MirasolAbeille

This is a powerful attraction and advancement blend. It aids in polishing and magnifying your best qualities, while downplaying your flaws. Increases charm and wit, and helps you shine in a crowd. Wear a drop on each chakra point. Just chiming in with someone farther up the thread who recommended this blend for performance purposes. It definitely helps to focus my adrenaline into positive channels, rather than becoming this surfeit of scattered energy with the power to derail me. Generally I layer it, depending on the situation -- with Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo if I need joie de vivre, with White Light if I want to stay calm onstage, with French Creole if there are donors in the audience. And then there's the added benefit that I'm still wearing it at the inevitable reception, which makes me feel much more comfortable making small talk with strangers. I've noticed a difference in how people react to me, too -- they're warmer, more effusive, and complimentary in a way that normally embarrasses me and sends me into self-effacement mode. Wearing this scent helps me deal with that and then take charge of the conversation and guide it to where I want it to go. Sort of amazing, really.

I can't believe I'm the first one nominating Floating Market. To me it's the smell of the Super 88 Asian grocery/food court in Boston. Herbs and curry and wasabi.

I've loved all of the Rappaccini's Apiary scents that I've tried (Daphne, Deadly Nightshade, Yellow Jessamine, Tobacco). And I'm surprised not to see more love for Door in this thread. On my skin it's an incredibly rich, huffworthy golden honey made just a bit austere by the addition of the herbals -- nicotiana, blue cistus, chamomile. Mr. Mirasol refers to it as a "fancy" smell when it's wet, and when it's dry he just finds reasons to nuzzle me.

So, I should preface this review by saying that Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo is not a scent that I would normally embrace -- I like complicated unisex-y BPALS the best (Jolly Roger, Nero, Crowley, Absinthe, The Apothecary, Floating Market). But it *is* very, very happy, and I found that wearing it lifted my spirits and gave me a push of energy for a long, grueling day. At a particularly tense moment when I might have reasonably found my patience tried beyond the breaking point, I found myself taking a deep breath ... and smiling. I found it interesting that the people who entered my office were also more light-hearted and spontaneous than is usually the case ... and that when they commented on the "nice smell", they each had a different idea as to what it was: someone said 'clean laundry', someone else said 'Christmas', and yet another person said my room smelled like 'vacation', whatever that is. No one mentioned orange gummy candy, which was my original impression of the smell. It does have impressive throw and staying power. I caught a whiff of it the following morning when I opened my office door -- and I hadn't liked it well enough to slather. I've ordered a bottle, of course.

Love the mix of lilac and lavender in this -- a combination I don't believe I've seen anywhere else -- and the pleasantly sharp astringency of the diedown -- the lilac lingers on me and beneath it the crisply green smell of the ferns and what I suppose might be the absinthe, though I don't get a strongly anise scent from this at all. Will definitely keep and enjoy the imp; the jury is out on whether this will be a 5ml purchase.

I love this, actually. Spilled the entire imp on the hem of my dress while getting ready for work and didn't have time to change, so I just mopped up the excess as best I could and got in the car. Tons of compliments all day -- the bits of Herbert that I'd dabbed on my skin morphed into musk and the bits that soaked into the fabric of my skirt stayed lemon tea, so the best of both worlds really. The next time I wear it, I'll put it in a scent locket -- I like it wet better than dry.

Pure Cape Cod. Salt and wind and sunwarmed driftwood. Makes me unreasonably homesick for the ocean.

This may be my new favorite BPAL. Lord, it's pretty -- I amp honey enough that I thought it would turn into a one-note on me, but the chamomile is really hanging in there, lending the blend a bit of edge underneath all that round golden sweetness. I smell like sweetened herbal tea and optimism. So glad I went for the 5ml.

This description/concept appealed to me so much that I ordered a 5ml bottle unsniffed. Never again. Blargh for the amp of sugar and evilly rancid butter, beneath which I might be able to suss out faint coffee and whisky if I wanted to put my nose that close to my wrist, which I don't. I waited a stomach-turning hour for this to turn into something more complicated/interesting/appealing on my skin before I finally took pity on myself and washed it off. It took three bouts of scrubbing with soap and water, plus a long hot shower the next morning, before I stopped catching whiffs of it. REALLY strong throw, and obviously it works on the vast majority of the population, but sadly, I am not one of them. Even the faintish, mostly-washed-away ghost of this perfume makes my stomach flip unpleasantly, both wet and dry. I am wearing Door today and feeling much better about life. Miskatonic University is most definitely in the swap pile.

First review! I get sugar cookies on the first sniff, too, along with a big jolt of the pink pepper and cardamom. I have Pepper on my wrists and also in a scent locket today; in the locket it's still sweet and food-y, but my wrist only has a tinge of sweetness; most of the scent that remains (after several hours) is rose, ginger, lingering pink pepper, and geranium. The result is something that reminds me of the way Anathema describes Adam in 'Good Omens': "as well-balanced as a gyroscope". Sweet and spicy and warm and floral. I've had three people sniff me unprovoked today and say "Oh my God." I bought this mainly out of love for the book and the character, but I'm really glad I did. It's a lovely scent even without its illustrious literary namesake.