Miss Lynx

OK, I do realize this is not only a men's scent, but arguable the men's scent. And yet, when a male friend gave Kettu and me a handful of imps that didn't work on him, I had to try this on myself before passing it on to our male partner (yes, complicated poly relationship -- well, not that complicated, there's only three of us). And I actually really like it. I do agree that it would probably be a wee bit better on a guy, but damn, it's not half bad on me. It's a lot sweeter than most men's scents, but not in a conventionally feminine way at all. I'm pretty sure there's honey in here, and I know there's vanilla -- in a way, it's a bit like a more complex and gender-neutral O. But there's also pine, and something spicy, and something a little earthy... Maybe a touch of some kind of wood that's not so good on me, but overall, it's pretty nice. Really, the only reason I'm passing this on is that first of all, I have so many other scents I like that something really has to wow me for me to want to keep it these days, and second, if I did keep it, and wore it, and someone asked what it was, I don't think I'd have the nerve to tell them. 30 minutes later: Oops -- I was already to post the above, but now it's turning into Play-Doh on me. Damn vanilla -- I hate it when it does that! It was so nice at first... Grade: Initially B+, later stage C. Overall C+/B-

Ooh, nice. This was one of a number of imps of scents usually considered to be for the boys that a male friend gave Kettu and me recently, and while another of our male friend has gotten hooked on Dracul and is dying for more, so we'll probably give this to him, I had to try it first. I have to say, this scent is a work of art. It's got that gorgeous complexity that many of the best BPAL scents do, with all the notes perfectly balancing each other, and shifting in and out of prominence. Orange blossom was what first jumped out at me, but then it settled back into the blend, forming part of a harmonious whole. As with Golden Priapus (which is on my other arm right now), I can see how this scent might be better on a man than a woman even though it doesn't come across a stereotypically male scent to me. But it's nice on me too, even though it's not my usual type of scent. I can see why it has some female fans. Warm, dark, earthy, herbal, complex... It's not quite a "me" scent, but still, if I didn't know how desperately our friend Tim wanted it I'd be tempted to keep it for myself. Grade: B

Hmm, not really what I expected. We got this is a frimp in our most recent Lab order, and it wasn't something I'd had on my wish list, but looking up the description, it seemed like it might have potential. Fruits and spices are often good on me, though florals are very dicey. But in this case, the fruit notes don't seem to be the kind that I like -- there's a distinct melony scent, and I don't really like melons even to eat, let alone to wear. Whatever spices are in this are fairly subdued, and the florals, while not being as overwhelmingly strong as they sometimes can be on me, add sweetness to an already sweet scent that really doesn't need them. For a goddess of chaos, I'd really expect a little more darkness in this scent. This is way too sweet, and as others have said, verges on almost bubble-gum-ish. Definitely not for me. Grade: D+/C-

I had high hopes for this one, but it doesn't seem to work very well on me. When freshly applied, it smelled exactly like herbal insect repellent. I would have sworn there was citronella in there. But looking at the note listing, I think it's the lemon. Once that died down, it became sort of a dry earthy herbal -- I think saffron and thyme are mainly what I'm getting, with the vetiver and patchouli darkening them a bit but not really standing out on their own. No musk or plum that I can detect -- those would have improved it a lot. As it stands, it's not exactly a bad scent, but it's not a very interesting one either. It's just sort of dry and vaguely medicinal, and ultimately not very interesting. About an hour after application, it seems to have become softer and I can smell the musk a bit now, but it's also rapidly fading away. Maybe I'll try it somewhere other than on my wrists and see if it lasts long enough to eventually turns into something I'll like. Overall, between this and Alone (which were about the only two that didn't look they'd be too heavily floral for me), the Demon collection hasn't really been a big success for me. Grade: C

My first thought: Does every scent I encounter these days have to smell like lemon? I was starting to wonder if it was just me. But the last few I tried were Shadow, The Great Sword of War, Lenore and this, and all but TGSoW have something lemony listed, so I guess it's just coincidence. Anyway, yes -- the lemon balm here is what jumps out most strongly at first. But as with the others listed above, it also seems to dry down quickly. Lemon and its variants (lemon balm, lemon verbena, etc.) seem to be among those aggressive top notes that come on really strong at first but don't have much staying power. As the lemon balm fades, some of the other notes are coming out more: definitely the orris, with its powdery, dry feel, and I can get some earthiness from the myrrh and sage, and a touch of sweetness from the honeysuckle. Overall I'd call it a mildly interesting dry herbal, with slight floral touches. Not bad, though not really a "me" scent. I think this one will probably go to Kettu, who is very fond of orris and will probably like this just fine. Grade: C+/B-

