Kimbernunk

In bottle: FLORAL. WHITE FLORAL. Screaming. Wet: The floral gets really heady and strong. Initial Drydown: The floral is still heady, but starts to relax a bit. The throw is *really* strong – this is pretty much all I can smell. Dry: Once it’s relaxed a bit, then it becomes lovely. It takes about an hour and a half to morph to something I really like, but then it’s glorious – it’s soft and moonlit, but still flowers. Color: Moonlight Throw: Strong for the first few hours, then fades a bit but is still nice. Overall: imp definitely, probably not bottle. I'd say about a 3.5/5 or so.

This is a major bottle MUST HAVE for me. It's unbelievable. I can't pick out any single notes because it's well blended (and because I'm still pretty new and training my nose somewhat). All I can say is that it reminds me of sitting outside on a gorgeous day with some sun and some clouds and watching light play off of a rippling pool of water - be it a lake, pond, pool or whatever. It sort of reminds me of where I got engaged (minus the 110 degree heat), which may be some of the pull. It makes me really calm and happy. LOVE.

In bottle: Not very fruity – mostly leafy grays. Nice though. Wet: Smells like heather. I’m not smelling any blackberry at all. Dry: Heather with something that reminds me of blackberry leaf, but not the fruit. It’s pleasant though – I don’t know that I’d want a bottle, but it is quite nice. Color: pale purple-gray Throw: very faint – I have to sniff my writst Overall: Nice, but I’ll be okay with an imp unless further testing makes me decide I need a bottle. It's completely like standing in Scotland on a misty day surrounded by blooming heather.

In honor of spending the afternoon reading Gottfried von Straussburg's Tristan, I thought I'd give this scent a try. It stunk in the bottle of something like damp, rotting branches, so I was expecting to hate it. And then I put it on and something really amazing happened: it went really sharp, spicy, very clear mulled red wine. It's glorious. As it's dried down over the past couple of hours, it's given me this incredible mental picture every time I sniff it: mulled wine being drunk by lots of lords and ladies in medieval garb who are forming the audience of a jousting tournament deep in a Cornish forest in Autumn - there are sweaty knights on their horses rejoicing in the smell of the air and the wine and the weather, which is typical Celtic mist with hints of sunshine breaking through. It's really, really, really lovely -- I MUST get a bottle of this. I'll have to try it on the fiance too if he's willing. For me, this is a clear winner and will be on my next order. I love that I love it because I loved the idea of it so much, and it's just amazing. It's perfect for this time of year and will be lovely all the way at least through the December holidays... and then nice and warming when it's snowy in February. Wow. 5/5.

In bottle: Mostly I think I’m getting the floral, but there’s something sorta citrusy too. Wet: Mostly florals and something that smells quite a bit like baby powder. Initial Drydown: Wow – suddenly the grapefruit came out to play. It’s really nice. And it’s starting to blend with the green tea and neroli and some of the florals. Dry: It’s starting to go back to something resembling baby powder – it’s really powdery on me now. I’m not sure what my skin is amping up to make it like that, but it’s sort of sad. I want the green tea and neroli back! And then I do get that some sniffs, and some not. It seems to depend on how long I'm breathing in - if I just do a quick whiff, it's mostly powdery (probably something the jasmine is doing, when I think about it), and if I breathe in longer, it's more citrusy. Color: bright light yellow green, then fades to a soft peach Throw: not real strong. It’s fading fast. Overall: Will have to retest to determine whether or not it’s bottle worthy, but it’s definitely a keeper as far as the imp goes.

I could see where people would really love this. My skin chemistry HATES it, unfortunately. In the imp, it smelled almost dead on like a really gourmet chocolate covered cherry. I had high hopes for it. Once I put it on, however, it morphed quite quickly into something that smells like grape sode. After about 30 minutes (maybe a bit longer), it had smoothed out... to Welch's grape juice. It smells like concord grape on me. Nauseatingly so. I finally had to wash it off because the throw was huge and it was making me sort of nauseous. This one will be a swap for me, though it sounds like there are going to be some happy takers!

