icing

On me, Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller smells like a fainter version of Eat Me, with a hint of cedar (which I’m attributing to the patchouli) mixed in.

Bathsheba, Centzon Totochtin , Horreur Sympathique, King Cobra, Kitsune-Tsuki, Medea, Regan, Skuld, Snake Charmer, and Temple Viper were all very purple on me. Freak Show was more of a reddish purple, and Eat Me could be purple, but I think of it as a cheery red. …and Blood Countess would probably be another candidate for the purple world… as would Voodoo Lily? E.T.A.: "Faith is sugared violet."

This is Saw-Scaled Viper, playing in pink cupcake sugar while wearing a silver filigree tiara. To me, Pink Moon mimics the sweet, warm, sugared spiciness of Saw-Scaled Viper without the borderline feral musk and the slightly harsh heat of the cassia. The sugar is different as well. On me, Saw-Scaled Viper smells like a crisp gingersnap cookie generously coated in hard sugar icing, but on Pink Moon, even though the warmth and spice are nearly identical to Saw-Scaled (though in Pink Moon there’s sometimes a bubblegum-esque wet stage), the sugar aspect smells more of Saw-Scaled stripped of it’s hard coating, and sent on a light roll through pink (I almost always think of carnations as pink!), crystallized cupcake sugar. This is the first Lunacy blend I’ve ordered (and I’ve done everything but breakdance in glee since the moment I read it was coming around this year), and I absolutely adore it!

…just wanted to add that I don’t normally amp caramel, but Mr. Nancy is pretty heavy on the brown sugar and caramel on me.

When the bottle’s closed, the outside smells of talcum powder and sweet but unidentifiable flowers to me. During the first few tries, wet and dry, I was met with something very much like Burt’s Bees Hand Salve (the one with rosemary in it)… only mixed with talc. …the unguents must have turned into the medicinal form, just for me! Now it’s 100% talc, from wet stage on, and it gets stronger with time. O and La Petite Mort did the same (or turned to baby powder)… I thought skin musk was the culprit (as anything with ‘flushed skin’, ‘skin musk’, and the like will turn to powder on me), but now I’m not so sure that’s the main cause (and red musk can either vanish or turn to dryer sheets on me, so I’m not jumping to blame it here). …As far as this particular blend category goes, it might be that I’m just meant to remain unloved – but I will age this one (though that didn’t help with O or La Petite Mort) just to be certain. If anyone knows a healthy way to shake up one’s chemistry, I’m all ears and eyes.

Thanks for answering my question Moonarcana, IvyandPeony, Parrot_Suspect! I ended up ordering an Imp of Maenad and on me, it was carnation and opium heaven, with just the right amount of strawberry for a further twist... but now my chemistry’s changed , and it’s mainly strawberries and hibiscus. Boo. I haven’t noticed any in Zarita, either, but I’m still eagerly awaiting my bottle of Pink Moon. And that error I made in my post is poking my eye out.

Siren’s been hanging on my wishlist for a few months now, and just as I was considering being a bit more aggressive in hunting it down, it appeared as a Frimp in my last order! Alas, we were not meant to be, as, the result is toilet bowl cleanser, with a dry-down akin to Vick’s (and I may need napalm to separate myself from it). Faiza will be comforted in knowing that it’s still my number one jasmine and ginger blend.

Laudanum starts off as pencil shavings, dry skin, awkward nutmeg, and sweet-sticky, Tombstone-esque sassafras (Tombstone can be rootbeer when fresh, marshmallow when aged, Laudanum starts as the fresh variety, and quickly moves into sticky-marshmallow land in under a minute) for just about an hour, then it turns into spice cookies... ones that smell very similar to, but not quite as warm as gingersnaps. Debauched hunger? That depends on what your vice is. This is a really nice foody blend, on me, with just about zero throw (but not very faint), and very long-lasting. I enjoy sniffing it, even if the really dry, pencil shavings moments won’t go away on my right wrist (it’s a really, really lovely smelling cookie on my left). However, I don't crave it as much as others, so I won’t keep it. I wish opium, opium poppies, and poppy notes in general wouldn't vanish on me, and I’d love to see how the black poppy note would change this blend, had my chemistry allowed it to appear.

