Lucchesa

I received this from a very generous forumite in a blind bottle swap. It is all my beloveds — and tuberose. Tuberose and I do not get along. I knew there was a reason I hadn’t sought out a decant. But I couldn’t and still can’t find the tuberose in Night. Nor do I specifically find the cacao. It’s all inky vetiver and tobacco and dark velvet resins, with the florals kind of non-specifically floating around. It does have great throw, which may be the fault of the tuberose — notes I’m uncomfortable with often have huge throw on me. But it smells terrific.

I let my decant rest at least 18 hours before putting Sugar Cookie Snake Oil on today. Applied about 9 am, it's hard to make out at 6 pm, but I've not found any of the snake variants to have the staying power of the GC. It's a nice foodie snake, sugar and baked goods and musky snake oil. I'm not getting the spiciness other reviewers have commented on. This isn't a snickerdoodle snake oil (please, next year?). I enjoyed wearing this on a long car ride with my daughter to an anxiety-provoking medical appointment for her. But I don't wear enough gourmands to need a full bottle.

Auriga opens as lemon amber on me. It's an appealing combination. The oakmoss is the next element I can pick out, and with the amber it gives me something earthy as the lemon fades away. The patchouli and vetiver stay well in the background, though, and this is never as dark as I would like. It's quite soft on me, with low throw and medium wear length. A nice earthy oakmoss blend and good for folks who dislike any sweetness in their scents.

In the bottle, The Avenue smells quite a bit like Dia de los Reyes, one of my favorite chocolate scents. On my skin, though, the cocoa moves to the background, the clove bud takes center stage, and the whole is wonderfully spicy, warm, and delightful. There's a little smoke, a little amber, a lovely vanilla, a peppery quality (I am often anosmic to the Lab's pepper note), and a lot of clove. It's cozy and sexy and uplifting, perfect for this dreary rainy day.

Cognac-Stained Sheet Ghost is my favorite Weenie so far. It's a soft, pillowy, lace-family vanilla cognac against an outdoorsy balsam and tumbleweed combo that is just full of win for me. Kind of like Tombstone without the root beer. Serious comfort scent, cozy, rugged. But ridiculously lovely. The wear length is only average on me, but this is worth reapplying.

I'm astounded by the reviewers who got no red musk and brief wear length. As usual, red musk absolutely takes over on me and lasts all day. Once it settles down, it's dry (not fruity) red musk with lacquer, vetiver that is more green than smoky, and polished mahogany. I'm not sure I'm familiar with black labdanum, but I'm not getting the syrupy cola resin I love. This scent is highly polished, like a woman who always looks completely put together. Very sophisticated and maybe even snooty. She's a little out of my league. I like this, and it might be an excellent power scent, but it's not really me.

Last Tavern is a typical red musk on my skin in that it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for anything but red musk -- smoky red musk in this case, almost bitter at first. It's a dry, not a fruity red musk, with lots of hearthsmoke. I never get much amber, but the whisky does emerge after a couple of hours (this lasts all day). If smoky, atmospheric red musk sounds like your jam, or you want to smell like a tavern in another century or your favorite fantasy novel, this is perfect!

Strawberry! This was frimped to me, so strawberry is not a note I gravitate to, but I've been trying unsuccessfully to find a blackberry that stays realistic on my skin, and this is quite a realistic strawberry. The red musk does not run away with things -- in fact, it's some of the most reticent red musk I've encountered. It's there, but it lets the fruit shine: mainly strawberry, with tartness from the currants. This is fun and young at heart.

I kind of love this. Testing blind, I wasn't able to pick out any of the notes except for amber and some kind of evergreen. It's obvious there's a whole lot more going on, but it's seamless. Looking at the notes, I can say ok, there's the earthy sweetness of the fig, there's the cypress and balsam, but I really can't isolate the tobacco or ambergris or bay leaf. It's soft on my skin, not overtly masculine but unisex. BoneBone's greenish gold -- her whole review, really -- is very close to my experience of this one. I wish it were a bit stronger but that may come with age.

A Skull, A Music Book, A Snuffed Out Candle smells more like spring than like fall. It's a sweet floral anchored by the beeswax, with a gentle sandalwood and no discernible leather on me. Decent throw and it lasts all day on me. I will keep my decant because I love beeswax scents of all kinds, even spring floral ones, and this one is certainly lovely, but I was hoping for leather.

I got lots of dead leaves in the opening, but they were entirely supplanted by one of the sweeter honeys that I have a hard time wearing. Or maybe it was the honey and cream combination -- I agree with artisjok that this is reminiscent of Snake's Kiss (when I tested it, I was thinking WHAT is the scent it's making me think of?, and that was it exactly). Snake's Kiss did not end up working on me, and neither does this DL, as the honey/vanilla/dairy combo veers into cloying territory on my skin, and there are not enough dead leaves to pull it back. On the plus side, it has good throw and wear length.

Lots of spruce. Hardly any dead leaves. Maybe just a little grassiness from the ti leaf. Did I say lots of spruce? It's a lovely spruce scent, but it was curiously short-lived on my skin, and I was hoping for a better balance with the dead leaves.

