joyfulgirl

in the bottle: lemon pledge wet on my skin: lemon pledge. whew. i smell super shiny and clean! dry on my skin: 15 minutes in, it is still VERY lemony to me, but it's becoming more distinctly rhubarb now. 30 minutes in...still lemony, but i'm finding some petitgrain now. and inhaling deeply, i'm catching some musk. no patchouli, amber or leather yet...keeping my fingers crossed that they'll show. those notes were why i picked up a bottle. 45 minutes in...still super light and citrusy. i'm trying not to sweat it too much...this just arrived today, so i'll think i'll give it a few days/weeks and try it again. as arrow mentioned, it feels like it has great potential, so i'm not going to give up on it entirely.

in the bottle: all wood wet on my skin: polished wood dry on my skin: interesting. it's calming down to a very worn, comfortable wood scent with a leather backdrop. it smells like maybe someone's grandma's house...but not in a creepy old person way. it's more of a warm, comforting thing. picking up a tiny bit of spicy amber and a waft of sweetness that must be the flowers/honey/berry, but they're not distinct enough to identify individually. bottom line: comforting, warm, dark...but something feels a little bit off. i'm going to let this age a little bit and reserve judgement on whether this is a keeper or not. i like it, but i don't think it's something i'd wear often. time will tell!

in the bottle: holy cow, i'm getting the whole shebang here! nuts, berries, honey, and pine floating over a faint musk base. wow...lovely, but quite complex! wet on my skin: jeez, this is all hazelnut. ugh, it's totally overwhelming. this could be bad. dry on my skin: whew, the hazelnut has calmed the hell down. thank goodness. i am getting a nice honey/musk mix now, with some nuttiness on top. i agree with glambie that it smells very yummy without being overtly foodie. however, at its core, it is still hazelnut on me, so i am not sure how much i will wear it...i may age it a bit and see if it mellows out a little. it feels like it definitely has potential to be something gorgeous.

i love the smell of this, unfortunately i had a huge allergic reaction as soon as i put it on, so i didn't have time to explore what i liked about it and had to wash it off immediately. i have HUGE red, itchy, hot blotches on my arm...it's the first skin reaction i've ever had to *anything*. so sad. ETA: i'm assuming it's the cinnamon causing the reaction? note to self: no cinnamon!

not in school anymore, but i do work every day in a corporate environment. i slathered on a bunch of luna negra a few weeks ago (which i LOVE) and someone in an elevator with me was like "WHOO, it smells like someone's having fun in here!" i was slightly embarrassed. :X i have found that scents with a bit of citrus in them (i'm looking at you, namaste) really help me focus a bit...every time i get a whiff of the lemon in namaste, i'm zipped right back to the present moment - appropriate for a blend named namaste, huh? also the citrus note keeps almost any scent from being over-the-top sexy, at least on me! i also do well with scents that i find comforting (rogue, leather phoenix), just because they put me in the right state of mind to relax and Get Shit Done. but it's a different type of feel than stuff with citrus notes. less of a hard focus and more of an anti-anxiety effect. but that's just my personal experience, YMMV!

source: an amazing frimp from the wonderful olfactorymaven! in the imp: rich, dark incense...one of my favorite notes! it smells delightful and i can't wait to try it! wet: very deep, rich, dark-woodsy incense with a bit of a sharp floral(?) note...or maybe an floral facet to the incense? almost sneezy, but i love this incense so much that i don't care even a little bit. dry: at first i thought it was fading, but i think my nose is just becoming a little accustomed to the scent. it's a little bit elusive...when i smell my wrist, i don't get much of anything, but then when i'm moving around i get these lovely puffs of fragrance. it has morphed a bit from pure incense into something totally incredible...the musk is opening up and blending with the incense to form a really sexy, comfortable scent. filigree_shadow mentioned it feeling very lived-in and loved, and i am totally getting the same thing from it. very evocative, warm and grounding. i briefly got the scent/image of a single burning candle...plain wax and a little tiny bit of soot. it was a nice, unexpected addition to the whole sexy-library angle. there is a definite woodsy, masculine tinge to the incense, but then on the tail end of that i get this amazing sweet, creamy musk note that is decidedly feminine. i think the mix of the two is what makes this smell so much like hot sex. in a really, really good way. bottom line: i LOVE this. damn, i wish this wasn't so old...i'd love to get my hands on a bottle! however, based on what i've read here, i will definitely be getting a bottle of azirphale and keeping my eyes open for any lurid library i can find.

