hlinspjalda

In the vial: Sharp, dark, resinous, woody. I could spend a lot of time breathing this scent. Wet: Woody; the resinous note seems more herbal now. There's also something sweet and rooty that reminds me a bit of Hellhound, although it's more anise-like, maybe licorice or sassafras? Half an hour: Sweet woody rooty, a little like Tombstone. Hour and a half: More sweet, less rooty, but still with that aromatic tree-sap impression. I like it, but it's fallen off in intensity too. Three and a half hours: Wow, I don't know what's in this one but I like it a lot right now. It's got a lot of the qualities I associate with patchouli -- which isn't a voodoo herb, to the best of my knowledge. But it's warm, comforting, just a little aromatic. If it had more throw, I'd be happier with it, but it's definitely a keeper.

In the vial: Very spicy with a touch of fruit. Wet: Woody and cinnamon, warm, homey, very pleasant. One hour: Gentle fruit and spice. I quite like this one and am seriously considering a bottle already. Two hours: Peach! It's peach and a bit of spice. I am definitely getting a bottle of this! Three and a half hours: Yup, still peach. This reminds me a lot of what Imp (one of my favorites) would be like if he got up out of the peach/patchouli bathtub and dried himself off: it's dry and well behaved but hits a lot of the same notes. Maybe there's patchouli in this. Five hours: Still very civilized dry peach with patchouli overtones. This layers beautifully with L'Estate bath oil.

In the vial: This one's hard to make out. I get something like an aquatic, but that's just a top note for something much richer. There's a strong spice impression, too, maybe it's a spicy sort of amber or resin? And there's something like a baked good, that usually means tonka to my nose. Wet: Well, I don't know how to describe it beyond what I just noted, but I do know that I like it. My nostrils are inadvertently flaring to suck in more of this scent. The aquatic impresison seems to be intensifying; it's a salty note. Half an hour: Still that baked goods note, with spicy resinous overtones. The salty aquatic impression is fainter but still there. Osiris is more friendly and cuddly than his brother Set, in fact, almost disarmingly so. Hour and a half: Still warm, sweet, spicy, rich, but soft and cudldy at the same time. Two and a half hours: As before, only softer. There's a note that's almost like fennel or anise straining to assert itself; I wonder what that is? Four hours: And yet softer, but still recognizable. I like this one quite a lot, but it doesn't work well enough on me to be a love.

In the vial: An animalic impression, like some crittery musk, suddenly pierced by cloves. Wet: Continued impression of that animalic musk. It reminds me of the impression I got off Whitechapel, a very feral small creature's musk. Also the clove impression is sustained; it reminds me of clove cigarettes or clove chewing gum. Half an hour: Nope, this is definitely the musk note that makes me uneasy. The clove note is great, still gum- or cigarette-like, but it can't hide the musk. Hour and a half: This scent has a lot of staying power and very little morph. It's got fair throw, too. Unfortunately that particular musk note is really hitting me in an uncomfortable spot, the same way Whitechapel did, even with that lovely clove note to compensate. I will be re-homing this one. Two and a half hours: Not much change. Four hours: Not much change. Wow, this is lasting very well on me.

In the bottle: Musk, balsam, vanilla, clove. This smells great to me. Wet: Spicy resin, vanilla, and something as sweet as fruit. Agreeably deep and complex; I expect to like this one a lot. Half an hour: Clove first, over a bed of resin. There's a sweetish note, still smells almost fruity. I can't shake the Hellion, Snake Charmer, Witch Queen, Giallo comparisons, but it's different from them. I was afraid there'd be too much red musk to overbalance everything else, but it's being very nice and restrained. This is really great! Two hours: There's a very smooth base under this, from which project the balsam and clove. It's sweet on top, but I couldn't tell you why. I like this so very much, I may need another bottle! Three hours: The clove has toned down some, leaving room for the resins to shine. It smells a bit lighter than before, and more complex. Still utterly luscious. Four hours: This one is just astonishingly well blended. It's so hard to make out individual notes, I'm going to give up trying and just stretch out and bask in it. This one smells gorgeous, rich like velvet and wealth and beauty and luxury.

