moon_lemming

Yummm. In the bottle, Eat Me is all buttery yellow cake. (Now I'm craving cake.) It's good, but I'm wary as buttery blends tend to turn gross on my skin. At first, it seems like Eat Me and my chemistry do indeed hate each other, as Eat Me becomes almost too buttery to bear. But that butter note calms down and it's a rich cake-y vanilla. This might be heresy, but it reminds me a lot of Underpants, only without the sandalwood and saffron. I never even noticed the currants. They were totally AWOL. Hmmm.

For something snagged from an animal as enraged as this: this musk is deceptively soft. This one doesn't change too much from bottle to skin, thank god -- it's splendid in the bottle. It's like the most perfect rendition of a "cotton blossom" scent ever, fresh and light and clean. Like being wrapped up in a fuzzy sun-warmed towel. I wish it weren't quite as light as it is, but it seems to fit the scent, so I won't complain too much.

Wet, Sundew is a softly citrus-y floral. Dry, it's more perfume-like, a sunny floral with a powdery base. It's lovely, I'm so grateful to CapricornSister for the frimpage, and I'll definitely be keeping this one around. It's a little too perfumey for a 5ml purchase, but I think I'll have to acquire another imp or two.

I expected this one to be very chocolatey, but at first it's more like spiced hot chocolate with a swoop of sweet red wine. It dries into a gorgeous dark cocoa. This might be the one GC chocolate blend that I can wear. I'll see how often I reach for it before committing to a 5ml, but I'm certainly leaning that way. eta: CT fades on me in about three hours; I think it might be worth reapplication though.

Wow, Morella is pretty. I hadn't even noticed it on the Maelström page, to be honest. I had no idea it was originally a BB oil, either. The sage in this blend balances out pretty evenly with the iris, and the overall scent is green and fresh and herbal. My last/only experience with civet was in Satyr, and I was afraid Morella would have that dog-food afterglow, but it must be very light in there, because I can't smell it at all. It's not something I'd wear on my skin often, but I think, like sarada suggested, this would be an excellent scent to add to your shampoo or conditioner. I may just try that myself, or more likely, try a few drops in my hair.

2006 version Yes, very autumnal. I have a feeling I'd love this one if my skin didn't turn pumpkin into sour grossness. As Samhain dries, I get a sweet mulled cider smell underneath the pumpkin that is absolutely lovely, but woe! The pumpkin! Oh well. Can't win them all. 2010 version Nope, still don't like it. I don't like it for completely different reasons this year, though. Either it's a different formulation or my skin reacts differently now, because I get ZERO pumpkin, just a masculine spicy darkness. I love patch, but I guess there is something about "black patchouli" that just doesn't agree with me, because it just smells all wrong on me.

Incense and spicy carnations wet, The Masque dries into a lovely complex scent. None of the usual amp-to-death culprits are amping, and the honey and tobacco come to the forefront as the florals fade back. It gets a little headshoppy as time goes on, but not in a bad way. I like this one a lot. I really didn't expect to, but isn't that usually how it goes?

... This is a Mexican paean to La Huesuda: dry, crackling leaves, the incense smoke of altars honoring Death and the Dead, funeral bouquets, the candies, chocolates, foods and tobacco of the ofrenda, amaranth, sweet cactus blossom and desert cereus. There's something in this blend that doesn't agree with me. It's not bad, it's just . . . not something I like. It's a floral that I've smelled in a couple of the Funereal Oils. Kind of cloying. I honestly can't smell anything else in the blend because my skin is amping this one floral so much.

