Madame Scodioli solid perfumes

Scodioli Creative has been on my 'to try' list for a couple of years, but I'm not a massive fan of solid perfumes so I just never got around to it. However, I'm trying to branch out a bit so after waiting around FOREVER for the weather to be safe, I decided to order some samples and see what they were like. (As it happens, the day they turned up was 32 degrees celsius - in the middle of Autumn. Luckily I was home early and they didn't have to sit in a hot metal letterbox all day. But seriously - WTF Adelaide????)

The samples come in a set of 3 for $18US. That might seem expensive for samples, but it makes sense when you see the size of them. Check out one next to a clam shell, which is the usual sample size for a solid perfume, and a full size Darling Clandestine solid perfume:

There is 1/4 oz of perfume in each, and according to some mathematical calculations in my head Google, that translates to 7ml for us down under. 7ml of perfume for $6US = bloody good deal (the full size Darling Clandestine perfumes are almost twice that volume, I think, but their perfumes are way bigger than most and crazy cheap for how much you get ). So basically you're getting what amounts to 3 almost-full size perfumes for $6US each.  Shipping was $10US to Australia, which is pretty average these days (sob).

The packaging is gorgeous. These are very sturdy screw top tins with an old-fashioned banner label stuck around them. I could have one of these floating around the bottom of my handbag of doom and not worry about it leaking everywhere. In fact, that's probably what I will do with them. I am trying to acquire a taste for solid perfumes because they are just so much easier to carry around and reapply than oils are. The 3 I chose were Euphorium, Odeda and Boheme. I don't feel as though I need a full size of any of these as they are well big enough for me, and the full sizes are a massive 30ml. However, I will buy more sample sizes as there are a few others I want to check out too, namely Farewell (lilac and bergamot), Timshel (tobacco and vanilla), and Oracle (exotic fig, spices and musk).

Euphorium - almond, milk and honey.
This opens with a strong hit of almond - a note I often detest, and in the tin it is straight up marzipan, bringing back horrific nightmares of 1970s wedding cakes coated with a sheet of almond icing. However, after a couple of minutes the almond mellows nicely into the background to just add a slight nutty note. The honey isn't really noticeable on me - maybe it's that tiny touch of sweetness, but mostly what I get from this is a warm, milky vanilla-ish scent that is pretty much a dupe of my beloved - and discontinued - Firebird Almond Milk. So if you're a fan of that one and you missed out on stocking up before it disappeared, Euphorium is definitely worth trying out.This one was instant love for me.

Odeda - saffron, musk and honey.
This was the one I was most interested in and sadly, the only one I hated. My favourite Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume is a limited edition called Love's Philosophy, which was released a couple of times for Valentine's Day but to my knowledge hasn't been around for about 6 years. I have two half full bottles that I picked up from forum sales, and am constantly keeping an eye out for more. The notes in it are vanilla, cream and saffron and it's the saffron in it that I adore. It adds a tiny kick of spice to the standard vanilla/cream combo and just makes it amazingly warm and sniffable. So I guess I was hoping that Odeda would be similar, but alas, it was not to be. The saffron is completely overpowering to the point where I could never at any time smell the musk or the honey. It was just a really strong, slightly band-aidy spice smell that gave me a headache and took forever to go away (in my experience solids last a couple of hours if that - this one of course hung in there for a good 8 hours). This is definitely not for me and I won't be going near it again.

Boheme - vanilla oak.
It is what it says it is - a woody unisex fragrance sweetened slightly with vanilla. It's like a really nice smelling furniture polish, and I don't mean that in a bad way; if I had fancy wood furniture (rather than a house full of Ikea) I would totally rub this all over it. Actually, I probably wouldn't because fancy wood furniture is really expensive, but you get what I mean. Like Odeda, this is quite strong, but I find that on my skin with most woody notes. I didn't love this, but I did like it - I'd be more inclined to wear it in cold weather so I think I'll put it away for a month or two and then haul it out mid-winter.

Overall, the blends are quite simple (not a bad thing), and I'm happy enough - Odeda notwithstanding - to try more. Scodioli is a good little shop worth checking out, and they also sell soap and manly beard wotsits for those of you who are into such things.

Genius Storage Idea for Perfume Samples That I Wish Was Mine

Right, so hold on to your hats, perfume buddies. I found this brilliant idea thanks to Lipstick & Libraries, and promptly stole it, and it's freakin' GENIUS.

This is my current storage for samples, and it's not that satisfactory. I have them sorted into companies and stored in little empty cosmetic jars. It's neat enough, I suppose, but still a bit too cluttery for my liking.

But then Lipstick & Libraries wrote a blog post about using bullet boxes as storage, and I headed straight to eBay to investigate. As an Australian, and like most Australians, I have no experience of weaponry or its accroutrements, and I didn't even know there was such a thing as a bullet box (though I guess it makes sense that there is). But seek eBay and ye shall find, so I bought one to check it out and see how it went.

Size matters, apparently. I followed instructions and got the box that holds 38/357 (whatever that means), and it is the perfect size for standard sample vials. It doesn't hold the bigger ones, like Common Brimstone's screw tops or Darling Clandestine's 1.5ml taller ones, but that's okay. As long as the majority of my samples can be tucked away neatly, I'm happy.

If you're one of those people who gets all antsy about rolled labels, this is obviously not going to be for you. However, I don't care about them and I don't sell my samples - I just give them away - so I don't need to keep them all 'collectably pristine'. So these are mostly Possets and Arcana with the labels rolled up to fit neatly.

Ta da! I. LOVE. THIS. It's small - about the size of an iphone - and it's a fantastic way to keep samples both tidy and also upright so they don't leak. Also, considering I'm a touchy feely lefty feminazi who hates guns, I feel like I'm giving a tiny bit of ner ner by using a bullet box to store something lovely and harmless.

Paddlepop Lion, what  do you think?

Haus of Gloi Spring collection 2014.

Haus of Gloi is one of the companies I never really risk full sizes on because it's so hit and miss for me (when I say that I mean hit and miss in my personal liking or not liking; as far as quality and customer service and whatnot, Haus of Gloi is one of the best indie perfume companies out there). This time around I almost decided to just go full size on a couple of these because I didn't know how much longer they would be around and also because they were selling out quickly, but I'm glad I didn't because in the end, none of them really grabbed me.

I bought a sample each of all the Spring fragrances, with the exception of Lassi, because I hate the smell of mango, and Selkie, because I've tried it before and it's okay but it's not really my thing.

Ploughman

Well worn leather, dirt n' dandelions, carrot, a pinch of tobacco and a light sheen of feral skin musk.

