Victory

The lab kindly frimped Iago to me and, with a certain amount of dread, I gave it a try last night. Vetiver and I do not get along at all. At. All. Wet, the vetiver is strong (but I have to say that I can almost always pick it out, my nose is so attuned to it) and is backed by a darn brown cloud- now that I look at the notes, the leather probably gave the dark brown scent-picture and the musk backed it up. The vetiver didn't smell like the vetiver note I am used to. I'm used to vetiver smelling like death- ghastly, somehow sweet, and sickening. This vetiver was darker without the sickly aspect. It was more of a malevolent note, yes. As the oil dried down, the vetiver backed off and left the black musk and leather. This isn't a scent that I am particularly comfortable wearing, even though the vetiver isn't so bad as I thought it'd be. It might be nice on a man, but it might also be that the lab got too much of Iago into the blend and it's too unsettling.

In the bottle and directly upon application, October's a really sharp scent that I could believe is green leaves, but I don't have much idea what the oil smells like past this point because about three minutes after I apply, the scent disappears almost completely. If I squish my nose up to my wrist I can very faintly make out a little sweetness, maybe some leafiness. It's so disappointing, though. It's just... gone! I guess I'll put it aside and let it settle some more, maybe try wearing it in a scent locket. I'm not giving up on it just yet, but so far it's been a real disappointment.

 

Edited a month and a half later- October is much better now than it was. It's never a strong oil, but it does last throughout the day. That green, sharp smell is still present when the oil goes on, but fades away quickly. October smells leafy to me with a sweetness presumably from the sap. I wish there were smokiness, but I'm content with what this is.

The opening fanfare of the Perilous Parlor is all sweet pear. And when I say sweet, I mean sweet. Wow, I like sweet scents a lot and this was still almost tooth- gratingly sweet. I didn't recognize it as pear right off, and I might not have except that I remembered that the description is pear and vanilla, and once I remembered it was pear, sense memories of smelling pear scents from the Body Shop or places like that clicked in and I said, "Oh, of course. It's pear." I then remembered that one of my favorite oils, Pink Phoenix, also started really sweet and has pear, but as it aged, that sweet sweet sweetness mellowed out, so I have hopes. (On the other hand, Midwinter's Eve never settled down and I had to swap it. Go toward the Pink Phoenix end, Perilous Parlor. Have a PP party of mellowed sweetness. Ahem.) As the oil begins to dry down, the vanilla comes out a little and the pear and vanilla continue to trade flirty waves and come hither looks for an hour or so. At that point, the vanilla's made a big move and scared the pear off into the corner. The vanilla (not one of the ones that goes bad on my skin, happily, this one doesn't seem to be buttery to me) is the dominant scent when the oil's dry, though the pear does wink at me occasionally. This is a wearing on the day the oil arrived, so I expect the oil to settle in the next few weeks, but if this is the oil unsettled, it'll be marvelous once everything has calmed down.

As the Knave of Heart wears, it's almost exactly like eating a blackcurrant tart. In the vial, the butteriness is really strong, just like you might smell the buttery pastry of the tart first. On the skin it's all the pastry, flight, buttery, flaky, melt in your mouth and perfect, then as it begins to dry I can almost smell the blackcurrant. It's like when the sun is behind the clouds and you can see the rays bending around the cloud but not the sun itself- the currant hides just for a moment but you know it's there. Then as the mental fork slides a little deeper into the pastry, the blackcurrant bursts out and spills its juices and fragrance into the air. The currant and pastry are now swirling in the air. Underneath the tart are rose petals that release their scent when the fork hits them- today I can't smell the roses but I've smelled them before on previous wearings. This is an amazing olfactory rendition of eating a blackcurrant tart.

I don't think I get a whole lot of mandarin from Carnal and in fact, Carnal isn't particularly fruity on me and I don't smell anything Christmas-like (skin chemistry is amazing!). I get a sort of earthy, subdued skin scent that makes me think of dark brown- maybe that's the earthiness of the fig. Fig lovers must love this one.

