GemmaCat

Good! Nice to have you hear.

Beth, the owner of Sunkist couldn't PM you or other labbies here as she was banned this morning when she joined in an attempt to make contact.

This smells alcoholic in the vial. Yum! Once on, it's initially very sharp and biting; a little bit too much for me, really. It settles into lightly sugared frankincense and champaca scent, with that bite coming from the labdanum. Although deliciously resinous, it's a little too sharp for my tastes.

Oh, this one is soooo good! I get soft, worn leather layered with soft resins, the merest hint of vanilla (that has to be the Snake Oil base), and sage. It is herbal-gentle-sexy goodness! The throw is perfect, too. I put a little on the back of my hand to test it this morning and as I was doing pilates an hour later, I received delicate wafts of scent. This is such a winner.

In the vial this is very sharp. On my skin, however, it's something else entirely. I'm awful at detecting individual resin notes but this smells like really beautiful, very high quality incense to my nose. Layered with this is a sweet floral note, and something a little creamy and smoky. It's rich and airy at the same time whilst being somehow sharp and soft. Gender neutral, and with awesome throw and staying power, this settles into a resin-y creaminess that is very lovely.

A super-sweet, glittering mountain of crushed hard candy: watermelon, pink lime, lemon, strawberry and piles upon piles of crystalline sugar. This wasn't what I was expecting, but it's still a winner. In the bottle it's a sweet airiness with just a hint of something tart. Once on the melon starts to peek out, and I am reminded distinctly of Fee, my very favourite melon perfume of all time. As it dries down this gets lighter and slightly more perfumey and there's a hint of lime to this, as if someone squeezed a slice into an exotic, fruity cocktail. Once completely dry this is a soft melon overlaying a true sugar scent with a squirt of lime. It sadly doesn't last very long but I'm happy to slather on such a beautiful scent.

I thought this would be all chocolate and buttercream from the reviews here, but this is quite different on me. Predominantly I smell coconut and buttercream with an earthy, almost gooey fig note running beneath it all. As it dries down I get a hint of spice and something a little too rich for my nose, though I don't know what that note is. Eventually a little orange peeks out, and finally it ends up as a delicious pure cream scent. No chocolate, though. This isn't my kind of perfume but it's one hell of an awesome blend, never the less!

Firstly, Filigree_shadow, you are one brave lady. Thanks for posting this and inviting members in to speak freely. You're pure class, m'dear! Secondly, I ordered once from HnE and was not happy. The products themselves (perfumes only) didn't work on me because of the almond oil base, which is just a chemistry thing and not something I would even consider blaming Michelle for. What did upset me, however, was the fuss it took to get my order. I think I purchased about 10 samples (I can't remember the exact figure now). After hearing nothing from Michelle for some time, I emailed her to ask what was going on, and was informed that Paypal had been playing up for her and had not sent on my order. This was a lie. I know it's a lie because I asked her if she'd received my order in the HnE thread here on the forum before her comments were screened, and she confirmed that yes, she had received it. If anyone wants to verify this, I'd suggest politely PMing the mods to check what I'm saying is true; I won't take offense! and hopefully the mods won't mind. Anyhoo, I was willing to ignore this as long as I got the order. She told me it would be sent in a few days, and I gave it a week to arrive. After a week, I PMed her on her forum to doublecheck the date she'd sent it and ask why it hadn't arrived. She responded with a defensive PM saying that she HAD sent it (implying that I'd accused her of not doing such). I was apologetic, making it clear I hadn't meant to accuse her of anything, and then received a response that, oops, she HAD NOT sent it because of a componant issue, and she would re-send it as soon as possible. Good that I checked, huh? Getting that snarky PM was really worth it. . . When my order finally arrived, she included two big freebies: lotion and a soap. Despite these, I wasn't happy with the customer service OR the products and so I never ordered again. Now, with that fully disclosed, I'll give my 2 cents on this whole issue. At first, I was more than willing to defend Michelle and felt that some more devoted BPAL fans were seeing things that weren't there. However, as more and more of these little "misunderstandings" and "accidents" came to light, I started to believe that Michelle was at fault. I also personally don't trust all her claims that packages are getting lost after what I went through, and I think her communication with buyers is pretty bad. Frankly, she's the second worst e-tailer I've dealt with; the first being sCara who I firmly believe would never have sent my order if I hadn't threatened her publically with legal action. I'll be honest, I sometimes feel that BPAL fans take things too far when defending Beth and her company. I've seen some very spiteful comments snapped at innocent members over a mere misunderstanding before, and I'm sure I will again. BUT the bottom line here is that Michelle broke the forum rules. All the above shady business practices aside, she broke the rules that she agreed to when she joined this forum. Then she purposefully tried to get around restrictions placed on her, which again is against the rules. Why are people upset with the moderators for doing their jobs? If you like Michelle's products so much, and have the HnE forum to discuss them, why does it matter if people here don't like the products or the company? To be cliched, can't we all get along? I will say that I think it's wrong to even insinuate that people defending Michelle are doing so because she gives them freebies. That's poor form, ladies and gents, and intellectually dishonest to boot. That said, I also am not comfortable with receiving overtly generous freebies as compensation for bad service; particularly not when it happens repeatedly as it apparently has. But that doesn't mean Michelle is actively bribing buyers to speak well of her here.

