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I was in Italy and mistakenly ordered steamed milk instead of hot chocolate with steamed milk. The drink I got was warm, frothy, and very slightly vanilla-flavored. Mitzvah smells exactly like this drink tasted. It's a very subtle, sweet scent - very warm and "frothy" in a way that's very hard to explain. It's really soothing, and it makes me want to curl up and take a nap. I wish I had GALLONS of this, because I can see myself using this up very quickly!

While this scent is very pretty, it's also very not "me". I prefer warm, spicy foody scents, blends with vanilla, and I adore blends with any type of sugary note. However, the lemon, peach, and floral teas turn to soap on my skin! This goes the way of Alice, White Rabbit, and Dorian on me... pleasant in the bottle, and increasingly soapy (with a hint of lemon pledge) as it dries. While I smell like I've recetly taken a shower with some very nice soap, I prefer to smell like I've just finished baking. Sadly, this goes to the swap pile. Someone with different skin chemistry will love this, I'm sure!

I'm not a fan of florals, so I immediately re-sold my bottle of the '04 Dia. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love this version! It's very floral, and almost has a jasmine-y top note like Follow Me Boy. It's slightly more sugary, though, with the barest hint of something woodsy (the dried leaves?). If Follow Me Boy is a light, spring/summer scent, then this is its darker, fall/winter sister. I prefer to wear foody scents, but every now and then I like something different. This will be perfect for the days when I don't feel like smelling like a bakery. I can't pin down what's doing this, but I smell like I've been living in a Lush store for a few years. I have that light, sweet scent that's a combination of all the bath bombs and the soaps and the face masks. My favorite part of going into the Lush store is the smell that hits me when I first open the door. Now I can get hints of this huge collection of scents whenever I want.

I'm hooked on the '04 version. It's like crack. I have three bottles and I love them like my children. I was thrilled that it came out again, and very curious about any differences - I figured I had enough of the original to not be too terrified of change. On my skin, it's definitely very different! It smells much like I expected Trick or Treat to smell... warm caramel and slightly burnt sugar. This smells almost like a marshmallow that caught on fire while warming it to make smores on a campfire... and to me, that's BLISS. I'm a huge "burnt marshmallow" fan, and this makes my mouth water. There's juuuust enough similarity to the original Sugar Skull to keep me happy, and just enough difference to make me reach for it rather than add it to the hoard. I love it. SO glad I got two bottles!

In the bottle: very buttery fall baking in a warm kitchen. On my skin: As it dries, I get a very strange piney note that fades after about 20 mins. It smells nothing like the bottle, but it still smells very foody and very fall-like. My skin brings out the cider, and the mulling spices give it a bit of a "dried flowers and spices" kick. Oddly, this smells exactly like Harvest Moon 2005 minus the florals. Very tangy. I like it.

I'm such a foody that I instantly opted to ignore this blend. I associate "clear, crystal glass notes" with "soap, soapy, soapiness" on my skin and instead ordered three bottles of Midway. However, after reading the reviews of this I HAD to get a 5ml in a swap. I mean, come on... Snake Oil's more ambery sister????!? It is indeed very much like Snake Oil, and I adore it. If Snake Oil is a spiced vanilla, this is a spiced amber with a touch of some kind of resin that I know I have in some other scents... but can't for the life of me name. It's deliciously sweet and incensy... the perfect combo of my two favorite scent categories. I'll wear this when I'm sick of wearing Snake Oil every day, but deep-down want that sweet/spicy goodness. This is probably Snake Charmer, but I don't know for sure so I'm leaving it here. --Shollin

I got an imp in a swap just the other day and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. The clove is the only note I can pick out, and that's probably the most appealing part. It smells slightly boozy, slightly incense-like, and slightly something else that I can't place. I'm really enjoying the sweetness of f54, and it's cut nicely by the musk. Plus, my fiancé's response to my shoving my hand under his nose was "oh my god, that smells great!" However, f54 is just a bit "perfum-y" for me in a way that's hard to pinpoint. I really like foody and/or incensy scents, and this has something in it that doesn't appeal to me. I'll definitely try the imp again to see how I feel later.

My first thoughts on Midway can be summed up into two words: Kick Ass. Oddly, the imp started out as a very sweet apricot. I was very nervous about this because I had very, very, very high hopes for this blend. I'm a total foody-geek when it comes to scents, but I tend to go for the "baked goods" variety over the berries/fruits. Thankfully the apricot turned to apple on my skin, and the cotton candy, funnel cake, and other goodness came out as it dried. I expected a more sugary-sweet scent to Midway, but it's more complex than that. To me, it's a very cotton-candy-ish scent that has a touch more than simply spun sugar. It's very slightly boozy because of the apple, and a teeny bit buttery/salty. It really does smell like the air near the food stalls at a carnival. I'm very, very glad I ordered three bottles of this. It isn't a strong scent, so I'll be slathering like a fiend.

