moon_lemming

If I said "grandma's house sandalwood" would you know what I mean? If you don't, I guess "dry leaves and white sandalwood" would work. Shadowless Like Silence stays very close to its description.

Haha, I thought "Starbucks Pumkpin Spice Latte" when I smelled this and judging by the reviews on here, that is the least special-snowflake description I could have come up with. Pumpkin V is an equal mix pumpkin and coffee on me at first, with a smish of chocolate and fall spices, but the pumpkin gets stronger and turns it just a hair too buttery as it dries. This is the closest I've come to finding a pumpkin BPAL I can wear, since they usually turn to nothing but butter. The buttery note is not even unbearable or anything in this pumpkin blend, it's just that I want one that's PERFECT. Still searching.

2009 version I bet Lambs Wool, the drink, tastes exactly like this smells. I aim to find out this winter. The clove doesn't take over the scent on my skin, which is surprising. It IS pretty strong, but it's not a single-note clove scent, I can still smell the apple (red apples) and nutmeg and something that is reminiscent of warm milk, definitely. The milk doesn't turn to buttery grossness, which is another surprise. I'll have to give it a little bit longer to make sure the clove doesn't amp more, but so far it's a winner. 2010 version I totally spaced and forgot to buy a bottle of Lambs-Wool last year, thanks to New Baby-itis. Thank God the 2010 version smells the same; it was pretty impossible to find a bottle of the 2009 version once I realized my mistake.

While that description sounds GREAT, Feeding the Dead on me actually goes: Caramel popcorn --> buttery popcorn --> caramel and incense. It smells fantastic, and I would snap up a bottle superfast if it didn't fade like whoa.

This is a sappy green scent, like the inside of a pine branch. For some reason it reminds me of ginger when it's wet. I can't really find the anise that's supposed to be in Carlin, which makes me sad because I loooove anise. There's something bitter and dark that grows as the scent dries. It's sort of got an evil aftershave vibe. This is way too dark for me, too green, too masculine. Not my kind of scent at all.

Sometimes almond turns to cherry on me, sometimes it doesn't. In Bite Me, it does. Whoa, does it. It's practically cough syrup at first, with a little hint of... dryness? underneath. Once it dries, it's sort of like cherries and, um. There is this jello salad that has celery in it. It smells like that celery tastes. That probably does not help many people, but that's the best description I've got. I see other reviewers mentioned rose, and I think that is combining with the caramel to make that celery-taste note.

2009 version Boo is the boozy-ass-est vanilla in the WORLD the first few minutes after I put it on, but it picks up this weird cotton/coconut scent as it dries and that eventually takes over, leaving only a tiiiiny bit of the vanilla in the throw. It's okay but I'm not a huge fan of "cotton" scents so it's not a keeper for me. If it had stayed all boozy and vanilla-y, it would be another story. That was delicious. 2010 version Similar to last year's boozy-ass vanilla in the imp, with the same cotton sheet/coconut drydown of meh.

One day I will learn to just give up on aquatics. Festival of Anuket is a pretty blue-green, sweet aquatic, but it is an aquatic, and I just can't stand the cologne/soap feel those take on when they hit my skin. It's still pretty enough on my skin, one of the better aquatics (in combo with my chemistry) that I've tried lately, but that soapy edge gives me a headache and I need to wash it off.

I was hoping for a scent similar to Graveyard Dirt when I picked up Season of the Inundation, because I loooove the Lab's dirt notes. The silt in here is similar but more... silt-y, not loamy. It smells like grittier, wet soil, but even though it's "wet," it's not an aquatic blend, at least not to my nose. In the bottle, the silt is tinged with something almost spicy. I don't know what half the listed notes smell like so I'm not sure what the spice is. It's not straight-up myrrh or cedar. Maybe the spikenard, which I looked up and is said to have a "sweet/spicy/musky" scent. It's not the melilot, that smells like hay and I'm not getting that at all. Perhaps it's the spikenard combining with the myrrh. I don't know. At any rate, it smells good: just on the verge of being spicy without the spice overpowering the silt scent. On me, it pretty much stays the same, except the myrrh gets a little stronger (BUT it doesn't take over like it usually does in Lab blends). As it dries, the spice and silt blend perfectly and oh my god I am so glad I have a bottle of this. The throw is spicy but dry and the silt sticks around, but holds closer to my skin so I don't smell like potting soil to everyone who walks by. I love it.

I thought at first, in the imp, that Phantom Cow smelled like a sweet herb, like chamomile or something, but upon reflection, I think it is a less sweet herb mixing with the sweet milk scent. I'm not sure what herb it is but just saying "herbal" will cover it, I guess. Okay, once I put this on my skin I got SO EXCITED because it smelled similar to CHASTE MOON, one of my favorite BPALs ever. The milk didn't turn to butter like the Lab's milk notes usually do, and the herbs mixed with a grassy scent, and the combination was awesome. Then ten minutes later the milk note decided to turn to butter after all, ugh. It was a great blend while the milk behaved itself, though; if it had stayed like that (read: if my skin did not hate milk notes) I would have had to hunt down a bottle.

