Ms Density

I sometimes wear a mix of Silk Road and Obatala because it smells like the Yogi Sweet Thai Delight tea.

This smells collegiate to me. It’s almost cliché—Dead Poets Society, anyone? This scent is like those boys taking a shower and then immediately wandering out into the misty ivy-covered woods near the university on an early evening in the Fall, heading to local caves to discuss Walt Whitman or some such. I do have a soft spot in my heart for this kind of literary romanticising (despite other problems I have with the movie, I always loved this idea), so this works for me. This does go through a strong man-soap phase on me, but once that goes away, I do enjoy it quite a bit. I’ll probably experiment with dilution for this one, or try to force some on my husband. When I asked my husband to smell this on me and tell me what he thought it smelled like, he said “like an orange, like… like a cowboy eating an orange.” So there’s another perspective!

In the bottle, this has an almost sour scent—like tart kool-aid right out of the packet. As soon as I start applying it, giving it some air, I can smell the sweetness. It’s a creamy strawberry sweetness that somewhat reminds me of the way my hair smells after using American Cream conditioner from Lush. I just received the bottle two days ago, so it will probably settle some more and I suspect the sourness will relax. That note fades quickly enough as it is. Two hours later, a slight sourness returns within the context of sweetness and I do believe I smell Tangy Taffy. It really smells delicious, fruity, chewy (!) and yes, sweet but not overwhelmingly so. In fact, it’s just the sort of candy I would reach for first if I had a big bag of Halloween candy in front of me. This is such a great scent for the fun, giddy, sugar-rushy side of Halloween!

Am I sitting on the porch of a pine cabin surrounded by woods whittling a pine branch and smoking the best hand-rolled tobacco money can buy? No, but I smell like I am. And this scent makes me truly wish I were doing just that. If you’re a born and raised nature girl seduced into moving and living in the city, this will make your heart ache for twilit horizontal expanses of stars and years of clear, bright, cold moons keeping watch over the forest and you.

I bought a bottle of The Apothecary last year after trying out an imp of it. It reminds me of my local herb/spice shop that also sells a variety of loose leaf teas. The teas are located near the entrance, so when I walk in that’s the first thing I smell. Each large apothecary jar of tea has a small covered cup in front of it so you can sniff the varieties available. There are certain teas I have to sniff every time I go there even if I already have some at home or don’t plan to buy any that day: Irish Breakfast, English Breakfast, Green tea with wild cherry, Casablanca with its cornflower petals and dried apples and strawberries, Russian Earl Grey… From there I move on to consider which herbs to buy: lavender, calendula… I absolutely love visiting this shop, and The Apothecary embodies that experience for me. It’s drying herbs and cool tea on a warm day, and the moss and grass lends to it a balmy garden air. It’s my black-tea-hair-tinting bath scent; my farmer’s market breakfast scent. If I had a porch, it would be my reading on the porch scent.

I work in a library. I second The Apothecary, although you may want to dilute it because it's pretty strong. I also think Arcana would work for this.

I couldn’t be happier with The Death of Autumn. It’s difficult to tell which way it’s going to go, when I sniff it from the bottle. Those top notes are pretty green to me, along with something earthy… something that reminds me of Mastic gum (I happen to enjoy that smell). Once I put it on, absolute magic happens. I can smell my beloved Vetiver. This is the strongest measure of Vetiver I’ve detected in any BPAL blend so far. But there are other things here as well, and the bashful ones come out slowly but all at once. Boy, does it bloom into something lovely. I get Vetiver, Clove, Amber and something smoky. The smoke is what I imagine my skin would smell like after falling asleep next to a campfire. I even get a sense of the warm earth near the fire. But that campfire stage is quick. Something reminds me of Oblivion—maybe that’s the saffron. Everything comes together and conjures out my most ideal outdoorsy autumnal chemistry. This is EXACTLY what I want to smell like this fall, under my black cashmere jacket and swirling around me when the autumn wind whips my hair around. This is what I want to smell like wrapped in a blanket lying face up under the biggest, orangest tree I can find, watching its leaves fall all around me. This smells like keeping warm despite the cold. This smells like a fresh air walk in the woods when indoor things get to be too much—crunchy leaves, nearly naked trees and distant churchbells. While Samhain feels like an autumn day, and Samhainophobia feels like an autumn night, this is timeless autumn to me. Needless to say, I LOVE it. Fate brought this to me; it was made for me.

The Masque has aged so beautifully. When I first got it, I thought it had potential but it was a little too sharp on the floral side; perfumey. I got it out today for the first time in a year and it’s all clove and honey and carnation, and my chemistry loves it. A bit like Alice, if she grew up and covered herself in honey dust and started smoking clove cigarettes (no more drinking milk in the rose garden). Just the smell of the clove is giving me a lovely tingling sensation at the tip of my fingers and the tip of my tongue. The tobacco comes out toward the end, and this really smells like an unlit clove cigarette. It’s a relaxed, sensual scent for me rather than a blood-tinged chamber. I’m so sad that I only have an imp of this. This is perfect for this time of year. I'd love to slather it.

