Electra

I had a similar experience with this one. If I hold my wrist a foot away from my nose (or sniff out of the bottle), it's lovely fresh-baked gingerbread. If I put my wrist up to my nose, it's Three Witches Lite - though not a bad smell, not nearly as nice as the gingerbread version. Either way, there's something that catches in the back of my throat with this scent that makes me feel a bit ill. I *wanted* to love it, and I almost did, but... It's heading off to a new home where hopefully it will be appreciated .

It took me quite a few wearings to get to know this scent, which is why I haven't posted my review until now. First, this smells absolutely nothing like Dana O'Shee on me - Dana went to playdough on my skin (the little bit of it that I could smell, anyway). No similarity to Snow White. Snow White is very linear on me - it doesn't change from the wet application to what I can still smell of it 10 hours later (yep, it's very long-lasting). It somehow manages, without being minty or sharp, to capture the bite that you feel and smell when you walk outdoors on a really cold day. I think that's the coconut. It doesn't do what coconut usually does on me, which is turn into a plastic scent. Nor does it smell tropical. Just cold. I can't identify any florals as such. This really smells just like snow. As a perfume, I don't think Snow White is for me. As an artistic creation, however, it's very impressive.

I agree with VelvetSky - I think it's probably the base. The "generic BPAL smell" to me is Sybaris. When I tested an imp of it, that was exactly what I thought (and I think I may have said it in my review as well). So even though I don't think that all my BPALs smell alike, I know what you mean .

Since mint and eucalyptus were two of the three listed notes, I expected this to smell similar to Bath & Body Works' Stress Relief (mint/eucalyptus) line, which I quite like. I couldn't have been farther off with that guess. And I should have known better, because my skin LOOOOOOOOVES lotus. The initial wet scent is a breath of mint - a light, soft mint rather than a sharp, biting mint. I love mint, but sometimes biting mints are a bit much even for me. This is lovely. The mint disappears almost immediately. This is a light frost that burns off as the morning sun rises. After about two minutes it's gone, and the lotus has come out to play. But all thanks to all that's holy, in this blend it's actually understated (my skin usually amplifies it until it eats all the other notes and smells like musty bubble gum). I wind up with a scent on drydown that's something like a really expensive shampoo - that doesn't sound great, but I *love* it. Even my mother, who hates perfume, really likes this on me. It's lovely. Soft and understated, very close to your skin, so it won't be obnoxious to anyone (though I can't imagine disliking this scent). You'd have to give someone a hug for them to be able to smell it. Also very long-lasting for such a soft scent. I'm SO pleased. I think I actually like it better than either of the Yule LEs I ordered (Snow White and Gingerbread Poppet). Frost Moon is a real winner. I just wish I had more than one bottle!

Herbal. Medicinal. Sharp. There's lavender in there, but I'm terrible at picking out notes so I can't do much better than that. I didn't much care for the scent at first, but that didn't matter as I wasn't interested in this blend for the scent. I wasn't sure where I should put it so that I could best smell it in my sleep, so I put it on my temples and wrists. Half an hour later (I didn't go to bed right away) I realized that my breathing had slowed and I'd become much more relaxed and calm. Also realized that the scent had really grown on me and that I actually kind of liked it. When I got in bed I didn't have any trouble falling asleep. I had extremely vivid dreams with an unusual level of recall (for about the first 15-30 minutes after waking - long enough to write it down if I were working with dreams. I still remember a bit more than usual, but the volume and detail of my recall for the first 15 minutes was staggering.). I also slept like a rock and woke up more refreshed than I have in quite a long time. Using this oil was a really neat experience. I'll be buying a big bottle, and if the rest of the Dream Formulas work as well I'll be treating myself to an entire set.

Dia de los Muertos is surprisingly foody on me. I don't really get any incense at all. The wet scent is a really strong, heady, perfumey rush of flowers over something bready/yeasty. The drydown is some sort of baked good with butter and honey. I actually really like it, even though I'm generally not much for foody scents.

This smells EXACTLY like the post-methol drydown of Undertow on me. Apparently my skin likes lotus so much that it amplifies it to the point that it eats all the other notes. Unfortunately, lotus doesn't really smell that good on me - a bit musty (same problem I often have with grapefruit, which is also in this blend). Oh well.

Oh my God. I really don't even know where to start. This is the only BPAL oil that I've tried that immediately made my eyes roll back in my head, and just keeps getting better and better. Sweet mother of mercy...this is the cinnamon scent I've been searching for my entire life. No, really. I try every single cinnamon scent that I come across, and I'm always disappointed. They usually smell like Big Red. Hamadryad smells like dry, woody cinnamon. It smells like a cinnamon stick. It smells like Christmas. It started out soft on my skin and just keeps getting stronger and stronger. This is everything that I loved about The World without the pencil-shaving note that I get from that oil. Oh GOD. This is the greatest thing I've ever smelled. I am buying a big bottle immediately. Edit 3/10/07 -- I just got a frimp of Hamadryad in my latest order, and yep, it smells just like a Wint-O-Green Lifesaver . I'd heard about the mysterious wintergreen Hamadryad but had yet to experience it. Now I have. The wintergreen does chill out eventually (after about ten minutes of "HELLO I AM WINTERGREEN BOOYAH!!!" and I get a hint of woods underneath it, but it's still mostly just soft wintergreen. It doesn't smell anything like the Hamadryad that I fell in love with. I understand that this is probably batch variation and that the Lab has said that Hamadryad was always minty (so the cinnamon version was probably the aberration), but I am so glad that I have my cinnamon-scented 5 mL.