I wonder if The Initiator is getting stronger with age. I did slather, having read the reviews, but I was rewarded with quite nice throw and decent wear length. It's a beautiful churchy resin scent, mostly frankincense, with some sweet gum, which does not smell like bubble gum on me; the cinnamon barely registers on my skin. Lovely for meditation or anytime you want to harness that whole western spiritual tradition thing.

Big Red chewing gum! Eventually the clove struck more of a balance. It's like the potpourri my mother used to buy at Christmas. Or, knowing her, immediately after Christmas, on sale, to use the following year. What Santa's workshop might smell like. I don't have particularly sensitive skin but can't, for instance, wear Inferno because it gives me a skin reaction, and I had no problems with Cinnamon & Clove. It wears close to the skin (normal for me) but lasts a few hours.

Something in Great Basin Woodnymph goes badly awry on me. Instead of grass and hay and dry cacao, I get urinal cake. Hints of the other notes, but mainly that sickly public toilet smell. I wasn't in a position to scrub it off, and eventually it mellowed to something more bearable, Tonka has never done this to me before -- some kind of weird combination effect? I'll be passing this decant on to someone whose skin chemistry will let them wear it more gracefully.

Lights, Camera, Something is lovely on me -- a lemony lavender with lots of cardamom and soft vanilla, which is not as foodie as it sounds like, even though, as usual, the lavender is fugitive on my skin. It's comforting and uplifting and lasts a good long time.

It's All So Damn Beautiful didn't quite work on me. It's overbalanced towards the oakmoss and petroleum on my skin. The lavender is just a whisper on me, which is not uncommon with lavender for me, but I was hoping for more opoponax and amber, which also barely registered. It is lovely and unusual in the imp, so like doomsday_disco above I may have to try it in my scent locket.

I love this! Sweet chocolate and lots and lots of beeswax. Good throw and great wear length, both of which are unusual for my middle aged skin.

I tested The Crossed Keys blind, and it started out really green. I was sure it would have ivy or dandelion or grass or some such note -- I totally see where Irish Sea Mermaid got cucumber. Is that gum acacia? This smells nothing like, say, Penitence (frank & myrrh) on me. This is a blend where the parts are subsumed into the whole and can't be pried apart. And the whole is kind of quiet and still and cool. I'm super glad I got to try it (thanks, @Teamama!) but it's not something I see myself wearing often.

This was passed on to me by a generous forum friend, so it's not my usual thing. I got a lot of orange blossom and sweet rose bound by a creamy vanilla. The sandalwood was missing on me, nor could I pick out the labdanum or prune, and if I could have picked out the notes I would have wanted at the forefront, those would have been the ones. But if floaty orange blossom-rose-vanilla sounds like your thing, soft and creamy and innocent, that's what I got, with relatively good throw and great wear length.

I was gifted this in the recent blind bottle swap. It is so beautiful. I know it was created for surviving constant stress of the Trump presidency, but we are still slogging through its aftermath, and there is much in my life I have to endure with patience and toughness, neither of which comes naturally to me. As a bonus, unlike many TALs, Perfer et Obdura comprises notes that are ones I enjoy wearing as perfume. That's how I applied this today, no ritual, and I'm finding it a grounding sage and vetiver scent. It's as stable as an oak tree with a soft carpet of leaves at its base. Sage to me smells like righteousness, in the most positive sense of the word, so Perfer is upright and strong and earthy, and it's helping me just keep putting one foot in front of the other, which is what I need to do today. Thank you, @aphrodisms!!!

Marshmallow Snow is all about the evergreen snow note to me. A little sharp at first, a little minty, a lot of cool pine. Very outdoorsy and wintery, very nice. Then, as the pine note always sweetens on me after an hour or so, the whole thing softens, but I never really get a lot of marshmallow. But if you're looking for a that particular snow note with a backdrop of sweetness, this might be perfect.

I got to try this thanks to the lovely Teamama, and I'm so glad I did. It starts out with a lot of citrusy white tea -- the vibe is light lemony tea that you take with a dash of rice milk and coconut milk. After about an hour, though, the tea's dominance faded in favor of creamy rice milk and some nice husky non-sunscreen coconut. Simple but sophisticated and comforting. Although this is a delicate scent, it lasted pretty well on me.

I would NEVER have tried this except that a decant was passed on to me by a super generous forumite. It confirms that I cannot wear champaca, pink or otherwise. Not even the jasmine troubled me here, just the champaca. Oh well, I tried.

The Triple Crown didn't start off particularly promising on me. It was almost harsh stone and crushed greenery. I didn't get any of the gourmand notes or soft brown musk. But the drydown is gorgeous. The storax (liquidambar) comes through, and a little of the patch and frank and sandalwood, and ultimately after a few hours the whole thing is hijacked by a grassy vetiver that I love. It's perfect for the triple crown idea -- stone, greenery, resins. Memorable and unusual -- I can't think of anything else quite like this one