sophia_helix

I sniffed this and knew it was for my husband, the Earl Grey fanatic. On him I didn't get the bergamot so much, but a lovely blended cologne of citrus and tea and something a little sweet, but not as sweet as Dorian or something, and still manly. He loved it, I loved it, yay.

This was very fruity and brash on me at first, which fit perfectly for a carny talker. Eventually it dried into something that reminded me a little of Frumious Bandersnatch, spicy plum, but the fig made it kinda musty. I imagined Antonino, after the show, kind of slumped-down and sweaty in his tent, smoking a cigar. Good visual fit, but the scent just wasn't for me.

This was a surprise hit with me -- I didn't pay much attention to it when the Carnaval first went up, but it's really fantastic. A very sugary-sweet, fruity lemon, with a strong coconut-musk base, it's incredibly girly and pretty. I'd put it in the same scent category as Sundew, since it's creamy and yellow, though it' got that nice lemon zing and that nice smooth coconut to differentiate it, and it's maybe a little sexier than Sundew. I will consider this as my first CD bottle.

I rarely ever have to wash off a scent, but Midnight on the Midway was such overwhelming waxy-sweet plastic on me that it had to come off within a few minutes. I think it's probably the jasmine, although Beth's incense note is hit-or-miss on me too. Another casualty of skin chemistry.

I've had this for a while, and forgot to review it. Straight-up spearmint and juniper on me, getting a little too sweet, but it's much more woodsy on my husband and he stole it away.

I put this on before checking the notes. Er, jasmine, violet, vanilla, and musk are all on my "uh-oh" list, and I'm iffy on mimosa. So you can guess how well this went. Wet: Dirty diaper Dry: Clean, powdery diaper After the initial horrible sourness faded, it really wasn't too bad... if I wanted to smell like powdery vanilla. It sort of made me think of the bosom of a middle-aged school nurse. Sweet, just... wow, not me.

I had hoped that, based on the sarsaparilla, pine and tobacco, this would smell like Doc Buzzard on me. There's maybe a bit of similarity, but it's not smoky and incensey enough, I guess. Instead, I get a nice sweet almond milk at first, on top of those notes, which isn't plasticky or cherry the way I feared. Pine comes in strongly next, and then it's just a sort of... I don't know, general spicy-resin-type scent, not very distinguishable, with some almond. It isn't especially noteworthy, so sadly I think I will pass this along.

Clean and fresh isn't usually my type of scent, but I knew it would suit my husband, so I just tried this one on him right away. It's definitely very fresh, and it has a lovely, sharp citrus topnote that just smells great on him. Thank you, Beth, for providing an alternative to all those gross drugstore colognes guys seem to inevitably collect -- he told me yesterday he's going to throw away all of the ones he's got (except the Gillette one I like) because he has so many great BPAL scents to wear instead!

This was the first scent that jumped out in my CD decant set package. Then and on my skin, I think I'm mostly getting that sharp, sweet labdanum, with a hint of spicy teak and the woodiness of cedar. The rose is almost entirely absent, which is good because BPAL rose and I don't play nice. It's really reminding me of something else -- Ouija, I think, because of the teak -- but I can't quite put my finger on it. It's a strong, long-lasting scent that makes me think of spices and imported furniture, with a strident something beneath that's a little unnerving. If it were just a little sweeter it would be exactly my type of scent, so I might consider layering it with something like Rose Red. ETA: It also reminds me of my only pre-BPAL scent, the Sandalwood Rose scent that I think the Bath and Bodyworks has discontinued. I love that oil, so it's a good thing.

I ended up with an imp of this because I wanted a full CD set, even though it contained two notes that are death to me. I was not surprised by the result. Chocolate: powdery and burnt, check Cream: vanilla plastic, check Smelling like a rubber doll: check However, I think I must have had the weirdest experience of anyone with this scent. The chocolate was richer and darker upon first application, but the instant I smelled it my skin crawled; I had this immediate, animal sense that I smelled like SOMEONE ELSE. I don't know if this is a scent I recognize from my childhood, or if Beth really did channel the spirit of some long-ago carnival girl, but all I could think for like a whole minute was "off, off, NOT ME," like I had literally put on someone else's skin. It was all I could do it wear it through to the drydown. I think I know what being possessed feels like now -- or rather, smells like!

I'm really not sure why I ordered this, since white florals never work on me; I was just excited about lilac, I guess. Well, lilac is what I get -- tinged with violet and the usual soap. It's not bad soap, like Nihil or gardenia-scented oils on me, and if it were actual soap I would probably love it. But very pretty soap it is, until I get the brief, weird lilac-incense minute when the sandalwood kicks in. It's faded and almost scentless within the hour, though. I really wish I was the kind of person who liked white florals and who they worked on, but I'm not, so, off to the swaps or to my mother, who is that kind of person.

Absolutely perfect for the first ten minutes -- light mint tea with a strong topnote of rich lemongrass, and just a hint of a floral, sugary honey. Then the honey starts taking over and the sweet tea gets stronger, which is OK... but eventually I get a too-sweet, cloying lemon-tea that's very faint and is exactly what happened with Embalming Fluid and Severin, and Dorian, to a degree. I LOVE the wet stage, though, so I'll probably hang onto the imp, at least. But alas, this was the CD I most anticipated.

First it's Snake Charmer with some serious patchouli, and then the vanilla-musk of Snake Oil, and finally something a little like Smut, but with a sort of body-musk that's all its own. I don't get the fruit other people do, but I do get the lovely red musk like crazy. It's not my favorite in this family of scents, but I like it better than Snake Oil or Smut, so I will definitely snag a bottle eventually.

