Lady Victoria - Poison Apple Apothecary

Details:
Lady Victoria
Poison Apple Potions

Notes:
An embodiment of the Victorian Gothic era. A lady in all outward appearances, but there may be something darker lurking underneath…. Jasmine and Vanilla laid gently upon an enigmatic veil of musk.

This is one of my favourite perfumes and I don't wear it often enough. After deciding that I'm going to use my 'spesh' things instead of just buying them and hoarding them away, I pulled this out for a go around the block. There's nothing really complex about it - it's pretty much exactly as described. In the bottle and applied it's a gorgeous, lush blend of jasmine and vanilla. The musk comes out in the dry down and it lasts for hours. The sillage is medium. If you dab a smidge on your wrists it sits fairly close to the skin, but if you slather it on it does have a bit of throw.

Edit: I just realised that this smells quite similar to Solstice Scents Nightgown, so if you like the sound of this one, then that's worth checking out. 

Rating: 
5/5

 Day 31!

Carnivale Rouge - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Carnivale Rouge
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Let the red carnival sweep you away into decadence and mystery. Who is that delicious stranger behind the mask? What are you willing to give in return for brush of his lips? Will you remove your mask and bare your desires? Remember.... nothing is ever as it seems when the masquerade begins! Notes of amaretto liqueur are deepened with balanced tones of the darkest cocoa, cappuccino, rich cream, and buttery amber, while background notes of oakwood fire, and citrus deepen the intrigue. Come and play if you will!

I have all my untested samples in a glass bowl in my room (I know I should stand them upright to prevent leakage and so on but it's just not practical for me), and I reach in and pull one out at random to test. For some reason, I keep getting Deep Midnight ones! Though I do have quite a few, as I got 10 samples and was sent 4 free with my order. Anyway, Carnivale Rouge was my latest, and I chose this because it was a gourmand scent with cocoa and cream, two of my favourite notes. I'm not super keen on amaretto, but I find it's one of those notes that comes out sharp early on but never hangs around for long so I can live with it.

In the vial, the first thing I smelled was marzipan, which of course was the amaretto. Once I applied it to my wrist, it was more smokey. The almond scent was still there, but not as sharp. The cocoa isn't chocolate-y as such - it actually adds more to the smokiness and makes everything smell a little like tobacco. The dry down is a warm, fairly light amber with a touch of vanilla. The sillage is low, but once the perfume dries down it hangs around for quite a while, and it's a comforting scent. I like this one.

Rating:
3/5

Day 30!

The Fat Lady - Enchanticals Perfume

Details: 
The Fat Lady
KrAzy KaRnIvAle Side Show Freaks Collection
Enchanticals Perfume

Notes: 
Of all the Side Show Freaks, I think I envy the Fat Lady the most. I mean after all, she not only get’s to eat everything at the concession stand, she encouraged to do so! What does the Fat Lady smell like? Like caramel apples, cotton candy, vanilla ice cream, funnel cakes, buttered popcorn and those sweet things one may find at the Carnival.

Well, you know me and carny scents. I can't resist. This smells super sweet and cakey. It's like a rich lemon cream cake.There is a biscuit/pastry note similar to the one in BPAL's Eat Me, but unlike that, this one doesn't go dusty on me. The Fat Lady doesn't change much, but it's delicious, like a slightly lemony confectioner's custard. Or a proper fancy vanilla slice - the kind you pay through the nose for at a patisserie. The kind I went and paid through the nose for after wearing this perfume all day. AND IT WAS WORTH IT. The sillage is medium, and longevity is good - I could still smell it on my wrist 8 hours later. I really like this one, and it's going on the full bottle list.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 29!

Circassian - Darling Clandestine

Details:
Circassian
Darling Clandestine

Notes:
Carefully blended and infused by me in small batches in vintage green glass wine bottles, this is a warm chocolaty fragrance with intriguing notes of amber and blossoms. A dozen different scent elements and several days of methodical alchemy make Circassian no ordinary scented oil mix—it's a truly inimitable fragrance.

It's weird that the label of this has nothing written on it. I received it from Su, so I don't know whether there was maybe a tag attached that has been removed or what. It would be confusing if you bought a whole bunch of them, though.

