moon_lemming

This is another blend with a tropical Skittles feel! Yemaya: heavily sugared canteloupe/honeydew in the imp, and a fruit salad on my skin. You know, those fruit salads that you get in breakfast buffets, with canteloupe and honeydew and grapes and sometimes strawberries, if you're lucky. Well, this time you weren't lucky. No strawberries here. Everything else shows up though. Something goes sour as it dries, and it's a no go from there on out. It might be a floral of some sort. Sad, because it was a lot of fun before that.

Lyonesse is almost buttery in the imp, it's that creamy and sweet. Vanilla and sandalwood. On my skin the sandalwood amps until it swallows everything else. After about half an hour, though, it backs back down and everything blends together into a warm gold vanilla/sandalwood+ mix. Delightful. The amber doesn't even turn to powder like it usually does, it just enriches the vanilla/sandalwood mix. This would be glorious in fall/winter -- it's a little too perfumey for the warmer months. The only downside I've found is that it fades relatively quickly. I do wish the vanilla was just a tad richer on my skin but it's still great as is.

I could sort of smell hints of black tea under the rest of the notes in The Dormouse while I was applying it. I can find it in the imp, too. But on my skin, wet and dry, the most obvious note is a floral one. It's a sweet herbal floral: soapy at first, but in a lovely way, like the lingering scent after you've washed with a fancy soap. The soapiness quiets as it dries, leaving a sweet almost-soapy floral that I kind of love. I have enough florals for now -- I don't wear them very often -- but next time I'm in the market for one, I'll be turning to this blend for sure.

I can't really pick out florals, so this won't be the best review ever. The florals in Hi'iaka are reminiscent of the inside of a flower petal to me, like the actual petal itself, planty and not overwhelmingly soapy -- which surprises me since I was expecting pure soap. On my skin, the ginger picks up, then fades back again as it dries. Tropical florals ahoy. That's all I've got. Well, I do sort of get a banana note, but it's like this body cream I've got from B&BW where the banana note is soft and almost floral itself. It's not all soap or anything but it's not really something I'd wear. Velvet Tiki is about as close as I get to the tropical blends.

Hades is okay in the imp, if not really a stand-out to my nose. On my skin though, NO. Rubber and some sort of cooling powder that morphs into semi-soapy florals.

In the imp, Tweedledum is tropical Skittles. I can pick out green tea and a fruitiness that I guess is mango and/or fig. On my skin, the green tea gets stronger. I thought the patchouli would come on strong but I can only find a hint of it. The blend overall is like a tropical-fruity green tea drink with just a bit of earthiness to keep it from floating away. It's lovely but fades very quickly on my skin. I'd love to use this as a room scent in the summer, yum.

I'm not really interested in Voodoo at all, but I'll go ahead and test it since it's here. In the imp, I can pick out the lime and something that I reaaaaally don't like. I think it's just this mix of notes; so many things that don't work on me all mushed together. On my skin, it's a sort of vanilla-lime-BAD NOTES combo. I can't pick much out aside from the lime and vanilla. It's very well blended, just not something I like at all. Well, I do like the vanilla/lime thing, but it has too much baggage with it.

In the imp, before I checked the notes, I thought Kurukulla was maybe a blend of rose and something like pomegranate . . . something fruity and tangy. Maybe it's the combo of lotus and roses. On my skin, it turns into bubble gum and roses. It's nice, but as it's drying the lotus becomes more floral and picks up that new carpet thing that I HAAAATE. Ugh. Away with you. If it had stayed sweet-with-roses I would have been interested. Mark this a victory for EVIL CHEMISTRY.

Baron Samedi is not for me, I can tell from the first whiff in the imp, which reminds me of salty sweat. On my skin, it has the salty feel plus a strong hit of cloves. Salty spice. Luckily not sweat anymore, at least. It doesn't gel into anything coherent on me, and I'm not really interested enough to keep sniffing all the way through dry-down.

Somehow I've accumulated quite a few imps of The Music of Erich Zahn. I'm not sure why, since judging by the notes I'd never wear it, but I figure it's worth a try. In the imp, I smell sort of a smoky hollow wood. Not horrible. On my skin, it reminds me of some chile limon peanuts I had a while back, minus the limon. As it dries, it hits that high-pitched acetone note that makes it unwearable. The vetiver is way too strong on me, and I think the black musk is amplifying the sharp parts of it, and it turns the blend into a combo of smoky leather and acetone. Sometimes an overabundance of imps is just a fluke and not a sign, I guess.

