fiddledragon

Bottled gloom; the essence of oblivion. Blackest opium and narcissus deepened by myrrh. So *that*'s what opium smells like! This is the first blend that didn't have anything else to beat out the opium. In the background, narcissus and myrrh seem to be fighting over who gets to be with opium; they refuse to share. Eventually they all tire out and tone down enough to coexist peacefully. I can smell all three notes quite distinctly, but they blend wonderfully. That said, I can't decide whether I actually *like* the scent of opium. It's a very well-named blend, but it'll take some getting used to.

In the imp: spicer than I'd expected...this is a sort of very light, perfumy spiced-fruit scent. I'm guessing the lilies are particularly spicy, and the osmanthus is adding fruit. The frankincense seems to be in there somewhere, but that doesn't usually come out until the drydown anyway. On me: herbal-fruity with a hint of musk...the spicy is now herbal...while I doubt this is the case, this is sort of what I'd imagine black pepper flowers to smell like. As it dries, it becomes a light peppery-herbal lily scent with a hint of something almost chlorine-like. This is an interesting experience, and probably smells heavenly on someone, but on me the drydown is just kind of unexciting. I'll see if I warm up to it.

In the imp: total lavender! On me: Lavender with a slight spiciness under it. None of the other notes are really showing their faces. Dry I get a little bit of frankincense sweetness and a touch of floral, but it's mostly wonderfully heady lavender.

In the imp: Sweet roses and grass...ooooo! It reminds me of a grassier Persephone. I just hope it doesn't go unpleasant on me... *crosses fingers* On me: Grass. Candied grass, like those "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans". With a hint of rose. As it dries, the rose goes musty and it smells like a past-its-prime flower arrangement. Alas. I will use it in a diffuser or try it again and see if my skin chemistry changes.

In the imp: melon and strawberry candy -- yum! But a little sweet for my usual tastes in perfume. On me: Candied flowers and melons and strawberries...almost a jasminey note with sweet fruits. It dries to a very sweet floral with a hint of melon. It's very feminine, but the "little-girl" feel wears off after a bit...I think I actually like it better wet; it's more unique and playful. But it's very pretty dry, too. It might have potential as a room scent so long as it doesn't make me crave melons. :-) It's definitely in the same family as Yemaya on me.

Samael was the one Qlipoth scent that I really liked when I tried them through a circle swap -- it's the most beautiful honeyed floral (which really works as a representation of lies and hypocrisy, I think!).

We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever. In the imp: To begin our journey to Y'ha-nthlei, let the salt spray fill your lungs and nibble on these fresh juicy watermelon slices we've provided for the voyage. We really don't know what they're doing here, but they sure are tasty! On me: As you finish your watermelon, dive into the ocean, savoring the chill of that first plunge. Diving deeper, marvel at the strange underwater flowers and brightly colored fish. Dwell in the wonder of the Deep Ones' sweetly crushing embrace, enjoying the splended Earl Grey they offer you.

In the imp: umm, yeah, that's wine alright! Rich, sweet red wine. There's a hint of a "cough syrup" aura, but not enough to bother me yet. Maybe a hint of the oakwood as well. On me: juicy berries and wine. Like some kind of really good real-fruit berry candy, then some of the sweetness tempers until it's almost a berry tea sort of scent. Berries often go rather strange on me, so I'm happy to discover one where they work! It's not something I'd wear every day, but this'll be a lovely happy pick-me-up some gloomy winter day. It's warm, sweet, and comforting.

This scent mocks me...appropriate for a Poe blend. I was so delighted to get this in a mystery imp pack -- so many notes and most of them things I love! When I put it on, it's a chaotic but lovely clash of incense, honey, and woods, with some of the sweet tobacco lurking around the edges. However, after about 10 minutes, it's dried to almost a single-note sandalwood. A beautiful, true burned sandalwood incense scent that I adore, but still...with all those notes, you'd think some of them would stick around??

