lady_pandora

(I love the questions that involve putting a color to a smell--my brain works like that all the time, and so these questions are fun!) Blood Amber=red and gold Sed Non Satiata=reddish brown Sin=reddish brown Blood Lotus=red and pale yellow Lilith=dark purplish red Khephra=golden brown Cerberus (discontinued)=dark red and brown

Hecate is definitely very almond! It's like a shot of amaretto. I've also seen Black Phoenix recommended for almondy goodness, though I haven't tried it. You might want to see if you can find any Cerberus for sale or swap. It doesn't say cherry in the description, but on me and lots of others, it was like a chocolate-covered cherry.

Ozone? No wonder this was faintly headache-inducing. I think I have a bit of an allergy to ozone notes, whatever's in them. I didn't pick out the ozone until I read the Lab's description--though it does make sense, now that I recall the headache. What this really made me think of, actually, once it hit my skin and morphed like crazy, was something like Emeraude or one of the other heavy floral perfumes my grandmother used to give me for Christmas. Alas, I think this one does not work on my skin. It's green and sharp and could very well be interesting on someone else.

Persephone, Forbidden Fruit, Marie, Empyreal Mist...I'm sure I'll think of more later!

When the Lupercalia update came out, I could only afford one 5ml. Based on the listed notes, it came down to a choice between Khajuraho and Smut. I finally chose Smut. Now that I've tried Khajuraho, I must say, I'm still glad I picked Smut, which does this amazing almost-second-skin thing on me, but I wouldn't have been amiss with Khajuraho either. I'm not sure I should be trusted to pick out the individual notes in this--I could have sworn I smelled jasmine, yet it doesn't seem to actually be there--but this is lovely. This is what I wanted to get from Pannychis when I first read the description ages ago--a sensual floral with a hint of incense. Pannychis is lovely but my skin amps the jasmine and drowns the other notes; in Khajuraho, I get this beautiful, sexy floral with hints of incense. YAY!!!!

This is a big fat slab of chocolate cake. While this is an amazing facsimile of a big fat slab of chocolate cake, I think it may be too foody even for me, the Honey- and Sugar-Obsessed One. But oh, did it ever make me crave chocolate cake.

This one actually goes really honey-ish on me, or at least that was the way it smelled to my nose. A friend remarked that it smelled a bit like coconut! Anyway, it was this warm sweetness that reminded me a lot of O (maybe O is a similar type of vanilla and *that's* what I'm recognizing here and not the honey? I sometimes fail at picking out notes, but I can usually tell you what they remind me of.) As it dries down, I get a subtle whiff of floral. It's a floral I can't identify--but then, I'm unfamiliar with stephanotis. It's a youthful, almost effervescent floral note, very pretty and sort of flirty. I'm definitely ordering some of this at some point.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I definitely get a coconutty scent, and vanilla. I didn't pick out mint until after I'd heard it was in there, but once I knew it was there, I wondered how I'd missed it. The mint is great, adding a freshness and a sharpness that Milk Moon would otherwise lack. The problem is that, somewhere underneath these yummy notes, I can't shake the impression of the milk that's left over once you've eaten a bowl of sugary cereal. (When I was a kid, the parents would make us drink it so as not to waste it, and I never much liked drinking milk and *really* didn't like post-cereal milk.) There's something cloying about this one, such that my decanted imp of it never really got into circulation. I did bring it to ritual for Imbolc, and a friend accidentally spilled it. Rest in peace, Milk Moon, and I'm sorry you didn't quite work. At least I have Black Pearl now for my coconut needs, and it lacks the cereal-milk note.

So my friend and I went in together on a 10ml of Undertow, and decided to split the frimps between us. One was Tintagel; the other was The Lion. She wanted the Tintagel more, so I was worried I'd like it better too, and that we'd have to fight for it! Put The Lion on one wrist and Tintagel on the other. After five minutes, my Lion wrist smelled like yummy mellow amber. My Tintagel wrist smelled like--cherry bathroom cleaner? Seriously. I don't know if it's the bayberry or what, but this just does not agree with my chemistry at all. It smells like the cloying fake-cherry bathroom cleaner they use at work. My friend and I had no trouble divvying up the frimps. Sorry, Lab.

