Kittyflop

Sugary flowers, some spiciness behind it. Is that the incense? This was the most unexpected of the CDs so far on me. It's like meeting a woman who is wearing an old floral perfume reminiscent of past days - and far off in the distance you can smell the sugary candy smells of the midway and the smoke, grime and incense of the carny booths. This has good throw, too, and isn't fading a bit yet (3 hours after application). I'm floored. Love this.

On first whiff and application: yep, definitely in the 'snake' family of scents. A few minutes later and it was gone! and I slathered, too. So I switched to battery backup (aka scent locket). With a healthy dose nestled in my locket, I jumped in the car to go to my first appointment. The gentle breeze from the car heater blowing on my locket released a wonderful snake-ish scent, but it became more and more plum as it released. The vanilla is less strong, and it's definitely fruitier. However, even the scent locket isn't holding up for me. I don't know if I'm adjusting quickly to the scent, or if it just is a fader. I love this, and it is very unique - but I'll be going through the bottle pretty quickly at this rate.

I'm very surprised - I get very little cherry from this, if any. The first hit, wet on the skin, is cinnamon. Cinnamon chewing gum, specifically. I'm confused. As it dries, it mellows out considerably. After about 30 minutes I'm starting to detect a very light waft of sweetness, which might me considered cherry-scented. It's fading quickly, but I used very little. Yes, an hour later, cherry is definitely making itself known. But it never gets overly sweet or sticky. The spiciness recedes. I think this is becoming quite gorgeous. Must slather tomorrow for a retest.

Antique, dry, dusty wood. The rose is not overpowering, it's very subtle, which is good for me. This is beautiful in a haunted, dark, forgotten way. Stays very close to the skin.

Blood Moon starts out very cinnamonny, but that mellows out quickly. Woods, spice and darkness. Deep red. Very little dragon's blood is apparent, if any. It quickly becomes musky. Feral is an apt description - it feels animalistic, earthy, passionate for survival. Strong, long-lasting. Love.

Chaos Theory CCLXXV On wet - Tropical fruit! Coconut strawberry papaya pineapple fruit salad with little marshamallows mixed in. Drying down – Strawberry pineapple and mango, floating in vanilla cream and topped with a tiny umbrella. Similar to Pink Phoenix but without honeycomb and only a smidge of vanilla. I’m not sure how this can be so fruity and yet not foody.

Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper. Wow, this is *nothing* like what i expected. Reading through the previous reviews, too, I almost feel like I got something different. These were my mpressions during the first hour of wearing Two Monsters: Gender-neutral Sophisticate Clear sweetness developing Strong Vetiver? (Yep!) Some kind of floral? Long-lasting, good throw. The sweetness is almost cloying, but not overpowering. Ooh, there's the leather. This is very clear and sweet after a few hours. Not flowery-sweet, but... hard to explain. I know I've got the vetiver, and maybe a bit of patchouli, but it's not earthy or incensey at all on my skin. The leather does appear after a while, and gets stronger - leather and sweet. Yum. Edited a month or so later: Today, different day, different time of month - this is allllll leather and vetiver and champaca. I almost don't recognize my own review of it. A morpher. Either this changes with my chemistry, or changes over time, or both - but I still love it.

Voodoo Queen is incense, powder, spice and musk. It's not sweet to my nose at all. There is a bitter spice of some kind in here, in a good way. The incense is a good, soft, smoky kind; not the kind that makes me cringe with memories of college days. This is very mature, sultry and mysterious. Lovely!

In the bottle, it smells complex in a foody way – fruits, spice, sugar. On my skin, however, for the first hour or so it’s candy. Jolly Ranchers. Watermelon, to be specific. Or Watermelon mixed with Sour Apple. Maybe that’s grapefruit and I’m just not recognizing it? After about an hour the candy memories fade out and are replaced with an unusual scent. This doesn’t last long on me as a wide-throw ‘hey I’m wearing perfume’ kinda thing, but it lasts for a very long time very faintly on the skin. It is during this long period of drydown, after the top notes have long since evaporated, that I can smell vanilla. Vanilla and rice wine, reading the description, seem to be the closest to describing this phase. No woods for me here. This is nice, lovely and sweet, but not overwhelmingly fabulous.

Lucretia is a floral with powder highlights. I'm terrible at describing florals, but to me it's in the same category as (but not the same as) Beatrice and Bearded Lady. It's a very feminine, womanly floral. The powder (amber?) 'sets' it and keeps it from being too too much. I don't get much of the wood that others have noticed, it's strictly floral / amber to me. It's complex and has good staying power. The waft stays close. It's quite beautiful.

In the vial & on wet: Very much vanilla. I'm worried that this might be too straight-up vanilla. Drying down - Oh, yay, the sassafrass is showing up! As it continues to dry, the cedar and sassafrass take front stage with occasional cameos by the vanilla. This is just delicious. It's got a strong throw and serious lasting power on me. Several hours into it, the sassafrass recedes and I'm left with a lovely cedar skin scent.

