Caltha

Gomorrah Gomorrah is sort of generic on me: strong, warm, woody and oriental with a herbal bitterness to it. As it dries the candy apricot comes out and it's sort of cosy. ...only there is no apricot so it has to be candy currant or candy fig or candy date even.

Ulalume Now this is a weird one. Sharp, bitter, perfumey, plastic, moist earth and bitter almond with potpourri. And the secound time I tried it: pure, true compost. It's the most disgusting scent I've tried and I'm not mad because my girlfriend agreed that it smelled exactly like compost.

Jolly Roger I'm disappointed. I have wanted to try this for so long because of the name, even though I know by now I should stay away from the aquatic/ozone department. I had hoped the sea spray and salty air would only be a little part of this, that there would be more dry wood and sweaty leather and rum and piratey things like that. But alas. It's just light and fresh and generic and citrusy. The guy who played Norrington in Pirates of the Caribbean described his character as wanting to chase away all of the pirates and spray air freshener wherever they had been. Well, then this is the Caribbean after he's done. Jack Sparrow is certainly nowhere to be found. I'll just keep Atropa's Cottage's Grace O'Malley as my pirate perfume then.

Gingerbread Poppet I had to get it of course. I love gingerbread as cookies, soft cake, ice cream, tea... And yes, it does smell like gingerbread, but with an added note of burnt sugar, like Goth Rosary's Samhain and the likes. As it dries it turns a little plastic but still nice, warm and sweet and cosy and spicy, just like gingerbread should be. I think I have too many perfumes that are sort of gingerbread-y, but I had to get the one with the gingerbread name as well, it's so cute.

Alice Curiouser and curiouser. Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot. Milk and cookies! Very girlie and sweet, warm with a touch of spice, vanilla and citrus. As it dries it unfortionately turns sort of plastic and "flat", a scent that reminds me of a shiny, slippery, cream coloured plastic surface, and at the same time sort of powdery. Ah, no matter, I'm going to give it away anyway, I'll wish the new owner better luck.

Marquise de Merteuil I didn't expect to like this but I like the name, she was my idol in the film Valmont. I got it for a friend who thought the same when we saw the film at the age of 15 or something like that. Anyway, it's a generic vintage style ladies perfume to me, floral and in the beginning quite chokingly so, an almost decaying floral note. It dries to a little floral, a little soapy, a little woody and warm...

Fenris Wolf The raw, untamable power of chaos. Rosewood, amber, red musk and a dribble of red sandalwood. This is BPAL generic to me: warm, sweet, spicy, boozy, cinnamony. A red scent. It has a certain herbal bitterness to it that makes it a masculine scent, at least before it dries. Ah well, I got it for a friend who's not the perfume type of guy and he wore it next time we met, perhaps mostly to be polite though...

De Sade It's leather, simple as that. Paper dry and not at all sweet, masculine and not very complicated. I got it for a friend and he liked it enough to ask where he could get more. I doubt he'll ever go through the ordeal of ordering and waiting though.

Absinthe I prefer Avaluxe's Absinthe which has more bite, but I don't love any of them. This is sort of fresh and cool, not very decadent. It has a slight alcohol heat and herbal bittnerness, but very subdued. It's mostly fresh and cool with a scent of anise and cucumber and, I'm sorry to say, pickles.

Penny Dreadful I got this imp for a friend but I had to keep it because I love it so. It's one of those "natural" BPALs that are the farthest from any generic perfume. True wet earth with dry leaves and at the same time sort of spicy and boozy and warm. It has a hint of potpourri, which I normally detest, but as long as I associate it with dry autumn leaves it's fine.

13 I really like 13, I get chocolate, citrus and mint, an entire candy store, with a wooden desk. It dries to a warm, spicy, sweet, musty, edible scent: spices and woods drenched in caramel.

Harvest Moon At first I think I detect cocoa. It's a sweet, pleasant scent of citrus and fruit with a hint of coniferous woods. It dries to a little faint spicy/warm/sweet scent with a hint of plastic fruits but full and not "flat" as the plastic fruit scents often seem to me.

