cuervosueno

In the imp: bitterness of a real poppy....you know how they have an pungent not-entirely-pleasant smell? I really can see the paperthin red petals of a poppy, though I'm imagining California poppies, since I dont really know what an opium poppy looks like. On the bitterness is gone and it is overwhelming opium, but not the rich spicy kind I enjoy. this is probably the most "commercial perfume" of any BPAL scent I've tried. It almost smells like it has alchohol in it even though I know it doesn't. Not for me. I think I might need to wash it off.

I feel like i'm cheating here on my review, but I do want to agree with what Nineveh said--this is golden floral with vanilla. And I completely agree that is is like a combo of Jacob's Ladder and Love's True Bluish Light....preferable to me than the latter, because that turned wierd on me--the skin musk went funky, and this doesn't. For me it is mostly vanilla and lily and musk. Nice, but I don't need a bottle.

This is lovely. I expected dragons' blood and heavy spice, but that is not it at all. Like YeahbutNo noted, in the imp this is sweet sugar plum. Very nice, and surprising. When I got it on, the plum and berry notes stood out, but there was spice there too, which I enjoyed. I suppose that is the opium or the spice of the gardenia. But in just a moment, the flowers just bloomed, and they are much truer to life than I expected. I smell spicy gardenia and the sweetness of lilac, (but no roses, thankfully), and over all of that a faint scent of plum and opium. I don't know if I'll need a bottle, but I'm keeping the imp for sure, for moments when I want to feel fresh and floral. ps. while this smells great, it tastes awful. I accidently got some in my mouth!

I passed this right over--never even thought about buying it--but then got a frimp. Which I was sure wouldn't work. But when I opened the bottle....hey, now! What is that?! this is a lovely very resiny amber scent, made richer by what I assume is pomegranite, thought that is a note I usually don't enjoy. This is golden, light, sophisticated, which a touch of something fruity underneath. Imagine a golden pomegranite, shining in the sunlight. I don't know how much I'll wear this, but it is lovely, if a bit more perfumy than i usually like.

Note to self: the only wine/grape blend I like is Urd, probably because that quickly becomes overshadowed with other stronger scents. This is all honeyed grapes on me, which unfortunately smell like grape jolly ranchers. Not good.

I must have purchased this imp for the ambergris, because I can't see why else I would have wanted it. In the imp and wet: it smells like a wet dog. On at first: yikes! oakmoss! I know there is no oakmoss in here, but that is what it smell overwhelming like. Drydown: finally it becomes astonishing--a sweet floral, of the tobacco floral/gardenia variety. What a morpher! Still, I don't like it enough to keep it.

While I agree with most of the previous reviews, I have to admit I still expected this would smell more like flowers and less like food. But it doesn't. Red Velvet cake is right on. Chocolate and something sweet....there is a slight floral to it, but it is mostly foody to me. There is also a hint of wine or sherry or something like that. Interesting, and certainly would be a good Valentine's Day scent, but it's not me.

Bright pine, and yes, I agree that it is comparable to Snow Bunny, Snow Moon, et. al. Still, after the intial sharpness of the pine, it becomes a fuller green pine....and I do see the comparisons to Dublin, etc. It's nice enough but not me.

So I pretty much hate dirt/earth scents. But I got this as frimp and felt I must try it, even though in the imp it is all dirt, which smells like beets, which I hate. So funny thing....while I don't like this, I don't hate it. there is something interesting about the scent which is all clean potting soil with an unexpected sweetness. That sweetness is a floral of some sort, and what this smells like is a play on the title, rather than a real mushroom scent--it's like earth with something that suggests mushrooms, but also a sweet ethereal scent that is the angel part. I won't keep it, but glad I got to try it.

... It is Yule, and the Holly King has slain the Oak: blood red holly berry, mistletoe, wild thyme, verbena, cinquefoil, hemp, winter rose, evergreen, frankincense, juniper, and myrrh. Yeah, I agree with Heretic. Lemon Verbena. In fact, let's just say read the that review and then you have mine. Lemon verbena polish on some nice pine wood. that's what I get. So sad. I thought at least might want it for Yule, but I don't. I simply want to polish my table with it, but that seems a bit pricey, so I guess I'll try and swap it instead. Luckily I'm crazy about Knecht Ruprecht, so that will be my Yule scent intstead.

