Sunbear

Wow, this so didn't work on me. I really wanted to smell like a Japanese garden after a light rain, but instead I smelled like cheap, sharp dime-store perfume. Bleagh.

Seems like I'm one of the few who actually wanted this to smell like coffee. I really liked the slightly burnt coffee smell underpinned with flowers that I got from this in the vial. Unfortunately, though, as with every scent I've tried containing rose, this turned into pure rose pretty much the moment it hit my skin. Sigh. Into the swaps, and I must stop being tempted by scents with rose in them!

Wow. It's been about a month since the first time I tried this, and it smells completely different to me now. I don't know if that's because this was one of the first scents I tried and my nose is more finely tuned now, or because it's reacting differently with my skin for some reason. The first time I tried it I got grapefruit (like everyone else) and soft spices. Now I smell grapefruit still, but the other layer isn't spicy at all. It's softly, wetly floral, not too sweet. I've had no luck with florals up to now, so finding one I like is a good thing! It's better in the crook of my elbow than on my wrist, because the grapefruit note lasts better and keeps the florals from going too sweet on me. Either way, I like it, and it's a keeper. I'll be curious to keep trying it and see if it comes up differently every time! Edit: Hmm, wore it one more time and it came up way too floral-perfumey, enough to almost give me a headache. Maybe I put on too much. Now I'm thinking about swapping it. I can't believe how changeable this is on me!

I LOVE Shub-Niggurath. I think it's my favorite of all the BPALs I've smelled so far (which would be, let's see, 42). The ginger is fabulous -- wonderful, fresh, straight-off-the-cutting-board juicy sharp ginger. Behind that is a wonderful herbal smell. To me this doesn't smell like gingersnaps. It's a more savory scent than that. It smells like some wonderful Vietnamese dish with lots of herbs and ginger... served, for some reason, with a biscuit, because there *is* a bakery smell, but to me it's American biscuits, not cookies. Refreshing, fabulous, unlike anything I've ever smelled before. This is wonderful. I may need to find a big bottle....

This smelled wonderful when it first went on. A little orange, a little floral. Nice. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to figure analyze it anym more than that before it turned into... rose powder. I'm having this problem with all the scents involving rose, alas. My skin chemistry seems to adore rose. Pity I don't agree with it!

I really wanted to love this. I love the plum in Bordello, I love carnation (at least, I am among the legions of Lush Potion fans), musk is good -- this should have been a knockout for me. In the imp it's gorgeous: sweet, spicy, a little fruity, not too floral. But on me it's not like that at all. It comes up way too sweet and perfumey in a way that makes my nose itch and my head hurt. Oddly, the longer I wear it the stronger it gets. I wash it off and it's okay, but it keeps getting stronger until I have to wash it off again. And again. I've tried it twice, just in case there was something funky going on with my chemistry the first time, but the second test was the same. Darn. Oh well, to the swaps it goes.

An earthy yet buoyant scent: pine, eucalyptus and orange. In the imp, this is almost all eucalyptus, with some orange peel. Very... not sharp, exactly. Bright, almost aggressively so. On me.... Wow. This smells really bright and clean. Way too bright and clean for me. It starts out pure eucalyptus, then almost immediately a note of pine poked through. Minutes later, it's orange with an undercurrent of the other two notes. And now it's gone, leaving just a breath of orange. Interesting, but SO not me. And even if it were, it only lasted like 20 minutes.

Mmm, this is really nice. In the bottle: Evergreen, somehow cool. On me: I don't detect the chilly snow notes; at first I smell like a Christmas tree with just a touch of sweetness in the background. I like that. Soon -- in about half an hour -- these switch places and I have sweet, tart berries with a spicy background of pine needles. Gorgeous. This would be perfect at Christmastime, or maybe even on a hot summer day when something cooling would be nice. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a whole lot of staying power on me, fading in a couple of hours to just a light fruity sweetness. Still, I'm glad to have it. It's beautiful.

