requieminblack

First sniff from the bottle- Smells just like a cranberry scented candle. After 10 minutes- I am still getting the cranberry candle smell, but now it is spicier. There is a hint of something floral in there too. Is that the lily? After 30 minutes- Wow, this really morphed. the cranberry is totally gone. Now I am getting a lovely aquatic lilies with a hint of ginger. As it fades it turns into a vanilla/cream scent. Summery I think I will keep this one. It is really unusual!

First sniff from the bottle- Spiced patchouli. After 10 minutes- I really like this one. I am not a fan of patchouli but the mix of it with the dragons blood and spices is really nice. This would be really sexy on a guy. After 30 minutes- On dry down this sort of smells like the incense shop at RenFaire. Summery- I like anything with dragons blood in it. This one is a keeper!

First sniff from the bottle- Soft breezy violets. After 10 minutes- When I first put this on it sort of smelled like Dragons Milk, which is one of my favorites. Then after a few minutes, it just...disappeared completely! Summery-Huh, that's weird. That is the first time my skin has actually ate a scent all together. Well, poo. I really was looking forward to this one. Maybe I will try it again tomorrow and see what happens.

First sniff from the bottle- Woh Mama, this stuff is on fire! After 10 minutes- At first I smelled red hots and almonds, but after a few minutes the almond smell went away. Now it is just red hots..and boy is this stuff HOT! I usually don't react to cinnamon but this one had my skin burning. After 30 minutes- Burning hot cinnamon. ...it smells kind of like those cinnamon scented pine cones they sell at Christmas time. Summery- I lovelovelove Inferno! (No surprise since cinnamon is my favorite note) I can't wear this on my skin but I still want a big bottle.

First sniff from the bottle- Spicy flowers After 10 minutes- Rose, rose, rose and rose....with cinnamon sprinkles. After 30 minutes- This one is very pretty but it is giving me a headache. I love cinnamon, but rose and I do not get along. Summery- Off to swaps!

First sniff from the bottle- Grape bubblegum After 10 minutes- Oh wow, this is nice! Not what I was expecting at all! The dominant note here is the merlot, which smells like grapes to me. I can detect just a hint of leather and the rose. Luckily the merlot is keeping the rose from taking over. After 30 minutes- Warm leatherette! Wanda smells a lot like Old Madrid to me, but it is Madrid wearing platform leather thigh high boots! The leather has come out more and it is really nice! It is a much more feminine leather with the rose mixed in. Rose and I usually do not get along, but I think I may be able to wear this! Summery-Wanda is teh sex.

First sniff from the bottle- Musty flowers? After 10 minutes- Oh wow, this is morphing like crazy! I smell cedar, but there is something else in there making it really musty. It must be the Nepalese spices I am getting. It smells a bit like Indian food to me. And smoke. After 30 minutes- I am starting to detect a hint of eucalyptus. It is starting to smell really medicinal. Summery-I can't get past the Indian food phase with this one. I am sure many people will like it, it is very exotic...but it is not my cup of tea.

Our signature oil. A dark, languid scent. Promotes hedonistic tendencies and extreme self-love. You won't stop kissing mirrors for a month. First sniff from the bottle- Bitter Almonds (cyanide? ) After 10 minutes- This smells a lot like cherry pipe tobacco with almonds mixed in. There is something else in there too...maybe vetiver and violet? After 30 minutes- The dry down on this is similar to Ouija, like antique wood and Victorian soap. I actually like this dry better than wet, but I still prefer Ouija. Summery- This is great if you are a big cherry almond fan which I am not. Off to swaps it goes.

First sniff from the bottle- Is there amber in this? After 10 minutes- I really love ylang-ylang but I don't smell it in this at all. Once it hit my skin all I can detect is amber and myrrh. It is very faint on me...I can hardly smell anything after the first 10 minutes. After 30 minutes- Play doh city. Summey- This one did not mix well with my skin chemistry. Off to swaps it goes.

First sniff from the bottle- Freshly crushed cinnamon sticks After 10 minutes- Dear God this is wonderful. The crushed cinnamon stick smell is dominate yet you can definitely smell the clove and white pepper coming through. After 30 minutes- I really love the kick the white pepper gives this! It makes this smell more like Chinese Five spice as opposed to 'Red Hots' like most cinnamon scents do. Yummy! Summery- I just happened to get an imp of this to try from a swap, but I already have a 5ml on order. I am so glad I took the plunge and ordered this unsniffed! I think this will be one of my signature scents!

