Bagfish

Monsterbait:Closet is a delicate smelling cake on my wrist. It is very yummy with just enough blackberry to temper the sweet cake batter. I don't normally like BPAL berry smells, but blackberry doesn't have the sharp insistance that other berry blends such as Jester have, its far more moderate and pleasing to my nose. MD:C is not teeth achingly sweet like Midway or Gluttony and it has similarities with Eat Me which may be an acceptable alternative! But I am gutted that I didn't get a bottle

Eat Me is really not very foody on me at all on drydown. Its more of a curranty-floral, almost perfumey scent, and is very pretty. Whilst it is still wet I do get some of the cakey smell that others talk about, but it morphs into quite a sophisticated smelling perfume within half and hour or so. It is very very nice, and definitely the better of the two Mad Tea Party consumables.

Drink me has the similar burnt buttery caramel smell that both Gluttony, Beaver Moon and Monsterbait:Underbed had on me. It just doesn't smell right I do get the whiff of pineapple at the beginning of the drydown that other people have mentioned, but it just doesn't work well on me. It is slightly less offensive on my wrist though than MB:U and Gluttony! I may have to give it a second go, but I don't have high hopes as the BPAL caramel family (with the exception of Midway) just doesn't work for me.

This smells like the caramel from Gluttony and Jack with a twist of cassia/cinammon. On my skin this is NOT a good thing as the caramel smells like burnt butter, it has a unpleasant bitter, nutty edge. It lingers for ages as well, I can't get it off even by scrubbing Doesn't look like I will be catching any monsters under my bed with this.....

Wow, thats such a cool idea - I have dreadful trouble getting chilli off my fingers and then I forget and rub my eye (or even worse, stick my finger in my ear - owwww). And next time I've tried an oil that just won't come off, I will try the bleach in water trick. Good luck with your 18 impies, hope you find some that you love!

I had a frimp of this with my Samhain order last year - tried it, didn't think much of it, a bit "meh", so swapped it. So I get another frimp with my Dragon Moon order (thanks labbies!!) and decided to try it again. After all it's boiling hot here rather than cold mid-November and much as I love my resin-y incense-y smells, I need something cooler today. Shanghai is just that, a cool refreshing not-in-your-face scent which has sat prettily on my wrist all day making me feel refreshed even though I have spent the afternoon cleaning out kitchen cupboards! I definitely get a mellow not too sharp lemon and a slight floral (which must be the honeysuckle). Can't smell the tea unless it is what is mellowing the lemon. Shanghai has lasted very well - I also had Juliet and Opium Poppy on the other arm and can't smell either of those whereas Shanghai still smells slighly lemony and very fresh. Nice! I'm so pleased I got a second chance to try it

"Holy vanilla ice-cream batman"! Midway is quite amazing. I don't know what more I can add to everyone elses "its like cake" comments apart from on me, after 20 minutes of smelling teeth-achingly caramel sweet, it dries down to a true representation of a really high quality, high-fat, high-sugar, cream and eggs vanilla-pod ice cream - of the type that costs £5 for 250ml!! DH's favourite food is vanilla ice cream and he just kept sniffing me last night and going "mmmm, ice-creeeeeam" in a Homer Simpson sort of way. I'd better not wear Midway out of the house

Shrieking metallic fruit - I can fair smell the blood and darkness. Blood Countess makes me want to do this which is probably the best reaction! Blood Countess and I will NOT be acquainted again after I have washed her off and imprisoned her in my imps-to-swap pile.

The pear is very evident at first swipe - it almost remonds me of pear flavoured Jelly Bellies, but not quite as sweet. On dry down the florals come out and swamp the pear. I can just about smell the tuberose over the all consuming jasmine. And then it goes to soap on me after about an hour, which is a real disappointment. Four hours from application, the soap smell is waning and I get a very faint reappearence of the pear tempered with jasmine/tuberose. I like this stage, but I'm not sure its worth the two hour soap stage, as it is VERY faint. Boo, I was really hoping this one would be a winner!

