Lady_Ell

I might be a little late on this, but I also love clean scents, and can highly recommend Embalming Fluid Baobhan Sith Kumiho Tempest Old Shanghai These are all very citrusy. I also find Loup Garou to be very clean smelling, but in a clean woody sort of way instead of a citrus clean way. Old Shanghai might be the cleanest thing I've ever smelled.

This is my new "grown up" scent. It's so glammy and sophistocated on me, I can't get over my bad self. It's like a grown-up version of Snake Oil, or a less bracing version of Old Morocco. It's not really sweet, exactly - it's more like your body exudes a natural sweetness with its help. The spices are really soft yet firmly placed - they're not going anywhere, they're just observing what your body is doing with the musk and adding their $0.02 to make a beautiful, complex scent. Note: when wet this smells almost disgustingly perfume-y, but after 5 minutes it settled down and became very nice. (edited due to grammar/misspelling)

Something went dreadfully wrong when I tried this on. On application: Uh oh. Something is amiss. Kaopectate indeed. Drying: Double uh oh. I smell like the inside of a dentist's office. I have a strong minty-papery-chalky-bubble-gum smell coming out of me. It smells so much like the dentist that I can't concentrate on anything else. Think: the paper on the X-ray film tabs, plus the bubble-gum and mint polishing paste they put on with that little twirly brush, plus a fluoride rinse (that bluish, soapy looking stuff), and something medicinal and chemical that I can't figure out. Damn. I was really looking forward to it, since I like woody smells and cedar and vanilla. Later: I tried to wash this off and it just. wouldn't. come. off. This is some strong stuff. ETA: I tried this on again a year later and the terrible dentist office smell wasn't there! I realize that when I wrote this review I was taking medication that made most of the oils smell weird/skanky on me. Sans medication, Tombstone smells exactly like it's ingredients, mainly cedar and vanilla. Very very strong cedar and vanilla. It's still a bitch to wash off, though.

Belladonna is what I wear to bed. Ace of Pentacles is nice, too.

This was a bit too strong for me, and I only put on a drop. It was very floral, and very sweet. Kind of like fresh flowers crushed in corn syrup. It was nice enough, but scent-wise it kind of non-descript because there are so many ingredients in it that I couldn't really pick out anything that really stood out and made me say "OH!". I'm not a big floral person, so I think that is why this wasn't really hitting me. It's bold and in-your-face, but I'm not. I think I will swap this - I probably won't be in the mood to wear it much.

This did smell very floral on me, yet it didn't turn into a grody carpet spray smell. It somehow stayed calm and pretty. I'm not usually a floral type of girl, but yesterday there were beautiful lilacs blooming outside my bedroom window and the smell was wafting into my room and I thought "let's try a floral today" - and The Raven matched that feeling beautifully. It lasted about 5 hours, just sitting delicately and prettily on my wrists. It smelled like lilacs to me, but I think that was just me misinterpreting violets due to the scenery outside.

H~O~ly shit. This is s~O~ great. I love it s~O~ much. Wet, it smells like honey and clover and toasted pecans and something running underneath it all with a rough texture and on top of it all is a tiny, slight fruity note. As it dries the honey-pecan aspect screams out of me and the fruit goes away, and the rough texture smooths out to a totally soft, sweet amazingness. A few hours later I have a non-foody honey, trace of vanilla, and I guess it must be the amber that holds it all down to earth to make it like a darkish, mellow honey that's been sitting in a wooden jar for a long time. Amber makes a kind of sweet, spicy, baby powder smell on me, which I usually don't care for, but in this it blends with the honey and vanilla to make it mesh with me instead of clash with me. I feel very glamourous and beautiful and outgoing in this, even when I'm dressed casually. This is unusual for me, since I'm normally somewhat reserved. But I was Chatty McTalkypants to fullon strangers when I was wearing this, and feeling like I was glowing and golden all the while. I have to revamp my top 3 (again). This is one of them. Maybe #1. I have to add some further remarks about this one - The first time I wore it (when I wrote this review), I was feeling somewhat celibate and businesslike. However, I do want to add (warning! TMI heading your way!): this perfectly captures the scent of bodily fluids (female, not male), with a sweet topnote and in a beautiful, wonderful way. This reacts to my hormones, too. For some reason it smells like a peanut butter and honey sandwich at certain times of month - not really what I want to smell like. But the rest of the month it's amazing and great. PS - when I said above that I didn't like amber, I wasn't experienced enough with it to know what I was talking about. I love amber and it works wonders with me.

