Shollin

First sniff: Very fruity! Fruity and wet and crisp. Wow. Wearing: I’ve always rather liked the Hanged Man… sure he’s in a bit of an awkward situation, dangling upside-down by one foot, but he seems to be pretty cool with it. The scent very much reminds me of his attitude – it’s very laid-back. I can’t pin down specific notes, but it’s slightly sweet, fruity and round. Very nice.

First sniff: I saw the violet and rose and shied away… but the primary thing I smell in the vial is MINT. Ubermint with a very wet background that reminds me of cucumbers. Wearing: It’s impressively minty, but the flowers are beginning to peek out around the edges. It settled into minty roses before it faded completely, which happened too fast because I didn’t trust it to behave and only put it on one wrist. That’ll show me. It was quite nice.

First sniff: Very reminiscent of Cathedral and Aureus – strong woody incense. I hereby predict that it won’t work on me as those two didn’t. Wearing: Yerk… immediately sharp-sweet, headachey incense. Sometimes I hate being right.

First sniff: It feels like Budding Moon should smell more like flowers, but this is all fruit. Early-season green fruit just barely beginning to swell. It’s cool and refreshing and really gorgeous. Wearing: Budding Moon = love. Soft plum and greenness and spring breezes. It’s phenomenally beautiful.

First sniff: Darkness and resins and… is that cinnamon? Wearing: I’m officially weird. Malkuth smells like cinnamon apple incense.

First sniff: A heavy aura of rose soap. Wearing: Soapy roses. Bleah.

First sniff: Lily-flavored bubblegum. …What? I swear that’s what it smells like. It’s mostly lily, but there’s something in here that makes it very sweet and very PINK. Wearing: It’s just really really sweet. No soapiness, as I usually get with lily, but it’s too sweet for me to wear.

First sniff: Rosey! Wow, imagine that! They’re very green roses, though, as if they’re not quite ripe. The rose equivalent of a green-tinged banana. Wearing: Green roses on my wrist, which was rather nice, but I had a weird sickly-sweet aura hanging around me for most of the day. However… I showered with Villainess’ Datura Smooch! this morning, and I remember odd scent-happenings last time I did that, ‘cause it clung like mad and turned everything way-too-sweet… so I’m putting Chuparosa aside to try again later, and I suspect we’ll get along better next time we meet.

First sniff: Rather unfortunately, this smells like nothing but cherry cough syrup, right down to the sharp edges. Wearing: There’s a very strong cherry-almond edge, but fortunately the center is less sticky than it was in the vial. It’s bright, bright red and just this side of sickly-sweet. And it didn’t stick to me for more than a couple of hours, so the drydown never really got a chance to redeem itself.

Along those lines... I've just pinned a topic in the main Reviews forum with links to all the too-short-to-search review threads. Alas, because of the setup, it's down at the very very bottom under all the subforums... so I figured I'd put a pointer to it here. Hope you find it useful.

There are some reviews that are just really dang hard to find -- usually because of a typo on a Lab label or an accent mark in the name. So here's a list of the unsearchables, in alphabetical order. If I've left something out of either category, or if a link doesn't work, please PM me and I'll fix it. With the changes to the search engine in the past few months, even the shortest names (O, I'm looking at you) are searchable. Yay! So I've taken those off the list. Label Typos/Misspellings Caligostro = Cagliostro (unreleased) Chyphre = Chypre (TAL) Hymn to Prosperpine = Hymn to Proserpine Khajurajo = Khajuraho Kinsheisin the Penis God = Konseishin the Penis God The Lady of Shallot = The Lady of Shalott Langour = Languor Le Petit Mort = La Petite Mort Michtecacihuatl = Mictecacihuatl Svaddhinaopatika = Svadhinaopatika Tulzcha = Tulzscha Other Common Misspellings Caberet = Cabaret Et Lux Fruit = Et Lux Fuit Lithia = Litha Unsearchable or Difficult-to-Search Names Fée Ghûlheim Halôa Jólasveinar Original 13, and the versions from October '06, April '07, July '07 and June '08 (you can search for 13, but it'll also pull up two pages of results with "13" in the date subtitle, so I've left these in the list) Salomé Snow-Flakes Y'ha-nthlei Ya-Te-Vo Tea Love Oya O Bah! Hod The Ta-Ta Ü Eve (Discontinued GC) Eve (Only Lovers Left Alive) Liz (Hellboy) Another workaround is to type "bpal.org [scent name]" into any search engine--one of the first results should be the appropriate review topic. Hope this helps!

