Epiphany

In the bottle it smells green (though not quite as strongly green as purple phoenix is purple)...I cannot pick out one single note, it is a subtle blend. Wet, I get the lime rind instantly, which is good, I like lime. Then, there are some nice grassy/cucumber notes. Very nice...drat...soap. Not...soapy-soap, but a lovely green glycerine soap from a specialty shop. A soap with a tropical theme (lime and papaya), but with cooling elements as well (grass and cucumber). I'm not getting the sage or musk at all (unless the green musk=soap on me, which it might). The green tea is there, faintly, but it is also part of the soap. All in all, quite refreshing, but not in a perfume-I-want-to-wear sort of way. More in a, ooh, my hands smell clean, way. Hm.

Lady Luck, please smile down on me. A melancholy scent, aching with longing, created to appease Fickle Fortune. Honeyed Bulgarian rose, vanilla flower, benzoin, tonka, black plum, peony, and iris. I was really, really amazingly excited about this one. I LOVE all of the notes. Honey, I've been discovering, is one of my favorite things. Wet, this is gorgeous. SO beautiful. A honey rose with peony and iris--pure magic. It is round and sweet, but not cloying. The rose is soft and fresh! Then. It dried. And the rose went to potpourri rose--dry rose. I've been discovering that my body chemistry does this to rose. Which is SO sad, because I adore rose. It is still quite a nice scent--not the balls on potpourri of Erato (which I still love, probably because it is so intense and uncompromising and I appreciate that). I cannot, however, get over this transformation. It was so, so, SO lovely. Perfect. Agh! Okay, I'm really going to have to try out this scent locket thing, because this one is far too awesome to just set aside as a 'use sometimes'.

Whoo! This is a fun scent for me. I wasn't sure if I'd like something that was mainly spices (I love my flowers), but I really do! In the imp, Plunder is all hot cinnamon, with a bit of the clove peeking through. The spicy cinnamon doesn't totally dominate this on my skin though. It drys through various stages of oh! tea! ooh! there's sandalwood! uh-oh, I've tripped over the tobacco! And finally settles into a spicy, complex blend. The cinnamon and clove are definitely still at the forefront, but the nutmeg, tea, sandalwood, pepper, and tobacco are very much present. This really is the smell of a looted cargo of precious goods. And I smell as though I've rubbed all of my favorite cooking spices over myself. Very, very nice.

I do love roses...and this is a lovely one. It is not too aggressive, as roses go however. In the imp it is a traditional rose-y rose, with hints of the mentioned Victorian spices. Wet, that rose gives the impression of having come from a potpourie--dusty and intense, with a certain sharpness of decay that isn't present in fresh cut stems. It remined me of how the rose in Erato goes on my skin, though minus the backing boquet of flowers and the intensity (and I do love Erato, but have to be careful how much I use). Through the course of the dry down, the rose changed subtly, losing that dried-flower feel. The note became fresher and more alive. A tender scent, something young and pure. Very pretty, though I'm not sure if it's the rose for me. Purity isn't really my thing...

For me...this is the smell of freedom. Running over dry plains, unencumbered, unattached, wild. It is beautiful, but not unattainably so. It is a deep-earthy scent, a natural musk mixed with the doeskin, that is soft and friendly. Coyote is feral and alive. It is not a scent I think I would wear out on a typical day as a perfume, or even as a special occaison scent. It is something more private, one I would wear around the house to be comforted by. This I need more of, especially since it wore off more quickly than I would have liked (and I used ALOT once I realized how it smelled on me)...I guess I really do need to get a scent locket.

Well then... In the bottle, Tweedledee was all sharp mismatched citrus, tea, and pepper. The notes really stood out from one another and kept shifting about...there wasn't really one defining the whole thing. I liked that. As it went on wet, I had a moment of...creamy pastry scent, which abruptly vanished. This was replaced by an overwhelming sweet flower-citrus-tea aroma. The pepper is there, but it is very subtle. This smells like a lovely fruity herbal tea flavor...however, one that is too sweet for my liking. The scent is not a bad one, just too much of the wrong kind of sweetness. I guess I was expecting more sharpness/sourness from the kumquats, but now that I think about it, that's how kumquats taste...they smell something like how this is on my skin...at least I think they (I might be making that up--now I need to go locate some kumquats). It is, however, tenacious and refuses to be washed off. Blast. Also, kumquat is a really odd word. Kumquat, kumquat, kumquat!

In the bottle: Hello Citrus! Wet: It is almost all lemon verbena, with a hint of jasmine. As it drys, the lemon verbena makes it known that it isn't going anywhere. This is fine by me. I love me some lemon verbena. It is a very light and playful smell. The jasmine and green tea notes are very subtle here, but noticeable--giving it a bit of complexity. I was pleased. Until, about a half and hour into the drydown, I suddenly started smelling soapy...Drat. I smell as though I washed my hands in lemon soap (not pledge, however). Feh. I may have to try it again, just to be sure.

