lady_pandora

10 years in BPAL, and this is my first Lick It! I was headachey today and thought a minty scent sounded like just the thing. I'm getting less candy cane, and more peppermint-the-plant. I feel like I can smell those velvety leaves. It reminds me of the time I realized mint was growing wild in front of my house and made tea with it. It's pleasant and will be great for other times I have a headache. Keeping the decant. There's not a ton of throw, and it faded to a whisper on one wrist in about 1.5 hours, though I can still smell it on the other. Much later in the day, when I've nearly forgotten about it, I do get a little vanilla--it's faint like the rest, but sweet and yummy-smelling. ETA: It doesn't give me a cold sensation on my wrists, but when I brought them to my nose to sniff, I did get a cool sensation on my lips from it wafting there. (And no, I did not actually Lick It. )

Gooey apple cheesecake indeed! Wet, I get the apple cheesecake as a whole, with apple and "crust" and "cream cheese" all playing together. Once it dries, my apple-amping skin makes this mostly sweet, syrupy apple in the throw, while closer up there's a bit of "burnt cookies" note that I sometimes get from cakey blends (for example, Cthulhustollen does this too). But I don't actually mind all that much, as the throw is really nice and this is a sweet, comforting, fun blend for when you just want to smell yummy.

Like schneagl, I wondered if I was making up notes every time I sniffed this! I did catch a lot of fleeting scents and mental images, and I wonder what my experience would have been if I went in completely blind, without knowing Magnificent Autumn was supposed to morph a ton on purpose. Anyway, here are the notes I got during the first hour or so, mostly in order, but sometimes one from before would reemerge: Dark green plants, wondered if it was vetiver Mint A golden cologney thing Pine and ozone Leaf smoke Golden resin (sap?) Apple Bitter fruit rind Soft powdery musk And then my skin turns it into only the soft powdery musk from that point on. It reminds me a little of something from Avon my mom let me play with as a kid, and so it's nostalgic and comforting, but it's not really my choice of perfume now. I'd rather wear Samhain. However, Magnificent Autumn is a unique scent experience and worth trying. I won't need a bottle, but I'm glad I tried it.

When first applied, Yggdrasil is a big blast of manly mint. It doesn't smell quite like any specific mint I can pin down, but I think it can be explained by a mixture of pine and wintergreen to create a dark green minty impression. In this first stage, it smells like a men's grooming product, like aftershave. Gradually, the really screaming edge evaporates off, leaving a scent that is clearly still the same stuff (dark green mint) but less tingly and more gender-neutral. It smells like an aromatherapy product, like the dark-bottle stuff in B&BW. Really nice and medicinal at the same time. And then something comes out that I really, really like, eventually revealing itself as red sandalwood. It's joined by, I think, some other wood notes I can't identify, plus the pine is still there, and something...peppery? I'm not sure exactly what's ringing peppery to me, but it is. This is a really nice and calming scent that isn't quite my personality. I haven't quite made up my mind what to do with it: -Use it for aromatherapy, or meditation. -Give it to the boyfriend. -Give it to my Heathen friend who'd get more out of the symbolism. Anyway, it's quite well done and worth trying if you like minty and woody scents.

I like orange blossom, I like myrrh, and I guessed I would like Visions of Autumn IV. Turns out my instincts were correct--I like this a lot! This starts out with myrrh, verbena, and what smells at this stage more like orange fruit than orange blossom. The verbena registers as simultaneously minty and lemony to me. There are a few minutes of a medicinal smell during the wet stage, but there's the sense that there's something cuddly here if I can wait for it a bit. Gradually, the orange turns from fruit to blossom, and the verbena acts kind of topnotey and begins to fade. As it recedes, the nag champa becomes more prominent. The orange blossom/myrrh/champa combination is warm and cozy and a little unusual. I feel like there's a scent memory here, but I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, this scent is like an orange velvet blanket. I'm not sure I need a bottle, but I'm hanging on to this decant, and wearing it when I need some coziness.

