Seismogenic

I'm not going to lie - I'm drawn to this one because there is desert involved, not because of little green aliens. The idea of using soft green notes to represent the aliens against said desert is also very appealing to me, but I'm actually a little apprehensive of some of the more floral members of this scent. I'm hoping they don't kill it for me, and that I can smell the desert, or at least smell more than extraterrestrial flora with possibly-malevolent intents.

In the imp: There's an indistinct and decidedly green fruity sweetness, but despite the fact that those notes are listed first, I actually smell much more of the dry wood and desert scrub, not to mention a pinch of something saline.

Wet on skin: Fruit and flowers are still there, but they're still melded enough together to be indistinct from one another, aside from being very very green indeed. It's a green that's pale in hue but strong in intensity. I still smell a lot of desert around this all.

Drydown: This dries quite quickly, and as it does, the pale musks start to come out. They meld more into the sweet green fruity thing than to the deserty backdrop, however. The green aspect is more prominent now than when the scent was wet, but I still definitely get dry air, scrubby plants, and a bit of salt behind it all. At one hour in, the glowy green aspect is still extremely homogeneous, considering how many of the listed notes must be involved in it. The green aspect is also, however, now quite faint. There is still quite a lot of desert left, however, in the form of dry plant matter, something a little stony, and a bit of salt.

Five hours later: All desert! The green aliens took off after about two hours, in fact, and they seem to have left the landscape intact. I get wood, stone, a bit of salt, and a hint of musk. This is all still very evident, despite the quick fade of the other notes.

End of the day: Dry wood and a hint of ozone.

Overall: I'm fairly sure this isn't how it was supposed to work. Unless you want to argue that the quick departure of the green stuff is a parallel to the aliens not sticking around on Earth for very long, I'm guessing this was supposed to be green glow plus desert for most of the time. However, my skin seems to push green glow away, and I'm left with just desert. Aaaand, I'm not complaining! I do like the green stuff, but I'm also a huge sucker for desert scents, and what's left over is this awesome desert-at-night sort of thing, with the heat of the day being stored in the sand but not in the air. I'm also impressed by the presence of discernible salt flats here! So, 51 not doing what it should have was a good thing for me, since I was drawn to it for the desert aspect anyway. Definitely keeping the imp.

Out of the whole recent addition to the Mad Tea Party, Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat appealed to me most. I think it might be due to the fact that I love mixing green tea sorbet with melon sorbet, and this reminded me of that. Or it might be that I know many of the fruit notes from the other new scents don't work on me, but I wasn't sure about melons. Either way, this one sounded good, and when I sniffed it at Will Call, it also seemed quite good - even though my first impression was, "Ooh, that'd make an awesome smoothie." So, generally assured of awesome, I bought an imp, and here we go.

In the imp: Fresh sweet melon, somewhere between canteloupe and honeydew, with a very slight tang that I assume is coming from the lime.

Wet on skin: Very juicy sweet melon, which still seems to be some weird genetic recombination between honeydew and canteloupe. The citrus I thought I was getting now seems to be gone, but there's something indistinctly drier lingering under all the melon juice now.

Drydown: Freshly dry, melon is still the most prominent scent by far, though I think it's leaning more toward the honeydew side of things by this point. The green tea is also evident, though it's like something the melon is suspended in, rather than an even mix. Not really getting the indistinctly drier thing now, either. At one hour in, everything has faded quite a lot, to a level that seems almost excessively faint seeing as I've only been wearing it for an hour, though the actual balance hasn't particularly changed within that faintness.

Five hours later: I was about to write "gone," and to note that it had been that way since about the two-hour mark, but when I sniffed really hard, I got a faint whiff of something that seemed like sweetish wood. It's very very faint, and I'm resultantly not sure if I'm identifying it correctly at all, but there you go.

Overall: This is a wonderful fresh melon scent...right up until it disappears, which happens incredibly quickly on me. I definitely like it quite a lot, particularly for hot weather, and I think I could get away with wearing it and not craving melon all day (which is not the case with some scents with food elements), but it gets gone so fast that any talk of wearing it for an extended period of time becomes completely moot. I will probably end up swapping this (or figuring out how to make it into soap instead), but I should note that I also did attempt making a smoothie based on the notes in here, and that turned out awesome, so I'll still be enjoying Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat even with the short wearlength.

In honor of this week's massively huge vampiric update of awesome, I figured I should test the only vampiric scent that I currently have. All the more so since I was initially surprised the update had no Vlad references, until I remembered that he already had an oil. D'oh.

In the imp: Some evergreen, some citrus, definitely some clove, and something chilly. I assume the chilly is the mint, though it doesn't smell outright minty here.

Wet on skin: The tobacco has announced itself, though as a distinct but smooth backdrop to what I already smelled in the imp. The mint is more minty, but the citrus is (unsurprisingly) less citrusy.

Drydown: Freshly dry, the clove is standing out as one of the main players, and I'm thinking the cumin might be edging in there now as well. The mint and the fir are melding into something sharply dark green and not so cool in temperature anymore. Citrus has pretty much left the building. The tobacco backdrop is still going on. At one hour in, the cloves and tobacco are playing very well together, though the sharpness of the fir and maybe the cumin are keeping it from going entirely clove cigarette on me. There's definitely no citrus left, and anything that might be mint has blended in too well to be distinct.

Five hours later: Mostly clove and tobacco, still pretty prominent. There are still enough traces of other notes to keep this from being a dead ringer for clove cigarettes without the smoke, but those traces have blended smoothly enough together to not be describable note by note.

End of the day: I thought I'd hosed this review by going to the beach, actually. But now that I sniff my wrist, I do not smell only like Huntington Beach, but rather like Huntington Beach with vampires smoking clove cigarettes. There is, despite submersion in salt water for an hour, still a hint of clovey tobacco on my wrists. I suspect that these would be more than faint traces if I hadn't gone swimming.

