Lucchesa

Crumpled Wrapping Paper smells just like wrapping paper. But not crumpled -- more like when you've just taken the plastic off a fresh roll and the ink it at its strongest. It's amazing to me how Beth recreates such a scent. Also, why. Once it's dry it's quite subtle, and the wear length is not great on me. But it's super interesting and realistic and I'm glad I got to try it.

Wet I got lots of orris, dry and powdery with a trace of bitterness on my skin. Gradually it was taken over by the coconut, and the combination worked surprisingly well on me. Soft tropical coconut with the orris keeping it from going foodie. I like this one!

Tushnamatay is a sweet sandalwood incense on me. Looking at other reviews, the sweetness could definitely be lotus. It has that almost bubblegummy quality, but the incense is dry and balances it out. I didn't try to meditate with this, but it's very pleasant just to wear.

Vernal Equinox Full Moon is soft, cool spring florals backed by a pale amber note that emerges gradually. It's pretty, very feminine and light, and my skin eats it up in about two hours. This was gifted to me by a generous forumite and I'm glad I got to try it because the idea of the bulb flowers backed with amber was intriguing, but it's much too floral to get much wear from me.

Maybe I amp cherry wood, but that’s what I’m getting the most of here. There’s tobacco accord, but it’s not the cherry tobacco I adore. The patch is fruity, not the darker variety (I seem to prefer black patchouli), and for whatever reason, this trio, which should have been dynamite on me, never quite gels. It does have some throw and good wear length, though.

This decant was given to me by a friend and is the comfort scent I didn’t know I needed. Chocolate, milk and dark, cozy cardamom and hazelnut, and brown sugar praline, which dominates the late drydown. I don’t get marshmallow but don’t miss it either. Good throw and great wear length.

Um, a kind swapper gave me a tester of this in an imp, and I didn't realize it was HG. So I'm wearing it on my left wrist right now. I was guessing mahogany, bourbon and tobacco, but apparently the polished woods are oak. It's beautiful. It's not holding up all that well as perfume. I definitely have to get my nose close to smell it, and after an hour it's very faint. I need to figure out how to put this in my hair and get more of it!

Wow, no one has reviewed The School for a while! I have a tester and was hoping for woods, beeswax and salt. Maybe the dusty beeswax of Quintessence of Dust with some forest and pirate notes and golden amber. What I got was surprisingly reminiscent of blackcurrant. It's one of those scents with a lot going on in which aging has mellowed any sharp corners and blended the whole into something in which the parts are unrecognizable. So the beeswax is sweeter than I would have expected, and the woods are subtle, and on my skin everything resolves into fruitiness. I wish I could have smelled this one fresh because I think it would have been really evocative.

I have about one application left in my decant, so I'd better review Luxuria. Obviously I'm enjoying it. I use it as an after-shower moisturizer, not in the bath. Luxuria is a very fruity red musk, bolstered by the red fruits, the sweet orange and the vanilla. The nutmeg gives it just a zing of spice, and the patchouli is definitely in the background. This doesn't read as a killer sex bomb on me but rather as something more fruity and playful. It's an excellent late summer scent and pairs well with anything in the red fruit/fruity red musk family.

Not sure what year my decant is. I get a dry, feathery incense -- not nag champa, fortunately -- and what smells like dusty sandalwood. I'm not getting any clear sense of old books -- no appreciable leather or parchment. There is a subtle muskiness as well. This is a skin scent on me but lasts a long time. Kind of a low-key comfort scent but nothing I need to seek out more of.

Sportsmanship is pretty much all honey on me. I got it because I am interested in the salt note, but it's minor and fleeting here. And it's not one of the honeys that is particularly good on my skin.

I received a sniffie of this in a recent decant circle, just enough for a skin test, and just enough to confirm that orange blossom and eucalyptus are not my friends. At first I got almond, and the orange blossom and eucalyptus seemed to balance each other out. I'd be interested in seeing more of that green almond note because I didn't really get a good feel for it here and it didn't stick around for long. The eucalyptus did not persist either, and this ended up orange blossom and perfumey white sage on me. Much too floral for my tastes. This lasted a really long time as a skin scent.

This is a really beautiful honeysuckle blend. Three or four hours after applying, I’m still waiting for the patchouli to show up. No, not fair, it’s there, just very faint. I was hoping for a lot more patch, though.

I blind bottled No Man Is an Island and apparently forgot to review it. I think it has gotten even better in the three or four months I've owned it. It's one of those gourmand/not gourmand scents that I like better than straight gourmands. It has all the rich warm hug of hazelnut vanilla latte comfort with the grit of patchouli and purple sage. Especially the purple sage, which is the standout note on me here. It's almost on the edge of "No, mom, it's not pot, it's sage." And yet it pairs beautifully with the cozy foodie notes, never quite melding with them on my skin. Basically, I can't keep my wrist away from my nose.

