wren08

BONFIRE NIGHT Guy Fawkes, Guy; Stick him up on high! Hang him on a lamp post And there let him die! Guy, Guy, Guy! Poke Him in the eye! Put him on the fire, And there let him die! Burn his body from his head: Then you'll say Guy Fawkes is dead! Hip, Hip, Hooray! Beer, woodsmoke, tar, and treacle. Oh dear, I'm first? Yikes! This has a coffee sort of note... with smoke and just a little booze. It drys down very nicely into a warm bonfire (it actually is a lot like Death of Autumn without the first wet rottenness). I almost wonder if I got a mislabeled bottle of one or the other... There is just a hint of gunpowder but it's not nearly as much there as it is in Agnes Nutter which is what put me off there. This is slight enough to blend in nicely. It's a wonderful scent to wear to burn the Guy!

I wish I was not the first person to review this blend... I am not as good at picking out notes and giving detailed reviews as others on the forum but I will do my level best. I received this imp as part of a swap and I had never heard of it... the lab and lovely forumites confirm that it is an unreleased blend...but I hope they release it soon! It's quite lovely and the first of the Rappaccini's Garden blends that really works on me. (I'm guessing at it's destination upon release, I don't know it) In the imp and upon initial application, it's very strong and more like a traditional perfume than most blends... although without the alcohol that now makes wearing mainstream perfume almost impossible. I get a hint of something reminiscent of O and a hint of something similar to Formula 54. It's a floral... white floral and greens... herbal without being spicy. Upon drydown, it mellows into a more plant like scent. The floral recedes a bit and the green plants become more prominent. It's very warm, fresh and spring-like. I can't identify the floral... perhaps lily of the valley or gardenia... perhaps a bit of both. It lasts well and drew two compliments from family members... unusual in my family... although 80s opines that the imp smells like Ivory Soap. I do not get any soap note and he did not think it smelled soapy on me, only in the imp. While I like this blend very well and would keep it if it were not unreleased, I'm going to pass it on and let others test it and hope the lab releases it soon! edited for spelling

I have smelled this before! Yes, I have- and I get no caramel at all. It's EXACTLY like the 4-5 year old bottle of Sin I bought from a forumite with about half the throw of that powerful blend. So, on me, Now Winter Nights Enlarge = Whispers of Well Aged Sin. Which, I guess, it should.

On me, this is lovely! It's very similar to Dublin but a little sharper and greener- not quite as sweet. I would definitely hoard multiple bottles if bottles were ever made available. *hint hint*

It's funny, everybody says "musk" but I don't get any musk at all. What I do get is a seductive, dirty, red brown scent that I can't get around the composition to pick out notes. They go together far too well! It's smoky, spicy and warm with some sweetness... and it does not last long enough, ever!

I was gifted with a testable sniffy of this by a generous forumite and thought I ought to share my impressions. It's a masculine cologne smell, spicy without being sweet, a bit musky- dirty-sexy, with an undertone of grass and dry leaves. It's also quite strong... I kept sniffing my fingertips all through Bones and taking notes. I wish the Lab would release it... I'd really love to have a bottle although a little will go a long long way!

I don't know why but this makes me think of Lughnasadh with honey instead of wine. Also? Honey is usually horrible on me... but this is staying true and sweet, almost cloyingly so. I'm undecided if I love it or not but it is certainly the best honey scent I have come across so far.

If you took tart apples and froze them, they would smell like this. There's the apple note, very obviously apple! But it is not the cider apple note of Mabon and Samhain, it's much crisper and more tart. And behind it, there is the 'snow' note that I get from Shivering Boy and Snow Storm. On me it didn't morph very much at all! Wear time is fairly good with a nice bit of throw. Sadly, I still don't like apple scents too much when apple is the main note so I will pass on this one. I do hope it's released soon for everyone who will love it madly though!

This is lovely, I'm so excited to get to try it! On me the orange is not a sweet orange, it's an orange with all the white stuff still on. It's very ORANGE... like the juice oranges I used to love as a kid. You can smell the zest, the pulp and the juice... all with their own brand of orange scent... andthe memory of orange blossoms. This is more tangy than sweet on me and I just love it! The only bad thing is that it clings very close to my skin and it fades far too quickly. The scent only lasts about two hours and then there is the memory of a scent for a while longer.

I can finally compare the released version to the prototype. It opens with wood... specifically polished sandalwood... and parchment. The prototype is rougher, less polished and smooth. Upon drydown, the prototype goes a bit dusty and the released version has a more "old leather" smell but by the time they are dry, they are virtually identical. Yay!!! I love this scent! It's exactly what I wanted Miskatonic University to be and it wasn't, quite... this is a perfume for a bibliophile (that means meeeee!) I do notice that the released version is stronger than the prototype which is a good thing! Thank you, thank you Beth for not changing this.