Glasya, resurrected. I tried this once at an Albuquerque Sniff-a-thon, and loved it, but because it was discontinued, I never got more. I had no idea what was in it, but remembered it as sultry, sexy, gorgeous. Which it still is. So I was excited when it was resurrected. but imagine my surprise when I read the notes! Rose? The evil rose? And civet? Civet isn't awful on me, but it is quite....strong. Sometimes red musk goes a bit out of control on me too. But I ordered anyway, thinking the worst that can happen is that it will be like Love Me or some of the other Voodoo blends which are just too strong. It was the first bottle I opened in my package today, and in the bottle it didn't smell all that promising. A hint of dragon's blood, more than a hint of rose, and something musky. Even on, its a bit worrisome at first, because I get the rose right away, but it so nicely tempered by the musk that I don't mind it, though I'm not crazy about it at this stage. After a bit, it is powdery rose, and this rose-hater actually likes it, because it reminds me a bit of a perfume I used to wear a very long time ago called Ombre Rose, which was a musky, powdery, floral. Eventually, I get all the musk and spice of patchouli, and the civet plays nice. Really, after the rose fades a bit, it is very difficult for me to pick out notes: what this smells like is a very sexy animalistic perfume that complex and well-blended. It smells like red velvet to me, or like a very sexy woman wearing blood-red velvet dress. You know that at some late hour she will turn feral, return to her animal form--fox or wolf or mountain lion--and disappear across the moonlit snow. I'm glad I had the opportunity to get a bottle. eta: this is a scent that will surprise you. Even if you think you hate some of the notes: rose, or patchouli, or civet, or dragon's blood, you might want to try it anyway, because no single note really stands out, but it all blends magically.

I got this imp as an extra in a swap from Damebecca, who I believe got it at Black Broom. When I tried to look it up in the search engine, what I found was a two threads: one from Beth asking if anyone else had the Enochian Tarot, and also a question about Enochian in the Twighlight Alchemy thread. I know nothing whatsoever about Enochian magick, but Clover was kind enough to post a link in the TAL thread about it, so I will include that link here: http://www.esotericgoldendawn.com/mysteries_enochian.htm After reading the link, I decided that this is not something I would probably use, because it is clearly a ritual oil and clueless about Enochian magick. That said, I thought I'd post a review strictly based on scent: In the bottle: floral. I have a hard time picking out individual floral notes, but I think it might be jasmine, because there is that slightly incense note I associate with jasmine. Wet: the same, but I begin to note rose as well. Dry down: a very light slightly powdery floral. Rose for sure, but not an overwhelming rose, and whatever the other flower is, it has a white feel to it, if that makes sense. It is very light on me, almost like the ghost of a scent--as if I was smelling clothes that had once been stored in dried flowers, or a floral perfume faintly lingering on antique clothes discovered in an old trunk. As far as I can see, Enochian magick has to do with secret alphabets and angelic connections (forgive me if I'm wrong about this--I just skimmed over that one article), and that seems suitable to me....this scent is light and slightly unearthly, hinting at some esoteric realm locked away from the ordinary...and what I get, in the scent, is just a hint of what mysteries might await the initiated. I'm glad I got to try it, and would welcome anyone else's more knowledgeable opinions....

I got an imp of this as a frimp in a recent swap, and I was so delighted to try it since I have a bottle on the way. At first it has a lovely fruity smell that I can't quite identify but it is quite nice. It doesn't come off as almonds or apples, but a kind of fruit melange with the sharpness of pine. It almost reminds me of the first scent that hits you when break the needles of ponderosa pines: almost pineapple-like with the regular pine scent. though almond usually amps on my skin, in this case, the pine trumps that, so what comes after is mostly a heavy pine and slush note, very similiar to other Yule blends (like Snow Moon, etc) but different enough to be interesting. I was beginning to miss the slushy pine notes in the Yule blends I've tried so far, so this was very welcome to me. After its been on awhile, the pine is tempered with just a bit of sweet wood. Overall, it remains pretty sharp-pine, so I'm not sure I'll want a whole bottle (I still have lots of Yule blends like this from previous years!) but we'll see when I get it. eta: now I have my bottle and have worn it a couple of times and LOVE it. It does have the pine/slush I noted, but when that fades I get the most gloriously light fruit scent...I can't explain it. It isn't like wood and isn't like fruit and isn't like flowers, but is something gorgeous in and of itself. I really really like it.

