moon_lemming

Blonde woods = cedar? Cedar's red, though, isn't it? Whatever is in this, all I'm getting is cedar. Not for me.

Infernal musk, red patchouli, lilac cologne, mahogany, lemon rind, oakmoss, leather, and vanilla husk. This reminds me of another BPAL, but I'm not sure what, because it one of those blends to which I say, OH THAT'S NICE... FOR A MAN and never look at again. Red patchouli and musk are not a blend I would think'd smell good on me, but this is nice! Masculine, yes, but the vanilla gives it a roundness that would make it passable. It's still too masculine for my tastes, too cologne-y, but it's not as ruff-ruff as I thought it would be. Pretty sexy, I wish I could pull it off. And musk usually does not work on me, but whatever's in this one does, so there's that, too.

I thought there was anise in this blend at first! Who knows what that was about? Jeez. But yeah, this has the dreaded aquatic effect. HAY GUYS I JUST TOOK A SHOWER WITH MY BOYFRIEND'S SOAP. Not gonna work.

Skin musk, white cream, honeycomb, yellow rose, King mandarin, chrysanthemum, golden amber, honeysuckle, and wide-throated yellow monkey-flower accord. I wasn't so sure about this blend; as the good notes (on me) outweigh the bad ones. At first, though, it's gorgeous -- a sweet honey-drenched floral with a solid base that keeps it from rolling off the edge into Too Sweet. As it dries, though, the honey lessens and the florals amp up. Hrmm. I think this one is a little too floral for me. But it's not because it's a floral that goes bad on me -- actually, Schlafende Baigneuse ends up being a pretty white floral dipped in a very, very small amount of honey -- it's just that I'm not a floral girl.

I'm weeping! Tears of sadness are flowing down my face like The River Emo Kid as I type this. I love love love that little bat, and hell, I love bats in general, but Jesus god, amber and musk IN THE SAME BLEND? I am pretty sure this isn't going to end well. Okay, first on, it seems like I'm right, the musk will kill me ded. But as Bat dries, it turns out that the florals are taking a turn as The Enemy instead. DETERGENT. Gah. Probably the moonflower? It smells sort of sweet, whatever it is, but not in a honeysuckle way.

I'm wary when it comes to ocean scents, because, as I've noted before, they and ozone scents tend to turn to men's soap on me. At first, when I put Sea-Monsters on, I thought that it reminded me of a good fruity/herbal shampoo. Then the oceannnn came on out and now I smell like Irish Spring. But a pretty, light version of Irish Spring. The freesia and pear are still kicking, but they just can't overcome the Soap Curse. It's kind of like Irish Spring for Pretty Ladies.

HOMG. I was trying to place what Komachi Cherry Tree smells like dry, and it HIT ME LIKE A SEMICOLON -- on me, this smells EXACTLY like Bath & Bodyworks' Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion. Holy mackerel. In the imp and wet, it smells like supersweet cherries balanced with some florals, but dry -- yeah, Japanese Cherry Blossom. Pretty!

The notes listed made Monna Vanna sound like it could either go really, really right, or turn into FLORAL DOOM. Instead, it is just... hmmmm. That's my feeling regarding it. Oddly enough, I have the same wishy-washy feeling about the painting, which isn't really one I dig, but I don't hate it either. In the imp, it's sort of a squished pink rose, but once on my skin it picks up a pretty fruity note that has to be the red currant, and the rose turns a little more "red." Then it sort of just... hovers. It doesn't really morph any more. It's mostly pinky-red rose transposed over the juicy red currant. I like it, but I have tons of rose scents, so I won't be getting a bottle of this one. Yet.

OH NO NO NO I DON'T THINK SO. Freaking spider. That painting just creeped me right the hell out. The oil creeps me out, too. Black musk and I do not get along, patchouli is sometimes okay, and clove amps to Godzilla proportions on my skin. So on me, The Smiling Spider smells like... ew. Everything that could go wrong does. I'm going to wash it off.

HA! In the imp and wet, this reminds me of grape Now & Laters! I'm all whaaaaa? The philosopher be gettin' DOWN with teh WINE or summat. It gets a little smoky as it dries, though, and spicy, and about twenty minutes in it picks up a veil of honey. Sort of like grape incense, with a little honey mixed in. The grape never disappears entirely from my skin, though. Not really my thing, but interesting.

