Em-

This is a scent that I am glad that I had a chance to try (thanks Lab!) for the name and story alone, as I am sure I would have liked to have gotten around to it anyway. In the vial, this was a bit floral-perfumey for my usual tastes - I got all flowers and no spice. But, it was pretty, and I plan to try every oil that crosses my threshold, so I swiped it on... Unfortunately, I cannot really tell y'all how this smelled on my skin, because something very quickly didn't sit right with my head. I think it was a kind of powdery, flowery scent, but I do remember some herbiness that made me sort of disappointed when I had to scrub it off. But, I am happy to report that Lucy's Kiss has found a new home where it can plant the seeds of BPAL addiction in a new family...

Thanks to Scourgeoftheseas for passing along an imp of this in a swap... Absloutely lovely in the vial...very herbal and spicy. I am getting sage, thyme, maybe bay laurel? I can also smell something fruity under here. I have read just enough on the forums to know that these oils are not necessarily meant as perfume, but I cannot resist trying just a bit...the scent stays very similar on my skin, which generally takes herbal notes well, and the three herbs I mentioned are certainly sticking around. This is certainly evocative of what I can imagining that a Greek Temple might smell and feel like, and I really like this scent.

I waffled for a long time before ordering this. There were five SIA scents that I really wanted to try initially and Tulzscha kept wandering up and down the ladder of those five, until I finally said, hey, you - in the cart with the 13. What an awesome decision. Frankly, I think I would rather have another bottle of this, than the 13. This is an absolutely perfect minty scent. Not sweet at all, it is deep and herbal and like Whipporwhil (which never did make it into the cart, darn it), is wonderfully evocative of Western Massachusetts in Spring and Summer for me - which is exactly what Springtime in Arkham should evoke. I love the fact that this is minty and cucumbery and peppery, but yet not foody - it is green and herbal and outdoorsey. In the bottle, it is sharp, but I do not get the OMG MINT! that some folks have. I get something very similar to what has been on my skin all morning...a wonderful mix of all of these smellsthat makes me want to put on some hiking boots and get into the foot hills and the brambles. I just wish I'd put more of it on this morning...

It may be too early for me to review this, since I've only been earing it for about 4 hours, but I can't resist... In the bottle, this is definitely chocolately, but I can also smell fruits and florals and something else...it is foody, but almost like a really lucky Velentine's Day when you get candy *and* flowers. Wet on my skin, I get a mix of white and milk chocolate, some nuttyness and something almost oriental...the mandrian and the iris, perhaps? Interestingly, during drydown, I smelt mostly chocolaty wafts, but when I made my husband sniff, his reaction was "more floral than you usually wear, isn't it?" I am really not sure what to make of this blend. While I like sweet foody scents, I tend not to like really heavily chocolatey ones (my favorite part of Spooky is after the chocolate leaves the party). I definitely want to keep some of this...but my jury is still deliberating...

PinkPinkPink There is no way around this one... Pink Moon smells like strawberry bubble gum to me. In the vial, I wasn't so sure about it...it smelled yummy, but almost too sweet. On...it is bubble gum. I get no florals (which is what I would have expected to scare me off), no lunar oil base, and no real strawberry, except for the sharpness of the artificial bubble gum smell. I don't dislike this so much that I need to go wash it off, but at the end of it, it's not really me.

Another from the full imp set... When I first sniffed this I thought "Ooh, smells like Milk Moon". Then I put it aside because I have oodles of Milk Moon. And it does smell like Milk Moon, or I suppose, strictly speaking, Milk Moon smells a lot like Chaste Moon, except that Chaste Moon is more complex - the floral notes are an undertone, but they are present, in a lovely, not too feminine, but very sweet sort away - just enough to make Chaste Moon not quite so "OMG I want to eat my arm". Chaste Moon is fresh and light and very evocative to me of crocuses and other early spring flowers pushing their way through the snow and slush. It is nt the smell of that, per se (I don't know what crocuses smell like, actually), but that is what Chaste Moon makes me think of.

This is the third (of three) Tarot decants I have tried, and I have officially decided that there is something in the Tarot Series base oils that does not agree with my chemistry (for those playing along at home, the other are The World and Judgement, which both have completely different top notes, but leave a similar unpleasantness on my skin...) The Star does smell absolutely delightful in the bottle - warm and coconutty with some fruit and something heavier (perhaps the evil bases?) weighing it down. On my skin, I still get the lovely coconut and fruit, which I do really like, but there is something else, which I could not identify if my life depended on it, which starts to creap out and overpower the lovelyness and make me queasy. It is as though I like half this scent but intensely dislike another half. So sad. I will have to look elsewhere for coconutty goodness...

Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin. Since I like Amber and Dragon's Blood blends have been working well for me, I was pretty sure that this would be a winner. It is warm, husky...I would not have thought to try it on the mate, but will definitely need to give that a go. Blood Amber stays true to the imp on my skin, a lovely mix of the main notes and is sticking around for a while. I'm not sure if this will wander over to the big bottle list, but an imp will certainly always have a place in my box...

