sunshinedaisybliss

Completely delicious! As others have said, the pear is strongest on my skin.. it reminds me of The Perilous Parlor - same kind of pear except that in Marotte it's a golden woody kind of pear rather than the sweet vanilla pear of TPP. Patchouli, thankfully, is not strong here - although it does feature more after about an hour on my skin than it did at first. I'm loving the heady mix of the oakmoss, musk and mahogany. I do get what people are saying about the 'metallic edge' but on me it's not sharp at all.. everything here is beautifully blended and very soft. After 3 hours on my skin, I'm still getting beautiful woody pear and amber. Gorgeous on its own, but even better when layered with the other two (Motley and Coxcomb).

Sadly, I'm not getting any of the beautiful fruits and vanillas.. Velvet Tiki for me is like a strong boozey brown sugar/caramel. Not nice. I am seriously considering the possibility that my skin is somehow conspiring against me

Damnit. I wanted the pink rock candy and strawberry cream. But noooooo - all I get is the sour gin and vermouth doing their best impression of hair spray and fly spray mixed together. And grenadine, where the hell are you? Such a bummer, I should have known by my past experience with champagne (hello, Stardust - I'm talking to you!) that this was never going to work. Bad kitty. Put that martini glass down, go sleep off that stinky booze and come back when all you have is rock candy and strawberry cream.

Wowsers.. there's no mention of clove in the notes but on my skin - this is like a clove-o-rama! Actually, what it reminds me of is the smell of the dentist's.. when I first open the door into the reception area and that smell of fillings fills the air. What it also reminds me of is when I was in Bali, and I would walk past a huddle of Balinese men on the street smoking clove cigarettes. I prefer that scent association to the one about the dentist Very spicey, and kinda smokey - I actually like this as a "smell", but not sure I would wear it for myself.

Oh my.. when this first hit my skin and I took a big whiff.... it tickled! The wasabi was sharp, but not unpleasant. I thought I could also smell an anise kinda thing going on, but I'm not sure where that was coming from. After 10 minutes, that initial blast of wasabi has calmed right down, and now I can smell the tea.. the myrrh and frankincense are quite subdued but I know they're there. It's smelling very green!! Half an hour later, this has dried right off and is barely there. I'm left with a very clean, fresh (and still green) scent on my skin that I have to get up real close to find.. however I did only dab, I didn't put a lot on, so that may be why it's quite faint. This was bold and intoxicating at the start, energetic and vibrant in the middle, and soft at the end. Like sex. If your sex is like that. Ahem.

Ok.. here's what I don't understand - the vetiver in this is completely non-existent to my nose.. but in Velvet Tiger it was all I could smell. I just don't understand how vetiver works, but in this instance I'm not complaining! The most prominent notes on my skin are the musk, anise, mandarin and black vanilla. This is a good thing!! They're very well blended though, I'm having trouble distinguishing them individually. As a result, I get a *nice* fragrance from this.. a kind of vanilla-ish mandarin-ish musky thing, but I'm not sure it's anything too remarkable. I'll be happy with just my one bottle, thankfully I won't be needing to hoard this one edited to fix double posting

Spiced Satsuma orange, tangerine, rich amber, black licorice, teak, cinnamon, and vetiver. Oh vetiver, you truly are a dark and fiendish bastard.. why do you have to dominate all the other lovely notes here? Do you have some sort of inferiority complex? It's not like we don't notice when you're around.. seriously, learn to mellow out a little. This is a beautiful blend, but unfortunately the vetiver is just too much.. damnit.. I can only just smell the gorgeous rich orange and tangerine, and the amber has been vetivered into submission. I can't really pick up the licorice or teak at all, but the cinnamon's there. So I was hoping for orange, amber, licorice and teak with subtle vetiver and cinnamon in the background.. but instead, I got the reverse of that. If you're lucky enough to have skin that can absorb and soften the vetiver/cinnamon thing, then you're a lucky lucky sausage. I'm seriously upset about this one, I sooooooo wanted it to work for me but I don't think it's going to be a keeper

