theshapeshifter

Wow, this is really well blended... I'm having a challenge pulling notes out of it, but I'll try: In the bottle: Very floral, but sexy-floral, not "OMG I'm a bouquet!" floral. Initial application: Wow... I'm not sure what specifically I'm smelling, but it certainly IS luminescent red. There are loads of flowers here, and a good kick of sweetness and spice. After about 15 minutes: Okay, I think there's a little jasmine, but more of some other kind of flower that I know I should recognize, but don't. There's a sort of cherry-vanilla sweetness underlying it that reminds me of Dragon's Milk, and then there's this spiciness that wafts its way through everything. Not a strong spice, but definitely there, warming everything else up. It's not quite cinnamon, not quite clove - somewhere in between. After an hour: The bit of sugary-ness has died down, leaving a rich, warm incensey floral that I still can't quite nail down. There's a bit of powder creeping in, but so far it's a good powder. I can see that vague resemblance to the original 'Poison', but in a much less in-your-face way. Looking forward to seeing what this does the rest of the day!

Dead Man's Hand was probably the scent I was looking forward to the most in my latest batch, and it has not disappointed! In the bottle: Pure, liquid leather. How does Beth do it? Initial application: Unlike some other oils that start out strong and mellow down on me, DMH was mildest when I first applied (so word to the wise, don't overdo it!). But uncanny what a perfect leather/suede smell it is, and a very SPECIFIC kind of leather... as others have said, this is quite a raw, fresh, natural leather, not one that's been tamed and made into something fancy. I'm envisioning saddles, baseball mitts, and the fringed suede jackets that were popular with the goth-hippie kids when I was a teenager. Drydown: Stays absolutely true, and gains in warmth and strength as it warms up on my skin. There's a bit of an outdoorsy note developing, but not dust (as other people have gotten from it), but more of a dry grassy scent, almost reminiscent of the mown-grass smell of green tea leaves. This seems absolutely gender-neutral to me - it's not leather-as-faked-by-men's-perfumers, it's LEATHER. I imagine it wouldn't be for a really girly-girl, but it's certainly for me! I love this. Love it, love it, love it.

I'll need to edit this later, as I've only had the scent on for about an hour, but I'm keen to add my thoughts so far, especially as this is not only my first Lunacy, but also the first 'big bottle' to reach me (I'm expecting my Dead Man's Hand and Living Flame to arrive probably today). In the bottle: Rich, syrupy butterscotch. I waved it under hubby's nose when it arrived yesterday and he was all for trying it out right away, but I wanted to wait till I was freshly showered and give it a proper road-test. Initial application: Yep, heady butterscotch with a hint of mint... like a butterscotch-mint hard candy. Delicious, but don't think I'd be up for a whole day like this. After 15 minutes: It's settled down and become more sugary and almost fruity. In fact, for a little while it has a sort of fruity richness that reminds me of Bordello, of all things. After an hour: Gorgeous! It's so well-blended that it's hard to pick out individual notes... the sweetness has turned from butterscotch into a more creamy vanilla-y sweet, like a vanilla milkshake, but the florals are starting to waft in. Like drinking a milkshake while walking past a huge flower stall full of spring blooms, on a clear, fresh spring morning. So far, I adore it. In fact, I think I'm going to dab a wee bit more on before I leave for work... I'd expected it to be more overpowering based on the in-bottle scent, so I applied fairly sparingly. Edited to add: As the day wore on, I could see the 'chaste' aspect of the scent, in that it was very mild. I would get random wafts of it unexpectedly, but I couldn't smell it strongly on my skin after a couple of hours. The lovely creamy sugared floral stayed consistent, although after several hours there was an occasional almost salty note, like a faraway ocean breeze (or saltwater taffy). Also only the second BPAL so far (the first was Eclipse) to get a random compliment from the husband, without me actually sticking myself under his nose and asking for an opinion!

Although it's not listed as one of the notes, Centzon Totochtin was VERY coffee on me, almost overpowering. All its other notes were there, too, but in the background.

Hmm. This one could either be successful or not, depending what your skin likes to amplify, but on me, Eclipse was quite sweet... it came out vanilla/almond/sweet cinnamon on me, with a little incense in the background just giving it some depth.

