smallvoice

I'd definitely second Dorian and throw in a recommend for Alice. O is another really good one, and I love Jailbait, too. Good luck with the guy, or his jeans!

In the imp this was heavily floral. Once it gets onto my skin, spices emerge and balance the florals a bit. It's much better with the spices. The vetiver note that I'm enjoying sort of throws a tantrum and scares everything else away. I'm enjoying some of the notes that resurface eventually, but yeesh. Not enough. That vetiver is just obnoxious, and it stays sharp.

This is another cidery scent, and I do see how the apples could smell a little overripe, but they decide to be crisp on my skin. I love the woods behind it, but eventually it turns really sour. It does not love me.

As I am wont to do when anyone so much as hints that citrus is an agreeable scent, I must recommend Whitechapel. It's light and citrus-y and just wonderful.

I'd also recommend Moxie, though it isn't incredibly like Swank either, it has that same bubbly feel to it.

And I second Aizen-myoo and Embalming Fluid.

Another fizzy-fruity scent you might want to try is Thalia. Hmm. I'll have to think.

I think Wanderlust might be my favourite category.

I adore Manila for the tropical scent- it's exactly what I've been looking for!

Whitechapel is possibly my favourite scent ever- it's light and citrus-y and just all around beautiful on me.

The Crossroads are a sweet, herbal incense on me. I need to wear it again before I can offer a better description, but I do like it.

I loved Hollywood Babylon until I realized my husband was allergic to heavy musks, and I think the musk may've been making me cough a bit, too. (It has a gorgeous, sweet, musky scent, though.)

Kyoto is lovely and light. (I need to test my imp further)

Madrid is gorgeous and sweet. (I need to find a new imp to test!)

Morocco has 2 danger-notes in it for me- Carnation and warm musks. However, this blend works well on my skin. I love the spicy feel to it, and yet the dry-down is almost powdery.

R'Lyeh has my beloved element of citrus and, true to form, I love ze evil grapefruit.

Silk Road is AMAZING. It's warm and perfect.

And those are the ones I've tried and liked/loved.

Eos and Red Devil were twins on my skin.

Arkham Revisited reminds me of Jailbait and Hamadryad, though I don't know if it could be duplicated by layering, as I think there are just notes that are similar from those two. Or I could be crazy.

Seduction reminds me of Numb, though I liked Seduction a LOT better. In turn, Hecate reminds me of Seduction, with Seduction winning out again. Hecate was fairly soapy on my skin.

I've never had BPAL in the summer (as I joined in late December), so I'm just guessing here. What all would you classify as springy, per se? The really light blends, like Embalming Fluid and Aizen-myoo? Or really floral like Eos?

If you like violets, I'd think they would be great for late summer, as they're not so heavy. (Seduction strikes me as a good possibility) Jasmine might be another great late summer note. Specifics... depends on what you like, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of deep musks, but Hollywood Babylon seems like it might work. To get in the mood for Halloween, 13 seems ideal. Verdandi had a cider note (to my nose), and the same lightness of aizen-myoo. The Hesperides had that same apple turned cider note.

Also, Carnal (fruity and floral!) and R'lyeh (evil grapefuit!) are ones to consider.

Hope this helped!

In the imp, it's this musty incense with a strong chocolate note. On my skin, I'm not smelling any leather or smoke, and the incense is secondary, but the chocolate comes absolutely alive, and I'm sort of in awe because, to me, chocolate doesn't have any business being a perfumey sort of scent (much like the scents in Midway, which similarly blew me away)- lotion and other stuff, sure, but... somehow Beth makes it work beautifully as a perfume. I love this chocolate. It's warm on my skin, where Bliss eventually went plastic, and it's rich and beautiful and... dusty. Yeah, my perfect chocolate turns into an old box that once held the perfect chocolate. I love the scent, and may have to find an imp just to have on hand, but it's not me.

In the imp this smells tart, crisp and lovely. There's a hint of cider, and it's almost a memory scent, if I could only capture the memory.

On my skin the herbs really ground the scent, but the apples are still prominent. It actually has the same feel of Aizen-myoo, but milder in some ways. Eventually a slight medicinal note creeps out. I wouldn't wear this enough to justify a big bottle, but I'm glad I got to try it. The apple note is one I'll be looking out for; it's beautiful. It seems like it would be a stellar room scent.

