Tess

Me and florals don't mix, generally, especially lily since it tends go soap on me really fast. However, sometimes miracles happen. In the vial - This is glorious! The florals are juicy and sweet, almost orange like. That must be the linden! I'm getting nothing from the Snake Oil, though. Wet - Boom, boom, boom... That's the lily stomping out now. Drying - The linden and the lily are really fighting it out, but I have to say, I don't like the Snake Oil base with this. It's jarring, breaks up the flow of the florals in unusual ways and just don't mesh. It's like I'm wearing two perfumes which don't work well together. Dry (2 hours) - I actually really like this. The florals are light and not at all soapy (yay!) with that slight citrus that I love so much. Plus the scent of the Snake Oil is lighter than it normally is on me. It's light and girly. Overall - I think I'm going to hang onto this one, until I find something that imitates the smell of the floral notes. At the very least, I've discovered a note that I adore in the linden blossom!

I worry that this will be too sweet for me, as the idea of vanilla added to Snake Oil just sounds sweeeeeet, sweet. However, black coconut? Yum. In the vial - Ooo, that's much darker than expected. The vetiver is lovely and the coconut is anything but sweet. Wet - The coconut is really nutty... Drying - This is like Snake Oil's older, darker male cousin. The vetivery is smooth and the opoponax is right there with it. However, the coconut I think is a bit too dark for me. It's very nutty and not very coconutty, if you understand what I mean. The overall scent is dark resin with a nutty and spicey tone to it. Dry (2 hours) - I'm starting to notice a pattern with the snakes... This has dried down to a slightly darker version of Snake Oil. The resins are lightly there, but it's almost completely Snake Oil, with the spice at the forefront. Overall - It's just not different enough for my tastes. Plus, the strange nuttiness really rather threw me.

Almond tends to be powerful and overly clarifying on me, but I loooove citrus notes. Can that almond stay calm on my skin? In the vial - Holy amaretto, Batman! I am a big lover of red mandarin and it's quite noticable, giving the spicey almond a bright note. Yum. Wet - The moment this hits my flesh, that almond goes clarifying and, oddly, the myrrh kicks up about seven notches. Drying - Oh dear, the almond is taking this over completely. It's so nose-clearing clarifying and the spices from the Snake Oil are only helping it along. The myrrh is giving it a bitter edge, but the citrus is gone, gone, gone. So freaking strong, that almond and spice... Dry (1 hour) - For awhile, this had the exact same scent as Snake Oil, but it's since gotten awhole lot more powdery from the myrrh. The almond and the spice have pretty much faded into the sunset, but the mandarin never peeked out for a moment. Overall - If it stayed true to the smell in the vial, I would love this. But my skin just isn't having any of that.

I've heard this is really fruity or that it's like Dublin. I love it both ways! Let's see what it's like... In the bottle - Wow, lots of citrus and verbana with some oakmoss. So far I'm loving this. Wet - Big old pop of the sage. Drying - This is very, very BRIGHT. The citrus, verbana and sage are dominating, with some oakmoss and the tiniest bit of amber in the background to give it base. The citrus is a lot more sharp than I normally get, but it's interesting and rather nice. Sage and I normally do NOT get along, but here it's being good, just a middle note to give this body. Dry (1.5 hours) - Well, the citrus really cooled down, but the sage is still pretty strong. On the whole, it's mellowed quite a bit and the sandalwood has come out the barest bit. It's not very strong and doesn't have any throw. Overall - This is a tough call. I can barely smell it now, but it IS nice. Hrm, I suppose I'll keep it around to see how it ages, at the least.

