malanna

A raven-haired Fairy Queen of Ireland. One of her eternal duties dictates that she must hold a midnight court every season and hear the pleas of married Irishwomen. The court serves only to determine whether or not husbands are adequately serving their wife’s sexual needs. A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. This is rather odd, but I get a hint of creamy sunblock from this scent, with lush, creamy florals in the background. This makes me think of Pele, another creamy floral scent, which made me conclude that there was plumeria in this. Apparently I was wrong. Looking at the notes list, the sweet pea doesn't smell like it has in other scents--it's not watery, yet slightly sweet and green. It's just lush and sweet here. I guess there's a slightly herbal scent, especially at the beginning, which I could attribute to sage. Also, it must be the musk that's making Aeval so creamy. I still think it smells like sunblock (mostly in the beginning, though).

I could've sworn that I'd reviewed this.... Lightning is rather tangy, but not citrusy to me. There's a hint of ozone and rain. It's slightly salt, but not too much so. It smelled like a wonderful ocean scent upon first application--gender neutral, slightly salty, tangy, and slashing rain. However, it gets a bit weird after that. It starts to give me a dryer sheet feel--slightly powdery and perfumey. I'm not so big on that. That's okay, though, because I have Sea of Glass to sate my ocean cravings.

I'm not familliar with a lot of notes in Dia de los Muertos, but I'll try my best. After application, this smells like candy corn with flowers. The flowers are rather sweet, in a nice way. If it's cactus flower, then I'm down with that! I can pick up the cocoa--but it's definitely not chocolate, but cocoa powder. After several hours, the candy corn impression fades, and it's just flowers with a sprinkling of cocoa.

There's blackberry and plum, but it's not outright fruity, I suppose because the amber and myrrh draws it back. The amber and myrrh acts the way musk usually does, which is why I thought it was musk at first. It is the tiniest bit woodsy, but in the way that Queen Mab is woodsy. The blackberry gets richer in the second hour, but after the fourth hour, Queen of Spades just becomes a bit like a clean scent, in that it's more bright and sparkling, with less blackberry and plum. In the tenth hour, when it's receded into my skin, I get a bit of a sweaty feel to it, sort of like O.

First sniffing at the imp, I disliked it. It just seemed really woodsy. On first application, however, this becomes woodsy and something that smells like cherry. It has that comforting, enveloping feel to it. However, it ends up just morphing into cherry-tinged grape. Not fruit juice grape, or fruit grape, but whatever bath and body makers imagine grape to be. On second thought, it is rather like Welch's....

I thought I'd dislike Wolf's Heart, but I actually am okay with it. It starts out warm and made me think there was musk, because it seems rise from my skin to envelope me in its warmness. It has a similar feel to this scent, I can't remember the name, which had cinnamon in it and reminded me of a wool blanket. I think this is a tiny bit spicy, and I can sort of feel the dragon's blood lurking in the background, but there's not enough to make the scent sweet. Since people have mentioned jasmine, I guess I can see how it would be there to add that enveloping feel.

Serpent's Kiss ends up all spicy vetiver on me. I waited several hours for the dragon's blood to add a touch of sweetness, but all that happened was the vetiver and spice got softer, as all scents do over time. I'm not a vetiver fan, so away it goes!

I can't remember what I was thinking yesterday when I testing the perfume, but I do remember thinking that there was a lot of musk and something I thought was dragon's blood or cherry. It must've been the carnation. I think what happened with the scent was that everything faded away except the musk. It was very musky. It made me think of a scent that was very leathery and musky (can't remember it), but without the leather. Yeah, just very musky. If I didn't make that clear enough the first time.

This is a lovely, ethereal scent. Most BPAL scent seem to be a red, orange, or green color, but this is definitely a blue scent. When I first apply Blue Moon, it's really cool, and I think that's the cucumber lending its coolness. However, this it's slightly sweet, too, but not in an overly floral way. In fact, I didn't think, "Oh! Florals!" when wearing this. This is another one of those scents that is more "commercial," in that it seems to be more wearable than others on me, but it's not something I'd expect to find at the department store. This is what a scent would be if someone could bottle the dancing of the moon on the water's surface. I think this is something Galadriel would wear.

I was expecting something more along the lines of Cathedral (I think there's a scent called Cathedral...if not, I'm thinking of Hymn)--y'know, the scent of a worn-in pew. I get that initial impression, but afterwards, All Saints' is like a holy bouquet, with the florals and frankincense and myrrh wafting over. It still makes me think of the color brown...probably because I associate religious scents with that color.

I say it with a short o, but I have no idea if that's right. However, I just think of it as the STD one. You know. Gonorrhea. I might not know how to spell it, but I know how to say it! Sort of the opposite problem I have with Goneril.

Agh! This is so bitter and sharp and bitter and sharp! I really can't pick up any component. It's just bitter, sharp, dark, and evil to me. Looking at the description, I'm surprised that the components came together to make something so bitter. Perhaps it's the myrrh, or the black musk. I don't think I've sniffed a scent with black musk before, so that's probably it.

I expected Dublin to be a lot greener. There is a tinge of green, but it's mostly predominated by the white flower I sniff. Normally, with any scent that has rose as a main component, I'm screaming, "Whoa, no, rose!" but with Dublin, I didn't identify the flower as rose when sniffing. Dublin's a sweet scent, but it's a pointed sweetness, not a syrupy sweetness.

