coldandsleepy

In the imp: hi there, honey myrtle. Also a little bit of dust and some miscellaneous white florals. On me, wet: the honey myrtle won't budge. It's basically taking over this scent and obscuring all of the other interesting notes that're just lingering on the edge of this. On me, dry: much the same. Throw and duration: low and low. Overall: Fortunately for me, I like honey myrtle. But the way it takes over on this one when I wear it strips out all the complexity this might otherwise have, which is a disappointment. It also lasts all of about an hour and a half on me. Sadness. I've got two imps of it, so one'll probably go to the swaps, and I'll probably keep the other for when I really want to smell like honey myrtle.

In the imp: cherry-o-rama. I have a moment of doubt about applying this to my skin. On me, wet: phew, there we go. Most of the cherry burns off instantly and makes way for a gorgeous incense-y/smoke-y scent. There's nothing in the notes list that explains it... it's a little bit lavender, but not predominantly. It's not particularly rose-y, though maybe a little. Could be partially the rosewood, but again, that's not most of it... anyway, I can't quite place what the incense smell is, but I'm loving it regardless. On me dry: much the same as wet. Throw and duration: strong throw, though not overwhelming. Lasts for seriously over 14 hours on me, so yeah, very good duration! Overall: King of Hearts reminds me of something that I can't quite place. After hours of puzzling, I finally decided it must smell like an after bath powder my mom used to apply. Which is weird, as it's not particularly powdery on me. It's all regal and lush and stuff. I'd say it's heady, and perhaps even intoxicating! And downright beautiful. I feel like I'm travelling in a cloud of soft awesomeness when I wear this. It's not at all what I thought it'd be from the notes list, but it is pretty wonderful. Definitely a keeper for me. Maybe even a bottle purchase eventually.

In the imp: yup, that's pomegranate. On me, wet: whoooooa, hello big bouncy pomegranate booze. It reminds me of this really sweet pomegranate wine my spouse bought once when I wasn't at the store and couldn't say no. On me, dry: about the same as wet. Throw and duration: very strong throw, and good duration (about 6 hours). Overall: this is a big bucket of bouncy fruity fun. It doesn't smell dry at all on me, and is actually pretty sweet for just plain pomegranate. Doesn't remind me of a martini at all. (Admittedly, I've never had a pomegranate martini.) I like it and think it's a pretty fun scent, but it's the sort of smell that'll annoy me if I'm not in the mood to feel big and bouncy and fruity. Hanging on to the imp for now, in any case.

Hum. I expected this one to morph all over the place on me, but it's about the same in the imp and on me wet or dry. I definitely get the lime, the grapefruit, the tangerine, the lavender, and just a little bit of peppermint. It's got surprisingly little depth for something with so many notes in it. It smells kind of like candied dish soap. Not thrilled with this. It's not even a particularly interesting smell to my nose. Sad.

This is one of those ones that's got a pretty perfect description from the Lab. Definitely rose and frankincense (in that order) on me. It's a more serious rose to me than many others... nothing particularly girly or playful about this one. It's not quite as somber as I expected, but still pretty good. As I love both rose and incense, this works quite well for me! Yay!

Once, I almost ordered an imp of Queen of Sheba from the Lab. But I read a bunch of reviews that said it was more honey than anything else, and I don't really do honey, so I turned my back on it and thought nothing more of it. Then someone offered me it in a swap, and I looked at the notes list again and said mmm, almonds and spices, and went ahead and accepted the offer. And then I just kept randomly reading posts about how much a bunch of people seem to hate QoS! Yikes! I started to be very worried. But you know what? I shouldn't have worried. Turns out I'm one of the lucky few that Queen of Sheba smells good on! In the imp and on me wet, it's like oh hi, i hope you like sweet almond oil and would you like a whopping side of honey. But this phase lasts literally like 60 seconds on me. Then most of the bigness burns right off and I'm left with a beautiful gentle almond and spice scent that lingers for hours and hours and hours. It's one of those scents that I forget that I'm wearing until I get a whiff of it suddenly, at which point I'm like What could possibly smell so good? Oh! That's me! So yeah, Queen of Sheba smells really awesome on me. I'll be hanging onto my imp of it for sure, and maybe someday when the magic BPAL fairy grants all of my wishes, I'll get a bottle of it.

