JazzieCazzie

ETA: Never mind. Magic words after 3 days on the lam across town: Out For Delivery.

I'm not sure if it counts to use a BPTP bath oil comparison, but I've found that Gently Gently goes really well with Potion because carnation!!! I'd still like to find ANYTHING that would blend well in bath layers with Shub ... I was once a Lush addict and while I've gone pretty much no-buy for now because money/storage space/trying to use up most of what I have before we move to an apartment about the quarter of our current house (read: minimal storage space) I do still have a TON of it (especially bath bombs as well as bubble bars which I smooshed into what I call "bubble rubble" which makes a single bar last for about 4-5 baths).

I am SO glad I have two bottles of this ... I know that we often discuss our favorite Lab scents, and I've recently realized that my "favorite Lab scent" tends to be whatever I'm wearing at that moment (years of getting to know my favorite notes has enabled me to narrow down my "collection" to something big enough that I'll have to be 100 to use it up but ALL 100% hits) ... As a result, I'll usually do a "blind grab": for perfumery, I reach into one of my drawers (gorgeous mirrored jewelry box from TJ Maxx) and wear whatever I pull out, or else for a bath I'll reach into my "bath cabinet" and wear whatever bath oil I grab. BUT ... after a Gently Gently bath last night I HAD TO TAKE ANOTHER ONE TONIGHT BECAUSE AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH. The after-scent of spicy carnation and clove is subtle but magnificent. It's just deliciously spicy and kind of golden and soothing. I'm going to go out on a limb and say if there is a BPAL perfume I'd compare it to, it would be original-recipe Scorpio, because I have this long-ago memory of wearing that when I first got it ... on Thanksgiving, I think ... and falling asleep with my arm thrown over my face and being mesmerized by how the crook of my arm smelled, like a clove cigarette. That said, I think the carnation is more prevalent but spectacularly spicy-goodness (it smells more like carnation than a carnation does, in a good way).

Just chiming in on this for fun ... YOOGE fan of the BPAL chocolate scents. They're magical! I adore both Velvet and Gelt, though I will add that my VERY aged Velvet smelled quite different than a more-recently purchased bottle, so I'm fortunate that I can wear the aged oil while allowing the newer one to age in its place. Gelt, to me, ALWAYS smells good. But that said, my favorite (unsung) chocolate/cocoa scent is without a doubt Tezcatlipoca which is like it was made for me. Funny thing is I might not have purchased it to try "later" in my BPAL days since I would have probably avoided it due to the leather note, which tends to really amp on me and not in a good way ... however, with this scent, it's subtle and what I get is deep gorgeous cocoa, patchouli and incense and it's glorious. It's NOT the oil in question here, though, because even aged it's a light gold ... I'm also thinking maybe Boomslang FWIW.

I'm also putting in my two cents for Fenris Wolf (suggested by the amazing Lucchesa) ... I confess that although I am not masculine I wear it as well because it's just one of the most perfect smells ever ... and for some reason when I saw "Blair Underwood on L.A. Law" I could just imagine him smelling like this ... sexy but subtle, someone who'd never break a sweat but if he did it would smell divine and cool. That's Fenris Wolf to me ...

I wasn't sure what I remembered of cardamom but thought/hoped dark chocolate and black pepper would be enough to make this a win for me. Instead, if I had not been smart enough to apply my last two remaining untried imps from the Yule load before my morning shower, this actually would have been a washoff on its own. Got ZERO chocolate or pepper, only a strong powdery/plasticky scent that is really pervasive. I know this has come up in occasional other BPALs of yore (it's me, not you ... whatever my body chemistry is does not like this note AT ALL) but I guess I didn't associate it as cardamom. My right arm smells kind of like one of those overloaded sachet, lotion and candle shelves in a knock-off big box store like TJ Maxx or Marshalls where they just throw everything together and it's way too sweet and fakey (I love those stores for stuff like oversized jewelry boxes where I can stash imps and bottles etc. but not for anything scented). The Gingerbread and More Ginger is also surprisingly a no go ... MUCH more gingerBREAD cakey-face than ginger as I'd hoped (using SHUUUUUB, my favorite scent, as a ginger scale). It's not bad to smell ... I mean, it smells like gingerbread, I guess ... but it's not something I'd wear. I only ordered a few scents from the release and had two HUGE wins (Gelt and Red and Black Candy Canes), a keeper in Twelfth Lash, and other losses I expected not to work but wanted to try and it's win-win since I get to put these puppies in a box of awesome I'll be putting up for sale (with lots of BPAL and other OCYL goodies) after I get my Travels With Lilith haul, so my "doesn't work with my stupid body" is someone else's "Yes! I LOVE this!"

