Lamia

I'd had such high hopes for this! I debated for about a year before buying one for myself, and tested it it Saturday. It started so well, thick and rich, and deliciously clovey in the bottle and on me. Alas, it turned to a tobacco'ed hamster cage

This was quite pleasant when first tried, light and charming. This morning, it started out sweet without being nauseating. There was a graininess to the sugar, it wasn't syrupy. Two hours after application, it's rather thin and reedy, like an aloe. I don't get any roses, but this starts with some mild florals in the background.

I can't figure this scent out. I tried it once briefly before passing it along to someone else, and think it was "Evergreen/Fir". Now that I have reclaimed my totem, it baffles me. It's sweetly green, or maybe it's greenly sweet?

Hlinspjalda has been waxing poetic about this for ages, and she finally gave me a testable sniffie, which I have been holding in reserve for a while. I should have known better, since we have exactly the opposite chemistry 99.6% of the time. "Malkuth" smelled of pasty warm cinnanon gum, like Dentine with flour? Which was fine, since I don't mind smelling like warm cinnamon. However, glancing down at my wrists shortly after application, I noticed red splotches where "Malkuth" had been applied and spread. Okaaaaay, THAT has never happened before! I think I have had a stinging reaction to a BPAL scent once previously, but this is the first time I have suffered an actual reaction. Washed off with soap and water, then wiped down with rubbing alcohol, and rinsed with clear water again. About an hour after original application, the red blotches are mostly gone. I will be returning that testable sniffie to it's mommy

In Neil's words, 'It smells like green apples and like sex and vampires, all at the same time. (Actually, it smells like sexy vampire apples.)' This smells like a fresh Granny Smith cut open on a sunny day after a massive snowstorm has passed. Softens to a pale floral. Sadly, a quick fade.

Gah. This starts nicely, smelling like a guy who works in an Asian grocery stores in Chinatown - the ones on street level, rather than the ones in the basement level. Alas, it turns to saliva and Asian grocery store. Trade bag!

Very green. Not unpleasant, husband doesn't mind it but wasn't overly complimentary. This a fresh smooshed fresh-green-fruits smell. No wasabi to be found anywhere. Quick fade.

Smells like fake leather-scented cologne, which surprised me because normally Beth's leather scent is fantastic. Starts leather-peppery, which was Good, then turns to leather-lime, which didn't work as well as hoped. I'll keep it because it's fun, but don't need more than the imp. Quick fade.

NUMMY! This started generically masculine and boring - something that would be nice on the right man but otherwise meh on me. It ripened slowly and methodically, turning more musky, and then spending a lot of time developing a fantastic red fruit note, similar to "Frumious Bandersnatch". The fruity note finally died back after nearly an hour, and there is a strong salty fiberous-wood scent, sparring (HA GET IT SPAR) with the red fruit. If it had stayed with the strong red fruit, I'd likely get a 5ml of this. However, the strong wood scent pulls this down to being content with my half-imp. Still nummy though!

Oh. Oh my my my. The husband actually volunteered that this was *quite* nice. Rooibos tea is the most potent, with the fruitiness of the mango dancing around in the background. About an hour later, the mango eases up, allowing a hint of red musk to peek through. Nom. I may need to hunt down a bottle of this.

This started out reminding me of some sort of topical creme, and turned to some sort of medicinal cream. Something I'd find in a hospital, rather than something from my home medicine cabinet. That stopped after about an hour, and became generically masculine. Boring, quick fade, trade bag. Ah well.

This was fucking amazing. It will never dethrone my kings, "Lucifer" and "Wulfric", but it briefly came damn close. This started quite green-tree, wait, that's rather pine-ish, and awfully powerful, oh, wait, no, that masculine pine is easing up and it's becoming muskier, almost vetiver with the intensity of the patchouli. Shortly after application, my legs were actually weak from the scent - "This (I thought to myself) is what vampires should smell like", musky and cruel and smiling and painfully sexy and male. Alas, this is a very quick fade on me. Probably for the best, I'd be forced to lock myself in a room and have my way with myself for hours otherwise.