very pretty scent, with a very basic feeling to me: snow, slightly sweet berry, fir and pine. totally agree with fiddlehead about this being nocnitsa's mellow sister. this definitely has more berry, more snow and less of the "i fell out of a pine tree and landed in the dirt" (and don't get me wrong, i love nocnitsa!). i think the snow/winter note kind of quiets everything down so you get this kind of hushed, wind-whipped feeling. for some reason it almost gives me a candle-scent feeling...like a waxy kind of presence over everything? kind of hard to describe, but it gives the impression of the whole thing being very quiet and hushed. when i first put it on, the throw was pretty out there. a huge cloud of very bright berries. it's settled down a bit now (about 90 minutes in) and is just kind of wafting when i move about. interestingly enough, the berry is much more evident on my wrists, the pine/fir much more evident on my elbows and my hair, getting almost no berry there. kind of neat how chemistry is different even within different areas of the body.

in the imp: spicy frankincense with a tiny twinge of something sweet. wet: ow ow ow! i apparently am having a reaction to the cinnamon...it burns, it burns! this is the first time i've had an immediate reaction to a bpal oil. thankfully it appears to be subsiding quickly. i am getting a definite sense of the cinnamon, as well as a nice rich frankincense. dry: well the cinnamon has (thankfully) stopped devouring my skin. i'll occasionally get a whiff of very resiny, smoky frankincense, but it's died down to mostly violet. i was hoping the frankincense would win out, as i'm not a floral type of gal...this actually turned out to be an ok scent on me, it's just not my style.

finally remembered to try this on! in the bottle: just a very faint pine scent...i am a little concerned that this is not going to have any hold or throw on my skin. wet: pine pine pine fir pine pine fir fir...smells very christmas tree-ish. pleasant, but a little overwhelmingly evergreen. dry: berry berry pine fir berry berry pine fir. lovely bright red berry and juicy juniper with frosted evergreen...the dry down is a little less ZOMG CHRISTMASTIME! and a little more "lovely stroll through a snow covered grove of winter greenery". it has a medium throw...not sure about its staying power yet, but it's been 2 hours since i put it on and it's still very perceptible in my little cloud here. it's a beautiful winter scent, and i imagine i will be wearing it more through january and february (and of course, next winter!).

in the imp: smells dusty and oily. very much like a fragrant cooking oil. wet: more cooking oil. getting a little whiff of incense now and then, but it smells a LOT like plain old olive oil to me. it's really starting to feel unpleasant, but those little incense whiffs are giving me motivation to stick it out... dry: aha! whew, the olive oil smell has evaporated, and now i'm starting to get a lovely, rich incense from this that reminds me of a story! once upon a time, i went to new orleans (pre katrina) with my love at the time, who is a bassist in a touring rock band. we found an incense in one of the little shops called witch doctor...for whatever reason, it made us both crazy horny (or maybe that was just us...). so instead of exploring bourbon street, we bought 50 sticks of witch doctor and spent most of our evenings holed up in our hotel room burning stick after stick and having crazy fabulous sex. this TOTALLY reminds me of that incense so i am associating it with the physical aspects of the sticks: dark purple (like blackberry maybe?), dusty, rich and sexy. it's absolutely delicious...i'm glad i didn't wash it off during the olive oil phase.

i have a major love for all things leather and after reading the reviews, was excited to check this one out. my sweetie got me a bottle for christmas and i was so excited to try it out today! in the bottle: cigars. wet: wet cigars. dry: just now starting to get a LITTLE bit of coffee and the occasional whiff of carnation, but mostly...cigars. not a sniff of leather to be had. verdict: i am so disappointed. i am not sure if it is the specific bottle i got or my chemistry or my sniffer or what, but i just feel like i've been sitting in a cigar bar. the good news is: it's already fading after only 2 hours of wearing it, so at least i won't smell like tobacco all day. so sad