I always think that Wildfire and Mabon are really similar scents, but they're really not that similar. They both have a reddish tinge to its scent and have a vaguely floral smell, but Mabon has more oomph and seems to be more of a nature-oriented scent. After application, Mabon makes me think of cherry hops. According to the description, what I'm smelling is apple hops, but I guess it's just the red, warm tinge I'm getting from Mabon. Mabon isn't very sweet, but there's still that undercurrent of wine that makes it almost seem sweet. After the "cherry" hops stage, Mabon just becomes a red floral (ie the apple blossom) with a hint of the wine.

All I get from Yerevan is the plastic-y note I've come to associate with apricot. It's a pity, because the description of it sounded so nice, too. Damn body chemistry.

I'm not getting the aquatic and florals everyone else is getting. All I get is lotus. However, I associate watery floral with lotus, so it figures. Pisces is an even more watery lotus than usual, with swirling colors. It's a very soft scent. Lotus (or anything that smells like it) isn't my thing, though.

Sudha Segara is pretty straightforward--milk and honey, with a dash of ginger. The ginger isn't bitter, but makes it nice and warm. This is a very soft scent. It pretty much stays the same over time, only it gets softer. Sudha Segara is a nice smell, but not a scent I'd keep (and hey, I didn't! ).

Naturally, Wildfire is a red scent (metaphorically speaking, of course). It's not as wild as I'd expected it to be, though. With Wildfire, my first thought, after application was, "Barbie's perfume? Uhhhh..." It really did make me think of a Barbie perfume I sniffed when I was a kid. Thus, I can say that it was probably the dragon's blood and rose that was most apparent i this stage. Afterwards, I just get light, indistinct florals with a hint of redness. I thought orris would be a woodsy or earthy smell, since it was in Dragon's Bone, but if it is, it's not apparent in Wildfire.

Egads! Jailbait does not like me, nor do I like jailbait (which is funny, because people would jokingly call me jailbait when I wasn't legal). Jailbait is really strong upon initial application. It's bazooka gum. Not just one of those Wrigley gums. It's sweet. Really sweet. Really like really strong gum. The next time I sniffed my arm (an hour later), it was gone. There was an after-scent, but very indistinctive.

This isn't what I expected. I was expecting something along the lines of Jailbait or Hollywood Babylon, but this is really nice and subtle. I don't get much lemon from Lolita. In the first two hours, there's the heliotrope and orange blossom, combining to make it a sweet scent, like honey. Then, the heliotrope fades, and I'm left with orange blossom and honeysuckle. Such a nice, lovely, light, sweet floral. I really like it! It might be a bit too subtle, though....

At first, I get white sandalwood, with a hint of something sweet. Then, the bark of a white tree (Ruff! Ruff! okay, sorry, bad joke) emerges. It really makes me think of a thin, white tree in a forest the Native Americans would have deemed sacred land. So there's the white tree (aka crisp blondewood) starting to overpower the sandalwood, and the hint of something sweet (aka Dragon's Blood) is gone. In the third hour, the sandalwood is gone, and it's pretty much the blondewood, standing tall and proud. I found this to be rather bizarre, because in all the Ars Draconis scents I've tried (all of them, with the exception of Dragon's Blood, which I haven't tried, but I'd assume it's the same case, since the only component there is Dragon's Blood), the Dragon's Blood has always stayed around to be sweet for the scent.

I was confused by the Cat, because I remembered that it'd been discontinued because of the grapefruit component, so I expected a lot more grapefruit from this. This'll be hard for me to describe the Cat, because everything melds together so well. I also don't know what chamomile and delphinium smells like. Cheshire Cat seems to be like one of those scents that a sophisticated, older woman would wear with her black suit. It's a bit more commercial perfume (or high-end lotion, like Chanel or Lancome) smelling than most BPAL scents. As for how it actually smells, it's a bit sweet, with something smooth, I'm assuming the Roman chamomile and delphinium are at the forefront, with the grapefruit and red currant lurking in the background, with the tiniest bit of lavender.

I, too, must chime in with my dislike of Puck. This was a frimp from the lab, so I tested it anyway, despite my rapidly growing feelings of apprehension. Yep. Civet and I don't get along. At all. I don't think Puck smells like ass, it's just very woodsy and civet-y. Maybe a bit of juniper berry, because JPs are bitter (I think...). But damn, Puck is a strong-ass mofo. I think a civet-lovin' person would love Puck.

Yummy! I liked this more than I liked the Queen of Spades. I think this could work well for men and women. King of Spades starts out rather sweet, with the plum and blackberry, but with the coconut and musk to round it out and make it smooth. It seems to be a rather polished sort of perfume, with nothing sticking out more than the other. Everything complements each other to make the whole. After a few hours, it smells like a dry, musky blueberry. Or blackberry. Some sort of blue-ish berry in any case.

This is a nice, sweet floral scent. The lilac is apparent in the first few hours, with a bit of dryness, which made me think of sandalwood, but turned out to be myrrh. I'm not fond of amber, but it's okay in Bruja, as it serves to round out the floral. The point when it recedes into my skin is most curious. Whereas other scents just become a dry hint of what it smelled like before that stage, Bruja smells like a dry, spicy Snake Oil (an aged Snake Oil), but not as yummy.