VelvetSky

This happens to me a lot too, right out of the shower. I'm not sure it's because the skin is damp....probably because your pores are all open when you are in a warm environment. I get a red burning rash every single time when I use Rakshasa, but I refuse not to wear it, because I love it.

It was an LE, but my favorite Autumn scent ever is All Saints. A little sweet, a little smokey, a little woody, a little resiny...and it's kinda dark and disturbing in a way, which is one of the great things about Autumn, to me! I'm hoping, really really hoping, that Beth will consider bringing it back this year. Also, Wolf Moon smells like cold air and woodsmoke and wild places to me. As for the catalog scents, I think that Penitence is a great one for crisp, cool days. It's all about perfectly blended frankincense and myrrh...sweet, pure and resiny. I'll be wearing it a lot this Fall. Hellfire smells like a cozy night in front of a fire in a library that smells of pipe tobacco and leather. Very autumnal.

KUNSTKAMMER. I have a naughty alternate name for that one, probably a lot of us do.

Snow White is amazing. A scrumptious creation that smells of marzipan, coconut and vanilla on my skin...and underneath, the fresh, cold scent of snow and a tiny touch of greenery. It really does smell like the outdoors to me. I was gifted with a nearly-full 5ml, and I'm going to absolutely love wearing this perfume at Yuletide and all year long. Beautiful

'Candy Perfume Girl' on Madonna's Ray of Light album always reminds me of BPAL in general. Young velvet porcelain boy Devour me when you're with me Blue wish window seas Speak delicious fires I'm your candy perfume girl Your candy perfume girl

Titus Andronicus is very masculine. I really love that one....I wish the guys I know smelled like that.

To be honest, I don't really check the level when I tear into a brand new bottle, so I don't know the exact answer to that. I guess it's safe to assume that the one full to just below the shoulder has 5mls of fluid in it...and perhaps the other was overfilled by just a wee bit?

I've been looking forward to trying Blood Countess for a while now, so I was so happy to receive this from a generous sweetie in a swap. My first impression on applying this oil is 'berries'. Fruity, juicy, Starburst candy berries. I like berries, so this is good so far. As it dries, the florals push forward and mellow out the slight tang of the berry topnote. I'm sensing the gardenia and the roses, but they aren't sharp or too perfumey...just very sweet. The plum in this blend is sort of around the edges...I can smell it, but my skin isn't amplifying it. I'm just kinda aware of it's presence. The drydown starts to go a bit powdery. I wish I could pick up the opium note more. The basenotes of this blend are very subtle. Overall, Blood Countess is a very sweet, juicy floral perfume. It's gorgeous, but it ultimately lacks the spicy, smokey bite I'm looking for.

Ditto on Tempest Sea of Glass smells quite rainy to me. BTW, vyvyan, the Lab has a wonderful search engine. If you choose Aquatic/Ozone/Marine from the pick list of scent families, it will bring up a lot of great choices!

I received Khephra from the beautiful and generous clover...I'm so grateful that she gifted me with a sample of this perfume! This smells of sweet cinnamon incense with a wee spike of clove. I can definitely get the 'Sun' association (how does Beth do it??). It's pretty spicy and smokey until the final dryout, when it smooths out to a clean, soapy, dry scent. I will have to wear this a bit more to really understand it. Khephra seems more like a ritual oil than a body scent, but I think it's growing on me....

Oooooh I'm liking this Fire of Love thing.... This is a good, strong blend. It's barely faded from the moment it hit my skin 45 minutes ago. This perfume smells like a cross pollination of Sin, Snake Oil, and Tombstone. Resiny, creamy, vanillic, cinnamon-warm....and what's that other note I think I'm picking up? Is it coconut? I can't stop smelling the small dab of oil on my hand. This stuff is sexy as hell. I was thinking of ordering a bottle of Snake Oil, but I may just order Fire of Love instead. Or maybe both. I'm digging this a lot. A giftie from the Lab, and I feel so happy to have the chance to try it! Edited to add: I don't smell one single drop of civet in this. Nor pee, cat or otherwise. Nor diapers. Poor Beth...I sometimes hope you don't read reviews!

Deep, luscious green and berry scents that evoke images of woodland witchcraft and the raw power of nature: blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and dark musk. I received Bewitched from a fellow BPALer in a swap, and I'm so happy to have a chance to try it. Thanx Leslie! Bewitched reminds me quite a bit of Phantom Queen; it's a sweet, grassy, berry/floral...nice and strong, although the berries turn to cherry candy by the time the scent hits bottom. The sage and tea notes are most noticeable in the middle accord, and I can't help but wish they'd last all the way through the drydown, but they are beautiful nevertheless. Very nice and feminine....

Anubis: Mmmm nice. This is a sticky, deep, resiny blend that perfectly personifies the name. There is a lot going on here in this fragrance. Most herbal scents are cool, but this is a warm, dense herbal. The myrrh is particularly effective in this blend, as it doesn't overpower the other notes. I received Anubis in a swap, and I'm so glad to have the chance to try it.

Bastet smells like cherries and marzipan to me. I like the fact that the cherries in this blend are soft and smooth, as opposed to the sharp cherriness of Kabuki. The myrrh comes through in the drydown, although really this is straight-up cherries and almond to me all the way through. Nice, but not something I'll be wearing.

Nyarlathotep was a swap from another forumite, whom I love for giving me the chance to try it. Impressions: Cold, herbal, soapy, and only incensey to me in that it's extremely dry. The yummiest note in this fragrance is the lime. It's absolutely perfect. I can't stop smelling my skin, basically because of this exquisitely perfect note of lime. Lovely.

