Today is Strawberries crave nyx (Drunken honey, lavender-laced mallow, soft amber, night musk, and hints of strawberry and nectarine). This is a sexy dark strawberry scent, really enjoy this one.

10/16, a couple Alkemia testers that it turns out I’m just not really into.

Ammil (an olfactory journey that morphs like melting ice… starting cold and aloof with distinct elements of wet snow and ice then gradually unfolding to reveal an indescribably unique velvety skin warmth). The “cold” only lasted a few minutes on me, and it warmed up to what I’d describe as a light skin musk with a bit of sweet incense and a warm wood.

Moss Maiden (crushed wet ferns, calamus root, cedar tips, galbanum, balsam pine, moss, lichen, dried leaves, and aromatic incense woods). I get the green notes from the bottle, but they were gone almost instantly from my skin. I’ve got the aromatic incense woods, maybe a little dried leaves, and some cedar. It kind of reminds me of old clothes that have been stored away in a cedar chest for a long time.

I may end up trying to clean these away and sampling something different instead. I think I’m finding that Alkemia’s incense and woody notes are really strong on me (and long-lasting, if Athame is any indication) – which would be great if those were the kinds of scents I liked. But, alas…

10/17, round-up of the last of my Alkemia order to be sampled. All in all, I don’t think this is the house for me, but there were some winners in the batch.

Earthlight (summer leaves, Linden blossoms, Jasmine tea, Melissa, Muguet, Petitgrain, Copalchí, Guaiac, Santal, Green patchouli) – this was another bonus sample. Oof, I barely lasted an hour with this before I had to remove it. I think I could get a little of the Melissa (a/k/a lemon balm?) and petitgrain, and I haven’t really been able to find much information on what copalchi is supposed to smell like, but overall this went sickeningly sweet on me almost immediately. It started off with a smell I associate with stale pop, a little cola-y, a little syrup-y fruity, and just got sweeter and sweeter from there. Something in this just really did not agree with my skin chemistry at all.

I’m also retesting The First Dandelion, which I like a lot but seems to fade really fast on me. I think I might like Vert Sur le Vert better.