I can't review this one very well, since Sailing Stones appears to have aquatic notes, which tend to overpower everything else on my skin. It does feel kind of "warm stone"ish but I've never been in the desert so I'm not sure if it smells like that or not. On me, aquatics tend to go either soapy or like men's cologne, and this one turns to a VERY nice cologne, one I wouldn't mind smelling on a boy. I feel dumb not being able to pick out notes, but it's just not happening with the aquatics staging their little coup. This one lasts a long time on my skin, though, I can say that!

Berry Moon is the saddest morpher ever for me. It goes from blueberries and honey in the bottle to blueberries and honey and a little light musk (which does not turn to powder, at least!) on my skin. Those are the good parts. The bad: as it dries, it starts smelling exactly like a Lipsmacker. A blue or purple one, maybe a "blue raspberry" flavor. I'm not sure what's making it waxy because I usually have good luck with honey scents, but this moon just isn't working, sniff.

I don't even remember this oil being live, ha. I probably ignored it because it doesn't sound like something I'd wear at all. I was frimped a sample by edenssixthday, though, woohoo! In the imp, April Fool is pretty evenly divided between a berry scent (huckleberry, I assume, although I don't really "know" that note), a soft rose, tangerine, and lemon blossom. I don't really get anything too herbal from it, but almost all of the other notes show up. On me, it's mostly a tangerine-and-light-floral mix. It's okay, but it's not really my thing; the florals end up almost sharp. I actually like it a lot more in the imp. Chemistry fail!

Nuit is a pretty, light floral in the imp. And JASMINE DEATH on my skin. Not surprising since it, in fact, has jasmine in it, one of my notes of doom. Eh, it was worth a try, just in case.

So THAT is what the Lab's plum smells like. I wasn't sure what I was smelling until I read the reviews on the forum -- yessss, plum is spot-on. There's something behind it in the imp, something not-quite-spicy. On my skin, it becomes more spicy. Something pops up that makes me want to sneeze. Pepper, maybe? This is weird, but there is something in the mix that reminds me of peanut butter. I have no idea what's up with that, and it goes away within minutes, so who knows. Once it's dry, Hellion v2 is a plummy scent with spices laid on top. I can't decide whether the spices smell like mulling spices or something more incense-y, both descriptions seem right and I keep wavering between the two. I'm just going to call it "MULLED INCENSE" and be done with it. It's an interesting combination but the plum and other notes never really meld together for me. It is nice to be able to add a scent (the plum) to my "SO THAT'S WHAT THAT SMELLS LIKE" database, though.

Whaaaaat. Okay, no one else has said this so I think it might be my weird nose, but wet, Osiris v4 smells like a BPAL version of Villainess's Ginger Snapped to me. The spice is not ginger, though -- maybe it's cardamom, I'm not sure what cardamom smells like. Oh! I found a description that puts it in the family of not-quite-clove and not-quite cinnamon, and that sounds right. Dry, some sort of woodiness comes out, but nothing that overwhelms the spice. And I smell something sweet like vanilla in there, too. The spiciness is definitely the star here, though. If there are ambers or resins in here, they're behaving. Both of those suspects usually turn to powder on my skin, but there's no powder to be found in this blend. This is a lovely spicy oil that gets away with being masculine without being too heavy for me to wear, which is rare. It's long-lasting too! It softens a little bit as time goes on but retains the spicy goodness, just with rounded edges instead of in-your-face spice. I can't usually pull off scents like this, and don't really wear them very often when I CAN pull them off, and even I think Osiris is pretty great; I'm glad I got to sniff it!

I never ordered Libra because it's not my oil, but I probably should have! It's chock full of notes I love. I smell rose and cherries in the imp -- the cherries are almost cough syrupy, but just far enough away from that that they smell good and not bad. On me, the honey comes out as Libra dries and the rose sticks around and makes this a very pretty true-honey and rose scent. I don't smell any of the fruits, and the cherry fades extremely quickly once the oil hits my skin. Even without them, this is a gorgeous blend (says the honey fiend). The only downside is that it fades superfast on me and is only detectable at nose-to-skin range within twenty minutes.

No notes and only one review on the forum, aiee. Well, this review probably will not help many people as PW141 is definitely a floral blend and I am horrible at picking out florals. I actually agree with schackjj, this does smell sour in the imp. I don't usually get sourness from florals -- more of a sharpness or soapiness -- so I think maybe there is something else in the mix causing that, at least for me. Even wet there is no better word for this than "sour." Maybe white florals as well? As it dries, PW141 becomes STRONGLY floral on my skin. Smells like soapy white flowers to me, with a kick of hairspray. If there's a stage beyond this, I'll never know, because I need to wash it off before I get a headache.