In bottle: Sweet, almondy. Really almondy. Wet: Wow – it’s like amaretto liquor. Really, really strong almond scent. Initial drydown: Mostly retains the amaretto scent, but slowly starts to sweeten and mellow a bit – it’s not quite so sharp. Dry: Very sweet and sugary, rather like marzipan. Not for everyday, but would be really nice on days when I need a bit of comfort, and good for winter when I want to bake. Overall: Not an everyday scent, but nice for occasions. I got his because someone had suggested that it reminded them of Lush's Silky Underwear powder. I emphatically didn't notice a similarity, but that could easily be due to skin chemistry differences.

In bottle: Definitely a watery scent, and a rather sad one at that. Really gorgeous. Wet: It almost immediately opens up into what smells like really deep blue flowers. As it starts to dry, the floral subsides a bit and I start smelling the water again. Dry: It’s like sitting by a mountain lake in early spring with some early iris peaking through, late in the evening. There’s a bit of dark floral peaking through that blends gloriously with the watery scent. Complex and melancholy. It's like lakewater reflecting the sky in late sunset. Overall: Definitely a keeper – most likely a full bottle. This is just achingly beautiful. Wow.

I was skeptical of this because I'm not fond of strawberries, but I figured I'd try it and see what happened. This went from smelling sweet and floraly in the imp to smelling like fake strawberry flavored bubble gum on my wrist. After about fifteen minutes the strawberry at least stopped smelling fake, but it's way too sweet for me and I'm really not getting much floral at all. Off to the swap pile for this one I think. I can see where someone into sweet, fruity scents would probably love it.

I love this. I love vetiver once it's had a chance to dry a bit. In the bottle, it's like being suckerpunched with vetiver. Once I got it on and it settled a bit, the vetiver dried down to something that smells like concrete right after a thunderstorm in midsummer, humid and wet and clean and steamy. The violet tempered that with enough floral to make it smell purple on top of that. So I'd say it's a dusty purple humid scent. It's one of my favorites so far...

I got frimped this. I opened up the imp to smell it last night and a bit sprayed out onto my hand. I spent the next give hours sniffing my hand obsessively because it had this gorgeous mulberry-cinnamon smell that made me think of the holidays and seeing my family. Today, I got off my butt and started writing my dissertation proposal, which I'd been putting off somewhat relentlessly. So methinks it may be effective as well!

Wet: Mostly ginger and apricot with a touch of creamy-scented vanilla and something vaguely peppery. Initial drydown: peppery and vanilla like. I think the peppery scent must be ginger-related. Dry: I smell like a muffin with apricot jam on it. The ginger/jasmine combo I was hoping for really doesn’t exist on me at all. My skin amps the vanilla to something almost overpowering and I'm not getting any ginger at all. I might like this on a baking day but that would be about it.

An enigmatic, otherworldly scent, brimming with power and mystery. Lavender and jasmine, with a touch of glowing honeysuckle. Wet: Mostly Lavender with something else in there. Stays that way on dry down at first. It reeks of soap. Dry: I keep flipping between smelling soap and smelling something like honeysuckle. I think it’s the lavender that’s messing with me… after about an hour or so, however, it settles down and then it smells like a really heady floral – like flowers really early in the morning, right as twilight is turning into dawn. It seems more of a morning scent than a night scent. Really pretty. Throw: I didn’t slather it on, and it stayed pretty strong for about five hours. Overall: I don’t know if I want a full bottle of this stuff, but it’s really lovely once in a while.

My first BPAL, a frimp gifted from a friend. In the little bottle, I thought it smelled mostly like incense and rosewood. Nice, but doesn't blow me away. Once on, I started smelling a lot more rosewood. LOTS more. It's not my favorite scent, but it's really interesting. I think there might be some tonka after a few hours, because everything just got a bit warmer and creamier. Sadly, I lost all the incense scent after about an hour. This stayed on for almost a full day - even after I showered the next morning I could still smell a slight hint of something faintly sweet and dusty. It's nice, and very much like a library (and I spend way too much time in libraries). On the boy, it smelled a lot more incense-y - I like it better on him than me because I think it's a bit more complex. After six hours, all I could smell on me was rosewood... All in all, I'm going to wear it tomorrow to teach in. But I don't think it'll be an everyday thing...