yakiguri

While I'm a sake snob with this blend I've unfortunately learned that sake is a terrible note on my skin. On me Men Ringing Bells with Penises is high-pitched and sour, and ALL I get is sake with tiny peeps of sandalwood and moss. No tonka and tea whatsoever.

All I get is acrid SHARP wood--I think it's the khus and burnt mandarin rind. Ugh, had to immediately scrub it off, but it's tenacious and won't come off. >_< Off to the swap pile.

I really, REALLY wanted to like this as I love Snake Oil and love almond/amaretto. Asp Viper sounded right up my alley, and with great delight and excitement I dabbed it on the inside of my arm. I definitely smell the almond (joy!), and it's STRONG, I'm glad I only dabbed a little bit! Unfortunately something in the background gives this blend a dusty, dry quality that I just can't get over--I suspect it's the myrrh. I tend to despise citrus so I'm happy that the red mandarin never makes an appearance, but the myrrh just ruins Asp Viper for me. Dammit. I'll keep my imp in the hopes it'll work out later, but I'm extremely iffy on ever picking up a bottle as there are much better almond and vanilla blends out there.

I normally hate flowers unless they're dark and exotic, jasmine being the exception. However Shadow Witch Orchid is beautiful and heady, with a good mix of bright and dark elements to make it interesting and never sharp. I'm reminded of hideously expensive high-end perfume blends I've sniffed at my local Nordies. I've definitely learned here that orchid is a floral I can wear, though the notes kind of remind me of gardenia (which normally goes sour on me). A shame it's DC'd, and I'll have to hunt down a bottle. Love it!

Plum and black currant are normally two good notes for me and tend to be the only fruit notes my skin doesn't turn sour/sickeningly sweet, but I think the burgundy wine ruined Bordello on me. From wet throughout the dry down I get cloying super-sweet fruit with a dustiness I suspect comes from the wine. Amaretto, another favorite note of mine, never deigns to make an appearance. Overall Bordello comes out (on me) like the kind of cheap fruity perfumes marketed to teenagers and preteen girls. Off to swaps.

Wet: Sweet honey with an herbal, slightly purple-berry note. I like it, though I don't get the floral/mint note others have mentioned. Dry: Straight sweet honey. Whatever berry note I sniffed has been drowned out by the honey. I'm pretty sure at this point I amp honey.

As much as I typically play half-elves, I couldn't bring myself to like this blend, at least not on its own. I was sure it wouldn't work on me due to the white tea leaf and white sandalwood, and yup, Half Elf went herbal, sharp, and bitter on me. The oud didn't help, and so on its own Half Elf leaves me between meh and blegh. HOWEVER, layered with a softer scent like Good or Neutral (or all together!) Half Elf transforms into a spicy soft musky floral with amazing sillage and staying power. I can't stop sniffing the inside of my arm. Love! A bit of earthiness with a dash of the ethereal, just as a half elf should be. I can't wait to try other blends to layer with this, and will definitely be buying a bottle.

This is a much sweeter, more golden version of regular release O. I unfortunately get no vanilla, and the amber is very quiet in the background. I do get the soft spicy floral note that I others have pointed out as carnation, and if it is indeed carnation I'm a little disappointed in how weak its spiciness is here. Then again orientals are my favorite fragrance family, so I'm quite picky when it comes to them. Interesting enough to keep the decant, but I don't foresee ever needing a bottle. I'm surprised at how much stronger the staying power of Ov6 is over regular O though, it hangs on at least 2 hours more.

On first application of Bite Me I get a blast of cherry, disturbing as the Lab's almond note is a favorite and almost never goes cherry on me. After a few minutes a dusty, dry caramel note slips out to yank the cherry back into submission, and ends up dominating the blend throughout the cloying dry down. All in all Bite Me ends up smelling like I've been slapped with an old cherry pop tart. *sigh* Yet another Weenie that doesn't work on me.

Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk. Testing Boomslang finally confirmed that unfortunately the Lab's chocolate note hates me. All I got was musty dusty old chocolate, and I mean OLD chocolate. Then Boomslang disappears within half an hour. *sigh*

Wet: Soft honey and the tiniest bit of vanilla. The honey isn't screaming like it did in Black Hellbore Honey, but it's right in the front like a single-note. I'm starting to suspect I amp honey... Drydown and Hours Later: The honey has scaled back some to let the vanilla and amber come to the surface as well. Yum! Overall: O is indeed a sexy scent, but it's less raw hardcore porn and more my-SO-and-I-just-joined-the-mile-high-club-and-hope-you-don't-notice-our-flushed-skin-and-slightly-disarrayed-appearance. O sticks very close to skin but with this kind of scent you want people to get close to you to sniff. I agree with others that it's a comforting scent as well. Definitely buying a bottle!

