Lucchesa

And I think I ended up with Coldfire’s Changeling, but this quicksilver scent is terrific on me. It has the fresh pumpkin and something of the golden vibe of Bunraku Theater. Not much booze on me, just a hint of sweetness from the bourbon vanilla. Clean pale woods. A great daytime scent for a sunny autumn afternoon.

I love Golden Priapus, so Pickled Imp sounded like GP + cinnamon and clove -- delicious! The pine is less prominent in Pickled Imp, just adding a resiny hint of evergreen to the vanilla and spices. Just fantastic, especially on a cold winter day like today. And it lasts a really long time. (Needless to say, this is a pretty well-aged imp, purchased here on the forums.) Is there any chance it might come back in the CD redux? I'd love that!

Great -- I'm in love with misfortune. I do seem to be all over the clove scents lately. But it's snowing outside, and clove is such a gorgeous deep rich warming winter note. Here it's in perfect balance with a deep rich warming vetiver and an earthy patchouli, either of which note can be too much for me on occasion, but they are in such perfect accord and alignment, which complements Beth's scent description exactly: to honor the balance of forces in the universe. I may need to honor them (and propitiate the gods of misfortune) by buying a whole bottle.

Oh, this is a beauty and I'm so glad I was frimped a tester! On me it is predominantly a clove scent, backed up by vanilla and oak. I get the hint of cognac -- same note as in A Spirit, Katie, right? -- adding warmth and depth. Not getting any perceptible frank at all, just a little myrrh, but it's all very beautiful. It has faded rather quickly, but my skin seems to be eating things up this morning -- I think it's just me.

Jingu is a lovely springtime scent, as gentle and pretty as a cascade of cherry blossoms in a light breeze. I don't get much mandarin from it, just blossoms and quiet sandalwood. Like many Shungas on me, it's a skin scent that fades relatively quickly (although a faint scent is there for quite a long time).

Languor is not my usual kind of thing -- tuberose is generally a hard pass for me. But it was offered to me, and I thought I would try it, and I'm so glad I did. First of all, it's a white floral, baby! As Casablanca writes, a "white floral cloud" surrounds me on application, and stays around for ages, and I almost never get throw so that is a treat. I was giving a lecture not long after applying today, and for 75 minutes I kept getting marvelous wafts of BPAL when I waved my arms at all. This is a big, big, heady floral, and then the opium starts to emerge in the background with its narcotic haze and mmm... So, this is not me, and yet I've had a lot of fun wearing it today. I can definitely imagine pulling it out for certain talks when I want to channel a particular kind of person or mood. When I want to be not me, in other words. I don't think I need a whole bottle, but I am not relinquishing this imp!

Intrigue is totally in my wheelhouse (or one of them, anyway), but somehow I wasn't even aware of it until it was given to me quite recently. I'm not familiar with the black palm note, but on me it reads as quite similar to the coconut husk of Brown Jenkin. So I get earthy cocoa and fig and dry coconut and woods, and it's very much in the same family as Velvet or Gelt-Smeared Dreidel or some of the 13s -- major comfort scents in my book. It dries down fairly true until a warm, comforting, earthy blur. The throw is low to nonexistent, and it's unisex, so this can be worn by anyone, anywhere. I can see it becoming a real workhorse in my fall/winter scent collection. It's going on my list of GC scents to add to LE orders in the near future.

Patchouli. Sweet dirty patchouli on top of everything. A year ago I would never have imagined ordering a scent with patchouli as the first ingredient, and Crystal Phoenix is about as patchouli-forward a scent as I now wear. The patch subsumes the cedar on me. It's sweetened by the bourbon vanilla, and I get hints of leather and tobacco. Just a little throw, and average wear length, and definitely a fall-winter scent that could be worn by anyone of driving age on up. I like it, but I suspect that in another year, as my tastes evolve and mature and it ages spectacularly, I will adore it.

Testing Seated Couple and Lovers in the Tea House at the same time because of comparisons in the above reviews. Also, they seem to be the only Shungas with the sake note, which is a shame! It's a great note. Skin musk and ambrette seed almost always work well on me, and Seated Couple is no exception. It's less bright and citrusy than Lovers, a note or two lower pitched (although both are on the light and bright as opposed to dark and deep end of things). Seated Couple is a daytime scent that manages to be both fresh and sexy. No throw, so you can wear it anywhere. Longer wear length than Lovers in the Tea House, but still something I need to reapply. I like!

