Casablanca

Bottle: Linen and lime. Bright and dapper. After I've put the vial down and am about to exhale, I get a potent film of aftershave -- as if it's suddenly coating the inside of my nose. This is a weird and unexpected effect. Wet: Bright, limey aftershave. It's like the foam is right in front of me. Immediately after: heavy, slightly musty linen, like tweed. There might be a dot of the "wet wool" from Druid in this? There is also a metallic something in this that reminds me of the steel in Fighter. Dry: The lime foam hangs around awhile. Mostly it's the aftershave -- the lime was a volatile top note and I wouldn't expect it to stay. Received as a frimp and not something I'd have ordered on my own. An interesting exploration. Going to wash it off now.

Bottle: Musk-heavy wisteria. Faint, dry lemon peel. Very smooth. Wet: Musk and lemon peel at night. (It does smell like a cool night.) I smell more wisteria when it's on my wrist than when it's on the inside of my elbow... Not exactly aquatic, but a night garden near a pond at least. Dry: Subtle. Unless you slather your neck, and then you'll make clouds of blue floral musk around your face for a while. (I needed to test that, I guess.) I'm glad I took a chance on this one, but it only lives an hour or two on me.

I just got this as a freebie and was drawn to it because it smells in part like my pomegranate oil. Bottle: Orange, grapefruit and pomegranate and a little pink pepper. Wet: Blended citrus -- reminds me of a beach drink we made called Surfing Fuel that had lots of fruit in sprite. An impish touch of light pepper again. This is a silly scent, but I don't get any cinnamon from it. Dry: More peppery, but then once the fruits fade from the top, there doesn't seem to be much left underneath. Whatever's left is faint and a little fizzy.

"Cairo! City of the living!" Bottle: Faint floral and lemon incense. Wet: A syrupy and odd lemony honey, like a cough drop. A little myrrh. A pale honey-yellow scent. Dry: Even more lozengy than when wet. I feel like I just put a cough drop into the wrong part of my face. Nope.

Bottle: Slightly musky honey, cinnamon and clove. I think this may be the lovely musk from Coyote. Wet: Lovely spicy honey! Honey first, cinnamon, clove and a little pepper. Dry: Tasty spiced honey that slowly turns to cinnamon. A rich golden-brown scent streaked with reddish-brown. I love this, but should note that the cinnamon and clove, as skin irritants, turned my neck red where applied. My wrist was fine.

Bottle: A mild cinnamon musk. Wet: Barely there. Light carnation and an even milder cinnamon musk. Dry: The gentle carnation comes out more on me after drying. I get vanilla at this point, too. I can see the "warm desert breezes." There's nothing harsh about this blend: it's a pale, slightly rosy, sand-colored scent to me. It feels subtle and adult. This is lovely. It became much more than I expected from the bottle whiff. A nice desert blend for someone who wants one that stays pretty close to the skin. I liked how this one unfolded on me. I feel like I want two bottles -- one to wear and one to age.

Bottle: Bitter almond, jasmine, and a little warming from saffron and cinnamon leaf. Wet: Mostly amaretto, pleasantly bitter. Faint spices and a touch of orange. I don't get jasmine at first. The amaretto stands in front of the flowers, but I get a little of them when I hunt for them. But this progresses quickly: the almond fades and the jasmine and river lilies come forward. Not just lilies -- they seem to have a little aquatic thing going on. Quite pretty and different from the early wet stage. Dry: Aquatic lilies, and just a little jasmine, warmed and softened by saffron. A little patchouli and fig. I love the progression in this one. The first time I tested it, it only lasted about 20 minutes. I decided to re-test, and it lasted longer this time.

Bottle: A citrus spark -- the "tang of ozone" is there. Behind that, a little sea breeze and blue-purple floral tones that remind me of an essential oil mix I have called Rain. Wet: Zingy lemon-lime, blue-purple floral (like lilac but less depth) and the sea. A summer storm over sea. Dry: On me this doesn't change much and the storm passes in a couple hours. A fun one. I likey. 

Bottle: Snow. Floral incense and heavy currents of water. A perfume tradeship at sea has hit a storm. Wet: Incense and a ponderous floral aquatic. These waters have a salty ocean tang. There's a sense of gray clay also, a little like play-doh. The florals are familiar but blendy, and my brain isn't putting names to any. Dry: The florals fade and mainly there's a salty aquatic incense. Lasted about a half-day. Interesting but not the magic for me. It's a relief not to want a full bottle of everything!