My skin amps pine, but people have been saying that it isn't the usual pine in here. Lets get lots of dirt going and some sea spray and we'll be good to go. In the bottle - Gosh, I smell a lot of brine and pine and moss here. And... it's dark and so, so strong. Wet - Fir kicks into high gear and the brine backs way off. Drying - The fir and pine are really there (the pine isn't killing me like usual, though, so yay), but it's not meshing very well with the dark incense notes in the background. The salt is also making the fir really... hmm, it's hard to find the right words to describe it. Imagine a fir tree, only encrusted with salt so that the needles are sharp and jagged. It's like that. Sharp. Dry (1 hour) - This has really even out. The fir is mush smoother and the moss has come out softly. It's very lightly now and not as dark as it once was. The incense makes it slightly smokey, too. Overall - This is a nice scent for those who like dark incense notes or have good skin for the evergreen. However, I just don't think it's for me.

I love white musk and I love cedar. Well, I think that takes more stress. I LOVE white musk! However, there are so many floral notes in this (and I'm not that great at distinguishing floral notes) that I'm a little worried. In the bottle - Cold, cold floral with green hints to it. I don't smell the musk at all, but I believe the cedar is lurking in there, buried under green notes. It's VERY snowy floral to me, though. Wet - Not the violet, but I believe the primrose is taking the floor on this one. Drying - Ah, there's the musk. It's buried under all that white floral and the touch of cedar. Is there wintergreen in this? There's a teeny bit of a mint note in there amongst the other green notes. Dry (1.5 hours) - It's gone much fainter. The floral has calmed down and the musk and mint are hanging out. It's VERY faint. VERY. But... strangely nice. Overall - Huh. I'm not sure, really. The floral was so strong to begin with that part of me wants to say "no" to this, but the mint/floral/musk is rather nice. I guess I'll hold out and decide at a later date.

So much fruit and citrus to be had! Part of me hopes that this works great and part of me wishes it doesn't. In the bottle - It's a fruit booze! Wet - Peaches! Stroooooong peaches and some quince. Drying - This really is very peachy and... kinda soapy. Blarg. That's the peony, I just know it is. There's also some nice tangerine in here, but the citrus is no where near as strong as I'd hoped. It's just so very, very peach. Dry (1 hour) - I really wish the citrus would come out a bit more. It's very peach with the soapy peony in there. Not to mention, it's faint. Overall - Boo, it's very girlish, but the peach is just so in your face that I can't get around it. Seems my skin amps that note, not just apricot.

People have really mixed feelings about this scent and, wouldn't you know it, I bought two bottles of it unsniffed. That's just the way things work for me, I guess. In the bottle - At first it's all spicey and musky, then picks up the alcohol twinge of the butter note and then gets something odd and plastic. Hrm. Wet - ...Goldschlagger. WTF? Drying - Holy crap, I must've put too much of this on because it's STRONG. The throw is freaking everywhere! It's very, very spicey. Sort of a butter cookie baked with cardamom and having tons of those little red hot candies all over it. Oddly enough, I think this may work at the very least with my personality. Most food scents are just too sweet and innocent smelling. This is in your face. Dry (1 hour) - This is a really odd musk and it's really spicey still. It's not at all sweet anymore, just SPICE and MUSK. An animalistic musk, too, not one that I'd usually choose. Overall - ...weeeell, I don't know. It's a possiblity, but I certainly didn't need two bottles of it. D'oh.

I. Want. Citrus. Amber and the other notes are good, too, but orange blossom? I die of delight. In the bottle - This isn't nearly as sunny to my nose as Et Lux Fuit and the frankincense is doing something rather odd, rather... sour? Wet - Very much like winter sunlight. The amber and florals are nice and bright, but are being held back by the incense darkness. Drying - ...I really don't think I like frankincense on me. It's great to burn, but it really smells sour here and just off. However, there's lovely LOVELY orange blossom that's smooth and lovely. If the darkness of the incense would calm down, this would be a scent for me to wear constantly. Dry (1 hour) - It's very incensey still and the amber is a little bit dusty, but there's a little touch of the florals and citrus that make it sunny. It really is a darker version of Et Lux Fuit, like winter sunlight. Overall - I think I'll be keeping this bottle. It's not a "wow!" like Et Lux Fuit, but it's nice.

