sarada

In the imp my first thought was that I'd probably pass on Bengal, since the musky scent really doesn't seem to go with the spicy notes...but I know that it's always worth testing these oils unless I absolutely know that something is going to make me ill (i.e. butterscotch, ugh). And after all I do like the "skin musk" where it pops up in other blends. So let's see. Ahhh, there we go. This really works marvellously on my skin, and the muskiness is no longer mismatched. Now it's simply allowing the spices to come out and blend nicely and mixes them all up in a gorgeous cloud of spice cabinet scent without the dreaded "cinnamon potpourri" effect. The musk helps it to last and gives it a lot more throw. As for the spices, the clove is at the forefront, and ginger is nice and strong without being lemony. The cinnamon doesn't bother me for once, and neither do the peppers -- both of those have been known to burn my skin. It does feel a little hot on the underside of my wrist when I put it there, briefly. The honey isn't the sticky sweet kind that I often dislike, it's much more understated and soft like what I get from Honey Moon. It doesn't smell like a cup of chai to me because it's missing the tea element but it does smell like my Indian spice cabinet and makes me want to start mixing up some garam masala. Now, is this the spice scent that I want? I like that this lasts a long time on me and the musk really blends in well with my skin and helps me to waft it around and carry it with me for longer. I can probably use the imp sparingly and get a lot of mileage out of it so I don't think I'll need a bottle right away but this is definitely something I'd like to have around on cold winter days. Al-Shairan might be winning the spice contest on the overall fragrance but Bengal wins on overall chemistry reaction for me, and for staying power. I guess it's a tie! But I'll probably wait a bit for a bottle of this.

I am trying to decide whether Al-Shairan or Bengal would be a better spicy blend for me, since I've always avoided spicy blends (I don't like cinnamon and anything with cinnamon in it just smells like cheap potpourri to me). But I really like these and I'd like to give at least one a try as a bottle. Al-Shairan is the early favorite. In the imp it's all about clove, and I like clove a lot. There's also a hint of the incensy notes, whatever they may be. I have to admit, yeah, it does smell like Christmas. I don't have many good associations with Christmas though so this is something I kind of have to ignore, rather than embrace...nonetheless it's the best spicy blend I think I've tried yet. No hot/burning sensation from the cinnamon, that's a plus. I don't get any peach/orange at all though which is a bit of a shame since I like some fruit with my incense. Clove and patchouli dominate and I feel like there could be some champa floating in there as well. This is definitely feeling like a bottle purchase...I can see wearing this throughout the fall and winter, even if it does make people think I smell like a spice rack. I was hoping that the peach/orange and incense/patchouli notes would help to keep this from going "cheap potpourri" on me and they do even though I can't smell the fruit at all in any stage of this. The only bad thing is that it lasts less than an hour and then it's gone without a trace. I can't smell a thing! I'd have to get a bottle and keep reapplying it to be able to enjoy it properly and I'll have to keep comparing it to Bengal before I can make a decision...

I needed to round out an imp pack so I decided to try this since the description was ambiguous! I don't like florals...but sometimes I do. So you never know. The main note in this is something that is also in Darkness, I think. Darkness is one of the scents that I least get along with. There's something in it that smells like hairspray and bandaids and I just don't like it at all. The note that is in Asphodel is not that note, but it's one that I don't like very much on its own anyway. And there's something else, like jasmine, that doesn't agree with me. Overall it's a very chemical-smelling sort of cloying floral to me. I can see it being grey, but it's as if tiny little pale grey flowers are interspersed with little pale yellow flowers as well. They are fragrant and floral but on me it comes across as a rather depressing. Since a lot of people like the notes that I think I detect in this I think that this must be a chemistry issue...these kinds of florals will never work for me, but fans of perfumey florals would definitely be wise to try it out!

