marared

Frankincense? Check. Musk? Check. Sage? hmm, maybe. Currants? Currants? Bueller? No currants. ...oh wait, there's the currants. I wouldn't know they were there if I wasn't snuffling for them. I was hoping for more fruit to it. Sigh. It threatens a bit of soapiness but happily doesn't cross that line. I think I'll swap this off, or donate it to a male friend maybe...

Frimp from the lab; I dabbed myself before going out into the hot sun, and woo! I swear there must be amber in this - there's definitely honey and happily the lily isn't too strong, but it's got that warm golden powdery drydown that I always get out of amber. I bet this would layer awesomely with Khrysee.

Woo strong citrus. This is definitely a man's perfume - not SO masculine a woman couldn't get away with wearing it, but the overall impression is that of a man. It's strong, too - I got a coworker (one who sometimes remarks on whatever BPAL I'm wearing) to let me use him as a guinea pig, and one liiiiittle swipe of the wand on his wrist was very noticeable from a couple of feet away. I thought it would be darker and grittier with the leather and the patchouli, but neither of them are strong enough to really stand out; they just keep the citrus from exploding. I look forward to testing this on anyone else that'll hold still long enough...

It's a pretty violet and patchouli in the imp, but on my skin, it's straight-up violet soap! Where on earth am I getting the soap smell from? No patchouli, no currant, just violet soap, and I've not known moss to have any kind of a soapy effect. Perhaps it's the violet, although I don't recall having a problem with it before. I'll have to dig up my other violet blends and check. It's hard to wash off, too.

Someone, somewhere, said that El Bandito smelled like a more masculine Morocco, so naturally I had to nab one and see. I can kiiinda see the comparison; the spices must be the common denominator between the two. This is most definitely clove and sweet tobacco; I'm not really picking up any of the cedar - which is a good thing in the end, really, because woods are not one of the better notes on my skin. I'm not so sure I'll keep this; will revisit in six or eight weeks.

I ordered this because patchouli + fruit are typically a great combination on my skin. This is like Dionysia's ditzy blonde sister with a black streak in her hair and leather panties who does business in a western saloon with a shotglass of apricot brandy always in hand. It's not as complex or voluptuous or sultry as D, but it's ... kinky. I like it on principle, but it's a little more dusty-dirty than I want to smell like in general.

09: Ooh, lemony, and not Pledge lemony either! Fresh lemon and greenery.

That's exactly what it is! I was having trouble finding the words but that's it entirely!! There was a florist in one of the tiny shops at the bottom of my apartment building when we lived in Japan and they used to let me come in and would give me one of those moisture blocks and some flowers to arrange in it. And this is what the shop smelled like. Thank you for opening up that memory for me!! I'm going to second this review also. Green green green, and flowery, but not in-your-face flowery. I actually really like this one and might well get a bottle if it doesn't do weird things in the next thirty minutes....

This started out as honey and patchouli, which was nice - I usually can't go wrong with patchouli. Shortly thereafter there was a little bit of soap in the background, which probably is the orris root. No florals, no fruit, no musk. After a few minutes, the soap gets stronger and ... vaguely ammoniac now. Ick. Strike that one off the wishlist...

I got this as a lab frimp a while ago, but it's been sitting in my box for a few weeks. It smells like an 800 calorie sweet chocolatey coffee in the imp, but on my skin? Ew, no. It's not precisely *sour*, as sugar notes are wont to turn on my skin, but it's ... hm. Burnt? In fact, this is exactly what Dark Chocolate & Pepper Smoked Caramel does on my skin after a few minutes. I had blamed the pepper, due to the smoky/ashy smell it picks up after a few minutes, but now I wonder if it was the *caramel* - a previously unrealized death note.

LXVI (66) An *extremely* full bottle, all the way up to the second twist at the top of the neck. I'm not familiar with Penitence proper, so I can't compare it against the base, but the short version is that this smells like really good incense. I can't pick out anything except the resins. I think there must be some wood in it from the scent in the bottle ... now that it's dried down a little bit on my wrist, there is definitely a little wood and ... there's a flower peeking out. What is that? It's not rose or jasmine, that I can tell, but it's a heavy floral like that, but it doesn't stand out very much because it's pinned down under all that resin and wood (which is a good thing). I kinda like this, but I need to sit on it for a while and see how it ages. Edit: ...deodorant?

CLXXXI (181) In the bottle: strawberry! Reminds me a lot of Pumpkin V, very sweet but not quite so cloying. On my skin: buttery strawberry. Perfect for a sunshiney spring day like today. After a couple minutes it's not quite so sweet or buttery and ... suddenly disappears from my skin altogether, except for a very faint hint of amber. Huh. Edit: changed my mind. It's not strawberry. It's cherry, perhaps mixed with something else, but it's a darker fruit than strawberry. Still intensely buttery and fruity on first application. Second edit: with a heavier application, it dries down to a sweet amber that's very reminiscent of Khrysee (although it's very different when wet) and lasts for quite a while.

