damiel42

Mmm. In the bottle, this smells a little odd. I wasn't so sure about it - very little chocolate smell, with the weird sweet caramel taking the lead. Then... Oh, my. It's the caramel of Gluttony, the not-so-cloying one, with the smoky, deep spiciness that I get from the L'Autunno bath oil. Maybe I didn't mix it enough, but the chocolate is very subtle. And I LOVE it. I told myself that this would be the last order. *sigh* Must get more of this. Get it if you like the L'Autunno bath oil.

I'm in the "soapy cola" boat with ya... I was hoping for a less-foody, more-resiny third cousin of Haloa, what with the frank&myrrh, wine, and vanilla. Maybe with some amber, for the "gold"...*shrug* Nope. Fizzy soap. I recognize the grape as the same as in last Yule's "the Shivering Boy." I still have hope; maybe in a couple months it'll behave.

This was top of my list for the Yule/Anniversary release... Whoops, just a sec, someone dropped an almond cookie in the mud! No, my mistake, it's the earth phoenix coming to say hi. Ugh. Dirty cookies. I'll try again in a few days, maybe my chemistry is just bad right now. I'm sure it'll age wonderfully, but... Right now, I may as well be wearing Graveyard Dirt. It HAS to get better than this...! Opoponax! Jasmine! Where are you?!?

Maybe eight or ten years ago, I bought a little tin of Hello Kitty hard candies from the Adisn food store near where I live. I don't think that I've thought of those candies since, but *wham!* Candy Phoenix smells JUST like them. I really like this, but probably won't wear it often. It's a little too girly for my default state. It's sparkly, and dance-y, and just... Swishy, flouncy, frou-frou girl smell, in the best way possible. It's Fruit of Paradise's younger sister. Anyway--HOLY CRAP to its staying power!! Ten hours in, and I'm still getting whiffs off of my arm, when the others I was testing are barely noticinle when I'm right on top of them!! This is pink, pink, and more pink! Swirly, candyfloss pink. And it's loooovely.

Ooh, but I've been looking forward to this one! I love gingery scents, so the galangal sold this for me. When I first sniffed it, I thought, "ok, I'm in for more bottles!" To my nose, the musks are just a *roundness* to the smell, and not as up front as they sometimes seem to be. I really, REALLY get the galangal - Win! That's really the BOOM smell for a little, then a sweetness starts to pull forward, maybe the cactus flower? I don't specifically smell hyacinth, but I think it's contributing to that Round smell.... It's really lovely. Not necessarily something I'd normally choose, but ooooooooh, I'm glad I did. In my head, this is all sunrise colors- yellow, pink, lavander...it's warm, but not nearly as "fire" as red phoenix, I'd say. "Dawn Phoenix" is how it smells, for me!

Oooh. Just Oooooooohhh. On my skin, this is exactly what I'd hoped it would be - amber, musk, and a sweet, evergreeny smell that immediately reminds me of Nag Champa incense - the red sandalwood, I imagine. This is very feral, but warm and spicy and woody. Unisex, but as usual, I wanna smell this on the boy...

Green greeny greeny green. Cucumber - fresh cucumbers, cool blue waters, a powdery floral... A more complex version of Demeter Fragrances' Wet Garden. Very pretty. Refreshing, summery, and wet.

Olive blossom, honey, smoky vanilla, cinnamon, jasmine, sandalwood, and champaca flower. No, wait....? I should love this, apart from the cinnamon. I amp cinnamon like mad. But no. All I get is that weird sour milk/pineapple smell I got from Milk Moon. Where's that coming from? Ugh. I looooooove the rest of the notes in this blend, but NOOOO not a sign of them. How utterly bizarre. No jasmine. No vanilla. No sandalwood. Not even the dreaded, itchy beast know to some as "cinnamon." A huuuuuge disappointment.

Piney-menthol-eucalyptus cough drop in the best way possible. Not at all what I was expecting. It even makes my skin FEEL like there's menthol in this. The longer its on my skin, the sweeter it gets - the musk starts to come out, and the myrrh goes back to myrrh instead of Vapo-Rub. He could live comfortably with the Yule blends, though, it has that sweet citrusy fresh Christmas tree smell - the one that makes me crave grapefruit and yuzu, instead of just thinking "Hmm. Pine-scented cleaning products." I like this. The longer I wear it, the more I like it. I think it's a really specific kind of smell, though. I'm definitely not going to wear this often. Maybe to bed. It's really comforting.