Sake is a beautiful note and I'm sad that it doesn't appear in any of this year's Shungas. Lovers in the Tea House is not foody on me at all; I'm not picking out any sweet red bean paste. Wet I get sake, a citrusy feel that I think must be the matcha (green tea has a citrus vibe on my skin), and sandalwood. As it dries down, the amber comes into play but if it's incense, it's very light in feel. Overall this is light, bright, a beautiful late spring or summer scent. Unfortunately, like so many tea blends, my skin drinks it up rather too quickly. ETA But before it's completely gone, there is a bit deeper phase where I think I'm smelling the yokan. So lovely!

Smoke, smoke, SMOKE was all I got for the first half hour. I kept waiting for any hint of bourbon vanilla or for the vetiver, which was definitely black, to also read as sweet. Nope. After fully dry, it was dry patchouli and smoky vetiver. Good throw and great wear length, of course. If you're into smoky scents like Smokestack or Brimstone, this might be for you.

Ooh, lovely, lovely! I have never tried Snow White but I love almond and vanilla, and this one starts out creamy sweet almond-vanilla goodness. This does not go minty or soapy on me as some snow notes do. It's kind of foodie but I think even non-foodie types would enjoy it as the musk and cotton blossom come out. Clean, sweet, pure, uplifting, optimistic - kind of like a first wedding anniversary! And the snake oil stays in the background at first, but it gradually emerges to cast its sexy aura, suggesting what our newlyweds will be up to after the champagne. I suspect the Snake Oil will become more prominent with aging. A bit of throw and decent wear length, though not the crazy long wear I get with Snake Oil alone.

I agree with VetchVesper -- oudh is fickle! I had to swap away Gaspar of India because that oudh was overwhelming on me, and I will avoid Laotian oudh in the future. But the sweet oudh in Melchior is gorgeous! It shares the stage with the rose otto; the two blend together seamlessly with a little hint of resin from the frankincense. This is not an overbearing frankincense, either. I'm not sure I ever really get the chamomile. I'm sure it's there, I'm just not perceptive enough to pick it out. But the whole is frankly beautiful. Melchior seems like an adult scent -- I don't imagine a teenager being into this. It's self-assured, a little worldly. I do get a bit of throw for the first couple of hours, but after that it is the kind of skin scent that boosts confidence every time you raise your wrist to your nose.

A Spirit, Katie is really lovely. Pale in color, gossamer. Rosewater is the primary note on me, with the cognac not a warm boozy scent but a delicate hint of the contents of a snifter now empty. Bergamot is one of my favorite notes and I have to confess I didn't recognize it here (testing blind), just a gentle touch of citrus. It's not the bergamot note that screams Earl Grey but something much more subtle. Unfortunately, as is the case with so many light, ethereal springtime blends, my skin just drinks this one up. Two hours later there is just the faintest ghost of scent left. Beautiful, and not for me.

This was frimped to me; I would never have chosen it myself. And it's quite delightful. My skin is usually a no-throw zone, but my husband commented, "The car smells like cinnamon rolls." Nope, that was me. Gingerbread is the principle note, but I get hints of chocolate and maybe other candy notes, though I can't say I could pick out red vines or sour gummi worms. It's fun to wear and I felt like it was raising the spirits of the people around me, too. Which of course is why they back cookies or cinnamon buns at houses they are trying to sell. It's making me seek out more gingerbread scents -- cake is usually awful on me, but gingerbread, yum.

I took a tester of Asp Viper - my first snake pit blend - to New York recently and wore it to the Whitney. It just seemed like the right scent -- elegant but not offputting. On me, wet it was mostly mandarin and almond against a background of sexy Snake Oil. Mandarin and almond are two of my favorite scents, but both tend to be fugitive, so they faded down, leaving a softer Snake Oil with a gentle myrrh. And Asp Viper lacks the tremendous staying power Snake Oil has on me; I had to keep reapplying every time I hit the bathroom. If my skin didn't squelch it so quickly, this would definitely be a bottle purchase for me.

I brought a tester of L'Autunno while traveling recently, and my travel companion said, "That one smells like food." (It was wet at the time.) Well, it does and it doesn't. It smells like baked apples and earthy fig and woodsmoke. Toasted almond made an appearance, a favorite smell of mine, and spicy carnation, and dark woods that I couldn't have identified as specifically as hawthorn or patchouli, and sweet myrrh. Rich, earthy, complex, and evocatively autumnal. Super lovely on me. Sigh.

Florals, dragon's blood and ginger? Whatever it is, it's not me. It would be really pretty on the right person, but I don't gravitate towards blends that are primarily floral.

The Apothecary is absolutely gorgeous on me, green and fresh with the ginger and tea combining for an almost citrusy feel... and my skin eats it up in about 20 minutes. So I redouble the application and, yep. Same thing. This often happens to me with tea notes, and it's freaking tragic. So much beauty, obliterated by my stupid skin chemistry.

