storme

In the imp: Salty, tangy oceanic sea-spray sort of a scent. It reminds me of those 'ocean spray' scented candles you see. Sharp and strong. On me, wet: Still salty and tangy, a very strong deep blue sort of scent. The SO hates it, but he dislikes most aquatics on me. I have to admit, though, that it smells like something a very sporty guy would wear, rather than something I would wear. On me, dry: I went off and did other stuff and wasn't paying attention, and now ...wait, this is suddenly Sea of Glass! That same calm green mix of ozone and aquatic, with none of that sea-spray blue saltiness. Verdict: I can't say it ever smelled like lightning, but it ended up smelling like a slightly-less-awesome Sea of Glass. If this means all aquatics end up of Sea of Glass, then yay! Makes this a tad redundant, mind you. I'll hang onto it for now, though.

In the imp: mmm, cherry cherry warm delicious yumminess. On me, wet: oh ow ow, do not get this into a scratch in your skin. It burns, it burns! Smells of rich cherry warmth, with a dash of clove to detract from the sweetness and a little bit of dusty myrrh-ness. On me, dry: Smells like dusty warm clove and rich dark polished wood. The cherry is pretty faint, alas, but there's a sort of metallic tang behind the warmth. Verdict: I was fairly sure from all the listed notes that I would like this, and hey, I do. It is definitely evocative of blood - thick, rich, heavy, easily-clotting dark red blood. I'm not sure I can really get away with wearing a scent this *dark* and rich and heavy, but I'd certainly like to try. Yum.

In the imp: carnations! it's such a green note I sometimes think it's a herbal scent, but here it's got enough floralness to be truly carnation. On me, wet: carnation, tea, and a really crisp, biting acidic citrusy scent behind it. Really lovely and bright. On me, dry: Hey, the rose came out and took over. It's made it a bit powdery - this is now really similar to Moon Rose on me, but with a slightly hint of greenness where moon rose had white florals. Edit, some time later: And oho, there's that clove note that people were talking about. Interesting. Verdict: I don't think I need a big bottle of this, but it's certainly a very weird scent. This was maidenly and light and bright at first, then the rose had a thorough romp with her and finally she settled down with the clove and became a somewhat naive but definitely unmaidenly scent. Think I'll keep this imp around.

In the imp: berry and herbs. There's also a light scent I assume is the tea. On me, wet: musk! lots of musk and herb and some berriness and something that's making my nose feel as if I am about to sneeze. On me, dry: berryish sagish musk. This feels old, and dry, and *dirty* in an unpleasant way. It's making me think of old boxes of fruit tea at the back of an unused cupboard, covered in dust and cobwebs and possibly full of spider babies. Yech. Verdict: Not a keeper - it keeps making me think I'm going to sneeze, for one thing, and it's intensely evocative of neglect and disuse to me. Swap pile time.

In the imp: sharp pepper, cinnamon, clove and that cherry-wood-flower dragon's blood scent. I think this is the first imp where I've jotted down the notes I could smell in the imp, then checked them against the lab description and pegged all of them. On me, wet: Wow, this is indeed thick and sludgy and vivid red oil. The smell is... hot peppery cinnamon sweets. The dragon's blood has gone, and this is more or less the same as Three Witches was on me. On me, dry: This is exactly the same as Three Witches. Seriously. Pepper and cinnamon together clearly just combine to form SUPERATOMIC FIREBALL cinnamon-pepper sweets on my skin. I'd hoped the dragon's blood would mellow this a bit, but apparently not. Verdict: I ended up trading away Three Witches because I never wore it, and I see the same fate befalling this. I still admire it in an abstract way, but it's not a scent I will ever wear.

In the imp: whoa, lavender and sharp orange blossom. Makes me think of the kind of soap my grandma would use. On me, wet: still orange blossom and lavender. I think the cypress is making me think of pine, too, since now it smells like grandma-soap in a thoroughly-bleached bathroom. On me, dry: Whoa, the sharp orange blossom faded down, and the lavender backed off a little and, oh, hello, there are some other florals in here. They're hiding behind the cypressy pine-bleach, mind you. Verdict: Not a success. It's evocative, mind you, since it's making me think of houses where bleached-and-scrubbed cleanliness is used to mask (or at least to compensate for) extreme poverty, which is pretty tragic.

In the bottle: Whoa, mint. Mint and mint and pine. There's a faint sweetness to this, like a chewing-gum mint. On me, wet: Mint and pine and ozone and citrus. It's a very blinding bright white-green sort of scent, and sort of sinus-clearing. On me, dry: watermelonish minty airy light cucumbery snow. Man. The mint fades down a long way, and this becomes very breezy and bright and watery and not as sweet as I feared. Verdict: From the scent in the bottle, I wasn't expecting this to be such a big hit with me. It'll be great as a cooling summer scent. Hooray for getting a whole 5ml of this unsniffed!