This smells roughly the same on me as it does in the imp. What it smells like precisely, I couldn't say. I think the dominating note might be the apple blossom, but that usually goes all wrong on me and this smells surprisingly right, so... I just don't know. Whatever it is that this smells like, it's very light and clean. It actually smells kind of how I'd imagined Embalming Fluid would smell. (From looking at the notes, I'm certain this bears no correlation to reality.) Very nice and refreshing. Didn't last very long on me, which is sad, because I think it'd make a pretty nice summer scent overall.

In the imp: help help it's beating me with the lavender stick. Lavender's one of my favorite scents, but seriously, this is BIG even just in the imp. On me, wet: there's nothing soft about this once it hits my skin. It's all in your face lavender and lotus, both fighting for attention. On me, dry: after about an hour, it mellows out and I finally get a little bit of the spice through all that lavender and lotus. At this stage, it's actually quite pleasant. Throw and duration: throw starts out OMG WHAT HAVE YOU DONE levels of strong and ends up about average strong. I can't say much about duration because after a few hours, the harrowing memory of the initial smell of it made me wash it off. Overall: for me, this is a strong reminder that just because a BPAL scent is made up of notes that you absolutely love, that doesn't mean it's going to work for you. I love lavender, lotus, and spice. I hate Paris. It makes me miserable. That's not really fair... I don't hate the whole scent. Once it dries and mellows out, it's really rather nice. But that first hour is hell. I thought I was going to vomit from how strong it smelled on me. Y-i-k-e-s. I'm happy to see that lots of people have had good luck with Paris, as I love the idea of it and I do like the dry down, but... this imp is going to the swaps for sure.

This has been near the top of my wishlist basically since I started keeping a wishlist (and actually even before I started the spreadsheet!), so I was delighted when I received it as a frimp. Thanks Lab! In the imp: delicious plum and something sinister that I can't quite pick out yet. On me, wet: this is unfolding as a very tasty juicy scent on me for the most part. Definitely getting the plum and the citrus big time. But there's something sort of evil hanging out on the edge of this... maybe the amber? Smells kind of sharp and dark compared to the rest of the scent. On me, dry: same as above. I can't figure out what the evil note is, much to my irritation. Throw and duration: both about average. Overall: on the one hand, it makes total sense for the scent of one of the Furies to have a dark and sinister note to it. On the other hand, I love everything about this scent EXCEPT that note, and I kinda wish it would just go away. I'll keep this one to test again... because it's so close to being a win for me... but unless that note grows on me, this'll eventually get swapped away.

In the imp: sweet sweet sweet roses. On me, wet: sweet roses and spice, exactly as described. On me, dry: still very sweet roses and spice. The sweetness is burning my nose a little. Throw and duration: very good throw (strong but not aggressive), and excellent duration (10+ hours). Overall: If the description sounds good to you, then assuming your skin doesn't go all weird on you, you'll probably like this a lot. It's a bit sweet for my own taste, and I've got BPAL roses that I like more.

In the imp: little amber, little florals, little lotus. Nicely balanced. On me, wet: hellooooo fruit. There's a brief period where I smell like Hi-C or something. It's a little alarming, but never fear... On me, dry: ... it mellows out as it dries and I no longer have a strange Kool Aid craving. What's left after the big fruit smell burns off is a really nice, gentle lotus and amber scent. This is probably one of the better lotus scents for people who are freaked out by lotus... it doesn't seem particularly bubble gummy or sweet here. Just nice and pretty. Throw and duration: throw's on the low end, but duration's average good. I got about six hours out of this. Overall: Very pretty. I don't think there's anything else in my collection quite like it, and I do love lotus and amber, so I'll probably hang on to my imp.