In the vial this is earthy with a few weeds. My stepfather is a sheep farmer and this reminded me a lot of the smell of the paddocks - lots of fresh air, dirt, a tang of a vaguely animal smell. Wet on the skin the dirt note is prominent for a good while. I didn't really get any leather or tobacco. The dry down is almost floral, again a sort of 'farm' smell, but more like the flowers and vines that grow wild around the farmhouse. I did quite like it but I wouldn't wear it as a perfume. I think it would make a better home fragrance.

Ruth

Fresh strawberry, green patchouli, rose geranium and crushed violet leaf.

Ack! Ack! Ack! This is such a cloying, sickly sweet perfume it makes my stomach turn. The strawberry smells very fake and the violet mixed with it just makes the most godawful mess. I almost didn't want to try this on because I was so put off by it just in the vial, but I'm nothing if not a trooper. I regretted it almost immediately. It was super strong, super sickly and of course - as always is the case with perfumes I hate - it lasted for-bloody-ever. 

Milkmaid

Flushed, but demure. Fresh milk, clean linens, pale musk and pink sweet pea blossom.

Milkmaid smells like almond in the vial - that very sharp note that is redolent of marzipan. Once applied to the skin that note fades after a few minutes, and leaves behind a milder version, an milky, creamy almond with a bit of a floral tinge to it. Unfortunately, the milk note is kind of... well... bordering on baby sick. It's not quite a scrubber, but it's not great.

Tonic 4

Yuzu, basil, cilantro, lemongrass and raw sugar cane accord.

Oddly enough, this was the one I was the least interested in but turned out to be the one I liked best, though as with Ploughman, I would prefer it as a home fragrance than a perfume. In the vial it's strongly citrus, and that remains right through to the drydown, but on skin the herbs come out, and it's a lovely fresh, zingy green kitchen smell. I love the smells of basil and coriander, and I imagine in an oil burner this would make your kitchen smell awesome. (Can you use perfume oils in a burner? I have no idea. I feel an experiment coming up.)

Honeybelle

A blooming orange orchard, orange blossom honey, soft white tea and creamy white amber.

The tea note is the most prominent in this perfume - both in the vial and on the skin. It's a sweet, honey-tinged tea. Unfortunately as soon as it started to dry down it went dusty on me, and pretty much stayed that way. I'm not super jazzed with the smell of tea anyway so I wasn't too bothered. Not my thing at all.

Splendiferous

White cake, lemon zest glaze and sugared violets.

The cake is a lie. This is straight up violets and so cloying. I'm sure I've mentioned before this horrible, horrible woman I used to work with many years ago who seemed to bathe in some hideous old lady perfume, and this is exactly what it smelled like. And like Ruth, it lasted for ages - 10 hours later I could still smell it on myself. 

So, not much luck with the Spring seasonals for me, I'm afraid. However, others seemed to fare better. You can check out more favourable reviews by:

• Liber Vix
• Lipstick and Libraries
• Meowlephant
• A Lion In The Corn
• Swimming Monkey

 

Common Brimstone Perfumes

Grab a cup of tea, kidlets - this is going to take a while.

Way back last year I read about Common Brimstone on Reddit, and since I'm always up for a new perfume company to try out, I pretty much immediately placed an order. When they arrived (one full bottle and 10 samples), I found that a lot of them had leaked, and the sample vials were those horrible milk bottle shaped ones with the flexible wands that you get thumb blisters trying to remove.

The sample vials were so annoying that after testing a few I gave up and put them aside. What was even more annoying was that of the perfumes I tried, I really, really liked them. Rei, the full bottle I took a risk on, was a gorgeous gentle floral with notes of cherry blossom, white musk, magnolia and gardenia. Honey Badger (not pictured because I think it's in my bag somewhere) is amazing - a not-too-sweet honeycomb and beeswax blend deepened with musk and chocolate. Most of the scents I chose and tried out were quite feminine and either distinctly foodie or floral, both of which are right up my alley. These perfumes were totally my jam, but the packaging put me off so much that I wasn't sure I could go back again.

Then someone on Reddit mentioned that the sample vials had been changed to tiny roll on ones. So I decided to do another order around Christmas, picking out two full bottles from the Christmas releases - Chalet Girl and Special Snowflake. I also ordered a set of 5 samples. Again, I was really happy with the risk I took on the full bottles, as I loved both scents, and again, the samples smelled amazing.

The problem was that yet again, the samples leaked - to the point where I couldn't really read half the labels - and worse than that (and really weird considering the leakage), I couldn't actually get any of the product out! I would roll the ball over my wrist and it would leave a lingering scent - as these are fairly potent - but no actual oil came out, so the smell was gone in 10 minutes. I was desperate to slather myself in the caramel and spices of Caramel Chai, so tempting in the vial, but it was just not to be. Nothing wanted to come out. Again, I gave up and put the sample aside, intending to get around to decanting them once I could figure out how to remove the really tiny roller ball. I decided that was enough Common Brimstone for me - as gorgeous as the scents were I just couldn't deal with the packaging.

Cue a couple of months later and someone on Reddit asked about indie perfumers in the UK, and someone else mentioned Common Brimstone. I said that although I loved the perfumes, the packaging was a pain in the arse, and the person who'd recommended them said that the owner Naomi had announced on Facebook she was changing to little screw top sample bottles. Cautiously, like a starving dog who's already been kicked twice, I ventured over to Facebook and sure enough there it was. Okay, I thought - one more chance. I love the perfumes, I like the owner, I really want this to happen. So I took a deep breath and did a third order, which just arrived today. And you know what? JACKPOT.

No leaks, easy to open - these little screw tops are the perfect sample bottle (for me, at least). I could easily get into it all and am currently covered in a messy smoosh of smells after dabbing them here and there all over myself. It's funny how I rarely take a chance with full bottles unless I'm pretty confident I know the perfume company well enough (I'll do it for Possets limited editions, for example, but not for Haus of Gloi, which I find really hit and miss on me), but every time I've risked a full bottle with Common Brimstone I've chosen really well because I love it. In fact, I have not yet hit a CB scent that I outright don't like. Some I'm just kind of meh about - "Yeah, it's okay but it's not really me", but most of the ones I've tried are now on my full bottle wishlist.

