whiskerswhispers

Lunantishee In vial: mmm, cake and marzipan…but also a bit of wood or twigs? On skin: oh, I like this. It’s mainly a scent of almond Madeleine cakes. Or maybe cherry bakewells? It smells like almond cakes with marzipan on top and cherries. It’s delicious! However I also smell rosewood (which in here smells like rosehips) and also something else-a very authentic outdoorsy plant scent of hedgerows. I think that’s blackthorn? It smells like twigs and berries growing in the wild. It smells very English, like the English countryside, hedgerows with thorns and berries and some flowers too, with a hint of slightly decayed leaves and coarse bark. It’s gorgeous and makes me think of autumn. But then this settles down into the most gorgeous fluffy creamy almond and fairy cake scent with a little bit of rose. It smells almost milky, in a very pleasant way, and almondy too, and there’s something like a fruit jam, possibly cherry jam, in the cake as well! I want to gnaw my wrist off, it’s so good. I’m amazed at how much it smells like real cake with jam and almonds. This is one of the most gorgeous cake scents ever, I must resist the urge to nibble my wrist! It really does smell like fairy cakes, but also like Victoria sponge cake, and cherry bakewells, and all manner of tempting treats-before drying down as a gorgeous almond milk and oatmeal and cake scent with a little bit of rose. I’m glad I swiftly ordered a bottle of this one! (btw the vetiver? Can't smell it at all!)

Nothing here. I emailed Mara about it. I ordered mid-March but no monthly sampler (it's just a bottle of Time Travel).

I'm very confused...I ordered in mid-March and still haven't got a shipping notice. I got an email about two weeks ago saying they got my order and will ship 'soon', but no actual shipping notice was given. I emailed on Monday, I think, to ask if it was sent yet but no reply. I hope Mara and Danna are ok...are they really busy at the moment? Usually shipping notices come really quickly. Do they sometimes ship without sending a shipping email as well?

Sogni Incantati In vial: marshmallows and vanilla beans! On skin: I don’t smell much anise, but I do smell lots of creamy vanilla, fluffy marshmallows and white sugar! A little bit of something like almond as well. This is delicious! It smells fluffy and soft and incredibly endearing. Gourmand but not cloying. It reminds me strongly of a body scrub I have, which is marshmallow scented and full of real vanilla seeds, little dots of black in a creamy scrub. It smells of vanilla marshmallows. And not too dissimilar to this scent. though this does seem to go a tiny, tiny bit plastic on the skin, it’s not too bad. This plastic phase does fade after ten minutes and then whoa! The throw increases! A little cloud of vanilla marshmallow loveliness wafts all around me. It’s pure vanilla and marshmallows now. It reminds me more of that scrub, which is a good thing because now I have something to layer it with. This is a cosy, comforting fragrance which I could definitely fall asleep and dream happy dreams with…I’ll need to try that out.

Musk in the Pixie Dust In bottle: a fruity, almost melony sugar. It reminds me of Sugared E-Musk, but pinker. On skin: fruity melon-scented sugar, a touch of candy floss, some strawberry sugar, some white sugar, and Egyptian musk. This is very pretty! It’s a sparkly scent, bright and sweet and playful. Once dry, it gains a more strawberry-scented smell, like strawberry lollipops. This smells just like pink crystals of sugar-a rush of sweetness and candied fun! The musk is gentle and skin-scented, very subtle, if anything, it seems to ground the sugar a little. The scent then settles into a really pretty sugar scent with a base of gentle musk. It’s a pure pink sugar scent but it’s not cloying or too sweet-nor is it too sour like some of the strawberry sweet scents can get. The only thing is that this smells identical to Sugared E-musk on me. I already have two bottles of that so I’m not sure I need this one. But I still think it is lovely and I like the way the sugar and musk elements are blended.

Sugared Magi In bottle: Sugared Frank ‘n Myrrh with greenish sweet fig. On skin: ooh, this is lovely. It smells very similar to Sugared Frank & Myrrh but with the sweet, syrupy brown figs of Holle! I love resins and I love it when fig scents are sweet and dark, and this has both those elements. There is a hint of sharp-ish green to the fig, but it’s not bad at all. For now the resins are smelling a little bit pine-y and sugar dominated, but if this is like F&M, I know they’ll eventually mellow into a glorious smoky incense, and the fig will sweeten too. As the scent dries…the fig actually turns a little sharper? Not sure what’s up with that. It’s also the dominant note, I don’t smell as much of the resins as I expected, they seem to be background players in this scent (but the myrrh does develop lovely candle-wax nuances) and the sugar/fig seems to waver between smelling pleasant and smelling a little strange on me. thankfully the resins are very nice here. The scent swings between sugar and figs with the resins in the background. Then the scent changes yet again and becomes really lovely-a soft sweet musky fig scent with a powdery cosy feel, much sweeter than before, fig dusted with incense ashes. Now the fig is like Holle, sweet and sugary and soft, but this time, more golden, very indulgent and luxurious, I get a visual of an ancient queen feasting on honeyed figs from a bowl of solid gold. I really like it but I’m not sure if it’s love yet. I do prefer Sugared F&M, and Holle, but I have a feeling this is one that needs to age. Resins always get better with age, so I think this is what will happen with this scent.