In the imp, this smells lovely and green and a little bit sweet like some sort of magical fruity cucumber drink. As soon as it hits my skin, it morphs into playdough and pencil shavings. Yuck, yuck, a thousand times, yuck. It does have a strong throw and good duration, but ew. My skin is not in to this. This one'll be moving on to the swap pile, yes.

In the imp: a watery floral that reminds me of anointing oil my mom used to make. Smells a little like violets? There's a slight bitterness that I think is the moss. On me, wet: about the same as in the imp, but now I get the tiniest hint of incense in the background. On me, dry: exactly the same, while it lasts. Throw and duration: almost no throw, and duration under an hour. Yikes. Overall: It's not a bad scent, it's just not what I wanted. I wanted a big, deep, dark incensey scent that would make me think about being at a crossroads in my life, etcetera. What I got is a watery floral that sorta vaguely remembers the concept of incense from its childhood. Not only does it not meet my (admittedly illogical) expectations, it doesn't last on me at all. Sadness. But I'll swap it on to someone who will love it more.

I often pair scents together in a sort of temporal sense. Like I think of Belle Epoque as "the morning after" Sleepy Moon. Similar concept, but gentler, more suited to every day wear. Elegba smells like the morning after Red Lantern to me, which makes sense if you look at the notes. To my surprise, I get very little coconut out of Elegba, though. It's mostly a caramel/rum scent on me, with some undertones of tobacco. It's sweet, but it's not sticky sweet, and is much less in your face than Red Lantern. It lacks many of the heavier elements in Red Lantern... no opium or anything here. Overall, I think it's pretty nice, and I'll probably keep it for days when I want Red Lantern but have a headache or something.

To me, this is the same town that El Dia De Reyes happens in, but it's not a holiday. It starts out smelling a great deal like raisinets or a ruby port to me. Big, sweet, candylike grapes with a hint of chocolate and booze underneath. As it dries down, it mellows into a really nice rich cocoa scent with something distinctively red in the background. (It's not wine-y at all. More like red musk or maybe dragon's blood? Dunno. Definitely red-smelling, though. ) I don't remember getting anything like vetiver and didn't mention it in my notes, but maybe I need to give it another sniff! As is, even without picking up on any vetiver, I like this quite a bit and will probably hang on to my imp.

Though I love roses a lot, I sometimes go through phases where I find them very boring. I got an imp of Blood Rose while in the middle of one such phase and had to sort of begrudgingly make myself apply it. Blood Rose got me right out of my rose rut. It's a bouquet of big, juicy, in your face dark red roses presented by someone with an ulterior motive. It's got a huge afterscent of lovely seductive incense. It's a scent that refuses to be ignored. It also lasts forever on me. I applied it in the early evening and woke up still able to detect it easily the next morning. It's too big for everyday wear for me, but it's perfect for some situations. Definitely hanging on to my imp of it.

As the description suggests, this is just straight up milk chocolate in the imp and on me. It's actually not terribly sweet on me, which I'm happy about. It's foodie and delicious without being at all cloying. For the few hours that it stays on my skin, it's quite strong... way stronger than I expected after Velvet. But after a few hours, poof, it's gone, as if it'd never been there. That's okay, I guess... while I like Bliss a lot and find it very pleasant, it's a little boring to me and I got kinda tired of smelling it after awhile.

What I can smell of this smells good. But I can't smell much of it. A little blackberry, a little sage, a little tea. Fades after a few hours. It is terribly consistent though-- smells just the same in the imp as it does on me, and smells the same every time I open up the imp to smell it. I'm wondering if it's an older imp and has lost some of its oomph with age, because it seems like it's been plenty strong for other people.

In the imp: lots of lemon, a little rosemary, a little mint. On me, wet: same as in the imp. On me, dry: This changes a LOT over time on me. At first, I get nothing but lemon and rosemary and a little mint. Then the rose comes up and is strong for a few hours. Finally, this ends up being gentle grape and rosemary. Very nice, though it morphs an awful lot. Throw and duration: good throw and excellent duration. This lasts forever. Overall: it's kind of all over the place, but I like all of the phases. I just kinda wish it'd pick one and stay there! And I could probably do without the final grape phase.

