Victory

Berry, berry, and berry. I don't know if what I'm smelling is the blackberry or the "wild berries", but that's all I smell. I wonder if the greenery is providing some depth or not, since I don't smell it, but the berry isn't super sweet or fake. It's a lovely scent, but I wonder if I might find more use of the imp layering rather than wearing it on its own.

I have found the L'Estate set to be the most similar smelling of all of the four seasons. The perfume, bath oil, and atmosphere spray smell virtually identical to me. When the spray is first sprayed, I do smell the orange rind, but it's pretty fleeting, leaving that gorgeous, glorious, nnnnnnngh-so-good L'Estate golden ambery vanillaic goodness. I sprayed this on my bedsheets midafternoon and was really afraid it would be too strong to sleep in and I'd get a headache. When I walked past the room for the rest of the day I could smell L'Estate, and so it was with some trepidation I got into bed, but wow. It had settled down, so I could only smell it when the sheets shifted or I moved. And it was glorious. I love this.

Wow, normally the lab's bath oils broadcast long and strong on my skin, but La Primavera is quite soft and lasts only a few hours. I use the oils as perfume, mostly because I'd probably have to dump the whole bottle into my bath to be able to smell it and well, that's a huge waste. On my skin, the gardenia is king. Ah gardenia, I just don't like your scent. I have always found the scent of gardenia, whether real, in perfume, whatever, to be shrill, high-pitched, and generally hugely unpleasant, although my mother loves it. But miracle of miracles, here it isn't sharp and shrill. It hovers on the edge, yes, but doesn't cross. I think the other florals are holding the gardenia back some, hurray! I can never isolate the other floral notes individually, they're quite muted even when the gardenia takes the occasional step out, but they're nice. I think that the bath oil would be a good complementary scent to wear with the perfume oil, although I haven't tried it, because I find the perfume to be quite sharp, and the bath oil is more mellow.

Sage, myrrh, patchouli, molasses, sweetgrass, cedar, and cinnamon sugar. Sigh. Cedar, myrrh, and patchouli, my old nemesises. You work out in Inez, Inez is lovely on me, why wouldn't you work in L'Autunno. I love autumn. But no. In the bottle, the bath oil is sweet and lovely, but as soon as it hits my skin, it's all perfumy cedar. As I got ready for work and drove in, I was waiting for a morph but without much hope. When the morph finally came hours later, it became myrrh and some patchouli, with an edge of cedar. I really don't care for the smell of cedar, although in this the cedar is really perfumy rather than cedar plank-y, which is better, and myrrh tends to give me headaches. And it broadcasts. I'll try putting it in a locket and in bath water, where it can't get snarled by my skin, but this is a real disappointment.

There's no moonflower in this? Really? .... Really? I amp moonflower like crazy, so anything with that note smells almost the same, and moonflower's all I smell. It smells the same to me as Blue Moon, Nuit, and Midnight (probably more, but after having a MOONFLOWER + something else reaction to moonflower blends, I stopped ordering them). Maybe it's the jasmine, but Midnight and Blue Moon don't have jasmine, so I don't THINK that's it. One time I wore this it was a sharp moonflower, but ever since, just the same moonflower/"night" note I know. I will say that my skin seems to eat lavender (TKO is the only blend where I can really smell it) so my experience is probably different from most people's.

First on, and until the oil is dry, Caliban smells to me of murky water. I'd put the oil on without reading the notes, and when I go back to read the notes I think, "what? No murk, no swamp, no nothing? What?" Maybe the other notes muddied the water up, but I didn't smell any wine at all, and the scent didn't smell so much of living ferns (especially tropical) and palms so much as stagnant water with decaying vegetation. As the oil dried, the murkiness lessened, and the scent became cleaner and brighter and sweeter. There was an almost floral sweetness to it that I couldn't place. When totally dry, the scent is a clean aquatic, although it's faint. Even with my nose smushed to my arm it's faint. It's like Caliban was laboring on the island doing Prospero's bidding, slopping through swamps and mud, then winning his freedom and washing it all off, and finally relaxing on his island alone, with a faint sea breeze cooling him.

Wet, the apple is the starring player. I was a little concerned because I seem to amp apple- a note I like well enough, but not to the exclusion of everything else. Plus, apple scents always make me think of the Halloweenies. (Speaking of the apple, I too think it is a green apple, but not nearly so tart as the wonderful Punkie Night apple.) As the oil begins to dry, the apple remains in the forefront, but the cream creeps up and coats the apple. Gradually the cream supplants the apple and the apple backs off a ways. I never know what it is that's in the cream accords; cream and milk have no noticeable scent, maybe it just seems to smell like how they taste. Anyway. I don't smell the vanilla in the cream. Later on, the cream dims and the tropical fruit appears. I'm not at all a fan of tropical fruit, but I like this. I also like Milk Moon 07 too, so maybe it's the milk/cream + tropical fruit combination. The fruit's really subtle, not at all obnoxious. If I didn't know it was guava and passionfruit, I probably wouldn't guess it. The apple, cream, and tropical fruit finally come together, creating a really lovely delicate, creamy scent.