When I first got this one I took a sniff from the imp and thought it smelled like dirty socks. Knowing it was just my nose being weird, I put it a side to review it another day. Today I picked it up and decided to give it another go. First sniff from the bottle- Ok, this time it smells totally different. First whiff from the imp smelled of musky wine. After 10 minutes- The wine has sweetened (or is that lotus I smell?) and the spices are coming out to play. Ooh, now I smell chocolate! Ok, we're getting chocolate/lotus/wine/spice. This smells similar to black lotus come to think of it. After 30 minutes- The lotus has become dominate and all I smell now is bubblegum/rose. Well, damn. I was hoping the chocolate and spices in this would have been more detectable. I guess my skin loves lotus because it soaks it up like no tomorrow and overpowers everything else. Summery- My skin chemistry does not work with Kali.

First sniff from the bottle- Woh! Smells like clean wet laundry! After 10 minutes- This is very clean and lemony smelling. It's a soft scent, not over powering at all. All I can think of when I smell this is 'Snuggle' fabric softener. After 30 minutes- It has almost faded completely. I can detect a faint whiff of something soft and clean (ozone?), but that is all. Summery- Neo-Tokyo is a great scent if you want to smell shower fresh clean. Not my cup of tea, so off to swaps it goes.

"Heavy incense notes waft lazily through a mix of carnation, jasmine, bergamot, and neroli over a lush bed of dark mosses, iris blossom, deep patchouli and indolent vetiver" First sniff from the bottle- Wow, this smells great! After 10 minutes- I am glad I gave this a try. Based on the description, this is something I would have avoided like the plague. What I smell is something like the inside of a cedar chest that has been filled with nag champa and dried flowers. There is a hint of peppery spice in the background. Some have described this as smelling like a hippy shop but it smells more like a Buddhist temple to me. After 30 minutes- I can't get over how wonderfully blended this is! I don't smell jasmine, patchouli or vetiver at all, which is a pleasant surprise. The 'incense' scent and the carnation are dominate. Summery-This should be a lesson to me to never judge a scent by the description alone. The Caterpillar is fantastic!

Sea spray with an undercurrent of leather, Bay Rum, and salty, dry woods. First sniff from the bottle Smells of leather. After 10 minutes- This is very masculine. I am getting leather, lime, the smell of the Ocean (how does Beth do it?) and....pickles maybe? After 30 minutes- The leather smell is still going strong. I didn't detect any rum or wood in this as was listed in the description. As this dries down it smells soapy and clean. (Is that the bay rum?) Summery- Jolly Rodger is a fantastic leather blend. It did not work for me but would be great on a boy.

Seeing that 'Pumpkin Pie' is my all time favorite scent, just reading the description of Jack made me place my very first order from the lab. That was almost a month ago. I have been on the edge of my seat waiting for my click and ship! Now, out of the kindness of a fellow forum members heart, I now have an imp of Jack to try! First sniff from the bottle- Very buttery. After 10 minutes- This is a lot more buttery than I was expecting! It does smell just like pumpkin pie...or a spicy peach cobbler, with butter slathered all over it and in it. The spices are perfect. Cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Yummy! After 30 minutes- Ok, now I am smelling the peach. A lot. The peach has taken over. Hmmm, where did the pumpkin pie go? I mean the blend is itself is fantastic but now it smells like peach cobbler instead of pumpkin pie like I was hoping. Summery- I adore Jack. While it is not the pumpkin pie scent I was hoping for, it is fabulous anyway. I love food scents and this one is no exception. This is my second favorite BPAL scent!

First sniff from the bottle- A light floral aquatic. Mimosa maybe? After 10 minutes- All florals either smell like rose or jasmine on me. This one is no exception. Now that my skin has soaked it in it is a screaming strong jasmine scent that burns my nose and makes me sneeze. After 30 minutes- Soap city. Summery- Florals and I do not get along. This is going in the swap pile.

Hmmm...Everyone has described this as spicy vanilla which I love, so I got excited about giving it a whirl. First sniff from the bottle - This smells like the perfume department at Macys. I think it just blasted a hole through my brain. After 10 minutes -On me it turned to what I can best describe as 'stripper' perfume...cheap and slutty. After 30 minutes- I didn't actually give this 30 minutes, I had to scrub it off. Sorry guys, my body chemistry just didn't like this one.