Oh my. I can smell every note and none. Beautifully blended. This is sunny, pastoral, peaceful, fruity (?). Honey and overripe summer fruits. As it dries it gets spicier, the ivy and thyme are rounding out the honeyfruit notes. It stays close to the skin, not much waft. My skin seems to be eating scents lately.

On wet: sharp ‘n tangy. A very familiar scent that I can’t put my finger on. Something similar to…. Tenochtitlan? In a very faint way. Drydown: some woodsiness coming through. I’m not familiar with rose otto, maybe a bit of that? Luckily for me the pine resin is very subtle. This is turning absolutely gorgeous. Sadly, though, it has zero throw – once it dries down, I have to put nose to wrist to sniff it.

Don't worry, it's not stupid at all to think that shipped means shipped . It's just one of those things, unique to the bpal experience, that you learn the longer you hang around the forum. In all honesty, I'd guess that almost everyone who placed their first order through CCNOW had exactly the same thought. I know that I did!

Dee is competing with Haunted for my favorite night-time wrapped-in-a-robe comfort scent. Libraries and dark leather and polished wood and contemplation. Burgundy-gilded smoking jacket complete with watch chain and monacle. But despite all this, it’s not too masculine – or if it is, I don’t care! It lasts tremendously well, I can smell it still in the morning.

A very dark, sultry, sophisticated lily. Creamy, not too sweet, just perfect. Cocktail-hour lily. Candlelight dinner lily. Strength and femininity. It's got medium through and lasts a very long time on my skin.

On wet: Fully the traditionally sweet Dragon's blood. Drydown: Didn’t take the sandalwoods long to peek through! Earthy and sweet and a bit spicy. It’s got a tang to my nose. A few hours later: Sultry, smoky, sexy sandalwood with enough playful lilac sweetness to keep it from getting heavy. A little goes a long way. Definitely a keeper!

An FYI to anyone else: This happened to me yesterday with Cobra Lily. Sara at the lab very kindly advised me to just add any 5ml to the order, then use the 'notes/special instructions' part of the form to explain what happened and what I really wanted. Also, continue to let them know as it happens so that they can fix it!

I slathered this on the minute I picked it up from the post office. Back during the original Carnaval run, I *thought* I didn't like florals, so I skipped this one. I've since learned my lesson. Sweet, creamy vanilla floral. No single flower note is overpowering (I always worry about jasmine upstaging the others), so it all blends beautifully, lazily, languidly together. This making me so happy today! It's strong and feminine, comforting and girly all at once. It's got a good throw, and I haven't had it on long, but it's going strong so far - I have a feeling this one will be with me the rest of the day. Lovely!

Peony Moon: This is a very clear, dry floral. It's not so much pink on me as sort of a clear rose color. (pink makes me think sweet, and this isn't sweet) I can't describe floral notes well so I won't try, but this is very lovely. Oh, and it lasts and lasts and lasts! All day into the night, and in the morning doing laundry I caught a whiff of it from my clothes. Very surprising.

On wet - it’s a pastel watercolor scent. Light sweet yellow and baby blue flowers and melons, but not fruity. Floral. Drydown - summer. Napping in the midafternoon sun with fresh flowers blooming all around. Lovely, but not at all my style.

On wet - chocolate (?) and carnation Drying down - still a bit of cocoa with spicy florals. It’s warm and earthy with a hint of sweetness from the honey. Something wood-like in there, oh, that’s the red sandalwood. This is dark, hectic, bright, spicy and ever-changing. It is absolutely gorgeous. Durations is quite long, throw is average.

On wet: lemon, cedar, sandalwood. Drydown: Interesting. It wafts lemongrass, but if I put nose on wrist, it is all cedar. If I sniff with focus I can detect rose. It’s a very earthy citrus blend. Very calming and invigorating at the same time. It continues to morph over time and becomes well balanced between the lemon and the wood tones, with very faint jasmine here and there. Much later into it, almost entirely cedar and sandalwood. Very strong initially, but fades back to a close scent.

On wet - spiced plums. Drydown - spiced plums! Not sure how long it lasts; I washed it off. It’s a wonderful scent, but much too not-summery; the spices make it seem like an autumn scent, which I just couldn’t face today. I agree with others that it initially smells like a candle scent, but that wears off pretty quickly. This should be lovely in the fall.

Sweet, clean and floral. Not at all what I expect from something called Blood. Familiar but I couldn’t identifiy note, so I had to go back to other reviews to find out what I was smelling, and it seems to be Lilac. I don’t detect cherry as some others have, but it could be blended. This was quite surprising and lovely. I think I prefer it blended with other notes, though