calivianya

Wet: I'm getting lavender and peppermint for the most part, though I can detect a hint of the lab's mandrake underneath. I'm not a fan of mandrake at all, so I hope it goes away. 10 minutes in: Either I've sniffed it too much for my nose to work properly or the mandrake is gone! I'm going to rejoice! Drydown: The mandrake is staying away, but lavender tends to disappear on my skin, too. I mostly just smell peppermint at this point, and my hand is feeling vaguely uncomfortable. I am sensitive to the lab's peppermint in some blends. I'm going to have to wash it off.

Philologus is making me terribly sad. I'm not sure what it is that I'm getting from this, but something smells a little off. It smells vaguely dirt-ish in the imp to me, and on the skin it does smell very dusty. I'm not getting the sweet note I've seen mentioned in this thread, sad.y I'm not getting much more than old dust.

I thought that violet didn't work for me at all, but I think I'm going to have to take that back. This is a beautiful white tea and violet blend. I do get lemon from this as well. It doesn't really morph on my skin, at least it hasn't so far. I love this.

Wet on my skin, this is gorgeous! I'm smelling the dandelions and the myrrh the most, and I'm surprised that I like it as much as I do. I love myrrh blends, but I hate florals generally. Oh, wait... after five minutes it's started to turn to soap. I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a little bit relieved - now I don't have to search out a bottle. It was a great scent to try, though. It really did smell like the perfect springtime scent for a few minutes.

This may be somewhat unhelpful, but my mother used to wear Angel by Thierry Mugler and she says Dark Kiss is a dead ringer for it. I thought they smelled similar, but I'm not quite as familiar with Angel so I'm not positive. I've seen people compare Angel to The Antikythera Mechanism, Green Tree Viper, and Xiuhtecuhtli, so you might want to try those on your friend too - just in case.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. In the vial and wet on my skin this smells like some kind of fizzy soda to me! I think the melon and gin are giving me an aquatic impression, and something else is giving me the impression of effervescence. I can really taste this as as a carbonated drink on the tip of my tongue. The pepper starts to be more obvious on the drydown, and the chili pepper smell plus the soda smell is a little odd. It is definitely an unusual BPAL, but not one I'll wear again.

Oh wow, this was a pleasant surprise! Wet: This is a very sweet honey and slightly spicy tobacco blend, heavy on the honey. My initial reaction is extremely favorable. Drydown: This has become slightly less sweet as the honey backs off somewhat and is mainly spicy tobacco. I'm still loving it. There may be a bottle of this in my future at some point.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab, and decided to skin test it in spite of the many death notes. Wet: I get vetiver and lots of things that don't work on me: rose, gardenia, cinnamon. The gardenia/cinnamon combination is particularly nauseating, and gives me the same slightly nauseous feeling I get in the pit of my stomach from smelling Sacred Whore of Babylon. ...This isn't getting a chance to dry down; I'm washing it off.

On me, TKO is more marshmallows than lavender, which is slightly disappointing. I was hoping for more of a sweet lavender than a lavender-tinged marshmallow. It does smell very relaxing, though. I will keep some next to my bed before going to sleep tomorrow!

2011 Version Bony Moon is a winner. It went on sharply woodsy with a hint of herbs, but after about ten minutes the woods have tamed and I'm getting a nice mix of herbs and cedar. I'm not picking up the sandalwood too strongly here. These herbs smell similar to the herbs in Nefertiti to me, and Nefertiti is a favorite. Where Nefertiti is very bright green herbs, this is dusty, woodsy herbs. I like it very much.

Something is going wrong here. I'm not so sure that my skin chemistry agrees with honey, as I love lavender and most herbal scents. The first five minutes, I pick up some sort of funk from Victorian Garden. As it dries down, the funk disappears and I smell mainly medicinal herbs and lavender. This is not a bad thing; I rather love this scent right now. I'm not picking up the honey at all - this is more of a bitter blend, but I am loving it anyway. It is also not disappearing on my skin immediately like some lavender blends tend to do. This may just be a keeper!

Wet: I can see where the cucumber comparison comes in. Wild Swans at Coole is very wet and very green. I'm not picking up florals very strongly, but I am smelling something slightly soapy. Drydown: I'm smelling the muguet, I think, if that is what smells like Lily of the Valley. I had some LotV lotion as a child, so this is a smell I'm familiar with. Right now, Swans smells a lot like that lotion. Maybe I amp muguet? Later: This is a very quiet smell on my skin. I agree with the people who say it smells like walking around a lake. It is very gentle and unobtrusive, but definitely follows me around. It is a pretty scent, but I'm not sure it's me.

The ylang ylang in this is overpowering on me, too. I get along with ylang ylang beautifully sometimes, but not in this perfume. I kept it on about 30 minutes and the ylang ylang never let up, so I just washed it off.