The Witch-Bride starts out with a big whiff of what I think is narcissus; this note is a heady sweet nectary flower that's also in Darkness, though the version in Witch-Bride is better, I think, since it doesn't go through a baby lotion phase. Underneath that is a green note that I've smelled in a number of perfumes and always reminds me of celery. It's greenery, leaves and stems rather than flowers. It morphs then and something really heavy and bitter takes over. I wonder if this is hemlock; I think a much more subdued version of this might be in Poisoned Apple. Behind that I can still smell the narcissus and the green note. I can feel an acrid sensation in my nose and the back of my throat. Definitely evokes the concept of poison, of a witch's poison garden. It could be in the Rappaccini collection. At about 20 minutes, the big bitterness is fading and there's more of the celery thing. Then at about 30, something sharp comes out, kind of like when opium does the hairspray thing. A little while after that, there's a somewhat dry floral I think is wisteria. Still the sharp floral and the celery. My nose is still burning. I washed this off at about the one-hour mark. It might well do something amazing after that, but something in here is an irritant to me and feels burny in my nose. It's a big decadent floral with a "poison" vibe and could be great on the right person. It's not for me, however. The closest GC to this that I've experienced is Darkness (which works better on me).

2014 version. When I first put this on, I got apple and what I thought was cranberry, though it'd not listed, and I'm guessing the cranberry impression was created by the apple or the orange interacting with the spices. The cranberry impression is fleeting, and this becomes mainly apple/orange/cinnamon. Lemon zest adds a little tartness. Once in a while, if I really go hunting for it, I can smell what I think might be the butterscotch--except my nose does something weird with the accord and I smell white chocolate instead. Clove comes out more as the apple/orange/cinnamon fade. It is kind of potpourri-y. This would be a flat-out amazing room scent, and I plan to try to use it as such. On me, I prefer Fearful Pleasure and Samhain.

Vetiver has sometimes gone really wrong on me, namely smelling like ciggy smoke, but it so much depends on what it's combined with that I've also stopped avoiding vetiver blends on principle. Sloth was my "gateway vetiver"--I have always liked myrrh and it rounds out the vetiver so nicely there, so it's green instead of acrid. I also learned to be OK with the smoky version when it fit the concept, as in Djinn, which smells like smoke but is meant to smell like smoke. The Weenie The White Witch lists vetiver as a note, but darned if I can find it in there. And a few years ago I'd have passed it up entirely just for mentioning it.

I love Sin, but I get no sandalwood from it--it's all cinnamon and patch on me! My current favorite sandalwood is Mini Magdalene. I'm all over the place as far as whether I amp sandalwood. It's pretty much all I got from Some Strangeness in the Proportion, but I can't even smell it in Sin (as mentioned) or in Jezebel, though I like both those scents.

I've needed this scent all my life. It's really seasonal and not for every day, but I'll be getting a lot of use out of this when fall rolls back around. I get primarily patchouli and spiced apple--it's more toward apple pie than cider on me, actually, syrupy sweet. Most of the throw is apple, while close to the skin it's a combo of the apple and the patch. The earthy patch keeps it nicely grounded and sets it apart from my massive pile of other apple scents (yes, I loves me some apple scents). I don't get much in the way of the woods--if they're here, the patchouli is subsuming them. I might try a layer with something like Djinn, just to see what happens, because I do associate autumn strongly with woodsmoke. But this is just amazingly beautiful.

I was really touched by the story behind Hearts for Ghost Friends and knew I had to try it. I think Lilith understands more about the connection between the living and the dead than most adults, myself included! Right out of the vial I get a strong blast of magnolia, but that quickly fades to leave a dominant floral note I can't identify. It reminds me of some lily scents I've tried, though that's not listed here. It reminds me of another perfume oil I have, a non-BPAL, that has carnation as its only listed note in common with Hearts for Ghost Friends. But carnation is usually said to be spicy, and this doesn't register as spicy. I'm tentatively thinking it might be oleander. But I don't know. Anyway, it's a soft lush floral note, and I think I can sniff a little rose and white musk underneath it. I can definitely see this as a mournful scent and as a NOLA scent. (I'm in the middle of my usual winter reread of The Witching Hour, and I think this scent would be at home in some scenes of that book, such as Deirdre's funeral or even just some of the garden scenes.) It does have moments where it reminds me of something my grandmother might have worn, but as my grandmother is among my ghost friends, this is a feature and not a bug. Very evocative of the concept, and definitely an oil I'll wear when I want to honor the dead. ETA: A ton of staying power too. It's still going strong in the morning, still mostly that big unknown flower, now backed up by frankincense in place of the rose and musk.

