Thorne

Thanks to ivyandpeony for posting the Lab description in the "Anyone tried it?" thread:

One word for the Ace of Hearts? Sweet. So girly sweet.

The rose and orchid make this deliciously, gloriously, fresh-cut flower scent bloom. This is a happy, springtime, soft red, dark pink scent, like that great natural blush you get when you are madly in love and can't stop smiling. It's not a perfumey flower scent, which is a very good thing. It just smells like fresh flowers from the garden, cut as a present for your new lover.

I only put on a tiny bit, but this doesn't have a lot of throw - you would have to lean in close to my body to smell it, which I really like.

I got three bottles of Chaos Theory II, so here goes:

 

CXLI (141, maybe? Roman numerals confuse me):

 

This is homemade chocolate milk, dude. With the first whiff, it's got the slightly sour cream smell of Chaste Moon and Milk Moon with a dark chocolate bitterness underneath. On the skin, it's something entirely different - BRIGHT orangey fruity sweet-tart dark chocolates. Delicious! This is like no other BPAL blend I've ever smelled and I love love love it.

 

CXXXII (132, I think):

 

Whoa. This is fantastic! Cinnamon and sugar, with a hint of light spices. This smells like the perfect cinnamon-sugar blend to sprinkle on toast. On the skin, the cinnamon intensifies, with a creamy sweetness underneath. Tonka, maybe? Yummy, in any case. This will be so perfect for cold mornings. Man oh man, I love this. I want to bathe in it.

 

LXIX (69? I... I suck at this):

 

Errr...ok. In the bottle, this is kind of icky. Sharply sour and medicinal. But once on the skin, it lightens up considerably and becomes a fresh and citrusy floral. White flowers and a hint of lemony grapefruit, possibly. I may not be keeping this one, but it's a totally different type scent than I usually choose for myself, so I want to give it another try before I pass it on. ETA: Oh! After a while on the skin, this morphs into a warm sandelwood and citrus scent. I like it much more now! ETA again: This might be my favorite new scent. The other two I got are lovely, but this one is mine.

In the vial, I can smell the cherry faintly, but once on my skin, this is all bamboo and ozone. It's a fresh, cologne-y, slightly soapy scent, with a touch of sweeter orchid and fruit - very clean. It also got stronger as time went on. It wound up being not quite what I expected, but very lovely.

This was almost pure dragon's blood on me, with a hint of metallic salt. The mix of floral sweetness and tangy saltiness was interesting, but not something I think I want to smell like. This will probably go into the swap pile for someone else to try.

I have never had such a strong reaction to an oil before. I put this on last night and thought, "Hey, this is nothing like I thought it would be! It's all lemony and bright and fres-zzzzzz." Seriously, it was like I took a hit of Nyquil or something. One minute I was wide awake and the next I was out.

 

I dreamed some weird dreams, too. Restless, oceany dreams of being washed out to sea in a storm, of raising baby seals (...I don't know), of watching huge waves come crashing down on the seashore.

 

I woke up 4 hours later, and smelled a scent from my childhood. My father's best friend is from India, and this was the scent of his apartment when I was 8 years old. Lemongrass clean and something exotic. Then it smelled like my grandmother's house - she was from Germany, and her house always smelled like clean herbs and spices. It was almost overwhelming how strongly this oil brought back the memories of my childhood.

 

I was left with a faint metallic taste in the back of my mouth, the barest whiff of lemongrass on my wrists, and a whole lot of memories and dreams crowding in my head.

 

Wow.

I've used High John in social situations that made me tense, and it worked great for me. I'd be interested in hearing if Moxie worked for anyone, though.

Verdandi is a current catalog Excolo scent:

VERDANDI

Necessity

Deep herbs and apple with black amber.

I got a decant of this from shay_85 over on the LJ community, because I was afraid from the descriptions so far, I was not gonna like it at all, and was going to have to sell my bottle when it came.

 

Heh.

