jparrack

I was prepared to love this scent. I wanted a sweet fruity rose. I got a rotten fruit rose. Wet: Um, yup, there's Beth's neon rose scent. The pomegranate however is doing the same badness that BPAL's booze scents do on my skin, going all unpleasantly ozoney with an added layer of airfreshener. Ick. Dry: It fades very quickly, within two hours to an almost undetectable rose. Verdict: Whip and Blood Rose, Whip and Blood Rose, these are my only rosy friends.

I must have had an old imp. I didn't get any grapefruit out of this at all. Wet: Very dry weak ginger smell on white tea. Dry: It stayed weak ginger, dryness (maybe grapefruit pith) and a hint of white tea. Verdict: pass. This was downright boring.

Wet: That ozoney note that boozes turns too on my skin, combined with sweet buttered rum. Dry: YEAH! the booze dissapears leaving behind a creamy, buttery rum with a faint embrace of coconut. Honestly, this smells exactly like the sauce my mom pours on her rum cake to make it rummy, with an extra drizzle of coconut thrown in. Nostalgic heaven.

I ended up liking this one because I like vanilla, though I don't know that I'll keep it past an imp's worth. Wet: It is a warm, dry scent that is playing nicely with my skin. Rather amber or myrrh-like. Dry: A very amber like smell is predominant in the forefront, with a slight spice and a definate vanilla streak playing backup. It fades to a slight smokiness that i have to put my nose up against my wrist to smell. A good night out perfume, but it's too sultry for daily use. Verdict: I'll keep the imp for a while, but I don't think this is bottle worthy.

Not My Scent At All! Wet: Ok, I can smell the cranberry and something that I suppose is supposed to be boozy but doesn't quite get there on my skin. I smell like some demented cranberry scented lovechild of pinesol and sea breeze facial astringent. Dry: Gack, this is even worse! The tangy, piney yet still tart like cranberry smell turns dry and melds with the astringent booziness, so I smell like some sort of fermented juniper berry. Verdict: I'll list it for swap but I don't know that I'd want to inflict this on anyone.

Amber generally plays nicely on my skin, and I was curious about this one. Wet: Ah, there's my nemesis Generic Incense Smell who hangs around for about ten minutes. Dry: Vanilla and amber with no hint of pine. Which is weird, because I've amped pine before. Verdict: Lion, Annubis and Coyote are all better amber scents for me. Off to the swaps with you!

I tired La Vita Nouva before I tried this, and I absolutely love that scent. Since that was a LE however, I wanted a GC replacement and this is it. Wet: Lemon! lemon pledge? Lemon! Dry: Light and sweet, in a wet type smell as opposed to a dry one. It smells like early spring sunshine to me. The lemon remains the top note, and then the apple and rose make a nice floral undertone to support it. Verdict: I don't love the wet phase, but I do love how it smells a half hour after I've put it on.

Wet: Pine! Pine and lemon? Lemon Pine! Not pinesol pine and not fresh pine either. It was waaaaaaaaaaaay too citrusy for that. Dry: The musk starts to come out, which is good, because the pine was too intense to be pleasant as a perfume on me. Now, after a half hour, my skin has eaten the oil like mad and it's a warmer scent, like a clear end of winter morning when the snow melts. Now the scent is reminding me more of pine sap than pine needles, which is fine by me. Verdict: I'll keep the imp around to try, and see how this continues to evolve on me.

I got this one as a swap. I'm glad I got to try it. Wet: Amaretto. A think, sexy grown up, in your face with style amaretto. Dry: Where's the amaretto go? This is dry and sweet and spicey and musky and I can't identify a single scent note in it. It does not smell bad on me. Verdict: if I were ten years younger and dating again, as opposed to happily married with two toddlers, I may have worn it. I am finding that I like "tame" and "light" scents that aren't overly floral. This is neither tame, nor light.

I just love mint, and Lick It is one of my absolute favorites, so I wanted to try some GC mint scents. This one came highly recommended by a friend, and I was hoping for a mint julep smell. Wet: Booze and mint with no sweetness at all. Dry: A very woodsy cousin mint that has been previously soaked in booze. Verdict: Its not bad, but it's not "me." I think I shall be sending it on to my friend. And frankly, for boozy mints, I like Possets' Snowflake in a Martini (Spearmint) better. Its a more sophisticate boozy mint.

Wet: FLOWER PERFUME, with not particular note standing out. It's a perfumey, climb up your nose and assault you scent of flower perfume too. Dry: flowers. Again with no particular note standing out. Thankfully it fades enough to stop assaulting my nose. Verdict: so not my cup of tea. I smell like . . . an old lady in too much classic perfume.

I am so in love with La Vita Nouva that I want to try all of the GC apple scents to find one that works for me. Poisoned Apple was the first one I could get my hands on. Wet: Lovely red apple. It smells exactly the way a good fresh apple smells when its cut, along with some sweet undertones. Dry: The apple fades and the opium comes out to play, and opium and I do not get along. I just don't like the way it smells. Verdict: The sheer mutability of this scent is fascinating. It goes through one of the biggest scent stories of any BPAL I've tried. I'm happy to have gotten to try it, and I'll be just as happy to pass it along. The quest continues . . .

This is not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting the musty, floral sort of smell I got going through my grandmothers linen closets. I got: Wet: Lemon and creamy vanilla. Dry: Creamy vanilla with the barest hint of something elusive and sweet. Verdict: It I hadn't know this was BPAL, I would have thought it was a Posset, it has that same sweet foody quality to it that is reminiscent of the Silver flower series. And honestly, I like those better. So off to the swap/ sell pile she goes.

This is the weirdest blend I have smelled to date, at least on my skin. Wet: It started off with a strong incense smell, and I thought "oh no, here we go again, smelling like a bad new age shop where I sneeze my head off (as opposed to a good new age shop that is restrained in its incense burning.)." Dry: As it started to dry, it became floral wood which I presume is the orris. On me this is much less floral and much dryer than dragon's blood, though it is definately sweet, it is a dry as opposed to cloying sweet. The coconut keeps playing peak-a-boo, here one minute, gone the next, back again and different smelling. Again, it's a dry, unsweetened sort of coconut. When the coconut is apparent, this almost smells like a Thai coconut soup that has been scented with lemongrass. Verdict: It's a beautiful scent on me, it's just not "me."

The first wanderlust scent to actually work on me Wet: I was prepared to be disappointed. I smelled like incense. Again. Yet it rapidly faded and the cedar smelled like cedar and not vanilla. The vanilla stayed strong and mellow, just the way I like it. Dry: The cedar smells so true and perfect, just like the inside of the cedar chest my grandfather made for me. And the vanilla hangs right in there with it. The cedar and vanilla morphed very little from the wet phase, except to mellow and deepen, and the sassafras shyly peaks out from behind these two behemoth scents on occasion. Verdict: I honestly think I would enjoy it more as a room scent, but it is a lovely perfume and I find myself sniffing my wrists again and again just to check it out. That's the usual sign for me of a winning scent.