These are my impressions from sniffing on cards in the perfume store: I didn’t try these on my skin, so mostly these will only tell you about the opening.

Knight of Flowers

Notes: stargazer lily, bay rhum, civet.

To me, unfortunately, smelled like rotten fruit.

Amari

Notes: bitters, tobacco leaf, clove.

To me, though, it smells like Manischewitz wine. Yikes!

Lingua Franca

Notes: lemongrass, allspice, palo santo, oud

There’s a lot of lemongrass and it reminds me too much of Thai food.

Itoh

White cedar, peony, pink lotus.

I’m getting a lot of cedar, like a Japanese teahouse in the woods.

Ao

Notes: tuberose, thai ginger, young coconut

My handwritten note is just “dammit coconut.”  Coconut fragrances just read as trashy to me -- they scream “I am at the BEACH in a BIKINI.” I don’t know that this is an especially bad coconut fragrance but it is definitely an instance of that class. 

Vesper

Notes: Lillet, suede, rose, frankincense, myrrh

It really does smell like a Vesper cocktail, thanks to the Lillet. I enjoy it, but it really signals “femme fatale.” Usually suede has that effect; it’s very much like the Tori Amos song Suede.  I’d wear this out on a date if I wanted to try on a mysterious persona, but definitely not in the daytime.

 Nuovo

Notes: neroli and fig

I almost bought this, and I’m in real danger of blowing $78 on it one of these days. It’s a beautiful shady green scent.  There’s no fig fruit, just the green-sap leaf.  It reminds me of dappled shady streets in summertime.  It brings back memories of my childhood best friend’s house, which was on a deeply shaded street, and was full of old books and ornaments from India and Iran.

Sencha

Notes: green tea, cedar, mint

Notes: Tuberose, jasmine, rose, geranium

Nose: Michael Coyle

This is my other everyday perfume.

Tuberose is my favorite flower, I think -- but it really depends what it’s combined with.  If it’s surrounded by resins, it goes sweet and swoony and it’s too over-the-top for me.  Here, though, it’s a very green, botanical tuberose, like stepping into a greenhouse.

It gets sweeter and more feminine on my skin, and the rose comes up, all poignant and pink and glowing, but it stays very pure and crystalline.