I got a frimp of Absinthe in an order more than a year ago, tried it, was totally turned off, and haven't looked at it since. Today though, I pulled it out and gave it another try. I don't know if my nose has gotten better, my scent tolerance/preference has broadened, or the imp's aged well, but I liked it much better. Absinthe opens with a boozy, mint fanfare with some lemon in the back, which is really nice. As it dries down, the mints and lemon step back, the alcohol goes away and the anise enters the picture. I really am not an anise fan, and the anise is what turned me off Absinthe last year, but now it's much nicer. I think maybe the wormwood or hyssop or cardamom is keeping it in check. At the very end of an inhalation I catch some minty coolness. I'll never get through my imp, but I'm so glad that I gave Absinthe another chance. I think it'd be a good choice to wear in the hot summer months, so I'll keep it around until summer rolls around again.

When Antique Lace was resurrected, I bought my mother a bottle because I was curious about it and I could justify buying her a gift but not buying myself one, and so every time I visit her, I apply AL liberally and walk around smelling gorgeous. I don't know what I find so beautiful- I'm the world's worst nose, so if people say there's linen, vanilla and florals in there, then there probably are and I just can't separate the notes- but I just do. When I was working as a TA, I'd put a swipe from my imp behind each ear and breathing AL in would keep me sane during those tortuous hours. It's soothing, it's comforting, it's soft and fluffy, it's wonderful. I really need to buy myself a bottle. Really.

I received a frimp of Arachne from the lab quite a while ago, put it on once and said, "Eh," and put it back into the pile. Today I went digging through the imp pile and put her back on and I remember why I said "Eh" in the first place. Behind the ears, the throw is grape, grape, fruity fruity grape (I am so glad I'm not the only one who smelled this). I love grape, but it needs a little more oomph. On the wrist, the written description is apt and Arachne is pallid, pale, and dusty. The wrist scent makes me think of old books, clothes, and possessions shut away in an old trunk in an attic, perhaps alongside ancient sachets. I'm glad I got to try this oil, but my heart's not broken that is was discontinued.

I can't believe that I haven't reviewed Dana O'Shee yet, but it looks like I haven't- madness! I've had my bottle for a year now and I haven't noticed much change in the oil but perhaps that should be kept in mind. Dana O'Shee has hardly any staying power on me at all- it's gone in around a half hour so it's an oil I wear to bed because not only is it comforting, I also don't mind that it lasts such a short time because I'm asleep. The opening fanfare of almond is wonderful, but then I am an almond-lover. When the almond recedes, the milkiness comes out. I don't smell much grain or honey, though they're probably enriching the milk, and this stage is really quite short before the scent disappears. Dana is really quite a tease, but she's a lovely one.

Mmmm, Aglaea is beautiful. She's rich, warm, comforting, and infinitely wearable. She's a golden hug, is what she is. The peach isn't at all the same as my old Body Shop Fuzzy Peach perfume, maybe because it's peach wine. I'm not familiar with myrtle or the different ambers so I have no idea what else it is that makes Aglaea so wonderful, but oh, she is. I've worn her on the hottest summer days and I think she'd also be perfect for winter days when you need a flush of warmth. This is one of those perfumes that makes me happy when I wear it- I have so many bottles already, and I have a very limited budget, but at some point I want a bottle of this. Mmmmm.

Edited to add the description.

Myrrh is one of those notes that frightens me because it has the very real possibility to give me migraines, but happily Tanin'iver gave me no problem. The fruitiness is very apparently, backed up by a powerful fieriness- not skin burning, but in feel. I don't get much smoke, but I have a hard time smelling perfume smoke anyway, so it might be there. This is indeed a dragon and you have to tread carefully around it and it might gore and char you anyway.

 

Tanin'iver doesn't really match the type of scents I wear, so it won't be in my rotation but it is an excellent scent in terms of execution and matching the concept.

