Catch Up Post #6

Sarawen Ambrosia Chocolat - Chocolate, amber, honey, vanilla, patchouli. 
This smells like sweet candied flowers and chocolate, with a note of something boozy that I put down to the vanilla. The honey warms it up and stops it being too 'young'. It reminds me a lot of Molinard Fleur de Chocolat. Sillage and lasting power are medium - I reapplied after about 6 hours. I liked this, but I don't think I need a full bottle. 3/5

Villaness Xia -  Orchid, black vanilla, blackberry, black pepper, cocoa, amber, sandalwood.
This was a free sample and appears to be exclusive to The Soap Box Company. It's chocolatey in the vial, but once applied the pepper really comes out. I wanted to like it but I think the orchid actually weakens it and makes the rest of it seem watery. The notes just don't seem to mesh or something. 2/5

Villainess Dulces en Feugo - Musky bitter chocolate sweetened with vanilla and touches of citrus then positively inflamed with black pepper and nutmeg.
Again, the notes here just didn't quite go together. I got a friend who has pretty much zero interest in perfume to sniff and asked what she thought of it and she said that 'something was clashing with something else'. I could mostly smell chocolate but I got the citrus and spice as well. In theory this should work beautifully, but it doesn't. 2/5

Enchanticals Zombie Juice -  Sandalwood, coffee, cocoa, vanilla cream, whiskey, allspice, spice, sage, pumpkin liqueur.
Sadly this was an almost immediate scrubber on me. There was something in it that made my wrists itch like crazy and I had to get it off. I had the same problem with Harvesting Zombies, so it's obviously the same note. For the 15 minutes or so I had it on it smelled like chocolate, cinnamon and something like grass or hay. 1/5

Haus of Gloi White Blackberry - Cream, ripe blackberry and a touch of juniper wood.
There is a strong note of almond in this at first, both in the vial and when applied to skin. I hated it and almost washed it off, but after 10 minutes or so that note subsided. What's left is a fresh, creamy berry scent. It's pretty and girly, but I feel about 25 years too old for it. One for Noodles, I think. 2/5

Haus of Gloi Zazz - Tart cranberry, pink grapefruit, sparkling champagne all shook up with crushed ginger root.
This smells exactly like the stuff I use to clean my toilet. Blech. 1/5

Alchemic Muse Turkish Mocha - Dark chocolate ganache topped with a dollop of whipped marshmallow meringue and a smattering of roasted hazelnuts immersed in steamy Turkish Coffee spiked with cocoa absolute.
Not a lot of luck with perfumes this week. In the vial and first applied this is a coffee/chocolate scent, very reminiscent of Haus of Gloi's Vice. However, after about 15 minutes it turned dusty and it stayed that way until disappearing entirely a couple of hours later. I reapplied later in the day and the exact same thing happened. 2/5

Days 199 - 206!

Beguiled - Haus of Gloi

Details:
Beguiled
Summer Collection 
Haus of Gloi

Notes: 
Lemon cake made with the tang of fresh buttermilk and raspberry coulis - an otherwise innocent cake corrupted by cardamom and deceptive pink peppercorns.

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! (That's an in joke for Jacquie.)
This perfume is not so much cake to me, more like a sweet lemon custard. It's quite strong at first but does mellow. Very, very lemony for quite a while - thankfully not the toilet cleaner kind of lemon! The lemon fades a little in the dry down and blends more in with the other notes. This is when it becomes more cakey in my mind. I didn't get the spices at all - I found it very smooth all the way through. I did say earlier in the year I was a bit over cake/dessert scents, but I would almost be tempted to buy a full size of this one. It's very well done and super pretty. If you like gourmand scents, this is definitely one worth checking out. Beguiled lasted about 7 hours on me before I felt I needed to reapply.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 198!

Edit: Liber Vix made a cake from this scent's notes and it looks and sounds amazing. Definitely going to try this! 

