Miss Lynx

Oh dear. This smells very green, and very soapy. Like very green soap, basically. Maybe Irish Spring. Which might be all right if I like that sort of soap, but I don't. There's something cloying and fake about it, like bad chemical perfume or air freshener. Worse, it has a really strong throw and managed to make every other scent I tried at today's meet'n'sniff smell like itself. Or maybe that was the fact that I got some on my hands while opening the imp. I think, for me, martinis must remain in the "to drink, not wear" category. Grade: D

This one didn't sound like my sort of thing at all, but enough people went crazy for it on my decant circle (I had to add a second bottle of this one) that I thought I ought to at least try it. The good news is, it didn't turn into screaming floral overkill on my skin. But it didn't turn very interesting either. It wasn't bad for the first few minutes -- sort of a very soft, light, creamy floral. But then a touch of that cloying, fake-food note that I so dislike began to come out, and shortly after that it faded away altogether, which all things considered was probably just as well. So, not awful, but not for me. Grade: C

This is a truly bizarre scent. When freshly applied, it smelled kind of... disturbing. Foody, but not in an entirely good way. Something about the smoke plus the earthiness of the myrrh, maybe, made it smell like roasting meat, which given the inspiration, and the artwork, brought to mind the possibility that this might be what burning human flesh would smell like. Tha would be a definite A+ for evoking what it's meant to, but possibly an F for scents I'd actually want to smell like. And yet... After it settled in for about 20 minutes or so, everything changed. Now it's this rich, gorgeous, dark, spicy-incensey scent that I really like! It smells strong and powerful and dead sexy, in a dominant, take-no-prisoners sort of way. A little like The Tell-Tale Heart, which is possibly my 2nd favourite LE of all time (after Red Phoenix). If it smelled like this from the start, I'd be completely in love. As it is, I need to weigh off the greatness it evolves into against the queasy, barbecued-rib-of-human scent it starts off with. A couple of hours after writing the above, I have to add that the longer it wears, the better it gets. It does become a gentler scent after a while, but it's still lovely. Enough that I think the initial phase is worth putting up with. Might need a bottle of this one... Grade: A-

This was one of the ones I was most looking forward to of the 13-in-1 collection... There are a number of notes listed that I love, though also a few I had doubts about. With any scent this complex, it really depends how things balance out. In this case, they did not balance out well. There are a lot of things I like in here -- amber, oakmoss, sandalwood, bergamot, orange, blackberry, musk... But there are also a couple of killer florals, and as it turns out, those stomp everything else into submission, at least on my floral-amping skin. It's still got a lot of depth and complexity to it, and all kinds of shifting layers, but on the whole it is way, way more conventionally "perfumey" than I can cope with. Initially it didn't seem so bad, but in the process of decanting two full bottles of it, it quickly reached headache-inducing proportions and got to the point where I couldn't stand there merest whiff. Maybe after a period of recovery I'll feel differently, but right now, the Black Mamba and I are not friends. Grade: C+

This has a few appealling notes, but on the whole, sounded too floral to really work on my skin, and indeed, when I tried a dab, the florals quickly overwhelmed everything else. It's a nice scent as florals go, and on someone who liked that sort of thing would be great, but on me scents like that turn into Screaming Floral Death. Or Screaming Floral Life-in-Death, as the case may be. This one doesn't do it as badly as some, and shadows of what it could have been do remain, but not enough to make it wearable for me. Grade: C

This one appealed to me on first reading, both from the listed notes and the concept (I have a certain liking for spiders!), but I was a little worried that three different florals might be too much... My skin tends to amp florals considerably, so even when the other notes in a scent are ones that I like, sometimes the flowers can stomp everything else into submission. But lilies and poppy are ones that don't seem to go too overboard on my skin, so I thought I should definitely try it. And thus far, I like. It's definitely got a floral component, but it's not too strong. The blackcurrant (one of my favourite fruit notes) holds its own nicely, and the musks and patchouli give it depth. The effect is very much in keeping with how it's described - swirly and hypnotic. It's got that lovely mix of highs and lows, sweetness and darkness, that characterizes a lot of my favourite scents. In particular, it's a bit reminiscent in feel of Lampades and Urd, and to a lesser extent Bewitched. Of those three, the resemblance to Urd seems the strongest, though they're not by any means identical. All in all, definitely a strong contender for the big bottle list. Grade: A

