modernsaints

Something about this is pale green and fresh and sort of sweet-fruity, and just entirely undescribable. And there's a tiny hint of the seaspray in the back (mmmmm seaspray.) And a hint of tea! Very clean and sweet. I'm not sure I'd need an entire bottle; I'll test-run the imp a little and see how things go. Very pleasant, though, and distinctly Asian-inspired.

The essence of holy Kyphi, beloved incense of the Egyptian Gods. For a split second there it was glorious lemon cookie - you know the ones, they've got powdered sugar on them - AGH IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. Now it's lemon Pledge. Oh. I've never had a blend do that on me before. Yay.

OOF. Dusty, dry, SOUR wine. Blech blech ack get it off Oddly enough, once it's been scrubbed off, I get some aftereffect of - supersweet red-grape candy? Sparkling red-grape juice? What? It's delicious, but in a very strange way. It is also the scent I smelled through the hours I spent reading HP7, so I REALLY have no qualms about letting this one go :|

It's dragon's blood SN, as dragon's blood blends tend to do on me - in fact, Ladon is the only one that's stayed safe (and even that, I had no issues parting with in the name of enabling. Eh.) A faint hint of aquatic in the background, but only because I know it's there. Entirely "meh".

Got a half-frimp from a lovely swapper (whose name I've misplaced, as I am made of fail) Chocolate, with a bright fruit note spicing it up, but something feels a bit dusty and off - I couldn't explain what. Decidedly not me, and I'm starting to think iris is a Hate Note. Boo!

SHARP cedar - indistinguishable from anything else that has ever had cedar in it. Note to self: cedar is a perfume-killer. Boo.

Predominantly dragon's blood, with a touch of spice - mmm - and then something still spicy, but sour, in a dirty sort of way. (Spoiler alert: VETIVER) Sort of reminds me of Wrath, but heavier.

mmph this is DELICIOUS. Starts off sort of fluffy-perfume-y, and dries down into this DELICIOUS berry. Not a sweet, candied berry - just fresh, tart, perfect fruit. There's something lovely and fresh in the background that I think is the "snow", keeping the berry from going outright sour. I may have to track down more of this!

A faintly spicy, sort of creamy, men's cologne... the citrus brightens it a little, which is nice. Sadly, it just feels too masculine & heavy on me, and I'm not entirely fond of the lavender. Oh well, the Lab is still awesome for frimping it to me

Oof! VERY plumeria, but it's a little sugar-sweet for me, and the rose adds a really 'meh', powdery undernote. Meh! Meh, I say.

Sometimes lotus is good, sometimes it is RAR BUBBLEGUM It's prety much RAR BUBBLEGUM here. Sticky-sweet and none of the other notes, at all. Ah well! The madre wants to try it for some reason sooo... it's all hers

It's rose! Tra la la. It hits my skin and becomes weird, powdery-sour. Glee. The spices are kinda subtle, but they're lovely, though.

Clearly my skin is BROKEN. *cries* This was the most incredibly sour, SHARP, rotten, disgusting grass/cucumber blend EVER - I couldn't even begin to explain how, or why, it was just... ugh. And I've been looking for a good cucumber blend for so long! Woe! This actually kicked in my "SCRUB IT OFF SCRUB IT OFF" reflex, though.

It's... chocolate. WOW. Lots of chocolate brownie mix. nummy to smell, and yet - in terms of perfume, I'm starting to realize I really prefer the darker, cocoa-type chocolate of Candy Butcher. And I'd love to keep it for aromatherapy ("TODAY SUCKS. mm, chocolate") but in the imp, it's weird and REALLY heavy on the hazelnut. Sigh!

Oof! HEAVILY tonka. Tonka SN running by and smacking me upside the head. TONKA! It also gives off this lovely, almost shea-butter-type waft, for some reason... very creamy and cool, and yet very heavily foody. If I focus, I can get a tiny sparkle of lime and citrus, but just barely. Sadly, I have more than enough foody, creamy scents, and this one is oddly heavy-handed. I shall have to pass it on!

