clawsight

I seem to be one of those lucky people who ylang ylang likes the skin chemistry of -- and this scent is a testament to it. In the imp: Ylang ylang! With a floral (violet I think) and this sweet, dark yellow sort of scent that I'm supposing is the hyssop, a bite that must be the frankincense, and the faintest hints of the grave loam mentioned. There are definitely two florals here, but, I cannot for the life of me tell which one is hyssop and which is violet as I don't have a clue what those scents smell like on thier own. Wet: Violet (think -- it might be the hyssop!) , ylang ylang, and frankincense... but even now the grave loam is starting to amp, and mystery floral #1 is starting to fade. Mystery floral #2 is sweetening things up. I snuff, and then I go 'Curious'. That's the type of scent this is. Dry: This scent is complex, and feminine, but not too feminine. It's the scent of petticoats over combat boots if that makes any sense. My body amps the sweet smell and the loam to the level of the ylang ylang while the frankincense dies down. It's not a tom boy scent -- rather it's very Girl With A Gun*. Feminine, sexy, and yet dangerous, tough, and with a light dusting of dirt in her hair. 4.7 out of 5 petticoat covered combat boots. This one might end up being one I need a bottle of. *Or Girl With A Dirt Bike. Take your pick.

I have been eagerly awaiting my bottle of this and today... it arrived. In the bottle: Blueberry! Tea! Ginger! Coriander. It's lovely. Definitely an interesting, fun, bizzare scent. Wet: Oh WOW. This is wonderful. The currant comes out. There's a lot of notes that are too well blended to pick out but it's just... Dry: Blueberry calms down and melds with the ginger. The currant seems to go more into the background. A more green scent joins in too. I'm supposing that is the squash blossom. The imagery with this is very strong -- it does indeed remind me of my dreamscape. The colors I'm getting from this are hazy blues and purples streaked with teal and green with a mad dash of orange from the coriander. It smells, for lack of a better term, trippy. The coriander could calm down a bit, but, that's the only criticism I can find. Overall this is a fun, quirky, strange scent, that puts a crooked grin on my face. I can see it being a spring or summer scent for some -- but for me this is a year round! A new favorite for me -- this is definitely more of a perfumey fruit than a foody one. I'm finding myself sad I didn't get multiples of this. Rating: 5 out of 5 human faced crawdads.

Man. This scent was a heartbreaker on me. I love lime! I love musk! I love patchouli! It didn't smell all that bad in the imp either. In the imp: Lovely, lovely lime with a hint of nectarine and something herby behind it which turns lovely citrus into something between floor cleaner, and the smell of the the stuff kids use to blow bubbles out of. I'm suspecting the sage. But still! Lime! It doesn't smell all that bad. Though, I can only detect the faintest bit of musk and the patchouli is completely hidden. Wet: My skin eats this. The lime vanishes, but some citrus remains. I think it's the kumquat. The rose amps some -- which I don't mind, per se, but it blends with the sage and makes the floor-cleaner-bubble-stuff smell. Bleh. Dry: I can just barely pick out the patchouli. Patchouli haters, do not fear this scent! The patchouli is just a background bit of woodiness. What I'm really getting from this is an herby note -- which must be the sage. I'm discovering I'm not all the fond of herby scents. After a few minutes on me, the musk and patchouli come out a bit more, but... This is not the complex fruit/citrus scent I was hoping for. It's complex, certainly, but the fruit/citrus is not the dominant note. The dominant notes go from rose/sage with patchouli/musk in the background to musk/faint patchouli/sage with rose in the backround. I don't think it's a bad scent -- I think with the morphing it went through that my personal skin chemistry has a lot to do with this. This is my second encounter with scents with a strong herb note (The first was Yggdrassil), and I'm beginning to think that herbs... or maybe just sage in particular... are Not My Thing. 2 out of 5 Into the swap pile.

