tziporra

I wore this to shul (synagogue) today. This was definitely an emotional pick for me based on the name rather than an affinity for any of the listed notes, which turned out to be a mistake since I am looking for a perfume rather than a spiritual experience. Anyway, I didn't get anything from the imp. And then I put it on and didn't get anything from my skin. After a few minutes I got a nice heady rush of resins, but that disappeared quickly. I was left with a faintly tropical smell that reminds me of very nice unobtrusive sunscreen (not THE suncreen, but a luxury brand with little scent). And that's it. A faint sweetness for the next few hours. I'm very sad, because I would have LOVED to tell people I was wearing this scent. But I have to admit, I'm not a lamed-vav-nik and I don't even want to be. I couldn't handle the responsibility. Best, Tzi

In the imp it's very fruity and rich, like sweet blackberry Manishewitz. On my skin there is a moment of grape lollipop, but it is overtaken immediately.... suddenly I'm a passenger on the Orient Express, cradling a box of bon-bons my lover has given to me. I choose the brandied plum just as the door opens to the next car and a swirl of opium-laced smoke swirls into my compartment, mingling with my exotic floral perfume.... Ahem. This is a transporting scent, and I adore it. But I got a terrible headache about 20 minutes in, and I have to give it another go before I make any decisions. This would definitely be an evening scent for me, should the ol' head pains turn out to have been caused by lack of food instead of heady Blood Countess. Best, Tzi ETA: Alas and Woe. Headachey again on the second try. Guess I have to remove this from my must-buy list as the love is not worth the pain in this instance.

I heart this thread! My 4-year-old loves to try on perfume with me -- but she wants the "kid perfumes" instead of the grownup ones. After I put some on her (I don't have anything that I love on her just yet, but have some ideas from reading this thread) she'll wait awhile and then ask me, "is it dry yet? do you want to smell it?" And THEN, her 18-mo-old brother will come charging up and insist that I sniff his wrist too, even though he's not actually wearing any oils. So much fun! Will definitely try the Velvet on her, and I'm thinking Tweedledum as well (we are reading Alice). Best, Tzi

I knew Saint Germain was a masculine scent. The description is pretty clear, and the reviews as well. But I love carnation and lavender, so I was hoping that it would magically work on me. And it almost does.... In the bottle this smells like a very sophisticated man's cologne. I can't pick out notes at all. Wet I get a hint of carnation and a split second of strong lavender before the scent settles down to almost exactly what was it was in the bottle. Extremely well blended, suave and subtle, steely elegant. I love it, but not only am I not going to be able to pull off this masculine scent, it doesn't suit any men I actually know. My husband like flamboyant smells, he's pretty happy to wear whatever I'm wearing. Saint Germain is for a man who applies his cologne before slipping into his custom made Italian leather driving gloves. Or the man for whom the scent of this will cling to his black satin sheets when you wake to find him gone back to his wife and family. Best, Tzi

Wow. Just last night I was asking my husband if maybe "scent love" wasn't something you weren't able to do anymore once you grew up -- like the crushes you have as a teenager are a million times more intense than those you have at thirty. But after 65 bpal tries, this is a scent I love unequivocally, one I could wear every day -- I've fallen hard. Kali doesn't leap out of the bottle at me, which is why I didn't try it right away out of the package. I smell something sweet in the imp.... On my wrist though, the chocolate and wine jump up and grab me in an intense embrace (I didn't remember the notes when I tried it on, but I immediately recognized the booze and cocoa). Then as it begins to dry I get lovely honey and flowers, mostly cassia (in fact, this stung a little on my wrist, but love sometimes is pain), with the chocolate hanging out underneath. No tobacco, which makes me sad -- but maybe at a different hormonal time. The final stage for me is all rose, but not potpourri-rose or powdery rose. Just nice lingering sweet rose. I amp rose, so it figures, but I don't care. The first hour is so gorgeous that the rose stage is a relaxing afterglow to a perfect fragrance experience. I take care of a baby in the mornings, and today when his mom picked him up she immediately said, "he smells so good!" which reminded me of one of the reviews of Kali here -- like a baby after being held by a good-smelling mother. Sigh. Perfection. Beautiful beautiful Kali. The best part about this is it fulfills all my scent fantasies. Perfect rose blend, check! Perfect non-foody chocolate blend, check! Perfect boozy floral blend, check! Deeply complex and changing, check! It's like the Lab had a list of my specifications and the notes that work on me when they whipped this up. Will I buy a big bottle? It's going to be a painful wait till it gets here, is all I have to say. Tzi ETA: I love Kali more every time I wear it. It's definitely my BPAL blend. I wish I could better describe what it smells like, but as others have said, Kali is complex. I guess I can sum it up best thus; Kali is the scent I will wear when we come into money and I am able to afford to shop in those delightful but horrendously expensive "european" linen and kitchen stores. I'll fit right in with the goods.

