RainyDayGrey

I see I never reviewed this one. Probably because I was really disapointed when I first got it. I didn't get anything but musk out of smut. Fortunately, it wasn't funky musk, or unwashed body musk (I'm looking at you, Bengal, king of the dirty ass). It didn't smell bad, it just smelled... bland. Like there was something missing. It really smelled unfinished to me. It needed something more. I gave it a few tries hoping it would get better, and then pretty much forgot about it. (I couldn't swap it though. The perfume might not have knocked my socks off, but that bottle did). Fast forward to, well, today. I was looking through my smellies trying to decide what to wear, when I came across my poor neglected and forgotten bottle of Smut. It's been nearly a year, so I decided to give it another go, see if some age helped any. Yes, it definately has. The musk is still the strongest note by far, but now it's tempered with sweet sugar notes and just a hint of booziness. So thats what was missing. This I like. This is not bland at all. This is what I was hoping Smut would be all those months ago when I ordered it. It's gorgeous and sexy, and I can't stop sniffing myself. I am so glad I didn't decant this and get rid of it, which I had thought about doing. For some reason I decided to hang on to it, and it looks like that was a wise decision.

Imp: Lime! Sharp and almost bitter, probably because of the pine, though it doesn't sell piney. Wet: Tthe lime comes through strongest when first applied, though I can now smell subtle hints of vanilla and myrrh in the background. This is so good that it made me stupid, seriously. I started walking out of my room in a daze of wonderful smelly goodness before I realized that I had forgotten to finish getting dressed. Drydown: Even though the lime was strong enough to knock you on your ass when first applied, it dissapears very quickly. I'd say it stuck around for about ten minutes before it vanished completely, leaving behind the most delicious vanilla/myrrh combination. They smell so completely divine together, that I am thinking they should never be sniffed apart again. The patchouli and vertiver are working together in the background to give this a wonderfully earthy base, with just a hint of pine. Enough to let you know that it's there, but not enough to overwhelm. The pine is also fleeting, and this becomes richer and deeper the longer I wear it. The pathouli and vertiver get stronger over time, and the myrrh fades a bit, but the vanilla keeps going strong. I love this stuff. Oddly enough I get no clove or almond out of this, which is a strange thing with my chemistry, but I'm not complaining. Especially since almond can sometimes smell funky on me. This was obviously meant to be. I have found the vanilla scent. I'm sorry Snake Oil and Golden Priapus, but I'm dumping you for Voodoo. I don't need time to think about it, this is my Holy Grail of vanilla blends. If it weren't for the fact that I am ridiculously broke right now, I'd have already ordered a bottle of this. I think this will be the incentive I need to cut loose all the bottles and imps that didn't work out on me, but I've been to lazy to put up for swap. I need to fund a Voodoo order.

In the imp: Nag champa, no seriiously, this smells like nag champa to me. On: Nag champa, for hours. Not that I don't like the smell, but I really do not like to smell like it. After about four hours this smells like Snake Oil with out the vanilla, which is actually really nice, but not worth suffering through the long nag champa phase. Hmmm, I think I'll let this one get a few months of age on it, and see if that helps mellow out the nag champa smell.

This smelled like Jolly Rancher candy in the imp. On my skin it quickly turned to baby poweder Jolly Rancher candy. I'm just going to take a stab in the dark here, and say that Eris has my arch floral nemesis, violet, in it. I can only do violet in wee small doses, other wise it turns right into baby powder on my skin. I could still smell the fruity candy, which was actually kind of nice, but I don't think I'll be keeping Eris around.

First on this is very woody, with a hint of incense smoke, and slightly sweetened by tonka. The parchment note is very subtle, and the leather almost nonexistant. It's gorgeous and comes off as very unisex. After a few hours of dry down it becomes a bit more manly, I don't know whats causing it, but it's absolutely divine. I would seriously drool over any man who smelled like this. After a days wear it's just tonka and lingering incense, still very lovely. This is a keeper, most definately. I just need to find a way to slather it on my husband, because he needs to smell like this.

A negatively charged scent. Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints. In the imp: Mint with a nice mossy back drop. Wet: This is strongly minty when first applied, a very dry, not to sweet mint. The other notes are almost an after thought. They are there, but not making their presence known to much, just letting the mint stand out and rounding it out a bit. Dry down: The mint faded pretty quickly, and then the moss took over. While I do have other blends with ambergris, I'm not at all that farmiliar with it, so I couldn't tell you if I'm smelling it in here or not. But it just smells strongly mossy to me when the mint goes away. It lasted all day, and had fairly good throw. I'm thinking that the Lab Rats must be tuned into my brain waves when I make an order. I have a weakness for moss since discovering BPAL, and I hit up the search engine when putting my last order together trying to find a perfume that would be almost all moss. I passed on Cathode, though, because I have it in my head, for some reason, that I don't want to smell like mint. I don't know why, because I like mint, but there you have it. Cathode showed up as a frimp, and it is pretty much what I was looking for. I even like the strong mint opening. This isn't the first time I've passed on a scent either, only to have it show up in my order, and they've been winners all but once. Which just goes to show that the Lab knows what they are doing, even when I don't. *Puts Cathode on the big bottle list*

R'Lyeh was all water, and nothing but water on me. It ranged from fresh spring water, to salty sea spray depending on what phase of dry down it was in, but it was all water all the time. Another recomendation for Danube, it's a lovely, clean fresh aquatic with just a hint of light florals. I really love Bayou, it's probably my all time favorite aquatic blend, but the florals are very heady, and it has alot of dark earthy goodness, so unless she likes that kind of thing it might not be what she's wanting.

