MeiLin

I hesitate to promote anything here; I got too enthusiastic (read: I had a manic episode) with my serial and got a deserved warning. I am now properly medicated. Currently there are exactly 900 scents catalogued--I wrote a little routine that counts 'em out--and you now get a random scent on every page. A link's in my sig file here. I'm not exactly sure how else to promote it!

In the bottle: Orange blossom and sweet pink musk. No coconut. Wet: Incense, pink musk, cypress, orange blossom--sweet. Way in the back is the coconut; it's more like fresh than flaked and sweetened. As time goes by, the coconut comes more to the fore. Dry: For some reason I got a licorice note; it passed, and now I'm smelling a sweet but no too sweet coconut, and notes that indeed smell pink without being neon pink, if that makes any sense; the pomegranate adds a wee bit of tart that keeps the twee factor in check, as does the incense. This is, for lack of a better term, adorable. I really like it. It's a keeper.

In the bottle: REALLY sweet. Oy. An intense foody, more intense than I usually like. Cream cheese frosting, which I love, but don't know if I want on my pulse points. Wet: Eek! A little bit of almond! Then, cream cheese frosting and Snake Oil. I love Snake Oil. The latter's vanilla really amps with whatever is making up the cupcake notes. Dry: ZOMG this is going to age like gangbusters, but it's pretty good as-is. This is a sweet Snake Oil to my nose; as it dries, the Snake Oil retreats a little and the cupcake scents come back. But it's not obnoxiously sweet thanks to the boys' scents. On later drydown, this smells like the love child of TKO and Snake Oil, even though I'm not getting lavender. Verdict: Surprise! I really didn't think I'd like this, but it's awesome, and I can't wait to see what it smells like when Lilith turns two.

In the bottle: Pear predominant, then tangerine. Wet: Benzoin and tonka, sandalwood, then the tangerine comes on strong, which is fine by me. Dry: The tangerine has faded, as the citruses always do. The tonka and pear, with the tangerine faintly in the background, give the creamsicle effect that many report with this, but on me that's less apparent than the benzoin and tonka, with a little sandalwood mixed in for spice. Verdict: I like this, but I dunno about keeping it yet. I'm going to try again when I don't have a huge pile of decants next to me/on my fingers. (Dang, but that Ahania fills them imps high!)

VitaminA, thanks! Yeah, we're up to nearly 200 users and I've lost count of how many scents. Lots. But not nearly the whole catalog. People are now entering other etailers as well.

In the bottle: A rose still in bloom but fading, and dry dirt around it. Wet: Orris root and neroli. No rose. Curious! Luckily I like both. It's sweeter than in the bottle. Wow. Apparently I seriously amp orris root more than I ever knew. None of the resins or sandalwood. Dry: Waiting out the orris root, I finally get the frankincense and sandalwood, more of the latter than the former. A little patchouli, the faintest of roses. It's nice once the orris root calms down,. Sir likes it; it reminds him of the perfume I wore when we first met (Eau de Charlotte). Shadowless Like Silence remains my favorite of the End of Summer series, though.

In the bottle: Dry sandalwood. Smells a bit like a sauna would smell if it were paneled in sandalwood instead of cedar. Wet: A really pleasant dry sandalwood, with a touch of green (I assume the cypress and rock moss). Coming up quickly, though, is the same dry rose petal note from yesterday's Under the Harvest Moon. So far, yum. Dry: More rose. Now the leaves are up. The sandalwood still holds the scent up, and the green is currently gone. Verdict? Win. We'll see what Sir says. Sandalwood usually doesn't do much for him, but he surprises me. No1 likes it. "That's good!"

I was excited for this--many favorite notes. Nothing very harvest-y about them, though. In the bottle: Very perfume-y. Hm. I don't like perfume-y. Wet: Oh, that's better. Rose and lavender right off the top, carnation in the middle, the musk and amber waaaay in the back. Dry: Very faint, actually. I get the leaves now, a little juniper-y. A dry rose smell, like dried rose petals, not potpourri. Faint musk, no amber. A little on the disappointing side. I will try again once it's had time to settle. ETA: Well, dang! Sir really likes it! I canNOT predict that man.

