birdiefu

I was a little scared of The Candy Butcher, as I'm not much of a foody person. Velvet, Gluttony, and Jack are all stomach-churning on me. I was hoping for a not-too-sweet cocoa with some creamyness to it. Bottle- Bittersweet chocolate, not too strong. Initial wet- Creamy chocolate! The chocolate isn't too sweet- nice and dark, and it's swirled through rich cream. But not really foody, in fact it has a slight perfumey quality like there might be some florals in the background. Drying but still wet- Whoa, this changes a lot! Very, very creamy but not sickenly so, and the chocolate fades a bit- for a moment this smells just like cocoa butter. Then I smell fruits! I feel like I'm wearing a tropical drink complete with an umbrella on top, sorta like a pina colada but without coconut- pineapples, a touch of banana, rum, and cream. For a while I wonder if the bottle got mislabeled and I sniff it again to verify it's chocolate. Dry- After the crazy morphing settles down, the chocolate note is pretty much gone. There is a creamy vanilla base with just a teeny bit of cocoa butter and a hint of pineapple. Very light and unobtrusive scent. Overall, The Candy Butcher is quite a surprise! It is very low on the foody scale (which is good for me) and is a very unique blend. For me I can see this as a summer scent, though I wish the dark chocolate stuck around more. ETA: I ended up swapping that first bottle away. I got pregnant and had another baby a year ago, and missed Candy Butcher. So I got another bottle. I don't know if the whole 2nd baby thing changed my skin chemistry or what, but I don't get the fruits anymore. In fact, the perfect description of what CB does on me now is this : So glad I revisited it before the Carnival left! A sophisticated foody scent, or more like a perfume that smells candyish rather than me just smelling like candy.

Rome, why do you have to smell like Lysol on me? I'm glad I did a very light testing, as I could at least tolerate letting it get to drydown without giving me a massive headache. I hoped the wet Lysol stage would pass- dry, Rome was rose scented Lysol .

Patron of the Aztec pantheon, he is the personification of light within darkness, warmth in the cold, and life in, and after, death. He is a creative and destructive God of Fire and Light, and is appeased only by sacrifice, trial, and the slaughter of his people's enemies. Copal, plumeria and sweet orange and the smoke of South American incense and crushed jungle blooms. Wow, this is a truly unique blend! Although I can only pick out one note in particular, it's very rich. In the bottle, it smelled like a very perfumey floral, but when applied I got sugared lemons. As it dries the lemons become oranges (well, that's what they were to start with, but my nose rebelled), and there is still a sweetness to them. There is a creamy, almost watery feel to this scent and definitely more going on than the oranges but I can't quite describe it. I don't get plumeria, incense, or other florals (which is good as I generally don't do well with florals), but I think they must be blending in just the right way to add depth to the blend. I find this to be a very feminine, light scent. Though it's not my usual cup of tea as far as scents go, I'm sure this imp will find some use when I'm in the right mood.

Each bottle of Chaos Theory is truly unique, a fragrant fractal, and exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct. My one and only CT3 bottle, MCVII (1107). In the bottle- Mmmm, it smells so nice! Light happiness in a bottle- a little sweet, fruity, and musky. Wet- The fruit comes to the front! It's not an overly sweet or cough-syrupy fruit, smells like plum with a touch of mandarin. Something else in the background- maybe a sweet resin like amber, or a light musk. As it dries, the fruits take on a little waxy/plasticy smell (which happens with many BPAL fruits anyway- makes me think of fake wax fruit). Dry- The plasticky edge to the fruit fades at about 30 minutes. Around an hour in, the fruit mellows a lot and the orangy/mandarin part is gone. I'm left with a wonderful light skin scent that smells like vanilla musk with just a hint of plum. I really like this stage and though the scent is oh-so-light, it still lasts quite a while on me. Overall, I'm quite happy with this scent once I get past the plastic stage. I was fearing a super-foody, floral, or ozone blend and I'm glad I lucked out with my one bottle! Thank you labbies for picking a great scent for me.

In the bottle: Light resiny floral. A little sharp and perfumey, but not overwhelmingly so. Wet: Fresh smelling, slightly spicy floral. I've never smelled chyrsanthemums before so I guess that's it. There is a tiny bit of muskyness trying to get out from under the mums. As it dries, a slightly smoky opium swirls up. Dry: Fabulous!! Warm, spicy opium with some surpising backup. Deliciously sweet and true honey and creamy milk make themselves known to my nose. Not quite what I expected, but wonderful all the same- very balanced and not too sweet. Overall, I'm glad I got two bottles! This is a great fall scent and I think my favorite lunar oil yet, though I wish the musk stuck around more. I can see Mum Moon ageing beautifully.

