windbourne

Holy heckuva kick, Batman... This one I have such mixed feelings on. The initial wave of sweet salty caramel covered in dark chocolate please me completely, but the pepper burn that comes out as it dries makes me vaguely disgruntled. The chocolate -does- come back after a while, but it's much fainter. If this stayed true to the first wave, I would need multiple bottles. As it is, I might get one. And scent locket it. It is, for what it's worth, the first caramel scent that I've tried that didn't go ragingly bitter after a few minutes. It's much smoother and mellower than most. It's also not -exactly- foody. It's pretty sweet, but the sweetness is much calmed by the pepper and rendered almost masculine in tone. This is one I think I might try putting on a boy sometime, possibly layered with something with leather in.

Diwali has a lot of notes I like and a few I apparently cannot wear -- mango is good for me, and the scent certainly starts out a bit mango-rrific. Cardamom, clove, almond, rice flower -- good, good, good (though I really wish the rice flower was stronger. I have developed a strong liking for it, but there's not much that really showcases it because it's usually so light.) Tamarind, raisin, and cashew I don't think I've ever met in a perfume format before, so it's hard to say if they are creating more than a dull background hum. There's a certain orangey-but-not-orange quality to it that I do associate with tamarind, so I suppose that's noticeable. There's jasmine (that'd be the mogra) whispering out from the sides, but it's not too strong and a curious bitterness that might be the supari? Both of those are okay. Then there's the incense. CEDAR. MY BANE. That's the thing. This one is lovely and sweet and mellow and creamy and vaguely -- but not overly -- fruity for about fifteen minutes. And then it's cedar. A lot of cedar. And that's it. So Diwali is not my friend. It's really pretty for a short while, and then pencil shavings and sadness. Boo. *shrug* Ah, well. More for thems what loves it.

You know...this scent is way too subdued on me to have the description be apt. On me, the woods are not splintered, they are neatly chopped up and made into a very charming bookcase or coffee table; the flowers are neatly arranged into a pleasant arrangement on top of the resulting piece of furniture, and the pepper is so pale as to be absent. The mandarin is completely absent as well, and the musk is very pleasant and well-behaved. In other words, I get the ghosts, and I get the grandmother, but the mania is conspicuously lacking. *shrug*!

In the imp it smells quite lovely, all tobacco and rummy leather. On me, after a fifteen-minute wet stage in which it's quite pleasant, it turns into rather scary old lady perfume. You know, the kind of old woman who chomps cigars and carries around a long-suffering little dog in a heavy leather handbag? It's just awful. I had to wash it right off. I'm not sure what it is -- perhaps the snakeroot? I can't remember seeing that note in anything else....(and a quick search tells me that, at least among the gc's, there is nothing else. ^-^;; ) But it just kills this one for me. *shrug* There are other leather and tobacco scents in the catalogue...

An ethereal bouquet of night-blooming flowers. Evening primrose, ruellia, flowering nicotiana, wild petunia, panani-o-kai, night phlox, night gladiolus, moonflower and the elusive scent of Nottingham Catchfly. This one was unexpectedly nice on me -- I'm not much of a floral-lover, but apparently a scent made up almost entirely of 'night' flowers works well with my chemistry. It's quite dark and dense, and suits the name quite well. After several hours it -does- turn to a hint of dryer sheets, as many pure florals do on me, but this is one of the few Moriendi scents I may keep around. I'd feel more inclined to wear it during the summer, however, as it has a vaguely sweaty feeling that doesn't sit well with me in midwinter.

On me, Fae is very sweet, with a touch of underlying rot -- a little peach, a little floral, a tiny touch of hesitant citrussy sparkle, and then a lot of goo. It's like a peach that's gone bad. I like the scent of the imp, but it's not one I can wear, and it only gets worse as it dries and the oakmoss takes over. Passing along~ passing along~

Elegba was great for the first fifteen minutes -- boozy, coconutty, very sweet and a little burnt, but then it turned strangely plasticky and awful. I was stuck wearing it for the better part of several hours at work, which made me very sad. The throw, fortunately, was not strong, and it wore off eventually, but it took a while. This is one for which I like the sound of all the ingredients individually, but the overall whole leaves me feeling disgruntled. Passing it on. Go, imp, Go!