I've just gotten back into D&D, of all things, after 30+ years. I'm old. I played D&D when Gary Gygax was running off the rule books on a ditto machine, stapling them together, and handing them to you himself. OK, not that long, but some days it feels like it. ANYway, my character is a half-elven wizard named Maira who has a snake for a familiar. She's skeptical, cautious but inquisitive (she tends to be the group's go-to for anything involving questioning), and she doesn't mind using her femininity to get answers. She's a bit like Rosalind Russell with blonde hair and a wand. Idears?

Two thumbs down, sadly. I amp jasmine, spectacularly; this is headache-inducing, not sleep-inducing. Luckily, Number Two Daughter likes it and uses it. I'll stick with TKO.

BIG UPDATE TO PERFOOM! 1) By user request, you can now track your imps as well as your bottles. 2) You can now see other people's lists! Easy access to other users' bottle, imp, favorite, disliked and, best of all, wishlist! Check it out.

You're welcome! There are now about 750 fragrances in the database, all user entered. Most are BPAL but there are some other etailers, too. MamaMoth, I'm not sure if I could do that, but I'll definitely look into it. A user has also asked that I provide an imp list feature as well as a bottle feature, and I'll try to do that soon.

PERFOOM.COM IS UP AND RUNNING! The database is incomplete; it relies on its users to help fill it in. There is NO duplication of BPAL.org's features--no reviews, no swapping, actually, no comments of any kind. It's strictly a way to track what you like, what you don't like, what you've tested, and what you'd like to test. It's not 100% pretty yet, but the basic functionality is there, including the ability to click on a note and see other scents in the database with that note. Enjoy!

*boing boing* I think I figured out how to make Perfoom.com work! I'll let you know. ETA: OK, I have a rudimentary something figured out. It's here, and allows you to keep your list of scents online. There are NO review functions, NO forum functions, or any duplication of what goes on here, though you can rate a scent from 1 to 10 whether it's on your favorite list or not--"favorite" here means just that you own it, not that it's your absolute favorite. That's just how the software works. It's not-for-profit and free, though if this ends up being a huge time/money sink I might throw up a Google ad box (emphasis on "might"--not certain at all). Check it out. It's not 100% formatted yet, either, but it's a start.

Dammit, I wish I weren't working so hard on the book right now. I REALLY want to set up an open DB for people to track their BPAL "in the cloud," so to speak. I even have a domain (Perfoom.com). I'm still trying to figure out how to do it.

I couldn't pass it up because I am all about the honey. In the bottle: Uh-oh, Unfortunate Corduroy Purse Incident, aka plasticky berry musk. Wet: Initially artificial berry, moving almost immediately to green. Directly at my skin, it stays green (probably the fig), but I can smell it wafting up from my wrists as I type; from that remove, it's sweet blueberries and honey. It smells like a berry patch in the August heat; I can "see" little squiggly heat lines coming off it. (Sir is across the room and says, "It's okay. Kinda fruity.") Dry: The fig keeps this from being complete sweet overload, adding an astringent quality--you ever smelled fig sap? This is that. The berries have receded somewhat, leaving orange blossom honey, fig and musk in that order. I like this much better than Pinwheel, and it will be getting Pinwheel's place in the box.

Uh oh, almond. Even so, I am committed to pressing on; the Fickle Finger of Squee picked it out of the imp box, and the Finger Must Be Obeyed. In the imp: Honey and suntan oil! OK, I can get behind that. I'm all about the honey. Wet: Huh, coconut and--ALMOND! GAH! DO NOT WANT! WASH WASH WASH! *ahem* Sir says BLEH! and so does the BPAL-Sniffin' Dog. So yeah, no drydown phase noted. Off to the freebie box.

In the imp: Lemon, oh how I love you. I get that, and green tea. Wet: Sweet lemon. Something a little rosy in here; Sir smelled roses a lot, like soap roses, so something in here is creating a rose accord if there is no actual rose note. Very light; the lemon, like most citruses, disappears quickly. Dry: Poof! she no there. What's left is a soapy musk. I think the soap smell is the aloe. Verdict: Sir says eh, so no bottle. I may save up imps to make a roller bottle, but I'm not set on it.

