yakiguri

Grapefruit dominates yet another blend, and not in a good way. The combo of it and the plum turns Megaera into Lip Smacker-esque plasticky fruit. Not for me.

I was worried most about the honeysuckle in this blend, since I love the scent from a distance but up close and in strong quantities honeysuckle aggravates my allergies. Luckily I don't have that problem with Anathema. The dark, smoky richness of the vetiver and the thick spice of the opium drown out just enough of the honeysuckle to keep the blend from being tickling my nose. However, there's juuuust enough of the honeysuckle peeking through to keep Anathema from going utterly pitch black. Sweet, sweet blackness is an apt description. Throw is moderate, but I think I'll enjoy this more in the fall/winter than now in the 105+ degree dry heat. Will add to the bottle list!

Miskatonic University on my skin is all sweet Irish cream, like the sugar-packed mini Irish cream coffee creamers in the green packages I used to sneak away from my dad and drink straight. I don't really get any woods or paper notes, just sweet Irish cream. I'll keep my relatively fresh imp and see if some aging brings out the other notes more, but for now it's just making me crave Bailey's.

Ugh, all I get is the scent of the hand soap from my work's bathrooms.

Hmm. Rather than a fuzzy scent I get a bone-dry coconut-orris-sandalwood with a light dusting of incense. Maybe the powdered skeleton of a Brown Jenkin used during some nefarious ritual? It's not bad, but I prefer Ozymandias and Baghdad for my dry scents.

Very dark, deep aquatic with a dash of spice. Too bad it turns to Cool Water in half an hour.

This starts off as a promising bright, clean floral. Wet, I could clearly pick out the notes, especially the orange blossom, lemon, orris, and rose. Unfortunately it quickly fades into carrot-rose soap. Yup, this now smells like Burt's Bees carrot face cream.

I think the forum ate my review. o.O Anywho, sometimes simplicity is best, and Great Vampire Bat is a perfect example of that. The orchid is thick, heady, and lush, the incense soft and swirling tendrils rather than clouds of smoke. I definitely agree with Usagi's description of a jungle temple. If I were to ascribe a color to this scent I'd also pick purple, though I'm not picking up any grapeyness. Just as the bat is giant, this scent is as well. This is one strong bat--seriously, one little dot is all you need to last all day. Any more and you might be swooping down and carting off your friends/coworkers/loved ones, and not in a good way.

Oh my, this is yummy! Vasilissa is a sweet, creamy floral with a hint of fruit. I'm immediately reminded of Lovers in a Ricefield, though replace the latter's plum with another fruit--which, I couldn't tell you. The star jasmine is incredibly lovely, but of course, I'm one of the few here on the forums that's a proud jasmine lover. Will I buy a bottle? One day, but Vasilissa's honestly not at the top of my to-buy list. Its longevity and throw could be better, and it's so similar to Lovers in a Ricefield that I don't feel the need to grab a bottle immediately. Of course, if you missed out on Lovers in a Ricefield, Vasilissa is a worthy replacement.

Devilish temptation, as sweet as sin: blood orange, neroli, and raspberry. I don't know which fruit it is--the blood orange or the raspberry, possibly both--but it's dragging down the lovely neroli and turning this blend into sweet tarts and public restroom air freshener. Urgh.

If I hadn't tried Ae. Aegypti before this, I'd love Dragon's Milk. However, since I did, I have to say I prefer the mosquito over the dragon. I'm not too big a fan of dragon's blood, so the extra bits in Aegypti help make the dragon's blood more subtle than it is in Dragon's Milk. Both have that dragon's blood + honeyed vanilla vibe, but again, the dragon's blood is more subtle in Aegypti. Not that Dragon's Milk is bad, Aegypti just has a tad bit more oomph that skirts it just ahead. When I run out though I'll definitely buy Dragon's Milk. EDIT: I think my skin chemistry was a little off when I first tried this, as testing again this morning I get more of the creamy, milky vanilla, and the dragon's blood and honey are softer and more subtle. At this point I'd say, thanks to finally getting the cream note, that Dragon's Milk and Ae. Aegypti are definitely different enough to justify having both. However, if you already own Dragon's Milk and O, the two of them together would probably make a close approximation of Ae. Aegypti minus the mosquito's gardenia note.

I've waited so long to try this, and I'm wondering what took me so damn long. Dee is definitely androgynous. At first application it smells a bit on the cologne-y side, and I feared it'd be more for Mr. whiteelf than for me. After a few minutes, more of the tonka seeps in and sweetens the leather and woods, but the rosewood and incense keep the blend from veering too close to the feminine. Hubby and I have finally found a blend we can wear equally. I do agree that the throw could be better, but I'll happily slather this one.

