lohengrin

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Pumpkin pie and a hint of something almost soapy. On skin, wet: Still pumpkin pie with a very faint whiff of soap. Maybe it's the neroli? On skin, dry: No more soap, this is straight up pumpkin pie. After an hour: Still basically the same as the initial drydown, with maybe a touch more spice and a touch less pumpkin. A very warm scent.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Fresh coconut and something else I can't quite identify. It doesn't smell milky or watery, so I'm assuming the shea butter. On skin, wet: Still coconut and shea butter. On skin, dry: No change, except maybe the shea butter has gotten a little stronger and the coconut a little weaker. They're very well blended, though, so it's hard to say for sure. After an hour: Same as before. This is a hard scent for me to pin down--it's not at all sweet or foody, and thankfully it doesn't quite smell like suntan lotion or moisturizer, either, but I can't put my finger on what category it should go into. It's just unique.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Cake and berries, but it's actually not very sweet, somehow. On skin, wet: The blackberry pops right out, and the cake has kind of gone poof. No trace of bourbon, buttercream or chocolate. On skin, dry: The cake comes back out to play, and it's much like it was in the bottle again, if a bit more tart. After an hour: The cake is definitely in the background, the blackberries in the foreground, and a tiny bit of sharpness that could be bourbon is in there now, too.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Melancholy, this is not. Plum candy. On skin, wet: Still plum candy. No flowers at all. On skin, dry: Yeah, this is still dancing sugarplums. After an hour: Not a morpher, this one. Plum candy all the way through. Not that this is a bad thing, it's really quite nice.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Spicy carnations. No plum, and while I don't actually know what chrysanthemums smell like, I don't really detect anything other than the carnation. On skin, wet: Still just about a carnation single note. A touch of musk. On skin, dry: A little hint of plum comes out, but only a hint. This is still pretty powerfully carnations to my nose, with a background of musk. After an hour: The carnation stays very much dominant, but the hints of plum do get stronger and balance out the musk some. It's a very strong scent.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Saffron, softened and sweetened by the cream and/or vanilla (can't really tell which--it's not a distinct note). On skin, wet: No real change from the bottle scent. On skin, dry: The soft/sweet note gets stronger and becomes more clearly vanilla, but the saffron is still dominant. After an hour: It becomes a little more vanilla with a background of saffron, but there's still enough of the saffron to make this quite unique and lovely.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: A little musky, a little green, but mostly this is kind of a woody scent, despite there not really being any woods in the description. On skin, wet: Still definitely woody and musky, with just a little bit of leafy green in there somewhere. On skin, dry: The musk gets a little stronger and the green note is all but gone. No trace of tonka, benzoin, lime or any kind of florals. After an hour: Stays mostly true to the initial drydown. I would have loved for some of the tonka, benzoin or lime to show up, and the end result without them is a more masculine scent than I would usually go for, but somehow it works anyway.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Very fruity. It's hard to pick out any one note, it just smells generally fruity to me. On skin, wet: Still hard to pick out notes, but it's gotten a little more tart. On skin, dry: A decidedly tart blend of fruits, but it's still very difficult for me to pick out notes. It's not quite citrus-tart, not straight up currant, just... tart and fruity. After an hour: There's a hint of something other than fruit in the background, probably those "lunar oils," but mostly it's stayed true to the initial drydown.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: It smells almost like caramel corn. Or buttered toast and toffee, I suppose, but it really makes me think of caramel popcorn. On skin, wet: VERY buttery caramel corn. On skin, dry: The buttery note is at the forefront, the sweetness of the caramel/toffee has become more of a background. After an hour: Something almost spicy peeks out, and the sweetness has really died down. Buttery and warm, with a hint of spice.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Pretty much a green tea single note. This is not a bad thing; especially happy to find no trace of the seaspray. On skin, wet: Green tea and a bit of tartness; can't tell if it's lime peel or verbena, it's just a nice undertone to the green tea. On skin, dry: Still pretty much the same as it was wet. Not a morphing scent, really. After an hour: Stays true, and doesn't fade to nothing like so many tea scents do on me.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Leather, and oddly enough something almost minty. Weird, no idea where that's coming from. On skin, wet: Now it's pure leather, but more an old, sunwarmed leather than brand-new-shoes leather. No more weird minty note, either. On skin, dry: It gets a little bit dusty, but still very predominantly leather. Oddly comforting for a leather smell, though. After an hour: It stays very true to the initial drydown. It's like a tackroom kind of smell, I love it to bits.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Sweet hot cocoa with just a hint of cinnamon. No coffee thus far. On skin, wet: A really wonderful cup of hot cocoa, with a tiny bit of cinnamon. On skin, dry: Little bit of coffee in the background. It's like drinking that cup of hot cocoa in a coffee shop. And the cocoa hasn't turned to cocoa powder on me, like most BPAL chocolate blends do! After an hour: The coffee note does become a little stronger, but never enough to overwhelm the hot cocoa. Happiness!

