Lucchesa

How did I never review Bast? It is rarely out of my ever-shifting top ten. Amber, honey, cardamom, myrrh: Bast is golden, like the last rays of the setting sun. The cacao is dry, adding depth and richness, and the bourbon vanilla is snuggly, but this is not a chocolate or a foodie blend. It's an aureole of sensual warmth and radiant light. Bast is the rare blend I can wear all year round for any occasion. I can wear it in Sacramento in the summer when it's 103 degrees; I can wear it to heat up a dreary Seattle February. I wear it when I want to feel ridiculously sexy; I wear it to feel effective and confident at work. Bastet is grown-up, powerful, secure in her own skin. She's, well, a lion goddess. Wear it and channel her.

Ill-Mannered Dragon is strong! I am a big fan of Dragon's Milk, and Dragon's Milk with coconut and neroli sounded fantastic. But dragon's blood can go hugely cloying on me, and it does here; I was hoping the bitter neroli would temper that saccharine quality. For the first 45 minutes or so, the neroli barely shows up, and the vanilla and coconut get subsumed in the overwhelming dragon's blood. I get little hints of coconut and vanilla until finally the bracing neroli puts in an appearance, but it's too little, too late. I'm going to try this one again in a few days, when it's not fresh from the mailbox (a generous wishlist frimp from a lovely swap partner), because I really want this one to work, but the dragon's blood resin may simply be too overpowering here.

I think I've finally found the pipe tobacco blend I've been searching for! Frank Burns goes on surprisingly sweet and does not read as masculine at all on my skin. Rich, sweet, fruity pipe smoke is the dominant note -- cherry tobacco? Not quite what my grandfather smoked, but lovely nonetheless. The booze and woods are in the background, and there is no revolting cigar smoke; the pipe tobacco is really the star here. It rides close to the skin, but given how my skin tends to obliterate pipe smoke blends in about ten minutes, I am thrilled that this one is sticking around. Good thing the groundhog saw his shadow because this is a terrific winter fragrance. Win!!!

I had this in my cart. And then for some reason I hesitated, and it was gone. What was I thinking?? There is not a single note here that’s even a question mark. They are all win. Cardamom, almond, coffee, coconut. I was thrilled to be offered a decant in a swap, and yep, it is just about perfect. All the chocolate, the coconut, the almond —seconding VetchVesper on the Almond Joy thing. The cardamom and coffee are kind of comforting background noise. Good throw, and I rarely get throw. Just, agh, going to find a corner to weep in now.

I did not have the same experience the other reviewers had with Montes Harbinger. In the imp, I can individuate almost all the notes -- the various citrus, the delicate green cognac and rosewater from A Spirit, Katie, the musk, the mugwort. Wet on my skin the grapefruit was prominent, but as it dried down the two components I was least excited about came to the fore: white musk and mugwort. I never got the almond blossom; the mugwort simply overpowered it -- and the neroli, the tangerine peel, and everything else. Evidently I amp mugwort. This is the first mugwort blend I've tried, and I'm going to have to be careful about it in the future.

I don't know how Beth does it. Wet, Coimetrophobia is damp earth. Soil. Loam, turf, dirt with bright green moss growing on it. It's the most astonishingly realistic sensation. And within about a half hour, it has developed into what smells like it ought to cost $180 a bottle at Nordstrom, something incredibly elegant and urbane. It's the scent your butler chooses for you after polishing the marble and mahogany in your drawing room. I had no idea graveyard dirt would become this stunning! So delighted I got to try this decant.

I ended up with two imps of Kyoto somehow. Cherry blossom can go plastic on me, but here I barely get the floral at all. It's just a faint suggestion of cherry blossom, with sandalwood and quite a bit of anise. No throw and average wear length on me. I like anise and sandalwood, but it's a little simple for my tastes. Good enough to keep one imp, but I can swap the other.

Agh, not in my wheelhouse! Really, really far from my wheelhouse! Pulled at random from my GC imps to test, and I couldn't remember what was in this one. Tuberose is a particularly bad flower on me, jasmine can be problematic, and I generally don't do straight florals. I would have guessed there was some lotus in here, because there's a bubblegummy quality on wet, which is probably the frangipani, since it's the note I'm least familiar with. This is what floral lovers would probably consider a marvelous, long-lasting, luscious floral. It is way too floral for me!

