mmmitchell

In the vial, I get the super-sweet caramel note, and that's about it. On, however, I get the full range of this one, and I'm so glad. I get the slightly boozy note, but I also get sandalwood and patchouli firmly spicing this whole thing up, and cutting the sweetness from the florals. As it dried down, a vaguely smokey note emerges, and then the whole thing just becomes too well blended to pick out individual notes, except for that luscious sandalwood. As another reviewer said, this has a sweetness from florals, rather than a sugar-rush sort of sweetness, at least on me. I'm reminded of Underpants, but it's different. The long sandalwood drydown on me is very similar, but this has absolutely no cake whatsoever on me....maybe more like Underpants without the cake, just the sweetness and the spices. BPAL foodies are sure to find a new instant love. But, depending on chemistry, I think that some lovers of the "incense-y" scents would love this, too. I guess my best description is that this is a definite "foodiental" . Whatever you call it, it's extremely sniffable. Yup, big bottle for me!

I think that "life everlasting" is one of a group of herbal plants that are known as "everlastings" because they are mostly biennials whose dried seedpods last a long time, used for arrangements and so forth. "Honesty", with the big round seedpods is the one I've grown and am most familar with. The plants I'm familiar with in this category have pretty insignificant flowers/scents, but I agree with bloodonmyhands that there is a herbal/chamomile-like note here that could be that. Heck, I also had to look up "Khus", which appears to be a type of seed used as a spice. Curry was referenced, but there is nothing currylike in this blend, to me anyway. This is a great scent, but way too masculine on me for my tastes. This has got just a real classy "guy" smell to it, to me. It's light and herbal, and slightly spicy and sweet. The leather/tobacco note is dry and just right. My guy's not much for "smellies", but he does like to take hot baths, and I've been making him some bath salts with some of my more "masculine" imps I wouldn't otherwise be using. I think this will smell great as a bath scent....I can't wait to smell how nice it'll leave my bathroom, and my guy.

After sniffing in the vial, and smelling it wet on my skin, I'm thinking "WTF? These sailors chew bubblegum?" because that gummy sweetness is my first impression of this scent. I was expecting a more bawdy, licentious-smelling blend than this. But then, I don't get any of the "boozy" notes on my skin, which would have helped, I think. This scent stays close to my skin....in fact, it is gobbled up in record time. The bubblegummy part goes away pretty quickly. As it warms on me, I get nice clean notes (not dryer sheet like at all), and a very subtle woodsy scent at the end. I keep thinking that this would be nicer on a guy than on me. Maybe that's because my Dad (a very masculine sort) is a life long wearer of both bay rum, and the old fashioned men's cologne Lilac Vegetal. (Sounds girly but isn't) So this smells a bit like my Dad to me.....I mean that in a GOOD way, BTW! But I can easily see this as a woman's scent, if you like a clean, crisp, androgenous scent. I'm not sure it's for me, but it's still very nice. I may have to make my Dad some aftershave balm outta my imp. Plus, he lives at the beach, so doubly appropriate!

On my skin, this is a lovely citrus blend. It's not an In Your Face, zing! of an orange on me, this is more of the scent of sugared orange peel, with some slightly dark notes. In the vial and wet on my skin, I get all burnt sugared oranges, which then mellow into a very sophisticated and golden scent. Still citrus, but a soft citrus, sweetened with the blossoms of the magnolia and lily of the valley. The chestnut blossom must be what's giving me the slightly nutty "burnt" note in this. I don't get much musk, but it must be there, anchoring the whole in a very blended way. I liked it as a companion to the painting, as well. I'm only slightly familiar with this piece by Lucas Cranach the Elder, but I enjoyed the way the scent tied in with it. His interpretation of Judith is interesting, and since (if I'm remembering correctly) Cranach the Elder was a well known as a painter of portraits, his Judith sports QUITE the outfit.....and the sophisticated oranges and burnt siennas featured in the painting are echoed nicely in this blend. I also got a hoot out of those gloves....I thought at first they might be some sort of horrid representation of claws, or similar, but Cranach the Elder was a pretty literal sort of painter (he did a lot of work for Martin Luther, and many pieces tied directly into the Reformation) so I think it's just a weird accessory. And Judith looks like chopping the head off Holofernes was pretty much just all in a days work, ho hum.....here she is straight from a beheading, not a hair out of place, and completely unbesmirtched by blood or ickiness. Despite all my talk of "sugared oranges" this is not a jam-jar of a scent. This is a grown-up orange....capable and confident. I like it a lot.