How could I resist this scent? Musk? Fruit? Strong willed female from Shakespeare? In the imp: Sweetened apricot! A lovely pale golden scent. The apricot here isn't quite as biting as apricot has been wont to be in other scents. I can't pick out the other notes. In this stage it's a little boring, but nice. Wet: Musk instantly starts to amp. But I don't mind! White musk has been awesome in all of the blends I've snuffed with it so far. White musk, for me, is somewhere between the smell of skin and sexy pheromones and... marshmallows. But, don't let you think that makes this blend in any way foody. It's not. Musk is definitely there though. Drydown: The orange blossom starts to come up, sweetening things perfectly. The musk acts as a solid base, with the apricot adding a biting brightness, and the orange blossom adding a controlled, gentle floral. This is a bit gentle for Kate as she appears at the first of Taming of the Shrew, but, it perfectly embodies what she is by the end for me. The musk is soft and sexy, the orange blossom is sweet and floral but not overly so, and the apricot contains a wicked, sharp bite. This scent very badly wants me to get a bottle of it. 4.7 out of 5 sharp apricots.

The Jersey Devil is one of my favorite American myths, so I had to grab this scent! In the imp: Oh lord. I want to take this scent and slather it on the nearest male. Since my significant other is currently a long ways off, this would involve grabbing someone off of the street and assaulting them with perfume. I don't think the law would look kindly on this, unfortunately... Anywho. The scent is just this... wonderful blend of pine, tomato leaf, and ceder sweetened by cranberry. I can't really pick out the blackberry leaf because I have no clue what it smells like There's something about this that strikes me as masculine, though, I suppose a woman could easily wear it too. Wet: The tomato leaf gets a moment in the sun, along with the ceder and then... the pine and cranberry start battling for dominance. They scare off the ceder first, and eventually the tomato leaf leaves too. Still no signs of the elusive blackberry leaf, unless it's blending in with the cranberry incredibly well. Dry: Cranberry wins the dominance fight. I'm kind of glad, because if it had been pine who won, it would have begun a reign of terror on my wrist that I just couldn't live with. The cranberry is a smug little bastard though. While I like the scent, on it's own it's just... boring. And disappointing. The tomato leaf, ceder, and pine complimented it so well! Verdict: 3 out of 5 This one goes into the enabling pack I'm sending to the aforementioned significant other.

I... was expecting old fashioned root beer from this but, alas, this is now the scent of smashed dreams for me. In the imp: Creamy, spicy, root beer. There is the sassafras, a buttery smell, oak -- which adds a kind of lightness to the sassafras, and then another smell which reminds me vaguely of the... ocean? It's kind of... medicinal, herby, and oceanyl. I'm willing to bet that that is the onycha. The vanilla adds a very necessary sweetness to this... I like the imp in this form and then comes... Wet: The oak vanishes and I wave a sad goodbye to it. The buttery smell and onycha AMP and the sassafras just kind of hangs around. The vanilla briefly surfaces, then vanishes too... leaving me with... onycha, sassafras, and butter. Dry: Onycha, butter, and sassafras in that order. I do not like this, sam I am. The onycha gets darker and more oceanic. The butter gets more buttery. The sassafras adds in a bit of spice which takes the onycha butter and makes it smell like utter crap on me. The scent is not foody in any way, shape, or form. And it comes across as kinda masculine and... just... nooope. The onycha does kinda smell like plastic. Urgh. Rating: 1.9 out of 5 Oh, you could have been a 4 or 5 scent, SSS, why did you have to go to such crap on me? Oh well, I'll just toss this one in to complete the little imp pack I'm putting together to enable the Boy with.

Dee. This was one of the first BPAL scents I got to try. I remember getting it, popping open the imp and imediately jamming the cap back on. It was and overwhelming and caustic man's cologne. Bravely, I tried it on my skin in case it morphed into pure masculine joy. Alas. It got worse. And then it wouldn't come off no matter how much I washed. That was 6 months ago. NOW on the other hand, aging seems to have done this scent a world of good! I am about to try it again for review purposes before I send it off to my boyfriend. I am doing this for you, fair forum readers. For you and for science. In the imp: Rosewood, incense, leather, tonka. In that order. When I first got the imp the rosewood and incense were having a wild party, drinking, dancing, drinking, hitting on chicks, barfing in the fish tank... etc. Now they've calmed down a bit. The leather is no longer lingering in the background with a look of disgust, and shy tonka can come out and add their sweet presence to the mix. Wet: Leather, incense, rosewood and tonka, in that order. It still has some of that typical department store men's cologne thing going on, which I blame on the rosewood, and on the other woods included in this blend. However, the leather and tonka blessedly soften things. Drydown: Mmm... What's this? Parchment? Fancy seeing you here. You and leather seem to get along well. Rosewood and incense are now playing nice, and the scent has become much more complex and pleasent! Verdict: If you try this, try and get an aged imp -- after 3 months I remember the leather notes being much more prominent, and after 6 months it actually started smelling nice. If you get a new imp let it age a bit before flinging it into the swap pile. My rating for it fresh is only about a 1 out of 5 however, my rating for it now is... 3.9 out of 5 hardcore partying rosewoods

