Legends

(*) are favorites

[X] are discontinued (some may be found on Soapbox Company; check Alkemia's perfume list on the FB page)

[LE] are limited edition

[Se] are seasonal releases

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------Disclaimer------

Please disregard any reference to boyfriend's comments on several blends listed herein. It is established that his nose is highly unreliable as his scent vocabularies appear to be limited to "tutti frutti", "pancake (read: maple syrup)" and "nice", any of which does not reflect the scents commented upon in the most appropriate manner.

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*A Roll in the Hay - A lovely blast of sweet creamy powdery grass, if that even make any sense. It smells on me exactly the way I sniffed it in the vial. It opened up with the aroma of fresh grass, but rounded out with creamy notes. I suspected it's the vanilla. There's subtle sweetness of honey nectar. It smells pretty literal but amazing as a perfume. On my skin, it really reminds me of Guerlain L'Heure Bleu, but I kinda like the atmosphere in this one better I think. If HB reminds you of melancholic rainy day in a warm house interior, ARitH is quite the opposite, as it's more like out in a warm, slightly breezy-day being out in a park.

Projectivity was low-medium and longevity is 8.5 hours by far, but muting into more a skinscent.

Absinthe & Laudanum in the Afternoon

First impression: Boozy. Resinous velvety purple haze. Strong waft around me.

After 5 hours: Boozy still, resinous velvet green haze, but even dryer than the opening. More powdery. Resembling absinthe but notsmelling like absinthe. It's the romanticism of it. The bitterness and herbal medicinal facets are more apparent at this point, but the Tonka, along with jasmine, helps a lot in keeping it from going too far.

There's a slight spiciness that contributes to the medicinal part that reminds me of eucalyptus and clove.

I still get quite some sniffs when I move around, but obviously not as strong.

Final Drydown:

Fading out on hour 6 on my wrists. At this point the remnant is sweet, dainty woody-jasmine. It lasted a total 8 hours on me. I changed right after I got back home from work to walk and play with my dog, so it's understandable that I couldn't smell anything from that point on.

Overall impression:

I caught the vetiver right away. The musty, slightly sharp, dry wood. The particular note always pulls strong on my skin. It doesn't smell like true vetiver since I think it's well blended with the wormwood to create the "green fairy trail". I'd guess vetiver amplifies the camphorous feel. I'm not familiar with wormwood, but I'd guess that the camphorous haze is mostly its doing. I think it's risking to be a headache inducing mix if Tonka bean and the flowers don't help to take the edges off a bit and finally smooth things out in the drydown.

Even though it's not as dank and dark as one would expect from the name, I think I get where Sharra wanted to go with this. The fairy in mind is definitely

not the kind from children's storybook, all cute and bubbly. This fairy is dainty and happy but actually malevolently roguish.

This is not my type of sensual scent, but I can imagine this being someone's

sensual scent. I wouldn't get a fullsize for myself, as I still haven't developed the the taste for peaty/herbal/medicinal scents. But it is one of the more interesting scents I've tried thus far and would encourage others to get the fullsize without hesitation. I would love to read comparisons with other perfume houses' renditions of this kind of absinthe. Not the usual anise/licorice based absinthe rendition.

*Affaire du Coeur - I was worried it may smell "childish" but I was more than happy to be proven wrong. It's a warm, plush, sweet vanilla that feels elegant and comforting. It's very inoffensive and really, really nice. One that I would just grab when being faced by too many options in a rush.

All Hallow's Eve 2015

Wet: From the vial, sticky sweet licorice and marshmallow and whiffs of smoke.

On the skin, holy sweet benzoin and woodsmoke!

After 5 hours:

The strongest notes I notice right away are hazel, myrrh and amber, probably a bit of tonka. It's nutty, warm and a bit dusty (resinous). The smoke definitely is dying away on my skin, although it's still quite noticeable on the waft around me. I barely notice the spices as they only contribute to the pungent, spicy warm smell on the background.

The sillage is moderately strong. I can smell it throughout the wear.

Drydown:

On the drydown, the acrid spices became stronger and reminds me of a traditional multi-purpose oil from my homeland, but padded with fluffy hazel, marshmallow and vanilla, and fragrant and sweet smoky resin.