This scent does a wonderful job (IMHO) of evoking the aspect of the Blake painting....I'm a huge fan of William Blake, both his visual and written art, and have loved this particular painting for a long time, so I was eagerly anticipating this blend. I had to Google "daemonorops" to discover that's it's dragon's blood resin, which helped me understand what it was that I was smelling. Like Shub-Niggurath, this blend has two fragrances in one bottle, and they interpret the painting beautifully. On first sniff, I said "Whoa! There's a serious beastie in there!" The "dragon" in the bottle smells feral and wild and dark.....the result of the beautiful woods in this blend. But also residing in the bottle is the Woman clothed with the sun, and she is all soft florals, sweetened by the dragon's blood resin. The whole blend, then, is set aglow by the amber. As it dries down, the dynamic tension between these two opposites melds, somewhat, leaving a lovely floral with dry woody undertone to it. Even if florals aren't your thing, try this.....I'm not a "floral-y" kind of gal, and I like this quite a lot. As an interpretation of the painting, this works beautifully for me. I enjoy the tension between the opposites, and I find it hugely appropriate. Even down to the "woodsy" smell, which reminds me that many of Blake's best, and most interesting works, were done on wood....as Michelangelo is to Carrera marble, Blake is to wood. As a scent, on me, I'm still not sure. Something about the wood scent, the "beastie" in this bottle smells a bit, well, weird on me. My initial reaction is a cross between peanut butter, and dark slightly damp fur (sounds more horrible than it actually is, but it is a thick, dark scent to me....). This goes away a bit as I wear it, to meld with and anchor the florals, but I still keep getting whiffs of it. Similar to Shub on me, where the "beastie" smell sort of settles down to anchor the warm ginger. This doesn't quite meld together as nicely. I'm thinking I might age my imp a bit, and check it out in a couple of months. Regardless, I will treasure my imp. Whether or not this "works" for me, it's still a lovely interpretation of a favorite piece of art. Many kudos to Beth for this olafactory treat! Thanks!

This was really my first of the "icy" blends from the Lab. I found it very evocative of late winter and overcast, melancholy days. I quite enjoy it since that's not really a "season" that comes to me down here on the Gulf Coast. On me, this is all icy forest scents, but it's a deciduous forest, not all pine. There's a wet slushiness, and just a hint of florals from the violet and orris notes. I don't get much amber from this blend. This scent stayed very true from the bottle to my skin, not much morphing on this one for me. It's a well-behaved scent that stays close to the skin, but has great lasting power. A "private" scent, if you will. I don't mind having a few scents that a person would have to be close enough to kiss me to smell.

Like some of the other reviewers I got straight grape Kool-aid from the bottle. Smelled very much like some of the play-perfumes that I used to get with teeny dolls when I was little. On, this scent loses the little-girl smell and grows up some...a few "greenish" notes notes appear, and then the whole business is warmed by the golden myrrh scent making this a true Mardis Gras of an oil. After wearing for a bit, it evolves into a spicy purple rather than the initial sweet purple notes, and that's fine with me. Throw seems average, but staying power on me was short....two hours, and pfft. Pretty much all gone. I'll have no problem re-applying, though.

OK....I feel like a complete heretic..... I never sniffed the original version of Shub, so my impression is completely about this new GC version. And how could I not order it, after all the love I've heard about it? And, I lovelovelove spicy scents. This was the first scent I tried from my new! order! Eagerly, I uncapped the lid, took a deep sniff, and smelled........damp doggie fur. Not a soaking wet dog, just the warm, thick, furry scent of a slightly damp animal pelt. Then I realized, oh yeah, this is the Goat's pelt, sure as anything. Dark, animal furriness, NOT to be messed with in any way. This took me aback enough that I almost didn't mess with it.....i.e., apply it to my arm, (because who wants to smell like a damp doggie? Not emthree.....) but fortifying myself, I did.....and I'm very glad I did. After about five minutes or so, the "pelt" smell goes away, and here come the lovely beautiful spices, and the ginger-y goodness I was craving. This is definitely gingerbread.....not the overly sweet cakey Starbucks sort, but the real stuff my Momma used to make with lots of blackstrap molasses and fresh bite-off-your-head ginger. For what it's worth, I am not getting a "lemon" or "iceing" sort of scent with my bottle at all. Throw seems about average on me, as does the staying power. I may try making a bit of it into a perfume spray with some perfumer's alcohol....sometimes, I find that if the inital scent is offputting at all, that will hustle me more quickly to the "drydown" stage. But then again....how Lovecraftian of Beth to formulate a scent that gives me BOTH the Goat of the Woods, and her essential female nature? The morphing is a bit shocking to me who was not expecting that after reading other reviews, but part of the adventure that is BPAL is discovering how these scents unfold in a unique manner for all of us.....pretty cool To go back to the beginning of my post, I feel like a heretic for saying anything vaguely negative about a scent that has inspired some of the prices I've seen (and taken a pass on....) on Ebay. But, the moral of the story is to give it a try anyway.....let the scent reveal its self to you in its own manner. I also think this will age beautifully. I'm SO GLAD that it's a GC blend.