Mabon Mabon starts out really interesting, sweet, spicy and vintagey, I think I detect ginger, herbs, fruit and cardamon. As it dries the curse of the fruit scents is upon me as usual, it turns more plastic and citrusy and candy sweet. Pity.

The Star The Star reminds me of Spooky, it's a creamy scent of coconut, vanilla and tropical fruits but it has a certain coolness to it, a fresh hint of citrus or herbs.

Sugar Skull A cosy burnt sugar scent in the vein of Elegba, Goth Rosary's Samhain or Atropas Cottage's Honeyduke's. It might dry a little more plastic, honeyed and fruity.

Dragon's Heart A freebie I would never have picked for myself since I can't stand dragon's blood. It's such a nauseating, generic, fake, almost floral sort of perfumey scent on me. Warm and spicy, but in all the wrong ways. Red as in red plastic. Dragon's Heart is pretty much the same: spicy, perfumey, warm, sugary sweet, artificial, cinnamony, nauseating, floral...

Tempest I should learn my lesson and stay far away from the aquatic/ozone. As the rest of them, Tempest is citrusy fresh à la cleaning agent, fake and sharp. Men's deodorant or herbal schampoo.

Hellcat It starts out as a warm and spicy blast of honey, cinnamon and perhaps bitter almond, and dries to an interesting spiciness that's warm and fruity with honey, nuts, booze, berries, citrus...

Lurid Well I can't do berries. Lurid starts out spicy, warm, foody, herbal, fruity, citrusy and fresh but it dries to sweet fake berries, like most fruit and berry scents do on my skin. Sweet fake berries with a hint of cleaning agent and a hint of warm cosiness.

Jazz Funeral This is a weird mixture, and much thinner and fresher than I expected. I guess I expected something warm and boozy. Instead, I got an odd mix of natural and plastic, the natural being a scent of fresh green leaves and the plastic being a thin schampoo freshness.

Lampades I get the curse of the candy sweet berries, but with a certain ginger bite. It's so warm and sweet it's almost boozy, sort of musty, not just "flat" plastic berries like most of them.

Elegba The Spirit of the Divine Messenger, the Lord of the Crossroads, He Who Owns All Doors and Roads in this World. He is the intermediary between the Orishas and mankind, and stands at the intersection of humanity and the Divine. He opens all paths of communication, both mundane and Heavenly. His ofrenda contains coconut, tobacco and sweet, sugared rum. I get burnt sugar, vanilla, citrus, tropical fruit, creme brulée and coconut... In short: a strong cloud of candy sweetness, yummylicious.

Tombstone Now this is interesting, a cowboy who has not bathed but drenched himself in sickly sweet vanilla perfume for a night out. Very true to the description. It's interesting how it can be so very dry and masculine and at the same time so boozy vanilla sweet. It's like dusty gravel, dry wood, smoke and cinnamon drenched in vanilla sauce. A little nauseating perhaps but original enough to keep. Heed my warning, it's strong!

New Orleans True to the description and I thought I'd love it for it, but I don't. It truly smells like rottening flowers, if it was more of a greenhouse I think I'd appreciate it but it's more of a compost or just petals trampled on the ground in a tropical climate. Too much decay, too much rottening sweetness for me. Perhaps the main reason I don't like it is that the decay is combined with a quite generic, sweet lily-like floral, it's like one of those floral ladies perfumes amped up big time. True to the mood of the description but I can't stand it.

Dracul Named in honor of Vlad III, Tepes, of the Order of the Dragon. Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom. An interesting and original scent, I mostly get coriander and citrus. It's masculine, warm, dry, cosy, spicy and a little sharp and bitter, at least when wet. The only problem with it is that it borders on fake cleaning-agent-citrus freshness with a bite. It's alright on me but when my girlfriend wore it as a masculine perfume in drag it went pure cleaning agent citrus on her. Not pretty. I'll keep it for me though, it really is original as long as it stays out of the cleaning department.