My full bottle with this order is Starlight, a natural blend of white amber, jasmine, tuberose, lemon bergamot and sweet orange. I was tossing up about this one because lemon so often goes straight to floor cleaner on me, but in for a penny and all that. The orange is the most prominent note on first application and it's really bright and sunny. Regular readers know how much I hate fruit scents, and I'm not super keen on citrus, but this one is just so cheery I can't help but love it. The drydown is more floral, but the citrus sticks around and the amber gives it a lovely warmth in the dry down that is not at all as overpowering as amber can often be on me. This is a perfume I'd probably wear a lot in the spring and summer, and it's just lovely. Being a completely natural perfume it doesn't have a long lasting time, but I don't really care about that - I'm happy to re-slather regularly.

So all that was a roundabout way of saying now that Naomi has worked out the kinks of her sample packaging, anyone who likes indie perfumes needs to go and check out this store. There's a ton of stuff to choose from, including a handful of solid scents if that's your bag (I haven't tried those yet but I will when our weather finally cools down properly). Shipping is worldwide and very reasonable - my shipping cost for this most recent order was about $8.50AUD. And the perfumes are really beautiful.

Arcana Valentines 2014

A couple of weeks ago, Julia from Arcana Soaps made a short-term offer on Twitter for her followers - pay for shipping and she would send some samples from the new Valentine's Day collection The Beast. Since Arcana doesn't do retail samples for limited edition collections (that I know of) and I am too lazy to bother with decants, I jumped at the chance to try some. I expected maybe two, which I would have been jazzed with, but instead I received five, plus one from the regular catalogue. All for $6US postage. SCORE.

All of these have medium to highish sillage and they last for hours and hours. I could still smell them the following morning on my wrist before I'd had a shower. 

Simbi d'l'Eau

A Loa with the unpredictability and immense power of the oceans, he is pleased by offerings of water and green ribbons. A fresh, aquatic mix of tart raspberry, rainwater, green musk, clematis, osmanthus, tiare blossoms, and ambergris. Part of the New Orleans Trio, from the February 2014 Collection. 

In the vial this smells like a green aquatic - not my cup of tea but I'm always happy to try new things. Unfortunately it turned to soap on my skin immediately. Not unpleasant, but just... well, soap. I'll be passing this one on to someone else to have crack at. 

Nymphomania

Lusty Victorian ladies who foolishly admitted to liking sex wound up with this diagnosis. Eating too much chocolate, reading too many books, and wearing enticing perfumes were all among the causative factors. (Which explains a lot, no?) An indulgent blend of smoked frankincense, golden amber, warmly spiced vodka, thick myrrh, ruby guava, black tea, tobacco leaf, and pink pepper.

This is a deep, smokey, slightly feminine scent but definitely leans unisex. It's quite potent, and there is a spiciness to it that is most likely the pepper. The smell of tea is prominent in the vial but I didn't pick it up on my skin - it was all frankincense and amber and that smokey tobacco on me. I liked it a lot but I don't think I'd get a full bottle as it's not one I'd wear all that often.  

Little Man In The Boat

Serving no procreative purpose, the clitoris exists only for pleasure. Definitive proof that we were designed for bliss? Of course! Peach nectar and delicate musk dripping with Tupelo honey, Clover honey, and one dainty tuberose petal.

All I can say is that this does definitely conjure up the aroma of... well... It is what it says it is. It's a musky peach scent with a slight sweetness from the honey. Not my thing because I really don't much like peach, but I imagine loads of people would love this one.   

Maman Brigitte

The bawdy, fun-loving queen of death, Maman Brigitte guards the cemetery, protects prostitutes, gets down on the dance floor, and curses like a Somali sailor. Black amber, cherry-infused red musk, animalic musk, cocoa absolute, white amber, clove bud, tobacco, and the smallest sprig of graveyard mint. Part of the New Orleans Trio, from the February 2014 Collection. 

One of my favourites, and definitely a full bottle purchase. In the vial it smells like bitter chocolate and tobacco, but it mellows on the skin to a deep smokey, musky amber. It's not for the faint-hearted, but it's bloody gorgeous. Every now and then I think I can catch that mint, but it's so fleeting I don't know if I've just convinced myself it's there. LOVE. 

Afterglow

It exists between ecstasy and quietude. The soft euphoria of white amber, vanilla bean, vanilla milk, Malbec grapes, Arcana's own Lust blend, cognac absolute, and a drop of cool peppermint.

Another on the full bottle list for me. A warm, milky vanilla (not that sickly milk, though it does teeter a bit when first applied), the grapes and the cognac are more prominent in the vial than on the skin for me. I do wish they came out a bit more because I love the notes in the vial. The peppermint is there but it's not 'minty' as such. It adds a sort of snowy note, just to keep it from being a full on warm vanilla. Gorgeous. 

The Darling Buds

The fresh essence of the darling buds of May. Baby cucumber, strawberry, petitgrain, grapefruit, pomegranate, basil and a splash of pink rosewater.

This is a strong fruity, slightly spicy scent that I can appreciate aesthetically as a blend, but that doesn't do a lot for me on a personal level. I'm just not a fan of fruit. The basil really amped on me a lot - I guess that was the spicy element. I do love the smell of basil, but more so in the kitchen than on my wrist. It's fun, but not me. 

Arcana limited editions stay around for ages, and you can easily find decant circles for them on indie perfume forums. They don't have an online store, but sell through other etailers such as The Rhinestone Housewife and The Soap Box Co, both of whom ship internationally and have excellent customer service (beware Rhinestone Housewife's shipping though - it's the $25 flat pack kind for international, which is bearable if you're buying a lot but not worth it if you just want a bottle or two). 

Overall, I love Arcana perfumes - they are fantastic quality and last for ages. And Julia is a gem. 

Alchimia Apothecary

I heard about Alchimia Apothecary months ago on Reddit, and I hadn't intended to bother with it because I'm trying to NOT discover new perfumes and just enjoy the huge amount I already have. However, the company owner Erin also frequents that particular subreddit, and her helpful, considered responses to people's questions about perfumes generally made me think, 'Well, this chick knows what she's talking about.' So I thought I'd just try out a few because I can pretty much justify any purchase to myself. I ordered a set of 5 samples and a set of 3 samples - a total of 8 (yay, I can do maths!).

I ordered on 22 November, and they were shipped 27 November. They took forever to get to me - I think I finally received them on New Year's Eve. I put this down to a combination of the time of the year, a backlog in customs and our generally rubbish postal service, because they were definitely shipped within a reasonable amount of time. Erin actually contacted me about a week before Christmas to ask if I'd received it as she'd sent out a bunch at the same time and the only other one that hadn't arrived yet was another Australian customer. I wasn't worried - I know the drill, I knew they'd show up eventually. And they did!

