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First of all I must mention that I've just taken up tea drinking. Therefore, the drydown section of Lunar Eclipse is not only WONDERFUL but also incredably frustrating - I want to drink my own arm. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!! In the bottle: Tobacco, a fair amount of vetiver. Overall it's strong and quite off-putting. But I will persist. Wet: Ohh, that's what everyone else means by "dusty". Yeah, I can see that. The vetiver's going from strong to pencilly. It's kind of like a darker, stronger Aziraphale (I havn't had much experience with cedar-y scents) Drydown: The vetiver's finally faded away. First pops up this lovely, sweet, kind of redish smell. A little too sugary to just be red musk, although, out of all the musks, red is the one I tend to miss a lot. It reminded me severely of one of my first six imps, although I couldn't figure out which one (possibly Scherezade...maybe?) This was then replaced by straight up tea, which, ok - nom, but a little plain and boring. Then? Spicey, fruit gummed tea. I love flavoured teas. And oh WOW, is this the best flavoured tea ever...AND I NO CAN HAS! Luckily, this stage is lasting a fair long while, so, whilst I can't drink it, I do smell absolutely delish ...As long as I can survive the wet stage

This looked like a good one for me - patchouli, ylang ylang and blood orange are notes I'm at least vaguely familiar with and like. Sadly all I got out of it was blood orange (in huge quantities) and violets...PARMA violets. There was a smidge of mandarin after a few hours but not identifiable patch, ylang2 or even amber. Also? My gran used to wear violet perfume and she makes a mean mandarin flan. Which is not really the kind of imagary I was looking for! Sorry Butterflies and Plovers. You have a beautiful name and a wonderful piece of artwork but I'm afraid you just aren't for me.

Hmm. Ivanushka is lovely and warm and fluffy as a blend, being primarily a fur musk with the very barest of woods or leaves in the background. It has a beautiful label and a beautiful story. However, it smells exactly the same to me as cocoa butter. Sadly, I think this may be going in the swapbox.

In the imp: Cedar! and a slight tinge of lemon. Wet: The cedar slopes of quite quickly and gets replaced with the Chinese musk (yum!) and something that I hopefully identified as wisteria (my knowledge of flowers is pitiful!) Very spring/summery and light. Drydown: The musk seems to have gone off to visit the cedar and the green tea has poped up a little bit. Now there's a lot of light florals. Barely any lemon, which is fine by me (it turns into cleaning agents a lot on me). A nice, light, fresh, spring like scent. Kind of refreshing. The kind of scent you'd wear to some kind of garden lunch wearing a summery dress. I can see my mum trying to nick the from me as well!

ManSmut. Seriously! There's a note of something that's kind of bright and sharp and a little spicy that's battering my nose every time I sniff my wrist, but behind that it's a slightly...not duller but less supersweet Smut. The bright/sharp/spicy note seems to be maybe some kind of plant? I can see where people are picking up the similarities with cloves and cinnamon but it's a little more....yellow? than that. This is an odd one. Not very great on me and I've got no willing boything to test it on so I think this will be going in the swapbox.

I am a fairly thorough Brit, and therefore have had very little contact with pumpkins of any kind. That being said - can someone send me some pumpkin pie if this is what it smells like?! In the bottle: When I first opened the bottle and sniffed my nose nearly blew up. This is a VERY strong scent! Nice, if acustomed to it, but VERY strong. Buttery nuttyness is all that I really get from it. Waved it under my mums nose and got "Oooh, sponge pudding" as a reply. On: STRONG!! I put half a dab on my arm and I can't get away from it! At first it's just nutty sugar. The caramel comes up, but it's a little burnt. Not really getting any chocolate through, but a LOT of cream. Made me think of coffee in restraunts - the cream that they bring out for it. Drydown: There's still a fairly thick backdrop of cream, low on the caramel/ sugaryness-that-could-be-the-chocolate and still fairly constant nuttiness (which I've finally taken to be the pumpkin?) Also a distinct theme of "Fruity". Not really getting a colour of these fruits, but it's definately FRUIT. I'll assume thats as far out as the pomegranate is going to come. A lovely sweet scent. Unsure on where I would wear it outside of the house, but I think I may be holding on to this bottle at least until the weather gets a bit warmer!