The first time I tried 13, it didn't do much for me. It was plasticky and stale. I wore it again today, and woah. It blossomed beautifully on my skin. Warm, syrupy oranges drizzled with chocolate (white and dark, somehow) and balanced by tea, with a very soft floral undertone. This is lovely.

Thanks to minilux I get to try this one!

First time I opened it, it hit me really, really, strongly. It's not shy. There was a bit of coughing. It took a few days for me to work up the courage to sniff it again, because I want so very badly to love it. Then again, I'd sort of hate to love it, for obvious accessability issues.

When I first swiped a bit on my wrist, my immediate reaction was: "Huh. This smells remarkably like Smut." That lasted for a few seconds until I sniffed this rather lovely, spicy bouquet that added depth and... I don't know how to describe it. There's certainly no boozey note that I could detect, and the blend seems a lot more complex than Smut did on me. There's something sweet- a resin or something, maybe. Anyway, I'm pretty fond of it at this point.

However, within about 10 minutes of me putting it on, I'm sort of wheezing a little bit, and I think it's due to the Queen. Yeah... I actually had to move the little bottle out of the room. Benadryl is my friend. Sadly, I think the Voodoo doesn't work so well...

Hellooooooo, vetiver.

It's really earthy and strongly... dirty, I guess, when I first put it on. I wish the cinnamon would manifest, but I do like what it's morphed into, actually. There's a breath of something floral on top of the vetiver, which seems to have calmed down somewhat. It's really woodsy and smoky now, and seems to be quite masculine. I don't think this is something I'd wear often enough to merit a bottle, but I do like the blend. Excellent name, and I love that the oil is a vibrant red, too.

RAGE -- Black amber erupting with a dark volcanic surge of fiery dragon's blood and a burst of melati, rose geranium, mandarin and black currant.

Huh. Count me in with those who say this one isn't striking me as particularly red or angry or whatnot. I'm not getting any of the spice, and it's mostly just a soft floral... very generic on my skin, and it's almost faded away after less than an hour. Interesting, I think, but not for me.

I love Alice! The rose is ever so soft, the honey is ever so sweet, and the milk makes it all creamy and lovely... Plus the bergamot is divine. It has just the right dash of spice to make this interesting, but still very understated. I love this. It is absolutely comforting and gorgeous. It lasts fairly long, but it doesn't seem to have good throw. I may need to apply more generously.

In the imp: Unpleasant. Seriously. My first thought was: "This smells like ass! Aargh!" But then I thought: "Hm. Sometimes the ones I hate the most in the imp are the ones I end up liking the most on me. I must try it... as soon as I've forgotten how much I hate this smell."

On: Poisonous is right! I think I'm allergic to something in this. Now that I've had a chance to look over the notes, I'm starting to get a lemony smell, but it's sort of like lemons soaked in soap, and it's cloying. It all gathers in the back of my throat, and I sort of hate it still.

As time passes, it softens. I actually sort of like how it smells now that it's past the awfulness, but if I sniff my wrist, I get that throat-closing allergic reaction kind of response that makes me think I ought to wash it off now.

Aww. I wanted to love Lolita, to match my favourite; Jailbait. Alas!

The good news? The drydown is gorgeous enough that, were I not having the allergic response, it'd be worth going through the gross beginnings. It's really quite lovely.

I am trying desperately to smell something other than cat pee masked (poorly) with vanilla-berry-something air freshener and... sweat? Ew. My skin chemistry has mis-translated this scent, for sure. It's just not working. I'll have to try it again just to be sure, but I'm thinking I may have to swap this one out.

Thankfully, this one does not remind me of Gingerbread Poppet, which was nearly retch-worthy on my skin. Shub was generously gifted to me by my Spring Switch Witch, and I was so excited to try it. To be honest, when I opened it up, I was sort of... underwhelmed? I had really high expectations for it, I guess, and it sort of smelled like... well, incense. Lots of resiny smells- don't get me wrong; I'm fond of resins, but again, I had really high expectations. So I dabbed some on my skin, as I've learned I must always do, and found myself in the warm embrace of Shub Niggurath.

It's spicy and warm and not terribly foody on me. There's even a clear note that sort of surfaces elusively now and then. It's really quite remarkable, and the ginger is mingling and it smells very... natural on me. It's subtle (fades rather quickly, though I only dabbed), so it's almost an afterthought on me. I will savor this imp, for sure.