The oil inspired by it doesn't really work on me, though. First on, it's a bright citrus kind of scent -- hyssop plus pomegranate? I'm not sure -- and as it dries it takes on that detergent tone that so many florals like to bring to the party. I can kind of pick up a hint of frankincense after an hour or so, but the overall Sunny Citrus Laundry Detergent vibe makes it a moot point. Off ye go.

This oil is knock-down gorgeous in the imp and first on. CARNATION FTW. While it's wet and for the first twenty minutes dry, Death and Life Completed is a warm, sweet carnation. Underneath the carnation is something that sort of smells similar to vanilla, but I think it may be the peony combining with something else. Maybe the amber, but amber is usually death (no pun intended, hee) on me, so I'm not sure. I can pick out a teensy bit of lemon balm, but luckily none of the woods are coming out. Sadly, about twenty minutes in, the grey amber in the blend -- I think -- decides to smack me upside the head, and ew. It starts to behave maybe ten minutes after it shows up, but I'm not sure whether I like the final product.

Okay, for once I'll leave out all the stuff about how much I dig the art, where it came from, etc., etc. Mostly because I'm about to leave work and I want to get this done. This is a really... offputting blend? No. Unsettling? No... Okay, it's intriguing with an edge that makes you wary. Close enough. The bitter almond combines with something else -- maybe the honey? -- to sort of smell like a mock nutty cocoa. As Cleopatra... dries a bunch of herbs start to pop out, then settle back in. The honey amps up and takes over the almond, and it smells really, really lovely. Almost pure honey. WOE, once about twenty minutes has passed, it picks up this horrible almost-cinnamon-but-more-like-new-carpet smell and now I'm going to have to scrub it off. I'm not sure what that is; I wish I knew so I could avoid it in the future. Well, the art's gorgeous! Heh.

Shanghai Tunnel would be my absolute favoritest of the C13 blends if, once on my skin, it smelled like it does in the imp. Unfortunately it is a little aquatic, and when they're visiting my wrist, aquatics bring their own soap with them -- very polite, since I like my soap too much too share -- but I am not a fan of Irish Spring. At least not on my own skin. But before that happened, I got to smell it in the imp, and I thought for sure it would be the top of the four. In the imp, it's all atmospheric damp tunnel, and I LOVE it. Srsly. So good. Unfortunately, once on my skin that aquatic thing happens. It lasts way too long for me -- about ten minutes or so -- before morphing into a weird coconut scent with a new-carpet undertone. A shame, because I really thought this would be my favorite. It is a freakin' work of art in the imp, though.

Hmmm. The Unheavenly City is one of those blends that's hard for me to review since there are no notes listed. It's a warm almost-incensey almost-foody blend that's a little spicy. It's not all up in your face about it, though. Judging by the red color of the oil, I'd hazard a guess that there's dragon's blood in that thar imp, but that's about as far as I can go when it comes to guessing individual notes. It's sort of quietly sexy; it's a very nice blend -- I think it's my favorite of the C13 blends -- but it doesn't smell WOWZA enough on my skin for me to hunt down more.

Noooo. No one told me there was jasmine in this! Weep. Okay, so I smelled the jasmine in the imp (fie!) but decided to BE A BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER and try it anyway. It's good that I tried it, or else I would have cheated myself! Sure, the jasmine in Lydia comes out swinging her tiny-but-devastating fists at first, but as the oil dries, she sort of grumbles back to her seat among the other flowers in this blend. Once it's completely dry and has been hanging around for a while, Lydia is a very feminine white floral blend -- a little perfumey -- that's so well blended I can't pick out any one note. Well, I'm not good at picking out florals anyway, but there really isn't any one note that is distinct. Too floral for me, but pretty.

THANK GOD this one hates me. Whew. It is indeed similar to Knave of Hearts, so if you like this, you'll probly LOVE that one, since it's less like slathering gold flakes on yourself, hee. In the imp, it's all jammy/buttery pastry goodness. It seems to have more crust than KoH does, since the crust is pretty much crushing everything else on my skin. It also seems not to have the rose note that's in KoH. So to sum up, it's Knave of Hearts minus squish of rose and plus a lot more pastry. Which makes sense given the name. Sadly, buttery pastry scents never work on me, and this is no exception. It's bad on me, and I'm so relieved!

Hey, you might THINK that fancy French name stands for something sexy or that it's maybe the title of a novella with a really depressing moral. But I AM HERE TO TELL YOU. That name? Means BABY POWDER. I am getting absolutely nothing else from this blend. I blame it on the amber and the florals. But it doesn't really matter who's to blame -- it's not sticking its powdery paw on my skin again.