Black Forest smelled to me exactly like pine needles crunching underfoot do. Zombi smelled like a freshly-tilled rose border, very richly earthy with a waft of rose scent on top.

Fruit Moon is my SO's more favourite scent on me ever. Are there any GC scents that are fruity in the same way? I've tried a few fruity GC scents but they're either too citric (Aizen-Myoo, which I still love but which isn't Fruit Moon) or too sweet (Akuma) or too one-note (Thalia). Any other suggestions?

In the imp: rose and resin and orangey citrus. On me, wet: florals, primarily rose, with a spicy ginger scent and a lot of green herbiness behind it. I keep thinking this is going powdery but I dont think it is; I think it's just my reaction to the herbs and florals together. On me, dry: faint cinnamony-clovey spices over a herby-powdery scent. Makes me feel slightly nauseous. The SO likes it, though. *shrug*. Verdict: I don't think I'll be keeping it - the SO likes it, but doesn't think it's sexy. And I find it's making my stomach turn.

In the imp: florals and cider and and plums. yummy. On me, wet: hmm, still lovely plummy and warm and now there's a sharp scent too - hmm, bergamot? and then suddenly the yumminess vanishes and I am left with sweet baby powder. On me, dry: sugary floral baby powder. Occasionally I get whiffs of sugary dry plums but they're very faint. All that juiciness and the cider has disappeared. Verdict: Wah. This was lovely in the imp, it really was - not too far off the smell of Fruit Moon. Oh well, swap time.

In the imp: hmm, sweet aquatic, lots of dragon's blood. On me, wet: yow, that's thick liquid. Once on, I get a brief rush of dragon's blood and salt, then a sea-scent combined with a powderyness that makes this smell like some sort of soap to me. On me, dry: still soapy. fades fast. Mrf. My SO went 'ew, soap' when he sniffed at this. The dragon's blood does resurface but it's dusty and soapy too. Verdict: Nope, not one for me. I was thinking that there might be an interesting balance between the aquatics and the dragon's blood, but, alas, not on my skin.

In the imp: amber and fruit and musk. sweet but with a fusty edge. On me, wet: musky cherry and amber. It's sort of cherry medicine-like. It's very sweet, although less fusty than in the imp. I keep thinking this has dragon's blood in it. On me, dry: the cherry decided to skedaddle, leaving behind a faint strawberry-ish amber-and-vanilla scent. After a while, all that's left is the sticky sweet vanilla. Verdict: This is just about on the edge of how sweet I can tolerate scents being - and it would probably be over that edge if it was much stronger. The SO claims to smell a sort of bleachy undertone to this - he likes it aside from that, but I think I'll give this one up.

... This is a blissful, euphoric blend based on an ancient Indian love potion: honey, date palm, tuberose, davana blossom, amber, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, Damask rose, and champaca flower. In the imp: hmm, this is sharp - the amber and florals seem to be the strongest smells, but I can faintly smell vanilla and honey too. On me, wet: FLORALS. Florals and vanilla, to be precise. This is weird, but a nice weird - warm, tasty florals, and not quite like anything else. There's hints of incense and patchouli there, too. On me, dry: hmm, the sandalwood came out, and the soft warm sweet florals blended well with it, and it was really pretty and exotic for about ten minutes - but it's faded really fast on me, and now all I can smell on my wrist is a slightly icky powdery-honey smell. Sigh. Verdict: Clearly this didn't love me enough to stick around, and I wasn't as sold on it as others seem to be, so I guess this will go on the swap pile. [edited to add in the lab description]

In the imp: rose, musk, leather and violet. On me, wet: oh, ewwww. the rose and the violets are nowhere to be smelled, and all I get is stale icky body odour and civet. Wait, no, there's a little bit of powdery violet and wine too. On me, dry: man, this smells like a fusty old wine-stained dustrag. Ugh, the longer this stays on, the less bearable this becomes. There's a licorice scent to it that apears and makes it even less appealing. Verdict: She might be elegat and marble-skinned and sable-wrapped to Sacher-Masoch, but she's a drunken lush who never washes her body or her clothes to me.

In the imp: hmm, warm spicy clove and cinnamon. slightly off-putting sweetness to this, and not as much heat as I would hope. On me, wet: oh, there's the pepper. This is totally a pepper-cinnamon hot sweet (oh, atomic fireballs!), the kind that burns your tongue and leaves your tongue bright red and scalded. On me, dry: it's still a very very hot spicy candy treat. it doesn't mellow much at all. It might be nice layered with something to take the pure HOT edge away a bit. Verdict: this is certainly different. I don't think I can wear this as an everyday scent, but I think I'll hang onto the imp for now.

