calivianya

I love resins, and I wish they were just a teeny bit stronger here. The strongest note to my nose is the rose, which is a very loud, perfumey rose - not at all a soft red rose like I was hoping. Still, it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. I like it, but it's just not my favorite bath oil ever.

I wish I liked this as much as everyone else. It is just straight up too perfumey for me. I expected more of HERE THERE BE BOG with lots of green notes, but I got very high-pitched white florals that just about wear me out with their intensity. I'm just not a white florals kind of girl.

This is my absolute favorite bath oil because it is one of the most neutral ones I own. It really does just smell like sugar, and maybe a hint of lemon. I feel like I can use this (sparingly) and go to work in my fragrances-are-prohibited workplace. I can wear just about any of my oils over it and they don't clash with the smell. In short, it is perfect for everyday use and it smells amazing too. I wish I had 10 more bottles.

I'm really surprised that I like this so much, because I don't usually like peach scents in perfumes. However, apparently the Lab is intent on proving me wrong. Everybody else is right. This is a very fresh sugared peach scent, like true ripe peaches and not peach flavoring, and it smells wonderful. Even I - the determined hater of most fruit notes - love it. It is good stuff.

I was hoping for less pomegranate and more rose/myrrh, but this ends up being mostly pomegranate on my skin, which is one of the BPAL notes that goes sourest on my skin. This ends up being extremely bitter and unpleasant, but I think it could be lovely on someone with the right skin chemistry.

I get a whole lot of sweet fig from this, which immediately gets overtaken by the patchouli. I don't know, I was expecting something different from this scent, maybe some tonka and amber, but it's a little perfumey and too figgy for me.

This is very lush and red. This is one of the fruitier wine blends to my nose - not at all dry, but almost more grapes than wine initially. It eventually mellows into a more bitter blend. I don't really get the ambergris or the rose - they are subdued. I'm not sure of hydromel, aconite, or gall, but I do get some bitter green notes (including the hemlock). Overall, the blend dries down to bitter wine and herbs. It's definitely a blend befitting the name The Tears of Lilith!

Very incensey, very smokey, very sexy - all layered over red musk. This is an amazing blend. This is my favorite of the Weenies! I'm so glad I have a bottle.

Very boozy apricot. It's actually rather pretty, which shocks me to say because I'm not crazy about apricot or booze notes. Very nice, but just a little too boozy for me.

I've had this polish for a while, but I still smile whenever I get the chance to wear it. It is a very sheer polish, so if you're looking for a bright green color you're either going to have to put ten million coats on or put it over a bright green polish. However, if you're just looking for the barest hint of green with glitter, it's perfect. I will mention, though, it scares me to death whenever I turn my lights off at night because for just a second I'm wondering what in the world is floating over my face! Then, I remember that I have glowing nail polish on, and all is right with the world.

Warm, resinous sandalwood, very akin to Cathedral. This is good!

Violet is usually a train wreck on me, but that siberian musk is amazing, so I felt like I had to try this! I can detect the siberian musk, barely, but this blend has a lot of bitter top notes, including the violet, which unfortunately goes plasticky as it usually does on my skin. This blend is just too sharp and not sweet enough for me. I was really hoping for more of that lovely siberian musk.

Weird. I get a caramel/coconut from this... which isn't in the notes at all. It smells a little like Red Lantern right off the bat. I think it may be the sand note in combination with the myrrh and opium tar, as I get a similar kind of warm sweetness from Cat Allingham. This is a lot stronger and much more in-your-face than I was expecting from the notes. Overall, on me it's like a slightly lighter, less cloying version of Red Lantern. I like it so far, but I may just need a decant. We'll see.

I smell... dirty rocks and flowers. I totally get where others are getting the gasoline-smell from, though. I really, really like it when it's wet, and I'm shocked that I do. These types of scents are not usually my thing. However, something in here starts going a little plastick-y a la Snow White or anything with violets in it. Maybe it's the rhododendron. It dries down sweet, plasticky, and flat. I'm really not too sure about this one. It is really interesting and very unique. I may have to keep this around for a while.

Light, powdery, and very green. I'm not sure where what I'm interpreting as powder is coming from - maybe it's the green or ochre musk? I'm not sure what those smell like. As it dries down, it smells like a less-soapy version of this T-Gel dandruff shampoo that my grandfather used to use. I've never smelled anything else that smelled like that, so this is interesting, but I definitely can't see myself wearing it.

