valentina

In the bottle, this scent is just complex and heartbreakingly beautiful. I get the initial whiff of chocolate, but then a lot of bright, warm fruitiness, which is quite lovely. When it is applied to my skin, my resin-loving body chemistry does heartbreaking things to it. My body has a great way of taking 2 or 3 ingredients out of 13 and amping them to nose-shattering levels, and that's what happened here. I suspect that the white ginger is, in fact, the ginger blossom floral scent rather than the ginger root scent that I love. Add that to the orchid and the starfruit, and I have trouble. I'm not typically a scent locket person, since I normally want to wear what works on my skin, but this version of 13 gives me reason to reconsider that notion, for it is really that pretty.

Normally I'm the person who is hollering about how rose and jasmine amps on my skin to an absurd degree, while everyone else is cooing "oooh, so pretty," but that's not the case this time. I sniffed Helena in the imp and knew it was a rosy-floral, but it smelled fresh and clean to me. On my skin, it's certainly rose, but not absurdly so -- it's a floral that is predominated by rose, and in this case, the more delicate tea rose. The jasmine and lily, aren't really that apparent, but I think they give a bit of an edge to this scent that makes the rose very tolerable, and that's a rarity for me. There's a bit of soapiness that others have noted (I wonder if that is from the rose amber?), but again, that doesn't bother me. It gives the scent a certain youthfulness. And all in all, I sort of like the balance of this scent. I'll never be a big wearer of florals, but I especially think that the floral-adverse should give this one a chance.

My spouse ordered some Hunter Moon for himself, but I had to test a wee bit after I gave it a sniffie! And that wasn't something I expected to do, because I read the description when the scent came out and wrongly assumed there would be the thundering doom of civet in it. And no, not a bit... but I do think that there's a touch of leather in this scent, giving it a musky-leathery quality, along with a low-lying natural, outdoorsy sweetness that's vague and indefinable (at least to my nose). Maybe the leather is all in my head, but I don't think so. I get soft buckskin, sweet grass, indian summer hazy sunshine and late season fruity sweetness. This was a very, very pleasant surprise!

Having acquired a bottle of this fragrance so long after it was issued, I have the good fortune to relate it to scents that have been released well after this scent was available. Did that make any sense? Well anyway, The Tell-Tale Heart reminds me a bit of Boomslang, with its cocoa and incense quality, but with an added mysterious vetivert and dragon's blood undertone. For some reason the vetivert and dragon's blood smell like dark, purple flowers on me, like a really dark, evil violet. I love that combination so much. Somehow all the disparate parts of this fragrance work out and play nicely together, and while I thought it would be thump-to-the-head strong, it's really a very subtle blend, not prone to blowing up or acting crazy. After an hour or two of wearing this scent, it's really a very soft, musky-cocoa-incense scent, quite lovely and still rather cool and distant. I think it will be a wonderful scent to wear on a chilly autumn day.

I tend to be a ginger fan, and prefer a sharper ginger (as in Siren) to a ginger that is cut with milk (Sudha Segara.) War is in that sharp ginger category, but it's weirdly foody initially, because it has this pungent-yet-sweet quality, the sweetness courtesy of our friend the honeysuckle. To that extent, it reminds me of a peppered and gingered-up Chimera. After a while the musk and patchouli show up as grounding elements, the sharp edges round off just a bit, the throw isn't so strong that it jumps across the room at people, but War remains a rather angular, edgy ass-knockin' bitch of a scent. Love it.

On me, quite simply: Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill Wine. Boozy, sweet and apple-berry-ish. So it's not exactly the scent to wear to a power lunch, but damn, it is good for a hoot.

What a beautiful painting this scent is based on -- I just love it. And when I sniffed it in the imp, I felt great hope, because I love incense and green tea and musk. I was a little iffy about the florals, but I can wear jasmine in the right blends, and I really want some of the Oriental themed scents to work on me. At first, my hopes were still running high, because what I found on initial application and drydown was a green tea-jasmine incense, with a bit of really pretty, delicate cherry blossom. Just lovely. Then my body decided to take the florals and jackhammer this scent into something that smells sort of traditionally old lady perfumey, and I wanted to cry. I lost all the green tea, incense and bamboo. It's not hideous, but it's not what this scent is supposed to be. I think anyone who can wear delicate florals and Oriental fragrance ingredients would love this, but I'm going to have to be content with admiring the artwork.