By the end of work day, the scent has become skin scent.

Overall impression:

I enjoy the opening and development of the scent throughout the day.

It's very complex and transforming. I can't say it's nostalgic and/or atmospheric, because the event is not widely celebrated in my homeland, but it gave me a mental image of the All Hallow's Eve. I don't personally enjoy the acrid spices taking the spotlight on the drydown, but I really appreciate the blend. I wish Dia de Los Angelitos would have a wisp of the smokiness of this blend, but perhaps I'm going to try layering DdLA with Ardere for the purpose. I'm not getting a full bottle of AHE, but I'm definitely going to cherish my sample vial.

*Ambre I: Ardere - This smells almost exactly the same with Solstice Scents Conjure, which I love! This is a tad bit sweeter from the tonka beans, but not by much. Spicy, resinous, warm and sweet. Yum!

[X] Ambre III: Naiad - This, to me, is very powdery and aquatic at the same time, if that makes any sense. Sharra's description is on the spot: dew soaked orris roots and pale irises bathed in cool rivulets of aquatic amber with a whisper of Japanese incense. The powderiness is fleeting and smells....wet, with a bit of pale fragrance smoke. I think it's pretty, but I can't shake off the memory of portable soap papers my mom always puts in my bag when I was a kid. It's a packet of little sheets of soap. They're as thin as paper and one sheet is good for one use.

[LE]*Ambre Extrait - This is a gorgeous plush amber! It's amazing by itself and I can see it elevates many other scents to a whole different level when layered. It is resinous, sweet and spicy. My favorite layering recipe is this + Farkas + Aphrodesia. GORGEOUS.

*Aphrodesia - Pretty straightforward spicy vanilla with a dab of sweetness from frankincense. The frankincense also doesn't turn the whole blend soapy as usual. Albeit simple, the scent is very cozy and sexy. Real creamy with a nice kick. I prefer this to L'Encens a la Vanille for spicy vanilla. Projection was rather low, but I still get whiffs every now and then. Longevity is around 11-hours on me.

Ardorem XII - Opens up quite aquatic and strong on citrus and spice on the skin. Like dad's old YSL L'Homme. It has the nice sandalwood on the background but still very faint at 2 hours mark. A couple hours later, it was musky wood and spice, with hints of black pepper and incense. It smelled rather masculine almost the whole day, not that it's bad at all. At 7.34pm the drydown is super nice, albeit very faint, unlike PTR and MdSeT. But I love it's creamy wood and warm and soft at the end, albeit somewhat predictable. It was a nice trip all the way, but love the drydown most. Projection is low and dwindling to skin-scent, and longevity is 10 hours. Roberto said I smelled like him, guess it's quite masculine then.

Autumn - It's very comforting and familiar. The skin musk smells like clean skin after shower, but there's a warmth to it. For some reason, it reminds me of the smell of baby, all warm and snuggly. But the grown up version of it. Golden ambery cashmere worn on clean skin should be the perfect description. And there's a crisp smell of leaves in the fall. Not exactly decayed, but if you stand in a street with trees on the side and sniff, the air, it's just like that.

Baccante - It opens with fresh blueberry on me. The fat juicy sweet fresh blueberries, so it's not syrupy. Also to me, it smells more like the skin than the flesh.

Aside of that, the ivy and oakmoss makes it smells green and fresh. Like breathing the fresh air in an opening in the woods kind of thing. Perhaps the decaying bark and fungi gave the wee bit earthy smell, but it's not detectable to me unless I huff my wrist closely. It's evocative, but more on the romanticized side than realistic.

I didn't detect the lavender and tonka. Silage and longevity is low on me.

I hadn't rested this properly, so I still want to retest after a month.

*Bohémiens en Voyage - This is what I expected Bottega Veneta Bottega Veneta to be! The suede is prominent and soft and musky and ever so slightly salty. The rest to me is similar to A Roll in the Hay but less powdery and less sweet. As someone once pointed out (in Fragrantica, I think), it's like the grown up version of ARitH. Unfortunately, silage and longevity are low on me, but I really, really love this. It's not common, but crowd-safe.

