bodegaselkie

Vanilla cedar. And that's about it.

My Samhain 2011 soap arrived a week ago so I'm pretty surprised to be the first to review it. First, it's been a long time since I ordered any BPTP soaps so I was pleasantly surprised that the scent is more prominent than it used to be in the soap base.

This soap is particularly nice -- it has a great balance between the fruity notes of pumpkin and apple, and the earthy notes of the patchouli and woods. It's marbled and it seems like each color of the marbling contains either fruit or earth. Just when you're getting a good whiff of one, the other comes rushing back in. It's kind of addictive. And it's making me want to buy the scent.

I'm surprised I didn't review Ochosi when I got it, as a free imp, with my last order. It's bright and green, but also surprisingly sweet and creamy on my skin. I liked the scent a few times, and then got tired of it quickly. It (along with Loup-Garou) is not as woodsy as I like; I prefer Burial for woodsy scents.

Wow. Shanghai was included as a free imp in my order, and it's not something I would have thought to order, but I love it. The scent is very clean and crisp, lemony in that beautiful way lemon verbena is, and just barely sweetened by the honeysuckle. The only trouble is, my skin drinks this stuff, so it's barely noticeable 10 minutes after I put it on. I'll slather from the imp, but doubt I'll buy more.

The Cthulhu scent is scary, but not at all in the same way Cthulhu Itself is scary. This is more like ... fresh linens, fabric-softener sheets, something like that. All the aquatics smell this way on me to some extent -- I like it in Jolly Roger, but this went overboard and was very strong and perfumey. I had to wash it off almost immediately, so I don't know whether it would have changed or gone powdery with drydown.

Like others here, I expected Hanami to be more like fresh flowers, and instead it's more of a shampoo/bodywash scent. It reminded me of a number of scents I've smelled before on other women ... and it's just not me. The biggest disappointment was that I couldn't smell the wisteria at all -- this is very, very fruity on me.

I've reviewed Burial before, but I ordered a new imp of it recently and the formulation has changed significantly in some way that it's almost like a different scent. While my experience with the "old" Burial was that the earthy notes faded off, leaving primarily the rose/floral scent behind, the "new" formulation is much more intense in its juniper/patchouli presentation. At first I worried that it'd be a little too piney, even like cleanser, but as it dries down those scents mellow and become earthy, foresty. (I love Beth's patchouli, and am glad it has more staying power in Burial now). The rose/floral remains more in the background this time -- a little too much so for my tastes, but I can always layer it with a pure rose scent if I want to amp this back up. In many ways, I think I like this formulation better, even though it isn't what I was expecting.

I had to order a bottle of El Dia de Reyes as soon as I saw the description.

 

In the bottle, it's a warm, chocolatey scent with something that smells just a *little* fake. But, when applied to the skin, the coffee/spice/brown sugar scents come in and make this a really delicious, well-balanced scent -- truly like Mexican hot cocoa. Even my boyfriend (who doesn't like perfume or foody scents) said "that's not bad," which is high praise! My only complaint is that it doesn't have a lot of throw -- it stays a reasonably long time but doesn't do much to remind me it's still there.

My skin loves resins, so the instant I put Titus Andronicus on it's ALL frankincense with a touch of amber -- no neroli, no bergamot (and that's considering I have a cup of Earl Grey tea next to me!). And, after a few minutes, it begins to go to powder.

Oya was included as a free imp with my most recent order.

 

As others have said, Oya is very fruity and sweet in the bottle, with a dominant cherry/almost scent as it's applied to the skin. The plum in this is not the scent of fresh, ripe plums but of candy-plum flavor as we've come to know it through sweets. As it dries the almond/nut note gets creamier and softer and the spices begin to come out. It's not a bad blend for those who like fruity scents, but I'm not one of them.

I tried Snake Oil a long while back, to see what the hype was about, and I remember that it faded to baby-powder on me. I got an imp of Snake Oil with my most recent order and wanted to try it again to see if it (or my skin chemistry) has changed.

 

It went on thick and spicy, with the vanilla in the background. Now, almost two hours later, it's mostly vanilla with less spice, much milder, and ... somewhat powdery. Not 100%, like I remember it from before, but I suspect it'll keep morphing. Not sure if this is an improvement.

 

ETA: It appears to depend where I put it. On my wrists, this remains sweet, if powdery. In cleavage, it turns directly to baby-ass: powdery, and like bad sickly disinfectant. Augh.

Usually BPAL's sandalwood and myrrh resins overpower any scent -- particularly the myrrh -- but when balanced such as in Black Lotus with other resins and potent lotus, they seem not to be competing. However, I'm not sure the sweetness of the lotus works FOR ME with the resins, although I can see how they are supposed to. I love Beth's lotus note but it works better for me in some contexts (Bastet, for instance) than in others.

Midnight Kiss, on me, smells a lot like ... not actual cherry cola, but like the bubblegum that would be made in "cherry-cola flavor." There's a little chocolate, like maybe the gum was sitting on the shelf next to the Hershey bars or something. It's hard for me to sniff beyond the top layer, because it's so sugary and hurts my head. But yes, underneath it, more chocolate, the boozy scent of wine (which is probably where the fruitiness is coming from), and the tobacco/nicotiana scent. This sort of reminds me a lot of Kali, actually, only candy-ified.

