Andromedii

MCLXI (1161): In Bottle: Sweet, candylike, like sugared berries. Wet on Skin: Still sweet, but more tempered, but with the addition of a cotton candy-like scent. And a sweet candied floral edge. It's fading a bit. Drying on Skin: Emerging into a more "masculine" fragrance with a hint of light woods and a watery, light sugary aroma nestled in the background. Dried on Skin: A sweet, floral feminine scent, lightly sugary but with a definite deeper masculine edge. Quite interesting actually, and it works, despite its "gender" contrast. Like a cool meld of a popular men's fragrance and a sugar-dipped sweet flower.

Okay, review of Knave of Hearts Wet: Smooth, lightly scented, faintly creamy rose. With a bit of blackcurrant and hint of bakery crust hiding in the closet. Veddy interesting. Makes me think of an old-fashioned, Victorian posset of rose petals steeped in blackcurrant water. It's the kind of fragrance a lovely, demure Victorian lady might wear. Drydown: More balanced rose and blackcurrant, which has come out of the closet. Even better than the wet stage. Very much a must for both rose and foody lovers. Divine.

Ahhhh, a Harvest Moon I can truly sink my teeth into! Wet: Delicious golden apples! On skin (5 min): Apples roasted over a hickory-wood flame, accented by the wheat and cane sugar. No fruit as of yet, as fruit tends to amplify on my skin. Smells like a bonfire picnic. On skin (10 min on): The cane sugar seems to be amplifying even more, turning it into a hickory-smoked, sugar-coated apple scent, which, in and of itself, should be really odd, but is actually quite unequivocably fun. The calmer, more creamy aspects, wheat, rice flower, and rice milk are making themselves quite known, surrounding the apple and burying it in their midst. Verdict: This is the Harvest Moon I've been waiting for. Woodsy, sweet, yet creamy and undeniably delicious.

Yep. Lick It's definitely the one for me in warm weather. I also love Embalming Fluid (sparkling lemonade), Dorian (citrus tea), Yemaya (melons) and Empyreal Mist (light, green apples) for happy, light, summery blends.

Underbed...now THIS is one I'm having a hard time trying to come up with a sensical description for... The fruity/cinnamony cassia is wicked strong, with cakey undertones. Cocoa is playing a side note, but there's no coconut really, unless it's hiding until later on. It reminds me of a really strong cassia cake with a sprinkling of cocoa. Odd, to say the least. Certainly unique. Overall, I wish the cassia note wasn't so overpowering, and let the other scents into more play. It's not my favorite of the three (Closet has that distinction ), but I think I'll age my two bottles and see how they develop over time.

In the bottle: a swirly bouquet of soft, yet heady pink flowers, almost candy-sweet, nearly identical twin to the scent of roses wet on my skin: still quite sweet, a wee bit powdery, soft and still quite rosey, with a ghost of wet greenery dry on my skin: hasn't changed scent much from the wet stage, just mellowed a wee bit, less pink sweetness, more of a single note than I'd like in a floral blend. All in all, as a floral, from a non-floral person, it's a very pretty, girly scent and would be magical to wear on a soft, cool night. For me, the search continues for my perfect floral.

I had high hopes for this blend, as it sounded like a nice non-sweet alternative to my beloved Dorian. It turns out that Holiday Moon, at least on me, is an ozonic lemongrassy scent with ozonic notes. That's probably the green tea shouting up my nose. It's now a mellow bamboo, the lemongrass faded into the background, playing a supporting role instead of a major role, which had me worried for a bit. I'll probably keep the one bottle I have for spring/summertime to blend with.

Pink Phoenix sounded so delish in the description and I was so hopeful in experiencing it. In the bottle, it smells very reminiscent of ACJM in the super-sweet pinky-red, strawberry bubblegum arena. On my skin, it morphed a bit better, down to strawberry bubblegum with a sweetpea overtone. Which immediately brought to mind exactly what I hoped this blend would NOT smell like: a little girl's powdery-sweet lip gloss fragrance. And it remained so. I'm not disappointed, but I had higher hopes. I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5.

Ah, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!! On first sniff, Thaleia's pulpy blood orange pops out, followed immediately by the juicy apricot, with lightly spicy ylang and mellow honey sitting pretty and both lovely by themselves, but singing in such harmony with the orange and apricot. On my skin, the apricot and blood orange are front and centre still, swimming around each other, like a lightly pulpy fruit smoothie. The ylang and honey are a tad more prominent, but still very harmonious. Out of a 5, I'd give this a 5, for prettiness, strength, throw and overall fragrance. I MUST get another bottle!

Icing sugary sweet vanilla with just a hint of peppermint. It is perfect as a vanilla, but I was hoping the mint would stick around a wee bit. Kind of reminds me of vanilla toothpaste. I think Ms. Snowblind needs to have a blind date with Mr. Lick It. I think they'd have a rousingly freshening ménage a deux.

Woooooooooo!!! In bottle: Light tea-time fruits, a bit of herbalness. Application: Peach/lemon tea with a dollop of whipped sugar! Dry: Straight peach/lemon tea...the vanilla sugary-ness has dissipated to being far in the background. I WANT MORE!! This is serious Midway-level

Harvest Moon is: --> cedar woodsy --> apple-cider-ish --> much better than last year's version --> now going all woodsy on me --> not fond of that --> wait...apple cider is fighting for its life --> gah - cedar is winning, with apple cider fading into the diiiiiiiiiiiiistance --> cedar won...all I smell is wood --> noooooooooooooooooooooo *sniff* Why does the apple cider in Samhain smell so lovely on me, and in this one it's just gone? All I'm left with is cedar woods with a wee hint of apple wayyyyyyy in the distance. I'm disappointed, as everyone's reviews seemed to point towards a lighter Samhain. Ah, well. I still have my Samhain.

Got my long-anticipated Black Opal bottle today!! In the bottle, it's a sexy vanilla, dark, smooth and elegant. The kind of scent that belongs at night in a funky, black-walled bistro like a fat lit vanilla candle flickering between a gorgeous woman and her handsome tuxedoed date. On me as soon as applied, the sexy vanilla is taken over by what I would swear is a gorgeous golden amber that sparked within the vanilla, and that sparking lasted quite a few minutes. It then mellowed down to a different, darker, smoky-edged, yet creamy, ambered vanilla. Now it's just now a sexy vanilla, wrapped in a smoky veil. The amber is muted, like it was a loving whisper between the couple. I love this so much. As has been mentioned before, it's Antique Lace's darker twin. But I love this more than AL because it's got a depth AL didn't own (not that I didn't enjoy AL for it's own merits). I will get another 10 ml. No question.

I initially bought an impie of Fig before it was discontinued, and had to have a bottle. I now am the proud owner of a 5 ml of Fig (thanks to pranashakti!!) to love and adore. Initially, it didn't smell much beyond regular figgyness, almost an artificial sweetener type of fig that you could possibly find in the grocery store next to the artificial vanilla extract. On my skin though, it morphs into several different beautiful incarnations, from fresh, earthy, juicy-sweet figs that melt on my tongue, to a more "green" fig, drying down to a dark, drier fig note that still retained a bit of sweetness. One of my top favorite single notes, though I find blends with fig notes sometimes don't work in my favor (Gomorrah being one of the not-nice ones).

I find that Velvet and Morocco are definitely along a similar vein when it comes to warm, brown, spicy scents. I love both, but Morocco has an exotic edge that sends me into vacation-dreamland!