Blood Moon is in my top five. As a wee lass, I was obsessed with those cinnamon toothpicks you could buy in packs of ten (Fire-pix). This reminds me of those. That robust waft of cinnamon combines so beautifully with a really dry wood and what I can only describe as a dry musk as well. Red and sensual, for scenting hair and bosom. And this makes me want to draw, strangely enough, delicate shapes and swirls with a very, very fine point red pen.

I'll usually put the oil in my hair if I'm worried about a skin reaction. It seems to hold the scent a bit longer too.

Even as a vetiver lover I passed this one up, snarling at the citrus and thyme. Someone gave me an imp of this, and even the first time I tried it I dismissed it. I've just tried this for the second time. I like how the vetiver and patchouli deepen this blend. I can smell the lemon peel (and it's not sour or too clean-smelling, surprise!) and musk. The smoke mingles so well with the vetiver that I can hardly separate them. The saffron, thyme and plum are pretty much non-detectable to me but I'm certain they add a femininity to the blend that might not otherwise exist. Essentially, Lenore is a "perfumey" blend but with deep earthy roots which I can really appreciate.

On me, Obatala is like coconut water and honeysuckle juice. Sweet, creamy and it smells absolutely delicious. Since I grew up with tons of honeysuckle growing around my house, I completely associate this smell with summer. I wasn't expecting to like Obatala half as well as I do. I've worn it three times since I got the order on thursday! The second time I layered it over some Snake Charmer to bring out the coconut. This will go on the list for upgrade to a big bottle of summery goodness...

Thanks for the update on Wanda, Blu... I think I'll add an imp to my next order to give it another try.

I’m not sure about this at first. Sniffing the imp wand, I'm thinking "god... another bubblegum scent." Once it's on me, it's a wine and candy waft. Very sweet. Too much, I say. But it definitely has an interesting complex scent that I want to get to know better. Luckily, it gets better as it settles down. Now it smells like an amaretto and plum sake cocktail, with a side of one of those plum candies they give you at Korean restaurants. There is something about the smell of this that makes me think "sticky"--I think it's just so sweet it reminds me of some creamy melted candy. When I want to smell like an exotic sweet liquory candy (which isn't often I must admit), I"ll wear Bordello. It may just be the perfect thing to wear when I'm going out to a swanky restaurant. It's not the kind of perfume that screws up your taste buds, like some others.

Red Phoenix is electric. It smells like magic and fire and friction. Once the cinnamon fades, it reminds me of the Red Poppies sticks from Incense from India. It’s not one for attaching your nose to your wrist—it needs air to excite the flame. This oil warms my air and water personality and seems to fulfill some elemental need.

Got this in a swap, and it was a complete surprise. I did not particularly expect to like a strong peach note, but I've been on Sin-induced patchouli kick lately so I thought I'd give it a go. All you Urd-worshipping patchouli lovers out there, Imp is my Urd. I liked Urd okay, but Imp is definitely more my bag. It's my warm-weather Sin!

An exercise in megalomania, indeed. I put this on right before my reference desk shift, and without even realizing it I began having thoughts of how cool it is to be a reference librarian, making comparisons to the priestesses of Delphi and such nonsense. Not only that, but this is an oil which encourages stereotypical bitch librarian behavior, delighting in condescension. This is something I believe my all-too-nice pushover personality could use from time to time. "I have the keys to this knowledge, and you're going to have to abase yourself before me to get my crucial aid." Ha. It's strong, and it smells of some kind of resinous soap at first--the frankincense and violets. I don't smell any cinnamon, but it comes later. At first, I didn't think I liked it because of the soap factor but the frankincense seduces me into its ethereal arms yet again, keeping the bathtime images at bay. The violets lean instead toward a cleanliness-is-divinity ego trip. Not only do I smell clean but I'm surrounded by offerings of precious resin and spice incense. I think I'll use this whenever I need a massive dose of confidence.

Here is the response I got from the lab, in case anyone else has the same issue with Wanda: "All of our oils are organic, and come from natural sources. In nature, there are variations in the scents of plants; a red rose you buy today will not necessarily smell identical to a red rose you buy tomorrow. In addition, we acquire our base oils from many home based businesses, co-ops, and other small growers. Plants coming from different regions and hybrid plants sometimes differ in scent. The only way for us to reproduce our scents flawlessly and exactly each time would be to use chemically synthesized products which we refuse to do. We do our best to keep things as consistent as possible, but due to the nature of our product sometimes nature can not be controlled." They also offered to send me another bottle, but made no guarantees that it would smell the same. I think I'll try it, just because it's one of my favorites and I'd hate to never get my hands on it again.