Mmmmm honey honey honey. I love honey. In the imp, I smell HONEY and vanilla/tonka and something kind of bright. I have no idea what that is, maybe it's the chamomile that feels "bright" given the other sweet, heavy-feeling ingredients. On me, it's exactly what the notes say it should be, in that order. Except I can't find the hyssop (I've read the scent of hyssop is "camphor-like") which is probably a plus. I really like this one, but then I am a honey freak. If for some reason I am not able to get more of Arcana's Queen Crossbones after I run out of my bottle, this would be a good replacement. It's not the same scent but Idleness is awesomely honey-heavy just like QC is. It doesn't have quite the same amount of throw as QC but it does stick around for a while, hurrah! I'm a fan.

Water of Notre Dame is an aquatic floral, both in the imp and fresh on my skin. It DOES smell like water in a weird way, it's not the normal BPAL "aquatic" that turns straight to Irish Spring on my skin. Dry, it's an aquatic baby powder. That sounds gross, but it's not bad at all. I would have to wear it longer to test its mojo, but I think the fact that it's an aquatic that I don't need to run to wash off is a point in its favor already.

My computer is being slow so I don't know the notes yet, but what was a pleasant enough green-tinged not-quite-floral in the imp is turning into white flower hell on my wrist. Gardenia? It's not jasmine, but the sharpness reminds me of that horrible note. Yay, notes! Okay, it must be the morning glory. I love morning glories visually, but I guess they (and The Witch's Garden) are joining my AVOID AVOID AVOID list when it comes to smelliness. Either that or there is Seekrit Gardenia in the blend, because I swear that is exactly what this floral note smells like. I really can't find anything else, it's squashing all the other notes, which is sad because the greenness in the imp was interesting and I liked it. Can't win them all.

In the imp, Lamia v3 is heavy on the cinnamon. It's a light-smelling scent but cinnamon is the dominant note. There's some of that "hollow/woody vanilla" scent in the background which I am thinking is sandalwood, as almost every time I smell that note it's in a blend that has sandalwood in it. It's a lovely combination. Unfortunately, it appears Lamia also has CLOVE in it, as that is what it turns to as soon as it hits my skin. I amp clove like crazy. After twenty minutes, I can smell the sandalwood peeking out from behind that one superstrong note, and a teeeeny bit of cinnamon is still there too, but the throw is almost all clove. It would definitely be a keeper if it weren't for my chemistry's ability to find any tiny dot of clove and turn it into a freakin clove planet.

The Lab's musks and I do not get along well. I looked at Lust v7 in the imp and was kind of intrigued because it is such a dark oil and seems to be pretty thick. And then I read "red musk" in the reviews and started to worry. I was right to worry! This smells GREAT in the imp, a sexy musky incense-y scent with earthy patchouli mixed in and some sweetness to it: vanilla, I'd guess. There is a tiny edge of hairspray in there, I'm not sure where that comes from, but I've gotten it a few times with "dark" Lab blends. On my skin, at first it still smells as good as it does in the imp, with the vanilla getting a little louder, and it smells wonderful and yes, sexy. But I can never pull the sexy scents off because they almost always have musk in them and musk (of any variety) almost always does EXACTLY what Lust v7 is doing right now: turns into powdery dirty grossness that reminds me of the smell of clothes that have been sitting in a thrift store for too long. How irritating.

I smell cologne in the imp, not in an "astringent" sense, more like an "expensive smells that I might expect to find on a boy" sense. Patch and berries but it ends up more masculine than that sounds. Er, I wanted to record how Bat of Wealth smelled wet, but it dried superfast and is almost gone. It's only been three minutes since I applied it, that's weird. Well, anyway, what's left behind, VERY close to my skin, is that blend of dark berries and patchouli. They're balanced perfectly, the patch doesn't overwhelm the berries or vice versa. There is a little bit of an edge to it which might be the heliotrope -- a note I cannot wear well -- but it doesn't overpower the good smells. One last note: just like Bat of Health, I thought this one was on its way to completely disappearing, but the super-light version has stuck around a while.

Who knew that virtuousness smelled like strawberries? Bat of Virtue is a sort of floral strawberry scent, mostly full of the strawberries, in the vial and wet. As it dries I can pick out the rose and I think I can smell the violet. I wish I could find the star anise -- I love that note -- but no luck. Although the other notes come out to play on my skin, the star of this oil is the strawberry note, which turns to a sort of perfume-y powdery strawberry that reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake (the doll, not the food). The powder (maybe it was the frankincense?) backs off as this Bat dries, leaving a syrupy strawberry/floral blend behind. It's very pretty and sweet, although not really a MUST-FIND oil for me because it's almost TOO sweet on my skin. It'd be a winner for people who love the Lab's berry stuff.