After being on my wishlist for sometime, Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener was given to me not once but twice in the last week! So I tried it this morning. In the imp.... Aack, opening the imp, it sprayed in my eye! Do not get it (or any BPAL) in your eye! Aack! Wet on skin, this is some strong sassafras, and it's all I can smell at first. It dries down into warm vanilla root beer. I don't smell any butter (warmth?) or incense, and the oak leaf contributes to an herbal vibe. It is a skin scent on me (which is normal for my skin), average wear given how strong it came on at first. SSS is actually really nice; I'm just not sure there are that many occasions when I want to smell like root beer. I can see wearing this to a carnival or arcade. It reads summer-fall to me, maybe because of the carnival associations, but is comforting enough to stand up to winter. I think I'll keep one imp and swap the other.

This shouldn't have been this good on me. White musk is iffy, pear can go fake on my skin. But wrap them together with sweet, creamy rice milk and this is a dream! (of a phallus palanquin...) A light, creamy, springtime scent with surprising staying power. Wet it's pear and rice milk, and the musk comes in on drydown to ground them, but frankly I had forgotten it was white musk. I was thinking something along the lines of golden musk. I wore this to yoga today, thinking (like most Shungas on me) that it would have no throw and was pleasantly surprised that I could smell it wafting around as I moved (I managed to get my wrists near my face more than was actually called for by the instructor ). This is a delight, and it's making me that much more eager for this year's Shungas to arrive!

Saint Foutin de Varailles worried me at first. It was all slightly sour dry red wine and dusty rose. But within a few minutes, the frank emerges and behind it, the beeswax, and the combination is ultimately lovely. This isn't fruity wine or beeswax that's dripping with honey; this scent is not sweet on me at all. It's a dry frank, a dry wine, dry rose petals, beeswax that hasn't seen the hive in many years. It's not, in fact, my usual sort of thing at all, and yet I like it a great deal. It's a grown-up scent, incredibly evocative, a little mysterious. And while I rarely get throw with any oil, I kept getting wafts of warm resiny, winy rose petal. My friend is singing in a concert of modern choral music at St. James Cathedral in a couple of weeks; I think Saint Foutin would be perfect.

I was thrilled to acquire Dwarven Ale purely for the sake of completion: it was the only RPG scent I didn't have an imp of. I had no idea I would end up enjoying it as much as I am. I mean, fermented mushrooms, really? But this is Jack stumbling out of a tavern, roaring drunk, singing dirty lyrics at the top of his lungs. It does go through a weird fermented stage wet on my skin, but wait it out, it improves exponentially. If you like pumpkin, this is a blast. There is cinnamon in this, but I didn't react to it. My skin reactions have been idiosyncratic: I reacted to Inferno, like everyone else, to Baron Samedi, Alice's Evidence, and possibly, tragically, Troll, but can wear Chimera, Sin, and many other cinnamon or cassia blends without trouble. I would recommend wearing this to any autumnal event where you're planning to get joyfully plastered. Or, conversely, to any autumnal event where alcohol, though an impossibility, would be really useful: that board meeting, meeting a new flame's parents, or helping kindergartners into their costumes for the school Halloween party (my kids are teenagers now; clearly I was scarred by this). If you're thinking, really, I have to do this stone cold sober?, Dwarven Ale will help.

In the imp, Fortuna Populi Romani reminded me strongly of Golden Priapus -- vanilla and juniper. GP is one of my favorite GC blends, so this was a good sign. But FPR is actually quite different from GP, more going on, equally lovely. There's the faint smokiness, the leather, the ambrette seed, which is fast becoming a favorite note of mine, and the patchouli. I don't actually smell any saffron, which is fine, it can be problematic on me. The juniper note so prominent ITI fades on drydown, and it all combines into a woody-vanilla comfort scent, perfectly unisex, just lovely on me. My middle-aged skin makes it go away much too fast for my liking. Slather and reapply!! Repeat!! Aging may help with the staying power, too.

This goes through a very awkward stage on my skin before settling into something really worthy. Wet, it's head shop patch and stinky oudh, a bit of vetiver, and pomegranate rind, which is not the bright juicy seeds but something bitter and odd. I was getting very little sweetness despite the last three listed notes. I was ready to write it off as a total fail. Very low throw on me (which is normal for my skin). Half an hour later, the notes have stopped duking it out and decided to cooperate, and it's a thing of beauty. The patch has settled down, and the oudh just adds that edge of maturity, and the booze and tonka and honey are grounding it all with some sweetness, and the pomegranate rind? No idea. But if it's still there, the ugly duckling has become a swan. I'm not sure I need a bottle -- after all, there are many many scents that I love to death from start to finish. But if it opens oddly on you, wait it out before scrubbing it off, because it might just morph into stunning.