Upon my first receiving this I blinked. This is the 3rd or 4th frimp out of the 12 I've gotten that's been a scent the lab describes as masculine. Do they think I'm a guy?. Oh well. I love frimps! And I can use these to enable my friends with a Y chromosome. Oh well. On to the review! In the imp: On first smell I can't tell why this would be particularly masculine. I snuff and snuff and all I get is citrus, though more of a lemon than a lime -- must be the citron I'm picking up. A shame, because I love lime. This kinda smells like Shoggoth minus the evil Iris though so might as well give it a go. Wet: What's... this? Something is coming out past the citrus fest! Why, it's white musk! It's blending with the lilac and making a very... male scent. Huh. In other blends white musk has seemed very feminine to me, and who'da thunk that lilac flowers could make me think of menfolk? Drydown: Musk and florals really amp, with a bit of stinging citrus underneath. This is really lovely. While, as a masculine blend, this doesn't inspire the same I'm too sexy for this shirt, so sexy it hurts vibes as Saint-Germain did for me they do have something in common -- perhaps it's the distinguished use of a floral? Hm? Who knows! EDIT: I just pinned down what mental image this brings to my mind. It smells like a guy who you hug, and smell, and then can tell his heart is broken. I do not know how something can smell like male heartbreak, but this does. The way it interacts with my female brain is it makes me want to hug the sad puppy. Huh. Verdict: Another I'm sending along to My Boy. Not one I'm deeply in love with, but it is a nice smell. 3.8 out of 5

Troll! This helped me figure out what the note was that sent my mind straight to Lowe's in Black Annis -- vetiver. From the moment I cracked open the imp I could tell the two had something in common and yup! Vetiver. In this scent the vetiver seems to be more appropriate than Black Annis. The clove smoke really evens it out. In the imp: Pine! Though not overpowering -- with clove smoke and dirty vetiver and a hint of musk. This is a very dark, masculine scent for me. It makes me think of a furry chested, man who lives alone in the woods, axe slung over his shoulder and a massive wolf-like dog curled by the fire. He spends his days in his small log cabin living in peace with nature, but some times on cold nights he wishes for a girl to cuddle with. Wet: Even though this screams masculine to me I am putting this on. The things I do for science. Anyway. The dark feral musk and clove/cumin come to the forefront on me, while the pine and vetiver decide to play nice in the background. This is still definitely a mountain scent though -- I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains and this reminds me of them at night. Dry: About the same as a wet -- a little less throw to it. Everything is blending very well and the musky-clove-cumin-smoke is still in the foreground with a background of pine and vetiver. I... I want to cuddle with this scent. Verdict: Masculine and feral. Definitely sending this one to the boyfriend. 4.7 out of 5 lovely mountain men Oop! Quick edit: I got this as a frimp from the lab and neglected to mention it so uhm mentioning it now. THANK YOU TO THE LABBIES.

I've only tried two aquatics, Undertow and Y'ha-Nythlei. The former was a complete bust on me -- it morphed a lot, stunk through most of its forms. The only point where it didn't make me want to run and wash it off was for the about 5 minutes it smelled a little like water and mint bubblegum. Y'ha-Nythlei on the other hand smelled like I wanted Undertow to smell. It's a fabulous, very dark aquatic. It can go a bit soapy if you like... shove your nose against your wrist, but if you give it a tiny bit of distance it smells like dark water and algae and maybe even seaweed.