When it arrived, my order was wrapped in cute orange bubble wrap with a sticker but I didn't think to take any pictures of the wrapping. The vials are brown, and I don't think I've ever seen that before. I thought that was pretty cool - darker storage is always better for perfume oils. There was an extra free sample of one of the Yule perfumes, and a special surprise that I'm saving until last.
 
Druid Fluid is a bright, fresh floral with a zingy green note. It's very much in what I refer to as the 'old lady garden' category. I liked it a lot, and I'll probably pick up a full size at some point. This kind of perfume is definitely my jam.

In Ovation is something I have never come across before - a summery vanilla. I can't really describe what it is about it that's summery, but it definitely is. Noodles says it smells a bit like lime, but I don't really get that myself.

Magma is sweet and fruity and a little bit fizzy. It's a very young perfume to me, kind of lollyish and doesn't change much. I like it, but I'm way too old for it.

A la Gory has a massive hit of cherry in the vial and wet on the skin - that was all I could smell at first. However, the cherry note faded quickly, and then I was left with a sweet, kind of soapy floral smell for a while, not really foody. Half an hour or so later the dry down is sweet vanilla biscuit. I liked the dry down but it's quite similar to a few other cake/pastry perfumes I already have.

SeaCret is an ozone perfume with a slight musk note in the dry down. Ozones are not my cup of tea at all but I think people who like them would really enjoy this version.

Caramel Knowledge had what I thought was another strong hit of cherry, but then realised it was almonds. I don't know why but I always confuse those two notes. Thankfully (because I hate almond), it goes away within a minute or two and then I'm left with a kind of sweet and soapy, clean smell - creamy luxury soap. Oddly I didn't get any kind of foodiness from this one at all after the almond, and I expected it to be the most overtly gourmand.  It's nice enough, but on me it just smells like a really expensive soap.

Hue Bris smells like old school fruit sticks - you know the green and orange ones? It's a bit sweet and fizzy and a tiny bit floral. Several hours later it smelled like a musky rose. I liked that element quite a lot, but the initial lolly notes didn't really grab me - again, I'm too old for that.

Sinning Saints is my Yule freebie, a spicy peppery rose. The rose amped like crazy on me with this one and it was all I could smell for about 12 hours. It was nice, but a bit much on a hot day.

If you're as good as me at maths you will notice that's actually 8 samples, not 9. I also have Hook but I've lost it somewhere in the house. It will turn up eventually.

Now, a few weeks before I ordered, there was a discussion on Reddit about what kind of themes people would like to see in indie makeup and/or perfume, and I mentioned a conversation that Noodles and I had once had about how there should be a collection of Freaks and Geeks perfumes. We spent ages thinking about possible note combinations like diesel oil and cannabis for Daniel and so on. I don’t remember them all now and I really wish I’d written them down at the time. Anyway, one of the ones I did remember and mentioned in the Reddit discussion was bubblegum and tobacco for Kim Kelly. Erin and I had a brief little chat about how awesome Freaks and Geeks is, and I’d mentioned something like chocolate milk and peanut butter for Bill (thinking of the scene where he eats a sandwich while laughing at the television) and Erin reminded me that Bill was deathly allergic to peanuts. And that was about it. But then my order turns up with a bottle of a perfume called… KIM KELLY. I was thrilled that Erin was thoughtful enough to not only remember having that specific conversation with me, but that she then went and specially made me a perfume from it. And it’s really good – the bubblegum and tobacco are the opening notes, and it smells exactly like someone smoking and chewing Hubba Bubba. The other notes are violet, black agar, benzoin resin, ambergris, and spice. The dry down is still ever so slightly sweet from the bubblegum, but that's in the background while the benzoin and violet create a lovely floral woody note. I love this perfume - it's what I have always wanted every other bubblegum perfume to be, rather than the sickly sweet Lolitaesque concoctions they usually are. And it is just how I imagine Kim Kelly would have smelled. I hope Erin does do a whole Freaks and Geeks collection one day, because I would be first in line to buy them. 

As well as her listings, Erin also makes custom perfumes and I’ve seen many a happy customer rave about their own personal scent on Reddit. She also sells solid perfumes and some face care products, but I have not tried any of those as yet. In conclusion, Alchimia Apothecary is a shop well worth checking out if you’re into perfume oils.

My Indie Perfume Collection - Part 3

Phew! I didn't realise how long this was going to take me - I thought I'd just snap a few pictures and whack them up on the blog but it took me forever. I was planning to immediately go on and inventory all my makeup but I think I might leave that til the new year now. And maybe have a bit of a clean out first...

This last post is mostly companies whose perfumes I have quite a few of, with some other randoms at the end. As with the other two, I'll link to reviews if I have them.

My Indie Perfume Collection - Part 2

So of course, after posting all those samples, a couple of days later I was looking for some other random thing in a drawer and found a whole stash of more samples that I'd put aside for testing and then forgotten about. I was a bit excited about that actually, because it's like getting something new all over again!

Again, I'm putting the pics behind a cut because there are loads and loads of them.

Sugar and Spite Bathery Halloween Haul

One of my favourite perfume shops used to be The Morbid The Merrier. It shut down in early 2012 after the owner went through some major personal issues, and then a once beloved company was mired in the usual indie drama with payments and orders not happening for quite some time. I'm not going to go through the whole saga - you can find it easily enough if you Google - but my understanding is that everyone was eventually repaid, though it took almost a year to happen. 

A few months ago the owner Lysa opened Sugar and Spite Bathery, and she's been keeping pretty low key, because I had not heard a single thing about it on the grapevine. I didn't know of its existence until Liber Vix posted a first impressions haul. After finding out Lysa was back I was pretty much falling over myself to get to the shop and make an order. I am sure people might be hesitant because of the way the last store imploded, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. She seems to have made amends with everyone eventually - either by delivering their order or a refund - and while she was operating I never had a single problem. Her products and customer service were always excellent. However, I would say people need to make up their own minds when it comes to this kind of thing. 

One of the things that really stood out with The Morbid The Merrier was the packaging and presentation, and Sugar and Spite carries on that lovely tradition. Of course, I took a bunch of pictures before I opened anything, and of course, I cannot find them ANYWHERE. All I have is a grainy Instagram photo. 

International pricing for shipping is not listed on the Etsy site, though the notes say that international shipping is available and to contact for a quote. That always sets off my alarm bells because I feel like it's going to be some whopping amount if they're not willing to state it up front. However, in this case I think it's just a matter of her not getting around to listing them individually, as the quote for me for 1 full bottle and a sample set of 3 was $11US, pretty standard these days for shipping to Australia (annoyingly - stupid postal charge rise). 