I thought for some reason I had reviewed this and am embarrassed to have been SO remiss, since this has shot to the top 5 of my all-time favorite BPAL scents because ... COLA!!!! It is just cola cola cola to my nose, not cream soda but full-on colacolacolaCOLACOLACOLA. Have I mentioned that COLA is pretty much my favorite note, possibly made more so because it's just not that common! (Offhand, the only other product I can think of from an OCYL that is similarly scented is last year's Santa's Christmas bath gel from Lush and this year's Santa bath bomb which is the same scent ... may I say how GORGEOUSLY this goes with that?) I bought two bottles of Absurd Origin Story so that I could use one as perfume and one to scent body products and combined a travel bottle of Aveeno unscented lotion with a few drops of this and it is so divine it makes me want to cry!

In the bottle, I definitely got Snake Oil with a little effervescence of soda. Applied to my wrist and in the crook of my arm, I actually got straight-ahead Snake Oil for the first few minutes (nothing wrong with that since my collection is pretty light on Snake Oil). On drydown, it disappeared pretty quickly off of my wrist with just the teeny-tiniest bit of a can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it spice (maybe cinnamon?) BUT in the crook of my arm it's Snake Oil blended with a deeper, darker, drier velvety scent. Definitely a keeper ... especially knowing that Snake Oil ages so gorgeously!

IN THE IMP: The sniff test of the imp is surprisingly faint. I get a slight waxy creaminess but no specific notes. WET: There is something I can't immediately put my finger on that just is not working with my body chemistry ... pretty sure it's the white roses. I am not really sure what Florida Water is supposed to smell like so I don't know if that's it. It is, unusually for me, giving a lot more throw from my wrist than the crook of my arm, though the crook scent is a little nicer and less sharp. DRYDOWN: VERY rose-forward. I'm getting almost ZERO frankincense or sandalwood to offset it or calm it down (a shame, because the frankincense and sandalwood notes were what I was looking forward to.) The rose and then the vanilla are really amping. RESULT: Sadly, this just did not work for me at all. I smelled like the candle aisle at a Michael's craft store and while I love Michael's, I don't want to smell like one. I think for anyone who plays nicely with roses this would be great. I'm just not that person.

IN THE IMP: Patchouli is the predominant note but with a sugary sweetness. WET: Patchouli is the obvious first throw but it’s a “sweet patchouli.” It smells very clean, for lack of a better word, but not soapy … just a shiny bright golden clean scent. It makes me feel oddly happy and strong and calm. DRY: Sweet but not syrupy. Dry and golden. RESULT: This reminds me a lot of how I remember Ahathoor … a truly golden scent that could easily be a TAL in how it appeals to my core and my feelings when I sniff my wrist/crook of my arm. The throw is perfect … it’s THERE but not overpowering (I stealth test drove it by joining hubby for a cup of morning coffee and sat right across from him and he didn’t say anything about my perfume!). This is something I will absolutely keep on hand to dab lightly when I need confidence, calm and a settled heart.

