Nehushtan

Suprisingly, Agnes didn't remind me of Djinn or Brimstone. It was the same type of scent, to be sure, but they don't smell alike. What Agnes reminded me of the most was Alternative Breeding's Under Western Stars. It has the same overpowering campfire smoke scent, not that I mind! The throw is tremendous-- a little goes a long, long, LONG way. The scent in the bottle and the scent initially applied to the skin are very similar. No surprises there-- it's all charred, smoky wood. After about twenty minutes, the smoke stops humping your leg long enough for you to catch the rest of the scent. Anything metallic or ozone-y tends to smell like Axe or Tag once it hits me and that's exactly what I got from the "rusty nails" bit of this oil. However, one of my friends has more fortunate chemistry and I thought it actually did smell metallic on her-- much like sucking on an old key. It had the same tang to it. It was so subtle it hardly mattered, though. So, Agnes smells like charred wood + metal if you're lucky, charred wood + Axe if you're me.

Samhain done me wrong. Again. I joined this board in the spring of 2004, so I had months to build up my longing for Samhain that year, having heard about the mythical, wonderful Samhain '03. It didn't work on me. Still, being of the hardheaded variety, I decided to go for Samhain '05. It sounds wonderful--smoky bonfires and mouldering leaves and crisp autumn air...I wasn't frightened away by mentions of patchouli and ultra-deep foresty scents, because those usually work on me. Et tu, Samhain '05? Syrupy, medicinal apples. I don't get the loamy, leafy tree smell that others are getting. I get a Hexennacht-y sweetness with an apple-y smell. Not a real apple, not tart, more of an apple-peel-potpourri smell. This scent does not make me feel like I'm in the middle of a fall forest, unless that forest is a friggin apple orchard.

Dead Man's Hand is one of my all-time favorite scents. As every other person has said, it smells like leather. I had given up on leather scents before I found this one; I was looking for natural leather, dusty and hot like a saddle, but all I could find was cold, cruel, unforgiving leather like De Sade. This scent reminds me of John Wayne and the trickster Coyote and jackrabbits and horses and skies so wide they induce agoraphobia. It's dusty and dirty and rough, but wise, too, and if it had eyes they would crinkle around they edges...right before they shot you. As the Duke says, "If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow." Dead Man's Hand gets me by all three. I'm in love.

That sounds lovely! Too bad it's not what I got from Kingsport. I had high hopes of this being an incredibly true-to-life scent. I really don't think that any scent is too numinous for the lab to pin down, since I've been shocked speechless by both Graveyard Dirt and Dead Man's Hand, and I was expecting to actually smell the salty seaweed tang of the cold dark depths, chilled by a fog so thick it could condense on your eyelashes. You know, Moby Dick and clam chowder and albatrosses and sea burials, sort of thing. Alas, twas not to be. Granted, my nose is not that sophisticated, but I've finally managed to pin down what Kingsport reminds me of: Softsoap Antibacterial. The clear one that tends to have little plastic fish cutouts floating inside the bottle to make it look like a fishtank. Amazingly, as this perfume sits on your skin, the scent actually grows stronger. I've been wearing it for about half an hour, and after a shy beginning wherein I was strongly reminded of Bounce dryer sheets, this tiny droplet of oil has increased tenfold in its intensity. As I was applying this, I expected to hate it. I was initially very disappointed. Now, though, I'm kind of coming to appreciate it for what it is; no, it doesn't smell like the ocean to me, but it smells CLEAN. Perhaps I'll keep the bottle for those days when I need to smell freshly-scrubbed--it certainly achieves that. ETA: *coff coff* No one needs to smell that clean. I ended up having to scrub it off. Off with ye, Kingsport, and trouble me no more!

Don't be sad, I didn't think Hexennacht was all that leafy, myself. Graveyard Dirt is very loamy, so in that sense is foresty, but not woody.

Kunstkammer is very fruit-punchy in the bottle. When I first took a whiff, I smelled orange juice with grenadine so strongly that it made my mouth water! After it hit my skin, a strawberry Hubba-Bubba note began to emerge; after twenty minutes, it has calmed down a bit and now reminds me, of all things, of flavored lip gloss. Sorry, Kunstkammer, but lip gloss just isn't my thing. I'm afraid this is one curiosity that isn't for my collection.

This DOES smell like a men's cologne, but I can't think of which one. A clean, crisp, light one, not a heavy one. I think it reminds me of something CK. I've had it on for about 20 minutes now, and I can kind of taste the metal on my tongue when I sniff it up close, but unfortunately the metal scent is overpowered by the men's cologne smell. I'll update later...hopefully the CK scent will subside and the metal will take the stage. I really want to like this! Edit: It's been about an hour since I first put this on. Man, all I did was dab from the cap but this scent is staying. It's much like it was earlier--CK Somethingorother with a slight metallic background. Sadly, my impulse is to jerk my head away whenever I get close because it smells strongly of Cocky Young Man--frat boy, as it's so succinctly stated below. I suffer all manner of abuse at the hands of the frat boy crowd for hours each day at a library, so I have a strong aversion to most mass-produced men's cologne. Alas, Bed of Nails is too much torture...I'm going to scrub it off.