I love it when frimps help me discover a scent I otherwise would never have picked out myself. During her wet stage Aeval is a very pretty sweet pea scent that I can't help but describe as straight up "girly girl". Perhaps I get this image from a friend of mine in high school who wore BBW's Sweet Pea lotion all the time, and was quite girly herself. Of course, me being such a tomboy even to this day is why I typically don't gravitate to this kind of scent. Anywho, all I get at the beginning is sweet pea, but it's soft and ethereal, never cloying as BBW's Sweet Pea can be. The drydown is where Aeval's magic is, where the musk, tonka, and sage slowly sneak out and mingle with the sweet pea to transform the scent from sweet pea one-note to scent of a nice, clean woman. Two hours later the sweet pea and tonka are completely gone and I'm left with sage and musk, a combo that reminds me of the Egyptian musk from Salome. Aeval sticks very close to the skin, which I appreciate since sometimes I want to opt out of my usual dark, seductive florientals and just smell clean. Adding to my bottle list.

Deadly Nightshade Honey opens up with an incredibly sharp green note (like being hit with a fresh green switch ) and warm honey that fiercely compete for scent dominance on my arm. The initial wet stage can be quite cloying, and I was sorely tempted to scrub it off when I decided to wait another 20 minutes or so. I'm glad I did, as the notes have finally stopped fighting each and joined together in lovely harmony. The sweetness of the honey is grounded and softened by the herbs, and on the other hand the honey sweetens/lifts the herbs from the borderline cut-grass initial stage. Deadly Nightshade Honey is beautiful during its long dry down (it's been about 2 hours), but its obnoxious wet stage will keep me from buying a bottle and merely hold onto my imp.

Definitely getting whiffs of my Catholic childhood here. Penitence is ethereal and warm. I primarily get frankincense from it through the wet and dry stage, with very little myrrh, but it only lasts about an hour or so. That's fine, since I believe this would be a better room scent than body scent. I'll keep the imp for when I'm feeling nostalgic but have no need for a bottle. As for comparisons with Midnight Mass, I prefer this over MM since it's the more wearable of the two IMO. The ash/incense in MM is spot-on scent-wise and smells exactly like Midnight Mass/Ash Wednesday, but I wouldn't want that scent on me.

Another one of those rare BPAL scents that I unfortunately had to scrub off immediately. All I got was cheap spicy soap, like the kind my older Asian aunties would keep on a soap dish for decoration in their bathrooms. This would probably be better as a room scent than something to wear on your person.

Funny, I was worried most about the orange blossom in Vice when it was the chocolate note ruined it. In fact, I get no orange at all. Apparently the lab's chocolate note and I don't get along, as I have the same problem with Vice as I had with Boomslang and Countess Willie: the chocolate is dry and dusty, like a smooshed tootsie roll forgotten at the bottom of an old purse or under your car seat. With Vice, there's a dash of red fruit along for the ride, and while cherry is normally not bad on me (I just don't prefer it), it's overripe, sickening, and cloying. Vice is getting scrubbed right off soon as I finish typing this.

Blood Countess starts off strongly perfumey and floral, with the roses and especially the gardenia clamoring for attention. So much so that I forgot there was anything else in this blend and was about to wash it off. A few minutes later the plum, berries, and opium slowly creep out, and the blend goes into a rich mean dark floral phase definitely evocative of the name. I understand how some may get craft store out of this phase, but just enough of the fruit and berries slip out to keep the florals and smoke from being overbearing. I get no lilac in here, but since I can barely smell it in other blends I'm starting to wonder if I'm anosmic to it. An hour later all I get is sweet fruit, nothing else. I'm pretty sure in another hour my skin will have completely eaten this. Too bad, I really loved the wet-to-drydown phase of Blood Countess, but its short staying power makes me iffy about buying a full bottle. A partial bottle would be nice though.