I made sure to order on Black Friday because I wanted Seven Herbs Charm for its magical properties. What I didn't expect was to also really like the scent, especially after the reviews started coming in and saying "lemon." I figured, shrug, I'll anoint my money with it or something. Instead, this blend dragged me kicking and screaming into liking it while I flailed around shouting "But I don't even LIKE lemon!" It starts out with a lot of lemon scent and something creamy and sweet underneath, which turns out to be vanilla, but isn't really evident as such yet. I kind of get the lemon bar association, but it also makes me think of a really nice creamy lemon soap, and also I think I had a doll that smelled like this as a kid. Maybe I had the lemon Strawberry Shortcake doll? I don't remember, but this is really comforting and nostalgic in a way that lemon often isn't on me. Over the hours it shifts from LEMON and vanilla toward VANILLA and lemon, and if anything, it's even nicer in its later mostly-vanilla stage. It kind of smells like half of Dorian. So if you like Dorian, you'll probably like it, but if you have Dorian already, you probably don't need to go on a mad hunt for Seven Herbs Charm now that it's passed. I probably smell like dolls. (I don't really mind.) I also got some killer deals at the grocery store while wearing it. I'll definitely get this one out when I need a burst of luck or prosperity mojo.

I wasn't really expecting Fettered in the Shackles of the Drug to be so...bright. Especially in the beginning. At first dab, I was thinking "creamsicle!", and it calmed down a few minutes later into something more like a sweet orangey shampoo. The neroli here is really sweet and bright on me, kind of like what I remember of Akuma (which, admittedly, I haven't smelled in a long time). When this note evaporates, what it leaves behind is a soft, faint opium scent. It hangs close to the skin with little throw, but it's that really niiiice opium note that smells like powdery poppy incense, not hairspray. I can kind of make out anise if I really go looking for it, but it's not immediately apparent. I like this, probably more as a summer scent. I think I'm going to stow it away till it's hot out, at which time (a) I'll appreciate its citrusy brightness more, and ( maybe a little aging will have lent it a little more throw and staying power. It's not at all what I expected (I think the gothiness of the story "Ligeia" had me expecting more gloom than any of the Ligeia oils I've tried have possessed), but it's extremely pretty and agrees well with my chemistry. ETA: What do you know, I can still kind of smell the opium this morning. So it actually does stick around, but is really faint the whole time. My skin is weird. Edit 5/23/19: Wow does this age interestingly! There's still a little citrus here, but aged Fettered is very much a spice scent. I get mostly the anise and some opium smoke.

Sheol is a blend I've long procrastinated trying, simply because I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the ingredients. I finally decided to order an imp after reading another forumite's passionate love of it. This review will contain some guesswork, and a lot of hedging comparisons to other things. The dominant note when it's wet is sort of a sharp lemony floral. When I was a kid, we had this hollow spindle for the toilet paper that had crystals of air freshener in it. That's what this reminds me of. It's also the note that sometimes gives me pause in Brides of Dracula. They have almost nothing in common, so I'm pointing a tentative accusatory finger at lily. I don't even think it actually smells bad--it's just an off-putting scent memory of something that I think probably smells just fine, objectively. At about 30 minutes, there's a split between the throw and the on-skin scent. On my skin, the air freshener is still there along with something kind of fizzy, reminiscent of the hedione in She Whose Handmaiden Was Love. The throw is simply gorgeous, a nuttyfruitygolden glowy thing that puts me in mind of one facet of a favorite, Bijoux Y'ha-nthlei, and comparing those two note lists, I'm coming up with the heliotrope plus probably the labdanum, since I know that's used in amber. BPALs normally take about an hour to reach their full promise on me, but Sheol actually takes a little longer--it was at about 1:20 that I noticed the shift. Oh, hello, copal. I most recently smelled and liked this in Gas Lamps' Flare. In the throw, it adds a beautiful incensey layer to the nuttyfruitygolden thing. On the skin, it's intoxicatingly smoky and also a little sweet, and all but drowns out the air freshener note. I...actually think I love this. It ends up so amazingly beautiful, and it tells its story perfectly--here are these bright things, and in comes smoke to turn out the light (and thankfully, not all of the light; the thing I think is heliotrope is still around). I haven't quite figured out what to wear it for yet. It seems too carefully crafted to be a casual fragrance and too odd for a lot of formal events. But I'll figure something out.