In the bottle, I smell a cold, sweet resin. Wet on my skin it is slightly sweet, with a sharp chillness of ozone. As it drys, the resin works its way back in, melding with the scent of piercing cold air, and a frozen-grape smell...which is quite lovely. Sadly, this continues to morph, in reaction with my body chemistry, to produce a cloying grape-sweetness. A cold sweetness, for certain--I am drowning in white-grape scented snow drifts...For about a half and hour I was overwhelmed with this perfumy grapy-ness. Then it finally mellowed out into a nicely balanced sweet, cold, resionous scent. The final smell is quite attractive, but I'm not sure that it's me. And I'm really not sure that I'd be okay with being assulted by grape for a half an hour every time I wore it...(I must make a note to beware of grape in the future...)

My first reaction, upon smelling Selkie, was one of sheer rapture. This smell stirred something deep within me--it is an achingly beautiful scent. Ephemeral, luscious, soft, and complex. It is subtle and sensuous--the scent of an impossible love. In the bottle, I smell a salt spray, but once it is applied to my skin it begins to morph into something...so unique. The floral note is not flowery, if that makes any sense...It is a gentle, demure flower. Flowers growing in the crevices of sea-carved rocks of the Scottish coast. The honey note from the grass is what pulls this all together for me (I'm discovering more and more that I like honey notes in my scents)...The lightness of that scent draws the crispness of the ozone and the sea into a harmonious balance with the flowers. The colors it evokes in my mind are a soft purple, the color of the asters, or the sea creaturs that live in the tidepools; the cold gray of the rocks and the sky on stormy days; a golden glow of sunny days and the light reflecting off of droplets of water; and the deep, churning green-blue of the sea. I cannot get enough of this.

This was yet another BPAL scent that surprised me. I was expecting to be overwhelmed with sandalwood and myrrh (but still curious, based on the idea alone and because I love iris), but it is wonderfully balanced. In the bottle, the expected incense-notes (resin and wood) were very much at the forefront, but even there I could smell the complex and lush scent of iris and herbs. Wet on my skin, I can smell the warmth of this. The iris and herbal notes begin to assert themselves, mellowing the incense-like aroma. Dry, it is just gorgeous. This is a sensual scent, for me, a gentle sweetness enveloped in an exotic earthy embrace. It is the smell of the sun-warmed skin of a queen--skin that is just damp to the touch. Lovely.

Luperci 08 was a scent that really surprised me. I was eager to try it, based on the idea alone, but I have a tendency to dislike anything involving patchouli on my skin. In the imp, it was incense and musk, with overtones of fir-trees--a deep and earthy scent, and very strong. However, once it went onto my skin, the patchouli mellowed. Wet, the oakmoss and ambrette seed really began to come through, giving the patchouli and musk a sharper, more floral and nutty tone. Once it had dried for a good while, I really began to smell the beeswax and cypress. They melded seamlessly with the musk and incense smells. On my skin it became an incredibly sexy gender neutral scent that was earthy and sweet (but not saccharine sweet--a lovely, natural and warm sweetness), with a definite fir-tree tone. The sexy was also not a candy-sweet sexy, or even flirtatious--the sexy really speaks to the idea of the scent...It is evocative of debauchery and dark carnal impulses, with a truly celebratory air! Hurray spring! Let's all get naked and bathe in goat's blood! Drat. I think I need more than an imp...

In the imp, the smell was strong and somewhat astringent--I've had greanium essential oil before, and it reminded me of that. There was also something eucalyptus like to it...(like it might clear out my sinuses). As soon as I swiped the wand across my wrist, however, the astringent quality changed. There was a very soft floral note woven into this incredibly complex smell of incense (probably the frankincense and cinnamon). It was sharp and soft at the same time, but very subtle--though not at all weak. My boyfriend could smell it from across the room. The musky-ness began to come through as it dried...though I'm not sure if I was getting the rum at all (I'm still not sure what everything smells like). I was so excited! It was a truly lovely scent. About five minutes after application I excitedly asked my roomate to smell me. "It smells like baby powder...but with a kick.." I smelled my wrist again. Sadly, the lovely smell of Longing (sharp and deep) had transformed into Grandma's powder room. It wasn't a BAD powder, but it was definitly powder. Foo. Perhaps I should think of investing in a scent locket, because it really is a beautiful one, until it interacts with my body chemistry.

This is one of the first BPALs I've tried. My initial reaction, right out of the bottle, was one of 'oof, incense and...something'. I think the something was probably the floral notes edging through. Wet on my skin it is very strong...The incense is a bit more demure, letting the florals come through (though I'm not sure exactly what they are, possibly the jasmine that everyone is talking about). I also can smell the earthyness more. Dry: It has slowly morphed into a 'hello! cloying flowers!'. I am still so new to this, that I haven't yet learned to differentiate all of the flowers, though I seem to remember that jasmine smells like this. I feel like my quite little roadside shrine, filled with old flowers and smoking incense, was just invaded by huge boquets of fresh cut blossoms...and I am not pleased. Later: The blossom-ness has faded a bit, allowing some of the earthy incense smell to return. Now it smells more like older flowers, drying at the feet of the crudely carved statue of the Crossroads God. Peace has returned to the temple.... Overall: Not a bad scent on me, after that initial dry stage of "oh god! FLOWERS!" (and I Like florals, just, perhaps, not these incensy-sweet ones). It is not, however, something that I would wear. This smell, which is wonderfully evocative of a little shrine, just doesn't speak to me. Hm.