stardust

Gift from lab. Well, if burning red skin is condusive to sex, then I'm all set! Cinnamon does this on my skin, usually. I smell like nothing but that note. Genereally it doesn't actually burn and turn my skin red, however. Needless to say, I had to wash this one off. Off to a happier home...

Gift from the lab! From start to finish, this smells like slightly honeyed tea with lemon and the tiniest hint of cinnamon--usually cinnamon drowns out all other notes on my skin, but fortunately, this is not the case here. I love this one! It's a brilliant match with the intended results; I envision someone quietly sipping on tea in the corner of a coffee or tea shop, concentrating on writing his or her novel. Definitely getting a big bottle of this.

Yggdrasil smells like warm, dry woods--mostly sandalwood--and a hint of cinnamon. This is what I had wanted Hamadryad to smell like (that one made me smell like a cinnamon stick for hours). I love it. It's one of my few OMFG scents.

Great idea. Yep, I thought that Skadi was similar to Dublin, too, although I still have to do a side-by-side comparison. However, Skadi and Alecto were totally different on me.

Golden Priapus is a lot like Snake Oil on me, with the addition of soft woods and amber.

This reminds me of walking past the flavored coffees at the grocery store, which I love. It doesn't smell like coffee, just that wonderful amalgamation of flavors that hits you when you round the corner. Vanilla, English toffee, and caramel. As it dries, it gets a bit...dusty? on my skin. Kind of a dry undertone--like it becomes vanilla dusting powder rather than a wet vanilla. If that makes any sense. I wonder if wearing this would curtail or exacerbate my sweet tooth. Gluttony falls under the category of "like it, but it's not me."

Contrary to the lab description, I found Hemlock to be a very bright, cheery scent. At first, it is equal parts pine and lime, with some mint thrown in. Then, the lime takes over for several hours (my skin always seems to do this with citrus scents), at which point it is barely detectable, by me or my husband. I think I'll keep looking for another pine/citrus blend.

See, it smelled like grape flavoring on me. Silly body chemistry. My body seems to make most fruits sickeningly sweet on me (maybe because I have a sweet tooth?). Citrus works, though. I love Absinthe (lemon) and The Sun (orange), and like Shanghai (lemon verbena). The peach in Tamora wasn't bad on me, either, but some find it too sweet.

Aw, that sucks about Dublin. Amber goes powdery on quite a few people (I posed a question recently about powdery scents in this subforum--if you look at it, you'll see how many notes may cause this, and how specific it is to each person). BUT, I learned that I can't even discount amber completely, because I tried Fenris Wolf yesterday, which has some amber, and I completely love it.

Oh, thank you! Somehow I missed that one. I'm making a spreadsheet of all the ones I'm even remotely interested in trying, and I'm up to around 200! I'm not even finished yet! Better look into selling my kidneys. Yeah, that's the strange thing. The first time I tried it, it was that time of the month, and I got no powderiness from it. A week later...all powder. Huh.

At first: Strong lemon verbena, with the crispness of tea and an airy, linen-ish scent. Slight sweetness. Later: The lemon verbena isn't quite so strong, but this remains pretty much the same on my skin. This lasts a long time on me. I can't decide about this one. I love the cleanness of it, and it seems like a lovely, optimistic scent for spring days. But I can't shake the similarity to CK One, which I wore in high school. And I don't want to be reminded of high school. I think I'll keep this one and continue to test it.

At first: Amazing! I can smell a green-ness, like just-cut flower stems, along with water, fruit, exotic flowers, and a hint of incense. Later: Becomes strongly floral and fruity. Something in this is giving me a headache, but I refuse to wash it off. Much later: This one lasts a long time. I love how it smells when it gets very faint--like a soft, wet floral. Verdict: I wanted so much to love this, as I'm very interested in the place and plan on going there sometime. But something--either the aquatic note or the intense floral--does not agree with me.

So, basically, I have to try them all? There are worse fates... My skin chemistry seems particularly wacky: scents that everyone raves about take a turn for the worse on my skin. Scents smell different depending on whether I put them on my wrists or the crook of my arm. But, yeah, if there's a hint of baby powder, I can't stand it. My favorite pre-BPAL scents are pine essence and a patchouli/orange blend.