I am not a floral person, oh no. Hell, I'm not even an herb person! Give me resins any day, I say. All the same, I was intrigued by the description of Silk Road and ordered a 5 mL unsniffed. This scent takes me back to my childhood, to murky impressions of outdoor bazaars full of coiled baskets and boxes of jewel-toned silk brocade sheath dresses. I would lift the lid of a basket and stick my head in, vaguely worried about snakes and snake charmers, and smell this smell. I would open nesting dolls, and this scent drifted out of each successively smaller doll. It was inside little bitty wooden boxes with flowered enamel covers and inside enormous brass-latched carved chests large enough to store a St. Bernard. Most of all, though, it permeated the clothing, exotic silk dresses and scarves, dyed vivid and garish and beautiful. Do you all know that scent? The dyed silk scent? This is it.

My new number one pick for a butch, yet not manly, scent is Dead Man's Hand. Oh, Dead Man's Hand, how I love thee...hell, I'm a chick and when I wear it, I want to do myself! It's butch but not manly, a la Xena, or maybe Gabrielle during her kick-ass short haired days. I'm getting some Bed of Nails to layer it with, in hopes of achieving that true sweaty Warrior Princess smell: leather armor, sword and chakram. Hiiiii-yi-yi-yi-yi!

I second Graveyard Dirt for earth. It's got the whole womb/tomb/cave vibe going on.

I come across as too butch to be femme, or too femme to be butch, or something. Anyway, my scent preferences also seem to straddle the line. (ha! straddle! sorry) My all-time favorite butch perfume is Hellfire. Some people might think it's manly, and maybe it is, but to me it's the olfactory equivalent of dressing up in a silk smoking jacket and not much else: A scent celebrating Sir Francis Dashwood's Order of the Knights of St. Francis of Wycombe, also known as the Hellfire Club. A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass. I think it says, "You, girl! Swoon into my arms!" Perversion's just too sweet for me.

Morocco was the first BPAL scent I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with. When I put it on, it doesn't smell so much like I'm wearing perfume as it does like my skin is made of crystallized honey and spice. This is what I would smell like if I was a djinn. Morocco is creamy and spicy and sweet, like bread pudding. The carnation note is especially interesting because my nose picks up the spice, not the floral, and it's absolutely wonderful how everything blends together. I can't pick out the vanilla if it's in there; it's as difficult to isolate different notes as it is to unravel the interwoven melodies of a symphony. When I wear this scent I feel exotic and irresistable, like a gypsy bellydancer who has been rolling around in a spice tent with her favorite lover, or like Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Loreena McKennitt has a song called Marrakesh Night Market--Morocco always puts me in mind of that song. This would be the daytime market, though, with the sun beating down on your hair and the smell of spices wafting up in the heat and dust. Gorgeous. Edit: I just read yeahbutnobut's post above about the famous night markets of Marrakech. Ha! I knew I was onto something...

First impression: This scent reminds me of my favorite herb shop. Wet: Orange blossom, tobacco, a little bit of clove and something green—mint or eucalyptus. Dracul is actually fairly medicinal smelling for a minute or two. After a few minutes, the scent begins to mellow and deepen into a dark musky spice. I can’t describe what it smells like, save that it makes me feel safe, like my father did when I was a very little girl and he would pick me up and carry me. Still, this isn’t necessarily a scent only for men—I think any dark, voluptuous, ass-kickin’ woman could pull it off—for which I am grateful, because I intend to bathe in it until my imp runs out. It is notable that this is the only BPAL scent my 10 year old daughter has liked so far, and she likes it so much she was begging for the imp. What starts out as an interesting assortment of smells melds into an amazing overall impression. I think Macha said it best: Dracul is a shining example of the alchemy that happens between the oil and the skin. I will definitely buy a bigger bottle of this.

One of my favorite things to do when it's cold and nasty outside is to snuggle up with a blanket and a book--I love fall and winter and anything else that makes me feel like a cozy hamster curled up in its afghan nest. Naturally, when I saw Hearth offered as a limited edition, I had to have it. Tobacco? Fireplace smoke? Leather? I couldn't wait! I should have waited. I hate it. This scent was so pungent in the bottle that I didn't even want to try it. It makes me think of sticky puddles of maple syrup left on week-old plates. I grabbed the bottle today, thinking it was Sudha Segara, and smeared some on my wrists. The effect was immediate--my brother wrinkled his nose and said, "ugh, what is THAT?" which happened to be what I was thinking. I can't tell exactly what Hearth smells like because its impression is so much bigger than its actual scent. I wore it for a few hours, hating it the entire time, and it never changed from its initial overwhelming almond-maple-syrup smell. Finally, with much joy, I scrubbed most of it off! Disclaimer: I hate nearly anything that smells like almond. It's not the scent, it's just the way it's absolutely revolting on me, so this may not be poor Hearth's fault. I like sweet scents, especially sweet/spicy, but I couldn't take it. This one is definitely going to be put up for sale or swap.

I recently received Gluttony as a freebie with one of my orders, and damn, am I glad I did! I never thought of myself as a foodie smell person, but my thought upon sniffing the imp was WHOA. The first wave of scent to hit reminded me of those sweet German roasted nuts, followed closely by whiffs of dark chocolate and gingerbread. Gluttony has good staying power, but I find that by itself, it's too cloying for me. I've taken to wearing it with Hellfire (new formulation), and I think the tobacco and leather notes set off the bitter dark chocolate/praline/gingerbread combination really well. Together they're dark, dark, dark, decadent and sophisticated, like Chocolat meets The Ninth Gate. I am definitely going to buy a bigger bottle of this one.