Visions of smeared candy red lipstick, torn fishnet and searching, sunken eyes. The scent of an all-nighter: cognac, tobacco flower, dark musk, black rose and clove. I'm still amazed I have a chance to try this! Formula 54: In the imp: Sweet, fruity... more perfumy than your average Bpal. Definitely not for a guy or for the faint of heart. Wet: It doesn't change much on inital contact with the skin. Still very sweet and feminine but not especially young. This is not a perfume for little girls. Drying: It's darkening up. I'm getting something a little smoky or resinous that makes this a perfume for a fem-fatalé rather than your sweet Auntie. There's not really a boozy note but you can't imagine a teetotaler wearing it. It's also pretty sexy! It still has that 'perfume powder' note under it all. Dry: The rose has showed itself to be the underlying 'perfume' smell (the powdery bit was temporary) and the clove is in the back ground now making it deeper and darker... it gives it a 'film noir' feel. On me, the tobacco flower does not smell like a cigarette, it's more floral but keeps the rose from being too 'innocent' and the musk mixes with the clove so I don't get the 'bad musk' note that so often ruins a blend for me. All in all, this is the kind of perfume I imagine that the 'bad girl' in a 40s Film Noir would wear. It's very glamourous, very elegant and very sexy and you can imagine the wearer betraying you without batting an eye or mussing a single hair. And you might even like it!

Thank you to Golden Rubee for including a testable sniffy in my swap package... I squeeled out loud when I saw it!! On first sniff, in the imp this is delicious spicy pumpkin... Jack's older, darker, spicier brother. Wet: It's still spicy pumpkin but with a powdery note. It has a lot of throw though... which is good since there's not enough for another test or even for me to slather like I usually do. Dry: The powder note has disappeared... but so has almost everything else. It's warm spicy pumpkin but it's not strong at all now. It has gotten very dark with cinnamon and clove and some allspice. There's a little smokiness... like a wood fire or candle smoke. I would have this if I could but mostly because I love pumpkin scents. Comparisons: Pumpkin Queen has amber in it and that makes it sweeter and lighter than Pumpkin King. It smells more like a perfume and less like a room scent. Jack is lighter than both but not as sweet as the Queen nor as spicy as the King. Jack plus a cinnamon blend and a touch of Smiling Spider might make Pumpkin King or a reasonable facsimile thereof. I wonder what layering Jack and Priala would do? A lot of the original reviews compared Pumpkin King to pumpkin cheesecake. I don't get that with the Pumpkin Cheesecake oil. It's got more butter in it and is a little more sweet but it's really close once it dries. If you really want the smell of Pumpkin King, make a pumpkin pie and go heavy on the spices and light on the butter and cream. Your whole house will smell like it.

This is one of the first ozone/aquatics I have found that doesn't go sour on me. It's a lemonly-limey-ozone-y kind of scent, very lovely and fresh. It's a bit like Namaste but it dries richer. I like this one quite a lot!

Um... it smells just like... Dirt. Wet dirt. (Since it's been raining here, I have a fresh comparison.) The scent gives me the impression that I'm in a damp tunnel underground. I'm not overly fond of dirt notes so I will probably let this one go to someone else who will love it lots but anyone who likes dirt notes, get some. It's amazingly true to life and I really don't know how she did that! (I'm almost tempted to keep it just for the 'how in the hell' value!) Sadly, it doesn't last very long on me...

Wet: It's fruity, a little pine-y with a hint of smoke Dry: The hint of smoke keeps peaking through but it's just a whiff... somewhere someone has started a wood-fire but it's a long way off. There's a good bit of cider... not much apple, maybe it's a berry cider? A touch of golden pumpkin... the way it smells when it's just been picked and you first cut into it... definitely not pumpkin pie. There might be a little amber here too. It's sweet without having the least hint of sugar or florals. All in all, it's very light but rich. A very mellow scent, like a golden afternoon, but for all it's lightness, it has a good throw! Very delicious.

A provocative name, drawing forth an image of frozen, stunted masculinity. Fortunately, the scent is none of this although, perhaps, well named irregardless. It's an androgynous scent, neither very masculine nor very feminine. There is an outdoor quality without any obvious wood or specific tree fragrance and there is a whiff of a fruity, slightly cake-y, sweetness that ghosts through from time to time. It is not possible to imagine this being a summer fragrance. The question put to me was: "How on earth do cold AND resins work together?" To this I can only respond that they are obviously rather perfect compliments of one another. Think of a snow covered pine tree (although I detect no pine in this mixture) or taking a steaming hot shower in a snow storm out of doors. Ice so cold that it is warm. It embodies the principle of opposites perfectly blended yet retaining their separate unique qualities for which there is no suitable english word so I must fall back into Sanskrit... this is the essence of Baraka.

fountaingirl has raved about Death of Autumn so much that I need to try that and see if I need more so it goes first. In the bottle, I'm not crazy about it. Wet, it smells like a pile of wet leaves... appropriate, I guess but maybe not the way I want to smell walking down the street. Hey.. wait a minute... somebody set fire to these leaves! There's smoke and it's warming up... not so cold and rainy. Dry: Yep, this is a lovely bonfire now... it's still wet leaves but crackling merrily with fire and just enough smoke. The night is still cold but the fire is lovely and warm. I do indeed need more!