Thanks to my fairy and my fairy's fairy! I also agree that at first this bat smells quite similar to Mother Ginger, which I'm grateful for since I (regrettably) sold my bottle of MG. There's a fizzy quality to the ginger though I'm not sure I like...it's interesting for sure, but it flits between effervescence and sourness. I think that may be the lime. There's also a funk to the background that I believe is the cream note disagreeing with my skin chemistry. Dammit. I have yet to catch a whiff of vanilla. I'm not going to be quick to offload this bottle since so much effort was gone through to get it, and also because the label's just so dang cute. Hopefully a few months of marinating in the BPAL locker will remove the sour funk. *** EDIT: Now that the bottle's around 2 months old I decided to retest, and Vespertilio Proterus is a much richer, fuzzier animal. The fizziness from before is still there, but it isn't as prominent on my skin--more of a preview of things to come rather than the main event. I finally get the vanilla cream, which gives an overall thick (but not cloying) sweetness to the blend. The sour funk note is gone, and hey, I'm even getting saffron on the drydown! Yum! When I initially got VP it smelled like artificial cream soda + gingerale, but with a few months of aging it's now a spicy ginger-rich confection with thick dollops of vanilla cream. I can imagine this will be one amazing bat as it ages even more.

Red musk dominates yet another scent. Curse you, skin chemistry. *scrubs*

Cursed skin chemistry, all I get from this is a barely detectable, watered-down melange of rum, tobacco, and vanilla. It wouldn't be so bad if this is what the Hellhound smelled like after 10 hours of wear, but not when I just put it on. If I don't grind my nose in I don't smell it at all. Dammit.

The Magdalena is pretty much frankincense and myrrh on me--all resins, all the time. Honestly if I didn't know the other notes were in there, I'd think this was nothing but frankincense and myrrh. I like those notes, but they give me a headache if they're by themselves. I'll check back in a few months to see if age brings out the other notes more, but for now I'll keep it just as a resins reference scent.

I'm going to be the outlier here, but I wish the jasmine were stronger in this blend. Night-blooming jasmine is one of my favorite notes, and initially the blood orange drowns the jasmine and the woods in its juice. A rather sour, gross juice at that--jasmine usually doesn't turn to funk on me like it does some people, and unfortunately the blood orange turns the jasmine funky on my skin. Ugh. About an hour or so later the orange starts to recede, and I finally get some of the vanilla bean, moss, and woods. The oudh is very faint, but I'm thankful for that as too high a concentration of oudh can turn a blend to band aids on me. There's still enough of the orange to add an off-ness to this blend that's quickly convincing me that this blend is just not meant to be. Why does every BPAL with night-blooming jasmine have one or two notes that kill the blend for me?

Ae. Aegypti is a lovely floral honey, with gardenia most prominent. I get tiny hints of vanilla and ginger here and there, and just a drop of dragon's blood. No tumeric. Aegypti is faint though, so unless you prefer your scents up close and personal you may need to slather. As I currently lack a honey-dominant blend in my BPAL stash (I know, I know...) I'll definitely pick this up, but I'm unsure if it's unique enough to warrant purchasing if you already have numerous honey blends.

The only note I can distinctly pick out is beeswax--everything else is an herbal mash. A sweet herbal mash that at times veers close to the sugared incense note in Midnight on the Midway I've grown to love...but Albopictus disappears and reappears with a randomness that's quite annoying. Just like a mosquito. I'll give it another whirl before the Metas come down to see if it decides to stick on my skin for good--otherwise it's off to the swap pile. EDIT: Ugh, this has turned into a piercing herbal that I couldn't place until Wwindy said it--bug spray. Off to swaps.

Wet, White Peacock is all sharp woods. Give this butterfly time to unfurl though--in minutes it transforms into a thick, lush, spicy-sweet patch-woods combo, all sharpness shed like a cocoon. On my skin the osmanthus, ebony, teak, and patchouli are most prominent, with little whiffs of vanilla and tonka here and there to sweeten it. I'm actually oddly reminded of a hair pomade that my grandparents used to wear in their hair to "tame the nappiness." As they are long-gone and sorely missed, I will definitely be adding this to my collection.

Mmm, if this is the antichrist, call me a willing convert. TBCC starts off as a faint, slightly woodsy vanilla that I feared would remain merely nice, but not anything interesting. In a few minutes it unfurls into a deep, spicy, leathery vanilla that makes me want to hump my wrist. I haven't been this enamored with a vanilla since Tombeur. White musk is usually a doom note, but it behaves beautifully here and adds a slight iciness to what would otherwise be a warm, snuggly blend. On an interesting note (ha!), this smells exactly like Tom Ford's horribly overpriced Tobacco Vanille, but much more complex. I need to buy two bottles of this, NAO.

Unfortunately the only good thing I can say about Magdalene is that it's one of the few rose blends where the rose doesn't amp to high heaven, causing immediate scrubbage. Unfortunately it's a little too soft, and smells like I just bathed with rose soap. There's an occasional green spike I recognize as labdanum. Orchid, where are you?

Drink Me starts off as a yummy nutty buttery popcorn like scent, almost like a lighter Tanuki no Kanban. Then it quickly morphs into plasticky cherry, then something odd and off-puttingly "meaty" that has to be the turkey. Ugh.

I'm starting to think that any note that has "white" in front of it is going to turn sour and bad on me, as Euterpe quickly turns into something cold, musky, and sour. In fact, it turns exactly into Touched Twice on my skin, and not in a good way. White musk is definitely a death note as I'm sure it's the main culprit.

I love jasmine and lily, but rose can be hit-or-miss on me. Unfortunately in this blend it's definitely a miss, as it has a sour powderiness to it that utterly dominates this scent. There has to be a rose blend out there that agrees with me, else I'll have to move rose into the death notes category.