*swoons* OK, this is the hands-down winner of the Ashtanyika/Lupercalias for me. Gorgeous, musky-sweet spicy saffron - like Scherezade's more sophisticated older sister. It's sexy, powerful, fiery, sensual, spicy and incensey... Instant top 10 candidate I wasn't sure something with rose and rosemary in it could ever work on me, but whoa does it! The rose never amps to the extent it usually does on my skin, and the rosemary gets over its harsh medicinal phase very quickly and settles in nicely to the mix. For hours after I put this on, I kept catching little whiffs of it and thinking "Wow! What smells so great in here? Oh hey, it's me!" Must. Get. Bottle. NOW. Grade: A

Ack! Death by verbena. That note amps so much on me that virtually any scent containing it goes to lemon drops on my skin, and this is no exception. There are hints of other interesting notes in it, but the verbena pretty much pummels them all into submission. Not a keeper, sad to say. Grade: C

Initially, it's very pungently herbal, and a bit bitter. It smells more like something ritualistic or medicinal than like something you would wear as a scent. I don't find it especially sensual, but it definitely does have an air of dominance to it... It's definitely more Mars than Venus. But once it settles in for a while, the pungency is toned down a bit, and it becomes more of a spicy incense scent. Very Indian, and very nice. Not especially feminine -- a man could definitely wear this, but a woman can too, as long as she's not in an especially girly mood. It smells a bit like a cedar chest full of Indian incense and herbs -- deep, woody, spicy and aromatic. Definitely keeping the imp, but not sure if I'd need a bottle of this or not. If it smelled like that nice spicy-incense-chest phase from the start, I definitely would, but the initial phase is kind of off-putting. I'll experiment further and see where that takes me... Grade B/B+

I hadn't ordered any last year because it sounded like death-by-florals, but after reading so many reviews that emphasized the incensiness of it, I decided to try a decant this year. And I'm glad I did, even though ultimately I don't think it's really "me". On, it's very, very sweet, and with a sort of soapiness to it, though not unpleasantly so. It smells both fruity and floral, with faint incensey tones underlying it. It definitely is evocative of India - there are many notes in here that I've smelled in Indian stores that stock a lot of incense. As it dries down, it stays strongly sweet, not to a death-by-florals extent, but to a level where it's really not something I'd want to wear on any kind of regular basis. It's still interesting at this stage, but sweet verging on cloying. Overall, it's an interesting scent, and I can see why so many people like it, but althogh I can appreciate the complexity, it's really not for me. Grade: B-

Not bad at all... Less sweet than I had expected. I'd been a bit worried about the florals in here, but it seems like the musk, tonka and vanilla soften them a fair bit, so that it's more of a creamy vanilla-musk with slight floral touches than a floral as such. Which is a Very Good Thing for me, as I don't do florals well as a general rule. I would also be willing to swear that there's some kind of fruit in here. None are listed as notes, so maybe it's just some odd synergistic effect created by the combination of the other notes, but to my nose there's a faint but definite impression of fruit, which compliments the other notes nicely. It dries down quite nicely, becoming a soft-skin scent, with the vanilla never quite going to Play-Doh the way vanilla so often does on me. It's kind of like what Antique Lace could have been on me if it had successfully avoided the Play-Doh effect. And if it was tarted up with a bit of sexy musk as well. Definitely a keeper -- might even be worth a bottle, though it's not really in the same realm of greatness as Khandita. Grade: B+

Interesting -- less sweet than the number of florals in the list of notes would suggest; it really smells more like a men's scent. Quite a nice men's scent, though -- it's very evocative of the sort of jaded Romantic-era decadence it seems to aspire to, and is nicely complex, with shifting layers of light and dark. I would't at all mind smelling this on someone male, or a female who was a little more butch than me. I don't even entirely mind it on me, but it does have a bit of that "Hi! I'm a men's scent!" feel to it. So on the whole, admirable, but not for me, exactly. But it does make me wish that my male partner were a little more enamoured of BPAL so that I could get him to wear it. Grade: B

