Thaleia

I love the idea behind this scent. It's great for when I want to play hard to get, smell sophisticated, and be enigmatic (or at least try). This scent is cold and aloof, a floral sharpness with an undercurrent of woods. The incense isn't evident - I'm mainly getting a pale, moonlit aquatic/floral and a distinctive sandalwood note. It actually reminds me of something I smelled in England while on study abroad. It's kind of what my room smelled like, so it brings back all of those nice memories. 8/10.

An empty, melancholy scent in the bottle - frankincense, sandalwood, and vetiver are most evident. The woods and frankincense evoke the good grace of the Church (it might not help that I was wearing Midnight Mass last night) - not straight-up incense, but the smell of God's grace that you're going to lose at the final judgment. I can sort of smell the lavender, which makes this blend sharper and sweeter at the same time ... and why am I getting a creamy vanilla all of a sudden? Not what I'd expected, but the drydown to the incensey sadness warmed by vanilla is lovely. Very dark and sepulchral. If you like incense, you'll love this one. 8/10.

Surprisingly, this wasn't the Patchouli Headache I was expecting. I was wary of the 'doleful patchouli' but in the bottle, out of all of the four Come and See scents, this was the lightest, and when I put it on, there was no patchouli from start to finish. Sad and melancholy, evocative of loss in the way Annabel Lee is, and yet not as sweet and innocent. Hers is fresher, more aquatic, while this is woodier and heavier with the sharpness of lime, yuzu, and lavender. Untimely death, the Final Judgment, the cutting words of judgment and descent into Hell. You'd think that with the vetiver, sandalwood, and patchouli, this'd be really heavy, a portent of rejection from Heaven, but it's not. It's a floral, held down by a slight woodiness. Heaven's boring. Hell's where all your friends are. Have fun! 9/10.

I'd read a ton of great reviews for the Great Sword, and this seems to be the Come and See scent that's most popular, so I was surprised to find that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Maybe it's because I was expecting a variation on 13 (which still insists on smelling like Tootsie Rolls on me), or the Terry's Chocolate Orange that 13 was not, but I didn't expect it to smell like spicy movie-theatre popcorn in the bottle. Once on, it becomes sharp-as-shit mandarin and herbs, with an underlying spicy-popcorn smell in the background. Drying down, the popcorn smell goes away (thank God!) and I get tobacco leaf and ginger. It smells like that Orange-Glo stuff that my mom uses to clean at home, only not. I don't get chocolate at all until the very end, and I have to look for it. And then when it's completely dry, it's the chocolate orange I always wanted. Am going to need to age this and retry in a couple of weeks to see if my body chemistry can get rid of the weird drydown and go straight to the chocolate orange. ETA, 2/21/06: The Great Sword does not like me. It's got that weird spicy/burnt popcorn thing going that does not go away when I wear it by itself, and instead of chocolate, orange, or herbs, I get burnt popcorn the whole day. I hate that I'm going to have to break up my Come and See quartet, but this one I just can't take. 7.5/10 3/10.

This guy's really intelligent, and it shows, from the cedar-panelled walls of the library he's in and the old books surrounding him - but he's also very sexy in a leather jacket, holding out a flower to you. Light cologne, a slight floral, and a shitload of erudition. I want. A handsome man. Standing in front of me. To smell like this.

I wasn't sure what the smell of burning in a bottle would smell like, but I found this one to be surprisingly comforting for spirits of fire. I smell Lurid, which is a favourite of mine - the fresh, aquatic, berry scent - with an added bite of cinnamon spice. Is this weird? Probably, but I do know that this frimp's a keeper.

