Macha

I'll admit it's a nostalgic vibe for me. Fifteen-years-old, using my college ID (since the bouncers figured that meant I had to be eighteen, right?) to get into the only under 21 dance club in town (also the only goth club in town, also the only non country/western club in town), and the smell of clove cigarettes everywhere. Even the smoke on the dance floor was scented with clove. Anyway, yeah, Dia has the goods on this.

Whereas I just got Three Witches today and my body chem is amp'ing the clove BIG TIME. Fortunately I find that pleasant (I figured that between my love of cinnamon, clove and pepper, there was little way that particular scent could go wrong) on me this scent screams it out loud and clear.

Three Witches. Honestly that's one of the main reasons I ordered a big 10ml of it.

*shakes head* Why the hell do I remember it smelling smokey? *sigh* Need to do something about this memory o' mine....

Samhain is pink in color. It does smell very smokey sweet to me in the vial. Hearth in the bottle smells very boozy/smokey, but not sweet, to me. I don't know what color Hearth is, but my guess would be that you do indeed have Samhain. Try it on...see what it does for you.

On my very first forum trade, I was fortunate enough to gain a number of rare or discontinued imps from ivyandpeonies, and one of them was Unseelie. Wet, in bottle: Eh. This smells....generic. Nothing special. Nothing even particularly noteworthy. Perfume without any of the specifics of spicy or sweet, herb or aquatic. Almost ineffable. What is this? How do I even begin to describe it? It doesn't smell bad. It smells good. But I don't have the vocabulary to describe what I'm smelling, other than to say "it smells like perfume." I put this in the back of the drawer and it is one of the very last ones that I try. Wet, on skin: There a bit of floral, but it's still extremely hard to pin down exactly what I'm smelling. Ethereal florals indeed. No joke there. If there is anything sinister to this scent, it's its steadfast refusal to be identified, labeled or categorized, rather like the Unseelie themselves. This perfume is well named, that's for certain. Dry, on skin: Whoa. I begin to understand. This scent intensifies as it dries and turns to the most delightful powder. Not baby powder, but a very adult, beautiful powder. It is floral, but not; herbal, but not; aquatic, but not; sweet, but not. It's strong, but not so strong that it intrudes on conscious thought. Unseelie is subtle, enduring and mysterious. This is the most subtle of seductions, the most quiet of enchantments. It entices, not through come-hither glances and a swaying of hips, but in soft whispers at the edge of hearing. Conclusion: I understand why wails of anguish were heard when Beth announced this scent's discontinuance. This is truly a lovely scent, and I will hoard the imp like the precious thing it is.

Oh Endymion, how I might have loved thee. I received a vial of this from ivyandpeonies, in the hopes that it might prove to be thick and lush with pear. Wet, in vial: Woah. That's...umm...cloying. The lily of the valley is strong, and like a dagger through my skull. Despite that I first impression, I continue on, thinking that perhaps it will transform into something wonderful once it hits my skin. Wet, on skin: There's a little pear there, but it's so overwhelmed by the sickly strong florals that it's hard to notice, and not particularly soothing. This is a razor-sharp fragrance, the sort that cuts through all other scents, and not in a good way. Dry, on skin: It's all lily of the valley and rose, rose, ROSE, and encapsulates perfectly every reason that I didn't wear much perfume before I found BPAL. My chemistry has exaggerated the rose all out of proportion, and its not a nice unobtrusive rose either. This is thick, cloying and sickly sweet. Within minutes of it drying I have a raging headache that lasts through most of the day. Conclusion: I am sure there are people who find this lovely (just look above me!), but I can't count myself as one of them. Just one more example of an otherwise beautiful fragrance turned deadly by my body chemistry's relationship with rose. I'll pass on this one.

