Lucchesa

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.

I had the option of buying a tester or a bottle of Calligraphy Practise. I should have bought the bottle. I was worried about the violet and the oudh, but apparently violet leaf does not go old lady on me, and the oudh is very much in the background. On me this is primarily a beeswax scent, right in my wheelhouse (Lights of Men's Lives is possibly my favorite GC). It's not as sweet as LOML; the sage and white sandalwood keep it dryer, and the opoponax is not as syrupy as it can be. Herbs, woods, resins and beeswax all play beautifully together here, and while there's not much throw (normal for me), it lasts a long time. Absolutely lovely and I'm sorry not to have more.

The Visionary was a longshot on me, though neither the red nor the white musk was as problematic as usual on my skin (I have found in combination they can kind of cancel each other out and only their good qualities remain). So the opening was very promising: a musky peat and heather. It's the ice note that goes awry on me, taking this into aquatic territory, which for my chemistry means dryer sheet territory. Sad face.

Lavender always comes out in a big rush before my skin quickly gobbles it up, and this is no exception. Lavender and Patchouli starts off with a lavender you might get if you gathered a sheaf of it and had it drying in your kitchen, but as always, it's not long-lasting on me. The patchouli quickly muscles it out of the way, so the drydown is all woody patch (not headshoppy) with only the faintest trace of herbal lavender. I always enjoy testing lavender scents but rarely end up keeping them.

Lemongrass and Tonka starts out all lemongrass on me. I can't find the tonka at all. It's a bright, happy lemongrass that doesn't go anywhere near cleanser territory, but it really does feel like a SN lemongrass. It takes an hour or more for the lemongrass to calm down enough for me to smell the tonka, and then -- thank you, Lunasariel, I know I'm not crazy -- I'm getting wafts of coconut along with tonka and lemongrass. After three hours the lemongrass is almost entirely gone, and I have a soft, creamy, coconutty, vaguely tropical tonka skin scent left.

I'm frequently anosmic to the Lab's pepper note. I just can't smell it. Not here! Black Pepper and Sandalwood starts out with a healthy dose of fresh-ground black pepper. Then the sandalwood comes out to meet it, a little sharp at first but softening quickly. Three hours in it's mostly cozy sandalwood but still with a tang of black pepper. This is a lovely combination, and I'm so excited about having a black pepper note I can actually appreciate.

I think Penny Rolle was given to me by a superbly generous forumite. It starts out very foodie on me, all caramel pecan, though not much in the way of cardamom. Then the pecan calms down and I get caramelized shea and sandalwood, over a warm nutty ambery ground. The patchouli is really quiet so if that note is scaring you off, you needn't worry. I didn't get much throw from this, but that's normal for me. What I got was a warm sweet snuggly comfort scent.

I keep wanting pomegranate to work on me. I want it to smell like Pom unsweetened pomegranate juice, and my skin turns it into candy. I was hoping the vetiver would dirty it up enough to prevent the pom from going all candy on me, but no, Pomegranate and Vetiver starts out as red, vaguely berry-flavored candy. Eventually the vetiver shows up and they play nicely for a little while before the vetiver pushes the pom out of the way and takes center stage. The late phase is all vetiver with hints of dark, sweet-tart fruit lingering around the edges. This stage is fantastic, but there are other ways to get to a gorgeous vetiver drydown that are more amenable to my skin.

Hebrews 13:1-3 is a happy, comforting scent, like getting baked goods in the mail while you're in prison. Not that I have experience of that or know if it's even possible... Anyway, it doesn't fall into any neat categories; gourmand is probably the closest, but the cinnamon is dusky, not spice-cabinet-like. The tobacco stays in the background, and while I have no idea what a sugar blossom is, it didn't strike me as particularly floral. I like this one and am curious to see what it ages into.

Psalm 146:9 starts out as cocoa and labdanum, like a chocolate coke, with a little vanilla around the edges. It took about an hour for the vetiver to develop on my skin, and it's a gentle sweet vetiver like the one in Two Sheep and Two Goats, so don't let it scare you away if you're a labdanum but not a vetiver fan. So it was a labdanum-vetiver scent for a while, with the cocoa and vanilla fading away after a couple of hours, and the drydown was mainly sweet soft vetiver. Lovely and I suspect it will age well.

Dee. Faustus. Bess. Catherine. The Apothecary. Anne Bonny. Phantom Time Hypothesis. Kit. Elf, Druid -- almost any of the RPGs would work.

Could it be a 13?

This imp of Chant d'Automne is 11 years old. In the imp and on wet, it's a lovely smoky version of the dead leaves note. The amber is there if I sniff for it, becoming more prominent as it dries down. There's definitely some dark smoky vetiver and tobacco in here, though I'm not sure I can pick out the blood musk; it may have aged away. As it dries down, it gets softer and cozier. I love the dead leaves note -- hey, I love all these notes -- and this is a total win on me.

Pottaskefill is almost perfect. I love licorice scents, and I am learning that I love the salt note, and salt licorice is to die for. With soft leather and birch tar? Mmph. Chewy, sexy, unisex. The "almost" is because it went a tad soapy on me at one point. This happened recently while testing another blend which shouldn't have gone that direction, so it may be a weird skin chemistry thing of the moment. Anyway, I will be on the lookout for more of this one. ETA I did buy a bottle and apparently haven’t tried it until now. It is aligned to @mymymai’s review. Dew and grass. Not good on me at all. I double checked against my decant, and they smell very different. I’ll have to rehome this bottle.

Hyakki Yagyo on me was a powerful, headshoppy musk blend. The combination of the black musk with the champaca made it behave more like red musk on my skin; it's not the lemony black musk I am partial to. The coconut comes out on drydown, which is lovely, but it's never prominent on me; the clove is only a hint, and I'm not sure I ever found the myrrh. If musky incensey blends work for you, this one is sexy, has some throw and lasts a long time. It's not quite me but champaca almost never works on me so I'm not heartbroken.

This was the first Monster Bait I've had the opportunity to try. When I applied my decant of biggerCritters without checking notes, my first thought was creamsicle. Orange and vanilla ice cream. Then I realized there was a white floral floating over my creamsicle. A creamy white floral, something really familiar that I was blanking on, so I checked the notes. Duh. Jasmine. I avoid jasmine so rigorously that i had forgotten what it smells like when it works. If I had smelled cat pee, I would have known immediately it was jasmine. And it's mixed with gardenia, the rare white floral that I enjoy. And the whole thing is totally delightful. The citrus mellows out, and it's a gorgeous, long-wearing fluffy vanilla scent. The jasmine hangs in there but it's sweet and creamy like the gardenia, and it's lovely.

Instead of the desired smokiness everyone else is getting, Fifth Lash was soapy on me. Why? I don't understand. Red musk, lots of it; leather, a little plum, and soap. Stupid skin chemistry.