Casablanca

Wet on my skin, Mata Hari is a blast-of-jasmine scent, though the jasmine is slightly deepened and warmed by fig and tonka. After a few minutes, I also smell the wood. Weirdly, none of the five roses makes an appearance at this point. Once dried, Mata Hari's jasmine lowers to a mere dull roar, and the blend is mostly a mix of it and the tonka-mahogany. I start to smell a little coffee at this point, too, but still no roses, and the jasmine is still the most potent. An hour later, the jasmine is quiet and some rose finally blooms. It's actually quite a pretty rose combination -- maybe of pink and red roses -- but it's faint. I just smell that and a little tonka. Hours later, I smell more rose, and still a little tonka. This ends up fine, but I have more appealing rose blends.

Wet on my skin, Kubla Khan is almost bracing ice on a background of heady-floral opium and a little ginger. My first impression is that this doesn't evoke any cohesive image or feeling, but I'll see how it settles. As it dries on me, Kubla's ice melts and it turns more balsamic and golden, and then toward a kind of orange incense. I think that's the mandarin and champaca coming through. Kubla Khan reminds me of Kumari Kandam in its odd and disparate elements, complexity, and changes on my skin. Unfortunately Kubla is completely gone from my skin before two hours passes.

In the bottle, De Vos' Unicorn smells like sugary vanilla mallow with a little floral coloring, and wet on my skin it's the same. This is pure and delicious-smelling, addictive, fluffy, creamy-sweet vanilla and flowery marshmallow. I smell lavender -- not harsh or aromatic here -- and a little peony and rose. The flowers are subtle on me. I only find a trace of warming apricot, barely there, and not there at all sometimes. De Vos dries into a sugared lavender-vanilla marshmallow, very close to the skin, sweet and comforting. This is a beauty and I want all of my skin to give this off in a cloud. De Vos bath oil, stat.

In my 20s I loved Baudelaire's writing, but these listed notes don't have me excited. Dedicated florals aren't my sweet spot. Wet on my skin: Urf. A pure, heady, clashing floral. This smells like rose and lilac in a bitch fight, with at least one of them using a sharp green note as a bladed weapon. Terrible. Once Fleurs has dried, the wisteria blooms alongside the green note. The greenery has gone dry and seems to approach bitterness without quite reaching it. I still smell rose and lilac, and they're still fighting, but more quietly in the background. This is a mess on my skin. Pass.

Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, red apple, frankincense and myrrh. On the wand: A curious mix. I smell orange blossom, peach, and honey musk, in that order, but something also gives me a dusty smudge of dirt in a way I usually link with patchouli. No patch listed, though? I smell grainy frankincense, but that's not it. I usually love myrrh, but is this myrrh reading as somehow dirty to me? Almost as an afterthought, I smell a little rose and apple. I'm a little put off by this mix, despite liking everything in the official notes list. Wet on my skin, this isn't much better. Kind of a sickly or overripe peach, which is also over-sweetened with honey-orange peach syrup. I smell nothing else at this point. Bijoux dries and settles into an orange-peach-apple-rose honey musk blend on my skin, no longer dirty. I like the honey musk, as always, and once dried, this is better than I expected. But it's too fruity for me to love. I also barely detect the frankincense, and kind of miss it.

Wet on my skin, Bella is a potent peach and pomegranate on a backdrop of flowers that seem to have an herbal-citrus tone to them. A touch of salty sea breeze and seawater. Dried, red roses come forth and a warm, brown background note that reminds me both of dried leaves and oudh. This is lovely, but the note of sadness of well-deserved: it's mostly gone in an hour. Complex, pretty, and a little melancholy, like sitting on a flowered and fruited terrace by the sea on the last afternoon of vacation. It's uncertain whether you'll make it to this spot again, and your last moments here are indeed short.

In the bottle, Allegory smells like creamy pink roses, with the barest touch of vanilla. Once it's on my skin, though, I can pick out most of its parts: creamy pink roses and rose hips (with their little bit of herbal almost-tartness) dominate, with jasmine and bergamot alongside. The jasmine and bergamot are blended but strong enough to pick out, giving the blend a lift out of the relative weight of cream. I'm not smelling much vanilla. It's a hushed voice compared with the roses, jasmine, cream, and bergamot. As Allegory dries, her vanilla warms up and peeks out, but is still barely a presence behind the more potent creamy rose and jasmine. I was anticipating a stronger creamy vanilla note, but this is still lovely and I'll much enjoy the bottle. It should layer wonderfully with Frau Bei Der Selbstbefriedigung bath oil.