Oh deer, no notes. This does not bode well for my review, especially since it smells watery in the imp, which means there are probably aquatics at work here. I'll try. In the imp, Dian's Bud reminds me of method's Sweet Water scent. It DOES NOT smell the same, I don't want to misguide anyone, but it reminds me of it. It's got that clean crisp watery feel. I can kind of sniff out some light wood (har) and something that smells like cucumber or maybe melon. It's nice, but more like something I'd use as shampoo. On my skin it becomes pretty awful; there's a floral in there that reminds me of a cross between jasmine and gardenia without BEING either, just with the same eurrrgh those give me. The clean water scent becomes sort of oversweet. It's just bad. I am willing to chalk this one up to chemistry, as that floral might smell nice on other people who are most assuredly NOT ME. eta: After reading other reviews, I think the floral might be violet. That would make this the second time I've disliked a violet blend. I've always thought I liked violet, especially since Faith is one of my top ten, but it might be that I can't deal with it unless it's tempered with sugary stuff. Or it might just be this particular violet note.

There's definitely carnation in Bathsheba; it's the first thing I notice in the imp and definitely the most powerful note on my skin until the oil's dry. I don't really smell the plum as plum -- more like it gives the blend a fuller feel, making it a nice, spicy, well-rounded carnation-heavy blend. I swear I smell another floral in there while it's wet. I can't pick out many florals, though. Everything except the carnation and what I suppose is the musk fades away as the oil dries, and I'm left with a ghost of the full-bodied scent I had on earlier, just a light spicy carnation with a powdery background.

Strangler Fig starts out as an earthy sort-of-figgy woodsy scent, with the littlest bit of hairspray at the top. It reminds me of blends like The Steeple. It's not the same, but it seems to be in that family. On me it's a perfumey vanilla/cedar blend. It TOTALLY morphs, and the cedar (one of my ampers) becomes a monster. Hmmm. It's not horrible, but I'm not head over heels, either.

Wow, I did not expect to like this one! Usually BPAL's chocolate notes turn to pencil shavings on me, so add in the fact that there is cedar in this blend, and I figured my notes would just be "blecccch." But it is better than that. In the imp, I can barely smell anything but a tame chocolate -- maybe a little mint, but not like York patty-strength stuff. Fresh on, I do get the pencil shaving effect from the chocolate, PLUS the cedar in the blend, but it evens out as it dries. After it's dry, this is what I get from the Little Crocodile: chocolate, mint, cedar, and a vanilla that strengthens as time goes on. The wood grounds the foody stuff nicely, and the vanilla . . . omg, this may be heresy, but the vanilla reminds me of Antique Lace. It's pretty much half vanilla/half chocolate-mint-cedar combo after an hour. I really like this oil a lot. I might tack a bottle onto an order later in the year, it seems like something I'd wear when the weather's cooling down.

NO NOT GARDENIA OMG NOOOOO. Gardenia amps to unholy proportions on me, and I hate the scent. There is peach in AF6 -- I can smell it in the bottle and after the oil is dry -- but it's covered by a monstrously peach-squashing mass of gardenia horror. On me, it is truly awfully single-note gardenia when wet, but a mix of obvious-but-tolerable gardenia and fresh-cut peaches when dry. I imagine gardenia lovers, or people who love peach blends and don't amp florals, would love this. It becomes a pretty even blend of both notes after half an hour. I just can't stand gardenia in any amount (in case I didn't make that clear enough, lol), so it's not for me.

I honestly did not remember Ogygia existed until I got a frimp in a recent Lab order. And once I read the notes I realized why: aquatic. Aquatics are soap on me. Ogygia is no exception to the Rule of Soapiness. When it's first on, it's very lightly soapy with sharp violets in front, but as it dries it just all melts into one big soapy blur. Not Irish Spring. Maybe a blue-and-white soap.

There's some sort of astringent note in Burial at first, maybe the juniper, but it reminds me of a sharp flower like jasmine, too, although I don't think it's jasmine because it doesn't stomp all over everything else. Anyway, there's that and an earthiness that I loooove. Mmmm soil. It has a high piney note when it's wet but it dries to a pretty great earth-and-floral scent, with juniper . . . I would say it's the scent of the wood, not the berry, although there is a tiny bit of something pine-y in there, so maybe it's both, IDK. It does have a woody (har) feel to it though. This is totally different than what I expected. Before I read the notes, I expected horrible flowery awfulness, based on the name, but Burial is actually a pretty warm scent -- comforting, even. I do love almost anything with "dirt" in it, though, so I imagine not everyone would be this enchanted by it. I might keep this imp around (I almost never keep GC imps, if that helps give that weight).