I received this as a frimp from the Lab and was so glad I did, because it's something that sounded like something I'd love. Not only do I love the three notes in it, I love Baudelaire, and even had to read part of Les Fleurs du Mal in French class in high school. It smelled like a really strong, womanly perfume in the imp, mainly lilac and rose, with a tiny touch of wisteria that I get from Ode on Melancholy that I absolutely love. But! Once I put it on, it went decidedly funny on me. Instead of becoming a beautiful, sad floral, which I expected, it reminded me of mothballs and my aunt's closet. It'd have been alright if I liked this aunt, but she and I don't particularly get along very well. For some reason, I'm getting mothballs and clothing sprayed with old-lady perfume. I might try it again in a week or so when I'm not hormonal (which might have something to do with it, sorry if that's TMI). For now, 3/10. I feel so bad, because I was totally expecting to have to get a 5ml of this.

Ooh, wow, this is an interesting one. It's supposed to represent a woman, yeah? But it smells more masculine to me ... probably because of the herbal, woodsy scent I'm getting from the vial. It reminds me vaguely of Vicks Vaporub, both in the bottle and more so on my skin. It stays like Vicks for a while, but then I realise that the pine from Snow Moon and Snow Bunny is trying to come out and say hi. Now that the pine is coming out, it's smelling more medicinal than woodsy. I prefer the simple chilly pine of Snow Moon instead of smelling like Vicks. Yeah, I don't know that I'll keep this. It might smell better on someone else. 2/10.

I tried an imp of Dragon's Blood recently, and was surprised to find out that it smelled like flowers in springtime. I'm smelling this now, and in the vial, it doesn't combine well with the vetiver and spices, to my nose. It smells and looks like raspberry vinaigrette. Wow, that is one fiery scent. The cinnamon comes out on my skin almost immediately, backed up by the vetiver. The dragon's blood resin is somewhere in the background, adding sweetness to the cinnamon spice. This is a weird spicy/floral/resiny smell, and ... I smell like a salad bar. I'd prefer my dragon's blood by itself or with other florals to complement it. 2/10.

Thanks to the Lab for including this one with my latest order - I've been dying to try this one for some time now! In the bottle - yum! Raspberry lemonade or a berry-citrus smoothie. It also has an after-scent of children's chewable vitamins. It starts out as chewable vitamins on the skin for a few seconds before it turns into raspberry sorbet and fruity candy. On the drydown, it turns sharper, from the neroli, but I can still detect the raspberry sweetness underneath. It's a fun, kid-like scent, for those days when you're feeling young at heart. I feel like I'm five and should be eating a bag lunch with apple juice. 7/10.

I have to ask myself why, when I opened the vial I received from the Lab, did Phantom smell like salad dressing? I had to take a second and third whiff before I got a sort of astringent, floral smell out of the bottle. Which is really strange, because when I put it on, it's nothing at all like salad dressing, thankfully. It's a muskier, sharper version of Wicked, but it smells very similar. And because I like Wicked, I'm predisposed to liking this one already. It's definitely a musky, incensey rose, reminiscent of Wicked and All Saints (and maybe even Nyx), but I do prefer my roses without the musk. This one's okay, though. I don't know how to describe what the musk is doing to the scent, but it's sort of making it sweeter and more sensual in a way I'd prefer not to have. I'll stick with Wicked, but this scent's still pretty decent. 7/10.

Ooh, interesting! The description sounds nifty, but I'd have expected the metallic tang of blood and spears in here somewhere. Instead we get musky woods and spices in Vlad the Impaler's vial. On the skin, it bites! Well, not really, but the scent is very sharp and commanding, regal and righteous, like its namesake. Spiced orange without the patchouli, which is really nice: orange, clove, woods, and a hint of tobacco. I don't know that I'd keep this, because I have other more traditionally masculine blends I prefer, but if Dracula were as sexy as this blend, he can bite me anytime. 7/10.

