calivianya

My initial impression of Western Diamondback was Snake Oil plus generic men's cologne. I think the sage was what was giving me that impression. As it dried down, the sage became less obvious and the leather started to come out for me. At this point, it was totally a delicious, manly Snake Oil. I was visiting with my parents when I tried this, and I told my mother I thought it smelled like a sexy cowboy. She replied, "Cowboys don't smell that good." What we finally agreed on is that this smells like a very sexy cowboy who has somehow become covered in vanilla frosting. Hmmm, I wonder how that would happen? It's not super foody, as that description would suggest, but the vanilla is very prominent. You can definitely tell this is a Snake Oil derivative. I can't wait to try it on my boyfriend; this may be my favorite BPAL on him, ever.

I can't believe I missed reviewing this. I love Cathedral; it is one of my favorite incense/woody blends. It lasts for a long time on me and has moderate throw. My boyfriend loves it too, and I've made a spray just for his use which he is getting for Christmas! I'm tired of fighting over the bottle with him.

I received this as a frimp from the lab. The lab's cinnamon disagrees with me at first sniff, and I get a very strong blast of cinnamon and pepper immediately. As Wrath begins to dry down, the cinnamon mellows out and the dragon's blood comes out and adds a very strong floral to the mix. It smells like a very angry flower and the mental image is a little too silly for me to take this scent seriously. I will be getting rid of my imp.

Dorian is a lovely, soft, lemon vanilla tea scent both in the imp and wet. As it dries down, the lemon becomes less and less pronounced and the vanilla shines through. This is a very beautiful scent, absolutely bottle worthy.

Hellcat is not a scent that blends well with others, IMO - I'm glad I retested it because I despised it after sniffing other things all day. Hellcat is a very sweet and spicy scent on me. I get the almond, but I also definitely get the honey mead. It reminds me of, but doesn't really smell like, the honey and red wine combination in Athens. It is quite a comforting scent and I will keep my imp.

I hadn't looked at the description in Bastet for a while before retesting and I was very pleased when I immediately thought 'Lotus!' and wrinkled my nose. At least I'm learning to pick out scents. Lotus is a death-note for me, so Bastet did not have a chance to be beautiful. From the very first sniff, I could feel the lotus in the back of my nose, a sort of achy-headache feeling. I had to go wash it off immediately. I wish Bastet worked on me, all of the other notes are notes I like.

I usually love red musk and red musk usually loves me - but not in Fenris Wolf. For some reason, this smelled like red musk plus extreme body odor to me. No thanks.

In the imp, this smells mostly of pine. Wet: I'm getting the pine, clove, and mint, mostly. A couple other things I can't pick out very well. Dry: Much the same as when wet; this doesn't morph on me. This is indeed a very masculine blend, and it's definitely something to try out on the boyfriend whenever he lets me. It's so funny - my initial reaction was that I absolutely couldn't stand it, bu I think my nose was broken that day. Today, however, I do enjoy it as I think about smelling it on someone else. It is not something I will ever wear again, though. It's just not me.

Love Me does not inspire love in me, that's for sure. It smells like cinnamon in the imp. I've always associated cinnamon with sweet things, like cinnamon sugar on toast, but... this is not a sweet, happy cinnamon. This is a very bitter, ugly cinnamon. My initial reaction is yuck, but I'll try it anyway. Wet: More bitter cinnamon plus a floral which is assuredly not sweet enough to counter the bitterness. I didn't let this dry on me; I just washed it off.

I decided to try this out because of all of the people who say that this smells like Shalimar. I do get the "feel" of Shalimar in this one, though my mother, a consummate Shalimar lover, does not. It is a very pretty scent, but not for me. Shalimar has been my mother's signature scent since before I was born, and I want to smell like my own person, if that makes sense. If you like Shalimar, give this a try! I feel like I would be in love with it if I could bring myself to wear it.

Light and pretty, but ultimately not for me. I find the lemon too reminiscent of cleaning fluid to really let the green tea smell develop, unfortunately.

I love this. I didn't smell the red musk in the imp, but it came out for me as soon as Scherezade hit my skin. Initially, the musk was totally overpowering, but after about five minutes the spices came out to play. I can't pick out any individual spices yet, but I do know that this is a glorious combination and feels rich and sexy, but not slutty, to me. I definitely agree that this is hot date material!

This smells of very deep oak and apple to me. It smells fresh and clean, in a way. However, this does not work for me because most apples make me sick to my stomach after eating them, so I can't really wear apple scents.

This smells less like milk chocolate to me and more like fresh brownie mix ready to be baked in the oven. It is so delicious that I took one sniff of it and had to make myself something to eat. I hadn't realized I was hungry until smelling it. This would be the best scent ever if I wanted to smell like straight up chocolate, but I don't care for purely foody scents, so this is a pass for me.

I have to say that I was ambivalent about La Petite Mort at first. It just smelled okay, nothing to write home about. Upon restesting a couple months later, I'm much more impressed. I don't know if it's the two months in the dark that worked wonders with this oil or if my skin chemistry was wonky when I first tried it, but this is subtle and classy now. I agree with everyone who says it's like skin, but better. I don't know if this is awesome enough to warrant a full bottle as I typically like bolder scents, but I will use my imp.