Overall: This is pretty darn awesome. I like the smell of clove cigarettes, so having that as sort of a base is a good thing, and the addition of the evergreen and minty notes give it more depth. It's a dark scent, but not heavy enough that it's a bad idea to wear in the summer. It also has insane staying power, as evidenced by the fact that even the Pacific could not wash it away. Definitely a keeper! I'm also sure my imp is pretty aged, since I got it at a meet n' sniff, and it has the old logo on the label, so I'm also going to say right off the bat that aging this is a very very good idea.

What is not to love here? Cow, in general! Ghost cow. Seriously, this is one of the most entertaining ghost stories I've ever heard. The mere concept of this oil makes me happy, even aside from the Yerba Buena Island being in San Francisco factor. Of course, the San Francisco factor also made me squee, I won't deny. I also don't deny that I'm trying this one today specifically because I just got back from San Francisco yesterday, and I miss it like crazy. I spent a while sitting by the Ferry Building and looking at Yerba Buena island, and I couldn't help but imagine a ghostly moo echoing over the Bay, even though I didn't actually hear one.

In the bottle: Sweet milk with a trace of dry herbs. I can't tell you what the herbs are, except they're not sweet compared to the milk.

Wet on skin: The herbs are more pronounced, but still indistinct from each other. They're kind of a lightish green note over a solid base of sweet milk. If anything, the herbs keep this from going foody, oddly enough.

Drydown; Not much change from wet. Mostly sweet milk, though not strong, with a faint air of dry herbs. I can see where people are getting an impression of oregano, but only if I think about it. It's not smacking me over the head, nor is any other individual herb note. One hour later, this is still a very mellow scent. The milk note still dominant, but at the same time, it doesn't scream "Hi! I'm milk!" so very much. It's more of a light-colored creamy warmth, and is quite comforting. The herbs are still there on top, but they're still so subtle that I can't determine what they specifically are.

Five hours later: Not really getting much in terms of herbs anymore, at least not specifically, though I can still distinguish something faintly dry and not-milk against the remaining warm creamy note. On the whole, though, everything is quite faint.

End of the day: The parts of my wrists that had oil on them definitely smell different than the parts that didn't, but they don't smell anything like the scent I was describing earlier in the day! If anything, the faint note that's left is reminiscent of saltwater! This makes sense for the whole island factor of the Cow's haunting grounds, but it's still weird that I didn't catch wind of it at all until the scent is almost entirely gone.

Overall: This was my first experience with a majorly cream/milk-based scent, and I'll admit that I was a little wary of it, no matter how much I adore the concept behind the scent. Well, my worries were overblown or unfounded. I found Phantom Cow to be a very soft, pleasant, and even comforting scent. I definitely got more milk than herbs by a long shot, but the herbs were present enough to give the oil atmosphere and keep it from veering into purely foody waters. Once it has settled, I can picture the Cow in question relaxing happily among the island greenery, perhaps finally reunited with her ghost calf - and I think it has to be that sort of happy ending, since this scent registers to me as peaceful, rather than rank with spectral bovine rage. I was going to remark on two things: One, that this does not, for all its awesomeness, particularly remind me of San Francisco, and Two, that the salt water at the end is bizarre. This has since wrapped itself up neatly in my mind, however - saltwater surrounding Yerba Buena Island implies San Francisco Bay! I smell like San Francisco after all! Squee. How can I lose, when I get to smell like my favorite city, and like a ghost cow, all on the same day?

I am least familiar with the concept behind B340 out of the whole set of Convergence oils. Google is telling me that people can't stay in this cabin of the Queen Mary anymore because of the sheer volume of paranormal weirdness, and it's also telling me that someone was murdered in there, but it's not telling me much about what the victim was like. I have to wonder, but at the same time, the idea of being told a ghost story by way of scent is very intriguing.

In the bottle: Lightly sweet herbal mint and violets. I can tell there are also other things, but I have no idea what sort of other things. They're pretty backgrounded.

Wet on skin: Still a definite focus on the herbal mint and violets. These particular violets seem less strong than some of the others I've run into.

Drydown: Freshly dry, there isn't much of a change. It's still a pretty equal balance of light violet and fresh herbal mint. The sweetness I was getting when the oil was wet seems to be solidifying into something that's hinting at being rose. It's a subtle enough rose - if that's what it is at all - that I'm not worried about the other notes being drowned out, at least not at this point. By one hour in, I'm wondering whether or not my earlier impression of rose was accurate, since I only get hints of it occasionally. There still hasn't really been much change overall - sweet delicate violet and mint, and maybe something a little soft and powdery behind it.

Five hours later: Much fainter now, and sweet in a less plant-specific way than before. Still getting a touch of violet, but the mint has left the building. The sweetness has matured into something like a very light dusty vanilla, and it's possible that there's a light musk of some sort back there as well. I'd even say that, to my nose, it currently falls somewhere between the parts of Dorian that aren't tea and the parts of Black Opal that aren't rocks.

End of the day: Very faint, slightly powdery, sweetness. I am pretty certain this is related to the presence of a light musk, though it's still also vaguely vanilla-y.

Overall: This scent is, on the whole, light and ethereal. It's sweet and floral and herbal, but not in an overwhelming shade of any of those. If anything, it's like the recollection of a sweet floral perfume in a larger space. To my mind, the lightness of the scent against the pale background that remains late in the drydown makes sense for a larger room that was once occupied by elegant ghosts. And it's because the florals are subdued and ethereal that I like them in here. I don't like smacked-with-bouquet sorts of scents, but this is very gentle and pleasant and fresh, even if it's representing the perfume worn by people dead long enough that they themselves sure don't smell so fresh anymore. But I digress. I am not entirely sure if I can personally get away with wearing this, since it is pretty feminine, but that doesn't change the fact that I think it smells really good. I'm going to hold onto this and contemplate how to best make use of a lovely scent.

