Lucchesa

I tried Gordian Hairmop because it's totally my kind of scent and because I have a Gordian hairmop of my own. It is pretty close to what I expected, which is sweet, dark and lovely. I get coffee first, and tobacco second, and then the teakwood, which goes kind of caramel on my skin. I'm not sure I can identify styrax, and the oakmoss was kind of underneath holding it all together. Gradually, the vetiver became more and more prominent, and in late drydown, after four or five hours, it was sweet dark vetiver, like the vetiver in Two Sheep and Two Goats, with whispers of coffee, woods and bourbon. I enjoy unisex scents and didn't find this overly masculine at all. It's beautiful.

So, I didn't look at the notes before trying this. I got plum. Lots and lots of lovely dark plum. Gradually I got more and more of what I thought was white musk, which must be how I read the plum musk plus icy air, and a sweeter fruit note, which was obviously blackberry. I didn't make out any pine or amber. I think donkehpoo's description is spot-on for my experience: very musky blackberry-plum candy. Blackberry nearly always goes to berry candy on my skin, but this is pretty nice. Good wear length, a must for fans of plum and berry!

The Tastes of the Duke Were Peculiar. And somewhat effeminate. Honestly, I had a hard time picking out any of the notes here except for the mandarin. This goes on as a bright, citrusy blend, with a lot going on in the background. I don't get any leather or anise, which were notes I was particularly interested in. The absinthe and laudanum notes are not minty here, as they usually are on me (not minty is a plus in my book) and the opium reads as a floaty floral. It would be interesting to age this one and see how it develops, but it belongs in the general category of "too much going on" which is only occasionally a win for me.

I know, I was going to stop trying blackberry blends. I lied. And good for me because Echo Azure is just beautiful. I love lilacs, they're one of the florals that really work on my skin, and the blackberry here is not the lush, ripe blackberry that inevitably goes to candy on my skin but more like blackberry brambles with the odd cluster of berries, maybe dried ones left on the vine from the previous year's crop and still there when the lilacs are blooming. This is mostly lilac on me, and it's a beautiful springtime scent. Wear length is about average, with low throw, but that's normal for my chemistry.

I love the Lab dandelion note, but it always goes soapy on me in the end. Not here! Roadhouse is dandelion forward on me, with a little sweetness from the booze. I'm not getting a lot of tobacco or hemp -- really just a whiff as the description says -- but I think they are keeping the dandelion from turning into soap. This is not a bad boy, sleazy, swaggering, roadhouse kind of scent on me; it's springtime and green grass and yellow dandelions. And it's discontinued.

Roses, Pearls and Diamonds is primarily a rose scent on me. Rose can go wrong on my skin, but this one is lovely. Early on, I can smell the coconut, but it doesn't last more than an hour on me. The orris is contributing a gentle dryness that I think is helping keep the rose from going sour on me, and the musk is really subtle. It ends up as a long-lasting, realistic rose. I wish the coconut lasted longer on me, but this is quite lovely if you like roses.

Morana smells a lot like I remember Snow Glass Apples smelling on me (I frimped my tester to doomsday_disco, not long after she wrote the above review). It is mostly snow and apples, with a little pine; I'm not really getting a lot of lemon peel or rosewood. Snow and apples are kind of iffy notes on me, and I probably wouldn't have tried it if I hadn't won it in torischroeder9's awesome Rodeo PIF. And it's better on me than I expected. It lasts a long time, and frankly there are occasional days when I want to channel an ice maiden vibe, and this would be a lovely choice for that. So glad I got to try it!

Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes was a big morpher on me. It didn't help that I didn't look at the notes until late, late drydown so I wasn't always sure what I was smelling. It started out brighter than I expected, green and woody; I was thinking acorn might be a note. About an hour in, woods and ashes were the most prominent -- not strong smoke like Rumpelstilzchen or Smokestack, something mellower, maybe with a little dirt note as well. Then to my surprise (not having read the notes) it turned fruity on me. Out came the apple, and this phase lasted quite a long time. Late drydown, after 8 hours or so, was faint ashy apple. Super interesting!

I didn't check the notes before trying Venus Pandemos this morning, and the words that floated to my brain when I tried it on were "rose otto," despite the fact I kind of have no idea what rose otto is. This is really a rose-forward scent on me with some gentle carnation and warm hay and maybe a tiny bit of smoke if any. Lovely, but it only lasts an hour or so on my skin.

Awesome article -- thanks, VV!

Alternative Facts is a sweet, happy scent with a creepy edge. On me it is mostly a sugared vanilla cherry with some gently tart lemon. But I also get morphy wafts of something chilling, so cherry vanilla meets a vaporous darker note that comes and goes. I like cherry, and this is a very fitting scent experience.

I was hoping that the red and black musks in Pandemonium would hold each other in balance, as they sometimes do, but red musk walks away with this one. A really dark, pissed-off red musk. It's a dark-brown oil. Wet, I can smell the dry herbs and woods, tending much more to bitter than to sweet, but they become the background noise to the musks. After about an hour the red musk backs off a bit, and the whole is really quite distinctive, unisex/masculine with almost no sweetness, a paean to dark power, and a perfect illustration of the source artwork.

Two out of the three notes here are unfamiliar to me. Kinoko in the imp struck me as a familiar smell -- a cosmetic product I've used, something like that, but I couldn't nail it down. On my skin, it is perfumey, as the earth note tends to be, a little airier than straight soil, with lots of oakmoss and a warm reddish note that must be the rooibos. A pretty, possibly more feminine variation on the dirt note, though I think this could be worn by anyone on the gender spectrum.

