A round up of some of the Valentine's scents for 2011

Random picture of BPALs that have nothing to do with Valentine's Day

THE MORBID THE MERRIER

El Corazon
Like the heart, fickle and a bit deceptive. A heavy, dark, smoky scent with a taunting core of sweetness.

Hasta la Muerte
The innocence of lily and carnation, sweetened with vanilla absolute, smashed and marred by an undercurrent of heartless black spice.

Paramour
Oh, romance. Or something like it. A dozen red roses, spilled wine, a hint of blood, and gunsmoke.

Histoire des Amoureaux
A little Eden, a little de Sade. leather, juicy red apple, a serpent slither of pepper and spice, green grass, and sweat.

Histoure du Professeur
Leather arm chair, starched white cotton shirt, dusty books, a memory of sweet pipe smoke and a faint whiff of brandy kept hidden in a desk drawer.

Histoire du Secretaire
Mile-high leather pumps, skin tight wool pencil skirt, stacks of filing paper, steaming black coffee, a mahogany desk and a hint of musky perfume.

Price:          $12USD
Samples:     Yes, in sets of 3, 5 or 10 and 3ml travel size Eau de Parfum spray.

ONE HAND WASHES THE OTHER

Be Mine
It's a spicy/fruity/vanilla smell, definitely on the feminine side, but I don't see why the right male couldn't pull this off. It's got florals and greens but not a ton- just enough to move it out of the "I smell like food" category. Be Mine is the smell of a thousand heart-shaped cinnamon red-hots sprinkled liberally on buttercream-frosted cupcakes, accompanied by a bowl of punch, cups of coffee and tea; all served at an antique wooden table laden with roses, jasmine and orange blossoms; the perfect Valentine's Day afternoon teatime treat.

Or, for short, it's a spicy vanilla scent with a fruity twist.

Price:          $10.52AUD
Samples:     Yes

POSSETS

Pink Cake
A frothy piece of cake hidden under a dense crust of butter and sugar flavored with the silliest strawberries you ever tasted! Very straightforward but somehow so moist it's a bit like a custard, but not quite. Maria, the Maltese cook and housekeeper has this recipe inherited from her mother and from generations back So very Very VERY good. It is said to be an aphrodisiac.

Pretty
Sweet, pure and desirable, Pretty is just that, divinely pretty like Isabella in the springtime. A whisper of mint flies along three white flowers (a combination of a hint of gardenia, freesia, and a drop of lily), all of this girded about with some dry vanilla (very dry and not the confection you are used to). This is a surprisingly sober fragrance for such a fluffy thought, but then again beauty is a sobering thing to come face to face with.

The Girls Love Leather
Yes! The Girls have discovered the fun of leather, the smell of leather, the sensuality of leather. Leather and honey. Wow. Just Wow. This is not just any old leather, this is the superb stuff which you find in the church shops of Florence, dripping with honey from Malta. Just the apex of the apiary. Yummmmm. Not for the faint of heart, not for the pure of soul!

More Possets Valentine scents here and here.

Price:          $10USD
Samples:     No

BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB

Parlement of Foules 2011
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his mate.

Medieval romance and courtly love. White rose and soft resins.

Red Lantern 2011
A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930's.
Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice.

Burning Vulva
Vanilla-infused amber, leather, beeswax, cyclamen, oakmoss, peru balsam, orange blossom, red ginger, tonka, opoponax, myrrh, and black pepper.

Nude Woman Reclining
Calla lily, honeysuckle, Turkish jasmine, ambrette seed, galbanum, iris, and bourbon vanilla.

Nymphia
She Who Blesses Brides
White rose, apple blossom, spun sugar, mango, cucumber, freesia, coconut, and lavender.

BPAL has a ton of Limited Edition scents released for Valentine's Day. You can find more of them here, here, here, and here. 

**And be warned - these links lead to NSFW images of nooooodity.**

Price:          $20USD
Samples:     No

HAUS OF GLOI

Come Hither
Based off of traditional herbs and roots used in Hoodoo to draw and attract a lover, or entice the one you've already ensnared! Bourbon vanilla, tonka bean, cardamon, a touch of rose oil, Queen Elizabeth root, three threads of saffron and a touch of honey to sweeten the whole deal.  

Something Hopeful
Perhaps the first stirrings of the spring to come. Warm sakura blossom green tea with the tiniest droplet of plum juice, red mandarin and crystallized jasmine essence.