in the bottle: lots of frankincense and patchouli dusted with matcha. not picking up any leather at all. wet: leather and rose chime in, but quietly. the frankincense and patchouli are the 2 most solid notes i can pick up, although the cedar and oudh are definitely starting to peek out too. the matcha is a nice top note to keep it from being too "dirty hippie" smelling (although, being a dirty hippie, i wouldn't have minded ). dry: getting what i assume is the petitgrain now (wiki says a greenish-woodsy-orange smell, which i am DEFINITELY smelling)...it brightens up the whole thing and makes it feel a little less heavy and wintery. the rose has died away for me, and the patchouli and matcha have both quieted down quite a bit, leaving a nice blend of spicy frankincense, homey cedar and oudh, bright, fresh petitgrain and just a touch of soft, well-worn leather. i'd say it has medium throw...no one has asked about it, but my sweetie notices it and i can definitely still smell it while moving about. bottom line: i must say that i LOVE leather phoenix! my sweetie liked it, but said it felt a little more masculine than my other sniffies. honestly, i think he just wants it for himself. i'm definitely keeping this and am going to have to find a way to make it last!

i'd heard SO much about O...after reading the description, it seemed like it's popularity was well-earned. i dig amber...vanilla and honey seem to be ok on me as well, so i decided to get an imp with my most recent order. in the imp: when i first smelled it, i thought "ugh, TOO SWEET!" but my sweetie encouraged me to give it a shot. "you're always saying it changes with your body chemistry, so maybe you'll like it." he's a clever one... wet: and, of course, he was right! i put it on and the amber amped right up on me and opened up quite nicely. the vanilla and honey were definitely THERE, but they were just kind of floating along underneath...nothing too overwhelming and definitely not cloyingly sweet, as i'd feared. then i got an odd little whiff of something that was somehow familiar...play-doh?! NOOOOES!! "maybe it will go away", i told myself. dry: well, the bad news is, there is definitely still a lingering play-doh smell on my wrists and elbow creases, although the elbow spots have morphed into kind of a yellow-cake smell, so that's not TOO terrible. the good news is, i also put a few drops on my fingers and ran them through my damp hair and that is still as sweet-amber-gorgeous as when i first applied it. verdict: it's quite lovely, but i don't think it's for me. i have successfully worn amber and honey together in other scents, so i am thinking it is the addition of the vanilla that makes it go play-doh for me. i'll keep the imp, but the remainder will be worn in my hair or a locket.

in the imp: it smelled strangely flowery to me in the imp. i didn't get any oak from it at all and was a little disappointed. wet: still feeling flowery, but i'm starting to pick up the rhubarb and fig. dry: aha, finally! it has calmed down to a nice, woodsy scent...definitely getting the oak now, along with a nice bite of rhubarb. the fig and the flowery notes have mostly faded. i'm pleasantly surprised! i didn't think i would like this at all, but upon drying, it's quite lovely.

giving neutral rogue a try today. i love love love rogue on its own...the leather feels well-worn and comfortable to me. i've sniffed neutral a few times and it is a fabulous musk, but not something i'd wear on its own. i have found the mix of the two to be delicious...the neutral cuts down on the masculine tones of the rogue (which i love, but it's nice to mix it up) and opens up the leather scent even more. i'm really digging this combo and will definitely be wearing it again.

at this point i have tried cleric, rogue, ranger, elf and neutral (haven't tried lawful yet), but all have been solo attempts thus far. today, i decided to blend up an homage to my old WoW character (rifqua <3), a discipline-specced night elf priest...in simpler terms: a neutral elf cleric. at first i was a little nervous that i had just created a big mess. while it was wet, it started to feel a little flowery (which i do not care for) and my heart sank a little. then it dried off a little and the amber and musk notes opened up. 2 hours in and while the amber and musk are definitely dominant, i'm still getting delicious little occasional hints of the frankincense and myrrh (it makes me feel like i've been sitting in a temple full of incense) and a tiny hint of the berry peeking through. i think my next try will be elf rogue, then elf ranger. not sure whether to go neutral or lawful, since i have both. this was my very first attempt at combining any BPAL scents, and i must say i am really enjoying the experience quite a bit, even though my boyfriend pointed out that when he played D&D, you couldn't be a elf cleric. rifqua thumbs her nose at him.