msbcozad

I'm a hyooge pomegranate fan and will snap up anything from the Lab with a pomegranate note listed. That said, Pomegranate III is one of my least favorite scents. The sharpness of the lavender conflicts with the pom's juiciness and leaves an unsettling scent on my arm. It's not quite astringent, but it's unpleasant. I haven't tried Pom V (with the dreaded vetiver) so we'll see if III or V winds up at the bottom of my pom pile.

Halloween: New Orleans This is straight-up lemon pledge. Not my beloved river nor the beautiful city I spent way too much time in during my college years. I'm so disappointed.

Bottle: Maple Syrup. Wet on skin: Maple Syrup. Dry on skin: Maple Syrup. Four hours after application: Barely there pepper and a whiff of coconut. Tonight when I get home from work: Trade bag.

Wow. I get none of the sugary sweetness others have described in Skytyping with Chemtrails. On me, this oil is a skin-close, musky amber with a hint of lemongrass. The musk, or maybe the chemicals, make this smell like a masculine scent. I like it, but it's not the light, lemony summer scent I signed up for.

Geek.Goth contains the bright citrus I wanted from Embalming Fluid as well as the bubbly effervescence from Spinning Multicolored Metallic Pinwheel. This is going to fantastic for summer wear!

Pink Mood is anything but pink on my skin. No vanilla, no cherry blossom, no peony. Only harsh anise. Yuck.

In the bottle Needlework smells like an expensive, grown-up perfume. Freshly applied, it goes sickeningly sweet but it finally settles down to a generic floral mix with a touch of greenery in the background. After a couple of hours, I can finally smell the tea note. The scent stays close to my skin.

Spooky: Resurrected MINT! Then butter. Then rum. Then something not altogether pleasant. Another reviewer mentioned chalk and I'd have to agree. And then minty coconut. More testing required.

Emma started out spicy -- I guess that was the pepper -- and then morphed into rose. After an hour or so, the jasmine rose up and the scent turned to powder. I think this scent may do better in warm weather so I'll hold onto it until spring and try again.

The Fruit of Paradise, 2009 I opened the bottle and was bathed in the most glorious, dark pomegranate scent. I slathered on the oil, not caring who might be offended because this is MY pomegranate. I thought, I need to buy two more bottles of this before it's discontinued. But now, nearly ninety minutes later, my gloriously dark pomegranate has turned into a candy necklace. I don't need a duplicate of Candy Phoenix.

L'Inverno I don't like pine-scented things. I like the smell of real pine boughs, but artificial pine anything makes me gag. I couldn't wear Carpathian Mountains because of the pine note. L'Inverno, however, is a horse of a completely different color. I get a pine-covered-in-fresh snow scent when the oil is fresh on my skin. It's not an overpowering pine; just the hint of evergreens in the cold. Within the hour, the oil morphs into a gloriously soft blend of plum and florals. It's extremely skin-close so I need to slather. L'Inverno is strong competition against Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills as my go-to winter scent.

The Last Squished Jellybean In the imp and fresh on my skin, I get the fabled BPAL pickle note. Whoo hoo! As the oil dries, it morphs (thank goodness) into something that smells just like Partylite's Hocus Pocus candles. It continues to morph a bit, becoming spicier and "hot" to my nose. I think the anise suggestions are right on the money. This isn't a me scent, but it's a wonderful representation of the season.

Fearful Pleasure started out smelling like an apple-scented Glade air freshener and eventually calmed down and warmed up into a mulled cider. Unfortunately, apple doesn't work on my skin.

Black Butterfly Moon This one has me utterly flummoxed. The scent keeps swinging from heavenly to horrific back to heavenly. I'm trying, desperately, to smell the gardenia and I'm getting a whole lot of lily. There's also something powdery that keeps rearing up. The jury is definitely still out on this one. I'm going to let it rest for a week or so and try again.

Clairmonde reminds me of the dressing room my Aunt Trish had when I was a kid. When I sniff the oil on my wrist, it feels like I've sneaked into her room to look at her perfume bottles and cosmetics. The smell of hairspray still hangs in the air because Trisha and Mom were doing their hair only a little while ago. There's a little bit of powder and a green-floral scent which is the mixture of aromas from Trisha's perfume collection plus a little bit of humid Floridian air. I got this for the white rose as that's the BPAL rose scent which usually works on me. It's too bad the perfume is turning to powdery death on my skin. I loved those few minutes of being transported back to childhood.

Lilith and the Jarocho When wet, this oil is lime and margarita on my skin. As it dries, the jasmine comes out and turns the perfume into powder. It's been two hours since application and my wrists smell of baby powder with a hint of salty lime.

Berry Moon Oh, how I love berries! Oh, how I loathe honey! I handwaved my honey anxiety, sure that the berries and fig would overpower the cat pee that honey turns into on my skin. The first few moments of Berry Moon were divine and everything I'd hoped for. But then the musk crawled out and made me wrinkle my nose. Oh please, berries. Please come back and stomp that musk into submission. They tried valiantly but the honey finally showed up and went and then . I hate you, honey. I hate you so very much.

Lawn Gnome I wanted vanilla and red currant. What I got was moss and syrup. Happily, the bottle moved on to a loving home.

Spinning Multicolored Metallic Pinwheel :love!: It's sparkly and fizzy and fruity and oh so much fun! This is a scent which says, "Let's strip to our skivvies and jump in the sprinklers!" It's summer fun and carelessness in a bottle.

Plastic Pink Flamingo Wow, is this sweet! Those sugar-coated marshmallows are vicious. It seems like the same marshmallow note from TKO, but amped waaaaay up with sugar. This scent is a bit too sweet for my liking.

Strawberry Moon 2009 This has been my go-to scent for June and this first week of July. As other reviewers stated, this isn't the candy strawberry confection of I Fell in Love with a Floating Brain or Velvet Pink Kitty (both of which I personally love). This is ripe strawberries with a dash of vanilla against a green background. I don't get much throw from SM, but it stays skin-close for hours and hours. I wish I'd purchased more bottles because I've already used up an imp's worth in the past month.

St. John's Eve smells like a dentist's office. The oil creates a burning plastic smell on my skin and my stomach begins to turn lazy flip-flops in fear that my teeth are about to be drilled. Sale bag pronto!

June Gloom is a stereotypical floral fragrance. It's light and feminine and smells like something my mom would wear.

I, too, received a goblin squirt of Great Dismal Swamp as an extra with an ebay win. I haven't the foggiest what's in there, but it's fantastic. Floral with a hint of dirt to keep it from getting too airy... and perhaps a touch of citrus? I love it and hope it will become part of the Trading Post's regular offerings.

Bat of Virtue Bottle: grenadine and nail polish. Thankfully, I have learned not to trust the bottle. Freshly applied: grenadine and nail polish. Damnit. Five minutes: STRAWBERRIES. The real deal, too. Not strawberry jam, not strawberry preserves. Freshly picked off the vine STRAWBERRIES. Ten minutes: STRAWBERRIES and incense and oh-dear-god-no rose. Fifteen minutes: STRAWBERRIES and a little bit of floral. Thank goodness the rose fell back. And so it continues. Oh yeah, excellent summer scent.