Heretic

In the vial: Lemons. On my wrist: wet: Lemon furniture polish. After 20 minutes: Lemon wet-nap (see the pattern here?). After an hour: And the winner is...wait for it...lemons! Thanks for playing. You win a free trip to the swap pile.

In the bottle: Almond. On my wrist: wet: Sweeeet! Almond. Ugh.Cheap amaretto or a cherry cough drop. After 20 minutes: Ah, that's better. That harsh sweetness is is gone. But wait...it's now toasted almond, vanilla, and cinnamon. Great, I smell like a coffee cake. I do not like smelling like food. No good can come of this. After an hour: Eclipse never got past the "baked good" stage for me. Not at all what I was hoping for, but I'm sure someone else will like it. To the swap pile with you.

In the bottle: Whooo! Aqua! Like the color! On my wrist: wet: Oh, is that what ozone is? Top note is a crisp, not sharp, white lily note. This is very clean and bright but I like it- it's not cloying like I find most white flowers to be. After 20 minutes: Lilies: muted. I get the vaguest hint of wood under the floral. It's as if the lily note wants to be full and round, but the wood slightly... deflates... the top of the note's sphere. It's gibbous lily! After an hour: This is almost completely the opposite of what I was expecting. I was expecting deep, murky, green, maybe a little dank. I get none of that. Dunwich is a strangely muted floral with a hint of miasma, but ultimately, it sits in the sun, albeit a watery one. Even though this isn't what I was expecting, I still like it very much and it will make a wonderful scent for spring.

A pain-tinged, pleasure-soaked blend of leather, oakmoss, orange blossom, amber, and rose with a breath of virginal French florals and a hint of austere monastic penitential incense. In the vial: A sweet, slightly spicy floral. On my wrist, wet: Whoa-- there's some sort of resin in there, too. And that's no uppity floral, either. There's something dark that's going to emerge, I think. After 20 minutes: Getting a vaguely after-shavish scent, maybe a trace of leather. Truth be told, the scent's almost gone. After an hour: Well, the scent came back, but as serious aftershave. This one started out with lots of promise, but it's leaning towards the "Get It Off Me" category. I'll give this one to someone I don't have to be around. ETA: Catalog description

In the vial: Sharp and a little dirty (filthy lucre?) On my wrist, wet: Hello patchouli! With the heliotrope hot on its heels, bringing some clean sweetness to the mix. A bit like pencil shavings, but that scent is usually fleeting on me. After 20 minutes: Wow, this is nice! (Looks up "copal") No wonder it smells like amber! A nicely balanced blend of amber and patchouli, sweet and earthy without being overbearing. After an hour: Well, this is a nice surprise! Greed is not at all what I expected. It's a very agreeable patchouli equally balanced with a powdery amber note (I'm assuming this is the copal). I get the vaguest of associations with old paper money, but no metallic tang at all. This is easily an everyday, outdoor scent and it's the kind of patchouli blend I wanted Anne Bonny to be. I'll consider a bottle of this after I finish my imp.

In the bottle: Frankincense with a sharp green note. This must be the cypress. On my wrist, wet: Much the same, with the sharpness softening a little and the frankincense developing nicely. Oooh! Here comes some moss. After 20 minutes: What an odd blend. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't anything this soft (and yet there is just a hint of a sharp edge). It's also lighter than I expected it to be, yet it's still a weighty fragrance.The cypress has stepped back to let the frankincense and oak moss blossom. I like this very much. After an hour: Danse Macabre is ultimately a soft green floral on me. The frankincense is tempered and sweetened, and the sharp note that was so prevalent in the wet stage has completely disappeared. This is a unique fragrance and it sits well on me. I accidentally ordered a 5 ml bottle of this (I meant to order Dance of Death), but it's actually turned out to be a fortuitous mistake. I'll wear this one often.

In the vial: Wow. It smells like dirt. On my wrist, wet: It really does smell like fresh, moist, overturned earth with the faintest faded rose poking through. I live across the street from a cemetery where I walk my dog in the evenings. I know this smell very well. After 20 minutes: Roses in the ground. Amazing. These are not fussy, pruned, prize roses from a lady's garden, these are melancholy, discarded blooms left to die on a grave. And for all that morose imagery, it's a beautiful, full smell that is blooming delightfully on my wrist. After an hour: What an utterly beautiful bit of alchemy Zombi is. Fresh earth and faded roses at twilight. Simply gorgeous. I just ordered a 5 ml of it.

