laslibres

Smells like pure brownies in the bottle…mmm. On me it immediately gets a lot sweeter and more powdery, and the sugar and honey come out more. The sugars are starting to do that thing they did on me in Smut where they smell root-beery, but it’s more pleasant than Smut. It still has that sort of fruity, herby 13 base too, which I like...even though it doesn't list citrus or any herbs, I still feel like I smell those, mostly orange. It’s different than any of the other chocolate, honey, or vanilla scents I've tried, it has a different balance somehow. It’s like a fizzy cream soda, it does have that sort of sparkly feel to it. 15 or so minutes after applying...ooh, it's morphed into something even better! It's sweet and vanilla-y, but it's the kind you would like even if you don't like "foody" scents necessarily. It has a very warm feel to it, almost an amber-like quality. Also, I feel like this will age AWESOMELY.

Most of BPAL's rose notes, on me, smell overly chemical-ish and almost like bug spray (???), so I sympathize. I would love to love some of these scents!...but then the rose notes ruin it for me. Oddly, one I really liked was The Rose...it smelled the truest, and it had a sense of leaves and even earth in the garden, which I really liked. Whip was also really nice on me. Titania was good on me too in spite of containing "musk rose" (although I don't know if that's really a real rose). Maiden is okay on me too (white rose), although not spectacular. Most of the rest I've tried do the dreaded bug-spray switcheroo on me. Unfortunately, this has led to me not even trying certain scents (like Snooty Rose) because I'm so sure they won't work...but who knows, maybe they would!

Try The Zieba Tree! It's a really light, almost misty floral, with a touch of green...I don't know if I've ever tried the Unicorn, but based on the notes it sounds very similar. Prague or Amsterdam are other nice ones for light, fresh florals, with a touch of almost aquatic (but not obnoxious, sleazy-cologne-aquatic). Those two smelled like being in a garden and were really lovely, to me.

So I'm getting married in almost exactly two months ( ). I had test-driven a couple of new scents to be "wedding scents," having heard that you should wear a perfume you haven't worn much (or at all!) before, so that you'll have a completely new scent memory for that day, but...who can do that?! What if it doesn't turn out well? Then you're stuck with a scent you don't like all day! I'll probably wear The Lights of Men's Lives, since that's what I wore on our first date, and I just really love it...it's very pretty but can also be sexy. Was thinking of wearing Haloa, since that's what I was wearing when he first asked me out, but oddly my 2006 bottle of Haloa has gone kinda sour with age. Other scents I considered: Sachs (a little TOO sexy...), Blossoms in Springtime (ditto, and a bit too heavy and sticky), some light floral like Ghosts of the Arroyo Seco Bridge, or something springy like Garden Path With Chickens (might still do this, it's a favorite) or Flower Moon. (I'm also still considering Arcana's Molly Malone or Juno...although upon consideration, maybe a scent named "Juno" is not the best marriage omen. O_o)

Testing out Shattered today...smells EXACTLY like Ice Blue soap from Lush. And that's one of my favorites of their soaps, so... Or you could say it smells like the Freeze shower gel, since Freeze and Ice Blue seem to be very similar to me.

Yup...it's exactly what it says it is. Starts out as very sugary lemon, like Lemonheads, or maybe lemon sorbet. Really sweet and almost "crunchy"-feeling, if that makes sense. It mellows out after being on for a minute, and starts to smell more like lemonade or maybe lemon sorbet, it has that kind of icy, cool feel. It's a very sweet lemon, not tart at all. It's different from BPAL's other citrus notes...there's nothing else quite like it. And it's an awesome perfume for summer, too...very cool and refreshing, just like drinking a big icy glass of lemonade on a hot day. I really like this one.

From the bottle, it smells like...Dr. Pepper? Or cola? For serious, I don't know why my nose insists everything is soda today. But on me, I definitely get the cinnamon and cassia...it goes through a weird phase where it smells slightly sour and "off," like Saw-Scaled Viper did, but it settles down quickly. The sweet cane and cinnamon kind of combine to make a snickerdoodles-like smell, although the frankincense comes in and rounds it out nicely. The cinnamon is almost a Red Hots-like scent, a little sharp, but sweet too. Then, after an hour or so, it mellows out and starts to take on that "creamy" quality I'd heard about in other reviews (the quality that made me want the scent so badly!). Creamy, spicy, and a little floral (from the bdellium? Is that a flower? I am so clueless about the meanings of some notes...). Which is a really nice combination...I'm glad I got this scent, finally!