Wet, this is the most glorious, sexy, warm, liquid honey scent I’ve ever come across. Dry, it varies between cosmetic powder, or vulgar-nuclear-strength-won’t-scrub-off baby powder. …Or both. I’ve tried O Lab fresh, in my first-ever BPAL order. I’ve tried a decant of it that had been aged over a year. The difference on me: aged, it won’t even tease me with that hint of beautiful honey, and I’m more likely to end up with rapid-fading cosmetic powder as opposed to the abominable baby powder. I’m convinced there’s ‘skin musk’ or whichever musk is described as ‘warm flushed skin’ (or something of similar description) in O, as, aside from Bengal, that component seems to equate to hell-powder single note on me.

Eau de Nursing Home: Old, pastel fabric-covered chairs retaining a vague, undefined, but ever-present spoiled but stale (almost waste-like) stench, blended with that distinct powdery elderly-skin smell, an odor-concealing 'wild flower' scented spray, and noticeable wafts of pocket-escaping wintergreen mint fragments beneath the cushions and the residue of a muscle-soothing or chest and sinus clearing menthol balm. The longer it’s on, the more the stale funk and powdery smell strengthen, and a bit of chalkiness joins the mix. Poor Hamadryad, despite its peaceful looking description on the site, my chemistry transformed it into a bit of a depressing and nauseating smell.

Opium notes vanish on me. BPAL honeysuckle = scorched plastic; vertivert = burnt rubber and stagnate water (and does it ever love to amp). Oh the fun. I smell like a toy car wreck that took place in a gutter.

When I applied Miskatonic University, the first few seconds left my arm smelling like hot, liquid caramel… soon after the dust notes appeared and overtook the caramal, leaving me smelling as though I were crawling through heaps of gritty gray dust and cobwebs, while clutching a box of caramels. Occasionally I’d also catch a whiff of something very much like the pages of a new book, but the dust made up the strongest part of this blend, once it hit my skin… and it was nearly sneeze inducing. I’d like to note though, that the ‘dust’ wasn’t dirtlike (as in Death Cap), or wet gritty smell (which is what I pick up in Smut), it smelled like that gray dust that gathers on neglected window ledges, around hearths, and under beds, with a touch of cold worn-concrete, or maybe drywall-like grit. I’m amazed at the powerful presentation of imagery that came from Miskatonic University is, but it isn’t something I’d enjoy wearing.

Sweet, almost sugared vanilla, with a tiny kick of mellow spice, it's strong at first, but quickly fades to a just-barely-sticky, but almost 'warm skin scent'… I don’t mean ‘warm skin’, as in ‘skin musk either’ (that turns into a vulgar baby powder assault on me, as does anything described as having ‘flushed skin’), but in the sense that Beaver Moon smells like it could, almost just be the scent of my own personal skin, but with a little extra heat and a touch of sweetness. I feel like the initial slight sharpness is something similar to what cocoa butter or coconut oil gives off, and somehow that creates or contributes to the sense Beaver Moon gives me of my own skin, with a bit of heat, once the initial bite fades, just because it keeps the creaminess from getting too bland or too sticky-sweet. I just have enough to try a few times, but if I had even a tiny bit more, I’d make a massage bar out of this in a heartbeat.

In the imp, Pumpkin Queen smelled mainly of orange lollipops, with a hint of spiced, buttery pumpkin. On my skin, it’s a headache-inducingly strong orange Gummy Bear for the first hour or so, then it fades to a subtle orange Gummy Bear… and for the past several hours, Pumpkin Queen’s remained in that state. I actually swapped for a decant of this to try on my mom (my pumpkin body lotion snatcher), so I’ll definitely update this if I find any variation, once she’s available for experimentation.