My initial impression when I first put this on was of suntan lotion without the coconut. Wet, Aeval is very strong and when I sniff myself I can taste it too. It is herby, but there is also a high floral smell that gives it a 'department store perfume' kinda smell. A lot of throw, and I had to wash it off after about 30 minutes as it was starting to give me a headache.

I love vanilla and honey, but they usually need to be balanced with something non-foody or it gets too sweet for me. O manages to *just* sneak out of the foody category (yay!) with a touch of smooth, warm amber. I get more vanilla than honey, and this is a very pretty, innocent, comforting scent. I don't get the sexy vibe from this at all- I need darker elements for that. O has decent throw and staying power, and the scent composition doesn't change much from wet to dry. All in all a nice scent, but I'm not sure if I will go for a bottle.

With the air getting cooler, I'm not as fond of 'clean' scents as room scenters. Golden Priapus is now scenting my foyer and is lovely with a touch of vanilla tempering the pine.

This one is very interesting! First sniff after applying it really surprised me- there was a very sharp, high note that for some reason reminded me of opening a new ream of copy paper. That wasn't right though... my next impression was that it was like bug spray, then I finally decided it was more eucalyptus-like than anything else. Beyond that note there is a mild nutty sweetness. As I bury my nose in, that nut smells like almonds, but *nothing* like the almond note I get in any other blend. It smells like I'm holding a handful of real almonds, not almond extract or marzipan. As it dries it gets very soft and light and the eucalyptus-like note only lingers around the edges of where I applied, then fades to blend surprisingly nicely with the almonds. There is also a creamy quality to the blend- something like milk or vanilla. I haven't had time to try out the effectiveness of this scent as I put it on in the late evening at home. I did find a mysterious $5 bill floating around my house, but that was before I applied Horn of Plenty.

I love musk, I love amber . Haunted should have been a glorious deep musky golden amber, right? Nope, for some reason these two loves of mine together turned into powder . I only had about 3 minutes of loving this scent before an invisible fairy poofed baby powder all over me. I usually dislike comparisons of scents to powder or soap, but today I had to write my first two reviews likening lovely BPAL to these generic body products. I hope it's just a bad scent day and will try again in a week or so, but I'll at least hold on to Haunted for layering purposes. I'm so dissapointed in my skin!

At first this is all pine and juniper- I'm a Christmas tree . Once this dries down, warm soft vanilla comes out and the pineyness mellows, leaving a beautiful scent. It smells very comforting to me in a seasonal kind of way- this will be great for the colder months. And I can't wait to try this on my man, I might just want to eat him up!

First on, this is very almondy sweet. After a few minutes, the cinnamon shows up and I think I can catch some frankincense- but it's still mostly almond. 30 minutes in, Eclipse has changed to soap . This is the first time I had any BPAL scent smell like soap, and it's not scented soap either- just the smell that plain unscented soap leaves on your skin after washing.

This is way strong! I just put the tiniest dab on my hand as foodie blends get very strong (learned my lesson with Jack!) and it still smells like I slathered. On me, it's caramel/vanilla creme brulee. Gluttony stays true from wet to drydown with pretty much no morphing, but the sweet foodiness is too much for me. It makes me feel like I gorged myself on plates of dessert and now I'm holding my stomach going 'why did I eat so much?' and the smell of any other food makes me nauseus. Which is very appropriate for 'Gluttony' but I can't wear it.

When I first put this on, I was reminded strongly of a 'good' commercial perfume (not a fan of them in general, but it smells like a nicer one). It has a very sharp, high note that I often get from florals and is also very clean smelling, but I can't really pick out the individual notes. Hmm, once it dries a bit it turns into lemon pledge with a touch of floral, that must be the lemon kicking in. After about an hour a hint of honey/vanilla peeks out, but that high sharp florally/lemon smell is still there, so the sweetness doesn't salvage this scent for me. Overall, not my type of scent. It's a very clean and generic (but light) floral, and I can see this being something I want my laundry to smell like, but not me.

Hmm, the notes in Phantom didn't seem to want to blend on me. First it was myrrh, pure myrrh. Next came ylang-ylang, totally overpowering and replacing the myrrh. I was about to post in recommendations for someone who was looking for ylang-ylangy scents, when suddenly the ylang-ylang was eaten by rose. I'm left with pure rose on my skin, but it's that old, almost rotten rose that I get from most rose notes.