Yummy. Extremely reminiscent of Embalming Fluid, but a lot stronger on the citrus and a very noticeable whack of ginger. I think I'm going to switch out EF for this on my bottle wishlist, as I always wished EF was stronger - this is a great summery scent.

Lab frimp that's loud and tropical! Initially, the apple stands out loud and clear, almost to the exclusion of everything else - after a few minutes I start picking up a pina colada mix with the pineapple/coconut and a leetle banana. (The banana gets stronger and the apple starts fading after about ten minutes.) I'd sure like to drink it, but I'm not so fond of the *smell* of coconut and sugar, so I think this is going to end up in the swap pile.

The *only* time I have ever had a bee wimble its way over to me on the basis of scent (at least, I thought that's what it was at the time), I was wearing Secret Crush from Victoria's Secret. Dang thing wouldn't leave me alone.

Mild citrus. I don't think I could pick out the mandarin and the lime not knowing they were there, but definitely citrus. There's no bitter undertone that I expected from the neroli, and I really can't detect the tea either. It's just a gentle fruity floral that's heavier on the fruit than the floral. It's nice, but it doesn't really excite me that much.

I was a little afraid of this scent due to the rose, which I usually amp beyond tolerance, but surprisingly it's behaving, and what I get out of Symmakhia is a gentle floral vanilla pear. I think this is a great spring and early-summer scent - it's very tasty. I don't think I like it enough to splurge on a bottle, but I think I'll get good use out of the imp for as long as I have it.

Ech, no - something with this REALLY doesn't agree with my chemistry. This was almost ammoniatic upon first application, and it's calmed down a bit to sweetly rotten flowers. It's not as bad in the imp, but it's pretty vile on my skin. :/

It smells wonderful in the imp, very strong on the honey. On my wrist, it started out more musky, and I was afraid for a minute that something would go sour or soapy, and it's still sort of waffling between the two, but the honey has started to amp up a bit. Alas, after ten minutes it's still trying to be soapy... I wonder if it's the ambergris? Hm....

It started out pretty soapy right off the bat. Something in this doesn't agree with my chemistry; I would have thought this had alcohol in it for the sour note that comes up after ten minutes. As it is, I think cedar is the troublemaker, or possibly the woodmoss. Off to the swap pile...

I smell the plum and rice most strongly - what immediately comes to mind is that plum wine I had once from some Asian-owned liquor store on New Year's Eve. It's nice, but not as mind-bendingly yummy as I hoped.

Wow. Khrysee and I will never be best friends due to the amber, but I am enamored of her charms and will hold a girlcrush on her from a distance. It's a *gorgeous* blend - sweeter in the bottle than it is on my wrist. It doesn't have excessive throw, but it has a great deal of staying power - after eight hours through two handwashes and an application of Villainess lotion, it's still quite noticeable on my wrists. It's very yum, very sensual, *very* adult. Maybe something I'd put in an oil warmer if I had a visitor...

Apparently I never reviewed this, although I got a decant several months ago. Whatever's in it, it smells GOOD on me - a very warm and comforting mix of spice, floral, and musk. The ginger is very snappy, but the mums balance it out so that neither overpowers the blend, and the musk is sexy without being in-your-face about it. I'd reeeally like a bottle of this...

Ohhhh man this is yum. It's pretty heavy on the caramel when it's fresh out of the bottle, but the pepper very quickly tames the sweetness and keeps it from turning foody. The caramel comes back into play ten or fifteen minutes into the drydown, but it's just walking-past-the-chocolate-shop sweet rather than diabetic-coma-inducing sweet. I don't get the booze that some other people are smelling (thankfully!) but it does have a bit of a gourmand-coffee aroma to it. Not much throw, although the bottle is still a bit cold from the mail truck, and that may change when it settles. I wonder how this would layer with Boomslang? Hmmm... Further edit to note that after a couple hours, it dries to pretty much straight-up pepper. Even further edit: nope, doesn't work on me in the end, and I think the culprit must actually be the *caramel*, due to a nearly identical drydown with Gluttony - kinda burnt and ashy. It was so good to start, but I can't keep it.

I'm going to concur that this is a blend that needs to age - right now it's fresh and sharp spices, with virtually no chocolate or brown sugar that I can detect right now. It's all ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; it smells like when you're about to make pumpkin pie or gingerbread cookies, and you blend the relevant spices off in their own little bowl first. About ten minutes into the drydown, the tonka starts sweetening things up a bit, but it's still too dry and sharp to wear right now. Into the aging jar it goes! What it reminds me of at the moment is a combination of Bakeneko and Red Moon, even though none of them have notes in common that I can see.