Frimp from the Lab. I had this on my wishlist, and then saw it under recommendations for boys ... but I've just begun to realise that traditionally masculine blends do actually smell okay on me. I love the way lavender blooms on my skin, and after trying Mad Hatter, I like pennyroyal, so. Very sharp and herbal in the vial. Minty lavender, but not in a healing sense, but rather more fierce and pugnacious. Definitely a masculine blend, and not relaxing in the least, as lavender and mint tend to be. It's a very 'guy' smell on me. The lavender and pennyroyal are fighting it out on my skin, and I'm not sure who's winning, but all I can say is that if I want something to clear up my sinuses, this'd be it. After a while, it turns into a dying, angry lavender scent. Sour and bitter at the same time. Pennyroyal is winning, and lavender is rrarrrrangry. It doesn't seem to like me, and I feel a bit of a headache coming on, now that my sinuses are completely open and letting the scent of Pain in. 3.5/10.

Received in a swap from the lovely lorajc. Thanks much! Other plum blends I've tried (Budding Moon, Blood Countess) have worked really well on me, so I'm hoping that this one doesn't disappoint. It sounds really yummy from the Lab description. And it doesn't! In the bottle, it's a gentle pale plum floral, sharp and juicy and sweet. On the skin, it's airy-light, floral, and delicate, with the plum and orchid backing it up to give it some colour. It could be like a lot of the florals I've tried, and I've tried a lot because I love them, but this is just a bit different, and that's wonderful. The plum comes out more as it dries, giving it a more 'purple' feel while still maintaining the light pale floral scent. It fades fast, but it lingers enough to give a hint of scent, but not overpowering. Sneaky devil. I'm glad I'm keeping this, because I just had a bit of a spill onto the label, and some people are particular about that sort of thing. Not to mention that I really like it! 8.5/10.

This was one of my last-minute Yule '05 purchases, and I'm so glad I did. When I was going through my order, I was smelling everything from the bottles and this one really made me happy. Snow White is really light and sweet in the vial, tropical without being too warm and lush like some tropical scents are. (Not BPAL tropical, necessarily.) It's a light pina colada run through a blender, but creamier and less pineapply. And it's being had not on a warm day on a beach, but on a cold day indoors, because you can. On me, it becomes sweet and girly, but not in a 'pink' girly sort of way. It's more like an ivory. A lot of people have said that this is a 'barely there' scent, and it is, but it's present enough to be able to enjoy it. Staying power's pretty good, too, and it doesn't change much on the drydown. Still creamy, sweet, and cold. I think this is one of the better Yule blends, and I've got a lot of favourites already ... why not have one more? 9/10.

Is that white chocolate I smell in the bottle? It's definitely not as sweet or creamy white as I'd have thought it would've been, more like ... er, milk chocolate. Whatever, it's still chocolate, and I'm happy. It does smell like a Terry's Chocolate Orange, or orange-flavoured Tootsie Rolls, only less so. When I put it on, it becomes a spicy chocolate orange. Please tell me there's no patchouli in this - I wonder what the rest of the thirteen elements are. It doesn't take long for the spiciness to go away, which is good because my nose was beginning to hurt every time I had a sniff. I now have orange-flavoured chocolate on my wrist, more orange than chocolate. I can't argue with that. It didn't blow me away, but I didn't dislike it either. I'll keep my bottle, but I don't know that I'll get another bottle at the next Friday the 13th. I might wait for the next Friday the 13th after October to restock, and see how I feel then. It can do with a bit of aging - that does sometimes work wonders. For now, a 7/10.

Tamora came highly recommended by a good friend of mine. Peach blossom and vanilla - can't go wrong with that, can I? Aw, it's my Katharina, all grown up! The scent in the bottle is a grown-up, more subdued, richer peach, deepened by amber and sandalwood. On me, though, the peach melts into the mix and the sandalwood and amber take it away ... with a bit of a fruity floral in the background, probably with a contribution from the heliotrope. Dry, this is resiny and deep, quite complex, but with a hint of peachy floral still intact. Oh, yes, this is Katharina all grown up. If I want to feel strong and willful but less girly, Tamora's the scent for me. I like this a lot, but I can't say I like this better than Katharina, which is a favourite. 9/10.

