MeiLin

In the imp: Strawberry candies, tart and sugary. Wet: More of the same, nice! Dry: AAAGH! Plastic smell way too reminiscent of the time I spilled strawberry musk all over my cool corduroy patchwork purse in 1974!! Do not want! Never did get it out of that purse...

Don't ever use Block Buster unless you mean it. I wore it to therapy once and had a huge and scary breakthrough. My other amazing one: Dove's Heart, which is always so soothing and healing.

Copal, precious woods, South American spices, agave nectar, cigar tobacco, and roses. In the imp: Green. A little wood in the way back. Wet: Roses and copal. oooh. Dry: Copal, tobacco, roses, spices, holy crap! This is killer! I even get a little honey, but I think that's the agave nectar. This is a definite bottle. It's AMAZING.

Cherry vanilla tobacco, drying down to the familiar caramel pumpkin smell at the very, very end. I like it and may get another imp, but I don't think I'll get a bottle. I have more compelling caramels, and more compelling tobaccos (Illustrated Woman ).

In the imp: CELERY?! srsly, it's celery. Wet: Celery, morphing into sparkly citrus and mint, and easing thence into lemon verbena. Pumpkin? he no here. Dry: Celery. I swear, as Ghu is my witness. Not a lot of folks can carry off the scent of a decorative vegetable, and I am not among them. Not a wash-off, but not a keeper. If it had stayed in that sparkling citrus/mint phase...

In the imp: MANGO! It's a tropical jack-o-lantern, mon! ahem. Wet: Here comes that weird butter-pumpkin scent and then hello, coconut! Dry: The mango comes out and balances out that butter-pumpkin, with the coconut sweetening and the persimmon brightening. The myrrh, I can't detect. Oh wait, there it is, right at the back. This is reminding me of something, a physical object--I can't quite place it yet. Nice, but not bottle-worthy.

In the imp: Odd. That odd buttery pumpkin note that is the pumpkin I don't care for--that's what killed Jack for me. Wet: Brown sugar that isn't really much different than a lot of the other brown sugar-y scents I have. Dry: Fig, pumpkin, jasmine. A little pepper that I think is the carnation. Eh, it's not a wash-off, but it's not all that, either. wotta relief, sez the wallet...

In the imp: Pumpkin right off the top, but mellower somehow. Can't pick out any other individual notes. Wet: oooh. First hit is pumpkin pie, but then comes a sweet leather and wood scent. *fwump* Dry: This is sweet, but not cloying. The musk has come out, which is normal for me since I amp it. I smell the tonka and teak more strongly, and the pumpkin is more of a background. This is nom-worthy!

In the imp: Sharp, peppery, juicy, just-cut grass, the grassiest grass imaginable. Wet: Still grass. I am reminded of a game we played in grade school after the custodian mowed the enormous playing field. We would gather huge "nests" of it and see who could get the biggest nest. This is what that smells of: Big piles of just-cut damp grass in the afternoon sun. Dry: The leaves come out, but it's still very, very grassy. Sir says it smells of our laurel hedge, not grass, and I can see that. This is unisex and would be an AMAZING layering scent, much in the manner that I see Brom Bones might be used. I may have to get bottles of each just to test that theory.

In the imp I smell galangal almost exclusively; wet, too. Dry, I get the nuts and poppy, with the leaves and bark in the back. The apple is just a tiny touch. Wet, it's not hideous, but Sir and I kept sniffing to see if it had morphed into something more pleasant. Now that it's been dry more than an hour, it's much, much nicer. I was going to swap it all, but now I think I'll just not get a bottle.

As advertised on tin. This is a really lovely rose, round and full, almost voluptuous, but innocent at the same time. Not at all soapy or incense-y. Don't know if I want a bottle, but I like it.

Well, the cream is spoiled, and that's all I get: Sour milk. I actually had to wash this off, and I rarely have to do that with BPAL. It's probably a skin chemistry thing. I may let it age and try it again, but my initial hit? blech.

In the imp: Carrot juice! And maple oats! It smells like a health food store! Wet: Whew! Weird! Carrots and maple, bleh. Dry: The carrots almost immediately fade, and the molasses and maple oats predominate. The drier it gets, the more the wood and musk come out. The oats are still there. Not getting much apple. I like it. Verdict: Not bottle-worthy, but I'm keeping the imps for now.

In the imp it's overwhelmingly leather, a clean, well-scrubbed, well-mink-oiled leather, like that of tack or some other often-used, often-cleaned tool. This is not a black leather but a tan one--thick, cheerful and young, not in the least pervy. To my nose it would make a wonderful layering note in small doses to "butch" things up. I'd like to try it on an overly sweet floral or foodie. On Sir, it's a clean scent, very pleasant and good for daytime. I don't know if we need a bottle, but I like it very much.

Fearful Pleasure is one I've SO wanted to try! This Halloween and Yule, Beth really seems to be apple-centric, which is JUST FINE WITH ME! Apples, I lurve dem. Wet it is a dry cider, not sweet, with a smoke back. Dry it's the not-sweet apples, smoke and wood, moss, guh. Massive win.

In the imp: Initially custard and cake, then the anise, then the orange. If I could drink it, I would. (Don't drink yer BPALz! kthxbye!) Wet: Orange Froot Loops! The florals are more present wet. Dry: Sweet orange cake, with flowers in the background. The anise is very faint and mingles with the cake. I'm not sure if I want a full bottle, but it's awfully nice and I'm glad I've ended up with a couple three imps!