Another morphing blend on me. In the bottle and until it dries a bit, it's all chocolate. Very bliss-like, but not quite as dark... more of a hot cocoa scent than a fresh chocolate cake scent. As it dries, it develops a touch of citrus and a floral that I can't quite place, and eventually it all blends together to form a delicious foody/floral/fruity scent that I can't believe I like. The only down-side is the way my skin eats this scent. After an hour it's almost gone! I'll be using up this bottle in a hurry, because it's too good not to keep slathering every hour on the hour.

This moon is wonderfully strange. Every time I sniff I get a totally different scent! My first sniff is all ginger, then the next is a near match for my bottle of SN honey, then the next goes all gardenia, then jasmine, then back to honey..... lather, rinse, repeat. I've never run into a scent that rotates like this, but I really like it! I really, really, really wish I'd bought more than one bottle.

Mmmmmmmmm I love this. Wet, it smells like freshly baked chocolate cake before it's cool enough to put on the frosting. As it dries it loses that "moist chocolate cake" quality and smells a bit more like brownies. At first I wasn't too enthusiastic, but ever since I first tried it I've been getting an occasional craving for it.... much like actual chocolate. I now have a 5ml on order. Oh yeah.

YES. I'm a total computer nerd, but my mad phat skillz are all in Photoshop and the like. Excel frightens me.

Damn damn damn. I ordered three bottles and each of the three has some note than turns to poo on my skin! XVIII DAMN YOU VETIVER!!!! I'd like to try to pick out the other notes, but I have a bit of a thing with vetiver. It's like a screaming 3 year old at a midnight R rated movie - I'd love to watch the show, but those asshole parents took their poor kid to an inappropriate movie way past his bedtime! If there is a note in this one that I might like, it's drowned out by the screaming, writhing, PAY ATTENTION TO ME vetiver. Someone who likes woody notes take it from me, please. CLVII DAMN YOU SOAPY STUFF!!! Again, I have no clue what's in this, because something in it turns instantly to Dishwasher soap on me. I originally thought that the soap came from something floral, but further tries have let me know that this one is all pine and rum. All in all, not bad, except for the soap smell that overpowers the other stuff. I'm sure that on someone who ISN'T a soap-mutant, this would smell heavenly. Someone who likes dry woods and faint resins, take it away! CCLVII Florals. Assorted florals. I do not like florals. Damn. ETA: After a while some kind of fruity smell bubbles up and improves this a bit. I'm not sure what fruit exactly... maybe pomegranite? There could be some currant in this also. I'll still swap it because of the florals, however. I have another bottle on the way with my 13 order (because I just had to try one more) and I'm hoping for some kind of foody (PLEASE!) or incensy scent. I'm just so sad that my 3 main scent-problems are each personified in my three 5mls!

I thought I would love this when I sniffed the bottle. I hated it on my skin for the first fifteen minutes. I now like it after waiting around to see if it would change at all as it dried. In the bottle, it smells like baked goods - fresh cream, sugar, and a little bit of mint. Freshly applied, it smells like burned plastic covered in day-old, plain yogurt. This lasts about fifteen minutes or so before changing into.... 20 mins - several hours later, it sweetens as it dries and loses the sour-yogurt smell. After a while it smells like angel food cake, only not quite as sugary sweet. It's nicely foody without making me smell like I'm knee-deep in baked goods on a hot summer afternoon... it smells more like I recently baked a cake that's just now cooling on a rack by the stove.

I got this in a livejournal sale and... spent a fair bit of money on it. However, it was a perfectly fair price considering how hard it is to find, and the seller was kind enough to package it beautifully and throw in some very generous freebies! After wearing it almost constantly for a week, I can safely say it was well worth the price. I love it and will cry when it's all gone. It's very sweet, but not in a sugary or foody way. Honey smells like the real stuff, but in a softer, gentler way that doesn't leave me feeling gooey and sticky. I'm really enjoying wearing this in summer weather because it's so light and calming, and it has excellent staying-power no matter how sweaty I get. It lasts all day, so I can put it on in the morning and then enjoy it's perfect throw well into the evening. All in all, while I spent more than I have for any other BPAL, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Hell, I WILL if I ever see it available again!