steffanina

Boo- In Bottle: That cotton candy note - not marshmallow, but pink cotton candy. (BPAL marshmallow smells like Play-Doh to me.) A bit sugary. Wet: Pink cotton candy. Dry: Vanilla cream soda with a continued hint of pink. Sugary and sweet and very appealing. Overall: A great cotton candy scent.

Lambs-Wool- In Bottle: Apple and clove. You really get the sense of "mashed" apple. Wet: This really smells like a posset of warm milk and clove apple. The apple is not too floral for me, either. Dry: A really nice dry down of milky warmth and clove apple. Very evocative! Overall: Warming and yummy.

Pumpkin, chocolate, coffee bean, vanilla bean, and hazelnut. Pumpkin V (2009)- In Bottle: A hint of coffee, a hint of hazelnut, and the pumpkin scent underneath it. Wet: Pumpkin, coffee, and hazelnut all fight for dominance. Cinnamon seems to underlie but that might be an illustion because that's a scent one associates with pumpkin and with coffee. A tiny fruity hint comes out, almost like berry. Dry: There's definitely cinnamon in this! Cinnamon dominates. The coffee becomes less but the pumpkin lingers. It doesn't become musty on me, like coffee scents often do. Overall: An warm foodie scent, very rich, kind of yummy. I wonder if it could become a favorite of mine.

Bite Me- In Bottle: Almond-cherry honey sugar. (The almond-cherry is that Jergens lotion scent. I happen to love that, though.) Wet: Cherry-almond. Very Jergens. Dry: This is just a little too cloyingly sweet for me. It's sharply sweet, like someone poured the sugar into my retinas. Overall: Too sweet for me, which is saying something.

Pumpkin Patch #1 (2009) In Bottle: Sugary alcoholic pumpkin. Fragrant and sweet. Wet: Pumpkin and apples. More like apple cider, with this alcoholic trend. I don't get any almond which makes me sad, I love almond. Dry: Apple starts to dominate and the pumpkin's a memory. The apple's a bit floral for my taste. As time goes on the pumpkin proves to have the staying power. Pumpkin and apple fight for dominance in this and it's an interesting blend if not one of my favorite pumpkin blends. Overall: Worth a go for anyone who likes pumpkin scents.

Pomona: In Bottle: Whoa, serious acetone nail polish smell. HUGE. Wet: Apple blooms a little on my skin. The nail polish smell is less. This is vicious apple, stinging and going alcoholic. Florals start to come out behind it, and I feel like I'm wearing a slightly acetoney version of Herbal Essence. Dry: Floral berry apple, a little alcoholic. It's a pleasant dry-down, though a little too floral for me to want to wear it. Overall: Hard to get past the scent in the bottle; a bit too floral for me.

Spellbound: In Bottle: Floral-spicy. It smells "perfumey" but in a pleasant way. The red musk is just a pleasant sweet hint and not overwhelming. Wet: Very similar to the bottle. Spicy floral, and sweetness of red musk. Still not too overwhelming on the red musk. Dry: The red musk leaps out a little more strongly on the dry-down. A little too strong for me. But if one likes red musk this is a lovely, perfumey scent. Overall: Strong on the red musk for me.

Velvet Nudie- In Bottle: A tiny moment of sharp cologne-ness in the bottle. And sweetness. It doesn't smell like any musk I expect. And it's definitely not a floral. I don't know how to describe it outside of that cologne-ness. Wet: The sharp cologne scent is gone instantly. I really hate to think lemon because it's not lemony at all. It's like sweet tea with the merest memory of lemon. Dry: Wow. This is...like the smell of sweet skin, sweet clean young skin. It isn't baby-like or baby powder-like. It's fresh-smelling and nothing at all like a heavy musk. It's the way you wish you smelled when you sweated, like something sweetly sexy. It smells almost like something I'd put on and let dry before I'd put another scent over it so that I could smell like that second scent on top of my own wished-for scent. Overall: Very fresh and sexy. I really like this.

