ImperatrixMundi

It is a bromeliad, Tillandsia usneoides. Ha! That explains why the oakmoss I had at home never smelled of anything, I kept sniffing it in desperation but no blossoms... The glasshouses of my university are full of it and the gardener there hands some out, alas it did not survive in my apartment

Urd, I absolutely have to second this, and Nephilim: Holy frankincense and hyssop in union with earthy fig, defiled by black patchouli and vetiver, with a chaotic infusion of lavender, cardamom, tamarind, rosemary, oakmoss and cypress. Smells very woody and figgy in the beginning but then the patchouli comes out and drags it through the mud

Hmmm... Still undecided about the Madame. The red musk is the essence of a heady, "perfume-y" smell for me and not so much a typical musk smell. It starts out as red musk and plum/pomegranate but the fruit sit down after some minutes and vanilla comes and rounds the blend out and sweetens it up. The vanilla is very strong and almost buttery sweet. The patchouli is definitely in there all the time but it always takes some time to come to the front on my skin, usually later and as a dark, somewhat dirty and sharp note. The patchouli actually keeps this perfume from smelling too edible with all the fruit and vanilla and adds some mystery. This has enormous throw and lasts a good time. Unusual, but not a whow-effect. It is not something I can see myself wearing during the day, it is just too strong and heavy for a day scent because of the red musk. But I have a nagging feeling that I will like it a lot more the next time I try it on because I will know what to expect.

Starts out as sharp lavender, then anise takes over, with a sort of liquorice scent. The anise fades fast and a faintly sweet herbal smell remains. Overall it is not bad but very herbal. I would keep it if my boyfriend would not hate anise with a vengeance and not touch me for a week if he smells it on me. Duh.

Rewiev 432 Anyone still reading? As this is one of those extremely popular blends my expectations were built up very very high. It was not a disappointment but I cant say it really blew me away. People interpret it in very different ways but to me it is sugary, flowery marzipan. Not green at all and no coconut suntan lotion either. It is sweet but not cold at all. The coldness is what I miss and would have liked to get from this, if it would smell exactly the same but with added icyness. But the way it is it smells seamlessly sweet and complex, somewhere on the verge between foody and artificial. More like than love, but still very nice. Long lasting, and it has A LOT of throw, unexpectedly. So as BPAL legends go, you should give it a try once.

From the moment of reading the descrition for the first time I was set on buying a bottle. This has turned out to be somewhat different than expected, it is not half as cold as I would have wished. A very clear and piercing ozone scent. If you are wary of ozone, this is not nose-burning and does not smell of laundry detergent or commercial perfume. Unfortunately it is not that cold smelling to me. After some time something beneath the crisp ozone turns very sweet and powdery, like some sort of musk. I am not familiar with all the BPAL musk notes so I cant tell what that really is. There might be something white and floral in there as well but I cant tell either, to be honest. This review is probably not the most helpful ever written, sorry. This is a clear and delicate scent and might be best worn in the dead of winter. When I walked into a store yesterday and got very warm in my jacket it started to smell a bit wrong in the warmth, like the delicate scent was degrading rapidly in the heat. Other than that it lasts for a long time but becomes sweeter, the supposed musk note in there smelling more and more like perfume-y powdered sugar. It might be worth trying in a locket because in the evening it was gone from my skin but the plastic band of my wristwatch still smells of it strong and in a nice way this morning.

La Befana has violets?? I so should have tried it while it was available But on the upside, I tried The Raven yesterday and it is violet I would recommend it to anyone who can do the black musk, it is mainly black musk with a very rich violet note on top. Wings of Azrael, Bluebeard and Ultraviolet are favourites too. I got an older imp of Bluebeard in a swap and the vetiver seems to have aged away a bit, so after the lavender fades away it is mainly violet and white musk, which I love. Ultraviolet dries down to a light and sweet violet note that stays very long, that is the purest violet blend in my opinion, at least after the mint has faded away. Wings of Azrael is complex and lovely, woody evergreen notes with violet. Saturnalia, Le Serpent qui danse, Veil, Sybaris, Faustus, Fallen and Purple Phoenix either did not work for me or I did not get a lot of violet from them.

