faifai

Very clean and fresh, and no red wine in sight. Smells herbal and...kind of the way the plants outside smell after it has rained. Amazing! And probably very good for summer, to counteract the ultra-stickiness of 110º. ETA: ugh. over time, the red wine came out more and more and now it smells like a slightly soapy red wine. it turns my stomach every time i even open the imp. i'm swapping it away ASAP.

Gorgeous! Light berry/grassy/watery smell, no soap in sight. It's absolutely fresh and clean and I bet the SO would love it on me (he's a big fan of perfume that doesn't smell like perfume). This is the prettiest "pink and green" BPAL I've tried yet. Perfect for spring. Only problem is, it is next to no throw or lasting power on my skin. But that's probably just me and my crazy skin, because it sucks up allllllllllll aquatics/grassy-herbal/berry scents in moments.

Nuclear Winter smells clean and energizing in a cool, slushy ice kind of way. I also hear good things about Moxie and Detox from the Panacea line. I think something soft and gentle like Snow White and Obatala would also work , so it doesn't come out in a cloud and choke you once you get the blood flowing. Anything really foody for me is a big fat no during workouts--I don't want to smell like cookies when I'm working out, it makes me want to eat cookies and undo all my work!

Storme--Shango from the Excolo line is very fruity! Mi-Go went foul on me (damned jasmine) but yeah. Shango!

Lick It is an LE that smells like candycane. Plenty of people sell decants of it for around $5 shipped. If you have a livejournal, you can buy decants of the Monster Bait scents for around $5 each also from people on the alchemylab community. They're not that much more expensive than a regular imp. Bon Vivant from the GC smells like fizzy strawberries. The Hamptons has a fresh candy sweetness to it, and Elegba has a butterscotch thing going on.

Far better than Swank on me (Swank went all weird and candle/perfume-y). This is sweet, vaguely berryish, and crisp smelling. Good for summer!

Something about this scent disturbs me, but I can't figure out why. Perhaps it's bringing up bad memories, because it does remind me of something but I can't recall what, exactly. In the imp this smells like vanilla. As soon as I put it on, however, it transformed into this strange talcum-y scent. Not the way scented talcum smells, but rather the way it "feels", if anything. Almost creamy, but more like a fuzzy, pwdery feeling. It reminds me of rocks. Like, the smell you get when you're standing near a stone fountain in the dead of summer. Yet the feeling I get when sniffing it is distinctively "cool". Not like, say, Antique Lace, which has a creamy but warm feel. Black Opal reminds me of sitting a house that hasn't finished, the foundation of it, and spilling a bottle of water on the cement. I think this scent bothers me because it never warms up with my skin, like its cousin Antique Lace. Rather, it just sits on top of my skin, and the throw is uncomfortably strong. Although it gets an A+ for uniqueness, its wearability on me rates about a C-.

When I put on Snow White, I don't smell anything at all.

I get a weird mix of tea and milk and linen. Except it smells like the linen was washed in the milk and then someone spilled a cup of tea on the semi-rancid linens. Greeeeat. As it develops on my skin, it gets creamier and thicker until it feels like a big cloud rising up from my elbow to smother me. Maybe I should try this on my clothes? But on my skin, it isn't working too well.

Saint-Germain, Whitechapel, and Neo-Tokyo are all a bit masculine but light enough to actually wear. Pele seems like it'd work for a Happy-esque scent. It's..."muguet and Hawaiian white ginger enveloped by warm, damp tropical blooms." Ginger and flowers and stuff.

Rose scents and I don't get along. If it's rose + something warm/spicy, though, I can handle that. Harlot jumped to the top of scents that amaze me, just because I can actually wear something I thought I'd hate. And Whip does this, too. The rose is stronger than the leather on me, but both are present. The leather serves to warm up the rose on my skin. Whip is my nice sweater and dress pants scent. On me, it somehow manages to smell sophisticated but not mature, which is rare for such a floral scent. Clean and classy.

This reminds me of a creamier, more intense version of Dreamland from DiMV. I'm wearing it today for the first time on a day that I got sick (I hardly ever get sick, so it was a strange coincidence). The oil is very strong, yet gentle--somehow it reminds me of the day I went to the spa and had all those yummy scented salves and lotions and balms melting into my skin. I was definitely scented enough for people near me to smell it, but it was a soft, clean, warm scent, not really "perfumey" at all. White Light really is the scent of "calm," although I'm not sure I need it as much as some people.