Since plumeria/frangipani is native to the New World, I'm not sure how likely it was to have appeared on lovers' beds in ancient India. That is, if "ancient" is s'posed to mean the ancient world... But on to the sniffing. Bottle: Jasmine and frangipani. The latter smells lighter than my plumeria oil from a different source and works well with the jasmine. As a whole, this smells flowery and a little aquatic to me. Wet: Jasmine and frangipani. I can pick out rose and what seems to be a skin musk behind it. The mood is light joy and a little aquatic to me, like blossoms floating in a glass dish of clean water. Dry: A long-lasting, skin-musky floral. Very pretty free sample! Too floral-dedicated for me, though.

Bottle: Juniper, spruce, rosewood and dirt. Wet: The same, but with some sappy wood added. Is a moss playing the part of loam? There's something loamy, anyway. There's a dark floral, and I can't tell if the rosewood I smelled in the bottle is really that or a rose scent mixed with some earthen wood or musk. Dry: Grey-green moss clings to, and softens the shapes of, everything in this olfactory graveyard. Somewhere nearby, wet grass has been trampled on its side, gotten stuck there and begun to rot. The opened earth is drying -- that's the patchouli out. The soil smells rich and fertile from dead things. I think I maybe smell cypress. I love forest smells, but this frimp goes too loamy and macabre for me. I appreciate the artistry, but viscerally loathe this blend.

Bottle: Ginger, with a little apricot and jasmine. Wet: A pale, crisp and floral ginger bite that quickly goes powdery. Very powdery... like finely ground ginger that's partly gone up in a puff. Jasmine comes right under the dry puff, a high note. I get a little apricot, but no vanilla. Dry: Poof to the face. Curiously, hours later when it's barely there, I like it better. I love all notes listed for this. It should have been a win. I don't dislike it... it's just very dry and powdery on me. I feel like it needs some moisture.

Bottle: Mostly a mild jasmine. A little cinnamon and honey. Wet: A lovely, soft blend of jasmine, smoky vanilla and cinnamon with a few honey drops. I don't know what olive or champaca flowers smell like, but I suspect at least the former are softening this. There's a little hint of a lighter and more mild olive oil here than probably exists. Dry: As usual, sandalwood and cinnamon amp up in drydown. Thankfully a little honey vanilla lingers as well. Later, to my surprise, honey vanilla has taken over the sandalwood. (I like sandalwood when it's supporting something else, but it gets boring by itself. So, yay!) Defututa arrived as a free sample that was already on my wish list. I'll be getting more of it for sure.

Bottle: Up close, I get a steamy, fruity gush. Some of it smells like mango and melons. It's too nice to be a tropical fruit chewing gum, but the thought is there. Actually, it almost smells like when shampoo or gum is labeled "tropical banana" or something, but smells nothing like real banana or plantain. If I hold it further away I get a rich, deep golden amber. It's a lovely amber. Wet: Mostly that mango-melon-fruit wave with some amber. The richness of this amber works with the fruit, but it still seems a strange combo at first. There's also an undertone of woodiness and florals. Balsam of Peru? Not that I've smelled that... Dry: The amber is coming out more. This is still quite fruity. I like this, but I'm not sure it will become a go-to. I have a thing for rainforests, but this doesn't feel as green and wild as I want. I'm curious how it would age but fear what that would do to its volatile fruits.

I feel like I'm following freyasfae around in my reviews, hehe. Bottle: This one has more notes I've never smelled than ones I have. But mostly I get a sense of dry sage and wet cactus pulp. This is different. Wet: Prettier on my skin. There's coriander, and what seems like the cactus pear and a floral, and possibly the same amber note as in Machu Picchu. This makes me think of the Sonoran desert. Dry: More coriander, like out of a Mexican hot cocoa, but otherwise... a curious scent from which I can identify nothing. Fun place to visit. Haven't worked out if I want to live here.

Bottle: Smells exactly as described! Surprisingly, I smell the leather even more than the vetiver. How did she get the leather to smell wet? This reminds me of the wet part of the Druid "wet wool." Wet: Wet black leather and, secondarily, vetiver. Dry: Mega black leather. The faintest black musk as a supporting note. I received this as a free sample. I had eyed it earlier but passed it over, figuring the vetiver would be the star and that didn't seem interesting. But I've since found that I really like the lab's "black musk" note, so I'm glad they sent me this. This might be a love-it-or-hate-it blend. I feel both. It has me equally thinking of "dead-sexy dark-haired guy" and "black leather dude who rides his bike between lanes and needs a muffler." If you can imagine a little overlap between the two, there you find Iago. 