I love sunflowers, I really do, and I'm growing them in my backyard right now. Of course I had to try this scent, because I love both sunflowers and BPAL, it just wouldn't be right if I avoided it. Everything in this scent makes sense to me, especially the amber (which can smell warm and humid to me), and the scorched and burnt greenery, because where sunflowers grow really well, it gets hot and dry. That's all conceptual, and on my body, reality sets in. And the reality is that on my body, moss is like TNT. Kerblooey! There goes the balance of the scent, and after the explosion, I am covered in moss. It amps up, takes over and burns off. I get nothing but moss in this blend, much to my dismay. My review is really rather meaningless except if you're a person whose body chemistry turns moss into a monster, this may become an issue with Sunflower. Or it may not. The scent does smell wonderful in the imp, and for most people it's probably a great blend. I'm going to keep it as a room scent.

Wow. Now I can add almond milk to my "amps the hell outta" list. I had great hopes for Organ Grinder, what with the patchouli and tobacco smoke. I thought that the almond milk might mellow out the pine, and it certainly does, but it overpowers everything. Maybe the sasaparilla shows up a bit, by making the scent almost unbearably sweet, sort of like a liquified Almond Joy candy bar. I am shocked that I didn't develop diabetes on the spot and go into a coma. To say that my body chemistry destroyed the balance of this scent, which smells so wonderful in the bottle, is an understatement. I'm giving it to my spouse for his birthday (this was a sneaky toothpick test), and I can hardly wait to smell it on someone whose body chemistry normally agrees with most scents. I think it's probably wonderful on the right person.

I took a whiff of this in the bottle and thought it smelled very dark and intense. I got it on my arm and thought, "Now THAT is a MAN." Seriously, it's what ran through my mind. To be less libidinous and more specific, it has elements of a fresh campfire in a pine forest, well-worn leather, and a sort clean-yet-manly undertone of musk and amber. Normally I amp the crap out of both pine and leather, and in this scent, they actually hold their places very well. It's a very, very handsome scent. I'm normally someone who wears dark, yet feminine scents, and I wouldn't even mind wearing this fragrance (I bought it as a gift, but that doesn't stop me doing the toothpick test), although the way I'd like to wear it the most is by wearing a man's shirt after he'd applied this to his chest and then put the shirt on. That might be more than even I could take and I better stop writing now and just go off and have a really good fantasy.

Riding the Goat smells very much of sharp incense in the bottle. When it hits my skin, it has a decided edge, but I also get a sense of underlying florals, probably from the incense. After a bit, it mellows out into a an incense smell. I've discovered that my body chemistry tends to do the same thing with all blends containing incense, and turns them into the same thing. It must be my internal Nag Champa thermostat, or something like that. On my spouse, Riding the Goat is much more interesting -- it also starts out a little too much like sharp, almost floral, incense on him, to such an extent that I thought he-of-perfect-body-chemistry might actually have to swap away a bottle. But not to fear -- rather quickly the scent balances out on him, and the woods in the blend really balance out the incense. I even detect a bit of sweet tobacco. It's an understated scent, it doesn't have a huge amount of throw, and it turns into a relatively proper gentleman's cologne on him.

Pinched With Four Aces is so gorgeous in the bottle. It's like a cinnamon cafe latte in a bottle, with a bit of tobacco sweetness. When it hits my skin, it's very similar, except after a while, my skin's tendency to amp cinnamon takes over, and it starts smelling a great deal like Enraged Groundhog Musk -- cinnamon and caramel. However, the amount of cinnamon in this blend is not that significant, and it chills out after a bit and becomes much more balanced. It reminds me of Misk U without the dry dustiness, and it's a warm, comforting, round scent -- very much coffee, with spice, and a bit of tobacco mellowness. While it's not a girly scent, I also think this is something that could be worn equally well by a man or a woman.

