Gwydion

In bottle: Mostly pomegranate, very tart. Wet: The tartness is cut by pumpkin sweetness. The effect is pleasing if fruity perfume is your thing. Dry: Gets much sweeter. Smells rather like raspberries. No really.

If this were a dessert with those ingredients, I'd be in love. In bottle: Nothing special. Almost fruity. I can smell the cocoa though. Wet: Sweet. A little chocolatey. Give it a few minutes and the nuts come out, which underlines the chocolate quite nicely. I'm not picking up much pumpkin, but I do smell like a bonbon. Dry: Vaguely pumpkin, woth the other notes tamped down to about the same level..

In bottle: pure mulled cider. I can tell it's not my recipe, but it's nice enough. Very, very apple. Wet: Is that cardamom maybe, in with the clove and cinnamon? Not sure. It is very sweet on me. These are sweet over ripe red apples, not the tart crunchy ones. It's not bad, but I'm not sure this is what I want to smell like. Dry: Okay, this is what I want to smell like. The apple gets crisper and cleaner, the spiciness settles in nicely, blending pleasantly with my natural scent.

In bottle: Sweetly floral with a pleasant light musk. The patchouli blends nicely, giving it a touch of weight. Wet: "Gayer than a tree of monkeys on nitrous oxide," but oddly compelling. It smells of freshly showered and shaved chisl chinned unnecessarily pretty actor/model. This is disturbingly hot in a man wearing nothing but his jockeys kind of way. I can just as easily see it on a majestically dressed handsome thirty something woman in flowing haute couture.... Dry: a touch soapy, but the musk and bergamot lend it sting. It smells a bit like pleasant aftershave on the fade.

In the Bottle: Not good, not good! It's like cheap aftershave. Sharp, soapy, fakey oceany. A hint of green. I'm pleased to smell no mint though, as i was scared there would be some. Wet: Better. It chills out on skin, and does give an impression of coolness. I could almost wear this, since my body chemistry tends to be, well, a little musky on it's own and it brings out some richer tones in it, making it smell less off the shelf and more intriguing, but this really isn't for me. Dry: Oddly familiar. I swear I've smelled this somewhere before. Is that a floral note there? I'm guessing maybe lily, though I can't swear to it. It's much more wearable than I expected, but not me.

This story is a favorite of mine, but the ingredients rather worry me. In the bottle: Jasmine, jasmine, jasmine! Did I mention the jasmine? Wet: and it's jasmine, with a little geranium and the merest hint of juniper. Also jasmine! Dry: This calms down a bit, but really, it's all about the jasmine.

In the bottle: fennel and anise on top. I'm liking it. It's spicey, but not conventional. Wet: Similar, yet more herbal, though it's hard to pick out individual notes. It definitely reminds me of licorice fennel seeds, but not in a bad way. Dry: It's a little odd with my natural scent, but I don't mind, since it's a pleasant enough odd. Do not wear this if liquorice isn't your thing though.

In bottle: I'm guessing amber maybe, vaguely spicey, vaguely floral. This is insanely familiar. Wet: Warm, slightly smokey, I can definitely pick up the hot metal. I think that the floral is carnation. The scent reads pretty androgynous on me. The effect is light and clean and vaguely sexy. Dry: not much throw. Goes a little soapy.

In bottle: Very delicate lemon with night garden. It's surprisingly nice really. Very green, very delicate. Wet, it's much the same only more intense. The rose is barely noticeable; it is the sort of floral, I am most likely to enjoy, smelling less conventional. Dry: All lemon balm, alas. It's like wearing dish cleanser.

Sounds kind of like blood moon, doesn't it? Doesn't really smell like it though. In the bottle: this is light and gentle, the herb and musk mingling beautifully. It's a good start. wet: Much the same as in the bottle. I am betting this is the same musk they use in O, as it's got a similar feel to it. I am not sure what they use to make "clear, warm, evening air," but it's in there. It's pleasant and subtle and uplifting. I'm really liking it. Dry; slightly powdery, but not unpleasantly so. Alas, it's gone fast.

In bottle; Wow! Not what I was expecting at all. Strong and sweet with the musk oddly twisted by the other notes into something that reminds me strongly of both cat piss and some very musky women's cologne popular in the '70's. It's very spicey, in a Christmas cookie way. I'm guessing that's the herbs. Wet: All cookie and no cat piss and cologne. Much less sweet, though the musk is present. It is reminding me a little of snake oil, and I'm liking it better. Dry: The musk slowly pushes back the herbiness. There is still something wild to it, but it gets calmer, more ordinary. Fades super fast. Darn. I wanted to love this one, I really did.

In bottle: Smells like rose dominant flower scented shampoo. Not auspicious. Wet: I'm guessing the orchid is adding a little richness, and you can pick out the other flowers better. This is really a scent for young girls, fresh, light, sweet, with little substance. Dry, it goes all rose soap on me.

