Muppetk

Oh. My. Freakin. God. This is pure heaven. It's one of the first scents I thought sounded yummy and I don't know how it took me this long to getting around to trying it. It's gorgeous and wonderful and if it stayed the way it did when it was wet or just dry it'd be my holy grail. Wet: Wow. This reminds me of Sol, but less scorched, slightly more... animal? More living? Purely gorgeous. Just drying: Heaven. I'm in heaven. And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak! No really. This is the most amazing combination of the smell of sex (I think that's the amber) with the comforting smell of mildly spicy sugar cookies. (The spices are there, but mild. Much more sugar cookie than Snickerdoodle.) I truly can't tell if it's more sexy or more comforting. This is pure love, right here. And not the platonic kind. But not the purely carnal kind. Dry: Not quite as gorgeous as before, the spice has gotten a little more dominant and the notes smell somehow like they've separated slightly, and not *quite* as well blended in the previous stage. Still beautiful. Overall: NEED MORE! MOREMOREMORE!

Wet: Cinnamon! Mostly cinnamon anyway. Everyone I know was hoping his might be a nice substitute for Three Witches, and to compare the two -- much less clove and a hint of honey. I'm not getting the musk. Drying: The cinnamon has calmed a bit and is melding nicely with the other spices. Ginger is definitely making it's presence known. Still no musk. I'm not sure how I feel about the honey. I love honey scents normally, but I think I'm confused at finding it with the spices. I suspect this is a psychological resistance to change more than a problem with the perfume. Just dry: More clove, more honey. Hmmmm. I'm definitely starting to lean to the "ooooh, pretty" side of the force. Dry longer: Spiced honey. Methinks I'm going to be sniffing this one all day and evaluating. But definitely nice. Bottle potential for sure.

Wet: light juniper? pure light juniper?? That's CAN'T be right, I know I was excited about this one... *looks back at the ingredient list* Ah. I can pick out a hint of lavendar and a hint of patchouli. It's definitely a soft lavendar. But mostly that pure "cologne/aftershave scent." Maybe my imp is mislabeled?? (Hmm. nope, just sniffed the imp, the lavendar is much stronger in there.) Maybe rosewood is one that turns on me? I'll have to check back through my old reviews. I think that might be the problem note. Dry: The "cologne" scent has backed off a bit and a stronger hint of the lavendar & patchouli come though giving this a nice spiciness. I can see a hint of why other people would be loving this one. However, the "cologne" note is way too prominent. Phooey. EDIT: an hour or two later this is really nice. That icky cologne note (I still think it's either rosewood or maybe citron, since it's clearly a topnote that dissappeared) is completely gone, and it's left with a lavendar/patchouli beautifully blended with a powdery (probably amber) base. I see why others are loving this. Since the problem note on me seems to be a top note, I'll see how this does aged.

Wet: waaaay dry woods (bleh!) with some odd spices mixed in. I think that's the saffron, but also other middle eastern spices. Dry: Thank god the super dry wood calmed down - still an element of that though. The spices blended better, and the musk came out a bit to round this nicely. But no rose or sweet for me. I guess my skin is pulling it's usual number on the fruit notes, sluping up their weetness and leaving an unbalanced perfume. This is definitely an interesting perfume on me, but interesting more than yum for sure.

In the imp, and wet on me: very pretty! Hard to ID. It's almost like a honey floral,rather than a vanilla floral. Drying: slightly less honey, slightly more fruity, but still pretty. Dry: oh that figures. Dissappears quickly. Dry: The scent stays true -- honey-flower (I guess that's the scent of orchid?). Very pretty. But is absorbed quickly enough that the throw is pretty minimal after a pretty short period of time. Still, this might be worth a shot at trying again another day (maybe I'm having an odd nose day) and/or mixing into a lotion or something 'cause it's SO pretty. Dry several hours later: Hey neat! This is one of those scents that gets stronger again over time! It's still the same scent -- rich honeyed orchid (or rich honeyed Stephan... whatver that note was). Either way, it's pretty. I will seriously be thinking about buying a bottle of this. EDIT, 4-5 years later: As it turns out, that was a fairly aged imp I had there. I wound up buying a bottle, and it smelled different. More the vanilla-orchid I was expecting. Nice enough, but not the beautiful honey-drenched flower. A couple of weeks back, I pulled out the old bottle I had of this, and it's apparently finally aged into honeyed-orchid again! Whodathunkit!