Who Needs Love
A mahogany box filled with chocolaty orbs, coated in crystallized coffee - filled with a pomegranate and raspberry filling. Who needs love when you have something this decadent?

Price:          $15USD (scents also available in various bath products)
Samples:     Yes

*All descriptions are the manufacturers' own.

Review: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Halloweenies 2010

I have to say I'm getting a little bit tired of BPAL's shipping shenanigans. When the Halloween scents came out I went in on a group order done through the Aussie BPAL livejournal community and it took two months to arrive. TWO MONTHS. It makes me a lot less inclined to bother when I can get gorgeous perfume oils on Etsy that take two or three weeks to arrive, even when they're made to order.

Anyway, for some reason recently I've been completely over foodie scents. They used to be MAH THING, but I'm just not into them now. For this reason I almost didn't bother with the Weenies - after all, Halloween scents by tradition tend to be very foodish. However, Noodles spotted a couple that she liked the sound of, and there was one that really jumped out at me, and it was free shipping because the group order was over $500, so... Let's face it, it doesn't take a whole lot for me to talk myself into buying something.

My two choices were The Shadowy And The Sublime and Boo 2010, and Noodle Arms wanted Pomegranate II and Ghoulish.

Pomegranate II
Pomegranate, white musk, lemon verbena, grapefruit, pink lime.

I hate fruit scents - if you've been reading for a while, you already know that. All fruity perfumes to me smell like cheap supermarket shampoo or bubble bath. I thought for a while that in Pom II I had finally found one I could enjoy. It opens with a sharp but pleasant citrus note, and underneath is a something more perfumy, presumably the blend of pomegranate and white musk. This was what I really liked, and I hoped that once the top citrus note faded, that's what I would be left with. Unfortunately it didn't last, and after 20 minutes or so, this morphed into a generic body wash fruit scent. Disappointing for me, but Noodle Arms loves it so if you're a fan of the fruity fragrances, don't listen to my moaning. I'm obviously in the minority.

Ghoulish
This season's Ridiculous Scent! Creepy like Creepy and as spooky as Spooky, this is the scent of a black cherry and coconut amaretto confection gently laced with saffron.

This sounded just hideous to me, but something about it appealed to Noodles, after she asked, "What's amaretto?", so it was her second choice. It's... not my thing. When I first applied this I got a sharp almond note that quickly gave way to a thick, syrupy scent of cherry advocaat. It mellows eventually to a smooth, almondy amaretto fragrance, and man... does it linger. I put it on first thing in the morning and I could still smell it late afternoon. Again, Noodles and Stefanie are both fans, so maybe it's just me being ornery.

Boo 2010
Eerie billows of spun sugar, fluttering white cotton, and sheets of cream.

Thankfully, the cream note in this one doesn't smell "turned" as some of the BPALs can (Diary Of A Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal, for example). However, it's not the gorgeous, warm silky note of say, Love's Philosophy either. It's very sweet and light, and there's a hint of burnt sugar in the background. It's like fairy floss, but fairy floss that's slightly overdone. I used to really love sugary scents, but I'm quite over them lately and this one doesn't really do anything for me at all. It doesn't last terribly long on me, either.

The Shadowy And The Sublime
A sudden and shocking insight into the vast, ineffable, overwhelming power of Nature, stirred by a vision or experience of perfected beauty and perfected terror, that changes the soul irretrievably. An epiphany: Moroccan amber, wisteria, ambergris accord, white rose, magnolia, white mint, angelica, bergamot, and myrrh.

This was the only one I really cared about. Anything that includes wisteria, white rose, magnolia... I'm there. It doesn't disappoint either. This is a gorgeous creamy white floral with no really dominant notes that I could distinguish. It's beautifully blended, with a medium throw and reasonable staying power. I wish BPAL would do more of these gentle florals, because they're obviously really good at it.

I sound a bit Bah Humbug about these, I know, but I think it's just because of the "being over foodies" thing. If you like foodie scents with the notes listed in these perfume oils, you will probably enjoy them. Unfortunately, if you want to buy them you have to spring for the full bottle - BPAL doesn't sell Imps of their Limited Edition scents. They go offline on November 23, I believe, so you don't have much time either.

Perfumes tested this week.