Along with Loviatar, she has become something of a Patron Goddess of all Dominatrixes, Wanda is the breathtakingly beautiful sable-wrapped marble queen of Sacher-Masoch's fantasies. Her scent is a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle. Berries! Red winey berries. Wet, that's all Wanda is to my nose. Dry, though, it morphs like crazy. First Merlot, then leather and musk, then it calms down into a floral drenched in Merlot with a bit of a leather bite. Very sexy; not too much throw, mostly Wanda sticks next to my skin, which is the way I like my sexy scents. Yum. four years later: Sometimes I like to revisit scents, and I was going through my imps and found a grungy-looking imp of Wanda. My impressions are mostly the same! Except now I recognize the "berries" as grapes and they smell more purple than red to me. Juicy red grapes, almost syrupy, then floral notes -- mostly red rose but with the sweetness of violets -- and a hint of black leather. There's a little bit of the powderiness most musks bring to the table on me, but it's not overwhelming. The grape feel sticks around but quiets down a LOT after Wanda dries. It ends up being mostly a red-grape-based floral that's a little powdery due to the musk. I'm amazed that the red wine doesn't take over the whole blend, as most oils that list it as a note turn to GRAPE GRAPE GRAPE on me. I still like this one, but by now I know myself well enough to know I wouldn't reach for it on a regular basis.

We did not have a very good start, Alecto and I. I dabbed some on my hand, sniffed, and recoiled. And its imp form had no better luck, as I found it to smell like straight-up rubbing alcohol. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to jot cedarwood down in my HELLS NO category, as ALL I'm getting from this one is a sharp, astringent cedary smell that, seriously, is repulsive on me. I even forced myself to sniff it more to see if I could pick out anything else, but no. As it dries, it settles down a little bit and I don't have to FORCE myself to sniff it anymore, but it's still nothing but cedar. This is one of those oils where I was sitting reading others' reviews wondering if maybe my imp was mislabeled or something, but I'm pretty sure my skin just amps cedarwood entirely too much. On a positive note, this is only, like, the fifth BPAL oil (out of 150 or so) that I've tried and just hated, period. I don't think that's a bad average at all.

In the imp, Amsterdam is a grassy floral. Smells like tulips, or what I think tulips smell like. On my skin, some clean water peeks out. The floral's still there, but subdued, and the grass is almost gone after a minute. It's very good, but I wish the grassy floral notes stuck around a little bit longer. And the scent overall vanishes pretty quickly, too, like others have noted.

The Apothecary is a morpher on me. In the imp, it's green and mossy with herbs galore -- like what I'd think a medicine garden smells like. Wet on me, it smells fresh and clean; I can pick out the ginger, and the overall impression is almost lemony without BEING lemony, if that makes sense. As it dries, though, it takes on a sourness that sticks in the back of my nose, and I almost put it in the swap pile. Surprisingly and luckily, that part disappears after a couple of minutes, leaving clean grass and something bright and green-tea-like, a very good spring scent.

(Original Run) Gypsy Queen reminds me of a LUSH scent, probably because of the carnation and neroli. It's a warm incense, touched with a musk that has a hit of vanilla. The neroli definitely stands up for itself, too. I'm glad I got a 5ml of this when the Carnaval came back around. It's sexy without being obnoxious, and it's quiet enough that I could wear it to work if I wanted to without being afraid that I'd make everyone around me sneeze. On a side note, wow, who would have thought, six months ago, that I'd be a fan of an incense blend? Either my nose is getting fonder of these sorts of things, or my tastes are changing more than I realized. Or are those two things the same? (Second Run) My new bottle is a little disappointing compared to the original. It's good, just not as outstanding as the first bit I tested. I think aging is definitely kind to this blend, and I'm socking my bottle away for a while.

In the imp, Spooky is delicious, chocolate mint laced with a tiny bit of coconut. My skin has decided that Spooky is not for me, though, and promptly turns it into peppermint tea laced with sour milk. If I concentrate, the milk turns into coconut, but I'm not really a fan of having to work to enjoy my perfume.

edenssixthday sent me a sniffer of June Gloom because she is the sweetest lady in the world. There is no way I would have gotten to sniff this otherwise. In the imp: Mmmm, lemon. A little edge of Pledge, but mostly just lemon drops. Once it's dry, the florals in June Gloom pop up behind the lemon drops. Dew-kissed flowers, though, not dry or oversweet. God, I love this blend. I hope (most likely in vain, I know) that it's resurrected at some point, even if it's just for a day, so I can have some without chopping off a limb to get it.