Coconut tanning oil and lemon candy, but deep. It's actually surprisingly pleasant, and I am surprised that it is so nice. I think that is the musk and vanilla sneaking around behind the scenes and being fabulous.

I can't figure this out. It's masculine, but starts soft. There's a point when it smells like ass, like you haven't bathed recently and you got sweaty and you're wearing cologne to disguise the fact that you haven't had a chance to shower but you can still smell ass. It's not an aggressive reek, but it's certainly there. Fortunately, that does change to merely bad breath, and then (phew!) goes away. I'm guessing the "scorched waistcoat" is that burned-vetiver smell. It's just odd. Very complex, highly involved and evolving. I received a half-imp as a frimp with my WitW decant order, and I think that the half-imp will be MORE than sufficient. As mentioned above, yes, this is rather like the Steamworks line.

This is extraordinary. Fresh, it smells like some sort of green stick-stemmed root that I can visualize but can't identify except to say that it is maddeningly familiar. Drydown becomes earthy and moist. That turns to wet, really wet earth. Late spring dirt after a massive thunderstorm wet. I smell vetiver in there somewhere. After about an hour, it becomes dusty sweet earth. My boycat hunted me down by sniffing, from two rooms away, following his nose, hopping up on the sofa beside me, finally tracked down what he was looking for, and started licking my wrist? Ack, don't lick the BPAL!

All I get from this is green. For a few seconds, I was surrounded by wet dirt, and I smelled as if I were walking through a coniferous forest, scuffing up damp earth as I went. But the dirt faded fast, and I was left with a very masculine pine-y scent. Quick fade. Trade bg.

This starts like apple cider. Almost immediately (thank goodness, since I really don't like apple cider) it became straight apples. Not cold apples, like Snow, Glass, Apples but warm baking apples, with a touch of woody burning leaves. Fantastic A quick fade, but that likely has more to do with the damp laundry that I was hauling around on bare arms. Darn, I'll just have to reapply, what a pity This is an all-encompassing scent - some perfume give a hint that they are there, this surrounds you in a warm happy environment.

This is damn impressive. It's better on skin than in the bottle, and it smells EXACTLY as it should. Husband walked by and said "You smell like gingerbread. Or spicecake. Or something." It stings my sinuses a bit until it dries, and lasts a VERY long time - when I woke up this morning, I could still smell it, and the cat was trying to lick it from my wrists. Ack! This is extremely foody, and I won't need more than the bit I have, but it is certainly a fun scent!

Masculine, agreeable, uninspiring. The basalm and cypress are fairly strong compared to the other ingredients. Trade bag.

This smells of a clear night. Chilly without being cold. Quick fade. Trade bag.

Bright, pert, and cheerful with the lightest touch of citrus. Reminds me of a good friend. Quick fade. Trade bag.

You know the way someone's mouth smells after they eat chocolate? Yeah, "Gelt" is like that.

Nice to know that my instincts aren't completely off! In the bottle, this was extremely floral - juvenilely so, but on skin it matured. It became less floral, a bit doughy. If the dough were the flour-water-baking soda concotion you got in preschool (that is the reeds, I think). The floral became dusty, and I thought "lotus-ish" and assumed I would be wrong, as I hadn't reviewed the ingredients until after testing. A red fruit came up, but it remains a dusty floral. The imp is sufficient; although this is more pleasant than expected, it's so not me.

This is incredible. In the bottle it's vaguely floral and slicingly clear, and wet smells like cocoa butter with orange peel. But drydown pulls out a fruit, and it's a dark buttery red fruit. After about 2 hours, a bite of something low and harsh sneaks in, but you have to work hard to find it. I can't stop sniffing this, it's intoxicating. I may need a second bottle of this, it's probably one of my new favorites, right up there with Blood and Lucifer NOM! I can't believe there aren't more reviews of this - this scent is staggeringly good.

In the store, this smelled lovely. After a shower, freshly applied it smelled a bit grandmother-esque, but floral and light with something curious going on underneath. Alas, that rapidly became an industrial soap/hotel shampoo. I walked into the living room and sat down, and husband said "WHAT IS THAT SMELL?" I guess I will be selling/trading this one. At least it seems to be a quick fade.