bpalscentsual

Tart and fruity. I really don't have much else to say... only that I recognize some of the other 'lunar oils' in here as well, because there's a distinctive pencil-shavings type of note in here with all of the fruit as well. This went on very strong, but I knew to slather because I often burn off fruit notes very fast and this is an older blend. Alas, about an hour later, it's significantly fainter. Still love this, hanging onto the 5ml I was able to get until I use it up.

This is beautiful. I put it on straight after a shower, and yes, this is a 'skin' scent, but it does have great throw and softness! With the combination of all the notes... I'm getting golden amber. The perfect, powdery, sweet golden amber, like Gelt without the powdered cocoa. I suppose you could break that down into honey (I get sweetness) and milk (I get something creamy), but this is straight-up powder. Very refreshing, very light, and perfect for hot days when you don't want a scent that overpowers you. This is the antithesis of humidity.

This is a review for the resurrection of the blend. When I first put it on, I could have sworn the citrus was lime. Now I'm seeing that it was a combination of lemon and bergamot. I freakin' love bergamot. This is my love letter to bergamot, right here. I was looking for a light citrus because the weather today is supposed to hit 80+, and this was it. Slathered it everywhere -- my wrists, my neck, my chest. I did not realize that jasmine would be in here. Now that it's been on, I get a musky sort of floral, but it's still very light and doesn't have the power to completely shove over the blend. (I thought it was white musk at first!) As of right now, I would place this in the same scent category as Embalming Fluid, so if you don't have access to Yuki-Onna or her resurrected sister, I would recommend that instead. (Or -- what's the other one? Kumiho? Yeah, Kumiho.) This doesn't have any of the tea, but it does have a musky sort of floral, so close relatives.

I cannot believe how delicious this is. I've been looking for something that's similar to Ghoulish, and I think this might be it! The spijs, which according to Google is almond paste, complements the cherries, plus apricots, and there's some kind of flaky pastry underneath it all. I wish I could bathe in this. (It also helps that I think the label art is adorable.)

Pink Moon 2012 is what I was hoping Strawberry Moon 2009 would smell like. This is definitely heavy on the strawberry! Sugared strawberry, but not cloyingly sweet, and there's something creamy underneath there. The florals are a definite presence, but they just make the blend that much more complex. The carnation, especially, is helping to add some major depth to just strawberry sugar. No vanilla or white chocolate to speak of, but I'm sure they're lurking in there. I am so happy right now, and I can't wait to see how this ages.

Sorry to hijack the current conversation, but does anyone have any idea how similar Bon Vivant is to the fruity Champagnes that have been released? (I'm thinking Mango Lychee in particular, just because that's the one I'm most familiar with.) I'd love for it to be similar enough that I've found a GC equivalent... For me, Mango Lychee Champagne is fruity ginger-ale, and I'm looking for more, but I really can't afford to chase down Sangria/Peach Champagne or more Mango Lychee.

Straight-up grape Jolly Ranchers, sticky and sweet. No booze to speak of, just plain candy kiddy fun.

I tried Mango Lychee Champagne before this and fell in love, so I figured Pink Champagne would be much the same. Not so, apparently. This one is much lighter and crisper, and definitely less boozy, but this means that there wasn't much throw and it hardly lasted me a few hours. Cute and bubbly, definitely sweeter than normal champagne, but after Mango Lychee, this is not for me.

A very lemony cup of tea, with something bitter lurking underneath even though you put a few spoons' worth of sugar in the brew already. Very nice and bright, but yes, there's something under there that's trying to claw its way up.

Mulled wine. In the bottle, it smells like pure red wine, including the tannins from grapeskin. On, there's a lovely bit of spice that comes out (I want to say cardamom but I got no clue). Unfortunately, I don't enjoy the smell of red wine, so this one's a pass for me.

Jebus, this is a weird one on me. In the first fifteen seconds I put it on, it smells like men's cologne. A very clean men's cologne with not many deep bass notes, but cologne nonetheless. In the first fifteen minutes, it turns into a sugared mint, and I recognize the white musk and aloe. Unfortunately, I already have blends that give me seaspray (Cthulhu) and citrus-white musk-aloe (Embalming Fluid) and I don't much care for the mint, so this is going the way of the swap box.

Ah. I knew it was red musk making everything musky-sugary for me. Otherwise? Skittles. Dark Skittles. This is delicious and sweet without being little-girly or cloying or syrupy.

J. Creezy, hold me. To me, this is Severin's brother. His older, burlier brother. Severin is kind of a dweeb. He stays quiet in his corner, reading his latest biography, and waits until you call him. He doesn't have much stamina, but he's kinda cute and comforting. Severin is the boy next door. Theodosius, on the other hand, engages you in a conversation, dazzles you with his wit and intelligence, gets you to invite him back to your place 'for coffee', and you wake up to him the next morning bringing a steaming cup of Earl Grey to you. Naked. Not exactly a bad boy, but definitely has a much stronger personality. I don't know where I'm getting the leather in here, but I smell something like it. Must be the combination of jasmine leaf and white musk, I think, and the fougere folds in nicely with the tea. The bergamot and Earl Grey are identical to Severin's feel. But there's something absolutely magnetic about Theodosius. These two scents are close cousins for me, and they make me feel good while I wear them. Whereas Severin's drydown is all leather and lasts only a few hours, Theodosius has a very vanilla drydown. Not too foody or sweet, though. No longer searching for a back-up bottle of Severin... but you will pry Theodosius from my most unwilling, snarled-claw hands.

