savage_rose

In the bottle: Deep and woodsy. Wet: Tobacco and chemicals. Please let this get better! Dry: No luck. I smell like I've been working on my car all day in 100+ weather, sweating and marinating in various car fluids. In fact, it does remind me of my Uncle Charlie, who was an auto mechanic. He'd come home smelling pretty much like this: sweat, fluids, tobacco (he was a smoker). And I love my Uncle Charlie, but I don't find this smell particularly appealing, especially not on me. And not on my husband, either (hey, it was worth a try). This is the first BPAL to give me a headache. Going to go wash up with steel wool now.

In the bottle: Light florals, nothing specific. Wet: Gardenia, a little freesia, a little rose, and an almost pale fruitiness. The gardenia is most present, but is supported by the other flowers nicely. Dry: A sweet little floral, slightly sun-warmed but very refreshing. It feels like spring just smelling it.

I have 2005, fyi In the bottle: Deep, dark incense. Mmmm! Wet: Smoky with a touch of citrus...it smells like evil flowers being doused with holy water. Not good... Dry: After the smoke has cleared (ha ha ha), just a warm floral with a hint of smoke remains. Floral incense, basically...wow. This is a lot more flowery than I expected, but I like it. It's floral, but a wistful floral, with just a touch of bitterness. Far more complex than just smoke and roses. Unexpected.

In the imp this smells like sweet strawberries and a hint of something heady and alcoholic. Then there's a plasticky undertone that keeps trying to morph in...oddly enough though, it's pleasant...making it smell more like candy than strawberries. A little like Jailbait. But as it dries, it smells like strawberries and champagne, delicious and fruity. Sparking.

In the bottle: A distant relative of Doc Buzzard. Spicy, with a note that smells like cola or root beer (effervescent earthiness). Wet: Dark and brooding, and a little smoldering. This is a hot, wet blend...it smells earthy and damp, but spicy. Dry: More incense-y...myrrh and musk, with the vaguest hint of patchouli. Really great patchouli, light and very understated. This blend is fabulous! Spicy, warm, and mysterious...it smells like a voodoo blend of some sort, like magic is being worked, and mysteries are being created. "Delicious" and "exciting" don't go far enough to describe this..."portentous", that's the word to describe this blend. Complex and fabulous...bravo, Brian!

In the bottle: Light floral, lily-like. I can smell the jonquil and the pear/cucumber the most...it smells very fresh and dewy. Wet: Floral, and OH MY GOD, what is that?!? Oh no, it smells acrid and sour...yuck. Must not run screaming to the kitchen sink, must give it a chance. Must give it a chance...please don't let this scent stay this way! Please, please, please... Dry: Ah, there we go. The sourness disappeared as it dried. The drydown is lovely...similar to Annabel Lee, as it's a light floral with summery vegetable, fruity goodness thrown in. And the jonquil smells absolutely lovely...it's the perfect floral...light, delicate, and not remotely overpowering. Mmmm!

I've also found the TAL White Light comforting when I get panicky.

It just came today, and I had to try it immediately... In the bottle: Warmly spicy. The floral is not obvious, not even the main note. An undercurrent of something I can only describe as "perfumey". Not in a bad way, it's just the perfumey scent I associated with one of my first scents, Tinkerbell cologne when I was little...Cairo and Ra smell a bit the same way. Er, so let's go with that: an undercurrent of something similar to Cairo and Ra. Wet: Spicy and seductive...the scent seems to undulate, beckon. Very appropriate that this would be the "opium den" scent! It's absolutely divine. Dry: All of the above, and it oddly enough smells a lot like a fall Ren Fest I went to back in college...I bought some spicy mulberry potpourri from a vendor, and as it faded it smelled almost exactly like some of the spicy notes of this. Wow, this scent just takes me back to being a college freshman, living way up on the 9th floor of my dorm, being out of my parents' house and on the brink of transformation and self-discovery. It's amazing that they can bottle this. Or how quirky and autumnal this seems! ::looks longingly at single bottle purchased, silently hoping it clones itself::

Just got it today, and I had to see just how refreshing it was... In the bottle: Lime sherbet...the good kind, with lime bits mixed in. Wet: Delicious lime, almost a light creamy smell. I can barely detect the aloe, it just adds a light undercurrent to the lime. Delicious, cooling...that's the main keywords I'm getting. Dry: Iced tea and with lemon/lime. A delicious summer day with something wonderful to anticipate. And the creaminess is still there...so I guess I would say it smells like iced tea with lemon/lime lotion. Mmmm...I love this scent. It's absolutely simple and light and wonderful.

In the bottle: Spicy cinnamon and cool lavender...a perfect blend balance. Wet: And it's cinnamon in the lead! Wait, here comes lavender, the comeback kid! It's anybody's game Dry: The dusty heat of cinnamon layered with the softness of lavender. Together yet distinct...it's amazing how complex this scent seems. Edited as I momentarily forgot how to spell!