In the bottle I smell chocolate and coffee, a deeper version of Haus of Gloi's Vice. Once it's applied the chocolate recedes and the coffee really comes out strong. There is also a note in there of something a little sharp and green, and something slightly floral. The dry down is a chocolate floral with a dab of amber  sweetening it up. On paper, this is my jam, but there is something there I don't like, and I cannot put my finger on what it is. It wasn't a scrubber on me, it was just.... not what I would have expected.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 28!

Nyx - BoondockG

Details:
Nyx
BoondockG

Notes:
A spillage of robust fine wine over black orchids and ylang flowers ~ a blend of exotic spices with light nuances of sultry amber. Highly seductive, esoteric perfume oil for women. Highly recommended for nightwear. A proprietary blend of fragrance and essential oils.

The first sniff in the vial was bugging me - what is that? I thought at first it smelled very fruity, like one of those children's scented shampoos, but that wasn't quite it. Eventually it hit me - bubblegum! What the - ? So weird. Once applied it's an aquatic floral scent, with a strong candy/sweet note. It's really strange, and nothing like I would expect from the notes describing it. When it dries down it mellows to a soft floral amber, which is pleasant but nothing special. This perfume has little sillage and not much staying power - it had disappeared entirely within two hours.

Rating:
2/5

Day 27!

Children Of The Night - Deep Midnight

Details:
Children of the Night
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Children of the Night: What sweet music they make! A nice Gothic blend of dragon’s blood, silky champas, deep vanilla, dark black fig, and the haunting faint breath of heliotrope. This unisex scent will them howling for more.

There is a note in a few of the Deep Midnight perfumes I have sampled that has that synthetic, plasticky smell that's kind of like bandaids. This one has it too, and it's quite strong both in the vial and when first applied. I feel like it might be the heliotrope, which can sometimes smell a bit weird on me. I'm not overly keen on this - it's not quite a scrubber, but that synthetic note distracts me. When it dries down it smells like vanilla and incense. The sillage is not strong, and the lasting power is medium. I don't have much else to say about this one, but I'm definitely not howling for more...

Rating: 
2/5

Day 26!

Madame - Nevermore Body Company

Details:
Madame
Nevermore Body Company

Notes: 
Madame’s golden days of Cabaret brings back the warm and sophisticated, yet subtle blend of apple and oak, with a spice mahogany bouquet, soothing hints of vanilla, cinnamon and dark wood, ripe tones of sweet figs and infused with a blend of tobacco, black tea and fruit spices.

 In the vial this is fruity and sweet, exactly the kind of thing I don't like. Once I applied it, it smelled sour - the apple, I assume. I'm not sure what fig smells like exactly, but I was testing another perfume with a fig note the day before and there was a similar sour note in that one, so I'm guessing that's adding to it. To be perfectly honest, this smells a bit like cat pee on me. I almost scrubbed it off, but it was quite close to the skin and didn't have much sillage at all, so I left it on for a while to see if it would change. It does eventually, and dries down to a fairly pleasant, mildly spicy vanilla base. It's quite a significant morphing, actually. The longevity is medium - I could faintly smell it after 6 hours, but only if I had my nose right up to my wrist. I wouldn't wear this purely because I really dislike the opening notes of it, and the vanilla base is nice, but nothing unique.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 25!

Victorian Garden - Black Baccara

Details: 
Victorian Garden 
Black Baccara

Notes: 
Victorian Garden is a vintage-inspired floral, created with visions of labyrinthine stretches of green bursting with romantic blooming flowers. Rich soil is the backbone of this blend, from which rises up sweet carnations, dogwood, sandalwood, daffodil, hyacinth and roses wrapped in English ivy. A complex, old fashioned type floral blend reminiscent of perfumes of the Victorian and Edwardian era.

This is the perfume that made me pull out Jazz Funeral the other day, though when I compared I realised they are nothing alike. Jazz Funeral is much deeper, richer and melancholy. Victorian Garden is quite light and bright, despite its soil note.

In the vial and when first applied, this smells like damp earth and flowers. There is a watery element as well - it makes me think of a lily pond. There are no particular floral notes that stand out - I can't distinguish carnation or rose or any of the others, it's just a blend. As it dries down, the rose comes out a little more prominently than the other flowers - though could just be me, as rose tends to amp on me a lot of the time. Mostly it's a pot-pourri floral blend once it dries. It's nice, but it's not especially interesting or at all unique. The sillage is quite low for a floral - it stays close to the skin. Longevity was medium, maybe 4 hours or so.

Rating:
3/5

Day 24!

