Invidiana

First of all, a huge thanks to the insanely generous CTFrancesca for the sniffie of this. It's a gorgeous soft honey that is just sweet enough and really blooms on the drydown, with a warmth reminiscent of being bathed in gentle sunbeams. I love it, and could definitely justify splurging on a bottle if one ever shows up, but if that never happens for me or anyone else who's fallen in love with this it's actually very similar to Ov5, which is the more honey-heavy O proto.

This is gorgeously tropical on me. There is a slight licorice tinge wet, but as it dries down the licorice fades and I get the honey, ginger cream and coconut the most. For once I'm not amping clove to the point of it turning into a spice cabinet, and the cinnamon is just a whisper. The amber and sandalwood add further depth and sensuality. This is sexy and exotic and reminds me a lot of my formerly beloved Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess (which I wore before I discovered perfume oils even though the alcohol in most commercial perfumes makes me break out in hives), only better. I will definitely need at least one more bottle before it's gone, no question.

I love this one. They say durian is supposed to smell like the amped-up version of sweat socks, but I get no such thing here. Straight out of the bottle and all through the drydown it remains the same lovely custardy cream and honey with a delightful shot of brandy; not incredibly boozy, just well rounded out. I'll definitely need a backup of this; if it's already this good now, I can't wait to see what it will be in another year.

Wet this seems like an herbal minty honey, which really isn't my thing, but it completely morphs as it dries down; the herbal quality thankfully fades pretty quickly and leaves a creamy vanilla-mint type scent in its place, and when that blends with the honey it reminds me of the honeyed version of after-dinner mints. I don't really go for minty scents during the summer so much, but I can definitely see it being a wintertime favorite.

Wet this seems to be all fresh tomato and tomato leaf--not what I was expecting at all, and definitely not my type of scent. However, it does change as it dries down; the honey takes over and the sharp tomato/vine scent turns into a tangy berry that resembles red currant. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stand the initial tomato stage; I'll have to see how this ages.

Wow, I must have very different chemistry from the other two--on me this is tangy honey and lime! An unexpected but delicious combination, and it's truly an infused honey with the thick golden honey being the dominant note and the lime-like tang of the yew berry as an accent. However, I do amp sweeter notes most of the time, so others may get a different ratio on the drydown.

This is gorgeous. Some of BPAL's black musks turn plasticky on me, but this one is a real exception. It's shadowy, smooth and slightly sweet, and the notes that support it are just as beautiful. The resins really deepen the musk and add mystery, with the benzoin giving it a tinge of vanilla. The black ginger is just so sensual; combined with the champaca flower it lends a really exotic feel to this, like midnight in an exotic forest. I don't really get much of a licorice feel from the anise; it's somewhere there adding to the "black" feel but not prominent. Panther Moon has a very Snake Charmer feel about it, like Snake Charmer's darker and more sinister cousin.

This is the perfect combination of what comes out on me as honey and otherworldly air. I don't know any other way to describe it. I think the nicotiana is what is giving it the hazy feel with the chamomile not screaming out it's there but still contributing to the dreamlike quality. As it dries down more and more, the honey becomes more dominant, anchored by the cistus resin which gives it more depth but still retains the hazy and mysterious background. Smelling it makes me feel like I've stepped through a portal to another realm much like Door does in the book.

This is divine. Leather can sometimes be too manly on me, but this is a soft, feminine leather that provides a backdrop for the gorgeous amber, vanilla and tonka. I definitely recognize this as the vanilla (or one of the vanillas) from Snake Oil, and I love Snake Oil so that makes it even better. It's a creamy vanilla, not necesarily foody but just creamy and sensual. As it keeps drying down the vanilla amps and the amber and tonka add warmth and depth. The leather doesn't disappear, but just remains gentle in the background. I don't really get much moss or clay, but they are probably adding to the depth factor. This is just gorgeous and I'm so glad I risked two bottles of it unsniffed.

This is okay, but not the thick raw honey I was expecting even though I usually amp honey. I didn't really get the exotic gardenia or ginger either; what I got was jasmine, thyme, and very light honey, in that order. Surprisingly this wasn't a cat-pee jasmine on me, but that may be because something else in the blend tempered it. It's good for those who like their honey on the light side and can tolerate an herbal background, but I vastly prefer Hony Mone.

