alicia_stardust

Wet, I smell a touch of clove but mostly a gritty patchouli. Dry, the bitter clove just blooms and it's amazing. It actually makes me miss my days of clove cigarette binges at night clubs after 16-hour workdays on my thesis. It's alluring, earthy, and has that clove bite! After 45 minutes I can smell the musk and I think the wood is mixing with the patchouli; they're almost indistinguishable from the other. After a couple of hours my skin amps the patchouli and it's definitely gritty. I love this for the first couple of hours, and OH the clove! But the faded patchouli smell does not play nice with my skin chemistry.

Just as in Rembrandt's piece, the scent that Beth created seems to have a balanced duality; male/female, light/dark, yin/yang. Wet: I get a soft, cool wet wine with a touch of spice, a touch of honey. There's a sweetness there. Dry: I get a conflagrant, smoldering scent that reminds me of Priala without the strong spice. The wood smells amazing in this, and I get a sense of dry smoke and incense resins. There's a slight bitterness there to the woods/resins. This is just beautiful. I must keep this one.

Wow, am I the first to say that this scent was quite strong on me? Sure, it sits close to the skin but it was very present and definitely stuck around for a few hours. My initial impression, without checking the notes list first, was honey! I was sure that there was honey in it. Now I see that it was likely the honeycomb. This has an intimate feel to it; a bright, gleaming scent of soft florals and amber, the sweetness of honeysuckle, the sultry scent of skin musk. I do detect a touch of rose. Beautiful!

This is a light, fresh ocean scent at first. It's salty. On my skin it changes and I get a slight fruit/plum scent, and later still, a soft floral that mixes with the plum scent. The green musk is detectable, but the other notes are unfamiliar to me so I believe my nose is blending them into an overall scent rather than picking out the individual notes. Overall, a lovely and beautiful interpretation of the artwork. I will keep this one!

Wow. The creativity and cheekiness is just another thing I love about The Lab. Delousing Powder is really nice. There's a chance I'm wrong about the notes, but these are the impressions I get from it: something amber-like, something *slightly* citrus-like but no lemon, a tea, a musk of some sort, and an overall soft and powdery scent. I peeked at some of the other reviews and I do agree that it is like a sort-of cousin to Enraged Bunny Musk.

This brings to mind a flurry of images: Soft, powdery roses. Frozen rose petals. Lush but ethereal blooms. I get mostly rose, but there's a kick in there that might be some of the ylang ylang. Gorgeous, feminine, ethereal.

I had to get this no matter what, but it helped that I have Cancer as my Ascendant. Cancer 2007 is a dewy, soft, green, light floral that is simply gorgeous. It is very faint in the bottle with just a touch of cool water and an aqua colored smell. On my skin it blooms and warms into a lovely, greenish fruit floral. The pear doesn't overwhelm, and the flowers aren't too strong. The sweet pea gives this a lovely spring-like quality and the mallow softens it up. Perfect! This is at the top of my favorites for all of 2007!

I have had my bottle of Selkie sitting near my laptop for a couple of weeks now as a reminder to review it. Why has it been sitting there for so long? Because this is so beautiful that I can't quite figure out how to put it into words. I'll try, though. My impression of this is a cool blue/green scent, with a touch of green stems and white flower petals floating on chill water. The scent has a very cooling effect to it. It brings to mind green grasses, layers of mist, and has a haunting loveliness to it. I can pick out the touch of honey and it blends beautifully with the florals. I will cherish this bottle. Selkie is just... it's breathtaking.

This is a glitzy little floral blend! In the bottle: I smell a mishmash of florals, and it comes across as a very traditional sort of perfume. The only note I can distinctly pick out is the white citrus. The rest sort of blend together. On my skin: Immediately after application I smell that soft tuberose scent and it sort of sits as a soft fluff of floral on top of the rest of the notes. Add in a dash of lemon blossom to just barely lend a bright note. After about 10 minutes, though, those blend with all the other notes to create an overall floral perfume. In some ways it's very unique, in other ways it calls to mind Beth's description of being shameless and lacking substance. It's as if all the florals are all there for the attention but there's not a strong base to fall back on for depth. Final thoughts: This is a perfectly executed piece. It's a lovely floral and it definitely captures everything from the description. Lovely pink label, too! It is so Paris.