The bottle of Wanda I just received smells like what's been described here. I've emailed the lab.

When I first got Snake Charmer in August, I liked it but I thought “why do I need this? It’s a lot like Snake Oil which is general catalog…” There were differences to my nose, Snake Charmer being a bit fruitier and sweeter with the plum and coconut (which I can barely detect). And as with Snake Oil, it’s very strong. So I diluted it with some Jojoba into a 2ml bottle, and went on wearing other things for a while. So today I put some on, after washing with B&BW Warm Vanilla Sugar body wash that I got for Xmas. They complement each other perfectly. And I think the aging has helped the spices and deeper aspects of the scent to come out. Snake Charmer is a sweet, slightly-spicy vanilla-sugary scent with a bit of the same type of patchouli (and perhaps a bitty bit of the spice) that I get with the drydown of Samhain. Nevertheless, it’s too sweet for me most days. But it’s so wonderful when I’m in the mood for sweet. I think if I wore a restrained amount of this and sat in a room with a dry woody incense burning for about an hour, I would come out smelling nothing short of divine.

Blood Rose starts out a little artificial on me—snowcone syrup, grape. The combination of dragon’s blood and wine seems to be creating this effect. After a minute or so on my skin, the roses start to shake their hips but I’m still craving some Shave Ice. A couple of hours later, my chemistry has dominated and I get smoky incense and barely rose. The drydown is pretty nice, but similar on me to the smoky Red and Black Phoenixes. I think I’ll remain loyal to Dragon’s Heart for dragon’s blood for now, and Peacock Queen for Rose. I’ll use the rest of my Blood Rose imp on playful summer days.

Sniffing from the imp, not sure about this. It smells too sharp. Wet on my skin, there is something berryish, but it's a bright, tart berry. The pine in this is cleanser pine, but the astringent aspect goes away with the drydown. And the berries go away too, giving way to a something completely unexpected. The throw of this is interesting, it reminds me a bit of….suntan oil? Can it be coconut or something otherwise nutty? It's woodsy, but as if it's the wood of a coconut tree. It's not plasticky either, it’s a woodsy evergreen, nutty, subdued coconut scent which is incredibly nice. Either that, or something is incredibly amiss in the olfactory receptors of my brain. The smell of this when I put my nose to my arm is very different from the throw. I like the throw more than the up-close. Up close, there's something reminding me of sour fruity candy as it dries--must be the berry again. I’m pretty sure I like this a lot, but I’ll have to try it again.

Talvikuu smells pretty aquatic in the bottle, which I believe is the cause of the “snowy” feel I get from it. I can also smell the fir/evergreen notes. I don’t get any pine from this, as I was somewhat expecting from the comparisons to Skadi. Once I put it on, I still get the fir/evergreen but it gets really fresh smelling. Like cucumber or, as Nehushtan remarked when I let her smell it, watermelon. It borders on soapy, but it seems like the trees are trying to keep that tethered. I’m really trying to decide if I like it—it seems pretty masculine and clean. I think I enjoy this scent, but I can’t help feeling a little self-conscious wearing it and having others think I smell like aftershave… That said, I can see that it is evocative of winter imagery, and I do plan to wear this when I see Narnia. I’m not usually turned off by masculine blends, but I guess clean-smelling masculine blends aren’t for me to wear. I do like it enough to keep some of it and use as a home scent. I'll probably imp some out to swap for other Yule blends.

I ordered this immediately and had high hopes, that is until the reviews starting rolling in. But I still wanted to give it a fair chance. It smelled better in the bottle than I was expecting, so I tried some on. Sadly, all I get is Aqua Net. As if I coated my hair and whole body with it, because it's strong on me. So three years later now, and I'm going through my BPAL box looking for scents to blend into summery bedtime lotions. I picked up Numb, figured "what else am I going to use this for?"--sniffed it and decided it just might work. I mixed some into lotion and put it by my bed. That night, I covered my hands and arms with it and it smells really clean and cool and lovely and not a bit like hairspray! Instead, it reminds me of when I was such a young girl and it smells a bit like the Oil of Olay lotion that my grandma used to put on after she washed her face at night, right before she would come to tuck me in and kiss me goodnight. And it reminds me of the pillows and pillowcases at her house that I always thought were magical because they seemed to stay cool all night. Just by diluting it, I seem to have found the perfect use for this scent.

I love Golden Priapus. On my man and on myself. Jesus Christ, what does that say about me? Whatever… I like these soft masculine scents. I love smelling like vanilla baked goods that grow on trees. There must be this forest somewhere, with bobkas and sugar crème pie tarts weighing down the branches, where you can reach up and pluck a ripe vanilla bean muffin from among the pine needles. And I’ll be damned if there isn’t a fragrant sunny grove in the heart of this forest with a statue of the golden god himself. Maybe it’s just me (please tell me it’s not), but this scent is capable of bringing on such whims. No matter, because I smell incredible.