 

Not a good scent on me.

I put Cathode on without reading the description. It was immediately sweet and creamy -- I got almost no hint of mint, and none of the oakmoss, which is too bad since I adore moss notes. I suspect my skin is amping the ambergris, which it does with a lot of the BPAL resins. I suppose it's a nice ambergris scent, though, but that wasn't what Beth was aiming for, it sounds like.

Death of Autumn smells amazing in the bottle, and wet as it goes on. It starts off with the heavy bitter vetiver smell -- I adore that scent, and wish it lasted longer here. It dries down on me to pure warm amber, only very faintly spiced, and the scent lasted overnight and through my shower the next morning. While I wish the original scent stayed true, I'm happy with what it turns into as well. Mmmm.

I was looking forward to Pumpkin IV for the sage and sweetgrass notes, as they are among my favorite scents -- but this, as Jack did, turns immediately from pumpkin to plasticky apple when it hits my skin. Overly sweet, slightly fake, like bad "apple" scented shampoos or bath products. What a bummer. I'll probably put this up for sale.

I don't think I sniffed Queen of Hearts in the imp. When I put it on, it immediately smelled very much of lilies, with a little bit of acridity. As it has faded down, it's pure lilies -- I love lilies -- and it's only because I know there's cherry in this that I can detect any at all. Queen of Hearts is really beautiful. I don't think I want to smell like this, often, but it's very skillfully prepared and smells lovely.

In the bottle, Mr. Jacquel is very sharp and perfumey -- I almost regretted buying it. But as with all BPAL, and particularly amber, it changes very quickly on me to something warm and softly spicy. I don't get any of the herbs on drydown, just amber and spice. I'm finding that as it dries down it becomes quite faint on my skin -- I may just need to apply more. Lovely scent, though. And very comforting, to me -- not at all dark like others have said.

On me, Urania is a very pretty, and very potent, well-blended floral. It stays true on my skin without morphing into anything yucky, which a major feat since several of the florals go to nailpolish or baby powder on me. That said, the scent of it is giving me an immediate and intense headache, so I'm going to go wash it off now.

I ordered Miskatonic University hoping for a strong coffee-laced scent. The coffee barely emerges on me, although it has a strong sweet/caramel note, and the woods definitely peep through. It's very pleasant and evocative, but may wind up being too sweet for me. Too bad. I love the smell of coffee, but can't drink it, so I was hoping this would be a good substitute.

 

ETA: I'm wearing this again today, and the coffee scent is much more pronounced. It's still very sweet and caramel-vanilla-y, but mmm. I like this quite a lot.

I have encountered Lolita before, and passed it along to a friend pretty quickly (she likes girly/citrusy scents more than I do). But another imp came in the mail last night with my most recent Lab order, and since I am currently reading Nabokov's Lolita for the first time, I thought I would give it a try.

 

More than anything else, Lolita smells like bubblegum on me. It's slightly harsh on the bottle, but once it's on my skin the harshness goes away and it's super, super sweet and gummy. After wearing it a while it takes on a slightly incensy/powdery note, which reminds me a little of cheap strawberry incense. I like it quite a bit, and may keep the imp this time. It reminds me of some of my favorite smells from my girlhood days.

 

That said, I don't know if this is "Lolita" on the nose. In the book, there is a moment where Humbert Humbert lays down in the bed where Lolita had lain recently, and describes the scent -- I forget all the details now, but several girlish aromas plus the smell of some light French perfume he allowed her to wear. I wish this scent captured that description, but I suppose if it isn't going to, then its actual scent will have to do.

Ugh. Medea was primarily fruity-floral on me, and started to give me a headache almost immediately. It's nice to know there is one scent that myrrh doesn't totally dominate on my skin, but I wish it were one I actually enjoyed. I washed Medea off almost immediately.

Wow. Pride is very ladylike and adult. The narcissus is the more dominant of the two notes, on my skin, and it wears beautifully although it does a little sweet and candylike (my skin tends to turn every scent sweeter). I don't know if I will use Pride all that often, but I'll keep the imp for the time being and see whether I find situations for it.

On me, Baghdad's rose note was dominant from the beginning, but was not a clear, fresh-smelling rose like the one in Alice or Zombi... it was much softer and sweeter, a little too faux-rose. There was a soapy undertone that then morphed into baby powder, at which point I realized Baghdad had musk in it, which almost always does that to me. Baghdad is definitely not for me.

As the others have mentioned, Uruk starts out ALL almond, very much like sniffing a bottle of amaretto. It changes quite quickly, much like the almond note in Bastet, and within moments it is more the floral-spice-incense scent that others have experienced. For me, the dominant notes are the jasmine, lily, saffron and incense -- the fig, cinnamon, and patchouli are almost undetectable 45 minutes after application. Which is too bad, because I love Beth's patchoulis. At any rate, I am still debating whether this is too big-p "Perfumey" for me. I suspect it will take more wearings before I determine whether or not Uruk is for me.