TrailerTrashPrincess

according to wikipedia: so that means four notes from the Lab that just don't work on me, and two that can go either way. but all in all, this is a honey-dragon's blood-dark musky-smoky-sandalwood sortof scent. not as awful as i had expected it to be, but nothing i'll ever reach for.

Glowing amber and citrus, labdanum, verbena, cedar, and oud. y'know that incensey smell that people frequently associate with church, especially Catholic churches? well, i used to spend a lot of time in the church (handbells, choir, general cleaning, classes, etc) during my time at Catholic school... and *this* is the smell of an empty church. the lemony smell of the oils used to clean the pews, and the faint amber-y wafts of the baby powder at least one of the nuns will have used that morning. an interesting scent memory... but not something i care to wear as a perfume.

a few years ago, The Body Shop had a home fragrance oil called "Steamed Milk" - i love it, but it smells more like condensed milk than anything else. this smells very much like that (!) and instead of salty-ocean-sea-water that i was afraid it was gonna have, it has the lovely clear water scent - sortof like The Stormhold, but without the vetiver. this is surprisingly lovely! condensed milk, or maybe rice pudding, and sparkling clear water. now i'm hungry.

i hate, hate, hate apricots. can't stand the smell, taste or texture. and every blend i've tried from the Lab with apricot in it has been... gross to me. that being said, i ordered a bottle of this anyway, 'cuz the other two notes sounded good. and if i hadn't been told there was apricot in this, i'd never have guessed. it must be a different sort of apricot than in all the other blends, maybe? my opinion of this may change as it ages, but for now? it smells clean. and when i opened the bottle to sniff, it brought back a very specific scent-memory! one of my favourite shampoos from the 80's! Hälsa shampoo! it was the chamomile/marigold one that i used, off and on for yeaaars. i'm glad to have this bottle, now, if for no other reason than that memory

i've had this for years, and brought it out to compare it to Strawberry Moon... so i figured i should do a review while i was at it (FYI? Strawberry Moon wins, hands down) as much as i thought i'd love this, i really don't. there's something in it that turns ever so slightly bitter on me (probably the honey), and instead of smelling like springtime flowers, i feel like i smell of artificial flowers - because the silk flowers aisle in a craft store always has a very specific smell (Eau de Silk Flower) and that's what this reminds me of, once it settles in on my skin.

sniffed from the decant: strawberry jam on skin: still strawberry jam, but i guess it is the sage and green tea somehow combining to make me smell fresh strawberries - still on the vine, with the smell of the crisp green stalks and leaves! overall? this is lovely - if a sweet strawberry scent sounds appealing to you, then absolutely yes! as it settles: the longer i wear this, the less it smells like jam, and the more it smells like a bowl of real, fresh strawberries. to compare it to other things... the closest comparison i can think of would be the scents of Lush's American Cream and YYY mixed. or possibly a bowl of Quaker Strawberries & Cream oatmeal. this scent would be so perfect layered with a Lush SFF massage bar

to me, Bliss smells like the powder brownie mix from a box - just the straight powder. i don't like that, but i can see how other people would! but sniffed from the bottle, Milk Chocolate Buttercream smells like cheesecake brownie batter, all mixed up and ready to bake. if only it smelled that good once it hits my skin! on me, it immediately changes and becomes a "chocolate flavoured" cheap plasticky type scent... like a chocolate scented plastic toy. it isn't bad, but it isn't fabulous. and to compare it to Candy Butcher? if CB is a 10 on a 10 scale, then this is a 2. i like this, but only just barely. if it was a GC, i wouldn't keep more than an imp of it... if that.

i guess the Ylang and honey are blending to make what i smell as something almost jasmine-y. but thankfully this is really, really faint on me.

Graveyard Dirt is one of my two most favourite BPAL scents...and i love obscure flowers. and wildflowers. and i was SO freakin' excited about this scent! when i first tested it last night, i thought it smelled an awful lot like Penny Dreadful... but a little cleaner maybe? there's something in Penny Dreadful that makes me think of rust, and this doesn't have that. i can definitely get the clean, pretty dirt scent that i love from Graveyard Dirt, but it almost smells like it has a touch of Zombi in there, too. but it keeps changing! constant morpher, this one! overall: love. total love. dirt and the wildflowers i grew up with.

sniffed from the bottle, this smelled strangely almost minty-cold, which frightened me so i didn't sniff at it again until it had dried down on my wrist. once settled in - this smells so familiar. my scent-memory says it is somewhat like Talvikuu, but a bit sweeter and with more depth. this is really nice, i like it and i'm so glad i have a bottle....even if it isn't a typically *me* sort of scent. this could just as well have been called Winter Forest, because that's the feel it invokes for me still wanna know what a giniminagawunj is, though. eta: i didn't see that before i posted my review, but that nails it!

i just knew i'd hate this. between the violets, the lavender and the cedar... i knew there was just no way it would work. wet on skin: lavender soap on skin, settling in: sweet TKO-like lavender on skin, hours later: still TKO-sweet-lavender, but with a surprising sultry twist - i guess from the black amber & currant/orchid mix? overall - very surprised, this isn't half bad! but it isn't very *me* so i'm glad this bottle is going to a better home!