Out of all the places described by the four Convergence XV oils, I'm pretty sure this is the closest to me, mileage-wise. I've certainly spent a decent amount of time in Pasadena, and while I haven't seen this particular bridge, I'm still really wondering if the overall scent of this oil will be oddly familiar. Not that I've run into ghosts or anything, but, you know, plants! And, uh, freeways. Yeah.

In the bottle: Sharp, cool, and planty. I can't quite figure at this point whether the balance of plants is skewed more toward flowers or more toward the green parts of the plants. It's a bit aquatic back there, too.

Wet on skin: Lots and lots of plants, with a balance definitely more in favor of leaves, though there are some flowers in there. I can't tell what kind. I couldn't tell you what the leaves are, either, but they're sharp, and they do smell quite familiar. There's still some fresh water back there, but not enough to push this into "Hi! I'm aquatic!" territory.

Drydown: Freshly dry isn't much of a change from wet. It's still a dense combination of sharp oh-so-familiar leaves and softer flowers, with some water behind them. I do, however, think I'm starting to get a bit of something that explains why other people have had thoughts of wet concrete. I don't know if I would have noticed it on my own at this point, but it makes sense, given the rest of the review thread. At one hour in, the concrete note is more prominent than it was before, though it's still overgrown by plenty of greenery. I'm not getting so much of flowers anymore, just those familiar green plants. I get less of an impression of actual water now, but the greenery and the concrete still register as damp to me.

Five hours later: Predominantly wet concrete, with a hint of ozone. The greenery is still back there if I sniff really hard, but it's not particularly obvious otherwise.

End of the day: Ozone.

Overall: This scent gives me a detailed mental picture of a setting that is probably an exaggeration on the actual Arroyo Seco bridge (I've never been there specifically!), but could find its place nicely in a sort of Victorian ghost story derived from the actual history. There is thick dense greenery - lots of deciduous leaves, but also those iceplants everyone else in the review keeps bringing up (I looked them up - they're everywhere, and when I sniffed one on campus, it was indeed the familiar smell). The green is punctuated by small white flowers, the petals of which fall down an indistinct length. The green practically forms a tunnel or cave around a concrete bridge (looked up the actual bridge - it is indeed concrete!), but the ends of the bridge don't seem to particularly go anywhere. Everything is damp and dripping, as if it has recently rained, or as if fog has just cleared enough to reveal the scene. The ghosts that might be flitting about in this scene are sort of wistful melancholy ghosts, rather than malevolent horror story types that possess people. This is perhaps one of the strongest specific mental pictures I've gotten from a BPAL. I suspect that, judging from the concrete and the iceplant, this is another scent that is completely dead on in the depiction of its locale. Also, the overall temperature of the scent is quite cool, so I definitely see myself reaching for it on hot days. So far, the Convergence scents are two for two on awesome in my book! I'm looking all the more forward to the other two now.

This is, hands down, the most excited I've ever been about an individual BPAL scent. It is rocks! It is desert! It is California geology! And it is something gloriously weird with several theories about how it works. I cannot find anything that is not to love here, at least in my weird desert-dwelling California geologist book. And these were all thoughts I had before looking at the reviews thread! Oh man. There are comparisons to Moai and to Tombstone, which are two of my favorites. There is description of desert foliage and sand. Oh, and there was the thing where, at Will Call, Beth told me that she thought I'd really love this one. So, yes. Zillions and zillions of thanks to Persephone76 for picking this, and the other Convergence XV scents, up for me!

In the bottle: Dusty and stony with a hint of watery green - but like a succulent plant, rather than an aquatic. Overall, surprisingly cool in temperature given the whole Death Valley thing. But then again, one of the theories about how the rocks move involves a thin ice layer.

Wet on skin: The scent immediately starts warming up when it hits my skin, though at this point, it's still nowhere near record high temperatures ever recorded in the US. It's still a comparable balance to in the bottle, though - stone, fine-grained and sedimentary, with green succulent plants.

Drydown: This is taking surprisingly long to dry, given that the oil didn't seem that thick when I applied it. Perhaps this persistent wetness could be a nod to the microorganism film theory of why the rocks move? More likely, I'm reading way too much into it. Once it finally is dry enough to not be shiny on my wrists, it has warmed up even further. We're still not at nose-scorching heat, but the day is still young. The main body of the scent is, appropriately, still rocky and dusty. It gives me the impression of very fine-grained light colored sediment, both consolidated and not. On the whole, though, it's quite well blended, and while I'm still getting a vague impression of greenery, I can't identify really what type. But you probably wouldn't be able to standing in the middle of real desert plants, either! Oddly, it doesn't strike me as being particularly strong on my wrists, but when I take my wrists away from my nose, I can still smell it at pretty much the same intensity. At one hour in, it has warmed up further, and dried out even more. The succulents have mostly given way to drier flora, and they are very much a secondary note to the rocks. Rocks rocks rocks! Gloriously realistic ones! Oddly, they smell more solid than they did before, though perhaps this sense of consolidation comes more from further distinction between the dusty note and the rocky note. The scent is, if anything, more intense on my wrists than it was earlier, though the throw now doesn't seem as far.

Five hours later: Heat-steeped dusty rocks! The heat itself still isn't a huge driving force of this blend, but the rocks smell like they've been baking in the heat for quite some time. The same goes for what remains of the planty notes - they're dry and desiccated, and dwarfed by the sedimentary landscape. The intensity of the whole thing is still pretty strong.

End of the day: Surprisingly, since I hadn't really picked up on it much earlier, what remains now is quite a lot of ozone, with maybe a little bit of dusty rockyness back there. The ozone here is effectively a cooler note.