I love the lab's cocoa note, and have been casting my net for a non-foody blend that works on me. Tezcatlipoca is very deeply chocolatey in the imp, like a shot of Godiva's liqueur even. My skin amps the patchouli once it's on, and for awhile very little else can come through. Then the chocolate comes back, tinged with a little something I think must be the leather. This is very nice, but still too masculine on me. Where Velvet was all dry chocolate and sandalwood, this is all dry chocolate and patchouli. Nothing to soften the edges, so to speak. Maybe I'll try it on my husband and see if I want to eat him up Tzi

The sublimely beautiful, fiercely independent, impeccably cultured, fascinatingly worldly and witty courtesans of ancient Greece. A seductive and dazzling blend of golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang. Hetairae leaps out of the bottle at me with spicy honeyed figgy goodness. "Try me!" She begs. So I oblige. I'm looking for a spicy fig rather than a sweet fig, so I have high hopes for this blend, but it's not to be. Immediately the cloves and patchouli leap to the front and run off with the scent. I'm transported to a very pleasant scent memory, actually -- when I was 4 or 5 my mother used to shop at a store called (as far as I can remember) The Import Market, which later became Pier One Imports. But it was more hippie oriented and much cheaper when we'd shop there. My mother would buy loads of wicker baskets and spices there, and the whole store smelled exactly like Hetairae does on my skin. Like very foody incense. But the incensey blends are really not me, no matter how fond my memories are. It's funny how many get pulled up working one's way through imps, though. And how fragrant my life actually turns out to have been! Best, Tzi

I LOVED Psyche in the imp and wet on my skin.... it had exactly the vibe I was looking for but became a little too well-behaved after it dried -- still nice but not matriarchal, if you know what I mean. I've got Marquise in the mail as well Hope your friend finds something that works! Best, Tzi

Hooray for swaps and sales! My never-ending imp hunger is fed! Psyche was the first thing I tried out of my package of imps I received today. She reached out of the imp and grabbed me with that wonderful lavender note. I was nearly ravished, in fact. And wet on the skin, it was the same -- Tzi swooning in a sea of lavender deliciousness. But alas, it was not meant to be. The overpowering lavender soon disappeared into my skin, and became it's usual well-behaved self. I liked the naughty lavender! And now Psyche is a soft powdery floral (can't find the rose, which is odd since I usually amp rose), very nice in her way, but not for me. Best, Tzi

Thanks to Shollin for enabling this sniff! Maiden really shocked me. I was expecting a light airy floral like Juliet, and I'd been putting off trying it since from the name it seems like it'd be more suitable for my daughter or something. But I got a rich heady blast of flowers, the rose swirling with carnation in a blend where, for once, my skin doesn't amp the rose up beyond everything else so all I'm left with is rose. The tea didn't really come out on me, but I'm starting to realize how VERY MUCH I LOVE the lab's carnation note. It makes everything wonderful. And Maiden is particularly wonderful with the perfect rose enriching and complementing the carnation note. So now I'm stuck in a teensy quandary... can I get away with wearing a perfume called Maiden? I think not. I'm the least maiden-looking person you ever saw right now, what with being nearly six months pregnant and the size of a whale. I don't want to face the raucous laughter should anyone ask what it is I'm wearing. Oh well, at least I'll get my own imp and think on it. Best, Tzi