As I commented in my Boomslang review, I couldn't resist ordering decants of a few of the Snake Pit oils despite being one of the few people out there who doesn't like Snake Oil. This was one of the ones I had the highest hopes for, but it doesn't really seem to have worked out. I'm not sure why - berry notes are usually good one me, though I've never tried acai specifically before. Amber and cardamom are all good, and neroli's usually OK. I don't know... It doesn't smell like Snake Oil to me, so I don't think it's that, but somehow despite most of the other ingredients being things I like, this one doesn't seem to quite come together for me. The acai berry seems to be by far the strongest note in here, and while as I mentioned I'm usually all good with berries -- Bewitched is one of my favourite scents -- this particular berry comes across as cloyingly sweet and a bit overwhelming. It didn't help that the first time I tried it, a friend helpfully told me that I smelled like fruit roll-ups. And there's something a bit... synthetic-smelling about it, too. My wife actually liked it on me -- she said it smelled like some kind of peach wine with a dash of grenadine or something, but I didn't find it particularly boozy, though there are overtones to it that remind me of Swank. But Swank is one of those scents I sometimes like and sometimes don't, and the mixed feelings from that seem to apply to this one too. It's not bad, exactly -- the excessive sweetness does settle down after a little while, but it just somehow doesn't work for me. Oh well. Grade: B-

I couldn't resist ordering decants of a few of the Snake Pit scents, even though I am one of the few people who actually doesn't like Snake Oil. I know, it's outrageously popular, and it may indeed be Teh Sex on other people, but on me it's mostly Play-Doh, with overtones of cheap drugstore perfume. But some of the things being added to it in this collection sounded so good I couldn't help myself. Boomslang was actually on my "maybe" list, and I ended up getting a decant of it almost by accident. But oh my gods, I am so glad I did! This may be based on Snake Oil, but it takes it to a whole new level. The Play-Doh scent is virtually obliterated by thick, rich, dark cocoa, with a rich woody undertone. It's absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't stop sniffing myself, and ended up wearing it for three days running, even though I still had other new oils to try, which is almost unheard of for me. The cocoa really dominates the scent in the imp, but it mellows a bit on my skin and allows the wood and the underlying incensey notes to come out more. Interestingly, the eventual drydown of it after a few hours is very similar to what the original Snake Oil smells like after that time, but that's not a bad thing... I actually liked what Snake Oil eventually ended up smelling like; it was just for those first few hours that it was wretched on me. So this way I get a bit of the one aspect of Snake Oil that i did like, plus the chocolate woody goodness. There is so definitely a bottle of this in my future... Grade: A

This and Anathema were frimps with the Bakeneko I got through a shared order with a friend. Of the array of frimps that came in that order, those two were the only ones that I at least hadn't tried yet -- finding GC scents that I haven't tried and really want to is getting harder. But I thought these might be worth an experiment, at least. Of the two, I had lower hopes for this one, and mainly picked it because I have a friend who I know is looking for it, so I figured I could pass it on to her after trying it an (inevitably) finding it overwhelmingly floral. And yet -- surprise of surprises! -- it's actually not bad at all. I don't get it -- normally my skin amps rose beyond all belief, but not here, for some reason. There's definitely a floral element, but the scent comes across overall as more citrus-herbal, even on my rose-amping skin. It's fresh and light and a bit tart, and smells like something that might be nice in the spring. I don't like it quite as much as some of the others I've tucked away as spring scents, like Belle Epoque, Titania and Maenad, but it's not bad at all. However, it fades away quite quickly on me. Within less than an hour, there's barely a trace of it left. The faint trace there is is nice, but I wouldn't want to have to reapply it every hour on the hour. So I probably will pass it on to my friend after all. Grade: B-

This and Bess were frimps with the Bakeneko I got through a shared order with a friend. Of the array of frimps that came in that order, those two were the only ones that I at least hadn't tried yet -- finding GC scents that I haven't tried and really want to is getting harder. But I thought these might be worth an experiment, at least. I'm not a big fan of florals, at all, but I thought the vetiver in here might help bring them down to earth a bit. And it does, in a sense -- there's definitely a heaviness to this scent, but the extreme sweetness overlaying it is still almost smothering. It gets across the feeling it's trying for pretty well -- there's definitely a sense of decadence and corruption to it -- but it's a bit overwhelmingly, almost smotheringly heavy and sweet. It does eventually fade down to a somewhat more pleasant level, but on the whole, but it's really not the sort of thing I could ever see myself wearing. Grade: C

