lady_pandora

Rome makes me think of a house built of golden-yellow stone, with roses climbing the walls, lit by warm sunlight. This is just very, very lovely. The rose is the only note that jumps out and says "Hi, my name is Rose!" The other notes just sort of create a golden glow in the background, warm and comfortable and just plain happy. It fades quickly, as rose often does on me, but I don't mind reapplying! I need to get some of this at some point, methinks.

Oh, and The Apothecary! It's a very fresh green scent that makes me feel like I'm in a garden right after a rain.

Wow, this scent and my chemistry just do not get along. Wet, this reminded me a lot of an expensive department store perfume. It felt a little like something I might envision on an older woman, but not bad. About ten minutes after putting it on, it was more of an expensive department store men's perfume. I think this was the vetiver coming out to play; every time I sniff my wrist and think "Eau de Man!," vetiver is the culprit. And my skin is amping it like crazy, drowning out the rest of the notes. It's not as aftershavey as vetiver sometimes goes on me, but still pretty masculine, and my skin is amping it way too much. Ten minutes later, I smell like expensive men's cologne plus CIGARETTE SMOKE. I was expecting to see tobacco among the listed notes, and thought Beth had made a bit of an olfactory pun (smoking=death), but I can't find it in the list, so I'm guessing this is yet another unfortunate thing that vetiver does on my skin. Occasionally, I can deal with smoke in a perfume if I like the other notes enough, but in this case the smokiness is smothering the rest of the perfume as my skin amps it beyond all reason. It's kind of icking me out and giving me a headache, and it's so strong on me that I'm having trouble getting it off. I think this would smell pretty good on a man, or on someone who liked vetiver or had skin that didn't amp vetiver as much.

I was craving a wintry scent, and a friend graciously decanted me an imp of Talvikuu! Wet, this is PINE PINE PINEY PINE. Actually. kind of too much pine and kind of smells like a men's aftershave. I decided to wait it out and see what happened next. Over the next hour or so, a minty note slowly crept in next to the pine. Then, the oddest thing happened--my skin somehow found a warm, second skin note, almost a musk, somewhere in the oil. It never quite surfaces above the pine and mint, just sort of lurks there, but it's a very comforting scent. The second skin note is only evident right next to my wrist. The throw is mostly green, chilly pine and mint. My caveat is that the throw is "corrupted" a little by the fact that I still have the last vestiges of Cerberus on from this morning. And they mingle better than I might have expected. It's weird. Cerberus is my warm-blanket-and-cocoa scent and Talvikuu is the cold itself, but they're not really fighting each other and I kind of like the effect. The Patented Pandora Ozone Headache never shows up, despite the fact that reviews indicate that ozone is an ingredient in this oil. Maybe I've finally found an ozone I can wear. Then again, maybe it's because I'm only wearing a little bit and I'm not wearing it behind my ears or on my neck, but (literally) at arm's length Either way, though, I'm not complaining about the lack of headache. This scent kind of reminds me of road-tripping through the Rockies in winter, with al the evergreens draped with snow. It does fall on the masculine side of the spectrum, more so than my most-loved oils, and so I doubt I'll wear it frequently. But part of what I like about Talvikuu, paradoxically, is that it's so different from my usual BPALs and so it has a niche to fill, as it were. I think I'll wear this from time to time when I really want to embrace the cold rather than insulate myself from it with my usual warm ambers and stuff. As I write this, we're getting our first big snow of the year. It's supposed to be 6-12 inches by tomorrow morning. Seems quite fitting that I have this on.

I've heard that Lyonesse is close. Which is why I'm coveting Lyonesse at the moment.

I recommend Empyreal Mist for your damp green plant needs. I've also heard good things about Dublin. Megaera was bizarrely green and wet on me, but I think that was a chemistry fluke.

Le Serpent was given to me by a friend as a gift. I like violet (especially when I'm in a light, flirty, girly mood) and vanilla is usually a good bet with my skin, so while I'd never thought of combining the two, I figured Le Serpent would agree quite nicely with my skin. I wasn't disappointed. I can't really pick out the gardenia--I think it's blending in with the creaminess of the vanilla--but this is a lovely blend. The vanilla adds a rich roundness to the violet, making it softer and more mellow than other violet scents, like Marie. The only trouble is that it has little throw and little staying power on me.

Megaera is really, really green on me. I'm looking at the notes, and I'm trying to figure out how my skin conjured up this greenness from these notes, especially since I'm usually an amber amping machine. I'm guessing it must be orris. I'm not that familiar with the scent of orris; if I recall correctly, it's an iris root? *scratches head* Anyway, it smells pretty good, if a touch medicinal in a soothing sort of way, like an aloe lotion you put on when you have a sunburn or something. And the "green" quality works well with Meg being the Jealous One. I'm just not sure it's *me*... I get the idea it might be, like Undertow, the kind of scent I could wear when I had a headache.