Hmm, complex and interesting! My first thought was "Chocolate of the Antichrist!", as the cocoa note is fairly strong, but with dark and sinister undertones. But there area lot of different things happening in this scent, influences which shift in and out of prominence and make it smell quite different from one sniff to the next. I'm guessing that one of the five herbs of conflict is lemon verbena, because there's a note in here that's very similar to the lemon-drop high note in Shadow. And the scent seems to be unfolding differently in different places -- on my wrists, it's settled down to a soft herbal-musk which is quite nice, but fading quickly, while in the crooks of my arms the verbena is still quite pungent, with mandarin and cocoa in the background and dark herbal notes dancing around them. Eventually it all settles down to a fairly pleasing sort of cocoa-herbal-musk. I can see the similarities to 13 and Freak Show -- more the latter than the former, though. It's got a definite darkness to it which 13 in my admittedly limited experience didn't seem to have. But the freaky I-am-food/I-am-not-food complexity is like both of those. And I can see the Shub parallel too -- it's a little bit similar to the more musky of the two Shub batches I've tried. Very interesting, and one that I think I will need to wear more to get better acquainted with. It has all kinds of complexity to it that I don't think come out fully in a single wearing. BTW, this was also my pick for wearing to vote in the Canadian election today. First, because given current circumstances it really does feel like riding off to war, and second, because barring a stunning upset at the polls, we are likely to be electing the Antichrist. Grade: B+

Alas. I had high hopes for this one, as it has a lot of things I like in it -- juniper, bergamot, white musk, patchouli... Orchid would normally worry me, due to my skin's tendency to amp florals, but I figured since this is theoretically a men's scent the floral component couldn't be too strong, could it? Oh, yes. Oh, yes it could. In the imp the balance between the notes was fine, but once on my skin, the orchid rose up like Godzilla and stomped all the other notes into submission. I can just barely detect some white musk and patchouli cringing in the background, but no juniper or bergamot as far as I can tell. Overwhelmingly, this is The Orchid Show, and my overall impression is of a powdery, somewhat old-lady-ish heavy floral perfume. I cannot, in my wildest imaginings, picture a guy wearing this. Though I suppose skin chemistry can work wonders. I do find that with time, the orchid is beginning to wear down a bit, and I suppose if that trend continues it might eventually become a little more gender-neutral. But I don't think I have the patience to wait for that. Goodbye to the fairy king. Grade: D

Hmmm, interesting. I wasn't entirely sure what I'd think of this -- black currant, white musk and resins sounded good, lavender is iffy, and ozone I have major doubts about, so it seemed like about even odds of working or not working on me. (The whole idea of there being such a thing as an "ozone" scent seems weird to me, since AFAIK real ozone doesn't smell like anything much. Then again, we have scents that purport to smell like snow and water, so obviously there's a certain amount of creative licence involved in these things.) Anyway, the lavender is thankfully subtle -- I don't mind it as a background element in scents; I just don't like it when it takes over, which fortunately it doesn't here. At the beginning, there was also a sort of clean, vaguely synthetic-smelling edge to it that made it seem more like a conventional perfume when first applied. I suppose that would be the ozone. Some people have likened BPAL's ozone note to dryer sheets, and it was a bit like that. But that note seems to have mostly gone inside of ten minutes, and what's left seems quite nice. Once that note faded, we were down to nice currant/musk/incense blend, and that is a very happy-making combination. That sort of fruit + musk + incense or spice combo seems to be at the heart of a lot of my favourite scents (Bewitched, Lampades, Imp, Aglaea...) and this was definitely in the same ballpark. More like Lampades than anything else, I think, though certainly not identical. I definitely don't get anything shocking or horrific from it, though I suppose I could see luminous and hazy. It's a very pretty scent, though not in a conventional girly-girl sort of way. It's sweet, but not overly so -- I didn't get anything like the candy-ish or soapy impressions some people did. The drydown was quite lovely, though not as long-lasting as I might have liked, but I'd only put it on my wrists, and scents don't last as long there as they do elsewhere, so I suspect I'll have better luck once I get more creative with where I apply it. Anyway -- definitely a keeper, despite the ozone. Grade: B+