I have worn this a couple of times now, and cannot decide exactly how I feel about it...it is very floral on me - the apple blossom and the grapefruit re the dominant notes, the tea and the ginger are very soft. I like it, I think, but it is more perfumey than what I normally wear. It is quite elusive for me...like, but not love.

The amazing Scourgeoftheseas sent me this as part of a surprise swap. What a wonderful adoptive mommy she is! There is really no way to describe this except as everyone else has - absolutely fresh cut bright red rose with a hint of chill. That is what it is in the bottle. That is what it is on my skin. I absolutely adore the scent of actual roses, but I have always been a little leery of them in perfume, because they can become *so* cloying, but Rose Red stays very true on me. This is not a scent I would wear every day, as at the end of it, I am a sweet/spicy/fruity gal, but it is devinitely an imp I will cherish and wear bit by bit...

I tried Snake Oil because the description sounded delish, and how can you not, when so many people, including Beth herself, absolutely adore it. Unfortunately, this one is not a huge winner for me. I love it in the vial - it smells so exotic and yummy...the vanilla makes it smell almost like a middle eastern spice cake or something. On my skin it become almost nothing...no vanilla, no spice, no exotic Indonesian oils. My body just eats it up. The good news is, this is a fabulous base to draw in Sherezade and make that one a part of me (as opposed to something yummy that happens to reside on my wrist), but alas, Snake Oil will never be a big bottle oil for me. All that much more for the rest of you...

This is a scent which I put in my first order and was exceedingly excited about. Then, when the order came, I was not so hot on it. Partially it was because I had a lot of other oils to try from swaps, and had started to revine my tastes more, and partially because in the vial, Scherezade smells...dry. As a scent encapsulating North Africa should, perhaps. I really do love the scent of this blend, though, and it spells delightful on. I adore the saffron and the amber and, well, frankly, just about everything. However, as a couple of otehr people mentioned, this blend does just sort of sit on my skin - while it smells quite delightful, it does not make itself a part of me in the way that my other favorite blends do. The answer, I think, is just a dab of Snake Oil - the scents are very complimentary to me (Snake Oil smells almost like diluted Scherezade on my skin) and the oilyness of Snake Oil helps the dryness of Scherezade blend better with me... Together, they are a winning combination...

After much deliberation, I put an imp of this in my very first lab order. In between times, I acquired an imp of Blood Kiss (which was what I had been deliberating about) and then read the reviews of Blood and got decidedly less excited about this particular blend. When my order arrived, I actively disliked the scent of this one in the imp. Something about it was so strong and almost acrid, that I put it aside. As others have said, it is not so much that this scent smells of blood, but it is very evocative of the idea of blood. After trying a bunch of other BPAL, it didn't smell so strong to me and I decided to try it this morning, and I really do like this scent. It is very similar to Blood Kiss and the other Dragon's Blood blends I've tried, all of which seem to work well for me. Kiss is still my favorite, because I like the honey, fruity notes of that. I really do not get the cherryl cough syrup or other strong fruit notes that others seem to get out of this one. It is a heavy, spicy, heavily Dragon's Blood-y (with that hint of cherry, but nothing independent) for me. I like it...probably not enough to buy a 5 ml, since my coming 5ml of Blood Kiss will serve my "blood" needs, but I will use my impsy, I do believe...

Scourgeoftheseas was kind enough to send me this off of my wishlist. I couldn't remember what the notes were when I saw and sniffed it, tho I knew I wanted to try it, so I started developing my impressions of this one completely blind, which was kind of fun. In the vial, Ms MacBeth was sweet and fruity - not at all what I would have imagined, were I trying to imagine my own Lady MacBeth scent (it would almost certainly contain Dragon's Blood, but I'm obvious like that)...the most pronounced thing I smell is apples, then berries. Very little else. The same goes for on my skin, through dry down...this is very similar to Bewitched to me, although there are more fruits in the mix and less BERRY!!! Imagine my surprise when I read the description when I came in to the office this morning: The essence of ambition, covetousness and manipulation: sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries. I'm getting the berries, and maybe a little thyme and certainly other fruits, but no wine at all. Odd, that. I love this, I really do, and this may well be the first red wine scent I can wear. But then, I don't smell grapes at all, so that may be why.

Silk Road is a case study in why I describe myself as having floraphobia (which is steadily being cured with intensive BPAL therapy, but there are reasons underlying any fear...) This is a scent that was on my spreadsheet as a "to be researched" blend - meaning it sounded intreaguing, but I was nervous that there might be notes that would disagree with the demons in my brain. But, before I got around to reading the reviews (which it turns out would have only encouraged me to order an imp, anyway), I had the opportunity to sniff this, an I absolutely loved this in the imp. In the vial, it is floraly, without being overwhelming, with a nice, not too entree-like hit of spice to anchor it. On my skin however, it is like walking into an intense, aromatic flower garden with a spice shop at the rear. All of the scents are absolutely lovely, but I am completely taken over by an intence hit of what I think must be jasmine which is spoiling all of the other notes for me. I've been wearing this for almost two hours now, because I put it on before my morning commute, and then wanted tot ry to write the review while still wearing it, and I am seriously starting to loose vision. Time to scrub my wrists. I'm a sad panda, because this was a really beautiful scent...