 

Unless this morphs horribly in the next hour or so, they will pry this bottle out of my cold dead hands.

 

Holy hell, this is fantastic. This is what I hoped Spooky would be - light, creamy, sweet, coconut milk with a slight buttery undertone. There's also the faintest whiff of mint, hiding way in the background, but keeping the blend from going over to sickly sweet. I'm not picking up any honey, but I think it might just be really well blended into the sweet warmth.

 

Like lorajc, I thought this would be similar to Chaste Moon, which was pretty, but just slightly too heavy for me to want to wear it often. While the two moons do share a sweetness and a creaminess, this is much more to my tastes.

 

This is the most calming, soothing, perfect spring night blend. It's just making me so happy! I'm in love, completely.

I smell like the peach of the Gods. Love, instant love. I must have a big bottle of this.

In the imp this smelled like straight out 7-Up. The soda. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, once on, it was a heavy, incencey scent, with a little lemony zing to it. It's a nice blend, but not for me.

You know, I kept reading about BPAL scents going powedery on people, but it had never happened to me.

 

Then I tried Viola, and *bam* powder. Pure, uncut baby powder. A little whiff of amber and a little whiff of rose came through eventually, but it was overwhelmingly powder.

 

Which is not a bad thing - it's a good smelling powder. But not something I want to smell like on a regular basis.

I get the apple and bamboo that others have mentioned, too. This really isn't my type of scent - I never would have chosen it (it was a frimp), but I find I quite like it. Like astrid said, it does feel kind of blue-green, something both bright and soothing at once, liquid and air combined. Misty, even! Hee. I don't think I need a bottle of this, but I'm enjoying my imp.

I ordered this imp a while ago when I was looking for the perfect incense smell, and this is it. It's sweet and dark and woody and smoky. It has a little touch of something that reminds me of Anne Bonny (whic I love, but Anne Bonny doesn't last at all on my skin), which is great, because this is a much longer lasting oil on me.

 

This is too heavy for summer for me, but I'm hanging on to the imp for cooler weather, and I think it will be perfect then.

In the bottle and freshly wet on the skin, this smells so awful to me, I can barely stand it. I almost put it up for sale without even trying it, because it made me almost gag when I first opened it.

 

But. I know I have to try the oil on to really know what it's like. So I held my breath and put a dab on my wrist. For a good ten minutes, it's still gag-inducing. I don't know what that initial scent is, but it smells like something died.

 

And then, it's like the heavens opened up, and Pink Moon appears. It's sugar sweet and berry-licious and creamy. It is strong after it settles into smelling pretty, and lasts for a good time, but I just don't know if I can deal with the horrific initial ten minutes with this oil. I'm going to try it again in a week or so and see what happens.

Mmmm, spices and amber. Heaven. This could have been made for me, I love it so much. The silky smoothness of the amber is offset perfectly by the heat of the spices - this is going to be one of my favorite fall scents.

Wow. Wow. I really did not feel the love for this blend in the imp, but once on? Oh my god. Sugar sweet and herbal sharp, citrus tart and milky cream. This is impulsive innocence in a bottle, and I love it. This just made it into my personal top ten list, I think.

This was so very very floral on me, I almost couldn't take it. I'm not a huge floral fan, although I like individual flower notes. But this is...something different. Something special. Beltane was a scent I was prepred to be "eh" on, but it had other ideas.

 

While I was inside the house, it was a pretty, low key, not so special floral mix. But when I went out into the sun? It just blossomed (heh) on my skin. It became rich and warm and enveloping. Really gorgeous, like flowers opening to the heat of the spring sun. I don't know how often I'll wear it, or if I'll keep the whole 5 ml, but I'm glad I tried it.

Wow, first review? I ordered a 5 ml unsniffed, because I love me some roses, and this? This is some roses. My mother just walked by and asked me if I was what smelled so good - I was!

In the bottle, this is actually kind of subdued. Wet green roses, not quite open yet, still tight baby buds.