Truly the scent of autumn itself -- damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein. I must admit that I didn't expect to get a hold of a bottle of Samhain, since I know how loved and cherished this fragrance is, and it came out several months before I discovered BPAL. No one was more surprised than me to discover that I'd successfully won it at jj_j's auction, not just a 5ml but a 10ml! I was terribly excited: without question, Halloween and all its associations are my very favorite time of year, beating every other season out hands down. I was whooping for joy on this one. Wet, in bottle: I smell a strong boozy apple note, and pumpkin, but layered over all of it is an almost rancid butter note and strong, strong honey. Oh dear. It didn't occur to me that this would be so...buttery. Or that I would have such a strong reaction to that. My boyfriend doesn't smell any pumpkin, just a buttery spiciness. He likes it. Wet, on skin: This scent is very true from bottle to skin, and I might have loved that if I loved how it smelled in the bottle, but truthfully I'd have given a lot to have lost that butter honey smell. No such luck however. Instead I lose the apples and gain some spice, but not enough to make any real difference. Dry, on skin: Damnit, I love cooking with honey! I love pumpkin! I adore apples! But I've never been a huge fan of the smell of butter in large doses, and I'm learning the hard way that too much of it makes me a bit nauseous. After a looong time this scent calms down to spice and wood smoke and dry leaves, and is more tolerable, but it's a long time getting there, and I find myself scowling every time I catch a whiff of my own perfume. Conclusion: I had hopes that it was one of those 'time of the month' things, but I smelled it on my boyfriend when he wore it a few days later and had almost the identical gag reaction. I would trade it away, but naturally my dear Irish boy ADORES it, the first scent yet on which we have had such diametric disagreement. For his sake, I may try it a few more times, but I don't even enjoy the scent in a locket, so my options may be limited to trying to find a good layering scent to go with it. I can see the artistry and skill of it. I can understand how people would adore it. Ultimately, though, Samhain is not for me. This makes me very sad.

What with the recent forum thread discussing the similarities between Dublin and Skadi, I could resist snapping up a bottle from another forum member when I had the chance. In the bottle: Oh. My. God. The first thought that flashes through my mind is: this isn't Skadi! The second thought is: who cares? This is glorious! In the bottle this smells exactly like walking through wet woods, woods that have just seen rain. This smells like trees and bark and lush decaying leaves. In short, it smells exactly the way it's described. My boyfriend and I huddled around the bottle and took turns inhaling. When we paused, my boyfriend said, "We may need more of this one." Indeed we may, my love. Indeed, we may. Wet, on skin: On me, this scent stays true, and there's no weird metamorphosis, for which I am profoundly grateful. I can see how people might make comparisons with Skadi, because this is definitely a woods scent, but I can't for the life of me picture pine. This is the smell of deciduous forests, of old growth forests thick with undergrowth and wet from the rains. The rain is warm, and the forest floor covered with leaves. This is walking through that forest, and going right up to a tree still wet and damp, and inhaling next to the bark. Dry, on skin: As the spell fades, err...I mean, as the scent fades, it grows a little sharper, almost as if it is moving from the trees down closer to the underbrush and the forest floor. It becomes a little peppery, the way geranium sometimes gets. It's still gloriously evocative of forests and mists. Men don't GO to this forest. It's a magical, fey place, but in no way dark. Oh, whose woods these are I think I know. Just extraordinary. Conclusion: I went back afterwards and saw that Dublin contains white rose, but I never noticed any rose scent, so it's subtle. Due to my own particular body chemistry, I can't use this as a substitute for Skadi the way Penance can (lucky girl!) but I love it enough so it doesn't matter. My singular complaint with this fragrance is that I wish it had lasted a little longer on me, but I have no problem with slathering more on. This may be one of the single most perfect scents I have ever encountered: an absolute work of art.

What about Snake Oil? Definately spicey/creamy.

First: some background... We were stepping out to walk down to the market last fall. The door to our apartment faces east, so the sun's in our eyes in the morning. At night though, a night like that, we opened that door to see a crisp full moon... ...that was red as a blood-stained tooth. "An eclipse?" My boyfriend says. I nod. "I forgot there was going to be one tonight." Instead of going to the market, we roamed the neighborhood for several hours, stepping over damp dead leaves on the concrete sidewalks and wrapping our jackets a little tighter, for it had been unseasonably cold for Los Angeles. Gradually the full eclipse claimed all the moon, turning it a dark sooty red. This wasn't a moon being eaten by a serpent: it was stained from the kill. Wasn't this the Hunter's Moon, after all? Here we were, in the middle of the city, and rarely had I encountered a night that felt more feral and wild. Magic, but no safe magic. Little wonder my boyfriend shared my excitement at receiving a bottle of this, and little wonder he put some one first. On him it was a dark, smokey beast, dangerous, not a little provocative, but we'd both smelled the grapiness of the scent in the bottle, and I could tell he was a little disappointed to have that note lost on his skin. Wet, on my skin: I was careful to roll the bottle when I applied this, and whether that or skin chemistry made the difference, the grape note remained, along with the spiciness of mulled wine and the faint scent of sweet wood smoke. I think my boyfriend may be a bit jealous...but I was careful to remind him that this is one of the older bottles with a built-in dropper, and it's important to get a drop of oil from the center, rather than swipe the rim as he's used to doing. Dry, on skin: Spicey, rich, dark. The wine note is still there, along with smoke and...hmm...civet? Not really sure. The spiciness has a peppery edge to it. There's some strange notes to this, and I didn't think I'd be one to like wine notes, but this is actually quite lovely. Incense and berries and wildness -- it's highly evocative. I hadn't even dared to hope that Hunter's Moon would encapsulate my memories of that night last fall, and yet...it does. I really couldn't be happier. Conclusion: Well, the boyfriend likes it so it would be a keeper for that if nothing else, but honestly, I find I really like this too. This scent also has quite a throw, and good staying power. It's very different from the scents that I always told myself I liked (lighter, sweeter, flowerier) but since discovering BPAL I'm having to re-examine my opinions on many of my preconceptions about the perfumes I do and don't like. Edit: There's a weird postscript to this. I couple weeks ago I was over at a house for the first time, and met the owner's three large standard poodles. They didn't really warm up to me at all, and after some growling, I kept my distance. This weekend I went back over, wearing Hunter Moon. I don't know if it was self-confidence or familiarity, but this times these poodles (and remember that these are the large hunting dog variety of poodle, not lap dogs) decided they LOVED me. They were meek, gentle, sweet, rubbing up against me, begging for attention...and trying to lick my wrists. The owner said she'd never seen her dogs warm up to anyone like that. Beth, what did you put in this perfume?!

