crimescenecleanup

That sounds like a perfect imp pack. For women, my favorite Illyria scents are Titania (fresh, cold fruit and rainy aquatics) and Rosalind (soft aquatics, green herbs, and spicy berries). For the guys, I have to go with The Apothecary. It's very herbal and astringent, but I always found it sexy.

Out of the bottle, this is a creamy vetiver. I know those two words don't usually go together, but...that's what I get. Fresh cream note and vetiver. Strong vetiver. Very earthy. And dare I say...comforting? Reassuring at the least. A scent that gives you the strength to go forward. I was expecting something spicy, something firey and powerful that would bring up images of obstacles being brought down by a strike of lightning or a good bitchslap. But it's not like that at all. The earthy/woodiness of this blend makes me think of plants - perhaps an immense tree that has wrapped its roots around the obstacle or wall in question and is slowly eroding it away, growing up through the cracks and branching out new, fresh leaves in its place. I like that image much better. And for a ritual of positive change and transformation, it was more than appropriate. I used it to anoint candles and added a few drops to warm water. The throw wasn't so strong that my housemates noticed from the next room over, but it was strong enough to last throughout a four-hour ritual and gently scent the room I was in. It stayed true throughout the night, without morphing much at all. This is a really soft vetiver, with a hint of something creamy or milky, and something else that reminds me of uncut meyer lemons - no sharp citrus tang. It's almost like a lemon drop candies. I guessed that it was lemon verbena, lemon balm, or some kind of chamomile. If anyone here has tried the Good Earth brand tea variety "Good Night Tea" this smells a lot like that. Good Earth Good Night contains chamomile, passionflower, hops, cherry bark, mint, and lavender, so it I'm guessing it's the same kind of chamomile that's in that tea. Overall, I'm really impressed with this stuff and the atmosphere it lended to the ritual. I can't vouch for the effectiveness yet, but I'll update with further results.

hmmm...I've never tried this type of chocolate, but here is a list of some promising BPAL scents with chocolate notes: Centzon Totochtin Velvet Intrigue Boomslang Wulric, the Wolfman (this one is actually very foody and rich) Kali Vice Bliss Gluttony The Candy Butcher If you can find imps or decants of any of those, they would all be worth trying. Also, for things with a strong coconut note, maybe Obatala, Elegua, or Eden?

Death Cap, Tombstone, Casanova, and Strangler Fig all have Vanilla or Tonka and I would highly recommend all of them. I haven't smelled Death Cap or Strangler Fig on a guy, but I'm sure that they would work well. My skin chemistry also amps sweet and foody things, and all of the scents listed above stayed nice and balance don me.

OK, let me start of by saying, I'm a total ho for anything having to do with Egyptology - real of fictional. I would have totally been down with the Egyptology craze of the early 20th century. I read Anne Rice's gothic novel of Edwardian-era Cairo "The Mummy, or Ramses The Damned" about a dozen times when I was a little girl. So, of course, I found the idea of a BPAL oil based on a carnival sideshow mummy girl to be irresistable. Out of the bottle: Ooooh. Nice. Another Carnivale Diabolique scent in which all the notes are seamlessly blended and nothing really stands out above the others. This is a dark scent, spooky and mysterious. On the skin: Dry-down is the same as in the bottle. The perfect scent to wear out goth-clubbing. The myrrh and sandalwood in this are smooth and earthy, but not dry and powdery like they usually are on me. This is the scent of embalming oils and pastes scented with resins, barks, and herbs. The paperwhites and narcissus (narcissuses? narcissi?) make themselves known, but this is not overtly floral. They just soften the blend a bit. I can't decide if they remind me of fresh spring buds or dried paperwhites at the end of the season. Either way, the flowers in this have a very light, airy quality. This is the feminine counterpart to Hades, I think. Still an earthy narcissus scent, but cooler and darker with a hint of wet herbs. Absolutely gorgeous. 10/10.

