Galen

They're certainly not the same, but I'm sniffing Arcana today and the over-powering lemon makes me think of June Gloom

the lovely June is much sweeter, while this is grounded in resins, but I think a little layering with something sweet could give a lovely result.

(this is where I get slated for having a wonky nose )

ooomph! this little imp turned my entire order's box sweet and heavy. It's a heavy musty honey smell while still in the imp

when freshly applied on my skin I can see why it's touted as a chai blend - it smells like a deep wooden chest that's been used to store tea leaves and numerous spices and a HUGE jar of honey, and the smells have permeated the wood, so when you open the chest you are hit with a spicy musty heavily sweet smell. Far too strong on me!

As it dries down, it's a similar but much less in-your-face smell - still spicy and honey-like but much less confused, and I can only smell the pepper if I sniff closely at my hand for a while.

In the bottle I can smell all the promise of cotton candy and errr, burning rubber??

Once it's on my skin, the burning rubber is accompanied by a layer of sweet coconut.

The burning rubber does kind of, well, burn off after a while, leaving me with sweet and coconutty goodness with just a hint of the dryness of the BPAL coconut note and the occasional plastic note.

But it's not enough to make me sit through the burning rubber phase I'm afraid...

After a few hours (e.g. waking up next morning), most BPAL oils that I enjoy have turned sweet on my skin, even the ones that don't start out that sweet.

Mind you, my skin turns tobacco notes sweet, so many oils are sweet on me even if not on anyone else...

Luckily, I like it that way.

O

The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.

I love black musk, and I love O, but Haunted doesn't work on me.

Unfortunately, BPAL amber generally doesn't work on me, with O being an exception due to its loveliness...

to me, Szepasszony is being caught outside in a light spring shower if that helps at all...

for dark vampiric rose, I do have to echo shelldoo's recommendation of Black Rose - it's beautiful and the only rose so far that's been a keeper for me (even Desire & Rose Red have been previously swapped out before I hunted more down; they still don't get worn very often though...)

this one twists and changes on me until I can't make up my mind what I think of it...

Wet - the sharp yet mellow smell of neroli zaps me, and I check the description to confirm my guess.

Slow dry down - the neroli is still there but it has morphed imperceptibly to something more grounded/woody yet just as smooth

now I can smell something more sharp and floral pushing its way bossily to the surface; the roses have arrived! It's still a rather mellow and rounded fragrance throughout.

it's maybe half an hour since I dabbed this on, and I've got powdery sweet darkness; that's the only way I can describe this! Neroli has been known to go powdery on me after a while, but this neroli is being pinned down by all the other notes, rosey, sweet and woody.

and then I realise that the black musk is at least partially responsible for the warm cuddly powdery note, finely balanced with all the other, slightly sharper notes. And that the vanilla note will come out to play only hours later to continue the evolution of a continually shape shifting perfume.

Overall, it's a dark blend balanced beautifully between powdery musk, and floral and woody sweetness.

beautiful, and guaranteed to haunt me with my inability to pin it down into one smell memory

I've not tried many of those, but I can add London (also untried) to the ones you should ask about...

la Search engine is the fount of all knowledge of BPAL blends and notes...

What jumps out at me is :

Hunger "Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. (Gender neutral)"

has both vanilla and orange blossom, but none of the grounding musk and vetiver - it's rather sweet

I've never actually smelled Narciso Rodriguez, so I can't really recommend anything based on what it smells like!

Vetiver has been mean and nasty to me lately - the vetiver note in some blends seems to have a strangely off-putting effect on my nose.

So I didn't expect to like Iago, and at first I didn't - all vetiver-y and strong and sharp.

Then the lid snapped on it, and my entire imp box became impregnated with the smell of Iago and I realised that I had been warming to it. I shouldn't really have been surprised - leather and black musk are two of my favourite BPAL notes!

So how do I find this? It starts out sharp and dark, but dries down in the most intriguing way to something just as dark but sweet (leather) and powdery (black musk). yum.

Perhaps not a clear favourite, but certainly something I'll chase down another imp of.

edited for silly spelling

on me, this is over-whelming cloves (which amp up on my skin) with a fruity background - sort of like an orange which has had cloves stuck all around it. If I really concentrate and sniff hard I get a slight hint of the green woody notes that people have mentioned.

there's definitely something festive and "Christmassy" about this blend, but the cloves just don't work on me...