I could just cry. Wet, this was a lovely mix of sweet, rich white florals and juicy fruit -- the gardenia and peach, no doubt -- with a subtle, musky undertone. But because my skin chemistry just doesn't do justice to delicate scents, it turned into a flat, average floral very quickly, with little throw. It smells so damned good in the bottle, though, that I might keep some around just sniff. Burning might be an optinon as well.

I loved the clean, fruity scent of this at first -- very fresh and astringent with a sweet kick -- but the juniper scent of Beth's gin note doesn't really work on me, so like with The Hamptons it overwhelmed everything after a while and smelled too medicinal. Too bad, because the first ten minutes were really nice and original.

A frimp that just didn't work for me -- rose is always too soapy. There was an interesting candy-type note here too, but not enough to overcome the rose.

A gift from my dear switch witch, I've been pining for this since it was released. It's not quite what I expected, but absolutely blows past that! Spicy, sweet, and fruity, at first this reminds me of the "juicy baking scent" of Blockbuster. The mums and carnations deepen it, though, and the plum blossom is just delicious. It also reminds me a wee bit of Midwinter's Night, although more potpourri/candlelike than the punch-type scent of MN. I think I really need a bottle of this to last me through the winter months. It's also go fantastic throw. *inhales*

I don't get "dry" from this at all. Dragon's blood is not one of my favorite scents; it smells like thick, incensy cherry syrup on me. I do love orris, and amp it like crazy, but it's a very sweet and creamy scent on me, reminiscent of marzipan or almonds. This basically just smells like Florence with dragon's blood.

This was a lab frimp, and I doubt I would have bought it for myself. However, in the tradition of surprising lab frimps, I ended up really liking this. It's perfectly balanced. The lemon doesn't overwhelm like it usually does, and the anise, which I thought I wouldn't like, just adds this really intoxicating, interesting note, along with the mint. There's the herbal scent of wormwood and hyssop, not too bitter, but there's nothing too sweet about this either. Wet, it's so juicy-minty-herbal that I'm almost reminded of a mint julep, but dry it reminds me of another BPAL scent that I can't quite place.* I definitely think this is one of the Lab's better and more unusual scents, even though it's not a "favorite" yet. I'm curious as to whether I reach for this in the future, but I'll keep the imp...and maybe think about trying some absinthe myself. *It came to me -- the creamy herbal scent is very similar to White Light, minus the white floral scent. Maybe it's the hyssop?

When wet, The Lovers smelled exactly like a hard-candy stick from See's, both spicy and vanilla-sweet, with that slight sourness in the background. It dried down to a herbal soapy scent, very much like the Somnium line except no lavender, and just wasn't all that interesting. Too bad.

Wet, and for the first hour of drydown, Voodoo was perfectly delicious. I got the infamous "cherry coke" smell for only a few minutes, and then this fantastic spicy, sweet, incensy, rich, and a little unnerving combo of patchouli, clove, lime, pine and vanilla, with a hint of vetiver. Eventually, the vetiver totally took over -- which isn't that bad, because I'm one of the rare folks who likes vetiver a lot, but apparently I amp it to the exclusion of other scents. I will probably hang onto this for the yummy first hour's scent, and since I don't mind the vetiver single note effect, but I wish I got the blended version all the time.

I've never been to Jersey, but I've always been fascinated by the legend of the "devil" and the evocative name of the "Pine Barrens." I love the progression of this scent. At first it's sharp, foresty pine, nothing like a cleaning product, really evoking trees and stone and dirt. There's a faint hint of sweet cranberry beneath. Over time the cedar and tomato leaf develop, adding a round middle note that's actually almost sweaty on me; a little unnerving at first, but fitting for a forest. As the scent dries the berries take over and sweeten up, which is typical for me and my sugar-skin chemistry, but it doesn't lose the bitter astringency of pine and forest, which I love. It does remind me a bit of Mistletoe (but less herbal) and Skadi (less clean-pine, more dirt-pine), but I almost like it better for being so unusual and well-balanced. I'd definitely like to try this in a burner for the room, but I'm hoping I'll find times to wear it as well.

This began as a very gentle, slightly spicy gingery-incense type oil on me. After a few minutes, I got a dried flower note, and a general sort of sourness. Still pretty faint. After an hour, it grew stronger (bizarrely), and turned into pretty much straight-up dried chysanthemum. Which...is fine, I like the scent of dried chysanthemums, but it's not that striking as a perfume. The whole resin-smoke-opium-ginger experience pretty much passed me by on this one, and there's almost no throw. I'll give it the customary second try, and then let her go with a sigh, alas.

I also got a strong hit of generic cologne from this at first, and then it dried down to a warm scent predominated by red musk (I seem to amp that one), and little else I could pick out, except maybe the dryness of saffron and a little amber. It reminded me a lot of The Masque of the Red Death, probably due to the similar musk. Oddly, it worked really well layered with Strawberry Moon, of all things (a happy accident when I forgot I was already wearing a scent), so I might keep my imp just for that layering combo in the future. The resinous musk was just what that happy, fruity scent needed for grounding.

Intensely powdery sweetness at first, like amber-honey crossed with orris, and then a strong pepper note grows until it's kind of choking me. This definitely smells powerful, with a vetiver note that reminds me of TAL: Determination, and it's not something I would ever wear as an everyday perfume (though I liked the sweet powder at first). I don't know if I'd ever do a ritual with this type of scent, but maybe I'll hang onto it to see, if only because when I took a deep sniff of it in the vetiver stage, I got a SPIKE of energy in my third eye, and it's still pulsing wildly as I type this.... and I was strangely drawn to, um, "self-love" this afternoon. Maybe it's more powerful than I know.