"Calliope, may I speak with you?" She is looking at my computer monitor. Calliope points. "How do you plan to get him on to the island?" "Excuse me?" "You made it rather difficult for Mallory to gain clearance to land, and now you have the entire laboratory on lockdown. How in Hades do you plan on having the assassin sneak in afterwards?" "Well, I..." "It's a damn good thing you called me, that's all I have to say." "Calliope..." I sigh. "Actually, I want to talk to you about....well...." "Yes?" "It's the way you smell." Her expression turns flinty. "What's wrong with the way I smell?" "Nothing, nothing!" I wave my hands in front of my face. "In the vial, your perfume smelled just like syrupy lavender almonds, which was so unpleasantly sweet that I almost didn't try it on at all, and now..." "Yes, and now?" She raises an eyebrow imperiously. "You smell just like lemon verbena and bergamot." "What's wrong with lemon verbena? I happen to be quite fond of it, and I thought you adored bergamot!" "I do! And when I traded for an imp of your perfume I thought it would smell like tea and mint and orange...instead—" I shrug. "You smell like Lemon Pledge." "Humph!" She casts her gaze around the room. "Maybe if you dusted more, you wouldn't mind." "Calliope!" She swipes an ivory finger across a hooded lantern. "You had these stained glass lamps imported all the way from Marrekesh. The least you can do is keep them clean." "You're my muse, not my mother. Could you just, maybe, you know? Smell like something else?" "I could smell like thyme." And indeed, she does. "What about bergamot, mint and orange?" I say, desperately hoping she doesn't decide to go back to smelling like almonds. "No. Thyme. Thyme and bergamot, if you're lucky." She returns to looking at the computer screen. She snaps her fingers. "The automated maintenance systems. A beach insertion and deliberate tampering of technical equipment. He could piggy back into the lab on the drone sent out to repair it." I blink. "That would work!" "Of course it will work, silly girl. Now I'm off..." She stops and glares. "Lemon Pledge. Humph!" Conclusion: It doesn't STAY lemon pledge, for which I'm thankful, but the bergamot/thyme combination isn't much more wearable for me as a perfume. I would have given serious money to have had the mint/orange combination emerge triumph, but such was not to be. Actually, I should probably be grateful, as it means that I won't cry myself to sleep over the fact this is a discontinued scent.

I swapped for an imp of this from another forumite, thinking that I wanted to try all of the Furies and this was a good start. In the bottle: Oh yum. I smell flowers and plum, with the faint hint of bergamot over a creamy amber base. Smells like heaven. Gorgeous. Wet, on skin: The orris and plus are predominant, and although I know grapefruit is supposed to be in this, I haven't caught a scent of it yet. Gentle and sweet, and not at all what I expected. Dry, on skin: Argh! It's turned to soap! No! *gets down on knees and pretends she's a jedi knight in a Star Wars movie* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Conclusion: What a horrible disappointment. But, as it is "that time" I'm going to hold out and hope that under other circumstances it might not turn sudsy on me.

