jenleigh

I don't know how Beth works her magic, but this time, she's really done it. Cubans celebrate Noche Buena too, and putting this on, I get the strongest scent memory of the years I've spent Christmas with my husband's Cuban family. The tuberose in this comes out to play pretty strongly at first, but then it calms down a bit and I get what I think must be the lily and plumeria mixing a bit with the mum and the incense. This gets prettier and prettier on my skin as it dries down. I can tell already I'm going to run through my imp quickly - I'm going to need at least one bottle here.

Out of the new GCs? Havana smells awesome on my guy. It helps that he's Cuban, but the minute I opened the imp up just to give it a sniff, I knew it'd be perfect. It's actually replaced Jolly Roger as his favorite "boy BPAL", and he's gonna want a bottle soon.

Lurid Library smells like my favorite used bookstores, which are both in basements if you can believe that. It's a lot like Misk U to my nose, but this time much more book smell and none of the sweetness that's in Misk U. Imp's definitely a keeper, and I may well want a bottle.

For some reason, this cat is morphing on me like crazy, but in a good way. One sniff, it's all chocolate and mint, the next it's tangy citrus, and the next, it's lavender. This is some of the most fun I've had sniffing my arm in a long time, actually. The imp of this is definitely, definitely a keeper. I want to give it a shot at different times of the month just to see if it keeps that morphing ability!

If anyone misses the Silent White bath bomb from a few Christmases ago, Snow-Flakes is just about a dead ringer for it to my nose, down to the faint powderiness.

It's really too bad my hatha yoga class was cancelled this week. I'd been wearing White Moon to class, but I think I'm going to need to wear this to the last one. It's VERY grounding - I feel like I do post-class and I've only had this on for about 5 minutes. I wouldn't wear this as perfume at all, but for its intended purpose, I think it will work quite well.

I'm going to have to give this a second shot, I think. My first try led to the "Weird-ass-skin" thing I so often get, where there was a sour note in there that I just couldn't place. There's no reason this shouldn't work on me, though, as it's 3 notes that normally do work. I'm going to have to return it from my swap pile and give it another go, I think.

A city of mystery, wonder and majesty, said to have been built by order of Gilgamesh. Thick bitter almond and heady night-blooming jasmine with saffron, cinnamon leaf, red patchouli, river lilies, bergamot, fig leaf and the sacred incense of Inanna. My skin is officially weird. This jumped straight to a saffrony floral and I'm getting almost no almond from it. I don't mind that at all, however - what I do get is really lovely, and this is one of those "Never would have tried it if it wasn't a frimp, but I really like it" scents. A surprise winner is always a good thing!

Mag Mell is one I wanted to love. Alas, it went to soap on me - the first BPAL blend that's done it completely. I'm going to stick with Pele and Sudha Segara for my gingery love, I think.

The Labbies scare me at times with how psychic they are is when tossing out frimps. This was a frimp in my latest order - and like they so often are, it's something I'd never have tried on my own but I LOVE. Very pretty, all tea and peony, with the same lemon from Dorian in there too. I got no lemon from the former, but it's just enough to pretty up the latter. This is truly lovely and probably my favorite Mad Tea Party scent so far - this knocked Red Queen out of its place.

Oh, MMM. The rose, jasmine, and heliotrope here are all gorgeously blended and turn into this lovely, rosey, gorgeous mix. I'm very glad I bought a bottle unsniffed.

I definitely see the similarities between this and Aizen-Myoo; it's like the more subtle version of the former. I'm getting mostly grapefruit out of this, and what I think must be the yuzu behind it. Alas, as with Aizen-Myoo, this doesn't quite work on me; it's sour on my skin and a bit bitter, too. I think this is a swap.

I have the same story to tell with all these type of blends - Snow Moon, Ice Queen, and now this one too, as lovely as it was in the imp. The pine comes out and overwhelms the other notes in it, then turns to straight-up Pine-Sol smell. I think Snow White and Snow Angel will remain as the only two snowy blends that work at all on me.