Lilac Dreams - The Garden Bath

Details: 
Lilac Dreams
Flower Garden Collection
The Garden Bath

Notes:
The most realistic lilac you'll ever find - not perfumey at all. If you just close your eyes, you'll feel like you're surrounded by blooming lilac bushes with butterflies flitting from flower to flower.

This perfume is exactly what it claims to be - a very simple, almost single note floral. I don't really have a lot more to say about it. Generally I am a fan of The Garden Bath (whose scents do tend to be fairly simple, and that's not a bad thing), and have been for a long time, but this one - while pretty enough - just didn't do much for me at all. It's very reminiscent of a Yardley perfume - you know those ones like Roses, Lily of the Valley, etc? I like Yardley perfumes quite a lot (it's the daggy old lady in me), but I don't own any because I would just never wear them - although weirdly I do own The Garden Bath's Fresh Roses and I love it. I think Lilac Dreams would make a nice soap or lotion, or even a home fragrance, but as a perfume it doesn't grab me.

Rating:
2/5 Pleasant, but nothing exciting.

Day 23!

Deadwood - Alchemic Muse

Details:
Deadwood
Alchemic Muse

Notes: 
Wild bergamot, clover honey, and a light dusting of spice leading to a heart of warm amber and barley grass grounded in a rich base of black vanilla, musk, teak, and worn brown leather.

In the vial I smell leather and something slightly sweet, which might be the honey. Once applied the sweetness comes out more, but the leather still dominates. It dries down to a vanilla musk with the amber adding a bit of depth but not really distinct from the blend, and the leather is there right to the end. Sillage is medium, as is longevity. I found it had faded quite a bit after about 5 hours and reapplied, then it lasted well the rest of the day.

I chose this perfume purely based on the name, because I love the TV show Deadwood. As it turns out it's yet another masculine scent that I find myself liking.

Rating: 
3/5 I wouldn't buy a full bottle as it's not a scent I'd wear too often, but this is a nice blend and definitely worth trying if you like leather notes.

Day 22!

Sherlock - Nevermore Body Company

Details: 
Sherlock 
Nevermore Body Company

Notes: 
Our new scent "Sherlock" is far from elementary"! With the rich floral aromas of an English garden experience the scents of damask rose, geranium, patchouli, sweet lavender all combined in a sweet blend of orange honey and smokey vanilla. 

This morning I received a package of perfumes and samples from Su, including a bunch that I had been itching to check out from companies like Nevermore and Darling Clandestine, so I've pushed all my scheduled reviews aside to slot this one in, as it's the first one I went for. In the vial I smell pipe tobacco, even though there's no specific mention of it in the notes. It made me think of my grandpa, who has been dead for 30 years. I wasn't terribly close to him - my mother is one of 15 children and there were A LOT of grandchildren, so he didn't have an awful lot to do with us individually, more collectively handing out lollies while we jostled each other aside to get to them, or yelling at us to stop climbing his jacaranda tree. But he smoked a pipe and always smelled of pipe tobacco. It was a nice little wander down memory lane opening that vial.

Once applied, it's obvious that the pipe tobacco smell is patchouli and something else, but not that awful hippie patchouli that makes some of us patchouli-haters. It's warm and comforting and smoky. There's a note of orange as well, not citrus, but that kind of orange you sometimes get in Christmas scents - I don't know what that is, being in a country that is hot at Christmas. Is that candied orange peel or something? When it dries down, the vanilla and floral come out, but it's still quite masculine. Manly vanilla and floral, if that makes sense. It's really lovely. I am really starting to appreciate some masculine scents more now that I'm branching out. They don't all smell like Lynx or CK One! I can't speak honestly about the longevity because I had a shower after about 4 hours and then reapplied it. It was still going strong at the 4 hour mark though, and I'd say sillage is medium. Not a head kicker, but not close either. You'd probably smell me wafting past you in this.

Rating: 
4/5 Lovely!

Day 21!

Black Lace - Black Baccara

Details:
Black Lace
Black Baccara

Notes: 
Dangerously sexy, Black Lace is a unique and incredibly seductive blend. It has a heavenly backdrop of vanilla which dances with amber, tobacco and cinnamon. Timeless and captivating, this blend stands out for it’s vanilla augmentations; a vanilla which is more seductive than it is sweet, more sexy than confectionary. 

In the vial I smell vanilla, but as the notes description says, it's not a sugary sweet kind, more of a deep, warm vanilla. Once I applied this I could not stop sniffing - it's delicious.