I can see what all the hype is about now!

I'm drawing a blank on sandalwood that isn't Velvet, for some reason. Huh.

For just woody, I'd suggest Yggdrasil (smells really clean and sort of herbal to me) or Hamadryad- which seems to be a craps' shoot. A lot of people get a really wintergreen scent out of it. To me, it was more of a cinnamon with a grounding wood note, and it's one of my all time favourites.

Clean: Embalming Fluid is a smooth, citrusy clean to me, and Whitechapel is another fresh citrus. Whitechapel is probably on my top 5, and EF is among my top 10 favourites.

I'll have to go through my imps and see if I can find any others.

I've never tried that one, but the smoky wet fruits thing made me think of Eris. Though Eris doesn't remind me a bit of Dirty, so this may be a -very- long shot.

I like how it smells in the imp. I was looking for something really cheerful and uplifting today, because my mood has been out of whack, so I thought that ACJM would be ideal. As I'm applying it, though, it smells a lot like black licorice- did anyone else get that? Once on my skin, the licorice skulks away and brings up a sort of spiced strawberry shortcake doll scent, and I'm a bit puzzled. This is not what I was expecting, sadly, and I don't think I'm going to end up keeping it. Sad!

I wore this one today and I am very pleased with the scent. I think I was looking for the pear to be a more sweet, slightly syrupy aroma, but I'm actually glad it didn't turn out to be that way for me. It's more of a pear blossom, with a lovely soft musk and the floral never turned soapy on me... just gorgeous, and it faded to a soft sort of powdery scent on me, and I don't mean that in a negative way, I just don't know how else to describe it. Very ethereal and romantic.

Lovely spices of holiday cheer! Warm gingerbread and... yeah. That's about it. I will say that it is incredibly true to the name. I don't detect a lot of difference from bottle to drydown. This is making me HUNGRY. Really hungry. It's a lovely scent, but I'm not sure if it's one I'll use a whole heck of a lot.

EDIT: I wore this again today, and it was overwhelmingly ICK on me. It smelled a little boozy and a lot butterscotchy and less holiday cheery. Actually, it reminded me more of a candle, which makes me think it'd be a decent room scent. So... it's really not one I'll use a whole heck of a lot. I may need to start a swap listing, eh?

In the bottle it smells like Grog and Gluttony, and it's just SO buttery. I immediately feel sad, because it's not at all how I wanted it to smell... but I take a deep breath (away from the bottle) and dab some on my wrist.

I'm confused by the bottles, because Smut smells how I wanted Red Lantern to smell, and Red Lantern smells somewhat the way I expected Smut to smell... but it turns out that I was just wrong about them. Heh.

Once on my skin it sort of blossoms and becomes this heady, spicy scent. It's still sweet, but there's coconut and some spices and it's just lovely. I'm sad to say that it's not immediate love, but glad to say that I surely do like it enough to test it again. Also: Coconut! I've been needing a coconut fix! So I'm hoping it comes out and makes itself known.

EDIT: So, I wore this out tonight, and as I'm walking out of the room, my fiancee sniffs at me and goes, "Is that Gluttony?" because he knows how obsessed I am with BPAL, and it earns him bonus points when he can identify what I'm wearing. It was a good call, though. Partial credit! However, this calms down a lot after a short while and the tobacco and spices come out... not so much with the coconut, sadly. I'm sort of torn about whether I like this enough to wear it very often.

I'm also getting that spiced cider over the holidays, and a bit of a cedary smell, plus the rich plum and berries... it's this explosion of good things that all come out and dance around together, and it's really quite remarkable. I'll have to use it with purpose and comment on that another day. It has, in the past, had the effect of calming me down and focusing my mind on important things when I've been really emotional and scattered. I do reach for this as a comforting scent, and it's just lovely. Spicy fruits. I love spices. Mmm.

I love the concept behind the fragrance, and I also wanted to love it. I got lucky, and I do love it. It smells like warm, spicy wine with a hint of roses floating nearby. I will agree that it does start out extremely sugary, but on my skin it calms down fairly rapidly to this lovely, rich scent. Possibly some incense burning along with it... very compelling. I like it, and.. whew!