pkwench

Puck Ah, poor little Puck. Everyone seemed to dislike him so. And, as I didn't think I'd tried civet, I was naturally a little worried. Maybe I fried my nose smoking pot back in my misspent youth, but I found Puck to be a fun, happy, and delightful little guy. Not something I'd want to wear every day, but it was nice. The first hit from the vial was a strong, knock me-on-my-ass astringent kick. It was like sniffing a strong cleaning fluid in the way that it made me nose almost burn. But after I applied it, it dried down to a dry, sage-y grass smell. I didn't get any grape, but something made it a little sweet. That must have been it. Final verdict, either I can't smell civet or it doesn't smell like cat pee to me.

Velvet: I am in love. Hopeless, unadulterated, passionate, endless, naughty LOVE. Bliss was nice. Gluttony was nice. But I haven't found a chocolate-ish scent that really said "wear me!". Velvet takes the cake and, in my mind, in no small part due to the myrrh and the sandalwood. I LOVE myrrh and sandalwood. They give it a smokey, woody depth that's just godlike since the cocoa is tempered by vanilla. It manages to be smooth and soft as well as been dark, sophisticated, and somewhat mysterious. This is truly an incredibly beautiful scent. I must have a big bottle of it.

Blue Moon ... Mugwort and bay, for psychic sensitivity… Juniper, for divination through dreams… Orchid and galbanum, for complexity, wisdom and noscere… with a potent lunar-charged blend of poppy, calamus, orris, wood aloes, moonflower, cucumber, and pale creeping buttercup. First of all, thank you, Lorajc, for offering this wonderful scent to me. Blue Moon is clear, clean scent-a breath of fresh air, if you will. The juniper, and, I admit it, I love me some juniper, is so perfect, so biting and refreshing. The cucumber is just barely "visible" to me. In fact, I get so many notes at so many moments that, in a weird way, I almost don't smell it here and there. But, it's an instant crowd pleaser too, Blue Moon is. I wasn't 2 minutes on the floor before 3 people hadn't told me that I smelled good and/or asked what lovely thing I was wearing. It's such a perfect, light and fresh scent with a cool floral drydown that I almost didn't expect, but certainly love. Ah, lab, you rule.

Ultraviolet. Woah. I like to wind down with a minty scent on a hard day because it pulls some of the stress out of my skin. And then came Ultraviolet. This is not a calm you down, soothe you scent. This is a chilly, bright, HELLO, WENCH! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE WORLD! scent. It's a mood booster and a sleep fighter. Agreeing with the sentiments that it's so bright and chilly that it almost smells metallic. It's also darn good for the sinuses and, silly or no, it kind of helps me focus and concentrate. UV has been declared Wench Approved!

Aizen-Myoo Beautiful and blissful is perhaps the best way to describe Aizen-Myoo. The combination of citrus and tea is something close to divine. Wearing it feels like donning the softest silk and then looking in the mirror to see that it's a bright, glorious tangerine color. I LOVE this.

It's probably not so original, but I'm wearing Jack. It just seemed like it was his day.

Mata Hari: For a drip of coffee, I get the whole pot! But, this is no bad thing. Wet, Mata Hari is coffee galore. It stays, making me smell very much like a cross between a Victorian bookshop and a coffeehouse until it quiets down just a touch. Then it's a warm, slinky, creamy coffee full of deviousness and intrigue. I don't know that I'd want it every day, but there's certainly a mood that goes with Mata Hari and I find I enjoy it. The imp shall be well loved.

Kali Oh, Kali, bless me with your four arms of YUMMY. First whiff of Kali is a bitter almond. Once applied, there's a heady boozy scent wafting off it. Cocoa, flowers, maybe something minty. There's so many scents wafting and blending here that it's just heady and exotic. And then after 20 minutes it smells on me almost exactly like the cocoa peppermint tart from Yankee. The only difference is that twisty little pickup of floral notes. I don't know if there IS anything remotely minty in here, but it added for a lovely twist. I approve!

Kuang Shi In the vial it was sharp, but pleasant. There was such a bitter, forest twang to it that for a moment, I thought it was juniper. After it was wet for a moment, it morphed into a bright, high powered herbal. If someone had said "this is the scent of healing magic" I'd have nodded and maybe added a "and how!". On the dry down the bright herbs settle and the musk comes out. A citrus, what I now realize must be the mandarin, bursts through, making the entire thing dance between herb, musk, and citrus. Oh, those Chinese Zombies must be happy creatures if this were to be their scent! I deem this a most excellent oil for a sad or unwell feeling day.

