lady_pandora

I tried this on while hanging out with my friend "beanrua," whose nose is more sophisticated than mine, so you're going to get both of our reactions to what this oil did on me. I could smell the rum even with the imp closed, and when I first dabbed it onto my arm, that was the dominant note to my nose. She said she smelled dirt, but I couldn't make it out through the rum smell! I love rum, so this is a very good thing. It dries down to a scent of flowers and incense. I can't tell you what flowers I'm smelling, but beanrua says it's lilies. There is still a hint of booze but the dominant notes are the floral note and what I'd swear was church incense of some sort. It's not too different from Dia de los Muertos '04 after Dia's sugar note dissipates. Jazz Funeral is rounder somehow, more sensual, but they're similar in that both of them smell like incense and flowers on me. There is a dirt note, but it doesn't show up on me until many hours after application. beanrua said that it smelled "like New Orleans" on me, and that's certainly enough to make me cling to my imp for dear life! I don't know how often I'll be in the mood for this one, but I like it a lot.

YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES. I was worried about this one. The first time I tried it, it seemed to be teetering on the edge of too sweet, cloying, reminding me of why I got sick of Bilquis. I must have been having some kind of weird nose or chemistry issue, because I've worn it a gazillion times since then and never had that effect again. This is just amazing on me. The apple is juicy yet tart, with a bite, a true enough note that I can almost feel the pulp of the fruit between my teeth, and the hemlock and oleander provide a fresh, cool, herbal note. The opium manifests as a subtle sweetness. This scent became my signature "everyday" scent of this entire spring; every time I went to choose a BPAL for the day, I would spot this one and realize it was what I really wanted to wear most of all. I get lots of compliments with this one too! ETA: The very best moment of this one is actually after it's been on for hours and hours (as opposed to some oils that dwindle down to something less than their initial awesomeness). A bit of the apple still lingers while the opium goes smoky and musky. It's sexy as HELL.

Got this as a decanted imp from an awesome LJ friend. I shall have to do my best to forget that the corresponding painting is about suicide, because this oil is sex in a bottle. Not overtly and in-your-face, though--Lucretia is a classy floral on the surface and the sex is kind of an undercurrent. The violet and iris make it ladylike, while the amber and the vanilla musk combine to make me want to lick my wrist. And yet I can't really say it's foody. It's more...a floral that smells good enough to eat despite not being foody. Lucretia is Aeval's earthier sister, and I think she's related to Brides of Dracula too. And there's something about her that reminds me of Regan, though I can't put my finger on why. It's a mood thing. This oil is sneaky--it stops having much in the way of throw after about an hour, and then just when I forget I'm wearing it, I get the most sublime waft of scent out of the blue. Should have known I'd like this. Leaving aside the knife in the woman's torso, she looks a lot like me.

Deep dark geeky secret about why I wanted this particular Lunacy: I'm a big fan of the Kushiel's Legacy books. In the books, there's a winter solstice celebration called the Longest Night, and there is an immense masquerade ball held at Cereus House, which is essentially an opulent brothel. Somewhere between the name Long Night Moon and the listing of the cereus note, I was hoping this oil would evoke the sensuality and elegance of the Longest Night scenes in the series. It's definitely close. Long Night Moon, on me, is a ladylike, glam sort of floral, the kind that tends to make me think of old-time Hollywood goddesses. I'm not familiar enough with the various floral notes to tell you whether I can pick out the cereus or the moonflower; I keep thinking I smell orchid, and my boss said she smelled gardenia, but neither of those is listed so we may both be off base! I hoped for more musk than I got; it would have sexed it up a bit. But overall, I really like LNM. GC oils that have a similar "feel" to me: Shadow Witch Orchid, Wicked.

I was worried about this one. My experience with Opium Poppy was less than stellar, and I was worried this would turn hair-sprayish on me like Opium Poppy did. Yay, it doesn't! The poppy is a heavy, drowsy, slightly powdery note, just like the poppy incense I love, and it blends perfectly with the resin notes. I was guessing it was myrrh, but looking at the note list, it makes sense that it would be a sweeter resin, because this doesn't have the bitterness myrrh can have. There's something cozy about this scent. Sexy and mysterious, but also warm and comforting. I like it.

The one that literally smells like my grandmother's perfume is Psyche. You might dig Wicked, and maybe Morgause. But definitely Wicked.