Yep, this. I am extremely thankful for getting lucky with the skin chemistry for this one. I can smell the floral, but it's dark and mysterious - quite subtle, not bright at all. It has gone powdery after about 30 minutes.. but a beautiful velvety incense kind of powder - smokey, and musky, but the myrrh is keeping that incense vibe from getting too strong.. it's a lovely balance. After about an hour on my skin it has mellowed out a lot but not changed, just softened. I should mention that I'm testing this from a cobalt bottle and I think it dates back to around 2005, so mine probably smells very different to what you'd get from a fresh imp, I suspect that with age the narcissus has succumbed to the opium.. so if you're on the fence about this one - put it aside for a while and see if you like it better a few months from now.

Hi there - I'm also international, so I know it can be confusing when you do your first order There's info on shipping here on the Lab website (scroll about half way down the screen).. it says: If you purchase 12 items or less (in any combination of imps and 5mls), these are the shipping rates: $11 to Canada $13 to Western Europe & Australasia So yours should be $13 - you just add that to the total of your bottles and imps when you pay via PayPal - remember to pay in US dollars. In the comments section of your PayPal order, write the bottles and imps you want to order, and say that your payment includes $13 for shipping. If you're ever unsure about how to do your order, you can email customer service at answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com and they'll be happy to help you. I hope that information is helpful for you, and have fun with your new goodies!

Hello, pomegranate, my dear friend. And salutations to you, Sir Fig, how lovely to find you here. This is my favourite of the new releases in Rappaccini's Garden. As other reviewers have mentioned, it does have a cocoa thing going on when it's wet.. but I found that died down once it dried. Mmmm.. this is velvety, rich and lovely! I'd say this is more 'fruity' than 'foody' - it's not sweet or cake-like in any way, and the almond isn't doing anything remotely foody in here.. actually, I'm not really getting the almond at all. The cinnamon must be quite light in this blend - or maybe it's just my skin - either way, I'm not finding this to be spice-y. On me, it's 99% pomegranate and fig.. the other fruits are there, but quite faint. There's something a bit Miller vs California about this.. I guess that must be the fig, although the two are quite different they both have that mysterious dark fruity balanced with boozy thing going on. I think the fruit from this particular tree may have been sitting on the ground for a while, it has that dark fermented smell about it, verging on a wine but not quite. I'm really enjoying this - the longer it stays on my skin, the more velvety and soft it becomes and the lovely dark grape starts to come out more. If you've just got your imp/bottle and only just dabbed it on.. please give it at least half an hour before you make your judgement, because it does change quite a bit in that time. A very yummy and interesting blend indeed - I might need a bottle of this one!

Well.. sadly, I'm disappointed. I took the description to mean this was going to be a honey blend.. my mistake, clearly.. cos it isn't. It's sweet like honey - yep. But it's not honey... or at least, not for me (and usually honey loves me and comes out beautifully on my skin). I'm having trouble identifying what this is all about.. I get a kind of citrus-y thing, but it's not lemon or orange. It's slightly sweet but not bubblegum or berries. It's faintly floral but not really floral, and slightly wood-y - that must be the 'lotus' and the 'tree' part! This is quickly turning into a useless review.. I can't figure this one out!! Alright.. focus. This is a *nice* blend.. it smells lovely, and whatever all those unidentifiable smells are - they work together well and give this a sweet and rich musky top note that's quite intoxicating.

I have lucky skin when it comes to apple This is another dark and mysterious apple in the same way that Poisoned Apple has that 'edge' to it.. except Apple of Sodom has a velvety smoke where P.A. has that sour sweetness. But it's that same apple, at least to me.. that crisp fresh green apple. The apple stays true once it dries down, it almost gets a cider sort of smell to it as the smoke sweetens up a bit but it never quite goes to the cider stage - it still retains that spicy ash feel. It doesn't go sweet or bubble-gummy at all on me, it's pretty much the same after 1 hour as it was when first applied, although it has faded and softened up a bit. I'd definitely recommend this to the apple fans out there!!