In the vial: Gorgeous soft almond. I hope it will avoid the sharpness almond seems to acquire on me. On: It does in fact avoid sharpness, mellowing down almost immediately into the smell of baby powder and Jergen's lotion. In other words, I now smell exactly like my mother. Don't get me wrong, I adore the way my mother smells -- the way I can always tell if she's been in a room because her soft smell lingers -- but it's HER scent, not mine. I want to love this, so I'll give it one more shot, but I feel weird smelling like Mom.

This was nice juicy pear in the imp, with a little sweet floral backing it. Florals aren't my favorite, but in the imp I thought I might really like Thalia. On me, though, it immediately swelled to an overwhelmingly sweet floral that made my nose itch. I had to wash it off. In fact, I think I need to go wash it off some more. I believe the culprit is plumeria. Unless I'm mistaken, it's the same thing as frangipani (lei flower), which is in Delight. I had the same reaction to Delight. Oh well. Off to the swaps.

O my heavenly lady. This scent is not merely sexy. O, my friends and neigbors, is sex. It's unbelievable. This smells exactly like human musk and cotton candy, dirty and sweet, winkingly naughty, like a playful sexual partner. Amazing. It absolutely *screams* "take me to bed!" You'd better know your intentions when you put this on. In fact, I may have to wash it off before my husband gets home, since it's hardly fair to smell like this when my plan for the evening is to watch the episodes of Lost and Alias that I taped last night. Then again, if I don't wash it off, maybe my ideas for the evening's entertainment will have changed by the time he gets home....

In the imp: almost straight ginger, perhaps with a little lemon. But without much ginger bite or heat. Interesting. On: Oh, I'm in love! This is divine. Wonderful ginger, gentled by (I'm assuming) the milk and honey. Not really sweet, just light and smooth and gorgeous. I can't decide if it's a little too light -- I can hardly smell it on my wrist, but on the other hand it has great throw, so I'm constantly picking up little wafts of ginger when I move my head or arms. This is the first blend of tried that really, really works for me. It's light, spicy, and just a little sweet -- I could see it as an everyday perfume, especially in the spring. It's stayed pretty true for... about four hours now. YUM! ADDED June 24: I adore Sudha Segara. On me it's gorgeous creamy light ginger, with just a touch of that lemony scent fresh ginger sometimes has. But it's not as juicy and sharp a ginger as, say Shub-Niggurath (which I'm crazy about) -- the milk softens it, and the honey creates a warm, just barely sweet muskiness. This is a perfect everyday scent. My only complaint is that it's a bit too light; I often can't smell it on my wrist at all. (Maybe I should apply more heavily.) Still, even when that's so, I often catch whiffs of it in the air around me for hours after applying -- it has terrific throw. Overall, Sudha Segara is fantastic.

I was really excited about this one. Almonds and spice! What could be better? Unfortunately, on me it was all almond. Sharp, throat-catching almond. I love almond, but this was too sharp. Oh well. To the swaps.

Sweet-smelling and pinkish-orange in the vial. I put it on and smelled pretty much pure strawberry. On the other hand, when I had Arne sniff my wrist and then said "Strawberry!" he looked perplexed. When I added, "It's strawberries and champagne," that worked for him. So. Anyway. It certainly smelled like strawberries to me, but the scent was a little too simple for my taste. I layered it with my Demeter Ginger Ale, and that was more fun -- it provided the fizz I expected from the champagne note. Pleasant enough, fun for the party I went to last night, but I don't think I'll keep it.

I didn't like this a bit in the bottle. When I put it on, it surprised me with an initial strong evergreen smell that I really liked. (I assume that's the labdanum, which I understand to be the resin of an evergreen shrub.) For a few minutes it was fabulous, with the twined evergreen and rose. But after less than five minutes it turned into pure rose. A nice enough, gentle rose, but nothing to write home about. Too bad, because at first I was pretty excited about this. Not very long-lasting, either: It has completely faded from my wrist (I put it on about 2 hours ago), but is still sniffable on the inside of my elbow. I'll keep it for a little while, but I think it'll end up in the swap pile.