My package took less than three weeks from the time I ordered to the time it arrived, again pretty standard for US to Australia. And once I had it in my hot little mitts I could not wait to tear it open and get into it. 

The Halloween Sampler is 3 perfumes, and I received a free sample of Horseman, which I already have from the TMTM days. You can read my impressions when I first bought it here. After 3 years it has aged well and still smells amazing. I haven't tried the sample at all but I'm going to do a comparison in the next week or so to see if they differ from ageing, because Lysa said the blend is the same.

Fiend - Ripe apple pulp, tart mandarin, vanilla bean, and a fiendish ribbon of black amber.
A lot of perfumes that involve citrus tend to go straight to toilet cleaner on me, and this one teetered on the edge without ever quite getting there. Regular readers will know I am not a fan of fruit scents, and I particularly dislike the smell of apple. Although, this is definitely a fruit scent, it's masculine and quite dark. To my own surprise I liked it, but it's not my thing and probably my least favourite of the three samples. Lasting power was good with this one - I could still smell it at the end of the day on my wrist.

Goblin - Blackened honey kissed by night blooming flowers and a ghostly whisper of smoky vanilla.
Love this one. A gorgeous smokey honeyed floral. Not too sweet, could be worn by men or women. The smokiness of the vanilla deepens it beautifully. This didn't last too long on me - only a couple of hours - but it's worth it. Definitely a full bottle.

Sinister - Black licorice whips, tea leaves, and incense smoke from darkened caravans.
My favourite of the 3 samples. I do love me a licorice scent. I can smell the tea and the smoke, and the incense sweetens it just a tiny bit but not too much. This is a night time scent - dark and very potent. It lasted forever on me - I put it on in the morning and I could still smell traces of it on my wrist the following morning before I showered. Licorice is a polarising scent note - people tend to either love it or hate it. If you love it, try this. If you hate it, avoid - this will not convert you.

Katrina - A trio of white flowers, smoky almond, and spiced pumpkin.
I had ummed and ahhed about this one in its first incarnation in 2010. Although I thought it was lovely, I decided against buying a full bottle because I had a million white floral perfumes and this one didn't seem unique enough to warrant more of it. I always vaguely regretted it though, because I did love it. When I saw it was back I snapped it up quick smart, and I'm glad I did. For a white floral it's quite low key - it doesn't scream its entrance to a room. It's soft and pretty and super feminine. I don't really get the pumpkin or spices at all, which is fine with me because I'm not a fan of pumpkin scents. 

Overall, I'm thrilled Lysa is back, and she mentioned on Facebook possibly bringing back some of her other TMTM scents so I'm quietly excited about that prospect as well. In the mean time, I'm going back for a couple of full bottles before the Halloweens come down in early November.

Ordering if you're not in the US
Send an Etsy convo to Lysa stating what you want to buy and she will give you a shipping quote. If you're happy with that she will create a custom listing for you. She doesn't go online on Sundays, so if you contact then it may be a day or so before you get a response.

If you want to read some more detailed information about the shop's products, Liber Vix went back for seconds.

Testing some goodies from @CandidaVirgo

A while back Candi started experimenting with creating scented products, and asked me to test a couple of perfumes for her. Never one to pass up an opportunity for new smells, I agreed eagerly. A day or so later, I received Chocolate Macaron and Cinnamon Donuts perfume oils. I've reviewed Chocolate Macaron on my perfume blog and also talked briefly about Cinnamon Donuts, so I won't say too much about them here except that I am still madly in love with Chocolate Macaron. It is such a rich, foodie chocolate scent - not too sweet, and lasts for a good few hours.

A few weeks later I got some more stuff from Candi - two more perfumes, a scrub and a massage mud. I've been testing those out a bit since.

Banana Rama perfume oil
There are two things I absolutely detest the smell of more than anything else - and I'm talking about normal, every day, allegedly inoffensive things rather than things that everyone agrees is gross like poop and garbage. Those things are tomato sauce and bananas. So I was kind of nervous even sniffing this one. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I quite liked Banana Rama. It's more lolly banana than actual banana, thankfully - but it's not even just that. It's sweet, but not sugary, and there's an element of sherbet as well - this could just as easily have been called Wizz Fizz. There is something slightly deeper that keeps it from being a complete lolly scent. I cannot put my finger on what it is. I could ask Candi, I guess, but that takes the fun away. As it dries down there is ever so slight a whiff of something lemony that comes and goes, and it's not exactly lemon in its pure form, more like a lemony plant, such as lemon myrtle. It's the vibe of lemon. I found this to be a surprisingly interesting scent, and I ended up really liking it after initially assuming I'd have a cursory test and then pass it on to Noodles.

Hot Apple Pie perfume oil
This doesn't smell so much like a genuine apple pie, rather what you think apple pies smell like (real food is always disappointingly less aromatic than you think it will be these days). It's warm and buttery and there's a top note of cinnamon that is quite strong at first but softens after a while. For years and years my mother had stewed apple and bran for breakfast so that smell of apples cooking was embedded into my childhood memories. In this perfume I can smell pastry, cooking apples, kitchen spices, and general wintery warmth. This is a great cold weather casual scent.

Poppy Scrub
Poppy seeds make a great exfoliant - who'd have thought it? This had a similar chocolatey scent to the chocolate macaron perfume, though sweeter and lighter. After about a month it started to go funky, so it might either need more preservative or be one to use in small batches and fairly quickly (like some Lush products). I used this a couple of times a week and really enjoyed it. I'm not one for harsh exfoliators - I generally only use AHA-types or occasionally the Clarisonic. However, the poppy seeds gave a decent exfoliation without feeling hard or scratchy. The product itself was rich, thick and creamy. It lathered slightly, but not a lot, and left my skin feeling really soft after, with no tightness. If Candi ever gets around to selling this stuff, I would definitely buy it.

Massage Mud
I hate massages, to the point where I am almost phobic about them - they make me feel nauseated. A couple of years ago when I had to go to the physio regularly for my wonky shoulder/arm/hips she would massage the muscles and it was the grossest, most invasive feeling I've had. And it's not that she wasn't good or wasn't doing it properly - she was. I just really, really hate massages. So I didn't get a whole lot of use out of this product other than to play around with it. I tried rubbing it all over my legs a couple of times before showering, just to see what it felt like and what it did. The base seems to be coconut oil (smells like it, anyway). It's solid but it melts immediately to an oil on contact with skin. It feels like, well, an oil - it's silky and not at all sticky. If you're a fan of massages, this would be a lovely - albeit messy - product to use. I found it washed off easily in the shower after, and left my skin feeling soft and moisturised after. There was also a faint after scent of something vaguely floral, which is interesting because I don't smell anything floral in the container. I think this would actually make a great pre-shower moisturiser. You know how a while ago I went off on one about that terrible Nivea in-shower moisturiser? Well, if it had been something like this I might have actually liked it.

