Miss Lynx

Although this one seems to be a perennial favourite among many BPALers, it took me a long time to get around to trying it. And it's quite nice on me, though not the stunner many other people seem to find it. Mostly it smells clean, herbal, slightly citrussy and a little astringent -- I suppose that's the tea -- with a warm vanilla-musk overlay. I don't get much of that sugar note that's in things like Smut and Devil's Night, and am glad of it, since that note doesn't work well on me. I could see this one being more of a men's scent -- it definitely smells like it would be good on a guy. But it's also pretty nice on me, so I'd put it in the gender-neutral camp. It smells a lot less exotic, and more clean and professional than many BPAL scents -- definitely something you could wear to a job interview. The gender-neutrality of it would probably be a plus there, too, as it doesn't come off as girly in the least, but it doesn't smell like you've been messing around with men's cologne either. I don't really find it terribly exciting, so it's not likely to become a top favourite for me the way it is for so many others -- it's a little bit too clean and professional for my tastes, to the point of being a little bland. But it's certainly not bad, and I'll keep the imp around for occasions when I want to smell respectable. On the plus side, the scent stays nice all the way through the drydown, and never turns to Play-Doh as vanilla scents so often do on me. The herbal/citrus side of it eventually fades and leaves just a soft vanilla-musk skin-scent, which lasts for many hours, and stays pleasant the whole time. Grade: B/B+

Courtesy of the lovely and kind Purplegirl, who included this as a frimp with the 5mL of Red Lantern I bought from her for Kettu, I finally have my own imp of Hollywood Babylon. This is another scent I never would have originally imagined I'd like, but I do. It sounds from the notes like it would be an uber-sweet teenybopper scent, but it's not on me. While it is a bit sweeter and more girly than many of my favourites, it doesn't make me smell like a candy store. In the imp, and when first applied, the cherry and heliotrope dominate it, and it is a bit scary at that point. But they soon die down, and then it's a lovely berry/amber/vanilla/musk -- light enough to seem good for spring, but with a warm, aromatic, incensey base that keeps it from being too sparkly. And over time, it fades down to just a soft amber/musk skin-scent. It definitely fits in with the way that the coming of spring has made me crave lighter scents, and also has a bit of a festive feel to it -- my first time wearing it was to a party, and that seemed quite fitting. I don't know that it would ever be an everyday scent for me, but it's quite nice for bright spring days and festive occasions. Grade: B+

This was the scent I had the highest hopes for from the Maelstrom collection, and it did not disappoint. Thus far the Maelstrom has worked out much better for me than the Demon in my View did, probably because florals are much less prominent in this collection, and incensey/boozy scents much more so. There wasn't a single one among my five Maelstrom decants that I actually disliked, though not all of them merited a bottle purchase. But this one definitely did. When first applied, the scent was softer, dryer and less intense than I'd expected -- I'd expected something more along the lines of Red Phoenix, which is a very heavy scent, though a nice one. But this one starts out soft and subtle -- a dry, softly spicy scent like the inside of a herb and spice cabinet. But over time on my skin it develops all kinds of depth, and becomes, if not exactly stronger, at least a lot richer and more complex. The cocoa note doesn't come out until after it's been on my skin for an hour or two, and the musk blends everything together and warms it all. And the vetiver is the type of vetiver I like, an earthy, woodsy, slightly spicy base anchoring the scent, not the harsh and grating note it can sometimes be in other blends. All in all, it's warm, rich, beautifully spiced, and seems to blend in with my skin as though it was made for it. This might even be my favourite LE to date, though it's up against some stiff competition there. Maybe I should have bought two bottles... Grade: A+

I'd been wanting to try this one for a while, and got my chance at the most recent Toronto Meet'n'Sniff. On first contact, I liked it quite a lot. It was a very gentle, soft scent, mostly vanilla with a soft overlay of flowers, but not too sweet - very evocative of its name. Kind of like a toned-down, creamier Euphrosyne. And for a change my skin did not amp the florals particularly - they stayed nicely in balance with the other notes. But my skin did, alas, resort to one of its other tricks: turning vanilla into Play-Doh. The scent was fine for about half an hour, and then the Play-Doh kicked in. *sigh* Oh well. Grade: B-

I am not sure what mad whim made me try this. I mean, Cherry and anise?! And it smells positively scary in the imp. A friend urged me to try it a while back, insisting it was much nicer than you would think, but one sniff of her bottle of it put me right off. And yet, at a Meet'n'Sniff, you find yourself trying strange things... And sometimes being glad you did. This is astonishingly nice. The cherry comes on strong at first, but then mellows out and gives way to the anise, and then that settles down a bit too and they blend together with an indefinable something-else I couldn't identify at the time (but have since discovered is red musk) into a really lovely, warm spicy scent I found myself quite liking. So, from "WTF? You want me to try what? Who would mix those notes in a scent?!", I've migrated to "Hey, I think I may need to get some of that..." Beth has such a talent for turning unlikely combinations of ingredients into really unique creations. Grade: B/B+