Okay, had this one for a while and just now got around to reviewing it. Anywho. In the imp: Golden apples are definitely the dominant note here. There's another note underneath them however that smells, well, like vapor or mist to me. I don't know if this is the oak everyone's talking about. This is a strong scent too -- like the scent of apple juice x 10. This really gives it the impression of fresh apples. Wet: The apples are a little less overpowering, but are still dominant. I can detect the faintest bit of woods, but, this still smells like I've rubbed a fresh golden apple on my wrist. Drydown: Fainter than wet -- the mist notes amp a bit, but, the apple is still there -- again, this is a really concentrated apple. It smells more real than a real apple does, like this scent was distilled from a kind of Ur Apple. A special note about this -- on me a little of this goes a REALLY long way. I have to be careful with it, because my first inclination is the slather on perfume behind my ears. With most scents this leaves me catching whiffs of the scent for several hours. With The Hesperides it leaves me smelling NOTHING but apples and mist for hours and gives me a headache. I like the imp of this, but, I don't think this is something I'll need a bottle of. I don't know what time of year this scent really evokes -- and I think I prefer Poisoned Apple to it. 3.85 out of 5 Ur Apples

I wanted to get this because it reminded me of a character of mine so -- onto the wishlist it went. And lo, the lab being psychic sent this to me as a frimp! In the imp: FLORAL with something dusty and animalistic underneath but still FLORAL. Wet: Still FLORAL though for a second... slightly more animalistic. It smells like a black cat that's just taken a roll in some sort of flower with a somewhat caustic scent. Mind you -- some floral scents I don't mind but here... hoo boy oh boy. Dry: Dark, but any sweetness in the scent is gone and all that is there is just the bite. It's like that cute kitty that smelled of flowers that you just picked up has extended all its claws, grabbed onto your arm, and then bitten a chunk out of your palm. While I like the almost fur-like undertones, the biting, caustic floral is what keeps this from being a me scent, or what the character I thought it would remind me of scent. Bleh. It's not... bad smelling. Just way too overpowering and sharp for me to wear on myself. Oh well. The perfect floral is out there... somewhere.... waiting for me. 3.3 out of 5 viciously biting cats. This one is gonna go off to the swaps I'm thinkin'.

Dear BPAL, First of all, I'd like to thank you for this frimp. Second of all, I'd like to thank you for bottling Sexy Man Scent. Really. I never thought I'd open a little vial, take a deep whiff, and then melt into my chair wibbling. In the imp: It's nom nom nom. I can pick out the lavender, and what must be mosses, and...other things. But it's tough. It all just blends together and every time I sniff to pick out the scents my brain goes to its Happy Place with the smell of distilled Sexy Intelligent Man. I had to try it on myself. Just to see how it would smell on a human being. Wet: It's like the imp. Just a bit earthier. Mmmm... Dry: It lightens up a bit, but still has me nuzzling my wrist... The only problem I have with this is that I'm in a long distance relationship! So while I can mail this to my man for him to try, it will be many moons before I get to huff it off of his neck. D: 5 out of 5 VERY sexy men Love, your adoring fan, Aubin.

Cairo... isn't bad. It works with my skin chemistry. However the scent is Just Not My Thing, but I thank the lab for giving me this as a frimp to try! In the imp: Citrus -- the darker incense notes can't be smelled. To me it smells like oranges, a bit of lemon, and amber. Wet: The moment it hits my skin the darker notes come out, the lemon fades a bit and I get... orange-resin/amber-incense. At first I thought I might be detecting a hint of patchouli before I read the ingredients. But. Nay. It's the incense I was smelling. Dry: Citrus-y incense. It actually smells like incense rubbed against my skin. And while I don't mind incense as a room scent it is not a me scent. Verdict: Going to let a friend try, and if she doesn't want then its going into that that swap post I will be making Some Day*. The scent gets bonus points for smelling exactly as it is supposed to on me, but, it's just not my taste. It's still going to get a high rating though for not smelling bad, and doing what it is supposed to. 3.8 out of 5 --- *When I stop procrastinating, haha, there's a laugh...