When I first sniffed Skuld, not knowing what was in it, I thought it smelled incensey. When I applied it, I immediately thought of Urd and Blood Lotus. And after a while, I was very much reminded of Urd, one of the other Norns, of course, and also one of my original BPAL loves. I then read the ingredients, and realized that Skuld and Urd don't have any components in common. Weird! But cool! What I get from Skuld is a top note that has a grapey, sweet wine quality, probably from the combination of ylang ylang and honey. How does that happen? Cool! I usually have ylang ylang become too sweet, and becomes too sour, but together, they form a sweet grapey wine smell. Then the musks provide depth and a bit of a peppery kick, and I'd guess there's some black musk in this blend. Finally, I detect a smoky, incense-like resin, probably from the labdanum. I like this scent so much that I'm on the edge of buying a bottle. And it's certainly one of those amazing BPALs that seem to break all the rules!

This scent, which should have been doom on my skin, is amazingly wearable. I always love it when I hit one of those break-all-the-rules BPAL blends. In the imp, before I knew the components of the blend, I sniffed a spicy floral, mainly jasmine. On my skin, Euphrosyne starts and remains (without morphing), vanilla spiked with a spicy floral. I find that gardenia, rose and jasmine can be at best iffy and at worst, nauseating, but in this combination they meld together to produce a spicy floral that isn't pungent, but also isn't sweet or heady. (Or headachey!) And because the vanilla stays in the forefront, I'm not hit by the attack of the flowers. My skin tends to amp and burn off florals, so it's not a terribly long-lasting scent -- however, I was wearing it on a very hot day, and it might last longer on a cooler day. All in all, this scent was a lovely surprise, and I'm delighted that I tried it!

A BPAL classic that I hadn't tried, until now... In the imp and on my body, I found Enbalming Fluid to be a fresh, light scent. Initially the lemon blooms quite a bit, but only for a few minutes. Then the elements of this scent come into harmony, and I'm left with what is very much a classic "clean" smell. It doesn't smell like detergent, but it smells of green tea with a touch of lemon. The light musk provides a skin scent underpinning and I think the aloe may help mellow out the sharpness of the lemon. I found this scent to be the most similar to Dorian -- and while I love Dorian, the lemon in it amps and becomes too intense. I find Enbalming Fluid doesn't have a great deal of throw, but then it's not the kind of scent that I want to telegraph across the room to drive someone nuts -- however, I can smell it on myself and I love how clean I smell. While I'm normally most fond of scent with dark, woodsy, incense and tobacco notes, I think Enbalming Fluid is the yin to their yang, and a wonderful alternative. I'm going to get a bottle for the summer!!!

In the imp, I didn't think I'd even want to test Hunger, since it didn't smell that yummy to me -- something smelled strong and piercing, I'm guessing I didn't like the black narcissus. But once I relented and put it on, I was very pleasantly surprised. While I know a lot of people think of Snake Oil when they wear this, I was immediately struck the the similarity to Vixen on my skin -- the orange blossom caused this, no doubt. I also think of Siren when I smell this, if only because it's another scent containing a floral ingredient that I normally dislike, that smells very nice when it's mellowed out with vanilla and and crispened up with a sharper scent. (With Siren, it's ginger and vanilla calming the jasmine, with Hunger it's orange blossom and vanilla smoothing out the black narcissus.) This is a very balanced scent, and I can't pull any one component, even when I try -- it develops a quality that is all its own, and it's lovely. This is very femme fatale, dark, moody and sexy, and of course I like it!

When I first tested this scent, I loved it sweet incense quality. It reminded me of a store that I used to frequent that carried import jewelry and clothing. They carried only one scent of incense, and the store always smelled of that unburned incense, which was sweet, a bit floral, yet spicy. I always loved the smell of newly-purchased clothing from that store. So I decided that I like this scent enough to wear it into work, and um...oops. Something is amping too spicy and perfumey on me, in a very traditionally perfumey way. I can smell myself, and that's not good. Whatever is included in "spiced ungents" is overwhelming the musk and caramel, two favorite notes. For me, it's not Smut or Sed non Satiata, it's entirely too perfumey.