I don't take baths but love these as moisturizers, too. In the bottle this smells vanilla cream-dominant to me. Once on my skin, though, the pinkish-smelling rose blooms wide, and I walk around for a while in a creamy pink rose cloud. Frau settles into about equal parts tea rose and vanilla cream on me. Sandalwood and frankincense tend to have a texture in my nose as well as a smell, and both scent and texture ground this blend in the sandalwood. As others have said, it's not strong, though. Beautiful, satisfying. This is the itch I was looking to scratch when I ordered Allegory of Chastity. I'll play with layering them when it gets here.

This is a resinous beauty, Middle Eastern desert in feel. I got sandalwood, balsam, amber, and frankincense (about in that order), and blended spices. I don't smell this more than a few seconds in the air, but it works great on a pillow. Last night I put on Australian Copperhead -- which is getting fanfucktastic after a handful of months aging -- and lay smelling that and Trackless Erg on a pillow. Love the Erg, and those scents together.

The Book's older (and more adult-natured) sister, borrowed from a friend while I compare rose blends. The Whip gives a lush, deep red rose with the bit of dampness the notes mention, and what smells to me like worn, cracked black leather. I don't think this is the new, shiny whip just brought home from the specialty or cheapo Halloween store. This whip has seen some use. The Whip may not be for me -- its rose too dark and heavy, its leather too black -- but I'm enjoying it nonetheless, and appreciate the chance to check it out and, especially, compare it directly to The Book.

Wet on my skin: Jasmine. I catch a whiff of gardenia and leather behind her, but she is distracting. On the third sniff I notice the trace of a hot dusty feeling in my nose, on the end of the inhale... cinnamon. Barely there, but I think it will make itself known more later. On the fourth sniff I get more rose... ...this is kinda in drydown now, actually, and the rose is coming out more. And there's more of the cinnamon. This is starting to smell like I imagine Harlot will, when I get to testing that sample. The jasmine has quieted down quite a bit, still present but no longer calling attention to herself. I like the balance of the scent at this point, except that I only get a little of the leather. Later on, I also get what seems like a little violet or violet leaf. Not that any is listed. From start to finish, I don't smell any vetiver. That's odd since it usually stands out for me. For this to truly feel like a highwayman to me, it would need more leather. But for a spicy floral, I like it OK.

Black Rose is similar on my skin to Black Lily, just with the heavier rose flower. The added darkness takes on a powdery quality at first, as if someone has walked the garden, found some flowers too pale for her liking, and peppered them with black dust. The musk presence here is clear. I barely pick out amber, and only when I look for it based on the listed notes. At a half day, I can still smell Black Rose, which for me is a good wear length. My skin eats scents like a glutton. By now, Black Rose has become a rose-tinged skin scent on me. It's interesting to compare this side-by-side on my arm with The Book: Black Rose is darker with lower throw and that powdery quality, which I don't get from The Book.

The Book goes on my skin with both the rose and the leather, but the leather is slightly more prominent. It's a doe-soft, light brown leather smell, and the rose is a pinkish rose. Over the first few minutes, the rose blooms open and becomes the stronger of the two, with good throw. The tonka adds a fullness and the bourbon vanilla seems to blend into and flavor the leather. This combination is lovely and, after its initial settling, the proportion of rose, leather, and other notes stays about the same for hours. Very good wear length for my skin at more than a half day so far. I've started testing my rose imps lately, but to this point at least, The Book has been my go-to when I'm in a rose mood. I imagine it'll stay in rotation even when I come across others I like as much.

The wet-on-skin, first impression of Moscow is tangerine, maybe an unlisted neroli, and a jasmine-led blend of other flowers. I seem to amp orange notes -- both the fruit and the flower -- so I'm guessing this will be mostly orange on me. In the winter and spring, so much orange would have been fun for me, but lately I want resins, vanilla cream, spices, carnations, roses, and a few herbs. At almost three hours, I'm still not getting any rose or carnation from Moscow. This is a tangerine-neroli-ish single note on me. Pass.

Lovely. Othello is a smooth, exotic musk with rose -- it's more a musk than a rose. This isn't a strong rose on my skin, even when wet. The spices are also softened to background levels, and well-blended. None stands out. This doesn't last more than three hours on me, but that's common for my skin. I could bottle this and be happy. But I'd really like to see this as a bath oil. Like really.

2015 I picked this up mostly because I want to see how it ages; when I'm done with it today, it's probably going back to the basement with the Port wines. The oil goes on my skin as a dark brown, slightly green-tinged color. I still haven't gotten a sense of labdanum by itself, but I think I can find it here. I can see how it's part of amber blends -- the resin has a smooth fullness to it that I can imagine working well with vanilla. The wood is a little harsh for the first 10 minutes or so. It smells like teak to me, but no cedar. I smell red rose during the same time period, but then it fades, and I think it's gone... but at an hour or so, I find that it's back, this time smoother and more integrated. The blend smells like the color sable to me, a very cool, dark brown, with a soft glow of red while the rose is present. This blend is more the teak than the rose for a few hours, but the cedar makes an appearance on me eventually, and the rose amps on me over time. This is nice once it settles. I think aging might bring it that more settled tone from the get-go. Edited to add the version year.