In the imp: fir and ginger and florals. On me, wet: floral and ginger and fir. there's a grapefruit-ish sort of scent in it, too, slightly sweet but sharp. On me, dry: pine and sugary sweetness - a berryish sort of scent. I can only smell the florals faintly, but mostly this is sweet but cold - sugared ice. Verdict: it's a bit sweeter than I want from a winter scent - nice enough, but not quite good enough to keep.

In the imp: sharp, spiky green citrus. On me, wet: white musk over citrusy moss. very warm, slightly cloying - there's something resiny behind this. also, sandalwood? something woody. On me, dry: whoa, there's sudddenly some hints of peach, but it make it no less masculine. This is very light and gentle and faint and musky. Verdict: I like it. It reminds me a lot of a masculine Ode on Melancholy, warm yet fragile. I think I may have to keep this.

In the imp: citrus and pine. smells like a kitchen cleaner. On me, wet: pine and citrus - am I mistaking beech for citrus here? - over earth. like kitchen floor cleaner on a *really* dirty floor. On me, dry: mmm, there's more resin now, and some sweet fresh aquatics. still a lot of pine, though, to me, and maybe a small amount of herby green notes. Verdict: mrm, this isn't grabbing me - and the resin is slightly powdery on me, too. Not terrible by any means, but not especially amazing.

In the imp: lavender and rose and musk, wow. this is nice, but it smells a bit like pot pourri. On me, wet: lavender and rose, but sweet rather than sharp. the sandalwood is warming it, I think - this melancholy has a shard of hope in it. On me, dry: hm, there's a hint of citrus behind this, but otherwise it's a genteel, sophisticated floral. It fades a bit quickly for my taste, but while it's around it is so beautiful that I don't care. Makes me think of a solemn, dignified woman writing poetry. Verdict: If anything this may be too sophisticated for me, but it's lovely. It doesn't seem *purely* melancholic to me, due to the sandalwood, and I think i may have to get a big bottle of this.

In the imp: dragon's blood, and something warm and something floral in a herby way - lavender?. On me, wet: oh, man, dragon's blood and vanilla. This is like Dragon's milk without the honey taking over. I can smell the herby floral note behind it still, too. On me, dry: hmm, that floral note has started to come forward. It's starting to be a little bit soapy on me, and I don't think of floral soap as being very sexy. Still, I do like a good dose of dragon's blood, and that's still there faintly in the background. Verdict: Mrm, I'm not sold on this, and the SO seems underwhelmed. There's nothing *bad* about it, but it's just a bit generic and boring on me.

In the imp: coconut and musk and some sort of alcohol scent. On me, wet: whoa that's strong and stale and chemical and rank. Geez, I've never smelled a perfume from BPAL that's so nasty. It smells like it's gone bad now it's on my skin. I can just about catch a whiff of coconut over it all, but on the whole it's just vile. On me, dry: well, it calmed down a bit - but it's still sour and chemical and powdery if I sniff anywhere my wrist. Further away, I can actually smell a really nice coconut scent - I guess that bit of the scent must have a wider throw. Verdict: God, I have no idea what reacted like that - maybe the orris? - but it's made this unwearable. Still, the coconut note I got from further away was really good, so I will look for some other coconutty BPAL scents to try.

In the imp: is that myrrh? there's a lot of cinnamon and clove, but there's something resin-y beneath it. On me, wet: amber and clove and cinnamon and spiky spices! ...and, I suspect, frankincense, since this is starting to go soapy. On me, dry: Oh yeah, this has frankincense in. It's gone soapy with some faint, sharp herbiness and some dusty florals. The spiciness does creep back in a bit after a fairly long wait, but it's still a dusty, dessicated spiciness. Verdict: it smelled interesting in the imp, but this isn't going to work with my skin chemistry. Alas.

In the imp: I didn't think I had any idea of what holly berries smelled like, but apparently I did, because my nose went 'oh that's holly alright'. On me, wet: Very Christmassy, but I wouldn't say it's just holly berries. Spices and slightly hints of soap - and nutmeg, maybe? On me, dry: Wow, but this fades fast. Faint spicy gingery nutmeggy clovey sweetness for a while, but then just a slightly plasticky aftersmell. Verdict: I like this quite a lot, but it's similar enough to Laudanum on me(and fades much faster) that I don't think I need to keep it around.

In the imp: hmm, florals and vanilla. On me, wet: vanilla over slightly soapy florals. There's a touch of something sugary-sweet in this, too. Mrm, all the individual notes in this are fine, but I'm not sure I like it as a whole. On me, dry: hmm, now this is a warm vanilla, not too sweet or heavy, but not really what I expected from the description. It's soft and delicate, and most of the florals have vanished. Verdict: This is the best vanilla scent I've tried from BPAL. A keeper, even if it's a bit more delicately feminine than I would normally wear.