniff*

Forbidden Fruit smelt very golden to me. Sit in front of a window on a sunny day and close your eyes; the colour that you “see” is exactly the colour that I “saw” when I put Forbidden Fruit on. However, it felt a bit “empty” (for want of a better word) on me - like I needed something else to balance it out. Strangely, I think this would smell nicer on a man, although I swapped it before I had the chance to try!

I really really like Depraved in the wet. Lovely zingy apricot notes with a slight hint of something earthier. However, the patchouli elbowed its way through on the drydown and then refused to go, making Depraved smell like expensive yummy jam with mould on it. to my skin.

Sadly, although I *really* wanted to love Pele, it didn’t love me. On first wearing, to me, it smells like loo cleaner or really expensive air freshener, but that really isn’t an insult!!! It smells very clean and fresh and blue - clean laundry and sparkling bathrooms - but not for me. Pele disappeared in a record 20 minutes and then made her way to my swaps pile.

I haven't tried many smoky scents, but I'll put in a suggestion of Djinn. Beautifully spicy and warm - someone said to me that it was "the essence of sex" - but there again, she'd only had 30 minutes sleep all night because she was... ahem... otherwise occupied. BTW, although Kali is lovely and quite dark, it has a habit, at least on my skin, of going ickily floral for a large part of the drydown.

Wet, Old Shanghai is gorgeous - lovely crisp green tea with a undercurrent of fresh lemon. However, within seconds it dried down to smell exactly like the French lemon castile soap I am currently using. Not a bad smell, per se, but not one that I want as a perfume. Into the swap pile, I am afraid.

Wet, Old Glasgow smells *exactly* like a bowl of freshly picked blackberries - very green, earthy, wet and fresh. On the drydown, it sweetens up considerably, but is fairly understated on my skin. Very sweet and innocent scent - ruddy cheeks and flowing hair on a windswept Scottish isle is the image that springs to mind - but not really me.

The first thing that sprung to mind with Old London was "Harlot-Lite". Much drier - more a tea rose on a summer's afternoon - but doesn't really have enough weight to it for me.

Le Petit Mort is a highly erotic yet amazingly comforting scent. Smelling it reminds me of that wonderful "after glow" feeling of being really loved and happy and sated. It feels warm like that first touch of skin on skin, yet so familiar - the happiness of climbing into bed with someone you know inside out and knows you in the same way, whose body is a joy to touch, whose love makes your life worth living. Le Petit Mort sparked strong feelings in me. I put it on before I went to bed and fell asleep with the biggest smile on my face.

I'm going with Swank. I wore it to work one day when I *really* needed to concentrate and get a load of work done - it worked a treat.

Greed starts off at the darkest green with splashes of violet and purple. In the quickest dry-down ever, it becomes the heaviest, most powdery white floral - almost a cloying suffocating floral - but with a vicious streak running right through it and the sharpest of tongues. Have you ever seen pictures of the UK’s late Princess Margaret in the 1950s and 1960s looking all minx-like? She was probably wearing Greed in those. And have you ever watched Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?”. She left a waft of something very Greed-like in her wake. And Joan Crawford? She probably bathed in Greed. And apparently (but this is just a rumour), Audrey Hepburn wanted to wear Greed when she played Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's - but she was too damn nice.

Wow! Aizen-Myoo is beautiful! I was stood in the bank thinking to myself, "what is that? Somebody has got the most gorgeous perfume on!". Then I realised it was me. To start, there is a hit of sharp citrus - kind of grapefruit-y, but so much more. Within minutes, the cherry comes out and wraps itself around the fruits to make a fruity-but-not-fruity smell. Get closer, and you can smell the smoky edge of the black tea. Amazingly, Jedley absolutely loves this one. He even asked me to wear it last night when we went out - in four years, he has never requested a perfume. To add: on me, this has wonderful staying power, but only in the daytime. Yesterday, it went on at 8am and was still going when I got into the bath at 6pm. But when I put it on last night, it faded right down within a couple of hours.

I really wanted to love Black Lotus because I love the smell of lotus, but sadly, myrrh does not love me. I get the beautiful sweet hit of lotus, but when I go in closer, the awful musty, mouldy peach smell that is myrrh on me just overwhelms me. Ah well - one to swap. To add: this does have some staying power though. I had to scrub my wrists to get rid of the smell of Black Lotus!

I put Arcana on last night before I went to bed. I can smell lots of neroli and lavender. My initial impression was that it either smelled nice or it smelled of pee (!) but this only lasted a minute. As it dried, it became so wonderfully soothing. Jedley said it would be a lovey comforting scent to wear when you had a cold - it would clear your head, but in a very gentle way and calm you - like a cool hug in a bottle. Clinique should give up on making their version of "Happy" and let Beth make this one instead. When I smell this scent, I think of golds and yellows - the colour when you close your eyes and nod your head to the sun. To add: this didn't have much staying power on me. I put it on at 11pm and it was gone by 6.30am. Ah, the fleeting magick of Arcana...