I'm looking at the note description for this and going "It has tobacco in it? I'd never have known that!" And it's true - I never would have from smelling it. What I get is a lovely blend of the tuberose, ylang-ylang, and something "fizzy", that must be the champagne. This is the one true winner of this year's Yules for me, and I need a bottle before it goes bai-bai.

I know it's an LE-LE comparison, but Mi-Go Brain Canister lovers should definitely check out Xanthe, The Weeping Clown. They go very similar on my skin.

If I can get the pieces together in time, I'm going to be Mia Fey from the Phoenix Wright series - reference pic here. I think I'm going to wear Blockbuster or maybe Mme. Moriarty with the costume, but I think Blockbuster is the most fitting. It needs to be a kickass woman scent.

I love the white florals. So it's really no surprise that I like Pele too - this is a warm, but light scent. The ginger warms this up without being overpowering - it's a lot like Sudha Segara in that respect. It's very spring-like, and I think that I'll want to reach for this a lot in warm weather. Keeping the imp, possible bottle.

This was a very special gift from a friend. And I almost want to send it back to her with an "I can't keep this!" note, but I know she wouldn't accept that. So to the sender - she knows who she is, and I'll treasure this because of that. <3 This is the word "effervescent" bottled. It sparkles in a way I haven't seen from the Lab before - Kindly Moon and Et Lux Fuit are close to this level of sparkle, but this is just on a whole other level from those. It's soft and sweet - it's like a kid running out into the snow on Christmas morning to see if there are reindeer tracks on the roof before running to see what Santa left.

Mi-Go Brain Canister, if you can find it. No tuberose, but lots of jasmine, plus fruits. Second Muse here, and also Peitho if you can wear clove. Edit: Bat-Woman is also very jasminey.

The floral lunacies have been a hit to my wallet and a wonder to my nose, and this one is no exception. Lots of peach and the gardenia wafts up now and then, with some pear too. Good throw, also. This is gorgeous, and I'm very glad I've a bottle of it.

This is actually the first Ars Draconis scent I've tried - a frimp from the Lab. And ooh. Opium is fast becoming a "will most definitely work" note for me - and it's the same here. And I love the poppy and ylang-ylang. It is a heavy floral, but not *too* heavy - it's very reminiscent of its name, like a deeply sleeping scent. Lovely, and I may want a bottle.

This smells nothing like Midway does. Midway is all sweet sugar, and I'm not getting a single sweet note in this at all on my skin. It actually reminds me much, much more of Zorya. It's not quite got the spice note that Zorya does, but the flowers and the incense are really reminiscent. This one is nice, but I don't know that it's bottleworthy just yet. It's not headache-inducing for me, though.

This is the first of the Lab's chocolate scents I've tried - a friend talked my ear off about them enough that I gave in. And wow, yum. This smells like dark chocolate Lindt truffles to me! I tend to get cloying sweetness from the foody blends, but this one doesn't go cloying on me at all. I'm pleasantly surprised at that! DH decided I smelled less like truffles and more like a very yummy cake to him, but either way this was the surprise of the lot so far. I think I may actually want a bottle.

I passed on a decant of this the first time, but the reviews convinced me, and I found some as a result. This is so pretty in the imp and it's pretty wet, too - mint, lovely tea, just a bit of honey. Unfortunately, within 20 minutes it was totally gone. My skin's not normally one to eat scents whole, but it sucked this up like nothing else I've tried. I do like it a lot, though, and I think at some point this will be one to try in a locket, to help it stay around.

The Snake Oil "family" of scents has been a big surprise for me. I didn't think I could pull them off at all at first, but count me in as a fan. And this one is my favorite of the bunch. I get lots of the plum here, and pomegranate. Not so much vanilla to my nose, though the Mr. got it when he smelled my wrist up close. And the patchouli here isn't that generic hippie smell, but it's very leafy, almost like really good tea. That said, I'm still waiting a bit on a bottle. I don't reach for scents like this as much as I do others, and I want to wait and see if I actually use up the decant first.