n3m3sis42

Why is this almost completely floral on me?!!! I don't get it. Edited to add: I take it back. I was impatient and didn't wait long enough for it to dry down, apparently. I definitely see why people are comparing this blend to Glowing Vulva. On me, this is a lot more resinous and sort of... deeper than GV. I like.

In the bottle: Dandelions? Some kind of green, wild floral. Wet: Dandelions or something else weedy and floral. Drydown: I guess I'm smelling rose mingled with honeysuckle and carnation, and that's what my nose took for dandelions? I don't know. I'm not too good at distinguishing florals as there are only a few I like. So far, this is one of them. This smells very fresh and springlike. I'm hoping that age has brought out the vanilla amber, because that would be yummy. We'll see as it dries. Dry: I do smell the amber on the drydown, but rather than being in your face it just smooths out the floral notes and makes the whole blend creamier. Love this, and it's going to be an awesome springtime fragrance for me. Here in Georgia, I guess that means I'll be wearing it tomorrow.

In the bottle: Men's aftershave (think Aqua Velva) with maybe a hint of tea. Huh. Wet: Lemon and tea. We'll see how long that lasts on my skin. Drydown: Tea with a hint of lemon. When I first purchased this bottle years ago (like in 2007 or 2008), I remember the tea note disappearing after a while. We'll see what happens now. Dry: Meh. This seems like it would be very nice on me if it weren't so faint. It's a creamy vanilla tea smell, but it's barely there. Probably going to send it off to the swap bucket for someone else to love.

I had my doubts about this blend during the first 20 minutes or so. When I first put it on, it smelled creamy and almost fruity. I assume that fruitiness was the grapefruit, a note that never lasts on my skin and was never seen again in this blend after the first few minutes. What made me question whether this would work was the HOLY FLORALS! aspect of it during the initial drydown period. I seem to be not alone in this, but I think that gardenia often does not work for me. However, in this blend, it seems to anchor the vanillas for me, preventing my skin from sucking them up and making them disappear. After the drydown, I get a beautiful and multidimensional vanilla melody with a musky/floral bassline. Very nice, and I think this bottle is a keeper.

In the imp: Cake! Cake-ity cake cake. However, I know the cake is a lie because my skin always destroys cake scents. Wet: Something thick, gooey and buttery. Drydown: As this begins to dry down, I'm smelling something a little more like cornbread than cake. Hmmmm, or maybe it's waffles. Dry: This dries down sweet and foody but not necessarily cakey. I don't smell any of the currant. This might actually work on me. There's a first time for everything.

In the bottle: Whoa! Dirty hippie, for sure. I'm smelling something earthy and strongly woodlike. Wet: Mossy, dirty, pencils. Bleh. Drydown: As this starts to dry down, the wood calms down a little bit, and I am catching hints of cocoa and... Pine Sol? It's not really a Pine Sol smell, but that's what my brain wants to say it is. Despite that fact, it's not wholly unpleasant so we'll see what happens. Further into the drydown, the woodiness re-emerges, but this time it's more cedar than pencils. Dry: Hmmm, still getting dirty, woody hippie. I'll hold onto this one and see how it ages.

In the bottle: Florals with something heavily creamy. Wet: This smells almost sour when I put it on, but quickly changes to a creamy floral. Drydown: The floral I am getting is not carnation. It is way more, um, floral than that. Sorry, but I really don't like most florals and I'm not good at differentiating them. Dry: This is generic floral with a hint of ozone on me. God's judgment apparently says that this blend needs to go to the swap box. Oh well.

In the bottle: Light carnation and a bit of cream. Wet: Carnation with a slightly "off" note... maybe the metallic note another reviewer mentioned? Drydown: The "off" note is dissipating as it dries down, but I was really expecting more carnation from this. I don't know what I am smelling, but so far it is not love. Dry: This dries down very faint and creamy on me. It's a faint, creamy amber scent with almost no carnation at all. It's already fairly aged, but maybe I'll hold onto it for a while longer anyway just to see what happens. However, I foresee a future in my swap bucket for this one.

In the bottle: It smells like a lighter, younger version of Mme Moriarty. Wet: Hmmmm. Coconut and something mildly fruity? There is something spicy and a bit musky underneath that reminds me of Mme Moriarty. I can also smell a bit of incense and I am hoping it will behave and not go all "generic headshop" on me like Midnight on the Midway and some of the other incense blends. Drydown: As this dries down, I am getting mostly incense. Not really what I was hoping for. Dry: Incense with a hint of "pink". Meh. Not for me, and off to the swap bucket you go.