Wet on the wrists, 2/5/7 is sweet, damp, flushed roses. Dizzy roses. Rose petals falling in a rain all around you, drenching you in rosey rose rose. This is just the purest, sweetest rose - almost sugared rose, it's so sweet.

I'll let it dry some and update with any changes, but right now, this is one of my favorites.

ETA: This dries into a sweet, sugary mess of rose petals. Not deep red roses, but pink rose, white roses, yellow roses - bright, colorful roses. This isn't a womanly rose scent, but a fun, innocent, playful rose. It really does make me think of Alice in her little frock and mary janes wandering in the rose garden, all wide-eyed with wonder at what she was seeing.

The single drawback is that it faded within 4 hours on my skin, even though I slathered. But the last three new oils I've tried faded fast on me, so it might just be my chemistry, and I have a feeling this one may get stronger as it ages.

This smells exactly like a freshly opened, damp bag of potting soil. I don't know how Beth did it.

 

However...the initial phase of this oil on my skin is...not good. It almost made me gag, it was so strong. I felt like I'd inhaled potting soil and couldn't breathe. It lasted for about 20-25 minutes, of me taking shallow breaths and avoiding sniffing my wrists.

 

After that, it mellowed into a nice crisp cedary scent, like fresh wood chips. It reminded me a lot of Anne Bonny, only not as sweet. This nice phase only lasts about 10 minutes on me, though, and then fades away to nothing. Rather like Anne Bonny, actually, although I like the wet and drydown experience of that oil a lot more. I think my bottle will be finding a new home with someone who will appreciate it.

Hello, ginger! Then there was ginger, ginger, and ginger. Then there was slightly sweeter ginger, with a little bit of a dusty honey smell of ginger. And spicy ginger!

 

If ginger is your thing, oh, this is so the scent for you. I like it well enough, and I'll keep the imp, but wow, that's some gingery ginger.

Fantastic. Just...so yummy. In the bottle, the lavender and bergamot overwhelmed everything else, but once on, it mellows out into a super smooth, creamy, delicious blend. This is a guy dressed in a dark velvet jacket and the softest ivory linen shirt you've ever felt - you keep running your fingers over and over him because it feels so good. And you can't wait to rip his clothes off. Hot!

 

At first I felt like this was a super masculine scent, but I wore it for a while, and didn't feel too strange. It settles into a really unique, expensive smelling scent, but it doesn't insist on being masculine. I think I'm going to pair it with a few sweeter scents and wear it myself, although if I ever do run into a hot librarian wearing this, I'd be allllll over him.

This was the first oil I tried yesterday when I got my order. In the bottle, it's nearly overwhelmingly fruity, with a faint hint of roses and other florals in the background. On, it morphs constantly, first apricot-like, then plum, then rose, and oh, here comes fig! It's fantastic, like walking through the actual garden and pausing by each plant.

 

My one complaint? It didn't last very long (maybe 4 hours, but it faded quickly to a very faint scent), and I slathered it on. I'm so glad I got the 5 ml right off the bat, because if I had an imp and had to wait on a big bottle, I think I might cry.

Bright and airy and summery. Sweetly tart and delicious. One of my latest favorites.

 

I got this a couple months ago as a freebie imp from the Lab, but didn't try it until recently because I didn't care for how it smelled in the vial. I should know by now to always try it on!

This is a really nice summery scent, in my opinion. It's lemony and fresh and clean, with a warmer sandalwood base. I can see where a lot of people think it's very masculine, but I'm a fairly girly girl, and I'm going to be wearing it. I don't think I'll be ordering a big bottle, but I'm loving the imp.

Delicious. Just delicious. Anne Bonny has made me her bitch, and I'm thrilled. I'm a big fan of the resin-y/patchouli/woody smells, and this is the perfect blend of them for me. It smells like sun-warmed wood, sweet spices, and salt spray. Fantastic! A big bottle will be in my next order, for sure.