Lucchesa

Boots starts out surprisingly sharp on me. Sharp wood chips, sharp new leather, bright green grass and bright herbal lavender. Bracing and almost aggressively outdoorsy, like it's begging you to go on a hike. Also kind of unusual -- I don't have anything else quite like this, and the grass never went soapy as it sometimes does on me. Ultimately the conifer chips softened and sweetened and the leather became the dominant note. Leather and wood chips, like z_z says, like the woodsman in a fairy tale. I'm very fond of leather blends and this one is terrific on me.

Wet I got lots of the lovely gentle goat's milk note with citrusy white tea and lavender. Typically, the lavender didn't last long on me, but I got some throw, more than I usually do, with the goat's milk-tea combination, which pretty soon was edged with pillowy, sweet, musky marshmallow. The late drydown is mostly marshmallow musk with white tea, but it lasts a long time. This is a really comforting blend; I can see it being used for sleep, but it's also a real pleasure to wear.

Probably not! I haven't tried it, but red musk, mango, tomato pulp and fig is pretty unusual. You might try The Dodo (Red musk, lemon peel, sugar cane, cassia, white sandalwood, mango, and agarwood). The recent LE Blood for Cat might also be worth a shot -- out of stock but probably easier to find (golden amber, black cherry, tonka bean, sweet red musk, dried mango pulp, rooibos tea, red currant, and bitter almond).

I've always thought that marigolds smell weird. Kind of musty, kind of bitter. Weird and marigoldy. Tagetes on my skin smells weird and marigoldy. Not exactly as I remember, and it gets sweeter over its wearlife, which my skin tends to do to a lot of green notes. Not much throw (normal for me) but good wear life. I can't imagine wearing this as a perfume, but I enjoy the single notes as a way of reminding myself what individual components smell like.

Hekaerge is a lovely and lasting patchouli scent on me. Testing blind I guessed patch, cedar and lemon balm — the latter two would be the balsam and lemongrass. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the opening — applied right before leaving the house — so I may have missed the lavender entirely as it rarely lasts on me. I’m not getting much myrrh either. A gritty honey is sweetening things only slightly but adding to the staying power. Very nice!

Wet, the geranium ran off with this one. Sharp, spicy, herbal geranium, though I couldn't have specifically identified it as the bourbon variety. It was all geranium all the time for nearly an hour before the red musk showed up, with the amber playing backup. Then it lasted quite a while as a fruity red musk/geranium blend with amber and faint woods in the background. I was hoping for a lot more patchouli but the red musk and geranium ganged up on it. I think this would be amazing on the right person, but my skin gave too much prominence to the geranium. Super glad I got to try this one!

Wet: vanilla! Creamy almond vanilla. I am a lover of marzipan, so this is right up my alley. Then as it dries down, the leather emerges in a big way, and the almond starts to bow out quietly, so the leather marzipan stage doesn't last long on me. What I end up with is vanilla, leather and maybe a hint of oak, but I never actually get much patchouli. Supreme_c0rt likened this to Antikythera Mechanism and I agree, it's like AM with leather instead of tobacco. Not much throw but that's typical of me; good wear length. Kind of a femme leather blend, though perfectly approachable for either gender. Haute Macabre is a beauty!

Loup Garou starts out as all evergreen forest. I usually avoid eucalyptus, but it is definitely playing backup here, though there is a sinus-clearing property when wet. Lots of juniper and cypress, so much that I can't make out the galangal. This would be a terrific atmo. On my skin it softens in drydown as evergreens always do, and then it disappears. Only a couple hours of wear length before my skin ate it up; I was death matching with Burial which lasted much longer.

Testing blind, the only element I identified with certainty in Polyhymnia (a very aged imp by now) is the myrrh. My impression was herbal, myrrh, and some floral that is not obnoxious on me (honeysuckle, as it turns out. Check.). When I know it's there, my nose can find the lemon balm, but it's very subtle. I'm not getting a lot of red sandalwood -- it's definitely not doing the #2 pencil thing -- but the powdery orris root is probably the dominant note here. I suspect the top notes have dampened in the last decade, but while subtle, this is still a beguiling blend, and it has good wear length. I'm so grateful to the generous forumite who frimped me this in an art swap, but I don't imagine reaching for it much, so I will put it in my swaps so someone else can satisfy their curiosity.

Mint is one component I avoid, and it's the dominant ingredient here. Wet, Nine Mysteries is peppermint and maybe something else with a medicinal edge like eucalyptus (another death note). Menthol. This is obviously not in my wheelhouse -- it might be ok for a wake-up shower gel or aromatherapy but not something I would wear as perfume. Swap.

I put Hohenzollern Crypt on yesterday because it was one of the imps in my car and I'd left the house unscented. I must have tried it but never reviewed it. It's very good. Citrus (more orange-lime than grapefruit) and lavender at first, but lavender never lasts long on me; it resolves into a lovely citrus chypre with the tobacco grounding it (I often find this kind of scent too high-pitched). Perfectly unisex, work appropriate, subtly sexy, reasonably long-lasting. No throw on me but that's normal with my skin chemistry. The scent it brought to mind for me was Auroraphobia so if you're hoarding that, this might be an easier-to-find alternative.

I like Mr. Wednesday all right, though he's not my usual type. It's sort of a bright herbal cologne, tending masculine on the unisex scale, with a little woods. I'm not actually getting much whiskey. It has a little throw on me (more than I usually get) and pretty decent wear length.

