Monday

Frimp from the Lab. For some reason all these notes combined smell the way frankincense ends up smelling on my skin: sour, smokey and fruity. Black opium is just not for me I guess neither is Anathema.

A mélange of balsams, leathers, and raw vanilla designed to evoke images of unearthed secrets and dusty, ancient libraries. Peppery grass is the first impression I got from Ü. It has the same 'green' note -balsam?- of Brood XIX, which didn't work at all on my skin. I hope this will do better. It starts out as...peppery grass and stays that way for a long time. The pepperiness of it is hurting my nose. Okay so maybe I should forgo balsams. It's not a bad scent, it smells a bit like a sugary hayloft with added vanilla , but it gives me a headache.

Got a bottle of the resurrected non-apple version. In the bottle this is a light feminine perfume. On my skin it blooms into a sugary floral it does remind me a bit of cotton candy but it's not a foody scent. Then the tobacco pops up plus some incense. The tobacco isn't overpowering the scent though it blends beautifully with the vanilla and cognac. I like this more than I thought I would (I'm not a tobacco-fan) this is a very sophisticated scent it's beautiful but also not quite me.

This smells like nutty tomatoes in the vial, I couldn't believe it when I read the notes. You'd think it would be a sweet honey-almond scent but it isn't. I definitely see how people got rice out of this. On my skin I'm getting rice with a floral. It morphs to expensive soap. Maybe this needs some aging.

Sounds like there was some trouble mixing this scent as some people get only leather and some none at all. I got a bottle with virtually no leather, which I'm grateful for as I'm not much into leather scents ( I know why then order something called Leather Phoenix but I just couldn't help myself ). It starts out as spicy green tea but in a perfumey way. There is but the faintest trace of leather and no patchouli. The petitgrain shows up on drydown and does smell, like Joyfulgirl mentioned, of oranges and greenish wood it's overall a dark green scent. Leather Phoenix reminds me a bit of the Chanel perfume Cristalle of olden days it's very sophisticated. After a while I can smell the cedar which is making this blend rather masculine it's reminding me of The Triumph of Death. Leather Phoenix starts out smelling feminine and dries down to an unisex blend, I'm on the fence about LP. The throw is decent.

Blast of pine needles from the bottle. This isn't a fake pine but a natural prickly pine needle scent. On my skin the pine fades quickly, leaving pink cotton candy a la Plastic Pink Flamingo's. Tested this straight from the mail, it may change a bit once it's rested.

'Old fashioned' is a better term I must agree. I love this thread because I love the 'old fashioned' scents of Bpal (Haunted, Brisingamen, Dance of Death) and there are many great recommendations here. Keep them coming .

Penis Admiration has the same lilac note as Ville-Marie. It's altogether quite a fresh, sweet lilac. On drydown the vanilla shows up making it nice and creamy. I like it a lot, it's an innocent (despite it's name teehee) creamy floral suitable for daily wear. ETA: after an hour there is a spicy wood scent mixing with the lilac and cream yummy.

Unexpected love! I don't particularly like leather and tobacco scents (or coffee scents for that matter ) but this is really nice and, best of all, very wearable. It starts out as sharp dark coffee with a hint of carnation underneath. Then the leather shows up. This is a surprisingly gentle spicy scent. I might need a bottle of this.

I smell lemon...? There isn't even any lemon listed. It's the same detergent lemon scent that I get from Lemon Scented Sticky Bat, in here though it's seriously nauseating. There is a tiny bit of cocoa and no patchouli. I really wanted to like this one (the globs of cocoa in the vial make it a nice lava lamp oil) but I need to scrub this off before the headache hits.

<---this was my facial expression on sniffing this oil in the vial. Casali Schokobananen! One of my favorite candies, for some reason only available in Germany and Austria (grr). Basically sugary banana-mousse covered in chocolate. Yum. On my skin it morphs quickly from banana to banana-booze then some kind of cake shows up. Still yum. Dry the tartness of the banana burns off quickly it now smells slightly like a boozy bananacake which has been left in the oven for too long and got slightly burned. I'm not sure if I need a bottle of Araw Ng Mga Patay, I need to retest it by itself to see if I can go an entire day smelling of boozy bananas. This is a very strong scent which probably explains why I wrote almost all of this in caps on my notepad...with exclamation marks.

I'm having the same problem as Stellans. In the bottle this is bold vetivert but on my skin it's a very, very faint minty vetivert. I'll have to see if it gets any stronger over the next days...

This oil has definitely got a masculine quality. The drydown is very close to Mole. It starts out as woods and woodsmoke then morphs into cypress cologne I don't get a lot of pine. There is a hint of spices but it fades quickly. This has the same cuddly/soft feeling as Mole. Unisex.

The only rose blends that don't turn sour or artificial on my skin are Bearded Lady (it has Turkish rose in it) and L'Ecole des Filles (white rose, but it has masses of other notes as well ). Can't help you with the skin reaction other than Dance of the Mirlitons has marzipan listed which usually means almonds and almond is known to cause allergic reactions. I hope you will be able to wear some rose scents!

Tasty! On me this is mostly sweet ambery mint, it's a bit powdery but I love powdery scents. It only wish it had a little more throw but overall it's a winner!

Some great suggestions here. My tea-scent of choice is Baobhan Sith - Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. It's a very delicate fruity tea.

Thanks Icekitten, those look awesome! The Boo 2011 label is so cute.

This smells ...old fashioned, like an old fashioned ladies perfume. It opens with a gorgeous hibiscus then it morphs quickly to a very purple frankincense and orris. Unfortunately no blend with frankincense in it has ever worked for me, I had hoped this would be different for some reason . The Labs frankincense note just doesn't like me and turns into a sharp soapy smell.

The Atomic Luau Lounge .

An old musty leather coat hanging in a dank shed. That's Iago summed up on my skin. This scent also reminds me a lot of the smell in a store we had here many years ago which sold surplus army stuff. So yeah...musty leather. Has lots of throw.

I first tested Brisingamen on my hand and thought it was an okay scent but nothing special. Then I tested it on my neck and the inside of my arms and it bloomed into something amazing! Warm carnation and amber with just a hint of greenness.

Whoa dragon's blood! Where are the other notes in this? Wait I think there is some musk in there too although it only succeeds in making the dragon's blood resin more prominent. This is mainly a peppery highly floral dragon's blood on me it's so strong it's giving me a headache. For some reason I get a whiff of bubblegum with the resin and musks once it dried up. Unfortunately this blend has amazing staying power.

In the vial it smells like I'm in the middle of a large church, there's a suggestion of snuffed candles and frankincense. On my skin it's still mostly a church. As it warms up there is a perfumey scent coming through like someone wearing a floral perfume just walked through the church. Dry it has morphed to floral church cologne. I like the scent in the vial but I'm not very fond of it once it's dried.

This ended up as a sort of cross between Knockout Drops and Tattered Lace on me. It starts out with a cozy dry leaf scent but quickly morphs to a vague minty vanilla. It's rather a sugary scent. It's also barely there. Maybe I got a blind spot on these sort of scents because neither Knockout Drops or Tattered Lace worked for me, I'm afraid this isn't working either.