Lin Swanson
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Everything posted by Lin Swanson
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Pink Moon: Wild Strawberries and Patchouli
Lin Swanson replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
The patchouli in this is pretty dirty on me, and I love it. Dirty, like picking the strawberries right out of the ground, not dirty like unwashed hippie. The strawberry is sweet but not like lip smackers - it just brightens the patch up. Definitely not for the patchouli -hesitant, but it's going to be a favorite for me! -
Purslane, Dandelions, and Petrichor
Lin Swanson replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
My yard contains more "weeds" than grass, on purpose, and this smells exactly like stepping out on the lawn on a rainy day. Wet greenery, very evocative - I look forward to trying this in the winter when I am dying for a little green outside. -
A light, sweet, candy strawberry. It opens bright, but without detectable eucalyptus, and softens to a strawberry vanilla musk kind of situation. It's like a slightly more polite, grownup version of that strawberry shampoo I used as a kid.
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Wet, wet flowers. Mossy, rainy, damp - I had to read the notes and other reviews to realize that the reason this doesn't smell woody to me is because all my forest experience is northern CA - redwood, pine, Monterey Cypress - and this is decidedly a deciduous forest. Or more, an enchanted wildflower garden in the middle of a deciduous forest. I was expecting Arkham to be a creepier town, honestly. If I had to place this smell in a fictional world it would be Alice in Wonderland - right at the edge of the Red Queen's garden, where it's less formal than the painted roses but before the creepy forest begins.
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I have worn this four times now. I kept putting off a review because every time I have gotten something different! This is a confusingly delightful scent. First test: woah, I didn't think I ordered an all-rose scent this time? (Consults notes) Second test: bay leaves? Did I mix up which perfume I put on? Third test: rose incense! Fourth test: ooh, it's sharp, like pine or cedar? Reader: I give up. The wet stage is anybody's guess. As it dries down, I get a more of the red musk and honey. It's spicy and interesting, in a mysterious way. The scene of this smell: you have entered the private parlour of a person with questionable motives, who later in the book will turn out to be the villain. They bid you to make yourself comfortable amongst the plush draperies, they'll take good care of you here. You attempt to apply your attention to the papers on the desk, but you keep getting distracted by a bird cry, a slither of leaves, a reflection off what turns out to be startlingly erotic art. The air in the room feels increasingly heavy, almost narcotic, as if the incense burner in the corner is drugged - wait -
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Honestly, I probably would have bought this just for the hippo on the label, but happily it also sounded good! Wet, this is all violets. Sweet and nostalgic, and reminds me of a bath oil I had in Paris (that sounds fancy but it was a study abroad situation and is mostly memorable because the lid wasn't on tight enough for the flight home and I ended up with everything in my carry-on violet scented and oily. But I digress) After just a few minutes on the skin the fruit comes out, and I would be hard put to name exactly what fruit but it's definitely purple and a bit tart, and balances the sweet flowers well. Half a hour later, the fruit is gone and the violets are mostly a memory (did I wash this scarf after the Oil Incident? Surely I did) leaving a low, round, dark, slightly bitter musk. It stays pretty close to the skin, and if I reapply I get the sweet flowers and the tart fruit and the bitter musk all at the same time, which is lovely. I think this will age well.
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Figs, honey, saffron, check check check. Wait, it's amber and not honey? Okay then. If honey does the indolic thing on you and you don't like it, this might be a good one to try. The saffron isn't as bitter as I was expecting, it just darkens the mix up enough to keep it out of fig jam territory. It's really lovely, and I predict people are going to react to me with "you always smell so delicious" rather than "what perfume are you wearing?"
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As if absinthe, in all its anise-minty-bitter-wormwood glory, was cooked down into those little hard Christmas candies and rolled in sugar, to add to your grandma's dish of striped ribbon and those raspberries with liquid in the middle. If there's any champagne in this, it has already been made into a fancy cocktail with absinthe drizzled over a sugar cube. This is a very suggestive perfume, in that when I wear it it almost always leads to a drink containing actual absinthe, so buyer beware.