Field of Reeds - Possets Perfumes

Details: 
Field of Reeds
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
Relief and relaxation, paradise Egyptian style. Sweet sandalwood and two ambers, a touch of wood for reeds, and a kiss of golden musk, black pepper married with a drop of labdanum and this conjures the eternal happy golden light in which the elect must have bathed every day. A smooth and resinous sweet blend but with enough of the spice kick of a modern perfume to escape being downright primitive.

I was expecting this to smell more 'green' so I was a bit surprised to find it was nothing like that at all. In the vial it's musk, with what I thought was some kind of incense, though now I think that might be the pepper. The woody notes are quite sweet, and keep it on the feminine side of unisex. The amber comes out in the dry down but is not too overpowering - it makes it deeper and warmer. Sillage is quite high at first but it settles after half an hour or so. Lasting power is very good - I could still smell it just before I had a shower 7 or 8 hours later so who knows how long it would have gone on for. I liked this, but I didn't love it and I don't feel the need to buy a full size. It was just a nice perfume, nothing amazing.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 197!

Logical Delusion - Sarawen Perfumes

Details:
Logical Delusion
Sherlock Holmes Collection
Sarawen Perfumes

Notes: 
A dangerous and cunning blend of poisoned tea, tobacco, and gunpowder, with a hint of nag champa and absinthe. Beware, Holmes! This is a unisex fragrance that borders towards masculine and is inspired by the character of Moriarty from the world of Sherlock Holmes - it is the perfect foil to my Holmes' fragrance, 'Logical Deduction'!

Well, there's definitely tobacco - straight up that's mostly what I could smell in this one. I did get a whiff of the tea in the background every now and then but the tobacco dominated so it was hard to find. In the dry down, the absinthe was discernible occasionally, but like the tea, kept getting pushed back by the tobacco. This is an extremely masculine scent to me. It was pretty strong with high sillage and lasted for a good 8 hours or so. I almost scrubbed it off at one point because it was so potent it was starting to give me headache. A little dab of this is plenty.  

Rating: 
2/5 If you like very manly perfumes you might be into this, but it's too much for me.

Day 196!

Catch Up Post #5

Haus of Gloi The Brier Path - Sun drenched trail leading to a day dream of ripe berries and woods rose, rich forest loam, ozone, dark amber and cream.
Very fruity, floral, but I don't get any of the forest, woody, dark amber, etc. It's odd - it smells like an old lady floral with a potent fruity top note. Considering how fruity it is, I actually quite like it, but I don't need a full bottle. 3/5

Twyla Perfumes Migraineur - A blend of essential oils, including clary sage and cannabis flower oil. 
This is one of Twyla's aromatherapy blends and I originally got this sample not for headaches, but to see if it would do anything to help me sleep. It smells herby and mellow, very smooth and soothing. As with Solstice Scents Quiet Night, I don't think it did anything to help me get to sleep, but I do think it helped me stay asleep. 3/5

Possets Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - Red musk, rockrose, benzoin.
Weirdly sweet and grassy smelling, slightly medicinal and went dusty quite quickly. Within a couple of hours it was gone. It didn't impress me. 2/5

Villainess Crushed - Crushed black raspberry against dark chocolate and serrated sandalwood.
In the vial this is ah-maazing. It smells like a double coated Cherry Ripe and the berry and chocolate is beautifully blended. On the skin it kind of falls over a bit - it's slightly insipid and doesn't last very long at all. Such a shame. I think this would be one that would be better in a soap form. 3/5

Arcana Puppy Kisses - A batter of rich cream, soft coconut milk, rice syrup, copaiba balsam, massoia bark and milky pearl musk is gently licked with sweet peppermint, sugared bayberry, and the tiniest smooches of Oregon lavender and Dalmatian sage.
Look, I get the futility of buying a perfume that smells like dog and then complaining that it smells like dog. But seriously, this smells like dog. The first notes are lavender and sage, then the coconut came out after about half an hour. The dry down is a sicky milk smell. Guys, it smells like dog! 1/5