In the bottle: Green, herbal, piney, fir smell. A little like Le Fee Verte, they must have similar notes. Wet: Intense greenery action going on! Dry: Still green, still tree-ish, but a little sweeter. Mmmm...I love this. It's not an everyday scent, but it's like a soft fleecy blanket, very wintry and comforting. I can see this being a hot weather scent, too...there's something cooling about this scent as well.

This was a lab frimp with the leaking cap issue that I had to decant into a different imp. I had tried it before and not liked it, so I decided to give it another shot. In the imp: I don't really get incense, but it smells resinous and sweet. Wet: Yuck! Something going sour, or smelling like bad patchouli or tobacco on me (sometimes, in the right oil at the right time, tobacco or patchouli can be wonderful). It completely eclipses the sweetness, and it smells like I need a bath. It's not dirty hippie, it's just dirty. Dry: That off note is disappearing...but so is the rest of it. This is probably a good thing! Strange note: I was keeping the bottle as a possible swap sniffy, and the lid was trashed so I threw it away. I forgot about it. But I started smelling this smell like...great shampoo. Soapy, sweet, a little herbal. Hmmm! So I started investigating, and it's Cathedral ?!? Evidently when it hits the air, it becomes a great room scent, but when it hits my skin it becomes something rotten in Denmark. Wow.

In the bottle: Tea and Flowers. Wet: The tea and florals make way for the mint...and the honey! Honey usually gets lost on me, but this honey is very assertive, and very sweet. Dry: Creamy, sweet tea, with an slight herby, minty smell. It smells like iced tea and springtime...very light, fresh and new. This is one I cannot stop smelling!

Sheer musk, cedar smoke, fir needle, black amber and leather. In the bottle: Fir. Fir and...cedar smoke? Zesty yuletide forest! Wet: Fir still present, but amber is in the forefront. Leather is present as well, but not as strongly. Dry: Hmmm, I don't know about this one...I normally love masculine scents on me, but there's something very "biker gang" about this one (smoke and leather, maybe?). And occasionally I'd smell a plasticky whiff, although it seems to be morphing out of that. This smells like it would be a great layering blend to me, because it smells so different, and so strong. I'll slather my husband when he walks by, to see what it smells like on him, as well. Dry after 5 minutes: The fir is coming back, and the amber is "lightening". I really like it. And on my husband? It smells like a combination of fir and the berry scent from "Yuletide". Maybe a hint of amber, no leather, just a clean outdoorsy scent. It's amazing how body chemistry makes the scent unfold!

In the bottle: VETIVER and fruits and spices. It cleared my sinuses pretty thoroughly in that one whiff. Whew! Wet: VETIVER getting over its control issues a bit. Dry: The sharpness fades, then holds steady at a moderate level. The musk gently cradles the black coconut, that's the predominant scent on me. The plum is only an occasional whiff, and the lavender/verbena add an old-fashioned sweetness to it. Very complex and satisfying...not too spicy, not too sweet, with a lot of fullness to it.

In the bottle: Almost citrusy...mellow muskiness with a sharp note that blends perfectly. Wet: Okay, lemon's not mentioned, but that's what it smells like! Sharp lemon over creamy vanilla musk, with a bit of rugged spice. Very well-balanced! Dry: Where did it go? Everything's pretty much gone almost immediately, but I'm occasionally getting a whiff of vanilla musk. Nice, and I like it, but my skin just soaks it up. Sigh.

I love this oil, and I can't believe I haven't reviewed it yet! In the bottle: Moist, aquatic floral. Wet: Summery and sweet: the sweet pea and peony are light, unassuming, but very pretty. And something about the combination smells ever so slightly like honeysuckle...this scent is pure summer to me...I can remember picking and sucking honey suckle blossoms when I was a kid, and it smelled so much like this. And the cucumber and aquatic notes give it a damp, dewy air...it smells like a warm, wet summer afternoon. Mmmm! Dry: Like wet, only subdued...the honeysuckle-esque note is still there, but as an after thought..."sweet pea, peony, end sniff...oh, honeysuckle!" Quiet, sweet, and unassuming...this blend makes me anything but sad

In the bottle: This scent actually scared me. The phrase "floral cacophony" popped into my mind, and I thought "Um, I ORDERED this?" Wet: Almost immediately, the chaos subsides, and the florals begin playing together nicely. Dry: The musk is just a little stronger than the florals...jasmine always seems overpowering in the bottle, but on it just dries softly and sweetly. I can smell a hint of the vanilla. This is like Wanda and Perfumed Garden's distant cousin: it smells slightly similar, but is clearly the missing link, and not a direct descendant. I like it.