For some reason, I never bought any of the previous Lick Its. Perhaps I wasn't in a mint phase then, because I have a vague memory of thinking why would I want to smell like a candy cane when I don't even like candy canes? Was I a fool or what? Before I swapped for a decant of this, I went back through my "special" imps and found 1/2 an imp of SnowBlind, and fell in love with its glorious butter mint scent. I thought why, oh why don't I have more of this? What I was craving mint and vanilla. some reviews here have found Lick It Again not quite as sweet and vanilla-esque as earlier years, but I guess I'm a lucky one: my skin amps vanilla anyway, so I found just want I wanted in it Lick It Again. At first it is sharp peppermint--almost overwhelming, but on the skin it quickly turns sweet--just like a candy cane. What I like best though, is on me the peppermint fades quickly (within 1/2 hour) and I'm left with a soft whisper of mint and sweet vanilla candy goodness. and it lasts on me for quite a long time. Apparently last night I got a bit on the t-shirt I was wearing, because when I picked it up this morning, I thought, my god, what is that gorgeous scent? Yes, it was Lick it Again. So my final opinion--It's not Snowblind but its still pretty damn good.

Ok, I'm going to post a review though i suspect I will have to redo it, because while reviewing Samhainphobia, I discovered my sense of smell is wildly off due to my cold/flu whatever it is I have. But that said.....Winter of Our Discontent smells nothing like I imagined it to. It smells.....blue. Slightly aquatic, but more like blue shadows on snow. There's a little spice in that blue. then I get the rosewood which smells kind of like sawdust on roses, which is wierd, because that's not what rosewood usually smells like to me. I'll report back when i can smell things better.... Recovered nose report: Hmm...this is a complex scent and I'm having a hard time getting a grip on it. Most of the above review still stands, though I get less sawdust then I did when I was sick. It is still slightly aquatic on me. Overall, interesting, but not me.

Huh. Interesting what differences in skin chemistry do. I don't get much vetiver from this--and while I love vetiver at times, sometimes it is too masculine/aftershave-like for me. But I don't get at it all in this. I do get patchouli, but mostly this is like the daytime version of Samhain to me. (When i was thinking of writing this review, I thought someone else had said that, but then I kept reading that it was the darker side of samhain, so perhaps I made that up?) I think this is gorgeous, but on me it is lighter and sweeter than Samhain. I thought of it as Samhain with something...minty? Then I realized that wasn't right. Something like wintergreen? No. When I finally read the description I realized what I was smelling was the balsam. I like it, but don't think I need more than an imp since it is SO similiar to Samhain on me and I have two bottles of that still (04 and 05). But I decided to test it next to Samhain and horror of horrors, I thought something had gone terribly wrong with my Samhain 05. where was the lovely dark patchouli and spice and appley-pumpkiny goodness I remember? This smells like wierd plastic! I rushed to try 04, wondering if somehow 05 just hadn't aged well. No, it smelled exactly the same! Then I realized what the problem is. i'm sick. I have a terrible cold (no stuffed up nose but all the other stuff, including a fever). Um....my sense of smell is probably terribly off, because both my Samhains smelled fine two weeks ago. guess I better give Samhainphobia a try when I recover. eta: a more healthy nose gives this a more expected scent. first, my Samhains are fine--they smell just like they usually do. Second, this IS a darker version of Samhain. Now that I'm not so sick, I can smell the vetiver. It doesn't come out at first, but when it does, it adds the expected dark note of vetiver, which I enjoy. So I like this, but its very close to Samhain---plus vetiver--so I don't suppose I'll get more.