YAY! Precious just got here, and just performed a clean test with half a q-tip and LO it was good. In the bottle: WOW chocolate. Cocoa type chocolate too. I opened the bottle, leaned forward for a deep sniff and WUFF chocolate-cocoa with a hint of herbiness underneath. In this stage it's only slightly foody -- a lot like the best spiced cocoa scent you can imagine. Wet: The MOMENT this hits my skin the apple scent comes out. It does, indeed, smell a lot like apple rind -- though to me it smells like fresh apple rind. Now the scent starts to go a bit foody on me, but I don't mind in the least. It's wonderful! Drydown: As it dries the chocolate fades more away, leaving behind the scent of spiced, slightly herby candy apples. It's gorgeous. Everything I was hoping for from this scent. All in all, it's not an everyday scent. But definitely keeping this one for when I need something like this as a pick-me-up. Yum! 4.85 out of 5 candy apples!

Goblin! My patchouli love. In the imp: Patchouli! Softened by the coconut (yum!) and a sweetness which I can only suppose is benzoin. This is a brown scent with just a hint of green, that brings to mind the thought of a little brown, furry forest man giving me a very rude gesture. Wet: On me, the coconut and benzoin fade a bit, and the patchouli takes on the smell of Ye Olde Pencil Shavings. I don't mind though. They're wonderful, coconut pencil shavings. It's still got the image of the little brown man there, in my mind, but now he's teaching a class... and giving them the same gesture he gave me earlier. Dry: Even more pencil-shaving-y. But I don't mind! I like! All in all, I love this patchouli blend. All three notes are wonderful ones, in my opinion. It's not a scent I need to slather on every day, but I do enjoy wearing it occasionally. No clue if I'm going to spring for a bottle of this eventually or not. But it's definitely a... 4.3 out of 5 little rude forest men.

As others have mentioned this is quite the evocative scent. To my mind it brings about two images: The first is the one in the lab's description, old lady, eats kids, terrifying, lives in a cave, etc. The second is of an old lady, eats kids, terrifying, lives at Lowes* in the garden department hiding behind the flowerpots crooning to her licorice collection. Seriously. In the imp: A slightly spicy, licorice-y, version of what Lowes smells like. Not quite garden department yet though. Wet on me: The moment this touches my skin the spiciness dies away, and a dirt smell comes out. Lowes. Garden Department. Yes. Dry: Repeat of wet, though the licorice smell is slightly stronger. In the end I'm not entirely sure what to do with this scent. It isn't for me -- I doubt I'll ever wear it -- but in some ways I like it. It's neat. I like the character of Black Annis. I almost want to keep it around so that I can open the imp and take a sniff occasionally. But, that's prolly not a good enough reason to merit keeping it -- in all likelihood this will be off to the swaps. 3.3 out of 5 licorice collections. ---- * Lowes, or Lowes Home Improvement as it is sometimes known, is a Home Improvement and garden store that I know exists throughout the USA. No idea if it's anywhere else. Google it, and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about here, if you dun know...

Ah. The ever popular Dragon's Milk. I don't know how much I can say about this one -- from what I'd smelled of both dragon's blood resin and vanilla before I knew a perfume with these two in it would be super nummy. And. Yup. It is. In the imp: Vanilla and Dragon's Blood. Wet on me: Vanilla and Dragon's Blood. (We can all see that this is going to be an exciting review) Dry on me: Vanilla and Dragon's Blood -- only the vanilla has deepened a bit as has the dragon's blood. Since dragon's blood tends to morph on me depending on my skin chemistry (mind you, it never smells *bad* just... different) the smell of this can range from a tasty piece of cherry-vanilla hard candy, to patchouli and vanilla to almost floral. But most of the time the scent is, without a doubt.... ...Vanilla and spicy, heady, unique smelling Dragon's Blood. This smell is definitely nice, it's not a scent that screams ME at the top of its lungs, but, I'm definitely keeping the imp and may one day spring for a bottle. 4.5 out of 5

First off -- thanks to the labbies for this one. Got it as a frimp! In the imp: Something between lemon pledge and lemonade. Lemon with something else hiding out there, basically. Wet: Same as the imp, then the something else comes out a bit more, sweetening things a little and adding to the lemonade thoughts -- it's a little like lemonade, grass, and the fainest hint of sweat. If the scent stayed like this? It would be an OK summer scent. Not very... phantasm-y all in all, but, definitely redolent of sitting on the back porch in summer. Dry: Now, I know this is due to my skin chemistry -- but after about 15 minutes of putting this on the lemon goes away and leaves behind a scent that can only be described as My Little Pony. This is the exact scent I remember from my youth. Now, The Lion in its drydown did something like this, but, mainly turned to baby powder on me. This though? Nothing really powdery about it. It's definitely, 100%, the slightly sweet, rubbery, kind very faintly citirisy floral smell of... My. Little. Ponies. 2 out of 5 My Little Ponies (Twould have been 1.5, but, the summeness of the wet phase is enough to bring it up that half point.) Off to the swaps with you, love.