I fell in love with this the second I sniffed it at the DC meet up last weekend...I cannot even begin to pick out the notes, other than to say that the description is spot on, and there is no way I can top Macha's review... This is absolutely lovely. I get mostly very very sweet, almost mead-like fruits, with the florals acting as the base that grounds the blend. It is so absolutely lovely and edible, I want to go slather more onmyself just thinking about it. This is a great scent, I think, for others who might be scared off of the flowers, but who love foody scents. Just perfect.

I confess that I was not expecting to like Cold Moon much, given my preconceived notion that I dislike floral blends. I think it is pretty much time to haul that one out to the trash, because I absolutely loved this. I can definitely smell something chilly and floral, but I am also getting something very fresh, almost fruity, but not a specific fruit. I think that must be the lunar oils or something, because it is similar in all of the Lunacies I've tried. And I am so very glad to have an imp of this one to play with...

Perhaps it was just my preconcieved notion, trying this without reading the reviews, but Wolf Moon smelled very musky to me in the vial...a soft, cozy light musk to be sure, but I immediately smell the musky woody notes in this. On my skin, too, these notes come out immediately, joined by something very fresh almost citrusy. Combined with the softness of the lunal oils, this is a lovely, lovely blend which I loke on both my husband and me.

THis is a very pretty scent. There is really o other good way for me to describe it. It smells almost minty to me, maybe like mint tea, not a sharp green mint like some...there are certainly florals and a lot of lighter notes here - no ambers or civits or musks. This is a pretty scent, but also a very cloying scent. It makes me think of a thick green mist...like something that would snare a magical creature in a fantasy novel. I need to try this one more when I can pay better attention to the range of notes, but generally, I think that I like it, and I will play with the imp, but I cannot really see this making it on to my big bottle list.

Eep...my imp of this is not at all what I expected. I was hoping for a clean, fresh, airy (yet dark) kind of smell. Unfortunately, from vial to skin, my brain and chemistry translated this into "horrible-over-cologned-man-making-me-sick-on-the-subway." I suspect that if I wore it for more than 10 minutes it would start to mellow into something interesting, but unfortunately, before it moved into that stage, my eyes started painfully watering. Ah well. At least it's just an imp...

I sought this out, because I absolutely love citrus scents and readong many of the reviews, green, piney citrus just sounded wonderful. In the vial, Val is very cedary to me, almost so woody as to turn me off. On my skin, the initial note is almost pure green. I cannot really identify notes enough to describe it any more than that. The citrus is definitely there, but it fades in and out, eventually running out with the entire blend within an hour. Actually, I swiped this sparingly this morning, not wanting to be overwhelmed by the woody notes, and almost immediately applied another swath, so quickly did it fade. Within less than two hours the blend was completely gone, and I applied something else at lunchtime. End result, I might put this on a couple more times, but I would probably not buy a bottle if it were a catalogue scent or released as an LE - the fade is to quick to be worth it to me. I am really glad that I got to try it though and I may play with it a little more or else pass it along so that someone else can enjoy.

Sudha Segara is my main comfort scent. If I really want something joyous, I add a little Bewitched. Yummy, spicy berries and cream... I can think of a few others, like Milk Moon or White Rabbit...all of which are somewhat similar. I think I like milky scents...

OMG, this is amazing. The scent of the doeskin is incredible and just perfect. When I first sniffed this, I knew I had to have it (luckily, the possesser of the imp was amenable to a swap! ) I wore it to the zoo this weekend, which was somehow perfect. This is just an amazing scent on...it is like nothing I have ever worn, but it amazingly familiar at the same time. Initially, the doeskin is the most prominent note, with the grasses and the amber and the musk rounding things out a bit. As the day wears on, the musk starts to push forward, but in a nice way. Unfortunately, Coyote disappears quickly on my husband, which makes me sad. Regardless, this imp has absolutely made its way into the "must take to Arizona" travel kit, and unless Buck Moon has some similar notes (which is not entirely unlikely), a bottle will be making its way here at some time in the next few months...

Odd, I don't get any cinnamon from The World. I get something that I cannot identify that is very sharp and unpleasant on my skin, sadly. The World doesn't like me. If folks are right about the sandalwood note, then I am willing to bet that is the culprit, because I've had trouble with that before. Unfortunately, I cannot wear it long enough to try to determine the notes.

This is just a yummy, yummy scent. In the vial, it smells sweet and thick...almost syrupy with honey, darkened with ylang ylang and patchouli, with the bitterness of the fig and the clove...just delightful. This blend did not morph much on my skin. The patchouli plays nice and stays in the background and lets the other notes come out and play. The honey is definitely a strong force here, which is fine with me, and I love the way the otehr notes round it out and keep it from being just HONEY. Absolutely a keeper in the imp, and a strong candidate for a big bottle...