The Forest Floor

Beeswax, tobacco leaf, a whiff of smoke, and purple rose petals. Ok I so I told myself I wasn't going to come on here and write some ramble-y, amateurish review but never mind that... I this scent and I want to share my love. It is mainly beeswax to me/on me, with a creamy antique rose melded to it, a very very faint whisper of smoke (that seems to come and go) and what seems to be a background of tobacco. Well, honestly, I'm not really even sure I can quite distinguish the tobacco from the beeswax, I usually amp honey and beeswax, and tobacco tends to do some sort of comforting golden grounding thing on me so I think they are mingling into one sofly-gilded-beeswax thing in my nose. I'm reminded a bit of The Lights of Men's Lives, and a bit more of the the beeswax I smell The Gambols of Ghosts, which seems a thicker and more opaque wax to me. Flickering Lantern is a fairly sweet scent on me, but softly so, and the rose is doing some kind of creamy almost-edible thing that I find most delightful! It's romantic, sort of maternal, maybe, and just lovely. To me this scent is a creamy, softly-glowing, peachy-mauve. I'm not getting purple, my experience of this is romantic evening mauve.

White tobacco and apple, white musk and angelica, immortelle and terebinth, juniper and violet leaf. Ok I hate to be the first one to review this but I guess something is better than nothing... I put a little of this on without refreshing my memory of the notes and I went for a walk and I kept thinking "sweetened Christmas trees?" "sophisticated pine soap?" "this would be nice on a guy...". I couldn't figure out what I was smelling but it smelled kind of clean and herbal and pine forest-y. I guess I'm getting a lot of juniper and terebinth, and now that I see there is apple in it I can pick that up a bit too, along with a bit of clean white musk... not sure about the rest. It's nice. It has a winter-y feel to me.

Tuberose incense, blue wisteria, and oakmoss. Holy moly, this one starts off with a knock-you-over-backwards heady floral punch. I smell a lot of wisteria, I don't know what tuberose smells like, I read it's heady, so maybe it's in here too, along with a boat-load of wisteria. Like, wisteria for days. It's a good thing I love wisteria. This is intense, and the throw is intense, for the first 20 or 30 minutes or so after applying... then, suddenly, it calms down noticeably. The Storm of Wisteria begins to pass, and I start to smell incense, a lovely, soft, high-quality incense breaking through as the wisteria clouds thin. The wisteria continues to wear away gradually and gracefully over a few hours, and the incense stays pretty steady throughout; I can still smell a lovely, soft, vaguely-floral incense faintly on my wrist even around 8 or 9 hours later. I don't seem to get moss... the only scent I have that I get a lot of moss from is Fae. If there is moss here, it's probably not that moss. (And that's probably not helpful, sorry!) (Edit: Oh yeah... also, and when I smell this, I think of an etherial light dusty blue, or a pale blue with a slight slivery/grey tint... but I'm not sure I smell colors the same way other people do, maybe my nose marches to its own drummer or my scent-palate isn't sophisticated enough. /disclaimer)

Green tea and honey with orange peel, hay absolute, bergamot, and cypress. Wet/fresh on: green tea and bitter orange peel/bergamot, quite sharp no honey yet, no hay, no cyprus. A fresh scent, very alive. 20-30 mins later, the honey has blossomed, and it is neither a light airy honey nor a thick syrupy one but a golden medium-bodied one (my favorite). The bitterness/sharpness has softened considerably and something else is emerging... something soft, subtle, and woodsy underneath. After about 2.5-3 hours the tea has mellowed to faintness and its mostly a honey-woods scent. To be fair, I tried this on the back of my hand and my hands have been hella dry lately. I need to try this again on my wrist or crook of my arm and see if the tea sticks around longer on properly moisturized skin. I like all the stages of this so far but Im in the market for a nice tea scent so ideally Id like to smell the tea for longer.

Blue musk, white frankincense, wisteria blossoms, and lemon peel. This one smells like the most delightful spring night! The wisteria is blooming and there is a faint balmy breeze. It's soft but potent at the same time. I'm getting a bit of the lemon peel at first, but after a while it is gone, leaving only breaths of fresh dewy night air and clusters of beautiful wisteria blossoms. So lovely!

Dead Leaves and Burnt Marshmallow... ok so the first two lovely reviewers already hit the highlights and made most of the good points as far as I am concerned... sweet fluffy marshmallows, not so much burnt as pleasantly toasted... the dry crunchy version of dead leaves (not the cologne-y, aquatic, or damp and earthy/moldy dead-leaves-turning-to-soil... this is papery leaves, dried-in-the-autumn-sun-for-days leaves)... etc. The only thing I want to add is that there is actually an "old book" quality to this scent. The leaves are dry and musty enough to be like old paper, the marshmallow evokes that vanillic scent that some old books have subtly, but in a louder, sweeter way. It's old books, lightly sweet and woody, with that deeper dry-musty/dusty-decayed scent tuned down and the sweet vanilla-like element turned way up. I absolutely adore this! I wish I could re-name this scent Crunchy Leaves, Toasted Marshmallow, and a Whiff of Old Books.