What I learned from testing this scent: If jasmine doesn't work on you, star jasmine won't either. Jasmine always goes bad on me -- drugstore perfuminess. I thought maybe star jasmine would be different. But no, the star jasmine in this did the same thing, only very slightly different from other blends with a jasmine note. The jasmine in this overwhelms everything else on me. (When wet I could smell the other notes a little, when dry, pure jasmine.) I can't sniff anything else. Oh well. It's so sad. I love jasmine tea. But jasmine BPALs disagree with my skin chemistry and smell truly godawful on me. Okay, I've learned my lesson. I've been surprised by alot of scents that I didn't expect to like so I thought I had to try everything -- but anythign with jasmine has been bad. I give up. I won't try new scents with jasmine.

Wet: This starts out a yummy green. Very herbal. A pinch of resin softening it. Drying: The oakmoss becomes a touch louder, making this a touch masculine. Dry: The scent stays fairly true. A light, pretty herbal scented blend with an undertone of slight resin & powder. Really pretty, but fades quickly on me. Phoo.

Disclaimer: Jasmine usually goes all drugstore-perfume on me, so I don't have high hopes. But I love Myrrh & rose, so I have to try this. Wet: Mostly Jasmine/generic perfume so far, but some myrrh underneath softening it. Dry: And my skin has amped up the jasmine/perfumy scent. Sigh. Oh well. Ya never know until you try.

Well, this may not be useful, but I think Saturn would work wonderfully. It makes me feel a bit more butch (not to mention toppy) when I put it on. It smells powerful, resin-sandalwood, just ever so slightly masculine. Though I would suggest you get some that's aged. (OR try aging some) Aged is more resin, less sharp. I know I'd crawl all over either a guy or strong woman wearing it. (It'dbe out of place on a weaker woman, y'know?) OTOH, I threatened to eat a friend of mine after she tried on dragon's milk. OMG good!! Though I think I was reacting to her as more femme, not butch. (I can go either way on the butch/femme spectrum, just not too far from the middle.) This is discontinued, but I think it might be available at the Black Broom and I have hopes that it'll be available again on the upcoming TAL site.

Mmmm, pretty. Wet: Sweet, orangey, but somehow fresh and more complicated. I can't pick out the notes, but this is awfully pretty! I can now officially say that there is a difference between Narcissus and Black Narcissus. Narcissus smells like bandaids on me. Drying: OH, that's why it's famliiar. It reminds me a bit of snake oil. But orangey. Almost... red musk -like in sheherezade? But I might be confused 'cause I've tried on a zillion imps today. Dry: Sigh. Pretty. Not as strong, (though possibly because I can't stop sniffing it so I may have a numb nose). The undertone is still shifting between snake oil and red musk. But definitely pretty. Really pretty. Very possibly buy a bottle pretty. I need to try this again on it's own tommorrow. And then I have to try it layered with Bliss. *swoon*

Wet: OH MY GOD. That really is pure hot chocolate! With a hint of brownies. Oh my god. This is DANGEROUS. Drying: Hot brownies in the oven, and I am drooling. As it dries, the brownies cool off a bit, and a hint of vanilla comes out. Overall: AMAZING! Heavenly! A must sniff if you like dessert scents. I MUST HAVE MORE!!! EDIT: Now I understand why someone in the "beyond perfume" forum felt compelled to turn perfume into cookies.

Wet: Pretty! Hard to describe though. Definitely a lemon topnote, the rest is... vaguely green? Well blended anyway. Drying: aha! The "lemon" has evolved into lingonberry! Yum! Maybe my skin will let me keep this fruit? please? Dry: still lingonberry -- but not much else but faint green something. I need to try this again when it's not the 4th scent I've tested in a day. I can't tell if that's the scent or if my nose is confused, but this is definitely promising. I think this has faded after about an hour, but I'm not sure. Again, need to re-test. Pretty from what I can tell though!

It's official. Narcissus smells like band-aids on me. (I tried on pride yesterday and got a bandaid scent from that too.) Wet: Band aid smell with some faintly spicy undertone, maybe myrrh? Dry: Same. Okay, add narcissus to the list of notes that seriously don't work on me. Edit: later the myrrh comes out alot more and it's a rich, sweet skin scent. But the skin still has a bandaid on it. Too bad. I love the sweet, dark element. I need to go see if anything else has myrrh & poppy WITHOUT the narcissus.

Much cleaner & lighter than I expected. Primarily minty with undertones of the other notes, but not much of them. Over time, the juniper comes out a bit more. Much lighter than other juniper blends. I usually find juniper overwhelmingly "man's aftershave," but this is nice. Just not that me.

The description of this is perfect. Warm rich lilies with a hint of sweet. Not very honey on me, but I'm thinking of layering this with honey moon to see how that goes. A teeny pinch of soapiness too -- I know some people get that with lilies but I don't think I'd realized I was one of them. Is pretty. Edit: partly because I can't spell, and partly because an hour later, the honey finally becomes slightly more dominant and the pinch of soap has gone away. Prettier now!

