Teaotter

In the imp: butter! Enough so that I wondered if my decant of Gollettes had leaked on the label. Wet: Strong vanilla cake, with the hot peppers showing up quickly but not overwhelmingly. Dry: This is still a very strong cake scent for me, but cake scents usually go very simple on me quickly, and there is definitely more here than cake. The incense notes are stable, though the peppers and a boozy note float in and out. I think the chocolate is acting as a grounding note for the incense here, rather than actually smelling of chocolate. Very, very nice!

I heard about this one as a smoky scent, and I had to get a decant. I'm so glad I did! It has the note I love so much in Havana! Wet: Wet lava rocks. Sulfurous, mineral-rich, smoky rock smell. Dry: Still very smoky, but the sulfur backs off a little and a hint of dry sweetness comes out. On me, this has good throw and lasts for hours, just like Havana. I've been trying to figure out if the note I like so much in Havana is the palm or the snakeroot, and I think this may just prove that it's palm (from what other reviewers have said above). Now to go out and try all the blends with palm in them....

Wet: Honey and dark fruit -- plums, maybe? Dry: The brandy takes over. It is very boozy, with honey and something more floral than fruity. In the end, this isn't really for me, but I'm glad I tired it.

Wet: We have a teak cabinet, so I recognize the teak easily. Then the sweetness of vanilla kicks in. Dry: It's a bit harder for me to pull out the individual notes here. The vanilla backs off to provide a level of sweetness, while the woods and tobacco provide a dryness that I really enjoy. It smells a bit spicy to me, though there aren't any spice notes listed. I really love this! ETA: On me, at least, this has incredible throw, and it lasts all day. I couldn't be happier!

So this was not at all what I was expecting from the other reviews. I got this as a partial frimp, so I'm wondering if it just didn't get mixed very well and what I'm getting is not at all what you'd usually get from a fresh imp. Imp: Pencil shavings. Maybe slightly charred pencil shavings. Wet: Nasty, nasty burnt herbs. OMG, wash it off -- Wait! The unpleasant smell disappears immediately. We're back to charred pencil shavings, with some kind of sharply herby scent underneath it. This is definitely getting better. Dry: The fig finally comes out a little, but it still smells intensely resinous (less pencil/cedar and more fresh tree sap) and ashy more than smoky. If there were a bit more fruit and a bit less ash, I'd actually really like it. If I have a chance at a fresher imp, I'd love to see if this is just a mixing/remnant problem.

Note: Forum feedback is here, and LJ feedback is here . ** mark the most-wanted. If you're just looking for general frimp guidance, my favorite notes are: Black leather, brown sugar, oudh, thyme, lavender, patchouli, honey/beeswax, sweet olive blossom, cardamom, tonka. I can't wear most cream or milk notes, aquatics, lily, saffron, or black musk. Favorites I will take more of: Dream - Map of Dreams**** (I am always looking for this!) Mopsfledermaus***** The Inn atmosphere spray Thirteen (February 2009) Mari Lwyd Mother Ghost Pecan Pie TKO Scents I know I want, bottles/imps/decants etc. : 18 June 1860 Alice's Evidence The Bow and Crown of Conquest Figgy Puddin' Hemlock Honey Hesiod's Phoenix Katharina The Mahogany Tree No. 93 Engine Plum Puddin' Sudha Segara Mahogany Hall atmosphere spray BPTP items: Try me on decants or full-sized bottles. Howlett's Wing bath potion Opium Tar bath potion Scents I want to try: LE/Unimpables - 13 September 2013 13 November 2015 The Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil Bly Corrupt Chancellor Count Dracula The Curtain of the Temple Was Torn in Two The Decrepit House Eat Me v6 Famine Goblin Market Gulheim Koito and Sashichi The Laughter of Loki Les Anges Dechus Love and Pain Lovers with Rutting Cats La Lugubre Gondola Mad Meg The Magic Circle The Maltese Cross of Sanctus Germanus A Measurement of the Soul Pandy Penis Admiration The Phoenix Having Burst Her Shell Quintessence of Dust La Ronde du Sabbat Satan Summoning His Legions The Ship of Hel The Sorceress Sprinklecake TCM2 Vital Fluid GC - anything from my bottle list

Friend at will! I'm still getting the hang of this forum, so I'm not exactly sure what it means to friend someone here, but I'm certainly game to find out. And no, I haven't tried Miskatonic University -- but you're right, it sounds cool. I'll add it to the list! And welcome to BPAL! We're very (very very very) friendly here. Wander over to the BPALtruism section and check out the Wishing Depot thread -- I've been hanging out there a lot lately, and you can pick up lots of testers of scents for the cost of shipping out some packages yourself. Which also means you get to ship out packages, which I love. It's fun, and it's helped me branch out a lot into areas of BPAL I never would have thought I'd like. And again, welcome!

This is the 2008, btw. In the bottle: The first whiff was buttered popcorn, which is never a good sign for me, since a nasty caramel-corn smell occasionally pops out of the oddest things. After a bit of rolling, however, there was butter and vanilla and anise, and I decided to give it a shot. And oh, I am so glad I did! Wet: Creamy vanilla and anise, with just a hint of orange in the background. This is definitely some lovely cake smell. Mmmmmmmm. Dry: The orange disappears and the anise backs off a bit, so most of what I get is a lovely spiced vanilla creamy cake goodness. The throw is moderate, and it doesn't last as long as some, but I really don't mind slathering it on a couple of times a day. I am sooo glad there was a back-up bottle for sale now that this one has been re-issued. I may have to pick up a decant of the new one and see how they compare.