This one had been on and off my wish list a few times, as I debated whether or not I would like it, but I eventually got to try it at the most recent Toronto Meet'n'Sniff. It wasn't bad, but I was fairly underwhelmed, on the whole. It's a slight sweet, slightly spicy herbal scent with bitter medicinal undertones. Odd that so many people in this thread seem to have gotten fruit from it -- I didn't get that at all. It's not unpleasant, but not very exciting either -- nothing really makes it stand out on my skin, it's just sort of there, and smells vaguely like I'd been playing around with random herbs or essential oils with no particular purpose in mind. The different notes just sort of sit there without really interacting or ever forming anything greater than the sum of their parts. Grade: C

This is a really nice, warm incensey scent - I don't find it redolent of despair at all; it smells very comforting to me. But I probably have different associations with church incense type scents than someone with a more repressive religious upbringing might have. It's gentle and warm, with a touch of spiciness and a slight sweetness to it. There's a bit of darkness there, but not of a menacing sort - it smells more to me like something I'd wear or burn for a Wiccan ritual. But again, that may be my background talking. I was strongly tempted to order a 5 mL, but it's so close in scent to Cathedral and Midnight Mass (more the latter than the former - it's a bit lighter and sweeter than Cathedral), both of which I have imps of already, that I decided I wasn't sure I really needed a bottle of any of them until I make a little more headway on using up the imps. But it was a very close call... Grade: B+

This is a very, very pretty, and very perfumey scent, as the name suggests. It's strongly floral -- more so than you'd think from looking at the list of notes -- but with some underlying layers of complexity that give it depth. It smells like you'd expect a high-end French perfume to smell, not that I have a whole lot of experience with that sort of thing. It would be absolutely lovely on someone who liked floral scents and more conventionally "perfumey" perfumes. Unfortunately, that person is not me. I can admire the artistry in scents like this, but they're really not the sort of scent I feel comfortable wearing at all. I will be regretfully passing this on to someone more floral-friendly than I am. Grade: C+/B-

Finally, I get to try the Lupercalia oil everyone was raving about. I didn't order it with my other Lupercalia decants, because it sounded too foody for me, but after all the glowing reviews, I was happy to be able to try it at a Meet'n'Sniff. At first, it actually smelled pretty nice on me. Not too foody at all, but a very pleasant sweet, musky skin-scent, with faint overtones of vanilla. I found myself thinking I might have to track some of this down. And then, alas, the vanilla-ish note in it slowly morphed into Play-Doh, as it tends to on me. Oh well. It was nice before it got to that point. Grade: B-/C+

Yay! I finally got my Mad Monkey decant! But I think this monkey will probably be looking for a new home soon. While many of the scents I like have musk in them, there is such a thing as too much a good thing, and this is definitely it where musk is concerned. This scent is far too heavily musky for me - I can barely pick up the other notes, though there are subtle hints of them here and there. Mostly it's just "I am musk, hear me roar!" It's actually kind of reminiscent of Glasya, for those who remember that one, but with less of a floral component. And like that one, it does mellow a bit on drydown, and allows the other notes out to play a bit, though the musk is definitely still at centre stage. But on the whole, it's still pretty heavy -- a little more monkey than I can handle. C+/B-

A very rich and warm scent, very much in the woodsy-spicy family, and decidedly masculine, even on my skin which tends to give sex changes to a lot of men's scents. Some scents that are designed for men work fine on me, but others seem to stand up and shout "Heyt! I'm a guy scent!" This would be one of those. It smells like walking through the men's fragrance area of an upscale department store. It would be a lovely scent, on someone who was not me and either had XY chromosomes or at least was a lot more butch than I am. It certainly has major staying power though -- it didn't want to come off even when scrubbed with soap. Grade: C

At first sniff, this was grape-scented bubble gum, and I very much considered not trying it at all. But what with it being rare and discontinued and all, I couldn't resist. Thankfully, the cloying candy-sweetness (which I think is a mix of the wine and lotus -- lotus tends to go bubble gum on me, and BPAL's wine notes often smell more like grape candy on me) settles down fairly quickly, and the remaining scent is actually quite nice. It's light and sweet, but not too sweet, and with a nicely complex floral/fruit blending. Unfortunately it hasn't got a lot of staying power -- it's been on for about ten minutes, and it's already starting to fade away. Thus go a lot of the lighter scents on me... Still, it was pretty nice while it lasted. It would be a great spring scent, if only it lasted longer. Grade: B (B+ if lasted longer)