This was a frimp from the Lab (thank-you!) that arrived broken, so by default, I'll review it first before I dispose of its poor little carcass. In the Vial: Yellow and crisp! I assume this is the ginger. On my wrist, wet: Lemons. Things tend to turn lemony on me. Smells a bit like a wet-nap with a deeper resonance. This is awfully bright and shiny for me. After 20 minutes: There's some fig, now, coming through. The lemony smell has faded somewhat, but this is still way too sweet for me. We'll see what it does in a little bit. After an hour: Not much has changed. This smells rather like a fig-scented candle or room spray to me, but in all fairness I detest food and fruit scents in personal fragrance, so The Apothecary is pretty much doomed by its ingredients alone. It could smell like the most delightful edible in the world, I still wouldn't want to wear it. This is probably a great fragrance on someone who appreciates fig, or even as a room scent in an oil burner. Not quite in the "Get It Off Me" category, but definitely not my thing.

Not intended to be a hi-jack, but does the metal of the locket affect the components of the oil at all? Any chemical reaction that might turn your favorite scent into a nose-wrinkler? I'm really intrigued by scent lockets: I just discovered that I have one: my sister gave it to me years ago with no explanation and I just now realized why there are little holes in it. Talk about duh! ETA: The information about about the scent staying in the "wet" stage is also good to know. I tend to be turned off by scent until I've worn it for about half an hour, so I'll pay closer attention to what I like in the wet stage.

In the bottle: Glorious frankincense. On my wrist, wet: Frankincense tempered with something sweet and soft, not quite floral but almost. I'm in love already. After 20 minutes: A little softer than when wet, but other than that, much the same with an added subtle smoky element that comes and goes. I swear there's a tiny bit of rose in there, as well. After an hour: I don't know what else to add. This is a gorgeous scent that I will wear frequently. Fortunately, I don't get the Christmas association at all. Midnight Mass is unique and very much the kind of fragrance I appreciate the moment I smell it. Amen.

In the Vial: Frankincense and violet poking through. On my wrist, wet: Sharp and warm. The cinnamon adds spice to the mix without smelling like cinnamon, per se, which I appreciate because cinnamon amps on me and I don't care for the smell. The violet and frankincense are playing a lovely duet. After 20 minutes: Well, this is nice, and the cinnamon is behaving. We'll see how that note develops. The frankincense and violet are blended perfectly. Doesn't seem to have much of a throw at all, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This is turning out to be much better than I anticipated. After an hour: I like this a lot. I like violet and I like frankincense. I detest cinnamon. Faustus is the perfect blend of these, with the cinnamon lurking very low in the background. It is definitely a masculine scent, but one I feel comfortable wearing. I'll try this a couple more times before I deem it bottle-worthy, but I certainly seem to be leaning in that direction.

In the vial: I know this smell-- definitely a man's scent, like an aftershave I remember someone using when I was a child. On my wrist, wet: Wow- a really strong and masculine floral. The lavender is sharp and blends nicely with the subdued sweetness of the lime. It definitely has the crisp element of "gentleman" all over it, but I need to get over the weird association with aftershave. After 20 minutes: Nice little bit of musk going on, softening the whole blend. This is so classy. Aw, surely the man who wears this is not a villain? I wouldn't be able to stop sniffing him, even if he were. After an hour: The man who wears Villain is in control. You call him "Sir." He has suits tailor-made. He carries a linen hankie. I really love this scent, I don't know if I could actually get away with wearing it, though. I can usually pull off a masculine scent better than a feminine one, but I think Villain is just too masculine even for me. However, as I don't have a man to put it on, I may have to try this one out a couple times and see how it feels. A real winner.

In the Vial: A little bitter and green, with some earthiness coming from below. On my wrist, wet: The bitterness fades a bit almost immediately, but man, does this have a hella throw. It's very heady, warm, and spicy. After 20 minutes: Still quite spicy. I can't identify any individual notes at all, just this very brown spice, which can be nice in a cup of tea, but I'm not sure I want to wear it. Hmm. We'll see what happens. After an hour: My head is about to explode. I can't wait to go scrub my wrist. I'm disappointed that the components of Anne Bonny, all of which I like immensely, went so horribly, horribly wrong on me. I smell like I've rolled in a vat of my late grandmother's "Youth Dew", even though I only put a tiny drop of Anne Bonny on my wrist. I'd love to smell this on someone it works for-- I bet it's very alluring. But it's not for me. This imp goes straight to the "Get it off me" pile.