Amaretto cherry. Very dark and lovely. This is not a kids' cherry scent at all, definitely for grown-ups. I get a hint of 'confection' underneath everything, almost of a Pop-Tarts flavor, but no, this is all amaretto cherry all the time, and it's amazing. Must. Find. More.

In the bottle, and immediately, all I get is champagne, but a ginger-ale-ish sort of champagne. It isn't overly alcoholic, but it's too dry to be a soda. Spot-on accuracy, actually. As this continues on my skin, I get lovely whiffs of fruit that have a sparkling, bubbly quality to them. Definitely still mostly champagne, but the fruit is there in the glass too. This is absolutely delicious, a great celebratory scent -- would be great at ritzy parties! (Or for Fridays at work to celebrate the end of a long week.) Trying this makes me want to try all of the Champagnes to see if they're as superb as this one is

Honey + amber = red musk to my nose. Dead-on red musk, if I'm not thinking about it too hard. To me, this smells a lot like Smut -- as in, almost identical to it. If you're looking for a GC equivalent to Smut without so much of the hit-you-over-the-head booziness/sugar, this would be your best bet. That being said, red musk-ish things don't get along with my skin, and this is rather overpowering. Goodness!

Nine-tailed fox demon of Korean lore who transforms into the visage of an irresistible beauty in order to seduce men and lead them to their doom. A sharp, biting blend of crisp white tea and ginger. To me, this smells exactly like Embalming Fluid, down to the tea-and-citrus aspect of it. However, there is no mellowness from white musk to round this out, and no softness from the aloe. I like this quite a lot. It makes me feel clean. Excellent.

Magnolia and honey with peaches in the background. This is the smell of Georgia, if a state could be a smell. My only regret is that this is more magnolia and less peach than I'd hoped, and this would be greatly enhanced with vanilla and/or cream, but this is great, it really is.

I started off wearing Anne Beany today, but through reorganizing my getting-out-of-control collection, I found this one leaky imp with a smudged label and barely any oil inside that was getting scent all over my fingertips while I was handling it. And it smelled damn good, so of course I had to know what it was. MB: Closet, the label read, so I gave it a new label and a little tape and then gave it a test. Dear Lord, I can see why this was so popular. For some reason, the bourbon/rum note of the Lab comes off sort of buttery-hazelnutty on my skin anyway, so there's the nutty buttercream, then the sweet and decadent nature of the red velvet cake, and on top there's definitely some sort of fruit trying to be here too. Not overwhelmingly fruit, just mostly cake with a hint of topping lurking in the background, and definitely cooking bourbon, not like you're drinking it. For me, this is also very sugary. Hnghghngnghhhh. If I wasn't already sold on the Lab's cake notes, I am now. And the butter in the buttercream is even behaving instead of turning sour or plasticky on my skin! Hooray! I cannot take my nose away from the patch on my arm that's testing this. It's also interesting comparing this to Anne Beany, because this is less nutty and more sugary. The cakes are definitely different.

To me, this smells exactly like the prototype Box 116. I get hazelnut and pineapple and that's about it. Maybe it's because I don't immediately recognize the scent of rum, but there's no butterscotch or cake. What the heck happened to this??? Not that I'm complaining, I love Box 116, I'm just a little weirded out by how similar these two smell without having any of the same notes, and I don't need both of these.

Opoponax, myrrh, clove, and plum (maybe another earthy fruit, I can't tell, I only have a tester with a very small amount of oil left). This is dark, smoky, and sweet, but not sugary or syrupy. A perfect evocation of the detective noir genre, in my opinion, and a shame that it's not still in the general catalogue.

When I opened the package and sniffed the bottle, I got grape soda, then realized it's more like Fresca (citrus soda with grapefruit, lime, and lemon, among other things). Wearing it, I'm getting what's trying to be citrus, and what's trying to be fizzy... but it's ending up as an old-lady powder/strong floral. It's trying to be cute and effervescent, but I'm getting no creamsickle, no lemon. Maybe pink grapefruit, but I can't pin anything down underneath this rampaging floral! Either this blend has slightly corrupted over time, or I'm not wearing what I think I'm wearing (I have about twenty bottles that need testing!) or I just amp something that's in here to all high heaven, because I'm not getting what everyone else is getting.

Slightly sour vanilla with a bit of bite from the ginger and a hint of floral grounding everything. It doesn't get too cloying, surprisingly, though I do get mostly vanilla from this. Sugary vanilla, almost foody. Long-lasting, too -- I'm still getting whiffs of this eight hours later.

Sweet and fruity - and also slightly boozy on me. My first impression was actually cherry amaretto overlaid over a strong floral... Odd. Enjoying this, though. Honeyed pomegranate, mmm.

Yes, light and fresh is how I'd describe this. Unfortunately, when I opened my imp and for about five minutes on initial application, all I got was Old Lady Perfume, with the capitalization and everything. You know, the kind that you can use as mace. It was really unfortunate. Right now, it's calmed down substantially, and occasionally I'm getting whiffs of a white floral combined with, I kid you not, lemon-lime soda. My nose is crazy (it also thought tobacco + carnation was evil bubblegum earlier today, so I don't trust it right now). I'm getting none of the earthiness I usually associate with fig. Although it is a very 'light' scent in the sense that for me it's a very pale flower and pale citrus fruits, a little dab'll do ya. Potent, at least on me. Jeez Louise.