What a deliciously sexy scent! I feel like I can't wear this one in public, much for the same reason I couldn't wear a see through teddy with extra lace frills in public. In the imp: Why hallo thar plumb. How nice of you to come over -- I see you brought some floral uh... friends. Are they all sisters? It's kinda hard for me to tell them apart. Though, I must ask, why is everybody wearing not but thongs? And, oh! You've brought musk. He... seems... to be... wearing a banana hammock. Ah. Wet: Well... Musk seems to be uh.. having fun. Though you're still in the foreground, plumb, you and he seem to be getting along well. The rest of the florals are all... playing back there in the backgrou- I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD GET THAT IN THERE. Dry: I... see that the florals are joining in now, though, I can't for the life of me tell them apart. I don't know if I mind however, as it's all so deliciously sleek and sexy, like licking whipped cream off of skin(*). Plum seems to be a bit tired, and has gone into the background, but is still definitely there. Musk is still having a good time, and, seems to be blending well with the florals. But, alas, they all tire out after a while of this, and then quietly drift off. 4 out 5 banana hammocks As this scent is one I'm reserving for... intimate moments I think I'm just gonna stick with an imp for now. Here's to hoping I'll someday need a bottle. --- *No whipped cream smell here, mind you. Though, if there were, it wouldn't be terribly out of place.

Okay -- maybe I'm dwelling on Oblivion Planet Of Obliviousness but, I don't recall seeing any notice that the Dark Elements were being retired or moved... And yet... from most pages on the site, the link to their page is gone! I also can't seem to locate their reviews on the forum. I noticed that if you entered a search on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab site (not the forums) the link to the Dark Elements comes up again, and you can get to the page of them. I'm working on composing my next BPAL order, and now I gotta wonder if it's still OK to order these oils... And, well, being a curious one I'm wondering -- in general -- what is up. I checked for any topics like this one -- and didn't find any -- so my apologies if this has already been discussed elsewhere...

I got this as a frimp in a lab order! Thanks to the labbies, first and foremost. I. Love. This. Scent. Imp: Dark, sweet, sticky musk that, as the lab description implies, throbs with life. The sweetness is not overwhelming though. The dragon's blood evens out the sweetness of the fig, leaving this very pleasant. It actually smells almost more floral than fruity to me. Wet: About the same as the imp. However! As *ahem* my hormones hit a Certain Point in the monthly cycle I can tell how people can get patchouli from dragons blood. But, for the other 3/4s of the month, it's identical to what's in the imp. I will also note that the oil actually is kinda thick and sticky. And red. This certainly aids to the imagry of a dragon's heart, full of rich blood, beating within the breast of the wyrm. Hoo boy! Y'know I gotta like this scent when I dip into overly florid descriptions involving imaginary animals. Dry: Dragon's blood comes out a bit more, evening this scent out into something that is well... wonderful. This is a dark red and black scent, but, I'd hesitate to call it 'dark' because of the sense of life it imparts. Though, I have to be careful with this scent because a little bit goes a long way, and, I can see this easily being overwhelming if I wear too much... This demands a bottle! 5 out of 5 bloody, throbbing, dragon hearts.

Miskatonic University, for me, is a scent that is at best masculine, at worst, well... a room. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the smell, but it's not anything I'd wear. At all. In the imp it smells of Irish coffee. It's... lovely. If it stayed like this when it hit my skin I'd be unable to keep myself from rolling in it, much as dogs are wont to do when they encounter a particularly wonderful corpse. Not to imply this is corpselike. I just like the scent of coffee. Yeah. Once it hits my skin we have what we like to think of as the Happy Shiny Coffee period for about 15 minutes. I smell like a Starbucks, and, well, as you've probably guessed I'm cool with that. However after that 15 minutes the coffee smell dies down and the paper and polished wood smells come out. I'm fine with the paper, but, the polished wood smell is far too potent for my liking. I think this might smell good on a dude, and would definitely be a cool room scent. But, on me, the dissonance between my femininity*/personality and the heavy polished wood scent is headache inducing. All in all, this is something I'll use to scent my room, and possibly my clothing, but not myself. Rating: 2.9 out of 5 dogs rolling in corpses. *I'm a person who is Female. With a capital F. This does not mean I'm girly, it just means mistaking me for a male when meeting me in the flesh is all but impossible. I have a figure which could kindly be called "Gaia the earth mother".