Last week I was a bit flat, though not so flat as the week before, so I did try to catch up a bit on my testing (though I only have a handful of randoms because I was also testing the Halloween scents from The Morbid The Merrier). So many perfumes - I'm only up to G! I have also ordered some samples from Flourish after reading Stefanie's review of them a couple of weeks ago. That was a bit naughty of me, because I really, really do not need any more perfume oils at the moment, but since I've been on a super tight budget for what seems like EVER, I hardly ever buy anything fun these days, and breaking out for something small every now and then keeps me sane.

Anyway, on to this week's testees...

Perfumes tested last week.

I had a really awful week last week - nothing serious, just a whole pile of dramas that combined made me miserable and in a foul mood for the whole week - so I wasn't in much of a mood for testing perfumes. I stuck mostly to my old favourites, but I did test a couple, so here are my (very) brief thoughts on those.

Perfumes tested this week

I had a bit of a protest day on Tuesday this week, because I was a bit tired of wearing all these really out there kinds of scents. I wanted something normal and perfumy. So I had a break for a day and wore Van Cleef & Arpels First. I won't even try to describe the notes for you - that link leads to a really good review of it. To me, it's one of those old-fashioned head-kicker perfumes that screams OLD MONEY. You know those rich old ladies in tweed or herringbone suits you see doing their grocery shopping in David Jones? This is exactly the sort of thing I would imagine them wearing. I love it. Anyway, on to the test subjects:

Perfumes tested this week.

I had this week off (back to work tomorrow - sad face), and I didn't do much of anything besides reading books and messing about on the internet, so I got quite a bit of perfume testing done. As I said last week, I am working through my untested perfume oils alphabetically, and I'm up to D now. Still a way to go!

Hauls aplenty!

I came home today to find a bunch of packages on my doorstep, which was very exciting. One of them was Noodle Arms' Mad Tea Party T-shirt, but the rest of them were for me, me, ME.

One was my Limited Edition perfumes from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, plus the six Imps I ordered.

And they threw in TEN freebies. Wooooooo.

There are only 9 Imps in that picture - the 10th was one that I absolutely hate, so I immediately threw it into an envelope of samples I was sending off to my friend Millie.

Small rave about BPAL's Womb Furie

This is what Black Phoenix Alchemy  Lab has to say about Womb Furie:

Oh, that wily womb! Hippocrates and his followers considered the womb a mobile creature, causing mayhem as it writhed its way through a woman's body. Sometimes this ornery organ, due to lack of sexual activity, would create conflicts within a woman's system or would become blocked itself, causing anxiety, nervousness, water retention, and sleeplessness. With the assistance of doctors, nursemaids, hand tools, or, occasionally, self-manipulation, this vexing condition could be alleviated through hysterical paroxysms.

Or, as we call it nowadays: orgasm.

Super nice people on the internets.

I mentioned in a previous post that a while back I bought some BPALs from a girl on Livejournal. It was my first "online person" purchase and she was really nice - communicating with me, answering my stupid questions about feedback protocol and so on. She also sent me some free Imps along with the perfumes, which I was thrilled about. So when she updated her sales post I decided to do a bit more spending, and ordered these.

Not gonna lie, I bought some of these just for the names, though luckily they do all smell great. From left: 

The Cupcake Spatter Pattern Analysis:  Frosted chocolate cupcakes and filth.

Were Puppy:  A fuzzy brown honey-dusted musk covering freshly-washed baby skin and a howl of milk-breath. In the background, there's the barest hint of upturned soil and dew-covered squished stems from a trampled flowerbed.

Lucy, Kissed:  Diabolical voluptuousness, a siren song from the grave: juniper and yew brushing against blackened violets and funeral roses, red musk and hot blood, veined white marble and icy, brittle musk, all pulsing with the sinister, hypnotic scent of patchouli, amber, oude and cubeb.

The Candy Butcher:  Dark chocolate with a heavy cream undertone. 

Aside from the perfumes I bought from her, she also sent me a ton of other goodies!

That's not even all of it - there are a few other bits and pieces around that Noodle Arms made off with. Everything was wrapped up separately like little presents, and while I was busy opening them all and squealing delightedly, Noodle Arms had pounced on a heap of lollies also included and was wolfing them down. I never even got to see what they were.

It was so much fun to open all of those goodies, and what a sweet thing to do for someone you don't even know! So this is a very public thank you to you, Louise. Your kindness and generosity was very much appreciated!

Smellies!

While Richard Avedon had his camera out, I had him take some pics of my little perfume collections from recent purchases. I haven't bothered with all of my regular commercial perfumes, just the oils and whatnot from the discoveries I've made online over the last year.