A very brown scent, it does remind me very much of Saturn (a good GC replacement?). There are no "green herbs" in Odin on me. First on there is a strong dried herbs and woods sort of smell, its an almost bitter smell, but very pleasant to wear. I did enjoy getting wafts of it after I had put it on. On dry down it mellows and becomes sweeter. There is a definite benzoin resin element to this scent, sweet, earthy and vanillic. I would say that this scent has definite masculine elements and would not appeal to people that don't like strong, woody, traditionally masculine scents, but for those of us girls who enjoy the strong "brown" woody perfumes, this is a winner. Not bottleworthy at the moment as it is SO similar to Saturn, but will definitely consider if I ever run out of Saturn (which will be years the way I use it!)

This is a very pretty scent. It is simple, but it works on me. Starts off very sweet and quite floral. I can definitely smell the amber and sweet pea, but not the vanilla. On drydown after about an hour, the sweet pea comes to the fore, pushing the amber back (still no obvious vanilla), however this floral stage last another hour or so and then the amber and a little bit of vanilla kicks in, suppressing the floral aspect. At this stage it reminds me quite a lot of Haunted. I do like this, but probably not enough for a bottle. I will enjoy my imp though!

Oh dear. I really thought Obatala would be so right on me. Instead I get the plastic meltdown of doom and a mssive headache It starts off for the first 30 seconds smelling like Red Lantern - yes, this is what I thought it would be like, but segues off into melted plastic almost instantly. I can smell the shea underneath the plastic, but the coconut has disappeared. This one is NOT for me. Worst of all I ordered a 5ml a month after I ordered this imp, so will be looking for a new home for both

I have a bottle of the '06 version coming and I received an imp of the '05 version in a swap. Gypsy Queen just smells sort of thin on me. I don't quite know how to explain what I'm smelling apart from its almost like a bit of the scent is missing, or I am just not smelling it right. It is thin and hot (the incense?) and floral. It seems to be missing a base note and just doesn't feel "grounded" for want of a better word. I can't even say if I like it or not as there isn't much for me to smell. It really is very odd. I'm hoping that my imp is an aberration and that my bottle actually smells of scent!!

I have a decanted imp of Bearded Lady, I sort of think its '05 rather than '06. I was sort of hoping to pull off another Khajuraho - you know, floral hater finds floral to love. With the creamy vanilla and amber that everyone has been mentioning I had high hopes. This is the first BPAL with violet I have tried. Unfortunately on me "Bearded Lady" turns into "Old Bearded Lady who has been sitting in her caravan eating Parma Violets all day". I really don't get very much else from this scent, no amber, no jasmine or rose, just powdery violets which is a real shame. To be fair, there is a creamy vanilla-ish base to this, but it really does remind me of grandma perfume. Gutted

The sublimely beautiful, fiercely independent, impeccably cultured, fascinatingly worldly and witty courtesans of ancient Greece. A seductive and dazzling blend of golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang. Hetaire was a frimp from Dolly Dimple (thanks Dolly!) I tried this without reading the description of the notes - good practise to see what I could pick out. At first application reminded me of a mixture of O and Eden, I could definitely smell honey quite strongly (hence O) and the Eden similarity must be the fig. I also get a definite scent of clove after a couple of hours of drydown. Luckily I don't get very strong ylang ylang as it generally disagrees with me. Since I don't particularly like O and really don't like Eden, I am suprised that I quite like Hetaire. Not enough for a bottle, but enough that I think I'll wear this on occasion. Hetaire stays close to the skin, it doesn't waft around. It is a warm, glowing scent and very pleasant and quite comfortable! Yes, this one gets a thumbs up! Edited to add lab's description

Khajuraho is a permanant love of mine and I find in hot summer weather it is just right, and I'm wearing it almost every day at the moment! I would love to try some other BPALs that have a similar sort of juicy floral/slightly woody/slightly sharp-sweet "feel" to them. Has anyone got any recommendations or suggestions? I have always thought that florals don't work on me, and a lot of jasmine heavy scents are disastrous, but Khajuraho has made me revise my attitude that florals=instant headache. Help me navigate the mysterious world of florals

Sweet and slightly lemony to start with, unfortunately the musk goes rancid on my in the same way that Smut went rancid. It smells artificial and slightly plastic-y. There must be a similar musk in Devil's Night that really doesn't agree with me

aessedai gifted me with a taster of Dorian in a recent swap, many thanks I have wanted to try it ever since reading Andra's famous review Overly sweet and fruity in the imp and on my skin at first, I thought that this wasn't going to be one for me. But, on drydown the tea scent emerges followed by a smooth vanilla-musky smell which I rather like. The throw on me is not very strong after the first fruity wafts, but close up it is quite a slinky scent. Yes, very nice, I shall have to snag at least an imp-full of this to try it out properly.