Aaaah finally one of the recent LEs I bought actually works for me! Dreamland, which I'd been hoping would be my everyday "pretty" scent, ended up being kind of nondescript. Spirits of the Dead is more of a summer, not spring scent, Smut was all-out nastiness, and Red Lantern got lost in the post or some such. But anyways. Khajuraho reminds me of incense and sweetness--maybe it's because I'm Indian or whatever, but it reminds me definitely of something "blissful, euphoric" and all-out wonderful, like a chaste yet completely romantic "love scene" from a Bollywood flick. Very different and yet not as heavy as other similar, "exotic" scents. Most resins/incense blends go too heavy on me, and become totally unwearable as soon as the weather heats up. Not so with this! My Khajuraho and I will be very happy together.

Smells very very soft and delicate. All I seem to get is lavender + random soft florals/something sweet. My skin seems to eat it up, too--I dabbed a whole lot on and less than five minutes later I can't smell anything there. Curious! But a lovely calming scent, and the only thing I find sad about it is its lack of throw/lasting power.

This smells creamy and off-white, if it had a color. Off-white lying next to something pink. I can't pick out any particular flowers, it just smells pretty and dreamy--reminds me of the day my lover and I fell asleep on the soft, lush green grass in a park, with gentle sunlight all around us. It automatically brings up sweet, hazy memories like that. This is a good choice for everyday, as its very soft and won't offend others. Smells floral but light--a rare combo!

Oooh, this smells like a more citrusy version of Kumiho! Same abysmal lasting power, but since I have a bottle, it doesn't matter! This reminds me of iced tea in its "tea-ness". Iced tea with lime or something. Lemony lime? I don't get (thankfully!) any woods. Just something fresh and...dare I say it? Zesty? It doesn't smell shuddering or white or dry to me--more juicy, a vibrant yellow-green, but subtle enough for everyday wear.

Good Lord this smells awful on me. It's ALL musk and it's completely unpleasant at first. Like you walked into a stripclub/burlesque house and learned that they run a fine child-labor based sweater emporium out of the basement, because the scent wraps around you like a super-soft, made of possibly-illegal-materials sweater. Then it fades to the scent I imagine said fuzzy sweater (soaked in sex musk and faint traces of smoke) would leave on your skin. Thankfully, I know someone who likes smelling like she just got laid, so I'll give it to her. I really wanted this one to work on me, but it's just too loud. ETA: it also has extreme staying power. why do the ones i don't like always last so freakin long?

Evening Star (from DiMV) is supposedly really classy and cool/sophisticated/etc. Dreamland (from DiMV) is very romantic-floral, like a super gorgeous version on Marc by Marc Jacobs. Snow White I guess would smell delicate and understated on the right skin (on me it smells kind of like plastic). Antique Lace is a smooth vanilla but a cool, not warm vanilla. Basically all the less-spicy roses (Rose Red, Peacock Queen, Pride, London, Moon Rose) would fall into the classy, sophisticated group. If you like soft florals, Juliet is light and pretty. Oh! And Stardust. Very glam!

This starts out as marzipan + something very harsh and candle-y smelling. Then it fades to...ivory soap? What?! My skin must be insane, but this honeyed almonds spices scent turns into soap on me. Soap + marzipan. All I wanted was the marzipan...looks like my search for a marzipan-esque scent continues.

Yet another Yule LE which smells awful on me. It smells like a "turned" version of Bath and Body Works Rice Flower and Shea (which I love). Something about this makes my stomach get upset when I smell it. Creamy and somewhat green, kind of plastic-y, and very not for me. Maybe I should stick to Antique Lace after all for a creamy white scent.

Ugh, ick. This smells terrible on my skin! And I was so excited for it too. On me it is spices and not a bit of sweetness and something that smells like floury dough. It's ok as a room scent. But I don't have particularly good memories of gingerbread scents or whatever, so off to the swaps it goes.

Revisited! ‘The Devil’s Bake Sale’ has come back to town. Buttered rum? Eggnog? This smells like something buttery-rich, sweet and alcoholic. And since I don't drink, I don't have a damned clue as to what it smells like, exactly. But it's delicious--reminds me of holiday parties and the sweet alcohol drinks they have that are more like a dessert than anything. Also, it doesn't smell like sugar cookies. AT ALL. It smells better than that!

This doesn't smell like candy corn at all on me. Something creamy and sweet, but way more cinnamon-y than actual candy corn. It's nice and does remind me of Halloween/fall/holidays, but I wanted candy corn! On my sisters it is something pale and creamy and barely there. I'll try it as a room scent.

Also I heard that the LE June Gloom is all lemon--some say Pine Sol, some say lemonade. Lustration from the Panacea line is lemon and honey.

Baron Samedi or Port-au-Prince, both have a strong bay rum component [in fact, Baron Samedi is THE BPAL version of bay rum]. Delicious!