This is an incredible, unique fragrance...I had a feeling that this was going to be an instant love affair for me and I can sense that a beautiful relationship is about to start! My first impression in the imp is that it smells like Hunter Moon somewhat...the slightly sour hint of wine and a dry, smoky wood. I like this a lot more than Hunter Moon though, it's not nearly as sour and there is a slow spiral of tobacco and wood smoke drifting through the air. It makes me think of a group of adventurers in leather armor sharing a flask of red wine on a smoky autumn evening as they make their way through a thick dry forest to a blasted heath and a ruined tower. I would swear that I smell cypress in this, but whatever I am smelling it is wonderful...it is the darkest, richest wood and the deepest fragrant dry greenery. It is smoke and crisp air, and the refreshing splash of wine on thirsty lips. I am only just beginning to understand this scent. As it dried down the main thing that stood out was that greenery, but I have a feeling this will develop on me in different ways when the weather changes. I can't wait to wear this through the autumn and the winter. I ordered a bottle within moments of trying this and I can't wait for it to get here! Smoke, wood, forest greenery, and wine are among my favorite notes....this would also fit in perfectly as a Samhain scent.

I love "cold" scents so I was very excited about Numb...Ice Queen, Skadi and Szepasszony currently epitomize what I think of when I think of frosty scents. This is closest to Szepasszony out of those but what this is really, really like is Yog-Sothoth. It's almost identical actually, to my nose, and I just tried Yog again to compare. I literally don't think I could tell them apart, but I love Yog, so this is great! I don't think that I could describe any of the notes. I am sure that there might be floral elements but the overall smooth, clean, clear glassy (not not aquatic) quality of the scent comes across to me more than anything else. It is ice blue, grey, white or transparent in character if I think of it as a color. It's a little stronger and more airy than Yog-Sothoth, so people who found that too unsettling in its infinite darkness might get along better with this in its crystalline purity. Violets? I don't know, maybe...I think of this as "clean" which could also be interpreted as soapy, which is how violets are on me. I'd guess that pale purple flowers were a major component of this but overall I just get that wonderful astral starry clear feeling from this that I get from Yog Sothoth. And the weather is utterly horrible right now with endless oppressive humidity and heat even stronger than we had in the summer, even though summer should be gone by now. This is very refreshing. I'd enjoy this a lot on a cold snowy day as well. I was using my Yog sparingly because it was such a unique fragrance and I figured I wouldn't ever see anything like it again but now I feel I could use the two interchangably.

The first imp I had of this was, I think, slightly yellow in color and the pomegranate was more pronounced. The imp I just received as a freebie from the lab is clear, and the rose is much stronger. Ahhh, I think I liked the first incarnation the best but I still like it and I am hoping to receive a bottle later this year as a gift since I asked very nicely. Maybe this will age and the pomegranate will get stronger. I love pomegranate. This is one of the blends in which pomegranate is the strongest, I think, though you definitely have to be open to rose to wear it. I don't like rose all the time but when it works, it works. Sweet, succulent, ruby red pomegranate...sweetening the otherwise sharp and slightly perfumey rose. So simply but so elegant, and I think that it likes my skin after all. If you like the pomegranate and rose combo in Queen of Clubs this should work for you as well...I was thinking I could layer it with Graveyard Dirt or something else that's slightly earthy to recreate that Queeny scent but Persephone is nice on her own as well! One of the lab's simplest delights...there are few finer pleasures than two lovely scents that complement each other so perfectly. A bit more floral than my tastes typically run but one of the only things that can save rose for me is rich red fruit (amber and earth are two other rose-savers). I do hope I get a bottle. I think I'll especially want this in the spring.

All cherry oils smell like almond to me, which I can't stand, so I haven't been able to handle more than a sniff of anything that contains cherry...it's not so much that it smells like cough syrup, it just smells like almond. But if you like cherry and would like something that smells kinda like cherry but doesn't have that woozy sickening cough syrup feeling, you might like some blends that contain heliotrope. It's a flower that smells surprisingly like cherry but doesn't turn into an almond or candy scent.