I was so looking forward to this one. These days, I'm usually pretty cautious about ordering full bottles of LEs unsniffed, and tend to opt for decant circles most of the time instead, but in this case I took one look at the description and knew I had to have a bottle. Amber, musk, tangerine, tea and spices? Too good to be true. And, well, there was this little detail of cherry blossom also being included, which worried me a bit, but how could one little floral note, even of the high, sweet kind that are so terrifying on me, possibly outweigh all that goodness? More easily than you might think, apparently. It smelled very floral and perfumey in the bottle, but I continued to cling to the hope that it would smell different on my skin. And it did... a bit. The spices came out a little more there, and eventually I caught a whiff of tangerine, but predominantly all I smelled was amber, a light powdery Body Shop-ish white musk, and that damn cherry blossom. My skin loves to amp high, sweet florals like that, and as a result any scent containing them tends to turn into Screaming Floral Death on me. This one didn't quite do that, but it did go a lot more floral than I wanted. It was actually kind of reminiscent of Lyonesse, in a way -- I guess the amber-floral combo. But Lyonesse is more complex and interesting than this was on me. What little there was of the spices and tangerine faded right out fairly quickly, and left pretty much othing but amber and perfumey floral. It ended up smelling like a second-rate imitation of Lyonesse. And just for added cruelty, the traces of it left on my coat collar the next day smelled lovely -- apparently, it's a beautiful scent, but just not on me! *sigh* Why, why, why? I so wanted to love the monster cat! But apparently it was not meant to be. It's not awful or anything, but on my skin, it's just kind of... well, perfumey and blah. I guess I have to add cherry blossom to the list of "deal-breaker" notes like ylang ylang and ozone that can kill any scent for me, no matter how great the rest of the notes are. Or maybe I just need to invest in a scent locket... Grade: C+

The description very much fits -- this is a very "white" scent, and very calming, with a strongly spiritual feel. All the orisha scents I have tried so far have been very evocative -- enough that I don't generally feel comfortable using them as perfumes, and this is no exception. I've never really worked with Obatala, but from what I know of him, this scent seems very fitting. At first sniff, the coconut dominates, with its inevitable suntan-oil-like scent, but soon after it's applied, the other notes rise up and balance it. The coconut is still there, enough to give it a tropical feel, but it's also very soft, fresh and un-sweet... Not at all a cliché coconut scent any more. It's not as complex as Oya or Osun, but it doesn't need to be. Obatala is all about purity, and the simplicity of this scent really suits him, I think. I had a good friend who was dedicated to him -- in part because he was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and Obatala is the one of the orishas who rejects alcohol and other intoxicants, so my friend found him helpful in his recovery. Sniffing this scent brings back strong memories of that friend, who died over a decade ago. I think he would have really liked it. Myself, I couldn't wear this as a perfume, but I could use it for getting closer to the orisha it's named for, if I had a reason to work with him. Grade: as perfume B-, as evocative of orisha A

At first sniff, this is very piney, and very much along the same lines as Black Forest, Nocnitsa, and some of the Christmas-tree-esque Yule scents. But as it settles in, other layers of scent emerge. There's a deep, resinous, amber-musk warmth underlying it, and a touch of something sweet which is probably the juniper berry. The promised "winter air" note worried me a little, not because I have anything against winter air - quite fond of it, really -- but because attempts to capture air and water scents in perfume usually end up being variants of the ozone note, which just smells like nasty chemicals to me. But thankfull it's not prominent here -- there's a faint undertone of the cold note from Talvikuu, but it's fairly subtle, and does not end up making it smell like chemical air freshener. The more it settles into my skin, the more it becomes really luscious... The berry gives it an almost edible sweetness, and the layers of warm and cold, sweet and wild, make it nicely complex. I remember when I was on a personal quest for the perfect foresty scent, back in the early days of my BPAL addiction, before I figured out that forest scents for the most part don't work all that well on me. Hexennacht was the closest thing I found then... But I think this might actually be better. The perfect forest scent might have finally found me, now that I've stopped looking. The only down side is that it doesn't last terribly long -- it's pretty much gone inside of two hours or so. But it's lovely enough to be worth re-applying. Grade: A-/A

Interesting... I keep thinking this smells like something else, but I'm not sure what. It's predominantly an incensey scent, with amber in it almost for certain, but it's also got a citrussy edge to it, and I think a bit of musk. It's not as heavy as Cathedral or Aureus, but there's definitely an undercurrent of darkness to it... It seems very appropriate for sunset. As it settles in, I keep catching little whiffs of all kinds of different things. Sometimes it's like a lighter, tarter Aureus, other times it's like a less-sweet Hymn to Proserpine, other times something else entirely. And yet, while it has similarities to several scents I really like, on the whole I'm not as pleased with it as I could be. Eventually as it dries down, I realize what it reminded me of: Litha. The citrussy-sunny-incense feel is a lot like that one, though of the two I think I like Litha better. And the scent it eventually shifts to is a sort of not-altogether-pleasant waxy scent that a few other scents also dry down to -- not sure what note that is that does that, but I wish it wouldn't. Overall, it has more of the feeling of a ritual oil than a perfume, and while I'm sure it would be good for that, it's not something I would wear as a scent outside of ritual. Grade: B-

