Fishwomon

I'm going as a fortune teller, and she smells like Scherezade layered over whatever Dia 2005 is left from the day.

You?

Wet, it smelled all soft and furry, evocative of a caterpillar yes.

Something green, something citrus, a complicated dancing scent.

A bit of smokey incense.

Aaaaaaaargh! The carnation, it's got me! It's risen out of the hookah and encircled me like a python. Can't...resist.... Too...weak.... Death...by...carnation....

Carnation took over and me. Drat.

'Twas very strong on me, and sweet, like green candy. I don't think I could smell linden flowers at all.

Swapped.

Delicious!

Out of the imp this is all leather and red musk. It's neither sweet or dry. I suspect the amber is grounding things here, but I don't smell amber per se.

If Fenris Wolf is Oz during the full moon, then Loviatar is Willow in her Doppelgangland leathers. And they are a sexy, hot pair.

Loooooove red musk.

The final drydown, after a few hours, is pure, warm amber on me, and it lasts and lasts on my skin.

But to get there.... I fear Haunted smells too much like an expensive, conventional perfume on me - not floral at all, but strong. When it's wet, I get the citrus that many other reviewers have mentioned. Then I get a strong, black scent that I think is the black musk, with golden amber beneath it. I think this phase is just too strong for me. Finally I get the rich amber layer, as if the musk has burned off.

I can imagine anointing black candles with this in ritual.

I just received an imp of 2004 and a bottle of 2005, so I get to test and review them both!!

2004

I was kicking myself for not getting a bottle of this when I read the reviews. But now that I'm wearing it, I don't think it works on me. I get dry chocolate as a top note and a drydown into a strong, dusty floral. I can't really differentiate notes; it's just a strong floral on me.

2005

I like this much better. It's a light floral, spicy and smokey, with a hint of sweetness that lingers. The dry leaves and tobacco are more suggestions that actual detectable smells. It does smell like an open-air autumn festival: dry leaves and a hint of mulled cider and marigold. It's a very well blended scent, so I have a hard time picking out particular notes. I just know that I really like it, and I may need to order a second bottle.

I don't get cocoa, or dust, or even vetiver. I get big, dark, aggressive flowers. There is no subtlety in this scent on me. It's like a dark red rose genie escaped from the imp, wafted up my nose, and is now strangling my brain.

I have a notation on my bpal spreadsheet: "No - too perfumey." I just get overwhelmed with dark florals and nothing else emerges. Alas, that's where Santa Muerte falls.

This might be the first of the Lab's jasmine scents that I've tried. It's good to know that jasmine does not hate me as it hates some others. I don't wear a lot of florals, but it's nice to know what works. "White" florals seem to work on me.

But enough about me. How do you like Santa Eularia on me?

I agree with the reviewer who compared this to something from L'Occitane. Wet, I smell very clean citrus, orange blossom, and herbs, probably lavender. Very clean. It smells like Zest soap, if Zest soap didn't smell all cheap and chemically. I wouldn't say that Santa Eularia is soapy, but it smells like soap. It's so clean! I think it would make a lovely spray for linens especially in summer (or in winter, when you long for summer).

The drydown brings the jasmine, I guess - a faint white floral - and perhaps a pale, white musk. I put this on before bed, and in the morning I woke to gently scented wrists, lovely.

It's not my style, being so pretty and clean, so I don't know if I'd get a big bottle. I'll enjoy the imp, though.

I got this in a swap from someone who knows my taste fairly well, and she was sure it would be too perfumey on me (I hate perfumey). But who doesn't want a bottle that says "Sacred Whore of Babylon" on their vanity? Is this what Inara would wear, Firefly/Serenity fans?

To my surprise, this isn't too perfumey on me, and I think I know why. For some reason, even though I tend not to like florals, I can do gardenia. It doesn't cloy on me; it just smells fresh and white and pretty. I really like Lady of Shalott, and the flowers in Sacred Whore remind me of her. Out of the bottle, Sacred Whore is pretty white flowers, not cloying, with a bit of spice.

In the drydown, the gardenia fades on me, and the vanilla comes forward. As a fan of Snake Oil and O, I love vanilla.

And yet...after an hour or two, I sniff my wrist and smell...toothpaste? Ack! It must be that the vanilla and cinammon have gone to toothpaste on my wrist. Drat.

I'm keeping the imp around to try a few more times before I decide whether to get a bottle.

Belladonna has a lovely green color in the vial. Wet, it's a bracing mix of eucalyptus and pine. The eucalyptus (which has also been described here as camphor) mellows quickly and the pine emerges, then turns sweet, almost like candy. The sweetness fades as the flowers come to the fore. After an hour on my skin Belladonna is a floral with just hints of pine and sweetness and the antiseptic whiff of menthol.

I like the pine, but the flowers turn too sweet on me. Not for me.