Enchanticals Perfume

Enchanticals is yet another perfumery that I happened across while scouring Etsy looking for things to spend money on (justifying it with, “Well, I have to have 365 perfumes to review for my project blog now”, of course). This shop sells ‘Victorian Gothic Perfume and Bath & Body Luxuries’.

Samples of perfume oil are available in various sets and collections. I chose a custom set of 6 and ordered Alize, White Rabbit, The Fat Lady, Embracer la Mort, The Snake Charmer and Levesque Burlesque. The shop owner, Monica, emailed me not long after my order and asked me to choose two free samples in addition, so I requested Mermaid Cove and Butterfly Wings. As I said in some blog post recently, I have been deliberately buying at least a couple of scents each time that are outside my normal range, because I want to mix up my reviews a bit. Besides, you never know when you might happen across something you love but would never have looked at otherwise, am I right? 

The sample set I bought was $13US plus $7US for shipping – international shipping from the US has just gone up dramatically, as I complained about in my last post, so Monica has currently suspended it while she finds out what the new charge will be. Generally speaking though, she does ship internationally (obviously, since she shipped to me). And speaking of shipping – it was really fast. The last few months things have been taking 3-4 weeks to get to me from the US, often even longer. I think a lot of stuff is being held up in customs these days while they faff about deciding whether they are going to open them and look at them or not. I ordered on 15 January and received it on 25 January.

Although my order was packed in a little box with packing peanuts, one of the vials was smashed and the perfume had leaked all over the others. I washed them off as best as I could (hence the tattered labels in the picture above), and contacted Monica to let her know. She got back to me within a few hours and was most apologetic; we sorted it all out very quickly, so two thumbs up for stellar customer service from this store. The one that broke was Alize – of course it had to be the chocolate one!

Now to the perfumes – I’m just going to be brief because I’ll eventually review all of these on 365 Days of Smells. There were a couple that I disliked, but these were the ‘outside my comfort zone’ ones, so it’s not that they were crappy perfumes, it’s just that they were the kind of fragrances I don’t happen to enjoy. The quality overall is really good.

Levesque Burlesque

Right off the bat this was one of the ones I really didn’t like. It’s fruity (peach), but on me it smelled like apple-scented disinfectant. On Noodles it smelled like The Body Shop Fuzzy Peach – I still didn’t like it, but it was nowhere near as bad on her, so take my experience with a grain of salt.

The Fat Lady

This was my favourite (reviewed here) – a sweet, biscuity scent that reminded me a bit of BPAL’s Eat Me (without the dusty part). It had a delicious smelling note of slightly lemony confectioner’s custard that really made me crave a vanilla slice.

Embracer la Mort

Violets. As in the shop description, there’s a note of green there (though in my experience, that often comes out with violet scents), but I didn’t get the berries. I liked it, but violet isn’t a floral I find very wearable all that often, so it’s not one I’d buy in a full size.

White Rabbit

This was the most ‘perfumey’ of the ones I tried. I couldn’t pick out any distinct notes, it was all just blended together. This one was the strongest and had the highest sillage.

The Snake Charmer

In the vial it’s marzipan (the amaretto note), which thankfully recedes a bit when applied and the berries come out. Despite my dislike of fruit, sometimes berries can work okay on me, and this was one of those. I quite liked it.

Mermaid Cove

This smells like a slightly watery white floral – there’s maybe gardenia in it (nope, it's frangipani)? Now you know I love my white florals, and you may or may not know I generally dislike watery florals, but I rather liked this one. It wasn’t TOO watery – it just added a hint of a background aquatic note, so it smelled like a garden after a really heavy rain rather than smelling like watered-down perfume, which I find with a lot of those kinds of scents. I’m not sure I’d buy a full bottle as I have quite a lot of white florals, but I’m definitely considering it.

Butterfly Wings

Another fruity concoction. I am 30 years too old for this. Noodles liked it though.

One thing I really like about Enchanticals is that not only can you get samples of all the perfume, you can also get a sort of in between size so if, like me, you want a full size bottle but you already have eleventy million perfumes and you’re never going to get through any of them, you can get these in a one dram size (slightly under 4ml) for around $10US - $14US each. There are also larger size 1/3 fluid ounce (about 10 ml) bottles that vary in price, depending on the perfume.

For the quality, the large range, speed of shipping and the really great customer service, I’d highly recommend checking out this store. You can do so on Etsy or there is also a website.

Update: International shipping is back!

Randomosity

One of my favourite pictures of Noodles, from about 10 years ago. 

1. 2012 was an awful year for respect towards women, in so much as there was very little of it. I'm not going to rehash all the reasons - I'll just get angry all over again, and you all know them anyway. Suffice to say I will not be shedding a tear if Alan Jones finally shuffles off this mortal coil in 2013. What I'd love to see this year is more positive support, both from men and from each other. Let's stop bagging out women who don't fit the Hollywood norm of 'beauty' and yet still have the nerve to be on our screens. Let's stop blaming women who are attacked for being out and about in the first place. Let's stop making ourselves miserable and boring everyone else shitless with our diet obsessions. Let's stop judging mothers for not meeting whatever our own lofty standards of perfection are. Starving a child = abuse. Formula feeding =/= abuse. And so on. In short, let's just be nice.

2. I am really enjoying my perfume a day reviews. I've found a handful of perfume oil fans who also have blogs I'm enjoying reading, such as La Domna, Liber Vix, Brightest Star of All, and Iris Handmade Soaps, and it's so nice to be back into one of my longstanding hobbies again. My only problem is that my wishlist won't stop growing.

3. TV shows I'm hanging out for the return of this year:

• Breaking Bad (of course)
• Mad Men 
• Game of Thrones 
• The Walking Dead. 

      TV shows I've well and truly given up on in 2012 and no longer care about:

• Grimm 
• Once Upon A Time 
• Glee (ugh) 
• How I Met Your Mother.

4. I'm on holiday at the moment and I've been home for a week. I had plans to get up early every morning and do all sorts of useful things. Very little of that has happened. I have another week off, so maybe I can get started on all that tomorrow...


