Miseraya

In the imp: Earthy and sweet. Figgy! On the wrist: This is a very oily oil, if that makes any sense. It seems to stay wetter longer. It still smells very earthy, figgy, lovely. Nummies. Drydown: This stays pretty true on me, still earthy, figgy goodness. Not much throw, but lovely skin scent. I'm not sure why I got fig so much from this one when others didn't but... *shrug* I'm pretty happy about it. This is a keeper.

In the imp: Sugary sweet, like a blow pop. On the wrist: At first it maintains that blow pop scent, but as it starts to dry it gets a bit peppery and a bit coconutty. It starts to turn into hot chili oil, suntan lotion and a blow pop. Like eating a blow-pop while heating oil in a skillet for dinner, after coming in out of the sun. Tropical in a living in the tropics sort of way, like you're a resident, not a tourist. With the smell of all that tropical goodness wafting through your kitchen windows. This burns my nose when I sniff it, I should mention that. Drydown: This just gets hotter and hotter, until it's slightly painful to sniff. It's not a me smell at all at this point. Swapped.

Cardinal Water: the essence of feeling. Wild lettuce, wild pear, chamomile, germanica orris, sweet pea, and mallow. In the imp: A light sweet floral. Smells pink to me. On the wrist: Very much a pink floral, which is the only sort of floral that ever works on me. I'm getting the pear too, I would say this is primarily sweet pea and pear at the moment. I love this... Drydown: Alas, something in here went funky and I ended up with a slightly powdery something. *shrug* Oh well, I'll swap it I guess. ETA: Lab description.

I got this for my mother, but I like to review everything that comes my way. Let me preface this by saying however that I loathe lavender and frankincense. Unfortunately for me they happen to be my mother's favorite notes. (Go figure.) In the bottle: Yep, that would be lavender. There is a softer, sweeter note in this though (orchid?), that takes some of the harsh edge off the lavender, so that's a good sign. On the elbow: Hmm, definitely sweeter and less astringent than the usual lavender scents. Not bad. Maybe I can live with this on the mom. Drydown: Definitely more orchid than lavender, I'm not sure what benzoin smells like, so I can't speak to that. But I can say it's primarily sweet on me, not overly resinous or herbal. Overall: This is much less aggressive than I was expecting, but still not a me scent. But, thanks to the sweetness of the other notes softening the blend and the frankincense being muted as well, I may be able to stay in the same room with my mother and this smell. Hooray! Now with my luck she won't like it.

In the imp: Very, very sweet with an undertone of something sharp. On the wrist: Sticky sweet, I can pick out the peony, not just because it's prominent but also because I happen to be madly in love with peony. This is very fruity and sweet, sweet, sweet. It smells pink and sticky. Drydown: There is a lot in this blend to love, but it starts to go powdery on me after awhile, only a little powdery but powdery enough to tilt my judgment in favor of a swap. Definitely a recommendation for sweet scent lovers, honestly it got so sweet that it started to give me a headache at one point, but it was still so lovely I stuck it out. It was only the final turn towards powder that convinced me we were not meant to be.

In the imp: Sweet and fruity and thick. Like syrup. On the wrist: Very sweet, like candy. Drydown: This is a hard review for me, because I'm not getting individual notes here, no matter how I try. I just get an overwhelming feeling of sweet, poofy, fluffy pink smells. If that makes any sense. It smells nothing like cotton candy smells, but it smells how cotton candy looks. All fluffy and cloud like. I like this, but it's just not me. I can't picture myself wearing it, so I am going to swap it to someone who will love it better.

In the imp: This smells green, grassy and a bit herbal to me. I like! It smells like freshly cut grass and a chopped up bell pepper. Green bell pepper, of course. On the wrist: So, so green. Like crushed flower stems, seeping their green sappy goodness onto my skin. But lurking underneath is a floral note that could turn on me. Something very heavy and white, like gardenia or jasmine. More like gardenia than jasmine. Hopefully the greenness will prevail! So green and clean and lovely.... I'm not getting a wine note from this, or for that matter much aquatic. After re-reading the description, I catch something I missed the first time around and now I know where the green smell is coming from. Ferns! How wonderful that there is a fern note! Drydown: My skin ate it. One minute there was ferny loveliness everywhere and the next... my skin ate it. All that is left is a faint hint at what was. A very faint hint of that lurking floral and nothing more. A very intimate scent. This bears more thinking about. It may be swapped though.

In the imp: Salty. Salty flowers. Hmm, a floral aquatic. That's about all I get from this at the moment, it's floral and it's aquatic and that's all my nose is telling me. I'm not getting any specific floral notes yet. On the wrist: Powdery already! Freshly applied it's already starting to be a bit powdery on me. It also smells thick and cloying, like it has lily in it. Lily always smells really heavy and overpoweringly sweet on me. Surprisingly the rose isn't coming through. I've lost the salty note. Drydown: The salt smell comes back, but faintly. It doesn't smell like tears to me, it smells more like a lightly perspiring teenager. The teenager bit comes from the sweetness of the florals in this. The final impression I am left with is a 15 year old girl about 15 minutes into basketball practice. Which could seem creepy, but I used to be a 15 year old girl who played basketball, so it's not weird, really. I'm just retroactively smelling myself. *nods* Overall: Not for me. I don't want to smell like this. Swapped.

In the imp: Berries and floral notes... On the wrist: Eek! Does this have rose? *checks notes* No rose? That's so odd. This is reacting with my body chemistry as if it has rose in it. Which is never good. Drydown: Apparently by body chemistry has invented a note here and it's not a happy marriage. I get solid heavy rose out of this. And I have no clue why.