I agree with PeculiarHeroine that Mr. Ibis captures the quality of the character beautifully, but it just doesn't work on my skin. Too quiet, too reserved. The vanilla is faint, the musks are faint, the sandalwood is faint; my skin just eats it all up. I'll pass this imp on to someone who will be able to appreciate it better.

Mrs. Grose is cinnamon spice tea on me, with gentle hints of rose, similar to the rose in Hope. Lovely, but as so often happens with tea notes, my skin eats it up much too quickly. 3 hours after application, it is detectable only as the faintest wisp of spice. If it had better staying power with my skin chemistry, I would be on the lookout for a bottle.

I'm so excited I got to try this, thanks to a generous swapper who sent me a tester. Wet, it's very buttery. Butterscotch, maybe buttercream, but the butter is the primary note on my skin at first. Then the almond note emerges and it's butter, sugar and almonds, caramelizing in a pan. Which is pretty heavenly. And very sweet. Finally it mellows into honey cake -- and I often have a problem with the cake note going weird on my skin, a la Eat Me, but this is beautiful -- with buttery almondy frosting. It has just a bit of throw and better than usual staying power (my skin eats lots of blends, but usually honey ones will last). Delectable!

Simplicity and innocence, gleefully despoiled! Sugared rose. I received a tester of this from a very generous swap partner, and in the imp it's exactly the smell of my grandmother's pink-and-burgundy-tiled bathroom, circa 1978. Grandma grew roses, but she also used rose cold cream or rosewater bath products or something just like this. Roses are hit and miss on me, but the dusting of sugar on this one prevents it from going sour. It's delicate and achingly beautiful, with surprisingly good throw. Absolutely lovely.

Nutmeg? Not on me. (And blackened nutmeg sounds so divine; sigh.) Everything else is lovely, though. It's more masculine when wet, drying down into a perfectly unisex, perfectly sexy smoky sweet amber-tobacco-vanilla. Unfortunately, my skin is eating it up rather quickly. I would think Mars the Avenger would be a little stronger than this. It's beautiful if now faint, and I'm delighted I got to try it.

Wet, this is all opoponax and black musk on me. Deep and dark, mysterious and a little musty. As it dries down, the other notes come into play, though I never do get any cedar, so don't be worried if that's the note that scares you off. There's the smoky sweetness of opium and patchouli and bourbon vanilla, a slightly herbal touch of geranium, and maybe just a bit of a crystalline quality from the white musk? I don't usually get along with white musk, but this blend is sensational. As LizziesLuck mentions, it is a darker blend that is nevertheless appropriate for daytime wear, when we want to channel our inner gothic heroines or demon bitch goddesses at work. I'm so delighted I got to try this decant!

Frimp fresh from the Lab, and it goes on in that blast of marzipanny goodness I love in almond scents, which nearly never lasts. The almond fades and the bay rum comes into play, then the rum fades and the clove takes over. I'm not sure I ever make out any of the rootbeery scent of sassafras; it's subsumed by the clove. This is a lovely festive holiday scent to brighten the Thanksgiving-to-New-Year's corridor.

Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin. Frimp fresh from the Lab. Rogue is much nicer than I expected. I can't wear Fighter - it has that raw uncured leather smell that resembles red musk and takes over on my skin. This is a lovely soft leather backed up by rosin and hemp. The leather dominates on the inside of my wrist, the hemp and rosin are more apparent on the outside of my wrist, for what that's worth. I'm sure this would smell great on a guy if you had one who would consent to wear scent, but I think it smells pretty great on me. Average wear length and not much throw.

Vanilla silk, patchouli leaf, sweet benzoin, and smoked honey. Smoked honey? Sign me up! Impressions of the Floating World does not disappoint. I was afraid the silk note would be like the linen note, which veers into dryer sheet territory on my skin, but there's nothing aggressively clean about this scent. The smoke isn't prominent but it and the patch lend an earthy quality to the honey and vanilla and keep them from being overly sweet. The word that comes up for me is "husky." If Impressions of the Floating World could talk, it would sound like Kathleen Turner. ETA retested a different decant a few months later and it had terrific throw and wear length on me.

Sensual red musk stomping all over saffron and Levant spices.