Sex in a fish-shaped kite=disaster, at least on my skin. I don't get cranberry. I don't get red currant. I get straight-up LEMON VERBENA (?!?!) which must be that blasted thyme reacting with something and I'm not sure what but it's insanely sharp. Probably the thyme and mint together reacting with the fruit turn into lemon verbena on me. Lovely. And if that isn't enough, I amp cedar to eleven and that starts revealing its hypermasculine self in a couple of seconds--and before any more damage was done, I scrubbed it off.

This is a fresh and very true seaspray scent. It really comes out like a seaspray single note on me, with a very light floral background and a hint of wood, but mostly salty seaspray. It's personally not my type of thing; I much prefer Giant Squid for my sea scent because of the citrus and resins, but if you're a lover of straight-up seaspray you can't pass this up.

I really lucked out with this one because 99.9999% of the time carnation is The Great and Illustrious Carnation of Doom to be Feared on me. Fortunately something happens in this blend--maybe the fact that it's pink carnation, maybe the mixing with the phlox and/or sugar, the proportion of phlox to carnation, the type of sugar, who knows--that turns it into something reminiscent of Necco wafers on me. It also helps that I amp the sugar. I love the sweet and slightly spicy smell of old-fashioned candy, and if that's what this carnation decides to parade around as on me, it's a keeper.

I can honestly say this is the first blend inspired by a male character which actually doesn't go to straight man on me. In fact, it's sweet, resinous, dark and downright sexy. It's boozier wet, but the booze calms down pretty quickly; this is sweet booze, not dry or overly alcoholic booze. The lovely opium really amps on me as well and just gives it this air of decadence and debauchery, making me think of 19th-Century New Orleans in Anne Rice's novels. The leather is soft and behaves in the background, the bark miraculously doesn't amp into Bark of Dry Death like in Tiki King, and I don't get anything dusty from the wool note. This is everything I wanted De Sade to be and more. I forced myself to hold back on a lot of the Neverwhere, Ireedeemable and Witchblade scents at C2 for the sake of my bank account, but I absolutely could not resist snapping up a bottle of this one.

Well, this epic scent turned out to be an epic fail on me as I found out at the C2 MnS. I've come to the conclusion that there is a certain type of cardamom and a certain type of musk that don't like me to a high enough degree as it is on their own and really hate me to death when teamed up. They did it in Enraged Groundhog Musk and now they did it in this. In fact, the drydown of this is the spitting image of the drydown of Enraged Groundhog Musk was on my skin. Smelling it in the bottle I could definitely tell there was a ribbon of cakey vanilla in there, but on my skin it disappears in all of a fraction of a second when whatever this musk is and whatever this cardamom is band together and turn it into an overwhelmingly plasticky type of thing with a rancid nutty undertone that is actually pretty nausea-inducing. I'm glad I tested it on my ankle too, because the stuff is damn strong too and would have made me sick wafting up to my nostrils from my wrist the rest of the day. Thankfully it was Love's Philosophy that was doing that. So long, Storyville.

This is a lovely creamy vanilla underscored with just the right amount of sexiness from the saffron. The vanilla is more buttery wet, but mellows out to a gorgeous vanilla cream. There's really nothing more to say, it's simple but simply beautiful.

Of course, another BPAL cakegasm. This really is exactly what it says it is: I get that tiny hint of cocoa from the red velvet cake, thick buttery vanilla cream and sticky blackberry gloop. Simply put and simply delicious. Something in this was ringing a bell from the moment I put it on, and I couldn't place it until I finally realized it must be the vanilla from Underpants! It's definitely the same vanilla note in Underpants, which becomes a lot more evident on the drydown. It also has the staying power of Underpants; I'm going on 8 hours straight right now with no touch-ups yet!

I tried this at the MnS and it was just one epic fail right after another on me, and the amber could do nothing to save it. Whatever musk this is, it's extremely similar to Reptoid Dominion--the Musk of Doom in Hunter Moon 07 and Ivanushka that turns to straight powder on me, but more pungent to a power of ten. So basically my skin turns this to Coty powder and cat pee. Lovely.

I had to test this twice to really get an accurate impression, because after testing a bunch of sweet scents the first time it seemed very off. The second time, though, (after really huffing the coffee beans the Lab thankfully provided) I could really appreciate it as an odd but nevertheless complex and even strangely sexy scent. In the bottle it's like ginger ale of all things, and wet on my skin it's basically ginger ale over asphalt. It was going to go one of two ways, but it ended up taking a turn for the positive. Surprisingly the smoke/cinders/scorched wood/singed bone notes, which must contain vetiver somewhere, don't amp to the point of being utterly manly on me but actually provide a tempered smoky base for the tar and blood accord. There must be pine tar in this, because my skin sweetens that up, and along with the blood accord it saved the day; I amped both enough for the scorched stuff to behave, and while there's still a ginger ale undercurrent it's pleasant for me because I like ginger ale. It's an unexpectedly sensual scent once it's fully dried down and really growing on me. If you like Inganok Jewelers, give this one a try.