Mmm, red musk, but leather? Never good on me. And I hope the wood doesn't go strange. I want to like this. In the bottle - Very musky and I can smell freshing cut willow. It brings such great memories of my childhood, helping my mother trim our little weeping willow tree... Wet - Musky dust, musty dusk. Drying - There's something sharp and... well, weird in here. I wonder if it's the leather breaking down already? Usually it takes longer than this. Huh. Dry (1 hour) - Well, it's not BAD, but it's not stellar on me. It's mostly a really musty red musk, just dust and musk. No zing to it. Overall - Eh, this just doesn't move me one way or the other. Which puts it in the "no" catagory, I'm afraid.

The make or break of this with be the sweetpea. (Hey! That rhymes! ) In the vial - Yeah, that's some sweetpea, that is. It's a bright, strong floral. The vanilla is barely touching it. Wet - The amber seems to be souring the floral for some reason. Hmm. Drying - So bright, so sweet. It's like I layered two seperate scents, the vanilla-amber-sandalwood loveliness with bright freaking sweetpea singlenote. This just doesn't seem blended at all and the amber is still conflicting with the floral to my nose. Dry (45 minutes) - Headache. The sweetpea isn't as strong and the amber has gone sour-powder. Overall - Blarg. I thought maybe this would work, but it's not the right kind of floral. It's a pink floral, which just doesn't work.

For some reason, I have the vague feeling that Lily of the Valley is a floral I can wear. Granted, it's a white floral, which helps, but something about it just strikes a chord in me... In the vial - Ooooooh, vanilla and mandarin are at the front with sandalwood backing them. YUM. Wet - Opium just popped right out in this one. Drying - The lily is coming out strongly, with the vanilla mandarin fading to the background and the sandalwood barely there at all. The strongest notes now are the lily and the opium by far, but despite that, it's smooth and just the tiniest bit tropical. I'm really digging this. Dry (1 hour) - The lily went all soapy and the mandarin is gone. So what I'm left with is a floral soap with vanilla opium and a touch of sandalwood. Blarg. Overall - It's okay. Pretty and all. I just wish it didn't soap out on me. At least it didn't go "OMG floral!"

Booze. Boooooooze. In the vial - This is heavy on the 'granate and the booze isn't nearly as sharp as I normally see in martinis. But, I like it. ALOT. Because there's no gin. Wet - Ah, the gin's coming out the teeniest bit... Drying - The pomegranate has almost gone cherry soap on me. How very odd. Yet despite that, I'm really liking this. It's not too sticky sweet, yet it's fruity. The juniper of the gin HAS come out (I think that's what's making it soapy!), but it's not in my face. Like the actual liquid is. Dry (2 hours) - This has become a dusty pomegranate sans any sort of booze. It's very dry, very powdery type fruit. And it's super faint. So faint you have to press your nose to my wrist to catch anything. Overall - Well... I don't know, really. It's interesting, but the question is would I wear it? Probably not. The dry down just didn't work out and the wet stages, while nice, aren't something I'd probably want to smell like all the time. It DOES make me wonder if I should stay away from gin scents, though.

I don't tend to like rose scents much at all. That said, the idea of a rose with musk and amber is just too tempting for me. In the vial - A really green rose. Hrm. Wet - This really is a very wet, green and commercial rose scent. Drying - Uh, hello? Musk and amber? Where are you? There's just something off about the rose, too. It's sour and soapy. So far, I'm really not liking this. Dry (2.5 hours) - So, it's a soapy rose with powdery amber. It's soft and pretty, but the stage just before this was terrible. Rancid, sour rose. Ick. Overall - Not for me. I'm just not a floral type of person.

I love poetry, but I don't think a single one of these notes are going to work. Violet is a big no-no on me and ylang ylang tends to also be scary. Oh well. In the vial - This is so light and creamy, not at all what I expected. I'm getting a hint of what I can only explain as vanilla extract. My grandmother used to send us a big bottle of the stuff from Mexico every year, so it's something engrained in me. Wet - Loam for about 1.2 seconds... Drying - There's a non-violet, non-ylang ylang floral note in here that I am LOVING. It's got an almost citrus tang to the floral. It's not very strong here, as I'm mostly getting soft violets and frankincense. The whole thing is SUPER faint on me, though. Only the barest hint of throw. Dry (1 hour) - Weeeeeell, it stayed pretty much the same, that franky-violet, only it's more powdery now. Blech. Overall - Whatever the heck that one floral note was, I must have more of it! Must... find... out...