Today a swap package arrived. My swap partner felt that one of the bottles she sent had less than she'd said it did, so she very generous gifted me a decant of SGA, my holy grail of BPALs. I've been wanting it since before it was released, since it was Gaiman's description that finally made me go check out this perfume company I'd been hearing about. (The rest is history insanity.) I finally broke down two days ago and bought a decant, but to have another one appear as if by magic? Which if Gaiman is involved even peripherally is the case? awesomeness. In the imp: (Damn I had better not spill this thing or I will be PISSED.) Apples. Clear, sharp, not at all sweet. Cold. Apples in snow. The cold effect is a mint, I think. Wet: Apples still, sweeter but still sharp. The mint is not aggressive at all--not even very minty, just adding a cold note to it. Menthol, perhaps? The apple fades as it dries. Dry: The apple comes back, with little sweetness. The cold note is still there but not as aggressive. And there is now a darkness to it, a dark young musk. The apple has more stay than most BPAL apple blends, which is nice because I love that note. This is the girl from "Snow, Glass, Apples," all right. *shiver* This is very, very different. It's not for every day; it is one of those "storytelling" blends that Beth and co. do so very well, to be worn when one is in the mood to feel like that story. Verdict: Awesome. I'm almost deflated, though, now that I have it. Sometimes the wanting is better than the having--nah! I'm liking the having!

In the bottle: I really pick up the mandarin and the tea, and a slightly decaying smell of violets. Wet: Tea, mandarin...wow, it's fading as I sniff... Dry: Hm, this is just not me. I'm not getting any rose or cream or musk, just a very light white tea and mandarin with some violet. It's pretty, but I think I'm putting it up for trade because I don't love it, and I'm focusing on what I love.

In the bottle: Orris root, carnation, breast milk and baby powder. I immediately think of my daughters as babies; this is essence of babysmell, the good kind. If I were still nursing I'd be in pain and looking for a baby about now, it's that evocative. All you moms out there, you know what I'm talking about. Wet: Lavender and orris root, top note of carnation. As it dries, the milk comes out. This is fairly faithful to the bottle so far. It smells like a particular brand of non-talc baby powder I used when the girls were tiny. Beth, you're making me cry, seriously, just because it reminds me of my precious babies. Dry: This is not a morpher on me. It remains constant, a soft, sweet babysmell, and I absolutely adore it. Sir agreed--smells like No1 and No2 when they were brand-new--but requests that I not wear it to bed.

In the bottle: This is sparking some indistinct memory I can't quite place. I smell lavender at the fore, which is not uncommon when it's in a blend; lavender is a pushy little plant! Wet: This is really well-blended; it's hard to pick out the notes. Vanilla and tea, with the lavender keeping it sprightly. A tiny bit of fennel way at the back makes it playful. Dry: This is really lovely. Now Dorian's musks are coming up, and the Snake Oil has completely tamed the wild lavender without overwhelming it. Then I get the tea, which has a faint tobacco to it. It's a pu-erh or Russian tea, smoked, not some namby-pamby orange pekoe. This is a complex blend, sweet and oddly childlike without being cloying or babyish. It's just beautiful. I love it.

n the bottle: Nutella! or--what is that hazelnut liqueur the monks make? Frangelico? That one! Wet: The cocoa and cream start to come out, but I still smell the Nutella. Very sweet. Dry: Cream, and not as sweet, but that's not saying much. The cocoa and hazelnut are still there. I think No1 and No2 are going to argue over the right to wear this one. The next morning: Still faintly there, mostly cream with a little cocoa.

CT IV: DCCCXXXI (831) is LEMON!!!! with the capitals and exclamation points in the bottle. Not sweet, either but tart, whole lemons--peel, pulp, juice, flower. I LOVE IT. My mouth waters when I sniff it. I am a fool for lemon and I so, so wish this had more stay. CT IV: MLVII (1,057) was described to me as wine, but if it's wine, it's very young wine. In fact, I'd say it's more like grape SweeTarts, which is fine by me. It's tart, fruit-and-hibiscus--akin to Boo Bam, which I adore. Again, hardly any stay. Can I say how much I love CT? SO FUN.

Bay rum, bourbon vanilla, galangal, hyssop, High John the Conqueror root, tobacco, life everlasting, and brimstone. Put this on the boy. Masculine, sporty, insolent. Like.

In the imp: Fig at first, then sandalwood and hibiscus. Wet: Lily soap. Dry: Better, but not better enough to keep. It's gone to trade.

Sometimes, the name of a scent will just put me off trying it until the very end. Such is Pickled Imp. I mean, Pickled Imp. Seriously? They seriously named a perfume Pickled Imp. It didn't sound appetizing, so I left it till very near the end of this set of decants. And yet, the description, with the unfortunate scholar's notes, is intriguing for a vanilla lover like me. In the unpickled imp, as it were: Cinnamon with an odd twist to it--I think the pine. Wet: Oooh, vanilla, cinnamon and clove, light on the cinnamon! Dry: The pine is coming out more, but on the whole this is a spiced vanilla. As it sits, the cinnamon is pushier and the pine makes things very odd indeed--I keep getting leathery notes now and again as it meshes with the spices and vanilla. This could be unisex and I may slather it on Sir just to see what happens.