In the bottle: Carnation, only a touch stronger than a mild sweet background of roses and amber. Very tasteful. Wet: Oh, lovely! Delicate carnation-amber with soft vanilla overtones. I hope it doesn't change a bit, even though I am already resigned to the idea that it will. Half an hour: This is a very beautiful, restrained, tasteful, yet wistful scent. I can't believe I'm this drawn to something this well behaved! It's hard for me to pick out any individual notes at all in this blend, but it gives me a visual impression of lavender, cream, vanilla, and rose. Two hours: The musk and vanilla are starting to work together. There's still a delicious light sweet floral aura to this, with just a bit of a tang, and it's more grounded now. I like it quite a lot. Three hour: Still very nice. Four hours: I cannot tease out what this one smells like, but it reminds me of something from my past, a memory of someplace outdoors. It's a wistful memory, whatever it is, and I'm afraid to identify it, but I keep sniffing at it nonetheless. Beautiful.

In the vial: Fruity, with a heady floral edge. Wet: Yummy musk and pomegranate right away, in what I think of as a signature BPAL combination. The orange blossom I fear so much hasn't come to drive a pointy stick through my brain yet, so that's good. One hour: Arm-chewing musk with fruit. Normally the orange blossom should have ruined this for me by now, but it hasn't. It's very nice, but not as complex as some of the other musk-pomegranante blends. I think this is going to be a near-miss on me. Three hours: The red musk is really dominating this one, and there's an almost gritty edge to it. That might be the sharpness of orange blossom, I'm not sure. The fruit is sweet, the musk thick and chewy. I like it very much, but it is a bit overwhelming for a warm humid day. Five hours: More or less unchanged. Persistent, still with a lot of throw. Semiramis was my favorite of the Warrior Queens bath oils, but her perfume doesn't like me as much. I will re-home this decant.

In the bottle: Floral, Asian. After a couple of sniffs I begin to get the lilac, after a few more I notice the mandarin. But mostly I get the fruit blossoms. Wet: Soft and smooth, probably the orchid. Flowery, but not piercing nor overwhelming. I don't expect this to work on me (it's got red sandalwood, a death note), but it's lovely so far. Half an hour: Gentle floral, but there is a note beneath it that is almost disturbing to me. It reads a bit like white musk, but I think it is probably the orchid. I expected this to sour, which it hasn't, but I'm still not convinced it's going to work on me. One hour: That off note is gone now, and it's working with my skin. It's mostly light plum blossom with a touch of fruitiness. I'm not getting the lilac at all, which surprises me, but neither am I getting soured red sandalwood. So much the better! Two hours: This is working out much better on me than I ever expected. I'm getting a bit of the lilac now, too. No woodiness evident at all, very little fruity impression either; it's all gentle florals with the slightly plummy cast. I'd already thought about trading this away, but I think I'm going to reconsider! Three hours: Starting to get a little woody now, the florals have gone kind of indistinct. Still not sour, though. Four hours: Gentle plum blossom, very lightly there. I am really on the fence about this one; I think I'll give it to my daughter to test before making a decision. But I definitely didn't expect it to work on me as well as it did.

In the bottle it's fruity-floral, very Asian smelling. On my skin the floral amps immediately and sharply, then calms down. Afterward my skin is very gently sweet and fruity smelling, not strongly enough to identify the fruit. There's also a touch of floral, again, very light and unidentifiable. It's almost grassy, though, and so I wonder: what does rice flower smell like again?

In the vial: There's a fruit in this that is very pleasant, but very elusive. Also a spice note, but not sharp. This smells quite nice. Wet: Warm and sweet, but with an underlying sharpness. This needs to develop. One hour: Now there's something more like a baked good note. The fruity impression isn't as strong as before, but there's a residual sweetness. It kind of reminds me of Haloa. Two hours: Now I'm getting a resin of some sort, or maybe it's a musk. It's deep, warm, not sweet, not sharp. Three and a half hours: Oooh, sort of a musky amber. I love this phase, it's quite subtle on me, with not a lot of throw, but an exceptionally pleasant impression down next to my skin. Five hours: It's gone a bit woody-soapy on me now. What an interesting scent this has turned out to be!

