roesmoker

I was surprised by the fact that this didn't work on me, because I'm very fond of some of the wood blends - Black Forest in particular. Mostly it just smelled like wood, and not in a good way, more like pencil shavings.

Okay, my skin is officially weird. Yesod smells like rubber and gasoline on me. I'm not sure if this is the jasmine (usually it goes sickly sweet), or rose (which usually turns into soap, both in combination, or the aquatics, which also hate me in general. In looking through my notes some other scents that have turned into 'eau de gas station' on me include Nyx, Ra and Brimstone - the only one that appears to have anything in common with Yesod is Nyx with the night-blooming jasmine. Needless to say, I'll be swapping Yesod.

I tried this and Fire of Love around the same time, and I decided they were similar but I liked FoL better, so I swapped LM away. But after seeing the results (heh) of the time I had worn Love Me, and realizing I kept thinking about it and wanting more of it (and haven't worn FoL since that initial try), I got another imp. Now I'm convinced, it smells better and works better than Fire of Love. I get a cinnamon-y wet phase, drying down to a nice sweet patchouli/powder. As with Follow Me Boy, I am very, very surprised by the idea that there's either jasmine or dragon's blood in this because both of those ingredients play incredibly badly with my skin and Love Me is just great. The way in which it works (for me anyway) is if there's someone I have a crush on, I wear LM and get all up in his grille and then he starts acting like he likes me back. Definitely has a delayed effect though from what I can tell - maybe the spell takes a few days to sink in.

I had such high hopes for this one because of the name and the fact that it was a Voodoo blend, but it's not at all like my beloved French Creole. Sort of peppery and weakly floral, like a tulip. Reading the above I see that it has DBR, which explains a lot - DBR and I don't get along, it usually turns plastic and gross on me.

You know, I didn't hate it, which is surprising - nay, shocking! - given that jasmine and I are mortal enemies, but I didn't love it either. It was sort of like Van Van but not as nice. Did not notice any voodoo effects - and some of the other blends in this category WORK for me, so off to swaps it went.

I did not like Black Cat at all! In terms of fragrance, it was OK but I didn't love it - rosy/minty, sort of like a weaker version of Venus. But in terms of effect, I think it brought ME bad luck… I was irritated and hassled by countless small annoyances all day both times I tried it!

I can't believe I haven't reviewed Van Van yet!! What can I say, I love this oil to death. Not only does it smell fabulous - on me it starts out lightly lemony and quickly goes into a swoony, delicious vanilla powder/cake, like a lemon pound cake fresh from the oven, that lasts and lasts all day long - but it makes me feel great. Happy and tough, like I can withstand anything and not put up with any bullshit doing it, either. I don't know if the ingredient that smells like vanilla really is or not, because vanilla in other blends is hit-or-miss on me, so anyone who's scared to try it because their skin doesn't play well with vanilla should check VV out. I bought a 10ml for myself and an enabling 5ml for my sister and/or my friend (depending on who I think deserves it more!), both of whom fell in love with it at first sniff.

Got this in the Sephiroth imp auction I won on eBay. The only one I had tried before was Binah, so I was psyched to try the others. Wet: Malkuth was very fruity, berry-like. Not being a fruit fan, I forged on to see what the dry-down would be like. Drying: It got better as it went on, but I didn't get a whole lot of cinnamon, more like a light dusty floral. There was a period of about an hour or so when I almost liked it, but that phase didn't last too long. Also, it faded relatively fast - I put Malkuth on my left wrist and Binah on my right (a known favorite, as a control), and after 6 hours Malkuth was completely gone, while Binah was going strong. (I sound like a deodorant commercial! Also reminds me of that quote "the food was bad and there wasn't enough of it".) I definitely see the Queen of Spades comparison, though there must be some different ingredient because I like QoS (don't love it, but liked it enough to keep an imp) and don't particularly care for Malkuth.

Lovely, just great. In terms of scent, it reminds me of Tarot: The Sun a little bit - that may be the heliotrope mentioned above - and I also get a little lavender, and some kind of musk and/or amber. I don't get any honey or florals, thank god, because those usually don't like me very much. In terms of effectiveness, it works. I feel very decisive and strong when I wear this - not afraid of confrontation at all, as I usually am. The name reminds me of Richard the Lionhearted, like I'm going into battle, armored and righteous. Overall, this one is tied with Helping Hand for my favorite TAL so far.