If my village smelt this good, I wouldn't desert it! I'm getting mostly currants with a slight hint of honey, but the black musk is keeping it dark rather than sweet. I agree with a previous reviewer - this is definitely a user-friendly patchouli.. I can hardly detect it at all in this. Actually, the things I was worried about here (orris, neroli, patchouli, labdanum) are very much in the background.. but then my skin does tend to amp any berry and/or honey so maybe that's why everything else is so subdued. An interesting blend, I'm not sure if it's *special* or even whether it's particularly different from other currant/honey/musk type blends that I have, I have a feeling this might develop nicely with a big of aging but at this point I'm not sure whether it's a keeper.

Bottle CCXIII (213) - Snake Oil + Peach Sounds weird? Well it's NOT! It's seriously LOVELY, like deliciously lovely. The peach is all warm and fuzzy - it mixes perfectly with the Snake Oil, which is there but very much in the background. This is so beautifully blended that everything is in balance - I can still smell the vanilla and the rich velvety spices in the Snake Oil, but the warmness of the peach is floating over the top. After one hour on my skin, the peach is still there, it's pretty much the same lovely even mix as it was when it first went on. My only complaint about this is that there will only ever be one bottle of it.. I'm going to cherish every drop!! Bottle CCXXI (221) - Snake Oil + Rose Rose, in general, is not my friend. Whenever it's present in a blend my skin amps it up so much that it makes a big noise and dominates everything else that's in there to the point where all I can smell is rose. Well, Ms Rose, you've met your match! Here, the Snake Oil is dominant.. but sitting demurely in amongst all that spicy goodness is a very soft rose - I'm thinking pink, rather than red - very light, very pretty. After about an hour, the rose is very soft.. the Snake Oil has come up stronger, but the rose isn't gone completely - there's still a nice balance. Out of the two, I'll wear the peach more.. it's just gorgeous. But the rose is lovely too.. I might just have to keep them both If those clever creators of chaos ever happen to read this.. I'd like to say congratulations, you've done a beautiful job with these two.

Ayup.. couldn't have said it better myself. I think it's not quite as rich and deep as Haloes, but it's definitely got the same sort of vibe. There's a top note in this that's a bit sharp - probably the tobacco - it's not sharp or strong, but it's.. uhm.. shiny? Yeah, shiny. The black vanilla isn't sweet, but it's heady with the oak rumbling around in there, on me it has a slight honey feel to it but my skin is weird like that - it likes to convert everything to honey. A lovely blend, it will be interesting to see what this does with some further aging. I think this has a lot more to reveal, much like its namesake. Fab label too!

I just got a frimp of this with a bottle purchase - I didn't realise it was discontinued in Jan '08, so I guess the oil I'm testing must be over 12 months old. I can see how this blend could be invigorating - it's very bright and fresh, bordering on sharp but not quite going there. My skin is totally ignoring everything but the verbena.. I'm getting a really strong and slightly mint/herbal lemon and that's about all. I wish there was more than just " a touch" of the sweet orange and warm almond.. that may have mellowed things out and softened that sharpness, but sadly this is all just lemon on me - my skin just amps it up over everything else. Happened the same way with Lolita Since other people had much better reactions to this, I'll be adding it to my swaps pile because I don't think it's for me.

