Lucchesa

All good stuff in here -- musky cinnamon and leather, cozy, sexy, yum. Then it disappeared. I put on some unscented lotion and tried again, and this time it stuck around a lot longer, but definitely as a skin scent. I like Count Dracula a lot and was delighted to get to test it, but I have other scents that check these boxes for me, so I will probably let this go to someone else who wants to try it.

I like Event Horizon much better than Darkness, which I tested yesterday. The opium is still strong, but the blend does not become as cloyingly floral as it does in Darkness. After playing a big role in the opening, the orchid is content to let the opium and resins take center stage. It's still sweet -- it's that lovely syrupy opoponax and vanilla-y benzoin -- and dark and heavy with good wear length, but it's not so oppressively floral on me. This one is a keeper.

Honey!!! That's all I smell from Door at first, then honey and herbs. A faint tinge of tobacco from the nicotiana? Not sure what cistus smells like, but this is gorgeous, one of the Lab's beautiful meadow in springtime sort of blends. Golden sunshine in a vial. I won't need a bottle right away because I have a brand new bottle of Against Idleness and Mischief, which shares the honey and chamomile notes. I will death match them one of these days, but there's definitely a family resemblance.

I was really bummed out when Grand Guignol was discontinued, but now that I've tried Depraved, I think I like it even better. The patchouli cuts the sweetness of the apricot better than the brandy. It's earthier, dirtier, sexier. It's definitely apricot and definitely a pretty dark patchouli, but it's more than the sum of its parts. And it lasts really well. I love it!

I don't wear opium much because it tends to be heavy on me. Darkness is really heady opium and narcissus, melded as if into a single note. The myrrh is there but stays in the background, which is a shame IMO. I can appreciate the loveliness here, and it lasts a really long time, but for me it's a little too sweet, a little too floral, a little too sultry, a little too mature (at 50, I don't feel nearly old enough to carry off this scent).

I picked this up at a meet 'n' sniff over the weekend (thanks!!!) and put it on 2 hours ago - this (2018, I think!) is the first Womb Furie I've tried. At first it was all honey with a faint hint of SO. And I had a similar experience with Snake's Kiss and was wondering if my most recent bout of head cold had left me without the ability to smell Snake Oil, so I got it out and dabbed a tiny bit on my shoulder. Nope, I can still smell SO perfectly well, wafts of it drifting up around me. So, these blends must have a smaller proportion of SO in them, duh. The SO did start to emerge more strongly in about an hour, but this is definitely a gentler SO. This is one I could get away with at work; it's still sexy as all get out but a little more buttoned up and wears closer to the skin. If you hate SO I can't imagine this working for you; if you like SO but find it a bit much, this might be perfection. It's going on my bottle list.

Golden amber and bourbon vanilla with sweet oak, blue lotus, and tea blossom. I sniffed this at a meet 'n' sniff Sunday and the owner gave me the decant as she had a bottle (thank you!!!), so I'm skin testing it now. I honestly could not name a single note when this hit my skin. Soft creamy floral -- OK, I might have named vanilla, but I would have thought there was a cream note of some kind. I don't wear a lot of (any?) lotus, so it's not one I'm on intimate terms with. The amber and bourbon vanilla seem to just be melding things together -- no note stands out here, it's just this beautiful blend. It's got no throw whatsoever on me, but it has lasted for two hours now. Soft, sexy, a lovely addition to my springtime scents!

I was generously frimped an imp of 2006 Schwarzer Mond, and it is gorgeous. Rich, syrupy, dark. The only note I could make out on blind testing was opoponax, but I peeked while it was still wet and couldn't identify half those notes away. Yep, opoponax, with myrrh, black musk, and chewy patchouli. I'm wearing this on a sunny spring morning and it's more of a January or sexy evening scent, but the throw is so low on me I could wear it anytime I wanted to channel this rich powerful dark energy.

Galvanic Goggles is my favorite of the scents that start out cologney on me. I have learned to tolerate that initial discomfort of feeling as though I am wearing men's cologne and wait for the beautiful drydown. I get more tobacco and musk than metal at first and the metallic notes gradually emerge over time; I get very little throw, and the wear time is average. I have very positive emotional associations with metal lubricants as something my father used in his woodshop when I was growing up, so that adds to the pleasure of this scent for me. It's more masculine than I typically wear, but in certain moods it would be golden. I am a fan.