Something-CXXX-Something. In transit, the oil leaked all over the bubblewrap, melted the label right off the bottle, and smeared the number almost beyond recognition. Hail Eris! This. Is. Amazing. It's knocked everything I own down a notch, and has taken #1, with big glowy neon lights. I can't really even pick anything out for sure, there's cloves, but only very lightly. Some kind of wood, maybe musk, a very light version of the OMGBurnination!! incensy-smokiness of The Chapel, and a faint sharp fruity-something, but only on cloth, my skin eats the fruity. I'd say its a unisex blend, its such a sexy smell, and I'd love to smell it on the boy. Its not sharp, come-hither sexy, more of a smouldering, deep, slow-burning sexy. It's rich, and smooth. Its like the scent-equivilant of the feeling of walking up behind the person you love, and wrapping your arms around them, and putting your chin on their shoulder. I have to figure out these notes. I love it. Love it. It reminds me a bit of Calico Jack, but side by side, they're not at all alike. I've been sniffing obsessively all night- my wrist, the bottle, a bit on a paper towel... I think I have to agree with the others who have said this-- it's like this was made just for me. Its not necessarily notes I would have picked for myself, I think, but its ... Guh.

In the bottle, I smell cloves. Wet and dry on my skin, Clemence is CLOVES with a tiny, frightened whimper of carnation. Darn.

I had high hopes for Inez -- amber, myrrh, cedar, musk, vanilla, sandalwood... In the bottle, it smells soft and smooth and lovely. Wet on my skin, it smells like fresh beets. Half an hour later, it smells like fresh beets. Then it smells a bit more like musk and vanilla, but somehow also manages to still smell like fresh beets. I mean, I like beets and all, but... Just weird. It's very, very, soft. It clings super close, and I really have to snuffle at my wrist to get any scent at all. The erm, beetiness, of it is kind of comforting and interesting, but I don't think this is for me.

I was fascinated by the color, that's why I tried this. The pretty pink-red imp, with an interestingly candy-floral scent. Coming here, I see everyone says "dragons blood" but I've never smelled it before so I have no comparison. If it is DB, then I think that me and DB are going to be BFF really soon. I associate the spicy-floral smell with carnations, but only because this smells just like a scratch and sniff picture of one in a book when I was little. There's something vaguely vanilla deep in the smell, maybe more the round FEEL of vanilla- something smooth and creamy. I really like this. Its very soft and sexy. I can't attest to the voodoo properties, since I'm alone now, but I think I'll wear it the next time I go out to run errands.

I'm going through my imp hoard and decided I should take a nap. So I decided to try Nanshe. In the imp, I smell lavender. I despise the smell of lavander, so I've avoided like a plague all blends containing it. It looks like a good thing that I've tried this blend, though, because... No lavender. Not a Breath of it. I'll have to try more. Since apparently my skin eats it. Woohoo! *cough* Right then -- wet on my skin, I smell a crisp bright lemon. But not Lemon-lemon, its the kind of lemony smell that you get from fresh ginger, or lemon balm, or lemon grass. It goes through a "Froot Loop" stage, where the lemon does this sweet fruity bit, then it goes a bit spicy-- it gives me ginger throwback again, which is finally recognizable as, and winds down into, cloves. It fades pretty quickly; gone in two-three hours. Never did get to my nap, I was too excited that the lavender went away. I rather like it, just as a perfume, and when I get to my nap with Nanshe, we'll see how that goes.

I love the idea of this blend - Shakespear's fools have a special place in my heart. That being said, I really like the smell of Jester in the bottle. Once on my skin, however... It bears an uncanny resemblance to the artificial fruit scent that dumpster cleaner has. And I really can't get past that. It's Locket-only for me. ETA: I was just telling one of my coworkers about the dumpster smell. She said, "I think it smells pretty- really juicy and light!"

CMXLII (942) Tart, sweet, jammy fruitiness. Apricot, or peach, and apples, maybe. There's something else, but I can't pick it out... It smells a bit like how I remember green fruit roll-ups, or some kind of fruit snacks. It's quite pleasant. The scent hovers close to the skin, and seems to fade rather quickly. It's very lovely, and I rather like it, but I'm not sure if I'll wear it, so... even though it IS very pretty, I probably won't keep it.