I'm sure nearly all of us have done this at some point or another. You pour a glass of orange juice, take a nice big gulp, and suddenly discover you have a mouthful of fizzy, fermented juice. You think, wow that had quite a kick to it! In my younger days, I would almost contemplate whether to finish my glass rather than pouring it out. Fizzy! Tingly in my mouth! In the bottle: Pruno smells just like fermented fruit juice... in a good, fun way. There's a sharp fizzy, alcoholic kick to it that sits over sweet smelling fruit. It's captured so well that I can literally taste it. When I smell this I can especially pick out the oranges, but the apples don't come into play until later on. On my skin: The fizzy, alcoholic fruit juice kick continues. After dry down I can separate the apple scent from the rest of the fruit/orange scent. I can also detect the beginning hints of something more... shady. Early on it starts out as something that's sort of leafy with a hint of sweet n' sour added in. Perhaps it's tomato, perhaps it's something else. Later still, I sniff my wrist and startle myself when I actually smell something reminiscent of chow line droppings! What is this? It's something dinner-like, that's for sure. Final thoughts: I love this. I imagine that I won't often find myself wanting to woo strangers with my Pruno-scented aura, but the scent is captured so well (without being gross) and it is so evocative. And damn, I can pretty much taste the fizzy orange juice each time I open the bottle.

Wet: I get a cool watery green floral. There is a touch of tea and resin in there as well. On my skin: This warms up very nicely, and I applied too much. This has a very strong throw! As it dries I really get the musk and incense and a soft little touch of the lilac. Overall the notes in this really blend together. After a while: At about the 2 hour mark, this really changes on my skin. The remaining scent is a sharp, woodsy, bitter scent. My best guess is that this is the nettle bark? Or maybe it's just my skin chemistry. This is a beautiful Japanese blend that captures the art beautifully. This is worth the sensory experience and the journey if for nothing else.

When I first tried this, I very much liked it. Each time I wear it I love it even more. Now, a year later, I am more and more convinced that this is a true work of art. In the bottle: honey mead and honeysuckle. On my skin: the honeysuckle really comes up to the top, and I get a definite sense of the copal because I became very acquainted with that resin when I learned to make incense. It is one of my favorites. After about 20 minutes of drydown I can smell a bit of spiciness from the carnation. At this point there's a slight, bright touch of lemon but it's very subtle on my skin. This wears well, it gets me lots of compliments, and it's perfect for this time of year. Other thoughts: This is an amazing rendition of the summer solstice. It brings to mind the early peak of summer, sunshine days, cool breezes, playful fairies, and carefree times. LOVE this.

In the bottle: I smell a clear, wet, tangy aquatic. Something salty and dark lurks in the background. On my skin: Vetiver, down and dirty. I did not look at the notes before testing this but it's vetiver, no doubt about it. It amps above anything else, and yet... if I keep my nose away from my wrist I get whiffs of myself and in that, the vetiver is light and the clear, wet water scent sits on top. It's interesting that I can only smell that in the "throw" and not up close. After a while I get nothing but pure vetiver on my skin, which isn't my favorite note. I think this is a beautifully artistic representation of a Hurricane. If you like vetiver or dark, murky scents, this is for you. Try it for the experience if not. It's worth it.

I LOVE the way this smells, but it is even better on my husband. It is one of his favorite BPAL scents. I smell a boozy quality to this; rum and spices, wood and sea air. It's exactly as the description says. I find that after this dries there's a definite pirate element: debauchery, playfulness, and seduction. Port Royal is the perfect blend of those things. I give this 5 out of 5!

London smells of soft tea roses. Piles and piles of roses. But underneath the rose I get something else. As this blend dries on my skin, the rose starts to smell watery, drowned. On top of that, ever so faintly, sits a dark shadow of something. I can't pinpoint what that note is, but it definitely makes the blend. Just roses wouldn't have been right, and whatever is in this is perfect.

Spicy! And I mean SPICY! I get a touch of the honey, a touch of clove, and a lot of the skin musk, cinnamon, and ginger. This is hot, and I like it! It definitely burns my skin but I can wear it in a scent locket just fine.

