March

The notes in this all sound great to me, yet somehow the scent doesn't come out right when actually worn. Wet on skin it's nice enough, though rather perfumey. Upon drydown, alas, it turns to bitter soap. I can't even recognise any of my favorite notes in this. Off to swaps and a better skin chemistry match!

Ooh, this reminds me of Christmas! Not because it's anything Christmas-associated, but mainly because Christmas was when we'd go to church to listen to the singing. And get doused in the incense. Which I used to hate, but that's mostly because there was so MUCH of it. Cathedral is church incense and wood. It's a cool, distant scent that sends hesitant tendrils out into the air, being a subtle background scent rather than an in-your-face presence. Two words: Calm imperviousness. One word: Perfection! I'd love to try this as a room scent.

This starts off as coconut with a high note (the florentine iris, if my nose remembers it correctly from Shoggoth) and quickly settles down to a perfumey coconut. The hazelnut is hardly present, only as the ghost of a scent, and the musk stays calm as well. A little later, and it's morphed to tea? With milk? Odd. Ah, now it's back to the iris again! Very nice, but I'm not sure if it's 'me.'

This oil smells salty and somewhat bitter to me, with the bitterness not coming from the wine, but from the ferns. The wine note isn't apparent to me at all, and I wouldn't know what palm smells like. Very unusual, very nice! The first time I tried this, it was not my thing at all, but I'm definitely warming to it.

Wet on skin this reminds me of one of my favourite teas when I was younger, black forest fruit tea. I don't drink it anymore, because it smelled much better than it tasted. Luckily, with BPAL the taste doesn't matter. After drydown, the blackberry fades a bit to the background, giving some room for the musk to come out. At this stage, the scent on the whole is much less strong, but it stays at this intensity for quite some time! Very nice, indeed. Sweet, but not overly foody or cloying, with a nice warm musky background.

The first time I tried this, the lemon grass was overwhelming on me. Lemon scents tend to do that on me, like Whitechapel. Needless to say, I didn't like it. On second try, the lemon grass plays nicely with the other scents, and while I'm not usually a fan of florals, these flowers settle to a beautiful and non-sharp backdrop for the citrusy smell. Eventually, something warm and comforting comes up beneath, possibly the amber or musk - untrained nose doesn't know yet. Oh, now it's morphing again, so I guess I'll wait another bit before posting this review! Now it's gone to sweet, flowery, perfumey perfume. And, oddly enough, I don't mind one bit. Definitely a keeper!

This scent is a testament to my dislike of foody scents. It doesn't even smell like any food I can make out (but I've never had any gingerbread, so that may help), but it's extremely cloyingly sweet and rich to my nose. Intellectually, it smells pretty good, but the impact is just too much for my stomach. After a while it settles to something resiny and gingery, and that's nice, but not worth the initial stages! Pity, all the other reviews sound lovely. Off to swaps and a more appreciative owner!

The first time I tried this, I thought it was horrible. I had it on my arm next to a really sweet-smelling BPAL, though (burning through testing a bunch of new imps!) and Dracul smelled acrid, lifeless and awful in comparison. Upon opening the imp this morning though, I found out that I was sorely mistaken in my judgement! This starts off quite complex, with the mint and the fir and I think the orange blossom vying for dominance on my wrist. However, after quite a short time already, it settles down to a nice, probably 'masculine' mixture. I think I smell mostly tobacco now, and black musk (which I'm definitely learning to identify in the scents that have it! This reminds me of my faves Haunted, Iago and Czernobog, so it must be there). I really liked the initial stages, and while the drydown is gorgeous on me, I think I'll try this in my scent locket to see if I can retain some of the notes that were there in the beginning. Or maybe layer it. Oh, the possibilities!

Got this one as a frimp in a sale from ladyjc! Lear is almost purely cedarwood on me, or 'pencil shavings,' depending on your proclivity for drawing. However, there seems to be a certain 'hollowness' or 'spaciousness' in this scent - I don't know how to describe it otherwise, that really reminds me of the sage, even though I don't think I actually smell it. I really like this scent, as a stand-alone and also because I think its potential for layering is pretty good!

I think this may be the first floral I've tried that I can actually wear! Malice starts off kinda iffy and morphy on me, like it doesn't really know what it wants to be. It turns awfully floral at one stage, then citrusy (don't ask me why), then really earthy, but after about half an hour it settles to a beautiful non-sharp, sweet and grounded scent. I'll have to check what I think about it when I no longer have a cold, though! It seems there are more things lurking in this scent than my poor stuffed nose can discern.

A negatively charged scent. Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints. Cathode on me is a deliciously complex mint. It's really minty, but grounded and deep at the same time. I like it best in summer, but I pulled it out today anyway, and it holds its own on cold, chilly days as well. This scent does not morph much on me, it simply fades over time.

I love this! On me, it's a light, glowing scent with a slightly citrusy tang to it (only slightly, though, and I wouldn't know where it comes from, given the notes). It doesn't morph on me at all, and is still going strong after 6 hours!

This is a gorgeous, light minty scent in the imp and wet on skin. I'm not usually a fan of light scents because they tend to have notes that are really sharp and irritatingly present to my nose, but The Coil doesn't have any of that. It's a really nice, complex mint. Unfortunately, on my skin it morphs to a generic, soapy scent. In my scent locket, though, it stays beautifully true!

O, from the imp, smells almost bad. Strong and sour, like you're sticking your nose in a big jar of honey. Luckily, that's a good thing, because it means it's a realistic scent! The trick is to put enough it on so that I can take full advantage of the phenomenal staying power of the honey note, without going into sour territory. Even after a good night's sleep, my wrist still smells of honey, but where real honey would've made me feel sick by now, the honey in O is balanced out by something else - gotta be amber, vanilla alone is a wow-hungry-nauseous scent as well on me - so that it stays brilliant. I don't really get where people say it smells like sex, though. To me, it's nice and comfy and warm, but nothing more 'energetic' than that!

Villain is strange on me. Most BPALs are way too strong for me and I prefer to dilute them a little (or a lot - I think I diluted my Snake Oil 20 times at least, and now it goes on just perfect!), but I barely smell Villain from the imp at all! When I put it on, even undiluted, it seems like there's a delay in my nose. *sniff* - one mississippi, two mississippi - Hey, lavender! There you are! I love it, it's not straight up lavender (which I also like a lot) but a more brooding kind of lavender. It doesn't stay around on me very long, but I like it enough to keep re-applying. In a scent locket, the throw and staying power are amplified a lot, which is perfect in my case because Villain isn't a morphing kind of scent on me anyway.

Ravenous starts off sweet to me, and also pretty strong. It actually tends to make me hungry when I put it on, but that just may be because it smells nearly edible and reminds me of the fact that I haven't had lunch yet. On drydown, the sweetness goes away a bit, and the scent becomes a gorgeous, subdued version of its former self. I can't really distinguish the notes in this, but the total effect is gorgeous. Anyway, this scent is beautiful all the way, and doesn't change much on me. It reminds me of Snake Oil in a way - it's not vanilla or spicy at all, but it's warm and deep and glowing, if you know what I mean. Definitely a keeper, and probably a bottle!

Wow, more grass than I expected. My first order is out, but I'll definitely keep those in mind for later. Strange that the scent 'Amsterdam' smells like grass - I was in Amsterdam last Tuesday and it just smells like city to me. Too bad the single note is so expensive. Guess that one's off my list, then. At least until I graduate and get a proper job.

Thanks all! Phantom Queen sounds quite nice, I'll add that one to my order. And I'll definitely keep my eye out for the Sweet Grass single note!