In the bottle: Floral, aquatic, and peach. Wet: More aquatic than before, and the peach note I was looking for is holding, but it's definitely a harmonic rather than a main element. One hour: This smells so familiar, like something else from the Lab. But what? The peach is nice, but not sweet, definitely not the "white peach" note I work so well with. It's not the note from Imp or Hetairae either. And the floral note seems to be in my headache zone, ever so slightly: maybe osmanthus or moonflower? Reviewers have called it gardenia, but it doesn't smell a lot like gardenias to me. Gardenias usually work great on me, but this one doesn't. It behaves more like jasmine on me -- not the night-blooming jasmine that is wonderful on me, but regular daytime jasmine that often goes over to headache. Two and a half hours: Very soft now, light floral and peach. The aquatic burned away as it so often does on me. I will be trying this one again to see if I can figure out which other blend(s) it's like. Three and a half hours: Mostly gone now. Hmm, how did that happen? I may have to re-home this one. Six hours: Yup, long since gone. I liked the middle and end game of this one, but it was short-lived on me.

In the bottle: Woody grassy men's cologne. Very nice. Wet: Sage and leather, grassy with a tang. Leatherier than I expected, but nice. Half an hour: Leather and what smells like vetiver. Dirty, black, outdoorsy, and sexy as hell. I want to chew my arm! One hour: Strong leather and vetiver. (Vetiver? Huh?) The herb/wood notes I bought it for are definitely secondary. There's a sweetness, but the mind-clearing pungency of cedar and sage I was looking for is not there; instead I get something entirely hypnotic. I suppose that's appropriate for a sexy vampire cowboy! Two and a half hours: A lot lighter and mostly leather now, with a bit of herbal. I liked and enjoyed this very much, but it's not so amazing on me that I should keep it from someone who really desires it. I'll re-home it.

In the vial it was all vanilla cake, so much so that I was afraid my decant was mislabeled. But the minute it hit my skin there was an explosion of musk and very intense patchouli. Ahhh, now that's the Mme Moriarty-like scent I was hoping for! On my skin it left patchouli and fruit over musk, just as I had hoped; the vanilla was completely swept away. I could see using this all winter, alternating with Semiramis. The patchouli is particularly delicious, although rather heavy and a bit on the menthol side. I think this blend a little heavy for sultry hot summer nights, but definitely in order for cold nights. ETA: Overnight the scent grew fruitier and much smokier on my skin, winding up somewhere in Snake Charmer territory. It is very persistent on my skin and felt almost as though it was radiating off me. This one's quite amazing.

Here are the rares, etc., I have available for swapping. THIS IS STILL IN DRAFT. Bottles: Ares v3 Eidolon (Clearing Out the Cobwebs label) Hony Mone Discontinued imps: Tarots: The Fool, The High Priestess Despair Mantis Rage Shadow Yerevan LE imps: The Agony of Heartache The Agony of Longing Bat of Health Bat of Virtue The Ecstasy of Passion King of Clubs Midway (resurrected? not sure) Monsterbait: Closet Old Roswell Cemetery Queen of Clubs Decant Sets: Bards of Ireland/Ides of March 2009 -- complete set of five imps, pristine, as decanted Wind in the Willows -- complete set of ten imps, pristine, as decanted; includes Toad Hall, the Bats Day exclusive Unity Roses -- pair of imps, pristine, as decanted Le Mat (BPTP) -- complete set of three imps,tested cleanly twice Testable Sniffies: The Ecstasy of Infatuation

Mostly calamus in the bottle, a bit on the woody side. On my skin I could smell the balsam struggling to come out, but it just wasn't working. Ordinarily something with this many resins should be singing on my skin, but instead I was getting mostly orris with its dusty, rooty violet-like scent. Half an hour later, under air conditioning, the scent developed into a nice restrained frankincense/balsam one. It appears not to like heat or humidity on my skin. But once the scent developed, it lingered for hours.