Time Travel! I wonder if that stuff will work with dreams too? I find I tend to astral travel, unintentionally, in my dreams. (I have had some deja-vu experiences related to dream astral travel!) Though I tend to travel in space rather than time...maybe this stuff will enhance these experiences? And I so need a Resolution potion. I've given up making new year ressies because I break them within a minute of making them!

Immortal Beauty In vial: sweet fruit and a touch of something earthy, and some coffee too? On skin: this is a strange one, but I think I like it! It smells of coffee, and also of bright fruit salad. I can smell the apple (a crisp and tart green apple) and also some mango, some plums as well…maybe a hint of sweet juicy melon? I think I also smell some neroli. It’s an intriguing blend. All the fruit notes contrast with the darker, bitter note of the coffee. I think I can also smell spices, but I can’t say exactly what spices they are. I’m very curious to know what Egyptian immortality spices are…all I know is that they smell good! They have a dry, hot, sandy feel to them. I think there’s something a bit earthy at the base, not patchouli but something similar…almost like a woodsy or even stony note. The scent even becomes a bit floral at times, which is unusual-it’s not a neroli floral either. The drydown is a spicy, desert-like scent with hints of fruit and coffee. The spices are almost peppery or cumin-like now, dry and reminiscent of eastern spice markets. This is an unusual scent! I’m not getting a bottle as it smells really strange on me at times, but I’m keeping the vial because of it’s unique scent, that intriguing spice, and maybe for it’s purpose also.

Lioness In vial: orange! And a bit of cream and amber…it reminds me of Fairy Lure. On skin: ooh, now the tobacco comes out, the woods and the incense notes, and the golden notes of honey and amber. this now smells incredibly sophisticated, warm and luminous. Tangy orange and mature tobacco take the lead, backed up with sweet cream, honey, amber, sandalwood and myrrh, with a bit of spikenard adding a wonderful ‘ancient incense’ feel to it all. The scent is dry and golden, evoking images of sunsets over the savannah. It’s also a very regal scent, and it smells confident and strong. Not a wild scent but a stately queen of a scent. The scent is also quite a shapeshifter-like a cat, it’s got changeable moods. At one point, it was very tobacco-woodsy and I thought it would go all masculine. But then it changed into a lovely honeyed date scent. and then the incense/smoke returns but the honeyed dates remain, and the amber comes back too. I’m not sure if I need more of this but I really like it enough to keep the sample. Very classy and golden…and a little bit fierce too. Rrrawww!

Native Soil In vial: this is sweet, surprisingly sugary. I think I smell amber and cinnamon. On skin: hmm, this is strange. I do smell the sandalwood, the cinnamon and possibly the amber. But where’s the frankincense and incense? What I do get is something very odd…a kind of sugary bubblegum scent. What the? It smells almost like grape sweets? I have no idea why I get that. The sweetness definitely smells like a fruity sugar note though, not the deeper sweetness I get from amber. However, it seems that the scent develops and the cinnamon becomes dominant. It’s a mix of fiery cinnamon with dry cinnamon, a hot spice. But with the sugar, it smells too much like cinnamon gum. The scent becomes more and more cinnamon-y, warm and spicy, and I can smell hints of the resins too. But the sugared grape-ish scent still doesn’t budge, and it gets in the way of what could be a gorgeous scent. I mean, I can smell the cinnamon and frankincense merging so beautifully, but then the grape/candy smell comes in and spoils the mood a bit. I'll have to try this again to see if the candy element was just my skin chem/nose being weird.