Once it dries down it deepens (the amber, thankfully not jumping out and going nuts but staying well in the background), but it doesn't change all that much. I can't smell the cinnamon, there's just a warm, slightly sweet spiciness to the vanilla.

There is, however, one problem I have with this perfume:

See that redness? It's hella itchy. I assume it's the cinnamon, though that's odd because I'm not normally sensitive to perfume ingredients or really much of anything, and I have no allergies that I know of (other than hay fever kind of things). I thought (hoped) maybe it was something else, but I tried Black Lace again on the other wrist and it did the same thing. So sadly, as much as I love the smell, this is not meant to be. :-(

Rating:
4/5 High score for the fragrance - a lovely warm, grown up vanilla.

Day 20!

Jazz Funeral - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details: 
Jazz Funeral 
Ars Moriendi
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes: 
Bittersweet bay rum, bourbon, and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish moss. 

For a long time, Jazz Funeral was my favourite BPAL, but then I discovered more and more of their fragrances and then branched out into other indie perfume oil shops, and this one was pushed aside and forgotten. I pulled it out today because I was testing some Black Baccara scents and one of them made me think of this. It's still as lovely as I remember it being.

In the bottle, it smells like damp dirt and wet grass (I guess that's the moss). Applied, the floral comes out, though the dirt note is definitely there. Something - maybe the dirt - gives the flowers a note of decay. You know when there's a vase of lush white flowers that's been around for a few days and they are just beginning to die? You can still smell the perfume of them, but it's beginning to fade and turn just a little? That's what this is like. It sounds awful, but it somehow works - I adore this perfume. The damp earth recedes as it dries down, and it becomes more of a white floral, but still with that element of decay. The bourbon and - I assume - the bay rum give it a bit of warmth and depth. The sillage is in the head kicker category - I stopped wearing this at work a long time ago because a lady who sat a couple of desks away from me complained that it gave her a headache. Lasting power is long too - I've had this on for about 6 hours and it still smells quite strong.

Rating:
5/5 I'm glad I was prompted to pull this out again - I forgot how much I loved it.

Day 19!

Alice's Tea Party - Black Baccara

Details:
Alice's Tea Party
Black Baccara

Notes:
A peculiar and curious scent; sweet but hinting at something surreal. The atmosphere and magic of tea time with Alice is captured in an apothecary bottle. Hints of freshly brewed green tea mix with tart wild cherries, oranges, pomegranates, honey, marshmallows, whispers of vanilla and the faintest hint of baking bread. Comforting and delicious with the perfect dose of strangeness.

I recently received an order of 10 samples from this shop, and this is the first one I've had a chance to try. As I mentioned in my last past, with the last few sample orders I've done I've tried to branch out to things I would not normally try, and this is one of them. I don't like fruit scents generally, but I figured I could at least test this out and then pass it on to Noodles, who loves them. And that's exactly what I've done.

In the vial this smells like cherry advokaat - that cherry smell that is almost like children's cough medicine. I can also smell the honey and a hint of orange. Once applied it smells pretty much the same for a few minutes, until it begins to dry down, when it becomes a fruit cocktail - very sweet and syrupy. I can't smell marshmallow or vanilla (and definitely not bread) but there is a sugariness there. Once it dries down the tea comes out, but it still smells like fruit tea. This is definitely not for me, but Noodles likes it.

Rating:
2/5 Not awful, but not at all my cup of tea.

Day 18!

Pirate's Keg - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details:
Pirate's Keg
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes:
Oh, that Black Jack – you can only imagine the booty he possesses! Raise a glass and toast him on his way to more grand swashbuckling adventures. Bay rum, rich leather, wild musk, and a shot of coconut and lime. A delicious unisex scent!

I don't tend to like masculine scents all that much, but now that I have to review 365 perfumes I thought it would be a good idea to step out of my comfort zone occasionally, otherwise all you'll ever be reading is variations of chocolate, cream and white florals. I chose Pirate's Keg because I'm only vaguely familiar with bay rum as a scent note, and also because it has leather.

In the vial I smell booze and lime. My ex (now BFF) and I would quite often drink vodka with lime and bitters on hot days (and in Adelaide there a lot of those) and that's what this made me think of at first. Once it's applied I can still smell the booze, and also now the leather. The coconut is there, but it's not the suntan oil kind of coconut - it adds kind of a warm, faintly sweet softening to the rum and leather. The lime pretty much disappears on my skin, but every now and then I thought I could catch a whiff of it. The dry down is leather, softened a little by the coconut. I rather like this perfume, despite it being more blokey than I would normally lean toward.

