Assimbya

This feels very pink and clean and bright. As other reviewers have described, I get mostly pear and sweet pea, a little musk and other florals. There's something very young and girl about it, in a way that doesn't feel romantic or sexual - I'm thinking more of Emily in Our Town than Juliet herself, to be honest. I would have preferred to have the lily and honeysuckle (two of my favorite notes!) show up more strongly, though I do get some more of them on dry down. It's a pretty scent, but I think ultimately it feels too youthful and fruity to be quite right for me.

I was given a decant of this by the wonderful paperflowers in her Yule decant circle! I'd never used hair gloss before and so was curious to try, though nervous about the cotton candy note. But I shouldn't have been worried - this is a sweetened, bouncy dragon's blood, It has great longevity and throw in my (very long) hair, and while the scent isn't quite me it's fun and pleasant to use. Taking this as an indication to continue exploring hair gloss!

I got a decant of this because I bake a lot and got drawn into the fantasy of a baking fragrance! Unfortunately, I think I wanted it to be something it was not, which was really quite unfair of me. I think I saw the fabric note and unconsciously imagined a sweetened, lavender White Rabbit - but of course they actually have no notes in common! On me, it was much more gourmand than I imagined. It makes me think of a lavender sugar cookie dough - definitely not baked yet, and the lavender maintains its herbal sharpness, but this is something that's going in the oven. I definitely do get a distinctive clean laundry scent, but there's quite a bit of dough stuck to the apron. It's an extraordinarily friendly scent, and very well done - I think a lot of people will love this! But it's not for me.

It's intimidating to be the first review on a fragrance without many listed notes! I don't trust my ability to pick out and identify notes yet, but I'll try and eagerly await other reviews. I found this to be an elegant, grown-up floral - a single red rose and a single white lily encased in translucent resin; definitely a substantial amount of amber and possibly other resins too. I also get something dry and woody and pale. The flowers are the brightest in this when it's wet; they get significantly dimmer as it dries, as if I'm seeing them through the resin, and the resin/wood notes become more prominent. After a couple hours of wear they take on a bit of a sour edge, but not unpleasantly so. There's something understated and melancholy about this scent, appropriate to the poem which is its inspiration. I like it, but something about it doesn't totally capture me. Maybe if the floral notes stayed brighter for longer, or if something in it softened the wood and amber. I am glad to have a decant and I expect I will use it, but I don't think I need a bottle.

2024 version I found this stunningly beautiful, the truest lilac perfume I have smelled. Somehow the other notes lend it depth and complexity without actually taking away from how purely lilac it feels. The sharpness of the white tea, most apparent when wet, gives it this living greenness, while the beeswax, which comes out more on dry down, gives it a kind of creamy smoothness. It's white and purple and bright. It makes me think of this tiny, extremely expensive bottle of pure lavender essential oil I smelled last year at an essential oil store; the proprietor said it was made with enfleurage and was their last one of the season. The way he described the process made it sound so precious and special. I feel the same way about this perfume, which is like an April afternoon in the botanical garden right here for me in the depth of winter. This made me giddily happy the whole time I was wearing it last night; I love it and will definitely want a bottle.

This scent feels very distinctively Victorian to me - there's something formal, dry, and contained, which absolutely fits the odd propriety of inviting a ghost for a cup of tea. On me it's predominantly a jasmine earl grey tea, light on the bergamot, with some subtle wood from the cypress and a hint of amber like a dusty sunbeam. Both the jasmine and the tea are quite sharp notes, with the jasmine feeling almost more herbal than floral. I cannot discern the orris, though it's a note I'm not all that familiar with. This is pleasant and elegant, but the dry sharpness of it doesn't quite win my heart. I tend to amplify sharp/astringent notes, so possibly it would be a mellower scent on someone with different skin chemistry. As it is, I am glad to have my decant and expect I will use it, but it's my favorite jasmine and I won't need a bottle of it.

Precisely, realistically its description! This is a yeasty, warm, butter-enriched bread with a milky base into which herbal lavender and golden saffron have been steeped. In the moments after application the lavender is quite intense, but it calms down quickly and becomes a gentle undertone for the bread. I can distinctly pick out the saffron note, which is lovely. A couple hours into wear there's a lingering butter note which I found faintly unpleasant without the grounding of the bread around this. I got a decant of this because I wanted to have an experience of an actual pure gourmand, and I'm glad I tried it, but it's very much not for me. It left me very strongly wanting to bake lussekatter! But I don't want to smell like one, and for me I am learning that there's something disappointing about smelling it something I'd prefer to be baking. But if you do like wearing gourmands, this is an impressively accurate sweet yeasted bread scent.