This is nice -- warm and dry and slightly sweet, but not overly so. It's got a bit of what I think of as the occult-shop ambiance -- herbal and incensey in a way that makes me think of a shop like that or maybe a magical workshop/laboratory or some sort. Almost medicinal but not quite. It's also very clean -- there's also a faint undertone to it that's almost soapy, but not in a bad way. And there is that slight dusty, papery, old-books aspect to it too. The lavender in here is fairly faint -- just a slight note of coolness offsetting the amber/orange warmth -- and there's an earthy, woodsy base grounding it all. I was a bit worried about the wood notes at first because those are kind of hit and miss on me, but here they seem nice. All the notes co-operate well, with no one thing standing out above the others. All in all, this is a really well-balanced and nicely complex scent. It doesn't really excite me a whole lot, but then I don't think it's meant to be exciting. It feels very down-to-earth and focussed, and seems like it would be a good blend to wear while working or studying, but also has that slight mystical, incensey edge to it. The perfect thing to wear while poring through old magical texts or something. Grade: B/B+

Wow -- the lemon verbena really jumps out at first! It's a distinctly different scent from actual lemon, somewhere between lemon-drop candy sweetness, and sort of a lemony herbal tea. But there are soft traces of other scents underneath it, and as with a lot of aggressive top notes, it does fade fairly quickly. Within a few minutes there's a sort of soft, warm aromatic base coming through that I guess is the sandalwood and cedar combined, which grounds the sharp verbena and balances it a bit. Patchouli isn't really evident other than as a background presence giving it depth. And once the verbena settles down, it's a nicely balanced scent, soft and fresh. The cedar is subtle enough that it doesn't go to hamster-cage on me the way it can in some other blends. It's a bit like a softer, lighter Umbra. I think I like it, although I don't see it becoming a top favourite. Grade: B

Whoa. Death by florals! I got enough of this on my fingertips just opening the imp to know I don't want it anywhere else on me. That little trace of it rose up (so to speak) and overpowers the other scent I was wearing (Shadow, I think) and all I smell, without even putting my nose anywhere near my hand, is FLOWERS FLOWERS FLOWERS!!! In fact I can say this may be about the most frighteningly powerful floral scent I have yet encountered. And while I suppose having it scream its presence over a loudspeaker is appropriate to its theme, I am not only consigning it to the swap pile but am tempted to keep the imp in a locked airtight container until someone wants it. Grade: F (for FLOWERS!!!!)

This one was a bit of a disappointment. A lot of the notes in it sounded really good to me, but ultimately it fell prey to skin's tendency to amp florals. It smelled very interesting to me in the bottle, and when first applied, but as soon as it settled into my skin a little, the violet rose up and took over. I could still smell the other notes a bit, but they were definitely background presences. It was defintely The Violet Show. More than anything it reminded me of a somewhat more complex and interesting version of The Raven, which is not a bad thing, but not really a me thing either. That one was very violet-dominanet on me as well. As with most scent containing rose, if it had had about half the amount of the floral, I might have liked it, but as it was, it's not for me. Grade: C+/B-

This. Is. Absolutely. Divine. Up until now, when I heard about people ordering multiple bottles of favourite LEs, I thought that was a bit much. Now I wish I'd gotten multiples of this. It may well be tied with Bewitched for the title of my favourite BPAL ever. Like YeahButNoBut said, it really does evoke the feeling of a phoenix. It's very red and fiery, but not in a harsh way -- it feels warm and vibrant and magical. It's an absolutely perfect blend of spicy/fruity/musky/incensey. The different notes blend and balance each other wonderfully, with no one note ever totally dominant, but all of them subtly shifting in and out like gently flickering flames. I keep thinking it reminds me of other BPAL scents, but not solely of any one. It's a bit like Chimera, a bit like Scherezade, a bit like Fenris Wolf, a bit like Vixen -- and all of those are A scents for me. The only downside to this scent might well be that it's almost too good -- I am having trouble concentrating on work or anything else because I keep needing to repeatedly sniff my wrists. If it makes a comeback for next year's BPALiversary, I am definitely buying multiple bottles. Grade: A+

At first sniff, this was Loup-Garou with a touch of berry... That same sharp, astringent greenness, like eucalytpus, pine, and maybe a few other sharp, nose-bitey ingredients, but with a touch of sweetness to balance them. Not bad, though not overly exciting either. A little reminiscent of Yuletide, but not , but gentler and less perfumey. I was hoping the berries would come out more on the drydown, but they didn't really. It was pleasant enough, in a foresty sort of way, but didn't really grab me as much as some of the better foresty scents do. What did eventually come out, though not until after it had been on for a while, was a not-entirely-pleasant dry woody note, which I recognized as having been in Red Queen and Hamadryad, and didn't like in either of those places either. Something about it smells -- well, as someone else has already said, a little off. At least on my skin. Up until that point it wasn't bad, but when the dry wood note settled in and seemed to be planning to stick around for a while, I succumbed to the temptation to cover it up with Scherezade (I suppose I could have just washed it off, but the imp rack was closer than the bathroom). Grade: B in the early stages, C- later on.