Overall: Oh wow. I have tried quite a few BPAL rock and dirt scents, and I think that this one is the most dead-on of the lot -- or it's the most dead-on capture of the scent of the kinds of places where I've done all of my fieldwork, that being the middle of the desert. The combination of dust, solid rock, succulent and desiccated plants, and that scent that rocks give off when they've been sitting in the sun (I have no idea how Beth achieved this, though I suspect the ozone I sniffed late in the day was somehow involved, since rocks do give off ozone when they're broken, at least), is just like stepping out of your air-conditioned car into a field of pale sediment and boulders on a bright warm or hot day. I was actually wondering if anyone in the department would think I'd been in the field because of how I smelled! I can easily understand the comparisons to Moai earlier in this thread, as that's also a crazy accurate rock scent, but the geological setting of Sailing Stones (arid desert, white sedimentary rocks, geophysical regime governed by faulting) is so very different from that of Moai (tropical island, black igneous rocks, geophysical regime governed by volcanism) that there can't even be a best rock scent battle there. Another thing that was striking about Sailing Stones is, at least on me, how its "temperature" went up during the day. I was crazy enough to be in Death Valley two weeks ago (yes, mid-July!), and early in the morning, before the sun had cleared the mountains, it wasn't all that hot, and you could smell the plants pretty well, but as the sun got higher and the rocks started to resorb heat after a dark night, the whole place started to smell much more like dust and minerals (the part we were in didn't really have boulders - huge sand dunes, though!). We got the heck out of there before full daylight and heat, though! But yes, long story short, this smells like Death Valley. It really does. I love it.

This marks my first actual purchase of a Carnaval scent. It was inevitable! Ohhh noes! I actually decided on this one at the Will Call right after the release of St. John's Eve. I figured I should give a bunch of big conflagration-y scents a sniff before opting for the most limited of the lot, and from first sniff, I immediately knew Priala was a winner. Also, I love the bottle art. Not gonna lie, that was a factor here.

In the bottle: Cinnamon and myrrh, warm and a bit sweet.

Wet on skin: More myrrh than cinnamon now, though both are still there. They're joined by a rich dark smoke, slightly acrid, but not enough to overcome the bit of sweetness from before.

Drydown: Freshly dry, it's rich smoke and sweet myrrh with some of the dryness of cinnamon. The smoke is less bitter than when the oil was wet. By one hour, it seems to have settled at a point pretty close to where it was when it was freshly dry - a good blend of sweetish myrrh and dryish cinnamon, overlaid with rich smoke.

Five hours later: The smoke has backed off quite a lot, but the overall scent hasn't faded particularly much. The balance now is primarily myrrh with some cinnamon for spice, and a wisp of smoke.

End of the day: Myrrh - dark, sweet, and still very present.

Overall: In accordance with my impression from Will Call, and from the skin test I did in June and failed to write up as a review at the time, Priala is a gorgeous fire scent. It's perhaps more metaphorical fire than literal, in that it doesn't smell actually charred and devastated, but the heat and smoke are still plenty clear. It's like this supernatural fire is sweeter and gentler than the real thing, or perhaps more like this scent shows off the beautiful and entrancing aspect of flame rather than the destructive part. It also doesn't morph much and has a very long wearlength, which are both good things in this case. Much love for this one, and I'm glad I have a bottle!

I have had excellent luck with every desert-themed BPAL I have tried to date, so that was reason enough for me to be intrigued by The Ifrit. The fact that it comes from American Gods just makes it that much better. Of course, the cost of the Gaiman oils was the main reason I hadn't picked up a decant to test yet, but then Rhowan sent me some in a trade - thank you!

In the imp: Ginger, cinnamon, and tobacco stand out, but there's other reddish spiciness behind it.

Wet on skin: Now I'm getting the dragon's blood, and less of the cinnamon. Still picking up on ginger and tobacco, though, and maybe pepper. The backdrop is actually rather soft, and I'm suspecting that'll mature into the sand note.

Drydown: Freshly dry, this is soft and dusty red, likely a combination of sand and musk, though I don't really have any experience with red musk specifically. The blast of dragon's blood that I got when this was wet has calmed back down; I assume it has blended with many of the other notes into an amorphous warm spiciness out of which I can't distinguish anything specific anymore. At one hour in, the sand note has really announced itself, and is the most prominent thing over a backdrop of dusky reddish spices and musk. The whole scent is still surprisingly soft, though not in a fading sort of way.

Five hours later: Sweet sand and musk. The spices have pretty much departed in full, but what they left behind is still quite present and nice. There's still an overall reddish impression to the scent.

End of the day: Still a bit of soft musk and sand.

Overall: Another definite win with me and desert scents! This too is gorgeous! It's definitely a much redder desert than the one represented by Coyote or Velvet Bandito or Ozymandias, and the redness is manifested in the color of the sand, the color of the sky, and the feel of the atmosphere here. It is, I admit, gentler than I expected given the character and his connection to fire, but that doesn't make me like it any less. This is one that's going to be tempting me with bottle-ness, I just know it.

I started writing the date I acquired a given imp on the label several months ago. Now, looking through the pile of untested ones, I see that this one is dated April, while everything else is from June or July. Somehow it has kept slipping through, but that stops today!

In the imp: Sharp dry wood and saltwater.

Wet on skin: Immediately, an odd metallic note comes out and pretty much covers up the woody note. Still getting the salt, though now it's pretty much just salt without water. I'm assuming the metallic note has to be blood, and I suspect that the aim here is actual blood, not dragon's blood.

Drydown: Freshly dry, it's salty metal. There's something a little bit smoother under there, with an overall dark color to it, but I can't figure out what it actually is. The salt and metal are immediately obvious. Overall, it's pretty strong, and my gut reaction is that it's not a pleasant kind of strong. At one hour in, this has shifted to metallic salt and vetiver. It has faded enough to not be overpowering, and I think the vetiver actually mellows it in general, which is not a thing that usually happens with vetiver.

