Lucchesa

Phallus Devotion on me is a really spicy oudh (agarwood) blend. It's not the fecal oudh, but it is that distinctive down and dirty woody smell of well-behaved oudh, with its terrific wear length. I can still smell traces of it the next morning. The patchouli and mahogany are there, but this a raw mahogany, not the polished wood scent of most mahogany blends, and I can't make out the rosewood on me at all. Earthy saffron and a peppery nutmeg bump up the spice quotient. Gender neutral, potent, and kind of in its own category.

Soceraphobia should be good on me, but it isn't. It goes on sour and harsh, like the last quarter inch in the carafe of an ancient Mr. Coffee that's been left on for an entire workday. Not a pleasant phase. It does get nicer as the vanilla pokes its head in and smooths things out a bit, but before long the vanilla turns back around and exits, and so does the entire scent. Really short wear time on me (not unusual for my skin to soak up coffee and smoke notes quickly).

Foolish Wooden Cucumber is a treatment at an upscale spa with blond wood everywhere and cucumber water in fancy dispensers. The cucumber is light, refreshing; the vanilla is also light and not too sweet, though it does sweeten after a couple of hours as the cucumber wears off. A perfect summer scent when you need a little rejuvenation.

Lilac is one of the few florals I really enjoy, and Penis Admiration has a lot of lilac. It’s surprisingly feminine given the name. On my skin I don’t get much wood, smoke or resin, but the lilac eventually melds with the vanilla and tonka, and the rest of the components are probably what are making this blend a little darker and smuttier than lilac and vanilla would suggest. Pretty decent wear length on me, too. I will definitely keep this decant to wear when the lilacs are blooming.

Back into the golden forest for this review. Kommt Mit Zacken is lots of sage up front, and I would have sworn there was an evergreen note in here as well. Sunshine and sage in a forest glade as the amber comes out, then the tobacco, mmf, and the soft musk, everything with fuzzy edges like a low-hanging sun is dissolving the contours. This is gorgeous and lasts a really long time on me. Bottle worthy.

A Gaulish giant, believed to be the Gaul’s parallel to the god Mercury. Wild sage and hyssop, marigold and frankincense, lemon verbena and tobacco. I hate to be first review and not a rave, but Erriapus is not working with my skin chemistry. You know those high-end, French-milled lemon verbena soaps? That's basically what I'm getting, with a bit of musty marigold. I wonder if my skin has started turning sage into soap -- I got soap from The Crescent Moon, too. That would be tragic. After about an hour I start to get a little tobacco and frank but it's too late to save this on me.

The one note I was worried about in Four Graverobbers was the dragon's blood resin, which is often sickly sweet on me. It's rather subdued here, more of an overall sweetening of the darker resins than the cloying fruity floral DBR can be on my skin. I like the bite of the galangal, and frank and myrrh are always a good combination on me. It becomes less distinctive the longer it lasts, as the sharp edges smooth themselves out.

Carnation is my favorite floral, so I love Ganymede's Junk. It's got the more delicate scent of clove bud as opposed to spice rack clove complementing the spicy carnation, and a dry white sandalwood sweetened with vanilla. I'm not able to make out any lily of the valley. A must-try for lovers of carnation blends like Alice and Maiden -- or if the rose in those blends put you off.

I got to try this thanks to the generosity of a forum PIFer -- aquatics are not my jam, but I was intrigued by torikitty's assertion that the drydown reminded her of Aegir, a surprise hit on me. And she's right -- the late drydown is very similar to that salty musk of Aegir. Unfortunately, on the way there, it goes through dryer sheet territory on me skin. Rosy ozone, clean clean clean aquatic, not really getting any amber. I'm glad I didn't scrub it off because after a few hours it does get lovely, but it takes too long to get there with my skin chemistry.

I'm not shocked that there are no reviews yet because I feel like this blend was made specifically for me. I love anise, the more the better, and combined with fizzy labdanum and high church frankincense, well, fantastic! There are no surprises here. Lots of anise, sweetened by the labdanum, made respectable by the frank. If you hate anise/black licorice notes, you will want to stay away from this. If you love them, what are you waiting for?

At first sniff on my skin, White Sandalwood, Sage & Bourbon Vanilla was all sandalwood. Next sniff brought me sage, which I know from the White Sage SN is a complex, almost perfumey note on me. And then I could smell the bourbon vanilla, but it is definitely the third note here in terms of prominence. So this is not particularly sweet, yet there's something perfect about the way the vanilla meshes with the dry sandalwood and sage notes. This could be worn by any gender for comfort or confidence.

I'm glad I got to try Castitas, but it's really not for me. I used it as an after-shower moisturizer, and while I appreciate the gentle rice flower and vanilla, the cream becomes distractingly buttery on my skin. Without the cream this would be a win, but it's not a note I can wear. (If anyone cares, it's similar to the cream note in Young Pine Saplings and Phantom Cow.)

I missed Meditation Buddy when the Liliths dropped, probably because I was worried about the rose. I needn't have been. It's a really nice one (second time recently white rose has worked on me; I'll need to remember that). Testing blind, I got rosy sandalwood, that chewy salt note I love, and vanilla. The frankincense is a lighter variety than, say, Penitence or Ann Bonny. I wasn't able to make out much of the candle note, which is a shame because it's one of my favorites, or the Florida water. But there's enough going here to make it interesting. Airy from the frankincense, grounding from the salt, a really unique scent. I do wish my home smelled like this one.