<hastily cribbing notes onto wishlist> Thank you!!! I have imps of Black Dahlia and Twilight in the mail, so it looks like I'm on the right track. Thanks for the topic link inurbanus -- very interesting. I'll admit that when I posed the question I was trying to be provocative -- hence the "old lady" title instead of "sophisticated fragrances" -- I was kinda hoping that I'd get responses from both sides of the fence, those who like these kinds of scents and those who don't... turns out there was more controversy on the subject that I'd DREAMED. Best, Tzi

Thanks to Shollin for enabling this sniff! In the Imp: Not much jumps out of the bottle at me. Wet: Nice herbally notes. This reminds me of watering herbs in our greenhouse as a kid on a nice warm day. Sweet basil and lemon verbena type smells. And FIG! There you are! This is the first blend with fig in that I've actually been able to smell the fig! It's usually doused by some scent my skin amps to the nth. Drydown: This is very light on me, and clean. Like the smell of my skin after I wash with an herbal soap. Dry: Gone. Sigh. This lasted not at all on me. This is very nice and clean, but I want to smell obnoxiously perfumey. Best, Tzi

I've been putting this one off because, like others, I was afraid of the musk. Also, it didn't jump out of the bottle at me like some of the others that Shollin enabled me to sniff. Wet: Lots of incense. Like a big old incense stick. And sneezing. Woo-hoo! Let me get a hankerchief and maybe I can finish the review. Drydown: Still incencey. Still sneezey. No bad musk smell on me - for sure I thought that was the "red musk" note, but apparently not. Still trying to track down what it might be. My husband likes it for the warm spicy smell, but I prefer something with less incense and less sneezing and maybe a few flowers. Baghdad, for instance. Achoo! Drat, I'm gonna have to wash this one off before it's completely dry, I can't handle the allergic reaction. Best, Tzi

Well, yet another complex blend that dries down to ROSE (and some other stuff) on my skin. Venice reminds me of a very nice, expensive rose potpourri oil. I have nothing against potpourri -- in fact I have great scent memories of making rose potpourri with my mother. But I don't really want to smell like rose potpourri, so this isn't going to work on me. Sounds like there other skin chemistries out there for whom this is amazing. Maybe I'll try it on my daughter and see if I can get a better idea of what it's supposed to smell like. Best, Tzi

Awwww.... and the boozy scents have been working SO well on me, too. Oh well, I guess this is the exception that proves the rule? Thanks to Shollin for enabling this review! Grand Guignol doesn't give me much from the imp, a whiff of apricot maybe, light and pretty. On I am transported by a scent memory: My mother owned a flower and gift shop while I was growing up and I spent a lot of time there. She tended to buy what merchandise she liked for resale instead of what would sell, so we were stuck with a lot of old stock. One item I remember very vividly was a peach room spray that she loved (I know, Grand Guignol is apricot, not peach, but bear with me here). I thought the room spray was pretty enough, but it had a very very strong scent of the carrier alcohol that prevented it from being on the same level as, say, a baking peach pie, which I would have preferred (especially as I would have been able to eat some peach pie). Grand Guignol has that same alcohol note to my nose, instead of the more drinkable alcoholic notes I've been getting from other boozy blends -- and sometimes it even veers into bathroom spray territory on me. Not good. Oh well! There's plenty of booze I do love in the catalogue, I won't grudge this one miss. Best, Tzi

The amber necklace of Freyja, Norse Goddess of Love, Sex, Attraction and Fruitfulness. Her magnificent necklace was bough from four Dwarves [Alfrik, Berling, Dvalin and Grer] at the price of four nights of her passion. When Brisingamen graces your throat, no man can resist your charms. A glittering mantle of rich golden notes: five ambers, soft myrtle and apple blossom, myrtle, and carnation. Oh man, this is spectacular. Thanks to Shollin for enabling this sniff! Didn't get much from the imp, and wasn't really expecting much since I'm finding that although I love the scent of flowers (and some outside floral perfumes), lots of the florals from the lab just aren't working on my skin. But what's this? Spicy carnation! Gorgeous! Amber! Lovely! Something juicy that is probably the apple. Yum yum yum! I'm not read to commit to a bottle yet, but I've already ordered my own imp from a swap so that I can dither on it a little more. For "feel" (not for notes) this reminds me a lot of my beloved and discontinued Bath & Body Works Peony scent. Maybe I'll dump my imp into a bottle of lotion and make my decision then Best, Tzi

