Lucchesa

Evidently I didn't read the reviews for this one, just the notes, so it doesn't smell at all like I thought/hoped it would. It smells like a pluot encased in a very light honey syrup. I'm getting no mugwort and maybe just a hint of sage, and it seems awfully feminine for a blend called The Sons of Buri, the Sons of Borr.

I really wanted to love Kostnice because I've been to the Bone Church in Prague, and what an amazing inspiration for a scent. It doesn't start off well, though. Rose plus resin often sends the rose sour on my skin, and that's what happens here, even though it's rosewood and rose geranium. The lily is MIA at first. After a couple of hours it's really beautiful; the sourness is almost gone, and I'm able to make out the individual components: the frank, the rosewood, the more herbal rose geranium, and a breath of lilies. It's definitely a skin scent by this point. I will probably pass it on because I have so much BPAL and this takes a while to find its groove on my skin.

Daya is warm amber and sunshine, maybe some sandalwood incense. It's a beautiful brilliant clear sunny fall day as I test it, and it is perfect for this weather, as Herb Girl says. I wouldn't have been able to come up with plum, but seeing it mentioned by so many reviews, I can imagine that it's there, kind of melding with the incense. Truly lovely!

Yep, I tried this one for the name, which is awesome. You won't find either strawberry or mimosa on my list of favorite notes. While super sweet candied strawberry in the imp, Overprotective Possessed Talking Doll has a plasticky, almost sour note when it hits my skin. This tester will get frimped on to someone else.

I have not actually ever tried straight Snow White, so I can't comment on that front, but Frostbitten Dorian is super nice. It's quite similar to Dorian on me but chillier in tone with the snow note I recognize from Cotton Phoenix. Musky sugared snowy vanilla tea -- yum! No throw on me (which is normal) and only average wear length, but well worth reapplying!

I never reviewed Jareth? Shame on me! I love this stuff! I actually death-matched it with Frostbitten Dorian today, and it won hands down (though FBD is glorious, too - just sweeter and cooler and it wore out faster). It has lasted all day long, which is really rare on my skin, and though it's a skin scent now, it had a little throw at first. White musk doesn't usually work for me, but I think it gets down with the oude and anything soapy or screechy in the white musk is completely subdued. The leather turns the lilac fougere into something as sexy as a Bowie growl. It's soft, buttery leather, and the tonka makes it even warmer. Don't let the word lilac scare you away -- this is totally unisex. And while nearly all tea scents disappear on me, this ti leaf does not. Anyway, I adore this, and it always makes me feel sexy but also safe and warm.

Mokey was frimped to me and unlikely to work, though I do like lilac. It's much too floral for my tastes, though it is very pretty. And it has some throw, which is unusual for my skin. It's a higher pitched purple and white floral, with soft powdery notes from the violet and orris and something almost aggressively clean that's making me wonder if there's white musk or an aquatic note in here. Not my style but I'm very glad I got to try it!

Ooh, I love these library scents, and they never last on me as long as I would like. Old Moon has that dusty leather feel of Quintessence of Dust and Adam, both of which were longer lasting on me (though I want to retry and slather a bit more to see if it helps). It reminds me of one of those funky used bookstores of my childhood with the really old, slightly musty leather-bound books that had the coolest illustrations. A little corner of heaven, in other words.

I'm so glad TwilightEyes mentioned jasmine sambac, because I got a strong sweet jasmine note from The Wolf and the Rattlesnake and thought I was delusional when no one was mentioning it. I don't get woods from this, neither cedar nor patchouli. For the longest time it was all sweet jasmine, and I was fairly indifferent, and then suddenly the late drydown was substantially different, a sort of warm candycoated musk, with a kind of youthful vibe, but very nice. And it lasts forever on me, which is not typical. I ended up liking this much more than I expected.

I get mainly iris and white musk out of my now very well aged imp of Euterpe. Of all the notes here, those were the two I was least excited about. My skin also eats this up fairly rapidly, so I will be swapping Euterpe away.

My imp of Thanatos smells, and looks, exactly like Thanatopsis. I think I got a mislabeled imp. Sigh.

I was frimped a decant of Pumpkin V 2007, and it's delightful. It goes on in a blast of pumpkin, citrus and ginger, but the latter elements fade quickly on my skin, which tends to eat up even citrus that's not a decade old. What's left is a warm pumpkiny bourbon vanilla with hints of ginger, which I like because it's not all pumpkin spice in your face. It wears close to the skin on me, but it's delicious.

I have about half an imp of Velvet Tiger and will probably never see it again, but it's worth seeking out. Nine years of aging have mellowed any sharp edges. It's a gorgeous rich spiced citrus, perfect for fall/winter, against a backdrop of dark woods and warm amber. The vetiver is far more cuddly than scary, and the licorice just melds with the spices. I got terrific throw from this (which I usually do not), and it lasted a long time. I would absolutely love to have more of this.

Testing blind, I was able to identify exactly none of the notes in Witch-Cursed Castle. It's definitely green -- I get more weeds than oak. Woods and weeds are the strongest notes on me, and this is strong -- I get much more throw than I usually do here. The redwood and resins kind of blend together into a dark background, the green notes are in the foreground. I was testing Larentalia, a Roman funerary garden kind of scent, on the other wrist and there seemed to be a family resemblance. But this one worked better on me. It's very atmospheric and I rather enjoy it.