Of all the scents I have or have smelled, this reminds me most of Vanilla Orchid Single Note (which I love). Apparently Vanilla Orchid is one of those notes I'm a sucker for (The Unquiet Grave is my favorite blend with it). Cemetery Creep smells like a version of single note Vanilla Orchid but more sharp and perfume-y, almost soapy-clean, and kind of cold (there is a floral-creaminess I get from Vanilla Orchid SN that's being shy here, but is faint in the background). It's kind of perfume-y in a commercial perfume/shampoo/hairspray/product-scent kinda way, but it does give a sort of somber "white marble cemetery tomb" vibe too. It's not a very unique type of scent but very pretty and easily wearable, overall. A little goes a long way on me. Edit: I can see how people are placing this in the same broad family as Pediophobia, which has a similarness in the "white chilly stone" sort of aspect, but somewhat also Zorya P, which to me is so much more warm and creamy and ethereal and dreamy and delicious... a more distant relative in Zorya P, in my opinion.

This is the first 13 I've bought since I started collecting a little over 2 years ago. I didn't think much of it when it went up on the site, but I got to sniff it at Dirty South Lunacy and it won me over at first whiff, and continued to work wonders on my skin. This was intended to be comforting, soothing, and cozy, and it really hits the mark. I find that most of the notes are melded and blended into each other so well that I have a hard time picking out a lot of the individual components, but I do get a soft dry cocoa, vanilla, I smell a wee bit of of coffee, and perhaps white chocolate? It's warm and soft and delicately sweet, it's not really candy-sweet, more naturally sweet. The three or four times I've worn or tested it so far, it seems to fade within a few hours, but those are a lovely few hours! And that helps make it a great scent to wear for a cozy night in, curled up in your PJs for some reading or TV and winding down those few hours before bed, or to inspire sweet dreams for drifting off to sleep.

I like most of the Dead Leaves scents, and this one was the one I was most curious about this year. It starts out with a strong animalistic smell (I get something similar from The Thales Eclipse, which I thought was the castoreum, but now I'm thinking maybe the oudh?) which is sort of stinky but I kinda like it... ha! That animalistic funk blends well with leaves, and, on me, both of those notes fade over the first hour or so. The plum is dark and bold and pretty sweet, the clove is more subtle but adds a nice layer of interest. The throw is mostly plum throughout. The dry down is really glorious mysterious Autumn plum. I am always looking for nice plum scents, and this one is nice and earthy and dark.

A deep pumpkin scent that isn't a spice scent! It's warm cooked Pumpkin, not a freshly carved one. A slow-roasted Pumpkin- in fact, I get a caramelized/caramel-like vibe from this, and a burnt-orange/caramel color impression as well. It's somewhat sweet, but not like a sugar-ladden desert, this is a subtle, natural sweetness inherent in the Pumpkin itself. I keep going on about the Pumpkin because that seems to be the dominant note on me and I don't how to describe what else is going on here, but it's not exactly food-y on me, but it is a little... pseudo-foody. It's sort of comforting, snuggly, warm... but sort of dark and mysterious and brooding, in an Autumnal way. Such a great Fall scent!

I have the 2017 release. I want to review this scent because it's so pretty and I've been wearing it a lot over the past week that I've had it, but it's so well-blended that I have a hard time picking out individual notes to describe them. No one note seems to stand out. All I can say is it's a sweet smooth medium-bodied lovely concoction. When it dries down it smells kind of like a light caramel on me, sort of warm and creamy, maybe more of a dulce-de leche than a hearty caramel... maybe that's the tobacco/tonka/vanilla? It gives me a kind of honey-blonde vibe as far as color sensation. I love it for this very warm Summer's ending/dawn of Autumn weather we've been having.

First off let me say I do not have a bottle or decant of this scent, I got to skin test it only once so far, about a week ago at Dirty South Lunacy, so I'm not sure how long it had rested after shipping or anything like that. I got lots of berry from this, but not a sharp, tart, berry at all... I think someone there said Crunch Berries and I totally agree because I got a childhood breakfast cereal nostalgia vibe big time. I had a hard time picking out the pumpkin or anything maple-y or overtly pancake-y, but the I think the "pancake" was giving me the cereal grains impression and the cream was probably giving me the cereal milk impression. This is not what I was hoping for in the scent, I was hoping for lots of pumpkin and cream (and maybe even some maple for the pancakes even though it's not listed in the notes) but it's actually quite nice for what it is and grew on me over the night, so I would like to try this out again if I get a chance.

At first I thought Eat Me was too sweet and foody for me, but I'd still like to occasionally dab on just a little bit on one isolated spot (while wearing some other scent as my "main scent") and then sneak little sniffs of the Eat Me spot once in a while. I guess it grew on me because each time I'd go to put on a little I'd apply a little more and a little more... On me this is the scent of CAKE. CAKEsplosion CAKE punch-in-the-face. Death by suffi-CAKE-tion. Sweet, vanilla-y, vanilla-frosted cake with a bit of currant jam. I always found it had kind of a buttery-ness, more like yellow vanilla cake than white vanilla cake... sometimes I get more currants, sometimes less, but always so much cake! On me, it wears heavy and sweet and scrumptious. I had only an imp of this for the past couple of years and recently pulled it to out to find it almost empty, so I got a bottle.