In the imp, this scent smelled like a citrus and berry blend -- I don't get sweet, syrupy berries or sharp, bright berries, but a soft berry scent with a mild citrus aroma around the edges. When it hit my skin, from initial drydown into a more extended wear, I got the scent of Fruit Loops. It's the first Snake Pit that I've tried where I couldn't detect any Snake Oil, and I'm sure that's because of my body's infernal tendency to amp berry scents and citrus scents. I'm sure that on the right person, this is a lovely scent, but on me, it's just not going to work.

I ordered Mad Sweeney for my spouse to test, and in the imp, I thought, uh-huh, we have ourselves some scotch! He tested it and it smelled like scotch, with a bit of spice, but mainly like scotch. But not deeply boozy, "aren't-I-a-drunk" smell -- more like the smell of really good scotch in a decanter. I decided to test it. On initial drydown, I got the pure scotch whiskey whiff, but after I wore it a bit, it spiced up and took on a bit of sweetness -- I'd agree with others who have mentioned this, there may be some sweet tobacco lurking in this blend. It's not a great femme, sexy scent, but there's something about it that I LOVE. While the description of the scent is deceptively simple, there's really a lot going on in this scent as far as "layers," and I find it fascinating. I don't think (at least on me) that someone would smell it and immediately say that I smell like a distillery or a drunk. It's a fresher, spicer, cleaner scent with a boozy undertone, but I do not consider it to be over the top. I find it rather wearable. Not into the soberest of situations, but I think it would be great fun to wear during a casual night at a bar, when you want to smell nice, but not clash with the scents of a bar by wearing something floral or way sexy. It's just a really cool scent, I enjoy it a lot.

In the bottle, Tiresias is like... wow. Ummm... that rich, deep caramel. This isn't a simple caramel, there's so much more happening, but what I get at first is a sweet, buttery smell. When I first apply it on my skin, it's a sweet-yet-sharp smell, mainly of tobacco and caramel. Maybe the sandalwood is sharpening it up a bit, also. A juxtaposition to be certain, but one that certainly works. As it dries down and I wear it longer, I get a bit more of the cinnamon leaf, and maybe somewhere underneath that, some patchouli. But for the sandalwood or patchouli-adverse, I think they are very muted in this scent. I think they "layer" the scent and gives it more dimension, but overall, I get a not-too-sweet caramel with bits of cinnamon and tobacco. It's utterly unlike anything else that I wear, but I do want more bottles of this, because it's a beautifully-blended and fascinating scent. Where the idea for this blend came from, I don't know, but kudos to Beth and the Lab for creating something really wonderful!

Snake Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage. I mostly like my Snake Oil straight up and neat, but I can't resist trying the Snake Pits... In the bottle, the Diamondback smells like a western supply store. Clean and leathery, as in clean, unused leather. When I first put it on, it's certainly based in Snake Oil, because I get a whiff of it along with a smooth, mellow, cowboy leather-and-sage smell. It's very nice. Then my body's tendency to amp leather takes over, and the balance of the scent is skewed, never to return to the prior perfect balance. I just smell like the saddle department of a western supply store. I think if you're a person who loves Tombstone or Coyote, this would be a must-buy fragrance. It's a nice variation on the theme, not that strongly redolent of Snake Oil, but just enough to give it a distinct difference from the previously-mentioned scents. Living on the edge of where the Western Diamondback dwells, I think this blend is a marvelous evocation of this part of the world, and of the cowboys whose horses reared up and bucked them off at the sight of the rattlesnake!

I'll admit, I bought a bottle of Mama-Ji from a forumite simply because I read that it was on Beth's favorites list, and normally that means I'll like it. The only thing that scared me away at first was the mention of florals, but then I decided to take the leap... In the bottle, Mama-Ji is a beautiful, slightly floral Indian incense, with the floral owing mainly to Champaca flower. It hits my skin and becomes Champaca flower and spice, with a faintly rose-like undertone. I get a very strong hit of nutmeg and cardamom, but I love those spices. After a bit, the florals really mellow, the spices lose a bit of the edge, and it almost takes on a creamy, slightly vanilla-like undertone. I'd liken initial drydown to strong, freshly grated nutmeg and crushed cardamom pods, with the longer-term drydown more like warmed, baked nutmeg and cardamom. But this spice-baking is going on in a room where lovely champaca-rose incense is burning. This scent is really the prettiest when I don't stick my nose right up to my arm and act like I'm snorting a line of it up my nose, but rather when I wave my arm in front of my face and catch a waft of the scent. It's dark, exotic spices and florals at the same time, very complex, with considerable throw. Mysterious and beautiful. I'm going to love it.