Rating: 
3/5 Not sure if I'd get a lot of use out of a full bottle, but I will put the sample away and bring it out again when the weather cools down.

Day 17!

Angelita - Twyla Perfumes

Details:
Angelita
Dia de los Muertos 2012
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes: 
Opening up spicy sweet and a little green, with a whisper of gentle musk, this lovely scent dries down with a creamy, almost candy-like softness - like rose-carnation cream. Rose Otto, Carnation Absolute, Honey Absolute, Massoia Bark, pink musk and Vanilla extrait.

I am beginning to think that Twyla has cornered the market on creamy florals. In the bottle, I smell soft, creamy carnation - not loud as carnation often is, but gentle and almost a little vanilla-ish. There's a touch of spice there, but it doesn't jump out. Applied the spice is more noticable, but it's sort of sweet, not one that makes you reel back in surprise but one you want to stick your nose into and sniff sniff sniff. When it dries down it's a creamy, vanilla-ish, sweet carnation scent. Dreamy and gorgeous. Love, love, love.

The first couple of times I wore this it disappeared fairly quickly, but I've been more conscious about moisturising lately and I've found it is helping considerably with the lasting power of my perfumes. This one gets a good few hours now. 

By the way, if this sounds like your cup of tea, you might just be able to snatch one up if you're quick - there are a handful still on the site.

Rating: 
5/5 Perfect. 

Day 16!

Black Lace - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details: 
Black Lace
Dark Delicacies 13th Anniversary Concoction
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes: 
The embodiment of Victorian funereal elegance. A delicate sugar-spun vanilla cream cotton, stained by tobacco and incense, Indian musk and drops of cognac. 

I like this perfume quite a lot, but I don't have much to say about it. It's one of those 'everything mooshed together' blends that BPAL does sometimes. It works, but nothing really stands out to me. In the bottle, it smells like incense. Once applied, it's a vanilla musk, and on me that's pretty much it. I don't get the tobacco, the cotton, or the cognac. I do like vanilla musk though, so it's not such a bad thing.

Rating: 
3/5 Not quite a 4, because I don't find anything remarkably unique about it, but still a very nice scent.

Day 15!

*Apologies for the delay on this one. I'm on holidays at the moment and having trouble keeping track of what day it is - I messed up my schedule dates.

Cinnamon Milk - BoondockG

Details:
Cinnamon Milk
BoondockG

Notes:
Dry cinnamon bark swirled in warm milk and cream ~ drops of sugarcane and toffee ~ cocooned in vanilla pods, benzoin and sandalwood. Made with skin-safe cinnamon fragrance….enjoy the flame without the burn.

I feel bad because I'm about to shade this perfume and this is the first time I've ever mentioned this shop. I have a couple of others that I quite like, but this just happens to be the one that I pulled out for testing.

In the vial, this smells oaty - like dry porridge oats, but not the supermarket kind. The kind that you get in big buckets at the market. Not an unpleasant smell, but not really what I'd want to smell like. Once applied, it smells like a cheap plastic doll. The cinnamon note is there too and smells fake - like the kind you get in chewing gum. The dry down is killer - it smells like baby vomit. I'm not exaggerating. I asked Noodles what she thought of it, and she reeled back, screwed her face up and said, "Ew, baby spew!"

Rating: 
1/5 I'm sorry to say that I just hated this.

Day 14!
 

Bathsheba - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details:
Bathsheba
Ars Amatoria
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:
Carnation, sensual plum and Arabian musk.

So the carnation is what made me hang on to this one for testing, but I can't distinguish it from the other notes. In the imp this smelled a little honeyish to me - not honey itself, but those blossoms that have a honeyish nectar. It's very pretty. Once applied I can smell a hint of something fruity - presumably that's the plum. Normally I can't stand fruity perfumes, but this note lingers in the background and is nicely blended with the floral, so it's not 'fruit' as much as just sweetening up the flowers.

The dry down is a lovely floral musk. There's something a little old-ladyish about this scent - not in a bad way. It's like something a sophisticated older woman would wear on a night out. Lasting power is excellent - I put it on about 10 hours ago and I can still smell it. The throw is not too strong - I can smell it when I move my wrist, but only snatches, and it's not at all overpowering.