I have been waiting to review this when I could finally figure out what it smells like. It smells extremely familiar to me, but I couldn't quite pinpoint it until I was putting some laundry away this morning. This smells EXACTLY like the dryer sheets my parents keep at their house. It is a lovely, clean scent, but if I really wanted to smell like a dryer sheet I think I'd just rub it on my skin instead of investing my money in dryer-sheet perfume. I'll use up the imp, but I can't see myself purchasing a 5ml of this.

That's really entertaining to me - I have the exact opposite experience. For me, Cathedral is a very sharp cedar while Altar, funnily enough, is almost all frankincense on me and is milder, sweeter, and spicier. Honestly, if I had gotten both from the same person instead of one off the forum and one off the Lab, I would have said I'd had my labels switched on my based on their descriptions. Skin chemistry is a funny thing!

Not for me, definitely. I don't mind blends with wood, but I need a little bit of a sweetener and this doesn't have one. It's completely dry woods and herbs. I think I can pick out sage as being one of the stronger herbs in this, but I'm not positive. I think I'm going to have to test it out on my boyfriend as this is a very masculine blend, and I think it will work much better on him than it does on me.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab, and dutifully gave it a try. I had a feeling this wouldn't work on me, as Veil didn't (violet heavy) and almost nothing with rose has either... but the tea rose in A Golden Idol got along fine with me and Veil also has gardenia, which is a sure death note, so I wasn't quite sure if this would be horrible. I should have gone with my gut instinct and left it off. I amp violet like no one's business, apparently. I smelled the tea rose with the first application but then it was drowned out within 1 minute by the violet. I can almost smell the tea rose in the background, I think, but I'm not sure. Either way, I just put Marie on five minutes ago and I've already sneezed six times and I'm developing a headache, so it's time to wash it off. I think this would be a beautiful scent for someone who gets along with violet, but unfortunately I'm not that person.

... His scent is soft English leather, rosewood and tonka with a hint of incense, parchment and soft woods. I decided to get an imp to test out on my boyfriend, but I may just keep this for myself and not mention it to him! It's that good. I can't really separate out the notes in this one, but I do know this smells absolutely wonderful. It smells gorgeously spicy and masculine, but not so masculine that I can't wear it myself. This is probably one of the sexiest scents I've smelled from Black Phoenix. I LOVE it.

I love the smell of this! I can see where Marblemeadow gets the impression of altoids; that's exactly what it's like to me if I sniff right over where I applied it. However, if I just let it waft around me and don't smell it directly, I pick up this beautiful, sugary peppermint smell. I'll tell you, this has some throw! I don't usually get wafts off of my wrist while I'm testing things out, but I could definitely smell this with my arms at my side. It is so beautiful, but I can't wear it. This is a strong oil and it burned on my skin. I think I'm going to either have to invest in a scent locket or make a perfume spray out of this because I do love it and want to use it, but I don't like that burning feeling too much.

I just have to talk about the similarities in Cathedral and An Altar to Cold, Rigid, Dreadful Death. I love Cathedral, but... Altar is Cathedral but better. Better by one hundred million times. It has a spiciness that Cathedral does not, and it makes the blend absolutely perfect. When I first smelled it out of my decant, though, I found it so similar to Cathedral that it took me a side by side test to pick out the difference. Cathedral would be a great substitute if/when I run out, but I really don't want to run out. I may have to see where I can cut my expenses and buy a whole bunch of bottles of Altar before they go away.

2010 Version This reminds me a lot of Cathedral, which doesn't surprise me one bit. The main difference in the two, as far as I can tell, is Cathedral's wood note(s) are a lot stronger. This blend is milder and more rounded, and it's my favorite of the two. I may purchase a bottle of this as I love incensey smells.

2010 Version This was surprisingly sweet on me. I was expecting it to be more cool and wintery, but the impression I get from this is fresh fruit in spring, or maybe apple slices with vanilla icing. I don't see apple listed in the notes, but I'm guessing that's what I'm smelling as many others seem to be picking it up. I don't get any plastic or dirt notes, but this is very much too sweet for me. I like sweet scents, but I don't necessarily want to smell like food, so I'll pass on a bottle of this one.

This was the Yule blend I was most excited to try. The description really intrigued me as I couldn't even imagine how these notes would smell together. I must say this is very different from anything I've experienced before, though I don't know how much that says as I'm still something of a newb. Initially, A Golden Idol goes on fairly bitter (from the combination of vetiver and lavender, I'm guessing), but after about five minutes the rose begins to show up and mellow out the blend. I feel like the rose adds the slightest amount of sweetness, just enough to keep the scent from being too bitter. This would definitely be a straight-up masculine blend without the rose, I believe, and the rose moves the scent out of the masculine category and into unisex. I'm not sure I can smell the amber either, but it could be the reason that I feel like this scent is "warm." A Golden Idol smells stately and like something I'd save for special occasions. Not special occasions of the party sort, but more special occasions in the vein of going to the opera or savoring a seven course meal in a very expensive restaurant. This is not a blend that will get everyday wear from me, but I might have to pick up a bottle for those days where I want to seem regal and elegant. Edit: By the 45 minute mark, the tea rose was even stronger, but still not overpowering. At this point I would say the scent is lingering on the feminine side of unisex. Other than the strengthening of the rose, this blend has not changed other than a slight fading of the scent which is barely noticeable. I bet this would have average lasting power, but unfortunately I had to take a bath to get ready for sleep, so I can't comment on its exact lasting power or how it might change over a longer period. I imagine, however, that it will stay quite beautiful and prove fairly resistant to major changes.