A classical, smooth and quite masculine cologne. A lot of citrus, with an herbal edge. The ginger and especially the nutmeg are on top, giving the blend a surprisingly warm and spicy quality. Quite sweet immediately after application but after some time the citrus fades and the blend takes a more masculine turn. This is on the more masculine side of unisex but I can pull it off and it is much nicer than any commercial typically masculine perfume I have smelled.

This is one for lovers of light musks and creamy white scents that are not foody. Wet: There definitely is a note that reminds of a clean and fresh but light cologne. It might be the musk note, that always takes a few minutes on skin to develop into the characteristic sweet muskyness (sp?). The first time I tried I used very little and smelled nothing at all until it had dried. Dry: Yum. I have no idea what aloe ferox smells like but I definitely smell a very light vanilla that is not foody at all and the papyrus note, that can be found as paper in other blends, over a base of light musks. The sandalwood does not jump out but must be in there too. Very clean smelling in the beginning (clean skin, not laundry detergent, fortunately) but becomes sweeter and more musky with time. After a very lovely stage it begins to smell a little sharp through the sweetness as my skin does away with it. The throw is very little, I needed to slather it on like nothing else, but then I kept getting whiffs of it all day from behind my ears and my hair, it did stay well from early afternoon to late evening. If you like white musk you should give it a try, it is not exactly white musk but a very white and luminous scent with a lot of light musk.

Lab Frimp, but always one I wanted to try. For the first 20 minutes I could smell all the stuff listed in the description, it was amazing. It starts with spicy mulled wine, then woods and evergreens come out and I can smell the leather and even a very metallic note in the background, like rubbing a coin and sniffing my hand afterwards. Musk and dragons blood must be there too but I cant separate them like the other components. This stage is impressive and evocative but unfortunately not very stable. After too little time this turns into something that smells like tonka bean. I like tonka but this is not supposed to be it. Maybe I have better luck an other day with diferent chemistry. But this really makes me wish I had a locket to try it out in.

Lovely. This morphs from a very bright, clean and sharp floral that almost has an ozone tang to a very creamy and light musk with a breath of clean florals. Very pretty and wearable, but could have a little more throw, I have to sniff closely to this.

Lab frimp, fom my wishlist! This is interesting but different than I imagined. After previous bad experiences with milk or cream and honey notes I was suspicious of this. However, the milk note behaves and this is a lot better than Milk Moon, at least there are no fruit. I dabbed some on my skin and on a bit of cotton wool to see what difference my chemistry makes. On the cotton wool I get a lot of the "clean linen" part and the blend is more subtle, less sweet and a bit more peppery. My skin amps the sweet honey note and the milk is a bit more creamy but thankfully no rotten milk. The sweetness drowns out the clean linen thing. On the whole I was hoping for more tea, pepper and ginger and less sweetness. Considering that I normally hate sweet scents this is a pleasant exception.

This reminds me of the Pumpkins, just because it smells so buttery. Almonds, fruit, spices and buttery, sugary baked cake. I love the smell but really can not bear wearing it and smelling so sweet. But I might still keep it to sniff. They really should do Fruitcake candles, it would be lovely. And they could get rich

What to say? Smut with chocolate and dark grapes is the nice part of this blend. I suppose nicotiana means tobacco? Because there comes the bad part: underneath all the other notes I sometimes get a whiff of cold cigarette ash. I also hope mine improves with age, because everything else about this blend is quite nice. Not a number one favourite but very rounded, dark and sexy, definitely not a daytime scent. Update: Tried it out in a locket two months later. It smells smoother than before, the notes blend into each other a bit better. No cigarette ash. I think my skin was to blame... Good thing I kept it after all

I so agree with this review, except that I dont get so much ginger. This does not work at all. It sounded so lovely and smells great in the vial but all I get on my skin is the unpleasant sharp and sour smell of fruit notes gone wrong, almost all of them do that to me. Good bye Tamamo, you will be swapped.