Ooooh, Mommy likes! In the bottle: vanilla and red musk Wet on skin: I can still pick out the vanilla very strongly, but I can still pick up a hint of red musk. I can also smell the raspberry and the pomegranate quite clearly. This smells wonderfully complex right now! 10 minutes: The red musk is making this smell very spicy at the moment. It is also candy sweet from the vanilla and fruits. Sweet fruity candy spice? I don't usually like foodies, but the red musk keeps it from going totally foody. I like it! Drydown - This stays smelling like fruity vanilla red musk with a little dryness. I can't pick out the patchouli, sandalwood, or frankincense specifically, but I imagine they all combine for the dry feeling. I haven't been able to pick out the tobacco at all. It's very subtle. Overall, this is more subdued than I had expected it to be. It stays close to the skin and has little throw, which I was not expecting from a red musk blend. If you like your perfumes to be strong, if your skin chemistry is like mine you will really need to slather this. I can't compare it to Black Lace or Antique Lace, because I've never tried those, but I can tell you that this is quite beautiful.

I've been toying with the idea of getting Sachs for a while; now to find a decant! I've been thinking about Mr. Ibis too. Thanks for the rec.

Resurrecting this thread! The nursing lab I'm taking right now has a perfume restriction - extremely light perfume only. This is a real shame - most of my favorite scents aren't light. I'm looking for more scents that smell good, but aren't immediately recognizable as perfume. Some of my favorite scents that I'd consider light are: Black Opal, Door, Dorian, La Petite Mort, and The Lights of Men's Lives. I'm not really a fan of super-citrusy smells, florals, foodies, or fruity perfumes. Several scents already mentioned in this thread I'd have to veto: Embalming Fluid was too citrusy on me, The Dormouse was way too floral, and Snow White turns to sweet plastic on my skin. I really like resinous, incensy, woodsy, boozy, red musk containing perfumes... but hey, those are what I need to get away from. I do like vanilla in any amounts, so more light vanilla scents are good as long as they don't fall into the realm of foody. Amber is also usually good. Any recommendations for me?

I was excited to try this one for the amber/vanilla pairing that most people seem to love. Wet on my skin, I could definitely smell the amber and vanilla, but the sweet pea was still very prominent. Drying down, the sweet pea was still one of the strongest notes. I never really got a hint of the sandalwood. I'm going to keep my imp for now and see if the sweet pea mellows over time and the sandalwood comes out more. If this happens, I think this scent may be absolutely wonderful for me.

After loving Dorian so much, I have been on the search for more wonderful tea scents. In the imp, the Dormouse smells more flowery than I expected, and a little like roses. Roses are not my friends, so I'll see where this ends up going. On my skin, it stays very floral and rosy from the peony note. The peony/rose smell remains strong all through the drydown. I wish I had gotten more tea and less peony.

Sacred Whore is vile on my skin. BPAL's gardenia and cinnamon don't really work for me, and this blend has both, and they're nearly all I can smell. I will say that this scent has some amazing staying power because I washed my wrist six times before it was gone. I really wanted to love this scent for its name, but sadly I am not meant to smell like a Sacred Whore.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab. All I really pick up is rose, not many spices at all. I have yet to find a BPAL blend with rose that works for me, and this is no exception.

This smelled like it smacked me in the face with sweet fruits when I opened the imp, and it was no different on my skin. I'm not a huge fan of perfumes this fruity; they remind me of something giggly middle school girls would wear. Bordello is a pass for me.

Copal resin incense blowing through halls of dazzling gold. This really does smell like cologne! That being said, it smells like good cologne. I feel like this will smell quite good on my boyfriend and I will have to try it on him later. I can clearly smell the copal, and I'm almost certain that this has a tiny hint of vetiver in it as well. The little hint I smell reminds me of the vetiver in A Golden Idol, though not that strong.

I can definitely recognize the lab's opium note now, between this scent and Belle Epoque. This is very strong opium with something floral and spicy myrrh. It does smell like darkness, in a way - it is very heavy. It's not really my thing.

This does smell like Christmas candles - but in the best possible way. It is very fruity, but rounded out by the woods and sage hovering in the background. I could smell the pomegranate right away, but as it dries on my skin the mandarin becomes the most dominant note. At that point, this reminds me of an orange pomander ball. It's not necessarily something I want to smell like, but it is a very lovely scent on me.

Oh my, this is beautiful. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's definitely exceeded my expectations. Red musk is usually very, very heavy on me. However, Witchblade goes on light and airy. The red musk is definitely present, but isn't strong and overpowering. I can definitely pick up the frankincense, too, and the combination reminds me of soap. Not bad soap, but the kind of soap that you smell in your shower and wish you had a perfume that smelled that good. Witchblade will eventually be a bottle purchase - that's for sure.