I thought Perchta would probably be too floral. Violet almost never works on me. It is much better on my skin than I expected. Cool florals, without any old lady from the violet; it's more of an ice queen vibe, and might be good to wear in that work situation where you need to put someone in place with the heel of your ice-encrusted thigh-high boots. There's some evergreen and a hint of minty snow at first, though these are subsumed in the florals after an hour or so. This has pretty killer throw on me, which is unusual for my skin chemistry. I don't need a whole bottle of something this far out of my wheelhouse, but I'm definitely keeping the decant!

I don’t watch LA Law but in addition to the above suggestions, some of the GC masculine scents are: Golden Priapus Satyr Fenris Wolf Loup Garou (The last three are kind of untamed, maybe not so lawyerly) RPG Rogue, Bard, Fighter, Ranger, Thieves’ Rosin — most of the RPG scents, actually but my #1 suggestion is to head over to the random acts of kindness thread and throw your hat in the ring for VetchVesper’s dudes-only giveaway!

Sadly my imp of Caligula broke in transit, so I won't be able to wear it again. I've slathered myself with what remained on the inside of the baggie. I get blood musk, myrrh, and dry red wine (red wine usually goes grape syrup on me, but this is not particularly sweet. There may be frankincense or other resins here as well. I'm not sure about the vetiver or lemongrass -- maybe it's some of the grassy sort of vetiver? I don't smell any of the charred kind. Anyway, this smells exactly as it ought to, bloodthirsty and drunk on power. I quite like it!

Yep, Scarecrow starts out as acetone, but it doesn't stay that way long on my skin. It turns warm and dry and perfumey. (Hay and soil notes often go towards high-end perfume on my skin.) This is an older imp and may have softened somewhat from the original conception, but I'm not getting acrid smoke or the sense of postapocalyptic desolation that other reviewers have described. Low throw and wear length. I'm glad I got to try this, but I will probably pass it on so someone else can have the opportunity.

National Emergy should smell like a flaming pile of horseshit. Instead it's very orange (how appropriate) with plenty of spicy ginger. The patchouli was a false promise on me; I guess my skin ate it up because I really never found it. On me, this is like a Chimes Orange Ginger Chew. It has good throw when wet, not much afterwards (which is normal for my skin), and lasted about 4 hours on me.

Cathode starts out minty moss and ends up mossy mint, if that makes any sense. I'm not sure I got much ambergris; the mint kind of drowned it out. I don't wear mint in general and only wanted to try this for the sake of comprehensiveness, and sure enough, it doesn't do much for me. But if you enjoy cool, fresh scents, this might be very nice on you.

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I found Whispers of Monstrous Things quite pleasant. In the imp it does have a kind of sickly, cloying smell (but no cucumber -- maybe that's aged out of it?) But on my skin, it warmed up and became just sweet, not sickly, the sweetness of fig and tonka. I got the parchment smell that is usually really fugitive on me, some dark musk, some greenery -- all in all, the image I got was of an ancient library overgrown by strangler fig vines. But in a nice way, not a horrible way. Lasted about 5 hours on me.

Depraved is one of my GC faves, and Awabi Divers is kind of a more complicated, subtle Depraved. Patchouli and apricot are the most noticeable notes on me, but I also get a lot of polished wood and a hint of vanilla, with only the tiniest suggestion of vetiver. It's not overly sweet, and I suppose it's gender neutral, though to me it reads feminine -- not girly, but sophisticated woman. I like it a lot. A death match with Depraved would probably bring out more of the subtleties inherent here.

I am really fond of Veritas and am surprised that I have never reviewed it. Carnation is probably my favorite floral, and while Veritas starts off mainly frankincense and the slightly dusty green of chamomile, as it dries down I start to get lots and lots of spicy carnation. I couldn't pick angelica or heliotrope out of a lineup, though I'm sure they're contributing here, but this is mainly about the frankincense and carnation on me. It's warm, woody, spicy, carnation incense. And as someone who received the Roman Catholic sacrament of confirmation while wearing a Gunne Sax dress and was hugely disappointed that the holy spirit didn't descend on me in any kind of tangible way, I couldn't love Victorian Lass's review more!

Given the notes, Etude de Deshabille should have been fabulous on me. Instead, it was kind of meh for a while -- subdued patchouli, subdued amber, not much tobacco. Then the primary note became...oudh? There's no oudh in there, I know. Cashmeran is not oudh, right? I was expecting cashmere, something like the wooly note in Two Sheep and Two Goats, but something in here went indolic on my skin. I was really excited for this one, and it just didn't work on me.

One of my favorite American Gods scents -- any scent, really -- is Mithras, with blood, honey, milk and oil, so I hoped this would be a relative. And sure enough, For the Joy of It is Mithras's ne'er-do-well uncle. It starts out all whiskey on me, sharp and a little sweet and very alcoholic. Of course, I knew it wouldn't stay there, and it softened within minutes, with the honey and/or mead sharing center stage with the whiskey. There's a lovely drydown of coppery, honeyed booze, and it lasts all day. I don't get sweat, or if I do, it's not unpleasant. After half an hour or so after application, it's safe for public consumption. Perfectly unisex, and while it doesn't evoke the same deep emotional connection as Mithras does for me, it's very good.

The Mysterious Rappings Polka is one that I didn't get a decant of because I had to draw the line somewhere, but I was watching the reviews. Then I was gifted a decant by an ultra-lovely forumite, and I'm so glad I got to try it. It's really interesting, and I mean that in a good way. It actually reminded me somewhat of An Encampment of Shepherds from the recent Weenies, which had rose tobacco and oudh instead of rose musk and tobacco. So there's definitely a rosy tobacco note, which does not go sour on me as rose sometimes does, but here it meets toffee and bay rum. The pepper keeps the toffee from becoming ridiculously sweet, and the rum stays pretty mellow, and it all works together surprisingly well. Good wear length too, and pretty unisex despite the rose. A keeper!