Lucchesa

Spiced rum, check. Cinnamon bark, check. Vetiver? Usually vetiver is powerful and unmistakable, but for the first hour or two it was sheltering in place so far beneath the other notes that I could barely make it out. So, rum and cinnamon and clove, but somehow it's not foodie in feeling to me. I agree with artisjok that it's not a sweet, sloshy rum. And about an hour into weartime, the vetiver comes out of hiding and turns a nice but unremarkable scent into something really good. It's a sweet vetiver, not a harsh, smoky one, and it gradually tilts the balance until the spices fade, then the rum, and the late drydown is mostly vetiver. You could wear this on a date and it would just get sexier and sexier. Totally unisex, good wear length.

Red patchouli, Nutmeg and Oudh is definitely oudh, but definitely not black oudh. It's not barnyard; it's deep and rich and very grown-up, and it's a perfect foil for the dry red patchouli. Just these two strong, self-confident notes (I honestly struggled to find the nutmeg) twining together, and yet it's not simple because the notes themselves are so complex. It has oudh-level throw, too, at least for the first hour or so, after which I did get a hint of nutmeg, but just a hint, because this is femme fatale, not spice cabinet. The woman who wears this does not bake apple crisp. Gorgeous now, and I bet it will be phenomenal in a couple years.

I didn't have any interest in trying Shakarri because I thought sea moss + coral = too aquatic. But then I saw all the reviews mentioning licorice, and I am a whore for the licorice/anise/fennel family of scents, so I gave it a try. It's an odd duck, all right. It doesn't seem aquatic at first. I get a hint of pear, the limey anise of absinthe, and the labdanum, and if it stayed there I would be delighted, but as it dries down, the sea moss comes into play, and gradually it moves closer and closer into dryer sheet territory. Aquatics and my skin just don't get along. I never get much patchouli, and I have no clue what coral smells like. I'm really glad I got to try this one, but it doesn't work for me.

I wore Atsui Mono yesterday and am surprised I never reviewed it. It is so comforting. In fact, if I could have a beverage made for the current situation, it would be black tea with vanilla fig milk creamer and honey. My skin always eats up tea notes, so the tea fades in drydown, but the rest lasts a good long time as a kind of pink-gold creamy fig with the subtle warmth of honey and hay. I get a bit more throw than my skin usually allows, though not enough anyone else to notice now that we are all six feet apart. But I knew I smelled fantastic.

Quatre on me starts out foodie, with lots of cocoa powder, then settles into rose --- one of the good roses, a big red rose I can wear -- and cacao in equal measure. I am not usually a rose enthusiast, and this was gifted me by a generous forumite, but this is really nice. Unfortunately, on my skin the balance keeps tilting in the rose direction, and the cacao fades substantially after an hour or so. A really fun scent journey, but being left with rose, even nice rose, is not me.

Deux was given to me by the lovely and generous Teamama. I wonder if this is tea rose -- it's definitely one of the roses that doesn't work on me. Sour rose and dusty spices. Maybe some saffron and nutmeg? And I see other reviewers think there is myrrh in here, and I would tend to agree. Rose rarely agrees with me, and this is not one of those times.

Not what I expected: the first hour or so of 13 September 2019 on me was right on the verge of Lemon Pledge. I hadn't looked at the components, but I would have guessed lemon, lemon verbena, lemongrass, maybe green tea... all the lemony stuff. Now that I'm looking, I guess that's the litsea and mandarin and bergamot, but it definitely combined to make lemon on me. Later drydown is very herbal, chamomile and hops, and I never got a lot of ylang ylang for which I'm grateful. Still, this feels much more like a TAL to me than like something I would wear as perfume.

This is a 13, all right. Deep dark chocolate and lots going on. The only note here that's troublesome on me is the champaca, and I do get a little nag champa tinge with this, but with so much else good stuff, it's not a problem. I get lots of warm snuggly notes melding with the cocoa: tobacco and cedar and boozy patchouli. I don't get lemon at all (and I have a heavily lemon scent on the other wrist which ought to have brought it out). Despite the honey and chocolate, this isn't overly sweet. It's hugely comforting -- perfect for the present anxiety-ridden moment.

The Drunkard's Dream starts out as sour fruit and moss on me, and I agree with sarandipitee and bookandbroom that there is a soapy quality as well. I'm not really getting vetiver, opoponax or labdanum. Instead it's a really odd sensation of tart redcurrant doing battle with dripping moss and never resolves into anything I'd be excited about wearing.

A little Cigarettes and Offerings goes a long way. I wouldn't wear this one at work near a militantly smoking-averse colleague. It's really quite a realistic cigarette scent, yet cloaked in nostalgia. It's the silvery cloud of cigarette smoke that enveloped Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo. After an hour or so, the smoke sweetens, and the incense becomes more evident. No throw at this point, but that's normal with my skin chemistry. I'm grooving on this much more than I expected.

Fruits and flowers are not my jam, and I only ordered Metal Rat because it came as part of a set of February decants. It's primarily peony and melon on my skin; the citrus notes are present but faint. I couldn't make out pine at all, though it is a note that has been going sweet on my skin lately. This is a sweet, uplifting blend, and so far out of my wheelhouse that if I keep the decant it will be to use more as a TAL than as a perfume.