Blue Lotus - Way too ordinary floral aquatic for me. It's quite a nice blend, but really not me.

[X] Caliph's Beloved - First impression, galangal root was very prominent, accompanied by the creamy spicy lushness of carnation. It's padded with something I can only imagine as ambergris and rounded out with musk. I smell something like coriander (seed), the whole ones, uncracked. And the familiar feel of cardamom, although I can't particularly discern it. The floral was prominent as well, but I can't make each one out. I didn't quite love the smell at first, although it's nicely blended. The drydown was really similar to Incendere. It's nice, but the spices in both concoction aren't exactly my thing. I prefer the spices in PTR, L'EalV, A I: Ardere.

Carmen 7 - La Petite Seduction's baby sister. It's nicely fruity, floral and just ever so slightly boozy and spicy. A great balance of all elements, leaning a bit to the fresh side, but not fleeting. It's strangely somewhat boozy when it's not even an alcohol-based perfume. A well-blended, elegant fruity-floral. Not me, but I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.

Caveau des Innocents

Wet:

From the vial and on the skin, sticky-sweet, soapy tobacco. I got the medley of blonde tobacco, dipped in weird cocktail of pear, caramel and rum; in that particular order. I'd guess that the soapy part is from candied citron and star anise. The latter because I smell (very) faintly something like Chinese herbal medicine store far in the background. Not particularly a fan of this sweet, soapy explosion in the opening.

After 1 hour:

Heh. Finally the dunked tobacco dried up. It's the dank, dry tobacco I was expecting. Although, the sillage is still pretty much sweet.

But....where is clove?? :(

After 5 hours: Tobacco, opoponax and vanilla incense, plus a bit of labdanum. I still get the soapy quality, which incense can sometimes do on my skin. There's some powdery plush feel, just almost waxy. The waft from my skin bears the smell of caramel. I'm still not getting the hashish and guiac. It's

getting more interesting but still too slow and not quite there yet.

Though, I'm a bit relieved to finally passed the fruity part. I'm just quite picky with fruits in general.

Boyfriend came close to give a kiss and remarked that I smell good. Despite of the number of perfumes I have (which is little compared to most other perfumistas here), such compliment is very hard to come by from him.

Drydown: -

Overall impression: -

De La Forêt

Wet:

From the vial and on the skin, fragrant powder bomb which I suspected was orris root's doing, assisted by the sandalwood and golden musk, that made me want to sneeze. It's the kind of powdery notes I don't like unfortunately. Reminds me too much on "granny powder"

After 1 hour:

The powdery bomb lightened up considerably and went to the background.

Now the bergamot takes the spotlight and makes the scent smells fresher.

The golden musk still lingers on and the papery note emerged. There are also faint whiffs of fragrant woods.

Sillage is rather strong.

After 5 hours:

The bergamot subsides and the powder returns, although nothing like the opening. It's more like fragrant wood right now: dry sandalwood and fragrant rosewood, with medicinal oud.

I can still smell the scent around me every now and then.

Drydown:

The fragrant woods subside and the only ones left are the medicinal oud and the paper. It's no longer wafting around, but definitely more than just skin scent on me.

It wore 9 hours on me and it still wafted noticeable when I was changing my clothes after getting home from work.

Overall impression:

I can't say I enjoy the opening-too rosy powdery bomb for me. I much enjoy the journey towards the drydown as I get the woody feel more. It doesn't warrant a fullsize for me as it's not quite the 'fragrant wood' I had in mind. However, I think it's quite a complex and interesting blend. I just wished it wasn't sooooo powdery in the beginning.

Deadly Nightshade - For the life of me, I just don't get the mysterious and dark side of it. It's my second testing and still a powdery soapy violet to me. The opium might has a role on that. The suede is really, really soft, it's barely discernible. It's rather sweet and comforting than a disguised evil. I think I give up with this. For the record, I had to get another sample because I was really expecting that lady killer vibe.