This is my teeny tiny collection of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Hell's Belle, Black Phoenix, Snake Oil and Jazz Funeral were part of a Christmas present, and Thirteen, Soothing Systems, Diary Of A Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal and Detestable Putrescence were the ones I bought from the lovely Livejournal girl I mentioned in the earlier post. She also sent me some freebie samples of other BPALs, including one particularly gorgeous one called Love's Philosophy, a blend of vanilla, cream and saffron. Unfortunately it's no longer made and by all accounts rather difficult to find. I did happen across a bottle on eBay the other day, but I STUCK TO MY GUNS and did not bid (admittedly, I seriously considered it), because I decided to refine my NY resolution to a month-by-month thing and my first goal was no online purchases in the month of February. I really, really wanted to make an exception to bid for it, but if I did that, there would be something else and something else and something else and it would never end. So I REMAINED STRONG. I'm sure I'll be able to hunt down a bottle eventually. I hope...

These are my Wiggle Perfumes. Aren't they gorgeous? They are roll ons, and they're perfect for carrying around in one's bag. They come in bigger sizes, but I only bought the small ones because I like having lots and lots of smaller bottles of different fragrances rather than just a few big ones of the same thing all the time.

And these are the roll on perfumes from The Garden Bath that arrived this week. These are the only full size ones I have so far, but I have a list of more I intend to buy when funds permit, because I really like this lady's fragrances. I also intend to get some full size body scrubs from there as well, because I bought some samples a while back and loved them.

And these are my samples and smaller decants from various places, and Imps from BPAL. I'm slowly working my way through testing all of these and compiling wish lists for full size bottles. Hard work!

BPAL: The good, the bad and the ugly.

I'm still obsessing over Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils, and I have been working my way through testing my recent acquisitions. Overall, I am insanely in love with these, though I have hit one or two that are a bit out there even for me. I'm just going to do a brief summing up of a few, as I keep forgetting to write decent enough notes for a proper review. Besides, perfume is so personal - I could love something and someone else could hate it. All I can say is, check out the site, find things that sound good, and try them! And if, like me, you find about 876 things that sound good, we can bunk together in Debtor's Prison. Hey, we'll smell good!

Ile de la Tortue My friend Jodi, whom I sucked into this addiction, sent this to me because she thought it smelled like toilet spray. I suspect this is because she has vanilla toilet spray in her house, and the strongest base note in this one (for me, at least) is vanilla. The first thing I thought of when I sniffed it in the Imp was old lady hair salons. This sounds like a criticism, but I actually love that smell. I use Cedel hair spray because that too reminds me of old lady hair salons. There's something comforting and nostalgic about that smell. After a while it settled into something tropical and vanilla. I liked it but I didn't love it, and I probably wouldn't buy a full bottle.

Burial This was another one I got just because I loved the name, but I wasn't that keen on it. It smells like roses, but underneath is something hospital-y. Like olde worlde bandaids...? I can't quite put my finger on it. But no. Not for me. Jodi said it smelled like pot pourri on her.

The Lights Of Men's Lives This is super pretty. Vanilla beeswax with a dash of honey. At first it didn't seem to have any staying power, but about an hour after "disappearing" it was back, and then it stayed and stayed and stayed. I put it on late afternoon and I could still smell it when I got up the next morning! It was really quite strange. I loved this one - it's on my wishlist for a future full bottle.

Vice This is another foodie one - on me it was quite sweet, with notes of cream, sugar, chocolate and some kind of fruit. The reviewers in this link talk about cherry, and that could well be it. I couldn't really place it for sure. I'm not entirely sure whether I like this one or not. It's almost too sweet, but on the other hand, I did sniff myself a lot when I was wearing it. I think I need at least one more test before I decide once and for all.

Queen I'm almost wondering if I was sent something else by mistake with this label on it. The reviewers in the link talk about pepper and herbs and something metallic. The first thing I picked up was pipe tobacco. It made me think of my long-dead grandpa, who always smoked a pipe. That settled fairly quickly to something green and wet - almost like hay - and finally to a subtle, boozy vanilla bourbon. I really loved the complexity of this one. Definitely on the future buy list.

Black Lily Lily is one of my favourite kick-arse florals. It's one of those ones guaranteed to give half the population a headache, and those are the ones I love! This is a very pure lily scent, I can't pick up anything else at all. I loved it.

The Witch's Repast This smelled like the breath of a 60 year old alcoholic. And that's pretty much all I have to say about it. Yuk.