First sniff: Cold, metallic dragon’s blood. Wearing: This is a gorgeous, richly deep-red scent, with just a hint of the smoky. I’m trying to remember why I didn’t order a bottle… the description isn’t terribly inviting, to be sure, but dragon’s blood is almost always stunning on me and I’m very grateful to Bagfish for swapping me this imp. I’m annoyed that it faded so quickly – I’ll put more on next time.

First sniff: Based on the scent description, it’s very much a toss-up as to whether Lenore will work on me at all. And the vial-scent seems to be all the notes that don’t: vetiver and smoke, and even the patchouli is a bit too dirty. Wearing: Ooh, that’s better. The aura is all white musk and lemon. However, it developed a bizarre cedary note as it dried, and the end result was decidedly not me.

First sniff: Dark. Looming. Powerful. And a bit smoky. Wearing: Erk. Glad I just tried this on one wrist – it’s giving me the dark-green vetiver funk.

First sniff: Very big on the lavender, the sharp herbal variety. Wearing: It pretty much smelled like pure lavender on me, and I have Somnus for that.

First sniff: A cool splash of fresh greenness. This was a winter release, of course, but I’m betting it’ll be an awesome cooling scent for summer, and now I’m glad for my overly Virgonian review system that’s kept me from trying it on until July. It’s cool and green and a little bit tart, like there’s a bit of secret citrus lurking under the listed notes. Wearing: Just glorious. And quite a bit stronger than I expected. Very green and very tea.

First sniff: Soft, sweet, wet floral. Very gentle and quiet. Wearing: Al-Araaf reminds me quite a bit of Tiger Lily, with a little something extra that smells a lot like tea. It’s really gorgeous – and no soapy lilies! Woo!

First sniff: Absolutely frigid. Bone-cold and blindingly white. This is the mint at the end of the world. (And therefore quite possibly the after-dinner mints they serve at Milliways.) Wearing: So. very. cold. Perfect for late-June weather.

First sniff: Dark forest, dry wood, eerieness. Wearing: Talvikuu reminds me quite a bit of Yew-Trees, right down to the unexpected nuttiness of the drydown. I’ll have to hold a sniff-off between them someday, because I don’t think I need both, but for now I’ll hang onto this one.

First sniff: Stardust is… weird. The initial sniff is very much hairspray. After that, it’s a little bit floral, a little bit boozey, and a whole lot quirky. Wearing: It totally smells like I sprayed my wrist with White Rain hairspray. And it dries down to hairspray. It smells like the evil hairspray of doom that my mom used to plaster my bangs with when I was in middle school. So why do I like it so much?

First sniff: Sharp. Very sharp. There’s something in here my nose doesn’t like even in the vial. Ooh – I bet it’s rosemary. I don’t think I’ve liked a rosemary blend yet (which is weird, because I do like the scent of the actual herb… but in the oils it’s apparently just too sharp). Wearing: Mondo rosemary! Quickly swallowed up in white flowers. It’s too sharp at first and too sweet after that. Pity.

First sniff: Sharp resins and liquid flowers. Wearing: It just doesn’t work for me. Myrrh and roses are not at all my thing.

First sniff: Decidedly aquatic. I’m not getting a whole lot of darkness, though. Wearing: Mr. Bloated Corpulence is surprisingly fresh and breezey. And, alas, not distinct enough from the several other aquatics I already love. I’ll send His Tentacular Ickiness off to torment some other soul.

First sniff: Much sweeter than I expected… but rather than being headachey-sweet, it smells like The World’s Best Honey over warm skin, with incense burning somewhere in the background. Wearing: Honeyed skin – the smokiness has vanished, and I can’t smell the musk as a separate entity at all; it’s just melded with my skin. Simply glorious. The aura reminds me very much of O. I’ll see if it has a similar effect on my guy… and if so, it’ll have to go in the “not for wearing in public” pile.

First sniff: Thin wood, bone-dry, and dried, withered herbs. Dry dry dry. It reminds me of photos from drought-stricken lands, hard cracked earth where a pond used to be. Wearing: Parched bare trees clawing frantically at the sky. I know the Scales represent Famine, but I’m getting a sense of powerful thirst here, rather than hunger. (The two are linked, of course; no water means no crops will grow… but this dryness is very specifically thirst. And I’m chugging ice water now just because I can.)