Since this technically doesn't have any water/aquatic/ozone notes, I am hoping this will be the first semi-aquatic perfume that I can wear without it going to dryer sheets. Not to mention, I usually like orris, ambergris, and white musk. Wet, this is a deep, fresh scent, but not dryer-sheet fresh. It is very promising. However, within a few minutes it loses a lot of its depth and becomes more two dimensional like a... you guessed it... dryer sheet. Maybe it's the white musk that does this to me? Okay, the combination of the white musk and ambergris is officially no longer flat and is starting to be cloying. This is definitely not the perfume for me.

I think that this is most like Tattered Lace out of all the Laces - I get tea and tobacco strongly upon initial application. It is also a "higher-pitched" Lace - less deep and more bright with the initial application. I don't really get much of the leaves note; or if I do, it's melding into something else well enough that I can't smell it. Autumn Lack dries down very close to how Tattered Lace does as well - sweet and a little musky. I was hoping for something more different from this Lace, but I like Tattered Lace very much and these are so similar on my skin that I don't need a second bottle of either one. Both are keepers, though.

I'm scratching my head in confusion, but in a good way. This really is inky. Chemical, dry, resinous... and yeah, definitely a little peppery. The dry quality of it is dusty, like old paper. This is really interesting, but I think my brain is subconsciously wigging out about this being a perfume. It doesn't smell like something I should be putting on my body at all.

I forgot to say it here, but when I got my pic with Ian Somerhalder, who plays a very sexy vampire on The Vampire Diaries, I wore The Vampire Bride.

This is such a dark oil that I thought there had to be a lot of red musk in it. And... red musk must be very similar to Indian musk, because this is RED MUSK! when it is wet on my skin. I can smell the sweet benzoin and dusty wood (must be the massoia) on my skin. This is really interesting so far. Okay, something in this is going nasty. I am getting a serious nose wrinkling scent and I just sneezed. I think this one is really not for me.

A lot of these things are herbs I'm not fond of in perfumes, and that initial flush of scent on my skin confirms it. I am definitely getting dirty mandrake and carrots! That carrot note is so weird to be smelling in a perfume. This is just... really vegetable like and herbal and dirty, and while I think it's genius because it's so evocative of its name, I will never wear this. I will send it to someone who will love it more than I will!

This smells so much like holiday cooking that it's really not my thing. It is way too foody for me, but if you're a foody, you should check it out!

I am totally afraid of the butterscotch, but I'm hoping this will work anyway! The comparisons to Banshee Beat did me in and I had to try it. Fresh on the skin: BUTTERSCOTCH! IN YOUR FACE! JUMPING DOWN YOUR THROAT! If you're like me and butterscotch/caramel notes can be kind of scary, prepare to fight off your fear! It is all butterscotch all the time immediately upon application. 2 minutes: However...as some others have said, the other notes show up almost immediately. I can smell some patchouli and anise right now, underneath the butterscotch, but myrrh hasn't showed its beautiful self yet. I like myrrh, I hope it doesn't hide from me today! 5 minutes: For a second there, I was a little worried by the patchouli. Usually a good note, it didn't really blend and it just smelled sharp (like a clot of fresh, wet dirt just got thrown at my face), but it's mellowing out and mixing nicely now. Crisis averted! Dry: Oh, there's the myrrh. It's not the strongest note in the blend (unfortunately!), but it's definitely there mixing with the others. The above that called this a morpher were right. It was a little sketch for me at several points while it was drying, but it's pretty good. The butterscotch stops smelling like OVERPOWERING BUTTERY STUFF and just starts smelling sweet, and I like the way the sweetness plays with the dark notes. It smells both more and less sweet than Banshee Beat for me - more "sweet" as in I get more of a candy vibe from the butterscotch, but the vanilla in Banshee Beat is a much louder presence on the drydown than the butterscotch is here. I have to say that I really like Banshee Beat much more and I don't know that I'll reach for this one quite as much since I do have Banshee Beat in my arsenal, but I think I'll keep it for now. I have a feeling it could be more fantastic and smoother with some aging - right now it feels like the notes are fighting with each other instead of working together. We'll see what happens. Edit: I was really hoping it wasn't so, but every time I've so much as sniffed the bottle I've ended up with a raging headache, so I think this will eventually be leaving me.

BPAL's violet note goes to weird plasticky playdoh violet candy on my skin, and this blend is no exception. The nasty violet candy playdoh has reared its awful head, and now I am having trouble washing it off.

Replace the ylang ylang with red wine and you have Lilith. I really like Lilith, so I knew I had to give this a try as they are very similar in components. Well, for the similarity in components, they are absolutely nothing alike. Lilith is darkly sexual and sinuous on me, where this is more feminine and girly. It is very sweet and flowery, and I don't think it's my kind of perfume. It also goes powdery on the drydown...