This is a light, dry floral -- not overwhelmingly sweet as many florals can be, but unmistably flowery nonetheless. I can get "grey and ghostly" from it, definitely... It's got a sort of wispy, ethereal quality, a bit like Ouija, though less pretty than that one. It's also, however, not terribly interesting. There's nothing particularly bad about it; it's just sort of... there. Maybe if I was more of a floral fan I'd like it better... On drydown, it shifts into a sort of generic "perfumey" scent. Grade: C

Wow -- given that this contains both dragon's blood, which is often very dodgy on me, and ylang ylang, which is my absolute scent nemesis, it is freakishly non-evil on my skin. I don't mean that I exactly like it, but I don't hate it nearly as much as I expected to. Why I would try something I expected to hate is a good question -- I suppose just because it was an unexpected frimp, of a relaively new scent, and hope springs eternal that perhaps someday I will find a dragon scent that works for me, given that I actually really like the scent of dragon's blood resin itself, when it's the actual resin rather than a perfume oil. This smells like a more floral version of Blood Amber, with maybe a few parallels to Rage as well -- unsuprisingly, I guess, as both of those contain both amber and dragon's blood. And both of those are pretty good on me -- amber seems to be one of the few things that can tame dragon's blood and keep it from becoming overwhelmingly sweet on me. Mind you, with the florals (especially -- *shudder* -- ylang ylang!), this is pretty powerfully sweet anyway, but not in that cloying, awful, perfumey way that dragon's blood can sometimes go on me. It's almost likable. Almost. However, the likable side of it is so much like Rage that I'm probably better off just sticking with that when I want to smell like a very sweet dragon. The sweetness in Rage comes from fruit as well as flowers, which usually behaves better on my skin, so it's probably more me than this one. Still... This one does have a nicely dreamy feel that resonates with the name, and I'm so shocked at finding a scent with ylang ylang in it that doesn't turn into Screaming Floral Death on me that I just might keep it. Grade: B

This is an oddly androgynous scent -- not so much in the sense of being gender-neutral as being strongly gendered in both directions at once. The tobacco/bay rum blend is quite masculine, but it's overlaid with all kinds of flowers, and the end result is something that seems to be screaming "Man!" and "Woman!" at the same time. It could probably be worn by either. It's an interesting scent -- "exotic and sultry" does fit it. It's heady and spicy and slightly intoxicating-smelling, and very much does evoke the feel of the Caribbean. I could see wearing it to a Vodoun ritual or something. It defintely smells like something you'd find in a botanica... I don't think it's really "me" as a perfume, but it's pleasant enough, and very much evokes the feeling it's supposed to, so well done anyway. Grade: B-

At first sniff, this is very much a honey-wine scent, a bit reminiscent of Delphi, though sweeter, lighter and less spicy/incensey. The florals and the undertone of musk lend it a definite "perfumey" feel; the resins and oakmoss don't seem noticeable at all, at least at this stage. They do come out later on, though, but it seems like they neve quite blend in properly with the other notes, and there's a slightly unpleasant waxy undertone to it that throws the whole thing off for me. All in all, it feels like one of those scents that just doesn't quite come togehter for me. It's not bad, it's just the noted don't really seem to work together properly and create something special -- they just sort of slug it out and never really get anywhere. Oh well... Grade: C+

I am getting a whole lot more flowers than forest in this -- it's very, very floral-perfumey on me, at least initially. Not to an awful extent - the flowers in it are not your typical ones, and it does smell a bit unique, and fresher than most, but it's still a case of "Holy Florals, Batman!" at the outset. Once it dries down a bit, though, the wood notes seem to come out a bit more, and begin to balance the flowers a little, toning down the sweetness. There's still an unmistakable perfuminess to it, but in a slightly unconventional way. You could wear this at the office without anyone thinking you were a complete weirdo, and yet it's still fairly distinctive. Unfortunately, it's not really me -- there's a dryness to it that tickles the back of my nose a bit, and while I can appreciate the scent, it's not really the sort o thing I tend to wear, even when stretching my boundaries. I think I will likely just be thankful for the opportunity to have tried it, and pass it on to someone else. Grade: C+/B-