Santa Muerte is another oil I was afraid to wear because of the dreaded vetiver and, like with Saturnalia, the vetiver doesn't show up. Hurray! I now know what people mean when they say something smells like soap, though. Santa Muerte is a really fresh scent but somehow the freshness makes me think of expensive soap. It's not an offensive smell, but I don't know that I would wear it much when I have so many other favorites and when I think of soap when I smell it.

I was a little afraid to try Ogun, not only because of the notes (gin and juniper? chili pepper? Cigar tobacco? I don't knoooooow.) but because the oil's gray, which made me think it'd be really dark and heavy. When Ogun's first applied, my nose can't really grasp the scent. Both my parents said it smelled like baby powder/talc powder and while it didn't smell like that to me, I have no idea what it DID smell like. As it begins to dry, the spices move up front and my dad said he smelled the honey, which in this blend I think is always in the throw but not on the skin, which is a bit unusual for me. There might be a bit of melon hanging in there at this point, but if there is, I only smell it at the very end of the inhale and it's sort of cooling. Then I think the chili pepper settles back with the cigar tobacco (I think that's what it must be, it's sort of a darker smell, though not unpleasant, and probably also the gin and juniper). The honey isn't all that noticeable though I think it must be holding the darker notes in check and making the scent wearable for me. Wearing this perfume gives me the feeling that if I turned my head, Ogun would be sitting right there next to me. The feeling's a little strange, but there scent is quite nice.

Wow- miracle of miracles, a vetiver that I don't hate! Vetiver usually smells deathly on me- like a sweet stench, if that makes sense. But Saturnalia doesn't smell vetiver-y to me (or floral, for that matter). It smells woody, dark, dirt-y. It's like walking through a dark forest. At the base of the scent there's a note that may well be the violet- the more I smell it the more I think it must be, though I haven't ever smelled violet. It's almost spicy, vaguely powdery, surprisingly nice. I put Saturnalia on expecting to hate it and I don't. I don't know that I'll ever wear it again, since I have so many scents, but I'm happy to have tried it. I'm happy to have one vetiver that doesn't go bad. Yay!

This is the 2005 version.

 

I hardly ever wear Sugar Cookie because it's so faint on my skin, but I wore it a couple of days ago and realized I never reviewed this, so here we go. In the bottle, this smells just exactly like butterscotch schnapps- the devil's bake sale, indeed! The boozy smell lingers while the oil is wet on the skin, but it fades into a truly faint sweet smell on me. I asked someone if they smelled cookies, and they said yes, but to my nose it's so faint I can't smell it. In the year and a half since I've had the oil, the vanilla's finally come out and it lingers on my skin for hours and hours and hours. I like it much better now. I wonder if putting Sugar Cookie in my scent locket would help- it'd probably waft better, at any rate.

Is the lab having trouble with Gmail accounts? I had sent two emails and didn't hear anything back, so I was getting concerned, when this morning I had a click and ship in my inbox (presumably with the missing order item I had emailed the lab about), so they must have received the email, but it's just weird not to hear from CS. I had been keeping a sharp eye on my spam box, so a reply didn't get mis-sorted there. I'm just wondering if it's MY Gmail that must be on the fritz or if it's a whole Gmail thing.

Wow, in the first ten minutes of wear, Bien Loin d'Ici is gorgeous. Sultry, sexy, sweet- yeah, wow good. Once it's dry, BLd'I becomes... greenish smelling. Not sweet, not really bitter, but at to my nose, unpleasant. Maybe it's the unguents? I really thought about washing it off several times, but stuck it out. But hours later, the sweetness comes back. It's not as gorgeous as the first ten minutes of wear, but very nice. I wish that the wet oil dried down to this- I'd get a bottle. I just can't stand the middle stage, and it really lasts. But, like in Passion, the red musk here isn't peanut buttery- awesome! I think that this may be an oil that I wear just before bed, because then all I'd smell would be the wet stage.