There was something that smelled dodgy about this in the imp. So I apllied just the tiniest little bit to one wrist, just in case. Wet: I got the wonderfull scent of spices, clove, cinnamon, ginger, peper, and a bit of honey. Rich warm and wonderful, everything I love in a good spicy blend, but underneath that I could smell the lingering scent of ass. Yes, dirty, unwashed ass. It kind of ruined the wonderful warm and spicy thing Bengal has going on. I'm guessing that the musk would be the cause of this. I've had it on for about twenty minutes now, and the spices are trying their hardest to chase the ass away, but I can still smell it. Since I have to go to town today, and I really don't want people to walk by me and think, 'Good lord, doesn't that woman ever wash herself!?' I'm going to wash it off now and try again later. On a day I don't have to go somewhere. I'm also going to hope like hell it's just a hormone thing, and not a general body chemistry thing, because Bengal could be great if it weren't for the dirty butt.

Bastet... Wow. Bastet is just gorgeous. When I first sniffed it in the imp I thought it smelled like honey. I didn't know what the notes were, and the honey I thought I was smelling was almond. But it was a nice lovely almond, this is how almond is supposed to smell. So far all the BPAL blends I've smelled with almond have had a sharp cherry candyish smell, so my nose thought it was smelling honey. When I put it on the other notes come up, and let me tell you, they smell beautiful together. It becomes saffron and cardomom on a bed of amber, myrhh and musk, the almond fades into the back ground to give it a warm slightly sweet presense. I'm not farmiliar with lotus, so I don't know what it does for this, but this is a wonderful perfume. If I had to describe Bastet in one word it would be sensual. This is good stuff.

This smelled nothing like I was expecting, I thought it would be more herbal that it is. Instead it was very fresh and clean smelling. It was a bit fruity on me at first, but it was a good kind of fruity. Why the hell have I been avoiding fig? It smells really good. It also has the same moss note as Zombi, which I loved, so that was a plus. It does get more herbal smelling the longer it dries down, and the fig fades away. This is really nice, I like it alot.

Vain and haughty, indeed! The Peacock Queen is a gorgeous mature and sophisticated rose scent. Unlike Rose Red, which was a very sweet and delicate rose scent with a good amount of greenery mixed in, I don't get anything sweet or delicate with this one. It's not sharp either, like rose scents can sometimes be. Well, it's just plain perfect. After a few hours I can barely smell this on my skin, but I still keep getting whiffs of it throughout the day, and when I got in the shower the next morning I could smell it very strongly, until I got out the soap. Rose Red did the same thing, I had two lovely rosey smelling showers in a row.

Mmmm, this is nice. I usually sniff every thing as I take it out of the package, and Dragon's milk really grabbed me, I felt compelled to slather some on. It's mostly Dragon's Blood on my skin, with just a hint of sweet creaminess. It's a very warm and comforting scent. It's pretty strong on me, has great throw, and lasts for hours.

I'm going to start off my review with a little reminicing, so bear with me. Right before my husband and I got married, we moved into this great apartment (with really low rent!) in an old converted house. It had this cute wrap around porch, and in front of the porch was this dinky little rose bush. As far as rose bushes go, it really wasn't much to look at, it was really small (not the miniature variety, but not the big beautiful roses like my aunt grows either) and didn't get that many flowers on it. The roses themselves weren't that spectacular to look at either, they were small, and didn't look that great in full bloom, but they smelled gorgeous. Seriously, if they didnt' smell so good, I'd have wondered why someone had even bothered to plant it there. Rose Red really isn't like any BPAL rose blend I've tried so far (and being a rose lover, I've tried a fair few). In the bottle it's very green, but the rose scent is amazing. When I put it on, the green scent got very sharp and overwhelming, and the rose all but disapeared. There was a good ten or so minutes when I thought this one was going to be a lost cause, but then the greenery settled down and the rose came back. This is gorgeous, this is almost exactly what those dinky ugly roses in front of our old apartment smelled like. Very fresh and just a touch sweet, not harsh or sharp at all. Perfection, I'm in awe.

Hades didn't smell floral to me either, but then again I like a nice floral scent, so it may just be me, too. As for resinous/cedary scents, without the floral I like: Loviatar, Kweku Anasi (if you can find it, like sticking your nose in a dusty cedar chest full o' pepper), Anubis, and Penitence. I've only recently discovered that I really really like the resins, so I'm not much help.

I'm finally reviewing this. No, I'm not a procrastinator at all. This is probably the scent I've most anticipated getting so far. I haven't been around for past versions of Samhain, but I've been dying to try it, and Beltane was perfectly spring for me. Autumn being my favorite season, I had very high hopes for this one, and the notes sounded perfect. Yes, I practically peed my pants in excitement when this order showed up in my mail box. Ahem, now that I'm all set up for disapointment, lets get on with the review. Sniffing this in the bottle was wonderful, sweet baked apples drifting on a wet and earthy fall breeze. Amazing, to say the least. So I dabbed a little bit on my wrist, and.... Oh hell, my skin chemistry has kicked me in the ass once again. This smells like Band-aid plastic on me, although it smells wonderful underneath that. The Band-aid smell is just to strong for this to be enjoyable when I wear it. I'm fairly sure it's the patchoulli thats turning bad on me. I can't bear to part with it though, the bottle is so pretty, and it smells wonderful as long as it doesn't come into contact with my skin. I keep hoping that with a little age the Band-aid smell with go away. We'll see I guess. If it doesn't work out by next autumn I'll be trying it in a tart warmer, and praying that if there is a Samhain '06 my chemistry will play nicely with it. Damn.