In the imp - Hel-LO bubblegum! Why, I havn't seen you properly since I was, what, 12? Nice to see you again! Do you remember that time when...yeah, that was awesome! On - You say this is a new friend? Why don't you introduce me? Well, hi Amaretto, you seem kind of laid back but you're cool. Drydown - You guys bought me WINE? Oh, guys, you rock! Lets all get fuzzy drunk and me and bubblegum can chat about the good old times whilst Amaretto fusses over us. It's a little bit OTT, but I LOVE this oil! Just must remember NOT to slather. It can get a bit over powering! Smells a little bit like Tesco candles, but not so much that it makes me think negatively of it. MIGHT get a bottle when the imp runs out, but it depends on how I feel when I get there. Lady Macbeth is a bit sourer compaired - Bordello has a lot more sweetness in it. Unsurprisingly a "funner" scent than LM but considering the characters...!

Warning: Random Thought Process Ahead! In the imp - smells a bit like juicy fruit gum. VERY SWEET and fruity. But not bright, more juicy fruit that's been chewed on a few times and left in the sun. strong but old. On - kind of dusty fruits. definately red fruits, also makes me think of blood - a slightly musty, rusty warm/coldness, not the hot, fresh vibrant artery kind of blood. Guilt. Pretty regal as well. Not hoards of throw. Drydown - erm...getting the lightest ever smell of "fried cooking"...erm. Other than that, there's a coldness under the warmth and robustness of the fruits, which Im assuming is the Thyme? Getting odd memories of my lower school hall (where we would eat lunch)...VERY ODD! lol. It's kind of softer and less brash than Bordello, but there are definately parallels. Bordello is more a Friday night scent, whereas LM is more a weekend scent, posibly a saturday night one at a push. Truely a fruity, lovely scent. Very womanly, but I'm not sure I'll use it a LOT, as there are others that make me feel womanly without the red velvet-y kind of effect! Not sure if it's the fact that I had a redcurrent candle at one point, but this smells kind of like...well, soap but without being soapy?

I'd recommend Crowley from the Good Omens section. I've not tried Red Queen or Forbidding Foyer though! Crowley is listed as "Infernal musk, red patchouli, lilac cologne, mahogany, lemon rind, oakmoss, leather, and vanilla husk." I get a fair amount of vanilla from it, but it always brings to mind the colour of our family bookcase (Mahogany!) However, it's quite a masculine scent. Whilst it works well on me it may be different for you.

I'm not a huge amber fan but I loved the charecter and managed to find a decant so I thought I'd try it out. In the imp: This is a weird one. Milky/spicy amber. Kind of musty. Fitting, I guess! Wet: Pretty much just spice. Not killing my nose off or anything, but spicier than I had been expecting. The amber is giving it a rounded, deeper base and there's a hint of patch. Drydown: The patchouli is coming out wonderfully and the spices are adding a nice edge to the woodyness. Not sure that I'd use this one often enough to warrent a full bottle for a while, but I think it does the charecter justice. Wondering about trying Anubis now!

