smallvoice

Complex! Oh, and just to ruin the dramatic tension, this one is going on my top ten list as soon as this review is written. Kali makes me feel so damn good. I feel confident and powerful and feminine and even seductive. She's sweet without having that candy/bakery scent; she's floral without being sneeze inducing; she's got a kick of spices and warm tobacco with wine... And I love how the honey note is keeping everything in line. Somebody before me said that it's like sniffing Valentine's day in a bottle, and that's just hit the nail on the head. But only if your Valentine's day experience was a damn fine one, as mine was. I love this! EDIT: I wore this again recently and discovered that I need to wear stuff more than once before I review them. My chemistry amped the grape of the wine so much it smelled like kool aid and just... unpleasant. It didn't work. Off with her head!

I want so very badly to like this one... I've been aching to try it since I first found BPAL. I don't smell anything aquatic about it on my skin. It's this lovely spring floral that I seem to be allergic to- just enough to be irritating without sending me into fits of sneezing... I'm beginning to wonder if I'm allergic to tuberose, possibly? I'll have to keep a watch out for that note. I get some lilac out of it, but mostly other florals, and it all sort of melts together in a very soapy way, and I'm SO depressed that it doesn't work...

It has vetiver in it, and I still love this scent. I've noticed a pattern with me reacting poorly to vetiver, and have concluded that I generally don't like it much. Serpent's Kiss is just... it's everything I love about Ars Draconis and then a kick of spices that are fiery and rich and warm... The dragon's blood sends up this creamy note, and it's like... it's sort of like if you made Hamadryad into a tea and added cream and sprinkled some extra cinnamon on top... that's sort of what this smells like to me. This is so very much a keeper. ETA: Oh! It's what I wanted Blood (From Bewitching Brews, for reference) to smell like!

It's lovely in the imp, but once I dabbed a bit on my skin it turned musty. Extremely musty. There was some floral, and a hint of sweet berries, but lots of dust piled on top. Luckily, as I let it sit on my skin, the spices come out and mingle with the group and chase away most of the musty smell. I'm not sure I like spicy berries... it's strange, but the floral seems to be low key, and it's just all very... odd. It's a peculiar blend on me. Am I getting rid of it? Not yet. Must do some more experimenting with it. I think I may like it after it's been on my skin a bit longer.

It smells like walking into a flower shop. It's all freshly cut and green and lovely, but a little too much. I'm so glad somebody said it above, because it wouldn't have clicked into place, but it does smell remarkably like Secret anti-perspirant. I'm really glad I got to try this, but I don't think she's a keeper.. ETA: A really good spring scent, for anybody who likes florals- despite how it may sound, the florals aren't overpowering, they're just really complex.

Creamy lemon blossoms. I wish I smelled the pound cake, and a little bit more cream than blossom, but that's how it is. I think I like this one enough to keep it around for some more testing, so that's good news. I also, by the by, kind of wish I got cotton candy in a bottle from this one. Hah, how silly is that? My skin may be amping up one of the florals, so I'm going to have to see how this works out for me. Got this one as a frimp from the lab with my first order, which is much appreciated.

I love Widget Alley's summary of this one. I hate to follow it, but life is like that sometimes. Heh. I'm getting that papery smell the longer this sits on my skin. Originally it smelled like one of the old packets of orange kool-aid; the kind you had to put sugar in yourself. It's sweet, but you know it's lacking. I wonder if the neroli is doing the bitter paper routine? My poor raspberry isn't making much of an appearance, which is very sad to me. This almost works on me, and I wish I could make it work, but I don't think I even like it to use in my soap-making experiements someday... off to swaps for this lovely lady, to somebody who will love her more.

Oh, wow. This is amazing. The wonderful Kmasden included an imp of this in one of her mystery packs, and I am just blown away by this. In the imp: It's sweet, pretty, light and fresh. Nice stuff. On: More of the same. Complex and sugary and there's some fruit in with the blossomy florals and fresh herbal smells... it's delightful, and sort of perfumey. I get distracted by my cat, and then catch a whiff of my hand, and it hits me with dizzying clarity that this reminds me so very much of Jailbait, of all things. It's spicy and sweet and warm, but it has all this extra roundness to the scent, and suddenly I can smell the woods, and then I'm wondering how I could find a bottle of this stuff, because it's an orgasm and a half. Mmm. All the best parts of Jailbait and Hamadryad in one scent, plus bonus features... it's the collector's edition dvd of my favourite blends... I'll have to test this out another day to be sure I'm just not excruciatingly tired, but I'm fairly certain that I must find a bottle of this. Wow. Just, wow. I am so very much Arkham Revisited's bitch at this moment. I cannot stress to you how much I LOVE this blend. I lust after it. If it were a person (Or even resembled a person; or anything sentient, at this point) I would be on my knees, begging it to let me please just lick its toes (or whatever). MMM. Really. It's THAT good.