I can see that this would be a lovely, meditative herbal blend for many. It is almost that for me. But there's something in here that doesn't love my skin. I don't know if it's one of the listed notes -- I'm not at all familiar with crocus, gladiolus or amaranth -- or one of the herbs and flowers sacred to the silent one, but it's just a little off on me. Larentalia has good wear length and I really wish it worked on me.

The Virgin and the Unicorn reminds me of the discontinued GC The Unicorn. It's lovely, ethereal, pale, attenuated, like a Victorian heroine perishing of consumption. White rose, white sandalwood, pale incense; I can't honestly differentiate any pear. It's gorgeous, actually; it's just not my kind of scent.

Evidently I never reviewed Blood Kiss. Wow. It seems like you either love it or you hate it, and I love it. It was the first vetiver blend I fell in love with after scents like Rumpelstilzchen had me running away screaming. It's one of the very few red wine scents that works on my skin, and the clove stays joined at the hip with the vetiver so that it doesn't go all spice cabinet. All that darkness -- wine, vetiver, clove -- is tempered by the sweetness of cherry, honey and vanilla, and probably opium as well, which is usually both dark and sweet on me. It all combines into one of the most unabashedly sensual scents in my collection. I don't wear this to work because it has some throw and I would get distracted by sniffing my wrists. Blood Kiss makes me feel ridiculously sexy. Think Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger. It's a brilliant Halloween-month scent, too. Just, love.

Rose, there's definitely rose in Black Cat, and powdery myrrh. I'm not getting mint like so many other reviewers -- which is good, I'm not big on mint -- but there is definitely something herbal, and I would not be the tiniest bit surprised if it were catnip, which I think is in the mint family. This is not something I'd wear for the notes; I hardly ever wear rose blends unless they're sugary. But I may keep the imp around for its voodoo properties.

I tested Yuletide 2014 without checking the notes, and they wouldn't have helped because despite having a big holly hedge in my front yard, I really don't know what holly berries smell like. I thought I was smelling cranberries, with some evergreen around the edges. Too fruity for me! Not much throw (which is normal for me) and my skin ate it up within about three hours. I do agree it would make a lovely candle scent.

Tum on me was warm honey and dark fruit. I didn't specifically get grape like everyone else seems to have, but after reading the review thread and resniffing the imp (it's evening now and Tum is long gone), yep, it does smell a lot like the grape note in Bess. I like it but don't love it, so it will go to swaps for someone else to try. Tum wears close the the skin, which is normal on me, and has about average wear length.

I tested Muse of Fire blind, and it struck me as an effervescent fruity floral. Champagne came to mind, as did pineapple. I also think there may be jasmine or jessamine in here, because I got a little bit of cat pee. Other than that, I can't identify any of the florals except that on me they read as tropical and bright in tone. I think in the future I won't try sugared florals unless I have a little more control over exactly which florals they are. Good wear length, though.

The Torture Queen goes on all chrome on me. It's a chilly scent, a little higher pitched than I usually wear. Gradually it settles down into a cool, sophisticated floral, surprisingly unisex. Gardenia is a good note on me, white tea always disappears rapidly, and vanilla musk has been wonderful in the past, but here there seems to be some crystalline or white musk in the mix that doesn't mesh with my skin as well. The late drydown is all ambergris, as is usually the case on me, which I love. Very little throw and only average wear length on my middle-aged skin.

I would not have tried Solanine had VetchVesper not A. suggested I might like it and B. frimped it to me. So thanks, VV! It has a lot more flowers than I usually wear, but none of the ones I avoid out of hand -- tuberose, jasmine, etc. Wet, Solanine is a very green floral, and I agree with all and sundry that this is a poisonous green. It made me think of the wicked queen if she had tried to poison Snow White with a basket of flowers instead of an apple, but I think Dark Alice's mention of Poison Ivy is more apt. The green smells like snapping a vine that you're pulling out because it's trying to overgrow your garden. Morning glory comes to mind. I'm not getting identifiable rose or lily, which is fine, just a pretty heady mixed bouquet. This definitely seems like a Rappaccini's Garden kind of scent. I'm really glad I got to try this one, and while it's still too floral for me to chase down a big bottle, I will be keeping my decant for my Poison Ivy or hedge witch days!

Casanova is a strong, citrusy men's cologne on me. I wear a lot of unisex scents, but this bordered on too masculine even for me. And it's a higher-pitched cologne scent than what I usually wear. The leather didn't really emerge on me until drydown, and then it was really nice, but while wet it had so much throw that it made me self-conscious (I don't usually get much throw at all, so I'm not really used to broadcasting my scent in other people's faces). I think this would be terrific on someone with a more masculine presentation and a lot of self-assurance.

Red wine is a tricky note on me, but I love opoponax and yes, the name is awesome. The Ghost of Clytemnestra on me is a very dark, blood- and resin-stained wine with some dark evergreen notes grounding it. It's powerful, both in terms of throw and wear length and in its very essence. This is no Alice or Maiden. Clytemnestra evokes ancient blood rituals, links to primordial powers. She doesn't seduce; she enslaves. Do I like it? Not as an everyday scent. I like my opoponax syrupy; everything here is harsh and unrelentingly dark. But I will definitely keep my decant for situations where I need to play a bitch goddess. Here's the link to the image this scent was supposedly based on, but IMO it's not very good. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Downman_-_The_Ghost_of_Clytemnestra_Awakening_the_Furies_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg This perfume is a far better work of art than the Downman painting.