Holly

Wow I am really not sure what happened here...I love most of the notes, but once it's on my skin it turns into acrid, burning maple syrup. I'm guessing it was just my skin's reaction to the tonka, but egads, that is not a pretty smell. I was so excited for this one

Velvet seemed very purple and gold to me...interesting thread

ooooooh.....good.....LORD Dorian is absolutely incredible! The notes are fairly straightforward (I don't even get any lemon from it) but somehow this just makes my toes curl. My absolute favorite of everything I've ever tried from BPAL. If you haven't tried it by now, DO IT. It's just....GAH!

in the imp: over ripe strawberries...sort of reminds me of a lip gloss I had in middle school...I hated middle school wet: some of the sweetness backs off, which is nice dry: becomes increasingly boozy as it dries down, but still too sweet for me. my skin actually turns the strawberry note into something more artificial smelling. not at all for me.

GAH it took me 20 minutes to even get the imp open! ok here we go... in the imp: cinnamon chewing gum wet: something in this is making me sneeze! Peppers maybe? dry: hmmm... it smells like one of those cinnamon flavored honey sticks! Hey that's kind of fun -- oop, there it goes. It just disappeared completely... ooook. well it was nice while it lasted, but maybe someone else will have better luck with this one.

In the imp: like cut grass...sort of that "crushed stems" smell that Beth does so well Wet: bitter! Still very green w/ a tiny bit of the wine poking through Dry: settles down to a very clean grassy scent with an occasional light sweetness Not something I'd wear very often, but I'll keep the imp. I think this would be really nice on a man.

SO excited about this one...the white rabbit is my favorite character in the books. In the imp: Lemon tea with a bit of vanilla. Nice! Wet: Very very citrussy...wow this morphs quickly...no ginger for me, but my skin eats it so that's not surprising Dry: Goes from something like Dorian with lemon (quite sweet) to a really lovely light creamy citrus Bottle!

I should probably start by saying that my skin tends to eat up almost ANYTHING sweet so I wasn't expecting to get much out of a scent people find akin to chocolate covered cherries. But man, I am so glad I tried this. It starts off as a very dark chocolate bar (say, 70% cocoa?). Good so far. Then comes the cherry, but an almost boozy cherry, not sugary. Then that fades and I'm left with dark chocolate melted over a sweet (!) juicy orange.

I don't get the sugary sweetness that some reviewers have talked about, but rather a tart green apple, and something crisp and earthy. It reminds me of early October. Very, very nice

I was sooo excited when I heard this was coming back; I've been looking for a foody ginger scent that works on me for ages. For the first 45 seconds or so, it was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! Rather like vanilla inscense and candied ginger. I was about ready to break out the partyhats when, lo and behold, the ginger disappeared and I was left with...snake oil? Seriously, it turns out identical to snake oil. This is definately not a bad thing, just not something that I need more of. CURSES! I sure this will be beautiful on someone else

The Lion was very hay-like on me

yeeeah, I forgot to take into account that my skin chemistry is INSANE, so you might want to disregard Sudha Segara

Sudha Segara was a rather bitter raw ginger on me

Oooh man. On me, this is like the Holy Grail of perfume...yes there's cocoa, but it's more of a raw, just shaven off of the block type of smell than anything foody. As soon as it dries it melts into the sandalwood and becomes this beautifully warm, purple and golden scent. I'm not doing it justice, but trust me, Velvet is just...PURRR.

Straight out of the imp, this was a lovely spiced apple scent, maybe a little candle-ish, but still nice. Half an hour later, one of my coworkers claimed that something smelled like raisins and black licorice. Apparently not a good thing. Yarg...I had high hopes for this one.

Thanks so much for all of your suggestions...I hadn't even thought of checking out the TAL oils. I'll check out the swap thread and see if I can get a few imps of your suggestions to try.

OK, so this is generally a really unpleasant topic, but I thought maybe some of the bpal experts suggest something... I've had intense anxiety attacks since I was 6 (like...really intense..it's embarrassing ). I'm looking for a scent for a locket that may help quell nerves. The notes don't even really matter, I'm really willing to try anything. any aromatherapy experts out there?

Thank you all for your testing tips and suggestions...I guess I'll just have to stock up on imps and try a bunch. what a pity

Could anyone give me some recommendations for scents without a massive throw? I want something that sort of hovers around me, but doesn't disappear completely after five minutes. I'm trying to build up an autumn/winter collection so any recs for warm or especially seasonal scents would be fantastic. Thanks! Holly