I've noticed that anything that lists something like "dry plains grasses" in it tends to do horrible things with me. But heck, I am somewhat of a masochist, so here we go. In the vial - Very, very perfume-y musk. It smells like something I'd bye from a department store, not BPAL. Wet - Warm, musky and somewhat earthy. Very comfortable. Drying - A sharpness of what I suppose are the dry grasses is coming out and it's not at all what I was so worried about. Yet. This isn't a heavy scent nor as cloying as it seemed wet. The amber warms the musk nicely and in a way that isn't at all animal. The woods somehow seem to damp down the grass, too, which is nice. Oddly, I like this one! Dry (1 hour) - Oh look, it's amber! It must go powdery! It's still very nice, despite the powder. It somehow is able to remain complex with my skin chemistry, which is never known to happen. Overall - I do like this one, but I'm just not sure if I'll wear it. It's a "maybe" for right now with more tries coming up.

I live in fear of jasmine, I really do, but this was a frimp from the Lab, so how can I say no? Spices and musk, be my heroes! In the vial - !!! This is much darker than I thought it would be! I'm getting surprisingly few florals other than a lavender note and lots of dark musks and spice. Wet - Dark, dark, dark almost civet musks. Drying - This is so very unusual! I am getting some of that rose and lavender, but the musks are so dark. And then you add in the spice and... I'm just not sure what to think. I did NOT expect something this dark for such a light and flowing concept. Dry (45 minutes) - I smell like poo. Something about the florals and the dark musks combined and now I smell like poo.... Overall - ...no.

Reviewing scents with no notes listed always makes me worry that my nose will be completely off. In the vial - This is odd. Very creamy, although I'm not getting vanilla. I can sense what people are calling coconut, but it's more like green coconut husk to me. There might be some tonka in there, too. Wet - That sharp, not-quite-coconut scent is really out there on me. And yet faint. Drying - This is very hard to tie down, as that sharp scent is completely beyond my abilities. I keep thinking "coconut water," with that dirt-like scent, but I just don't know. I can smell the tonka now quite clearly and there's a powdery musk note in there, too, I think. But it all mingles with the sharpness. Dry (30 minutes) - It hasn't moved beyond tonka/powdery musk and green coconut husk. The sharpness isn't quite as overpowering anymore, but the scent in general is light. It hasn't faded at ALL, though. Overall - This is one odd little creature. I can't see myself wearing it. It's not BAD, just not something for me.

This is supposed to be a sunny mead scent. I love sunny scents! I certainly hope I love mead scents. In the bottle - Honey, cirtus-y mead. Extremely bright and cheerful and yummy. I can smell some of that copal and a touch of the carnation. This is lovely. Wet - The copal and the vervain really love my skin. Drying - Gah, I LOVE the honey mead note. It really is smooth and sweet, with a hint of fruit to it. The copal is going just a tad powdery or it might be the frankincense. Still, this is how I hope to smell when Litha comes around. Dry (1 hour) - This has settled into quite a simple honey mead. In fact, it's almost all honey! There's nothing else to it, just a mead with more honey than I could ever hope to drink. Overall - Well, it went from light and lovely to, frankly, boring. It IS the first honey note that's really worked with me, but still. I don't really like it enough to keep it around.

Rum! I want rum! Cue the pirate in me, arr! In the vial - So. Sweet. And very boozey. It's crazy sweet, though. CRAZY. Wet - Ah, there's some sandalwood in here. I like that. Drying - Is there anise in this? I'm getting almost a Twizzler smell. Maybe it's the rum added to the sandalwood??? It's interesting and odd. Of course, the sugar might be doing strange things with my skin. Stupid skin... Dry (1 hour) - The rum is gone, gone, gone, but so are the Twizzlers. What's left is the sourness of the butter note and the plastic of the sugar note. Eh. Normal skin. Overall - This is so wrong for my skin. Too bad, too. I love my booze...