I don't normally dig cakey scents, so when I tested a friend's imp of Fruitcake, I figured I probably wouldn't like it. The result was something like this, however: BOOZE BOOZE fruit BOOZE BOOZE cake BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE And I love booze notes, and the fruit works well on me, and the cake is subtle enough that I can deal. There was just enough cake that wearing it before breakfast made me hungry, but not so much that I smelled like a slab of cake. I smelled like BOOZE BOOZE fruit BOOZE, and I was happy.

Right after I first put this on my skin, I almost can't smell it at all. I get a very light whiff of floral and a hint of amber. My mad amber-amping powers kick in about fifteen minutes later, and the amber note begins to dominate. There's still a bit of floral going on. As it continues to dry, the amber starts to go baby-powderish. This never happens to me, so I'm WTFing a bit. Maybe it's a combination of the amber and the almond? The floral still brings up the rear along with something that's registering as a soft fruity scent, like just the tiniest hint of orange. The baby powder effect sticks around and so it's probably not one I'd be in the mood for all that often, but it's a gentle, comforting scent. You might like it if you liked The Lion.

I do pretty well with grape/wine notes, and this is no exception. Haloa was mostly juicy purple grapes on me, with maybe a hint of myrrh and no cake, and may as well have been Purple Phoenix's twin sister. Definitely evocative of the concept and quite a lovely scent.

Not entirely sure why this gives me such a strong impression of white wine. It smells boozy as all get-out in the imp, then goes on smelling like rose petals drowned in white wine. Then, my skin gobbles up the rose and it smells mostly like wine until it fades, which it does relatively quickly. Is there even a wine note in this, or is my skin on crack? ETA: This is the '05 version.

Windward Passage reminds me of nothing so much as a fresh, clean, slightly masculine soap, like Zest or Irish Spring. It's not at all bad or offensive, but it's not "me." I think this would smell amazing on a man.

This review pertains to Snow White '05. I hesitated to try this one because Snow White fans seemed to also be big fans of Milk Moon, which went cloying and gross on me. I am pleased to report that they pretty much smell nothing alike, at least on me. Snow White turns out to be a soft, delicate, but undeniably sensual floral with maybe a tiny hint of almond, and reminds me not just of Snow White but of the archetypal Maiden Goddess, innocent and lighthearted, and not cold but maybe a little aloof, like she'll just laugh and dance away if you try to catch her. (My personal association with this scent is with Blodeuwedd; the story involves a floral-scented candle I used to burn in Her honor years ago. I don't remember what flower it was, and I've never found anything that smelled like it since, until Snow White.) Not a lot of throw, but it sticks around forever and never does any unfortunate morphs on me. I like it a lot. ETA: I've figured out another thing this smells like. It smells like a really expensive deep conditioner that I adored but couldn't afford to buy regularly and have now forgotten the name of. Soft, floral, a little almondy but not Play-Dohish, and really comforting and expensive-smelling.

Posting here because I'm a bit baffled about my sandalwood headaches... I get headaches often from sandalwood blends, but it seems to only happen with products where the sandalwood has a soft, perfumey, almost incensey quality (Underpants, Hymn to Proserpine, B&BW Sensual Amber, and pretty much every sandalwood-scented incense stick i've ever smelled). There are other oils where the sandalwood smells more like a chunk of wood (Anne Bonny, Fenris Wolf), and these never seem to bother me. Are these two different types of sandalwood maybe? Or is it a matter of how it interacts with other components? I also don't get headaches from blends where I never actually smell the sandalwood (Brides of Dracula, Pannychis), so I try not to rule out trying oils just based on that note--because if I amp something else to the exclusion of the 'wood, or if it's the "woody" sandalwood and not the golden glowy kind, then it's no issue at all.

I tip it between thumb and forefinger, then dab on the oil from my fingertip. If I were buying for decant purposes, I'd probably get some q-tips so I didn't touch the bottle, but I haven't gotten into the formal decanting-for-sale-or-swap thing yet. I do decant the occasional imp for local friends, but they don't mind if I've touched the rim of the bottle, and I don't mind if they've touched their bottle when they imp me something. Then again, I've lucked out with most of the few LE purchases I've made, and not felt the urge to sell or swap any of them until...well, until last weekend. Angeronalia. And I touched the bottle while trying it. Oh well...if I do end up swapping it or swapping imps from it, I'll just make sure I mention that.

