teza

In the vial and wet on my skin, it is incredibly rich, juicy sweetness; it is fruity, without being distinctive, for all that it smells very familiar. It stays that way for quite a while, all plumplumplummaybeahintoffloral. I went out to lunch and when I got back it was softer and much more floral. It is wonderfully delicate and light, the jasmine very soft. (this is a good thing. i'm not horribly fond of jasmine.) It isn't as 'white' as most of the other florals I like (I can't believe I would ever type that sentence! I thought I hated florals. ), but rather more of a light pinkish-purple: lavendar, almost. Apparently y'all know exACTly what I mean. The musk is dry and warm and keeps everything together beautifully. Mmmm, I love musky-floral-citrus-fruity scents. This one is definately a keeper.

So, I uh, giggled a bit trying this on because I see Cordelia and I immediately think Buffy/AtS-style Cordy. That association ASIDE.... The cedar scared me, but I decided to give it a try anyway. After all, it had lilac and lemon and green tea and musk! What could go wrong? Well, the cedar and the lilac and osmanthus, apparently. The cedar is definately present when it is wet: it is sharp and green and sharp and green and sharply green. And cedar. That changes the instant it starts to dry on my skin, but the first BAM of cedar scares me. ;p The florals in this are far too strong for me. It is a rich, strong floral scent. Very feminine. It seems predominately lilac with a touch of the other florals at the moment. I know from Whitechapel that lilac dies on me after an hour, but unless this lilac fades quickly, this one's a swapper too. .... As it turns out, the lilac did NOT fade. It remained sweet and, as my darling little sister said, gross and old lady'ish. I guess I'll agree with the old lady'ish'ness, but at least it's an old lady with MONEH.

I desperately wanted to love this with all the love in my loving little heart. Love, do you hear me? Love! But in the end, it reminds me of a Kali Jr. A simpler, less complex Kali. In the vial and wet on my skin, Kali and Athens both have the same sharp honeyed wine scent. UNLIKE, Kali, though, It stays rich and golden on my skin, with a faint hint of florals around the pungent honey. It pretty much stays there, too. Unfortunately, I'm not so fond of the honey so Kali tops this for me. Athens is too strong and too sweet.

The ghostly White Women of the Scottish highlands. They seduce unwary travelers by night with their unearthly beauty and mesmerizing dancing. They engage their victims in a wild, hypnotic dance, and once they reach exhaustion, the demonesses exsanguinate their partners with their vampiric kiss. Talk about a quick courtship. Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. Grapefruit! Ginger! Love! Unfortunately the grapefruit doesn't come out as strongly grapefruit as the note in Cheshire Cat. This is sharper than Embalming Fluid, which I LOVE pairing it with, and not as sweet. (which is good. e.f. needs something to cut back the sweet it hits you with, at first.) I wish the ginger was a little stronger, too. :/ There are a lot of similarities between this and Embalming Fluid, only I think of this as the cousin with a slightly dryer, sharper sense of humor.

Mmmm. I love pairing this with Baobhan Sith on days I don't wear Queen of Diamonds or try a new scent. Seperating it from Baobhan Sith is hard, so I have to go back to my first written review of this: Oh, sweet, sweet lemon. This is beautiful. It is citrus that blossoms before fading and becoming part of the whole: something sweet and soft and clean and faintly herbal-floral. The musks just make this oogy-happy. On further consideration, that isn't very helpful. It starts of sweet -- like a candy lemon drop, only subtly different. It is DEFINATELY sweet on application, though, and faintly astringent as said above. The citrus eventually fades and a few hours later I sniff my wrists or catch a waft of scent of dry, warm, soft green as the musk, aloe and tea blend wonderfully. I'ma gonna get a 10ml of THIS and a 10ml of Baobhan Sith and a 20ml bottle and pray I don't spill as I pour and roll in happy citrus sweet mellow goodness.

I was really hoping this would work. I mean, sloth? SO ME! But vetiver? SO NOT ME! It sort of stung my skin -- it felt prickly. :/ Cinnamon, ginger -- I don't react to either of those. I suppose I'm allergic to vetiver. I'll have to keep an eye out for it in other scents. It was a really sharp, bitter green while it was wet in the vial and on my skin and then it got rubbing-alcoholed-off. Sorry, Sloth. I hardly knew ye.

I'm not a HUGE fan of patchouli or ylang-ylang, but I had to order this based on the others. (hee) Oddly enough, it reminded me a lot of Snake Oil and Scherezade. It was a fruitier, sans-vanilla snake oil. The myrrh is strongest and the dry, warm musk keeps everything together. When I first tried this, I thought this might actually be a patchouli scent I like. Then along comes Coiled Serpent and itsmywuboftheweek so this has been suplanted. ;p (but, mmmm. the way it lingers so warm on my wrist.)