Wow.. not many reviews for this one, that seems strange? Well, maybe it's a bit of a secret, but I'm glad I discovered it! And the reviews that are here are very mixed, which I find interesting. So here's how it went with me. When it first goes on.. very VERY orange/mandarin but not sweet at all.. it's a dark, deep and rich orange that's very lush and heady. I get a faint whiff of something almost menthol for just a few seconds, but that disappeared. After it's been on for a little while, the violet comes out more - so at that stage the orange melds in with the violet so that I can't quite tell which is which.. I can distinguish both notes, but only if I try real hard - they're blended beautifully. I can smell the nectarine now too - it's sweetened things up just a little bit. The amber is also there, giving everything a golden softness and keeping it on the orange rather than purple side. No hint of the patchouli yet. One hour later - still no patchouli.. well, that's weird! But actually I'm not complaining because I love this just the way it is.. that lovely deep dark orange is still there, the violet and amber are still there, not sure about the nectarine, and oh yeah.. ylang-ylang - did that ever show up? I'm not sure it did. The violet is coming out stronger than the orange now though, which is a bit of a shame because I liked that middle stage this went through when the orange was balanced more evenly with the violet. Two hours later - hmm.. pretty much just violet left, with a hint of amber. The orange is *just* there, but very faint. Overall - a nice blend, lots of interesting layers and stages to enjoy.

Finally! I found one of the Aphrodites that works for me! Mmmm.. this is rich and velvety, the plum and the burgundy wine is gorgeous - just the right blend of fruit and sweet. The sandalwood gives it all a beautiful warmth and creaminess, and the champaca adds just a bit of heat to the mix. My only issue is that it fades quite a bit once it's dried down.. that lush, heady plum that was present when it was wet mellows out a lot. But another little dab soon fixes that.. and I'm finding that a little dab is all I need, it's got a pretty decent throw. A lovely blend for anyone who enjoys things from the plum/burgundy family.

Hmm.. mixed feelings about this - I was really keen to try it, because of the purple musk and sandalwood, but unfortunately I'm not getting a lot of that coming through here.. it's mostly the mint, violet and moss that I can smell. It's not sweet, and not really floral.. so I think the musk and sandalwood are doing their job, but there's nothing really spectacular here for me - it's a *nice* scent, but too much of the violet and lilac to suit my skin. Bummer, my search for the perfect purple musk continues..

Hoooooooo boy, this is freakin delicious, and absolutely sinful and lusty. This one gets my senses tingling So what's in it? Err.. I dunno, I'm guessing something like dragon's blood, and a red musk of some kind. I think there could be maybe some violet or jasmine in there, but all the red bits are keeping those florals away.. which I'm pleased about, since jasmine turns into poopy nappy smell on me. If this were an outfit, it would be your highest black stilettos with a tight black pencil skirt and a low-cut red slinky top. And black lacy undies too, of course.

I got a bit excited about this when I first dabbed it.. while wet, the strongest notes on my skin are the mint (this has almost an aniseed tone to it) and the sandalwood, with a very slight hint of rose. The violet doesn't seem to be present at this stage. Sadly, after a 30-minute dry-down, all I get is the rose.. with a faint hint of the violet still there. Rose, you are a fiend. You spoiled this for me

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it love-in-idleness. Hmm.. lilac? Some sweet pea too, maybe? Possibly even some honeysuckle? There's something very sweet and rich in here.. I'm picking orange flowers, rather than white or yellow, it reminds me of that California Poppy hair oil (is that even still around??). This definitely has an 'old-fashioned' feel to it, it's very nice but I would only recommend it for those who like rich florals.

Another lab frimp for me! This is a very refreshing, light blend.. it definitely has a 'green' feel to it, but that would be a pale mint-shade green, not a dark earthy green. I can smell the tea in there at the base, but I'm guessing it's the peony that's giving this the overlay of sweetness. After a short while, it dries down to a very soft and powdery almost citrus smell. I'd say this would be perfect for wearing with a pretty summer dress whilst walking barefoot through long grass.

Got this as a lab frimp! I almost didn't try it, because.. roses.. nuh uh, not for me. But I gave it a shot. When it first goes on, it had a strong baby shampoo-like smell to me, but then the rose came out. I'd say this is a dark pink rose.. not quite the lush red rose type of smell. More a powdery rose. However, as is always the case for me, all I end up getting is rose. A nice sweet and feminine rose, yes, but.. just rose.

I totally agree with the recommendations for Monsterbait Underbed.. it may be a bit difficult to find a bottle, but decants appear fairly regularly on the sales thread - it's very VERY yummy