ImperatrixMundi

The fear of Halloween. Menacing Haitian vetiver, patchouli, and clove with a shock of bourbon geranium, grim oakmoss, and dread-inspiring balsams pierce the innocuous scent of autumn leaves. WHERE IS MY VETIVER??? Ahem. Sorry. I love vetiver but no, of all people, this does not give me a lot of vetiver at all. It smells like clove cigarettes when you open a fresh pack and something appely-sweetish. The vetiver is there too, but not as strong and prominent as I would have believed from other reviews. Clove and geranium have usurped the throne. It is dark, yes but not as dread and deep and bitter as I had hoped at all. All in all it is a strong blend, dark and rather warm, suitable for cold weather. Quite gothy as well.

Whoa! Bubblegum-like sweeeet grape with Nag Champa, the patchouli comes out when it dries. A bit weird but I love it. It stays fruity Champa for a while and is really strong. I can smell it on myself the whole day. Btw dont slather, this blend is incredibly strong! I also love patchouli and like when it starts to come out. However, the first time I wore it I put it on in the morning and when I was sitting in the car with my sister in the late afternoon she started going: "Somethig smells like mothballs" - "Maybe, I dunno" "It really smells like mothballs!" - "Probably" "Is that you???" -"I dont know, could be." "What is it, is it your jacket?" -"I dont think so" "What is it then? Your pullover?" -"Erm, no, I dont think so." "So what?" -"Erm, I guess it could be my parfume, erm, that's patchouli, you know?" "Really? That's awful, it smells like mothballs!" You can tell she's one of natures diplomats, can't you? Whatever, I like my mothball perfume!

Have you tried Bon Vivant? Smells like Rock Star without Vanilla to me and I equally hate both because both turn to a vomit-like sour smell on me. But that would still need a rather plain vanilla note to layer with it. Don't know how I missed this post! Let's see, I have tried layering Bon Vivant with...I think it was Underpants, but it's not quite the same. Bon Vivant's fizzy champagne note is very apparent to me. I have found more recently that this year's Hunter Moon smells very much like Rock Star in the early wet stage. It's also fizzy, but not at all champagne-y, more like a fizzy candy or soda, so that's a perfect match for Rock Star. Of course, it doesn't keep smelling like that, but I enjoy it while it lasts, and the later stages are delicious in other ways. Heh... I guess it was still worth a try I so wish anything like that would ever smell nice on me, I like champagne notes but the strawberry must hate me. They have disconned Alkmaar and 17th Cherry Tree Lane now. Can anyone help me cope with the loss?

How about Asp Viper? I love it, it is very cyanide at first but dries down to juicy almond cookies (not the dry amaretti ones you always get, but like a different kind of almond cookies I used to eat when I was on holiday in Italy). Queen of Sheba comes close to it at first but then goes so dry and powdery and weak, I liked the Asp Viper a lot better.

A new winner in the Tramp-smell-alike-contest, at least for me. Scarecrow! It smells like a mix of Tramp and Goth Juice to me. Omen is not exactly the same as Goth Juice but they go together well, my boyfriend likes Omen a lot and uses Goth Juice on his hair. A lot of Oakmoss!

Yummy. The kind of sweet and foody blend that I can actually pull off, although the honey gets a bit strong. This might be comparable to Asp Viper but where the Asp is a more juicy smell with a very strong cyanide-like almond that mellows to a cake-like scent this is more dry and spicy. At first I almost thought there was a bit of rose in it too but heh, no, that was just my weird nose. On the whole I like it but as others have mentioned, it fades a bit too fast and has little throw.

That was definitely weird. The first time I put it on I could not tell what this really smells like, somehow I did not think it smells like smoke. Until the day my parents had a fire burning for the heating the first time this year and everything was reeking of smoke. I was standing in the room where my mom does the laundry and kept sniffing. Yep. Laundry detergent and smoke, that is Djinn for me.

A very refreshing orange and mango scent, the sandalwood and white musk are not very prominent on me but round it out a bit. It reminds me a lot of the fruity tea smell that I get when I walk into a certain tea shop here, but a lot more pleasant and this is one of the very few fruity blends I really love. Unfortunately this fades extremely fast, like after an hour. But it might make a great refreshing spray for next summer when it gets really hot.

Coral snake! I thought this would be a tropical floral/fruity scent but it is not at all like that for me. At first I get juicy fresh apples and then it becomes sweeter, like spicy baked apples. It makes me think of summer passing into fall, with fresh ripe apples and when it gets a little colder we get apple strudel with cinnamon and vanilla. Yum.

ok, ok, I give in. Another thing to add to the wishlist. Evil enabler indeed.

Whow, this turns out very different on everyone. On me this goes sharply fruity and rather sweet with some cypress in the background and no patchouli and ginger at all. Some people might like it this way around but I was hoping for something like cypress and tonka with a bit of patchouli and ginger and just a hint of figgy fruitiness. Wishful thinking.

Oh, I never tried Smut, I'm too new to have bought it then and I am not likely to get some I guess. But sugar and booze? No I think I'd rather live without it and get me some Library.