Devil's Dandy - Initial whiff: I got the combination of the notes all at once, especially the wine soaked-fruits and patchouli, with the musk, mahogany and leather taking a backseat but still there. However, on my skin all of them combined smells like pee laden with drug chemicals, while you're taking a liquid medicine. Not really in a bad way, though. The combination is actually kinda nice, especially with the right skin chemistry. My skin loves to amp up fruits and to go awry with most patchoulis. So far, I don't like it that much on me. However, the drydown is really nice I have to admit. The sweetness toned down, the mahogany stays and the leather, is a real nice perfumey worn leather. The patchouli doesn't go wild on me as well. This is a real nice blend. Projection was rather good and longevity looks promising (4 hours thus far and still going strong).

*Dia de Los Angelitos

Wet/First impression: From the vial, vanilla scented candle.

On the skin, nutty and then blast of cinnamon sugar. Along with it, I get wafts of sugared vanilla, akin to the one in Affaire de Coeur, and some beeswax plushness. The combo reminds me of vanilla-scented candle, but of the real expensive kind.

I'm loving this phase. Spicy and comforting! Silage is moderate. I'm enveloped in a blanket of comforting, beautiful warmth.

After 3 hours:

The scent muted and there's some floral notes emerging. Marigold! I'm actually kinda expecting to get the orange blossom from the pan de muertos as well, but my SO (who's Mexican) told me not all bakeries use orange blossom water when I was making one for last year's Dia de Los Muertos.

The silage dwindled down a bit. I'm not longer enveloped by a thick haze, but I get wafts pretty often than I expected.

The wafts, however, does not have much marigold as on the skin. It retains the fuzzy, warm opening of the fragrance, but I caught a faint whiffs of orange blossoms. This is not the skank orange blossom water, but the delicate, baby-like aspect of it.

After 4 hours:

Aha! Finally, the real orange blossom emerged on the skin, the skank aspect of it. I don't usually enjoy orange blossom as it reminds me of some relaxing oil my late grandmother used to use (I love her, but really hated the smell of the oil). It's very enjoyable in this perfume, though. It's just enough to re-enact the Dia de Los Angelitos, cushioned by the initial fuzzy opening.

Drydown: It's just the muted version of all the fun things that were happening before. I get cinnamon flavoured sweet condensed milk. It's creamy and fragrant, but not spicy. At this point, it's just skin scent and no longer has silage.

Overall impression: This is what I was hoping Vixen would be. I love Vixen as it is, I just had the impression that it would be quite a powerhouse like DdLA. This is Vixen turned up to 11. Actually, it's like Affaire de Coeur + Incendere + Vixen. Gorgeousness.

The biggest disappointment of this perfume is that it only lasted 5 hours in total before becoming skin scent. It's not bad, but I want to be able to enjoy this more.

However, I'm crazy impressed by the complexity of this blend. It's a morpher beast. I really love it!

Douceur de Vivre - It's like Ghost Fire amped up and "redecorated" on me. The white amber feels more "ambery" to me and not as "white". The sugar is not overly sweet and I smell something jammy and fuzzy. I kept on thinking if aldehyde was listed, but then it doesn't smell like one, but it's not ozonic either, but I still smell something watery. It's pretty, clean, yet still making a statement especially in summer weather. I'm not sure if I want to have a full-bottle, since I'm not drawn into these types of scent for summer usually. However, it's pretty and if I want to get one in Ultime version, I better make a move soon. I hadn't rested this properly, so I still want to retest after a month.



Ensorcelant - I have to say I had high hope with this one and was disappointed terribly. In a nutshell, this is the smell of liquid handsoap in toilets in malls and office buildings in my homeland. The more experience review would be, super ripe sweet raspberries, sweetened and cushioned with caramel and patchouli. The jasmine was very strong in the beginning and very indolic. Liquid handsoap + poop = :( I couldn't detect the incense.

As a disclaimer, I haven't properly rested the sample. I'm going to revisit in a month, but I doubt my opinion would change much. There's no saving it for me, even for a refined "liquid handsoap + poop" scent.

To be fair, though, if you don't have my scent memory, I think this scent is actually really nice.

*Farkas - It started off smelling very clean, borderline medicinal-metallic on me. It dried down to a simple yet magnificent sweet musky leather. This is awesome for layering.