Machu Picchu is interesting. Some tropical florals, some amber, some undergrowth, some fruitiness, an aquatic undertone - like being in the tropical bird house at the zoo (since I've never been in a real rainforest). There's a lot going on here, and I appreciate the artistry, but tropical blooms and aquatics are just not categories I wear.

Retesting and reviewing some of the things in my swapbox. My old notes for this one only said "bad." Incantation is not "bad." It just isn't me. On my skin, there is no sweetness to this scent at all, and I prefer my darker notes to be tempered with some molasses or caramel or the like. This might be a good choice for someone trying to avoid sweet notes entirely. It's not the bbq vetiver of malediction; I think it may be the grassy vetiver some reviewers mention. It's a very dry sandalwood, a hint of lemon peel, some woods. Not bad at all, really, though on the masculine end of unisex. It is lighter than I would have expected from the notes, and only lasts a couple of hours on my skin.

I didn't actually order Globe; my lovely decanter sent it by mistake and told me just to keep it. Historically, chypres have not worked on me; they read as "too cologney" on my skin, meaning, probably, that they remind me of the aftershave my male relatives wore in my childhood. Globe is no exception, though it's a particularly lovely version of the genre. It really does feel auburn in color and strikes me as more autumnal than springlike. I'm more comfortable with the drydown. The cologne aspect recedes in favor of the woods and amber, the throw reduces significantly (it was substantial while wet), and it becomes elegantly unisex. I don't get much tea, but that's a note my skin tends to swallow up. I will probably pass this decant on, but I'm delighted I got to try this beautifully crafted scent I wouldn't ordinarily have chosen.

Snake's Kiss is good but not orgasmic on me. At first it was all vanilla cream, and that really dairy cream note that threatens to curdle right on my skin. Then the honey kind of pulled it back from the edge, but I still wasn't getting a much Snake Oil (no lemon, either). I know SO is famous for needing some time to age, so maybe it will emerge much more strongly in a few months. It also didn't last nearly as long on me as plain SO. So, on me, from a decant that had a couple of days to settle, it's a very nice honeyed vanilla cream with just a little Snake Oil. I'll test it again in a month to decide if I need a bottle.

I got to try this today at a meet 'n' sniff - dripped a drop on the back of my wrist from a wandcap around 5, and it's still going strong at 8:30. At first it was a big bad vetiver-patchouli combo, and very dark in tone. No sweetness at all, just harsh vetiver and patch, definitely on the masculine end of unisex. I can't say I paid attention to every stage in the drydown, but it softened and sweetened until at a certain point I thought I was smelling Samhain, which has kind of capricious, unpredictable throw on me. I'm a huge fan of Samhain, so this was a welcome development. Ultimately on me Samhainophobia transformed into a just slightly darker, more sinister Samhain. I have a bottle of Samhain, so I'm not sure I need one of Samhainophobia, but I'll definitely pick up at least an imp if it comes around again next fall. It's a fantastic experience.

It's funny, looks like most reviewers got predominantly either lily or rose. Lily, in my case. The rose -- white rose? -- is there but in the shade. I tend to amp lilies, so on me this was mainly lily through an evocative sort of ghostly veil, yet unlike most ghostly scents, this one lasted two hours, not 20 minutes. I don't wear many pure florals, but I may keep this is a nice adjunct to my lily collection. I'm so glad I got the chance to try this DC'd scent!

Wispy is right! Unicorn is the palest spring floral, like dew on a misty meadow. My skin is like bright sunshine. The dew doesn't stand a chance. I'm delighted that I got to try this, but my skin chemistry obliterated it within 15 minutes.

I wear a lot of scents I consider unisex, but my initial reaction to Mad Hatter wet was that it was too cologney. And then the pennyroyal came out, and I hadn't realized that pennyroyal was going to be mint, which is a doom note for me. The black musk of the drydown is very nice, but overall this is just not me.

Red wine is not one of my favorite notes because, duh, it smells just like red wine. That being said, Lilith is my favorite of the red wine blends I have tried so far. I always love the myrrh-black musk combination, and to my nose there is something spicy in this blend that's not accounted for in the listed components. The rose almost turns sour on my skin, but not quite. It's actually very beautiful; it's just not something I would wear.