I think there's a big similarity in the final dry down stages between Monsterbait: Underpants and Hymn to Proserpine. That final, sweet sandalwood-y (to my nose, anyway) drydown is veryvery similar. Glad me and my nose aren't insane for making that comparison, and that others have smelled it, too! Can't comment as to Lyonnesse, except that an imp of it IS on its way to me........

My initial sniff reaction to this was "Whoa! BUTTER! And more and more butter. It actually smelled sort of greasy to me, it. was. that. buttery. And a very sweet butter at that, mixed with a bit of spiciness. After I applied it the greasy-butter smell died quickly, which relieved me. In it's wake, I get the delicious cakey smell, with an undertone of raisins. I didn't get wine, per se, just the raisin-y aroma, which was nice. From there, this scent settles down into that sweet sandalwood-like note I get in other rather foodie scents, like MB: Underpants and 13. And I looooooovvvvve this phase....this is great. I wore this alot during the holidays, and will continue to use it even after....it's a very comforting scent. But I did find the initial butteriness SO too much that I made some of it into a perfume spray.....this hustled me though the greasy butter part, and delivered me close to the middle dry down, which is just fine with me.

I loved the scent description of this one, as I (like others, it seems) like the idea of a "bitter" scent....especially to offset the sweet scents predominating through the holidays. But alas, Bitter Moon disappointed me bitterly.....I read other's descriptions with envy, as my skin just didn't showcase this scent very well. I get sharp, clean notes in the bottle....with almost a lurking smell of "cleaning product" of some sort. Not entirely off-putting, but not nice. No real hint of blackberry, and the vetiver (for some reason) isn't just hollering at me, which is at least a pleasant change. On, this is chilly and crisp, with a more herbal than perfume type of vibe. I enjoy this for about five minutes and then it's all soap on me. Almost a sharp Ivory soap smell. Bah.

Like many of the other reviewers, I get pure tea rose here....I don't get any of the "blackened" or "twisted" notes, this is a very fresh scent. Elegant tea roses, straight from the florists, with the slightest bit of chill clinging to them from the refrigeration. I'm not a rose fanatic, but I like this well enough to keep my imp. While I'm not sure I want to smell of single note rose, I think it might be lovely to make a linen spray from my imp.

I love the idea of this scent.....but unfortunately, Voodoo fell under the curse of the dreaded amping vetiver. The vetivier just kicks the living crap out of all the other delicious ingredients. In the vial I get a brief whiff of the patchouli, but on me it smells like straight VanVan. No myrrh, no patchouli, no lime, vanilla, pine, or (sob! ) almond or clove. Just All Vetiver All The Time. It's clear my skin just amps this scent component like crazy. And the problem with that is that I can't ever decide if I actually LIKE the scent on me that much. It has a ritual-herb aroma that I don't mind in the voodoo blends....just not sure I want to smell like that. It's not actively unpleasant. Just not me. No big bottle for me. I'm slightly green with envy that so many others get such a beautiful fragance from this one....oh well.....it's not like there aren't many good smellies to enjoy!!

Oh my. This is a beautiful scent. This starts out in the vial as "spicy florals". Now, I'm not normally a big floral fan, but I am a big spice fan, so on it goes.... ......and this quickly becomes warm, glowing loveliness. Softly sweet, a bit spicy, very comforting. This is my favorite (so far.... ) of the Lab's violet blends. I don't get (or am unable to pick out, more likely) the individual notes of juniper, cypress or lily of the valley, and I'm woefully ignorant of what the last note listed in this blend might be. For me, the stars of this blend are the myrrh and the violets, and it's very nice indeed. I'm sure the other notes make this scent the complex bit of yumminess that it is, without having to hog the spotlight. I can see myself getting a Big Bottle of this. Will certainly enjoy my imp in the meantime. The only problem I had with it is it doesn't seem to have much staying power.....I may try crafting my imp into a little perfume spray, and see how that works for me.