When I first saw the note list, I thought "grandmother." I don't know which of those notes made me think old lady, but that was my preconception. So I tested this oil with not a little apprehension, especially since I haven't had a fantastic experience with violet. As soon as I put the oil on, I smelled something that made me think of lilacs, but not lilacs themselves. I didn't have the note list with me, so I wandered around the day wondering what it was, since I only remembered delphinium and violet. I sniffed the delphinium I had bought my mother, but that had no scent. Just now I'm looking at the notes and it must be wisteria. (Now that I think of it, yes, I remember wisteria from Purple Phoenix.) The wisteria gives the scent a gray-purple feel. There's also something in there that has a real warmth, somehow almost an edible warmth. In the end, there is almost a powdered aspect. It doesn't smell like powder, maybe more like flowers that have dried and been broken into pieces. I was pleasantly surprised by the Queen.

The crisp, clean scent of green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle. I don't drink any tea at all, much less green tea, but this is how I imagine green tea would smell and taste. It's very crisp and green, and when I think about it, there is some similarity to Tamamo-no-Mae, which I think has white tea leaf. (Aha! That is the tea smell!) I don't smell the honeysuckle or lemon verbena specifically, but I imagine that they are enhancing the tea. This is a really nice scent for the summer and I'll enjoy using up my imp. ETA: the scent description.

It's really hot today, and all my perfumes are volatilizing off my skin, so I decided to apply some L'Inverno oil both because the oils last and last on me and in the hopes that I'd cool me down some. Freshly on the skin, I smell what I think might be the citron and mint together. It was kind of a blast, like realizing that yes, winter has arrived and all hope of warm days is gone. I wouldn't say it smelled sharp, but it definitely wasn't a smell I cared for. As the oil sinks in, the snowy fir comes out. There may be a soft floral here as well, since the fir isn't strong, more an idea than a reality. The snow comes out more and more as the oil wears. (Snow's not listed in the note list, but it's there on my skin. I don't know if BPAL uses different snow notes, but this is not the soft, sweet snow of Snow White, it's more like the snow of Perchta. Maybe it's the snow + musk that makes me think of Perchta. Anyway.) On my right wrist, the fir remains strong, but on my left, I'm left with some snow, some musk, and maybe a breath of florals. The bath oil is very different from the perfume oil- my bottle of perfume is very heavy on the plum- but it really hits the spot when it's so hot out I'm dreaming of fall and winter.

This is amazing- Strawberry Moon fades faster on me than Dana O'Shee, and I never thought I'd see a blend do that. It's gone way before the oil is dry! Hopefully with some age it will hang around more, or maybe in my scent locket. But on to the actual scent while I can smell it! Actually, I don't find the strawberry scent at all realistic- when I smell it, I desperately crave those strawberry "flavored" fruit snacks. Maybe the vanilla sugar + strawberry is making it smell like that. I don't smell any dandelion or grass, both of which I was a bit leery about. Hopefully with some age, the scent will hang around more- here's to hoping!

Thank goodness for frimps, or I wouldn't have tried this. Cedar is a big no note, while I don't mind saffron when I encounter it, I don't look for it, and I have no idea what litsea cubeba is. On, I'm enveloped in a heavy golden cloud. I haven't worn Mantis in years, but I think I recall its golden musk as being similar. The scent is a bit perfumey, but it's such a glorious gold that I don't mind. I get headaches daily, and wore this while having my headache and at my grandfather's memorial without being in headbanging pain, so I guess if that perfumeyness was going to be bothersome, it would have been then, and it wasn't bad. The cloud of scent is strong and lasts for several hours. Once it's really dried down, I'm not sure what it smells like- I've either been distracted by other things or annoyed at another scent and couldn't separate them out. But I do so love the wet and freshly dry phase. Thanks for the frimp, lab!

Wow, I don't get anything swampy at all. Bayou is actually very much like Nuit and Blue Moon to my nose. I amp moonflower, which makes Nuit and Blue Moon (actually, anything with moonflower) variations on each other, and Bayou seems like another variation. I swiped on a smidge to test the oil and then tossed the imp into my sister's bag (her horse is named Bayou) and then realized I liked it, but since it's so similar to some other scents I own, I won't mourn the loss.

CLXXIX (179) This is so frustrating because I just can't put my finger on what I'm smelling. This is a sweet blend with only a tad bit of Dorian, but I can't say what's making it so sweet. Sometimes I'll put on an oil and say, "ooh, maybe this is it!" but I just don't know. Something in Kurukulla was familiar, maybe the lotus? But I also smell it and think maybe it's a berry sweetness or a pine sap. Maybe it's an extra musk? I don't know.

CLXXIV- 174. When I first sniffed the bottle, the O was strong and I was pumped. Freshly on, I smelled honeyed roses, but then, oh then, that powdered candy Tums-like scent that is what Gladdener of All Hearts is on me. I was SO crushed. I'd expected to love Gladdener, since its note list was so dreamy and so me. I thought I'd have to swap it. But in the time that this oil's been sitting in my perfume box, that Sweet Tarts note's gone away, and left a scent I'm much happier with. It's a Gladdener I can wear. Thanks, Lab!