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Black Cherry, Oakmoss, Red Amber, and Wild Tobacco
Lin Swanson replied to Seajewel's topic in Lupercalia
A big snuggly bear of a cherry scent. This is not cherry pipe tobacco, but a cozy oakmoss/tobacco situation that just happens to be in the same bottle with a dark, dark cherry. This is Winnie the Pooh drinking cherry juice at Kanga's house on a rather blustery day. It's a fuzzy blanket of tobacco that you are holding around your shoulders with cherry-purpled fingers. The initial cherry burst, alas, doesn't last long, but the part you want to bury your face in lasts longer and somehow retains just a hint of fruit. -
So, right off the bat I spilled some of this on the counter and soaked it up with a stray washcloth, which per standard procedure went into a knitting bag. So my review is mostly based on how my yarn smells. I agree with the above reviews, this is a fizzy tangy raspberry tipsy elf passed out in my half-finished shawl. Whatever he's been drinking, I'm here for it, it smells delicious. For what it's worth, as yarn perfumes go, I have been enjoying this one. Sometimes when I do this the project ends up being so heavy with scent that it slows down my progress (I'm looking at you, Tattooed Woman Embraces The God Of Thunder), but this play isn't a tour-de-force, it's a farce, where I think someone must have spread jam on my wool but there's a little spicy carnation and tobacco that pops up with a little song and dance to retrieve it from Dessert Land.
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Cranberry, Honeyed Sandalwood, and Patchouli Root
Lin Swanson replied to Silvertree's topic in Yules
This was the surprise standout of this year's Yules, for me. I mean, not surprising in that I love all these notes, but in that it's the one I keep reaching for because the sum of the parts is greater than the (something something math-adjacent metaphor). The cranberry is shouty up front, but somehow magically this is not a foodie scent. It's sexy, because sandalwood/patch/honey can't help it. It's Rizzo, from Grease - sexy and tart but sweet on the inside. Wear this when you want to flaunt your opinions all over the place while simultaneously attracting more flies with honey than with cranberries. -
This is so fruity and sweet and happy! Mostly pineapple at first, with the other fruits as backup singers. I sadly don't get much lemon blossom, but I like it anywas. It lasts a little longer than most citrus does on me, and then fades to a very close to the skin hint of sandalwood. A great spring/early summer scent, and one I would wear in situations where maybe Big Scents would be a problem. I gotta admit the first time I wore this, my first thought was that it reminds me of walking into the blessed air conditioning of the Tiki Room with your icy Dole Whip, prepared to have That Song stuck in your head in exchange for getting out of the sun for 15 minutes. Those of you who went to Disneyland in August, back in the day, will feel me here.
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Red musk here is the tall, handsome seductor hand-feeding you bits of juicy fruit in a swoony scented garden at midnight. He promised you the pleasures of the flesh and they are: warm nectar dripping down your chin, an impossibly soft gardenia brushing against the back of your neck, the distant buzz of contented sleepy bees, a hint of intoxicating incense clinging to your lover's velvet jacket. You may not remember how you get home, but when you wake up the smell will drift up from your hair to assure you it wasn't a dream.
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My first wearing of this was so confusing and surprising I had to wait to review until I could repeat it a time or two. I get aggressive gunpowder and mint, with backup herbs. It's so shouty! And yet, I kind of like it, it's a smell that says "back the F up, I'm dangerous" It takes a while to settle down into the skin, but first comes more warmth - the tobacco and leather, maybe? - and then more herbs, and now finally I am smelling the whole kitchen. Leather apron, cauldron of potion stewing over an explosive fire, somebody brought a gust of cigar smoke in with - dammit, Gytha, you're smoking your pipe back there, aren't you! The morning after I wear this, I get strangely intriguing hints of smoky herbs. Something interesting happened at this abandoned campsite, for sure. Long lasting on me. This is a scent for days where it's my way or the highway. You may like my way by the end, but I'm not making any promises, nor will I wait around for you to decide.
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Does what it says on the tin. Wet, it's a bright juicy tart pomegranate, and dries down fairly quickly into a suspiciously fruity oud. I don't tend to get toilet oud, and I'm not getting it here, but it's not a sweet woody oud for sure, so caveat emptor. I'm sitting here huffing my wrist and "suspiciously fruity oud" is still the best I can do with it. This is a strong "F You And The Horse You Rode In On" mood. I like both these notes and anyone who doesn't can just move out of sniffing range.
