Quillifer

I love this wet - sweet dragon's blood and a hint of posh-handbag leather. As it dries I still like it, but it's a little less special - fairly soft. I don't normally slather so I might try wearing a little more. Btw I get no smoke in this; that's a note I love but I don't miss it here really.

I received a decant of this recently but I'm not sure which year it is - probably this year's (2012)? Anyway. I didn't like it at all when it was wet - smelled of something rotten. I very nearly washed it off. As it dried down it began to smell nicer, of nuts and roots and autumn. It reminded me of something else and after a while I realised it was Intrigue, for some reason. But I don't think I like it enough to want more.

Unfortunately this has a smell like a cleaning fluid on me. This is a bit surprising since I usually get on well with aquatics; I think the combination of salt and sweet makes me think of a harsh chemical with an artificial scent trying to hide it. I do like the firs few minutes - it's the dry-down that doesn't work for me. My favourite aquatic is Jolly Roger.

Background: although I love rose scent in the garden, in real life as it were, I've found only one BPAL rose scent that I like so far (The Rose - rose and fresh greenery), so I put off trying this. Then I was frimped with it by the Lab. In the imp: Red musk mainly - which is good, I like that. Wet: More musk and a little amber. The rose is amazingly reticent on me. Dry-down: The rose begins to come out but is always second fiddle to the musk on me, just sweetening it and opening it out a little. I love this blend. I feel sexy with it at every stage. It feels very much like an expression of me and I definitely want a bottle. If you love red musk I strongly suggest you try it, particularly if rose only *sometimes* works for you.

I didn't expect this to work for me because cherries usually go a nasty cough-mixture smell, but it was gorgeous. I'm really hoping it comes back into stock I feel really disloyal and fickle now - it's come back, but I don't think I'll buy a bottle. I love it in the imp and wet, but the dry-down appeals a lot less. It smells - weirdly, a bit like ink. Very odd. I don't hate it but I don't think I'll buy some. But I'll try it out again a few more times and see if I grow to like the ending too.

Really interesting. When I first opened the imp yesterday, I disliked it so much I put off skin-testing it. Today, I love the first moments of it wet. To me it has the most appealing elements of cognac/brandy (and there is an element I dislike which is absent here). I hated the idea of rotten wood from a house point of view (I grew up in an old house and have an inherited dread of signs of further expenditure and threat to a loved thing) but it's reminding me of a gently, fruitfully rotting old tree in a wood, rather than a house. I see a fit old gentleman leaning against an old tree-stump, enjoying an exceptionally fine tipple from his hip-flask. But I don't know what I'll make of dry-down - will edit this when I get there. Dry-down: another surprise here - it doesn't last well on me at all I do want it to so I'll test it again later and see if I can tune my nose into it more.

Pumpkin curry - the smell of it down the hall, a few hours after someone made a huge batch, from a packet. Sorry.

(posted in wrong place sorry)

This was lovely for about 2 minutes, but was sadly one of the shortest-lived scents I've tried. I got all the notes, it was a very nice balance of sweet and green - and then nothing. Fortunately I was just sniffing a friend's decant.

The main part of this scent it a minty-snow note for me, and something that tingles a little in my nose. It get a slight hint of incense too, and then the little hint of fir-like tree. It's evocative and refreshing. If I'm really honest I don't think I'd have gone for a bottle of this if I'd tested it, but I have a feeling I'll grow to love it and be grateful that I have one. Update: this is really growing on me, I love it I get a strong emotional reaction to this one which I haven't managed to explain to myself - a lump in my throat. It reminds me very much of my love of mountains, and of strenuous physical exercise - the thing that is making others sneeze is just a tingling to me and reminds me of that.

I love this! I'm so glad I felt brave enough to get a bottle straight off. If you liked Butterscotch Balls and Black Beetles, I think you might well like this too. It's earthy but also a bit toffee-ish. Strangely it doesn't really remind me of bonfires. I must have gone to different ones from everybody else! I think this is because mine are usually to burn uncompostable things in the garden, and don't involve food or anything to drink. But the smell of this is just like the notes listed, and just what I'd hoped for.