At first sniff, very musky, and with that unmistakable skanky civet note lurking in it. But as it settles in, a lot more complexity comes out, including a definite touch of sweetness. It's definitely a very dynamic blend, with a lot of highs and lows mixed together. After a while, the disparate notes begin blending together and finding a balance -- very earthy and a little animalistic, but with a floral overlay keeping it from being too murky. The civet is thankfully no longer taking centre stage, either. It doesn't feel all that fiery to me, but there is a bit of warmth to it, and a touch of spiciness, probably from the dragon's blood. I wouldn't see this becoming a top favourite (fortunately, since it's discontinued) -- it's a bit too heavy for me. But it's a very interesting scent. And, for the record, the first ever scent containing ylang ylang that I haven't felt the urge to scrub off immediately. I guess it really does take that much earthiness to tone down ylang ylang's cloying sweetness on me! Grade: B

This is a very odd and interesting one, acquired as part of Kettu's raffle prize - six imps of discontinued scents. At first it's quite sweet and sharp, with the jasmine and lime predominating, but it morphs and changes quite a bit over time. Lime is one of those high, sharp top notes that fades very fast, so that's soon gone, leaving a sort of lush, rich floral/fruit blend with hints of dark incense under it. Then the jasmine settles down nicely into the mix, leaving a sort of dark berry incense scent with just a hint of floral, which is really lovely. And then, alas, it fades entirely. *sigh* Both this one and Baobhan Sith, the first two of the six that I tried, are really nice, but fade away so fast! I would love them both if they'd only stick around. Oh well. Maybe it's just as well this one didn't stay long enough for me to fall in love with it, given that you can't get it any more. Grade: B (B+ or maybe A if it stayed longer)

This is really startlingly lovely. I had my doubts about it, mainly because of the apple blossom, which was overwhelmingly sweet on me in Brisingamen, plus I wasn't too sure about the grapefruit, but it's really not bad at all. It's definitely a fairly high, sweet scent, but it has enough tartness from the graefruit and spiciness from the ginger to keep it from being cloying, and a slightly bitter, astringent herbal edge. And I can see a certain otherworldliness in it... The most curious thing about it, though, is that it smells a lot like lilacs -- not like lilac perfume, but like getting up close and personal with a real live lilac bush -- even though there's no actual lilac in it. As it settles in a bit, the floral aspect begins to fade, and it takes on more of a spicy-tea sort of scent, which is still quite nice - but then it fades away completely. After 15-10 minutes, I could only barely smell it, which is too bad, because it's so nice. Why does my skin seem to eat so many of the scents I like? Grade: B (definite B+ if it had better staying power)

Very light and herbal, with a soft woody base. It's a much gentler scent than I'd expected -- I thought the World Tree would be heavier and darker, somehow. But at least it doesn't seem to have the particular sort of wood note that seems to go all funky and unpleasant on my skin. It just stays kind of light and soft. Would probably be good for spring. Not terribly interesting, but reasonably pleasant. Seems to be fading out quickly, though. Grade: B/B-

OK, I know this is supposed to be a men's scent, but when has that ever stopped me from anything before? :-) It's actually surprisingly soft and gentle -- I was expecting something a lot more overtly butch. This smells much more gender-neutral than masculine, at least on me. It's sort of softly resinous and musky with a touch of sweetness. Looking at the lab description, I see there are several citrus notes in here, which don't come out prominently to me, but may be softening the heavier notes a bit. Then again, citrus tends to fade with age, and the CN collection hs been around a while, so maybe it was more citrussy when it was fresh. The ambergris probably sweetens it up a bit too. I could see this scent working on a guy, definitely, but I think it can be equally good on a woman. Grade: B

Wow, this is... goaty. I suppose that should come as no surprise. A sniff from the imp, in fact, was quite enough for me to know it did not belong on my skin. But thankfully, a male friend happened to come visiting shortly afterward who has a massive fixation with satyrs (partly via the game Changeling: the Dreaming), and it was evident that this oil needed to belong to him. Now the cool thing about that is that this was someone I had previously tried to enable with very little success. But as soon as he saw the name on the label of this one, his eyes lit up. He immediately tried it on, and him, that musky goatiness of it really worked. It really did smell like you'd expect a satyr to. He kept sniffing it and looking deliriously happy. By the time he left our apartment, I would have sworn that his feet (or hooves?) were no longer quite touching the ground. Enabling managed! Grade: D for me, but A+ on my satyr friend