In the Vial: Sweet and a bit powdery with a little something dark lurking beneath the surface. On my wrist, wet: This smells surprisingly like Dior's original Poison on me, not what I would consider a masculine scent, and one that never quite agreed with me because it always turned sickeningly sweet and strong. The spicy note and the powdery musk in Othello is coming out a little more than in the vial. Nice. After 20 minutes: Oh my. This is absolutely divine. This is what rose should smell like. The sweetness has dissipated leaving a musky, spicy background on which sits this gorgeous and somewhat melancholy deep red rose. I think this is a very sexy gender neutral scent, and I envision the man who can pull this off as being incredibly masculine and strong without being brash and brawny. Hot damn, bring him! After an hour: Othello has faded down to a very intimate scent without a lot of throw. After the initial drydown on my wrist, I put a little behind my ears. If I can figure out a way to nuzzle my own neck, by golly, I'll do it! This is a big bottle purchase for me. Perfect! ETA: I need to put some of this on Clive Owen and see how it wears. Yes, I think he'd do just fine in Othello.

In the Vial: JASMINE! WHOA! On my wrist, wet: Strangled by jasmine! Almost burns my nose. And what a throw. I can almost see it wafting off my wrist in white, curling tendrils. After 20 minutes: Hi. I'm jasmine and I own you. But without sourness and pointy edges. After an hour: Jasmine. It keeps going and going and going... Honestly, I can't pick up any other notes. It smells the same as it did an hour ago, just not as blindingly strong. Pannychis is a strong, heady, floral and I'm not one to pull off that kind of a scent (although I used to have a roommate who could wear this kind of scent beautifully). On me, it's cloying and overbearing. I would feel apologetic for assaulting people if I wore this to a restaurant or other indoor space with people present. Gender neutral? I'd love to meet the man who can wear this and not smell like he mistakenly marinated himself in his lady's perfume. Must get this off my wrist...

In the vial: A spicy floral, not cloying. On my wrist, wet: Some serious spicy going on with a hint of rosy floral that has some sort of memory attached to it (I love when scent acts as a mnemonic device). This could be drool-inspiring. After 20 minutes: Cinnamon amps on me. Pity I don't like it. The way the rose is persevering in the background, though, I think the cinnamon will vanish and leave a spicy rose. After an hour: This is nice and may be worthy of a bottle. Definitely strikes me as a winter scent, since the cinnamon never quite fades away entirely.

In the vial: Kind of...syrupy, but not totally sweet. What is that? On my wrist, wet: Oh no! Lemons! And something kind of powdery-- must be the amber. Musk? What musk? This is all furniture polish and dust. After 20 minutes: No. This is just wrong. Powdery lemon. What does this smell like? Some J.C. Penney fragrance that my grandma got me when I was a teenager...Heaven Scent or some such little-girly smell. Haunted is obviously not reacting to me the way it does with other reviewers here. Only a miracle can save the drydown! After an hour: Play-d'oh!! Now with lemon and powder! This is a nice enough smell, but it's so not me at any point in my life.

In the vial: A little acrid, but quite sweet. On my wrist, wet: More than anything I smell a pine, slightly smoky, slightly spicy. This isn't at all the inferno I was expecting (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). After 20 minutes: Djinn is one of those "color" smells, and its color is a deep, rich orange, like flame itself, but it's also sparkling with white, glittering points. I really like this. After an hour: Very soft orange with a little of those sparkly points left, though quite dulled. This is a very calming, pleasant, carefree scent. I was expecting something very strong that would reach out and grab my attention and slap me around a little. Instead, Djinn is actually very ...pretty and graceful. This is an all-season scent, but one I have to be in a certain mood to wear. Come summer, this may be 5 ml-worthy.

Vial: Strong and sharp, a hint of eucalyptus and fruity fig. What a bizarre combination. Not something I would normally care to put on my skin or smell on someone else. On my wrist, wet: Something dry-- almost like champagne, with the earthy patchouli and frankincense all rolling around together. Odd, I associate dry with cold scents, but this is definitely warm. I can pick up that vague chocolate note that Penance mentioned, but just barely. Is there some neroli in here as well? Must be the tamarind. This is really complex and lovely. 20 minutes later: The cardamom and the tamarind are center stage now-- a bright, spicy smell that is somehow a little dark. It's almost foody, so I hope that goes away, because I'm liking this crazy blend a lot. After an hour: The figgy/fruity is going to town, and it's not my bag, baby, although it's not too bad, if you like that kind of scent. After 2 hours: The fruity is gently swallowed up by frankincense. This is just gorgeous. This is a warm weather scent for me, but a little dab'll do.