The first time I tried Jack, it was so rich and buttery that I felt nauseous and tucked it away. I finally decided to go back to it after my fiance turned me on to the deliciousness of pumpkin pie, and I am glad I gave this little imp another chance! Jack is all buttery, creamy pumpkin and bright, sweet peach on me. No spice, no complications; just gooey, orange goodness. It has amazing throw and staying power, and can be a little strong, but at this time of year it is such a perfect scent to delicately dab onto my wrists.

I bought this from Bagfish, and I'm so glad I did! There's definitely a similarity to Jack here but where Jack is sweet and rich, PQ is lighter and more spicy. In the bottle, PQ smells just like Jack: all gooey, buttery pumpkin, but once on this instantly transforms into a very airy, spiced scent. I was a little worried at first that this was too light and spicy but once it dried down, the pumpkin scent came back and evened out nicely. Now it smells just like freshly baked pumpkin pie to my nose. It doesn't have the same throw or staying power of Jack but its deliciousness more than makes up for this minor shortcoming. If you love Pumpkin scents, this is a must!

Wet, this is the most delicate, pretty white floral. Soft, feminine, and very fresh as if it's a flower that has just opened. Once dry, it develops an airy, almost dusty, quality that really compliments the overall floral note, and definitely makes me think that 'ghostly' is a good description for this flower. I don't wear florals, but this might just change my mind.

This decant is a very generous gift from Zillah37. Many thanks again, hon! At first sniff, I knew this was familiar but just couldn't place it. The predominant note is patchouli leaf and that full-bodied red musk; very sensual and a little spicy. As I sniffed it more, I finally realised why this is so familiar: it smells exactly like Snake Oil, but without the vanilla! This is one helluva of a sexy scent! I'm not sure if it's something I could wear on its own, but I'm very eager to try this layered with a sweeter, creamier scent to see what happens.

This smells like softest amber with maybe a little spice in the background. It has a 'warm air' quality to it, like I'm being buffeted by a hot breeze, and has a much softer fruity note than I expected. Two words to describe this would be 'exotic' and 'spicy'. The drydown is a little medicinal, reminding me of cherry cough syrup. Not for me, though I do love that 'warm breeze' feeling Beth managed to capture.

Mmm, mango and fig! I broke my rule and bought a 5ml of this before sampling an imp, and I'm glad I did. This is a soft and fruity blend with the green tea giving this a very refreshing background scent. The patchouli stays soft and only really emerges on the drydown, which suits me just fine. This doesn't have the best throw but it's worth re-application. A very nice summer blend.

Oof! This smells overpoweringly of orange and spicy pepper on me; it almost makes my eyes water! When the kumquat emerges this tips over the edge into 'way too strong' territory, particularly when it gets an astringent note on the drydown. I'll stick with Tweedle Dum, me thinks.