Ajila

My first thoughts on this when I opened the bottle was almonds, this continued when I put it on my skin, and it was strong, almost too strong. Fortunately that only lasted for about 10 minutes, but when it faded the almonds disappeared entirely leaving me with a gentle slightly woody, slightly herby aroma, which stayed very close to my skin. Nice, but not all that exciting.

Wet on me this was purely cyclamen, which was quite sad, because I was hoping for the fig and ginger, it was still nice enough though. In the dry down the tonka bean took over and there was a slight edge of ginger, which again was nice, if not spectacular. It didn't hang around on me for very long.

On me at first this was like a block of sweet florals, I couldn't really detect anything specific, although there was something that made me sneeze at first sniff, which normally only happens with lavender. It's the most perfume-y smelling BPAL I've tried. It later became a slight vanillary/ambery warm scent that hung around on my skin for ages.

Ok so I'm Libra (Air), with my moon in Scorpio (Water) and my Ascendant in Virgo (Earth). Most of my favourite notes come under Fire apart from vanilla and coconut in Earth, so definitely I'm in the want what I lack camp.

Wet this is very, very fruity and at the same time slightly green as if the current stems and leaves are in there as well as the fruit. My initial thought is that it's christmas-y, but I suspect that's because intially it's so close to Midwinter's Eve. I have to admit that I don't feel Lady MacBeth from this, it's too girly for that, darkly girly admitedly, but not in the same league as Lady MacBeth. Having said that I like it alot. It's pretty strong and lasts well on me, towards the end there is a more grown up edge, I would suspect it's the thyme, but it cuts through the sweetness nicely and I like that part even more than the earlier part.

A bawdy, gleefully wicked and unruly scent: Kentucky Bourbon, sugar and a sprig of mint. Wet on me this was strong, sharp mint, with a weird flat bitter aroma in the background. The mint fades quickly and leaves me with a scent which reminds me of Horlicks, I presume it's the malted quality of the bourbon. In fact a sort of caramelly version of Horlicks would be quite a good discription how this smells for the majority of the time. It's very comforting, which I really didn't expect from the discription.

In the imp this smelt to me like the stage of fudge making where the mixture is finished, but its liquid and being spread out on a cold marble surface to set . Wet on me that scent is still there, but cut by a really sharp fruity smell, which I presume is what pumpkin smells like (I don't think I've even seen a pumpkin in real life let alone smelt one). Anyway this fruit is so sharp it's practically sour, but in a good way, in a way that makes your saliva glands go into action. When it dries it's the same sort of thing, but unfortunately there's an 'after smell' which is something akin to eau d'ashtray. I'm someone who (to my suprise) likes the smokey and tobaccoy scents, but this is not good. Still the whole thing lasts well and the ashtray bit wafts in and out so on the whole wearing Jack was a good experience for me.

Wet this really does live up to it's name, there's a definite sense of something that's not quite there, or possibly something which has been there and has now gone. About an hour later and things are a little less estoric, for the first time I really get what people mean when they say that something smells of their skin, this is the scent of my skin but somehow amplified into a perfume. Two more hours and it's morphed again and become the sort of caramelly, creme brulle vanilla that I'm coming to expect when a BPAL amber works on me. As others have said there is a citrusy tang to it, but it's just outside the range of my nose, if that makes any sense - it's like when you catch something moving out of the corner of your eye, but you can't quite see it, only with your nose . Close to my skin it lasted for well over 10 hours, which is a long time for me, but never had much throw.

When this first hit my skin I was quite scared, I got very stong pine resin, which unfortunately reminds me of toilet cleaner. Fortunately about 10 minutes later it had morphed into O, all amber, vanilla and honey. Whilst I loved this stage of it, if I want to smell of O, I'll wear O and the differences didn't do anything for me.

Wet I was really excited about this one, I don't like floral scents, but in the bottle this was so pretty with the sweetness of the pear and the florals hanging around in the background, I thought I was going to love it. Sadly on me it had two stages, firstly strong lily and secondly strong musk (and 8 hours on it's still going strong). Neither of these is particularly unpleasant, but they're not me.

I have to admit that without knowing which was which I'd stuggle to tell this and Dragon's Heart apart, the musks really don't make much of an appearence. There is something around the edges of the dragon's blood, but I suspect it's only there because I'm looking for it. On the whole I like this, but I don't think I'll be buying more of it.

On me this was a deep incensy scent (presumably what happens when smoke and dragon's blood get together on my skin) with just a hint of leather hanging around tin the background. It went on that way, it stayed that way and it went that way. Nice, but not spectcular.