Received via circular swap. I really have no idea what is in this! At first I thought floral but after reading some other reviews I sniffed it again and I think I do agree with the resinous descriptions. Yes, that does smell like Frankincense. Maybe I was wearing something else earlier and didn't realize it. I actually thought for a moment that I detected civet because it has a sense of something sharp and sinuous winding its way through the blend, tickling the back of my mind with a sense of vague alarm the way that civet does, but I think that must just be a trick that the other notes are playing on me. A light resin with a trickle of something slightly sharp winding through it....something medicinal or evergreen. It fades rather quickly though and leaves me with a faint impression of some sort of musty flower. I feel like this is an oil that you would want to do something with. It has the feeling of an occult shop...something that should be dabbed on candles or meditated on. Unfortunately I have no idea how to use it properly, and as a scent it fades very quickly and doesn't agree with me...I might have to do some research into how these oils can be used as they have very strong, unique and powerful fragrances that I think would work better on a candle than on my skin.

I almost ordered this right off the bat because of the fig and pomegranate...two things that I enjoy sniffing. But I didn't buy it because the rest sounded kind of hit or miss for me. In the imp, this is very very figgy with a swirl of cocoa. While I am a chocolate fanatic I absolutely hate the idea of smelling like chocolate. Cocoa belongs in my mouth, not on my skin! So I tested it nervously but the cocoa goes away instantly and it's ALL fig from here on in! The cocoa does sweeten it a bit and the lemon does add some sharp notes but it's mainly just fig. I like the lab's fig a lot, it's completely unique and I've never come across anything else like it in the world of oils. It is, indeed, strangely comforting and familiar. I like fig in Gomorrah and Nemesis too but I don't usually wear them...I just like to sniff them. As I wear this it's still just fig! It stays strong for awhile though. I don't get any other notes in this at all. This is a fig-lover's dream come true but I desperately wish I could smell the pomegranate. Pomegranate is one of my favorite things in the world and I just can't seem to get enough of it in any blend. I will enjoy sniffing this but I don't think I would use it enough to justify more than a partial imp, so I'm glad I passed on a bottle yet I still got to experience it!

Received via swap circle. I'm just reviewing these as scents, not taking into account their symbolic meaning. This one particularly interested me because I thought it might be earthy. I like it the most of the Sephiroth on first sniff, but that might just be because I'm drawn to the dark brown color. On my skin it's an earthy spice...becoming more and more cinnamon but fortunately it doesn't make my skin hot. Perhaps it's clove, which I vastly prefer to cinnamon anyway. It's kind of a gritty, dark spice, and as it fades it makes me think of mixing batter for some sort of spiced raisin bread. It's got an almost gritty dried fruit quality to it as well. As it fades I think more and more of thick, dense fruitcake or raisin bread (neither of which I like at all so that's not something I care to smell like).

Nosferatu is my favorite for wine, but there's a strong earthy element as well so if you're not into that then it might not work. Lady Macbeth was like a light berry wine for me. Tintagel was almost all cinnamon to me. I love wine as a scent component though I don't drink -- Nosferatu is definitely winey but a lot of people have problems with the mossy/earthy layer. Perhaps the new scents 21 and The Hamptons would work?

My personal autumn scents are probably different from a lot of other peoples' -- for me, Lilith, Depraved, Lust, March Hare and Nosferatu are favorites (and I only have them as imps!). Red wine, red musk, apricot, patchouli, clove, dirt...those are my autumn smells. Dragon's blood as well is very autumnal for me...and Dragon's Milk is working out to be a good fall scent for me even though it has a certain gourmand quality (something I normally loathe). I had expected that fall would be when Snake Oil would work for me but instead I'll be reaching for Snake Charmer. I've been saving Djinn for the fall as well because it smells like a bonfire. Brimstone will also probably come out this year in the fall. Hopefully my imps will last me through the season because I don't think I'll be able to get any bottles before the seasons change again.

