San, cedar and woods is a great category. So much to choose.

How about something easily available at Sephora or Nordies - Declaration by Cartier. It's a men's scent, but don't let that stop you. I sniff across the aisle all the time. It's a terrific refreshing woodsy scent, with cedar and some spices and citrus. It's not overly complicated and I mean that as a good thing.

If you're after some serious woody scents, I'd skip the women's section and head straight for the men's. http://www.sephora.com/browse/.....ryId=C8104

The women's woody classification is pretty jumbled in my opinion.
http://www.sephora.com/browse/.....ryId=C8103

Niva, I'm not familiar with Spring Orchid.

San, there's a new woody perfume from Estee Lauder - Sensuous. I find it too sweet, especially in the opening. It's well done, and it's very smooth. If you feel like it, give it a try. You can always wash it off if you dislike it.

Thanks for the starting point Lena. I will check out Declaration by Cartier.

Lena, Spring orchid has been long discontinued so I can't find ANY information on it. I guess I will make do with lotion I fortunately bought along with the EDT. It is just such a gorgeous scent, instantly lifts my mood. A bit on the sweeter side but gorgeous nonetheless

Yay, Vani, you are going to try CB I hate perfume! And the ones I have on my wishlist too! Please tell us your impressions when they arrive and you try them! The only thing that prevents me from ordering a set of samples myself is that I have too many samples currently and I haven't made up my mind about all of them yet.

San, if you are going a less conventional route, you may want to try Serge Lutens' "Cedre" - it is, as you can guess, a scent based on Cedarwood, so it might be just the thing for you. In general Lutens' scents are not overly sweet at all, they all have a slightly bitter base (which I love).

Oh, and by the way, speaking of men's perfumes on women - don't laugh, but the most widespread and conventional perfume - the masculine variation of Angel (I think it is called A* or something like that?) by Thierry Mugler is actually quite woody and not too sweet (well, at least on me). Imagine wood and dark chocolate together, this is what it smells like.

God, we completely occupied this thread

San, I just remembered: you might like Cashmere Mist by Donna Karan (should be easy to find in any department store). It is a woody scent with an amber base (Tresor also has an amber base, as Lena said). And it is not sweet, judging from the description (I am not a big fan of amber myself, so I haven't tried it).

Vani, what do you think of Kenzo "7:15 AM in Bali" ? I just looked it up, it has citrus and orchid in the list of notes. It does have vanilla as well, so if you don't like vanilla in your perfume it might not be the right thing for you. I personally love vanilla and I am always looking for not too sweet vanilla-based perfumes. Currently, my favorite is "Un Bois de Vanille" by Serge Lutens - the bitter base saves it from being too sweet.

Hannah, I've perked up when you mentioned wood+dark chocolate. I will definitely keep an eye out (and nose) for this one!

Yikes, I was so zen about my sample collection, and now this thread is waking up my inner maniac. Must go spray some calming lavender, hehee.

I think if you love citrus but not sweet, Russian Caravan Tea is going to be a hit.

Personally, I don't love Christopher Brosius's take on the aquatics--I don't really smell the same "ocean" as he does, I guess. (See, e.g., Demeter Ocean and CBIHP Mr. Hulot's Holiday.) But the perfume that sent me on this whole odyssey is Demeter's Snow, which I find to smell exactly--EXACTLY--like the ozonic, crispy smell of snow when you eat it. Others don't, and that's clearly personal (see above re me and CB not agreeing when it comes to the ocean), but that's always made me think that Winter 1972 would be amazing.

As far as Black March, my understanding is that this is some sort of Wonka-esque blend of the clean-dirt notes from Demeter Dirt (which CB also formulated, I believe) and his clean-floral notes, a la To See A Flower, which I have a sample of, and find absolutely charming. Others have described it as like sticking your nose in a florist's refrigerator, and I agree. There's a lot of green, and a lot of FRESH flowers--nothing warm or heady. It's all very crispy. And it's my understanding that Black March has a lot of this Dirt note and a lot of the crisp floral of something like To See A Flower. (Apparently some of the Demeters also hit this crispy floral note--off the top of my head, I think it's Pruning Shears, Greenhouse, and/or Flower Show).

I know people love Burning Leaves, but I can't vouch for it personally. I like to limit my smoke, though, so it might not be up my alley anyway. Ambre Narguile is about as smoky as I get.

I have no frakkin' idea about Violet Empire.

My next CB is probably going to be one of: Tea/Rose, Wild Hunt, November, Cradle of Light (I looove a jasmine minus the indoles, like a really fresh jasmine, which is why I love L'Artisan The Pour Un Ete, since jasmine tea is like jasmine without the indoles), or Lavender Tea.

Oh boy, I think I am going to order myself a set of CB samples ... Both Black March and Russian Caravan Tea sound divine.

Lena, I read in some perfume blog that Burning Leaves is supposedly very good layered with a vanilla scent. It makes a lot of sense to me, but I have zero experience in layering my perfume.

I just applied Jicky again yesterday, before going to sleep (I find the best way to smell perfume is to apply it when I am ready to bed, because perfumes tend to open better on a warm skin underneath the blanket), and still ... nothing animalistic Just a very nice, hard to describe, scent I think I need another sample of Bandit or another equally crazy perfume.

Hannah, I added everything to the cart but didn't get a chance to finalize and place the order what with unexpected guest. Guess its a good thing because now I can add a sample of Kenzo too. I promise I will update as soon as get them.

On another note, how would you suggest I maximize the mileage of these samples? I've never figured out the best way to apply perfume out of a vial. I read somewhere to apply to a cotton ball and tuck it between the breasts and let the scent release throughout the day. Does that work?

Ohh, Vani, please update us on how these perfumes work for you!

About applying the perfume - I personally don't believe in applying the perfume anywhere else except on your skin. As far as I understand, good perfumes are designed to work with your skin chemistry, and so just dipping a cotton ball in a perfume will not have the same effect as applying the perfume directly to your skin. I like to apply on my wrists and behind the ears, but I think anywhere your skin is not over sensitive (for example, not on your face) and yet close enough to the nose that you can smell it is fine. Unfortunately, these sample vials do last only a shortwhile ... If there is something I am pretty sure I would like, I order a spray of 5ml (of course, if the price is not exorbitant).