I was really hoping that the copal and tobacco -- both of which usually love me -- would carry this. Unfortunately, rose loves me more. Wet: Floral. Uh-oh. But I can't really smell roses, per se -- Drydown: Whoops, here come the roses. Dry: Rose rose and more rose. This ends up as a pleasantly spicy rose for the twenty minutes before the rose turns into old lady soap. Oh, rose, why do you have to hate me so?!?

Wet: Butterscotch! Which fades in a moment into a sweet, creamy vanilla custard smell. Yummy. Dry: The spices come out to play, and it's a sweet spicy vanilla on me. I don't get a hint of rum (unless it was that initial butterscotch smell), but I still smell like spicy Christmas deliciousness, which is exactly what I wanted. Note: This scent doesn't have a lot of throw on me, but it lingers all day.

General release schedule: Birthday scents (if they happen): September Yules: October Anniversaries: November Lupercalias: Jan. the Irish scents: March April Fools: March/April summer scents: May/June Halloweenies: August lunacy: each month Friday the 13th: when it happens (May 2011, Jan, April, July 2012) surprises: when they appear! Note: I copied this from a post in the BPAL speculation thread, than added the next upcoming dates. I didn't come up with this myself!

This one is definitely a morpher on me. In the imp, I smell cocoa and patchouli. On my skin, the cocoa dominates for a moment, then sinks down under the leather note. For a moment, I got the dreaded caramel-corn note-of-doom (I still have no idea what that actually is, since it appears in plenty of blends that don't have caramel), but then it disappeared! Dry: Warm leathery incense with cocoa grounding it just enough to be yummy.

Wet: spicy, smoky cedar. Dry: Fades pretty quickly into a spicy cedar-chest smell for me. Dryer than a plain cedar, but neither smoky nor spicy enough for me to love it.

In the vial, it smells remarkably like cherry cough syrup, enough that I wasn't sure I wanted to try it on at all. But I haven't hated any of the snakes so far, so I figured I'd give it a try. Wet: Fruity, somewhere between grape and cherry, with a medicinal tang that reminds me of cough syrup. Thankfully, that passes fairly quickly. Dry: The fruit pulls back a little, though it's still there -- but it's sharper than cherry and significantly less syrupy. The vanilla and spices of the Snake Oil start to come out and play. For me, it becomes Snake Oil with an overlay of indescribable fruit. Not bad, and much better than I expected from the first sniff of the bottle!

Wet: Cedar and smoke, with the leather and something metallic coming quickly on its heels. Dry: Cedar smoke still dominates, but there is definitely leather and something that reminds me of ground szechuan peppercorns and graphite pencils embedded in the smokiness. It's far enough outside my usual that I'm not sure yet if I love it or hate it, but I'm fascinated.

Wet: Lovely frankincense and myrrh, with a hint of other woods underneath. Dry: For once, I'm not amping the frankincense. Unfortunately, what I'm getting instead is mostly cedar. I smell like a cedar box maybe once used to hold incense -- not what I was looking for, alas.

Wet: Sweet, almost fruity incense with just a hint of the vanilla smokiness I associate with snake oil. The fruit is almost grape-y, as mentioned above, but for me it doesn't quite get there, though I'm not sure how else to identify it. Dry: Gradually, the incense notes settle out, with the frankincense coming to the front (I amp frankincense strongly) and the snake oil finally peeking out more. It ends up with the dryness of the frankincense balanced with the smoky stickiness of the snake oil, and mmmmmmmmm. Not at all what I was expecting, but I looooooove it!

This is just a tiny tester, so it may not be accurate -- but I love what I've got so far! Bottle: a kind of sour ginger-spice smell over snake oil Wet: more cinnamon (or cassia, I can't tell them apart) plus the snake oil Dry: the spices blend nicely with the snake oil. Warm, vanilla, spicy goodness. OMG must have more!

I bought this for the ginger and spices, but sadly, they aren't coming out. Wet: candy-like sweetness, with an undertone of butter. Dry: Berry candy. There are some warm spices under there if I put my nose to my wrist and sniff hard, but they're drowned out by the berries.

Refined, austere and graceful. A recipe gleaned from Classical Rome: cypress, juniper, chamomile and rose. Wet: rose and chamomile Dry: Tea rose, with a hint of chamomile and something green behind it. My skin really likes to amplify rose; I wish I liked it more.

Wet, it smells beautifully complex, leather and amber with green notes in the background. Alas, once it was on me, all I could smell was the leather and ozone. I think ozone may not like me at all.

In the bottle, cinnamon. Wet, cinnamon and honeysuckle. It changed a lot as it dried, though I love what it turned into -- burnt vanilla sugar, smoky and sweet.

Wet, I smell incense and spices with a hint of vetiver. As it dries, the notes blend together -- which is great for me, because vetiver usually takes over when I put it on. This was beautifully complex, without any single note dominating.

In the imp, this is milk and honey. Wet, the ginger note comes out strongly. It dries into a sweet cream with a ginger back-note that I adore.

Spicy and mysterious in the imp, but it dries down to plain sweet lotus on me. There is just the faintest hint of incense in the background. Swaps pile, definitely.