A bit of blood and chainsaw grease underneath a banana cream pie. Splatter Comedy- In Bottle: Banana, but I smell the custard and the crust of the banana cream pie as well. Cool! Dry: Banana cream pie. Lightly alcoholic, perhaps. Wet: This fades quickly on me, leaving just a hint of the alcoholic banana scent. Overall: Fast fader, but might be great in scent lockets.

J-Horror: In Bottle: Florals here, florals there...I can't pick them out individually. And I think I smell orange. Wet: Juicy orange fleshed out by a floral background. Kind of nice! Dry: Orange goes away and it stays floral through the dry-down. Strong but not sour florals. Overall: Rich florals.

B-Horror- In Bottle: Sweetness, something oily, and just a hint of peanuts. Wet: Candied peanuts mixed with something tart and fruity; that must be the grenadine! Dry: Goodness, this one fades quickly on me! I do like it; it's more than just novel, but, boom, it's gone so fast. Overall: Fast fader though yummy.

Velvet Unicorn- In Bottle: I don't get candy off this, I get something like a sugared floral. Like in the way violet cream and rose cream candies don't give you a "candy" feel. There's also a hint of play-doh oily scent like I get from BPAL's marshmallow scent. Wet: "Fluff" is right. I feel like there's sugary powder all over and there's a "red" scent like in redpop, red kool-aid, red jell-o...the sort of thing where you don't know if it's strawberry or cherry or fruit punch. That play-doh note is subtly there but only subtly, it doesn't overpower or make this cloying. Dry: Bright powdery fruity sweetness. "Powdery" is the top descriptor I'd use, but they all fight for dominance. Overall: I wish it were more candy-like on me but that's not its fault.

Spinning Multicolored Metallic Pinwheel- In Bottle: Cherry-orange-strawberry-blueberry gin! Wet: Lime-orange Sweet Tarts! Dry: It's amazing how the gin/juniper note here that's identical to the one in Swank and Blue Fire turns from gin into Sweet Tarts when you give it these particular fruits as backdrop. Deliciously candy! Overall: A great scent. I may want to wear this a lot.

Lawn Gnome- In Bottle: Ooh, there's that oddly pleasant tobacco-smoke scent that I remember from MB: Underpants. Wet: Something sweet and candy-ish, with that underlying smoky smell. Dry: Wow. there is so much of Monster Bait: Underpants in this one! No one else has pointed this out, so I wonder if it's just me? I'm doing a comparison of the two right now; MB:Up has a mellower, more vanilla feel to it, and LG has a more sweet-spicy smell almost like sarsaparilla to it. And the smoky smell is stronger. LG is unique and has remarkable staying power on me. I do like this a lot. Overall: I think I could love this.

The Festival of Anuket- In Bottle: Aquatic, very sharp. Wet: Aquatic. I was a little scared to put this on because it's so sharp and cologne-y in the bottle, but it's not frightening. It is a bit sharp but mostly just very clean-smelling. Dry: Aquatic, nothing to be fearful of, but clean and sharp. Overall: A clean aquatic; not my thing but aquatic lovers must try this.

Plastic Pink Flamingo- In Bottle: Oh, there's that play-doh note that I associate with BPAL's marshmallow. Same scent that was in Marshmallow Poof. A little oily-plasticky. Wet: Sugared play-doh. Dry: This turns into sweet sugar on the dry-down, though it takes a while to get past the oily play-doh. I don't dislike the play-doh scent, I think it's interesting, but it's not really something I want to wear. Though the dry-down is very nice. Overall: A clever interesting scent but not one I will wear.

Nonae Caprotina- In Bottle: Milk perfume scent! Really smells a lot like Milk Moon 2005. Wet: Very fragrantly milky. Again, like Milk Moon. Dry: A little of the fig begins to bloom. Creamy; that milky scent I associate with perfumes that call themselves milk-scented lingers all the way through. I do like it. Overall: Milky figgy yum!

The Feast for the Greatly Revered Ones- In Bottle: Cocoa and cinnamon and...is that lemon? Wait, there's nutmeg! Wet: Cinnamon and cocoa and nutmeg. Pure yum! Dry: Cinnamon takes over but not in a burning way, more in a hot dry powdered way. Hot dry (but not dusty) cinnamon is the fate of the dry-down, and I don't smell any more cocoa, but it's still very nice. Overall: I like. Must try again and see if I want a whole bottle.

