nevermore

In the vial, this smells a lot like Vicks Vaporub. I didn’t even want to put it on my skin, it was so strong. Once it hits my skin though, it turns into fig and frankincense … and not much else. It smells not bad on me, though not exactly my style. I really did want to like this one, because I like everything in it, apart from the fig. But since the fig dominates, I probably won’t wear this enough to keep it around. I’ll swap this one.

I’ve decided that blends with mimosa do nothing for me – the mimosa turns really bitter and nasty on my skin. In the vial, this is fruity and dark, but once the mimosa mixes with my skin, it’s terrible – like eating chokecherries (berrys that are sour and bitter, and yet people still eat them). This one will be up for swap too.

I tried this out once, and it managed to shoot all the way to my top 5 BPAL perfumes. It really reminds me of Uluru from LUSH, though without the slightly woody note. In the vial, Hunger is orange. On my skin though, it mellows out to something slightly less fruity and more floral. I can’t really describe how nice this is on me. I swapped for a bigger bottle of this, but it smells nothing like the imp I had. In fact, it smelled almost exactly like Ravenous – so much so that I think it might have been mislabeled.

When I first opened the imp of Golden Priapus, all I could smell was pine. After it hit my skin, it was still pine – kind of like the time I got the job of helping wash the car after it got pine sap on it. I was none too impressed, as I was hoping the vanilla would come out more. However, since it was the last day of my period, I tried it a few days later, hoping that I’d get more vanilla - which I did, thankfully. It’s quite a nice warm vanilla with some pine and maybe some juniper. It’s not even very masculine smelling on me, but just enough to keep me from smelling really “girly”. I will certainly finish up the imp, though I don’t know about a bigger bottle (Voodoo is my “not too girly” scent of choice).

This perfume really makes me wish I could pull off fruity scents, but alas, I can’t. In the vial, it’s mostly grapefruit-y citrus, but once it hits my skin it sweetens up nicely, but with some tang. It’s actually a nice scent, but really fruity perfumes without florals or something to temper them tend to make me rather nauseous. I think I’ll pass this one on to one of my friends who would get a kick out of the name, as well as the perfume.

I really enjoyed this one. Penitence is quite a lot like Anne Bonny, but sweeter and slightly lighter and without the salty wood note. It’s not an every day scent, but an “out with the girls” sort of scent. It’s really ideal for me, because it’s Anne Bonny without the notes I don’t really care for (namely the salty wood – appropriate for a pirate, but not me). It lasts a long time - when I first tried it, I had to wash it off a good 24 hours later so I could try something new.

I can’t pick out any individual notes in this perfume except the orange. That said, I adore it. I’m not entirely sure why I like it so much, but I know I need a bigger bottle of it soon. Xuihtecuhtli is incense-y, orange-y, and slightly creamy, all at the same time. It’s slightly masculine for the first while on my skin, but not masculine enough to stop me from wearing it – or to make me smell boyish. The only problem is that when people ask me what perfume I’m wearing, I can’t tell them, as I can’t pronounce it.

I really enjoy wearing Kali, because different notes surface each time I wear it. Mostly though, it starts as chocolate and a slight touch of wine and dries to some quite exotic smelling florals. Occasionally, I’ll smell the tobacco and honey. It lasts quite a long time too – at least a full work day. I think I need a bigger bottle of this one too.

Incantation simply turns too masculine on my skin. The vetiver dominates, and makes it so that I can’t smell any of the other notes. I think it would smell amazing on the right guy though. This one will be swapped (as I have no guy to try it on).

It seems my skin likes to eat apples as much as I do. In the bottle, the perfume is nicely apple-y, complete with the slight tang of a good granny smith apple. Once it hits my skin though, the apple completely disappears, leaving the caramel and oak bark, which is actually quite pretty. However, even the caramel and oak are gone after about an hour – I even asked my mother to sniff me, in case I had simply become accustomed to the scent, but she couldn’t smell anything either. It’s a shame really, because I really enjoyed smelling like apples and oak bark. I think I may have to try the cotton ball in the bra trick to get it to last.

This is what I was hoping Eclipse would be – sweet almond, with a background of musk that stays in the background. I was rather worried the musk would overpower everything (like it has done in some other blends I’ve tried), but luckily, it just provides a nice base for the almond. For the first while on my skin, Hecate reminds me of Eclipse, but without the scary bubblegum-y note. After wearing it for a few hours, the almond is gone, with just the myrrh and musk left. I quite like it.

Mmmm … almonds and milk. Light enough for everyday wearing out and about, even in the summer. In the vial, it was all almond, but once on my skin it morphs into something slightly sweet, and not too almondy. After a while, the honey comes out slightly, and the almond dies down a little, but still quite lovely. I don’t know if I need a bigger bottle, but perhaps another imp when I’m done with this one.