Raccoon Moon starts off as lots of minty snow and evergreens, with the juniper prominent. After a couple of hours in, the evergreens had sweetened considerably, allowing a snuggly musk to emerge, with a little patchouli and some soil. The florals are quite subtle on me, which suits me just fine. I wasn't sure about this one -- I might not have ordered a decant if I hadn't gotten a whole February set -- but I'm really enjoying it and glad I got to try it. It lasted all morning then needed to be reapplied.

JK Men Are Very Good etc. really hinges on that divot. It's very much a grassy scent at first, maybe even with some dandelion thrown in, and a little soil. Even when it dries down, it's definitely more about the cool green notes of grass and after shave than the warm brown ones of leather, tobacco and bourbon. I love those cozy brown notes, but this is a fun twist on them and I quite like it. Definitely on the masculine side of unisex, as the description implies, and it hangs around for much longer than most "green" scents do on me.

Leather, Black Tea and Clove on me is a clove-spiced tea -- not chai, there's no milkiness or other spices -- with a subdued leather note, and the whole thing is a tiny bit soapy. Like a high-end gentlemen's soap that you'd pay a lot of money for in a quirky boutique. It lasts really well on me, and it put me in mind of a very clean pirate. But I was hoping for more leather and no soap at all.

I got LOTS of smoke from Mahogany, Wood Moss and Smoke, especially initially. It was very similar to the smoke in Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke from last year's Yules, and this may be a note that amps on me because there too it was all smoke, little chestnut, although the balance is improving with age as it probably will do here as well. Eventually the smoke in MWM&S mellows down and I get the smooth mahogany and dry moss. This one tips masculine and outdoorsy, with good wear length. A little too smoky on me initially, but really nice.

John Locke is lavender and spicy leather. Lavender always comes on strong when wet then is eaten by my skin, so I was surprised that this one stuck around longer than usual. I was also surprised to get definite spice notes coming through, so I looked up Carmelite water, which somehow I expected to be identical to Florida water. It isn't. The first recipe Google found for me included lemon balm and angelica, but also coriander, cassia, nutmeg and cloves. All the spices, in other words, but in the background, they don't overpower. The leather is smooth, more like a brown suede than a black jacket. Anyway, I like this a lot. If you're a reformed puritan, or like lavender or leather or scents that fall squarely in the middle of unisex, this is definitely worth a try.

2017 Parthenope on me is mainly musky, dusty (orris-y) jasmine. I get some moss at first and a little honeysuckle, but they don't last long on my skin. Star jasmine is usually better on me than the regular kind, and this is true here as well -- nothing indolic about this scent. Parthenope is soft and pretty, but it's too floral for my tastes.

Fourth Lash is very rose on me. Amber, leather, sandalwood and vetiver are all good on me, but rose is iffy (and this was gifted to me by a supremely generous forumite who is more of a rose lover than I am). If you love rose and hate vetiver, this should be no problem for you -- I couldn't find the vetiver at all, and could hardly make out the leather. And I almost never can make out BPAL's pepper note. Heady rose with sandalwood and amber, like a very grown-up, sultry version of the GC Little Wooden Doll.

This is what I want oudh always to smell like! Black oudh is reliably terrible on me, so I wouldn't have chosen this, but it was generously gifted to me so I skin tested, and it's beautiful. On me it's low-key, dark and deep, with the main player an oudh which is rich but not fecal. Velvet is the operative word for this blend: rich and luxurious and elegant. Cool dark blue musk balances the warmth of the other notes. Very grown-up. With my chemistry it has low throw (normal for me, though oudh can be an outlier) and only average wear length.

I would like Hetairae more without the ylang ylang. Which is probably true of any scent containing ylang ylang. There is something red and fiery about this scent, almost like a cayenne note, with lots of honey and fig, fairly subdued patch and clove, and too much ylang ylang. Perfect if you like florals in your honey.

Wet, Wolf Moon was all about the cypress. But very quickly that sharpness receded and I got cypress, the resiny sweetness of pine, and dark fruitiness. I can't make out the cassia or myrrh. The drydown is just slightly too fruity for my tastes, but if dark fruits and dark evergreens sounds like your jam, this is deep and evocative and lovely, and the throw is better than I usually get.

Ooh, I'd forgotten I had ordered this decant. So excited to see it in my stash! Yep, clove cigarettes, and it's 1985 all over again. This is a gorgeous clove tobacco, heavy on the clove, and on my it has good staying power and even a little throw, which is unusual for my skin chemistry. To quote doomsday_disco, my decant will not be enough.

Apparently I never reviewed this. I remember it smelling pretty interesting, but then I had a skin reaction to it (certainly the wasabi -- honey and tea are fine on me) and had to scrub it off, and actually had to stop wearing BPAL for a few days because everything I applied started to make my skin prickle. Scary!!!

I'm pretty sure this is Night Thoughts 2018 -- it's undated but a TTP decant. I love the lilac note and was hoping dianthus would be a recognizable carnation but I don't actually perceive either of those notes. Instead, I get a hint of cedar, a hint of dryer sheets, and a generic light floral. No throw and not a lot of staying power on me.

I received a very well-aged decant of Gold Phoenix in a swap. Usually scents of this vintage are for curiosity only, but this one is really lovely. Florals and resins in combination don't usually work for me, but these particular florals support the amber beautifully and aren't throttled by the frankincense. The verbena is mellow and adds to a glowing vibe. Actually, this is very similar to Veritas but with amber instead of the carnation. Gold Phoenix is classy and very much work appropriate.