Also a fan of amber and plum, I've been eager to try Megaera. My reactions were thusly: "Oh, nice!" "Mmmmm, gosh this is lovely." "MUST PUT ON MORE, MUST SLATHER ALL OVER BODY!" Oh, yes, I love Megaera. It goes through a lovely phase where the grapefruit really pops out and that's when it started to remind me of the vial of Chaos Theory that Pekeana gave me. I really wonder now how much the two of them have in common. Anyway, if Megaera is the smell of Jealousy, we should all be so envious. *pets*

Yummy! More carnation. After falling so badly in love with Carnivale`, I decided that I had to smell more carnation laden scents. Alice was not a disappointment. But, where Carnivale` had a dark, spicey carnation smell-along with berries and amber-Alice is pink. Pink, pink, and more pink, Alice smells like a cooler in a florist's shop. Prom flowers, floral carnation bouquets, you get the idea, and that's what Alice smells like. It's the first one that smells the same in the vial as it does on my skin. It doesn't change at all, just tones down and fades out-though it's got nice enough lasting power. Alice is a curious and delightful winner. She's quite highly wench approved!

Yemaya equals happiness in a bottle. Or, in this case, a wee imp. When I open the imp, I'm just instantly soothed by a wave of melony sweetness. The aquatic notes come up and pull the melon down after a while and it's very much like sitting on a quiet beach just as the sun goes down. The brightness of the melon fades, drops in to the sea, if you will. The memory of the fruit is still there, but the aquatic notes are what holds my attention. It's just one, fruity, sweet bit of bliss. My only bit of sadness is that my skin positively devours it, so much so that after 90 minutes, I cannot smell it any longer. But? It's worth reapplying.

Helping Hand Firstly, big thanks to Pekeana for the impage! When I first put on Helping Hand last night, it was all mint. More of a sharp pennyroyal than just mint, but it was quite nice. Then it went straight to Doublemint on me. You know, Wrigley's green package gum. Well, Americans you know what I mean. So, still that was pleasant. Then out came the voodoo twist. It was dry and earthy. At this point, for reasons wholly inexplicable, I started thinking of it as Anita Blake's chewing gum. Because, yeah, there it was. Here's your little bag of various and sundry voodooesque spices and nasties, over there a chicken is chickening, and, why, here we have Anita's big pack of chewing gum just in case her mouth gets dry later. I know, my brain, I just go with it. So, silly analogy, but it was quite pleasant. And then, this morning, the dry down. It's pure hemp. Not the open ended O of pot, but that dry, dry ropey scent of hemp. Which didn't quite work for me. However, before I pass this one to the swap pile, I'm going to wait and try it again when I don't have hellish girl hormones firing.

Venom: I recently recieved this in swap and loved it from the get go. Despite the name, the first time I wore it was to bed. It does, in case you wondered, produce sweet dreams. Today I drug out the trusty imp again to give it a whirl in the waking world. The first thing that struck me was that something about it reminded me of Dragonfly Blue's version of Nag Champa. What, I didn't know, but that can never be a bad thing. After having it on for a while, I've discovered that my skin positively eats Venom. It's a lovely, dark and biting scent, but I quite literally have to reapply it about every 90 minutes. That's something that puts me in a strange place-on the one hand, hell, I'd like a big bottle so that I can appropriately slather and bathe in this puppy. Ha, take that Venom-eating skin! However, I wonder if that's a reason NOT to buy a big bottle-the fact that I'd have to reapply it so often. I sat here thinking "gee, that'd be kinda wasteful". Then I thought about how much I have and how much I have coming in. I laughed quite a bit and decided, yes, Venom goes on the bottle list.

I always knew that I loved amber. Bruja taught me that I love myrrh and amber and myrrh as a combination too. Queen of Spades just reminds me, deliciously, over and over. It's such a rich fall scent. I've had several people tell me that I smell very festive and autumnal today. As for me, I feel like I'm in a dark, red dream and that when I open my eyes I'll find myself sitting on an open bedroll in front of a bonfire with a hefty glass of mulled blackberry wine in my hands. Ah, it's love all over the place here. Special thanks again to Pekeana who helps me try all of these scents that I've missed out on. (Edited because myrrah is not quite what I meant to type. LOL)

Call me crazy, but something about the drydown of O on my skin is a lot like Love's Baby Soft. Remember that one? Little pink, dildo shaped bottle? So, yeah, O is a lot like that on my skin but some how ... more grown up. LBS is the flirty little virgin teen, O is the sexually active young woman who knows just how to draw a man to her. I LOVE IT. And will be ordering a bottle soon.