'composes herself and tries not to squeek and jump up and down with glee like a hyper 5-year old at a birthday party who just snorted a pixie stick' A few weeks ago, I got this terrible urge to try "Melisande" in my search for a wearable floral. I just had a feeling that against all odds this one would work on me, and it did. These Carnival Diabolique scents are so beautifully blended and well-balanced. The violet water is the predominant note on me, a very true, fresh, cool floral that's not sweet in the least. It's perfectly balanced by the mimosa, which smells just like real mimosa blossoms in the height of bloom, sharp, tart, and slightly bitter and somewhat akin to grapefruit or spilled champagne. The vanilla starts to come through a few seconds after the florals, thick and husky and rich. This is an herbal vanilla more than a sugared, foody vanilla. It gives this scent a richness and depth, and makes it deeply sexy. Finally, hints of jasmine sambac waft up over the other notes. this isn't an in-your-face floral jasmine, like I'm used to getting, but a really subtle kiss of jasmine, like walking by a jasmine vine on a summer night night when it's blooming, or the scent wafting up from jasmine tea when you pour the hot water on it. This is a light scent with enough throw and lasting power to balance out it's subtle nature. To sum up: This is a very grown-up scent - an exotic floral without a hint of sweetness. The violet water base makes me imagine a very striking and dark-haired Victorian beauty wearing this, and the boozy mimosa, vanilla, and jasmine make me think she's up to absolutely no good. : ) But maybe that's just because I've read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series a number of times, and the name Melisande always conjures up images of a striking, dark-haired beauty who is up to no good.

The smell of this in the imp is so light, it's barely detectable. The scent of fresh milk. On my skin, it is still a very light scent, and a very simple one. Lightly honey-sweetened milk and dragon's blood resin. Dragon's blood always reminds me of those waxy red-hot candies without the spice, if that makes any sense. I'm glad to see that the honey in this doesn't amp at all on my skin, it stays a light, creamy scent all the way through. I have no desire to use this as a perfume, but I think it makes a lovely, sensual room scent. I'll use it for offertory incense because it's such a delicious milk-and-honey facsimile, and it has that extra kick of dragon's blood to give it oomph and warmth.

oooh...A friend of mine has their guest bathroom decked out with BBW soaps and lotions in a scent called "Country Apple". I'm not usually a big fan of BBW scents, but this was really nice. Just like a fresh-cut fuji apple. It was really close to BPAL's Poisoned Apple, and almost aquatic. "Irresistable Apple" sounds a bit like a caramel apple scent. I'd love to see more BPAL apple options

Nero always came out herbal for me, although it gets a serious spicy bite from the bitter clove.

I tried out Tannin'Iver today on my wrist. the scent was beautiful, but the exact place where I swiped the wand became a bright red, blotchy spot that burned like crazy a few minutes later. I blame the cassia.

Oh! I totally forgot. A couple others to add to the list of recommendations that others have already mentioned... Lampades kind of turned my stomach. It wasn't that it was a bad smell, rather it was a very unique smell that I just found it incredibly er...off-putting. Same with Black Annis. Both have these underlying musky, smoky notes that just give me the heebie jeebies. Destroying angel is lovely - with a strong soil note, cold and minty. But definitely on the spooky side. Niflheim, on the other hand, makes me really happy. It's dark and aquatic, but to me it comes across as a very clean, sexy men's cologne on it's drydown, with just a hint of spice.

The absolute darkest BPAL scent I've ever smelled is Azathoth. It smells like an HR Giger painting, to me. Seriously. I have a Giger print hanging in my house, and if it had a scent, it would smell like Azathoth. Like infinite spookiness, heaviness, darkness, and madness. And maybe tentacles. Or impossible geometry. Tombstone on me was the driest, dustiest, most desolate graveyard scent I'd ever smelled. Seriously, it's the scent of dust on dry stone and wood. Of all the "graveyard" and "soil" scents I can think of - Burial, Nosferatu. Zombi, Danse Macabre...They all have this hint of life to them - flowers, or mosses, or decay - something living clinging to something dead. Not tombstone. This is a truly dessicated, devoid of water or life. It's also one of my favorites! : ) The only scent that ever creeped me out, though, was "O". It smelled like...like the sex industry to me. Like some incense that's burned in strip clubs and porn shops, or a box of old playboys with the scent of the perfume samples folded inside the pages still wafting up. Or the mix of sweat and sugary perfume and alcohol that came off of two really unhappy girls I used to know who worked at a local fetish club. It wasn't so much the smell of sexuality as it was the smell of exploitation, if that makes any sense. It felt...sinister. It seemed to conjure up this image of defenseless, yielding sexuality, which i guess is the point! It was a really strong scent and an equally strong emotional association, and it just didn't want to wash off. Not a scent that contains what one would traditionally call "dark" notes, but definitely scary, to me, at least.