In the imp: mmm. I get dusty books for sure, and some nice cedar. There's a tiny hint of musky sweetness. On me, wet: hey, where did my books go? Bring back to the dusty books! All I have now is a big blast of cedar and... apple juice? Musky apple juice? Uh oh. On me, dry: cedar and cat pee. I don't usually make any sort of connection between cedar and urine (unlike some people who use cedar shavings as animal bedding!) so I don't think it's that. I think it's the ethereal musk going all weird on me. Yuuuuck. Throw and duration: not a terribly lot of throw (thank goodness) and not a very long duration (again, this is good). Overall: Sure smells nice in the imp. But really, it's cat pee on me. No thanks.

Marae smells quite nice to me in the imp. I get a nice strong gingery gardenia smell backed up with the lovely light incense. Smells tropical and pretty, but in a much gentler and laid back way than Tiki Queen. Casually pretty, I guess. On me, it basically disappears instantly. I get a bit of faint gardenia for maybe thirty minutes, and then it's just gone, never to be smelt again. Lovely while it lasts, but it just doesn't last for me. Sad.

So the funny thing is, I picked up a decant of this knowing I'd hate it, because it sounded like just the thing my sister would like and I thought it'd make a nice present for her. Naturally, my decant of it showed up just hours after I'd placed my lab order which was, of course, Tiki Queen free. And naturally, I absolute adore Tiki Queen. Agh! I'd been expecting something big and vanilla-y and musk-y. Vanilla is the anti-me, and vanilla + musk = I want to die. It's one of those rules of the universe. But you know what? I can't really detect the vanilla in here at all. Probably because it's hidden by the huge curtains of beautiful tropical flowers in this. I'm not familiar with a lot of the notes in here, but I can definitely pick out the ylang ylang, one of my true scent loves. There's some really strong note that's dominating this which is... tropical... and sweet... kinda like bubble gum, but in a good way. I think that might be the monoi de tiare? Dunno. Anyway, this is a big beautiful bucket of tropical floral fun. It's definitely got regal undertones... I feel like I should be somewhere sipping a drink out of a coconut while people fan me with palm fronds. Awesome. Throw's actually on the low end, which is okay, since I feel the inexplicable urge to SLATHER this one. Duration's excellent, though. I applied last night around 5 p.m. and could still detect it around 8 a.m. this morning. The scent doesn't change much on me over time... it just stays that big delicious floral. (The mental image that I get from it is distinctly of petals... clouds of big, soft, white and purple petals.) So yeah, suffice to say... though it killed me to pay 6.50 for shipping for ONE lousy bottle... I loved this so much that I made a second order. Siiiigh.

I don't think I'm amping the other notes - at least not the cinnamon because when I put it on I get just faint cinnamon and there's no scent at all after 45 minutes (like I said it's the background with nothing in the foreground) I'm pretty new at this so I'm trying to include a few rose scents with each imp order. I'm a bit tempted to do an entire order of roses but there are so many other lovely sounding things to try! I got a CnS for an order that includes Blood Rose and Persephone so I'll know about those two by the end of the week! I've added the other suggestions to my (long) list. Thanks! ~Becky My Harlot experience was almost identical to this. I was like hey guys, where are the roses? In my case, almost all other BPAL rose blends work for me though. (Lucky me!) Blood Rose is what I was going to recommend to you... it seems like the boldest, most undefeatable BPAL rose I've come across so far, so hopefully it'll last on you!

Neither wikipedia nor general Googling seems to reveal any names for daphne that I recognize. (It does get referenced as Garland Flower a lot, but this means nothing to me. ) Mountain laurel's not apparently a type of daphne, but... Wikipedia DOES say that Daphne is Greek for laurel, so maybe that's where you're making the connection.

Oh man, April Fool really does have a great label. Knew I should've picked that one up... though of course, all the Tiki labels make me really happy too. Good thing we can't see the labels til we get the bottles, or my finances would be in a world of hurt. Thanks for the pictures!