Undertow is, on me, a fine example of Mighty Morphin' Perfumes. In the Imp it's just... Mint. Maybe something behind it. But right now the mint is cackling and gleefully blotting out my sense of smell. The fun morphing begins when it hits my skin -- making me think that part of this is due to skin chemistry. It goes... Stage one (wet): Altoids. Mint. So much mint and something behind it. But overpowering, and yet realistic, MINT. This lasts about 5 minutes. Stage two (dry): Vick's Vapor Rub. My nose, how it BURNS. This lasts oh... 10 minutes. Stage 3 (dry): This is the one stage that smells what I would consider nice. It smells of wet mint and juniper with the lotus calming it down. It's not quite as aquatic as I'd like it to be, but, it's pretty nice. This lasts about 5 minutes. Stage 4(dry): The lotus starts doing the bubblegum thing. The mint has gone down in strength, so, now it smells like spearmint gum. This lasts 10... 15 minutes. Stage 5(dry): Bubblegum. Only faint whiffs of mint. This is what'll stay for a few hours before it fades. All in all? 1.3 out of 5 mighty morphin' power perfume rangers.

Let me start this review with a disclaimer: I am a Leo. Now, I'm not normally the type for astrology, but, I do tend to like lions, and sometimes can behave like a mother lioness on PMS. The first whiff of the imp was love. Albeit, this is my first Bpal review, and I have not had time to see other imps and explore my... scentuality I guess. But I liked this. Let's go through the basic rundown: In the imp: Oh yummy. The spices. The amber. It's sweet and warm. I'm heading out on a safari through some alternate universe Africa full of amber waves of grain. Not that there's any grain scent here -- just the image I'm getting. Throw in some purple mountains majesty and we're good. Why is this in Africa when I'm referencing an obnoxiously American song? Because I'm going to personify the Amber scent as a lion and the spices as a...uh... feild. And there aren't y'know, true lions in North America any more. Right. Moving on... (Summary: Sweet and rich and spicy and mmmm mmm good. Wet: What's this? Where have my luscious golden fields gone? Oh -- there they are but, faint. The lion's vanished into the fields -- or maybe it's just blending holy frick, where are my binoculars? I had them right here just a second ago... (Summary: Faint, and I can't tell the spices and the amber apart) Drydown: Ah, back to the fields. But this time there's something there that was in the background in the imp. I pull out my binoculars and ah-HAH there is the lion, can make it out again... though still not as up close as it was in the imp. It's fainter in the field which has gone a little musty, more like, an actual... field and not a metaphor. And the lion is- oh god what is it doing to that gazelle... ... ... kitty has a bite, evidently. (Summary: With my skin chemistry the sweetness of the amber fades and gets a bit sharp. Not bad, just, it's got bite now. Rrowr. The spices have gotten fainter and more musty -- I wasn't joking about it taking on a more dried grassy scent.* ) The throw is decent. I can't smell it constantly, but I don't have to shove my nose against my wrist either. Lasting power seemed to be about an hour, or maybe my nose is just dead from sniffing my wrists approximately five thousand times during this review. I wish it had stayed a bit more like it was in the imp in drydown. Overall: 3.8/5 Lions Munching on Gazelles. imp -- the strength of the spices and sweetness of what I suppose is the Amber kinda wander away. Not a bad scent. Will wear it about to see if my skin chemistry can make it past the powder I seem to hit in drydown. This might be something I need to wear in my clothes, or in a scent locket type thingie. I've seen a couple of other people talking about aging it, so I may do that. --- * This scent is bringing about some nostalgia for me because it smells, of all things, sort of like playing with my little ponies out in the grass on a pleasant summer's day. But that's just me. I'm kinda weird.