marared

Oh HELLO there! What a delightful fruity floral mix! I think this was what I was hoping for from La Bella Donna Mia Mente, except the rose spoiled all the fun. This is a very Southern smell to me - the fragrant gardens, the burstingly ripe peaches. I like that this doesn't come across as plasticky and artificial, which happens a lot with these types of notes. I think I'll put this on my list of bottles that I might buy when there's nothing else that takes priority.

This is a very ... insubstantial scent. It's not very strong, and the vanilla comes out and takes over the sandalwood after five minutes. It's sort of like a daydream scent, going la la la with your head in the clouds, but it doesn't take much to snap you out of it.

Teakwood, oak, black vanilla, and tobacco. Arg, for this imp has a sticky top that's nearly impossible to get open! I really like this one, but it's not a scent I think I would wear - however, I would love to slather a guy in this and cuddle up and sniff it on *him*. It's very well blended, and it takes a while for the vanilla to come out, but it's there, held down by the teak. It's just too masculine for me, alas.

This was a freebie with my decants. I smell no mint or flowers, just amber and wood and leather. It makes me think of a high-rise office where the furniture is solid wood and high-quality leather, which adds very subtly to the smell of a room. I think it adequately represents its description, but not something I'd wear.

Got this as a lab frimp. ...I almost can't tell the difference between this and Lightning; they're both a fresh ozoney scent with a faint hint of citrus. I think Tempest is a little darker, but if you blindfolded me, I don't think I could tell which was which.

So I finally got around to checking out the fabled Snake Oil! ...er, it's nice, but not nearly what I was expecting. Just your basic warm vanilla, very mild. Bit of a smoky background to it. The spice makes itself more and more apparent as it dries. It seems like something nice and neutral to wear when you want to wear *something* but you don't want to parade around like a can-can girl. It seems like aging is the way to go, though, so I'm going to drop it in the imp box and let it sit for a couple months and see how I like it then.

Wild plum, pomegranate, raspberry, Siamese benzoin, plum blossom, patchouli, frankincense, and mahogany. Dionysia has officially replaced Glasgow as my favorite BPAL scent. I knew I loved it from first whiff. I don't really consider it "earthy" (except in an ooh-la-la sexual earthy) - it's a wonderful dark and spicy fruit. It's a pretty equal mix of plumagranate and spice right out of the imp, and the fruit gradually fades into the background after a couple of hours, leaving behind a rich incensey smell. Me gusta. I discovered that a little goes a LONG way, though - I just swiped it on my wrists, elbows, and neck before work, and it was still discernible 9 hours later.

In the bottle - sort of a sweet syrup with a hint of lemon in the background. Wet on skin - root beer. It quickly starts smelling less of root beer and more like cream soda. The lemon has disappeared, and I haven't caught any rosemary, nutmeg, or clove yet, but it seems to get a little spicier as it dries. Right now it's nice, very mild, but not a whole lot of personality to it yet. I'll have to give it an hour and see if it morphs into anything more interesting. I suspect this might age well, too. ETA: I put it on again a day later and let it dry for an hour. I was hoping for a lot more spice, but it's still just a very mild cream. Might be the monthly chemistry, I'll try it again in a week. (I really want to like this!) Second edit: I tried it again when it wasn't quite so fresh and when I hadn't just started my period, and it definitely picked up some personality. I think the key to this is not to expect an insta-arm-devouring-yum, but rather let it follow you around and catch warm sunny whiffs. It seems to be activated by body heat, because I noticed it the most while I was sweating at work.

Another Danube fan here. It's the only aquatic that I've tried that I really like - everything else seems to turn sour on me. If Lightning qualifies as an aquatic, I like that one a lot too, but it's more of a fresh scent than a water scent.

I'm in the process of categorizing my collection before it gets out of hand, and I realized that I never really tested this one, which was a lab frimp. ...rose. gah. See, I'm not opposed to rose in principle, and I can wear scents that have rose as long as it's a background note with other more powerful scents sitting on top of it and holding it down. This one, unfortunately, is a more prominent rose - I can actually still smell some of the greenery that other people mention, but it's still WOAHWOAHROSE on me. Must go scrub now. Sorry...

The Phantom Calliope? A few months later I actually see this response. lol. That's one of the scents I have been considering, but the reviews mostly seem to point out the cherry, and I'm afraid of the patchouli - at least in terms of trying to match the scent. And it's not impable, so I'm waffling on whether to buy a bottle and hope I like it even if it's not at all like YSTW...