In the imp: strong, sweet cherry. Not exactly cherry candy, but very sticky...the vetiver and clove are in there, too. On me: Wet -- Woah! Strong. Definitely cherries, definitely wine, definitely honey. The vanilla is probably in there somewhere, and the cloves and vetiver ground it. This is a red-lipstick vampiress from some over the top schlocky movie. Dry -- The scent has become incredibly dry along with the oil...the vetiver has sucked all the life-blood out of the cherries, wine, and honey, and left this almost incensy note that literally leaves me wanting to take a drink of water after I sniff it. Chalk one up for the Weird Skin Chemistry. I'll give this one a few more tries; it has great potential as a costume scent.

When first applied to my skin, this has a waft of soft woods, herbal notes, and lemon peel. My first reaction is that the scent is very sad. I wonder what association I have to something here to give that kind of immediate reaction? As it dries, it becomes a powdery rosewood-lemon with some jasmine and musk. It's still so...melancholy and full of longing. I like this "lemon peel" much better than the typical "lemon" note -- it's a bitter lemon smell rather than the juicy lemon that tends to stomp all over everything as soon as it hits my skin. But I'm not sure I can wear this one very often if I keep getting this strange emotional reaction to it.

A warm, soft, sexual blend. Sweet and alluring. Used to entice new lovers and add an aura of temptation and carnal sin to your environment. So, in the past two swaps I've gotten frimps/mystery imps of this TWICE and one of Love Me. I am amused. French Love is a delicate dragon's blood with some spice to it. I don't want to say "generic" spice, because it's not boring or anything, but it's such a delicate spice that it ends up being earthy and spicy without smelling like anything identifyable as something on my spice rack. There's a hint of heady floral, and something that might be cherry (though that might just be part of the DB acting unusually strong today). It could be sexy if I were in a sexy mood; it's certainly a lovely warm sweet spice, but it doesn't exactly say "carnal sin" to me.

On me, this is entirely bright fresh mandarin. This confuses me greatly, as normally my skin eats mandarin and loves to announce to the world that it is WEARING JASMINE! I guess the neroli and bergamont help the mandarin find its voice; those are a bit more long-wearing on me. It's a lovely scent, but not at all like what I'd expect from the description!

This smells extremely sexy in the imp -- hot and sensual. On me, it tones down and the sandalwood is too woody to really be sexual. It is, however, a beautiful subtle scent. Sandalwood and patchouli are almost always friends, and the rose (which can go unpleasant on my skin) behaves itself. I have no idea what palmarosa smells like, but I'm not detecting any distinct notes I don't recognize, so I assume either my skin ate it or it's something that blends extremely well with one or more of the other notes. I'm not sure how old my swapped imp is, but it has a rather fresh-from-the-Lab look; this may be one that will deepen with age.

"Refined" is really an excellent word for this. It's slightly but not unpleasantly sharp, filled with well-blended citrus and florals, and deepened by the moss and amber. To my nose, it doesn't say "masculine", but then I've never really known guys who wore traditional men's cologne, so I'm not as familiar with it. It's not overtly feminine either, but to me is a gender-neutral "classy and conservative" scent. I could see someone wearing this to a job interview or a state dinner or something like that.

I'll join in the crowd of "manly floral -- wow!" people. :-) The musk makes this very sensual and masculine, the spice is lovely and subtle. Roses are kind of iffy on my skin, so I don't get a good sense of how they work here; I'm sure it's unbelievably wonderful on the right guy who can wear rose. Alas, not only does it not entirely work on me, but my boyfriend can't really wear rose either; it's a nice but unexciting musk on him with a somewhat musty rose note.

This is a very lovely fruit-floral that stayed true on me for the whole time. The peach blossom is gently fruity without screaming PEACH! (I'll keep Fae for that), and the vanilla and sandalwood add a nice warm depth and sweetness. It's somehow not as...distinctive...as some of Beth's other similar blends. It's that BPAL-sweet-floral/fruit in its most elemental state. Like many vanilla blends, it lasts all day on me :-D