I don't know why my nose wants to interpret everything as root beer today...but that's what this first reminded me of, from the imp. Root beer and bubblegum. O_o So weird. On me, whatever is making me think of bubblegum amps, and it just smells like violet candy. The incense and clove come out briefly, but sadly it doesn't balance out well and just ends up as too-sweet floral. For some reason, also, it strikes me as an "evil teacher perfume." I think I have this scent association because it reminds me of a smell I used to smell in the halls of my Catholic secondary school...some teacher I didn't like must have worn a violet scent. Bleh. And these notes totally should have been win on me, because I love Faustus and I like incense, clove, and tonka. Damn skin chemistry! It randomly makes sweet notes go all weird, and it's hard to predict which ones!

A celebration of one of the first commercially produced perfumes of America's Old West. A rugged, warm blend of vanilla, balsam and sassafras layered over Virginia cedar. Wow, this morphed a couple times in the first few minutes of sniffing...in the imp, it's just light vanilla, and then on my skin it immediately amped the woods like crazy. But just when I started to despair, the vanilla and sassafras started creeping back in. It balances out really well...the vanilla is not a dry vanilla, it's really rich and delicious, but it's balanced out from being too sweet by the balsam and cedar backing it up. It reminds me a lot of The Lights Of Men's Lives, but a more masculine version (Lights was mostly very sweet, vanilla-esque beeswax on me). It's really good, kinda sexy and almost unisex. My only complaint is that it's a little light on me...I have to really stick my wrist right up to my nose in order to smell it very clearly. Not a lot of throw. However, this just means I have to test it on my man and see if it's stronger on him...hee hee.

Coconuuuut! I love coconut. It’s kinda sunscreeny and oily from the imp, which is great...then, on me, it gets a bit more powdery with the musk and hazelnut. Such a great sunny, beachy blend! It really does smell like a day at the beach...sort of warm and sandy and oceany in addition to the coconut. The hazelnut adds a delicious foody component, too. This is so freakin’ good! Compared to other coconut scents...Midway is way sweeter and more cakey than this, and Obatala is more oceanic and cooler. So...since it's different than the other coconut scents I have bottles of, that means I also need a bottle of this, right?

Ooh! Try Santa Eularia des Riu. The description is "Piquant citrus tempered by jasmine, soft Mediterranean herbs, lavender and orange blossom," so it sounds just about right. On me it's more herbs than floral, but the lavender is very present too. Did anyone suggest Dorian too? On me, it's creamy lemony tea with sexy musk. And it's awesome.

Yesterday, Pumpkin Queen. I feel I deserved that title with the way my pumpkin pie came out... Today, maybe something Christmasy like A Game Of Yes And No, since we're putting up the lights and tree today. And buying absolutely nothing.

Polleny, springy flowers! And cherry blossom! The beautiful love child of Hanami and Evening Cicadas, with that same sort of pink, dewy floral feel that those do. In addition to pink, this scent is also yellow and polleny, but fresh as well, very springy. And dewy. It’s like those first few little blossoms poking their heads out at the start of spring. I don’t get any myrrh out of this, but that’s fine, it’s just a nice fresh floral, a _good_ floral scent, not phony or dry. Quite nice.

The ghostly White Women of the Scottish highlands. They seduce unwary travelers by night with their unearthly beauty and mesmerizing dancing. They engage their victims in a wild, hypnotic dance, and once they reach exhaustion, the demonesses exsanguinate their partners with their vampiric kiss. Talk about a quick courtship. Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. Mmm, sweet flowery grapefruit! This is a great grapefruit note too, very tart, very nice. A really fresh and clean scent. I get whiffs of the other notes every time I sniff, the apple blossom and the white tea mainly...just tiny whiffs, but all the scents go really well together and make this light, airy, flowery backdrop for the grapefruit. Beautiful. There is no note in this scent that I dislike, it’s all just very well-blended and pretty.

Holy bubblegum, Batman. That’s what I smell in the imp, pink Bazooka bubblegum. It improves once it’s on my skin, then I smell flowers and sugar, and definitely carnation too. As well as something leafy or grassy, maybe? But only briefly, and then the pink sugary stuff comes back and kinda dominates the blend. Not so much bubblegummy now, but more like...candied flower petals, or those powdery flower-flavored candies, rose or violet or whatever. So it gains some complexity once it's on my skin, and it manages to be sugar AND flowers, not just bubblegum. It’s not entirely my cup of tea, though.