I stuck my neck out for this and got a bottle unsniffed. I'm very pleased that I did I find this quite a cold scent. Damp earth, something rooty/barky, no flowers, a cool breeze. It smells very like digging the ground in early spring, on a fairly peaty soil. I love this because it reminds me of the most exciting, private, promising time in the garden - just me and the earth and my ideas, together. I find this lasts very well on me. Not massive throw such that others would notice it across a room, but plenty for me to be able to notice it without huffing my wrist. ETA the smell reminds me of something and I'm trying to think what. A vegetable I think; celeriac, or the flavour or roast bulb fennel, if you let it catch a bit. Or the smell of puy lentils as they reach the boil. But in a way that I like. 10/10 for me.

I love this - a beautiful sheer scent. Somehow it reminds me slightly of Incantation. But it disappeared incredibly quickly on me. I will try slathering and reapplying - often topping a scent up seems to make it sink in for me. But I fear it might not work. Gorgeous for as long as it lasts though.

In the imp this smells amazing - creamy violets. But on me, I suddenly remember that while I like florals, and I like vanilla, I don't like them together I should have remembered this from Mouse's Long Sad Tale. I really really *want* to like this - I can feel myself drawn to the notes, but they just feel like out-of-tune notes to me, the way they arch up and down against each rather than with each other. I could try to make myself like it more but there are so many oils that I love, it's not worth it. My favourite violet is Brusque Violet.

Well, it smells of lemon, then orchid, - and that's it really. Neither version appeals to me much. It's not horrible but I find both notes very light and they don't resonate with me. (For lemon my favourite is Whitechapel and for a floral I'd pick Le Serpent Qui Danse).

This was a frimp from the Lab. I've adored 4 oils in a row this morning so not liking this one is an encouraging indicator that I haven't dissolved into Polyanna I-love-everything-ness I would dearly love to find something that smells of cherry-blossom and black tea and does appeal to me, but the notes of soury fruit just aren't my thing. No worries, I am confident that at some point Beth or another Lab genius will come up with the kind of blend I want. This just isn't it.

I was frimped with this and I love it (this was a real jackpot order for me). Yes, cinnamon. If you like cinnamon and can wear it this is easy to love - I think. Warming and upbeat. I did also find it immediately sexy, and since I don't go a bundle on Snake Oil or O, that's nice. A good revving-you-up scent for eithe Les Sexy Times or anything else where you want oomph and cheerfulness. For me this would work for either go-getting sexiness or more submissive stuff, which is also nice to find - very switch-friendly, and without being so SEXY that I'd feel uncomfortable with it when out and about in general. All round win I found it a little on the sweet side. Tried layering it with a minuscule amount of my new vetiver single note and for me it works very well.

This scent takes no prisoners. I find it strong, assertive, and irresistible. It's a business-woman in a beautifully-cut suit, expensive high-heels, glossy dark hair, with a plan in her briefcase that will carry all before her. A city scent, to me, for either high-powered business (I'd wear just a little), or a killer little black dress.

I don't know what it says about me that I absolutely adore this I was attracted to it for some odd reason that's not very clear to me, except that I'm a keen hill-walker and climber, an angry feminist supporter of all things witchy. Well I guess that's enough reason right there! I was wary about the civet because I think I disliked it in Debauchery, and also of "damp cave lichen" which sounded rather mouldy. But it has vetiver which is always a staunch friend to me so.... And here she is. I intended to sniff all my imps of this order but Annis grabbed me immediately and I had to try it on. In the imp, I get is aniseed. Like aniseed balls but less sweet and very enticing. Wet, I get a gorgeous smooth dark chocolateyness, - kind of the air of that smell without the foodyness, if that makes any sense. And then very quickly the scent just has me in its grip, so complex and so intoxicating that I find it almost impossible to describe any notes. The smell seems to get straight into the back of my mind, bypassing the more analytical front part almost completely. But enough waffle. Dry-down: Aniseed, a kind of animal greenness (I guess it's civet but it's entirely good to me), something like skin-musk. Also the smell of an old house where someone dries flowers, brings in interesting stones with moss on that they find on walks, and likes to eat dark chocolate. If they offer you something to eat, you say yes, and you know it will taste amazing. I guess they do also dress in old tweeds that some people might say could do with a bit of an airing. Enticing, animal, strongly idiosyncratic. I'm in love