Picked this up because of the thread that discussed the hits of Yule '05, and this came up a lot. I have All Saints, which I love - MM has the same incensey note that I really liked in AS, but isn't rosey at all. Basically, it's All Saints without the rose, at least in the bottle. This is beautiful! On my skin, the incense blooms to this gorgeous woody/resiny sweetness, mingling with a hint of evergreen that evokes Christmas church decorations. It's not at all like the crap incense they use at my church - really sharp, astringent stuff that smells more like a burning house than High Mass, and makes me want to choke. Midnight Mass doesn't really change much on the drydown - still the same resiny incense, but there's a momentary added winey booziness - Communion? Wow, I can have an entire High Mass waiting for the drydown on this. Completely dry, it leaves me with a soft, burnt incense smell, like the post-Christmas Mass smell in the church when people are leaving and the smoke is wafting toward the ceiling. I'm glad I picked this up before it went away. If my church used incense at Christmas that smelled like this, I'd be a much happier member of the choir. 8.5/10.

The crisp, clean scent of green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle. Hee, this was on my wishlist, so imagine my excitement when I opened up my package today and saw this in there. Yum! I smell fresh, sweet green tea with a dash of lemon in the vial. It's light and happy, and makes me smile. Ooh, honeysuckle, too. I think I'm really going to like this. On me, it smells a lot like The Apothecary, only sweeter, with more honeysuckle than tea. Green tea keeps the flowers from getting too sweet, which I know honeysuckle can become on me, so that's definitely a good thing. The lemon, meanwhile, gives it sharpness without making it smell like Lemon Pledge or floor cleaner (the two aren't interchangeable ... I found that out the hard way), while still retaining the floral sweetness and the comforting scent of tea. The drydown makes the green tea fade to the back and lets the lemon and honeysuckle play together. This isn't a scent I'd necessarily associate with Shanghai, which I visited last summer. I'd say this has more of a ... Xi'an feel to it, sort of traditional, not as Westernised as Shanghai, and still retaining that historical aspect that I found to be most interesting. Now, I don't know what I'd replace it with, so ... don't mind me or anything. Whatever, I love this scent, regardless of what people want to call it. My God, I need a 5ml of this immediately. 9/10.

The first thing I think of when I smell Kostnice in the vial is 'old church.' It's not the incense, or the flowers - it's the rosewood, old and slightly damp from the years. Of course, there are the flower and incense offerings that indicate that mass is still said here, but this church is OLD, man. I smell incense on my skin, which I didn't smell in the vial, but it's not incense that warms the scent up. It's incense that hasn't been burned for a while, and just hangs in the air like it usually does after masses are done for the day. What is making this scent so cold? I thought this'd be similar to All Saints, which was an incensey rose on me, but it's far colder, greener, and emptier than that. The geranium combined with the rosewood is turning this into sawdust/pencil shavings on my wrist, which I hoped wouldn't happen ... but alas, it did. Sweet, floral-ish pencil shavings, but hey, the pencils could have been made of rosewood. I also realised that in my last couple of reviews, I didn't give ratings ... this gets a 4/10.

I think I screamed, literally, when I saw that this came as a frimp in today's order. The description sounds so beautiful, and it's high up on my wish list! It's definitely very sweet and lush, in the bottle. I can pick out the aquatics and the pomegranate juice, but the rest smells like a very large bouquet of flowers, which isn't all bad, since it's me and I love florals. This has wild rose! I love wild rose ... it's definitely different from the regular rose, to me, in that it has a purer, sweeter rose scent. On me, as expected, wild rose comes up top with fruity aquatics playing underneath. It falls back after a few minutes to let the peach blossom say hi. A very sweet blend, perfect for spring. Or autumn too, as it says autumn breezes in the description, but this is more a spring scent to me. Early autumn works fine, too. Dry, it's wild rose after the rain. How pretty! What a keeper; this one didn't fail to please. 8.5/10.