I adore Kumiho, but it fades so quickly on me. I am not getting any florals out of it, just a fresh lemony iced tea scent with a hint of sugar and spike of something bright and biting - the ginger. It reminds me of Old Shanghai with a ginger shoot kick. I will slather more on and see if I can get it to last any longer. It's just so beautiful and makes me happy and cheerful when I wear it.

The description sounds so fascinating and when wet it's a complex, sharpish, bright scent - nonfloral, yet not particularly masculine, either. As soon as it dries on me, it becomes spicy and powdery and kind of nondescript. It's not bad, in fact it's kind of pleasant, but it's just not that interesting and it isn't something I'm particularly excited about smelling like. I think on someone else this would be great, but there's an ingredient in here that just doesn't like to be in contact with my skin.

I really really really REALLY like this one. A lot of the BPAL men's fragrances tend to become weirdly powdery/spicy on me in an unpleasant way, and remind me of aftershave or Old Spice. This one, however, does not. Wet: JUNIPER - it overrides everything else in a lovely way Drying: the juniper fades quickly and a dry wood smell peeps out Dry (for hours): I smell like the inside of a woodbox that holds a lot of evergreen branches. I smell like a pile of pencil shavings stuck in a dribble of pine pitch. I smell like I just bushwacked through a juniper hedge with a cypress two-by-four and made a big mess out of the hedge and am covered with little juniper bits and cypress oils. I am not sure if this is appropriate for an everyday scent, but it's really growing on me. I feel very calm in it. It's a nice change from the sweeter scents that I usually wear (Snake Oil, Katharina, Old Morocco), and I think I will buy a big bottle of it when my Imp runs out. The more I think about it, the more I love it. This is really wonderful.

I will describe how this smells on my husband, and on me: On husband - a little spicy, a little salty, a little leathery - all combined nicely. Kind of like a leather jacket that has been out in the elements for a really long time, so that new leather smell is really faded but still present. He's been wearing this as his spring alternative to DeSade. I think he's planning on a big bottle of it for the summer. It smells great on him. On me - starts off the same as on husband when wet, but somehow morphs into a really offensive perfumey smell after about 1/2 an hour. It reminded me of a perfume that my grandmother wears called Chantilly, which is one of my least favorite perfumes (no offense to my grandmother, who is otherwise great). It just became really overwhelming and seemed to get stronger every minute and in the end made me feel a little nauseous.

Ace of Pentacles is pretty earthy and dead leafy, with a sort of musky undertone that's very pleasant. It reminds me a bit of the smell of raking leaves; the underneath part of them where the leaf pile interfaces with the dirt.

This is a very pleasant, light scent that smells strongly of lavendar in the bottle and when wet, but dries to a bright and clean soap/citrus fragrance with just a hint of lavendar. It's very nice, although not something I'd usually wear since lavendar doesn't always agree with me. This ended up not being a problem because it disappeared completely after about 20 minutes. Oh well.

Do you mean the elements like earth, air, fire, and water? There's the Dark Elements section, if that's what you mean. How does one know what element one is? Or do you mean like the periodic table of elements? Excuse my dumbness on this - I don't know much about this kind of stuff. I know my astrological sign and that's it.

This wasn't sweet at all to me - just very fresh and lemony and clean. Kind of like a stronger version of Old Shanghai. It lasts for hours, and smells clean yet not soapy, fresh but not too astringent. It's a very bright yellow-green scent, kind of like how the light filters through green leaves on a humid day. This is another absolute favorite. Edited to add: this also smells great on my husband, and we are going to split a big bottle in our next order (or fight over it, since we live in different cities).

I love how this smells in the bottle - it really does smell like a thunderstorm in August, that tense, wonderful, damp smell right before the wind really starts to blow. That said... I put this on and immediately started coughing with a horrible tickle in my throat, and the smell completely changed on impact with my skin to an overpowering smell of fabric softener and dryer sheets. This is great in the bottle, but it isn't something I can wear.

I think that Shrieking Violet and I are the only ones where Dana O'Shee lasts forever, but here's what lasts on me even after 3 washings: Bliss Snake Oil Burial Old Morocco Katharina Wrath (unfortunate, because it smells terrible on me) Magus Old Athens Old Rome For the lighter scents, I've found Tempest to be pretty strong. Note: with Magus and Old Athens, the smell is pretty different 4 hours later than it is when you first put it on, and changes slowly throughout the day.

