karlajean

It would seem that I am in the minority with this one. I've found that some of the Lab's scents do funky things on my skin, and this would be another one of them. I was looking forward to having a pure rose scent, but on me, this one doesn't do it. It smells like rose, alright.... rose stems. No petals in there at all. This one's going in the to-sell pile.

Soap. Both in the bottle and on me. More specifically, laundry detergent. Nice laundry detergent, admittedly. Fortunately, I *like* smelling like nice laundry detergent. *grin* There's flowers in there somewhere, and it reminds me of water, but still the overlying scent is bringing me to the laundry room. Very light and airy... good for a summer day when I don't want something heavy or cozy smelling.

Does anyone have any suggestions for something that's similar to Milk Moon? I just received an imp of it today and absolutely love it... and of course it would have to be an LE. Are there any catalogue scents that are really close?

The sublimely beautiful, fiercely independent, impeccably cultured, fascinatingly worldly and witty courtesans of ancient Greece. A seductive and dazzling blend of golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang. Wet, this had a very "generic perfume" smell. Sort of like when you walk into a department store perfume section and everything's mingling together. Once it dried, it still had a bit of the same smell to it, but something slightly smoky is coming out now. I can't smell the patchouli or the clove at all, which is suprising considering how strong both of those are usually. Later, it mellowed out into a combination of musk and soap, although a fairly sedated musk. I had thought I'd love this because of the fig, clove and patchouli, but in the end I don't find it to be anything special.

I suspect that with me, the oils will last a LONG time. I generally can't wear "commercial" (ie. department store) perfumes - the smell of them makes me sick to my stomach. I don't know what I'm reacting to, but there was one time I actually had to get out of a car and throw up because my brother was wearing strong commercial cologne. Because of this (and perhaps because I rely on public transit, heh) I have strong opinions about personal "air space" and perfume... I wear perfume for me. I wear it because I like the smell, and other people shouldn't be able to smell me until they get within a 3 foot or so radius of me... they shouldn't be able to smell me from across a room. Because of this, I don't apply much - even with light scents like Dirty. One use from an imp and I can't even see a difference in the level of the liquid in the vial. On the plus side, I can buy an imp of an LE/discontinued scent from a forumite or LJer and it'll last me a long time (I'm also doing the different scent every day thing). I've also made it a policy that my first test of any perfume happens ONLY on my wrists. I tried one (Beltane, I think) which had a lot of musk in it, and because of that I've realized that musk and I don't mix very well. I wanted to get that one off of me right quick, and was able to wash it off of my wrists but because I'd applied it to my neck as well, it had gotten onto my shirt and I couldn't get it off completely. So because of this, testing an imp doesn't make much difference in the amount in the vial.

I got Dirty as a freebie from a LJer - I'd wanted her Absinthe and when she went to send it to me she found she'd accidentally given it to someone else. She refunded my money AND sent me this to make up for it... and it turned out to be my favorite out of all the ones she sent me. In the bottle, it kinda... I don't know, reminds me of laundry detergent? I can definitely smell cucumber in there somewhere. I actually don't really like the way it smells wet. Thankfully that phase doesn't last more than 5-10 minutes. But dry, this is heavenly. It really does smell like fresh laundry - in particular, fresh laundry straight off the clothesline on a summer day where it started nice and sunny but started to spit rain and my mom hurried out to grab the clothes before they got wet. This was the type of day I liked most in the summertime. It smells clean and bright and I just want to bury my nose in and cuddle up to it like I did with clean sheets.

Wolf Moon In the bottle: Ooh, very sharp. applied, after 10 minutes: very green, still a tiny bit sharp... I predict this is going to mellow out and be gorgeous on me. I can smell the pine in it, and I would have thought that something with pine in it would have reminded me of PineSol, but it doesn't. Also, do I smell cloves in there? or is it lemon? Later: I really like this. I could still smell this on my skin after almost 18 hours. Another one I'd buy a bottle of if it wasn't discontinued.

In the bottle: smells very astringent and bitter On me, initially: similar to in the bottle, but now I can smell lemons. After 1/2 hour or so: I can smell the chocolate and walnut now, and I think what smelled like lemon before was the rum. This is yummy! I would SO buy a 5ml if this was still available.

In the bottle: Peppermint! Yum! (I love peppermint) On me, initially: still Peppermint! but there's something else there. Something very sharp. Not sure what it is. Not so sure I'm going to like this one. After a couple of hours: the peppermint's gone, the sharpness has mellowed, and now it smells like vanilla, with a tiny bit of coconut and rum in there. I can't smell the chocolate whatsoever. In the end, I really like it. I wasn't sure about the whole food scents thing but this actually really works. Too bad it's discontinued (although did I read somewhere that it's going to be re-released?)

In the bottle, and wet on my skin, Beltane smells exactly like a stargazer lily to me. And while they're my absolute favorite flower to look at, I'm not a fan of the smell of them. As it dried, the scent got a bit better, but it still smells much like a commercial perfume to me, which is something I'm trying to avoid with buying BPAL scents. Still not too sure I like it. After a few hours, it's gone slightly baby-powdery, but not completely. It's alright, but not going onto my list of favorites. I'll probably keep it as something to wear next Beltane and that's it (well, and because I'm obsessing over collecting as many imps of LEs as I can find )

This is the second BPAL scent I've tried, and initially sniffed the imp yesterday while wearing Snake Oil. I'd fallen instantly in love with Snake Oil so much first instinct was to say "it's ok, but not sure if it's something I'm too interested in a bottle of". I put it on this morning after my shower (ie. after getting the snake oil off of my skin) and now I love it! Initially, it smelled exotic, like I'd walked into a pagan shop full of herbs and incense. (I'm horrid at picking individual notes out of perfume). Now that I've been wearing it about 4-5 hours, it's faded a fair amount, but now if I sniff my wrist it smells exactly like my grandmother wearing Oscar de la Renta (and to me, this is a good thing). I'll definitely be buying a bottle of this one.