Sweet, smoky and sensually wicked. A thick, steamy scent, truly sinister in its voluptuous sexuality. The perfume of a demon's favored consort, or of the devil herself. Oleander with wet, sweet mandarin, lush magnolia, a rush of deep musk and a touch of spice. At first, it is all sharp, sweet spice that cuts at the back of your throat. It slowly mellows and loses the edge, being sweeter and more herbal without any pronounced floral notes. A soapy floral begins to come up as it continues to dry and the sharp incense scent has faded to blend with the background. It is still present, but no longer overpowering. It's turning rather soapy on me, though. This is the first time a scent has done that on my skin. It smells like sweet floral soap. Damn. I wonder if that's the magnolia doing that. It was working to be a really nice scent before it went all soapy. I didn't get a hint of the mandarin, unless it was adding to the initial sharp sweetness. Into the swaps!

I was worried about this one and put it off, because of the sharp, acrid smell of the scent in the vial. Like all other scents, it immediately sweetened on my skin and turned into something like sweet sandlewood. It tended not to morph like some of the other scents tend to do, which is good. I liked it as is. I didn't like it WAY much, and it'll probably go to swaps, but it was a lot softer and drier than I expected. It turned into a mellow, herby-floral dry wood scent. Then I tried Coiled Serpent and this one definately got stuck in the swap bag. ;p (poor thing)

This one worried me in the vial. It was bitterly sharp and acridly green. It doesn't go sweet, though, unlike a lot of scents. If there isn't sandalwood or something of the sort in this, I'll bite my tongue off. Maybe musk. Everyone keeps saying patchoulipatchoulipatchouli but I get none of the usual patchouli scent that I loathe so. And if there's vetiver in this, I'm astonished. The other blend I tried that DEF. had vetiver in it made my skin react in a bad way. There seems to be a light hint of spices -- although that could be the redhots I'm eating. Hee. It is warm and dry and just wonderfully nummy. I can definately picture a dry, warm serpent wrapped in a tight coil. It is wonderfully comforting in a way that is completely different than Sea of Glass.

Wet, in the vial and on my skin: It reminded right off something I knew that I knew -- something chemical and craftsy. Glue? Paint? AH-HAH! Nailpolish! Once the glee of figuring it out faded, I started praying for a change. Drydown: It slowly turned sharper and greener and began to evoke other images. Dry: It smells like a church. It smells like Palm Sunday or Ash Wednesday or maybe one of the peculiar Church-type incenses. It is very boy. It is very boy on Palm Sunday. I feel like I should wear it to church. I like it, but since SOMEONE (coughcoughmagikfanficcoughcough) wants to try it, I'll be sending my imp on. I like other things better. There's just too damn much happy-scent.

Masquerade. ;p That's all I got: patchouli.

I don't know if any of you have smelled Cool Water for women; I have a bit of it -- It was one of the few perfumes I used pre-BPAL. -- and this smells very similar. It isn't dead on, but it is damn close. Hurricane is a major wet scent: very aquatic, slightly salty, tangy, slightly bitter and warm under the wetness, and it a very subtle sweetness that could just be a product of my skin. God. Wet scents are so hard to describe. I like it, but I already have Cool Water to last me. ;p I'll probably swap this -- although maybe not. Aaaah. I like it a lot, but I really don't need that much of it.

In the vial and wet on my skin it smells sharply, sweetly of mint. The sweet really came with a spearmint burst when I put it on my skin and at first I was worried that I was going to walk around smelling like a stick of gum. It soon mellows out, though, become at once more sweet and less sugary. The sweet then fades away as it dries completey, leaving a hint of tangled mints over a richer, green core. There is something subtly bitter that makes it almost pungent close up without transcending that border. It merely makes it -- well, more intriguing to me. I really like this. It is not a scent that I would wear every day, I think, but I'm keeping it around unless I spy a really, really good trade.

Clever me, I wasn't sure what was in this when I put it on this morning. I wondered at the reddish hue, thinking, 'Dragon's blood? Naaah.' Wet: In the vial and wet on my skin, it is sharp, bitter, spicy. I can't smell anything sweet; that's why I decided it probably wasn't dragon's blood. Also, it didn't immediately transform into candy on my skin like most other blends with DB have. But lo -- I check on the reviews and I find I was tricked. Drydown, drying: Why, hello, cinnamon. So when it says 'spices' it means cinnamon, eh? How... nice. Now, I like cinnamon -- I do. On my FOOD. Not on me. Others like the way this smells on me but I'm afraid I'm not a big fan of it. It's a sharp, faintly bitter cinnamon with a softer core of something vaguely sweet. It's almost sour, with that combination of sweet and bitter. I think I can smell the vetiver at first, but it quickly fades under the overwhelming cinnamon. This one will go into my 'foist on the helpless' pile, as it's rather nice -- just not on me, not for me.