[X] Fetish - The first blast was rose. I'm not too keen on rose, but this is indeed a nice rose. It doesn't smell fake. The leather and the woodsy part came a bit later and slowly round out the rose and makes the scent feel creamy. Reaaallly nice. It doesn't change much, though.

Ghost Fire - I'm not sure what white amber is, but I got the impression of sugary vanilla rounded up very sophisticately with a nice amber, so one can imagine there's a very subtle bit of a spice kick in it. The first sniff reminds me of a commercial perfume (I can't remember what), but it quickly evolves into something more special. Alkemia's signature, if one may call it so. I believe it's Sharra's special blend of amber. I believe it's the demure version of "sugar, spice and everything nice". It's unoffensive, pleasant and still special.

*Hellcat - This scent is reaalll sexy. It's dark and naughty and elegant. It smells so expensive! I can't make out each notes, I'm not familiar with most of them, but the whole blend is just amazing. The opening was a bit animalic but then it turned into something magnificent.

Hex - Powdery and soapy and dusty/musty-ish. Low silage and longevity on my skin.

Incantation Vanille - It pulled towards soapy heavily on my skin. It was the frankincense who is the culprit on both. I'm so sad since I was really looking forward to love both. Leather and vanilla drew me in, but I didn't get any of those. :((((( The drydown is now more leather and vanilla, but still faint, and after 5-hours! That's a long wait. :( Projectivity was low.

[X] Incendere - The perfume really stays true of its namesake; "incedere" — to burn. Well, the burning sensation on my skin wasn't that bad, but all the areas where I applied the oil was burning red. I accidentally touched my face with one finger that touched the oil and I immediately broke out in hives.

That aside, the scent itself smells like sweet cinnamon cream, if such things even exists. The carnation is incredibly creamy, it immediately reminded me of Carnation sweetened condensed milk infused with cinnamon. Too bad, I don't smell anything else other than that. The drydown was the mellower version of the opening, with the green smell of fresh Carnation lurking behind. The rest of the notes only played supportive role as I couldn't discern any of them. Silage was rather low, but I got full 15-hours on my wrists. FYI, my wrists are notorious. Any fragrance wears out much faster on them, given the rustling and rubbing with sleeves, desks, keyboard, watch and whatnot. I got the drydown much quicker and where scents also disappear first.

Kamarasa - Fleshy coconut galore. Not too woody, not too sweet, not too creamy. Not the soft young coconut flesh, though. This one has started turning old and tough. I barely could smell any fig, but it could lend the woody, sweet aspect to the coconut. The honey and amber in here are not dark golden and sticky like in MdSeT. Lighter, more demure. The drydown smells more like sweet skin warmed up in the sun, as someone in /r/IMAM put it. I hadn't rested this properly, so I still want to retest after a month.

L'Encens à la Vanille - This scent is gorgeous from the opening to the drydown. All notes blend out so beautifully that the vanilla didn't make me sick, the spices were behaving nicely but still have some bites and the amber, incense and woods just round out the whole scent beautifully. Incense, as usual, pulls a bit soapy on my skin and the vanilla is the strongest on the drydown on me. A bit boring, but nice still. It's warm, balanced, slightly nice but naughty. It's like a tamed Persian Tea Room, if you feel PTR is too bold for you. For me, I like both. Silage and longevity are moderate.

La Petite Séduction - Needs retesting. My initial thought is that although it's fruity, it's done in a very elegant way. But I still think it's too dept. store perfumey. It then morphed into something warm and plush and very pleasant. I really enjoyed it.

Retested. The opening reminds me of Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy and the drydown, a less offensive version of Thierry Mugler Angel, but of course LSP has more nuance. Enjoyable and comfortable, not to mention, a crowd pleaser. But to me, it's too familiar with commercially available perfumes and not unique enough.

*Les Mysteres - Opens green and somewhat sappy from green fig and the leaves, plus some sweet clean smoke from frankincense and Russian tea. In some weather, frankincense pulls soapy on my skin. Sometimes musks can lend soapiness as well on my skin. sometimes powdery sweet. I don't get much warmth or resin from labdanum and dark amber, though. Silage was low-medium and longevity was okay, about 7 hours.