Wet: Rose enriched by what I guess is narcissus. Very rich rose scent. Nice! Drying: Bandaids! Bandaids with a hint of floral. (I swear! It smells exactly like bandaids! Bizarre!) Let us hope that this one changes! Just barely dry: Bandaids & roses are evenly matched. Dry a while: Roses with something sharp. At least it's not bandaids, but it's not me.

I swear, this is exactly Dragon's Milk Lite. The same gorgeous sweet resinousness (I guess Myrhh + copal = dragon's blood to my nose) mixed with Sugar Cookie, only not as rich and pervasive. This might be a good thing. I find the scent of Dragon's Milk is so strong it interferes with eating. (Though really, if I want to force myself to stop eating, that one is good for it.) Overall: I like it!!

Wet: Smells almost exactly like Jo Malone's Amber-lavendar. The other notes are nearly undetectable. Definitely masculine. Dry: the scent fades a bit and morphs, a hint of carnation and less masculine. Prettier. Huh. Congratulations St. Germaine, you're the first BPAL scent to give me a headache. Well, actually oneroi did that once. I think it's the lavendar.

Dragon's Blood, definitely. But more. It has that same rich dark floral of dragon's blood, but a soft touch of spice. Softer than cinnamon, definitely, but something spicey. This is seriously gorgeous. I now have to try on every scent in Ars Draconis & maybe start blending to see if I can reproduce this with catalogue oils. Maybe Dragon's Blood plus Morrocco? Practically speaking, a I did tiny test of attempting to "self-command" to get stuff done since I have a mountain of things to do, and an even larger tendency to procrastinate. It seems to have worked nicely. I feel much more focused now than I did before. Heck, my eyes are even more focused. I wouldn't be parting with this if I had a choice in the matter. (Finances means this one gets sold.) EDIT: having tried this twice now with the command to get stuff done, it works very nicely to get myself to be productive and non-procrastinatory! The first time, the effects seemed to last for 24-36 hours, but was strongest in the first three. ALSO EDIT: Commenting on the above reviews. For one thing, I completely agree with the person who said this is like catnip in that it's addictive. I just can't stop sniffing it. For another thing, I have to DISAGREE with whoever said it might have jasmine in it. Every single jasmine blend I've ever tried has disagreed violently with my skin chemistry. This blend loves me. This blend even loves me during my period. Almost NOTHING loves me then. It does smell different, with much stronger spices and less sweet dragon's blood. But it's still reeeeeaaally nice. (Classic case of seller's regret. Must have more!) Overall: FIVE STARS OR MORE!! This is both darn useful and SMELLS TO DIE FOR. I cannot WAIT until the TAL site goes live so that I can get myself a bottle (I have but an imp now), and so that I can find some specific directions on how to use it properly. I'm curious to see if it would work any differently if I followed directions rather than just sniff my wrists compusively.

I had high hopes for this, but it starts out smelling somewhat generically floral (I need to remember to avoid jasmine notes, they always come out like drugstore perfume) and fades relatively quickly. No clove on me. The bourbon is there a wee bit, but the vanilla musk not at all. Sigh. Sad.

Lovely, aquatic notes with cucumber peeking through, but no hint of amber for me. Really, it's a nice aquatic blend, stronger than most (it took a whole hour to fade rather than the usual 20minutes on me) with a surprisingly decent throw for something this light. But no amber. I'd really wanted the amber. I don't do aquatics. Edited to agree with other reviewers: it's alot like Sea of Glass on me, but with more oomph.

Since no one's mentioned it yet... Scorpio is a lighter, smoother version of La Petit Mort on me. (LPM is just slightly richer, but otherwise extremely similar.)

That's the one I reach for when life feels overwhelming & anxiety attack-y. (I had many of those moments in the last month of school.) Not my favorite perfume, but it does pretty well for the stress issues (& the luck! Nifty things happened all over the place the first time I used it. Other times, somethign else just seemed to go unusually well). I suspect it'd do well for cranky shit-keeps-going-wrong days as well.

Since no one else has mentioned it yet... Tarot: Strength is a very fresh rose to my nose. It's not super long lasting on me, but my skin eats 85% of the fragrances I've tried. I'm quite fond of that one. OTOH, someone mentioned Rose Cross -- I *love* that blend. Not so fresh a scent to me, being rich & sweet and resinous, but DEFINITELY long lasting. And wonderfully calming/centering. I use it as a meditation blend.

Sweet, herbal, and a bit of cinnamon. Now as strong as I expected, and is mostly faded a couple of hours later, but it is really gorgeous. Also seems to live up to its name so far. I want more! Lookign forward to the TAL site, and this seems like a goooood blend to own for when I open my new business in a month. And it smells really pretty.