The Dormouse is a very pretty, green scent. It reminded me of spring flowers in a cut glass green bowl. A really lovely scent to wear on the first spring day of the year to celebrate throwing off heavy clothes and boots and being able to go out without a hat on. Sadly, though, it didn’t last too long on me… but I shall still keep my imp.

Harlot. What an emotional blend for me. The blend reminds me so strongly of my grandma, whose name was Rosie. I was stood smelling the imp (I hadn’t even opened it) and I was transported back to her dressing table. As you would expect, this is a rose scent, but, to me, is a period scent - a time when you used blush in a little cardboard box, compacts were always beautifully decorated, lipstick was always red and in gold coloured metal tubes, and you just *had* to use a little red handkerchief to blot your lipstick. It is a burst of wonderful fresh roses. I feel as if I am stood in a rose garden, with many different types of roses - wet, creamy but never timid. I feel wrapped in a beautiful pink blanket - a very comforting scent. A long-lasting scent - I put it on at 9.30pm and it was still going strong at 7am. One to wear on Saturday afternoons, lying on the settee reading a good book whilst sipping a gin and tonic (with ice and a slice, darling ), and maybe with a Bette Davis film in the background.

In the bottle, I thought this one was horrible. A chemical, almost after-shave, masculine smell. But once on - :swoon:. Wet, on me, this smells like ginger beer. Not icky, sweet, mass-produced ginger beer, but traditional home-made ginger beer. Biting with barest hint of sweetness. That's not a good description but go and smell some traditional ginger beer and that's exactly my wet smell. Dry, it's gorgeous. Although I don't get any boozy smells from it, my immediate thought was Jack Daniels and Coke. However, after lying in bed sniffing my wrists, it came to me - it's the perfect Long Island Iced Tea, chilled but with no ice. Strangely, I find Djinn really comforting. However, I'd be equally happy to wear it on a night out. A real surprise favourite.

Wanda, on me, was very leathery.

Old Paris is quite sweet, but with a spicy edge.

Belladonna was a real surprise for me. I took one look at the imp, read the description, looked at the beautiful pale green colour and thought "this will smell awful - best swap it", without even trying. I am so glad I didn't. It immediately reminds of Lush's Tramp (dreadful name) - well actually, the forerunner, which was called Smaragadine. I could even swear there was hint of patchouli in Belladonna. It feels very dark green, but not oppressively. I had visions of nymphs dancing around trees, with cheeky and playful faces. I also had the first ever urge to layer. To me, Belladonna and Swank (oddly) are opposite sides of the spectrum. Swank is the red and Belladonna is the green. I put just a tiny dot of Swank (literally the end of the wand) on over Belladonna and I love it. It gives Swank leaves and the plant it came from. I'm now getting splashes of red fruit in my dark green leaves. This could become a firm favourite.

Belladonna and Tramp.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Eclipse bites. In its defence, I did manage to throw virtually an entire imp's worth over myself but the few splashes that caught my neck and chin burned and brought me out in severe red weals. In the bottle, this smells very marzipan. Not the commercial yummy marzipan of Dana O'Shee but a much less sweet home-made marzipan. On my skin, the bitter almond took hold almost immediately. My skin seemed to take all the bitter elements of Eclipse and let them grow. After 20-ish minutes, I could strongly smell pear drops (an acetone type smell), but so very strong. After an hour or so, it had morphed into the most awful, chemical hairspray type smell and kept going. It just seemed to get stronger and stronger. One for the swap pile... if I had any left to swap!

I really wanted to like this. Really I did. I was hit by a dark acrid burnt scorched (ty, Allamanda) smell - hellishly smoky and bitter. During the dry-down, the jasmine and the rose were fighting their way through the myrrh, but lost every time. It smells like our local "hippie" shop, Gone Potty - a 1001 different smells ranging from incense (which is always burning) to wooden carvings to perfume oil. I liked this part but the black burning smell just took me over. One to swap, I'm afraid.

In the vial: Definitely a martini. With pomegranate. *Almost* good enough to drink. Wet: An explosion of pomegranate, which swells and grows, picking up a faint hint of blood orange for a short while. Dry-down and beyond: I really like this one. It dries to a cool deep red which is both mouth-watering yet incredibly dry. It reminds me of pictures of my beautiful grandmother in the 1940s - porcelain skin with blood-red lipstick. I also feel very clear-headed and focused whilst wearing Swank. It has cut through all the crap in my head and I’ve just got through a pile of work in 40 minutes! To add: Swank also lasts very well. I initially applied a wand-swipe to each wrist at about 8pm last night. When I woke up at 7am, I could still smell it (although it was quite faint by then).