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Snow White 2008 - Flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night blooming flowers. 
This was given to me a couple of years ago by a lovely girl from Livejournal's Aussie BPAL community, and I ADORE it. It's a chilly, ever-so-slightly floral, ever-so-slightly mint perfume that doesn't change much as it dries down. It lasts for hours and a little dab is enough, which is why I still have this tiny imp going. Of course, I'm pretty stingy about how often I use it. 5/5

@CandidaVirgo Cinnamon Donuts - Notes unknown, cinnamon obviously, almond, maybe ginger as well?
In the bottle and the opening note on the skin is strongly almond, but that mellows fairly quickly. I didn't love this one as much as I did Candi's Chocolate Macaron, but to be fair I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon. I'm sure there is ginger in here too, but that might just be because I'm associating the spiciness with baking products like gingerbread. 3/5

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Snow White 2012 - Notes as above. 
I had to buy this given my love for the 2008 version. It came out in 2010 as well but I dithered too long about buying it and missed that one. This one is slightly heavier on the floral than 2008 and doesn't have the same depth. It makes me think of a perfume clone - "If you like Chanel No. 5, you'll love etc..." like you get in the front bins at Priceline. It could just need ageing, though. I'm putting this one away for a while. 2/5

Haus of Gloi Vice - Steam billows rolling off a vessel of fresh made Turkish coffee, marshmallow goo tainted by graham cracker crumbs, toasted hazelnuts and blanketed in black chocolate.
Heavy on the coffee, but becomes more chocolatey on me as it dries down. This is the ultimate foody scent - rich and fairly potent. One of my favourites. 5/5

Enchanticals Mermaid Cove -  Wisteria, lilac, frangipani, oakmoss, pineapple, aquatic notes.
A really pretty, slightly watery white floral. It's like a lush garden after a heavy rain. 4/5

Days 186-195!

Chocolate Macaron - Candida Virgo

Details: 
Chocolate Macaron
@CandidaVirgo

Notes: 
Unknown. My guess - chocolate, coconut, almond... maybe vanilla or something else sweet. 

Well, this was a bit exciting. I had a DM from Candi a couple of weeks ago asking if I would test some perfumes for her. Never one to turn down the opportunity to try new smells, of course I said yes. And oddly enough, after being completely over foody perfumes for a while now, I've just started getting back into them now that the weather is cold and I want cosy smells. Timing!

In the vial this smells quite heavily of almond, with the chocolate there but not front and centre. There's something else there too. it's quite sharp and I can't work out if it's just the almond being potent or if it's another note entirely. Once applied the almond settles down and is almost imperceptible in minutes. The chocolate comes out, then the coconut, and soon it smells like a rich, dense, moist chocolate mud cake. I tried this out after dinner on a cold night, and as I was sitting on the couch sniffing myself compulsively I seriously considered getting up and making a chocolate self-saucing pudding or something for dessert. (Laziness won - it didn't happen.)

The dry down is still heavy on the chocolate and coconut but something sweeter as well. Maybe vanilla, though it isn't a specifically vanilla-y note, and it's not sugary either. Whatever it is, I like it - it adds a nice balance. Sillage is medium, as is longevity. I could still smell it when I went to bed 6 or so hours later. I like this one a lot, and I think the blend would be really nice in bath and body products as well.

Rating:
4/5

Day 185!

Cenobite - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Cenobite
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
A deep and rich vanilla for vanilla lovers. 

The vanilla of vanillas. I have long loved vanilla-scented fragrances. Even before they became a thing and perfumes generally smelled like flowers, I would nick Queen's Vanilla Essence from my mum's baking cupboard and dab it on my arm so I could sniff it at my leisure (it's not creepy). In the 90s I discovered vanilla fragrance oil in a hippie shop and I was all over that for years, along with the classic version from The Body Shop. And then it was almost ruined when companies like Glade discovered it and started making vanilla scented toilet spray, which had the effect of then making most vanilla perfumes smell like... well, toilet spray. (In hindsight maybe it's a good thing because it forced me to branch out with scents and become the hardcore perfume junkie I am today.)