A beautiful, light, floral... I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. I, too, get the cucumber peel scent from it, but the rest is just so hard to sum up in words. It's a gorgeous, watery, fresh air sort of scent, and I'm thinking very hard about acquiring a bottle.

ITA with those folks who say it smells like Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, and Cherry Coke, while wet. It really does. I was stoked to try this out, because it has a bunch of notes I generally like- lime, vanilla, clove... but it seems to be paired with notes that really don't like me. On my skin it smelled so strongly of malediction that I nearly tossed it right then, but then something kicked in to even it out, and I think it's the lime, because it smells a lot lighter... I think the pine is balancing out the heaviness as well... and now it's taking a turn for the floral. Wha? I want some spicy limeade, dammit! Instead, I seem to be getting a sneezing fit. I can see how this would be gorgeous and powerful on somebody, just not my body. Due to the sneezing, not my man's body, either.

It's like cherry flavoured Dragon's Blood! Which, by the way, is not such a good thing. I want the spiciness of the clove, but I'm not finding it. Sadly, there's too much dragon's blood resin in this blend to make me need to keep it, since Ars Draconis fills that niche quite well for me. If there were a few more spices to keep this interesting and complex, I think I'd probably adore it, but this one is off to swaps for me.

It's too raw and earthy for me. It's making me feel a little nauseated, actually. As it dries, the scent softens a bit and gains a warmth to it, but it's just not working for me. The notes don't seem complex enough, maybe? Or maybe I'm trying hard not to sniff at my arm... either way, it's not a good thing. There's something unpleasant about it; a sour note underneath the warmth. Swaps for this one.

Let me say up front that I love lilacs. I've had good luck so far with Ars Draconis blends, and so was thrilled to try this one. It surprised me by being so different from the rest, but still a member of the family, so to speak. It's sweet and green and spring... a little dragon, flitting about through lilac bushes, much like a hummingbird, when it's finally warm outside again... that's what image this scent evokes for me. A tiny, hummingbird, dragony thing. With spring flowers and sweet grasses. Delightful, in all.

This is getting tossed into the pile that I will eventually rub on my significant other. However.... I love this. And I think I might end up wearing it more often than I originally thought, because it's sort of breathtaking. The smoke lightens up, the leather is very comforting, and the dragon's blood is just... its usual, sunny self. It's warm and glowing and I'm sort of in love with it. Hmm. It might make a good layering scent, although I'm not so good in that department. I'm paranoid about screwing with Beth's blends.

Hmm. I don't get lots of florals out of this one. It's hard to describe, though. It's a really powerful scent, and incredibly complex. There's a metallic tang to it that I am enjoying, and I'm going to have to wear this one out and about for a while before I make a final decision about it. It's still in the process of doing the BPAL dance of morphiness on my skin, but I'm enjoying it as it changes. Lovely, really.

I think the sandalwood is going extra crazy on my skin, and it's making me nervous. In the imp it was all cocoa powder and spicy goodness, but the sandalwood is beating me upside the head... but every now and then, the cocoa and spices peek out and soften the musty wood on my skin. I think I like it, but I want to try it on my Available Masculine Body, because I think it would smell HOT on him.

This doesn't exactly mesh with my concept of what it would be like to visit Madrid, but it turns out that the scent is actually more interesting to me than the concept, so that works out! I don't know what it is, but this blend is so deliciously balanced and I'm really in love with it. After reading the other reviews, I get some of the Sweet tart smell, but it doesn't really faze me. It's not boozy, but it's spicy and fragrant and still has a wine note somehow, and... I just can't stop sniffing. I'm concerned that it might go a little too sweet on me, but I think the clove balances it out nicely... so yummy! I'm going to end up with a bottle of this one.

Hamadryad was my first thought, and Dragon's Milk comes straight to mind. Aizen-Myoo and Dirty were good suggestions, as well. Scherezade, Hollywood Babylon, and Helle's Belle didn't give me heavy florals, but they're not exactly light and fluffy scents on me, either. Do you like fruity/foody scents? Swank is a sparkly, girly scent that is just absolutely juicy on me. I'm also really fond of Eris and Moxie, and you might consider trying Whitechapel... I'm almost obsessed with it right now. Bliss and 13 are chocolatey scents, and then there's Jailbait, which I adore, and isn't necessarily foody or floral. Just my two copper bits. (I tried to avoid scents that had already been mentioned, but I heartily agree with Dragon's Milk, Aizen-Myoo, Scherezade (didn't realize this had been mentioned already, hence 'edit') and Dirty.)