Five hours later: Salty vetiver, fainter than before, though still quite evident. The strong metallic note from earlier is gone now, making the whole thing more subdued and less strange.

End of the day: Slightly dusty salty.

Overall: There may, perhaps, have been some sort of grand cosmic reason that I didn't get around to trying this until today, despite my having the imp since April. That reason may, perhaps, be that it really really didn't work on me. I found the earlier stages of drydown unpleasant enough that I thought about washing it off, though I opted for the benefit of the doubt. It definitely did improve with time, but even then, salty vetiver is not very me. I wish I'd gotten more of the actual thorn note in here, rather than a whole lot of blood and tears, but that just wasn't to be on my skin. So - rings pretty true to the description, but it's a description that other people are bound to enjoy far more than I did.

Sri Lanka was the suggestion of a friend who has generally had an excellent track record of suggesting oils I might like. With that track record on her part, and with my general good luck with Wanderlusts, I figured I should order it and test it!

In the imp: Dusty incense with a backdrop of cedar and sandalwood. Fortunately, this does not seem to be the sort of sandalwood that makes me sneeze.

Wet on skin: Mostly sandalwood and patchouli, with a bit of cedar still there, and now a more resinous backdrop. It's quite strong.

Drydown: Freshly dry, the whole thing has calmed down a little, and the sandalwood and patchouli are letting the cedar stick out a little more again. It's still essentially strong smoky incense, though. At one hour in, it's back to being a mix of sandalwood and patchouli incense. I'm really not getting any of the other notes.

Five hours later: Fainter overall, but still a very incensey mix of sandalwood and patchouli. Not so much smoke anymore, though, but rather the incense sticks themselves before they've started burning.

End of the day: Faintly and indistinctly earthy.

Overall: The scent of this reminds me a lot of the scent of The Coiled Serpent, which I was horribly allergic to. I guess the fact that the sandalwood in Sri Lanka is red makes all the difference! Both of those oils give off a definite Indian Grocery Store vibe, but that sort of scent world isn't far off from hippie head shop, either. I think this oil smells good, but it's much more of a scent that I'd want to smell in a place than on myself. Though I guess that's kind of the point of Wanderlusts, to smell like places and all...

I've never had an actual martini, but looking at the Pile O' Untested Imps, it seems like a good bet for a kind of scent that might be refreshing on a stupidly hot day. I'm sure actual martinis warm you up some degree due to their contents, but I'm hoping the "on the rocks" bit comes through here.

In the imp: Dry and cool, though not icy. A tiny bit tart, but not screamingly boozy.

Wet on skin: Not as dry now, and more tart than it was when wet. Still cool overall, though. The alcohol is starting to come through more now, though it's doing so in a way that strikes me as typically perfumey, not mixed drink-y.

Drydown: Freshly dry, it's smelling like a drink now, not like perfumer's alcohol. It's like there's a bit of of lemon-lime soda mixed with a larger portion of some dry alcohol. By one hour in, it is staying pretty much where it settled when it dried to begin with, though the tartness may be less specifically citrusy.

Five hours later: Pretty much the exact same balance as the one hour mark, though fainter.

End of the day: Still a little bit of dry tartness.

Overall: So, I figured I should look up what goes in a martini, and reading the description, the scent of this oil makes complete sense. I suspect that, were I to go sniff the real deal, I'd be all, "That smells just like Twenty-One!" Anyway, this definitely was cooling on a hot day, as I hoped it would be, but in general, I am not enamored of walking around smelling like I've been sitting in booze, no matter how classy the booze is. I think I'm going to swap the oil, though it has made me more interested in trying an actual martini in the future.

It's summer in Riverside, which means it's entirely too hot to really be legal. I was considering my pile of untested imps, and this one stood out as being a colder sort of scent, which is exactly what I was hoping for a day like this.

In the imp: A clear and chilly aquatic with a splash of grapefruit.

Wet on skin: The aquatic notes are dominant, and they are still very clear, smooth, and cold. There's a little bit of sweetness, but it's indistinct as to whether it comes from fruit or flowers.

Drydown: Freshly dry, this is still mainly an extremely smooth and chilly aquatic. I think I'm getting a touch of the champagne now, though it's light and not screamingly boozy. Any hint of grapefruit is gone. At one hour in, not much has changed. The crystal-clear aquatic notes are still dominant, and there's still an indistinct sweetness. I think it might be floral at this point, rather than champagne, but it's certainly not overtly screamingly floral.

Five hours later: Faint, glassy-smooth, and chilly. Not even particularly aquatic anymore, though if I had to classify this somewhere, I guess it would still fall in that category.

End of the day: Gone.

Overall: This definitely was the kind of chilly I was hoping for! It's cold without being frozen, and watery without also being salty. The little bit of sweetness makes it livelier, but it doesn't come close to verging into sticky. Definitely a good blazing hot weather kind of scent.

So, yesterday I tested the Wanderlust Jezirat Al Tennyn. It seemed only logical that I should test the oil based on its inhabitants today, since my wonderful summer Switch Witch sent me a decant earlier this week!

In the imp: Spicy! A little sweet, too, but the pepper and the cloves are the main players, and they definitely give a sense of heat.

Wet on skin: The patchouli is coming out now as an earthy backdrop, and the pepper isn't quite as punch-you-in-the-face as it was in the imp. There's still plenty of clove, and I think the sweetness that I'm getting is probably related to the vanilla flower.

Drydown: Freshly dry is pretty much the same as wet: a foreground of clove and pepper with a backdrop of patchouli and a little bit of indistinct sweetness. I think there might be some amber coming into the picture now, but I'm not sure. That's a note that shows up later and lasts longer on me. By one hour in, the pepper is barely evident and the cloves have calmed down further. The patchouli is still there, and now the amber and moss are more evident. It's an interesting balance between hot and earthy scents right now, though not in a volcano-geological way.