I know this has probably been asked a million times before but I can't see it...does Snake Oil resemble the smell of Lush's Snake Oil massage bar in any way?

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ick! no!!!

Lush's Snake oil is a dandruff remedy and frankly smells medicinal. In fact on me, it bizarelly smells of medicinal sausages

BPAL Snake Oil smells of patchouli/musk plus lots of VANILLA. It smells a bit strange fresh but gets stronger and more hypnotically sweet if you age it for a few months...

I'm testing two of quimerula's oils - her reviews are here

DCLVI - starts out with notes similar to the brighter Stations of the Sun or Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo - bright, strong, warm red gold. I'm getting a bright spicy floral.

I'm thinking that this may have heliotrope or lotus in it - a sweet, bright floral...

DCLXXIX - wet it's sweet, strong and spicy

funnily enough, this dries down on me to a very similar 'feel' to Geek's dry-down on me: spicy, bright, and citrusy. This could well have something boozy in it, but I can't identify the alcoholic notes...

I was worried about this one being too masculine, and of the cinammon taking over the blend.

However, not that I have my decant (thank you Original Wacky!) I'm confused... possibly my skin chemistry is throwing me here, but on me, Geek, which starts out spicy and woody and dry, mellows and morphs into fruity sweetness, almost citrusy, after about an hour. could it be the moss that's sweetening it? or do I have a mis-labelled imp??

If I have the right oil decant, then this is another must-have - more what I wanted Kunstkammer to be than Kunstkammer ever was... ah, leather, I love you!

Edited to add: Testing again just in case -

applied to palm of hand and forearm...

0 minutes - woody, dry, a wee bit spicy..

1 minute later - hot and spicy. something a little sharp filtering through

4 minutes later - palm of hand - hot and spicy and deranged! forearm - spicy, warm and a bit sharp

7 minutes later - palm: spicy and painfully sharp; forearm - spicy and soft, a little sweet

13 minutes later - palm - sweet and hot and spicy; forearm - warm and spicy and sweet...

24 minutes later - warm and sweet, sweet, sweet. just a little bit spicy.

obviously, this oil just likes me :cuddles up with her Geek:

I'm getting more of a Dragon's Milk vibe from this, rather than Snake Oil per se. i.e. vanilla that is sweet, fruity and rich in a sort of honeyed way.

Other times I've worn it, I've been overwhelmed by the fig plum (which doesn't like me) that wears away slowly, but today it's just pure aged Dragon's Milk without the plastic note dragon's blood turns to on me.

I absolutely have to have a bottle of this, as I get the feeling that it if it's this gorgeous fresh, it will be out of this world once it has aged for a few months...

:yay: for more of the lab's splendiferous vanilla note - may we see it often

Ok, I'm looking for something similar to Hexennacht's smoky, fir-y, incense-y goodness. (Why why WHY do I keep jumping on these LE imps, only to search desperately for something to take their place once they are gone?)  Any suggestions?

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I have a little voice in my head saying Black Forest or Nocnitsa or Thanatopsis but they're not really the same, just beautiful in their own right... Still, maybe it's a place to start looking...

as far as I understand it Midway has 'funnel cakes' which are what I would call a ring doughnut I'm still waiting on my bottle to arrive this week - fingers crossed it's waiting for me at home right now!

booootiful Macha!

I just tried All Saints today.

It starts out much like the whole of Penny Dreadful - from the biscuity start to the perfumey dry-down of Penny Dreadful in one beautifully blended aroma. But it then dries down to a fresh soft floral like clean washing hanging on a line; sort of like Leanan Sidhe when Leanan Sidhe goes on well (i.e. not on me)

I didn't realise non-EU countries had a different pricing structure! ah well, $9, $10 - what's a kroner or two between friends, huh?

(it is kroner in Norway, right? or is that just Denmark? or was it Sweden??)

$9.

That's all (that I have to say).

I think Vechernyaya smells like Antique Lace without the vanilla... (my review)

wow! The CN bottle is even more beautiful in close-up!