I was kind of afraid to try this one, as I’m not a really big fan of mint. But, since the lab was generous enough to send it along in one of my orders, I figured I should try it. Surprisingly, the mint isn’t all that strong. For the first half hour or so, it’s somewhat minty, but it dies down pretty quickly. After about 45 minutes, I have a lovely cool floral left on my wrists and cleavage. I think it’ll be really nice for the rest of the summer, since it’s lovely and cooling.

It is gardenia!! I knew it! (I wore Sacred Whore of Babylon this morning and spent a good couple of hours trying to figure out what flower it was that I kept smelling ... my guess was either gardenia or magnolia ) Anyway, it is quite nice and floral on me, though very spicy in the bottle.

Snake Oil and Old Morocco have the same effect on me - I red splotches if I put it on sensitive parts of my body (inner elbow, behind the ears, behind the knees...). So, the only solutions that I find help are putting a little of the perfume on a cotton ball and tucking it in my bra, so it doesn't tough my skin (as has already been suggested) or just don't put the oils on the areas that get the rash - with Snake Oil, I put it on my wrists, a dab on the area between my thumb and index finger (on the back of the hard), underneath my jaw bone, and the hollow of my throat. No splotches, because I find those areas to be slightly less sensitive.

I really didn’t care for this one. In the vial and on me, it was a very strong, slightly bitter green scent – none of the spicyness that many of the other reviewers have smelled. I swapped this one to andrabell, as I really didn’t like it. However, I’m beginning to think it may have been mislabeled, as it smells nothing like what the other reviewers are describing.

My order smelled like this perfume when I received it (one of the ties got into the perfume and sucked up a little and distributed it about the package). Once on my skin, it’s quite a nice spicy perfume, but not sweet. After a couple of hours though, it turns slightly more floral (the carnation, I would imagine). Old Morocco has really good staying power – lasts me a full day day at work, and well into the evening. Though I do have to be careful where I put it - it's alright in the cleavage and wrists, but if I put it on my neck or inner elbow or back of the knees, it stings somewhat.

For me, there are good days and bad days to wear Hellcat. On good days, Hellcat is a lovely, creamy, slightly rumm-y vanilla. On bad days, Hellcat is honey mead and rum that is strong enough that it would probably make people think I’ve been drinking. The day I got this in the mail in a swap, I tried it on, and all I could smell was the honey mead/rum – and enough to make me slightly ill. I put it in the swap box, intending to trade it the first chance I got. A few days later, I decided that I should try it again, as the notes were just too nice to pass up. It was nice that day – almond, cream, and a smidge of rum, which is what I wanted it to smell like. So, in short, I like Hellcat, but only some of the time (ie. when the honey mead and rum notes behave themselves).

I really did want to like this one, as I really enjoy orange blossom scents. However, there is something else in the scent that I don’t really care for – I think it might be the mimosa. Unfortunately, Succubus turns a little bit sharp on my skin. I can really smell the note that might be mimosa, and a touch of clove, but not much in the way of orange blossom, neroli, or bergamont. I don’t know if I’ll keep this yet, so it may be up for swap soon.

While I don’t mind the smell of roses on other people, I don’t care for it on myself. This was a freebie imp thrown into my first order, and I found it to be too rosy for me. I did discover that this smells quite nice with a little bit of Queen Mab over top, though I didn’t like the combination enough to keep it.

This was one of the freebies in my first order, and while I didn’t mind it, it was a bit too floral for me, if you know what I mean. I’m not a floral person, so when I do wear floral perfumes, I want them to be subtly floral, not hit-me-in-the-face floral, which is what Rapture was on my skin. I could smell jasmine very strongly and some rose, and that was about it. This one is another swap for me.

This was one of the freebies in my first order, and definitely not something I would pick for myself, as I don’t particularly care for figs. In the vial, Carnal is mostly mandarin with a touch of earthy fig, but once on, the fig steadily gained ground against the mandarin orange. After about 10 minutes, fig was all I could smell. Into the swap pile with this one. Darn.

As advertised, Vice is very chocolaty. The first time I wore it, it was mainly chocolate, with a touch of cherries – which was nice, but a little too sweet for me. I decided to try it a second time, and while it was still chocolatey, the orange blossom and cherries were much more apparent. I think I’ll have to try it once more to see if Vice is going to be too sweet for me.

Like many other people, I thought I smelled lemon in this while it was in the bottle. After putting it on, it was a nicely balance amber/musk. So far, so good. Unfortunately, after it dried, the black musk was all I could smell, and musk isn’t one of my favorite scents. I swapped this one, and I think I’ll stick with Sin for my amber based scent.

This was thrown in as a freebie in my first order, and is definitely something I wouldn’t have picked out on my own. However, I really like it. It’s floral, but not overpoweringly so. I can mainly smell the sandalwood an orchid. I turned this into a solid perfume so I can take it to work with me to put on after the perfume I wear starts to fade. I don’t know if I’ll be getting a bigger bottle any time soon, but I will use up what I have.