Bottle: Amber and the black musk. More "perfumey" than the other amber-musk blend I tried on the same day, Coyote. Wet: This amber is gorgeous with the lab's black musk I like so much. It's not a small ratio of musk, either. Dry: Black musk, and a little amber. Fairly long-lasting. There's nothing to add. Love this.

Bottle: Soft amber, grasses and musk. Wet: Mostly the amber, which seems to have a soft French vanilla in it? And a fragrant skin musk. The background is a bed of dry grasses and some sort of woods or herbals. All very soft and nothing is pick-out-able for me. Dry: A close-to-the-skin, cozy mix of ambery musk and grasses. Not strong to begin with, and goes faint after an hour or two. Like Haunted, this is mostly an amber-musk combo, and that works for me. Yet they have entirely different moods. Coyote is more comforting and natural. I likey.

Three golden ambers, bright musk, peach wine and myrtle. Bottle: Boozy, slightly unpleasant (under-ripe?) peach. Wet: Very sweet peach wine, the sort you want to cut with something light and carbonated so you don't make a face while drinking it. Dry: Peach, with a little floral. I see what the description means by "bright musk." That comes out after drying. A scent of light gold and peach colors. Very summery. There's something a little candy-like about it. I can see how others like it, but I'll pass.

Bottle: Dark, earthy, slightly ambery blend. Nothing stands out by itself. Wet: Red musk dirty with tobacco and something a little peppery. Dry: Dirty nutmeg tobacco with a little blending amber. The amber comes out more with time. I'm not familiar with orchid or hemlock. I think I get a slight conifer thing for the hemlock. Pass.

Bottle: Sunny conifer trees at midmorning -- which sounds nice, but seems to fight with itself in the bottle. Wet: Pine and frosty-blue juniper! And a little mahogany-colored rosewood. Behind the initial trees, I smell a little vanilla amber. Dry: We're back to sunny conifer trees at midmorning, but working now, on my skin, instead of fighting. The amber comes out in more balance with the trees. Likable. An unusual amber. It reminds me of the Colorado "dude ranch" I went to one summer -- it's just missing the horses, dust, leather and blond men.

Bottle: Green apple, pink candies and amber. Wet: Pink, fruity candies in a dish. Green apple and amber secondarily. Dry: Powdery amber with a floral touch. Yellow and pink colors in this scent. I'm not familiar with carnation or myrtle, but this blend is sweet for an amber. The parts that remind me of candy would be better for someone else.

Bottle: From most to least, amaretto, amber and saffron. I don't know lotus, but I've read it smells like bubblegum. When I look for that, I find it, too. Then I can't stop finding it... Wet: Amaretto, lotus, amber, and a soft touch of saffron and cardamom. Love all these notes, except the lotus. But the bubblegum winks out on me even before this dries. Dry: As this dries, the Egyptian musk comes forward and it's lovely. Dried, this becomes an ever-so-slightly spicy and ambery musk that wears close to my skin. Very close: I need to touch nose to skin to smell it. When I do, it reminds me of blowing golden sands. I like this but would rather it have a little more throw after drying (and maybe less lotus so I can fully enjoy the wet stage).

Bottle: Warm, dark golden amber, with some vanilla in it, and cinnamon, and a background of other spices I can't pull out. The oil itself is an unusual burnt red-orange color. Wet: The same. I also get cardamom and maybe a little clove and/or saffron, but the spices are soft and backgrounded. Dry: This has gone faint, only present up close. It's stable and doesn't change much. This is a fairly straightforward amber, but I very much like -- for me --how it leans more to dry and spicy than sweet. The remaining spicy savannah dryness reminds me of the Barrens in WoW, a memory that makes me all mushy sentimental and stuff. I only wish it had more throw. I feel like I want to slather it on to make up for lack of throw. If only that worked. Rawr. ETA: This is lovely combined with O for some honey.

Bottle: Crunchy-sweet honey and a touch of amber. The oil itself is close in color to The Lion -- just a little lighter, a red-orange honey tone. Wet: A snootful of honey. This is the honey that has started to crystallize with sugar. Crunchy! Behind the honey come amber and then vanilla. Dry: Vanilla comes out more in balance with honey. The amber blends and bridges the two. This scent stays fairly strong. This is touted as a sexy scent, but I get a sort of childhood comfort from the honey. I don't feel like crunchy honey is my ideal -- yet I snort my wrist again and again, like an addict needing another hit. This could easily have a place on my shelves and be used often, especially in winter. ETA: This is lovely combined with The Lion for some spice.