Lux Aeternum - Hmmmmm my boyf's reaction to this was "Mmmm you smell nice. Sweet, like candy". :/Not exactly a valid opinion to me, but look out for that. I think he got the sweetness from the rose. It is a sweet rose to me, but not overly so. Then again, my skin pulls the sweetness of rose. I smell the tang of pomegranate. Maybe that's what triggered my boyf's reaction. It must have smelled to him like a Mediterranean sweet. A mature candy sweet, instead of a childish one. The solar amber provides warmth base that is not really noticeable, but rounds the simple blend together.

*Madam Pearl - When the scent dispersed on my skin, it was dead-on vanilla tea. And then, it smells more coconut than anything to me. I think that was when the pepper entered and lent some woody smell. But the whole feel was creamy coconut milk with some vanilla in it. Well, I love coconut cream. It's embedded for centuries in my culture and I can just drink it from the can. It's a fairly linear scent and so, so creamy I really love it. It's super super lovely and creamy and comforting and real nice for sunny days, but silage and longevity are on the weaker side.

Madam X - Very classic musky floral, like elegant perfumey floral. Drydown was nice. But somewhat felt a bit....too predictable? Projections was quite nice, but longevity was not that good.

*Mesnée d'Hellequin - Really does smell like a forest at night. I didn't remember pine balsam was in it, but I recognized right away, along with lichen and moss and creates a dewy green atmosphere. The galbanum contributes to the dewy greenness, but doesn't repel me the way it usually does. The scent moves into a woodier, earthier base and becomes more powdery and enchantingly earthy. To me, it may be one of A Midsummer's Night Dream collection, if there's one. It's that ethereal to me. In the wrong temperature (midsummer daytime), the drydown smells more like a herbal medicine soap in my late grandmother's bathroom. But the temparature has dropped a few degrees and now it really is gorgeous from top to bottom.

*Miel de Sauvage et Tabac - I love the smell of the deep sticky sweet fragrant tobacco. And it's exactly like that. The honey note is very true as well and I just love being enveloped in it, supported with the damp tobacco. For my boyfriend, though, this is a "pancake smell" (he's referring to maple syrup). While he loves sweet smell, he doesn't get why I want to smell like "pancake" . When I first tested it, I put it on at 0730 and it was 1300 when the flowers and amber start peeking through, giving a tad bit of plush powdery feel with a very faint hint of spice. Silage is monstrous and it has great longevity of 12 hours, at least.

[Se] Mistress of Misrule - The black currant is sweet and jammy. It blooms better on the skin and is quickly joined by the opium. It was like if joss stick has a black currant variant. The opium subside towards the drydown, the black currant too but not by much and the resin takes the front seat, although the jammy currant still takes the center stage. Longevity and silage are rather weak. I get to the resin part very quick, in about 3 hours, and the scent is very dim from then on. I don't usually enjoy fruity scent easily, but this is nice. Just too simple and short lived.

*Moon Goddess - I don't usually like floral, fresh scents as I tend to find them generic and boring. But this one, I really enjoy it as it touches my skin. The first strong whiff is melon and cucumber. I hate both in flesh, even the smells make me gag. But the floral and aquatic musk in this scent cut off the cloying part of both notes. The aquatic musk doesn't smell too aquatic either, which I very rarely can enjoy. Now the floral, I find them veering towards clean, powdery and comfortable, with some green, velvety thickness to it. It's like the smell of my mom's and grandmother's skins. I'm pretty sure it's the combination of the flower and musk notes. It's not my usual kind of scent, but it's so well blended and I found myself really enjoying it. Silage is close to skin.

The mind-image of the scent would be thick petaled flowers, wet with morning dew, crushed on sweet grass, but never touch the dirt. It's green, fresh, sweet and slightly creamy = intoxicating.

Musc d'Été - This is a sweet skin musk and rather "pungent" in a good way. Unfortunately, it's another not-so-good olfactory association to me. Back in my homeland, there is one brand of alum powder majorly used as deodorant. It's sold in sachet in 2 variants, white sachet is odorless and the silver one has some perfume. Unfortunately, Musc d'Été smells like the latter. Although, it's not a bad smell at all, I don't exactly envision myself to want to be smelling like it. :(

As with other scents release of summer 2016, I hadn't rested them properly when I tried them out. But as with many others, I doubt my opinion will change much.