I was really excited to get a bottle of this, and it didn't let me down. This is probably the most complex BPAL scent I've tried. It changes continually throughout the day. I chose to wear it on a day when i had meetings from eight in the morning until six at night, and it seemed to be a different scent every few hours. Straight out of the bottle, this has a very dark, wet, woody scent, almost musty...like moss and lichen covered tree bark after a rain. It's a deep blue-green scent. Like a wetland, only, well, just the pleasant parts, and not the swampy water smell. Just the smell of wet plants and moss and soil. I wonder if the "musty" dirt note comes form the green tea incense? It also has this kind of biting spiciness to it, but not anything I can really identify. It reminds me of clearing nettles out of the garden. It actually makes my nose and skin tingle, like nettles do. I tend to sneeze when I first put this scent on. The lovely, musty woodsy aquatic smell fades to the background and something very pale and soft comes to the forefront. Maybe the lilac and soft musk? If the first notes formed a dark, earthy nighttime scent, then what takes over at this stage feels very ethereal and luminescent and light glowing green. It's a perfect depiction of shimmering foxfires appearing on a cold, rain-soaked night. but even this faded into the background and I got this really light, amorphous herbal scent. For the first 3-4 hours it was a scent without any definite direction, constantly shifting - I could pick out the earthy, green, aquatic, musk, floral and that nettle note all just swirling together. Towards the middle of the day, the scent was still very strong, but it had dried down into... cherry 7 up? No, really. Exactly like Cherry 7up if it was made with real lemon, lime, and cherry juices. But not overly sweet. Maybe the diet version? It must have been the rice wine that offered the sour yellow-green citrus note, but there is this soft rich sweetness behind it that probably comes from the drydown of the musk and the floral. It's the sweetness that comes from fresh water and flowers, though, and not the sweetness of sugar. Overall I find this a really fun, comforting scent. Not in a foody way, but in a wet, foresty way. It's very restful and delicate, and Overwhelmingly feminine in the way that it conjures up images of peaceful evenings and green plants and soft rain.

It's the perfect scent to capture the spirit of the brutal Barbarian queen from Titus Andronicus. It is at once warm and golden, with core of solid and unyielding strength, and a breath of softest femininity over it. And yet it seems so faint and indistict and shadowed. This is a scent of a woman whose plans are unfathomable, and one who will use any of her powers to get revenge.

MULBERRY! I couldn't think of it until someone mentioned it in an earlier review, but if this reminds me of any plant at all, it's mulberry. Berries, tree bark, and leaves. The whole kit and caboodle. Just a hint of a mulberry tree in the sun. However, the overwhelming base of this scent is astringent and almost...like that blue liquid they use in airplane sinks and toilets and as disinfectant in hospital wards. I mean, much more pleasant, clean, herbal version...but I still can't kick the association with some kind of deep blue cleaner. It's a lovely scent...clean, herbal, and somewhat biting and poisonous. But it makes me feel like I should go around wearing a sign on my wrist saying that I've been sanitized for your convenience. It's just so...clean. I couldn't wear it very often, but maybe it would work as a room scent?

This is somehow like concentrated cucumber - like if you cut open a cucumber, and magnified the fresh scent of the insides and juice and skin a hundred times. I keep telling myself that the concept of smelling like a giant cucumber is silly, but this scent makes me so ridiculously happy everytime I get a waft of it from my shirt or my wrists that I just run around the house grinning like an idiot. It's so summery, it makes me want to run through the sprinklers in my bare feet on the lawn, and jump into piles of leaves, and ride my bike around the neighborhood, and get into mud fights. And I'm 24. Also, my favorite aunt, who was very fashionable, funny, sweet and social used to use a cucumber soap and so this scent reminds me of the good times I had with her and is sort of linked forever with happy memories and comfort. Anyway, the drydown is lovely - this scent just keeps getting better, cleaner, richer, and it builds to this cool, deep green blue scent.