Firstly, I couldn't sleep last night because I put it on, and it smelled SO GOOD that I kept sniffing myself! When I put it on my skin, it starts off a little unpleasant - something reminds me a bit of the smell in a dentist's office. But that fades, and goes all round and ... *sighhhH!!* That dentist-officy bit never happens in the scent locket, though, so that's a plus!! I'm not sure how old this is, that I'm obsessively sniffing - at least five or six months - it's an imp decant that I got in a lot on eBay, but OMG, I'm in for a couple of bottles if it ages to smell like this. I sniffed it when I first got it, and didn't really think much of it, it was fruity and not particularly memorable, but now... Just Holy Crap. I thought that it HAD to have at least one or two of the same notes as my beloved Haloa - it smells (in my scent locket) a LOT like how Haloa smells on my skin after the initial OMGCAKE! phase wears down. But nope, nothing. Not ONE. More notes to add to my list of "stuff that works on me!" The Mme. is... smoky, and sweet, and just lovely, lovely, lovely. I can smell the patchouli, now that I'm looking for it - without reading the description, I'd definitely thought I'd smelled frankincense. *shrug* This is GORGEOUS. It's a keeper, hands down.

This is currently my favorite BPAL scent. It's foody and cakey and beautiful in the bottle, and is amazingly gorgeously foody and cakey when you first apply it. It throws really nicely. As it dries, it starts getting spicy and smoky. The frankincense and myrrh and olive just make this come alive. The cakiness stays, but it's more subtle. I like to slather this a little while before bedtime, it's very comforting and homey. One thing, though - my chemistry makes it GROSS during different parts of my cycle, so if it smells nasty and weird on you, wait a week or so and try again. It turns to minty Bazooka bubblegum! Gross!

I. Love. This. I got an imp of this in an eBay order. Man, am I ever grateful it was in the lot... I've bought two bottles now! It's something that I would be interested in, but doesn't at all smell like what I'd think based solely on the description. I'm still learning my smells! Neveryoumind that I never actually LOOKED at the scent on the BPAL page, until I got the imp... Biased against Shojo Beat, I guess, which is a little weird, considering how much I love girl-manga... *shrug* At any rate ... In the bottle, this has a sort of berry-cocoa smell, like... well, cheap raspberry cocoa mix! Sorry! It's that weird fake chocolate, fake berry smell! Once it's on me, it stays pretty much the same from wet through drydown - patchouli, cocoa, and a berry-fruity smell. Certain times, the patchouli comes out a little stronger, and certain times the berry. The "dirtiness" of the patchouli is balanced nicely with the fruity smell, with the cocoa just rounding everything out. I really, really, really like this, because it's not too resiny, not too fruity, not too foody... Guh. It's one of the few smells that I haven't flip-flopped on - It's been True Lub since the first sniff.

This is my first review. I'm fairly new to BPAL and I'm loving every minute. The idea of being able to sniff something that smells like snowy leaves made November catch my eye right away, and the reviews make it seem all the more appealing...! So when the opportunity for me to get a bunch of Yule 2k7 imps came up... *pounce* When I first open the imp, I get a lot of unidentifiable men's cologne scent. I don't get anything that's close to snow, or leaves. It's... very wet, and cold, but more like standing on a northern beach in November, watching the horizon where dark gray sky meets dark gray water, as seaweed washes up on the cold, pebbly shore. Smells often give me very specific colors, and this it's lingering somewhere between a wet-forest green and stormy ocean-blue... all washed over with that oppressive, cold gray. This got tossed into the "Try it later, I don't like it" pile for several days. On my skin, at first it's much the same. Very masculine, and actually rather icky... It hangs around, very oppressive and strong, like I just doused myself in it, instead of just a little dab to my wrist. BUT. Here's the thing. As it dries, it starts to 'dry out' so to speak. The aquatics seems to slowly pull back, and once it's been on for about an hour, it's morphed into such a crystalline, shimmery, GIRLY smell - white, sparkly, silver, pale cyan - that I can barely believe that it's the same thing! There's even a very very slight berry-like undertone to it. If I knew nothing about BPAL's Snow White, and someone shoved this smell in my face telling me that it was Snow White, I'd believe them. So, with my weird skin, November turns from a brash, almost unbearably strong aquatic men's cologne into a subtle sparkly princess smell! It went from "Egad, get it away!" to "Hmm. I think I need a bottle of this!" over the course of one trial. I think that it might mix nicely with some of the sweeter, food-ingredient Yule blends - La Befana comes to mind outright - and maybe even the frozen-vineyard bits of The Shivering Boy... I'll have to try that out.