It seems like all the strong florals give me a raging headache. Which is weird, because regular flowers don't bother me and I don't really have allergies or anything. I'm wondering if it's psychosomatic because I used to be a housekeeper and a lot of the cleaning chemicals smelled strongly floral. Roses don't bother me, but lilies, lilacs, gardenia, jasmine... yikes. Headaches plus nausea.

I was unsure of this at first, because the patchouli really pierced my nose with a sharp, unpleasant, kind of spearing and bitter bite. But I waited for about 10 minutes and it mellowed nicely to undercut the sweetness of the apricot, and really mesh well with it. This will be for when I'm in a kind of snarky and bad mood and want to stay in such a mood, I think. A perfume for when I need to be bitchy. Edited later to add: Although this seemed to work for a while that day, I think that patchouli and I don't get along very well. At the end of the day I ended up smelling like soggy, dead plants.

Wet: a sharpish, woody smell. Galangal and sandalwood and cedar most apparent, kind of like the smell of wet wood that is kind of rotting. In a good way. Drydown: a sweet note comes out on top of everything and the sharpness disappears. The wood note is still strong, and it has a bit of a spicy masculine smell. 1 hour later: fading kind of fast, but I only put a little bit on. The sharpness is all gone, leaving a smooth, sweet, sawdusty smell. I am glad I didn't wash this off right away because I really like it after it's had a chance to sit for a while. This is really lovely and unusual, and the masculine "Old Spice" note has mellowed out a lot. The smell reminds me of the idea of wood that has been sanded so smooth that it's silky. In the end I don't find this one masculine at all, at least on me. I don't know if I'll get a big bottle, but I'll use the Imp for now.

I love the idea of smelling like sage, but unfortunately as soon as I put it on a sickly flower smell came out (the Iris?), the sage was nonexistant, and yet again I smell like that carpet cleaning fluid that you put into industrial steam cleaners (I used to be a housekeeper, and I don't want to smell like cleaning chemicals).

Wet: a coconut-mint-lime scent (non-foody) with a hint of something sharp and bright, kind of like that tang and bite that is sometimes happening on the back of your tongue in guava or passion fruit. Drying: unsweetened coconut, lemon peel and maybe even some pith, and that same bright note. Not flashy-bright, but bright-sunlight-on-water bright. A little unsettling and astringent, and hits you high up in the nose. Dry (up to 6 hours later): I smell like a coconut macaroon, in the best possible way. The bitter part of the bite is gone, and it still smells bright and light and airy, even though it's still very sweet. This is a different sweetness than Snake Oil, though - it's much more ethereal. It's great. And it has great staying power. This is really, really wonderful. The perfect summer scent.

I like the idea of this one, and it smells like a slithery mix of vanilla and rum with a masculine edge when it's wet, but once it dries on me it just smells like boozy baby powder and Old Spice. I think on a man it might smell better. On me it is pretty overpowering.

This is a very comforting smell. It reminds me of warm composty topsoil (in the best way) and is reminscent of early summer - like when you're planting a vegetable garden in the sunshine. In the bottle it smelled like cherries and topsoil, the former of which dissipated immediately on contact with my skin. The earthy smell is in the foreground when wet and for the first 1/2 hour or so, but after that I was getting a dusty, sweet baby powder scent on top of everything that I sometimes get with the earthy/piney scents, which overpowered the earthy scent. I put in on before I went to bed and slept deeply and peacefully. I think I'll experiment with putting it on before bed to see if keeps my sleeping so nice (usually I am a light, jumpy sleeper). I want my husband to try it out, because he's been talking about that Demeter "Dirt" fragrance (I think it's Demeter) for like 10 years now without actually buying it, and I think this might be a good analog for him.

This made me realize that my skin + even a hint of a non-delicate floral = carpet spray smell. I really wanted to love this one, and the smell when wet was great: cinnamon, pepper, and corn syrup. I don't know what the problem ingredient was, but as soon as it was on me for 10 minutes a gross flowery smell smell started oozing from my wrists, and I was left smelling like deodorant pantiliners with some red hots thrown in. In any case, this one has some staying power - I washed it off after a while but it refused to budge.