I must admit, the description of this one doesn't at all do it justice -- there's nothing faint or dry about it! Maybe as it ages it mellows, but this Lab-fresh imp was quite gooey. I found Antique Lace to be stiflingly sweet, very vanilla and linen, very Grandma's house (nostalgia, indeed.), with that semi-cleaning product ~thing~ that linen seems to do on my skin, and extraordinarily strong, with a thick, viscous throw that oozed off my skin for several hours even after being washed off. While not an unpleasant scent, it's not one that suits me at all. Off to swaps it goes.

This is regarding the current Resurrected version. In the bottle, it's incense and vanilla and red musk. Nice, but not exceptional. On my skin, it's a very somewhat lighter and sweeter Mme. Moriarty clone. It's nice, and I love the Madame, so I find Charmer appealing and wearable, but not obsession-inducing. There is a hint of the mustiness that Snake Oil leaves on me for a short while, but it fades relatively quickly, which is good, because I don't like Snake Oil. On me it smells a bit of wet dog. ;; I may buy a bottle, mostly to see how it ages, but I'm not wildly crazy about it.

Yum. I think I may eat my arm. :9 I've been really into the cookie/cake/uber-foody scents lately, and this one is made of delicious white fluffy gooey cupcake with frosting and creamysweet cheescake. Definitely bottle worthy, and now I understand why it was such a popular and sought after scent. :9 I get absolutely no fruit from it, which is fine by me. I have plenty of other fruity smells. This one is fresh-baked! Edit: I must also mention that I had a terrible snowy commute and a really busy and stressful day at work, and this perfume was the best part of my day. Lovely waftings of cupcakes all around me, all day. Every time it made me smile a bit.

I really understand the comparisons between Sticky Pillowcase and this one -- on my skin, they're very close, but Sticky has a darker undertone to the scent (something like burnt sugar), while this one is really light, and yes, effervescent. Also, very fruity, though pomegranate vaporizes on me, leaving an indistinct, rather generic "fruit" scent. I like it pretty well, but I'm not going to want to wear something that makes me smell like a piece of flavored sugar crystal very often, so I probably won't buy a bottle -- it's terribly, terribly girly and sweet, and I'm not really either. ^.^

For Winter Maiden, Lines Written Among The Euganean Hills is practically spot-on. And I second that Mme. Moriarty is a gorgeous complement for Luxuria. The one I'm curious if anyone has a hint about is Castitas -- what else (especially, maybe, a GC? ;_; ) has that lovely light rice flower scent?

Unbelievably accurate. I can't wear either banana or death-related scents with any degree of success, but I had to try it, just because. It was pretty amazing, but so not something I'll be keeping. Other people deserve to test out the awesome for themselves.

Musty/mossy cucumber-melon-grass-greeeeeen. Very appropriate to the name and ideals, not at all good on me. I'm happy to have gotten to try it, though.

I lovelovelove the BPAL beeswax note, and may be fairly accused of bias in this matter, but still. I LOVE THIS. It's got a beautiful beeswax center, surrounded by wisps of smoke and the smoothness of the olive oil. It sticks and it stays and I love it and would bathe in it if it were a bath oil. It's as close as I would ever want to get to a beeswax SN -- warmer and more mellow than To Helen, no flowers to distract like Her Voice, no black pepper or wool to muddle it on my skin like Ichabod, and without all the extra trimmings of No. 93 Engine. I love all of those, but this is the one I'll likely turn to as a default scent on days when I want ~beeswax~ and don't want to think too hard about what I'm wearing. ^___^! Plus, the throw isn't excessive, so I can wear it to work. A++++++ will wear again 1000 times. ^_~

Humhum. It reminds me of...honey and wax, with something under it...maybe ginger? Some kind of resinous aspect, and, on me, just a little of some heavy floral, possibly jasmine or lily. I like it, but I like it wet more than I like it dry. Also, it seems to be a little burn-y on my skin, which is disconcerting, as I haven't run across any oils that felt like this before. I like it, by and large, but it's not one I'm going to immediately leap upon as a new favorite.

Wonderful, FAST punch in the head of clarity and focus. I keep forgetting that I have this since I put all my TALs in a special box rather than leaving them out with the rest of the imps & decants. I need to use it more often when I'm feeling muzzy and distractable. It's got a brisk (almost brusque!) minty-lemony-tea scent, but it doesn't matter because it works extremely well for me. I do tend to use it with a little Determination, so that I don't get bogged down in the wrong thing, but it really helps me keep to task.