I recieved this as a frimp, but given the notes, I'm sorta surprised I haven't ordered it on my own.....I do patchouli! Previous reviewers have compared this with LUSH's Tramp, and I definitely get that comparison. This is a lusciously "green" patchouli blend on me. I get a wonderful clove/violet waft occasionally that must be the myrrh interacting with the orris. It also reminds me strongly of Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds....the patchouli/myrrh combo has the same resonance with me. I can see using this added to a bit of unscented skin after a BSFWC bubble bath. The oddest thing about this combination is that the drydown says "sandalwood" to me....a bone-dry sandalwood. But that's nowhere in the scent description. On the other hand, I don't get a strong sense of the musk, either, so maybe that's what's drying down to "sandalwood" for me. Not as long lasting, or as much throw as I'd like....my skin seems to eat this up. But this is a very nice scent, definitely a Big Bottle Contenda. I'm still, however, ISO my ultimate swoonworthy BPAL patchouli goodness scent. This could rank right up there, though......

What a unique scent. I wish I enjoyed it more, but it is so spot-on that, to be frank, it's a bit disturbing to me, and not something I think I'd like to smell like. I live in Hurricane Alley, and am all too familiar with this particular scent. It's the scent of the beach by my Dad's house after Hurricanes Katerina and Rita. We were fortunately spared much of the devestation, but that smell of rotting vegetation and wood is the initial scent I get from Hurricane, and it's not a pleasant association for me. It's also the scent of my house that I lost to a bayou flood caused by a tropical storm, and the sort of rotting, mouldy scent that reminds me of the extensive clean up after the fact.....again, not that pleasant of an association for me. One of the most interesting things about this scent, though, is the part played by the vetiver. Normally, scents with a heavy vetiver note end up being ALL VETIVER, ALL THE TIME, to the extent that I usually don't smell the other notes. All I get is the slightly creamy, slightly rank lemony scent that I associate with the Lab's vetiver blends. But this doesn't amp to that....interesting. The long drydown....after an hour or so is really quite nice. The "disaster area" note disappears, and I'm left with a slightly masculine, dry woodsy note that's actually quite pleasant. I can't see using this myself, though....perhaps I will find homes for my imps.....

Penny Dreadful offered me quite the interesting nose trip..... In the vial: This is the musty, mouldy smell of veryvery old books that have languished for years in an wooden trunk. I guess this is the "loamy" scent, but to me, it's old falling-apart books and wood. Wet: The musty, murky, wooden-y smell is the strongest note. I definitely get an earlier reviewer's comparison to a poorly maintained coffin. And I agree....this is an interesting scent journey, but not something I want to smell like. I sorta wrote this off as a one-trick pony until about an hour later when..... Dry: Ah, there's the noir heroine's faded perfume. And this part is really very lovely....spicy, creamy goodness. Verdict: I quite like the ultimate drydown on this one, and will enjoy my imp from time to time to get that.....not worth a big bottle to me, however.

This is one of my favorite Lunacies. I live in the Gulf Coast area of Texas, and alas, peonies do NOT grow here...not enough cold weather, and too much humidity. But I spent lotsa my growing-up time in Kansas, where the scent of peonies was really the harbinger of spring. My mother grew lovely peonies, as did her mother, and my younger sister grows them now. In fact, we are all so enamoured of the lovely scent of these beautiful blossoms that we have them planted all over our family's gravesites in Kansas......so my great-grandparents, my grandparents, my mother and my older sister have their graves covered with pink and white blossoms each and every spring. My youngest sister tends to them, but they are very carefree....these delicate blooms and bushy foliage come from corms that over winter extremely well, and are just mowed down each summer when they get scraggy. I was so glad that Peony Moon offers such a spot-on olafactory blast to my past. This is the scent of peonies after a springtime rain. Without the huge black ants. Thanks Lab. I'm not always in the mood to smell so freshly pink, but it's a scent that I treasure. I wish it lasted l longer on me, but, hey.......

In the vial: This smelled so off and so strange to me. I kept trying to place the scent, but the closest I can come to describing it is Welch's grape juice with a completely gone over sort of sharp awfulness to it. I almost didn't want to put it on me, but remembering that morphing can reveal loveliness, I went ahead.... Wet: Oh. Horrible on me. Rancid Welch's grape juice and pee. And when has emthree ever smelled Welch's grape juice and pee for comparison's sake......bwahahah.....some secrets can never be told...... Dry: This just doesn't react well with my skin. I WANTED lovely, luscious honey. I love the Lab's honey blends to little pieces, and they mostly love me back. This is a notable exception, and the ONLY BPAL I have ever scrubbed off. It was just this amazingly bad smell on me, with some real throw, and probably staying power, too. Reading the reviews, I am SO JEALOUS of the people who's chemistry is such that they got such lovely notes from this. I blame the combo of honey and ylang-ylang. Ylang-ylang is one of those notes that is occasionally doesn't play well for me....this is one of those time. Wah!!

