Diabolique - Sugar and Spite Bathery

First sniff: 
Sweet, cream biscuits.

First applied: 
Still biscuity, with a slight tang of something citrus but I don't think it's lemon. Mandarin? Really pretty gourmand but not really getting why it's a Halloween scent. There's a very mild woody note in the background which I imagine will come out more when the top notes dry down.

After 30 mins: 
More woody now but still quite sweet and biscuit/pastry-ish. When I first applied it, it seemed a little weak and I thought it might fade quickly but it's actually getting stronger as the woodiness amps up. It's very much a Sugar & Spite/Morbid The Merrier perfume - Lysa has a classic signature.

After 3 hours: 
A soft, sweet but slightly boozy vanilla with a wood note adding some depth. It has faded quite a lot now - quite faint on the wrist u less I put my nose right up near it. I do like this scent a lot but I'm still baffled by its connection to Halloween. Maybe it has candy corn or something in totally not getting.

Longevity:
4 hours tops, best reapplied after about 2 hours. 

Actual notes/description: 
Orange blossoms dripping with sticky black honey, warm gingerbread, 3 vanillas, tea leaves and aloeswood. 

Availability: 
Sugar and Spite Bathery
Limited Edition - Halloween 2014
Not currently available, but may be seasonal. 

Yule - Possets Perfume

Source

First sniff: 
Possets' distinctive 'vomited up caramel' cream note. Blech. I really do not want to put this one on.

First applied: 
The same vomity note but also ginger and something else that smells a bit like rancid butter. This is not good.

After 30 minutes: 
The cream and ginger are still there, and it's thankfully no longer very potent. Do not like this at all and I can't get to the 3 hour mark. I have to get it off.

After 3 hours: 
I scrubbed it off with an exfoliating facial scrub just after the 30 minute sniff and I can still smell lingering whiffs of it. Gah.

Longevity: 
20 years, apparently. I don't know - it was a total scrubber on me. I couldn't stay the distance.

Actual notes/description: 
Cream with a velvety vanilla and a bit of rummy character, this one will have you slurring and smiling before you know it. A lovely creation which showcases the good things for which Possets is known. Of course you do know that egg nog is about the last of the real possets of old to survive into the 21st century right? Mmmm.

Availability: 
Possets Perfume
Limited Edition - Yule 2009
No longer readily available.

Eve - Twyla Perfumes

Details:
Eve
Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary

Notes: 
Chrysanthemum, ginger, pomegranate, apple, fig, milk accord, carnation, ginger lily, cassia, sandalwood and amber

I am doing a few Twylas this week because I want to do an order soon and I am checking out what I want in full sizes. Now, this was a funny one because I did not pick a single one of the notes above except for the sandalwood that came out in the drydown. Not even the amber, which usually romps all over me. It also doesn't smell particularly fruity on me. This is what it smells like:

Yes, this is exactly how I imagine Sandy smells at the end of Grease. What I get from this perfume is bubblegum and tobacco. In the vial there is a citrusy liquorice, though looking at the notes now, I wonder if what I took to be liquorice isn't actually ginger... Whatever it is, it doesn't come out on my skin at all.

Sillage is lowish and longevity is medium. I applied in the morning before work and felt the need to reapply at lunchtime as it had almost disappeared. I don't know what to make of this one - the notes confused me a lot. I see no bubblegum or tobacco mentioned but that's definitely what I smell!

Rating: 
3/5

Day 175!

Snake Oil Salesman - Enchanticals

Details: 
Snake Oil Salesman
Enchanticals Perfume

Notes: 

"Hurry, hurry, step right up! Find it here and here alone, the one, the original Snake Oil Liniment direct from the Santa Rosa Mountains. What does it do you ask?! It heals the sick, and grows hair on your head, rub it on your belly and watch it shrink overnight. Got a headache? Muscle aches? Just rub a bit on the affected area an VIOLA! Pain be gone! This stuff cures all that ails ya, and if you act right now, you can be the one millionth and oneth happy customer who has purchased this miracle ointment!" Ok, I'm lying but I think you might like this one! A sultry unisex fragrance created with tons of love and essential oils like this: Blended together are ancient cypher's, incense accord with frankincense, Egyptian sandalwood, a shot of whiskey, spices like ginger and cardamom, and a bunch of deep dark secrets that well, if you told you I'd have to kill ya ;)

In the vial this is a spicy incense; applied to skin I can smell ginger and what I think might be cloves. Some kind of strong spice, anyway. It's quite masculine and dark. After a couple of minutes it took a horrifying turn and became... fertiliser. I'm not kidding. You know in Spring when the council comes out and lays fertiliser in all the nature strips and it's kind of fresh and country-ish but also gross and manky at the same time? Yeah, that. I thought maybe I was imagining things at first - that I'd stepped in something and that's what I was smelling, but nope, definitely fertiliser.