I'd heard some good things about Tintagel and well, who can't love the name? (I'll admit to being a little bit of an Arthurian freak too in my spare moments.) I swapped for an imp of it with a fellow forumite. My boyfriend, also a lover of all things King Arthur-ish, rushed to grab and open this one with excited glee the moment he pulled it out of the mail envelope. In the bottle: My boyfriends smells it and wrinkles his nose. "Woah. What's THAT?" I take the bottle from him and sniff. It's warm and woodsy. There's spicy notes, but overriding all of that is something boozy and cloyingly sweet. Now my sweet Irish boy is, ironically, highly allergic to alcohol, so he's not a big lover of most alcoholic smells. Plus, I'm honestly not sure that's what's causing the reaction. Could that sweet note be the dragon's blood? (I honestly have no clue what dragon's blood smells like as a single note.) It's a bit much for me too. If it smells like this on me, I'm going to be one highly disappointed kitten. I say, "Let's see if it smells like this on me. I can always wash it off." Wet, on skin: The transformation is immediate. The super sweet smell vanishes in puff of dragon smoke. Spicy dragon smoke and leather. Wow, what a difference. I shove my arm back in front of his face. My Irish boy exclaims, "That doesn't smell anything like the vial!" I nod. No, no it doesn't. The question is...how many more times will this scent shapechange? Dry, on skin:The answer is: how many times do ya got? Every time I raise wrist to nose I'm catching different notes. One minute it's woodsy and damp, then spicy wine and leather, then heated cinnamon and the faintest smell of fire. It never completely settles down, and as someone mentioned, it lasts and lasts and lasts. Conclusion: Do I like it? I'm not sure. It's certainly the most unusual fragrance that I've smelled so far, and it's absolute art in it's ability to evoke the image of knights feasting at the ancient castle. On the other hand, it didn't evoke a 'wow' reaction from me, more of just 'hmmm...that's interesting' which likely means that it's not enough to make me put this in regular rotation. On the other hand, I suspect I can get my sweet Irish boy to at least TRY this, now that he knows it won't necessarily keep the notes he found so objectionable in the bottle. It may yet be amazing on him.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not knocking Cathode. I just don't think it's a good substitute for Ice Queen, you know? Sadly, I'm not sure what would be a good substitute for Ice Queen...that's isn't itself a limited edition (i.e. Blue Moon, etc.)

I plan on wearing a lot of Szepasszony, Machu Pichu, Baobhan Sidhe and Ophelia if she stays true to her rumored Rose Red-like properties.

That is fantastic! I know it won't be perfect, of course, but it's nice to know it's close. Now I must hunt down a sample of Ophelia to compare with this Imp of Rose Red I just received. Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to mention... I know someone indicated that Cathode was a good substitute for Ice Queen, but I have both of those and I don't think they smell a thing like each other except for the mint note. Same for Szepasszony and Snow White. Someone said they didn't smell like each other because they liked Snow White (and conversely didn't like Szepasszony)...I feel the same in reverse. I love Szepasszony. I don't love Snow White.

I bought this as a 5ml, untested, from another forumite. I thought the notes sounded nice and I liked the sound of it. A bit of a risk, but I thought I'd like it. In the bottle: Sweet and a little tropical. I smell greenery and tropical fruit, with flowers. Very nice. Wet, on skin: Wow, this is a complex scent. It's really hard, I mean really, really hard, to break it down into individual components. It's a floral/fruity/aquatic? I can smell fruit, passion fruit perhaps?, and jungle, and the wet lushness of jungle blossems, but it's almost impossible to pick out individual notes. Dry, on skin: The basic character of the scent remains unchanged on my skin. This is one of those scents that is very difficult to describe in terms of "tropical fruit with orchids, fern, and aquatic notes" although I logically know it would probably be something like that. Instead, I can't smell this without having an intense image: Traveling down a lush jungle path, vine-crossed, the plants that crowd in on me alive with cattleyas and lycaste. The plants part to reveal a clearing lit by the golden light that filters down to the jungle floor. There, the mossy green cliffs allow water from a nearby volcanic vent to trickle down the sides, forming a pool of gently steaming water at the base. I bathe in the warm water, and when I'm done, rest of the ground next to it to dry off, on a carpet of tiny clovers and small white flowers. The sounds and smells of the jungle are all around me and yet, far from feeling danger, I feel peace. Conclusion: I found this scent highly erotic, but also highly private. I wouldn't wear this for a seduction. I would wear it, however, for circumstances which were just for me. I have no trouble at all agreeing with Helarctos about using this in a bath. This would also be fabulous as a message oil scent, or hammock lounging with a good book. A really beautiful scent that is incredibly evocative, lush and pampering. I suspect this will be top on my list any time I need to baby myself.