This is a lovely, mellow, girly scent. I think it's perfect for the Lady in question. My skin loves honey, so that's the predominant note that comes out on me. I also get a whiff of rose and some other flowers I can't identify, and it also smells sort of milky, but thankfully without the mysterious ick I got from Milk Moon. Lovely, peaceful, and sweet.

*reads notes* OK, no wonder this smells like Sed Non Satiata. My skin amps dark musks and honey, so I'd get a big whammy of those out of both scents. This scent? Is love. Wet, I get mostly cinnamon, with a mellow but undefinable sort of sweetness underneath it keeping it from smelling like Red Hots. As this dries down, cinnamon stays around, but I also get ginger, and the yummy dark musk/honey combo that loves, loves, loves my skin. It's a lot like SNS, like I said, with the difference being that SNS has patchouli and Bengal has the spices, but the musk and honey are similar, and I get the same sort of yummy "nuttiness" from Bengal as I did from SNS as well. A definite keeper! It does go mostly honey after a few hours, but I can always reapply it!!!

Beth manages again to concoct a blend that smells good on me despite the presence of my No. 4 nemesis, black patchouli. (Nos. 1-3 being ozone, vetiver, and lemon, lol.) Wet, this smells "green." I can't pick out any notes; it just smells...planty. Herby. If that makes any sense. I'd resigned myself to thinking it was sort of "eh..."--then I smelled my wrist again ten minutes later. Oh. My. God. Again, I can't seem to pick out the notes and tell you exactly what is so amazing on me, but this is spicy and earthy and sexy as hell. I could have just sniffed my wrist all night long. I love, love, love this. Edit, six years later. I've had the wildest range of experiences wearing Desire, from my initial swoony reaction to the time I made the mistake of trying to wear it during my monthly and the patchouli acted up and made me want to yak. I felt like I'd finally gotten enough distance from both extreme reactions that I could retry the scent and see if it was worth keeping around. Desire starts out with a beautiful, sexy combination of the neroli and patchouli, with what smells like spices accenting it. I love it. It's a "compulsive wrist-sniffing scent." ...For about an hour. And then something in it turns to powder and wipes out the rest of the notes. I can't tell what note is going powdery. Maybe it's the musk? The powdery effect is most noticeable at my wrists, and not even just my mousepad wrist, but both of them. It stays truer at the neck, and over the next few hours I would occasionally get a waft of the neroli/patch combo if I turned my neck. That was nice. But to combat the powder at the wrists, I found myself reapplying it often to get back that sexy effect, and the constant reapplying got a little annoying. My overall impression of Desire is that it's like filmy, diaphanous lingerie that's really only meant to last long enough to be torn off. It's a great sexy pick-me-up to put on just before jumping the boyfriend. But it doesn't have the durability to be worn all day as an everyday item.

This one did not work on me at all. I got rotten fruit and cigarette smoke. I had to wash it right off. Sorry, lab! I guess I was just not meant to be Depraved...

In the bottle: Cinnamon madness! Wet: Red Hots, or Big Red gum. 100% cinnamon. Drydown: The cinnamon remained strong, but the musk note began to gradually rise to the surface. Dry: Musk and cinnamon, and they blended pretty well. My friend M. said it smelled great on me; I insisted it smelled like my grandmother. It's a weird quirk of some musk notes; they interact with my skin chemistry and smell just like my grandmother's perfume, which contained a lot of musk. M. insisted that it smelled good, but alas, smelling like my grandmother just doesn't make me feel sexy. I mean, she was a wonderful lady, but it doesn't mean I want to smell like her. I ought to get over this; it stands to reason that she and I would have similar body chemistry, seeing as we were related and I take after her a great deal. *sigh*

For a dark, rich orange scent, see if you can score some Haunted Palace via sale or swap. I love that stuff.

Lorelei would probably be good--haven't tried the others on your list, but Lorelei is a very fresh and green blend to me, and has lots of ylang ylang in it. I actually thought I hated ylang ylang until I tried Lorelei; I was more familiar with cheap drugstore ylang ylang, which smells awful. Lorelei introduced me to the joys of real, quality YY. She might also like Pannychis, if she can deal with the jasmine.

This smells exactly like a butterscotch candy on me. It's yummy, but maybe a bit too foody. I need to see what it's like layered with some other stuff.

I'm seeing a lot of reviews where this got dry and dusty, and it is with great witchy glee that I report that my fears of dusty perfume were not realized! This is a lovely, sensual scent; the orchid is dripping with rain and full of nectar. It's almost foody on me. Yum. I love these simple florals this time of year.