(Note: testing from an aged imp) I love many of the notes in Misericordia, but unfortunately it's incredibly faint on me to the point that I have trouble quite making out all the notes. What I can tell is that wet on my skin it's largely lavender and a resiny note that might be the amber or labdanum, so with some hints of rose. As it dries, the resin becomes the most prominent note, sharp and distinct labdanum, with a lot of blackcurrant and some of the rose and lavender. I really can't make out the magnolia, which I was excited about! What I get is pretty and elegant, but whatever about the perfume is is causing my skin to absorb it and give so little scent back means that I can't do much with this. Fortunately the resin and/or blackcurrant-heavy Carmillas do a lot of what this one does for me, but the faintness (at least of the aged imp) is a disappointment.

I was excited about this one, but unfortunately my skin chemistry had other plans. One me, this is purely a sharp, perfumey amber, with an indistinct herbal quality which I could maybe squint and call myrtle. I often love amber, but its astringency here is unpleasant in a way that reminds me of commercial perfumes. I get none of the apple blossom or carnation, both of which I was excited for. Of course, when my partner tried this one the non-amber notes came out beautifully and it was the perfectly balanced scent which I hoped this would be on me. Alas! I am trying to remind myself of all the perfumes that work well on my skin and not feel too envious.

Ooh, thank you so much for these suggestions! I would have avoided Like a Girl because of the sandalwood, so hearing the way it works on you is very intriguing. I'll keep an eye out! And would love to hear how Woman Putting on Her Stocking works for you - it was one that intrigued me, but not enough to go for it. I haven't gotten into the RPG scents yet mostly because of an aversion of layering, but I'll consider....

Resurrecting this thread seeking some more skin musk recommendations! I tried a decant of Brides of Dracula yesterday and the skin musk + honey + floral combination worked like a dream on my skin and was truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever smelled. I would love some more recommendations of scents which use skin musk in a related way while I continue to long after more Brides. The only other scent I have tried with skin musk as a listed note is Vasilissa, which I like and want to retest soon, but the sandalwood rather takes over on me. White musk also tends to work very well on me, but I have and love more scents with it already (Katharina!), and it doesn't quite give the warm, sensuous melting ambrosia of the skin musk.

Nearly 20 years on, I don't quite get as dramatic a contrast between the wet and drydown stages of this scent, but I still get some, and either way it's gorgeous. On me, it's a dark floral, musky and sharp, with fruitiness from the blackcurrant and dragon's blood. The myrrh and sandalwood are sharp and dry, but somehow the sandalwood doesn't take over and become dusty on me as it often does. Its depth and complexity is a great representation of Mina - this makes me think of her post-novel, holding her dark and complex history alongside a confidence in what she's been able to overcome. This could equally well fit an alternate ending transformed vampire Mina. I feel very fortunate to have this, but also relieved that Mircalla from the current Carmilla collection has a similar rose-blackcurrant-musk combination, even if it doesn't quite have Mina's depth and complexity.

To me, this seems to be the same rose note from Fleurs du Mal - soft, perfumey, and slightly dry. The Victorian spices are subtle at first, but lend a classic perfume sensibility, and on drydown the rose recedes a little and the spices take over. Though the rose reads to me as dry, I can see the sensibility that other reviewers are describing as watery, and in fact, smelling this without being told what it was, my partner thought it was an aquatic. This definitely reads to me as pre-vampire transformation Lucy; I don't get darkness from this. It reminds me a bouquet of dried roses resting on Lucy's vanity. This doesn't last very long on me at all; less than two hours later it's basically gone. It's lovely and I'll definitely use my imp, but I don't think this is among the roses truly winning my heart.

This is a beautiful, but somehow also unsettling scent. Unlike other reviews, I do get the blackcurrant, the same on as in Mircalla, but with the honey and the sharp floral ylang ylang and the intense clove, there's something that feels almost bodily about it, in a way that's very difficult to describe. It's not directly a blood scent (though the clove certainly brings us close), but adjacent to it. This feels very sexual to me, in a spicy floral way. I like it a lot, but only feel comfortable wearing it in particular settings.

This is a beautiful, gentle floral. As others have pointed out in their reviews above, the notes are impressively balanced - I distinctly get rose, lilac and wisteria throughout wear, though the balance of the three shifts over time. It starts with rose for me, then wisteria takes over, then I get a more even balance of lilac and rose. The first time I wore this I liked it but wasn't particularly impressive - I think I wanted a more intense rose. Subsequently it's really grown on me, particularly as I've come to appreciate the wisteria note more. There's something smooth and quietly elegant about this scent without being fancy; it makes me feel like a nineteenth century woman in her dressing room in a chemise and petticoats, not yet fully dressed to go out. I'm not sure yet whether I'll get a full-sized bottle of this, but I'm considering.