Till Death… In vial: burnt wood, old wood, incense, smoke. On skin: copal! Lots of lovely copal, and this blend really shows it off and makes this intriguing resin note more recognisable to me. now I know what copal smells like on it’s own (or lightly supported by other notes). It’s a lovely dry resin, crumbly and smoky, a bit like frankincense but a tad sweeter, a little less piercing, or piercing in a different way? I’d say copal was more citron-like and frankincense leans more towards pine resin as a scent. I think I also smell the oud, which is what adds extra smoke and spice to the scent. the narcissus is just a whisper, but a soft hint of floral. but then the scent turns a little weird. It goes overwhelmingly smoky and sticky, and smells like maple syrup! I have no idea why I’m getting smoky maple here but I get that, as well as incense and dark wood. But there’s a hint of molasses or maple too. It’s nice, but I’m not keen on those syrupy scents for the most part. I was hoping this would be darker, less sweet, more incensy. Not bad though…and I do love the copal here.

Carpe Noctum In vial: creamy, spicy vanilla. It reminds me of the Christmas Cookies scent, but a bit less foody. On skin: now the woods and musk come out more and this stops smelling foody, and turns into a wonderfully sophisticated vanilla. There’s nothing buttery to the vanilla now. I love the combination of vanilla with woods and this is another good one in the genre. I am reminded of BPAL Antikythera Mechanism, except, this doesn’t have tobacco, and is a lot spicier thanks to that wonderful clove note, which adds creamy spicy warmth to this scent. Vanilla and woods and a hint of sexy, sophisticated musk. The sandalwood and vanilla are nicely balanced with the other notes just supporting them, enhancing them. The scent doesn’t change too much, it stays as a constant, comforting vanilla-sandalwood scent with just a bit of clove. I also wonder if there’s a bit of teak in here, it reminds me of other creamy teak scents I’ve smelt. This scent is dark, suave, sexy. It’s cosy, but also seductive. I am debating over whether or not to get more…it’s really gorgeous, another wonderful take on the non-foody vanilla/woodsy vanilla theme and that winning combination of sandalwood and vanilla always appeals to me.

Mummy Chunks In vial: there’s a milk note that could sour on me…but the chocolate cookie smell is very realistic. On skin: now it smells like heavy condensed milk, but I also smell cookie dough and milk chocolate chips. I’m not sure whether I like this or not. On the one hand, this really does smell like cookies and the scent of milk chocolate in here is spot on. It also reminds me strongly of cocoa butter, this scent…a bit like the Palmers cocoa butter lotion. But on the other hand, the milk note seems to waver towards the sour end of the spectrum, and one of the sweet notes is going very cloying on me. Almost like a cloying vanilla-chocolate candle smell. Thankfully the milk doesn’t go fully sour and the scent eventually stabilises into a really nice cocoa butter scent. By then it smells almost identical to Palmers lotion. There are times when I like that kind of scent but I know that at certain other times, the strong cocoa butter scent can make me a little queasy. The drydown after a few hours is actually quite lovely-it smells just like Kinder Surprise, which makes me smile…white and milk chocolate with a youthful feel. I don’t need a bottle because at times it is too sweet, but this is such a fun scent, I can’t bear to part with my sample!

A LOLcat scent!!! Well, almost. But I'm really interested in Sugared Magi, the new fae one and Stealing Christmas just from names alone!

Soul Food In vial: mmm, sweet benzoin, aged paper and resin. On skin: oh, now I smell cinnamon…and vanilla? This is a lot sweeter than I expected. Like there’s vanilla in here. Maybe it’s the benzoin. Whatever it is, this is really beautiful. the frankincense and myrrh are fainter than expected, but the scents I get here are sweet benzoin and sandalwood with a touch of spicy cinnamon. There is a lovely smokiness from the incense notes but it is subtle. Something about this also smells like old paper that has absorbed the scent of incense and resins. It’s really gentle as a scent, serene and quiet…as incense goes, this is a ghostly incense, and a very nice one too. The scent stays soft, quiet and faint, and retains that vanilla-ish scent. it’s like a vanilla-scented parchment and sandalwood scent with spice, very pleasant. It seems that the ‘food’ bit in the name is showing up on my skin through that creamy, almost gourmand vanilla-cinnamon note. but there are wisps of frankincense and myrrh smoke too, and lots of sandalwood. This actually gets stronger with time, as the vanilla gives way to those wonderful incense notes, and this smells more and more like sandalwood and frankincense. Really beautiful. it reminds me a bit of Sugared Egyptian Sandalwood (a favourite) at drydown as well, very sandalwood-y, but not as sweet and ambery/caramelised as SES, this is drier and a bit dustier. I’m not sure if I want a bottle just yet-I prefer SES because it is a lot stronger on me than this scent, but Soul Food really is growing on me and I might soon give in to getting more!