In the imp: Spicy wood. On the wrist: Spices, wood and an aquatic note? Drydown: Heavy, heavy spicy wood scent. Alas, this one did not work out very well for me. And I think my body chemistry has actually started inventing notes lately, between this and Phantom Queen...

In the imp: Something sour and an aquatic note. On the wrist: Djinn with an aquatic note. Soapy Djinn with an aquatic note. Floral notes, Djinn, soap, and an aquatic note. Drydown: None. Washed it off and swapped it.

In the imp: Pine? Fir? Dirt. Reminiscent of Nocnitsa. This is promising... On the wrist: A nice, slightly sweet dirt scent. Very clean smelling, like freshly laundered dirt. Drydown: Pleasantly dirty dryer sheets. I prefer Nocnitsa. Swapped.

In the imp: Patchouli and a dirty fig. In an herbal shop. Fig eating hippies. On the wrist: Now I smell like a fig eating hippie. *raises eyebrow* Well, I am fond of figs... Herbaliness. Figs. Figgy herbs. Drydown: Herb shop. Possibly a head shop. Some sort of shop involving herb. Or herbs. Anise? Not for me. Swapped.

In the imp: This smells like a cross between fresh melon and Bubbalicious. Watermelon Bubbalicious. On the wrist: More Bubbalicious than fruit. A hint of florals. Getting the grape now. Grape Bubbalicious. Maybe that Bubble Tape stuff. I can't decide if I like this or not. I also can't decide if I want to chew my wrist or not. Drydown: Fruity gum goodness. *nods* I think I may keep this for when I want to smell like a teenager. Or a piece of gum.

In the imp: Getting the cherry blow-pops that someone else mentioned. Not getting anything else.... *crosses fingers* On the wrist: Wowza, the pepper pops up very quickly once applied. Now it's peppery blow-pops. The blow-pop scent fades away rather quickly, replaced by a more adult sweet scent. That pepper really tempers the sweetness in this blend, killing off the overly sweet cherry lollipop note. Drydown: This is a gorgeous sweet spicy blend, not foody, not candy, but sweet and spicy just the same. Love, love, love it!

Am I the only one who got burnt cookies from this? From the imp to the drydown the primary scent for me was a burnt cookie. No real variation, just burnt cookie. Swapped.

In the imp: Expensive floral perfume. On the wrist: Heavy floral, not in a good way. Drydown: Powder. Overall: I should know better than to get an imp with "heady" anything, what was I thinking? Swapped.

The House of Mists, a land of icy fog, shadowy darkness and soul-chilling cold. Dark, damp blossoms winding through an impenetrable, murky gloom. In the imp: Clean, herbal aquatic. Smells like it might have vetiver in there somewhere. On the wrist: Bug spray??? It smells like bug spray, plain and simple, complete with the masking fragrance. Drydown: It loses the bug spray overtones but the scent that I'm left with still reminds me of the fragrance in bug spray. Damn. Overall: Something strange happened to this one on me. Swapped. ETA: Lab description.

In the imp: Almonds. And something sweet. Marzipan. On the wrist: Evil marzipan! Strange. Drydown: Ok, now it's gone all chemical fire on me, like Djinn did. That's odd. Overall: Something in this goes very funky on me and turns into something approximating a tire fire. Not cool. Swapped.

In the imp: Soft sweet mint. On the wrist: This is a very sweet almost candy like scent on me, it reminds me of frosted cakes. Or after dinner mints. There's vanilla in this I think. Drydown: Interesting, now it smells like baby shampoo. That's weird. Not for me I guess. Even before this turned into baby shampoo it never really evoked winter for me, too soft and sweet. Not cold at all. Swapped. ETA: Spelling correction, 'cause I'm neurotic like that.

In the imp: Ack, thick sweet yicky lily. Am I the only person who smells lily in this? On the wrist: Cloying, heavy lily. Drydown: Sour, thick lily smell. Not for me. Swapped.

In the imp: Very astringent floral. Odd. On the wrist: Definitely very astringent, reminds me of aquanet. Yikes. Drydown: This stays with the hairspray smell consistently. Not cool. Swapped.

In the imp: This must have musk in it, because my initial reaction to it is "80's". On the wrist: Ivy. Ivy and must be musk, has to be. Drydown: Roses and ivy and musk. More obviously "perfume" than most BPAL scents. It has quite a bit of herbal to it, but not enough to drown out the scent of roses and musk. Not me, worked with my chemistry, surprisingly, but not me.

In the imp: This smells very sweet, sticky and pink. More fruit than floral, almost like a thick pink drink, some tropical concoction that would get you very drunk, very quickly. Or possibly like the bubble gum flavored liquid Amoxicillin. On the wrist: It was very intense in the imp, but immediately upon putting it on it got very faint. I have to put my nose almost on my wrist to smell anything. What I do smell is very nice. Still very pink, but less like bubble gum and more like that tropical drink. This is definitely more fruit than floral on me, so far. Drydown: A bit sharp and a bit more floral now that it's dry. Still a very pretty pink scent, but less bubble gum pink and more sophisticated, complicated pink. After a few more minutes this turns overpoweringly floral; nauseating, powdery and painfully sharp to the nose. Yikes! Overall: Score another one for my body chemistry in the war against all that smells pleasant. This was a wonderful scent, but my body totally rejected it.

In the imp: Sharp cinnamon and that funky "80's" scent that I have learned is musk. My mom must have worn a lot of musk when I was a kid or something. On the wrist: Spicy citrus musk. Drydown: Powdery, spicy, citrus musk. Overall: It's time for me to stop attempting to wear things that contain musk, not only am I not a fan of the smell of musk but my skin chemistry hates musk and turns it into baby powder. Why do I persist in trying scents I know will not work? Ever the optimist.