Hmmm. On first sniff, I wasn't too impressed. "Not bad, but not great" was my initial reaction. It seemed like a non-spicy, slightly-less-sweet version of my beloved Vixen, and thus struck me a as a little bland -- the gingery kick and intoxicating sweetness is part of what I like about Vixen, and without that it didn't seem too interesting. But as it settled into my skin, it became decidedly less bland. It developed a very heady, incensey feel to it, and I after a while I could have sworn where were indeed some kind of spices in there. It's a bit reminiscent of Depraved in the way that only two notes seem to generate all kinds of strange dynamics between them that make you think there's a lot more going on in there. It's still not about to displace Vixen in my affections, but I think it stands on its own as more than just Vixen Lite, and definitely merits further experimentation. Grade: B+

I like this quite a lot more than I thought I would. I had it on my wish list at one point, for the amber, mandarin and blackcurrant, but ended up taking it off when I realized how sweet dragon's blood tends to go on me, and that that with the florals would probably be a hellishly sweet combination. But as it happened, an imp of it came my way from a friend who ordered it and didn't like it. On first contact, it did indeed go very floral -- the melati (a type of jasmine, I think) and rose geranium come on pretty strong to start with. But even then, it's got a bit of a warm, incensey undercurrent that tones it down a bit. And the floral blast doesn't really last too long -- within about 10 minutes, the florals have faded down in the mix to a reasonable level, the fruit notes have made themselves known, and the very Blood Amber-like base is blending everything together nicely. The overall effect is sort of equal parts fruity, floral and incensey -- quite sweet, but not to an unpleasant extent. It's a very warm and heady scent, and feels very summery to me. A mix of flower gardens in full bloom, lush fruit that's almost a touch overripe, and sweet incense. It has a bit of a sultry, decadent feel, almost like Gypsy Queen though not as complex or mysterious. In short, definitely a keeper! But not at all like it's name -- this is a pretty, happy-making scent, not a raging one, at least on me. Grade: B+

... This oil blend is a serene, soothing Indian blend, created to bring calm and joy to the heart and peace to the spirit. Sandalwood, jasmine, rose, patchouli, cedarwood and lemongrass. Not as heavily floral as I would have expected from the description, though there's definitely floral in it. The cedar and lemongrass add a tartness to it, and the sandalwood-patchouli base give it an overall fairly incensey feel. Unsurprisingly, it's reminiscent of the scent of an Indian incense shop, which is not a bad thing at all, to me. I don't know that I like it enough that I would actually wear it regularly, but it's nicer than I thought it would be, and might merit further experimentation. Grade: B

Hmmm... There's a strong bitter note to this that I don't much like. There are other notes in it that smell more pleasant, vying with the bitterness, but they seem to be being pushed into the background. It's definitely an incensey scent more than anything, but a somewhat harsh one. It does mellow a bit as it settles in, though, and the eventual drydown is not bad. And it has that occult-shop ambiance about it that I could see making it good for ritual work - it definitely evokes its name; I would associate this scent more with ceremonial magic than any other kind. Grade: C+/B-

You wouldn't think that a little ylang ylang could completely overcome all the earthy goodness of patchouli, musk and myrrh... But there is no such thing as "a little" ylang ylang, at least not on my skin. Ylang ylang nearly always rears up and turns into Florzilla on me, and this no exception. I can smell just enough of the other notes, faintly in the background, to realize that this might be a nice scent on someone who is not me. But mainly, it's just a screaming ylang ylang attack. Oh well. *sigh* I seem to have flunked right out on the Seven Deadlies. None of them work on me, of the ones I've tried, and the ones I haven't tried, I can pretty much tell from the description I wouldn't like. Maybe I'm doomed to be virtuous. Grade: D

In the imp the lotus seemed strong enough that I wasn't sure me trying this one was a good idea (lotus tends to be cloyingly sweet and a bit bubble-gummy on me), but Kettu said the lotus faded away really quickly on her, so I decided to give it a try. It was pretty lotussy to start with, but sure enough, that phase didn't last long. What it fades down to is an soft incensey scent that's a little bit reminiscent of Namaste or maybe to a lesser extent Tushnamatay, though I like Tushnamatay much more. It's not that Kathmandu is unpleasant, at least once the initial lotus blast dies down, but what's left is very soft and faint and sort of... I don't know, unremarkable. It has that same sort of "I've been hanging out in an Indian incense store" feel as Namaste, but it's a lot milder. It also seems to be doing a quick disappearing act. Oh well. Grade: C+/B-

On first application, the leather in this is really strong, and it very much smells like a men's scent. But as it dries down, the resins come out a lot more, and bring a certain level of sweetness with them. And there's also that papery note that I recognize from Clio. The drydown is very much old books and incense, which kind of suits me. It's basically like a gender-neutral Clio, aside from that initial leather blast. I would very much like smelling this on a guy, and it would suit a very spiritual/intellectual one - fairly appropriate to its namesake, I suppose. But it's not bad on me either. Grade: B