I'm with Lizzie, in that I want to bathe in this scent. Yum! Rich, warm, lovely rivers of chocolate... It makes me want to gnaw on my arm. This'll be part of my big bottle reward sometime in April or possibly May. Unless I find a better chocolatey scent for me! I had the fiancee sniff my arm, and he acknowledged that it smells like hot chocolate. I told him, "It's called Bliss!" He replied, "Also known as 'ignorance,' eh?" The fact that the above statement amused me so much is part of the reason I love him so much, I guess. He's not much for foody smells, but he didn't berate this one, which is a positive sign! Point---> Bliss! Unless he's just resigned to the fact that unless he finds it downright offensive, it doesn't matter much to me if he likes it or not.

This is -really- boozy in the imp. It does resemble dried apricots soaked in some sort of alcoholic beverage, and when I put it on my skin, it turns sour. It smells almost rotten, or something unpleasant, anyway. But I'm longing to experiment with soapmaking, because this strikes me as one that would smell so beyond gorgeous in a bar of soap, if that makes any sense.

I got Swank as a frimp from a swap with CapricornSister, which was entirely generous of her, as I initially asked about it, but didn't have a swap for it. On to the review: It smells pink, sparkly, bubbly and crisp straight away, to me. How appropriate that I got this on Valentine's day, because it's perfect. It doesn't smell boozy in the sense that the person sitting beside me will think that I'm a drunk, but it has that edge that keeps it from being too sugary on my skin. I can kind of get the citrus that others have commented, but it wasn't my first thought upon applying/sniffing- I definitely smelled the berry; but with an undertone of lime, to be sure. This is going on my bottles wishlist/to-buy list.

It does smell really strongly of lime, but in a good way. I can immediately pick out the soft lilac scent, and it is really gorgeous. I think I love white musk. I do in this blend, anyway. Everything about this is light and fresh and lovely without being girly- and it's certainly not your department-store-style perfume. I love this imp. I may have to buy a bottle. Decisions, decisions... UPDATE: (9/30/06) Whitechapel is possibly my favourite scent! The white musk is brilliant on me, and the lime balances so perfectly with the lilac- it is smooth and understated and it makes me happy when my mood is bad. I was wrong- It IS girly, but in the best possible way. The citrus is wonderfully uplifting, and lilacs just downright make me happy, and I love the beautiful way this is blended. Oh- and I do have a bottle.

Just like everyone says, it's a helluva lot of berry smell. When I put it on me, the tartness turns to artificial fruity smells, and it's like kool-aid blended with really cheap strawberry lotion. After a while, it seems to become more natural, but if I actually stop and sniff my wrist, it smells cheap again. It's somehow compelling, though- like a memory scent? Maybe because it does hearken back to the strawberry shortcake days, eh? I see no big bottle of Jester in my future, but I'm glad I got the imp to sample. EDIT: I just layered a little bit of 13 on top of Jester, and I'm sort of enjoying the scents as they're starting to meld. Unfortunately, about ten minutes in, it turns slightly acrid, and I'm feeling a little nauseated. I haven't worn 13 yet, and I'm hoping that's not what's doing it- I really hope it's just the blend.

I tried this one yesterday, and it smells almost EXACTLY like Eos on me. Wierd. It started out with this spicy smoky groove, but that faded really rapidly and left the sweet floral scent of Eos, which I like, but... yeah. It doesn't inspire kinkiness in me, sadly. EDIT: I just layered this over a bit of malediction (which I didn't like), and I'm sort of liking what's emerging from the two. Interesting... Except malediction still has that sour note lurking. Gah.

In the imp this smells really soapy to me. REALLY. It hits the back of my throat like I've just inhaled some liquid hand soap. It's high quality, pretty hand soap, but soap nonetheless. It sort of stays the same when I put it on. I'm not smelling any of the berries, but my skin seems to think the floral soapy-ness is SO grand that my whole neighborhood needs to smell it. It's softening now, and I almost like it. Almost. But my skin won't relent on that blasted soap. (Wow. Note the excessive usage of the word "soap" in this review. It's almost awe inspiring. Almost.)