Musk, musk and more musk. Not sure what monkies have to do with it, but I think I'll like this! In the bottle - Musk, musk and more musk. Just the teeniest touch of amber in there, too. Wet - This is so dark and lovely with the barest hint of florals. Drying - This is just sooooooo dark. Lots of musk and just a little sweet from the amber. The floral note is getting stronger, which makes me slightly less than thrilled. I'm not getting any orange peel yet. Come on out! You know I love ya! Dry (1 hour) - All I can smell is dark musk. Well, maybe the tiniest bit of amber, but it's almost all musk on me. Overall - I'll probably keep it around, just because the rollerball bottle is so darned cute! Maybe the More Than Friend will have more luck with it.

A frimp sniffie that came with a swap! I'm ever so happy to try this one out. In the vial - WOW, that's a powerful leather. The linen is there trying to soften it up, but the leather will have none of that. Wet - Crisp, clarifying leather. Drying - The woods are breaking down the leather somewhat, but the linen seems to be souring in the process. I know my linen. I LOVE my linen. Don't do this to my linen! And about 10 seconds later the pipe smoke comes out like pow. It's not at "pipe" as I'd like, but it is a deep smoke with leather and woods in the background. Dry (45 minutes) - The leather lingers in the background with the smoke and the wood notes, somewhat sweet and quite dry, are on the front. The linen is goooone. This smells so very dry to me. Overall - The linen was the big draw here for me, so that fell through. I am glad I got to smell this though.

Why, exactly, did I want to try this scent? I KNOW that my skin has problems with sugar notes. It must have been the fruit that drew me in. That wacky fruit obsession of mine. In the vial - ? I barely smell anything in here, perhaps the barest of sugar and spice. But I have to sniff very deeply to get even the teeniest whiff. Wet - Very slightly stronger than the vial, but I think my skin might be bringing out the scent. Yay skin for once! Drying - Okay, I think this imp has been tampered with. I can smell the teeniest amount of sweetness, the barest whiff of a spice note and a very, very small cloud of floral. But it's like it's been cut down with something, diluted like crazy. I've tried a lot of BPAL in my day and never have I had anything just NOT SMELL. Dry (1 hour) - ...I'm so utterly confused by this oil. It does smell now, exactly like Midway in fact (ie. fakey burnt sugar), but at least it's smelling of something. Overall - This is probably my strangest run-in ever. It doesn't work with me, obviously, but it's interesting how long it took my skin to pump out anything at all.

('06 version) Originally, I was going to be my normal thorough self when it came to reviewing this scent, but I've come to the conclusion that I CAN'T. When I first sniffed it in the bottle I found it to be a lovely, golden floral with a hint of creamy citrus to it. I was excited to try it out. But when I put it on, it when floral. All floral, no hint of anything else. There wasn't even a floral that I could recognize, no note I could pick out. It was just a floral bouquet with the only distinguishing thing about being the strength. It is STRONG on me. And now I'm sad. Too sad to try and write a review in my normal style. Too sad to try the scent out again. I wanted this to work for me, I really did. But I'm left wanting something different, something that I can relate to my impressions of the holiday.

Yum and yum. Two great notes in this frimp. I can't wait to try it! In the vial - This is lovely! Bright and juicy and I think it's love. Wet - The mandarin is light with just a hint of the fig lurky about to give it fullness. It's not overly sweet either. Drying - Wow, I can barely smell the fig anymore, it's faded so fast. The mandarin smells like a light version of my red mandarin EO. It's not a sweet version, just light and citrus. Dry (1 hour) - Poo, for some reason my skin always screws up the dry stage with fig. It's made it light, almost dry smelling and the mandarin is all but gone. Overall - Sadly, there was no anchoring note to hold it in place. Maybe layered with something...