Death Cap is in my top 5 favorite BPAL scents, easily. The first note I smell is wet clay or concrete. This is is one of my favorite smells. I grew up in the desert, and we had a room that opened to the backyard that was concrete block and clay tile. When it rained, this is what that room smelled like - fresh water and ground stone. Or when you first cut open or unwrap a block of grey clay in a ceramics class (sorry - never took enough ceramics to learn what this kind of clay is called) this is the smell of very fresh, clean clay. Underneath that this wonderful, er...fluffy? food smell comes up. But not a sweet smell. It screams vanilla to me, but that doesn't seem quite right. If this is a vanilla, it's the smell of a drying vanilla bean. And then...mushrooms. Huh. whaddyaknow. One item I never expected to find, or like, in a perfume, but I did. All of the notes balance beautifully and none of them trump the others. Although I'd be hard pressed to tell someone why, because I don't recognize any spice notes, it feels warm and comforting, with an edge. If this scent was an image, it would be a moist dirt path through a fairytale forest, edged with rings of plump mushrooms, leading to gingerbread houses and little girls in red cloaks with picnic baskets full of fresh baked pastries.

I LOVE this scent. It reminds me of Aspen cologne, but so much more complex and balanced. Vinland smells so much more real and fresh, like stepping into a meadow surrounded by a circle of birch and maple trees. It smells wet like green, living trees, and golden like a carpet of aspen or birch leaves in fall. Not dry like most woody scents, and the florals don't have a hint of sweetness - they're almost herbal, like you're smelling the whole plant, roots, leaves, stems, and flowers. Although this is a unisex scent, it reminds me of a fine's men's cologne. The kind of thing my grandfather or my father wears on special occasions, with a nice suit, and because of this association it seems very masculine to me. As much as I love it, I'm not sure that I would wear it regularly for this reason. However, I think a bottle of Vinland would make a lovely gift for any of the men in my family. Here's keeping my fingers crossed that I could get my significant other to wear it sometime. : )

Oh my. this is my favorite BPAL scent so far. I never thought I would be fond of florals, but BPAL is quickly changing that. It has been the same wet and dry on me, for several hours. Very strong Lily of the Valley and Apple Blossom, with a background of green fig. It reminds me of being a little girl and going to the Cathedral with my grandparents, and kneeling in front of the statue of The holy Virgin on her feast day, when it would be covered in lilies. This perfume smells, well, exactly as I always imagine Mary would smell, when she would appear to people in visions. (Weird, I know). I think of this as a very innocent, clean, girlish floral with a touch of honeyed sweetness. It's a strong scent, with a lot of throw, and these florals don't...er...beat around the bush. You can't miss them. So it brings up thought of one's first real love...passionate, headstrong, ecstatic, honest, and pure in its intentions. Very appropriate for a scent based on the Song of Solomon

first impression: Oh, wow. I need a minute. maybe five minutes. and a cigarette. wait a second, I don't even smoke... What a beautiful, sexy, incredible scent. Going on and out of the bottle, it's all clean, fresh rain spattered roses. I'm not a big fan of rose scents, but this one is just lovely, like a real, living rose fresh picked from the garden. The cinnamon balances the rose nicely, just giving it a little bit of depth and sultriness. How does th BPAL crowd do that? This is a completely different rose from the others I've tried. Just amazing. It would be a perfect scent to wear out dancing, I think. I was so excited when I put this on, because I haven't really fallen in love with any of the imps from my first order, and it seemed like I'd found a definite keeper. But ten minutes later it was all baby powder on me. I tried putting it in my hair and got the same effect. Goshdarnit. I'll have to find another use for this one. Maybe I'll put some in a diffuser and hope it brings me sweet dreams.