I tried this one against my better judgement, and was expecting to hate it, but it's not as bad as I expected it to be. I know, sounds like damning with faint praise... I could smell the civet in it when it first hit my skin, and while I know some people (including my partner Kettu Keiju) can wear civet with no ill effects, it doesn't work so well on me. It doesn't actually smell like poo on me the way some people have said it does on them, but it's not very nice, at least not until it's settled in for a few hours. But interestingly, once it had been on long for only 5-20 minutes, the civet seemed to settle nicely into the mix and not stand out so much. And the opium, which I was also worried about since it tends to be a pretty strong and floral-ish scent, was being counterbalanced by the musk and civet nicely so that it didn't amp up too much on my skin. It was showing signs of being a possibly promising floral-musk sort of blend of the kind that occasionally work on me (Gypsy Queen being probably the best example). However, as it's settled on further, I'm not so sure. The opium's fading down and the civet is starting to come out more, and while it's not as skanky as it's been in some blends I've tried, it's a little heavy and animalistic for my liking. Definitely a sexual scent, but not my kind of sexual. All in all, better than I expected but not really my thing. I can see why some people would love it, though. Me, I think I'll stick with Scherezade and Gypsy Queen for my sexy-musk moods. Grade: B-

Hmmm... I get mainly violet from this, though the frankincense and cinnamon do tone down the sweetness a little, and give it some warmth and a slightly incensey edge. I can see what some people who've reviewed it mean about it being warm and cold at the same time -- violet's a very cold floral, but it's contrasted with this sunny warmth which makes for an interesting contrast. It's not a bad scent, but it does come across as predominantly floral on me, and I am really not a floral sort of person. It would probably be nice on someone who liked violet more, or at least whose skin didn't amp it the way mine does. Grade: C+

I'd been wanting to try this one for a while, and finally got to, but while I did like it, I didn't like it as much as I expected to. The simplest way to describe this scent would be to say that it's the non-spicy version of Voodoo. Maybe it's Voodoo Lite. I know it's theoretically got clove in it, but I was not getting a lot of spice. The cherries came on really strong at first, but quickly faded, as they tend to on me. The remaining scent was fairly pleasant, but seemed like it was lacking something. I guess I just expected a little more depth and complexity given the variety of notes in it. The eventual vanilla-vetivert drydown was bang-on identical to Voodoo, right down to the hanging-in-there-to-the-next-morning-even-after-several-hand-washes. Almost nothing lasts longer on me than that combination. And I do like it, I guess I just, as with a few of the others I've tried recently, expected more. Maybe I'm just getting jaded and hard to impress. I will probably pick up an imp of this eventually so that I can try it out more thoroughly, but it's not at the top of my wish list any more. Grade: B+ ETA (many moons later): Finally got an imp, and I think I like it more this time around, though it's still a case of like rather than love. The spiciness stuck around a bit better this time, and it does seem like it has a bit more complexity. So, definitely going to keep the imp, and I've upgraded the review to a B+, but I don't think we're really in big bottle territory here.

Tried this at the Meet'n'Sniff. Whoa. I can definitely see why this had been called the female counterpart to Talvikuu -- the similarity is really striking, and yet there's a real difference as well, in that Snow Bunny is a lot higher and sweeter. And there really is something in that smelled cold, and not in a conventionally minty way -- I never knew how a scent could be described as "snowy" before smelling this and Talvikuu, because snow doesn't actually smell like much of anything, but if it did, it would smell like this. And unliked Talvikuu, it's decidedly girly. Too much so for me, in fact. It was an interesting experience to try, but in the long run sweeter than I could really handle, though the eventual drydown wasn't bad. The perfumey edge gradually faded out and it became very birch-and-juniper, which was more to my tastes than its initial scent. Grade: C+/B-

This was the one of the inquisition scents that I really wanted, but I didn't end up putting in an order because I knew you couldn't pick and choose and the odds of five scents I wasn't crazy about to one that I might be didn't seem too good. But I did get to try The Shapeshifter's bottle of it at the recent Toronto Meet'n'Sniff. Sadly, I got no trace of cardamom, which was disappointing because I really like that scent. And not much in the way of bourbon either -- it was mainly just heavy patchouli and leather. And as such, a little too heavy and earthy for me. I'm not a patchouli-hater -- I do like earthy notes, but balanced with things that lift them up a bit, and the lift was totally missing here. It certainly did have mega staying power, though. Even after I tried to scrub it off to make room for new scent I wanted to try, it hung in there for hours. That area of my arm ended up being off limits to new scents for the duration of the meeting. Grade: C+