OK, I don't really have a well laid out review for this one. Just thoughts and feelings! Immediate reaction when I recieved it. "Yay - this was on the 'possibly' list." *Open, sniff* - "ARGH! Carnations! NAAAOOO!" Threw it back into the box and glared at it every so often when I was trying to find something else - how dare it be so evil?! Tried it on today through just trying random imps. Opened the imp, sniffed...vanilla? Swiped wrists. Sniffed. Yup, vanilla. Huh? After a few minutes - vanilla and linen-eyness. And a few minutes after that the florals join the party. Carnation is there, but she's floating round the back of the room and not flirting with anyone that I like at the moment. This is something I would wear to visit the grandparents, thats definate. Maybe to work as well, if I was feeling in a benevolent mood and not a fighty one. This is a dress made from soft, periwinkle blue cotton and laced cuffs and collar. Airing out the attic during the summer. Lovely! Not as old-ladyish as I thought it would be and not as much carnation as I was fearing. I can imaging there's some neroli in this because I usually get vanilla-flower from neroli and there isnt any actual vanilla listed. And oh GOD It smells so lovely! All creamy and sweet and flowery and ooooooh! ETA: I've actually started wearing my hair in plaits to bed so that when I put this in the ends I WILL actually smell it as I go to sleep. Will be getting a bottle in my next order!

In the imp: Hmm...Stong is all I can think. Nothing's coming out and hitting me on the nose but I'm not great at picking out notes most of the time. Possibly evil cherries? Definate cloves and maybe a pinch of dragon's blood resin. Wet: WOAH CLOVES. Very, very bitter cloves. But, somehow, irresistable. I keep sniffing it and being half "Argh, need to wash off" and half "ooh, wow!" My main thought at this turn of events was "It's like an addiction to bitterness!" Drydown: The cloves are retreating a bit, still quite a swirly darkness about this. Quite incensy (DBR?) and the cherries are coming out a little bit now. Can't really smell the myrrh, but there is definately something extra sitting behind the cloves. About four hours later I could smell the sweetness of the myrrh and a proper cherry note with maybe a little bit of DBR hanging on with some incense. The cloves have completely disapeared! May use it again, but probably not very often. The first stage of cloves is a little too strong for me. But, those vampiric days do pop up from time to time!

I won this from the lab through ebay, but they didn't put which year it was from. I got it with HGM so I'm assuming it's the 06, but I can't tell! In the bottle: Mmmm, a little more sugary than I prefer my musks, but that is just...mmmm! A little sherry-glass worth of some kind of booze sitting on a side table in the background, but definately sugar/musk here! On: WOAH, sugar! Smells as if I just poured melted sugar all over the back of my hand. For the first five minutes I get a wierd peanut butter type smell and then it goes...well, Not Good. Not entirely sure what is mucking up here but it's definately a sweet note. No sign of booze anywhere and all the musk seems to be doing is turning "sugar" into "GRRRR, eat-your-face, SUGAR!" *cries* Drying down: After about twenty minutes it's settled down a bit. Getting a kind of grown up peanut butter (after that wierd middle stage I'm kind of happy to smell of PB again!) If I don't stick my nose directly to the back of my hand I get a bit more boozy, adult-y kind of a dark scent but it's still too caramal-y for me I think. I was hoping to get a tiny little bit of tobacco or deep musk or some kind of booze from it, but no - sugar all round. It's not white sugar at all - more like proper brown sugar that turns to sludge when you get it wet (in a good way! My description skillz are not as leet as everyone elses!) Twisted sugar!...And now burning sugar...errr May try this on once more but it just seems too sweet for me. I'll stick with Kali for my sexxay, walk-all-over-you-boots, rolling-in-the-sheets scent. As a scary side note - I dug out my imp of Scherezade to compare (as other reviewers have done) which was terrifying in itself (I know I have way too many imps when I start loosing them!) Scherezade smells...odd. I know I havn't smelt it for a good few months, but it gone...light and kind of flowery? Maybe I'm finally picking out the saffron. If not, then Smut has a lot less red musk than I thought it did!