Oh dear. I had such high hopes for this one. but it appears that my body chemistry just doesn't play well with Highwayman. Wet, I got this stinging, cold scent. Very sharp. Almost metallic. I have no idea where the metallic note is coming from. I never thought of vetiver or leather as sharp or cold scents but that's the impression I get from this. Like brand new, never warmed or broken in leather and cold soil. This is a thouroughly masculine scent, so far. I know that in Eastern Europe, it's popular to put put bitter herbs into bottles of vodka to make tonic liquers. My grandfather called them sweet vodkas. That's what this turns to on my skin. A few minutes after it dries it turns to leather and alcohol on my skin, like someone had dumped a bottle of sweet vodka all over a new saddle. No florals, and no cinnamon, although cinnamon usually takes a long time to come out on me, and I probably washed it off too soon after I put it on. I'm a little sad that the other notes don't come out on me, but maybe I just need to age this one and give it another chance later.

I managed to spill most of my imp and managed to get it all over my imp case and bathroom counter before I ever got it on myself...I was cringing because I expected to to be the strongest of the scents I've tried so far. I was expecting something bitter and spicy with a hint of vanilla. Instead, this lovely sweet almond smell wafted up, like almond paste mixed with vanilla, but very soft and feathery, if that makes any sense. After it was on my skin, it became less almond and more vanilla, and after a few hours something bitter (maybe frankincense?) came to the forefront with a very hot cinnamon, but the sweet almond/vanilla mixture never really went away. I never expected such a foody scent to be so..ethereal. I scrubbed down the counters and the box, but Eclipse hung around. Fortunately, it is such a gentle scent it didn't bother me and now I just think "mmm...sweet almonds" whenever I open the imp box or brush my hair. This is a strong oil blend that lingers for a long, long time, but the scent has such a light and airy feel that it's not distracting at all. Overall a neat experience, but not one I'll be getting a big bottle of. I was really expecting to love this one because of the notes (I do love marzipan), but it just doesn't do it for me. Too sweet and light, perhaps. I'm gravitating towards earthy and fruity scents more and more. But if you are looking for something sweet and light that's not floral, you might find it in Eclipse.

This is the scent of a fearless, exotic, vivacious woman...who is beating me over the head with 2 dozen roses and a cup of Turkish coffee. Again, Beth and the team take my breath away with another fabulously unexpected scent, but unfortunately, one that is too strong for my tastes. I get no jasmine or vanilla with this one, just very strong rose with a strange biting overtone, like the taste of coffee grounds. This isn't a soft rose, either. It's a strange, strong rose, with a tang to it. It's the smell of tea roses left to dry in the attic or to wilt in the sun, until their scent almost goes sour. And it it's strong...Even after letting it sit dry for an hour and then washing it off, the rose lingered. This scent has such a kick to it. It's totally girly and feminine but it also gives the impression of being powerful and gutsy. Aptly named. It's interesting, but the rose is just too strong for my tastes. I don't think I'll be able to wear this one undiluted. On the bright side, when I washed it off, it left a lovely soft rosewater scent...maybe if I diluted it it would make a nice body mist, or something. EDITED January/2008 OK this is a completely different scent after aging. Give it few months - it calms down and the notes blend into the loveliest, most complex floral - the coffee and tonka give it warmth and depth, the fig vanilla, and mahogany come more to the forefront, and the roses and jasmine turn into a really true, fresh, subtle scent of fresh blooming flowers. Really gorgeous, but like many of the best BPAL scents, it needed to settle a bit.

My first impression straight out of the bottle was of pine, then bay leaf. Very strong out of the bottle. Dried, on my skin, the pine became softer and almost faded away, and the bay leaf became stronger and other notes dominated. No lemon on me, but it ended up being a spicy, sweet scent when it dried probably due to the rosemary and bay. I would swear this had clove or allspice in it, but there's none in the description. Reminds me of the spice drawer in my grandmother's kitchen, combined with the scent from juniper wood when it's put on the fire. A very masculine scent, but the spice is gentle, not biting and strong. It's very mellow on my skin, with hardly any throw. It faded after a few hours. I was pleasantly surprised. It was nothing like I expected, but still lovely and complex on the drydown. Not something I would wear on my person, because it doesn't really reflect my personality, but something I might put in a diffuser for a relaxing room scent to read or play music by.

This was the first imp I tried. It smelled like Easter, to me...warm sunshine and mounds of candy, although there is a definite wine note, as well. I do believe that these are the 400 divine CHOCOLATE rabbits of the Aztec pantheon.