I never thought I'd like this, although I love dragon's blood...I just hate honey, vanilla, and honeyed vanilla in almost every blend that I've tried them in so I didn't see how it could work together. But it does! And marvellously so. The dragon's blood keeps this from getting cloyingly sweet and sickly foody, and it doesn't get lost in a syrupy mix the way I thought it might. But it reminds me of Snake Oil in a good way...I found Snake Oil to be a little sickly sweet, maybe there was a spice in it that didn't agree with me. But this is just dandy. And when I put a single tiny drop on, my bf immediately said "What's that smell?" and I gave him my arm, upon which he said "Mm, I like that." He doesn't like much. I'm so glad I got a frimp of this; I am going to grab a bottle in my next order unless I find one somewhere else sooner. This is the only way that I can stand honey/vanilla so far, but Dragon's Blood makes it work...it's got a touch of that musky, dusty glowing red resin that I adore.

From the CT2 Circular Swap: VIII - Faintly minty...an aquatic mint, I'd say. XXV - One of those fruity lotus smells...almost like an artificial candy banana scent at first. XXXVIII - Very fresh-smelling, clean, herbal-ozone-white floral. A floral rainy scent but the flowers replace the ozone quickly...very nice. L- Something very pungent that does not agree with me, almost chemical-like (turpentine?). Eucalyptus maybe, and some sort of heavy thick boozy turpentine. Didn't test it on my skin, just sniffed. LXXVIII - I actually get almost no impression from this at first. A distant whiff of spicy herbs but almost too faint to tell. Something like cinnamon comes out a little later and gets stronger with time, I like it more and more as I wear it. yeahbutnobut's review CXX - A fresh, crisp wine scent -- not a boozy wine, but sort of light and fruity. Almost identical to my own #CXXI but lighter and less fruity. CXCIII - This smells like sweet mint tea. With fresh sprigs of mint and not too much sugar. CCLIX - This smells like a movie theatre. Not like buttered popcorn, but that might be in the distance...it's more the overall smell of the theatre. CCCXVII - This also smells like sweet mint. Very similar to the other one like this but I like this one better. CCCLXX - Pink grapefruit peel. Wanna put ice in this and drink it. quikslvr's review CCCLXXXVIII - Grass and dirt, but also something floral. This is like a much stronger Mantis with more of a floral aspect. OriginalWacky's review CCCXC - Kind of fruity butterscotch? CDXVI - Slightly citrusy at first but really it makes me think of walking into a Pier 1...a perfumey potpourri. D - It's aquamarine-colored! Lovely lavender-herbal with a touch of lotus. DXLVIII - Another aquamarine! Lavender-mint with a touch of creaminess. I wish this had been Milk Moon, there is barely any of the sickening (to me) creamy smell in this at all, it's mostly lavender and mint to me but without being too overpowering. DCLI - I like this one. Slightly spicy, resinous and herbal, but very light. The spicy element is strong in this but doesn't make my skin hot. Kind of a spice rack smell though a bit like one of those department store potpourris. (Unless otherwise noted, all scents were last reviewed here by OriginalWacky.)

Along with Gypsy Queen and Queen of Clubs, Love in the Asylum is another fantastic example of how to make roses work on me. They each have something dark or smoky in them to keep it from being a headache-inducing sharp floral, and when roses work, they really work and come to life on my skin. Other than the fact that I keep misreading "tolu balsam" as "tofu balsam" the other ingredients intrigued me as they suggest something smoky and sweet, which is a combo that has worked for me before. Predominantly a sweet rose, the tobacco makes this a sultry incense, and the perfect mad companion to Gypsy Queen, without the candle smoke. It lasts and lasts on me, but it doesn't change much, which is fine since I like it so much to begin with. Rose, when coupled with amber, tobacco/smoke, resins, is a marvellous thing. Now I have three LE rose scents that I like enough to wear regularly, and another one or two in the catalogue. Lucky me! ETA: I just need to fully express my love for this blend, which is becoming a favorite of mine as the weather turns toward fall. None of the catalogue rose blends quite capture this kind of smoky rose scent so I am going to have to hold on for dear life to this one. I am hoping and praying that something vaguely similar will enter the permanent collection, because I neeeeed roses and tobacco!