Five hours later: It's all amber and moss now. While this scent initially registered as red, it has definitely jaunted across the color wheel into green territory by this point.

End of the day: Gone.

Overall: I don't think I've ever had a scent do quite as much of a 180 in terms of "temperature" and color on me as happened with the Wild Men. Really quite surprising! I like both moss and amber, but the thing that made this really awesome and true to inspiration were the hotter notes that were present in the first hour or two of wear. The combination of those with the earthier notes smelled so very great, and I wish that stage had lasted longer. I'll hold onto this decant, but the crazy morphiness implies, at least for the time being, that an upgrade is not necessary.

Today, I am wearing a shirt with a picture of a volcano on it. I think this is reason enough for me to be trying this oil (out of the many untested imps sitting on my desk) today.

In the imp: Truly bizarre! I think there's pepper in there, and possibly also cinnamon. It's definitely more on the fire side than on the rock side right now. Possibly also some ozone? I'm really not sure!

Wet on skin: Is that...salty and fiery at the same time? It sure is! Huh. At this particular moment in time, I have to confess that it reminds me a bit of smoked salmon, though at the same time not overtly fishy. I just can't think of other things that are both salty and smoky. I'm no longer convinced of cinnamon, but I think there still is pepper.

Drydown: Freshly dry, this is still salty smoke, and it's still incredibly bizarre. I don't think I'm getting ozone anymore at this moment, but there's starting to be something drier under there, which I'm suspecting is going to turn into volcanic rock, since the wind, water, and fire have already been represented thus far. At one hour in, there is more of the dusty stony stuff going on, but still only in the background of the salty smoke.

Five hours later: Now, it's mostly volcanic rocks and vapors. The ozone that I smelled way back in the beginning seems to have also been hiding behind the salty smoke, but now that those notes have mostly dissipated, it's back, though secondary to the rocks. It's a little like Moai at this point, though softer. Maybe pumice rather than fresh basalt.

End of the day: Gone.

Overall: Jezirat al Tennyn is definitely one of the most bizarre BPALs I've tried to date, and yet it manages to be exactly what the description says. There's the salt of the ocean, the ozone of the wind, smoke from the fire, and there are volcanic rocks. I have no idea how Beth did that, but it's definitely all there, and I am duly impressed! I do wish the salty smoke stage hadn't lasted so long relative to the stage with rocks, and I resultantly probably won't wear this terribly often, but I'm going to hold onto it anyway because I love the concept and the trueness to it.

I was just saying the other day that a rewatch of the Disney Alice and Wonderland a few days ago was enough to prompt me to test the Mad Tea Party imps that I have. And then, lo and behold, there is a massive Mad Tea Party update! What manner of madness is this?! So, March Hare is the only other untested one I have from that category, and I have all the more reason to test it today.

In the imp: Sweet clove with a backdrop of apricot. There might be some other spices as well, but I might just be thinking that in association with the clove.

Wet on skin: Immediately a lot more apricot, though still plenty of spicy clove. Gotta say, this immediately strikes me as more of an October hare than anything going on in March!

Drydown: Freshly dry, it's a wonderfully clovey-spicey sort of apricot. It still strikes me as extremely autumnal, and also as something that would be nice on toast. By one hour in, the apricot has pretty much disappeared entirely, but there's still a lot of wonderful spicy clove left.

Five hours later: Gone.

End of the day: Still gone.

Overall: It's becoming increasingly evident that most fruit scents in general disappear on me all too quickly. The mix of apricot and clove was very nice while it lasted, and not so foody that I couldn't handle it, but the apricot aspect was short-lived. Cloves are nice by themselves, but the point here is the mix! I'm probably going to have to pass this one on, regrettably.

This was a frimp from a trade with the amazing Rhowan; thank you so much for sending it to me! My allergies are wary of that white sandalwood note, but the other notes sound awesome, so I'm going to try this anyway, with kleenex nearby, and hope the other notes are more significant players.

In the imp: Benzoin and myrrh are most prominent, with some of the sweetness of rose. I also get a little of the sandalwood, but not enough to set my nose tingling.

Wet on skin: Much less sweet and more woody, though fortunately still not so much that my nose itches. Getting the moss now, but much less of the rose.

Drydown: Freshly dry, the rose is back again, though not as a dominant scent by any means. It's a subtle dusty woody incensey rose, and it's quite nice. At one hour in, however, the rose is outpacing everything else; it's sweet rose with a dusty backdrop. Come back, mosses and woods and resins! Come back!

Five hours later: Almost completely gone, but what remains is more woody-incensey-mossy. The rose is no longer in the picture.

End of the day: Gone.

Overall: Of all of the stages Thanatos went through, the wet-on-skin was my favorite. The balance between woody-incensey and rosy was just right at that point - a dry understated rose that's quite unisex. Rose overpowering the other notes is not so much my thing, but at the same time, it is a smell that I like, and I can get away with it if it's subtle. Unfortunate that it was either not-subtle or completely gone here! I'll probably hold on to the imp for a little while, though, and then reevaluate from there.

Here's the part where I admit that I still haven't tried normal regular Snake Oil, I suppose. But I've heard rave reviews of this one, and the things that got added to the Snake Oil in it are a major draw for me. There is also the factor that this kind of snake supposedly could show up on my street whenever the heck it wanted to, but I fortunately haven't run into one yet.

In the imp: Tonka and leather, with things that must be Snake Oil because they're not sage and red sandalwood. Quite smooth.

Wet on skin: The whole combination smells a little drier when it hits my skin, which makes sense for a desert snake. I'm suspecting this has a lot to do with the arrival of the red sandalwood, and I think that I'm just maybe starting to get the sage now, too.