Very promising. I love all of the stated notes. In the imp: Rose first, then ylang ylang. A little old-lady-ish. eep. Wet: Ooh! Apple! Yay! Then rose and ylang ylang. I'll be interested in the drydown. Dry: Rose and ylang ylang on a faint base of honey. The apple peeks in and out. Sir says, "Oh, that's nice for a rose scent." BPAL Sniffin' Dog says, "Snff!" It dries completely down to honey on me. Verdict: Very nice. I don't think I'll buy a bottle, but as frimps come in I may save them up for a roller bottle.

My imp was a little sludgy, too. In the imp: An earthy, sweet cocoa. Wet: Still earthy, but there's a greenness to it. Green cocoa? huh. Dry: This is the love child of Mictecacihuatl and Dia de los Reyes; it doesn't have the florals of the former, and it's not as sweet as the latter. Tobacco isn't listed in the notes, but something is giving off that scent on me. The chocolate is a faint, not overly sweet base for spice--a soft, cinnamon-like layer, actually, more like allspice--and a hint of vanilla and honeyed wine. For all that, it's not cloying at all, and it's not overly foody; it's mellowed, and as it dries down the food aspects recede and the spice notes come forward. It's really, really lovely.

TKO smells medicinal in the bottle--a sharp lavender. But on, the lavender softens immediately, and a warm vanilla candy smell comes to the fore. It's not the hyper-sugary candy note that always goes plastic and headache-y on me; it's a mellow, soft, almost caramel scent. It's pillowy, that's the best word I have for it. A pillowy, warm lavender vanilla caramel. That sounds horrid, but it's really, really not. Really not. Does it help me sleep? Yes. But my theory on why is that it could be most any scent; if a scent is used every night at bedtime, the brain will take it as a cue to shut down and go to sleep. Or not. I dunno. This stuff is so lulling. TKO FTW.

White Rabbit smells like clean cat just come in from outdoors.

I've been waiting for a sunnier day to break out the last of the summer limited editions. Beth had me with the fruit, especially the citrus. I am ambivalent about the juniper. In the bottle: Hawaiian Punch, a less tart version of it than last year's Boo Bam (which I love). Wet: The same. I'm getting more grape and raspberry than citrus so far. Dry: Now I'm getting the fizziness some people have reported. The citrus is coming up, and I think I'm getting the juniper way in the back. This isn't Hawaiian Punch. This is this stuff we used to have--do they still have it?--these tablets that you'd drop in water like Alka-Seltzer to make a fizzy punch drink. This smells exactly like that. Oh--yes! Fizzies! My god, I'm old. I had no idea they were artificially sweetened. huh. Anyway--that! No1 Daughter says it smells like Jel-lo and I can see that too. I like it! Extremely fun summer scent for warm weather. This will be a July/August staple when I want something less tart than Boo Bam. Actually, I can see wearing those two in tandem pretty much all summer. Dang, now I'm getting visions of dissolving some in alcohol in a spray bottle, and keeping it in the fridge as a cooling spritzer.

Me with the amber and frankincense, so high hopes. In the bottle: Herbal. Bright. Frankincense, chamomile. Wet: Sweeter, much sweeter. The heliotrope. Still herbal, but softer. Dry: Amber is coming out, as is the chamomile. The heliotrope is there, but most of the sweet is from the chamomile now. And the frankincense is definitely at the base. Quite honestly, I don't know what artemisia smells like. Oh wait--maybe I do. There's a green woodiness that's coming out now. It's not sandalwood or rosewood. Perhaps that's the artmesia? Dunno. As it dries, the "eclipse" becomes clearer, as it did with Lunar Eclipse--one of the most amazing pieces of technical perfume artistry I've ever experienced, that Lunar Eclipse. But it's not as dramatic, at least on me. Overall: I love it. It's a bright, slightly sweet, slightly herbal resin. Yay!

In the bottle: Molasses and vanilla, very foody. Wet: Patchouli, vanilla, moss--no longer foody. Sweet moss and loam. Dry: Not foody at all. A pleasant vanilla patchouli, leavened by the moss. The molasses isn't there now, and I could never get a full whiff of the currant. I think the currant primarily expressed itself in the non-molasses sweetness. Anyway, very nice. I'm glad I got a bottle, and Sir likes it. So does No1 Daughter; I'll have to guard the bottle box, or siphon her off an imp or something.