bambi

This scent is simultaneously exactly what I expected and not at all what I expected. In the bottle it smells weirdly like a chocolate orange without the chocolate, plus something floral. As soon as this hits my wrist that vanilla gets SWEET. I can make out a hint of the strawberry, and that and the blood orange peel give it a little bit of tartness. This dries down to an orange-creamsicle-but-better scent. I wasn't expecting the vanilla to amp so much, but I'm not displeased. This is a bright, soft, and happy scent for me.

I've never tried Embalming Fluid by itself, but I received this in a swap, and it sounded right up my alley! I'll definitely have to try the pomegranate-less version at some point. This smells in the bottle like a pomegranate and lemon cleaner. When I put it on my skin, it immediately smells like ordering an iced green tea with lemon slices, pom seeds, and aloe chunks in it (you can get aloe, coconut jellies, tapioca, etc. in your tea at bubble tea shops here in Japan, though I'm not sure about elsewhere). I wish it had stayed this way, but the actual outcome was nice, too. It ended up smelling like dryer sheets. Not in a bad way. In a way that made me remember doing laundry in the summer with my mom.

Wow, everyone before me was exactly right. This is pure SKITTLES in the bottle and initially on my skin. It dries down to a fizzy, sugary, fruit scent, and stays that way. If I didn't know better, I'd swear this oil was carbonated.

This is so fun and bright! In the bottle, I smell what I suppose is guava. I've never smelled or eaten one, but it must be guava. This is very sweet, sugary, and tropical smelling. On my skin, the lime comes out a bit, giving a bit of tartness to the sweet. There's a slight bubblegum-y note for a while, but after a while it goes back to the sweet guava. It's strong, but something about it is floaty. I can't wait to wear this in the summer.

Oh, wow! Exactly like peeling an orange. It's fresh and juicy, and there's a hint of bitterness that comes from the pith when you're peeling it. My skin does try to devour this, unfortunately, so it stays very close to the skin and ends up very, very faint, but I love it so much. I'll likely use the rest of my decant in a diffuser/oil burner to keep it around longer.

This is beautiful. In the bottle, I get both sharp and deep berries. That must be the currant and blackberry, respectively. It's very sweet, with just a hint of that nose-tickling pepper. On my skin, the blackberry and currants get juicy, and the honey starts to come out. Later on, the honey deepens, and the the scent becomes so blended that it's difficult to pick out individual notes. I barely get amber at all, which is fine by me, since it makes everything powdery. This is a lovely, bright yet deep, sexy scent. I love it.

In the bottle, this smelled strongly of both a very sweet almond blossom and neroli. On the skin, the blood orange weaves in and out a tiny bit, but this stays extremely sweet and very much an almond blossom scent. It's very pretty, but definitely not a mature scent. It smells slightly of bubblegum, giving me visions of tween fandom energy, exactly as it was meant to evoke. Medium throw on me.

In the bottle, this smells very strongly of dragon's blood, musk, and florals. On my wrist the grapefruit comes out for a brief second, then all but vanishes. I think it's still there, in the background, giving a slight tartness to the scent, but this is all dragon's blood and flowers on me. I can pick out the honeysuckle a bit before the lilac joins in. The dragon's blood softens a bit, and at this point I thought, "wow, what a nice springy floral." And then... "oh, no." This is terribly strong. Like, headache-inducing strong. I'm not sure which floral I'm amping, the lilac or the honeysuckle, but it is overwhelming. I had to wash it off. I wish it had stayed at the pretty-spring-floral middle stage 😰

I figured today was as good a day as any to test this out, what with the domestic terrorists storming DC. This is absolutely a positive, uplifting scent. In the bottle, it starts out as a big wave of citrus, but more pithy, like the peel instead of the fruit. When I put it on, that slight bitterness disappears, and I get a smattering of gentle herbs, citrus, and lavender. As this sits on my skin, the citrus continues to sweeten a bit and fade slightly, leaving me with a very gentle herbal scent, rounded out with soft citrus. For me, this worked as intended. I certainly felt compelled to stop doomscrolling twitter, though whether that's because I really just wanted to continue sniffing my wrist is undetermined 🤣

This is so lovely. I wasn't certain at first about it. In the bottle, I got a burst of powdery amber. It was so powdery, it made me nervous to even try this. At second sniff, though, I got notes of citrus and cedar, which made me brave enough to put this on. The amber immediately fades to a manageable level upon application, and I get a very orangey floral. Clearly orange flower, and maybe tuberose? I've never smelled tuberose before, but there's something floral outside of the orange flower going on here. A sweet, thick note starts to creep in, which must be the honey, but it's not overwhelming. With time, the beeswax starts to show itself, and the cedar seems to always be floating there lightly in the background. Another example of a scent with cedar that just works for me. Citrus and cedar must be my magic combination 🤣

In the bottle, this smells of amber and something SHARP. Probably the lemon peel. After application, the amber disappears, and I can smell lemon and the clary sage. It's not as sharp as it was in the bottle. After several minutes, the amber makes a gentle comeback, leaving me with a soft, glittery, herbal citrus. I agree that it's quite strong, so not something I'd slather on.