Drydown: This oil is fairly thick and takes longer to dry than a lot of others I've tried. Just after the glistening wet oil stage, this scent is predominantly soft leather, with some of the sweetness of the tonka and some of the dusty sandalwood. It seems like the sage can't decide how prominent it wants to be, and same goes for the notes that I assume to be the Snake Oil base. For a while, the leather amped up so strong that nothing else was detectable, but it had calmed down again at the one hour mark or shortly thereafter, and what was left was a surprisingly gentle and soft mix of leather, tonka, and a little bit of sage and sandalwood. Very very nice.

Five hours later: Warm, dusty, and still gentle, but still definitely there. The tonka is more prominent than the leather now, though both are still involved, and the sage and sandalwood dry it out a little.

End of the day: Faint tonkalike sweetness.

Overall: So far, I haven't met a desert-themed BPAL that I didn't like. This is another variation on the theme of warm and dusty and arid, but is a distinct variation with its combination of tonka and leather, and I like it very much in its distinctness. I do wish the leather weren't so overwhelmingly strong in the first 45 minutes or so (I worried I'd put on way too much oil due to the strength, but then it all calmed down a lot), but the end result is great, and lasts quite long as well. Definitely keeping the decant - thanks to my Switch Witch for sending it to me!

So, I rewatched the Disney Alice and Wonderland yesterday; I think the previous time I'd watched it was about ten years ago. It was as wonderfully confusing as I'd remembered, and it was enough to persuade me to test the few Mad Tea Party imps I have. With Drink Me, now that I'm reading the notes list on the website, I think Disney left out a few!

In the imp: Cherry pineapple cake. I can already tell I'm going to be wanting dessert today.

Wet on skin: The pineapple is the strongest thing, I think, though the cherries are back there. Good thing I'm not allergic to the smell of cherries! I think I'm picking up some toffee now, too, and the cake impression I'm getting very well could be a mix of the custard and the toast.

Drydown: Freshly dry, everything has become a little more subdued, which is good, because I was already craving pastry. Blend-wise, though, it's still a sort of creamy custardy pineapple cake with a few cherries. At one hour in, it has faded more, and is also less overtly fruity. I'd say the custard is the most prominent scent out of all of this right now.

Five hours later: Very faint indistinct sweetness. Kind of like one of those snack cakes you get in plastic wrap and clearly have no natural ingredients in them, but are sweet and sticky nevertheless.

End of the day: Very slightly sweet.

Overall: This oil has reaffirmed that I am really not a big fan of foody scents. It is not at all that I thought this smelled bad. Rather, it was either making me crave some sort of cake all day, or making me go OMG SUGAR SHOCK. I was able to refrain from going and seeking actual cake, but it was kind of hard to do that. I should not be wearing things that make me want to snack! So, I think I will be swapping this to someone who can get away with smelling like dessert while not also craving dessert. (Sidenote: I'm glad the turkey never showed up. I was kind of terrified of what that would smell like in oil form.)

Today seems like a good day for PIRATES. This was a Lab frimp, and one I was pretty excited to get. Even though it wasn't on my wishlist, I've had good experiences with the couple of pirate scents I've tried so far, so I'm hoping that trend continues.

In the imp: Saltwater, wood, and a teeny tiny bit of bay rum.

Wet on skin: Saltwater is the predominant note, with the wood and the bay rum present, but still in the background.

Drydown: As this dries, the leather really starts to come out, and it blends really nicely with the bay rum and wood. The saltwater is accompaniment to these notes, rather than something that drowns them out. By one hour in, the balance has become even smoother, with the bay rum and the leather and the wood complimenting each other extremely well, and the saltwater serving as an ever-present background.

Five hours later: Still going! Not as strong as at one hour, but the balance is pretty much the same.

End of the day: The leather and bay rum have since departed, but the remaining salty wood and water is still quite piratical.

Overall: This is another one of those scents where the concept has, at least in my opinion, been perfectly captured by the notes, and even more so by the balance. The wood and leather of the ship as most prominent, the bay rum as more of an atmosphere, the saltwater as a backdrop. These are some excellent pirates! This is also a good scent for days that are stupidly hot (as so many Riverside summer days are), as it brings a sort of cool sea breeze along with it by default. A definite keeper.

So, today is July 3rd and I have a many-hour rehearsal of inane patriotic music later this evening. I'm getting paid for the concert, sure, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy rehearsing "The Star Spangled Banner" for the umpteenth time. And so, I will subtly sniff my snark by testing London today.

In the imp: Roses, but different than the other BPAL roses I've encountered so far. These are sharper, and even somewhat tart.

Wet on skin: These roses manage to be drier than the usual ones while also being sharper. I don't get anything other than roses, but then again, they're the only note listed!

Drydown: Freshly dry is the same as wet - a fairly light, dryish, tart rose. Nothing has really changed by the one hour mark.

Five hours later: The tart aspect of the scent is hanging on stronger than the characteristically rose aspect, though it is still back there.

End of the day: A slight impression of tartness remains, though it's not particularly rosy anymore.

Overall: I don't quite understand what makes this a wicked and nasty rose, per the Lab's description. Perhaps the tartness? Or maybe just the inherent roses-have-thorns thing? Anyway, I did not find this to be particularly blackened and twisted smelling, though it was perhaps drier than other rose notes I've encountered. I found it to be a pleasant scent, though at the same time, I'm not really the kind of person who would choose to go around smelling like just plain roses. I was pleased in my expression of snark at the obnoxious patriotic music, but at the same time, I somehow doubt I'll wear this one again.

This was a Lab frimp, and now that I'm looking at the notes, it seems like a really good call on their part. I like a lot of the listed notes, and I'm hoping they work well together.

In the imp: Ozoney blackcurrant with a hint of lavender.

Wet on skin: This is starting to go rather soapy. It's a nice-smelling blackcurrant lavender soap, but soap nevertheless. Hopefully this will change.