This is not something I'd normally expect to want to smell like, and yet it is attention grabbing. Above all else, I get red musk. The strawberries and cherry give it a syrupy, sweet, almost effervescent quality, and the vanilla sort of smooths the edges between the musk and the red fruits and envelopes it in a soft cloud. After a while the amber comes out to play with the vanilla. Lovely!

This is one of the most amazing dark aquatics I have ever tried. Normally I cannot wear aquatics because they turn very soapy or cologne-like on my skin. This one, however, is gorgeous. There is a murky, groundedness to the aquatics, and I get a sort of calm about me whenever I wear this. I really can't pick out any specific notes but whatever it is, this one is a keeper.

Thunder Moon I was so excited when Beth released this. The description takes me back to when I first left home to go to college. I was living in the red rock desert and they had the most amazing thunderstorms I've ever experienced. I am not disappointed. In the bottle: I get a watery, charged ozone scent. It's not soapy to me. It feels full of that sort of energy and build-up you get in a storm. On my skin: I immediately get a water-soaked floral. There's a very light sweetness and lunar quality there, and it's just amazing. That sits on top of the ozone for a quite a while. After that, the amber starts to kick in and I almost, almost get a melon-mint quality that goes alongside a very subtle wood something. Strong throw, long wear-length. Overall this is beautiful and it captures the essence of a Thunder storm just perfectly.

I was very surprised that I had not reviewed TAL Nocturne yet. I don't have specific sleep troubles, but I do have a tendency to be wound up, wired, and anxious. This makes it hard to settle down for the night. I have found that if I apply TAL Nocturne as the write-up suggests, I can read in bed or sit around for a bit and in no time at all I am very, very drowsy. TAL Nocturne smells like lavender and roses to me. On my skin the rose amps over the lavender and it is just perfect: fresh, cool, slightly green. I love Sleepy Moon (heavy sleep), TKO (out like a light, sleep like a rock), and Quietude (light dreams), but TAL Nocturne is my favorite of them all both for the scent and for its effects. It gives me the most natural, gentle, restful sleep and I find that I reach for it the most.

I smell orange blossom in this the most. There's a slightly herbal, powdery essence to this and I get hints of the mint, cypress (oh so light), and geranium. Overall the wear length is longer than average. It is definitely a floral scent but it's not overly cloying. There's a slight sharpness to the orange blossom, and that note dominates the blend for me. Something in this goes powdery and that sits just underneath the orange blossom. This is pretty and it captures Melpomene perfectly, but the scent is not "me".

In the bottle: cherry smoke, hops. On my skin: Whoa, dried hops! I get a very distinct smell of hops. It's a dry, dusty version of hops to me. After a while this smell becomes slightly bitter but that smell is tempered by the tonka which brings a slightly creamy, comforting aroma to it. I get hints of the cherry tobacco but it sits behind the other two dominant notes. I am very glad I tried this but I don't see myself reaching for it out of my massive collection. I may swap this away.

I can't pinpoint any specific notes in this other than the shea, but it is lovely. My impressions are a sort of refreshing, creamy shea over a dusting of woods and forest, a touch of herbs, and maybe a teeny tiny fruit something in there.

A Bachelor's Dog In the bottle: wet leather. On my skin: Once again my skin chemistry causes the leather to amp until I can barely detect the other notes. Even though I like the smell of leather, when it amps that far I just feel like I smell too masculine. After a while: Earlier when the leather amped I was sure the story was over for this, but as time went by the leather actually mellowed out and I started to get an amazing, soft, dry musk. I really like this phase of the scent. While I'm not sure that the leather phase is going to cut it for me, I may choose to pass this along to my husband.

One to Tie, Two To Win In the bottle: Green grass and a sweet summer breeze. On my skin: Upon application this smells exactly like it did in the bottle: green grass and a summer breeze. It is captured so vividly that it reminds me of lying on the grass, pulling dandelions, getting the dandelion milk on my hands, and later in the afternoon running home with grass stains on my knees. This is the first grass scent (from any brand imaginable) that really works for me. After a while: The grass scent lightens a bit and the yellow, slightly bitter smell of dandelion comes to the forefront. I don't enjoy this phase quite as much as the early phase. It doesn't ruin it for me but it makes me less inclined to hoarde this. Something about this phase acts as an appetite supressant for me, just as cucumber and melon tend to do. Overall this hits dead on, and it's perfect for summer and for anyone that loves the smell of grass.