In the bottle, Boomslang smells like Snake Oil with the edge taken off by cocoa. When I go to apply it, wowzers! This is a dark, thick oil! Initial application and drydown is very much Snake Oil, softened by cocoa. I put some pure Snake Oil on the other hand to compare, and Boomslang is a much mellower scent. After a half-hour or so, I smell Snake Oil with a soft cocoa and a touch of sweetness from rice milk, but with a definite whiff of teak. I'm a huge lover of the Snake Oil, and Boomslang is a lovely variant on the theme. To me, it's Snake Oil as worn on a South Seas island with cocoa butter, rice milk and teak wood fragrances giving it a mellow, laying-in-a-hut-on-the-beach quality. Sexy like Snake Oil, yet laid-back and yummy. Very, very, very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the bottle, Enraged Groundhog Musk smells very buttery, spicy and foody. When it hits my skin, it at first turns into Bengal -- I get a lot of the cinnamon-cardamom market spice smell, with a bit of musk underneath. After a half-hour or so, the scent deepens and darkens to some extent, and while some of it is dark chocolate, I'd swear I'm getting a hint of black musk, or something a bit sharp. Whatever it is, it keeps this scent from becoming overly foody and sweet on my skin. After another hour of wearing EGM, the grumpy ol' groundhog mellows out a bit more and a really nice vanilla undertone blooms, the spices fall into line, the peppery quality I noted before smooths out, and it's just a nice, warm, slightly foody scent. I simply have to say what an amazing evocation of February this scent seems to me -- it's truly a winter scent, warming and intense, sweet in some ways, yet just a bit dark, but finally mellowing out, which is exactly what winter is doing at the end of February.

There's a end-of-season sale extravaganza going on at the shopping mall not too far from where I live, so I had to stop by long enough to see if there were any really great shoes or boots on sale in my favorite shoe department. The answer was, of course not. The serious shoe and boot sales start in February. I am still delighted about those $150 Diesel boots that I got for under $20 a couple of years ago; I always attempt to equal the experience, but have yet to do so. Anyway, I found a parking place and thought that the fastest way into the mall would be through the David's Bridal store. I've never been in a David's Bridal before, and I wasn't aware that this place didn't have an opening into the rest of the mall. As a result, I wandered through the store and its various viewing and fitting venues before leaving in horror through the door that I used to enter. I am absolutely convinced that drag queens should be hired by bridal shops to help prepare young females for the absolutely intricate selection and fitting process that seems to surround either wedding or prom attire. Drag queen can work it, and some of the females that I saw today needed a lot of encouragement to work it. Why not get tips from the masters? I'm only half-kidding, but I know a lot of the ladies that I saw today would bristle at the notion of a gay cross-dresser helping them cross the street if both of their legs were broken, much less getting clothing and style tips from them. Not to run down anyone's prom or wedding experiences, because if you wanted to work it up big-time, more power to you. I tend to be the kind of person who will get all done up because I'm having fun putting together quite the little get-up, or because part of my job is working it and creating my "you can look, but don't even think of coming near me" aura. And maybe that's what disturbed me about today -- most of the females I saw trying on gowns or formals weren't wearing styles right for their bodies and they looked miserable and unhappy. It should be fun, they should be snappin' and happy, and instead they just looked sick. A nice drag queen doing a happy squee when a hesitant young lady emerged from the dressing room would do so much good! And in the end, is everything being so ornate and perfect and more gorgeous than imagined on that one day going to make the rest of your life together better? Of course not. I can be so pragmatic sometimes, but for whatever reason, my dreams never did involve ornate weddings, much to the relief of my father.