All Souls is one of the blends from my first order that I was really looking forward to – cake and incense?! I’d never worn such a combination before, but I didn’t see any way it wouldn’t be appealing! In the bottle, it does smell like incense and cake batter… but once it’s applied, All Souls instantly turns into warm, sweet, comforting resins. ‘Polished’ comes to mind to describe them, though the hints of wood (well worn, but cared for pews under filtered sunlight?) I pick up from time to time could be contributing to that adjective.. Occasionally, I might catch a hint of crisp cakes (such as the ones in Eat Me), along with hints of jasmine (among other soft sweet flowers), and blown out candles (smoke-coated wax, along with even more candle smoke), but the majority of the time, it’s just a subtle, but long-lasting, sweet blend of resins. Currants tend to hijack most blends on me, turning everything into nothing more than a heavily sugared gumdrop, dried fruit that almost screams ‘Crasin’, or a watery red popsicle, but All Souls usually manages to keep them subdued. There is a noticeable currant note from time to time (usually in Crasin form, swimming amongst the resins, though the gumdrop has surfaced on occasion as well), but the majority of the time, their sweetness and miniscule bite only manage to contribute to the depth and richness of the resin, smoke, and wood notes. I purchased All Souls, hoping for a soothing, meditative scent, with a little cake kicked in, and though I’m disappointed on the pastry front, I still adore this scent, and it has a firm holding as one of my top five favorite blends.

I made my first BPAL purchase back in October, and was the most excited about trying Midnight on the Midway (I could forget what other Imps I’d devoured the reviews of, and narrowed down from larger lists… and even the other much anticipated blend, All Souls, could slip my mind, but never Midnight on the Midway) – and, as it turns out, rightly so! It’s gorgeous, and it changes constantly on me, but lasts, and clings, and never wants to let go. If I shower, the hot water just magnifies the smell… if I put it on once during the week, I can catch hints, and wisps, and clouds of Midnight on the Midway everywhere into the next week. It’ll randomly reappear in my hair, inside the hood of a favorite jacket, in basket of fresh laundry, just lingering somewhere in the air in my bedroom, by the doorway…. it literally shadows me, and nowhere that I’ve applied it smells the same as any other spot. Wet, especially the first time, it scared me, it just smelled harsh, a dark, heavy, indefinable, thick chemical smell (sometimes mixed with dryer sheets), but after an hour or so, it suddenly changed… and still does whenever I apply it now, though there’s never a set pattern with what Midnight on the Midway chooses to do. Midnight on the Midway might leave my skin smelling like sugared, white floral nectar… cedar (this cedar isn’t aged or worn, I get the image of freshly buffed wood, or un-trodden, fresh fairground wood shavings), or that overbearing chemical smell…or incense… not warm, comforting Church incense or cheap incense for the sake of incense, but something exotic and reminiscent of Nag Champa, sometimes dusty and ignored, or quietly releasing faint spirals of smoke… Jasmine, which can smell like honeysuckle nectar drizzled in powdered sugar (fresh, live, honeysuckle in general… the lab’s version seems to turn to burning plastic on me) on me, or simply vanish, might make a subtle appearance as well… but the majority of these notes seem to prefer lingering, lightly in the air around me…. Not in a cloud, or in a definable amount and distance from me, but just enough to catch an intriguing whiff when a breeze blows, or while I turn to walk around a corner… or even when I’m just… sitting still. I can lie out in a hammock and read, and Midnight on the Midway will float all around me, sometimes vanishing, but always reappearing, and constantly changing. The longer I wear it, the more prominent the powdered sugar becomes, and on the colder days, it neglects the jasmine, content to mix and mingle with that incense, alternating between dusty and smoky, and still at least a little sweet. Sometimes I even catch whiffs of something slightly crisp and buttery (just for a moment enough to wonder if it was really there)… but not in a heavy, disgusting way… more along the lines of the slightly sugared crisp cakes I catch hints from in All Souls and Eat Me. I also occasionally catch a hints of fruit, a red, purple, or generally dark one, to be sure, but it doesn’t seem to give me much of an apple reaction (apple = insta-migraine, though I did get some wooziness in these phases). Midnight on the Midway is more complex than I ever imagined it would be, and even though I’ve experienced other blends, nothing strikes me in the same way/it is still my favorite blend, and I cannot get enough of it!

I turn wine notes (not champagne luckily, but most wine notes) into grape juice or grape Kool-Aid, and labdanum into pretty heavy grape-berry notes, so Skuld and Horreur Sympathique turned into grape lollipop shells on me (though somehow subtle, and Horreur had hints of brown sugar from time to time), and Centzon Totochtin goes from a tiny bit of cocoa and tons of grape juice in the wet stage, to nearly cloying grape juice, to subtle dusty cocoa with a juicy hint, and in the final, long-lasting stages, pure purple grape juice.