I told myself I could have one Phoenix oil, and the one I settled on was This World, Where Death Reigns. I love rose/resin combos, and it has a simple note list with no death notes in it, so it seemed a safe choice. It actually takes about an hour, on me, to really start behaving nicely. Right out of the bottle, I got...a cleaning product smell? Noooo! I couldn't imagine what was causing this, and was so bummed. About ten minutes later, it seems to start getting a few things figured out, but still doesn't smell like rose and myrrh. If I didn't know what notes were in it, I'd have guessed some kind of bitter wine note, or maybe raisins? It had me scratching my head. Oh. But. After about an hour it's amazing. It's definitely rose and myrrh. Very simple, very beautiful, and a little mournful in a way that reminds me of O Love and Time and Sin. And it doesn't really morph after that point either. I normally don't like oils that are annoying in their wet stage, but this is just so lovely once it dries. I'll just have to remember to put it on a little while before I need to be somewhere. I'm really glad I took the chance on this.

A few years ago, I'd never have even given The White Witch a chance, so sure was I that vetiver was bottled doom. And I would have missed out on something really great--I love The White Witch, and I don't even smell a smidge of vetiver anyway. I'm so glad I got a bottle of this. The dominant notes on me are the red musk, rose, and pomegranate. The throw is incensey, while close to the skin I get the juicy pomegranate on top of some red musk and a really lovely rose cloud. The amber, I think, is doing the same thing on me that it does in Spellbound; it doesn't really make itself known, but adds a warm roundness to everything and also sort of acts as a fixative, getting the lighter notes to stick around longer than they ordinarily would. Comparing oils to a fave like Spellbound is kind of a double-edged sword; if it smells like that, I like it, but if it smells too much like it, it's redundant. White Witch really hits the sweet spot. It's enough like Spellbound to be in the same scent family, but it's distinct and makes its own name for itself--plus I think this is a different rose note, a lighter one. I think it's the pom that does it. I think I'll be wearing this a lot. And it's not heavily seasonal at all--you can wear this year-round. It's also not dark or gloomy. If I were to associate it with a color, it would be pink.

This isn't an androgynous story but pops to my mind when I think of androgynous scents. It's one that doesn't work on me, but The Sea Foams Milk. It reminds me for all the world of one of the CK unisex fragrances. I'd also agree with Dorian, and of course the story was written by Oscar Wilde who was nonconforming in so many ways.

Darkness has several really distinct stages. I was out and about for a lot of the day and didn't really time any of this, so any times are estimated. When it first goes on, it's Johnson's Baby Lotion, not the powder but specifically the lotion. Incredibly so. I would not have known I remembered what that lotion smelled like until Darkness brought it back. I think this note is the narcissus, because in the next phase, the narcissus takes center stage and I can smell kind of a continuity between the two, like it goes from baby lotion to a lush, almost drinkable floral that also still kind of smells like baby lotion. But adult baby lotion. Somehow. In this phase, it reminded me of some of the Conjure Bag oils for love, in that like them, it's the kind of perfume a woman might have worn to be sexy 100-150 years ago when synthetic ingredients hadn't been invented yet. Opium gets its star turn next. On me, sometimes opium smells like hairspray and sometimes more like a powdery incense. In Darkness, it kind of does both at once. And it's not unpleasant. A little more hairspray than I'd like, giving it kind of a 1980s vibe, but not bad. I can still pick up the lotion/narcissus in the background at this point. At about 6 hours, narcissus is gone and myrrh comes out to play. There's still a dusting of opium hanging around too. And then myrrh is the last note left, unsurprisingly as it's a resin, and I can still smell a little of it the morning after. What I was going to say about Darkness was that I like it, but it's kind of Event Horizon's little sister--I feel like the Lab was aiming at the same thing with both oils, and that EH is darker, richer, and more perfected. And I still think that, but, um, I also had a really good time last night , and so I kind of want to praise Darkness's smexy powers. I'll have to try it again sometime. For Science!

