midnight_aeval

This blend is super faint on me as well - I get the coconut bark/shell and the licorice mostly. It's just not wowing me.. But, in fairness, there hasn't really been a scent with coconut that I've been completely taken by... and Snake Charmer took a loooong time for me to warm up to, and even now I really don't wear it that often. I see how this scent would be popular, it does remind me of SC.

I let my husband smell it and asked what he thought (usually he says vanilla, rose, or coconut ) and he was like WHOA coffee, it's like the end of the aisle in the grocery store that has all the coffee beans! Ding ding, he got one right It's a pretty great, straight coffee scent. Not super sweet and dusty like Misk U, not bitter like Bah, but more like the Misk U v3 proto that was at a past Trunk Show minus the cinnamon toast note I like this one! (Me.. not a coffee drinker, but I could inhale the scent of a bag of coffee beans all day long)

And this one was my biggest disappointment of the 3 I ordered bottles of - It's like old, slightly chewed bazooka bubble gum! I will be retesting after my pregnancy because something is very off on my skin for this blend.

So there was a prototype from one of the trunk shows, PX79, that smells like it could be the base of this blend - but which note is it?? Gypsy is definitely sweeter than PX79, maybe that's the bourbon vanilla and tonka showing through. Either there is not a lot of cardamom here or I don't care for the smell of cardamom which I'm pretty sure is not true because I would inhale from the bottle in my baking cabinet if I could LOL PLUS it's in Spanked (uh-duh!) so I must like it.. As it dries the blend gets sweeter, but it's just not what I was "scentualizing" it to be. Not a cousin to Gothabilly like I was expecting, it's got a dusty sweet quality to it. The throw is very, very lite for me. I practically slathered this morning to give it another go and I couldn't smell anything after a couple hours! Going to try it after a month or so.. maybe it'll "deepen" up.

I swear this version of Hod has sweet pea in it (a la Aeval or Mouse's Long and Sad Tale). I also don't get much carnation unless it's what disguising itself as sweet pea. I haven't tried Hod in a while, but I remember it being spicy, bold carnation. This one is like some sort of baby sister to Hod.

I sniffed this one from the tester and it was !RED MUSK! but now as I test the bottle I got it's not.. It's not as intensely chocolate (or dark in color) as the released Boomslang. It's like this one is made with milk chocolate and the released version is dark chocolate - straight up cocoa!

I don't like this one as much as v3 - It has a floral quality to it in the background that makes it just smell 'off' on my skin. I can detect the similarities between the 2 versions (they aren't so different that they're in totally different scent categories), but I'm not a fan of this one Something in both of the versions reminds me of L'Estate, but whereas v3 was similar and better this one seems similar and not as good - for the record, I don't even own a bottle of L'Estate any more, it just wasn't my thing. There might be sandalwood in it because it's creating a dry/sour effect on my skin in the drydown stage.

I skin tested Morocco v2 after I made my purchase since it sold out before my number. This was all TKO to me. I sniffed what it smelled like on another BPALer and it was spicy, more like the released Morocco, but on me it was just TKO - how odd!

This was one of the last minute adds to my list because I didn't find the tester until it was almost too late! I sniffed the bottle and it was like grape juice. As I'm skin testing it the grape juice is still out in full force (I suppose it could be wine, but I don't detect a boozy note I get from most of the blends that contain wine - it feels more 'purple' than 'red' anyways). The drydown is less sweet, a bit sour, but still grape!

From the bottle, this was like a shot of pineapple juice, straight up I take that part back because I mixed it up with AGLAV1 - this one was fruity, I had in my notes 'licorice' too (not the black kind.. like one of those novelty fruity ones). I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't like Tiki Queen or King - definitely not a love child of the 2 But alas, it was one of the scents that sold out before my number came around.

I had a special request to review this one for the person I'm sending it to, so here it goes! From the bottle I do detect a light floral. Not Jasmine or Gardenia which usually cause me to gag upon initial sniff. It's one I can stomach enough to dab just a bit on my skin. My guess would be Hyacinth (not being a perfume-floral person, I only have the actual flower scent to go off of). Hyacinth reminds me a lot of Pikake too, so maybe it's that... My problem with florals is that I LOVE the smell of flowers, but in a perfume it just doesn't translate well enough to my nose or on my skin to want to wear it. This one is not your run-of-the-mill floral package, but more exotic/tropic. I suspect there could be something like a sweet sandalwood or amber that tempers the floral note just a bit. This wouldn't be a scent I'd get for myself, but it was overall a pleasant experience

I agree that this one is very similar to the released version. Definitely a well-worn and broken-in leather scent. I put it on my husband this morning and he said "Whoa, that's strong." (and it was seriously only a tiny, tiny bit!) So maybe an amped version of the released DMH?