I was dying to try this one, out of all the Yule scents, and finally got my chance at the recent Meet'n'Sniff in Toronto. And sad to say, I was underwhelmed. I probably won't be buying a bottle after all, though I might try and score an imp from somewhere. It's not that it was a bad scent. It was just... really light, and soft, and gentle. I'd expected more depth and complexity, from the list of notes. It'd be OK as a subtle skin-scent for everyday wear, but it didn't wow me. My thought on first sniffing it was along the lines of "Oh... Is that it?" It also faded away really quickly, as those supersoft scents tend to do on me. Looking at the other reviews, I didn't get anything masculine from it at all, or spicy either. It was just a very, very soft amberish scent that barely whispered its presence. What there was of it was nice enough... There just wasn't very much to it. Oh well. Grade: B

Got to try this at the recent Meet'n'Sniff in Toronto. Although I like the apricot note in with other things, on its own it's not very interesting. My reaction to this scent was pretty much like my reaction to Akuma: Yep, that's fruit all right. Plain old fruit. Yawn. I didn't get a lot of brandy from it except for the slight boozy touch that my skin gets from nearly all fruit scents. But that on its own was not enough to make it interesting. It wasn't an objectionable scent at all, just kind of bland. Grade: C+/B-

No peanut butter here. There must be some weird nose chemistry thing going on with that... The dominant notes I get are musk and honey, which make it seem to me a bit like a cross between Haunted and O. But in the early stages it's got more complexity, and the floral notes are more present, although not enough to be overpowering, even on my floral-amping skin. In that phase, it's a bit reminiscent of Gypsy Queen or Desire, in that interesting, complex, floral-but-not-too-floral sort of way. The florals die down over time, though, leaving mainly the musk-honey scent, which has reasonable staying power. I don't get a whole lot of cognac -- maybe a very faint boozy note to start with, but it's not very dominant. And I don't really get myrrh or patchouli to any noticeable extent, except maybe as a balancing influence keeping the florals in check. They're not really identifiable as themselves, anyway. Overall, it's heady, very feminine (more so than most scents I wear) and dead sexy. I find it a little more "perfumey" than most BPAL scents, but not in a bad way -- it's more like some expensive French perfume than anything you'd find in a drugstore. Very nice, though not altogether my style. Still, I could definitely see myself wearing it sometimes. Grade: B/B+

This is nice, though I agree with the people who've said it seems more like a room scent than a fragrance to wear. It's got a very scented candle/potpourri sort of feel to it, and while I often like wearing scents that smell like candles, this is a little further in that direction than the scents I like best. Initially, there's also a harshness to it -- a sort of sharp edge that's very, very green and pungent, but then it settles down into something like a cross between bayberry candles and mulling spices. There's an element to it that's a bit reminiscent of Tintagel (unsurprisingly, since that one's partly based on bayberry and mulled wine). I don't know if Yuletide actually has bayberry, but it smells like it does). However, it doesn't really have the complexity that Tintagel does. It does very much suit the season it's named for, and I wished I'd gotten my decant early enough to wear it for Yule. Oh well.. perhaps next year. I don't feel the need to order a bottle, though. For the little bit of seasonal wear it will get, the decanted imp is enough. Grade: B

Weird. This is simultaneously dry and cloying, with an unpleasant undertone that's reminiscent of a lot of commercial perfumes and air fresheners - something vaguely chemical-y that seems to catch in the back of my nose. I'm not getting any of the earthy, resinous or smoky notes others have mentioned, but weirdly, it's not all that floral on me either, despite my skin's usually tendency to amp florals. It's just sort of sweet, dry and for lack of a better word, synthetic smelling. It doesn't smell like any actual notes I can identify; just a sort of bland, generic perfuminess. It gets a little better on the drydown, but not by much -- the most it ever really manages is inoffensive. It's not horrible, but it's not something I'd want to put on myself voluntarily, either. Grade: C-

I thought Play-Doh was scented with vanilla, not almond. It's vanilla scents that go Play-Doh on me most of the time, and not just BPAL - cheap synthetic vanilla scents always smell that way to me, and even BPAL vanilla which I assume is higher quality sometimes does. Not always, though. Snake Oil is definitely Play-Doh on me, and my initial imp of Snake Charmer was as well, but thankfully not the bottle that later arrived. Almond to me has a very distinctive, pungent scent that reminds me of the cyanide poisoning scenes in Agatha Christie murder mysteries. Fortunately, it usually fades down really fast, so I can wear things like Voodoo and Bastet.