Ugh... something has gone horribly green and sharp and sour in this. Is it the berries? I have NO IDEA what is doing this, but... eck. Wow, this is WRONG on so many levels. Boooo, skin chemistry.

In the imp, this is a sharp, very herbal tea, with no sweetness it all. On my skin it goes through this brief, GLORIOUS phase of pure vanilla sugar - I cannot get enough - and then, what? What is this? Oh. It's... tea. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a lovely delicious lemon tea with a hint of sugar and vanilla, but I'm just so heartbroken! I want the vanilla sugar back. Boooo. As is, this is... nice, but I'm not sure I'd really ever reach for it. I'll stick it in the imp box & see how it goes. ETA: I lied, it goes back round to vanilla sugar. AWESOME

I never had Alice on my list - I know, I know, it's All That, but honey and rose? Yeah, this is Eau de Not Me. The lab frimped it to me (hurrah, lab!) and so I felt obligated to test it, though. Because the lab Knows Things. It's surprisingly not awful! But it's just so sweet and powdery and... eh. Not me. The longer it hangs out, the more powdery it gets, till it's sweetsweet carnation. Ack. It's still less of a trainwreck than I expected, though! Hurrah!

I was REALLY psyched for this one, as Will Call reviews were comparing it to Blue Moon, and I've been hunting down Blue Moon like a madwoman. The cucumber is hiding on me, though! It's a very pale, nearly aquatic floral in the bottle, but on me, it amps really strongly and gets that heavy, almost suffocating hyacinth topnote. Oh - oh there's the cucumber - nope. It's just peeking out, a tiny bit, and TAUNTING ME, and then it hides. The moss & ginger never show up, either. There is a hidden complexity here, but on me, it just gets stomped down. I think I'm going to give this to the madre, & see if she likes it; she tends to be more with the florals than I am.

I... wow. Patchouli & red musk have never been my thing, and red musk can go REALLY weird on my skin, but something about this was going "order me! orderrrr meeeee!" so I picked up a bottle with the last update. And... wow. In the bottle, this is kind of sharp but really, REALLY lovely; I even set Gibbous Moon aside to try this first (and Gibbous Moon got Blue Moon comparisons, so, uh, that says something.) On me, it dried down through a weird, too-spicy, too-sharp phase, and suddenly... oh, man. It's mellowed into this BEAUTIFUL Snake-Oil-plus-bright-fruit (the plum and pomegranate are AMAZING here!) Everything just plays really nice, and I am absolutely stunned. A lot of the more popular blends are not my thing - Bordello, Shub, and Misk U all went strange on me - but THIS. This deserves all the love it gets.

Pruno struck me as orange Bon Vivant - it's that same silly giggly sparkliness, but just with a different fruit aspect. (Fortunately, I like Bon Vivant better... hooray for GC scents! )

In the imp, lovely floral-y dragon's blood. On me it goes HEAVILY myrrh - to the point where I can't even detect cherry or clove, and only a faint tinge of dragon's blood. Eh. Not for me!

The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices. Really sharp, VERY dry ginger; there's absolutely nothing foody here, which is sad, as I wanted "evil gingersnaps"! But this is all ginger and no snap. Ginger tends to go overpowering on me, I think, and very faintly dusty. SIGH

I put this on and started LAUGHING. SO HARD. I smell like orange soda! I smell like carbonated orange soda! Glee! (Flashback to the '90s: the madre & I immediately began, "Who loves orange soda?" "Kel loves orange soda...") I can't imagine ever wearing it as a perfume, but AHAHA, ORANGE SODA. (Also: I had a mimosa in honor of this. Not that there's any alcoholic note, here, but - I felt like having a mimosa!)

I don't necessarily get 'lime' or 'mint' out of this - just a very nicely blended 'clean' scent. There's nothing laundry-like about it, though, which is lovely; it's just fresh air, with a hint of green freshness. Entirely natural and soft; it stays close to the skin, but I really like that here. Very happy I've got half a bottle!