I was frimped a half-ounce of this. In the bottle it smells good enough to eat! But I was afraid the cherry would dominate everything else and turn me into a cough drop; I don't have a lot of luck with cherry notes. On my skin it blossomed into the most gorgeous sexy dark fruity scent -- instant love! The musk behaved quietly but worked with the myrrh to lay down a sexy background for the fruit. The pomegranate wrestled the cherry to a partnership, so I smelled neither too sweet nor too tart. I sought out a full bottle of this; it's my favorite of the Warrior Queens bath oils, no contest.

It smells sweet and fruity in the vial, with vanilla overtones. But on my skin all those splendid notes that love me somehow just don't work together well at all. I smell faintly woody and a bit smoky, with maybe just a breath of vanilla. It's really very disconcerting! But my hands, where I was applying it, smell more amber/vanilla. Maybe I just need to use a lot more of it. I liked the way my palms smelled, but it was a little too soft-focus and girly for me to want to wear it often. I'm not that big a fan of vanilla as a scent.

In the bottle: Very smoky and bitter-dark. I get some kind of burnt resin, like myrrh only more gritty and flat. Wet: Vetiver at first, then menthol. I think that's one of the patchouli notes I'm getting, the one that always goes to menthol on me. Half an hour: Sweeter now, with something warm like sandalwood or perhaps a light resin under the burnt exterior. Hour and a half: Definitely a warm burnt scent, like wood or resin with a touch of spiciness. It's making me think of The Sportive Sun. Four hours: As it aged the burned note gentled, and something resinous and slightly spicy warmed up. Now it's almost entirely that one warm note, perhaps sandalwood?

In the bottle: Floral but sappy, like garden flowers rather than perfume. Smells a little like one of the Conjure Bag florals. Wet: Yup, definitely like a Conjure Bag floral, sweet, heady. Wonder if it's lilac? I've noticed I tend to get lilac where other people say "dragon's blood." That's probably because the scent "Dragon's Blood" in Ars Draconis smells strongly of lilac. But I haven't noticed the scent of lilac in other things where dragon's blood is listed as an ingredient. Puzzling. And this oil isn't bright red like the ones with dragon's blood: it's more the color of iced tea. Half an hour: Now that's strange, it's gone kind of candyish. I suppose that's a red fruit. It might be pomegranate, as it reminds me a bit of Candy Phoenix. There's still an impression of lilac, too, but it's greatly diminished. Hour and a half: The lilac impression is gone, although it's still floral. Yup, definitely related to what Candy Phoenix did on my skin, but with floral. I wonder if that's the floral pear note I'm getting? Four hours: This faded quicker than I expected it to. But it had a lovely beginning and an intriguing middle game. Editing to clarify: there's an intense red scent that I haven't been able to place for years, but today I figured it out. It's not rose, it's rose geranium!

In the bottle: Very dark, smoky, black. I get charcoal, maybe vetiver, maybe myrrh. Reminds me of Djinn, Priala, and Rumplestilzchen. Wet: Patchouli and vetiver, with a wood. Very dark, a little sourish. Wonder if that's oakmoss instead of wood? Half an hour: Definitely a wood with vetiver. It smells oaky, a little bit like Oak King minus the intensely menthol aspects. There's a touch of myrrh smoke (not the resin, the scent of the smoke itself) and still that impression of charcoal. Hour and a half: Still that resinous wood quality to it, with charcoal and smoke. It smells black but not at all unpleasantly so. If that was vetiver, it's gone all sweet and tractable on me the way it sometimes does. Four hours: Sourish wood, with the remnant of something that's either patchouli or myrrh, I can't make out which.