I grabbed a handful of ImpsIHaveNotTried and poked through their descriptions and reviews to see which I felt like this morning. Phantasm was DEFINATELY it. I needed the pick me up badly and the soft lemon of the vial and on my skin made me smile. I got just what I needed. In the vial and wet it smelled the same: sharp, lemon, with a faint note of florals behind. So on it went! Now the sad part. While I still like the way it smells, during the dry down and now, an hour later, it smells the same: why, hello, green-tea+florals! Do you have any citrus there? No? Okay, not like I needed it anyway. The citrus notes vanished, eaten by my skin or poofing into the air. I can get a whiff of citrus if I put my wrists up to my nose and sniiiiff but otherwise it's a soft jasmine, with faint whiffs of the tea and neroli, but mostly jasmine, jasmine, jasmine, jasmine, jasmine. What lemon?

In the vial: Fruit Stripe Gum. Wet: Fruit Stripe Gum. Dry-down: Guess? Dry: It continues to smell sweet and fruity, with a light floral addition that makes it more complex than any simple gum. It becomes deeper, softer, less bubblybrightsweet. The notes blend well to my nose. I keep sniffing myself. I no longer want to nibble on my wrist as I was tempted to do earlier, but I loooove it when I catch a whiff. This doesn't smell as strongly as some others and seems to be fading relatively quickly. This makes me sad. I like it a LOT more than I expected to. Edit: Wearing it again on the 28th. This time it's all melonmelonmelon, less sweet, blended gum. I liked it better when it was fruit stripes gum. But it is has stronger staying power today. Hmm.

Oh my god. I think I'm in love. In the vial: Mmm. It smells -- really good. I can't really distinguish. I'm sure that hint of sweetness is the dragon's blood. Is all there is to this, dragon's blood and amber? I must check it out. The warm, faintly dry amber mellows the sweet-wet dragon's blood beautifully if that's what it is. Wet, skin: Wow. No burst of sweetness. It makes me wonder if there's any dragon's blood in this after all. Usually blends with DB seem to POOF sweet. But this smells just like it did in the vial. Drydown: Mmm. It is turning a little bit sweeter, but that amber is keeping it grounded. It smells absolutely LOVELY. If it keeps smelling like this, I may have to buy a 5ml. It's gorgeous. Oh, huh. Just looked it up: Blood Amber : Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin. If that's not dragon's blood making it sweet, it's either my skin or the amber. GOD, it smells good. Dry: It still smells the same. The family likes it, I like it. Ohhhh, but this one's a keeper. Just came here to check the reviews and it looks like I was right, DB and amber. God, for such a simple combination this is gorgeous. My skin chemistry loves it, the scent barely changes. It smells like ME only more and -- GAHBIBBLE. I don't have the words. :D

Ooooh. This is wunnerful. I got this as an extra from the all-too-kind sarada and tried it on first in lieu of the scent I actually meant to get from her as it was a pre-release. I don't regret putting it on first. In the bottle: I definately smell cloves in here, and peppers, and a sharp thyme that slide sharp down the throat like a blade. It was scary. Wet: ALRIGHT. I GET IT, SKIN. When I put things on you, you like to come at me with a burst of sweetness that has NOTHING TO DO with whatever I'm wearing. My skin is bizarre. Wet, there seemed to be nothing sweet about this. On me, it smells like sweet summer grass over a dark bitter core -- perhaps rotting wood. Drydown: The sweet started to fade and the other scents came out. I think it is the vetiver that is coming out most strongly, but I'm not really sure. It's still subtly sweet -- but not in a candy kind of way. More like a dark, old rootbeer or gingerbeer. It's not sticky-sugar-sweet by any means. It's just something in the flavor or scent or, uh, my skin. ;p (stupid sweet overload. i'm such a sweet person. ) Dry: Oh, lord. I want to put this on a boy, slap him in a leather jacket, and just curl up against him for ages and ages. This is definately a masculine scent to me: it has a precised 'boy' edge and scent to it. It isn't OVERLY masculine at all -- I love the way it smells on me, but again, it makes me want to go find a boy and some leather. I'd stick it on my boy, but he's such a scrawny little pretty boy the effect would be ruined. Effluvia said it was masculine for a skinny, pale man with black eyeliner. I'm going to have to disagree and say this is for a cross between said skinnyboy and He-Man. But not He-Man. I don't think I'd go near him, even if he WAS wearing this and a leather jacket. It ended up lingering most of the day. It's 6 now, I put it on around 9 before heading out the door. I can still smell it, but it's pretty faint. Definately a sharp, woodsy herbal scent. Oooh, I gotta stop smelling it or I'm going to go out, trap a guy, knock him out, stick it on him, and snitch a leather coat to wrap around him. :x