I was really worried about this one because I liked it SO much in the bottle, and I love many of the listed notes (especially the RUM!), but I knew the smirky knowing looks I'd get from my friends if anyone asked what I was wearing and I had to tell them "Perversion". I was trying to come up with a "cover" name just in case. Anyway, luckily or unluckily for me, it just doesn't work. It seems to me that "tonka bean" doesn't exactly spell "vanilla" but my skin doesn't seem to care. It amps the notes exactly the same way. After about 30 seconds of wonderful RUM, soft leather and a hint of tobacco, all I got was vanilla. For hours. And while there are lots of notes my skin amps that I don't mind, vanilla actually bothers me. I know, who can get bothered about smelling like a cookie? Well, me, that's who. I finally gave up and washed it off. My husband gave the same verdict, so I know it's not just my nose. "That's not as interesting as some of the stuff you've been trying. It just smells vanilla-y." Which is not, in my book, how Perversion ought to smell Chalk another one up to bad skin chemistry. Tzi

Can't really smell anything but spices in the imp. On the skin... oh! Rose! And wood! And spice! This is one of those blends where the rose really runs away with the scent on me. But.... it's actually quite good. I don't mind the skin-amping-rose trait in a blend that makes me want to wear rose, and this might be a blend that makes me want to wear rose. It really reminds me of Stella by Stella McCartney (which also has the orange and amber in it, so it makes sense). The woods are not the typical hippie-sandalwood-rose woods that so frequently turn me off of rose/wood blends. Probably the spices are keeping the whole thing from floating off in that direction, although I don't get a sense of them individually I know they are there. After wearing all day (7 hours-ish), there isn't much left except a soft spiciness on my skin, but it had great throw while it lasted. Yeah, this is going on my 5ml list. Tzi

Eos is all heady gorgeous jasmine wet on my skin. I love jasmine, so it's okay that it runs away with every jasmine blend I've tried. On drydown, I get jasmine and honeysuckle, and it's lovely. No musk, so I'm not sure about the "skin" note. I'm reminded of the Sylvester Stallone/Antonio Banderas movie "Assasins" where the villian tracks Julianne Moore (see, it had redeeming features) through a crowded Carribean marketplace by the scent of her distinctive jasmine perfume. Sadly, I'm looking for something deeper and more complex, so I'll pass on this, but it's great with my skin chemistry. My husband particularly liked it. Maybe something to revisit in the spring. Best, Tzi

As others have said -- as the description said -- this is a whole lotta Rose. Rose, rose and more rose. I don't have anything against roses. I love the smell of fresh roses, especially. And rose, in general doesn't seem to do wierd things on my skin that I can't stand except maybe take over a scent and run away with it. Again, not automatically a bad thing. That said, I don't feel a deep need to smell of roses. And this rose blend is not one that makes me want to wear a rose scent, as does, say Stella by Stella McCartney (for which I paid obscene amounts of money) or even my very-slightly-scented rose conditioner which keeps me sniffing my hair all day. But I can't say why that it. It's just not me. Best, Tzi

I'm on the fence about Sed non Satiata, and so I'm writing my review here to organize my chaotic thoughts. In the imp and wet: Interestingly I'm getting a very strong note that reminds me of Garden Botanika's Sandalwood Oil, which I LOVED, and was totally different from every other sandalwood I've ever tried, which I think is the note that screams peanut butter to other reviewers. Since I don't see either Sandalwood or Peanut Butter listed in the notes, I have no idea what that could be. Dry: It's warm and delicious, and I get different notes at different times -- at the supermarket I catch the scent of honeyed cognac that evokes a scent memory of an oil my mother used to sell in her flower shop. I get a whiff of tuberose while trying to pick a book at the library. I can't stop sniffing my wrist. But.... there is a lot of patchouli here (on me, I amp patchouli) and it keeps trying to run away with the scent. At the very last minute it succeeds, and after 2 hours, the patchouli is all that is left. Like I said, I'm on the fence. Best, Tzi