Rating: 
3/5 I like this one quite a bit - not sure I need a whole bottle of it, but I'll definitely enjoy using the imp.

Day 13!

Nightgown - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Nightgown
Valentine's 2012 Collection (now made permanent)
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Vanilla, white chocolate, tuberose, tiare flowers.

Floral haters look away now! In the vial this is a pretty white floral, but doesn't smell like anything different to any number of other pretty white florals (and I have a lot of those). On the skin it comes alive. A gorgeous creamy, lush tuberose and tropical tiare flower. Oh man, I cannot stop sniffing my wrists!

Nightgown doesn't really change that much on the dry down, though the vanilla and white chocolate make the florals super creamy. Sillage is quite low for a white floral, a minor disappointment because I want everyone around to know how FABULOUS I smell in this. It did last a good few hours though, so that gave me plenty of time through the day to creepily sniff myself.

Rating:
5/5 I adore this. I will definitely be buying a full bottle, and probably whatever else I can get in this scent. If you like white florals at all this is a MUST TRY.

Day 12!

Dangerous Oil - Possets

Details:

Dangerous Oil

Possets Perfumes

Notes:

Dark and heady, what even Madame X would wear if she had to be assured of a conquest. Dangerous Oil is infused with the finest of rare things. 6 musks from blackest black up through a rare and gorgeous in itself purple/blue musk hybrid. A good jolt of labdenum (sic) and an edge of cognac. The heart note is an entire chypre made only for this project and used for no other. There is a fresh and almost gardenia-like part to this (but there is no gardenia in it), it is not a floral but a resinous blend but there is a mesmerizing beauty to it.

Well, that’s a dramatic description of a perfume if ever I saw one. What I get in the vial and when first applied to the skin is musk. Musk, musk, musk. Very deep but not at all overpowering.

When it dries I get what does indeed smell a little like gardenia. It comes and goes and is hard to catch, but it’s there. I’m iffy about resins – a lot of the time I find them too masculine for my taste, but this perfume is darkly feminine and seductive. It’s what I’d call slinky. I say that because I would imagine someone like Lana Turner slinking around in this, twisting idiot men around her little finger, manipulating and scheming against everyone around her to get what she wants. It’s very film noir.

Sillage is strong - my apologies to anyone who had to come within 5 feet of me at work today. And it lasts for ages. I put it on at about 8am this morning and it's now 5:40pm and I can still smell it.

Rating:

4/5 I’ve had this little vial for at least 2 years, maybe closer to 3, and I always intended to get a full bottle but never got around to it. I think I have to push it closer to the top of the list now that I’ve tried it out again. I don’t know where I’d ever wear it – my slinking around days are well and truly over – but I’m sure I could find a use for it.

Day 11!

Amsterdam - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details:

Amsterdam

Wanderlust

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:

Tulips, peony, fresh flowing water and crisp green grasses.

In the imp I smell a watery floral. I have to admit, I don’t know what tulips smell like, so maybe that’s what the floral is – I really don’t know. Once applied it’s a bit less watery, and the grass note is detectable. I like how those sorts of notes define ‘green’. When someone is describing a perfume and they say it smells green, I know exactly what they mean.This is definitely a green note - fresh and a little astringent.

The dry down goes a bit soapy on me. In the end, Amsterdam is a light, summery floral. Nice enough, but not my cup of tea.

Rating:

2/5 Pretty, but not very interesting.

Day 10!

Parkin - Haus of Gloi

Details:
Parkin
Yule 2010
Haus of Gloi

Notes: 

Glorious ginger cakes celebrating Guy Fawkes Day! Brown sugar, black treacle, oats, a peculiar blend of white spices tossed with chopped roasted chestnuts and coated with the lightest of icings.  

Ginger! This is gingery and sugary and rich. Although it's very foodie, the ginger and spiciness keep it in the realm of something more interesting than the usual vanilla or chocolate gourmand scent. In the dry down, it becomes more creamy and less sugary as the treacly porridge makes an appearance. It's definitely a winter scent, so probably not the best for an Australian summer. I would pull this out again in the colder months and wear it - it's kind of an Aran jumper perfume.

Rating:
3/5 I don't love it enough to buy a full bottle, but I do like it.

Day 9!

Dirty - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Let's all pretend we can't see that dead ant.

Details:
Dirty
Sin & Salvation
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:
A wonderful antidote to an all-nighter oozing with drunken, addled perversion and debauchery. A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy.