Ofrenda (2015 version)

Wet: From the vial, bright chocolate and copal. Mmmm interesting.

On the skin, chamomile. I assumed that's the combo of calendula, lemon blossoms and jasmine. I did not detect anything else.

After 4 hours: Still chamomile, velveted by what I assumed to be the vanilla orchid. Still not getting the darker side I was expecting.

Drydown: -

Overall impression: Gave up. Definitely resting this for a while and retest.

Persephone - This is a lovely blend. I love the tartness and sweetness blend of pomegranate and red wine. I actually love the smell, it's plush and juicy. But it reminds me of someone from the past whom I was not too fond of and he smelled exactly like this. :( So, yeah, pomegranate lover should snag this quick, but I think I'd rather stay away.

I retested it and I love how simple and wearable, yet quietly sinisterly elegant at the same time. It no longer reminds me of said person. I wouldn't rush for a FB, but I'm considering it.

I just realized today when I sniffed the sample vial in my purse, what I like about this and why I hated it the first time sniffing. It smells like the sweet taste of your lips and fingers after smoking a clove cigarette. It's very popular in my homeland. The first time I tried Persephone, I wasn't smoking clove cigarettes, but now I love them even though I have very limited stash that I cherish (I'm far away from home).

*Persian Tea Room - Warm, spicy and comfortable. At first I thought it smells like the spice bazaar in Istanbul. I love it but not exactly the way I want to smell like. Just like cooking curry. The smell is scrumptious but not on my hair and all over my body. Haha. But as it developed, sheesh, the drydown was gooorgeous. The spices mellowed out and ended up just like being sprinkled on top of musky leather. Now that the oil has rested for a year, it's more plush and more like the feel of the drydown from the get go. It reminds me of Chai Latte from Costa Coffee, while seating on plush leather lounge chair. The silage is great and longevity is downright amazing. I put it on at 6pm before leaving for a party and I could still smell it at 2pm the next day! And the way the scent kept wafting around me and wrapped me was really, really nice. This is such a happy coincidence since I didn't include it on my sample set, but Sharra was so sweet to throw this in. This was one of the scents she strongly recommended to me. I should've known better to not listen.

Philtre d'Amour No. 6 - It's all baby powder on me. Powdery and sweet with the cloying sweetness (even though it's not *that* sweet) you can feel at the back of your tongue after swallowing a spoonful of honey, or even sometimes from just smelling it. The amber is not resinous, as I mentioned, it's powdery. I don't smell a lot of vanilla in here. I think it's only to give some "taste" to the whole blend.

Porta Alchemica - This is super citrusy on me. Not too dissimilar from designer perfume for men that I've smelled before (I think it's one of my dad's old perfume). However, if I smell it closer, I could almost definitely taste the campari. It really reminds me of summer in Malta since Aperol Spritz is THE summer drink in here. Other notes I could detect were the neroli, as it's always so pungent on me, orange, bay leaf, cypress and amber. The amber seems like it's there to give some spice kick and warm base. The rest of the notes are a blur to me. This has crazy silage. I can't say much about longevity because I wore it to an evening jazz festival 2 nights ago and it already disappeared the next morning. But I definitely could smell it throughout the evening.

The Raven

Wet:

On the skin, sweet, sticky, metallic black ink. Black fig? and violet leaf, plus black leather, side to side. The effervescent side of violet leaf is always quite strong on me, just like the one of vetiver. The opening is very similar to James Heeley Cuir Pleine Fleur on me, it's just in Heeley's, it's suede and violet leaf instead of leather.

Silage is strong. And somehow I smell peppermint in the waft. I get the same black, metallic cold impression from Darling Clandestine Supernova.

After 2.5 hours:

Woody black pepper and ebony emerged with some kick from the nigella sativa. I don't feel the pepper gives a spicy impression, but a dusty, woody one instead. Leather and violet leaf are still going strong on me.