Rose Red sometimes smells almost fruity in its rosiness, and to me Havisham has that same sort of fruity-rose thing going. at least until it settles into my skin - and then it smells like a perfect bridal bouquet - roses, lilies, and lots of greenery. sortof like i imagine this one might. overall, this is a breathtakingly gorgeous scent.

i remember this was one of the first 50 or so BPAL scents i tried. and even though it has made its way back to me several times, it just doesn't work on me. it seems like it should - but somehow the combination of scents becomes too gardenia-like for me to wear.

i missed this when it was out, and have been wanting to try it ever since - thanks to a fantastic swap, now i have my own little vial of this! thankfully, i don't need a bottle.... just this little bit will do me fine. it smells very much like Pumpkin Queen + Sugar Cookie layered. which i like, don't get me wrong! but overall this (Pumpkin Cheesecake) is a bit too spicy and pumpkin-pie like for me. i was hoping for sweeter and creamier. and i'm afraid that after this test-wearing i'll have to use this exclusively in a locket, because something in this is threatening to go all plasticky.

these arrived in the mail today, so i know i should have let them rest for a day or two... but i couldn't resist trying them. initial sniff: peppery roses* on skin, wet: sweet clove and rose on skin, after it settles: tobacco, cloves and rose. reminds me of a Pier 1 fragrance - i think it is called Asian Spice? also, i layered a drop of this with a drop of the other one, and (at least today, and on me) they really just do not mix well. i'll try this again in a few days and add any changes i notice. *when i was little, we had lots of rose bushes. most of them were there when we moved in, so i know nothing about them. there was one in particular, planted far apart from the others, that was sortof a red-fuschia type colour and didn't have as many petals as the rest. still bunches of them, but not as many bunches as the others. it didn't stay in bud or just blossomed for very long, either.. it liked to be full all the way open. and that thing smelled awful. it smelled like black pepper and curry powder. i wouldn't go near it when it was blooming.

these arrived in the mail today, so i know i should have let them rest for a day or two... but i couldn't resist trying them. and i should mention that i normally HATE coconut. initial sniff: smells like Dorian!? on skin, wet: Dorian and the Wizard brand rose scented spray air freshener i used to love on skin, after it settles: Dorian, artificial rose scent and fresh Linoleum flooring. also, i layered a drop of this with a drop of the other one, and (at least today, and on me) they really just do not mix well. i'll try this again in a few days and add any changes i notice.

this is the '08 version. sniffed from the bottle: reminds me of TP'd tree a bit - clean, fresh and woodsy. but with a whole lot of cane sugar sweetness added in. on skin: doesn't change much, still has the clean/woodsy scent that seems to be getting warmer, but the cane sugar is beginning to smell more like molasses. this is MUCH more like what i had expected Sticky Pillowcase to smell like. i LOVE this.

initial sniff: smells like raspberry kool-aid powder (yuck!) on skin: still with the raspberry kool-aid powder, and now with the added WTFness of a plasticky strawberry fruit roll up. i think my bottle only got the blue sugar and strawberry goo - and none of the other yummy things

to note: i hate mango - the taste, the scent. blergh. sniffed from the bottle: lavender leaning towards mint, and sage (sage like in Lush's American Cream conditioner. not like as in thanksgiving stuffing) on skin: still the minty-lavender with a sage kick, and now with the of mango creeping on top of everything. i had hoped that this would be more red musk and less mango/lavender but ah, well. time for this to go live with someone else anyway. edit: a year and a few days later, i got the chance to sniff this on someone else, from the same bottle i had before. and wow! on the right person this blend is OMGtehSex0rs. like Dungeon, Smut & Urd had a fling with the Dead Man's Hand. all red musk, something that could be leather, and purple silk. on me? still lavender-mint-mango.

i'm not sure how this manages to smell innocent and dirty all at the same time, but it does. this oil sends very mixed signals! good girl, bad girl, this oil doesn't care. it just wants you to get freaky. this isn't something i'd wear just for the fragrance of it - that seems to be asking for trouble - but i do like the scent, even if i can't identify it. it speaks to my "caveman brain" more than to my nose, i think.

sold this bottle off to a better home, so it seemed like a good time to post a review of it to help me remember why: sniffed from the bottle: smells like cedar - i guess that would be the balsam, Sampson Root, and maybe the "raw, down and dirty patchouli" ? on skin, once it settles down: ah, there's the beeswax. and the oakmoss. don't really get much else from this. final thoughts: seems a much more traditionally male scent than what i tend to go for.

i think this is the '06 version. impsniff: frankincense and rose on skin: (thankfully) it doesn't change much. no gardenia or cassia to make me

carnations always smell so peppery and bitter to me, the tuberose and iris are mixing into an odd floral-purple scent that smells entirely too much like jasmine or violets. overall, just not my thing.

i was in a decant circle for this series... and my decants came in two packages. apparently i never even opened the second batch, 'cuz i found 'em a few days ago still teflon taped and wrapped in bubblewrap. heh. oops. sniffed from the decant this smelled so bad i couldn't bring myself to sniff it a second time to try to describe it. but on skin, the lovely notes in thie (champaca flower, sandalwood tonka) seem like they're trying to fight free of everything else, but it just doesn't work.... and i'm left with this strangely sasparilla bubbly and almost plastic doll head type of scent. so very, very odd.

i love the scent of tobacco flower, so i knew i had to try this. i was lucky enough to be able to swap for it (hooray for near instant gratification!) and knew i'd hafta get a bottle. this is so pretty! it is very much like a SN Tobacco Flower, but there's more to it... the sandalwood and resins add a rich basenote, and there's something reminding me an eensy bit of Unseelie. maybe it is just my wonky skin, or maybe it is just wishful thinking..... but this smells like the lovechild of Unseelie and Champagne & Cigars.