Have you tried Pain? (sorry if I missed it above)

I love Whitechapel. It's lemony and creamy on me. Not floral but I do find it feminine - way more so than the description might suggest (it's in Wanderlust) - A gentlemen's blend, possessed of dignity, charm and refinement, but in truth masking a corrupted, hideous, soulless core. White musk, lime, lilac and citron. - ignore the gentleman's bit!

A profound, complex scent that encapsulates the joy one finds in another’s pain. Ylang ylang, clove, Indonesian red patchouli, and dark myrrh. When I first ordered this, I didn't like it at all. I love all the notes in it but, as with Lust, it felt just overwhelming and too tightly-bound. I felt as though I was smothered and couldn't relate to it. At the moment I'm not doing swaps because I've had a few go wrong, so this sat around - fortunately! I tried it again on a whim this evening and I love it I'm so happy. Perhaps it has aged a bit - though it can only be a couple of months so I doubt it's that. I've had the experience with Samhain of finding the wet stage really quite unpleasant and just forgetting about it for an hour or so, and for me this works really well with Malice. It settles in with me, I tune in, and all the notes I know I love sing nicely for me. But it is both assertive and also rather "closed" - a dark, brooding scent that commands my attention but doesn't explain itself.

On me it only really gets into its stride after a couple of hours. Before then it is a bit foody in a half-hearted way. I guess this is the pie-crust that ReallyZeb means! I love foodie things but it would need more richness to appeal on that front. But after that it morphs into a lovely, twisty-turny soft thing - like the smell equivalent of a wonderful soft throw that you curl up in. And it floats all round me. It keeps morphing just subtly so that I notice it repeatedly - genius! Comforting, homey, for when I don't want to try to impress, I just want to potter quietly on my own. Calming and reassuring. Like something I fondly remember from my past - only it isn't. I'm so glad I got to try a decant of this and I'll be getting a bottle. I must say though, for all I love it, I just can't see the meadows in it. I'd suggest you try it if you like very gentle foodie things and possibly also amber. Also if you are one of those, like me, who actually likes the "powder" smell. PS I just went down to kiss our dog good-night and suddenly realised that the pie-smell is very like the smell of a dog's ears.

I first got this as a frimp and hated it. Not the smell itself - which was light but inoffensive, but what it made me think of, which was a simpering little girl, petulant, flouncy, whiney. I passed it on to someone who loves it. Later I got another frimp and was going through a phase of making myself re-try things - and now I love it! The smell is the same, but at the time I was in a different mindset and was thinking about baking. Now all that kind of Alice seems far away, and when I wear this I feel domestic in a positive way: creative, purposeful, everything that part of me wants to be. I imagine someone in a big apron, sleeves rolled-up, making something delicious.... with a gorgeous dress upstairs ready to put on, and a lovely house all round her.

A profound and entrancing potion. Deep, wispy, and unfathomably dark: vetiver, dark woods, crumbling and burnt black sandalwood and a drop of lemon rind. Funny thing about this: on dry-down it smells both deep and sheer at the same time. Like sunlight reflecting off a lake, but with clear water, so you can see a long way down to dark stoney depths. Not that it's at all aquatic - or stoney. I adore this and somehow it smells to me like meeting myself (although I know I don't smell like this).