IN THE IMP: VERY bubble-gummy without even a hint of Snake Oil to my nose. WET: Super-duper bubblegummy sweet, but when you sniff close up (for me, a dab on my wrist and a dab in the crook of my arm), the Snake Oil is very noticeable and actually overpowers the bubblegum. DRY: The drydown is almost completely Snake Oil with a residue of the sweetness and fruitiness of the bubblegum. RESULT: I really do NOT like bubblegum as a note and would not have ordered this had I not bought a full set of decants. That said, I liked this MUCH more than I would have thought and it was not a washoff. It really reminded me of why I love Snake Oil in combination with notes I DO like. In the end, I will not keep this because I try to keep my overwhelming number of decants strictly to scents I know I could grab blindly and be happy wearing them … that said, this makes me interested in looking for imps of Snake Oil blends that I have not tried but for which I know I like the other note.

I would love to chime in first on how much I adore this scent's name and story ... like some others here, I really relate to it ... when we were setting up our little one's nursery, we chose not to find out the gender and the decor was "neutral" but very close to my own taste ... light blue and white stars and moons. I bought some soft flannel in a few similar prints and made pillows. One was a light blue with a lavender skew with tiny white stars and moons. That became her "lovie" ... she called it "DiDi" (pronounced with the long I -- and I don't know WHY she called it that but she did -- ironically, she called her diaper "boppy") and she could not/would not sleep without it. On one of hubby and my first "getaway nights" when she was about 3, a good friend/parent of her best friend took her for the night and we went to a fancy restaurant/hotel for the night ... when we checked into the hotel, the front desk told us we had an urgent message. They read to us: "Where is dee-dee?" We looked blank for a moment and then simultaneously realized what it meant and that each of us thought the other one had packed DiDi. Fortunately, she dealt with it but it became anecdotal. Obviously, it had some serious wear and tear but I managed to keep finding bolts of the material periodically and would buy up all I could ... even a bolt on eBay ... until I couldn't find it anymore ... I warned her she might want to give it a little less love to make it last LOL. Long story short: She is 28 years old, getting married next fall, and she STILL has DiDi on her bed. She no longer travels with it LOL but it is still there (her fiance is understanding and awesome). And I still search eBay every so often and make random stops at big-old fabric stores in my travels to see if I can find DiDi material. IN THE IMP: Full-on lavender. WET: Mostly lavender upon application with a little bit of rose but no discernable musk. Very lovely. DRYDOWN: As it dries, the rose rises very quickly and the lavender is almost gone. On full drydown, I get an herbal rose with a little bit of a musky kick and no lavender. RESULT: I think this would make an amazing bath product, bath oil or bubble bath. I don’t think I’d wear it as a perfume mainly because I go for a different perfume vibe (more spicy/foody), but I love the scent itself and think this will be a very popular scent … it’s complex yet simple and beautiful and, yes, comforting.

IN THE IMP: It takes me a few sniffs to figure out what I think I’m sniffing. Mellow lavender and then a pleasant vague mélange that I can’t quite place. WET: Oddly very sharp on immediate application. It’s not quite soapy (something that lily tends to go on me) but more like … maybe an organic cleanser? DRY: As it dries down the floral notes rise and mellow it out a lot. I don’t get any lavender, just the lily (meh) and the ylang ylang (yay!). It’s actually very, very lovely. RESULT: If this were made as a bath product (bubble bath, bath oil, etc.) I would buy it in a heartbeat but as a perfume oil on me, it’s just not a keeper.

IN THE IMP: Wow!!! The gorgeous clove is the prevalent note but it’s not “in your face.” It blends beautifully with the frankincense as a smooth, strong, glorious mix. WET: The clove amps so much the second it hits my skin that I don’t even need to move for it to float right to my nose, but the harmony of the frankincense is right behind it. Not getting any perceptible ginger. It has a very clean air to it, ever-so-slightly soapy but a soap I would definitely buy in a heartbeat. DRY: Spicy clean soap. A very delicious scent. RESULT: Unlike Z_Z found, this scent, on me at least, has an absolutely boatload of throw – as much throw as any scent I’ve tried – and it lasts forever. I would recommend to use VERY sparingly as a little goes a long way … a really GOOD way but a long way!