They consulted their village priest, and the result was that Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house–my more than sister–the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures. Beautiful and adored: rose musk, white gardenia, English pear, vanilla bean, red currant, and honey. In the bottle: Pear! I love pear notes, so this is a good thing. Wet: Pear and florals. This quickly becomes mostly floral on me, which is generally a not-so-good thing. I love rose and carnation, but beyond that I'm not much of a florals girl. Drydown: As it's drying down, it goes "WHOA, FLORAL!" on me. I'm guessing that's the gardenia, because I know what rose smells like and this ain't it. Dry: Dry, this isn't offensively floral, but I was hoping for a little more pear, musk, and creamy rose from this blend. As it is, I'm smelling a bit of pear, something sweet and creamy, and then a lot of gardenia. I'm going to hold onto this in the hope that it smooths out with age, but if it doesn't, I think it's a no for me. Edited to add description.

In the bottle: Cream and something fruity Wet: I'm mostly smelling cream and oranges with a hint of something softly floral. Orangey notes never seem to last on me, so we'll see what this dries down to. Drydown: As this starts drying down a bit, the orange fades mostly into the background, as I expected it would. I'm left with something sweet, creamy, and vaguely floral, with just a hint of citrus. Dry: This is sweetly creamy and floral, but very faint on drydown. I'll give this another try with full-on slathering before I decide whether or not to swap it away.

In the decant: Sweet, boozy vanilla with an unusual depth to it. Wet: Ohhhhh. This is what I wanted Love's Philosophy to be. It's a rarity for me to apply any vanilla blend without it going to plastic doll heads in half a second. This doesn't. It remains sweet (but not cloying), and I'm getting the cotton note that some other reviewers have mentioned. I'm really hoping this continues to work on me as it dries down, even though that would mean having to hunt down a bottle. Drydown: This is the best throw any vanilla blend has ever had on me. I'm still getting a cottony note. I think I am falling in love. Celeste, please, please work on me. I will follow you to the ends of the earth. Dry: This dries down really nicely on me. It's a vanilla that is not necessarily foody, anchored by that cotton note. I think I am going to need a bottle. ETA: WTF, body chemistry? After about two hours of wear, this smells just like the original Lick It on me. How is that even possible? Oh, well. I guess that's one more LE bottle I won't need to search for.

Dammit! Yet another beautiful and sought-after blend that my body chemistry completely ruins. I really wanted this one to work on me, but my skin makes this disappear almost entirely. What is left is a weak combination of generic men's aftershave and soft vanilla.

My son seriously eats like ten foods total on a regular basis: plain yogurt, bananas, cheese, bread, English muffins, bagels, pizza, pasta (if it has cheese and tomato sauce), tomato slices, and red grapes. We have offered him a ton of other things and those are basically all he will eat. Oh, he will eat Cheerios and those yogurt melt thingies too. He will not eat real food. Our pediatrician told us at his 9 month appointment that he was "a little young to be a picky eater". I was like, "Oh, okay... I'll let him know that, then." :-P /threadjack

In the imp: Cookies and wood? Cookies and Pine-Sol? My nose must be broken. Wet: Mostly wood, maybe like gingersnaps made from pencil shavings instead of flour. Nose definitely broken. Drydown: Wood note seems to have disappeared now, which is good since I don't think it was supposed to be there in the first place. Now I'm starting to see why people describe this blend as "evil gingersnaps". On me, it's understated but nice. I'll use up the imp. Jury is still out on whether it's bottle-worthy on me.

This is the '09 version. At first, when I applied this, it smelled similar to the other "pink" blends I've tried (Pink Phoenix, Pink Moon, etc). This is a good thing, because the "pink" stuff usually works on me. Then it started smelling an awful lot like Snow White. This is NOT such a good thing, because Snow White and I are not friends. On me, Snow White is fake "tropical breeze" air freshener and plastic doll heads. Wet, so is Pink Snowballs. This is not what I expected at all. :\ Alas, dried down, it is still much the same. Icky Snow White with a hint of weak rose. Well, at least that's one less LE I'll need to hoard.