Testing High Pitched Shriek blind, my conclusion was citrusy marshmallow and some kind of floaty floral (sugar blossom?). I never would have chosen this because strawberry goes tragically awry on my skin, but it's not objectionable here; it adds a bright pink color and a little tartness to the general sugar rush of this scent. If sunny, fruity, girlish marshmallow scents are your jam, you are going to love this one! It's too ingenue for me, but I am SUPER grateful to the fabulous forumite who let me try this!

Pillar of Flame isn't nearly as dark as I expected it to be. I'd never tried labdanum incense but it's lovely -- imagine the almost fizzy quality of labdanum as an incense. To me it's not dark brown but more of the color of a piece of translucent amber. I read through the notes and felt like I could smell them all. The wild plum is less sweet than a cultivated variety; the vetiver is gently smoky, not the charred terror of Malediction. The pepper and saffron and vetiver counter the sweetness of the other notes; the late stage is mostly clover honey, always a lasting note on me, but with enough spice and incense to keep it interesting. I know this is a Luper but it's perfect in crisp fall weather, channeling the brilliant colors of autumn foliage more than the pastels of spring. I will definitely use my decant and be on the lookout for more!

I've been wanting to try Kunstkammer for ages -- it's an art history thing. It was generously gifted to me in an art swap, so I finally got the chance. My decant is easily a decade old if not more, and Kunstkammer has definitely mellowed with age. I often have trouble smelling the black pepper note, and that was the case here. But the olibanum was equally reclusive. I got soft sweet blood orange and warm benzoin, and my skin ate them up within a couple hours It's nice but nothing exceptional; I'm kind of relieved I don't have to track down a bottle. But I'm thrilled I got to try it.

Wet, I was thinking there was ivy in Esbat, which must have been the twining morning glory. To me it smelled like ivy strangling a deciduous tree. And then I got hit with the mugwort. I don't have a lot of experience with mugwort, but I'm pretty sure that it was the strong, kind of musty herbal smell that dominated for 30 minutes or so. Once it receded into the moonlit gloom, Esbat became a floral, which is where it lost me. It wasn't a woody-herbal-green floral, it was just a floral. And while it was a lovely ethereal sort of floral and quite long-lasting, I just don't wear unadulterated florals. This might have worked on me if everything had presented at once, but it unfolded in stages and the final one just isn't me.

Testing blind, I got frank and clove. So proud of my nose this morning! I never really got a lot of tar or tobacco. So a spicy rich resinous frank, not a sharp dry one, that lasts for hours and hours on me. Although I would have liked more tobacco, I really appreciate this one. And as a lapsed Catholic, I loved tinyvulture's summation.

I got this decant in a swap, and while I think it's 2016, I'm not positive. It's finally a blackberry scent I can wear, that doesn't go pure candy, and that's largely because it's mainly a creamy cherry scent. The blackberries are very much in the background but they keep things interesting. Cherry is the rare fruit note I really enjoy, and Yipe is a sweet, creamy, foodie cherry with a little of the deeper blackberry note in the background. I don't feel like this kind of scent very often, but I'm keeping my decant for when I do.

Wet, Przeczucie is sharp evergreen on me, but soon enough it softens, as usual. No smoke is apparent at first, though it comes out gradually once the overpowering evergreens back down a bit. Like several reviewers, I get a tinge of soap, but not enough to put me off. However, I don't get more than two or three hours longevity from this. It's nice, but there are other forest scents like Forest of the Empress that I get better wear from. This is the painting, if anyone's curious:

I tried Kabuki early on in my BPAL days and my notes say it barely showed up, which is odd for red musk. Now that I know how much I love anise, I wanted to retest it, and this time it showed up in spades. The star anise note is really clear on me wet, with a wonderfully fruity red cherry musk. As it dries down, the anise gradually recedes, and the cherry/red musk, which melds into a single thing on me skin, takes over (as red musk is wont to do), but the cherry seems to keep it from doing the I AM RED MUSK HEAR ME ROAR thing, and the anise still plays around the edges. This lasted well on me, and it's sexy in a kind of sweet impish way -- I may have found a new GC love!

I love all things dead leaves but generally avoid violet, which goes old lady on me, so I hadn't tried this until it was gifted to me in the marvelous rodeo PIF by the generous forumite immediately preceding me here. It starts out all dead leaves on me, and over the next hour or so, they largely recede in favor of the sugared violets. The combination is actually quite nice on me, although my skin eats it up within three hours.

Lavender rarely lasts on me, but in Copulating Mice it barely shows up at all. Nor does the clove, which must be really subtle here. Instead, I get toasted nuts and bergamot and warm tonka with a little bit of thyme. It dries down as mainly tonka on me. I'm so glad I got to try it thanks to a generous forumite but it's not something I need to search down a bottle of.

My imp of Premature Burial must be pretty elderly. On me, it's soft loam, a note I enjoy, with a soft floral (which must be orchid) and just a breath of evergreens. No patchouli that I can make out. It's nice but not long-lasting on my skin.

I loved the carrot seed in Pale Snowman and was curious to try it here, but Pulmonary Valve doesn't work on me. It's not a surprise -- white musk and tobacco flower are both notes that have a good probability of going screechy on me. This was just not a good match with my skin chemistry.

Right atrium starts out as citrusy white tea, a note that never lasts long on my skin. The next phase is dominated by soft, sweet cherry blossom, and then the gentle wood, a note I'm not familiar with, is evident. I don't get a lot of amber; this is mainly cherry blossom on me, and could easily be a shunga. Light and pretty but not really me.