I'll have to edit this later after I see how it fare over the course of the day, but wow! Ouija was a generous lagniappe from the Lab, and something I probably never would've ordered on my own, because between the roses and Victoriana, the description made it sound a bit 'old ladyish' to me. So, it is with pleasant surprise (so far, at least) that I offer this review. In the imp: Woody/floral. I like wood, and am nervous of florals, so this feels like a gamble. Initial application: All flowers, no wood... but yet, I'm liking it. It doesn't smell like a floral perfume, it smells like someone just brought in a big damp armload of late-spring blossoms. It's a little strong at first, which makes me nervous that it'll turn into soap, but promising so far. After about 15 minutes: Wow. Like I said, 'floral' makes me nervous, but one flower I truly and deeply love is lilac, and this is like standing in the middle of a lilac grove... heady lilac scent, with just an undertone of the woody stems and crushed grass underfoot. I was expecting 'Victorian parlour' but this is more like 'The Secret Garden' on me. I've had it on for about an hour now and it's still this lovely lilac-grove scent, almost like a lilac single note. I don't want to get ahead of myself, because I've had scents change substantially on me over the course of the day, but if Ouija keeps on as it is right now, it's IMMEDIATELY going on my big-bottle list. Edited to add: Yes! After wearing it for ten hours, it's still going strong, and still lovely. Onto the bottle-list it goes. The wonderful lilac has hung around all day, and the wood notes have finally shown up, just a little in the background. There's also a hint of something tangy and almost-but-not-quite fruity. It's official - I adore Ouija. The perfect scent for days when I'm feeling a little girly.

In the imp: Sweet and smoky Initial application: Eurgh. Suntan oil and cigarette smoke. I almost washed it off, but figured I should give it a fair chance. After about 10 minutes: Smoky vanilla... the coconut smell is gone, thankfully. It's starting to smell kind of sweet and naughty, and maybe winning me over. Drydown: Damn. The cigarette smoke is back. It's as though I had a really sexy scent on and then went to a bar. The smoke's too much for me... I think this will go for swaps.

In the imp: Melted chocolate. Yum! Initial application: Wow, this is sweet... wait, I recognize this... dark chocolate with a strong, liquid, sweet cherry - it's exactly like 'Cherry Blossom' chocolate-covered cherries. EXACTLY. After about 45 minutes: Still the syrupy cherry-chocolate candy, with a floral element coming in - orange blossom, perhaps. The chocolate seems to be fading into the background a little... I'll need to update this review once I see what the staying power is like. ETA: Vice had great staying power, but alas, the floral-ness just got stronger and stronger, and eventually went soapy. Not for me.

Hamadryad was dry, sunny deciduous forest and cinnamon sticks, from the moment I applied right through the drydown. It's one of the first BPAL's that earned me a random compliment from my husband, who usually doesn't notice that sort of thing. My only regret is that it doesn't seem to be that long-lasting on me... I put it on around 9 am, and by 1 or 2 pm it was fading away.

In the imp: Appley goodness! Initial application: It's not the sharp tangy apple I expected; it's very creamy, and there's a note of something like liquid honey. After half an hour: I smell like an apple danish. Baked apples and sweet pastry. I like it, but I think I'd enjoy this more as a room scent - it's got a vaguely candle-esque quality to it. By mid-day: It's gone. I'll use up the imp in my scented oil burner, most likely, but I don't think this is a must-have scent for me.

Dublin's been playing with my mind today! In the imp: Fresh, but can't quite pin down any specific notes. Initial application: Didn't start out too promising. I got a noseful of something floral and very sharp/spiky, if that makes sense. Fortunately that only lasted perhaps three minutes. After about 10 minutes: There are a whole bunch of notes popping up that I didn't expect... a whiff of mint, a whiff of spice. And it definitely smells MOIST, like a rainy forest. Over the course of the day: As it dried, it turned into a very spicy/woody scent, something like barky cinnamon, but not quite. In fact, I was almost thinking maybe I got Hamadryad by mistake! (it's still in my to-try pile) The misty/rainy element disappeared in the drydown, but the green spicy woodsy-ness is gorgeous, and surprisingly strong on me. Towards the afternoon, just a hint of floral came back in, but a lovely unassuming floral that didn't jump up my nose and annoy me. In fact, combined with the spice, it smelled like some cinnamon-scented stocks I had in my front porch planters last summer. (well, if those were growing in a misty coniferous forest) It's not really what I expected at all, but I love it!