In the bottle: There's something almost jelly-like about this...it's sweet, but gelatinously so. It's very much like the idea of "eat me", even if the execution is different. Wet: Is that almond sticking around? Almond never sticks around me . But SOMETHING is smelling sweet and fruity...this scent is bizarre. But strangely enough, my husband really likes it. "It's very sweet". It is that! Dry: Ah, there's...is that tobacco? It's faint but there. But overall it's still sweet like wacky, mystery meat Jell-O hidden under sweetness. This is one of the most interesting scents I've come across! Not one I'd wear often, but it's interesting

In the bottle: So complex I can't pick out notes. But it smells like Gregorian Chants sound...layered, a sense of solemnity, a sense of being present in the moment but with a strong foundation of the past. If any of that makes sense to anyone but me Wet: Buttery musk! Whoa, can musk be buttery? Dry: Creamy musk...a bit of patchouli...and something spicy I adore but can't quite place. Hmmm, I'll come back to the review later and let you know. But this smells wonderful...it reminds me of what people have termed more "masculine" scents, but it's perfect for me ("strong enough for a man..."). Creamy, subtly spiced, like a late Summer afternoon. Hey, like right now . Dry after 5 minutes: No idea what that spice was. It's just creamy musk now, with occasional hints of what I'm guessing is wild plum and pomegranate. Although they smell sweet here, and not very "typically fruity" at all. I like this a lot! Dry after 4 hours(!): Still there! Very lightly...very lasting .

In the bottle: Cherry. Delicious, juicy, having to remember not to drink the bottle cherry. Wet: Sigh, there goes cherry. I love cherry blends for smelling and for scent lockets, but my skin sucks up cherry like nobody's business. Boo! Dry: Spiciness (cassis? Cardamom?) and fire, with a hint of earthy Patchouli on it's best behavior, and the sweet air of verbena. Very fiery on my skin, not unlike Tanin'iver, but a more relaxed, warm blend. Warm, not fiery. I like this a lot, and I feel like I have 2 scents in 1: the delicious cherry spice in the bottle, and the warm spice on my skin. Mmmm

In the bottle: Equal parts CN Midway and Floral. Wet: OH DEAR GOD THAT IS SO STRANGE...this smells exactly like this hotel room that I stayed at with my parents when I was an early teen...the same vacation we saw "Groundhog Day" on "Spectravision" (::snort: and I was reading Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, Bearing an Hourglass (coincidence? I think not!). I can't even tell what it is that reminds me of that room...something like one of the air fresheners? A scary thought. But there's no more sign of the Midway, it's all, er, Midnight. It's floral coming out my eyeballs, and I hope it's not this scent making my sinuses go wonky. This never happens to me! Dry: Um, it's not bad, and time definitely makes it a kinder, gentler floral...but YIKES, what was that thing! It was like being Alice in the Wonderland garden (cartoon version), being pushed out by really, REALLY pissed off flowers. I didn't know flowers could be that aggressive! I guess I don't smell enough "night-blooming flowers" in my day-to-day existence. Dry after 5 minutes: A tangy, complicated floral. Still a little like that hotel room...I mean, it was a really nice hotel room, and I loved that Piers Anthony series, so I like the scent...but I am so going to have to try this again. I wonder if something wacky is up with my body chemistry. Hmmm...

In the bottle: Chocoholic's dream. Delicious! Wet: Wait, where'd the chocolate go! Is that plastic? Or a strange vanilla-like smell? Or an almost floral cream? And then it goes plastic, vanilla, floral cream all over again, like a cycle. Dry: Slightly sour, but not unpleasantly so. It smells like Snake Oil a bit, but heavier and more pronounced. I am going to have to try this again...I don't know where the chocolate went, and the remaining cream isn't too bad, but it's strange. Unsettling...ooh, the true Carnaval Diabolique experience. Dry after 15+ minutes: Toffee. That's what it is now, creamy, thick toffee. Delicious! Not chocolate, but delicious!

In the bottle: Lemon, lemon, lemon. I try not to look at the notes when I am first smelling, so I thought "Oh dear GOD don't let this citrus be like Jolly Roger's citrus! I love citrus, but not when it turns to B.O. after a few minutes on my skin!" It smelled good though, like a lemon floral, a more complex version of Enraged Bunny. Wet: Lemon, lemon, floral...mmm. Dry: Coconut! Coconut, with a hint of lemon. Very tropical. I'm in love!

I can't believe I've never reviewed this! It's one of my favorites! In the imp/bottle, wet, dry: Hello, Willy Wonka! Lollipops, lollipops: orange and cherry, sweet and sticky. Maybe a hint of the womanly perfume, but that soon fades. It's of the few scents that doesn't morph on me, it's just straightforwardly candy! It's candy, delicious and smile-inducing, and the sugar rush that follows. I love the smell of it, and for some reason, I always crave it during that time of the month. Mmmm, it's just wonderful.