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Pomegranate, Freesia, White Tea, and White Amber
Lin Swanson replied to Seajewel's topic in Halloweenie
This might be my first first? This just arrived today so I fully expect it to settle down and shift a bit over time. That said, I was expecting/hoping this would be the All Freesia, All The Time Show Featuring Guest Artist Pomegranate. It's not quite that. The freesia blends seamlessly into the amber, interestingly. So I got wet pomegranate tea, followed by sweet and sour amber (which was a little weird, but short-lived), followed by sweettart-floralamber, if sweet tarts tasted like pomegranate and the amber had sweet spring bulbs planted in it. I think I like it. I don't think a casual passerby would be able to name any of the notes - it's well blended and not everyone had freesias in the kitchen window box growing up. Easy to wear, with a tendency to keep going back to huff my wrist. -
August is my birthday month and I have been waiting for years for there to be an August Lunacy that really appealed to me, so I am super glad to have caught this one. This is the least edible cherry scent imaginable. Wet, it is a fresh juicy cherry soaking in an inkwell. I wasn't quite expecting so much ink from "inky black musk". Note: just re-read the description and that's not what it says, but that's what I get. As it dries I get great smoky wafts of cherry musk, and long after the cherry wears off there is a bittersweet tobacco-amber thing going on that is just. amazing. I would say delicious except it is the smell of something you do not want to put in your mouth. This is a cherry being used in a spell of questionable morality. I looooooove it.
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This is a lightly floral, sweet, slightly citrussy peach - a sweet and innocent peach rather than the Sex Peach I usually end up with. Nice for a hot summer's day, without swimming in a sticky fruit soup.
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I love this one. Every time I put it on it make me go, "woah!" And go in for a second sniff. The flowers are peppery and spicy and sweet, and the stems and leaves and moss and grass are right there making it smell like a living, growing garden rather than a bouquet. I smell something different every time I catch a whiff of my wrist. Lovely.
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This gives me a very "expensive sunscreen" vibe. Like, the kind worn by an impossibly glamorous woman dressed all in white, lounging on the deck of a yacht, sipping something with a lemon slice. Very beachy. I am enjoying it in the heat.
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In the bottle, this is very boozey. So much so, I went and made myself a nice old-fashioned with a cherry, by way of comparison. For science! Thus prepared, I applied. On the skin, the alcohol part burns off almost immediately, leaving just the spicy cherry. I smell like a naughty lollipop - cherry with an outer coat of red hots, in a shape you shouldn't suck in front of your mother. PS, the cinnamon in this does not make my skin burn. Ymmv, of course, but I do tend to be sensitive so this seems worth noting.
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I'm real glad I don't have to spell this correctly, but Ms B here is a sleeper MILF. At first glance she's all cozy cuddly, evergreens and amber and fig (I agree with the previous reviewers who got redwood, cedar, or pine on first sniff), but the more you hang around suddenly she's all spicy clove and saffron and naughty oud. This is your next door neighbor who bakes fresh cookies for the kids after school and works the Grindhouse at night and sees no contradiction between those things. I will wear this often.
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I received a frottle of the 2010 version and was immediately intrigued. Normally rum notes are a pass for me, but in the bottle this was very witch's brew crossed with baking, somehow. Spicy herbal musk? I think the baking part must be the galangal, that's ginger-y, right? On the skin: this is enchanted rum balls. Like, you think the danger is going to be they are extra boozey but after you eat them it turns out they were actually also poisoned and you have turned into a llama. I....kind of love this. Once again, the lab has provided me with a scent I didn't know I needed 💜
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Wet: bright, juicy, sharp citrus fruit Dry: still citrus-fruit-y but also now I get the orange blossom. I make kumquat bitters, that are fruity but also quite floral, and this not only reminds me a little of that but makes me think I need to try some pepper in my next batch. It's a very nice combination.
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Wet, this is tart FRUIT! I can't even tell what kind (I didn't check the notes first), but it is tart and juicy and bright and delicious. Within maybe half an hour, all the tartness disappears and I have sweet, heavy fig and smooth patchouli. I do love both fig and patchouli, so I'm not mad about this - but I wish the tart stage lasted longer. The dry stage hangs around for a long time, close to the skin - it's the kind of wild party where the after-party lasts longer than the party itself.