This probably felt like the biggest 'gamble' out of the scents I included in my first order. Jasmine and leather and cinnamon I knew I'd like; rose I tend not to like, gardenia I wasn't sure of, and vetiver scared me a little, since I know it's such a love-it-or-hate-it thing. In the imp: Whoa. That must be vetiver. After the initial sniff on receiving it, it took me a few days to work up the nerve for this one. Initial application: It's so GREEN, the smell, but like a murky, impenetrable green. A deep, wet wood, where everything's dark and a bit dank. I can smell the leather underneath as well. My brain's having a hard time wrapping around it - almost like it's pleasing and disturbing in equal measure. After a few minutes: I can't stop sniffing myself! There's that unwholesome, decadent greenness that makes me think of Fangorn Forest or Anne Rice's 'savage garden', the leather, and now a sort of waxy, deathly-white floral that must be the gardenia. All the adjectives I'm using probably sound negative, but this scent is hugely alluring to me. After an hour: All of the above, plus the jasmine's winding in around the gardenia. No rose yet. The cinnamon's there too, but it's a much more woody cinnamon than I've encountered before - it's not so much spicy as woody/foresty. This really DOES embody the concept so well. Certainly a masculine-leaning scent, but I don't feel at all like I stole something from the men's counter. It's a very challenging scent - it jumps onto your skin and demands 'Stand and deliver!' It's not for everyone, but unless it does something totally unexpected over the course of the day, it's certainly for me! I foresee a bottle in my future... possibly two, if this works as well on the boy as it does on me.

I will probably come back and edit this later, as I've only had the scent on for about an hour at this point, but wanted to review while it's fresh in my mind. Or on my skin, as the case may be. Nosferatu was a generous lagniappe (sp?) in my very first Lab order, and it's one I had been kind of curious about. In the imp: Sharp, almost astringent, much more 'fresh' than I would expect. Initial application: Wow, it's so... CLEAN. A blast of something strong, herbal, and sharp. Almost like cleaning fluid, but the kind you'd get from an environmental/health food shop, not the chemically kind. After 15 minutes: My mind is boggling trying to figure this out. I keep sniffing myself, feeling like there's something there I SHOULD recognize, but can't. It's a bit floral, very herbal, and the earth is starting to barely peek out. After 30 minutes: It's super-green now, like a bundle of medicinal herbs (and I think I smell something like sage?), but there's a warm-yet-sharp tang starting to come in, like a thick red wine. After an hour: It just keeps evolving! Now I think it's starting to come into its own. The herbs are still predominant, but the earth is really coming into play now, like working in a medicinal garden. The wine's still an undertone. Interestingly, it seems to have already mostly faded from my wrists, but the drop I applied to my cleavage is going STRONG. (I had the opposite experience yesterday with Severin) Edited to add: As the day wore on, the scent revived on my wrists, and wound up having great staying power. It's mellowed over the course of the day... it's still got that herbal tang, and the earthiness and wine have kicked in more. The wine's not sharp at all; it seems thick and almost sweet, like a port. Every now and then I catch a breath of something like leather, but I think that's the earth and wine coming together. I just adore this scent. It's so COMPLICATED - every time I sniff myself I swear it's something different. I love that it's clean and green and yet dark and dangerous all at once.

In the imp: Bergamot, and lots of it! This is a good thing. Initial application: Bergamot with an extra twinge of lemon. After a few minutes: Can catch a whiff of the leather - not as pronounced as I would've hoped, but a great partner to the tea scent. Staying power: Alas, virtually none. It's been a little less than two hours since the initial application, and an hour ago I applied a little more - even a few swipes of the imp wand through my hair - and I can barely detect it. I'm going to slather on some more before I leave for work in the hopes of getting it to hang around longer, but at this rate the imp will be gone in a flash. Love the scent, but don't think it will make my big bottle list, simply because I'd go through it too fast.

I had a feeling this would be one I'd like, since vanilla and my skin have a long-standing love affair. (The Body Shop's 'original' vanilla was my signature scent for many years, until they discontinued it in favour of a nasty, fakey vanilla). My only apprehension was I wasn't sure what to expect of dragon's blood. In the imp: Creamy vanilla, with a slightly spicy undertone. Is that the dragon's blood? And love the colour! Initial application: I'd forgotten this blend had honey - until it touched my skin! Warm honey with a tinge of creamy cherries. After an hour: The cherry-ness gradually died down, leaving the honeyed vanilla to take the spotlight... although on me, I'd say this is more "vanilla'd honey", if that makes sense. Honey with a bit of vanilla, instead of the other way around. After about six hours: Over time, a bit of light, friendly spicy-ness has come out, presumably the dragon's blood, just giving a little depth to the vanilla honey. It's not as strong as I would've expected, given its heady beginning - more like "skin, improved". I really like this one, and it's making me curious about trying other Ars Draconis blends, and other blends with a honey note. I just wish it were a little stronger. Mind you, I'm also slightly chilly today, so that may contribute. A probable big bottle, eventually, unless I find another vanilla blend I like even better.