Sorry, this is going to be a rather short review. The Lion is, quite simply, a warm, unobtrusive amber scent, soft and mellow. It works quite well on my skin, as most ambers do. It doesn't knock me dead like some of the more dramatic amber blends do (Haunted Palace, anyone?), but it's often the unobtrusive scents that I end up wearing a lot, because they're not overpowering. Warm and comfortable; the "favorite pair of old jeans" of amber scents. ADDED Nov. 22: This was a frimp from the lab, and it took me a long time to really come around to appreciating it, sadly. I remember it smelling good when I first tried it, but it didn't knock my socks off, probably because I had a bunch of other scents dotted up and down my arms, drowning it out! So it sort of collected dust in my imp box until today, when I was browsing the forums and saw a random comment comparing The Lion to Bengal. As I've just run out of Bengal, I decided it was time to give this kitty another try. To me, this definitely does belong in the same scent "family" with Bengal, and to some extent Sed Non Satiata. SNS smells like a darker, sexier version of Bengal on me, and conversely, The Lion smells like a lighter, less sexual Bengal. It definitely has that same "chai latte" blend of spices that made Bengal such a great morning pick-me-up for me. I don't know what spices are in The Lion, but I smell cinnamon, maybe ginger...quite yummy and delightful. The longer I leave it on, the stronger the amber becomes. This was to be expected. My skin loves amber beyond reason. But fortunately, it doesn't drown the other notes when it does. I may not buy a big bottle of this--I like Bengal slightly better, and they fill the same niche--but I'll definitely use up this imp! Thank you lab!

Oh dear. A friend had this, and I tried it on at a party. I sniffed my wrist, and lo and behold-- It smelled like a dank cave. I said, "Hey everybody, The Coiled Serpent smells like a dank cave on me!" They all thought I was kidding. Everybody sniffed my wrist, and agreed: It smelled like a dank cave. I can usually do patchouli, but there's something in this that is just not working at ALL on me. Though I did find myself wishing I had an imp of it last night when I was writing a story involving a cave, and wanted some inspiration...

Re-reviewing due to technical difficulties. This is, hands-down, my favorite BPAL ever. There's no need to do the timetable of what notes emerge when; this doesn't change much on my skin. The sugar note predominates, so sweet in the best sort of way, reminding me a lot of a discontinued Bath and Body Works scent called "Sugar Plum" which I loved dearly, and which had a very "second skin" effect on me. The booze lurks underneath, lending Smut a more grown-up quality than the old B&BW scent. This is so good, I had to stop wearing it to work. Not because it's risque, but because I kept being distracted by it. It's hard to type when you're sniffing your wrists every 10 seconds.

Re-reviewing due to technical difficulties. This was a frimp from the big group order my friends and I did in February. I had high hopes for it, since I was the kid who used to eat all the black jellybeans that the other kids didn't want! I love black licorice, and I was told that Absinthe smelled like licorice. Right out of the bottle, it's mostly mint, which is also a good thing. After a few minutes, the anise emerges, with its yummy licorice-ness. Then, a GIANT LEMON stomps in, thwacks the other ingredients over the head with a club, and drags them back to its lemony cave. Ugh, lemon just does NOT work on me. It was nasty in Sea of Glass and is nasty in this. Apparently, my skin likes to amp lemon to the forefront and make it smell nasty. Imean, we're talking "lemon dishwashing liquid" here. Ick.

My first thought is that this reminds me of Milk Moon, only better. Milk Moon fell prey to a bit of cloyingness on my skin. This is similar in some ways, but lacks whatever made Milk Moon cloying. The main note is the coconut. I also get a whiff of something that makes me think "vanilla". (I think this must be the hazelnut.) I don't really get iris. The musk is subtle and quiet, but I think it may be the crucial thing that keeps this from being cavity-inducingly sweet. Very warm, sweet without being *too* sweet. Yummy.

My original review perished in the board crash. This was a frimp from the Lab--I'd been part of a big group order, and we divvied up the frimps, and this was one of the ones I got. Wet, I do get a slight peanut butter scent! As it dries down, the peanut butter goes away; it doesn't stick around long enough to be annoying. The note that dominates is the red patchouli, which seems to have a strong similarity to dragon's blood on my skin. This is a very, very good thing. Underneath the patchouli/dragon's blood note, there is still a slight nutty note. The honey doesn't really add another scent, so to speak; it just sort of rounds out the patchouli and gives it a sweet mellowness. This has been compared to Smut a lot, but it doesn't smell like Smut at all on me. I love both of them. But for different reasons.

In the bottle: orange bubble gum. Wet: still orange bubble gum. I waited for the bubblegum to fade, getting really worried when it stayed longer than 5-10 minutes. If the bubblegum didn't die down soon, I'd be swapping this one. I should have remembered: If there's one note my skin likes to amp, more than any other, it's amber. Amber sauntered in after about 15 minutes and whipped Orange into shape. The lotus lurks underneath, lending this a lighter quality. This smells a lot like The Haunted Palace on me--except lighter, more summer-y. And it's good to have a reasonable facsimile of Haunted Palace, seeing as it's an LE and I'm rapidly depleting my decanted imp thereof. This is a sweet, ambery, slightly fruity scent that will be good for warm weather. I just need to remember to put it on 15 minutes before I leave, so that the Bubblicious Gum of Doom is gone by the time I get anywhere.