Exact opposite experience that I had with Danube: sniffed it in an imp that a friend brought me a couple of years ago and loved it, bought a bottle and was unimpressed - and after two years of trying it every few months, it just isn't my thing. Coldie, if you want my bottle, you're welcome to it; it's about a centimeter below label (and the label's a bit smudged).

When a friend of mine brought me her box of BPAL a couple of years ago so that I could sniff its contents (evil enabler that she is), Danube was one of my favorite scents. It was apparently somewhat aged, though, because when I bought a 5ml that arrived in the end of February, I was ... not nearly as impressed. I'm not sure just what turned me off - I was afraid that aquatic scents just didn't work with my skin chemistry. However, after letting it sit for almost four months, the bottle has improved to the wonderful cool flowery scent that I loved in the imp, and most importantly, it smells good on ME. This is the only aquatic that has shown any promise so far.

I've flown out of various airports - Baltimore, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Norfolk, Portland - with imps in my carryon and have never had a problem. I keep them in a baggie to avoid leakage, but I can also whip them out and declare them if I have to.

Wet on my wrist: the first scent to hit my brain is cherry nougat - candy, but not really sweet candy - and then the vetiver and the vanilla take over within a couple of seconds. The cherry grows progressively fainter. Interestingly, this is finally a vetiver note that doesn't make my nose sting. It's a very complex smell, but maybe a little too much green/wood for my taste. Later edit: I tried it again and I like it a lot more the second time around - perhaps aging it for another month is what made the difference. I think I'd seriously consider buying a 5ml of this now, but I'd have to stick it in my closet for 2-3 months first.

My experience has been pretty consistent with almost everyone else's thus far - it's a lot woodsier in the imp and wet on the skin, but it's all lilies on the water when it dries. Unfortunately, it's pretty unimpressive on me. It smells nice, just not a me-smell. I keep buying variations on aquatic scents, and I've come to the conclusion that either they just don't really work on me, or I need to let them sit for a couple of years first, because the imps that I originally fell in love with were rather aged.

Wet, this smells green right away on me - like bounding through the bushes green. I'm assuming this is the teak plus the bergamot, but it's not any bergamot I've ever smelled before (at least not in my tea!) The green is quickly beaten into submission as it dries, though, by the vanilla and ... I think it's the rose, maybe the musk. Which is interesting, because my skin seems to amp rose, but here the vanilla is more dominant. There's no hint of apple whatsoever.

This is a bright and cheery smell that I like very much in the imp. Mandarins are a very spicy citrus by themselves, but the fig sweetens it up just a little - I think if I didn't know what was in it, I would have named it brown sugar. Unfortunately, the scent has zero throw - freshly applied, I can't smell it unless my wrist is right in my face, and it's gone within the hour.

I got this in a swap; I was interested in trying another vetiver scent to see if that was why Bluebeard smelled so terrible on me. Must have been something else, because while I can smell the vetiver straight out of the imp, its presence is not nearly so dominating on my skin. I can still smell it, but the cedar keeps it in line. I can smell greenery behind it all, and I'm not sure whether it's the olive or the raspberry - I'm leaning towards the olive. It's not a favorite, but at least it didn't turn vile on my skin.

Smells like a nice warm cup of good chai.

I am normally not a huge fan of patchouli, and I can still smell it in this, but it's very nicely moderated by the honey, I think, and the ylang ylang just makes me want to sashay up to someone and waggle my eyebrows. But man, this is STRONG on me, and it lasts forever. I think I did two or three swipes of the imp wand on my wrist, and it was still very noticeable six or eight hours later, and the next morning, it's still faintly detectable on my wrist. The imp itself is a keeper for the occasional swab, I think, but too strong for a full bottle. I can't imagine how powerful it must be after a year or two of sitting around!

I have had stellar luck with spicy vanilla - the jasmine vanilla from Bath & Body Works has put male noses in my cleavage with frightening regularity. The sugary variations are not so effective on me, but the vanilla always seems to make guys go "Aroo?" It sounds like Snake Oil is the closest to the Jasmine Vanilla, but I've not tried it yet. The other scent that gets attention - and I have not found a BPAL variation that I really like yet - is the Body Shop's Juba oil. It's basically citrus and spice (on me), and that's been known to cause a double take from time to time as well.

With reference to my prior post, it ended up reminding me of walking past a tobacco shop in the city. I think this would suit me better as an incense than on my skin.

All I get out of this is the almond. Can't deal with the almond. Am sending it on to someone else for enabling purposes...

I like violet. I like lavender. I like white musk. I like vetiver - in fact, the vetiver is why I wanted to try it. It's not so bad in the imp, either - stormy, grassy. But holy bovine this smells HORRIBLE on me. I couldn't scrub it off fast enough!