I think I have the 2016 version. It's one of those perfumes I would usually avoid on the grounds of "too much going on." But since just about all those notes are favorites and I got a super bargain on FB, I decided to give this a go, and I love it! Frankincense and myrrh, check. Almond and carnation, check. Patchouli, check. I do not get the obnoxious lemon pledge smell that others have complained of, which I do sometimes get from verbena, but keep in mind this has had a year to age. Instead I get a glorious mix of notes that is different from anything else I own but isn't muddled or jangly. I love gloame's comparison to a souk. Warm, spicy, resiny, unisex, and appropriate to any season. It wears pretty close to my skin, but that's usual for me.

Finally I get to try Boomslang! The oil in the imp is very dark brown; only if I look closely do I see that it's not uniform. I roll it carefully and apply. Yep, that's Snake Oil and dark chocolate all righty! Yummmm. In a moment I can smell the teak; I'm not sure I ever make out the rice milk in this one. But I completely understand why this is so beloved. Then, within 45 minutes, my skin just eats up the cocoa note, and all I have left is Snake Oil. Which I expect will last until tomorrow, but I wanted chocolate snake oil. I'm thinking that with my skin chemistry I might do better to layer Snake Oil with something like Gelt-Smeared Dreidel to get a similar effect. Oh, well, I'm delighted to have tried it.

2018 version: My husband chose this for me, based on the poem, and I have to agree with northatlantic that it smells a bit like sweet tarts in the bottle. If I tried not to think about sweet tarts, I could definitely smell the ambergris and coconut. I applied to inside and outside of wrist and hoped for the best. Wet, green sugar cane and coconut and a sort of fruity floral, which I think the ambrette seed is contributing to because I can't quite make it out; the ambergris is there but quiet. My husband thinks it smells like vanilla, and it does, in a way. I amp champaca in a weird way, so I wait for the champaca to emerge and stomp all over everything. And there it is! And it's all champaca, overblown sickly sweet floral, with terrific throw. Heart sinks. Only -- this stage doesn't last long at all. Maybe five minutes, and something reins it back in. I'm going to credit the ambrette seed, because I like ambrette seed. Whatever it is, the champaca goes back to blending beautifully with the other notes, coconut and sugarcane and musky ambergris. It's daytime sexy in a walking on the beach barefoot with no makeup way. The throw is still better than average for me, and this becomes a scent I cannot wait to wear this summer.

Oh good lord. We can't regulate assault rifles, but we can make the skies safe from perfume.

Cat Chasing Butterflies was my husband's choice for me, though it did make my long list. I don't remember ever trying peach blossom but plum and cherry blossom are hit and miss on me. Still, I expected this to smell somewhat like peach, which can be overly sweet on me, and I got very little peach or sweetness at first. And I love almond and was disappointed at not getting any in the opening. Usually when almond scents are wet, I'll get a blast of almond that fades fairly quickly. So, wet, a creamy ambery pale floral, nice but not exceptional. And since Shungas tend to disappear fast on my skin, I thought I would put it away for a month or two and try again. To my great surprise, the scent kept growing and developing. The sweet musk started to bloom once the oil was dry, and it works really well on me. And in the middle of yoga class, about 2 hours in, I started to smell a distinct and very beautiful almond. This had exceptional wear for a Shunga on my sponge-like skin; I can still smell it faintly roughly five hours after application -- and after a shower! I think I'm going to be turning to this beauty again and again all spring long.

I do not have an imp of Black Hellebore, but I swapped for dementia_divine's Black Hellebore Honey. I quite like the apiary scents -- they don't all work for me, but they have good wear length and are excellent daytime scents that could easily be worn to work. Black Hellebore Honey to me is a straw-colored honey and a dark, herbal floral. I'm not getting the mint that many reviewers have mentioned, which would probably not work well on my skin. Although it's rather nice, this isn't my favorite apiary scent -- Oleander Honey is the best on me so far, though I haven't tried them all. And I recently received a bottle of Against Idleness and Mischief, my favorite GC springtime honey scent, so I will probably pass this imp on.

On me, this does not smell like beer, which is fortunate. Maybe a little yeasty, like bread dough rising and baking. It does give me the feeling of a wise woman's kitchen. I'm not familiar with how any of the listed notes smell; I get green and herbal but not marshy (doesn't go soapy on me like most aquatics) or terribly foodie. It's quite pleasant but not a soul scent for me.