First sniff from the bottle- Very rosey. After 10 minutes- I was really expecting this to smell like patchouli, but it comes off as very green and rosey on me. It smells more like a flower garden than 'dead dirt' as others described it. After 30 minutes- Zombi smells like a rose garden. I smell rose and the sharp scent of green you get when you cut a flower from the stalk. I also detect the smell of fresh wet soil. Like a freshly watered lawn. Summery- This is a nice organic scent but as usual, I just can't wear florals. This is way too rosey for my taste.

Affectionately nicknamed 'The Devil's Bake Sale'. First sniff from the bottle- Baking sugar cookies! After 10 minutes- Woh this is buttery! It almost smells like movie theater popcorn! Yes...that is exactly what it smells like, but buttered popcorn with sugar on top. Caramel corn maybe? This is making me hungry! After 30 minutes- This sort of has a burnt smell to it. Like a sugar cookie with blackened edges. Summery- This is way to rich and buttery on it's own, but I think it will be perfect layered over some sugar skull or maybe Samhain.

Thanks to Astrid, I have an imp of this to try, yea! First sniff from the bottle -MMmm, brown sugar! After 10 minutes- This is the true sent of sugar. Sweet, but not too heavy. I smell white sugar and brown sugar. It almost has an ozone element to it...like sugar on air. After 30 minutes- Now I am detecting a light fruity note to this. Is it star fruit maybe? Mango? Like a sweet Mexican yellow fruit dribbled over sugar. Summery- Sugar Skull is a pleasant, refreshing surprise. Sweet without being sickly sweet, soft, light and airy.

First sniff from the bottle- Almond oil! After 10 minutes- I must really like dark musk and myrrh because this smells gorgeous! The first sniff was all almond, but now it is something dark and sexy. It's almost animalistic yet incensey at the same time. This is what I was hoping Haunted would smell like.... spooky...mysterious...sexy. Hecate was named correctly. It smells witchy. After 30 minutes- Hecate is damn sexy. Wow. This is what all dark haired Goth girls should smell like...smoky, sultry and mysterious. Yum. Summery-

I have anxiously been trying to get a hold of Samhain ever since I discovered BPAL. From everyone’s reviews here this one sounds like perfection in a bottle to me. The lovely Ms Astrid was kind enough to swap me a bottle, which I just received today. Squee! First sniff from the bottle- Woh, patchouli! After 10 minutes- The patchouli has settled down now thank goodness because patchouli and I do not get along. Now I am getting the autumn woody smell...damp woods, fir trees, rotting leaves. Nice, but not what I was expecting! Where is the pumpkin spice? After 30 minutes- Ok, the spiced apple and pumpkin has come out to play now. Yea! The damp earth scent is dominate though. I am surprised that some people described this as 'buttery spice sweet’. I don't get that at all. To me this is a walk in the woods on a crisp autumn day with the scent of baking apple pies and jack o' lanterns in the air. Summery-Samhain smells like...Samhain! Not what I was expecting but I love it anyway!

First sniff from the bottle- Spicy Red Hots! After 10 minutes- MMmmmm spicy! Cinnamon and dragons blood...with juniper and wine. Wow. This is very similar to Old Madrid but more spicy. The cinnamon in this is dominate and burning hot...like red hots candy or Goldschlager. After 30 minutes- This is the darkest cinnamon BPAL scent yet. It almost has a smoky bonfire feel to it. The leather is coming through too...amazing! Summery- While I am the of spicy scents I think this one is too masculine for me to wear. I love it though...it would be an amazing scent for my car!

First sniff from the bottle- Yep, that's tulips all right. After 10 minutes- This is spring time in a bottle. I smell Tulips, Lily of the Valley, fresh green grass and water. It does smell a lot like the flower District in Amsterdam. After 30 minutes- Now that my body chemistry has taken hold of this it has turned to Irish Springs soap. I really liked this one wet. My body just won't tolerate florals on me. Summery- In the swap pile it goes.

First sniff from the bottle-Amaretto! After 10 minutes-All I smell is Amaretto. Like someone poured a glassful on me! The ingredients are listed as cherry, star anise and red musk but I can't smell anything but BOOZE. After 30 minutes- Now that the overpowering boozy smell has faded I can detect the licorice scent of the star anise. It is a light licorice sent, more like tea than the candy. I can also detect a faint powdery scent that must be the red musk. Summery-This one is for the swap pile. I like Amaretto, but I don't want to smell like I have been drinking it all day.