CCCXCIX (399) Origin: Received from Gin in a swap for my CT128. It's funny, because when I read Gin and queenb's reviews I am confused - I don't get any fruit or butter or mint - maybe cinnamon in the beginning, but as soon as it dries I get a gorgeous sweet, vanilla powdery musk yumminess - like Van Van or the very last dry-down of Shub-Niggurath. LOVE IT! Now I have the rest of the bottle - yay! Previously reviewed by queenb and Gin ETA 11/05: I realized what this CT reminds me of - Black Forest! On me the main note of this blend smells exactly like the dry-down of Black Forest. No wonder I love it so much!

I absolutely adore Binah, but after reading the above reviews it really shouldn't come as a surprise - I'm a sucker for the deep incensy, wood-y notes a la Cathedral or Black Forest. On me it starts out pure resin/incense and gets slowly sweeter and more beautiful the more it dries. I'm definitely going to buy a 10ml of this one of these days. Edited to add: I thought I'd gone off Binah when I got a different result one time, but it must have been a TOM (time of month) issue because I've worn it since then and I get the same lovely intense sexy dry-down that I fell in love with originally. I made my co-worker smell it (since he claims to be a perfume connoisseur) and he said it was romantic and intimate (as opposed to Malkuth which was more of an "action" perfume - like if you were to burn a candle at a party for many friends). ETA 2: Now that I've tried the Red Musk SN, I am positive this blend has red musk in it. Both Binah and Arabian Nights are almost single-note red musk on me.

Wow. I couldn't have named the notes in this one to save my life, but now that I read the reviews I recognize the mint, bitter chocolate, tobacco and pennyroyal (like the Fool, another one of my favorites). But the scent (nice as it is - and I don't even really care for mint) is really hardly the point here. What I felt today when I was wearing HH was like things were being facilitated for me, "luck" or in a sort of Jupiterian sense "fortune" was smiling on me - minor annoyances either went away or solved themselves, I won an auction I had had little hope of winning (based on what happened the last 3 times I really wanted the item), and bought another bottle that I lost the auction for before for less than the other had closed at (including shipping). So all in all, I went home happy. Then I got home to find my boyfriend had made me spaghetti sauce - out of the blue - and he never cooks for me. Soooo nice. The only down side is that I did spend way too much on BPAL today! But if that's the worst that can happen to me, bring on the Helping Hand. Edited to add - there is DEFINITELY a sense of "be careful what you wish for" with this blend - it will make your desires come true - but are you really prepared for that to happen? I just make sure to direct my thoughts in a constructive manner when I wear this.

CXX (120): 1st try: Sort of floral, sort of sweet, all the notes are very faint and vague to me. 2nd try: floral/air freshener. Sadly, this one's not for me - off to swaps you go! Previously reviewed by laochodia.

Origin: received as a frimp by the lovely OriginalWacky. Wet: Mmm, I like this. Very sexy in a Maenad, get-blackout-drunk-and-tear-some-men-to-pieces sort of way. I'm usually not a big fan of fruit in scents, so I don't know why the grape part doesn't turn me off - maybe the civet is overcoming it? Dry-down: Waa, it's gone all stale old-lady powder. I bet it's the musk. I think musk doesn't like me.

Origin: got this as a frimp in my last (end of SIA) order. Wet: Hmm, smells a lot like the Somnium blends. I can definitely see where the lavender impressions are coming from. I like lavender but for some reason it only goes well with bergamot in my nose.. all the lavender scents (including French Lavender single note) just made me want to smell Nanshe again. I will say that it does make me feel peaceful. Sadly, on the dry-down it turned into dryer sheets (no pun intended) .

In the imp: smells like - mint/fruit - white grapes? Or maybe sparkling apple juice, I definitely see the "bubbly" quality mentioned above. It's weird because I don't really like fruity scents, or mint for that matter, yet these preferences don't really seem to matter when it comes to the Fool. Wearing it: I love this scent - much like Has No Hanna, more for how it makes me feel than how it actually smells. I feel liberated, confident that everything will turn out for the best - I can step into the abyss without fear. This is a great feeling to have in my arsenal, especially for someone like me who is often anxious and worries about the future and the unknown. Big bottle time!