Like the trooper I am, I stuck it out and thankfully after 20 minutes or so when it had dried down, the fertiliser smell faded and it morphed into a spicy resin, very masculine and not too bad but definitely not my thing. Longevity was low-ish to medium - it had gone completely in 4 hours. Sillage was high at first but didn't last long.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 154!

Dark Winter's Tale - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Dark Winter's Tale
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes:
The winter night air freezes your breath on your scarf as you walk towards a waiting haven of light, safety and the inviting smells of a winter cottage. Hurry to get inside from this dark winter night, and an evening of warmth and joy awaits you! Inspired in part by a fantastic cookie recipe from Morgan Crone, this holiday perfume contains many wonderful scent notes, including: dark gingerbread, rich vanilla, molasses, cardamon, anise, and black pepper. A scrumptious, gourmand, rich and spicy unisex winter scent!

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that most of Deep Midnight's perfumes are sadly not for me. The vanilla note - which is in a lot of the ones I chose or were sent for free (from memory, the owner was particularly generous with free samples) has a distinct synthetic element that just bugs me. It's not that hideous toilet spray vanilla that some companies use, but it's just a bit NQR on me. Dark Winter's Tale has that note and it immediately put me off as soon as I realised. It's kind of an odd thing - it almost smells like coffee. There's a spice note in the vial as well, gingery but also probably the cardamom. Something like allspice in a Christmas cake. Once applied the ginger really comes out on me and combined with the pepper it actually made me a bit sneezy for a couple of minutes. When it settled a bit I didn't mind the ginger, if only that synthetic note would have gone away. After 20 minutes or so it started going dusty on me and stayed that way. Sillage is low and it didn't last terribly long - very, very faint by about the 3 hour mark. 

Rating: 
2/5 

Day 143!

White Rabbit - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Details:
White Rabbit
Mad Tea Party
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes: 
Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen.

In the imp I get spicy, gingery honeyed vanilla. The tea comes out once applied to my wrist, but it smells like a very weak, milky tea at first - more like just sweet milk, really - like how hot milk generally smells sweeter than regular cold milk. The pepper is there and it made my nose twitch a little.

The tea comes out more strongly in the dry down for a while and then the perfume is pretty true to the description, but not really my cup of tea (see what I did there!). I like it a lot more after an hour or so when it morphs again to a sweet honey vanilla - it's quite nice and pretty much stays that way. Sillage was medium to low - it stayed fairly close to the skin after the initial burst of activity on application for 10 minutes or so. Longevity was medium also - about 6 hours.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 142!

Trick or Treat - Alkemia Perfumes

Details:
Trick or Treat
Alkemia Perfumes

Notes:  
A grownup confection of black licorice, mandarin orange peel, caramelized brown sugar, bourbon vanilla, candied ginger, tonka bean, blonde patchouli, cedar tips, oakmoss, and sandalwood. Utterly sexy on both men and women... While this perfume smells like a sumptuous treat, it's got a secret trick... Dr. Alan Hirsch (Director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation) did several studies on the effect of black licorice on the responses of men and women. He found that black licorice increased blood flow to *ahem* certain parts of both the male and female anatomy simulating sexual arousal.

I bought this sample late last year, tried it, adored it, and intended to buy a full bottle immediately, but for some reason never got around to it (too many scented distractions, too little time...). I'm moving it up the chain of full bottle priorities because I am wearing it today and I love it as much as I did the first time. In the vial it smells like orange-scented liquorice, very much a Halloween kind of scent with black and orange. It doesn't say in the seller's notes, but I am assuming this was originally a Halloween edition perfume. Once applied, the alcohol comes out - the bourbon vanilla (more bourbon than vanilla), the liquorice, the orange, that tonka warming it all.. unf! This perfume is TO DIE FOR. The tonka holds through the drydown, and there is a woody note as well that I guess must be the cedar tips (though I don't know what the difference is between that and a regular cedarwood note). Thankfully, I don't really get the sandalwood at all - I've been having a rough time with that of late. Blonde patchouli - what the heck is that? Whatever it is, I can barely, barely smell patchouli in the dry down, but again, it is thankfully in the background and not dominating. I could not detect the ginger either, though there was a tickly spicy note that popped up now and then fleetingly that might have been that.

I suspect this would be a polarising perfume - if you hate liquorice or orange, forget it. This is not for you. But if you like those notes, you must try this. It's not like anything else I own or have tried, and seriously - WHY DO I NOT HAVE A FULL BOTTLE YET?

Rating: 
5/5

Day 122!

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!