Oh, I'm so excited to try this. I ordered a 5 ml bottle from the description alone and bought an imp from pensive to tide me over. In the vial: Green. By scent, by sight. On my wrist, wet: Vick's Vapo-rub and that's it. Even sick, I don't like the smell of Vick's, so I'm not enjoying this at all. The Vapo-rub smell begins to fade pretty quickly, but not nearly quickly enough. I find I'm altering my movements because I don't want to touch my wrist on my clothes or anything I may have to smell later. 20 minutes later: Faded Vick's Vapo-rub. No floral, no earth, just faded medicinal ick. An hour later: Is that all there is? A medicinal assault that just fades into the ghost of Vapo-rub past? Get it off me! This was a huge disappointment, but someone will want that 5 ml when I get it in the mail. ETA: Several hours later, the Vapo-rub smell is gone, leaving a rather pleasant herbal and vaguely floral scent. It's very subtle, though, and I'm not sure the payoff is worth the Vapo-rubness of the whole experience. I'll try it again sometime and see if it wears differently.

In the vial: Subtly fruity, but pleasant, which is odd for me, because I don't care for fruity smells. On my wrist, wet: I was concerned about the cinnamon smell being overpowering (another scent I'm not crazy about unless it's in food), but there is a greater spicy note taking the spotlight, and the cinnamon accents it ever so slightly. That fruity smell is gone almost immediately and replaced with the faintest floral undertone. This is nice! 40 minutes later: Oh no. Here comes the cinnamon! I smell like a Hallmark store at Christmas time. Quel horreur! Finally, an hour after application: I guess the cinnamon showed up in force to say goodbye. I was working on other things for a few minutes before heading to the bathroom to wash this off and I kept thinking "What's that wondeful smell?" My wrist is now glued to my nose. Hamadrayd has dried down to a complex, spicy floral mellowed with woody notes, gorgeous and worth the wait. This may be worthy of a 5 ml bottle. ADDED Sept. 15: This is actually my second post in this thread, my first being the review here. Based on the imp I reviewed, I ordered a bottle and passed the imp on to a friend who fell in love with it. When my bottle came, it smelled nothing like the blend in the imp. What I have now is a bottle of wintergreen oil. Ben-gay, Pepto-Bismal, Life-Savers, you name it. It is not what I thought I was ordering. I don't know what happened, but this isn't the same Hamadryad with woods, green floral, and cinnamon. If there is a component issue, it would be nice if that could be worked out, because I'd love to have the scent I fell in love with instead of this bottle of overbearing wintergreen that I will never use. This is truly the only time I've really been disappointed in something from the lab, and I never would have ordered it had I known it would not smell at all like my imp.

Thanatos In the bottle, this seems quite "perfumey" to me, however florals always strike me as such. I don't mind a nice rose scent and I'm curious to see what this is like in action, since the description sounds so intriguing, what with the myrrh and incense notes. On my wrist, wet: Wow- this is almost overpowering, and the rose is really strong but not too sweet or cloying. It reminds me a bit of opening up a closet or trunk that has been closed for ages and being hit with the smell of fabric that has been saturated with fragrance for decades and then put away, but much stronger. If this calms down, it will be lovely. 20 minutes later: Subdued rose, a little dusty, a little earthy. I can smell the sandalwood dancing around the edges-- I wasn't expecting that. An hour later: This blend didn't develop in the direction I hoped it would. I was hoping the sandalwood would blossom, but eventually, the rose insisted on being the star of the show. It's a lovely scent and it does calm considerably over time. It's not the sort of fragrance I would wear on a daily basis, but I'll revisit this when I'm in the mood for a floral. An imp will suffice.

Gingersnapp's bottle is mine now... This is the scent that took my BPAL virginity. In the bottle, the scent is oddly green. I don't know the particulars of individual notes yet, but this must be the vetiver that everyone comments on. It's a strange smell, but I like it. On my wrist, wet: Oh no! Lemons and nothing but lemons almost immediately! Something almost almondine in there, too. I dislike foody/fruity smells more than probably any other scents when it comes to personal fragrance. I consider scrubbing this off, but I've invested in the 5 ml, so I might as well see how it dries down. I'm bracing for a big disappointment. 45 minutes later: This is exquisite. There's something green and softly musky that has completely overpowered that oh-so-bright lemon note. A shadow of something tangible that can no longer be touched. It's unlike anything I've ever worn before. For that matter, it's unlike anything I've ever smelled before, and yet it's familiar, like those places you visit repeatedly in dreams but never in real life. After seven hours, the fragrance is still hovering around me like a subtle nimbus. This is truly a gorgeous and haunting fragrance, and I'll cherish every drop of it.