akabob

I have this one on today. This is a fun scent because it morphs all over the place and then settles into a really sexy sweet smell that kind of floats around me. My office smells like a cartoon princess lives in it. At first, the oil smelled like Luden's Cherry throat lozenges in the imp vial. AWESOME. I love those things, and eat them by the boxful, to many people's horror. I was thinking, this is going to make me smell like an apothecary! But, NO. When I put it on, the smell evolved immediately. I could smell woody smells. Nothing green. This was a smell of pure, polished, clean wood. This is when the smell is at its fullest...the wood mixes with the tart of the cherry and currant and it almost smells like chocolate cherries mixed with oil paint and wood panels. Forgive me, I'm a painter. Then it fades, and I'm left with this cartoon princess smell...the smell of my old My Little Ponies and Jem dolls. The smell of my Strawberry Shortcake doll. Sweet, faint, sugary tart goodness. I think it is currant and not cherry...the cherry was far different. Fun! A rollercoaster of a smell.

This one has a weird evocative quality to it. For those of you lucky enough to live near the Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo, go stand in the gift shop lobby early in the morning when they're making pastry. Take in a deep breath. That smell, of spice, syrupy dark berry swirling with nutmeg and flour and the smell of the potpourri (crushed roses) in the gift shop is exactly what this perfume FEELS like to me. It is the weirdest sensation being transplanted right back to one of my favorite places. As a smell itself, the scent is really warm and comforting but in no way sexy to me. It has all the makings of a warm evening under a blanket - the roses are warm, spicy roses...the black currant is a thick, spicy mass of syrupy goodness that floats on top of the roses like a floater, and the pastry of the tart is a nice top note that provides an initial weight to the oil that eventually fades and lets the rose and currant mingle with spice. It is a really nice cozy scent.

I put this on the other night to go clubbing. In my "manfriend's" words, it smells like a teenage girl. Bubblegum and lollipops with just a tiny tiny tiny touch of something slightly ladylike that only pops up in the beginning. This has a weird...nostalgic effect on my nostrils, taking me back to when I was a teen girl, eating BloPops every day at school and tasting that change from hard cherry candy to soft sugary bubblegum. I felt really almost naughty wearing this, and had a blast getting odd glances from men periodically when I'd dance past. Has a nice throw on my skin that ust kind of floated around me, creating a little halo of sticky candy that shifted as I moved. I think I may pick up a bottle of this next paycheque. I'm surprisingly in love.

I tried this one on yesterday and I was surprised by how much it smells like incense! In the bottle I could really smell the cakes more than the incense, but when I put it on, the incense swirled its way to the front. Every time I got in my car, I could smell this gorgeous, faint sweet and flowery incense. I hate florals most of the time, but this one is just sweet and smokey enough to kick the cloying scent out of the floral and really gives it a sweet, gentle incensey smell. Very comforting and gentle scent.

This scent is awesome. It reminds me of walking into this store in Long Beach that sells desserts and caramel apples...it is that sweet that has a little tart in it that sneaks into the high parts of your nose while the sticky caramel stays most prominent. I smell exactly like a caramel apple for the first 30 minutes, but later when the scent really settles, I pick up a bit of that coconut rum scent. Mmmm. This one is going to get some heavy wear.

Shanghai is an interesting smell for me. I sniffed it in the imp and was a little put off by the grapefruity/green teaness of it. It reminded me of this green tea-based perfume sample my grandma was getting from Estee Lauder, so I put it away for a bit and tried all the other goodies I received. Coming back this morning to my pile of imps and bottles, I decided to put it on since I would be teaching little kids this afternoon and didn't think my usual slather of Red Lantern or Cockaigne would be good for little noses. It is a really clean, fresh scent. I'm glad the lemon verbena is in there to kick the other notes down a little, because I don't like that weird fakey green tea scent. To me, green tea should smell really....more like leaves and less like fake sugary green. Anyhow, the verbena gives it a nice citrusy/green scent. It is a REALLY citrusy scent to me...very much reminds me of these Japanese lemon sours I eat called SUPER LEMON!!! They're a little "off" from the standard american lemon flavor...and taste a lot like this perfume oil smells. Anyhow, this will go in to my pile of imps to send off with packages or will be given to a girl at school I give imps to when I think she'll like them.

I tried this one last night. Let me preface with the fact that usually I hate hate hate flowers and hate any perfume that has florals in it. Well, I put this one on, and LOVED IT. This is a gorgeous scent. It smells EXACTLY like the description...dead flowers, indeed! Oh they're wonderful. This scent evokes a powerful memory of a crown I made as a little girl....dead roses, branches of garden plants and some hemp rope. Very evocative and soft. I'm actually sooo enamored I might get a 5ml of this one. Who'd have thunk?! I'm a total foodie queen and yet Zombi has me falling. I think it is because the dead flowers have a more....antiqued scent. I like that they're NOT fresh and cloying. They're light and dried and very much have that little sad sweetness of death that roses get once they've dried out. TRY THIS. Even if you hate flowers. You will probably love it as much as I did.