I've had Mars on all day and I've been smitten with it from the get go. It was very up front and spicey in the beginning, but then it mellowed down to a red, spice cabinet sort of smell. It comes off as rich and somehow wise or learned, if that makes any sense whatsoever. It's a serious scent, but one that I think garners introspection and quiet enjoyment.

Same here-working. But I'd like to wear one of my holiday LEs if they're here by then. So, either Sugar Skull or All Saints. But, you never know. Somedays you just wake up with a certain scent on the brain, no matter what you planned.

Mabon: Thanks again to Pekeana for letting me sample this one. I love my wee shortie of it. I thought that since I'm wearing it this evening that I should take a moment to comment on it. When I first smelled Mabon, I got a whiff of what I could only identify as sweet marigold. I realize now that must be the hops, cider, and sage at work there. Mabon is a delicious golden afternoon scent. The blackberry scent is gentle and I think the myrrh keeps it all very rich. Smelling it gives me immeasurable joy and gives me the sense of falling back onto a pile of leaves and dried grass settled on rich earth. I love this. If it happens around next year, I'm so buying some.

La Petit Mort I haven't smelled Snake Oil (shush, it's on one of my upcoming orders, I swear), but I have smelled O. There's a certain similarity, though with O I get so overwhelmed with the delish combination of chocolate and skin that I get lost and can't think of anything else. La Petit Mort is similar in that it too has a skin smell. For a good while here, all I smelled was powder and I didn't like it. Then emerged a wafting, golden haze to the whole thing and it just became intensely satisfying-pardon the pun. Though it does still smell powdery, it now smells like powdering, golden scrubbed skin. I likes it. It makes me feel sensual and clean, spent and innocent. Yummy!

Lampades On first scent, all I could smell was fruity sweetness. I didn't have a lot of hope when I put it on that I'd get much more from it. Wrongo and I should learn to curb those doubts until I have proof. The cranberry emerged as a wonderful, tangy and playful. I haven't caught any ginger or spice as of yet, but this is so lovely that it's a keeper and one to get more of. Yum!

Dragon's Bone To date, Dragon's Tears has been my favorite dragon's blood resin scent. This is because in most cases, my body chemistry amplifies the cherry sweetness of it and all I get is sweet. Dragon's Tears, with its salty, aquatic grounding notes, kept it from being super sweet and made it just one lovely scent on me. And then I tried Dragon's Bone and have experienced true love and adoration for Dragon's Blood resin. WOW. It's so dry, so perfectly woody, and so smooth. It actually smells as if brittle wood and bone were ground down to make this. I love it. I'm torn between the desire to keep it for myself (I have so much oil right now it's scary) and sending it to my fiance`. I think of sending him scents often because, well, he's as much of a scentwhore as I am and because I like the thought of him smelling good. And, wow, Dragon's Bone would smell SO good on him. But can I part with it? Hmmm.

Follow Me Boy I apparently don't have problems with civet, if that's in here as some people said. I didn't get any nasty smells or weird chemistry changes from it. Follow Me Boy started out very sweet and pleasant and then dried down to powdery, floral sweetness. It was nice, but not overwhelming on my skin.

Bruja; I suppose it's something of an irony that a day before the announcement that Bruja is slated to be dc'd, I recieve a sample in the mail. The day of the annoucement, I found out that I love it. The day after, I've been wearing it all day. I keep getting catches of the scent from my clothing and my wrists and each whiff produces a sigh of joy. This is so warm, smokey, and possibly the best floral that I've ever put on. The amber and myrrh, in addition to keeping the lilac hot and sexy (instead of old lady), just come out in all of the best ways. The most fun thing for me is that I can easily pick out all of the individual notes-which I can't always do. I just love this scent and I'm very, very glad that I found out when I did. Now I can order a bottle of it before it goes away. ~Wench

The first whiff was a giant bitchslap of anise laced with a heady, undefineable spicey kick. It was so overwhelming when I first dabbed it on that I just didn't know what to do with it. But, then it started to settle and mellow in a way. Once it did, it still retained that spicey and anise laden scent, but one that was gentler and more likely to evoke the images and sensations of something exotic. This isn't a slathering blend, by any means, but a dabber. One to wear, I think, on days when you need a touch of something far and away. And, agreeing with those that mentioned it, it would be purely to die for mixed with vanilla.