Centzon Totochtin was one of the ones I was most excited about whilst waiting for my first Lab order, particularly after reading through all these reviews. In the imp: Deep, expensive cocoa with spices and a hint of booze. Orgasmic! Initial application: Oh dear. What happened? This instantly turns to a blisteringly strong, burnt-espresso scent on hitting my skin. I nearly washed it off, because it was making me desperately thirsty and slightly headachey, but I had faith it would settle down. After 30 minutes: Still burnt coffee, although I can start to detect other notes. After about 2 hours: Okay, now I can smell some of the things I was expecting - cocoa, spices and booze. It's an extremely dry, bitter cocoa scent, and the coffee aroma is still hanging around, so combined with the boozy scent, it's overall giving me an impression of a cup of spiced Mexican cocoa, liberally laced with Kahlua. Once it morphed to this stage, it didn't change much more, although the spicy element would waft up more every now and then. I couldn't put my finger on what spice, exactly, but perhaps nutmeg. Super staying power - it kept going strong all day. In the end, alas, coffee is not a smell I enjoy very often, so I don't think there's a bottle of this in my future. I'll give the imp a second try, but if it's still the same, I'll probably karma-gift the rest of it to a coffee-loving friend.

In the imp: Fruity, but in a very dark, sexual way. I believe I emitted an audible "nnnnggghhh" when I sniffed it at first. Initial application: Oh, GORGEOUS. It's like sitting across the table from a potential lover, sharing some kind of decadent, dense, almond-berry-plum cake and drinking syrupy liqueurs. I'm in scent heaven!! Later: It becomes slightly less sugary, more debauched, but fundamentally doesn't change much. Beth wasn't kidding when she called this "bawdy"! It's sexy, but the kind of sexy where there's a grin and a wink amongst the depravity. To my heartbreak, though, this proved the most fleeting of the BPAL scents I've tried so far. After about three hours, I was hard-pressed to find a trace of it. Normally, that would be a deal-breaker for me, but I adore the scent SO much that I must still have a bottle of it... I'll just have to experiment with ways of prolonging its life. Edited to add: After getting through all the other new smellies that needed testing, I came back and gave Bordello another try, this time putting a couple of imp-wand-swipes of it in my hair, and it worked brilliantly - lasted all day and into the evening. Bordello is DEFINITELY going to be a 5ml purchase.

In the imp: Deep and resinous and smoky. Initial application: Where'd this wood come from? It goes on as the very distinct and clear smell of fresh, clean wood shavings. Not what I expected, but it's a scent I quite like, so it seems promising. After 30 minutes or so: It's still primarily wood, but there's now a pleasant woodsmoke element coming in, especially in the bit of oil that I applied to my hair. I had to go out in a rain/sleet storm, and the combined smell of Cathedral on me and the precipitation in the air was utter heaven! I'll be curious to layer this with a rain-type scent, when I get one. Over the day: After an hour or two, I start getting hints of the incense, but not nearly as strongly as I'd expect. My overall impression is more of a crackling wood fire in the fresh air, with maybe some resins or herbs added to the bonfire. However, being pagan, I don't have a strong impression of what 'church' is meant to smell like. On the other hand, my sister sniffed me late that evening (after having the scent on for 12-14 hours) and instantly exclaimed, "wow, you smell exactly like a Catholic church!" Overall - A very different scent than I'd expected, but I like it just as much as I'd thought I would. My possible-big-bottle list is getting long!!

I'll freely admit, although all the notes in Shadow appealed to me, I ordered it primarily because I adore the song of the same name on Viggo Mortensen's album 'pandemoniumforamerica'. After ordering, I saw how few reviews it had, and the mixed nature thereof, and got slightly apprehensive. There was no need. I love it. In the imp: Zingy, in-your-face lemon. So bright that my first thought was, "THIS is named Shadow?" Initial application: Oh dear. I was worried at first, because the initial ten or fifteen minutes of this was lemon Pledge, all the way. It's not a scent I mind, but not something I'd want to wear all day. After an hour: Bye-bye, Pledge. This morphs into a lovely light woodsy scent. The lemon never totally disappears, but it becomes more like a bit of something dancing on the surface, like occasional peeks of sunlight through a deep forest canopy. Over the course of the day: The patchouli gradually crept up over the next few hours, so that by the mid-afternoon (applied around 10 am), it was an incredibly mellow patchouli blending with fresh wood in the foreground, with that bit of lemon hanging in to provide a refreshing note. Definitely a big-bottle candidate - and I'll want to try this on the boy, too.