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Sweet, sweet, sweet. Can't pick out any individual notes, this is just pure candy. On skin, wet: Still predominantly candy, but a bit of apple and pear peek out in the background. On skin, dry: Super-sweet candy, with just that bit of crispness from the apple and pear. No tartness, which is surprising considering the notes. After an hour: A bit of something musky (or, as per the description, dusky) joins the apple and pear to cut the sweetness very slightly, but it's still definitely a candy scent. It manages not to be sickening, though, unlike most of the other super-sweet scents I've tried.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Buttery, sweet apple. Definitely no coconut rum. On skin, wet: Apple with a butterscotch undertone. On skin, dry: Apple still dominant, with that butterscotch note lingering in the background. None of the tartness of fresh apples, this one is sweet and warm. An hour later: Stays true to the initial drydown. Sad that I never got any coconut rum, but it's still a really wonderful scent.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Grapey, just a touch boozy. The orange flower and an herbal note that must be the rosemary (though it doesn't smell like rosemary specifically, to my nose) are strong as well, but there's no trace of rose, lemon or mint. On skin, wet: Super grape! It's like crushed grapes with an herbal undertone, maybe a very faint hint of orange blossom. On skin, dry: The grape and herbal notes are still very much predominant, and any trace of florals has completely vanished as far as I can tell. It's a really strong scent, and hard to pick up anything else under the grape and herbs. After an hour: It stays pretty true to the initial drydown. Not at all what I would have expected from the scent description, but this is a really lovely blend.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Green, light florals. On skin, wet: More or less the same as in the bottle, with just the tiniest hint of soap in the background. On skin, dry: Another scent that doesn't seem to morph much on me--still green and floral with a very faint hint of soap. After an hour: The soap never gets strong enough to really detract from the lovely green florals, thankfully.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Boozy and fruity, with a sort of powdery undertone. I'm not sure I've run into another scent that is powdery right from the bottle! On skin, wet: The boozy note disappears and this is all peach with that powdery undertone (gotta be the amber). On skin, dry: Still peach with a powdery undertone. After an hour: The powdery note comes out more, but it's still very definitely a peach scent. I'd love something more like a fresh peach, but until I find that this is quite nice.

This is a review of an aged bottle. In the bottle: Musk and vanilla, heavier on the musk. Fortunately it's not one of the musks that gives me a headache! On skin, wet: Pretty much identical to the bottle scent. On skin, dry: Still no real change. After an hour: This is not a morphing scent on me at all. Which is good, because I like the way it smells in the bottle and so it's nice not to have it turn to something else entirely on my skin. ^^;

In the bottle: Chocolate, with just a hint of ginger and cardamom. No coconut, no rum. On skin, wet: The cardamom gets stronger, in fact a bit too strong--it has that faintly sopay undertone of biting directly into a cardamom pod. The chocolate is already starting to turn to cocoa powder on me. On skin, dry: Cocoa powder with that slightly soapy cardamom undertone. No more ginger, definitely no coconut. Disappointing. After an hour: Cocoa powder with just a faint hint of spices. Too similar to other things I have, and that sopay period is unhappy-making. Room scent.

In the bottle: It's almost buttery--I don't recognise it as vanilla, or even particularly sweet, but definitely warm. The florals are just an undertone. On skin, wet: The florals move to the forefront, but none stand out particularly. On skin, dry: The lilac is a little stronger now, and the almost-buttery note peeks out again in the background, but it's still primarily a fairly standard BPAL floral on me. After an hour: A bit of soapiness now, not aggressively so but enough that I will probably keep this as a room scent, not a wearable scent.

... I wish the weather was cooling down! It was 40 degrees (celsius - about 104 farenheit for you heathens) here again today, with the humidex. I'm so tired of this. However, I am wearing one of the Arcana Christmas/Yule/whatever scents today, so obviously the weather does not in any way affect my perfume choices.

Try Titania for pear--it's the only one that really came out smelling like pear on me. Alcohol... try Swank, and The Hamptons.

Definitely still looking for the ultimate peach. The ultimate clove. Mandarin/orange that doesn't go to candy. Berries, same as above. Green tea that doesn't vanish. x.x

Florals and fruity scents will attract mosquitoes and, in the latter part of summer, wasps. These oils have been found to help REPEL mosquitoes, however: * Citronella Oil * Lemon Eucalyptus Oil * Cinnamon Oil * Castor Oil * Rosemary Oil * Lemongrass Oil * Cedar Oil * Peppermint Oil * Clove Oil * Geranium Oil * Possibly Oils from Verbena, Pennyroyal, Lavender, Pine, Cajeput, Basil, Thyme, Allspice, Soybean, and Garlic (list copied from chemistry.about.com)

I had the exact opposite experience, and would recommend the exact opposite course of action. ^^; On me, Blood Countess is smoky, deep and dark fruit, hardly any sweetness at all. Bordello is like some sort of artificial candy sweet smell. I would also reccomend: Bess (real grape smell, not grape jolly rancher smell, with green undertones) Lampades (spiced cranberry) Cheshire Cat (musky grapefruit)