In the vial: VERY fruity, leaning toward the tropical. Initial application: The almost-cloying fruit scent starts to warm up quickly with the musks and the florals, saving this from the fate that most fruit scents have with me, which is to go all cheap shower-gel on me. As it dries on me it becomes almost intensely feminine, in a good way. Drydown: The plum in this one plays nicely on me.....that is, it doesn't reek of Welch's grape juice, or similar. As the fruit fades, the florals pick up the slack with the musks. It's a very subtle scent on me.....I like this, and will use my wonderful imp, but nothing about it on me is making me crave a big bottle of this.

This is just so great.....I love the chocolate-y orangeness I get from this. VERY nostalgic, too. Smells exactly like an orange chocolate mousse my Dad used to make all the time for special family occasions. Yum. I got this as a frimp from the Lab (*thanks!*)and immediately ordered a big bottle. This is going to be used to make some truly delicious Yule-gift body scrub for the women in my family with sweet tooths. That would be ALL of us, actually......

Wow. This one sure is a changling. Initially: I get the "rose" smell, but it's not fresh big rose petals....it's the smell you get at the florists, when you open the door to the refrigerated area where they keep their roses. This is the smell of the stems, and leaves, not just the petals. Wearing: This dries down, for me, to mostly rosewood. Something, I guess the hazel, is spicing it up a bit, but it's a subdued and quietly classy scent. I like this very much, and I guess it'll have to go on the "yes, must have more" list. This surprises me, a bit, to like this so much.....it's not the sort of thing I usually wear. But that's half the fun of BPAL for me, sort of stretching myself, scentwise. I agree with some of the other reviewers who imagine this as a room scent. I'll have to try that, too.

Initial Impression: In the vial it's almost more schapps than absinthe to me....I get boozy peppermint....weird..... Wearing: OK, a whole different world of scent on me. This is a lot better than I thought it would be. I like anise-y things, the subtle, herbal licorice note, but despise and truly loathe the smell of black licorice (as in black licorice whips, and the dreaded black gumdrops). This, I'm relieved to say, is firmly in the herbal-anise category....if not, I'd be scrubbing. The peppermint is very prominent at the beginning, but goes away pretty fast, leaving the lemony freshness, which is very nice on me, to hang out with all the herbal notes. This is like an anisey lemony tisane....very light, very nice. I think I might like this even better on a guy.......my guy isn't one for scents, so I may end up gifting my imp to my brother in law, and see how it does on him.

Initial impression: I was worried about this one, since many of the fruitier BPALs haven't worked all that well for me....I'm usually left smelling (to myself, anyway) like a my seventh grade niece. But this is great. I'm initially getting almost all green grass, which is very wonderful and refreshing. Wearing: As it dries, I get more sweetness, but it's not really identifiable to me as either berrylike, or floral....just a nice sweetness to underscore and further sweeten the grass vibe. Many florals just seem to go instant Motel 6 soap on me, but this doesn't seem to be doing that....AND, I don't think I smell like a teenybopper, either, which is ALSO good. Verdict: I'll admit that this scent seems a little out of phase for me.....it does seem much more appropriate for the spring and summer months. My imp will have to wait until then to really get tried out properly. In fact, this seems like a good candidate for a cycling scent.......I'm a touring cyclist, i.e., lots of miles, not so much worried about beating Lance Armstrong to the destination. I do "Century" (100 metric miles) rides on Sundays in the spring/summer (before it gets TOO hot down here on the Gulf Coast) with friends, and also do some longer bike tours throughout the year. I feel pretty skanky after riding, and have been looking for a not-overwhelming-to-others scent that I could dilute down to eau-de-toillette strength as a spritzer. This might really fit the bill.

This is tradition in a bottle for me. Homemade eggnog plays an important role in my family's holiday celebration, and this scent captures that essence perfectly. I love it when dried-down, and it warms from the boozy notes to more of an eggnog cake, warm and delicious with spices. Eat my arm? HELL yeah. I'll be using this both on me, for a holiday moodpickerupper when strategically needed and I think it'll be lovely thinned with a little jojoba in the old oil burner. This is just winter holiday yumminess.