Saturn is very strong and very brown. I have to say that I rather like it. When it wafts up out of the bottle it smells sweet, woody and almost rooty/earthy. I don't get any 'animalistic' smell from Saturn, unlike other reviewers did. To start with when wet, it smells really strong and almost overpoweringly rooty. But after 20 minutes or so it dries down to what can only be described as a patchouli-benzoin resin-fest, all sweet and lovely on my wrist. Patchouli-benzoin is a favourite oil burner mixture that I make and I was pleasantly surprised when this strong brown scent turned into a delicious sweet earthiness. I am very pleased that I took a chance on this oil. I think I will be wearing it when I feel the need to be embraced by the earth. It would be a good scent to wear out on a hike or dog walking, there is no nonsense or romance about this oil, and I like that!

Good grief, Death Cap smells like dried magic mushrooms It also smells of sweet crumbly brown earth. It is a brown fuzzy scent and it really does smell like mushrooms of the more dangerous sort than your average cooking mushroom I'm not sure that I will wear more than my imp, but I am very pleased I got to try it, if only for the olfactory recognition of many festival experiences Edited to add: The more I wear this, the more I love it. It has fast become one of the imps I reach for on a regular basis. I love the vanilla/amber drydown, with just a twist of dirt or mushroom. It is a marvellously comforting warm and fuzzy scent and I am seriously thinking that I may have to order a bottle. It is almost ranking with Tombstone for days when I want a sweet scent. I really do love it. The moral of this story for me is - don't discard imps after only one try.... as I may actually like them more than I did on first sniff

This smells so unlike my preconceived notions of what Oblivion would smell like - I imagined it would be woody, resinous and earthy. On me, it smells just like a commercial, big brand women's perfume, something like Dior Addict or Samsara On my skin, it really does smell like there is carrier alcohol, although it smells nothing like this in the imp. Someting in Oblivion just doesn't agree with me. I have a feeling it is the saffron as I got a similar reaction to Scherezade Oblivion is also very strong, my trial dab is sticking around for ages. All in all, not for me.

On me, Ochosi has the same green, herbal sort of top note that Yggdrasil has with soft, creamy undertones (the shea?). I can pick out a cut grass, crushed vegetation sort of smell. It is far, far sweeter than I imagined it would be. It is also very strong, one dab is all that I needed to test it. Unfortunately I am getting the same reaction to Ochosi that I get to Yggdrasil (a headache) so this one isn't for me.

Too too sweet apricots, like a really fake apricot air freshner. This combined with the patchouli - well they didn't so much combine as start a war on my wrist each fighting for attention in the worst sort of way I amp fruit scents really badly, and they always become sickly sweet or candy-drop citric acid sharp and this was no exception, and the patchouli which I usually love just made it smell like dirty amped up apricots! DH's comment "It smells like someone has dropped a bottle of chemicals in the garage" sort of summed it up This is SO not a keeper. Was washed off my arm and put into the swaps pile ASAP

This goes powdery on me to start with and after about an hour it dries down and becomes very milky. It lasted about 8 hours with very little throw. I can't smell the ginger, and to me Sudha Segara smells very similar to Dana O'Shee, just without the slight almond smell of Dana. Its just far too milky/creamy for me (I hate the smell of milk!) so unfortunately it will have to go to swap

This starts off very piney, but more air freshener pine than the Christmas Tree pine that many other reviewers get which is a shame. It mellows and loses sharpness during wearing, and a berry-ish sort of smell does appear. It never gets sweet which in my book is a good thing as I just can't wear sweet berries. The berry smell sort of makes me think about what yew berries might actually smell like. This very nearly works on me, I have had a few nice wafts from this. However, something doesn't sit right on my skin with this oil. I can't put my finger on it. The first time I tried this I felt a little nauseous after a couple of hours wear and it happened again when wearing it today. I don't think I'll be able to wear this again which is a shame as it is named after the Lorton Yew tree in the Lake District. The tree is still there in Borrowdale which is about 20 miles from where I live. I really wanted to love this as I feel a geographical tie to it. Oh well, I hope someone else will like it more than I did.