*sigh* I was so afraid this would happen. I'm a girl who loves, loves, loves fresh roses, but I can't stand rose perfumes. They all smell too cloying and too sickly. Not like REAL roses. Well, I came to the LE game late, and by the time I managed to make my way over to Black Broom, they were already out of two blends, if in fact they ever had them in the first place: Rose Red and Mistletoe. No big loss, I thought to myself. (Heh, what did I know, right?) So last week ivyandpeonies swapped me for a few things, including an imp of Rose Red. So many people had raved about how this smells like fresh roses, rather than a pale attempt to smell like roses, that I began to wonder what I'd missed. In the vial: Wow, that's nice. Smells just like fresh roses and very green to boot. My boyfriend, who had been just as eager as me to open up and smell all the prezzies, had stopped at this one, looked at me, and said: "Wow, this smells great. You should wear this a lot." Of course he says this about the perfume I can't get any more of....*laugh* Wet, on skin: Huh. Smells just like fresh roses. Moreso, smells like wet, cold fresh roses. Roses that have been stored in the florist's fridge, or left out in the snow. Dry, on skin: No change at all in the fragrance. It stays just as true and beautiful from start to finish. Conclusion: I will cry when the Imp is gone. I will certainly save this for special occassions, because it is truly the most beautiful of any rose scent I have ever tried. It's hard to improve on the beauty of a fresh rose, and somehow, through what fine magic I know not, Beth has succeeded in not trying to. This isn't perfume. It's wearing a wreath of fresh cut roses as necklace and bracelets. Perfection. Edit: I passed this imp around to some of my male friends last night, and they all agreed that it was one of the most amazing things they'd ever smelled. The two with girlfriends agreed that if it were possible to buy this as something other than a limited edition, they'd have readily dropped cash (and a lot more cash than $12.50) to buy it for their girlfriends. I've been sharing BPAL scents with them for a couple of weeks now, but this is the first time I really saw them understand what makes these perfumes so special.

I swapped for a vial of this. Mostly I thought it was a cute name, and I also heard that it was a nice green scent. In the vial: Oh yes, that smells very green. Nice and herby. Cool. Wet, on skin: I still smell an herby fresh-cut greeness, with something sweet blooming up out of...um...rose? No, not rose. ROSE. A rose that rises up out of the green, out of nowhere, and completely takes over. There's some greenery still in there, enough to make you think you're stuck in a sharp, prickly thicket of the stuff, but the rose is everywhere. Where the HELL did that rose come from? Dry, on skin: The rose stayed perfectly true over the next 10 hours. Hmm... I'm not a big rose fan. It's on my list of single-notes that will kill a fragrance for me. Honestly though, this isn't so bad. It's not nearly so cloyingly sweet as the rose perfumes that made me run screaming from department stores as a kid. This is a bit wild and soft and just green enough to make the difference. This rather reminds me of the rose gardens where I work, and how the garden smells when they trim back all the rose bushes and dump all the extra branches, complete with thorns, stems, leaves and rose heads, into one great big damp mound. Conclusion: I'm just perplexed. Having gone back and read other people's reviews, I see a few people mention rose as a minor note, but nobody mentions anything approximating the totality of rosiness that I've experienced. I passed the vial around to my friends and they all agree that in the vial it doesn't particularly smell like rose, and on me it absolutely smells like rose. It's the weirdest thing, honestly. Now, despite my reknowned loathing of rose scents, I can actually imagine a few situations where I might wear this. It didn't give me a headache the way rose scents usually do, so I'm glad I have an Imp. I'm just very surprised at what my body chemistry did with this.