This works well on my skin, I guess. It IS very sandalwoody, but I think the myrrh keeps it from going the way of the hippy. I DO agree with some of the other reviews...If only there was a touch more of the cocoa scent in there for a bit longer. It smells insanely beautiful at first, and then tapers off into a pretty but less stunning scent. I really like it...it reminds me of Catholic churches for some reason. Maybe the incense from my childhood church was myrrh. Not 5ml bottle material...unless I can find a cocoa scent to mix with it....mweeheeheee

I got this one for the honey mead, and...well, I smell like honey mead! This is a potent scent. Wow. It does something deep inside my body when I inhale...almost the same feeling I get when I put Red Lantern on and the smell kind of makes my head spin a little because it really has that woozy scent. This one is a more sugary version of that wooziness. It has warmed up a bit since I put it on...making it very incensey on my skin. Initially, it was ALL honey. Thick, gloppy, dizzying amounts of honey and booze. Now I have a touch of honey and a lot of resiny-sweet spice. I like it. I don't like it enough to get a 5ml (I doubt I'd use it all....this one has throw on me), but I will definitely be using it for evening occasions.

This is gorgeous. I bought this one for my manfriend, mostly because he fancies himself a pirate. I am sooo glad I got it...it smells just like I'd imagine him smelling after months of piracy. The rum is gorgeous...like Captain Morgan's spiced rum, it has a nice sweet spicy scent that really sets off the leather note wonderfully! The initial scent is definitely oceanic...it smelled a little prettier than seawaters I'm used to, but still had that aquatic kind of scent in my nose. Once it burned off (after about 15 quick quick seconds), the scent warmed up like a pirate ship in the sun, and I got all of the wonderful rummy, leathery, woody scents. Very sexy in a woozy, wild kind of way. Definitely perfect for the pirates in the forum. My man will looove this one. I know I do.

This smelled lovely in the bottle, but as soon as I put it on, it turned to baby powderrrr!!!! Waaahhhh. I wanted to love it. I got the 5ml without trying it. I even left it on for the past few hours to let it simmer, hoping it would help cut the baby powder scent. Alas, no. I'm putting this one up for sale so Snake Oil fans can enjoy it. I see why people love it...in the bottle the scent is rich, sugared incense and has a beautiful allure. I just wish my skin would love it.

I tried this one earlier today. I ended up frimping it to a friend of mine after I tried it...it was just too green. The rosemary went wild on me and I ended up smelling like my parents' backyard which is rife with wild rosemary. After a half-hour it finally dried down to a soft rose that was barely noticeable with just a tiny touch of what I suppose was the orange blossom. Not a scent for me...definitely one for women who love herby, garden scents. This is light and reminds me of walking through the roses with handfuls of rosemary. Very old-world. Which I guess is appropriate, given the inspiration for the perfume!

I tried this 3 times before reviewing. What I'm not saying is that I was so turned on by my skin smelling so good that I ended up distracted by much sniffing on my own behalf. I literally cannot stop sniffing myself ALL DAY when this is on. Which is tough, because I have to sneak sniffs when my college mates aren't looking, or I'll look like a loon. Anyway, this smells gorgeous. It isn't how I imagined it would smell on me. I had imagined something with less lavender fougere, but I am glad I can smell more of it. The vanilla is beautiful. Nothing artificial on my skin...I think the tea and musk and touch of lemon keep it from going nuts. The scent is androgynous. I don't get "man" or "woman" from the scent at all. I feel like I need to put a suit on, slick my hair down with pomade, and take a walking stick to the backside of a girly boy. Yep. Needless to say, this smell is the perfect balance of sweet and just a littttle tang with a nice soothing whiff of the beautiful fougere. Not TOO lavendery...it has more of a creamy scent in this mixture. The tea is hard to find on my skin....not surprising...my skin LOVES vanilla and burns everything else off quick. LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. My poor manfriend is in for a shocking evening if he gets into this vial.

I just got this in a handful of frimps from a fellow BPALer, and man am I glad she sent it. This will be my next bottle. The first impression was not as strong as the dry down. I do not like almond. It reminds me of Jergens lotion. But after the almond burns off my skin, I get this amazing, warm and sexy spice that permeates the air around me. It literally smells like I rubbed resins all over my body. Warm, spicy and sweet with just enough of a floral/herby incense smell to keep it balanced. It is NOT floral, but there is something in the spices that has a little greener of a scent than the rest of the spice. And man do I like the overall scent. I smell sooo sexy. This makes me feel amazing. I had the WORST day ever today and now I feel like a goddess. This may be a multiple bottle buy for me. <3 it. Give it a shot, foodies. I love foody scents, and this is NOT foody, but this definitely will appeal to any foody scent lovers who are suckers for a nice sweet spice.

This oil got tested on both my man's skin and my own skin. Whoa what a difference in the way our skins picked up this complex scent. I loved this on my boy. Not nearly so much on my skin until the dry down. Here is how it smelled on me: First, the vetiver comes off the strongest, with clove kind of woven in. About 30 minutes after it dried down it settled in and the vetiver burned off and I could smell the clove and what I think was the vanilla and honey and wine heating up a little bit. It warmed to a beautiful kind of spiced sweetness that wasn't foody-sweet at all. This is definitely going to be saved for special events in the evening...as it made me feel very sexy...I just have to wait for that 30 minutes to pass so that pesky vetiver doesn't make me smell all astringent. On my man's skin: Oh my gods. What a difference. His skin immediately pulled up all the sticky sweetness of this scent and the vetiver just warmed it up a touch. I think this is because my boy has very sweet skin scent naturally...he tends to make everything smell sweet like a cookie. This scent smelled so sexy on him..very spicy, like a mulled wine with a touch of honey swirled into the scent. The vetiver on his skin ended up being just the right balance to keep the smell from being too girly for his taste, and I am pretty sure he'll be getting into this imp in the future.