YES! I picked out the white musk in the imp, and the cedar in the wet oil. This was tricky because The Bow & Crown of Conquest just smells like a good cologne to me at first. It's hard for me to pick notes out when that happens; this is A STEP FORWARD, woo. So yes, "cologne" in the imp, and once it hits my skin the cedar starts screaming. It quiets down as it dries, and I can smell the leather. That's about as far as I get. It ends up smelling like a masculine cologne with brown leather in a starring role, like something a fancy-smelling cowboy would wear. I can't pick out any other notes because the overall scent impression is too strong. We'll blame it on this scent being "well-blended," okay? It smells lovely, and I'd love to sniff it on a dude, but it's too boyish for me.

In the vial, Suck It smells like a drinkable cherry lollipop. I was thinking cough syrup at first but the booziness seems a little lower-pitched than that to me. Wet on my skin, it's cherry Kool-Aid. Dry, it's a deeply red cherry syrup, and if I didn't know better I'd say I smell something like oranges in there too. I'm not sure how often I'd use it -- I imagine it would be best as a layering tool -- but I like it a lot.

Had high hopes for Le Serpent Qui Danse when I sniffed it in the imp -- violets with a sweetness underneath, yum. Like a much less candy-sweet Faith. Then I put it on my skin and one of the many florals I loathe, gardenia, took over. Nooo. If I could kick the gardenia out of this blend, it'd be a winner. It's not really BAD as is, I just don't like gardenia.

Musssssk. Lysander just smells like generic cologne in the imp to me, thanks to the "musk," I bet. There is something in this blend that I hate on my skin. I think it's a combination of the floral musk plus the myrtle, which I've read is "slightly camphoraceous," which matches what I'm smelling, yes. This blend, combined with my floral-and-musk-hating chemistry, smells like a purple-white floral cough drop. Once it's been dry for a while I can sort of smell the tonka, but it's not enough to save it from the swap pile by any means.

Death on a Pale Horse is sandalwood and lavender while it's wet. As it dries it picks up the powder-feel of white musk and the high-pitched soapiness that means lilies on my skin, while the lavender backs off considerably. It ends up as a grounded white floral with a bit of a citrus edge to it. It would make a good linen spray, but I don't like it on my skin.

2009 version Sooooo I sort of love this oil. And I didn't even bother trying it until now because while I do love candy corn in the fall (well, I like the little pumpkins even more), I can only take so much of it, so I figured smelling like candy corn would not really work for me. Then I tried Trick or Treat. It is not candy corn at all on my skin. What it is: DELICIOUS OMG. It's syrupy brown sugar in the bottle and fresh on, and it turns into a spicy brown sugar/maple syrup blend on my skin -- the warmth of the spices keeps it from being tooth-achingly sweet.It sort of has an edge like it COULD turn to celery soon, but it never does. It's like the best parts of my favorite oatmeal combo, minus the oatmeal. It does turn a little bit candle-y after about half an hour, but it never goes all the way. Love. It would make a great room scent, too. I can totally understand the creamed corn impression, by the way; if I sniff with that in mind I can smell it myself. This doesn't bother me because I love the smell of corn, lol. If this comes back this year I'm snagging a bottle. Or maybe I'll try to find a bottle of this version in case it goes different next time. Hmm.

Oh my god, this smells like something I know, but I can't remember what. Aargh, I hate it when that happens because I can't pick out notes, my brain's too busy trying to remember where I've smelled this. Maybe a perfume my mom used to wear, IDK. Anyway, Florence gives me the impression of a spicy perfume in the vial, like one a confident fully-adult woman would wear -- everything is all mushed together which, combined with my brain freeze, is making it impossible for me to pick out notes. I wish I could note what it smells like wet on my skin, but in the time it took me to write the first paragraph up there, it dried. And turned to powdery amber grossness. Ugh. AMBER.

I smell mostly sandalwood in Shroud when it's wet, maybe something green and herbal. As it dries on my skin it becomes lightly grassy and woody, with the herbs sticking around and getting a little louder. Honestly, it near-vanishes so quickly that it's hard to tell exactly what's there once Shroud is dry. The (superlight) throw is a sweet herbal sandalwood that edges toward soapiness without quite hitting it. I almost recognize the sweetness -- it might be a floral that I've smelled before, but I have difficulty naming florals. Whatever the white flowers are, they're apparently the kind that mostly behave on my skin, which is rare. It's a pretty scent but way too light for me, and not really something I'd wear. It's always nice to find an oil with "white flowers" that doesn't give me a headache.