Ah, the "Chantilly Effect." See, my late grandma wore Chantilly. Lots and lots of Chantilly. I associate the smell very strongly with her, and as such, it's a very nostalgic and comfortable thing, while at the same time not really something I want to smell like most of the time. However, I think she must have passed her chemistry down to me. Sometimes, blends that contain both floral notes and either musk or incense notes, will randomly morph into my grandma's cologne on me. This is one of them. I loved this in the bottle. I loved it for the first 5 minutes on my skin. I loved it on someone else. It's such a lovely, seductive, incensey blend with a hint of floral, and something I could swear is lotus even though it's not listed. Yet on me? Chantilly. *smites body chemistry* I'm going to donate it to the friend it smells so yummy on.

Akuma smells just like a creamsicle on me. I actually *only* like it when it's 80+ degrees out.

I want to say this was a frimp from the Lab. I'm going through my imp box at the moment and trying out scents I've underappreciated or not tried yet. It's like getting a new shipment of BPAL, except without cleaning out my funds! On me, this is a bright, refreshing orange, with a slight touch of amber underneath to mellow it out. Compared to other BPAL orangey scents I've tried: --Less bubblegummy/candyish than Akuma --Stronger orange note and less prominent amber note than Forbidden Fruit --MUCH less amber than Haunted Palace; MP is an orange scent for summer, while HP is more of a fall/winter orange scent, if that makes any sense. This is a great scent for hot days, very "beachy."

This is a light floral with a slight citrusy edge--reminds me of grapefruit, or maybe a really subtle lemon. I know it can't really be lemon, because lemon amps up on my skin and turns to gross dishwashing liquid, while this citrus is light and fresh and effervescent. Yeah, effervescent is a good word for this scent. It makes me think of the colors white and silver, and of innocence and purity. It smells really good, though I don't know if I'm enough of a good girl to pull it off!

This starts out with the way-too-sweet cough syrup smell I get from most of the berry BPALs in the bottle. A few minutes later, it mellows nicely to a sort of "head shop" blend. You know the one. I can't pick out exactly what the notes are, it's just that scent you smell when you wander into a hippie store. Swirling mixtures of incense, etc. The plum is also there and quite pleasant, but not dominant. A very spiritual blend, great for meditation, etc.

Yay, got my Undies Monster!!! Thank you Lab! This is buttercream icing for the first five minutes, then dries down to yummy vanilla. GOOD vanilla, not the cheap drugstore lotion type vanilla. Just...yum. I could swear I'm catching a whiff of the saffron, too, though my friends couldn't smell it. I don't explicitly smell the rum, though the whole thing does kind of remind me of a tropical alcoholic beverage (pina colada or similar), so I bet it's lurking in there somewhere. No sandalwood, alas, but this is quite nice. Not overtly sexual, like one might expect of a scent called Underpants, but more of a mellow, get-drunk-with-the-girls-and-gossip sort of scent.

This was a frimp from the Lab. I read the notes before trying it, and was convinced I'd hate it because of the ozone. As it turns out, the ozone never reared its ugly head, and I do rather like this scent. However, I like it in a sort of disturbing way that guarantees I won't really wear it much. See, this smells just like this disastrous love affair I had a while back... First note is red wine, which is what started the trouble in the first place. It has an undernote of tobacco. At this early stage, the tobacco is more "pipe tobacco, before you smoke it" than "already on fire tobacco." The wine fades after a few minutes, leaving the mingled scents of leather and cigarette smoke (not pipe tobacco anymore). Which was, well, exactly what he smelled like. He smoked like a chimney and wore this amazing leather jacket... Well, I digress. Anyway, it reminds me way too much of him, and brings up thoughts I'm better off not thinking. I might just give it to one of my male friends, since it's definitely a guy scent. ETA: I held onto my imp and decided to wear it recently, hoping to use the smoke/leather combo to conjure up the sort of take-no-prisoners, no-B.S. energy this guy always projects, because I had some difficult people to deal with. I figured I could manage a few hours of smelling like him if it meant a little bit of extra moxie. Well, it worked for a few hours, but then the smoke and leather dissipated and left behind the wine and UGH, THE OZONE. I should have known my old nemesis ozone would appear sooner or later. Migraine time. *sigh* Maybe I should give this one away after all.

Both dragon's blood and amber love my skin like whoa, so this is a very good blend for me. I don't pick up much else in the blend other than these two notes, so if you like them you'll probably like Blood Amber, and if you dislike them you might want to keep well away. Sorry, this is going to be another one of those short reviews! Basically, this smells like dragon's blood and amber in equal measure, staying strong for hours without much morphing. (Your mileage may vary. Again, these are two of my skin's favorite notes.) I find it to be a very mellow, low-key scent, pleasantly agreeable without being in-your-face sexy or in any way distracting. This one is a good one for chilling around the house or a relaxed evening with friends. Definitely a "blue jeans" scent on me, not a "silks and satins" scent, if that makes sense. But very, very good to have around.