Brilliantly fruity and shining, but in a menacing way. Something (the green musk? the snakeskin? I'm familiar with neither of those notes...) makes this scent smell very dangerous. The currant and citrus notes are pretty much as I'd expected, but there's a sinuous aspect to it that sets my nose on edge. I give it credit for being exactly what it says it is on the label -- it's full of slippery snakes and shining fruits, but it's not one I will ever want to put on my skin again. I don't have a problem with snakes as animals, but smelling of snake is not something I want. :/

I don't know that I have a lot to add to this one. It's very dry, mellow, and fluffy, like an autumn field with the white seed pods flying about. The sandalwood is the most distinct note on me, which is terribly unsurprising, as I amp it like the dickens, but it's not as aggressive in this blend as it often can be, which is a pleasant surprise, as I don't often want to smell like an import shop. I find it very comfortable to wear; it's one I think I might wear on a day when I don't want to smell like I'm wearing perfume at all, but want a soft aura of cozy to snuggle into. I don't know that I need a bottle of it, as I generally prefer more showy perfumes, but I'll be keeping my imp for harsh wintry days when I just want a snug and a warm room.

I really like this in the imp -- it's very golden and sweet, with a bit of rose to light it up a bit -- but as soon as it hits my skin it turns to soapy water. :/ It mellows some as it dries; I can smell hay in it at that point, but it's definitely not a -dry- hay, which is good, since I couldn't stand Scarecrow. As it continues, the rose shows up a bit. It's really more of a white or pink rose, light and airy and -very- sweet, with the amber remaining mild and impersonal. I -think- I like it? It's not really like any other scent I've tried, ultimately. I may have to try it again in a week or so after it's settled a bit. Maybe the soapy salt will fade a little? If not, I'll swap it away. But I'd like to give it another chance.

BWOOSH. The fire & smoke initial blast is absolutely menacing! This is the first BPAL I've tried that really brings up the image of a live fire getting started right under my nose. After a while, however, it starts sweetening up -- the people who've mentioned Coalface have a point; it really reminds me of a licorice extract! I think it's the tonka under there being all sweet and vanilla-like, though. I definitely pick up the myrrh and a bit of the patchouli and vetiver (thankfully, both stay mostly in the background. I'm not into either as a major note. :x) but the notes that I really wanted it for, the cardamom & nutmeg, are nowhere to be found (yet.) I'm kind of torn. It's got a faintly infernal aspect to it that I don't really want in a perfume I wear regularly, but a rather lovely overall scent. Very interesting, to say the least, and worth a retest in a while.

Very dry wood -- hard and sharp and vicious. Touches of sweet blood -- fresh and red and almost glowing in the shadow of the vines. Just a hint of salt. This scent, while not one that I want to wear as a perfume (blargh initial vetiver-y blast; can't handle it.), is wonderfully, amazingly evocative of the story; the first that really has been for me from this series. I don't think I'm impressed enough to keep it, but it is amazing when it happens. A for achievement. May try it on boyfriend.

It's very pale green...; I've learned that I like lettuce scents pretty well, which is sort of amusing after a fashion, but bois de rose and angel's trumpet don't seem to like me at all. This turns very soapy and sharp on me in very little time and never quite makes it back to the delicate floral it is in the imp. It does have a hell of a throw, however, and I'd bet that it would last for quite a long time. It's been a couple of hours since first application and it's still going strong.

Verrrry strange. The leather is what hits me the hardest, which is unfortunate, because while I like the scent of leather, I don't like it on me. The lilac and herbs are gentle undertones, though as it dries the lilac comes out quite a bit more -- but it's not a springtime, fresh lilac, it's a perfumey lilac, which I do not like so well. The plum juice lends it all a peculiar fruitiness that I'm not sure I like in combination with the rest. I don't think I like it, which makes me a little sad. I might try it on the boy, however, since boys + leather often go together well.

I had to wash this one off. Which is really weird -- plum is often fine on me, and while cream usually isn't good, it doesn't usually offend my nose like that. I'm guessing something in the unspecified 'wildflowers' is responsible. Very mysterious. Either way, I thought it was a really lovely, plummy-pretty scent until it hit my skin. I think I'll keep it and maybe try it in a scent locket or as a room scent.