And I am that friend that magikfanfic mentioned! She complained about it being too peppery: pfah! I could eat this stuff. Opening the package she sent it in, it smelled very yummy-citrus-herby-yum. After reminding myself NOT to eat it, I opened the vial and took a whiff: Wow. Hello, mint. Hello, herbs. Hello, lavendar. I can't figure out where the hell I got the citrus from but I can see why magikfanfic would have called it peppery now. Still, it smells good so on it goes. First there was the standard burst of juicy goodness that all of the scents have been doing lately on my skin, then it starts to settle down. It definately smells peppery on me at first -- it's the only adjective I can think of after having it drilled in my head. That fades slowly to a smoothly blended light citrus-and-herb scent that I just ADORE. It doesn't smell medicinal or like a bug repellent at all once past that initial drydown stage. I might have to try to trade my soul for a bigger bottle of this, with it being discontinued. Mmm. She's so nummy.

A couple people have mentioned myrrh, and that exactly what this did on me. I also got an initial explosion of scent -- it wasn't overpowering but it was strong and for the first few minutes I just kept sniffing. This smells nothing like ashes to me: ashes are cold and dirty. This is strong sap, sticky on your hands; myrrh in a church. It's sharp and no-nonsense. Initially, one of my friends asked me what I thought it smelled like. All I had was: It smells like boy. This is definately a masculine scent, but not one I want to slather on Boy and sniff. For that, I'm waiting for Titus Andronicus. (i look forward to getting that like nothing else. ) I love the smell of this. I have a candle that smells like this when you blow it out, that last final curl of smoke smelling JUST like this. I have incense that smells like this. But I don't really want to smell like this.

I got this from the lovely allamanda, hopinghopinghoping for the citrus to come through. I put a bit on my sister the first day I got it, as I was already scented to the gills. It was a sweet, sweet lemon drop. Just out of the bottle, wet on my skin, I got a burst of big, juicy citrus-sweetness that made me want to bite down on a messy, wet pear. And then it turned to coconut, coconut, coconut. I don't necessarily dislike coconut; at first I thought it might have been vanilla before realizing what it was. This is a nice coconut, not a cheap, acrid, artificial coconut. But it's still coconut. I'm tempted to find out if Boy likes it before I consign it to swaps, though.

In the vial this is just as everyone else described it: dry, sweet cherry. As soon as I put in on my skin, it flared a moment, bizarrely juicy and sweet like ripe fruit, before it almost immediately dried down as far as scents go. As it dried down and I continue wear it, currently being in the third hour of the oil, it smells exactly like what it is supposed to be: dry, dusty bones. It smells like my grandfather's woodpile, a bit. Someone mentioned a salty note, rather than a peppery one, and I can sort of see it. It is not a salt that you taste, but rather one that you smell. The sandalwood comes through most strongly for me. (Yay!) There is little orris and just a faint hint of sweetness beneath the smell. It is a very dry scent; when I take a sniff, I feel like I'm drying out my throat, ever so slightly, beyond the rush of air. It is delicious and subtle. I love it, but I think it would really be incredible layered with other scents. I'm just not sure which ones yet.

I tried so hard to like this. Actually, that's a lie. I barely tried at all. One whiff of it in the bottle and I knew that despite the tempting descriptions it was not for me. I dabbed a bit on one of my friends, however. On her, all I could smel was black licorish. On me, all I could smell was licorish and bitter root beer. Yes, you say, that's what's so great about it! A wee problem: I can't stand either. Fortunately for me, my friend really liked it so I passed it right on over. As soon as I put this one on, I ran off and washed it off. :x I'm just glad to make a present of it.

Hah. Migraines. <3 I agree about the minty stuff. STRONGLY. I was in the car once with a bad headache combining with a rather awful case of vertigo. My sister had the audicity to chew spearmint gum and I nearly vomitted. I'm sure you wanted to know that. I avoid mint like the plague when I have a bad headache. sarahmarie, I suffer from chronic headaches too, which is sounds like you might, but I've found the BPAL scents tend NOT to aggravate my headaches, unlike most traditional perfumes, body lotions, etc. I wouldn't say this is a sweeping reccomendation to go out and apply them all at once, but at least for me, personally, they have not been a problem. I don't know that there are any scents that will necessarily HELP, however. Scent can be just as bad as light and sound for me when I veer towards a more 'migraine'y headache. But if you can wear a BPAL scent that makes you happy, it might keep the demons away.