I was a bit nervous about Dracul. Tobacco? Hmmm...it's not that I hate tobacco, but...well...tobacco. Hmmm....I hate smelling like I smoke. Tobacco. On the other hand...Dracul. I mean, come on: Dracul! I've been reading about him since I was a little girl. It's a difficult argument to countermand. Dracul WAS one of the fragrances they had at Black Broom, and I recall that I liked it, but I wasn't in love with it in the bottle, and we could only buy the ones that were instant loves. (Just too many...) So Dracul went on the "someday" list. People would rave about him on the forums, and I would throw little coy glances in his direction and look away before anyone could catch me. Last week I had an opportunity to trade for an Imp, and woohoo! A shining example of the alchemy that happens between the oil and the skin. Wet, in bottle: Smells strong! Not bad, just...very strong. Balsam and clove, with...ah, that must be the tobacco. Okay, it's not cigarette tobacco. More sweet pipe tobacco. That doesn't smell intolerable at all. There's also something that reminds me of Burial...the faintest smell of dirt. Huh. Appropriate, but I wonder what's causing it? The whole scent is forcefully strong, almost overpoweringly masculine. Might be too much for a little girl like me. Wet, on skin: Oooh! Oranges with cumin and mint! Oh, that's quite nice. How Middle-eastern. The darker scents are, for the moment, willing to stay in the background, although still very much present. Dry, on skin: Magic happens. It all combines into one big glorious gestalt. All the scents are now present, and all belong with each other. This is a very woodsy scent, a warm scent, faintly tinged with cold, and while I was expecting to get the sense of a dark castle in cold Carpathenian mountains, I was surprised at a completely different connotation: that this was the male equivalent of Ice Queen -- a Dark Huntsman, if you will. The Hunter in winter, straight out of a Russian fairy-tale. The Hunter who let Snow White get away. Strider would smell like this. It made me horny as hell. Conclusion: Gorgeous, incredibly sexy, and has great staying power -- what more could a girl want? Villain made me think of my bf, to the point where I realized it was the equivalent of wearing one of his sweaters when he's not around. Dracul makes me want to hunt him down and....ahem. Do things. Wonderful, terrible things. I suspect it would smell wonderful on him, but it matters not. I love Dracul on ME.

Slightly off-topic, but I understand exactly what you mean Mrs. Black. :-) When I first discovered BPAL, it seemed like the LE moon scents when live one month before the full moon they were named after so they could be worn FOR that moon. So we could wear Wolf Moon on the 25th of this month, for example. But with how far back-logged the lab is...I mean, people are still waiting for Cold Moon.... One wonders if the Lab has considered upping the amount of time from order to ship? Or, more likely, am I misunderstanding the purpose of some of the special event blends entirely?

As Rheliwen said, Beth also said the musk she uses for Snow White is only available once a year. Beth has also said, in effect, that some ingredients are so expensive they can only afford to use them for short batches...thus limited editions. The Lab makes very little money on some of these, but like Imps themselves, it's something they feel is important to do, and a bit of a 'thank you' for loyal fans (and I suspect a treat for themselves, to be able to create scents that they wouldn't normally be able to.) Like Paintsnked said, shake it up a bit. Of course, they're also addictive as all hell, and a tremendous incentive to buy more stuff (I mean...as long as I'm ordering anyway...) So it seems to be part logistics/part savvy marking/part fun reward. As a Marketing lass, I can only tip my hat in admiration.

I didn't really want to like Snake Oil either. Just the contrariness in me, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm still up in the air on it. Because I'd purchased a number of bottles at the same time, my boyfriend managed to..err...snake this before I got to it. All right...I DID tell him that he could wear any of BPAL stuff he wanted, and there's a couple of fragrances (Cathode, Villain) that are pretty much "his only." Oh, it smells glorious on him. Just beautiful. It's all vanilla spice and goodness and when he puts on his Burt's Bees lip balm (mint scented) the combination of smells that wafts from him is absolutely divine. Cannot keep my hands off him. The first time I wore it, I didn't get quite so good a reaction, but I liked it. The second time it turned to Play-do. You know that stuff we all played with as a kid? That smell? That's exactly what Snake Oil smelled like on me. Yeegads! It didn't go away, either. It stayed smelling like that the entire day with all the longevity that Snake Oil is famous for. Oh, and it did stain too. So...I'm not sure if this is a time of the month thing or something else. It was not that time on either occassion, so the differences in smells is interesting. I haven't given up hope just yet, but so far, not so good. I suspect I'll try it a few more times, maybe let it age a bit, and see if that will mellow out the results. To quote someone else on the boards..."stupid, stupid body chemistry." It sure does smell nice on the BF though, so it's still a keeper.

Ah, I so wanted to like this. I wanted to, I wanted to! But such was not to be. In the bottle it smelled creamy and soft and faintly chill. I could smell some slight amount of coconut, not enough to scare me off, anyway. On my skin? Completely different story. It turned to a coppertone coconut sun-tan oil (on me, this is highly amusing) within about half an hour and stayed that way, and since this fragrance had pretty significant staying power, I smelled like that for a good long time. It did the exact same thing on my boyfriend. I'll likely give it the standard second chance (as I understand is important to do with BPAL scents) but it seems like I'm going either want to trade this away or e-bay it. Ah well. Such is life.