I know this is old, but I wanted to add that there’s something about the poppy and carnation in Maenad that makes it nag champa-esque, and smokey, with a hint of not too sweet or overly present strawberry – at least on me. It’s one of my favorite scents, and outside BPAL, I’m really not much of a strawberry fan.

For those still looking for something compatible with Creamy Candy... On me, Bon Viviant starts off with a lot of champagne in there, but the dry down has that pink rock candy smell I get from Rock Star and Creamy Candy - without the headachey plastic tinge. The strawberry doesn’t smell like a fresh, ripe strawberry, but it’s not an overly candied and fake one either, either. It’s fresh, lightly sweet (not juicy or saturated in artificial sugar substitutes), while somehow conveying that hard candy bite. I thought Jailbait might be closer, but I mainly get crushed orange and cherry lollipops (the thin, transparent kind with the plastic sealed top people buy in bulk for doctor’s offices, Halloween, etc.). Anyway, it’s not dead-on, but on me it’s almost thisclose, but slightly more wearable for me… though, if it gets on my clothes during the wet-stage, they’re left smelling like there’s a champagne spill somewhere. For the sake of covering all the strawberry scents I’ve tried and seen Creamy Candy/Rock Star, or otherwise LUSH references to, Maenad starts off with part of Bon Viviant’s strawberry-rock-candy dry down, but after that the relation dissipates, at least on me, and the the poppy and carnation take over, making it more along the lines of a smokey, seductive scent, or sometimes similar to a pretty good stick of strawberry nag champa… But it looks like Maenad still another Rock Star/Creamy Candy on different chemistries. How close is Sybaris to Bathos, if at all?

Lurid looks like it might be similar, at least that's what I hoped when I did an ingredients search - and some of the reviews relate it to 'Twas the Night, Black Pearl, and It's a Date, but I've only sniffed Black Pearl, so I'm not sure how close the rest of those are. Anyway, I don't know if it's the same, but I ordered an imp (my first order yesterday!), and I'll tell you if they seem close or not when it arrives. Lurid turned out to be blackberry bubblegum dipped in heavy cologne on me. By the next morning it usually is down to simply currant and lavender (which turns to cherries on me), which is nice, but my chemistry really doesn’t convert it to anything I could relate it to, and, at least to me, it's not worth nearly a day of that heavy cologne scent.

Thanks for responding, your answer’s really helpful! I keep reading up on stockpiling, etc., and I do want to pick up a few more bottles of my favorite scents, and though I’ve never had a fragrance or essential oil go bad, I was concerned about what would happen if I didn’t use these within their given time frame. I actually tracked down the aging thread today, but thanks again for being so helpful!

You know, in this case I'd just order an extra bottle of each from the lab while they are still available - I know we all have to balance out the amount of oils we hoard with the length of time we have before they might turn and not smell good, but IMO incensey scents age very nicely. Also, I have quite a few bottles (from many different scent families) from the period around Yule 2004 which all are still quite wearable, having been stored in a dark dresser drawer in my home where they're never subject to temperature extremes. If they're your absolute favorites and you're slathering them like crazy... order more than one "back up" bottle ;-) Oh I plan to, as soon as I have extra money. Speaking of turning, have any of your scents done so?

Has anyone found which oils or oil layerings best mimic All Souls and Midnight on the Midway?

Lurid looks like it might be similar, at least that's what I hoped when I did an ingredients search - and some of the reviews relate it to 'Twas the Night, Black Pearl, and It's a Date, but I've only sniffed Black Pearl, so I'm not sure how close the rest of those are. Anyway, I don't know if it's the same, but I ordered an imp (my first order yesterday!), and I'll tell you if they seem close or not when it arrives.

Since Alkmaar is described as containing jasmine, sweet honeysuckle, 'gentle rose' - along with along with vertivert and styrax, and Euphrosyne contains Gardenia, tea rose, vanilla and jasmine; Black Dahlia has magnolias, orchid, star jasmine, black amber, 'smoky rose'; and Regan has the vanilla from orchids and is blended with a jasmine-like flower - and all have been described in reviews as powdery, has anyone noticed if these ones are at all similar?