An unexpected frimp in a decant order from a generous forumite! I am quite fond of the apiary, and I adore chestnuts. Roasting chestnuts is one of the most divine smells ever. This was one of the most anticipated scents on my wishlist. Alas, the odds that I will ever find a reasonably priced bottle are sadly slim, so I'll treasure this decant. I love the taste of raw chestnut, and I bit into a horse chestnut once. Really bad idea. I wasn't aware at the time that it was poisonous, but it tasted so ghastly that I spat it out immediately. And when I put Horse Chestnut Honey on my skin, I had a flashback to that experience. Maybe it was my imagination in overdrive, but for a moment I could almost taste the bitter toxicity of horse chestnut. This sensation passed quickly, and then it was honey, warm autumn honey. And soon after that, chestnut. Like marrons glaces made with honey. (Are there any marrons glaces blends in the catalog?) More honey on me than chestnut, but gorgeous, and like all the apiary blends, it has good throw and lastingness. Chock full of win!

Peach IV is the only one of the bunch I have tried, but it's a beauty. On wet, it was peach and oudh, lots of oudh, but within five minutes the oudh had stepped back to let the rest of the ingredients shine. Peach and wood and incense, and the peach is not overly sweet on me, just a hint of sweetness. I don't know what musk seed smells like, and I'm not getting much pitch. Not a lot of throw (which is usual for me) but it wears a long time. Very nice.

I would never have tried Sentimental Initiation without all the reviews telling me not to be afraid of the red musk. And they were right. Red musk is there, adding its va-va-voom to the mix, but it doesn't obliterate the other notes, and the mix is just gorgeous. The gentleness of the myrrh and black musk manages to manifest; the clove is present but not overpowering; I'm not getting much patch, nor much mandarin or vanilla except a kind of roundness. This isn't a sweet blend, but it is well balanced. I always get good throw and staying power from red musk (although usually all I get is red musk) and I suspect this will last all day. The decant was a gift to me, and I am giving it away, but I will be on the lookout for more in the future.

Snap-Dragon-Fly starts out on me with plum pudding, the Lab's lovely deep rich plum note, faintly boozy and spicy. But the plum is gradually supplanted by not raisin but grape, plus some of the pastry note that rarely works on my skin. Fortunately I don't make out any suet, which would turn me off even though I know intellectually that it's vegan suet. I know there was a Christmas Carol Yule with just plum pudding and holly -- I need to find some of that one. That would be perfect.

A whirling mélange of multicolored musks with wasabi, rooibos, heliotrope, and mastic. Chaotic wet is a screaming match of musks. There's stompy red musk and screechy white musk and gold musk and pink musk and lord knows which other musks and they are all trying to make their point as loudly as possible. So I get a ton of throw, and I never get a ton of throw unless red musk is amping its lungs out. It's kind of giving me a headache. An hour later the musks have agreed to disagree and I'm liking it much better. It has a fruity quality now. I can't pick out any wasabi, and I'm getting no skin irritation; I was worried about that. I'm not so familiar with the other notes, but it's kind of a flirty summery scent now. Still, I don't want to have to go through the opening again to get here. I have all the RPG imps; this is not one I need an extra of.

Wet on me, Western Diamondback is an even sweeter Snake Oil, which was not what I was expecting from dry components like sage, leather and sandalwood. So, tonka, leather and Snake Oil at first, and it's gorgeous. Like SO on me, it has a little throw (and I rarely get much sillage). If you like these ingredients, you can hardly go wrong here. The sandalwood and sage help keep the balance, but on my skin they stay well in the background. Gradually the leather and friends fade away and I'm left with Snake Oil, which does not last as ridiculously long on me as pure SO does. I will be retesting this but may be heading for a bottle purchase. So delighted I got to try this!

The Ta-Ta features four of my favorite notes, and I was very excited to be gifted some. At first, all I got was soft, warm leather and soft warm tobacco, seamlessly melded. And that is just fine with me -- it was beautiful in that wet stage, cozy and unisex. It took about an hour for this to develop and for the carnation to bloom on my skin. Leather, tobacco, spicy carnation -- not quite Spanked Revisited, one of my top ten, but up there. Really, really good. I never got a lot of coffee, and in another hour it was mostly gone, but this is well worth reapplying.