In the bottle, and wet on my wrist: AMARETTO! Smells just like amaretto liqueur, or like the smell of amaretto coffee being brewed. (But not the taste of amaretto coffee, which never, ever, lives up to the smell.) After ~5 minutes: The amaretto recedes into the background, leaving a warm, spicy musk scent. The myrrh is subtle--I think it's what's giving the spicy note to the musk; the lingering almond lends a slight nutty scent to the whole. My description is not really conveying just HOW GOOD this smells on my skin. I love this. It's definitely a "womanly" scent as opposed to a "girlish" one, and very warm and nuanced. Yum.

This was a frimp from the Lab. THANK YOU, LAB!!! I can't tell you exactly what's in this. It smells like expensive incense, plus some spice I recognize from food, but that doesn't manifest as "foody" in this. It's very warm, and I find it comforting. I think this would work well in a ritual or meditation, or just when I need to relax and unwind. Definitely lives up to the name--it's a very dark, nocturnal scent, yet warm enough to bask in.

I love jasmine. I'm fortunate to be able to wear it and have it come out as a sweet floral rather than soap or anything of the sort. I have Peitho and love it, and when I ordered this, I was hoping for a slightly heavier scent. I especially hoped the sandalwood would come out to play and make it incensey. I put it on and--99% jasmine. The same thing happened with Peitho. So basically Peitho and Pannychis smell exactly alike on my skin, and both of them smell just like the jasmine essential oil I used to have. This isn't a bad thing, precisely. I was just sort of hoping for a little variety. A few hours after I put Pannychis on, a slight incensey note surfaces for a few minutes. However, immediately afterward, we're back to the Jasmine Show. At least I know I won't be running out of "Peithnychis" anytime soon. I mean, seriously, they're enough alike that, whenever I crave jasmine, I'll probably end up using whichever one I manage to fish out of the box first. ETA: It's a few days after I wrote my review, and I've been wearing Loralei all day, which contains ylang ylang. Now, I hadn't been familiar with decent ylang ylang until very recently, having only tried the rotten drugstore stuff, but after spending a few days with Loralei, I must say that (a) I like ylang ylang, and ( it's in Pannychis, and I could smell it but couldn't identify it. So, I must revise my opinion that Pannychis is all jasmine. It's about 80% jasmine and 20% ylang ylang. The jasmine still predominates and it's still very similar to Peitho--but any difference I'm smelling has got to be the ylang ylang.

I shied away from the ylang ylang blends for a long time, because there is nothing--NOTHING--more disgusting than cheap drugstore ylang ylang, which caused me to think I would hate all ylang ylang. However, with my most recent order, I decided, "Hey, why not see what this stuff REALLY smells like?" Well, this doesn't smell like neroli on me, and it doesn't really smell like sandalwood either, so I must be getting mainly ylang ylang here. And I must say--if this is ylang ylang, bring it on! The last thing I expected was something this *green* and fresh. This smells like dewy grass, a slight hint of flowers, a bit of fresh water--the woods in spring. It's absolutely lovely, and very "clean". I get the feeling I'll be using this more and more as it gets warmer out.

This starts out very sugary on me. I kept expecting to find actual granules of sugar dusted all over my wrists as I sniffed this. Underneath it is a faint boozy note, rum maybe. After about an hour, the sugar and booze give way to a sort of "Grandma" scent. I'm guessing this is a rose/incense combo, which often strikes me as "Grandma-ish." My grandmother, who passed last summer, applied a rose/musk perfume by the gallon, and so rose/musk/incensey blends often remind me of her. I doubt this will be an everyday-wear scent because it seems a bit old-ladyish, but it will be a great one to wear on Samhain to remember her, since it's reminiscent of her but not as overpoweringly "old lady" as Psyche was on me. ETA: This review pertains to Dia de los Muertos '04.

Right after application: Lemony and yet there's an undertone, something I can't quite put my finger on, which is making it rather masculine. Beginning to suspect that, despite being a well-crafted scent, this one may not be "me", if you know what I mean. Five minutes later: Ozone beginning to rear its head. Ozone often gives me headaches. But what the heck, I'll try Beth's ozone and see if it works any better. Ten minutes later: HEADACHE of DOOM. *washes off; applies Undertow*

Wow, I'm getting something completely different here. Violet is center stage, and underneath it is something green and herby--maybe that's the heather, but I'm not familiar with heather, and whatever this is, reminds me of lavender. I get no berry at all. Violet? Is there even violet in this? Or is my nose on crack?

It turns into Brisingamen on me in about an hour, with that sweet heavy amber note. You might try Brisingamen; even of your skin doesn't amp the amber quite as strongly as mine does, you'll still probably like it.

This is an all-out sexy scent, perfect for all sorts of vamping. The cinnamon is the dominant note on me, but the other notes team up to add an incensey goodness that keeps the scent from turning Big Red. YUM. Highly recommended if you like cinnamon.