Wet and in the bottle the scent is a bit sharp and almost lemony, I need to put it on and wait a few minutes for the notes to blend on my skin. It dries down to a very dry and musky scent, but surprisingly not powdery at all. It is light, sweet, soft and very dry. A clean scent somehow too. It reminded me of Dance of Death, both perfumes have a dry, a resinous and a musky component (DoD has orris, myrrh and dark musk plus patchouli which I can not smell at all in my old bottle). But this is a lot muskier and less resinous on me and has very little throw. Which is the only downside, actually. I can barely smell it when I am wearing it and need to sniff very closely. I reach for this when I want something warm and comforting that stays close to my skin.

Friendly, charming, and cuddly, but possessing one hell of a mean streak: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and cistus. Wet: cocoa and a sharp herbal undertone Drydown: The herbal undertone fades a lot and the vanilla sweetens the blend up considerably. Later this gets extremely musky on me. Ends up as herbal, very musky cocoa. I like it but I dont want to wear it, it is just not me. Surprisingly this is more of a male scent for me, have to see if my other half likes it.

Where is the patchouli??? What the hell?? This smells almost exactly like Zephyr on me. Creamy citrus and vanilla, a bit less musky and more plastic-y. If I want that type of smell Zephyr is much nicer, I wanted this to be something totally different.

Yum! Dark and languid, huh? A sweet cherry and almond scent is not what I would have thought of. This smells like almond and cherry over a base of incense. Lovely, but the cherry fades very very quickly.

This may not be the violet holy grail I was looking for but it is fascinating. After the initial blast of mint and eucalyptus the violet comes to the front. After a few minutes this does not really smell of mint and ozone but the cold and electrified effect of those notes stays and blends with the violet. It is beautiful but cold and metallic and not a sexy scent. If any of you has watched the Anime Ghost in the Shell, this is what I would imagine Major Motoko Kusanagi to smell like. A cyborg with violet hair, beautiful but with the coldest behaviour. As electrifying, mechanized and chilly as it gets. I love it.

This sums it up exactly for me. This is not Cthulhu. It is CLEANTHULHU! Aaaarg, the Elder Gods will wake and wash your mouth with soap!

Exactly my thoughts as well! Some time ago I had a bottle of some strange red chinese oil that was meant to be good for aching muscles. I dont want to know what else was in there because it worked all too well but the smell was exactly the same, some sort of really dry and woody wintergreen. That changes quickly, only a few minutes later a light and sweet floral note started to overlay the wintergreen and for a few minutes this was really interesting and nice. After a few more minutes both notes started to morph into a nondescript sweet and plasticky scent. Which is a pity because the floral phase was really something different. Maybe there are a few people out there who have the right chemistry for this but this is not for me.

The first scent containing ylang ylang that turns out really nice as it morphs quite a lot! First impression wet on skin was almost pure ylang ylang, then something almost lemony sharp comes through which must be the myrrh. The myrrh always becomes very very sweet on me after a short time and as the ylang becomes less dominant, sweet cloves peeks around the corner. The patchouli takes a while to come out but after about an hour this is a very rounded sweet blend, warm and a bit spicy with the red patchouli in the background. After a few more hours it has pretty much faded and only a faint sweet and somehow musky scent remains but maybe I need to put on a bit more. The red patchouli never became as dominant and almost mouldy smelling as the black patchouli note can go. So I guess if you are not sure if you like patchouli and you want to try something with patchouli in it this could be a good one to try.

I love it too! Such a weird addictive scent, must sniff my pot now! Getting orris and vanilla, mostly. Lots of people say it is a citrus smell but I never get any of the neroli and mandarin that is supposed to be in there. Any suggestions?

Turbo Bubbles was disconned a while ago and not that easy to find these days methinks *sobs* I love it so much. I think Silky Underwear also has the same scent. To me 17 Cherry Tree Lane doesn't smell like Skin Sin at all which is a good thing for me as I can't stand the scent of the soap! Skin Sin is now a discon though. Anyhoo, Sakura is supposed to have the exact same scent and that's still available everywhere Sorry for the late answer... I guess I can use Silky Underwear but hardly ever use dusting powder and can not use any bath products. (Our flat does not have a bath tub but I guess that saves me a lot of money, if I would go buying Lush bath stuff on top of everything else I would be permanently broke.) This year with Lush has been frustrating, they disconned 80% of the stuff I like. More money for BPAL, at least the Lab does not break my heart all the time