I procrastinated trying this one for a while since I really disliked Pleasures...I, but I need not have worried. The leather here is completely different, much softer, lighter, and more natural, and it is DOMINATED (harhar, see what I did there?) by velvety tobacco. Usually, cinnamon stomps all over everything else in a blend, but it's making itself scarce in this one. I think I can smell vanilla but that must be the benzoin? And honey, which is usually loud on me, is playing a more submissive role in this one too. It's all very, very nice!

This starts out as a bright happy tea scent, and, amazingly, I don't get get much honey (something I usually amp). This drys down into "generic hairspray/beauty product scent" on me. Not bad, but nothing special.

Ooo this one is lovely! The honey musk is just so pretty, and really surrounds and reins in the fir, while the leaves are smooth, grounding, soft, and earthy but subtle (and not cologne-y). The fir fades a lot after a couple of hours on me and it's mostly musky honey smooth subtle leaves. This would be a great scent in the Fall too.

This smells AMAZING in the bottle! Deep and delicious with the chocolate, whiskey, and yummy caramel, just a pinch of cardamom. On my skin, it turns into something putrid...a horrible sour booze-puke smell. WTF, MySkinChemistry! Way to go with ruining something wonderful, MySkinChemistry! Seriously! So I had to wash it off after about 50 minutes. I am going to come back to this one in a week or two because I am just not ready to give up on something that smells so divine by itself. I suppose if all else fails I can use this as a room scent and with a scent locket... I wish it was an atmo spray!

On me this really smells like Zarita the Doll Girl + My Baby and a Baby Goat. This is pretty strong on me, I think I amp ALL the notes but coconut, which I'm not really getting.

This one is stunning! A seamless blend of jasmine and sweet creamy vanilla... so beautiful. Not really getting any star anise. I am not a huge jasmine lover, but I do like it. I have two other jasmine scents, they don't get a ton of wear either, so I thought I had my jasmine covered & wasn't really looking for a jasmine scent at all, but this is gorgeous, a total must-have!

This smells like a Christmas spice scent on me, I would almost swear it has cinnamon in it. I definitely smell red musk, but I can't pick out any leather or bergamot or anything else.... It's pretty baffling that it ends up smelling like this was on me, but it's really quite nice if I feel like "Christmas Red Musk"! I will have to come back to this one a different day to see if how it behaves on me.

This one is quiet and lovely, very smooth and well-blended, I'm getting a good deal of smooth gorgeous champaca (like I do with Temple Viper) and creamy lotus. Super pretty, sweet and soft. I love it!

On me this is complex and smooth and deliciously mossy. Seems pretty unisex, vaguely sweet but vaguely cologne-y? I'm not really sure what else to say about it but I REALLY LIKE this one

Well this sounded good, looked like all notes I usually like in some variation, but in reality all I'm getting is a sharp, chemically, headache-and-nausea-inducing scent somehow reminiscent of "new car" (which I've always hated). Maybe it's not so much the smell itself as it is the headachy-nauseous reaction reminding me of getting car sick as a child (which may have spawned my lifelong hatred of "new car" smell). I've had it on for about an hour and it has lost some of the sharpness and softened a tad but I really don't like it so I am going to try to wash it off now. Oh well.

So years and years later, I am here to say that I recently acquired a very aged decant of The Witch Queen (Stardust series) that is an awesome doppelgänger for Ananya. The decant is probably 8-9 years old, but so is what's left of my Ananya. I have a little on each wrist and the Ananya has a tad more of a golden base but the overall feel of the scent is super alike to me. After I have satisfied my Luper lust I plan to order a lab-fresh bottle of The Witch Queen to see how it compares, and report back with my impressions for the benefit of any of us former Ananya-lovers out there who may still be searching for a fill-in.

I fell in love with this one at first sniff. I can just faintly smell the Snake Oil lingering in there underneath the sweet, sugary, resiny goodness. I actually have a fairly strange way of describing this scent, which first requires me to explain that I live not far from a Wrigley's factory. Sometimes you can smell the scent of Double Mint for miles, and at other times it's Juicy Fruit. It's actually really pleasant. My favorite is the Juicy Fruit-scented air (and I'm not alone in that opinion)- it always makes me happy to pass by there when they are making Juicy Fruit! A month or two after buying my bottle of this scent, I happened to be passing by the Wrigley's factory with a cloud of soft Juicy-Fruit scent wafting from it, and I was overwhelmingly reminded of this perfume. It bears a curious sugary similarity! So, to me, Temple Viper smells like I'm wearing Snake Oil and burning Nag Champa incense in my car with the windows open while passing by the Wrigley's Factory when they're making Juicy Fruit. Ha! And if that's a ridiculous way to describe a scent then so be it!