On me this smells like sweet berry candy, or sweet berry soap, or a sweet berry candle, sickly-sweet and hot pink.

Darn skin chemistry! I don't get dirt, dust, or wine at all.

I love the description of Wolfsbane and, having read the reviews, I was hoping for a green, woody scent. I received an imp in a swap.

In the vial, I smell a sharp herbiness and floral. But once Wolfsbane hits my skin, all I get is ROSES. Very pretty, very soft, very pink, very feminine, not remotely threatening, evil, or poisonous roses. Drat! I don't do roses.

I like incense and spice, and while those seems to be hanging out in the background of Lust, my overwhelming impression is one of strong, flowery perfume. I wish I could figure out which note it is that turns to such strong perfume to me. Is it the ylang-ylang? The red musk? (I love O and Snake Oil; Lust doesn't remind me of them at all.)

I like patchouli essential oil but don't have much experience with the Lab's patchouli. I don't really smell any patchouli in this blend, which is funny because it so many reviewers mention how strong it is.

At any rate, Lust is very strong and aggressively female (not feminine), but too perfumey for me.

I really like the idea of this oil - electricity! - but the reality on me isn't very good. This is a very watery scent on me, but it makes me think of water that's been tinted blue, like you might see in a fountain or (sorry) on a miniature golf course. This scent just smells very synthetic to me, a synthetic blue-green. I don't get any mint at all. It smells like men's cologne to me - like a marine men's cologne - but I really don't care for it. Off to swaps!

Jabberwocky is a lovely green-colored oil in the imp.

Wet, I get only eucalyptus, and it smells like Vicks Vapo-Rub. That gives way pretty quickly to a light orange scent, which gives way further to the lightest pine scent. Within an hour, the whole thing is gone.

Not to my taste.

Strong, sharp, and cloying. I want to figure out which notes ends up smelling like department store perfume on me. Is it the iris?

Nefertiti is strong and feminine and far too perfumey for me.

I smell the sweetness of the cherry in the bottle, but not so much on my skin. This is a very pretty, very feminine, fresh, clean floral. If you like that sort of thing, this is a good one to try. But it is far too feminine for my tastes.

Fantastic, Nattie! Thank you so much!

This was one of the first imps I ever received (I ordered it in my first order, I think), and oh, how I wanted to love it, since I love the name and the idea of "woodland witchcraft."

But all I get from Bewitched is the berries, none of the green musk or darkness. It turns sweeter on my skin and reminds of the fake-berry-sweetness of those sticky Bonne Bell roll-on lip glosses I had as a teenager.

Alas. I haven't tried any other berry scents, so it's possible they just don't work on me. Off to someone with better skin.

Whew - this is so strong and sharp out of the imp and while wet that I can't discern any particular notes. It smells like department-store perfume, which I don't like. After about an hour it settles down and becomes more floral - I suppose that's the jasmine emerging. Definitely not for me. Too, too strong.

This is the only Tarot oil I've had a chance to try, but since I love the tarot, I hope to try many more (gotta get me into one of those circular swaps). I have a nice tarted imp of this, and lately I've been wearing the scent to bed in my hair. It's strong, so just a drop works for me and seems not to overpower my bedmate.

White flowers with some spice. Quite lovely. This scent doesn't seem to change on me at all (when it's on my skin, I mean); it just grows fainter as the hours pass. The fragrance reminds me of a moonstone, too, that opaque, glossy white.

Smoke and candle wax. A room where candles have burned for years, the wax scraped from the burnished candle holders. A bit singed. Very atmospheric.

Bear with me here: this scent smells like an old man ... but in a good way. I swear. It's a bit musty. Tan wrinkled hands. I could smell a well-worn sweater. Parchment. Candle wax. He's bent over his books, working alone in his study. Very evocative.

I like it!

Wow, reading through these reviews it looks like Jack is one you either love or hate, depending on body chemistry. I had this one in my trade pile, but then came the end of September, and I was feeling like something autumnal. I gave Jack another try, mixing it with some cheap, lightly-scented body lotion from CVS (a U.S. drug store).

In the imp, Jack smells way too sweet for my taste.

Wet, I get that sharpness that many here have commented on; it seems like Jack will be way too powerful.

But after about five minutes, and through the dry-down, Jack mellows into a warm, golden, honey-spiced scent, smelling somewhat foody, but not overwhelmingly so. I enjoy sniffing my wrists throughout the day. Jack lasts about 5-6 hours on my skin.

If I keep enjoying this as much as I am, I'll get a big bottle.

I just can't decide about Arcana. I'm fascinated by it, and I keep returning to it, even though it's not an oil I automatically reach for in the morning to carry me through my day. Arcana is soft and haunting, as if it's wafting from the skirts of a woman moving around an apothecary, or as if it's herbs crushed underfoot on an old wood floor on a warm day. It has a dry, dusty quality, which must come from the frankincense. No one note predominates on me. Lovely, intriguing, subtle.