This scent wins for Most Impressive Morphing I've seen in a long time. Mullein, for anyone who's curious, is verbascum thapsus, a fuzzy herb known for a wide variety of medicinal and folkloric powers, sayeth Google. In the imp: dark warm musk; very boy-in-a-bottle. On me: Wet, there's musks, some warm resins from the myrrh (which is surprisingly a rather sweet myrrh), and a mentholy note. It's not exactly eucalyptus, and it doesnt' attack like pure menthol cough drops, but it's that same cold sinus-clearing scent. I'm assuming that's the mullein, especially given as it's supposed to have healing properties for lung conditions and be an excellent antiseptic. As it dries, the mullein backs off, just leaving this cold, foresty musk. The vetiver behaves itself...this is very evocative. This scent is chill and dangerous, but not overtly hostile. It's a good scent for that kind of villain who just stands there, doing nothing obviously evil, and speaks pleasant (but not seductive) words that send chills down your spine. After about an hour, all the mullein has gone off and taken the vetiver and colder musks with it. What's left is the most drop-dead sexy sweet red musk I've ever smelled. And red musk doesn't normally like me! It's actually a rather odd effect -- it's one of the more deeply erotic perfumes I've come across, but while it's not unpleasant, I don't find the scent itself amazingly wonderful; it's this visceral reaction to it.

Reading the other reviews, my skin chemistry is apparantly Officially Weird: In the bottle: a nice delicate pear with a sweet enveloping floral around it. This isn't screaming PEAR!!! like Endymion did, which makes me happy and hopeful. On me: Still a lovely sweet pear/floral that isn't cloying or sharp. I'm not really getting anything identifiable as "champagne", which is probably a good thing as white alcohols tend not to work on me. There is, however, this bizzare note that I can only identify as butter...salted butter, at the back of my nose, especially on the outbreath after sniffing it. It's reminding me of Milk Moon slightly. This would be a lovely-but-not-favorite except for that Random Butter Aura, so I'll give it a few more tests; maybe it's a hormones thing. It has a reasonable stay length, and remains remarkably stable in terms of scent; no morphing at all.

The one BPAL that I've really gotten a leather out of that I've liked is Dee...sweet, warm comforting leather with books and spices. Scents like Whip and Loviatar are a harsher leather that my skin kind of disappears and doesn't work on me. It ate the leather in Herr Drosselmyer as well, though that smelled more like the one in Dee. (On my boyfriend, on the other hand, Herr D. smelled *exactly* like a nice worn leather armchair. It was really funny!) I didn't get very much leather out of Dragon's Hide...it added depth to the blend, but dragon's blood is such a strong note that it tends to kind of whomp other notes unless your skin likes them.

I used CoC along with the TAL Catalyst to start up a period of inner work I've been doing. Scentwise it has a strong element of "that ritual bpal smell" -- something I identify as a kind of sweet musky resin. There might be some herbal notes as well. Unfortunately, I didn't like it at all and didn't notice any effect on me psychologically, so I think this is not for me.

Scentwise, this is a bright sweet lemon scent. Maybe ginger as well? It doesn't make my head to fuzzy like some of the TALs I've tried. I tried it out to jump-start a weekend of inner work and meditation, to try to get some general mental/emotional gunk out of my system...there wasn't any dramatic effect while I was using it, though the bright scent helped clear out some of the normal meditation-sleepies, but I had a series of strange, vivid, alternately beautiful and frightening dreams last night. This is definitely an oil to work with more.

There are only a few rose blends that don't go soapy on me, and even then there's about a week where they still go soapy or sharp. Rose Cross is the one that works most consistantly. I'd recommend either putting them in a diffuser or getting a scent locket. I've heard good things about putting scent on hair, but for some reason my hair is the Black Hole of Perfume and I can't smell it.

Weeeeeird...your skin must absolutely eat honey!

I just received Strangler Fig a few days ago, and YUM! It's a very green, plant-like, fresh fig scent. Gomorrah still has my win for favorite fig scent...it starts out slightly overripe, but dries to an amazing sort of fig/date-incense scent. Its a wonderfully dark, dusty, sultry blend. Eden, on me, was Thai coconut milk soup with cilantro. Yeah, I'm just as confused as you are. Nephilim was more tamarind than fig, but the two scents are in a similar family to my nose -- I really wish there were mor tamarind scents. Nemesis didn't let the fig shine under all the cypress, but it added a nice earthiness to the background. Carnal was just weird air-freshener and no fig on me :-( I really do need to try Intrigue, and possibly look for an imp of Perfumed Garden; I've seen that wandering around quite a few places.