Wet on me this smelt of those sweets which are supposedly cherry flavoured, but don't taste of cherry at all. It wanders round a range of berries for a while, but within an hour of application this appears to be pure dragons blood, which is no bad thing as far as I'm concerned.

When I put this one I was immediately taken back to childhood christmas' that bit in the afternoon where I'm over excited I've eaten too much and I've tripped up and landed in the christmas tree (now that only happens when I've drunk too much, but when I was little it was a regular occurance). I figured out it was because it smelt of christmas tree bark covered in chocolate orange, it's quite a nice smell, but I'm not certain I want smell of it. After about 30 minutes of this I suddenly got a whiff of what I thought was eucalyptus, which threw me completely, another 30 minutes on that had gone as well and I was left with a gentle but slightly spikey herby scent. I like this overall, but I can't put my finger on why.

Weirdly the thing that lasted longest about this for me was the reaction I had in my mouth, where I was left with the same taste I get if I leave the end of a cup of tea until it gets cold and then drink it too quickly, it was very strange. Actually on my skin this smelt of herby peonys and occassionally melons. It was sweet and pretty, but didn't last very long. ETA It's possible that I was a little harsh on The Dormouse, but on reflection the perfume I was wearing when I found out my grandfather had died was never going to be a favourite.

I have to say this is a very strange scent. In the vial it just smelt sharp and acrid. On me I don't get any smoke, but it's a kind of dry incensy smell, as if you've got the cold ash remains of a joss stick on your skin. As that fades I get a kind of dusty herb smell. Overall it doesn't last very long on me and it's very odd, but I like it, I think .

On me this was just very, very gentle, slightly creamy orange blossom. If I really sniff at my skin where it was applied there is a herbal quality to it which I assume is the rosemary. This was a firly linear scent, staying the same all the way through, just getting fainter. Considering how faint this was when I applied it, it stayed for absolutely ages.

Wet this was all lavender and bergamot, to the extent that it made me sneeze. Once that settled it was very much lavender and patchouli, which stayed for hours, fading slowly aware. Sadly neither the tonka nor the leather made and appearence.

Wet I wasn't to keen on this, it smelt very floral and well perfumy to me. As it dried it seemed to become sharper, something I'm attributing to the myrtle, before settling into a lovely warm scent. I'm afraid warm is the only way I can describe it (although I suspect it was predominantly the amber I could smell, it's never made really an appearence on me before so I'm not certain). Occassionally I get little wafts of apple blossom, in all it's very nice.

To me this smelt of very sweet, dark berry flavoured jelly sweets. Stopping it from becoming too sweet is something green, I suspect that this is the sage and/or green tea, but to me it actually reminds me of the scent of currant leaves, which in turn reminds me of hot summer/early autumn days, with my hands sticky from picking and my muscles stiff from crouching in wierd positions to get at the ripe fruit. All in all this is a feel good scent to me, the scent stayed true to what it was in the bottle until it faded slowly to leave a slightly jammy blackberry tinge, before disappearing entirely about 5 hours after application.

In the bottle this was spicey and sweet, but not hot the way cinnamon often is. When I put it on it immediately turned to two notes cinnamon and celery (I know there is a plant which smells more like celery than celery so I presume it's more likely to be that). Some hours later it became more creamy and lost that fresh celery scent, overall it was very comforting despite the fact I was having a crappy day. Very strange.

In the vial to me this was a sweet, herby floral, with the same sherbetiness that I smell in Chaste Moon in the back ground. At first on my skin I was horrified because it went rubbery. Fortunately that didn't last very long and when it dried I was left with the tonka bean, and what I presume was the sweet pea in the background. Next time I'm at my grans I must smell her sweet peas, because I can't for the life of me remember what they smell like.

On me this is purely cinnamon for a good 4 hours and it is strong, when someone at the other end of a minibus can smell you, you're wearing too much perfume . After that it seems to disappear, a part from every now and again a whiff of cloves, which took me ages to work out what they were. The pepper didn't make an appearence for me, which I'm not to sorry about. I like this, but I'm not certain I'll keep my 5ml.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, That's not a very good review is it? Seriously I love this oil, it's like warm honeyed milk, with what I can only describe as a sherbet background, I've had to resist licking myself whilst wearing it. As it dries it get sweeter, but keeps the same form (if that makes sense). If I actually sniff my skin there is a toffeeish note, but for the most part it stays very similar to when wet.

Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen. Sadly for the first couple of hours of wearing this all I got was tea, and not fresh tea either, this was the smell of teabad which have been used and then left to sit, in enough liquid to keep moist, until they've gone cold. It does finally settle into a gentle vanilla/lemon/ginger syrup, but I don't want to smell like aging teabags whilst I wait for it.