Testing blind, I would have said Economic Recovery was frankincense and patchouli with a sweet floral. Rice flower, that. Not seeing frank mentioned by anyone else weakens my resolve a bit, but that's what it smelled like to me. It's good. It's a little rough and dirty, then it evens out into woody patch with musky ambrette, sweet rice flower and herbs. I don't get any bergamot whatsoever.

I had just a tester of Lovers and a Fan, but I certainly wouldn't turn down more. Coconut is always good on me, honey usually, saffron maybe. Here the saffron keeps the sticky honey from overwhelming the coconut with sweetness; there's a kind of dry, even dusty feel to the saffron that balances the other notes beautifully. The end result is summery and sexy, not Coppertone but a grown-up scent. Nice!

I didn't try this because black oudh has become such a death note on me, but it was passed on by a super generous forumite. I needn't have worried; the oudh is not in the least noticeable on me, adding richness but no fecal matter. At first I get the glorious maple note, like one of my favorite HGs, Under the Maple Boughs, with a lemony indigo musk. It's akin to the dead leaves note but not identical. The blackcurrant has a tart edge and isn't overly sweet, and the roses are kind of an afterthought, maybe a faint rosy oudh note around the edges. This is nice but didn't last terribly long on me.

ImPEACHment on me is initially very sweet musky peach, a cousin to Fae and Aglaea. There's a warm honeyed amber and just a hint of rose, but the frankincense and oudh are silent on me. The peach/apricot fades after three or four hours, leaving on me a soft honeyed rose-tinged amber, pretty but kind of generic. Definitely a skin scent.

Gingerbread, Fir, Myrrh and Mahogany has had over half a year's aging in its decant now, though my experience is similar to Casablanca's from late January. It starts out all gingerbread on me, with the fir and mahogany lurking underneath and no appreciable myrrh. After about an hour, the blend has balanced out significantly. It's still gingerbread first of all, but it's sharing space with forest and polished woods, and there's an undertone of gentle myrrh. I quite like this -- it's kind of a masculine gingerbread, like the gingerbread man managed to hide out safely in a cottage in the woods and become a lumberjack.

Bourbon tobacco -- what an excellent note! I'd love to see more of it. It blends beautifully with the frankincense; I don't notice the tonka so much, but it may be responsible for the sweetness that creeps into this scent as it dries down. So I get a rich sacred/profane incense/tobacco with an undertone of booze wafting around me. I get much better throw from this blend than I am used to with my skin chemistry, a big plus in my book. I am definitely considering upgrading to a bottle. ETA And my husband really liked this, so a bottle has been ordered.

I was lucky enough to receive a half decant of this in a circular swap and I understand why it is so highly sought after. On me, it's lots of leather, spicy honey, patchouli and what I would describe as a very dark red musk. Not a grapey stompy red musk; something more understated and closer to black musk. The evergreen notes don't really emerge on me, and there's too much floral action for this to be an ideal blend for me, but it is undeniably sexy as hell, with good wear length on me.

Lavender never lasts on me, though I had hopes for blackened lavender. Violet almost never works on me (Elf being the exception). But I love labdanum and hops, and I was excited to try this out-of-my-wheelhouse scent thanks to a generous forum PIF. And it almost worked! It's an unusual lavender, strong and dark, with some sweetness from the hops and labdanum, which doesn't have the fizzy quality I'm used to. (Not sure I've ever tried red labdanum.) The violet leaf at first seemed more herbal than violety. But as it dries down, the lavender predictably wears off on me, and the violet kicks up, with its powdery elderly great-aunt qualities. The labdanum and hops can't hold it back. If you can do violet and lavender lasts on you, this is a novel lavender blend and well worth trying.

Wet I get a lot of grapefruit and amber and what I realize after checking notes is mimosa. The drydown though features a lot less citrus; the cedar comes into play and although the mimosa is still present, this shifts into something surprisingly unisex. It doesn't last terribly long on me, especially not the first phase with the grapefruit. I wish my skin didn't eat it up so. Many thanks to the generous forumite who PIF'd me this!

Anathema Device starts out ALL blackcurrant on me. Fruit, fruit, fruit!!! Sweet sweet black berry. If you are a lover of the blackcurrant note, you've probably already tried this, but if not, what are you waiting for? Eventually, an hour or so in, blackcurrant shares space with the bourbon vanilla, amber, and sandalwood. It's really quite lovely, though the opening is too fruity on me. I am very grateful to the generous forumite who gifted this to me!!!

Green tea and oakmoss can be iffy on me, but I love anise, and at first I got a lot of it in Michiyuki Koi No Futusao. This started out a wonderful spring/summer anise blend, with the bright green tea dirtied up by the oakmoss. Definitely a shunga! If the anise note had lasted longer on me, this would have been bottle-worthy, but it faded away within a couple hours, leaving the still very pleasant green tea and oakmoss combo. Not much throw (which is typical for me). Tea notes tend to be fugitive on me, so I enjoyed how long this one lasts. I wonder if age will improve the anise longevity.