In the bottle: Musk! Lots of musk! With something papery underneath. Wet: Starts soft. I am surprised there is no patchouli in this, since it's got a musk/patchouli thing going on. Incense and paper emerge slowly. I think I would have liked this better with wood and leather. I'm rather bummed. I do get the musky remains consistently, with other notes fading in an out. This is a real disappointment. I so wanted to love it. Dry: Very weak, but the incense comes out, blending with the musk. This is a genuine improvement. still, under whelming.

In bottle: Very gentle, light fruits with a floral edge. Very, very sweet. Wet: Smells like a store selling high end women's hair products. It is pleasant enough but brings to mind a bedroom furnished in white lace and pink satin, full of stuffed animals, collection dolls, and a canopy bed. Not me. Dry, fades super fast into a faint fruity/floral.

I am only smelling this in the bottle. It smells like roses trying to cover decay. It is all sickly sweet flowers over vetiver, nothing I'd want on my skin. It fits the concept, but is nasty.

In the bottle: Sweet and foody, rich and decadent. The tonka is smelling very vanilla here and with the poppy and ginger is doing something that says dessert. The pepper gives and edge and the sandlewood and flowers are subsumed. Wet: starts out making me hungry. Matures a little and you get a sweet smokiness and the sandlewood and champaca come out to play. It is reminding me of the delightful Dia de les Muertos, though it has a darker undertone. There is something indefinably sensual under the cleaner brighter notes. Dry: The floral note strengthens, but it's not a classic floral, almost fruity. I seem to lack words for the effect on me, but it's surprisingly pleasant, despite not being what I was expecting. Alas, it fades rather fast.

In the bottle: Omg, eww! They aren't kidding about the musk or the rats. It really does smell like something small and stinky was nesting here. Wet: Less offensive, but something is not right. It is smelling like some men's cologne popular in the '80's, but I'm not sure which one. It is sweet and sharp and vaguely aquatic. Given time, you do get dust and some kind of evergreeny wood. Dry: not bad actually. I little like R'yleh, but I don't think I'm willing to wait through the awkward phase when there is better stuff that smells similar.

Smells exactly like Christmas, as in stuck your nose right in a fresh wreath and sucked it up. Seriously, if you want to smell like an evergreen, this is the way to go.

In the bottle: Smells vaguely alcoholic and herbal. I am suspecting that this is elemi, balsam, and opium interacting. Wet: Rosewood is initially strongest, with the tobacco and opium adding a hint of decadence. I'm not smelling the ginger, but it may have deteriorated. It's well named, really. It smells like the inside of a wooden wagon, who's owner smokes and makes herbal concoctions. It's masculine, cozy, dry, and just a little shady. Dry: I am surprised there is no sandalwood in there. as it where's one begins to detect the fain trace of a woman's presence, as if she stopped in for opium and kisses, but didn't stay long, her smell engulfed in his. The man in the scent smells mature, still in his prime, but getting up there. it is not a young man's scent. It is a man set in his ways, who fills his space and makes it his own. I rather think i like it, though it hasn't the flash of a Valmont, a Dee, or a Crowley.

In the bottle, this is a rich vaguely floral tea blend. Wet, the dragon’s blood and tea leaf vie for dominance, with the other scents enriching the result It does smell very east Asian. One imagines a tea house in a garden on a wet spring day, the rain soft on the roof, incense and tea mingling over tatami mats, wet wood and the faint scent of the cherry blossoms. Dry: This is unfortunate, but three hours later, all that is left of that heady complexity is a weak, powdery floral. Sigh.

I had that trouble too. For the record, I love Dorian and I think Shadwell is one of the most comforting things I've ever smelled. Kumiho and Embalming fluid are pleasant enough, but herbert West is dead sexy.

How is R'lyeh pronounced?

In the bottle, it smells like the Spring party my parents through every year to celebrate their joint birthday, the flowers and perfume of the women, over liqueur and my father's homemade sorbet. The rose/gardenia/heliotrope meets the amber/musk combo to evoke the shades of all those women in their best dresses fussing over me and my little sister. Wet, the musk and the rose are strongest, with the citrus adding something that reminds me of candies. Dry, it's a light floral. Meh.

In the bottle, surprisingly sweet, almost chocolaty with a strong musk scent. Surprisingly womanly and seductive, very femme fatale. On the skin, the vanilla really comes out. I like the way the musk and wood blends with the snake oil scent. It smells delicious, like sweet tea and sex.

In the bottle, this is surprisingly sweet, dragon's blood with a hint of more delicate woodsy elements. Wet, it reminds me a lot of dragon Musk, though it is slightly lighter. I am surprised there is no tea in this, since it reminds me of any number of tea based scents. I admit to acquiring this out of curiosity mostly, but I'm not sorry. I am not a fan of pine in cologne, as it's often to intense for my idiosyncratic sensory system, but it's subtle here, adding an edge to the resin scent, but not overpowering it. As it wears, the more delicate elements make a showing. I rather like the faint hint of decay added by the leaves and moss. The pine sharpens a pit, but stays under control. It manages to give the impression of cold, damp stonework exposed to sky and encroaching forest. Dry, it is more leaves and moss but with that yummy resiny edge. This really does live up to it's concept and will likely become one of my staples. I can't believe there's no musk in this.