This is really amazing. I am not in top sniffing form because I am having some sort of allergy or cold thing right now but the beauty of this oil comes through anyway. Thanks to the above post which compares it to Mantis, I am able to place where I recognize these herbs...this is definitely similar to Mantis, which I loved but never quite found a reason to wear. I think I will wear this more because the musk really amplifies it and gives it a feeling crisp, clean night air and warm fur. It reminds me of some of the winter scents like Ice Queen in its ability to both chill and warm at the same time. This is the kind of starry, crystalline, sparkling night air scent that I've been dying for, but it escapes being a pure air scent with that comforting, gentle frosted musk and the flourish of golden green herbs. I think I sense something like bergamot or verbena in there giving it a slightly sweet and sunny glow. The moon oils have really been wowing me lately, I wasn't into them at first but with each month I am amazed all over again. Buck Moon is definitely a favorite, and I think I will be wearing this a lot in the winter, when I need a breath of something slightly warm, comforting and clean as I head out into the cold.

A forumite was kind enough to give me a sniff of this before it goes away! I was intrigued by the blood orange, but citrus scents tend to be very light and fleeting on me. I put this on my birthday list but I won't know if I'm getting it until November! Well I like it but I don't think I'll need a bottle, though I won't turn it away if I get one! I concur with the orange Jello/KoolAid comparison, it's very much a sparkling sweet bright orange, and I don't get much of the other ingredients. The pepper is probably what it making it sparkle with life, since otherwise it would probably fade instantly on me. I think Torture King suits me better as I get a much stronger orangey sensation from that, but all the other ingredients help to anchor it and keep it from getting too sweet/powdery. Straight orange isn't really me though, so while I'd like to have an imp around I don't think I'll need a whole bottle if I do get one.

Blood Countess is, to me, a garnet or a dark, dark ruby. Though it could be an amethyst as well, depending on my mood. Nocnitsa is emerald. And then of course there are the opal and pearl scents! I'd love to see a line of jewel scents. That would be my fondest wish! I have a very strong synaesthetic reaction to colors and scents, but those are the strongest for me.

Gypsy Queen, definitely. It's that smell, plus some floral incense, for me. Some people get the blown-out candle smell from Cathedral as well...I get that a bit, but it's more resiny than anything. But I would definitely say that Gypsy Queen is the way to go if you can order it before Sept. 1!

I've never smelled that, but the BPAL that best fits the description of spicy, cedary sandalwood would be Sri Lanka, in my opinion. Even though I don't think spices are listed it strikes me as having a very spicy quality, and the sandal and cedar are definitely there.

I first tried this a long time ago, perhaps late last year. I had been prepared to order a bottle unsniffed because I am mad for woods. Mad, I tell you! But when I tried it back then it was just cinnamon on me, in particular the type of "I just walked into a craft store" cinnamon that I don't like. Since my tastes have developed a bit since then I'm glad I got to try it again to see if it's any different to my nose now. However, it's still just cinnamon bark on me. Now, I like cinnamon bark in cooking (curries) and I can enjoy it in some perfumes if it's not in the forefront (I like Geek...and I like Silk Road, but cinnamon burns my skin in almost all other cinnamon blends). But in this it is really overwhelming any other notes and I can't smell anything else. It really smells to me like something I'd get in a craft store and I know that's just because my skin is broadcasting the cinnamon at the expense of everything else. I do catch a hint of the vaguely spicy scent that is lingering in the background of Dublin, but this just isn't the woody scent that I was hoping for. I don't smell anything at all but cinnamon. I think a lot of people would like this, but it's definitely not for me.

