lucy gray

Claw polish: All of it! But especially... Destroying Angel Maiden Midnight on the Midway Lady Macbeth Tops: DDLM Steamworks Tweedledee Bath Oil: Any of 'em Soap: Any of 'em

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Resiny, woody, and very, very sweet...so, pretty much what the component list would lead you to expect. I've visited Kostnice (my avatar is from a photo I took there, actually) and don't find this blend especially evocative, but I imagine on someone else it would work better, both as a perfume and as a capturing of the spirit of the place. Unfortunately, rosewood really doesn't agree with my skin, so it's just not going to happen for me.

Bilquis reminds me a lot of Queen of Sheba. I mostly get bitter almonds and bitter spices, just a lot of bitterness overall. It's thick and heavy and quite overwhelming. Alas.

For me, there's little difference between in vial and on skin: dragon's blood, dragon's blood, dragon's blood, dragon's blood, cinnamon, dragon's blood, dragon's blood, and a faint whiff of...dragon's blood.

Faith is definitely one of my favorite violet perfumes, from BPAL or any other company. It's crazily sugar-sweet when wet, and softens during drydown into a beautiful pure violet candy scent that is neither too sharp nor too soft. I love it; it smells like something you'd get offered for dinner in Faerie.

At first it's a bit hard to take (chocolate and caramel like WHOA) but after drydown it calms down into deliciousness -- it reminds me of something the main character in Robin McKinley's Sunshine might bake. The pomegranate, which is why I wanted to try this in the first place, shows up just enough to keep it from being waaaaay too sweet, but Pumpkin III is not for the faint of heart in terms of foodiness.

Well, it's an accurate description! In the vial and on, it smells EXACTLY like the lab's Embalming Fluid with aftershave mixed in. What I love about EF, though, is that it's bright and fresh, neither of which is really a feature of aftershave, no matter how nice it may smell.

Wet, it smells pretty much like absinthe tastes: death and licorice candies. (Or, to quote Ralph Wiggum: "it tastes like burning!") As it dries, it becomes much, much sweeter, but without losing the core of the initial scent. Neat! It's like the liquor being poured over the little slotted spoon of sugar. I can get each of the listed notes, I think, but none of them particularly stand out once the oil's dried entirely. Ultimately, I don't know how often I'd wear this one, but it's a fun, evocative blend.

I feel like Wesley would need two scents, one for pre- and one for post-badassening. Casanova is a more traditional men's cologne but has a bit of a sharp edge to it (on me, anyway), so that could be good for the later years, but I'm not sure about his earlier, more innocent self. Does "haplessness" have a smell?

Devilishly playful: white peach, amber, golden musk and patchouli. Peach can be way too sweet (I do love it, just not always on me), and patchouli-heavy blends have a tendency to make me smell like dirt and pee (I never, ever love this). So Imp is a freaking miracle: a darker peach that is totally wearable, earthy but not dirt-like, if that makes sense, and with a tiny bit of amber, which is one of the few resins I really love. Between this and Madame Moriarty, I may have to rethink my stance on patchouli!

The milk note should have made me wary, but I really wanted to try everything with pomegranate in it, so I gave this one a shot. There was little difference between in the bottle and on my skin; it smelled of curdled dairy and rotting fruit either way. The description sounds delicious and I'm jealous of people with whose chemistry milkiness agrees -- I want badly to be able to do creamy blends, but it just doesn't work out for me very often.

Wet, Cockaigne smells a bit like Eat Me; I get a lot of the sweet cake, which I love. But after drydown, the wine shows up and quickly becomes overwhelming. Strangely, the total effect is one of a rich Indian dish with lots of creamy-yet-savory sauce. No idea which bizarre little crevice of my brain that comes from, but I swear, I smell like Indian food.

Got this as a freebie in a swap, and I'm really glad I did! (Thanks, Tilby! ) I never would have tried it otherwise; wood and I are not friendly. But I get no sharpness or overwhelming woodiness, just a light, sweet, green scent. Love it.

Once dry, it was strangely heavy on me; it smelled mainly like a thick and buttery beeswax with something else that I couldn't quite place -- it could have been the sage or the metallic note. I felt as if I had smeared a Burt's Bees hand balm all over myself! Overall, not for me.

... This oil contains the innocence of the Garden, coupled with the Truth and Erudition found in the fruit of the Tree of Evil: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood. Milky scents tend to be hit-or-miss on me; sadly, Eden landed on the miss side. It's a very ripe scent, with the big juicy fig* battling the sharp sweetness of the coconut/almond for domination. I think on someone else it could be gorgeous, but on me it's sickly sweet. *And when I say big, I mean BIG. I kept hearing Tim Gunn's voice in my head going "Hmm, I have to say I'm a bit concerned. That's a lot of fig."

Chimera is the only one that's gotten me multiple compliments, which is okay by me because Chimera is om nom nom nommy. Most people I know seem to like the warm and foody stuff.

I'm terrible at identifying notes, but I guess I was right about the lavendar. In the vial and wet, Nanshe was shockingly strong and sharp, almost astringent. But during the drying, it slowly began to calm down into a lovely sort of lightly-burnt citrus smell. It was still quite strong for a while, but not harsh. It's a gorgeous scent, really refreshing...and I did remember my dreams quite clearly the next morning, for whatever that's worth.

In the vial, it was the incensiest incense that ever incensed--heavy, thick. Wet, it smelled almost exactly like church (and as a lapsed Catholic, I have to say that church incense is the best part of that whole business), sort of woody and sharp, but with a certain mellowness. Dry? Well, it made the person who turned me on to BPAL smell mysterious and smoky. Unfortunately, on me, Cathedral gives a far more prosaic "head shop propriator" vibe. There's a weirdly sweet and cloying scent busting up all that lovely smoke. Ah, well.