Well, it smells like what it says it smells like - clean laundry. In the vial I get washing powder, a slightly lemony generic floral. Once applied it is more floral than anything else, but there is a fruity note in there somewhere - something like nectarine. I can only catch that note if I bring my wrist up really close to my nose and sniff.

The smell doesn't really change at all. The throw was minimal and within a couple of hours it had disappeared completely.

While I find 'clean' scents inoffensive, I don't really get why people want to walk around smelling like freshly washed laundry. I seem to be in the minority though, as many companies have some version of this scent.

Rating:
2/5 Meh. I don't hate it, but I find it kind of pointless.

Day 8!

Snowshoe Pass - Solstice Scents

Pic of my recent Solstice Scents haul as I no longer have this vial.

Details:
Snowshoe Pass
Winter Collection 2012
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
White Amber, White Musk, Vanilla Accord, Peppermint Cream, Cold Winds

In the vial this smells minty and cold, and when first applied it's a sweet pine-ish (thankfully not nausea-inducing) kind of scent, with a minty amber hovering in the background. It leans towards masculine. I like head kicker perfumes, but the amber in this is quite strong and overpowering - it actually gave me a bit of a headache.

It took a good hour to calm down on me, and I almost scrubbed it off as it was bothering me quite a lot. Eventually it mellowed to a pleasant, undemanding vanilla amber, but it stayed too strong for too long.

Rating:
2/5 Nice when it finally calms down, but it's too much for me.

Day 7!

Screamin' Mimi - Midnight Gypsy

Details:
Screamin' Mimi
Midnight Gypsy

Notes: 
Sticky sweet cotton candy with vanilla musk, cherry lollipops, a bite of chocolate.... and a splash or three of bourbon.

I got this in the mail a few days ago and I cannot stop playing with it. In the vial it's boozy, but a bit sweet, not that booze note that makes you reel back. First applied it's still sweet (not sugary) and boozy, and ever so slightly smoky. There's a hint of vanilla but I wouldn't call it bourbon vanilla - the sweet note is more of a confectioner's vanilla. It makes me think of trifle (my favourite old school dessert) - I don't get the cotton candy at all, and barely register the chocolate, but there's cherries in syrup, vanilla custard, and cream. This is a gorgeous gourmand with a bit of a kick.

Screamin' Mimi has medium sillage - it doesn't really scream its presence (heh), but you're definitely aware of it. It also lasts a really long time on me - I applied it twice in the early evening, and both times I could still smell it on my wrists well into mid-morning the following day.

Rating:
5/5 I absolutely love this, and I am definitely getting a full bottle the moment my January No Buy is up.

Day 6!

Snowdrift - Firebird Bath and Body

Details:
Snowdrift
Firebird Bath & Body

Notes:
Snowdrift is a wintery blend of peppermint, vanilla and evergreens.

For the second day in a row, my childhood memories come into play.  My whole life I have suffered from motion sickness, and in particular I would often get car sick as a kid. One of the strongest smells of my childhood was a pine-scented air freshener in my parents' car - it contributed greatly to the nausea I felt every time I had to sit in that back seat. That smell is what this perfume makes me think of.

In the vial Snowdrift is a minty pine; when first applied the mint retreats and I mostly get pine with a bit of a resin note lurking about.

The dry down is more resin-ish, but the pine is still there, the two mingling in a queasy soup that makes me feel like I've just done a road trip around the Great Ocean Road. I'm a fan of Firebird generally, but this one is definitely not for me. I had to scrub it off after about an hour as I could no longer stand it. I tried using a liquid soap, a body scrub, and even a nail brush. On me, this perfume was the very definition of a scrubber. Even then I was catching whiffs of it for hours after when I moved my arms - it did not want to leave me!

Rating:
1/5 Yuk. Sorry, Firebird - I'm sure there would be many people who would like this on, but it has too much of an unpleasant connotation for me.

Day 5!

Lace Draped Spectre - Solstice Scents

Details:
Lace Draped Spectre
Fall Collection
Solstice Scents

Notes:
A hauntingly feminine blend of Madagascar Vanilla, Baby's Breath, Pink Carnation and a hint of Green Pepper Essential Oil. The scent of an elegantly perfumed ivory lace shroud adorning the fleeting image of a mysterious visitor. Soft vanilla accentuated with a hint of spice and creamy floral. 