Cenobite is most definitely not a toilet spray vanilla. It's a deep boozy gourmand scent that just smells divine. There's no point saying much more about it. It doesn't have any other notes that jump out at me, it doesn't change on me. It just is what it is, which is the perfect vanilla. Sillage is high - this is a potent perfume. Longevity is FOR. EVER. I have put this on first thing in the morning and I can still smell it on myself 24 hours later before my following morning shower.

Rating:
5/5

Day 184!

Quiet Night - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Quiet Night
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Lavender & Roman Chamomile Essential Oils - Aromatherapy for Stress, Anxiety, Insomnia

So this is not a perfume as such, rather an aromatherapy oil. I am not a big fan of lavender - memories of all those school fetes where we would buy our mums a lavender-stuffed wardrobe hanging thing or pin cushion for Mother's Day. However, I am the world's worst sleeper, so I'm up for trying anything that can help there. I put this on before bed and at first it is hella strong - it screams lavender, with the chamomile running up behind yelling, "Yeah, me too!". It does soften quite quickly - within about 15 minutes. It still smells like lavender and chamomile, but it's much more mellow.

I wouldn't say this helped me get to sleep - I was still awake until nearly midnight as usual - but I think it definitely helped me stay asleep. It is extremely rare that I don't wake up at least a couple of times a night, but last night I slept for a straight 6 hours. I know that's not a big thing to many of you, but I cannot remember the last time I did that. I am so used to being tired I don't really know any other setting.

I could still very faintly smell it the next morning, but it was pretty close to gone. I want a full bottle of this for sure - I wouldn't wear it out and about, but if it can give me a big chunk of sleep at once, I'm all for it.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 183!

Cream - Possets

Details: 
Cream
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
Why settle for simple milk when you can have cream in all its glory? Thick and rich, light yellow and smooth. This adds a milky layer to any of the teas in our line. Again you can wear this one alone if you like and it is a blend of several different ingredients, all of them offering a beautiful facet of the thought of cream which you may not have considered. Luscious.

This smells like baby sick. And Noodles was quite the chucker for the first year of her life so I know baby sick when I smell it. I didn't want to put it on, but I decided to brave it BECAUSE I AM A TROOPER, hoping it would do something else on the skin. Nope. Baby sick. I had to scrub it off after about a minute and a half. And I do mean scrub - there was a nail brush involved.

Rating: 
1/5

Day 182!

Blood Kiss - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details: 
Blood Kiss
Bewitching Brews
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes: 
Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk. 

This is a spicy vanilla with a sour note that is probably the clove. Not quite a scrubber but not pleasant. The dry down is slightly sweeter but that clove still comes through enough to be irritating. And of course, because I don't really like it the sillage is fairly high and it lasted 8+ hours on me. *sigh*

Rating: 
1/5

Day 181!

Smoky Mountain Mallow - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Smoky Mountain Mallow
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Wood Smoke, Fossilized Amber Resin, Lapsang Souchong CO2, Guaiacwood, Labdanum, Nutmeg EO, Marshmallow

I bought this maybe 6 months ago, but when I first tried it I got nothing more than smoke, so I put it away for a while to see what would happen when it aged. I still get little more than smoke, to be honest. In the vial it smells like a resinous smoky fire. Once applied, it's pretty much the same though there's an element of cigarettes as well. It's ever so slightly sweet, but just barely. It didn't really change on me at all in the 8 hours or so it lasted.

I have a lot of these smokey kind of scents because I really love them, but this is not one of my favourites. I wouldn't buy it in a full size. However, I appear to be in the minority as many people love this one, including Liber Vix, Amanda, and Rachel.

Rating:
2/5

Day 180!