julesofdenial

I got a frimp of this with my Pirate Moon order, and I gotta say, I'm kind of baffled by it. A lot of these are notes I frequently like- tea, jasmine, ginger, neroli.. but I'm not really getting any of those from this. I would've expected something more heady, whereas this is sugar-sweet. The grapefruit's strong and citrusy, and doesn't immediately die on my skin as it tends to with other blends. And somewhere underneath there's a REALLY strange undertone.. something almost rank, or sweaty. I have no idea what that's about, and it's surely just my own skin chemistry being bizarre, but it's never happened to me with any other blends before. After a bit it dies down to a very soft floral, something of a blend of the honeysuckle and wisteria. It's odd to me that normally strong notes like jasmine and neroli didn't completely take this fragrance over. In fact, on me it seems to be so soft that I have to really work to even find it on my skin. Weird. May have to give this a try at a different time of month- perhaps some mysterious hormone is just doing the wacky with my skin chemistry today.

I'm very fond of aquatics and piratey things in general, so I had to have both this and Pirate Moon. They arrived today and I scrambled to test 'em out... this is just a review of my first quick test, so I may have to edit later, but for the moment: for me this comes down smack in the middle of Jolly Roger and Thalassa. It's pretty much a perfect seaside aquatic- it's clear and light, like breeze off the water. It's gorgeous, especially for anyone who loves aquatic/beachy scents. Pretty much none of the subtleties show here for me- there might be a slight soft creaminess from the Snake Oil, maybe a very faint hint of lime, but definitely no strong, smoky gunpowder or sharp blood. Which is almost a shame; I think those, or a stronger influence of lime, might've helped this one stand out for me a bit more, but as it is, I suspect I'll be more likely to reach for Jolly Roger when I'm in the mood for a piratey aquatic. Still, this is very nice, and I'll definitely be holding onto it for now.

I actually did get a decant of this back in.. oh, November or so. But after a test of it, I decided it was much, much too crazy for me. Unhinged is right- a sniff of this certainly brings to mind madness, possibly because of all the somewhat conflicting notes layered together. But, I bought a lot of LE imps that included this, so I figured I'd give it another test. And I am very glad I did. Yes, it's edged with madness, but now that I sniff it again I realize that at the heart of this is pure neroli, and smells precisely like LUSH's Alkmaar soap- one of my favourites. The cumin and moss add earthiness and spice, giving it a bit of a masculine twist, though I'd definitely call this gender neutral. I can only imagine that wearing this after washing with Alkmaar would amp the neroli even more, and I can't wait to try that. For all that it's crazy, it's also weirdly comforting, and I'm just thrilled that I decided to give it another go.

mmm... This is another I picked up mainly due to my love of the work of art it's based on, but oh, I think I love it. I'm a sucker for gardenia, though I know it's not for everyone. On me, the throw isn't too very strong, which is probably a good thing because when I get up close to sniff that gardenia is STRONG. It's softened a bit by the other notes, particularly the chamomile, but if someone were to hand me this and make me guess what was in it, the only thing I'd be able to positively identify is that gardenia. But, as I said, the throw is light enough that it doesn't become cloying or headache-inducing, which is always a danger for me with strong white florals. All in all, a really beautiful scent. Not sure that it's one I'll be wearing too very often, but worth keeping just the same.

The blend of this is fascinating.. as others have said, I expected this to be much darker than it is. I mostly got it for the coconut, bay rum, leather, wood, and tobacco aspects, because those are some of my favourite notes (Jolly Roger is one of my all-time favourites, especially when layered with Elegba). I do get a bit of the spice of bay rum in this, and a hint of sweet coconut, but the soft, clean scent of linen along with the lilac are the predominant notes. All in all, it's very pretty- I'm just not sure it's exactly what I was looking for. For those after a sweeter, more feminine alternative to things like Jolly Roger, though, it's perfect.

I mostly only tried this because I loved the painting so much. at first sniff, before putting it on, I thought to myself "wow, I like this a lot more than I expected to." But now that it's on, I feel like I smell like a Yankee Candle store. Possibly my sinuses and/or body chemistry are out of whack today, and things will be different later? I'm hoping so, but if anyone else gets that Yankee Candle vibe, it'll make me feel a lot saner...

At first, I couldn't figure out what this scent reminded me of- something summer-related, but what? not food, not sunscreen... and then I realized: aloe vera. No, really. This has that same sort of clean, green smell, and when wet it's almost mossy. The mandarin and mango lend a wonderful sweet lushness to it, but overall... yep, aloe. Which I LOVE. This is definitely one of my absolute favourite blends that I've tried thus far!

This starts out really harsh on me, unpleasantly so; after a bit it starts to calm down and get a bit fruity. Not sure I'm picking up any of the individual notes in this, or maybe they just don't actually smell like what I thought they did. Honestly, at first I really didn't think I liked this, and was all set to swap it away... then an hour or so after testing it, I happened to catch a whiff, and realized it smells almost exactly like one of my best friends. I love the way she smells, and always steal extra hugs from her because of it. ...might have to swap it away anyway, since it's kind of creepy to smell like her, but it's at least a very comforting scent, to me, because of that.

Despite not being particularly Christian, I somehow woke up feeling close to the Madonna this morning. Let's blame the Hispanic heritage creeping in despite personal religious beliefs. Anyway, it seemed a good day to test my new imp of Hymn, and I definitely didn't regret doing so in the slightest. On me, this is a very beautiful incensey rose. The individual notes all blend wonderfully and give it nice depth, but overall the effect is definitely that of lovely, pure, dare I say holy rose incense. Wonderfully done by the lab, though no surprise there, of course

Oh, my goodness. I nearly sent this one on to a friend (trying to tempt her into the BPAL addiction with me) because the first few times I tried it, it turned utterly soapy on me. But before packing it up, I decided to give it one more try, and WOW am I in love! Starts out citrusy, but that quickly disappears on me and it becomes this beautiful jasmine-lavender sort of scent... beautiful and floral, and delicate. It's got great throw, too, but it's very subtle, not in-your-face at all. When my mother caught a sniff, she assumed I was wearing Lush's Flying Fox balm, but to me I almost like this better.. the jasmine of Flying Fox/Youki-Hi can get very cloying and overpowering, whereas this is, as I said, very delicate, and nicely tempered by the sort of herbaly lavender. Absolutely beautiful, and I'm definitely going to be needing a bottle!