Orange blossom, ginger and patchouli? No WAY should this work for me, but it does. I hadn't read the review thread before, so I wasn't aware that others smelled a Snake Oil comparison- I'm glad I'm not the only one! But I think that this is, for me, a much more wearable Snake Oil. Snake Oil, to my nose, is a bit too headshoppy but Vixen manages to have the sexy, slinky feel of Snake Oil (and boy, does it) without the headshop. I was well on my way to considering a 5 mL, but then it goes powdery. Powder isn't a real problem, but I'd have preferred if Vixen had stayed sexy and patchouli rather than powdery. Guess I'll enjoy my imp and wait and see how I feel.

So good. TKO is so good. On my skin, the lavender is fairly strong and sharp and it's only on my right wrist that the gorgeous vanilla appear, once the lavender departs. When I first smelled it, I thought chamomile, even though I'm not familiar with the scent; my nose picks up something else that's herbal along with the lavender. I've had it in my locket for almost three weeks now though, and after several hours of the lavender (good, it's not just my skin that makes it so strong and sharp), the vanilla lasts and lasts. I've had problems with some of BPAL's vanillas, which is a shame, since I love vanilla so very much, but the vanilla in TKO is perfect. Maybe because it's got the creamy/sugary aspect to it. So good. TKO hasn't helped my sleeping problems, sadly, but the vanilla wafting up to me from my locket's helped me stay calmer and more centered through some twists that life's thrown at me recently.

Yes, I agree with those who likened this to Sugar Cookie. In the bottle, it smells like Sugar Cookie (when dry, not when Sugar Cookie is wet, that butterscotch scent). I'm not sure how I like this, though. I think that a couple of the vanillas aren't settling well. The vanillas duke it out viciously and it's not a good scent. I think maybe the gardenia is egging them on. The jasmine keeps trying to peek out but gets put back down by the warring vanillas. I don't smell any grapefruit at all. When the oil is in its final stages (several hours after application), it reminds me of Antique Lace and it's lovely, but until it gets there it's not pleasant. I think I will put the bottle away for a few weeks or months and see if one of the vanillas can beat the others back into some sort of order so they can harmonize.

emzebel said what what I think about this oil. In the imp, I found Manila a bit distasteful, but on it is almost exactly what I would have expected from the description. It's lush, humid, faintly banana-ish, tropical. Perfect for wearing on a tropical vacation, much like Black Pearl, but as with Black Pearl, this isn't my sort of scent.

After the kick of ginger in the opening fanfare, Siren dries down to something completely unremarkable. I guess it's the vanilla and apricot, but to be honest, this smells like neither. I'm not particularly impressed by this oil, unfortunately.

Milk Moon's a real mystery. The first time I wore it was the day it came in the mail and it was simultaneously sweet enough to make my teeth hurt and sour/sharp. The fruit seemed llike they were coated in thick honey and the sweetness just amped unbelievably. It was awful. I kept thinking, "But it has honey! Honey always makes things better!", and refused to believe honey could do that to me so I decided to give it another try. When I would smell it in the bottle I got a little nauseous. The next time I wore it, the fruit hardly made an appearance and it was beautiful. Ditto for the next wearing. Today the fruit came out more, and it was more along the toothache-y sweet side but then calmed down. So I think that I may end up liking Milk Moon- we just need a long courtship.

I was frimped this from the lab, and I was so excited because I have been looking forward to trying this but Cockaigne just hadn't made it into an order yet. In the imp, wet and dry, it smells almost identical to Gluttony. It's Gluttony without the nuts on me. I had to look at the label several times to convince myself that it wasn't, in fact, Gluttony. I enjoy Gluttony, but if I want the Gluttony base, I'd like the nuts, chocolate, etc of Gluttony. Cockaigne isn't unpleasant, but I am nevertheless disappointed.

I've had a bottle of Lyonesse for a few months (thanks to nursekins for the swap!), and I just don't really know what I think of it. The only word I can think to describe the scent is "dense". The effect is like walking into your bathroom that's full of steam, but scented. I think I'm mostly smelling the amber with random whiffs of vanilla and lily, but the ambergris and moss and other notes are probably backing the amber up. I was really hoping to get something close to Antique Lace or O, since I love them both, but this isn't anywhere near to those oils, to my nose. I think an imp would do me rather than the whole bottle.