Hum... this is nice. Wet: it's mostly warm but too well blended for me to pick out any notes. (I'm rotten at notes anyway) Dry: it's reminding me of Miskatonic University although maybe not quite so sweet and a little like Pinched with Four Aces. There's wood and leather and oldish paper and a little spicyness like someone has burned incense in here a long time ago. Maybe a little coffee. This is what I imagine the Restricted section of Hogwart's Library to smell like. Just for fun, I predict that this will be the popular one of the Haunted House series... and I think I want another bottle of this too! Edit: Oh noes! My skin eated it!! By the time I got home from taking the kids to school, I can't smell it. I can still tell I'm wearing a scent... but I can't smell much more than that. Which means that it either works really well on me and just smells like me only better... or it really does vanish in an hour.

Very refreshing! It's mostly citrus wet but the chocolate comes out in the dry down and the oakmoss is (I am guess) what grounds and balances it. If, like me, you've always been irritated that Delousing Powder only comes in imps, give this one a try. I know I should be reviewing October this morning but I needed a 'happy' scent... which this is.

This is a little better than Pumpkin Patch #1. It's turning off too sweet and a bit vanilla and inspite of how strongly it smells of pumpkin in the bottle, it doesn't come out on me.

This went straight to cherry cough syrup on me. Not terribly unpleasant cherry cough syrup but still... it's obviously not the pumpkin blend for me this year.

Oh my dear lord! Beth, you are a genius! I want to bathe in this, wash my sheets in this and spritz the ferret with this! This smells WONDERFUL!!! It's spicy and a little pine-y with just a touch of sweet. It's a walk on a perfect late October evening and being chilled thoroughly and then warming in front of the fire. This is the one I will be hoarding from this update, I am certain. I don't need more Death of Autumn or Bonfire Night now... I doubt I would wear them when I could be wearing October instead. This is what I always wanted Samhain to be... the very scent of fall. (Oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow... excuse me now while I inhale my wrist...) Edit:Great news! The not-the-boyfriend likes it too! The first bpal he has actually sniffed and said "What are you wearing? You smell good!"

I thought I had already reviewed The Queen's Salon! This is beautiful... it is more traditionally perfume-y than other bpals I have sniffed but Beth in her genius makes it work. There is something that is effervescent, like champagne, that makes me think of the very best of the old french perfumes and the light, white roses. The most amazing thing is that the effervesence lasts... it doesn't fade of in the dry down. I don't get any aquatic notes which is a good thing since they go right off on me. This is a light scent but very lasting. I can still smell it after several hours and most bpals disappear much faster than that on me, especially the light ones. The Queen's Salon made it to my top 10 in record-breaking time!

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! It's like Gypsy Queen's older, moodier, wiser and more mysterious sister. I'm no good at notes but plenty of people before me have listed lots of them. Madame Moriarty is one of my go-to oils... if I feel like I'm facing a day I just can't face... Mme Mo. If I have a hot date... Mme Mo. If I'm blue... Mme Mo. If I wake up feeling kittenish and cheerful... Mme Mo. If I ever conquor the world... I'll be wearing Mme Mo when I do it. It's one of the few that that I smell in my head even when I'm not wearing it. Of course it's in my top 10 and I'll be hoarding bottles until I die. After that you can give my remaining stash to the deserving poor... after you scent me one more good time! (Can't let angels smell better than me, after all... what a way to start an after-life.)

Voodoo Queen: (Yes, there was enough to test!!! Yay! Thank you growwild... you're awesome, girl!) My first impression is rich... dark and spicy. I'm getting notes of clove and cinnamon with a tiny touch of a citrus and either night blooming jasmine or magnolia. There's something darker here too. Not a musk... maybe a black amber or a myrrh? Resinous, whatever it is! It goes a little powdery on me on drydown. Not enough to spoil it and it fades far too quickly for my tastes! I want that Queen to hang around a lot longer! As it's fading I get a hint of watery wood... like a wharf... very faintly in the background. The comparisons to Gypsy Queen are accurate... there are differences but Gypsy Queen stays darker and smokier on me longer although it doesn't start out that way.