Wow, Morocco is very sweet- when I first put it on, it's all sweet vanilla. As it dries, I'm searching for more notes and get a little bit of cassia, and faint spices, but no sandalwood or musk. Once on for a while, the vanilla's sweetness tones down a bit and turns creamier, but it's still almost all vanilla. The cassia and spices are gone, and just a teeny bit of carnation comes through and gives it a touch of a musty(not musky) smell. Overall, not what I was expecting, but most scents do weird things on me. I hope that it will round out more with age, though it isn't too bad as it is (I like vanilla). This has a lot of throw on me, and I smell more of it wafting around a foot from my arm than by sniffing my skin directly.

The essence of pleasure heightened by pain: the raw scent of leather. It's leather, but to my nose a chemically leather. A little too sharp for me, and as it dries it morphs towards a band-aid smell . I will hold onto this until my hubby comes home in a couple months- hopefully it works better on him!

In the bottle- I get woods mixed with a light, happy scent Wet- Whoa, the cypress and juniper are all over me. The aquatic note is also very strong, but not headache-inducing like most aquatics. At first I'm a little nauseus from the strength of the smell, but I had just eaten so I think being full was part of that. Dry- The mellows nicely! The woods tone down and the resins come out to play. Slightly sweet benzoin and labdanum round out the woodiness and compliment the aquatic note which gives it a light feel. I don't really smell any florals, but this blend is so complex that many of the notes swirl together. Overall- Unexpected surprise! I'm usually not a fan of heavy woods, and usually can't stand aquatics. I think it may be the 'dark' aquatic that makes it okay, but R'lyeh didn't work on me...hmm. This is also much lighter than I expected, but with good throw. It seems to be a great unisex blend and I could see it as a wonderful light scent for a guy.

I love all the notes in this blend except hyssop(not sure what it smells like) and cypress(can be overwhelming sometimes). Wet, this is sharp and perfumey and very resiny. The myrrh and frankincense dominate, with sandalwood coming in second and some cypress, but not too much. Once dry, it fades quite a bit but the scent develops beautifully. The inital scent blast fades down and warm spices and amber show up with a tickle of red musk. The honey is just barely detectable and gives the right amount of sweetness. I'm sad at how much it fades on me- pretty much as soon as it dries I can only smell it if I shove my nose against my skin and sniff really slow and deep. I hope that this will age well and have more staying power as I really like this scent!

I'm a fan of civet, but I don't really notice it in Debauchery. Instead it's mostly dry spices and very woody/earthy. I don't smell much in the way of opium either, though there is a smokiness to it. Hmm, not what I was expecting at all.

Wet, this is cherry overload! Medicinal cherry cough syrup that makes my teeth hurt. The cherry blast calms down quickly, but the cherry, anise, and lovely red musk keep fighting for first place. Oddly enough when dry, the mellowed cherry+anise seem to equal grape flavored cough syrup to my nose. Sniffing myself, I can identify the red musk hiding in the corner, but the medicinal grapey note takes it all over. This scent has a ton of staying power and resisted my attempts at washing it off. Sorry Kabuki, I must let you go.

I think I got this imp because of the dark musk, amber, and tangerine. However, I failed to notice the plethora of florals . My nemesis jasmine ended up completely taking over this scent- nothing else but jasmine . But to give Moscow credit, the jasmine wasn't as perfumey and sharp as in some other blends.

First on, this is sickenly buttery sweet with pumpkin pie spices. It's hard to single out the actual pumpkin note, and in general it smells like a foodie holiday candle. Dry, the butteryness tones down and I get a tart cider note- I don't think this is the peaches since the peach in other lab blends hasn't become tart on me before. It smells sorta pumpkiny, but I still get more spices than pumpkin. I can see how people would love this scent, but it is so not me. Way too foody, but it might work as a room scent.

I love myrrh, I love musk. Almonds and I get along in small doses, but too much makes me sick. So my first whiff of the imp of Hecate made me very worried- mega almond! Right after applying it was super almondy, way too much for me but I waited. Next sniff- oh my...moldy almonds . I was determined to see this scent out so I let it do it's thing a little longer. 10 minutes in, the moldy note turns into smoke. Better, but still too almondy. Another 10 minutes later and the almond magically faded away leaving the myrrh behind. One hour after applying, it's faded a lot, leaving a very light, smokey myrrh behind, and the musk never showed up. All in all, I'm not sure if the short, nicer drydown is worth the almond blast in the beginning. I would send it to the swap pile, but its Hecate so I'm keeping her .

This is such a cheery, pretty scent! The florals are so very light and I can catch the orchid, but I'm not too sure what stephanodis smells like. Whatever it is, it's not too overwhelming at all (and I'm not much of a floral girl). The vanilla is also very light and just seems to sweeten it up a bit without taking over. I also caught a whiff of something minty while wet but that left quickly. Overall, it's a light, creamy blend that makes me want to snuggle in bed under the covers. I can't stop sniffing myself and Regan is making me very happy on this dreary, rainy day. Well done!