Oh, I thought I was the only one here who feels that way! I'm still not sure what makes a scent smell perfume-y to me, other than most florals, but that's part of the fun of BPAL: trying stuff out and figuring out what I like. So far, florals and most fruits have turned my stomach. The ones I've found that I love: 1. Wolfsbane 2. Dublin 3. Hamadryad 4. Snake Oil (Dublin and Hamadryad are supposed to have floral elements, but my chemistry ignores them). I've only tried...24 scents so far, and most of those selections were shots in the dark. I'll be more helpful in the near future!

Notorious for its properties for protection against werewolves and curing lycanthropy, this nefarious plant also has a fine history of use as a virulent poison. Clasically, Medea employed it in her many works of vengeance. This concoction of ours has none of the lethal qualities, but still personifies all of the herb's dark history beautifully. Wolfsbane is my most favorite scent ever. It starts off very woodsy--like a damp forest. It lightens up a bit, and the herbs come out more. It remains a dark, wet scent. The herbs are fresh and green, not dried. I always get the image of a dark, verdant forest when I wear this. A hint of spiciness emerges at the end, but it is a foreign spiciness, plant-based and not at all in conflict with the other stages. Long-lasting, too (scents usually disappear very quickly on me). This is so perfect on me, I can't even describe it. I have a strong visceral reaction--my pulse quickens, and the dull throb of lust surges through my body when I smell it. I've never felt this strongly about a fragrance before. Now, everyone go out and buy big bottles of this so that the lab never has to discontinue it!

Initially: Nag champa, with vanilla and wonderful spices thrown in! Oooh! After an hour or so: Gets a tiny bit medicinal on me. Another hour: Aaah, that's better. No medicine. The vanilla and spices come out more. Edited to add: This stuff has staying power, which is usually a problem for me. Hooray! Another big bottle.

This smells sooo good in the imp: orange, almond, and spices. On me: Smells wonderful for about 5 seconds, then turns to dried roses and baby powder on me (I'm beginning to think that it's the almond that does this). Too bad. I'll try it as a room scent.

I smell like a pine tree! No roses, no mist, just pine. In a fresh, verdant forest, without notes of decaying wood or soil or anything. Since I used to spray my mom's pine tree scent on myself as perfume... I love this one! Definitely getting a big bottle.

I was really anxious to try this one, since I love fall-ish, woodsy scents. For the first few hours, I smell like a giant cinnamon stick, and nothing else. Now, I like a hint of cinnamon, but this is a bit much. Finally, the cinnamon recedes and I smell exactly like dry leaves crunching under one's feet. This part, I love. I haven't decided if I want to endure the first phase to get to this, though. I never get a floral scent, which is fine by me.

Fall under the spell of our Green Fairy! An intoxicating blend containing wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and the barest hint of lemon. This was a freebie from the lab. It's not something that I would have ordered, because: 1. I don't want to smell like alcohol (as I had incorrectly assumed it would smell) 2. Absinthe makes me want to gag 3. Didn't think I'd want to smell like anise. Well...I was wrong. I really like this one. On me, it starts out very lemony, with a hint of anise. Later, the anise takes over as the prominent note, with the lemon ever-present in the background. I never detect the mint, but I think I can detect some cardamom. Mmmm. Thank you, lab!

Thank you all for helping a girl out! I'm taking notes. I tried Wolfsbane today and I love it! My first BPAL love (not bad, considering I've only tried 6 scents so far). And my wish list just keeps growing...

Wow. I must have some whacked-out body chemistry, because I got two scents out of this one: wet: cherry medicine, like robitussin dry: diapers. Others have backed this up, lest you think I'm crazy. I wonder what note is the culprit...

This is a good example of how body chemistry alters scents: I got malanna's imp of Strength, and, at first, I smelled like baby powder. After drying, it reminded me of a scent my mom used to wear, Giorgio (the notes in that one are rose, gardenia, orange blossom, and patchouli). I'm not smelling any cherry. On me, this smells too much like conventional (albeit high-quality) perfume. Not quite what I'm looking for.

Warning: my 1st review. This is sweet, clean, and youthful. A very "spring" smell. Wet, I mostly smell melon. I like it much better after a few hours, when it has faded a bit and the green-ness of it comes out. I don't smell herbs, per se (though this is probably due to my unrefined newbie nose), which is what I had hoped for. Still, I can't seem to stop smelling my wrists. Sometimes, this reminds me of vaguely of a scent I wore when I was 12. But overall... I like it. It makes me feel hopeful and infused with light. I think I'll keep an imp around.