Black Cat is cool, sly, slinky, sleek, mysterious and bewitching. The name fits. This fragrance is minty and soft with some kind of flower underpinning the herbal topnotes. I don't think it's rose, but it is sweet like rose. It seems more aquatic to me, like water lily. I like this one a lot. This smells cool and sophisticated to me. I love the Lab for sending this to me as a gift, as I would never have ordered it. Now I'm thinking I need a bottle.

Athens: Strong. Sinus-clearing strong. When I swipe it on my wrist, I can't put my nose too close, it's that strong. I think my first impression of Athens is the honey, with the dry scent of myrrh aggressively cutting through it's sweetness. The wine comes through slowly, but never really becomes a distinct note until the drydown. For me, Athens is a bawdy fragrance. This is a wild, unrestrained, unpretentious scent. It smells ancient, basic and a bit crazy.

Libertine starts out very promising for me, as I love bright, herbally florals. So...I love the violet. Love the rose/rosewood. Love the sandalwood. Love the bergamot. Absolutely gorgeous through the middle accord....and then, the musk hits. The musk in the drydown of Libertine is quite strong on my skin, and all but cancels out all of the other notes. Consequently, I'm left with a dry musk with a hint of sandalwood, that strangely, goes soapy on me.

Juliet is a soft, sweet, innocent floral perfume ... just what you'd expect from the name. The predominant notes when I first put this on my skin are the honeysuckle and sweet pea. So sweet, it's on the edge of being cloying...but thankfully these notes fade back quite a bit on the initial drydown. Uh oh, here comes the musk. Musk doesn't like my skin, even a subtle white musk like this. I can detect the pear in this blend, but the musk seems to be drowning that note. The final dryout of Juliet is rather powdery, and again, I'm sure that's the musk.

Nemesis: a gift from the lovely Labbies. Loving this one straight from the imp, because I'm getting cypress and patchouli...two of my favorite notes. The sweet fig comes through after the initial drydown, and pushes back the pungency of the cypress. And then the rose....wow, so nice. This blend reminds me of Rome, because it starts out very dry, green, strong, and almost scary....and dries down soft, sweet, perfumey and tame. I'm so glad I had the chance to try Nemesis. I may need a bottle of this.

I smelled the ginger in Siren before I even popped open the lid of the imp. This is a strong, spicey/sweet perfume that you only need a tiny swipe of to get the full effect. Although ginger is the dominant note in the top of this fragrance, the lovely sweet apricot comes through quickly. These two notes mix beautifully together, and although I'm normally not into gourmand scents, this one is really lovely. The jasmine that rounds out Siren is soft and creamy, and quite nice blended with the vanilla in the basenote. The thing I like best about Siren is that it's strong, but never sharp. Thank you, dear Lab, for sending me this imp as a gift.

Devilish temptation, as sweet as sin: blood orange, neroli, and raspberry. Akuma is a sweet, fruit-juicy fragrance that is wonderful because it manages to avoid smelling like candy. Fresh from the imp, it starts out strong and orangey, like orange peel not juice. As it dries down, the raspberry comes forward and is pretty much the potent dominant note thru the bottom of the fragrance. Raspberry is a hard note to translate into perfumery, methinks, but Beth does a great job with this one. This is a nice, happy summertime fragrance. I'm so glad the Lab sent this to me as a gift, and grateful that I've had the chance to try it.

I find myself strangely drawn to Megaera, and I can't really put my finger on why. It's bringing up some childhood memories, I think...but I don't know what they are. It's rare that I can easily detect every listed note in one of Beth's blends but in this case, I definitely can. When freshly applied, this is all about the orris, which scares me a bit, as orris tends to go musty on me. But as others have said, it dries down to a strong plum/grapefruit/bergamot combination. I think I'm loving this, but I haven't worn it enough yet to really decide. The plum note in Megaera is exquisite. To me, it's not a fruity/jammy plum, but a dusty perfumey plum. I think that's what's stealing my heart. This was a gift from the Lab, and I love them for giving me the chance to try it.

My squishy brain is sitting on top of my computer...what a cool surprise! Mi-Go is such a beautiful, tropical, gentle, wet fruity blend. I'm so glad I ordered it. I can't decide what appeals to me more: the mango/pineapple topnotes or the soft jasmine drydown with just that touch of pink pepper. As someone who normally doesn't go for fruity scents, I can honestly say that I adore this one. Trying to make it last is going to be really tough!

This is our song to Lucifer, Lucis Ferre, Heosphoros, the Morning Star, the Brilliant One and the Son of the Morning. He is equated with Samhazai, the Heaven-Seizer, and Azazel, one of the 200 Fallen Angels of Enoch. The essence of overweening pride and unearthly angelic beauty. A regal scent, glowing darkly, elegant and patrician, but unfathomably desolate. Cherubic white sandalwood and golden musk with a dark halo of amber, a breath of imperial florals, unbending woods, and the shadow cast by vetiver and violet. Fallen was a wee giftie imp from the Lab. I'm very grateful to have the chance to try it. When it first hits my skin, all is well. I get a waft of incensey-sandalwood, which is really nice. So far so good. But then, uh oh...here comes the musk. Musk doesn't like me. I wait out the drydown, hoping that the muskiness will dissipate, but alas...it sticks around all the way through the flowery bottom of this blend. The description of Fallen really grabbed me, but the musk is more than my skin can take. Damn.