Very clean. Aggressively clean, in fact. And yes, a bit soapy. The review likening this to the sea-glass potpourri is bang on. Quite pretty. It's not doing much for me right now, as I prefer warmer scents in the winter, but I suspect I'll get a lot of wear out of this next summer. Updating my review 2/11/07 -- Sea of Glass is very pretty at first. Unfortunately, it has throw for about a mile and a half, and it goes WAY soapy on me about half an hour into drydown. Now, I like soap. There are worse things than smelling like soap. But I have two other BPAL aquatics that work well on me (Storm Moon, which has a great hit of ozone, and the gorgeous Olokun, which stays true without a whisper of soap throughout) and am looking forward to trying Thalassa. This one is not offensive, but I would never reach for it when I could wear one of the others instead.

I am absolutely heartbroken that this scent doesn't work for me. Amber usually loves me, and dragon's blood has grown on me (I started out not caring for Dragon's Milk; now I quite like it). I thought I'd love this scent. Unfortunately I don't get either the amber or the dragon's blood - what I get is the same funkiness that I got in Snake Oil and Lampades that makes them unwearable. This blend REALLY does not work with my skin. It's awful . Edit 8/12/07 -- back when I was young and stupid I thought that BPAL amber actually worked on my skin . It totally doesn't. It's actually one of my arch-enemies. However, in the interest of full disclosure, the funk that I got from this blend was not the standard amber-powder funk.

Initial (wet) reaction: Whoa, NICE! The *only* word to describe this scent is "clean." Intensely clean. Beautiful. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. The scent started getting less clean and more herbal, and then a somewhat unpleasant note came out on my skin (oregano? I'm lousy at picking out notes, but I smell like Italian cooking herbs). Oh well.

At first this is fruity yet cold (interesting combination!) on my skin - I guess the fruitiness is the lotus - with a bit of a menthol bite. Then the fruitiness is gone, and just the menthol remains. It's the perfume equivalent of a cough drop . Interesting, but not for me. I wish I'd gotten the "creamy mintiness" another reviewer mentioned!

I get no fruitiness from Morgause. Upon first application I get a slightly astringent note. It quickly calms down into a rich floral - smells to me like an old-fashioned, "older women's" perfume, but one that's surprisingly wearable. Sophisticated, rich, and slightly dark.

Another vote for Dragon's Milk (cherry vanilla) and Regan (sweeeeeet vanilla with a bit of floral. Too sweet for me.). Chimera is also very, very sweet (but spicy, which might be a nice variant on the theme). Zephyr wasn't sweet on me at all - smelled like deodorant soap! Edited to add Lolita. Smells like fruit punch.

If I'd known there were going to be bats on the All Saints label I'd have ordered it just for that. Damn.

Voodoo blends: Dove's Heart Wolf's Heart Water of Notre Dame Van Van Lobban Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo

I agree with the votes for "none of them." One thing that has been beaten into my head over and over again is to NEVER wear fragrance to a job interview. What smells delightful to you might be horrific to your interviewer (or they could have a fragrance sensitivity, or be allergic to one of the oils, or prone to migraines, or...) and it could prejudice them against you. It would be terrible not to get a job because of the fragrance that you chose to wear. Sucks, but I think it's the safest bet.

This smelled absolutely nothing like what I expected. First, I thought it would be a much heavier scent. It's very light. Second, I guess that my conception of fall scents is deeper, spicier, richer...and given the notes, I thought that that's what this would smell like. What I smell is beeswax. It took me a while to identify the scent - I kept getting whiffs of honey (not the honey that's in O - a much cleaner, gentler, waxier version) when I was typing, but I didn't smell it when I pulled my wrist up to my nose. But that's what it is - a beeswax candle with an undercurrent of dried leaves and soil. This is early fall in a world before electricity.

Lightning is clean to the point of being almost soapy.

This is the most incredible blend I've tried, hands down. The wet phase is intensely fruity (it's a melon that I can't place - cantaloupe or honeydew or some mixture of the two, to my nose). It dries down into something that's more aquatic (there's a bit of a saltwater tang, or at least something reminiscent of that), but still crisp and fruity. Absolutely delightful. Aside from the fact that it smells nice, it's like olfactory Prozac for me. I don't know what intent was put into this oil, but it calms, grounds, and centers me. Amazing. This is a must-have. I will cry when I run out if Black Broom's website isn't up yet.

Named after the primordial ocean of milk where Lord Vishnu reclines upon the thousand-headed Naga. Sweet milk and warm, healing ginger with a touch of golden honey and our blend of Ambrosia. Not at all what I expected. I thought that Sudha Segara would smell a bit like O, but softer and milkier, with a bite of ginger warming it. What it actually does smell like on my skin is Origins Ginger Essence. And (don't hit me!) I think I like Ginger Essence better. Up for swaps it goes!

Wet: whoa, pina colada! 30 seconds later: Uh oh, that’s a plastic-artificial note. Please go away. 5 minutes later: Damnit. Pineapple bubble gum. Nope, I can’t do it. Too much plastic-bubble gum-fake powderiness. This one’s strong, and I bet it would be gorgeous on someone with more cooperative body chemistry.

Pine on me as well. Not as sharp as the pine in Golden Priapus - more of a mellow pine-resin scent. Reminds me of walking over a carpet of fallen brown pine needles in autumn. I wouldn't wear it, but am glad I got to try it!

Wow, this one did NOT work for me. It must have a note in common with Snake Oil, because it did the same disastrous "boiled potatoes" thing that Snake Oil did on my skin. Snake Oil was Indonesian spices and boiled potatoes; Lampades is cranberries and boiled potatoes. Feh.

Very, very clean. Not a strong scent at all – smells like herbal soap. The review that likened this scent to taking a mid-afternoon summer nap in freshly-washed white sheets was bang-on. Not one of my favorites on scent alone, but I've not tested the voodoo properties yet.