I have had this bottle since 2008 when I ordered it along with the beautiful chapbook. I was so, so excited about this fragrance because I loved the story it's based on and I love apple scents. ...Then I got it and was bowled over by the "cold" notes in the blend. It was all snow and glass and no apples, and I was so disappointed. I thought about swapping the bottle away, but couldn't bring myself to do it. It sat on my shelf and I never so much as opened it again. Now I'm returning from a very long BPAL hiatus that involved getting off of birth control and having a baby. I'm retrying all of my smellies to see what works and what needs to go in the swap bucket. I don't know if it's that the oil has aged or if it's my change in body chemistry, but this is amazing on me now. It doesn't morph much from the time I put it on. It's an incredibly beautiful apple, cold and not really foody. Finally, sexy vampire apples can be mine, too! So glad I didn't swap this one. EDITED TO ADD: The throw on this is great while it lasts, but it fades to almost nothing in 2 or 3 hours. Still, it's so lovely while it lasts. Maybe I'll just keep re-applying.

I so wanted to love this, but on me it fades to nothing but a pencil-y wood note after it dries down. I guess it's off to the swap piles with this one. I'm a little heartbroken. :\

Ugh, I had the food aversions, too, although they were mostly related to smell and appearance (stuff that I managed to get in my mouth usually tasted okay). The worst part was during my first trimester when the smell of ANY food cooking would make me sick. My husband had to cook when I wasn't home. :\ I also got nauseated by even seeing some food on TV. I watch Top Chef and its spinoffs, and I couldn't stand looking at any "beige" food, which was my classification for anything that was too unicolor and light white, gray or brown. Ugh and double ugh. The first 12 or 13 weeks, I pretty much ate nothing but Goldfish crackers and Greek yogurt. Perhaps this is why my son seems to be a picky eater? ;-)

Sadly, this was all Lemon Pledge on me. My bottle is now in a nicely padded envelope to be sent to another forumite. Easy come, easy go.

Way back in 2007 when I ordered this, I was in love with the concept and so wanted it to work on me. However, I guess I had forgotten that I hate most aquatic notes. When I opened the bottle the first time, smelling it made me gag and I never even tried it on. It was my first unsniffed-bottle BPAL disappointment. I was heartbroken but couldn't bring myself to swap it away. Fast-forward to today. I've been culling the bottle herd pretty relentlessly, and I almost just tossed this one straight into my swap bucket. Instead, I tried it first, and I'm pretty glad I did. I don't even know WHAT this smells like on me, but it's pretty and much different from any other blends I own. It's sort of a soft-floral-slash-aquatic, and while I don't normally go for either florals OR aquatics, it works somehow. Huh.

*sigh* On me, this is the fakest, platicky-est, sweetest sugar ever. Wahhhhhh. I knew it would happen, but I just had to go and get a bottle anyway. Why do I do this to myself? My husband came home and told me I smelled good. Then he said it reminded him of this cotton-candy-flavored bubble gum we used to chew. I think my point here has been proven. It's just too sweet for me, but I'll probably hold onto it anyway for a while in the vain hope that it will magically work on me later. Hah.

This is really nice on me. My skin amps red musk like nobody's business, so that is the most prominent note I am getting. BUT! I can also smell the vanilla cream cotton, and the amazing part is that it's not going to plastic doll heads on me like a lot of vanilla and cream notes do on me. So on me, this blend is red musk, anchored by something (I think the tobacco) so that it's not totally out of control, with undertones of creamy vanilla cotton. I'm only getting the tiniest hints of the fruits in this, which is okay with me. I think this is slather-worthy. So glad I got a bottle!

I had such horrible smell aversions during pregnancy that I didn't even try getting back into BPAL until a week or so ago, and my son is turning 1 next week. Well, part of that was also due to my son totally flipping out the time I got a massage with EOs when he was 3 or 4 months old. I had to go shower off all of the oils because he was screaming his little head off. But during pregnancy I could not tolerate any perfumes. I'm still nursing a few times a day, but I'm okay on smells now for the most part. This is my first child, though. Happy birthday to your little one!

Hmmmm... I knew it was a bad sign when something smelled "off" about it even in the bottle. I bought it straight from the Lab and have cared for it properly ever since, so maybe my nose is broken? On me, it goes to plastic with a hint of mint and then fades away to nothing. Bah, how disappointing. Off to the swap bucket it goes!