Drydown: The violet leaf finally takes the back seat, although it has decided it's here to stay. The leather doesn't budge.

The woody part and the blackseed gets stronger. The blackseed in here

shows it's woody side, instead of the spicy, pungent one.

Overall impression:

In oppose to Wichapi's review on Scent-Sibyl, I don't think this is gourmand at all. This is more of a woody-leather for me. I never got the cardamom and I'm a bit relieved somewhat. I rarely had any luck with cardamom in perfumes, but that's with the green one. I don't have a clue how the Bengal black cardamom is supposed to smell like and I'm actually curious. I also didn't catch much of iris, rather than some distant sweetness and perhaps helps reinforcing the dustiness of some notes.

This is quite a peculiar blend and I'm not sure how to react to that. In a way, that I can't connect to it to any feelings. Hellcat is weird but it gets me feeling sexy and slinky. The woody notes in The Raven definitely doesn't evoke warm feeling. It exudes more like darkness, mystery, calm and composed state.

However, all in all, I think this is a brilliant, complex blend and it smells very expensive and elegant. It's something you would expect from a high-end niche

perfume house. I love this and am glad I blind-bought the full-bottle on

Sharra's suggestion.

It lasted the whole working day on me. I rarely get the chance to test out perfume more than 8-10 hours because I change my clothes and take my dog out right away when I come home from work. But the scent was stuck into the blouse I wore to work. Silage is strong at first and stays at moderate until the drydown.

Salome - Needs retesting. My initial thought is that it's fruity and sweet like many commercial celebrity perfumes, but it doesn't smell cheap and has a twist on its own. While it's really enjoyable, it's not my type of scent.

For the love of me, I can't smell this scent. 3 times I tested it and I barely could smell anything on all attempts. What I could smell was only a some faint lingering sweet red wine. I didn't detect any other notes. I caught a very, very faint whiff once in a while, but not enough for me to discern anything of the blend. And I did slather it heavily. I'm very curious and jealous reading other reviews on this scent. I'm just hoping that it's actually not me and I would not like it anyway. lac:

Smoke & Mirrors - Very simple straightforward smoke scent. Stays linear. Low silage and longevity on my skin. Too simple on its own, but it is a nice layering scent.

[X]*Succubus - My first thought was that violet officially fails me. This smells almost exactly the same as Deadly Nightshade and both scents' violet note just drowns everything else and they just smell like violet soap. Fresh, clean, pretty violet. Too bad it's not my thing. But then I retested in when the temperature heated up and I LOVE IT! Wth. No more soapy violets and stuff. It's clove and incense galore! Real wicked.

[X]Tryst of Grey - I was never really interested in trying it as I don't like citrus notes and, although I love Earl Grey tea and many other teas, I was not sure I want to smell like I bathed myself with Earl Grey tea. This is nothing like it. Yes it does have whiffs of bergamot and its citrus peel, as well as Earl Grey. But Black Assam was stronger on me and the honey was not cloying as well. I wouldn't usually be attracted to these kinds of scents, but I actually like this! It smells so expensive and so elegant, nothing screechy from the citrus.

I bought the full bottle in October 2015 but I ended up destashing it in June 2016. Somehow, the bergamot citrus peel got amplified on my skin and smells very bitter. :___0

Vamp - It smells like lemon-scented hairspray. Doesn't speak vampy to me at all. Maybe the flappers in the '20s used to douse their head in hairspray to hold the hair in place when they were out to jitterbug all night. Anyway, it's not my taste at all, unfortunately. Perhaps I need to grab another sample and revisit this again someday.

*Vixen - The first blast upon application is a sweet cushiony warmth with a bit of a kick. The whole feeling is really that "sugar, spice and everything nice" in a naughty, slightly shady way. Just like the Kitsune. She seems sweet and fragile, while she actually is cunning. I really can't discern every notes, again, but I really am loving this.

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Reviews to be added:

I. Cuir

Amour Conjure

Arabesque

As Dark Things Are Meant to be Loved

Caravan

Fumé Oud à la Vanille

Epicée Bohème

The Decadents

Sol Invictus

Yellow Book