I got an imp of Bluebeard in a swap that still has the old phoenix design on the label, so it must be well aged by now. When it dries and the lavender is gone this is the white musk and violet blend I always wanted. Musky goodness. But the bpal musk is so different to the synthetic musk you get from other companies. At first I missed the sharp tang that it usually has but now I have started to dislike that synthetic musk smell. I just wonder what is in those musk notes since it is not real musk either. Added pheromones? It makes me have naughty thoughts about men smelling like that... Now I am desperate to try more blends where the musk ís very prominent and not just a base note. Lurid Library is calling to me...

This is so true. Bluebeard is sharp and bitter at first, then it mellows a lot but somehow it remains a very malicious and menacing scent.

Hello Lupele! We seem to have some similiar tastes - I get the same thing with rose and dont like fruity and gourmand vanilla stuff. Bubblegum smells are not for me either. I am still looking for the perfect dark and mysterious and patchouli blends. Dance of Death is very nice, it has a very smooth and deep quality that I like but is not in your face patchouli. Oblivion is really dark but was a bit too heavy and opressive to wear. Czernobog is creepy but does not work with a lot of peoples skin chemistry. At first I thought everything BPAL makes is dark and gothic and so on but whow, I went wrong there! Most of the other stuff I tried was not so dark after all. My present hope are the Halloween scents, but I still have to try them.

Firstly, thanks to xiangshui for the imp! Wet in the imp and on the skin: a salty mixture of rose and incense, with a strange hollowness that is hard to describe. Dry: I amp rose, so this becomes a hight pitched, salty and slightly sharp white rose with a hint of incense. The strange hollow feeling is still there. When inhaling I first smell the sharp and salty rose and then just a whiff of the incense. It is like there is something else supposed to be where the whiff of incense is, something that is missing from the blend that would round it out. Like the part that is suddenly missing from your life when you attend a funeral and realize someone is gone. I hardly ever get such strong impressions from a blend, but this is one of those where I seem to get the smell that this was intended to be. Nothing I would wear on a daily basis. Unfortunately this falls to pieces on my skin, like most roses do it goes powdery and soapy. No. Suddely it is back sharp and salty? Weird. Nose getting tired.

Oblivion becomes way too sweet on me. A sort of heavy and medicinal sweetness. Scents with Black/Dark Musk often go sweet on my skin too. Blends that did not do it: Lightning - very fresh, it's mostly citrus with a sharp ozone note to me and not sweet at all. Arcana - lemon verbena and incense. Highwayman - if you can get away with rose and jasmine. Catherine - rosmary and rose Bess - more rose, but lemony, not sweet Sloth - Myrrh Tum - smells like fruit tea to me Whow... The rest of the ~60 Blends I tried are sweet in one or the other way.

How is Spanish Moss different from Oakmoss in smell? I've never smelled it. Before BPAL I never even knew it had any smell. See how educative BPAL is?

Huh? When wet this smells like mint and pine with something sweet. A really nice smell. As it dries it starts to smell of berries. Berries are all that is left after half an hour. After four hours only a whiff of something sweet is left. This breaks my heart. At first I blamed it on my skin, but after reading the reviews and dabbing it on a piece of cotton wool with the same result I have to admit defeat.

Get well soon too! Thank you for all those nice suggestionsI I even like that kind of scent when my nose is ok, I will try some of them for the next cold. Maybe we get something nice like that for Yule? That is sneeze attack time.

Hehe... They seem to be attracted to foody stuff... There is a saying in German: "Liebe geht durch den Magen." I dont know if there is an english equivalent, is goes somewhat like "Love goes through the stomach." That might be truer than I thought.

This was a must try for me, I like all the notes, vetivert included! In the vial this smells extremely bitter, something medicinal overlaid by a very bitter lavender and a hint of vetivert. As it dries down the lavender fades very quickly on my skin and this mellows a lot. The violet comes out, not a deep purple violet, it is greyish and subdued by the white musk and vetivert. I love violet, but in commercial perfumes all you ever get that is not single note violet is a happy springtime floral with a violet topnote. This is very different indeed and I thank The Lab for making this! It really becomes a very malicious blend, the scent of cold rage. An evil violet and white musk blend, who thought someone would ever make something like this? What I like about this blend is that it is so unsettling, bordering on the unpleasant. It says stay away, somehow, especially on a woman, because of that masculine touch it has. It is a difficult blend but I love it.

Ah, thank you... I hope my cold wont last long enough for me to order any of those! I guess the Panacea Oof is something like that... It is described as Vick Vaporub in the reviews, just thought of checking that out now

Sniffle sniffle.... I'd just love to have a strong eucalyptus, pine, tea tree and mint oil with a warm and soft background, something to clear your nose and wrap you in a fluffy blanket at the same time... maybe with some warm spices in the background. This would take your skin off though. Does anything like that exist at all or what are the blends with eucalyptus in like?

Hmmm.... Juke Joint? I never would have thought of that... I wanted to order one Carnaval Diabolique scent with my next order, either Genniver or Theodosius. You just tipped the vote in favour of Theodosius. If he does not like it I can still try it for myself. Or Doc Constantine? Or rather something else for me? So I can smell sexy too? Damn...