Oh, and I just have to add that on the weekend I bought some more BPALs from a girl online, and one of them (which I totally admit I bought for the name, although it does have notes that I like) is called Diary Of A Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal. Is that not the greatest name for anything EVER?

Squee!

I have had a CRAPTACULAR week at work, and today was particularly heinous (office politics, way too boring to go into). I came home early all crabby and grouchy and ready to get online and rant for about 46 paragraphs in my livejournal about why I was so crabby and grouchy (and bore everyone to death in the process), but then I opened three packages that I received and was positively giddy with excitement.

Firstly, I received a decant from The Perfumed Court of one of my current favourite fragrances, Serendipitous. I have every intention of buying a full size bottle of this very soon, but I have a few bills to get out of the way first. I keep meaning to review it too - must get onto that.

Secondly, I received a package from my friend Jodi, who recently dipped a toe into the murky waters of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and sent me a few that she wasn't keen on, plus a couple of other perfume samples. In exchange I have sent her a bunch of Wiggles that I either didn't like or loved so much I bought full sizes. This is going to become an out of control addiction for both of us, I can tell.

But she also sent me some other goodies - a lipstick, some eyeshadows that made her eyes itchy (she has allergies, I don't - SCORE), and some chocolate. Mmmm... chocolate...  And a book!

I am very excited about this because I had no idea this book existed, and I LOVE Andy Prieboy. Jodi and I saw him play live a couple of times back in Ye Olden Dayes when we were young and slim and unencumbered with rugrats hadn't discovered the joys of parenting. I cannot wait to read this!

The third one was the most exciting thing ever - the BPAL stuff that The Photographer ordered for me for Christmas. My order was four 5 ml bottles and 6 Imps, and they also sent me 9 free Imps. NINE. I have sensory overload! I sniffed as many as a could until I got a headache, and then eventually I had to stop and have a shower because I'd dabbed half a dozen on myself and it was making me go all stupid. I will just have to slow down and try them out one at a time over the next couple of weeks. OMG I CANNOT WAIT!

Final haul for 2009.

I received some of the last of my orders this week (still waiting for a couple - Shop Craze is taking FOREVER, starting to wonder if it's been lost), and these are my last for at least the next three months, as per my resolution post. Such pretty things - I'll do some swatching later when I've had a shower.

First up, taking advantage of the Cherry Culture 20% off Christmas sale:

Then the Nonpareil 20% off Christmas sale:

Recently I made an exciting discovery - Strawberrynet now has some NARS products! This is a brand I've always wanted to try, but it's hard to get hold of in Australia, and the one site I know of that does sell it charges ridiculous prices ($62 for a blush - I don't think so). The Strawberrynet prices are about half of this site's, so I had to take advantage of that. I know the eye colours look quite similar in the photograph, but they're not really.

These are the Everyday Minerals eyeshadows that I have already swatched. I wish they would stop coming out with all of these lovely colours - I thought I was done with this lot! I have some more coming too - Makeup BFF J got me this for Christmas.

And finally, some more BPAL imps, because one can never have too many perfumes:

So, still to come: BPAL Christmas present haul from The Photographer (come onnnnnn), a small order from Smart Poppy (just a couple of lip and eyebrow pencils), the hopefully-not-missing Shop Craze order of NYX eyeshadows and lipsticks, a couple of small decants from The Perfumed Court, and my share of a group order from ELF. And then I'm done-diddily-done. *sob*

My 5 favourite perfumes in 2009.

I am more a fan of perfume oils than commercial fragrances, so this was a good year for me, because I discovered Wiggle Perfume, The Garden Bath, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. There wasn't a huge amount that grabbed my attention in the commercial perfume world - it was pretty saturated with one cheap, tinny celebrity fragrance after another. I hate those things, and it kind of irks me that perfumiers would agree to get involved. I mean, they have to earn a living like everyone else, but it's just so trashy. When Spongebob Squarepants has his own fragrance, it's well and truly time for the trend to die. So with commercial perfumes, I mostly stuck to my old favourites this year (Miller Harris Fleur Oriental, Lolita Lempicka, etc.). I did get a few decants from The Perfumed Court and found a couple of new loves that way, but mostly, I was all about the oils.

5. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. I was given a sample vial of this earlier in the year when I bought some foundation, and I fell in love with it immediately, which surprised me because I'm not generally a fan of Chanel perfumes (too cloying). The website refers to it as an oriental, but to me it's more of a floral with a bit of vanilla in there somewhere. It's very classy and lasts on me for hours.