From the bottle this blend was not like the recent incarnation of Strawberry Moon that was like fresh strawberries with that realistic green scent from the leaves on top. I would liken this one more to the original which I wasn't particularly a fan of because the Strawberry seemed artificial. This prototype reminded me of a strawberry scented children's hair detangler that I used to use when I was little. Not really like fresh strawberries, but more of like the smell you get in a pack of strawberry bubble gum.

This was the first blend at the trunk show that really popped out as "mmm - must have" from the bottle. Super classy, super sexy. Incredibly bright/golden which makes sense since Amaterasu is a sun goddess. I can't place my finger on what it is exactly, but on my skin I detect some amber. This amber is not like the one I got from Leo 2007, but more like the one in L'Estate. Maybe it's the Napalese or vanilla-infused amber (which, at times my nose tricks me and thinks Napalese Amber = leather, so maybe that's where the leather comes in on the first review). It just gets better on the dry down. I'm glad I sprung for a bottle! ETA: This scent sticks around for a looong time. I squirt the remnants from a pipette into the crease of my arm and I could still smell it the next morning! It ended up as a vanilla musk scent and oh-so-good.

In the bottle this is like Big Red gum - oh no, keep it away!! (Cinnamon this heavy usually burns the crap out of my skin). As I skin test it this morning it's like Big Red gum that's been trampled at the fairgrounds, and then somehow makes it's way to an ashen fire-pit. Doesn't smell like fire, but rather the remnants of it (and still hot cinnamon).

From the bottle I picked up the slightest hint of banana so I promptly added it to my list. I skin tested it this morning and it was tropical fruits and that sweet tropical air I remember from living in Hawaii. Reminds me of waking up in a plush hotel room with a breakfast of the finest fruits from the islands all waiting on the lanai on a beautiful clear and sunny day. I don't get any floral notes, just a soft, innocent, sweet dusting of the tropics.

I tried this when I first got my decant and was pretty 'eh' about it. Since I've learned you can't test a scent just once, I tried it again today. I was caught off guard when it smelled like something really familiar - I knew it was something LUSH. It took a sniff from my LUSH box, sprays from a couple different EDPs when finally I got the right one; holy crap, this is a dead ringer for LUSH's American Cream. I've used at least 2 huge bottles of the conditioner, have the EDP and solid perfume. I always wondered how they figured AC is supposed to smell like Vanilla Milkshake (uhm, it sooo doesn't to me), but maybe the 'dusty vanilla' note is what I've always smelled. Dusty Vanilla Milkshake? LOL Orris is a super iffy note for me because it always goes dry and sour. I think it does the same thing in this blend, but that's what seems to make it so AC-esque.

I was asked about this one, so I'll put my comments here This blend was SUPER LIME when I first got it at the trunk show. Now it's not as potent in the lime, has a bit of a cucumber hint to it, but more than anything if reminds me of a melted lime popsicle! I don't get mint, herbs, or any acquatic notes - just sugary lime. The cucumber note even seems to disappear as it dries down. Something sweeter comes out instead, a melon? Yup - the little spot of it I put on my arm is now about completely void of lime, it's sweet and fruity, more like melon than anything.

This should have been a good scent on me, but my skin turns it to total lemongrass soap From the bottle it smells really good and has great potential, like lemon sorbet, but my skin does funky things to make this SOAP.

I remember testing this back when I first got my decants and thought it was very heavy on the black licorice note. Now as I retest it, I get much more of the coconut/bayrum/Captain Jack smell It's definitely gotten better with age, but probably not one I would wear often.

Astringent and sinus-clearing! Minty and... old. LOL maybe the lubricant note it making this smell 'old' to me, but very much not a scent I could pull off!

A sweet and disquieting mix of mimosa and strawberry. This seems to be the same strawberry note that's in Strawberry Moon 2009, but while SM 2009 has that fresh green note that makes it more realistic, this one has a tart, sparkling note that makes it sort of artificial. Sorry Overprotective Possessed Talking Doll (I love your name though)!

This scent is what I would imagine a classic Victorian perfume to smell like. It's sophisticated, classy, and would make people think you had a ton of money. It is very floral, mostly rose to me, but the rose didn't go soapy on my skin which is usually how scents like this end up. I didn't detect too much lavender, but it's definitely there in the background. I think if I was ever in the mood for a floral fragrance, I would pick this one.

So fizzy!! I'm not a fan of the super fizzy blends, so I just sniffed this one at Bat's Day. My husband smelled it too and he wanted a bottle, apparently he's an effervescent kind of guy! I skin tested it this morning and there wasn't much morphing going on; what it smelled like in the bottle was exactly what it smelled like on my skin. As the day wore on it got less fizz (sort of like a soda going flat - ha!). It's very lime-y, definitely more like Sprite than Mountain Dew.

I'm sure you won't have a problem trying to find a swap for the "apple-y" version; there are a lot of people looking for the one that smells like the original, sans apple!