The intoxicating perfume of exotic incenses wafting on warm desert breezes. Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. I can't believe I haven't reviewed this scent yet, Morocco is definitely one of my top 5 blends. It's a spicy, musky, intoxicating blend that has just enough sweetness in the background to keep it from veering towards either Red Hots or spice rack. It's deep, but most definitely strong with amazing sillage--definitely dab, and I wouldn't apply to more than one area or risk a headache. Yet even so, it doesn't strike me as perfumey, more of a skin scent, but that of a person obviously not from boring suburbia. Definitely invokes the exotic. My husband, who loves the Conan universe, says this is what he imagines a female Stygian would smell like; alluring, graceful, dangerous. EDIT: Added Lab's description.

Being that this blend has primarily white, pale notes I should've figured this wouldn't work on me, and indeed it doesn't. It's herbally and sharp, not as sharp as my experience with Interfector but sharp enough to be off-putting. The citrus turned sour on me and I had to rub it off within minutes. Tried it on my husband, thinking the paleness and mint would work on him, but on him it's a sweet fruity musk. o.O EDIT: Spelling fail. >_<

This scent on my skin is more evocative of Cold Stone (the ice cream shop) rather than Tombstone. It's straight up creamy sweet vanilla, and if I didn't know any better I'd think it was a single-note vanilla. Maybe I amp it? I like vanilla, but I like cedar too, and it would've been nice to catch more of the latter and less of the former. Strangely enough it smells highly similar to Tombeur (my absolute FAVE) on my skin, but with Tombeur there's something dark and sinister hiding in the background that Tombstone distinctly lacks. Tombstone is sweet sweet sweet rather than rugged with Texas handlebar 'staches. I'll keep my imp but I'll pass on buying a bottle.

Does anyone know what might be close to Hermes Elixir de Merveilles? I just bought a bottle, but would much rather support a small independent company. From Fragrantica: Elixir des Merveilles by Hermes is a Oriental Fougere fragrance for women. The fragrance features peru balsam, vanilla sugar, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, patchouli, siam resin, caramel, oak, incense, orange peel and cedar. The beginning is a dry, dark orange that dries down to spicy, almost salty woods. I get no balsam or caramel out of this, but there is a hint of dark, bitter chocolate at first spray. This has been the only orange scent in my life I've been able to wear without it going rancid--hence my immediate purchase--but if BPAL has a similar offering I'd rather go that route. That and one bottle of this could buy me several BPALs.... Thanks! :3

Perfectly enchanting! An irresistibly sexual, utterly rapturous blend of three roses, radiant amber, and sensual red musk. Unfortunately all I got from Spellbound was dank mustiness. I can definitely smell what others mean by hippy shop, but it veers too close to wet dog for my liking. I'm wondering if red musk has started to turn against my skin chemistry, as this is what happened in Scherezade. Spellbound is tenacious though--a good scrubbing and it's still there. EDIT: Derp, forgot that I have other red musk blends that I don't get the wet-rag scent from. I'm blaming the roses. Also added Lab's description.

I find The Illustrated Woman borderline manly, which is great since the more flowery scents are hideous on me and I gravitate towards the masculine. I smell mostly pine, resins, and tobacco on my skin, with a ghost of vanilla in the background to give it just enough sweetness and patchouli to ground it all. No honey, which is fine since honey can get nauseating on me. Definite future bottle purchase!

Inez is a spicy vanilla-musk that reminds me of an oriental perfume my mom used to wear when I was a kid; rich, heady, and deliciously expensive. I smell cloves, which I like, though I think that may be the cedar and sandlewood mixing with the vanilla. Inez is pretty strong and commanding, so not for the faint of heart and/or those who slather. Similar to Morocco--they could be cousins--but I find Inez sweeter. This is definitely a sophisticated scent, and is what you wear with a LBD, or when you're going out to the opera, not slumming around in jeans. Inez is the best of the Grindhouse ladies I've tried. I must get a bottle!

Worn on my husband, as it's a bit too manly for me. I have to echo others in saying that no distinct notes really jump at me (but the mint, which my husband amps), but Valmont is the smell of clean man. Definitely needs to be on a strong, confident male, not a sissy, but I don't get "rakish lady-killer" from Valmont either; it smells too "safe" for that. I agree that it teeters too close to mainstream cologne/Axe/Dad/brother. The scent of it my husband leaves behind on the pillows when he leaves for the night shift is comforting and protective rather than "damn that man!". Not intense and seductive, just the good clean scent of a good clean man. Decent throw and great lasting power. Comparing Valmont to the other male scents I've tried, Casanova's your friend-with-benefits, Byronic Antihero's your one-night-stand, and Valmont's who you marry.