In the bottle: Invigorating, clean. Smells like lemon (or bergamot?), tea, and maybe white roses to me. Wet: More herbal-floral right away; the lemon turns into oil rather than juice. It's a bit sweet, and very head-clearing. Half an hour: It went through a sweet lemon-drops phase, but now it is quite gently herbal and lemonish. There is some other white scent in there I can't tease out, perhaps a floral but I can't tell for sure. And there's something that reads almost like patchouli, but it's so pure and clean I hesitate to name it patchouli. Hour and a half: Now it seems almost like a light musk, very soft. Could be orchid, I suppose. There's still the suggestion of lemon over it, and something herbal that I thought before might be patchouli. Now I think that can't be right. This is gentle, though, and bright-soft. Four hours: All gone. Like albedo itself, this is a fleeting state.

In the vial: Oh, yum! Patchouli spice resin! Wet: Oooh, fabulous patchouli spice! I'm getting sweet resin, too, maybe the balsam. I hope I didn't let the orris scare me away from this one, because if it works I think I'm going to really love it and I only have a decant. Twenty minutes: Fabulous spicy resin, mostly cloves and frankincense on a bed of patchouli. Oh, dear. I think I'm going to love this! One hour: Yup, falling in love. Clove and resin are the dominant notes, with a side of patchouli. Not getting any orris at all, thank heaven, and the saffron is manageable too. Since those are the two notes that worried me, this is definitely a win, but now I'm unhappy that I didn't get a whole bottle. Two hours: It's calmed down some now, and the resins have outpaced the clove. Very sweet frankincense and balsam notes, deliciously warm and just a touch spicy. Not a lot of throw, which is fine because I have plenty of other resin scents with more throw. This one is cosy, intimate, special. Three and a half hours: Dying down a bit now, it's balsam first with frankincense second. The spiciness is mostly gone too.

In the vial: Tea, bergamot, and jasmine, a very fresh and appealing scent. Wet: Bergamot and jasmine, with tea and something else I can't quite fathom. Very aromatic, faintly exotic. I like it, although it's heavier than I expected. Twenty minutes: It's gone very floral now, with the ginger and jasmine combining for a slightly sharp Asian feel. The brightness of tea and bergamot is very diminished now. There's an edge of something that might be leather. One hour: Light leather with even lighter jasmine. I don't think this one is going to do it for me, despite it containing many notes that work on me. Two hours: Very light leather with a touch of jasmine and bergamot. No, this was not meant to be. Three and a half hours: Incredibly light leather, jasmine, and bergamot. It's a very pleasant blend, but not me.

In the vial: Fruity with an herbal bite. Wet: Fruity and honey, with a touch of something almost tannic. It's got more depth than I expected, too. Twenty minutes: Sweet! Honey with a tannic bite, perhaps from the berries. This reads a lot like the Tomoe Gozen bath oil on my skin, so I'm guessing it's the same honey note. But the amber gives it more depth. One hour: Honey and amber with a tang. Definitely the same honey note as the bath oil, or, at least, it smells exactly the same. But of the two I think I prefer the bath oil although this is quite nice. Two hours: This is a very lovely, sweet, warm, fruity honey-amber. But somehow I'm finding it a touch too sweet or something. I think the fruit may be giving it a slightly overripe impression on my skin; I often have trouble with blackberry and even red currant doesn't always behave on me. Three and a half hours: Warm overripe honeyed fruit. It smells rather like a Middle Eastern dessert with sticky dark honey -- delicious, but so intensely honey!

In the vial: Patchouli, vetiver, amber, and something floral. Wet: Amber, vanilla, leather, and patchouli in that order. Twenty minutes: Lovely warm vanilla patchouli amber. The vetiver is barely noticeable, likewise the leather. I'm not getting neroli either. But this is warm, sweet, and lovely. One hour: Warm and sweet, very vanilla-amber. Looks like I'm going to be dodging that bullet after all. It's very beautiful, but too girly on me. Two hours: Still warm, sweet, gentle vanilla with amber. Three and a half hours: Even more sweet, gentle, and vanilla. But there's finally something oaky coming out in this. It's still too girly for me, but it's a shade more complex now.