Milk Moooooon. Cream! Honey! I knew I would love this one. I was wrong. In the imp, Milk Moon is buttery, not really milky. It smells creamy and warm, but in a foody way, not a perfume-y way. On my skin, it turns sour and gross, like the orange butter you get on popcorn in movie theaters. At least I won't have to hunt down more of this one, hehe.

Pink Moon definitely smells pink. This is one of the more standard-perfume-like oils I've tried. Florals, honey, and strawberry. In that order. It's nice, but it fades way too fast, and the florals aren't really the type I'd usually wear.

Really? All those things are in there? Because all I get is grape jelly. I assume that's my skin deciding that it MUST AMP ZEE MUSCADINE. It smells a little more complex wet, but dry, it's just . . . purple and sweet. Grape-y. Not something I want to smell like.

Okay, there really is no way for me to pick out anything in this one wet, it's blended so well. Dry, Grandmother of Ghosts is a sort of perfume-y pale, delicate musk with a peppery kick. It's not something I'd normally wear, but it's pretty. My skin eats this one quickly, though.

Alice is definitely more carnation than rose on my skin, but the two florals blend together wonderfully, almost seamlessly; the milk and honey make for a soft overall feel, and the bergamot adds a subtle citrus tang that keeps it from being too frilly. Lovely -- I can understand its popularity. But it's so light! And it fades so quickly on my skin! This is my problem with these quiet girly scents -- do I get a bottle and slather, or do I just get a couple of imps to stick in a rollerball for when I feel demure? I'm leaning toward the latter right now.

My prediction: nothin' but clove, baby. Well, March Hare definitely delivers what it claims. In the imp, it's sweet apricots drizzled with honey and the spiciness of clove. On my skin, it's the same, with the clove amped up, but not unbearably so. Maybe my skin reacts differently to sweet clove than plain old clove? It dries down to a warm apricot scent with a little bite of clove. Sadly, the apricots remind me of baby food, so this one is not for me, even though it works a lot better than I thought it would.

Hmm, a stony vanilla. So strange, but good. Black Opal is a little too sweet for me at first, but as it dries down the sugar bite calms down. It's a sugary vanilla with that cold rocky background that you can smell in underground caverns. Unusual, but nice. I'll have to try it a few more times before deciding whether to get a bottle, but it's definitely worth keeping the imp for now.

Mmm, much better than La Fée Verte was on me. Wet, Absinthe is black licorice with a fresh green and yellow base just underneath the surface. As it dries, the anise gets stronger, and for the next hour or so, it's all just tasty black licorice. A few hours into the wearing, though, the anise fades and there's just a fresh blend of green smells that I can't pick out individually. Pretty good staying power, too, although a little into hour six it starts disappearing.

Yes! An aquatic that loves me! I think it might be because of the violets, which almost always make a blend work for me. Wet, City is a salty aquatic, a little perfume-y but with an herbal undertone that balances it out. Dry, it's my perfect aquatic blend; it's got the salty wet ocean thing going on, but darker than I expected. The herbs remind me of plants lining the ocean floor (the "waving kelp," I guess) and the violets lend a soapiness that lightens up what would otherwise be an incredibly dark, deep scent. They keep it feminine. Ack! If only my fear of aquatics hadn't kept me away from a full bottle! I am happy knowing that there are aquatics that will not turn to peanut noodles on me, though, and I will provide a loving home for the one imp of City in the Sea that I DO have. eta: lol, "violets almost always make a blend work for me," hahahaha. with a few more years under my belt, I can now say this is not true AT ALL, but this violet is definitely not the sharp nose-cringing sort that I fear finding in violet blends. It's a very soft, dark violet.

Do not ask me how, but I get chocolate-covered fruit from Lady MacBeth at first. Sort of a richer 13 with juicy berries in there. It dries into an artificial strawberry scent, which is sort of too sweet and plasticky, but as time goes on the artificiality turns into wine and it ends up as a wine-y berry. Not so much strawberry anymore, more of a raspberry/cherry hybrid. Lovely. I don't know if I like it enough to get a bottle -- that artificial phase lasts for a good half hour -- but I'm definitely keeping the imp. Also, I want to try layering this with Antique Lace to see if I can get a vanilla/berry combo of tastiness. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.