I would have never tried this if the lab hadn't frimped me one! First I should mention that Florence is the name of the town that I am currently moving to (everything but my computer, TV, bed and BPAL collection are there right now!). It's, er, not the one in Italy. But I'm quite tickled to have a scent with the same name as my town nonetheless and I'll probably order a bottle just because of that! In the vial this really knocks my socks off. The amber is rich, golden and glittering, absolutely one of the best I've tried. I have no idea what iris smells like except that there was something I liked in 13 that I think may have been iris. Everyone grows irises around here but I've never noticed any kind of a smell coming from them. I definitely get the berries though, and I like berries. But the strangest thing is this green, crisp, herbal smell in the background, almost like very green grass. On my skin, this kind of fragrance doesn't do a whole lot and tends to fade rather quickly but it's still very nice and I could see reaplying throughout the day. It reminds me of the original Carnivale, which I recently tried, but I like this more because the berries are sweeter and the amber is richer (maybe it's because this is brand new). It's definitely the one to try, if you like amber and berries together. I wish that my skin could project this kind of fragrance more, it just eats it up very quickly and there's no throw at all. But because of the name and the amazing in-bottle scent I will have to get a 5 ml one of these days!

Gypsy Queen could be my favorite CN scent on some days, but it would depend on my mood, as it packs a powerful smoky flowery punch that works best in the evening or outdoors. This is a lovely, lovely blend that evokes a small room filled with velvet scarves, tapestries and beads, a little round table covered in Tarot cards and all of the other trappings of the archetypical carnival gypsy tent. This smells like burning or freshly extinguished candles, and it's simply amazing how that smell could be captured in a bottle. It is especially nice when I wear it outside, all of these smoky scents really go nuts when I have fresh air hitting my skin. I really feel like I was in a room filled with incense smoke and not it has infused my hair and clothes. But it's not the strong hippie incense that I normally favor, it's more the scent of an occult store with dried herbs and floral incense. It's definitely a rosy, floral incense but the smoke masks the perfumey floral scent. Rose only works on me when it is darkened by earth or smoke, or frozen in amber, typically, but this is a perfect example of how smoke, incense and flowers can work together. I initially thought I'd put this at No. 3 on my list of favorite CN scents but on the right day it could be No. 1. These are all SO good it's hard to decide! This will be an all-time favorite for me.

Like some other people I had trouble smelling this in the bottle, possible because I was still overwhelmed by all the other things I have been smelling! When I put it on I have a hard time telling the difference between this one and Geek except the tobacco aroma I thought I smelled in Geek is on top in this one (obviously, since this one actually contains tobacco!) and I get a little of that "dad's pipe" smell that I really love (even though I hated it when dad actually smoked a pipe....it's the lingering aroma of smoke-stained wood that I like). It's fairly elusive though, it's not a scent that really blossoms on my skin and I like things with a lot of throw that hover around me like a cloud of incense. I have to sniff my arm really obviously to get a good sense of it...and it's nice, it's smoky tobacco combiend with something a little lighter, almost medicinal. This will work nicely in the fall I think, along with its cousins Geek and the King of Clubs...all very masculine, dark green, slightly woody and smoky. I don't know how other people might perceive these scents on me, they might be a little too manly, but I like them and they'll have a place of honor in my collection. I'd say this ranks fourth or fifth out of the seven I've tried, but to be honest I pretty much like all of the CN scents equally so far except for the aquatic-tinged ones!

Geek in the bottle is my favorite CN scent, an incredible mixture of pine and wood with just a hint of spice. It's dark but not oppressive, more like shadows in the forest. This is someone creeping through the woods on the edge of town, watching the carnival from afar. On my skin, leather dominates, and I don't much like leather unless it's in the back where I can't smell it. I have to wait it out and hope that something else comes to the forefront. In a little while, it takes on a very tobacco-y tone...kind of the sweet tobacco in Perversion, though I think my nose is being fooled by the cinnamon bark. Most of my favorite woody piney notes fade very quickly but there's a lingering dark, sweet aroma like pine needles on the forest floor. In the bottle I could sniff this all day -- I like it a lot on my skin too but the leather puts me off a little at first. I'd say this is my second or third favorite of the seven I've tried...if there wasn't leather it would probably top my list!