I wanted this to smell like Tarot: the Sun (although I'm not sure why, since I have a bottle of that!) It does not. I get a kind of laundry soapy note too. Something that is like citrus, but not quite. Then something slightly resiny. It is kind of like a soft orange blossom (if such a thing isn't a contradiction in terms). It fades very very fast on me. It's underwhelming on me, so I'm glad I only got an imp.

this is interesting, and I'll have to try it a few more times before I decide what I think of it. It does remind me of Nuclear Winter a bit, though I may favor the stronger mint of the earlier blend. In the bottle, this is a cool blue aquatic (not literally blue, but a soft pastel blue scent). there's also something slightly green in it. On, I get that a bit fainter, along with a nice, soft mint. Very soft, like just a hint of a one of those pastel butter mint candies that has been left in a pocket or something, and you get a hint of the scent. It is cool, and pretty and soft, and I could see it as a summer scent. I don't get any of the usual BPAL slushy notes, though. I suspect won't keep this, but I'll wear it a couple more times to see. I've been craving a nice vanilla mint (a la Snowblind) and this isn't it....But it may grow on me. We'll see. Final verdict: Nuclear Winter Lite. Off it goes.

Damn, this is my third DDLM review, since I've tried all three blends! And the first is still best. I almost gave this version (06) a miss since 05 was such a grave disappointment, but some reviews comparing it to 04 convinced me to try it. In the bottle it is an incense-floral that almost makes me sneeze. I do get a hint of something I remember from 04, but it is missing the heavy burnt sugar note I love about 04. On me, it is a perfumy floral. Its not bad, but not what I longed for. I do like it more than 05, but I'm really wishing for the grains or chocolate and tobacco and I'm not getting them. I put on 04 nearby for comparison. O4 has a very faint hint of the florals in 06, but is mostly heavy dark sugar one me. 06 is missing this. Originally in 04, I'd wondered if I'd gotten sugar skull in a mislabled bottle, because mine smelled so heavily of sugar. I even emailed the lab about it which I blush to admit now since I was such a newbie I probably just didn't know the notes. But now I have to wonder again. Has my search for the perfect DDLM been really a search for Sugar Skull? I never tried Sugar Skull 04, though I tried 05 and it wasn't the same as my beloved DDLM 04. Well, who knows. but as for 06, this is nice, but not quite what I was longing for. eta: now that some of the lovely burnt sugar of 04 has faded, I see that the scent beneath that--the floral part--is VERY similiar to the overall scent of 06. I see why some people said they are close now. But the part that is different is that very strong sugar in 04 which is my favorite part....sigh. Guess I better try some sugar skull and see if I can layer up something similiar to 04...

Oh Fox Woman, you've broken my heart as well as those of the children you left behind. This is one of my favorite pieces of art, so I was poised to buy it just for that alone. I read the early reviews: Jasmine Tea! count me in--what a gorgeous scent that would be! I was leer of the wisteria (a scent, like rose, which I enjoy muchly in the flowers but not at all in perfume) but bought a decant from Yeahbutno.... Ack! Fox-woman, why why why do you smell so much of wisteria or lilac or something (perhaps its the cherry blossom)? On me, there is not jasmine (a note I love) and no tea. I smell like lilac soap or some such thing. Like some fancy little guest soaps a grandmother might have in her bathroom. No foxy musk. No black tea with jasmine flowers. Nothing remotely fox-woman-esque. So sad. But I'm glad I didn't buy a bottle!

I haven't tried this for its veiling purpose yet. I got it because I wanted to have it my TAL arsenal for when I needed it. I had a reason I thought I might need it, but then against that course of action, so I am reviewing it now for scent only. This is a gorgeous scent, which I didn't expect at all. It is a floral, and I agree that it is quite likely a lily of some sort--it has that lily headiness with a scent that I associate with the fleshiness of the lily's petals. (I can't explain that, but that is my impression). It is a cool lily with a bit of spice, and their is something slightly acquatic about it. Even though it is a floral, it does bring to mind mist or clouds. I'm glad I have this, and find the scent very appealing, so when I need it, I think I will enjoy wearing it.

this is very lovely. I used it in a diffuser just past the new moon, because it does seem like a very early waxing moon scent. I used it for a few days as I went to bed, to focus my thoughts on the new moon and growth. I just put a wee bit on my skin now to refresh my memory of it, and is different on the skin. In both cases it is a slightly lemony floral. Lemony isn't right--it doesn't smell like lemon, but like a lemon scented plant, softer than lemon balm and sweeter, but something like that. While it doesn't really smell like Milk and Honey to me, it is in the same family of scents. On my skin and in the imp it is slightly soapy as well, and reminds me of a small yellow and white wildflower with a faint sweet smell. It is girlish. But in the diffuser, I didn't get the soapy scent, and while it is a light floral, it seemed like a nightblooming floral, though not at all heavy. It very much had the cool, pale scent of moonlight, if that makes sense. It very much evoked the pale light of a very early phase of a waxing moon. It is very lovely and evocative.