I love peach notes in perfume, and I really like the peach wine of Aglaea, so I was quite excited for Philommeides. I was concerned about the florals though, since I don't tend to care for florals, and La Primavera has many of these and I don't wear it. To me, Philommeides smells much like I remember my bottle of Fuzzy Peach perfume from the Body Shop. It's a peach floral in almost perfect balance, and florals that don't put my teeth on edge. Actually, since I love peach so much, I wish that the peach were much stronger. I find Philommeides to be surprisingly sophisticated. Mature in the sense of a sleek little black dress, not in the sense of old.

Sigh. I'd wanted to get a bottle of Snake Charmer when it first came out, then when it came out the second time, and finally got it the third time around because the notes seemed so very, very, VERY me. All of the notes are good on me. But Snake Charmer just doesn't play nicely with me. It smells much like Snake Oil on me- and Snake Oil smells powdery and headshoppy on me without any vanilla to smooth the way- but more so. This is a giant whumping of dark powder. On one wrist I can almost detect something behind the powder and the darkness, almost like seeing through smoke, but nothing ever resolves itself. It is so very disappointing, like biting into an apple and getting a worm. I'll give a scent locket a try, but I'm not too hopeful about it. How sad.

I have no idea how it is that the orchard really smelled distant rather than just faint, and how I could smell the air and road, but this was a perfect picture of the description. It was really amazing.

CCXXXVII (237) Snake Oil! It smells like Snake Oil! Ok, maybe there's some extra red musk in there, and maaaaaaybe something a little herbal, but I'd say 95% Snake Oil, 5% red musk. At least this Chaos Theory I can identify!

Snake Oil blended with Dorian, plus soft vanilla flower, lily of the valley, lavender, and fennel. My skin chemistry must really bring out the non-vanilla notes of Snake Oil, because I never smell SO's vanilla. I'd hoped that adding Dorian plus the other floral notes would cut the Snake Oil spices and maybe amplify some vanilla/sweetness, but they don't, really. Sometimes I can smell the faintest edge of Dorian or perhaps the florals or fennel, but it's almost me imagining it. I wore both this and my SO Chaos Theory that is almost purely SO, which helped me catch the Dorian glimpses, but man. Snake Oil stomps out the competition. It's interesting to me to read the reviews- the experiences have been so different. Maybe this is one for my hair or locket.

I don't know if I amp aquatics or if I'm just not as pirate-y as I think, but all of the BPAL pirate blends are all-aquatic, all the time. Or at least I am guessing that it's the aquatic notes I'm smelling- I smell Mary Read and think "cologne." Sigh- the notes sound so interesting, too.

Violet can be powdery on me as is the case with I Died For Beauty. Actually, I Died For Beauty is virtually all powder, all the time. For a second when wet I can smell the violet apart from the powder, but almost immediately it's subsumed. In the late dry down, the ylang ylang tries to make a stand, but it only appears as a ghostly floral on the edge of the scent. The same is true with the frankincense, but it's even less noticeable. It's not an unpleasant powder, but I'm glad this was a frimp and nothing I'd spent money on.

I've worn Goblin three times and each time's been a little different- even on the same day! The first time I applied Goblin, the scent was a wonderful strong coconut with a supporting patchouli and just a hint of benzion. I loved it- I didn't realize I so enjoyed coconut, even though I like Obatala. I was planning to make an order. The second time, the patchouli and coconut were more balanced, which was still ok, but late in the dry down I occasionally smelled burning tires. The third time, the patchouli was the main player, and the coconut/benzoin had a mentholic feel, which I didn't like. So I guess I may not be getting Goblin- I could put up with the coconut not being as strong, but burning tires and/or menthol really kills the deal for me. But I was really glad to get a frimp of this, because I wouldn't have ordered it on my own. The patchouli really is gnarly- I'm not a patchouli lover and I liked it. It was almost a furry sort of scent. Ah, well.

CLXXIV (174) The bottle itself smells like O, but really there's very little O inside. Wet, it's a sweet (maaaaybe honeyed) rose, but dry, this is a total retread of Gladdener of All Hearts. Whatever it is that makes that smell like chalky candy is in this. I mean, it's an amazing replica. I loved the note list of Gladdener, so if I'd had a list of notes, I'd probably have bought this too, but. You know. Chalky.

This is a review of the Beaver'Versary edition. Mmm. This seems to be sensitive to my chemistry, because most days I wear it I don't smell the cupcakes. I smell the tang of the cheesecake and in the late drydown, some spiced vanilla, but no cake. The graham cracker crust flirts on the edges, just backing up the cheesecake. It's the rare days that I smell any cake. But I really like it- and as strange as this will sound, it doesn't smell particularly foody to me. I mean, yes- cheesecake. But my skin makes it creamy, and with the spiced vanilla, it's total yum.