When I was a kid my mum used to have carnations growing along the edge of the front lawn under the lounge room window, and there were so many of them that she was always cutting bunches and putting them in vases around the house. This is what this perfume immediately makes me think of. That smell of carnation reminds me so strongly of my childhood - an old-fashioned, pretty floral.

This perfume has a fair bit of throw and is quite strong when first applied. Vanilla comes out in the dry down, but that carnation still dominates. I can very barely smell the green pepper, just catching a whiff of something sharp every now and then. Even after drying down, Lace Draped Spectre remained quite potent for a good couple of hours.

Rating: 
4/5 This perfume is beautiful and feminine, with a creamy note I love.

Day 4!

Update: I decided to buy this in a full size Burnishing Glace Mist instead of a perfume oil, and now I can definitely smell the pepper. I still love it, but it's definitely more spicy in the mist than it was in my oil sample. And the sillage and lasting power of the mist is awesome! 

Carnival - Alchemic Muse

Details:
Carnival
Alchemic Muse

Notes: 
Relive the days of swing sets and carousel rides with this fun-loving scent from childhood. Sweet pink grapefruit, cotton candy, and lemon drops afloat a heart of sticky caramel, red berries, and fig leaves in a warm, comforting base of bourbon vanilla and white musk.

Whenever I see any kind of carnival or fair scent in a perfume shop I have to buy it. I am obsessed with them, and I love to see what different interpretations perfume creators have. Sometimes they're sweet, like toffee apples and fairy floss, sometimes they're warm and salty like popcorn. I rarely wear them, as they're almost always very 'young' perfumes, but I still love them.

In the vial, this perfume is sweet and citrusy, like orange sherbet. Once applied, the citrus becomes more tangy - I assume that's the grapefruit. There is a definite lolly smell, but it's not at all sickly. Slightly lemony, but I don't get the caramel or the berries.

As it dries down, it doesn't really change all that dramatically; it morphs into a sweeter, sticky candy/vanilla smell, but one of the better ones I've come across. It has a medium amount of throw, and lasted about 4 hours before I needed to reapply. 

Rating:
4/5 I really like this one a lot. Thumbs up! I think it would be an awesome soap, too.

Day 3!
 

The Saw is Family - The Morbid The Merrier

Details:
The Saw Is Family
Halloween 2010
The Morbid The Merrier (now defunct)

Notes:  
A murderously beautiful blend of 5 musks, 3 sandalwoods, a tiny hint of Texas earth, the bite of a steel blade, and a ribbon of cold, hard fear binding them all tightly together.

When I bought this two years ago, I loved it. I meant to get a full bottle and was kicking myself when I realised I hadn't and it was gone. So I've been stingily hanging on to my meagre little vial, barely daring to use it. In hindsight, I should have, because it's changed. A lot.

Here's what I said about it back then:

On me, this is a gorgeous sandalwood musk saved from being too hippyish by a sharp metallic note. I really, really love it.

And now? In the vial it smells musky, but a rather uninteresting musk. A musk I'd expect to smell in one of those $15 perfumes near the front counter of Chemist Warehouse. A pleasant enough smell, but ordinary. There's a tiny hint of something shiny and metallic, an icy steel note that has all but faded away. It's so fleeting and hard to catch, sadly.

When applied, the metallic note is undetectable. Just the musk is there. Once it dries down, it's soapy. Again - something I'd find in a cheap chemist. Just... eh. How disappointing.

Rating:
2/5. I don't out-and-out hate it, but it really didn't age well, and it's very ordinary and unspecial. Probably just as well I never did get that full bottle.

Day 2! 

A Murder of Crows - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details:
A Murder of Crows
Halloweenie: Pumpkin Patch 2007 Companion
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:
Sleek iris and verbena, grey amber, benzoin, davana and glossy herbs.

Nadja requested a review of this one, and I was happy to oblige because I love me some iris. In the vial, I can smell the iris - it's floral and pretty without being girly, slightly astringent and lemony from the verbena.

Annoyingly, once applied on my the iris all but disappears and all I mostly get is the verbena. It smells herby with a faint indistinct floral note for a while as it dries down.

After about 30 minutes, the iris becomes more prominent again, while the herbal notes retreat to the background.

Unlike many BPAL scents on me, this perfume sits very close to the skin with little throw. It disappeared entirely within a few hours.

Rating: 
3/5. It's a nice enough perfume and the iris is lovely when it appears, but I have far better iris scents.

Day 1!