lucy gray

Feeding the Dead really is nommy. I was wary of the beer as well, but it's not boozy in the way that makes you smell like you've spilled your drink down your front; it's just a warm, homey scent that gives the cake and incense some extra oomph. Feast for the Greatly Revered Ones is a great fruity wine/chocolate -- it's what I wanted from Centzon Totochtin, but only got for a minute before CT dried down.

Dulces En Fuego Smooch in the shower + Count Dracula afterwards = YUM. I think I'm going to try layering the Dulces oil with the Count tomorrow.

"AntiqueHighHeelRedDollShoes" seems kind of Obsidian Widow to me, for reasons I cannot begin to understand. Maybe because OW strikes me as a "red" scent. I feel like "Thirteen" (awesome song, btw!) is summery, warm and sweet and grassy. I get that from Roadhouse, weirdly, but YMMV.

I was just going to rec both of those! Maybe layered with one of the Steamworks metallic scents, to evoke the power converters. Or Faeu Boulanger, for his time on Dagobah.

Cottonmouth is one of those scents that absolutely shouldn't work on me. Snake Oil? Lily? Narcissus? Ugh, no thanks. But I guess Beth really does work magic, because I loooooooove it. Everything blends together into a beautiful clean, fresh cottony scent. (Note: there's little difference between the scent in-bottle and on my skin.)

In the vial and during drydown: berry. Real berry. EXTREMELY berry. Berry berry berry berry. Berry. Berry berry. Berrrrrrrrrrrry. Unfortunately, the berry wears itself out with all that berry-ing, and once AC has dried, all that remains on my skin is a very slightly more powdery Snake Oil.

Yes! I guess it depends on your favorite vampire "type" (Anne Rice fops, glittery virgins, the various takes on Dracula, etc., etc., etc.) and whether you find the Lab's dirt note wearable, but Nosferatu, Penny Dreadful, and Zombi are some of my favorites. The sweet/dirt combo is compelling in the way I picture vampires being: attractive but with a kind of repellant undertone.

Dia is my #1 coconut blend. It's so light and creamy and pretty, no suntan lotion smell at all. Shoggoth and Black Pearl are really great, too, although I like them because they aren't creamy -- they've both got a sharp green edge that makes them super huffable.

I agree with I Died For Beauty. I think I got "powdery" from Veil, as well.

(Note: this is aged, original-run Snake Charmer that I'm talking about.) Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Not a lot of plum to my nose -- the major difference between this and Madame Moriarty -- just thick, warm, spicy vanilla. This is what I expected Snake Oil to smell like, rather than the stale, grungy patchouli that I get even from hella-aged SO. A little goes a long way, though. One small swipe on my wrist had me smelling it like it was right under my nose for hours and hours.

Favorite Notes: violet pomegranate amber mint dirt leather white musk red musk quite possibly all the other musks, still trying to figure that out vanilla pear tobacco plum carnation myrrh sage magnolia sakura Least Favorite Notes: honey vetiver ozone rose - like a lot of these, I like the note but tend to amp it terribly, so it's iffy jasmine lily woods alcohols berries GC: Sudha Segara Ultraviolet Othello Zombi Penny Dreadful Nosferatu Chimera Eclipse Bathsheba Mad Hatter Brisingamen Aeval Queen Alice Embalming Fluid LE: Madame Moriarty Quincey Morris The Unheavenly City Selkie Snowblind Agape Dia Count Dracula Torture Queen Western Diamondback Cottonmouth Faith Berenice Hod Velvet Nudie Oisin Non-BPAL: Villainess - any Miss Edith, Dulces En Fuego, Scintillating, Blood products, especially oils or Smooches Possets - Silver Violets CBIHP: Violet Empire Lush: Almond Coconut Smoothie, Sakura anything, Veganese conditioner, Big shampoo (my goal in life is to find a perfume that smells like Big!)

As a longtime aficionado of stuffing my face with cake, I can say with some authority that most everyone else here is right: Eat Me smells like a big ol' slice of cake. Not the stuff from a box, either, but the fancy, boutique bakery kind that comes with airy whipped frosting and fresh fruit on top. It's no replacement for actually eating that cake, but if you are the sort of person who makes occasion-specific mix tapes or likes matching your shoes with your handbag, you might enjoy wearing Eat Me on your next trip to the bakery.

Wow. I think this is the first time I've gotten every listed note from an oil! I tend to amp rose, and it's dominating here as usual, but there's the amber right behind, and finally a hint of grassiness and slight aquatic/metallic edge. This is a really interesting scent, although not something I think I could deal with smelling like all day, my desperate love of amber be damned.

It was starting to seriously bother me that I couldn't figure out what Zephyr reminded me of, and then this morning I cleaned out my tackle box of old -- sometimes REALLY old -- makeup and perfume. It's Bonne Bell Skin Musk. Like, exactly. So if you're one of the approximately three people who 1) love BBSM and 2) can't get out to a Walmart to pick up a bottle, BPAL's here to save the day.

It's strange -- Shoggoth is an intense scent, but actually kind of light; it isn't overpowering at all and has a medium amount of throw at best. Wet and for the first half-hour or it's VERY tart and a bit sharp, though I wouldn't say unpleasantly so. And the florals and musk are present, just not dominant. As it wears, the tartness becomes much less in-your-nose and I get more amber/musk. Yum!