This is the only, and I mean the only, one of the Black Helicopters which played nice with my skin. Lemongrass is usually a death note for me because I tend to amp it to eleven, but in this case the fact that it is blended with citron and that the spun sugar battled them both to no avail resulted in a very pleasant lemonade cotton candy scent on me. It is very lemony in the bottle and wet; as it dries down the spun sugar note takes over, and on the further drydown the white amber and musk soften it and prevent it from going into cloying territory. Thankfully I don't get any funny chemical undertones; if anything maybe those components also have a hand in keeping the lemongrass in check.

I was really holding out hope this would work because of the cake and tea, which is what it seems to be wet, but the drydown does disastrous things on my skin. The "strangely-glowing cucumber sandwiches" note takes over with a vengeance and ends up being very discordant with everything else, to the point that it starts to make me slightly nauseous and I have to scrub it off. It's not only the cucumber but something else in the "strangely-glowing" part that I can't quite place which clearly doesn't agree with my chemistry.

Wet this is all sharp herbal eucalyptus, mint and citrus, which is altogether very bracing and succeeds in making your eyeballs bulge out of their sockets. It's one of those "if you weren't awake yet, now you are" type of scents. The leather emerges fairly quickly, and while nowhere near as strong as DeSade is still too masculine for me taking the other notes into account. The sharp edges are softened somewhat as it dries down, and I can imagine it would play nicely with a guy but just isn't for me.

I knew I would love this, and I was completely right. It's at the same time dark and golden, an incensey and mysterious scent with a tropical overtone. Wet it's all vanilla amber, which is lovely in itself, but as it dries down the complexity really starts to shine through. The resins deepen, and smooth dark bed of vetiver and oude adds an appropriately sinister quality. All of this is washed in the velvety tropical orchid and champaca and coconut with just a hint of fruitiness from the blackcurrant and white peach. I absolutely love this and am so glad it will be available indefinitely.

First of all, the bottle art is amazing. I need to take a picture of it after my pounding skull has fully recovered from the trip. I first sniffed this from the neck, before even opening the cap. Right away I got the scent of an island, but a mysterious island--there is green in it, yes, but it's so much more complex than that. Thick foliage, tropical flowers, something else I took to be mist. It was mesmerizing. Wet, there's initially a lot of green and salty seaspray. It's another one of those for which you need to wait for the drydown to fully appreciate it. As it dries down, the vision of the island on which the story In Reilig Oran is set slowly begins to flesh itself out. The green, which is the shadowy green of a dark forest overrun with vines as opposed to the nauseating grass clippings I got from Strawberry Moon 09, has a hazy and even sinister quality that is right on target with the story and makes this one of the precious few green scents that I will actually wear. The seaspray also calms down into more of a sea mist as it was when I sniffed it from the cap, shrouding everything in further mystery. There is definitely a lush floral undertone to this too; possibly some orchid or gardenia, which add a hint of sweetness and femininity but are subdued enough to keep with the sinister vibe. A hint of earthiness is in the background though it doesn't come out screaming "dirt" on me but just adds to the shadows. When I read Neil's teaser description I was afraid that this would be too masculine, but I would actually classify it as unisex. Overall it's evocative of an ancient and otherworldly forest and a beautifully haunting scent. In Reilig Oran is very special to me because it is now permanently tied to the experience of meeting my idol Neil Gaiman and finding out that at my age, he was at exactly the same stage in his career that I am and would have never believed he'd become "this--this thing I am today". As a writer and artist myself who still works a desk job 40 hours a week, I almost cried knowing that even Neil started out like this. Every time I smell this, the memory that rushes back gives me a much-needed infusion of hope for the future, and I will never forget the one answer that forever changed my outlook on life. For that reason I will always treasure this bottle.

This is just about as sinister as you can get without the beast whisking you off in a black chariot. Wet there's more seaweed and oakmoss, but as it dries down they move to the background and let the impenetrably dark, but still just sweet enough, opoponax shine through along with the clove. Thankfully the pepper and pimento behave on me and add some emphasis to the clove without turning sharp. Finally, the tobacco note wreathes it in deliciously evil smoke that accents the rest of the blend but doesn't take over. If this is the way Ekhidna is now, I can't wait to see how it ages.