Drydown: Freshly dry, it's not quite as soapy, but I'm still definitely getting that impression. The next strongest impression I get is of blackcurrant, with only a little bit of lavender back there. At one hour in, the whole scent is softer, but it is pretty much still blackcurrant lavender soap.

Five hours later: The soapiness finally went away between three and four hours, but it brought most of the other notes with it. At five hours, what's left is mostly white musk with maybe a bit of resin, all rather soft.

End of the day: Tiny bit of white musk.

Overall; If this actually were a bar of soap, it would be pretty awesome. Then, the soap smell would make sense and the other notes would inherently not be competing with the soap smell. As a perfume, however, I do not think there is a place for soap smell. I was pretty sad that it came up, since I like many of the listed notes, but I guess there's nothing I can do. I'll probably swap this...or look into figuring out how to actually put it in soap.

This is a scent that septima_pica recommended to me after taking note of the fact that I tend to enjoy scents with tobacco and labdanum notes. I'm a little wary of the sandalwood for possible allergy reasons, but that's not going to stop me from testing Gaueko out.

In the imp: Dark smoky lavender, and quite strong.

Wet on skin: Labdanum is starting to show up now, and a touch of nag champa as well. It's still mostly smoky lavender, though.

Drydown: Freshly dry, the lavender has decided to hold back some, and now I'm starting to get a decent amount of smooth tobacco mixed with labdanum. The nag champa's still only a small note. At one hour in, this is largely a blend of lavender and tobacco, with some labdanum lurking in the background. The nag champa never really showed up more than it did when freshly dry. The whole thing is less smoky than it was before.

Five hours later: A very balanced blend of tobacco, lavender, and labdanum.

Overall: In the earlier stages of the drydown, when the lavender was still the most prominent thing going on, I was a little iffy on this one. Lavender's fine, sure, but not if it's at the expense of all the other notes in the blend. As the scent matured, though, I really liked the balance between the lavender, tobacco, and labdanum that came up. Definitely dark and rich, with the tiniest bit of an edge. I think I'll keep the imp, though I do wish Gaueko would get to that balanced point a little earlier on.

I might be posting this in July, but I actually wrote up everything except the intro and the final impressions in early June. I mention this because I decided to test High John the Conqueror on a day that I had to give a big presentation, in the hope that it might alleviate a little presentation anxiety and maybe not make me talk so fast (though I didn't have espresso before this talk, which may have also helped there).

In the imp: Dry herbs and sharp grapes.

Wet on skin: The thing I thought was grape isn't there now. It's still herbal, though I'd say those herbs smell fresher now than they did while wet. There's also something that's a bit cleanser-sharp.

Drydown: Freshly dry, this is all about sharp, dark green, cleansery herbs. And I'd almost swear there's some vetiver, too. What? At one hour in, I'd still swear there was vetiver in this, though it is fainter now to the other sharp, almost astringent, herbs.

Five hours later: A slight dry sharpness, but really quite faint.

End of the day: Gone.

Overall: The presentation went pretty well. I certainly didn't stress out or stutter, though I did end up taking rather longer than my allotted 30 minutes. (For this, I blame the person who was supposed to present after me, but who didn't show up.) I have no idea how much of that I can credit to High John the Conqueror versus how much can be explained by the fact that I was talking about a geologic fault that fascinates me. But regardless of the oil's contribution, I was not all that keen on the scent. I will probably hold on to it in case I need to face something crazy stressful, but I probably won't wear it often.

When the list of prototypes for the most recent Cleaning Out The Cobwebs event went up, I was intrigued by the mention of a few scents that corresponded with minerals or chemical elements. That wasn't enough incentive for me to drive out to Burbank that close to finals week, but as soon as I saw reviews of Kinnabari that mentioned distinctly mineral notes and impressions of red desert rocks, I knew I wanted to try somehow. I managed to get a bottle through a swap with the wonderful Rhowan, and I'm so excited to give Kinnabari a test drive!

In the bottle: Red dusty sediment and some sort of sharp spice. Maybe also a touch of cinnamon, though that's not the main spice I'm getting.

Wet on skin: Less spicy now, or the spice has better melded in with the other stuff. Right now, the best description I can come up with is heat-steeped oxidized-red fine-grained sedimentary rocks. Which is, I guess, pretty specific.

Drydown: Freshly dry, I swear there's a little bit of a metallic edge to the dusty sediment scent that's the main thing going on here. My earlier impression of "oxidized-red" was just a color description, but now it makes sense sniff-wise as well! There is still a definite impression of warmth going on here, enhanced by what's left of that spice note that I can't ID. At one hour in, not much has changed, though, oddly, the scent seems to have become a little stronger. It's still sun-heated fine red sediment with a very slight metallic overtone and a little bit of spice.

Five hours later: Overall much softer, but still a blend of oxidized red sediment and a little bit of spice, which continues to lend an impression of heat to the whole thing.

End of the day: Faintly dusty, but what's left still gives an impression of rust red.

Overall: This is one of the most unabashedly overtly geological BPALs I've ever had the pleasure to sniff, and I would absolutely emphasize the term "pleasure" here! I think this is a gorgeous blend that captures a very distinct impression of oxidized red sediments steeping in the desert sun. I've never been to Red Rock Canyon in central California, but I think Kinnabari smells how photos of Red Rock look. But another thing that Kinnabari perfectly fits is the characteristics of the actual mineral cinnabar! To consult the mineralogy textbook, cinnabar (HgS) has an adamantine to metallic luster, an earthy red color, leaves a deep red streak, may be very fine grained, and is often associated with areas of geothermal activity. I guess that's not sedimentary explicitly, but the rest of that fits the scent so well that I'm kind of floored. Not to mention that I'm kind of in love. I feel very lucky to have gotten my hands on a bottle of this, and I know I'll be using it - though sparingly, since Beth is probably the only person who knows whether or not it will actually end up in the GC ever.