Lilith Nightingale starts out lovely on me, sweet cream and dates. Then it goes sideways on me. I don't know what ayurvedic spices comprise, but something in there is wonky with my skin chemistry. Not enough to wash it off or anything, just not something I was interested in wearing again. Hours later, having forgotten all about it, it's back to lovely. Soft sweet cream with gentle fig and date. No throw (normal on me) but lasts really well.

Totentanz is terrific. Lots of red musk, but the blood variety, which is dry and coppery instead of fruity. Mainly red musk, in fact, which is par for the course with red musk on me. But the other notes are there, pepper and clove tickling the nose, leather and patch. (If I'm being honest, I couldn't make out the opoponax.) Dry, spicy, sexy red musk parading around in leather. It is NOT a sweet scent on me: totally unisex. It's strong, with more throw than I usually get, but it wasn't super long lasting on me. I'm so glad I got to try this!

I let this decant rest only a couple of hours from the mail, so perhaps I should retest, but either it hasn't aged well or my skin is damping down some of the notes that are prominent on other reviewers. On me, Tanuki No Senkimochi is a musky myrrh. Maybe the faintest whiff of anise. Maybe the faintest whiff of cypress. No smoky woods. I would worry that it was my nose except that the Totentanz on my other wrist is so distinct. It does last a long time as a skin scent, but I was hoping for a lot more anise and woods.

The iris ran away with The Grindhouse on me. At first there was a lovely sexy red musk, not too stompy, with hints of vanilla, clove, and interesting florals, but as it dried down, the iris note became more and more prominent until eventually I smelled like somebody's great aunt's keepsakes. Not exactly what I was going for.

Old Buddhist Monk does start out funky, and I'd forgotten there was champa when I bought the decant secondhand. Champa is never good on me, but it isn't actually a problem here. The funk goes away in just a couple of minutes of settling on my skin, and I get a soft, powdery orris and sandalwood. Maybe hiba wood too, not a note I'm super familiar with, but I don't think I smell any balsam. It ends up a skin scent, kind of dry and crumbly, with powdery woods and a hint of champa. I don't think I'll keep this one, but I'm happy to have tried it.

Darjeeling Tea, Cocoa Dust, & Incense ends up mostly incense on me. At the beginning I get a little tea and a little cocoa powder, but they quickly give way to the incense. They're never completely gone, but they are playing a very subtle backup, and the incense is the star here. And it contains some nag champa, which is the one variety of incense I avoid whenever possible. I would second starbrow's wish for incense to be more specifically labeled, as I would have steered clear with anything labeled champaca or nag champa.

I enjoy coconut scents, and Coconut, Smoked Vanilla & Fig is very pleasant. I get mostly coconut and a vanilla with no appreciable smokiness, and a little fig underlying it all. A nice balance of the notes, but it doesn't knock my socks off. No throw (which is normal for me) but this is still appreciable if I sniff my wrist the next morning.

I don't do white florals -- except gardenia. My parents had a gardenia bush right outside their front door. Gardenia, Tobacco Leaf & Oakmoss is almost a single-note gardenia on me, incredibly realistic. It's heady. It's gorgeous. It has monster throw (something I rarely get, but three hours after applying I was heading to chat with a friend on her front porch and hoped she wasn't scent sensitive). Great wear length, too. I love the tobacco note but it's very understated here, just the tiniest whiff, and the oakmoss is barely perceptible on me. This is a femme fatale with a gardenia corsage pinned to her slinky dress sashaying through a Bogart film. I just don't wear florals that often, but this blend really is magnificent, and if gardenia is in your wheelhouse, don't miss out.

Caramel, Smoked Chilis and Black Vanilla is really foodie. (Duh!) Wet it's a strong butterscotch smell on me, with just a bit of a smoked pepper vibe. The chilis never get much stronger on me; it's lots of sticky vanilla caramel all the way. Serious comfort food scent if you're a caramel lover. This has some throw -- more than I usually get with my skin chemistry -- and lasts a long time.

Cedarwood and smoked vanilla is lovely restrained cedar, almost like a polished cedar, with a sheer vanilla, not particularly smoky on me. Unfortunately my skin ate this one up -- no throw and only a couple hours of wear.

La Death should have been a slam dunk on me, and in fact the later drydown is super gorgeous, but this hits my skin and turns weirdly sour. I'm not sure what the culprit is -- maybe whatever makes the cashmere inky gray? At any rate, some thing or combination here is not meshing well with my skin. I'm not really able to pick out the leather, the tobacco is sharp instead of smooth, it just doesn't go right on me. And then a couple hours later it all came together in a lovely, soft, dark unisex way. If the drydown could be reached earlier on my skin, I'd be all in.

It was interesting to read all the other reviews and not find a match with my experience until the last. On me, too, the bitterness was uppermost. I thought it paired beautifully with the poem, but for the first hour or so it was sharp and unappealing on my skin. The later drydown is actually really beautiful -- the bitterness mellows out and becomes interesting against the beeswax and frank and the slightly smoky florals. But the opening isn't worth it for me.