5. I'm finding myself increasingly distracted by overly botoxed and derma-filled faces on TV these days. Both men and women from about 26 onward have these ridiculously smooth, unlined, expressionless foreheads and frankly, it's just creepy. If you're in your 40s, it is OKAY to look like you're in your 40s. Check out Connie Britton. She looks like a 40-something woman, but she's still gorgeous.

6. Don't forget to check out Twyla's generous 20% off for readers of this blog! The code is PRISSYPERFUME and it will run until 12 Feb.

An awesome excuse to go shopping at Twyla

Listen up, perfume fans! You may have recently seen my rave reviews of the new(ish) online perfume store Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary here and here. Well, Twyla contacted me and she would like to do a special offer for readers of my blog. From now for the next month you can get 20% off all purchases from Twyla’s shop. So, go forth and shop!

How do I get that 20% discount then?

Simply use the code PRISSYPERFUME at the end of checkout when the Paypal process is almost complete. Don’t panic and think you missed it, because it does wait until the very end to prompt for it, so keep an eye out.

Can I buy samples of limited edition perfumes?

Yes, you can! Twyla sells samples in sets of 3, called Little Drops of Poison, and you can buy samples of any of her perfumes, including her limited edition scents.

And here’s the cool part. If you buy a sample of a limited edition and it’s been taken down, you have a month's grace to request a full bottle purchase and Twyla will create a special listing for you. Just contact her via her site. This is a great deal , because as we foreigners especially know, sometimes the mail can be deathly slow, and it’s horrible when you wait forever for an LE sample, only to find that when you finally get it and fall in love with it, it’s too late to get a full bottle.

And on that note, Twyla has released her Valentine Bouquet – 5 chocolate-themed scents that sound AH-MAAAAZING. You’d better believe I’m going to be all over those. They will be up until February 15, so get in there.

How long is this deal running for?

I just said that above. You’re skimming, aren’t you? One month from now, so you have a bit of time to get your shopping list together.

What if I want to ask questions about the perfumes first? I have allergies/I don’t know what benzoin smells like/I want something that smells like X?

If you have any questions about Twyla’s perfumes, go ahead and contact her directly – she is super friendly and approachable. She has a contact option on her site (see the little contact widget on the right edge of the page), and she also spends a fair bit of time interacting with her customers and friends on Facebook here.

P.S. If you need even more proof that this is a store worth checking out, read these reviews of some of the perfumes I sent over to Su recently to play with here and here.

More Twyla Perfumes

A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a rave about some Christmas LE perfumes I had bought unsniffed from Twyla Perfumes & Apothecary, and now I'm back to talk about some more that I got in the same order, this time the samples. I have to say, this is pretty  much my new favourite store - I want a full bottle of almost every one of these. They're so beautifully blended and they smell divine. I'm already working out my next order, and pushing it ahead of a bunch of others I'd had planned.

Twyla sells samples in a set of 3 1ml vials for $6US, called Little Drops of Poison. I bought 2 sets because as much as I tried, I could not narrow down to 3. I was pushing it to narrow down to 6. Postage was $7.25US (that was also including 3 other full size bottles that I don't know if I will review as they were seasonal scents that are no longer available). I ordered on 1 December and received them on 17 December. 

I believe these are all from the regular catalogue, not Limited Edition, though admittedly I hadn't thought to ask. I will check up on that and correct this if necessary. I have 7 in all (the 6 I bought and one freebie) and quite a bit to say about them, so you might want to make yourself a drink.

Love and Squalor

The innocence of spring flowers, a whiff of tobacco. Scented letters, church pews, rain and lots of squalor. 

A heady floral blend with grounding tobacco, amber and woods.

Jasmine, spring floral blend, Blonde Tobacco, Amber, Bitter Orange, Ylang Ylang, Sandalwood and Cedarwood. 

In the vial and when first applied, the ylang ylang dominates at first. This scent makes me think of proper old school grown up perfumes like Van Cleef & Arpels First, or a more palatable Chanel No. 5 (which rivals Thierry Mugler Angel for my most hated perfume of all time). It's not that Love and Squalor smells like either of these - it doesn't - it's just from that class of perfume that I think of as 'screams old money'. The kind of thing you expect to smell when one of those rich old ladies who does their grocery shopping in David Jones wanders past you. Ironic considering the name, I guess. 

Love and Squalor doesn't have a lot of throw, and my skin ate it pretty quickly. I reapplied it after about an hour as it had faded to become indiscernible. After the second application it stuck around longer, lasting a good few hours, though still close to the skin. I never did pick up any other distinct notes aside from the ylang ylang, but it's a gorgeous blend and I kept sniffing my wrist constantly while I was wearing it. It is a very 'perfumy' perfume.

Magnolia Street

Leather boots and our mothers' tossed-off hippie dresses; magnolia trees and incense, perfume oils from the pagan shop; red wine, diner coffee and exotic tea, Indian cooking and the sound of Tom Waits wafting through the apartment building's thin walls.  
Opening up with a beautiful magnolia, floral blend and exotic spices, this scent opens up slowly to reveal the lovely but subtle musky pink lotus and incenses, swirling in the background of this complex perfume.  Just when you think you've pinned it down, it shifts ever so slightly to reveal another side. Exotic and sexy yet somehow innocent, this scent captures the essence of a time, a feeling, and a place on Magnolia street.
Magnolia, pink lotus absolute, zdravetz, nagramotha, cannabis flower, coffee flower, peach blossom, sandalwood absolute, aged patchouli and a generous swirl of spice.

Any mention of magnolia in a perfume and I am all over it - I adore it. I used to live in a property that had a big magnolia tree out the front and one of the best smells ever is when it's flowering and it has just rained. Heavenly. In the vial and when first applied I can smell a gorgeous big dose of magnolia and something veeeery faintly sweet and lollyish. That might be the pink musk - does pink musk smell like pink musk lifesavers? I don't know. Whatever it is, it makes the scent really lovely. The patchouli comes out more as it dries down. Let me just take a minute here to talk about patchouli. I hate it. Haaaaaate it. So much so that I actually wavered over whether to even bother trying this scent. However, this is not that yukky hippie shop patchouli oil smell. This is something altogether different. And I.... like it. I never thought I'd say that in a million years about patchouli. Huh.

I forgot I was wearing this one for a while when I was testing it, and didn't sniff again for another hour or so. By then the leather had come out, blended with the patchouli and a faint floral. Again, this one doesn't have a lot of sillage (most of Twyla's scents sit close to the skin, which on the one hand is nice for those who don't like their perfume to enter the room before they do, but on the other hand is sad for me because I want these scents to walk down the street with me screaming 'DOESN'T SHE SMELL GORGEOUS!'), but it lasted a fair while, at least 5 hours. That patchouli gives it an edge I don't have in any of my other magnolia or leather scents, and I definitely want a full bottle of this.