HELLO IRISH SPRING. Ozone almost always turns to soap on me. Nice soap, don't get me wrong, but soap nonetheless. I think I detect a little bit of steel and leather, but that could just be my imagination wishing it so. Yeah, ye olde Irish Spring scent isn't going anywhere. Sniff. And I like this painting, too.

Wellll if that's vetiver it's not all that bad. It smells like acrid, sort of spicy, smoke. I've smelled worse (CIVET). Mad Meg is not a blend I'll be seeking out, but it fits this painting very well. I know I say that a lot about the Salons -- I can't help it, it's true! At first it's nothing but (what I take to be) vetiver, smoke filling my nose. As it dries, some spices come out. I smell some almond as well; that gets even stronger as time goes on. It's a nice blend for what it is, even if it's not "me." I like the way all the elements play together. Seriously, this is one evocative scent. Not something I will ever reach for, since I don't like the way vetiver smells on me, even if I don't recoil in horror at the thought of it. But an awesome sensory experience when taken in part with the painting.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this scent. Okay, maybe I'm overstating it. But I really like this blend, it's golden -- in a flowery sunny way -- without being too bright. That doesn't mean it's not light, because it is at first. It's a light sunny yellow floral. It seems a little too sweet to be a sunflower, actually. I luff it. As it dries, though, I begin to like this scent even more. It picks up a bit of green and the yellow mellows out into more of a goldenrod kind of scent. The end result is a sturdy, mellow, golden floral; more like being in the field among tall flowers than next to a vase of fussy cuttings.

At first, I get cherry backed by a bit of liquid green. It's pretty and light and I love it. Sadly, the Musk Plus Floral Curse bites me in the ass five minutes later, and I've got nothing but detergent. After an hour or so, the crazy dryer sheet scent settles down a bit, but it's still too strongly floral for me.

Okay, first off, the art that inspired this scent is GORGEOUS. The only Munch I really "know" is Scream, so this was a revelation. Love and Pain is more commonly known as Vampire, by the way. In case you ever try to, say, find it on google images. Just a hypothetical. Love and Pain -- the scent -- definitely works with the picture. It's innocent at first but gradually darkens into a very dark, heavy, masculine scent. The first few minutes after I put it on, I smell a green herbal blend, not light but not too dark either. Definitely lavender, but not the huge medicinal whiff I was expecting. As it dries, any lightness the blend had evaporates, leaving behind a dark, dark, musky vanilla laced with a bit of tobacco, I think. I'm not great at picking out tobacco, so I could be off, but I think that's what I'm smelling. It has throw, too, which is rare with my chemistry. I would never be able to pull a scent this heavy off, but it is interesting, that's for sure.

Oh Allison Gross, how impatiently I've waited for you. The minute I read the early reviews of this blend, I knew I'd love it. And I do! How often does that happen? Well, it happens more often now that I've got a better grasp of what I like, but still. Okay. At first, this blend reminds me of Bess without the lemon. I'm not sure why because I don't think they have much, if anything, in common. That similarity goes away quickly, though. As it dries, it becomes more green and herbal, until it's this pretty, though a bit strident, herbal scent with a bite of something musky or incense-y. After a bit more time passes, it becomes this gorgeous herbal blend with a touch of something floral, but that touch isn't strong enough that it's obvious, thank god. It becomes softer as time goes on. Stays on a while, but as a much more subdued version. Lovely from start to finish.

This is a FLORAL TO THE MAX, whoa. I was hoping the cucumber in this would come out a little more, but it just makes the scent a little fresh and watery. Now, normally I would hate something this floral, but The Gibbous Moon reminds me of The Evening Star, in that "floral but not detergent" blue-floral way. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't smell like The Evening Star, but they're both florals that are obviously floral, yet wearable on my floral-amping skin. I think maybe as this ages, the cucumber will come out a little more. Right now, it's just a mix of sweet white and blue florals that lasts for a very, very long time on my skin. As we all know by now, I can't pick out flowers to save my life, but I CAN tell you there is no jasmine hiding in this one, heh. Just a pretty nighttime blend. I'm definitely keeping this one; it's so rare to find a floral blend that doesn't make me feel like a dryer sheet. (No, I didn't get paid per usage of the word "floral," I swear.)