I knew I was going to have a long day ahead of me when I woke up so I grabbed my imp of ACJM as I ran out the door. Wet: Bubblegum! Like Juicy Fruit. Brings to mind the colours pink, red, yellow and orange. Slightly sharp? Fairly quickly the sharpness leaves and when it does it leaves behind SUGAR! Drydown: This lasted for hours and hours - I put it on at 7am yesterday morning and it's still hanging around at 2am! Goes from a sugary bubblegum scent to vanilla and sweetness. It's a kind of chocolatey vanilla, or maybe the lab have created the Mary Poppins medicine scent - a different flavour/scent for each person! I adored that stage so much I actually didn't want to eat anything other than my own arm for lunch. No sharpness left at all - very smooth. As for voodoo effect? Well, I felt very cheerful and bright before lunch and every customer I served seemed pretty happy too (when the weather's cold and we're busy people tend to get a bit ratty) But I re-applied after lunch and had not such a great afternoon, although that may be more down to the huge delivery and lack of help than the scent! I was in an OK mood when I decided to put this scent on so I'm not sure if it'd bring me out of one of my fouler moods, but as a cheer-bringer ACJM seems to work very well!

In the bottle: I get two different scents when I smell this - I can open it up and smell "mm, lovely violets, sweetness and lemons!" Or I can open it up and get "uhm, evil, twisted leather and mahogany, VERY masculine in a gentlemanly way but definately not a scent that should be near a lady, beg y'pardon miss." It's strange, but usually closing and re-opening it will either mix the two together or get me the sweeter version, which I can then put on. Wet: I get a quite male scent from this... And I've just realised how stupid that seems! I wear a lot of girly stuff so wearing something quite so masculine is a bit odd for me! There's something about the patchouli that makes it masculine, I think. Also the lilac cologne is just making my brain scream "MAN! MEN!! IN A GENTLEMANS CLUB!" Setting off memories of my grandad and, even though I've never ever met him, my great grandad. I don't think my grandad has ever smelt like this either. Silly brain. Getting mahogany and a slight lemony sweetness, but it's not LEMON as in tangy at all, more a kind of suggestive lemon... Drydown: Ha! Got it - curling up in our leather recliner many christmases ago with all the relatives gathered in our lounge. I KNEW this was setting off a memory! It has a very warm deepness about it. Nothing christmasy at all, but just that smell of being warm and together. The last thing to leave is the vanilla husk. It's not a sharp, sweet vanilla but a darker, deeper, thicker kind of sweetness. For the last few days I've been slathering this all over my hands - it's lovely and perfect at relaxing me after a hard day but not to the point where I'm braindead and can't do anything. Even my parents like Crowley! I hope the Good Omens range never leaves or I'll be broke from trying to buy a lifetimes supply! Also - Crowley is more than likely to be ra-ther sexy on a guy, but I have no boything to test on and on me it just goes to delishious and comforting. Probably a mindset thing! I'm too used to guys smelling of Lynx (ugh) and the like to think in terms other than "Old-fashioned gentleman" for any male scent from the Lab. Sucks, but more for me!

I finally took a chance on Agnes! I ordered her with Aziraphale, Crowley and War. Not sure why I didn't just go the whole hog and get Shadwell as well, but there you go! In the bottle: (I may as well give you my immediate reaction from when I first recieved my order and opened the bottles to sniff from them) Opened the bottle. SMOKE...HOLY SHIT MY HOUSE IS BURNING DOWN. Seriously - smoke EVERYWHERE. And then...barbequed sausages in a burning house. And then barbequed sausages on bonfire night...and then just the sausages. Weird. The smoke'll come back for a little bit and then drift away again. Nice, but I'm not sure how it'll do for a perfume - maybe better as an autumn room scent? This is before I'd come across a scent that smells different in the bottle than it does when on. Wet: Still fairly sharp smoke. Clouds and clouds of it actually. Whipping this way and that and just on the edge of it there's a suggestion of gunpowder. Much more reminicant of gunfire than fireworks. After a couple of minutes or so there is a slight metallic twinge but it's quickly covered up by the smoke again. A little bit barbeque-y but much more bonfire-y than sausages Drydown: Burnt wood. No huge clouds of smoke, just the remaints of a big bonfire. Maybe a day or so old, in the autumn with dry leaves and charred logs. You've turned up the evening after it had been burning and the trees are trying to cling onto the warmth of the smoke. Every once in a while the wind'll whip something sharp and acrid back towards you, but it's much more settled than half an hour previous. If Samhain doesn't turn out agree with me then I think this may turn into my autumn scent! But I doubt I would wear it to work. More the kind of thing for long walks in the dark, wrapped up warm!