Wild strawberries, strawberry flower, vanilla-infused sugar, early summer grasses, and milky dandelion sap. Strawberry Moon- In Bottle: Ripe strawberries, and tart unripe strawberries (maybe a hint of cherry?), and a grassy, hay-like scent. Wet: Crushed strawberries and grasses. Dry: The grasses and the strawberry sort of fight for dominance all the way through the drydown, and eventually a faint light flowery scent comes to join, which must be the strawberry flower. Fruit and grasses remain the dominant scents, though. As a foodie lover I like this quite a bit. It's a nice variant from the candy strawberry scents one finds. Overall: Very pleasant variant on strawberry scents!

Velvet Panther- In Bottle: Makes me look around for the man standing behind me, exuding his cologne. I can't pick out individual notes. Wet: Now the man behind me has turned out to be a pastry chef! The scent is still masculine cologne but with a creamy-sweet note. It's rather nice, but if I sniff too closely I cough. Dry: Powdery-cherry-sweet with with the nicest hint of spicy musk. Overall: From the bottle I didn't think I could wear it, but I do like it. Probably not one I'll wear much but it's got a cool dry-down.

Velvet Tiger- In Bottle: OH HAI VETIVER I C WHAT U DID THERE. I like vetiver academically; it works in some blends but if they get too masculine cologne-y I don't want to wear them. (I love Death Adder, for example.) I think I can smell sweet orange in there as well. Wet: Vetiver and a smidge of orange. Dry: Desert-dry, cruel vetiver, oh, you love to grab me and steal my breath away and leave me a husk. Someone come save me. Left long enough, it does dry down to have spicy-smoky notes emerge, but still chokingly dry. Overall: Not a vetiver blend I can wear. But I bet it could smell awesome on someone else.

Velvet Tiki- In Bottle: A hint of musk, and pineapple and something flowery. Gardenia? Tiare? Frangipani? Okay, I'm making it up now. (checks description) Oh, no, wait, I'm not! It is frangipani! Wet: That musk hint, not so strong that it makes me want to take a shower (some musks hit me that way), but pleasantly balanced with pineapple and florals. Dry: Mmmmm, this is lovely! The fruit rises; I can detect the passionfruit now and it's yummy. This ends as predominantly a floral but the hint of musk and fruit remain. Overall: A great tropical scent.

Velvet Pink Kitty- In Bottle: Gin. I LOVE bpal's gin note; Swank has always been one I like lots, and Blue Fire is one I've hoarded and love to wear. Wet: Berry-ish, but so swallowed up by the juniper berries I can't really detect a different fruit. A hint of strawberry, just a hint. Very like Swank. Dry: Swank. This does not make me sad, as I love Swank, but it's so like it that there's no point in my trying to collect this particular version. Overall: Very yummy; just like Swank for me.

Velvet Dogs Playing Poker- In Bottle: Creaminess with a hint of the tobacco. Wet: Ah, here comes the dry spicy hint of the tonka. Tonka's one of those scents I shouldn't like but it gets in my blood and I do. I thought Parfums de Nicolai's Vanille Tonka was a nose-wrinkling bitter perfumey thing...until I started liking it lots. Dry: As this reaches its final dry down, I do get a nice mellowing of the tonka, though it takes time to get there. This is primarily creamy tonka once it's out of the bottle and on me, with all that that implies. Overall: Not quite enough foodiness for me to want to wear it, though I'll keep my imp around to sniff.

Velvet Clown- In Bottle: Straight Circus peanuts. Wow, that's fascinating. Wet: Circus peanuts with a hint of something acetone. The acetone recedes quickly and I get a little burnt fruity sugar. Dry: Pink bubblegum, and frooooty sugar. And is there a hint of the oily smell that is greasepaint? I'm thinking that's what it is. What a morpher! I will have to give this one another try. Overall: I'm not sure if this one is just novel or if I do want to wear it.