Hee hee hee.... I am so fickle. I just wrote a review of an oil grousing that my skin amped single notes and I couldn't stand it, and now I'm going to write a review complaining that no note distinguished itself. But I'm getting ahead of myself.... In the imp: Lovely lilac. Delicious. I'm originally from the "lilac city" and have a definite thing for lilacs. My generous neighbors know of my obsession and load me up late april with bounty from their bushes. Drydown: Nondescript floral. Not getting the lovely lilac note, or any note really. It just smells like "floral perfume" on me. One thing I'm learning is that I want a distinguished scent, something that makes me sniff and sniff again. Sigh. This is not it. I love flowers and big floral scents, so I'll just keep searching. Best, Tzi

Oh alas alack and woe.... I had such high hopes.... And in the imp it's a very well-blended lovely scent I couldn't wait to try. But on, it's all patchouli. Not even patchouli rose, which is the usual for this type of blend on me. Just straight incense smell on my wrists. Why oh why must my skin insist on taking a note and running with it, abandoning all other notes to their fate of never being sniffed outside the imp? Best, Tzi

Wet and in the bottle, I get lots of Tea from Dorian, which makes me very very happy. Alas, once dry, I get the musk that hates me and goes all powdery. And vanilla and sugar. It's interesting, actually -- on me Dorian is dead-on Angel by Thierry Mugler. Which is not a scent I'm wild about although I bought a bottle of Angel once because it was the trendy thing to do. I think it's scenting a linen drawer somewhere. I think I'd just better stay away from these "three musk" blends. Sigh. Tzi

My grandparents ran an apple orchard, and growing up I worked there every fall. My favorite variety of apple they grew was called "Ozark Gold", an amazingly delicious juicy (like an apple well) cross between a Golden Delicious and a MacIntosh (there are many of these crosses, by the way, none as good as an Ozark Gold, but very fine in their way if you can't have an Ozark Gold, which you can't, because I've never seen a tree anywhere but my grandparents' orchard, and they took them out long ago). Ladon in the bottle and wet reminds me very much of my first long-awaited bite of Ozark Gold of the season. And the apple note lasts about as long as the Ozark Gold harvest as well (about ten minutes, seriously.... the most delicious apples are NOT the most commercially viable, and I'm convinced the only reason the Ozark Gold trees lasted as long as they did was because I was so enamored of the fruit). The drydown is lovely and sweet on me... hyacinth and white musk with a teensy tinsy drop of Dragon's Blood. It's not the Dragon's Blood scent I'm looking for (richer, deeper, spicier), and the aftermath is more spring than fall which does funny things to my scent memory of apple seasons working the Orchard that I'm not quite ready for. So no, this doesn't go on my buy list (which isn't surprising, because it turns out that things I describe as "light", "pretty", "springlike", and "fresh" aren't things I actually want to wear), but I am very grateful for the opportunity of trying it (thank you Shollin for enabling me with the imp!). Although I'm sure the notes aren't at all the same, this also has the same "feel" for me as Bath & Body Works Pear Blossom (which I'm also not enamored of, but my family keeps buying for me in bulk and I can't find a B&BW scent right now I am crazy about - peony, I miss you so - so I end up using by the gallon whether I like it or not), so if you are a fan of that you might give this a shot. Best, Tzi (Apparently it's my day of many parentheses. Too much math tutoring will do that to a writer, you know) ETA: Hours later Ladon was an incredibly dreamy blend of hyacinth and musk. It has nothing in it that <i>grabs</i> me, which is what I'm looking for in a fragrance, but it is so beautiful on my skin. Maybe this will work for me at some other time in my life? Maybe it's just too much spring to contemplate in January? In any event, although I won't be ordering a bottle, I definitely need to get ahold of my own imp.