I got an imp of this in a swap, and was glad to get it, because the reviews had convinced me that I was sorely mistaken in not buying this when it was out. On, it struck me first as very like the soft buckskin of Coyote. There was also something sweet there, that was maddeningly familiar. Sweetgrass? No. What IS it? It is almost edible, but I can't figure out what it is. When I read the notes, I was mightly surprised. No leather, no sweetgrass, nothing that I expected at all, though white musk is often sweet on me, so perhaps that was what I was reading as a sweet note. Still, it smells like something edible, but what? For an hour, maybe two, I adored this. I couldn't believe I'd missed it. I wondered, sadly, what my odds were of scoring more. But as I got in bed, several hours later, the white musk had kicked into high gear, and I got the sweet powdery perfumy note that I'm not crazy about in white musk. It started to turn soapy as well. and the foody scent was making me crazy. Until I sniffed my sheets. Which I spritz with a linen spray made with Obatala. Then I got it. Coconut. Not the sweet kind, not the suntan lotion kind, but the soft watery coolness of the coconut in Obatala. by this time, I had decided I no longer needed to track down more. Still, I'm glad to have my imp, and am thinking this might be nice layered with Coyote.

Whoa! How could this smell so much like wintergreen when wintergreen doesn't appear in the notes? But damn, this is sharp, sharp, and yes, Sarada, I know what you mean by comparing it to the White Flower Chinese remedy stuff (which is sharp methol, and I use it for sinus headaches--clears the sinuses right out, let me tell you!) When I first put it on, it even tingled like that (like Ben-gay, for those who haven't tried White Flower Oil). I did get a hint of pine after that menthol burned off, but not a lot. Then after awhile, a bit of berry, but alas, on me, BPAL berry notes often go wrong, and this one is a bit like a candle on me. Mixed with menthol. I adore Snow Bunny, Snow Moon, Skadi, etc, but I'm afraid this one didn't smell like those at all on me. Luckily I just had a sniffy to try out. I won't be purchasing more.

The reviews of this really tempted me, because it sounds so good. But leather often doesn't work on me, though i did like Dead Man's Hand when I sniffed it. And I like the soft leather of Coyote. But why by another leather blend when I'm not crazy about them? Still, I wanted to try it, and I got a sniffy. And I too fell in love. At first sniff--in the imp and wet--I thought Tombstone meets Coyote! It reminds me of Coyote's soft doeskin, and has the sweet vanilla of Tombstone. But then it changes. The leather amps, but not overwhelmingly so, and the vanilla calms down, and what I get is the most gorgeous masculine scent. I'd love a man that smelled like this, and the thing is, it doesn't smell like perfume, but like the scent of a gorgeous man--his own warm skin scent, the leather of his jacket. Gorgeous! I agree, this is not black leather like Iago or Loviatar. To me this is soft, buckskin, warm golden suede. Velvety leather, with a sweetness all its own. Still, it was close enough to Coyote I thought I'd better put them both on. Sure enough, for awhiel they were similiar enough that I couldn't really see how I could justify buying Quincy Morris. But after, say, an hour, I began to wonder. I couldn't stop sniffing QM, and it faded down to something I liked more than Coyote--it faded to a sweet pear with just a hint of leather. Plus, I could still smell its sweetness in the morning. Now I'm torn. My BPAL philosophy has been to buy whatever I want (and can afford) to try, but to be ruthless in either selling or swapping--ie. no similiar scents, because I can't afford to keep them all if I want to try the new ones. So I shouldn't get this. I have Coyote, and while QM is better on me, they're close enough. And I don't wear Coyote much anyway. but I adore this. I suspect I'll probably buy a bottle. After all, I already swapped for one the halloweenies I was going to buy.....