This was a frimp from the Lab. I generally do well with "canine" scents so I was looking forward to testing this one. Wet, the dominant note is the same juicy, very tangible wood note I got from Fenris Wolf, mixed with something green and maybe some spice. During the drydown it goes through a very floral stage. It was pretty overpowering and seemed unpromising, but lasted only about 15 minutes. After the floral recedes, this is a very warm, very comfortable blend of soft musk and some green plants that are registering with my nose as somewhat tea-like. The wood is in the background but still there if I look for it. It's very cozy, and while it doesn't smell like doggie to me, it has the same warm and relaxed feeling I get from snuggling with a dog. I like this very much. 4 out of 5. Try it if you like: Fenris Wolf (Coyote is a much more mellow doggie, but there's a resemblance.) ETA: This just in! I gave it to the boyfriend and it just BLOOMED on him in a way that it did not on me. Holy musk and leather and spices sexiness, Batman! It reminded me on him of what Mr. Jacquel did on me. Reader, I jumped him.

I have a confession to make. I'm a BPAL heretic. See, I never really tried Snake Oil before today. I'd sniffed it, sure, but that was back before I had much in the way of a nose for the oils, and I was experimenting with a friend's enormous stash at the time and had about fifteen oils in various places up and down my arms, so I didn't get a very good grip on what it smelled like. Evidently, the Lab decided I needed to rectify my error and sent me SO as a frimp. In the bottle, this smells strongly of patchouli and spices, maybe some sandalwood. As it dries down on my skin, I lose most of the spices, and end up with patchouli, amber, and vanilla as the dominant notes. When I was a newbie, I compared everything to O, but this one really is very reminiscent of O, except with patchouli added. Sort of...O goes to a head shop. Dry, the amber is definitely driving the car, with patchouli and vanilla cuddling in the back seat. (I'm a big amber-amper.) It's even more like O than it was before, and it's very warm and comforting. It's sort of gray and dismal out today and Snake Oil makes me feel like I've got the world's comfiest sweater on. I can't decide whether I want to stow this away and age it, or wear it all the time to bask in the wonderful amber note it has. Maybe I need to get some more, age one, wear the other. Thanks so much, Lab! ETA, the same imp aged 5 years: This is much more patchouli than it was before! And I think cinnamon, because this reminds me a lot of Sin. It's that same really sultry spicy patchouli feel. The sex has come out to play. Now I see why people age this stuff!

A frimp from the Lab. Thanks Lab! This scent is nostalgic as hell on me. There was a review of Sea of Glass a while back where someone said "this is what I thought I smelled like when I wore China Rain as a teenager." Well, Morocco is what I thought I smelled like when I wore Vanilla Musk as a teenager. VERY similar on my skin, except Morocco has better ingredients and doesn't knock me out with alcohol. It's a comforting yet sensual spicy vanilla scent. It remains to be seen whether the sandalwood will end up resulting in a headache. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But if it behaves, this may end up being a comfort scent par excellence for me. ETA: This is also a close cousin to Underpants, to my nose.

You might give Eden a try. B&BW lists: # Fragrance Top Notes: Fresh California Fig Fruit, Passion Fruit, White Peach # Fragrance Mid Notes: Vanilla Orchid, Sheer Jasmine, Muguet, Yellow Freesia, Coconut Milk # Fragrance Base Notes: Vanilla Bean, Fig Leaves, Caramelized Sugar, Maple, Velvet Musk The notes for Eden: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood. Between the fig leaves, fig fruit, and coconut, you might just get something close. Alas, neither of them really work on me so I can't say for sure, but I have friends who adore Eden and it's beautifully juicy on them. And now a brief threadjack: If you liked Very Festive Pomegranate last year, you totally need Fruit of Paradise. There's a familial resemblance between the two and if you liked the one, you'll probably like the other.

This had been on my to-try list for ages, and yesterday I finally got around to it. Oh my. This smells like Erzulie's, which is a voodoo store in the French Quarter. (BPAL fans who haven't been there, if you go to NOLA, you simply must go there. Beautiful store, and everything in it smells amazing in addition to having powerful energy in it.) Think "occult store smell" and then imagine the very best occult store you've ever smelled, and that's what I get from Spellbound. This is a gorgeous incensey rose scent. The amber ties the rose to a chair and keeps it from fleeing, so I continue to get rose from this scent hours after applying, which is rare for me. The amber and musk combine to smell like sacred incense. I keep thinking I smell nag champa, too, though it's not listed. I smell like I've just been doing ritual or magic. I LOVE this. Definitely big bottle territory. How did it take me so long to try this one? It may sound melodramatic, but I feel like I've been looking for this scent all my life. I can see how this is a Love Potion. It's not one of those scents that "smells like sex" or screams "sex" at the top of its lungs. This is the kind of scent where you just feel so amazing wearing it that you come across as sexy even if you're not trying.