When I smelt Two, Five and Seven in the Great Test (I did first impressions of my entire order - almost 30 different scents) it was the first rose I'd come to in about 15 other scents. At that point it was "Yay! Rose, my old love, you have come back and are now gambolling around joyously!" I then had a few days of hangover and when they finally finished and I remembered to grab an imp on the way to work, I sought this one out, hoping for it to create a good day. Ran to work and slathered a bit on, which may have been a mistake - Roses. Obviously. But not the same 25&7 roses I smelt before. More like a slightly fake, chaotic London. After about 20 minutes or so (work was a bit chaotic itself at that point!) it had sorted itself out a little bit, but - still a pervading "fakeness" about it. Am now wondering whether the fakeness was due to me being in a bit of a state and rushing about. I reapplied after lunch and it was a bit better. I'm learning kinda quickly to be a little less liberal with the application! It's a younger version of rose - sweet, citrusy and slightly sugared but I'm not sure whether it's quite me. Lovely - but I'm not sure just yet.

In the bottle: There's a great waft of dust and then...not much else. Even the dust disappears. Just smells like...old rooms? My house pretty much smells of books anyway, so it may not have been the most unbiased place to test! Wet: I'm having flashbacks to holidays abroad. Mainly to a museum I visited in Spain - the hot, fusty-ish smell you get in old, stone buildings. Books and musk as well. Clinging very close - not much throw to speak of. Drydown: It's becoming a bit more masculine and the books seem to have devolved back into trees! Wierdly it's gotten stronger, unless I have adapted and am able to pick the scent out of nowhere? Starting to pick up memories of generic hotel rooms. (Memories and smells are so closely linked for me it's the only way I can think to describe scent!) Definately one to wear when you just want to curl up with a good book and something warm in a mug. However, you may have to wear it on your upper lip if you want to be able to hold a book and a mug at the same time - I have to plaster my wrist to my nose to smell anything! ((ETA: I fell asleep for about 10 hours or so and it's still clinging on! Turned very musky now with a bit of dust underneath. I have a horrible feeling I may be getting another bottle of this!))

Finally got round to actually WEARING this (I ordered it ages ago and was only brave enough to sniff it from the imp) In the imp: Very herbal, can't quite pick out exactly which herbs though. A slight medical undernote Wet: Woah...where did that mint come from? Still herbally but seeming more wood-like than "sprinkle in your cooking" Drydown: All I can think of is visiting the garden nursery with my grandparents about ten years ago. It smells exactly like that. The mint has faded away a bit but if I sniff hard enough it pops back up. A sweet note has replaced the medical one. A very subtle scent but with a lot of throw. I found it reassuring and comforting. When the imp runs out I may replace it with a proper bottle.

Hey. This may have been asked earlier in the thread, but I have to get to work in about ten minutes and was hoping to order my first set of imps this evening. Does anyone know what BPAL scent works well with Lush's Ginger Soap? I've been trawling through the scents looking for ones with Ginger, Jasmine and Lavendar in and have so far come up with: Siren, White Rabbit and, I think it was Twillight or something. I'm going to get six imps and so far my list is: Jezebel, Morroco, Scherezade and Siren. As I can never sleep I was wondering about Dream Formula V: Somnus or just a REALLY lavendar-y one. Sorry if this is supposed to go in recomendations or something, but my main aim is to find something that works with the Ginger Soap like I mentioned. Woah. Sorry for the long thread! Thank you for any help you can give. Kat xXxXx