Milk Flower

A creamy floral, fresh and sweet yet complex.
As a kid, i was so in love with the scent of lilacs - i wanted to pick them, put them in a bowl and eat them with fresh, cold whipped cream and sugar. This scent is about as close to that as I can get.
Lilac, carnation absolute, tuberose absolute and white rose drenched in vanilla, amber and cream with the faintest breath of fresh mint absolute.

In the vial, this is a creamy mint. When first applied it reminded me a lot of Latherati's Tara, another floral with a mint note that I used to love.  The mint subsides fairly quickly to the background, and this mellows to a sweet (but not sugary) delicate creamy floral. It's so, so pretty, but my skin just ate it - within half an hour I could barely smell anything, and even when I reapplied it disappeared entirely within a couple of hours. I decanted the rest into a tiny roller bottle and found that slathering it on that way made it last much longer, so that's my plan for when I get a full bottle of this one. It's beautiful.

Bone Flower

Bone Flower, another name for the lovely tuberose.

Tropical flowers on a grave - mysterious, cool, ethereal and beautiful. The complex tuberose blended with the musky scent of loamy, tropical soil and unearthed bones.

Tuberose Absolute, Balsam of Peru, Maile leaf (used in Hawai'ian funereal services), Styrax, Sandalwood Absolute.

In the vial and when first applied, it's all tuberose - big and lush and lovely. It made me think immediately of Frédéric Malle's Carnal Flower, but when I compared the two they're not really the same at all. Like Milk Flower, this is another beautiful scent that sits very close and gets eaten by my ravenous skin. An hour later I couldn't smell it at all; I reapplied but it disappeared quickly again. I wonder if it's because my skin has been dry lately? I might have to experiment, but regardless, this is going to be another full bottle purchase (let's be real, they pretty much all are). 

Only Alice

"It's dreamy weather we're on / You waved your crooked wand Along an icy pond with a frozen moon / A murder of silhouette crows I saw  / And the tears on my face / And the skates on the pond / They spell Alice..." ~ Tom Waits
Every time i hear this song, it evokes such strong images, feelings and smells. This is my idea of what the air smells like in this little world - the cold pines, a keepsake box that smells faintly of a woman's perfume. Sandalwood, soft musk, cedarwood atlas, orange, pine scotch, vanilla and myrrh.

I would have assumed from the name that this was yet another olfactory spin on Alice In Wonderland, but apparently not. In the vial I get orange and something faintly sweet... maybe the musk? It's so pretty. The orange is floral, not citrus, and this is another quite 'perfumy' scent; it's very feminine. Unlike many of the others, this one has quite a bit of throw and lasted longer. Do I need to spell out that I love it?

Soma

This is the second in a series that was intentionally created to fall into the category of both aromatherapy AND perfume. Created to ease anxiety and stress, this oil smells like lovely lemon-flower cotton-candy (due to the sweetness of the vanilla and lemony scent of melissa, not because i used synthetics), white lotus-flowers and sunshine. 

With several calming essentials including melissa (a powerful relaxant, some studies have shown it to help ease clinical anxiety and help calm children with ADD - although current research will show more solid results one way or another in time), lotus, which has a calming and some say euphoric effect; sandalwood, which is commonly used in anti-depressant and anti-anxiety blends for it's soothing aroma; rosewood, ylang ylang and vanilla - all three of which are soothing and comforting to the senses.
This is another one that might help some of you sleep... I find it extremely calming. Most effective as an inhalant or in a room-diffuser/oil burner for several minutes if used for anxiety - but absolutely LOVELY as a perfume!

Lemon! But not floor cleaner lemon, a sweet, herby lemon that smells lovely. This scent doesn't really change all that much, though the lemon mellows a bit after a while. Like Only Alice, this one has more throw than the others and stays around a fair while. It didn't help me sleep, though nothing really does so that's not a deal breaker. I also tried this one in an oil burner and it made my little lounge room smell so pretty. 

Dryad

A beautiful, truly unisex, androgynous woodsy blend with the unique and very complex poplar bud absolute, pine scotch, sweet amber, honey absolute, bourbon vanilla, immortelle, tarragon absolute and resins and a few drops of my very special vintage, 20 year-old patchouli. Redolent of a lush, green and ancient forest.

This was the freebie included with my order, and this vial was about twice the size of the others (it's not in the photo because I've sent it off to Su today with some BPAL imps). In the vial and when first applied, it is dominated by a sweet, sharp pine smell. There used to be an area surrounding the park where we did PE at school that was full of pine trees, and it reminded me of that. It's quite masculine and strong, with more sillage than most of the others, and pretty sharp close up. I could smell vanilla in the background but mostly got the wood and resin, with that pine sticking around throughout. I can see why a lot of people would like this, but I'm not a fan of pine and it was too masculine and sharp for my taste. This is the only one I wouldn't personally buy in full size. If you like woodsy scents, I'd highly recommend trying it out though - it's another beautifully blended perfume. 

As I said above, I'm already working out my next order - at least a couple of full bottles of the above (once I decide which ones I want first), and I also want to try Slammerkin, Tequila Rose, and grab a sample of the one of the more expensive aromatherapy ones - Migraineur - to see if it can help Noodles with her recently developed insomnia.

Perfume Project for 2013

After a year or so of mostly ignoring my perfume oils for the convenience of a quick spritz of something commercial, I'm back into them in a big way. I've spent the past couple of months buying various samples on Etsy and other indie sites, and I've discovered loads of great new fragrances. However, one thing I've found is that aside from the ubiquitous Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, it's often impossible to find reviews of indie perfumes. So after reading this blog, I have decided to shamelessly steal the idea and review a different perfume every day for a year, beginning on 1 January. It also gives me a lovely excuse to continue buying perfumes throughout the year.

I generally roll my eyes at people who have a blog for this and a blog for that (though I'm guilty of blog hopping myself so I'm really not in a position to point fingers), but I decided to create a completely separate space for this project as my blog is more general, and I don't want to clog it up too much with just perfume reviews. I'll still do my brand overview kind of posts here, though, and also reviews of commercial fragrances.

My new blog is here and starts next week, so if you have any interest in perfumes, please follow along! The perfumes I currently have are on my ScentBase, so if there's anything particular on that list you'd like to know more about, let me know. I take requests!