I didn't actually mean to test this last night. I'd tested Some Strangeness in the Proportion earlier in the evening, it had mostly worn off, and now I was just sort of milling around the apartment and thought, "Hey, why don't I put on one of the other oils in this order, just for kicks." Blacker than the Raven Wings of Midnight smelled the best in the vial, so on it went. Initially, wet on my skin, there was something almost minty going on. I then proceeded to forget about it, wander into another room, and then WHOOMP, I was hit by a gorgeous cloud of awesomeness. It was mostly black tea (with no lemon, and lady_pandora sings for joy), with sweet incensiness in the background. It's a little smoky too. Like Strangeness, it's really well-blended, and it's hard to pick out all the notes at a casual sniff because they're harmonizing so well. This is a sophisticated lady, but she's kicking back. I can't shake a mental image of an alternate plot for "Ligeia," where Lady Li sits smoking in an elegant tea shop, dishing with Rowena about how that mopey boy was never really worth it anyway, and they should go paint the town. The black tea is the earlier stage on me, and then the later stage is mostly the patchouli and vanilla. The patchouli is so soft and round, not dirty at all like patch can sometimes be. Hell, it had the biggest excuse in the world to be dirty, given that the scent is based on a scene where a woman rises from the dead, but it's more of a sexy skin scent here. It blends so well with the vanilla that you can't really tell where one ends and the other begins. I can't make out sandalwood as a separate note. I mean, I don't doubt that it's here, but I can't pick it out, a far cry from Strangeness, where I amped it hard. What's most surprising about Raven Wings is how comfortable it is. I'd been expecting something really heavy and oppressive, again, based on the scene from the story as much as anything else, but instead this is just so damn wearable. It's a goth tea house in the beginning, and cuddly in the end. And more than a little decadent. And relaxing. When I went to bed last night, I didn't even feel the urge to put on my usual sleep oil; I just curled up with my Raven Wings-scented arm close to my face and snuggled in. I really like this. I really like Strangeness too, but intuition tells me I'm going to wear this one more.

When I first opened the vial, I smelled a big whiff of white sandalwood. Some years back, I decided white sandalwood gave me headaches and quit wearing it (which involved giving away my supply of Underpants and Hymn to Proserpine, for which I've kicked myself more than a few times, ha). So I was a little hesitant as I put it on, though I've wondered in the intervening years whether the headaches were really coming from stress or some other factor. Here's another piece of evidence toward that conclusion: Some Strangeness in the Proportion is not giving me a headache. Woohoo! Wet on my skin, I get a lot of the sandalwood and also some vanilla. I can't really "smell" the pink pepper, but I think it's there as a tickle in my nose, a milder version of what happened recently when I tried She Whose Handmaiden Was Love. This pepperiness drops out quickly, though, and after it's gone the scent doesn't morph much on me. What this settles down to is a really lovely golden cloud of mostly sandalwood. The throw, especially, is dominated by the sandalwood, while I can smell more vanilla as I get my nose closer to my arm. This is not a foody vanilla at all--like if I compare it to Mini Mag, which I was wearing earlier, the vanilla note in Mini Mag is way foodier (and Mag isn't really even all that foody). There are occasional wafts of a lovely sweet resin that I think is the labdanum. I am not yet all that educated in oud, and I can't tell you if I smell it or not. It's all really well-blended and sophisticated. This is one of those BPALs that smells like it could be really expensive. It also was really, really familiar to me, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out what it reminded me of. I finally had to dig through my old reviews to figure it out. Aha! I think it was Mr. Ibis that smelled a lot like this on me. For reference, in Ibis, I amped the white sandalwood, vanilla, and musk; and like this, it was a non-foody vanilla. This is really beautiful. As of right now, I think I'm probably good with the imp, but this has the potential to age really well and I may be DISO it on the forums a year from now, lol.