In the bottle, this was immediately MUSK to me, with strong tendrils of citrus woven through. Red musk is not my favorite form of musk, but it was worth risking it for the blood orange and tangerine. Upon application, the mimosa blossom hot me like a bunch. Sweet, powdery, with almost a honey note. It mixed with the musk and overpowered the citrus. The resulting scent is a musky, powdery floral. Very feminine, very pretty, and with very orange (like the color) vibes, even for lack of a citrus scent. Very pretty, but not for me.

This ended up not at all what I expected. In the bottle I immediately get pink grapefruit, pepper, and salt. The grapefruit smells so fresh. Sometimes we get grapefruit as a dessert in the lunch provided by my work, and this smells exactly like that. Immediately upon application, I get a sharp burst of citrus before it abruptly vanishes. Something musky and sweet makes its way into the mix, which I think is the ambergris. The consistent note here on me is the pepper. I can't smell it so much as I can feel it. It leaves my nose a little itchy-tingle-y. It's fun. The overall impression I get of this scent is a sweet, powdery distant ocean with the tingle-y pepper.

So herbal and pleasant. The lavender jumps out initially, but the other notes quickly join in, making this smell like what I imagine an herbalist's shop might smell of. The almond joins the herbs a little later, adding a hint of earthy sweetness, which immediately shifts this into old-lady perfume territory for me. Thankfully, that stage doesn't last long, and the orange comes along to balance everything back out again. This ends as a warm, floral/herbal, orange-y scent, which is quite nice.

I have tried my imp out multiple times, and there's still something about this scent that I can't describe. It starts off quite soapy on me, but a nice citrus-y soap. I love yuzu and mikan as citrus scents. The kaki makes an appearance, sweet and fresh. Kaki is one of the best things about autumn in Japan, and you cannot change my mind about this. Suddenly, the soapy note becomes quite masculine. Perhaps the tea is making it behave that way. The cherry blossom gives it a strong floral edge. The combination of all of these things together confuses my nose, I think. It's fruity, soapy, masculine, and sweet. I don't dislike it, but it's something I'm glad I only have an imp of.

This started out as a very strong grape on me. As it dried, it became more generally dark fruity and metallic, which I wasn't sure I'd like, but something made me keep sniffing. The clove made its way in, and this became almost an incense-y wine scent. The leather (and maybe the oak) worked to ground the scent, and pushed this out of feminine and into a more gender-neutral scent for me. It's nice, but not something I'd wear.

This goes on fruity, then quickly becomes a soft floral on me. The plum blossom would be responsible for both the floral and fruity aspects, and then the vanilla sandalwood comes in and makes this so soft and almost creamy. I don't get any nutmeg, but it's very pretty regardless.

Simple and straightforward, this smells exactly as described. Sweet and tart apples with the deeper and tart cranberries, and then just a touch of spice. Fruity and beautiful.

Beautiful and comforting. This oil is very lavender-focused on me, with the other notes lending a helping hand. The patchouli grounds, the sage gives a little herbiness, and the vanilla sweetens. It brings back a vivid memory of eating a lavender macaron with vanilla ganache filling.

This is wonderful. It smells exactly as it's described, though I'd say there's some cinnamon in there? I've found that certain types of cinnamon irritate my skin, while others don't (it amazed me that there are different types of cinnamon to begin with tbh), and, luckily, this one doesn't appear to be the irritating type for me. It did initially give off generic-apple-spiced candle vibes, but the milk note gave it a sort of creaminess that made it something more special.

This is quite pretty. Initially, the sake stood out, with a airy, boozy note. The wood and apricot join in quickly, giving this a fruity and airy, yet strangely grounded, smell. It smells strongly of spring.

I'm beginning to think that perhaps cedar actually works with my skin chemistry 🤣 Cedar is such an overwhelming smell for me, so I'm always scared to try perfume oils with cedar in them, but they always turn out so well that I'm starting to thing I should be seeking it out. Initially, this smells strongly of vanilla and cedar. The sandalwood joins in, and this becomes a soft, vanilla wood scent. It's not at all overpowering, and I like it a lot.

I am not usually a floral person, but my friend let me try a bit of hers, and something about this scent worked fairly well with my skin. It's soft, ethereal, floral, and feminine all the way through. It's probably not something I could see buying for myself, but I'd absolutely wear it if it was given to me.

This perfume oil morphed rapidly on me. In the bottle and upon initial application, it smelled of lemon pine-sol, then quickly lost its astringent edge and started to smell like lemon-drops. The lemon drops stage was fascinating. It was sharp, but sweet. And herbal edge started to creep in, which rapidly changed to an herbal floral. Quickly thereafter it changed to a floral soap scent. Finally, true to its name, it disappeared completely from my skin. I disliked the beginning and end stages of this, but rather liked the lemon-drops and herby lemon scent of the middle stages.

Melon! Initially, that's all I can smell. As a person who loves perfume with fruit notes, this was amazing. It dried down from a screaming melon to a much softer melon with hints of other fruits. Every so often I'd get whiffs of pine and a strong citrus. I never got any of the florals, but perhaps the flowers were what stopped this from screaming FRUIT every chance it got. Love.