4. Miller Harris Noix de Tubéreuse. I really, really, really want a full bottle of this (I only have a 5ml decant), but it's not within my budget at the moment, sadly. This is a heady floral that lasts FOREVER. Gorgeous.

3. Wiggle Little 5. This was the first Wiggle perfume I tried and I could not stop sniffing myself. It's a floral oriental that would be perfect for a night out when you're all frocked up and sexified. Of course, I don't frock up and get sexified these days, so I just wear it around the house or at work. And sniff myself constantly.

2. The Garden Bath Southern Magnolia. (I can't link to the specific perfume, as Donna is on holiday and has taken down her wares for now.) I love Wiggle Mostly Magnolia, and that almost made it into my top 5, but in the end it was pipped at the post by The Garden Bath. Southern Magnolia seems to be more of "one note" than Mostly Magnolia (which, as the name suggests, is not entirely magnolia). I don't know if Southern Magnolia has any other notes in it, but the only thing I pick up is the pure, delicious scent of magnolia. It has great staying power on me too. I now want to get the scrub and lotion in the same fragrance so I can layer myself with it. Mmmmm. (I said magnolia a lot there, didn't I? There's not really any other way to describe it, though.)

1. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Jazz Funeral. Wow. This perfume is like nothing I have ever smelled before. I described it to the best of my limited ability here, and there's not much more I can add, really. It's so unusual and intriguing, and whenever I wear it, I just sit there sniffing myself every few minutes. I just love it to death. Ha! Death! Get it? Get it?

Died and gone to Hell (the good one): review of some BPAL perfumes.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is one of those perfume companies that all the cool kids swear undying allegience to, and there are entire websites and Livejournal communities devoted to the buying, selling, swapping and general discussion of them. Not being one of the cool kids, I was only vaguely aware of their existence until my friend Millie brought them up in conversation a while back. Since then, I've paid a bit more attention and read a few reviews and forums and I was very interested to try some of their perfumes. I got hold of six samples (they call them Imp's Ears), and I've been trying them out all week. Overall, I have to say that I think I have found my new obsession. These perfumes are not quite like anything I've tried before - a couple of them are more conventional scents, but most of the ones I tried are just so out there, but so fabulous, that I am now hooked on getting more. I managed to cajole The Photographer into ordering me some for Christmas, and I think I am going to have to start a special fund so I can start collecting. They seem to have hundreds of fragrances, and I want them ALL.

Jazz Funeral - This was the first I tried, and remains my favourite of the six (which I ordered by the sound of their name, with no idea of what any of them would smell like). When I first put it on I smelled damp dirt and wet grass/moss. After a few minutes, I could also smell dying flowers. Now, I know this sounds a bit - well - terrible, but it works. I don't know how, but it does. I could happily wear this every day for the rest of my life.

Arachne - This is your grandma's perfume... if your grandma is Norman Bates dressed as his mother. Or Miss Haversham. Old flowers in stagnant water, musty old house. Again, it doesn't sound like anything you'd want to wear in a million years, but it is gorgeous. This was one of the ones I was going to add to my Christmas order, but then I discovered that it was very suddenly discontinued. Sad about that.

Clemence - When I first put it on, I was nearly knocked over by a strong smell of cloves and pipe tobacco. Noodle Arms said it smelled like pepper, then screwed her face up. When it settles, it smells like an overgrown garden of flowers on a hot, humid rainy day. I loved it, and the only reason I didn't buy a full size was because it is a very unusual scent and I couldn't think of a single occasion when it would be appropriate to wear it.

The Temptation - Noodle Arms said it smelled like peaches (and she's right - I looked it up), but I didn't get that at all. This was probably the most conventional "perfumy" perfume of the six I tried - creamy floral and musk. It's very pretty, but not much different from loads of other very pretty perfumes out there.

Inez - This immediately made me think of a perfume I loved in the 1980s called Jovan Musk Oil. That's  all I got from it - musk, musk and more musk. I loved it for the nostalgia, but I probably wouldn't buy a full size.

Ultraviolet- The first note I got was mint, not a great thing in a perfume. After a few minutes I could smell violets, and something else that was unfamiliar to me (I've since looked it up and I think it was eucalyptus). This is very unusual, and could be an amazing signature scent for someone very ballsy. Not really for me, though.

I cannot wait to get my hands on more of these.