I've really been enjoying When Thy Will Stung the World. It won't really fit heatherovka's question, because to me it is a little smoky, but I really love it after the first wet stage. it starts out a little overwhelming to my nose but ends up mostly DB and red sandalwood and a little coffee, mmm.

Frimp from the Lab Kyoto starts out mostly anise (licorice) when it's wet, then as it dries, the cherry blossom comes out and blooms next to it. I get no sandalwood. The blend is soft, pretty, delicate, and not me, but I think I know someone who'd like it.

So, hedione/hedoine is apparently a synthetic compound that is derived from, and resembles, jasmine. I apparently don't amp it to the exclusion of all else, the way i do regular jasmine, so hallelujah for hedione! She Whose Handmaiden Was Love is an unusual blend, and its start wasn't promising. Smelling it in the vial, I almost didn't want to try it on, and the pepper note gave me a burning sensation in my nose when it was wet. Along with this burny note, the early stage smells like a combo of citrus and jasmine. The hedione starts to come to the fore and is a little powdery, actually reminding me a bit of the Follow Me Boy I tested yesterday, and the peppery kick stays around. I can't so much smell this pepper; it's only present in my nose's physical reaction to it, if that makes any sense at all. When I sniff too close to the skin, I feel a sneeze coming on. It continues to develop, and the scent close to the skin remains jasmine/pepper while the throw is more frankincense/rose. I do love the combination of frankincense and rose, and this is really nice, even if I do have other oils that do this. But at first, these two combinations don't seem to mesh. It's like I'm wearing one perfume on my arm and the other hovering around me in the air. And then--this takes a little over an hour--suddenly it works. It all comes together. It's frankincense, a misty floral blend that doesn't really smell like any particular flower, a sort of bubbliness, and a little bit of pepper that is finally working as a perfume note rather than as an irritant. And that's where it stays. It's really pretty and sexy. Unfortunately, it's not very strong on me. I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. I really love the dry stage! But it takes a while to get there, and it's kind of nose-irritating along the way.

This starts out smelling like straight up jasmine to me in the imp, and I'm thinking, if it's this jasminey before I even put it on, there's no hope for my jasmine-amping skin to do anything else with it. But in fact it did morph, and it makes me wonder if maybe the jasmine note in Follow Me Boy isn't actual jasmine but maybe night-blooming jasmine or some other similar-smelling flower. My amping power is usually so absolute that its absence here is weird. So anyway, when it's wet, lots of jasmine and an occasional whiff of lemon. After about 10 minutes, a powdery note starts coming in, maybe with rose, but it's strongly reminiscent of baby powder. The lemon gradually fades out, leaving a combo of the jasmine and the powder. After about an hour, the powder smells like it might be partially made of honey. In the drydown, Follow Me Boy is rather faint and mostly powder. This wouldn't be one of my first choices as a perfume, but I've been getting in touch with things magical this year, and so I'm wanting to hang on to Conjure Bag oils that come my way. And unlike, say, High John, I would wear this as perfume even if it wouldn't be my first choice. It's in the "pleasant and inoffensive" category for me. I'm hanging on to it in case I decide to try it out magically.

In the bottle, wet on my skin, and for hours thereafter, Hell of Great Heat smells like one thing to me: GC Sin. I think there may be some differences, but I don't have any Sin here to compare, and I can't see past the similarity. I get that same warm cinnamon note and the wet funkiness (this sounds gross, but it's not, and I can't think of another way to describe it) of the patchouli underneath it. It doesn't morph and doesn't fade. It's Sin. This is actually pretty handy, as I've always liked Sin and am out of it. And when I run out this decant of Hell of Great Heat, I don't have to hunt for more--I'll just buy more Sin from the Lab! ETA: It's still here this morning and it's still Sin. I smell amazing.