This goes on differently than I expected. There's something quite pink in how this smells on me in the first moments after applying it -- is it from the rose otto? The apple? The way the lily of the valley combines with the honey, rose, and apple? I can't tell, but somehow the very first impression reminds me of pink cotton candy. It isn't cotton candy, being too honeyed and rich and other things, but I think of it, at first... But Bilquis quickly settles into a warm, honey-rose, pinkish-red-scented musk with notes of fig and almond. Throw is low after a half hour. At a half hour, an inch from my skin, honey and almond dominate. When I sniff right against the skin, rose and musk are stronger. Four hours later, the honey and musk take on the "honey-dusted skin" effect from Sara Pezzini, but tinged with pinkish rose. Very pretty! Time to slather on some more.

A darker, heavier, and sweeter blend than The Rose, with less green. At least one of these roses leans in its fragrance toward cherries and wine -- maybe those both come from the listed wine rose, or maybe they are from different roses. The dark cherry wine-like rose note persists on me for about a half day, albeit with low throw.

A full scent of a rose: as it says, flower and greenery. This is a red rose mingled with a sweet green-grassy note. Unfortunately, it fades quickly from my skin. The roses in my yard bloom from May until they're snowed on, but The Rose is mostly gone in a half hour.

Oh, pretty. A very nighttime scent, reminding me in that way of Night Scene, but more complex. Long Night Moon is a frosty, blue-musky floral, aged 9 years or so now, so that everything is blended, with no lines between notes. The mint and thyme and frost are lovely together, and the honeysuckle and musk give the blend fullness and depth. Beautiful, though it doesn't last long. Soft florals aren't my scents of choice as a group, but when they have a twist to them, I can love them. Kataniya with its melting metal note is one like that. Long Night Moon with its soft minty frost and blue musk is another.

I almost laughed when I put this on, because I thought, "This smells like a vampire." Not a laugh from humor as much as one from recognition. The first impression is a cologne with green bergamot -- a little bitter -- and hay, and some vetiver offering its darkness. How could hay contribute so well to a gothic scent? I wouldn't have guessed it but, in this combination, it does. I don't pick out opoponax but there seem to be a few things in with the vetiver base. This is very cologney, and smells almost like alcohol-based perfume products. The intriguing bergamot-hay-vetiver combo is great for drawing me in, and the balance is lovely, but this amount of boozy cologne isn't going to work for me personally. Fabulous on someone else. Glad I got this freebie to try.

Oh my. Dracul is potent. The first impression I have on my skin is the black musk and, actually, an unlisted blood orange. Orange blossom is listed, but I'm somehow smelling blood orange mingling with it, forming a bridge between the blossom and the clove. The balsam is blended well with that, too. I should smell the fir off the top, but there's little here -- I only find it because I saw it listed. The tobacco is also subtle. I don't pick out cumin at all. This lasts a while on my skin, hardly changing at all. It's like dirty, evil orange blossom. Or at least morally conflicted orange blossom. My skin loves to boost neroli, I think. This isn't for me.

Pre-sniffing: I'm a little afraid of this one because of the dirt note listed. Lab dirt usually repels me. I'm bracing for this to send me fleeing, like Burial, Deep in Earth, and Zombi do. We'll see... Wet on skin: There's the dirt! But the rest of my first impression is of dried flowers on mossy earth with mist drifting over it all. Then the "mist" turns to dust in my nose and I realize it's the incense. It still gives the impression of drifting over the rest of the scent on my skin -- I like the strong image I get from that. Dry: The dirt has gone faint. This turns to a quite powdery-dry incense, and then a light and very powdery jasmine floral. Powdery isn't my best. Not for me.

The coconut-iris in Black Pearl was terrible on me, and red musk is one of my worst. Although I love coconut in other things, I have rather low hopes for this free sample. Wet on my skin: Strange. I smell the iris and coconut, but this isn't as musky as I anticipated. The "blood musk" smells to me more like dragon's blood, with its red-fruity note. Maybe it is -- I'd supposed that blood musk was a flavor-text way of saying red musk. Dry: Dragon's blood musk, or whatever this is, is less objectionable on my skin than red musk. But this is still too powdery: orris is a miss on me more often than a hit. Major pass.

Wet on my skin, raspberry leads, prominent. An agreeable berry. From the other listed notes, I mainly get cedarwood at first, with a dribble of olive here and there. To my nose, the raspberry and cedar kind of work and blend, but the olive smells oily and strange; I don't think I like it with the raspberry. It smells a little like we're trying to make a meal that uses up whatever is about to go bad in the kitchen. I don't get more than a shadowy hint of the vetiver. It seems to mostly hide in the roots of the cedar. This configuration of notes doesn't excite me.