When I realized my order would come right smack in the middle of my PMS week, during which patchouli notes usually turn to pure stank on me, I decided that if Angeronalia smelled good on me I'd review it right away, but if the patch went sour I'd wait and try it after shark week and then review it. I find myself in a predicament I hadn't considered: Angeronalia isn't working on me, and it has nothing to do with the patchouli. And everything to do with the lemongrass, aided and abetted by an unholy alliance between, I think, elemi and olive blossom. In the bottle, and wet on my wrist, blood orange and tangerine are the most prominent notes, and I was hoping they would stick around and team up with honey and patchouli to make an earthy, sensual blend. Unfortunately, I never get honey or patchouli, and the Lemon of Doom arrives all too soon and clobbers the other fruits into submission. Lemon seldom plays nicely with me. Voila, cleaning fluid smell. I had hoped lemongrass would behave better on me than actual lemon. (Well, at least it's a learning experience, right?) Underneath this astringent lemon scent, the elemi (which I looked up, and which apparently has a fennel-like scent) and the olive blossom seem to be combining to convince me that I'm smelling, not olive blossom, but actual olives. It smells like someone spilled olives on the floor and is mopping them up with lemon-scented floor cleaner. And, of course, it LOVES my skin and amps like CRAZY. Disappointed, I washed it off. And oddly, though it didn't all come off, the washing improved the scent. I seem to have washed off all the lemon but not the elemi, which is much more tolerable when it's not paired with the lemongrass. I think I might try to age this and see if the lemongrass dissipates at all over time. I'm intrigued by the stuff going on in the background of this scent and I think it could be a nice earthy blend if the lemon would calm down.

Wet: Chocolate and booze. Reminds me of drinking creme de cacao in my college dorm. *reminisces* Drydown: An earthy, sensual patchouli rises to the surface. I'm pleasantly shocked to see patchouli behaving itself this well at this TOM! The patchouli and the chocolate sound like an odd couple. but they're blending surprisingly well, and the effect is both sexy and comforting at the same time. Think "romantic evening with your beloved" sexy rather than "clubbing" sexy. It's a little like Sin at this stage, except with chocolate instead of cinnamon. Yummm. Dry: Alas, something fruity has eaten the patchouli for lunch and teamed up with the chocolate to turn the scent VERY sweet and candyish. It's not bad, just not as amazing as the chocolate/patch synergy of a little while ago. Still, I can definitely see myself being in the mood for this scent. I haven't decided if I need a bottle, but I'll hang on to the imp. Thanks Lab!

There was never any question about whether I would order this. Persephone is one of the deities I feel closest to, and I've been fascinated by her myth since I was a little girl. Add to that the fact that I love the scent (and taste) of pomegranates, and Fruit of Paradise was kind of a no-brainer. The very first thought that popped into my mind, upon opening the bottle and dabbing some of this awesomeness on my wrist, was "Very Festive Pomegranate!" I remember we had a thread going last holiday season about what BPALs were similar to Very Festive Pomegranate, a Bath and Body Works holiday LE. The first whiff was reminiscent enough that I ran to get the bottle of VFP body cream I've been hoarding all year, so I could compare. The result: VFP has more throw, but Beth's note is truer, darker, and more complex. But they're quite close, at least on me, so if you loved VFP last year (and I know there were other fans of it on this board), you absolutely cannot go wrong with Fruit of Paradise. Fruit of Paradise is...well, it's just lovely. This is definitely a wintry pomegranate scent, not light and juicy like the Excolo Persephone. There is some spice here. I can't put my finger on exactly what spices, but they add a sort of Christmassy tingliness to the blend. The oil does not morph much, and when it does, it's subtle. It feels like it's cycling, almost imperceptibly, between tart/bitter and sweet, as though Persephone's thoughts are wandering from her mother to her husband, and I'll leave it to you, and your personal interpretation of the myth, to decide which thought makes her happy and which makes her sad. There's a serenity to both the sweet and bitter phases, and an almost "mulled" quality which I think comes from the mystery spices. The only trouble with FoP is that it really doesn't have a lot of throw on me. Which means...well, I can see another bottle in my future, because this will need to be slathered pretty heavily.

I second Talvikuu. I'd love to second Snow Storm, but I haven't smelled it yet. *covets*

How about The Apothecary, from Illyria?

Mad Sweeney went all campfire-y on me. YMMV, though, a lot of people got straight whiskey!