ChupaChup

I love Declaration, I used to wear it myself. The closest thing I have found to it in BPAL land is Death on a Pale Horse, it's very similar in feel. Clean, light, woodsy with something a little mysterious and dangerous underneath.

The Reaper and the Flowers was almost single note carnation on me, if that's the spiciness you are after. Unfortunately, I haven't yet tried Pink Moon '07 so I can't compare the two.

I'll put in a vote for Mad Sweeney. As soon as the booze dies down it's all burning hardwood on me.

I think I might have to give up on these Enraged Musk scents. The last two I tried, Orangutan and Bunny, didn't work at all and Groundhog doesn't either. Everything sounded so perfect, I love chocolate, cherries, vanilla and caramel, even love cardamom if it isn't too strong. What I didn't count on was the musk, whoa, I cannot take this groundhoggy musk ! It smells like cheap men's drugstore cologne and takes ages to go away. And then the cardamom starts going nuts and in fact doesn't smell like cardamom at all, it smells exactly like the cassia that went ape on me in Red Phoenix and Monster Bait: Underbed. I can vaguely smell the chocolate, cherry and caramel in the bottle but once this oil hits my skin it begs to be washed off. And shipped off, my bottles are getting swapped!

I just don't get this scent. When I put Dark Delicacies on, it smelled kind of planty. That's all I can say, I really couldn't pick out any of the notes but I'm guessing it is the patchouli that gave it the earthy, planty feel. After about half an hour, it changed and smelled flowery. That's it, again, I couldn't really pick out any of the notes. I seem to have this problem with some of the more complex BPAL blends - other people have nosegasms from them but to me they just smell like the kitchen sink, all muddled together. I don't dislike it but there is nothing exciting about it for me. The bottle, swathed in its cute little bag, is on its way over the pond to hopefully a more receptive owner!

I just got a lovely fresh decant of Temple Viper, it's my first oil of the Snake Pit so I was really excited to try it. Right out of the imp, there is a gorgeous waft of really rich Snake Oil, much stronger and heavier on the vanilla than a typical new batch of Snake Oil so I am greatly encouraged about all the other Snake Pit blends. This one, however, has some note or combination of notes that go off on me, giving the dreaded dirty diaper effect. I think it may be the champaca but I'm not sure. I try to filter that out and yes, I can pick up some lovely spices underneath, but that darn note keeps coming back over the top of them. I'll be swapping this one and hope to try more of these wonderful new blends.

I don't know if I can help you with the pear note but my boyfriend smells divine in Quincy Morris and a couple of other blends, although not the same at first, end up smelling very similar to the drydown of Q M. The first is Dee, it seems to have that same soft leather note that is so unlike the harsher leather blends like De Sade. The second is Death on a Pale Horse and I have no idea why because it doesn't seem to share any notes with Q M. It does have a masculine sweetness to it that I might be associating with the pear in Q M but it definitely does not have the leather.

Of the new imps I received in my last order, The Reaper and the Flowers was the only keeper. I get very strong lilies at first, which I love, and then the carnations take over, which I love even more. I really can't pick out the rose or chrysanthemum in this, it's pretty much single note carnation at drydown and it's very strong and long lasting. Even better than the single note carnation the lab used to sell which I found a little disappointing due to its weakness. If you love carnation, try this one!

I too detected something like cocoa in the vial but when Love-Lies-Bleeding hit my skin, I could tell it wasn't really cocoa but some combination of notes that gave that effect. I don't detect anything like rose, it seems much more like dragon's blood. So much so that I'm surprised this blend isn't in the Ars Draconis category. Besides the dragon's blood, I get something herbal and soapy. To swaps with ye!

I ordered an imp of this forgetting how much I dislike red musk and red wine combined. I ignored those notes in favor of the many notes I love - honey, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane. I was so sure I was going to love this, I applied it with high expectations. It was great at first, mostly musk and lovely honey. But then the grapes appeared, very sticky sweet like grape bubblegum. I knew then it wasn't for me but it still wasn't awful. Until the boozy red wine appeared and the red musk came out in full force, I started to get queasy. At this point it reminded me a lot of Blood Rose, another red wine and red musk scent that I couldn't get off fast enough. Of course this resisted washing off and remains to this day on the sleeves of the jacket I was wearing that day. This was all horror and no sympathy on me .

I don't get anything wintery out of Winter of Our Discontent. When first applied, I really don't care for it, it's a muddy jumble. But after about fifteen minutes, the individual notes start to separate out and it becomes very complex and interesting. I mainly get the balsam, clove, nutmeg, rosewood and myrrh - I especially love the nutmeg. The longer it's on, the better it smells and it lasts a long, long time. I kept thinking I only wished it had a little more sweetnes and then it hit me. This smells just like Black Phoenix without the almond, that sweet cherry-like note. Since I already have Black Phoenix, I won't be needing a bottle of this but it's lovely.

Lick It Again smells like Lick It with a lot more peppermint, I don't really get the extra sugar. It does smell exactly like a candy cane but, just like its predecessor, it only lasts about fifteen minutes on me. Not worth buying a bottle.

I got a decant of Snow Flakes and as soon as I opened the imp, I got a whiff of Snow White (my all-time favorite BPAL). But when I put it on, I got a pine needle note. Normally I don't like that note very much and in this, for the first five minutes, it overwhelmed the lovely Snow White notes. But suddenly, the pine needles died down and I got this lovely scent of standing in a snowy pine forest, with the smell of snow dominating. I really didn't get anything minty or aquatic, just Snow White with the tiniest breath of pine, for the duration of the scent. And just like Snow White, it lasts forever on me with tremendous throw. If I didn't already have a good stash of Snow White, I would stock up on Snow Flakes but as it's so similar, the imp will do me fine. Love it .

Thank goodness for friends you send you sniffies (I'm looking at you, Rhowan )! From a lot of the reviews, Yule sounded like something I would really love. And when I first put it on, it was lovely. It reminded me of a prototype of Hemlock I got a long time ago, very lime-y, crisp and green. And then the awful berry note came out and just took over, so horrible on me. I got none of the other notes, like rose, frankincense or myrrh, no complexity. Just the awful berries . I had to wash it off.

The Phantom Calliope also reminds me a little bit of Shub-Niggurath, a cherry version of it. I think it's the combination of the cherry and verbena notes with the sharpness of the cardamom and the sexy undernote of patchouli that does it, reminiscent of Shub's citrus/ginger/sexy basenotes. But somehow it all doesn't work too well in The Phantom Calliope, it ends up smelling a little dirty and is far too weak to make much of a statement after about 15 minutes.