I had to try this a couple of times to make up my mind about it. In the imp: A cloud of jasmine. Actually, I could smell the jasmine even before opening the imp, really fresh and heady, as though it had been fresh-picked. Initial application: There's another floral coming out and tangling with the jasmine - it's something else similarly sweet/heady, but I can't quite place it. It's not as strong as I would expect for a jasmine scent - the first time I was quite sparing because it smelled so strong in the imp, but the second wearing I applied more and still found it gentler than expected. Through the day: Although I would expect a moon-oriented blend to be a very 'white' scent, I'd categorize this more as a pale greeny-yellow. There's a bit of a citrus-hard-candy tang to it under the florals, and over time, something herbal comes out, as though I'd grabbed a handful of night-blooming flowers and crushed the stems and leaves in my hands. However, there seems to be something in it that goes a bit sour on me after a couple of hours - it must be a minor note, because the sourness isn't overpowering, but it kind of hangs there under the scent, a bit like the sourness of skin the day after a night of heavy drinking. I wanted to love this... but it's probably just as well I don't, seeing as it's discontinued. I do like it, though, and will use up the imp.

Most of the ones mentioned here are on my list of 'orders I'm waiting for', but I have tried Bewitched. It's lovely, but I wouldn't call it 'woodsy'. More berry/herbal, like blackberry tea.

Black Phoenix had a lot of cherry and almond, although on me it became very rose-dominant eventually.

My first try of a 'Voodoo Blend'... In the imp: I can't quite place what I'm smelling - it's like a few different smells at once kind of swirling around. Wet: It smells so familiar... after about thirty seconds the lightbulb goes off over my head - I KNOW THIS SCENT! It smells exactly like this gorgeous 'Spiced Orange' incense from an occult shop across town; I don't shop there as often as I used to when I lived closer, but it's been my favourite incense for the last 16 or 17 years, so the scent is emblazoned on my brain. What a thrill to be able to wear it! Okay, to make some sense of that rambling - it smells of orange, cinnamon, cloves and something in the incense department: myrrh, maybe? (I love the incensey smells, but so far I'm not too good at recognizing which is which, other than patchouli, which this is definitely not.) But it's not a juicy, sweet, candy orange - this is a very dry, aged orange, if that makes sense. Dry: Exactly the same. Oddly, at first I thought it was going to disappoint me with a lack of staying power, but perhaps I was just cold for a while; it seemed to fade after a couple of hours but then come back STRONG for the rest of the day. It's been on for about ten hours now and is still going. I haven't had a chance yet to test it for its intended purpose, but over the course of the day, I'd say that although I haven't really felt any 'lustier' than normal, I've felt sexy in the sense that this scent seems to make me feel very confident and assured in my own skin. It's a sexy, alluring scent, but not sexy like a young nymphet... this is sexy like an older woman who is utterly gorgeous without needing to make the slightest attempt to pretend she's anything other than who she is, and the age she is, and still can have much younger men begging at her feet. (I kept envisioning Susan Sarandon as I got whiffs of Red Devil through the day). DEFINITELY going on the must-buy-a-bottle list.

In the imp - SAGE, strong almost to the point of being medicinal - like grabbing a handful of leaves right off my sage plant on a warm summer day and crushing them under my nose. When first applied - The sage disappears immediately, replaced by a burst of sweet juicy blackberry. At first impression, it seems quite simple, almost like a single-note scent. After 10-20 minutes - The berry is still predominant, but the sage and tea are playing a solid supporting role now, so that it's become a scent of sweet blackberry tea, as several others have cited. The musk seems to be quite mild in this, just adding a little depth - which is great news to me, as this is the first musk-containing BPAL I've tried, and I've always had bad luck with musk in the past. After 6 or 7 hours - It hasn't changed much further in the drydown, except to become even more well-blended, as the berry-sweetness mellows into something less candylike, more grown-up. The only thing is that next time I'll apply a little more... I was quite sparing with the imp this morning due to my apprehension around the musk issue, and the scent is becoming fairly faint. This will be a 'slathering' fragrance, and a strong contender for purchase of a 5 ml!

Thanks so much, everyone! Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to pick things out on her behalf, just compiling some recommendations for her, since she's thinking about perhaps ordering some as her birthday gift to herself.