I had absolutely no idea what dragon's blood smelled like before I tried this. I Googled it and that still didn't tell me much of anything beyond the fact that it's a resin and not actual blood (which I thought, when I was very new and in some ways somewhat misguided). It's bright red, which should either make me nervous or make me happy. I always liked red candy, but I don't know how I feel about smelling like an Atomic Fireball. I did not expect it to smell like flowers. Spring in New England kind of flowers, like the ones that grew in my backyard when I was a kid, and it was still cold enough to warrant wearing a cardigan sweater, but warm enough that I didn't have to wear a jacket. This is pretty! When I put it on, it turns into spicy flowers - spring flowers with a sharp bite, and yet still sweet. Maybe too sweet - not how lotus turns out on me, but more like sticking your nose into a huge bouquet of fragrant flowers. Interesting, different, something I wouldn't have thought of to try, because of the 'blood' thing ... but I know better now. I like this, and if the time comes that I like it enough to get a 5ml, I will. But for now, I'll just keep and use up this imp. 7/10.

Frimp from the Lab! I could definitely have used this in my first semester of graduate school. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll be able to find a use for it at some point (I'm going to law school next year). In the vial, this is sharp, cold lavender. Definitely not Sylph-lavender, which is softer and less sharp in terms of herbal and/or citrus notes. There's something else in this that makes me think either white daffodil or narcissus. It stays just about the same on my skin, with maybe a little less lavender and a little more white floral. Very relaxing. I'm falling asleep. Oh, man. I just yawned. It's too early to go to bed. I should've reviewed this later in the day. I don't think I'd wear this during the day as a perfume, because I'd probably fall asleep wherever I was at the time, but this'll stay on my nightstand in case I have trouble sleeping. 8/10.

Received today in record time (16 days) with my Budding Moon order. Thanks so much, Lab! You rock, but you already knew that ... it never gets old saying so. Lush, pink roses, bottled. Strong throw from the bottle, as it's sitting on my desk, open, and I can definitely smell it. I'm in a rose garden! Definitely a richer rose smell than Parlement of Foules, which was an instant favourite for me, but not quite as rich and opulent as The Peacock Queen. I should also say that this isn't a sinister rose. This is a prize-winning exhibition rose in a rose-growing competition. ... And on my skin, it apparently KNOWS it's a prize-winning rose. It's just a little bit proud, not haughty or arrogant, because it knows it's beautiful and deserves the accolades it's received. As pink is in between red and white, this rose is between the innocent yet sharp white and the arrogant, dark red. Are people getting mint from this? I'm not, but then again, my skin likes rose more than anything. Oh, wait. There it is! Fresh mint - those sprigs of mint that go into fancy cocktail drinks. Country club spring party, much, complete with arrangements of roses on every table? Mint blends with rose for a very pink/green, refreshing scent. Eee love. 9.5/10.

Rakshasa contains two opposing notes for me - rose and patchouli. My skin loves rose, and so do I. My skin also seems to like patchouli, but patchouli doesn't like me and gives me a headache. So, I'm guessing this one can go either way ... Upon opening the vial, I smell patchouli right away. Bad sign. It's almost all patchouli and a vague hint of sandalwood, and no rose. No rose? And here I thought this blend might have been kind of okay, if those two notes were going to cancel each other out. No, was I ever wrong. The patchouli hits my skin the second I put it on, drowning out everything else in the blend and surrounding blends I've just tried. It's also really strong. The sandalwood's present, giving even more depth to the patchouli, and still no rose. I hate doing this, but I am going to have to wipe this off before this headache decides it's going to want to stay with me for the rest of the day. Ow, headache. It's only when I wipe it off that the rose comes out, but it's doing a really heated battle with the patchouli, and patchouli is winning. Owie. 2/10.