Source: frimp from the Lab. I'd long wanted to try this one (like others before me, I see) because of my love for the poem and the Waterhouse painting. In the imp: green. It smells familiar but I can't tell what it is. Wet: I know - cucumber! Or some other green vegetable. It smells foody and not in a good way. Drying: A cross between Dial™ soap (that's probably the rose - if there is any - since 99% of the time rose turns into soap on me) and generic air freshener. Oh, I'm sad. I wanted to love the lady, but she showed me no mercy. Unless she magically morphs into spicy/sweet/resiny yum, there's no way I'm keeping her now.

CCCLXXII (372) I swapped an imp of my 128 with graycat for an imp of this. Wet and in the imp, smelled very citrus-y. As it dried down I got more and more of a commercial men's cologne scent, like CK One or Canoe. I used to like those back in the days BB (before BPAL, duh), but now I aim higher. Interestingly enough, my notes say that the Caterpillar and Whitechapel both reminded me of men's colognes, so if you like those, you might like this one. Also Whitechapel has lime in it and graycat said she got lime from the wet phase of this. I never got any cinnamon, though, which made me sad as I love cinnamon. Previously reviewed by graycat.

I have an imp of Blood Rose from a swap, which is a pale amber color (it has a lab label on it though - not a decant). Then I got another as a frimp from the Lab, which was dark rosy pink. The pale one smells very apple-y, while the pink one smells more like berry+rose. Is it possible the first one was mislabeled? Or maybe it's aged and the scent has changed, along with the color? I can't imagine it would go from pink to yellow though - if anything I'd think it would get darker with age. Was BR reformulated at some point? Also, I have two imps of French Creole, one decant and one tarted, that smell the same (boozy in the imp and wet, incense-spicy-sweet on the drydown). Then I got another one in a swap with a Lab label that smells like lavender and neroli - to me it smells just like Nanshe! Am I insane or could it be different?

I was not expecting to like Snow White at all - florals and I don't get along, and I haven't had much success with the "frosty" notes like the traditional lunar oils - so when I won it in an auction as part of an LE imp lot I was all, 'ho hum, guess I'll have to try it, then'. Imagine my surprise when instead of the icy blast of flowers I was expecting, I got warm sweet cookies! I don't smell any flowers or almond at all - and thank god because I hate almonds with a passion bordering on prejudice - but just a lovely sweet, creamy, lightly foody scent that I can almost TASTE. It reminds me of coconut milk, gently warmed as in coconut milk soup. It's not cold on me at all. Love, love, LOVE!!! Hope it comes back this winter because I would be all over that.

After being surprised by how much I liked Chaste Moon (all the other Lunacies I'd tried - Cold, Wolf, Hunter, Frost - did not agree with me at all), I ordered Milk Moon in the hopes that it would be as nice. Sadly, I was disappointed. I think it's the honey - honey and I have been bitter enemies ever since I first tried O and Blood Kiss as a BPAL newbie - because there's something about it that always makes me feel nauseous. In the bottle: sour milk Wet: a combination of milk, butter and sickly-sweet (honey) that made me feel quite ill. I soldiered through it just in case it was going to magically recover (Shub-Niggurath smelled like moldy cardboard for the first hour I tried it, but after that it blossomed into the most delicious thing ever). Dry-down: a weaker version of my beloved Chaste Moon with a third of the staying power. I never got any of the minty, fertile yum-yum you guys are talking about (/jealous). I did not try layering it with Flower Moon but I have zero hopes of that working out as Flower Moon went instantly soapy on me, as about 98% of BPAL florals do.

Lavender/neroli/bergamot - to me it smells exactly like Nanshe but with a more powdery dry-down. Since I love Nanshe, this is not at all a bad thing, but I think one lavender/lemon perfume is enough for me.

Chaos Theory II: CXXVIII (128)* I was convinced that I would get the right CT for me, so I only ordered 1 bottle. Now I am sad and wished I'd gotten more, because it's not my dream scent after all. In the bottle: MINT!! Screaming mint. I like mint okay but not in a scent so much. Wet: Spearmint chewing gum - like Wrigley's Eclipse, Spearmint flavor. Sweet mint. Reminds me of Absinthe without the anise. Drydown: Gets sweeter but still mostly mint. The BF said he smelled cinnamon in it but I didn't get any (I wish - love cinnamon). I'm going to try it again but unless it does a 180 and turns resin/incense/spicy, I'll probably be imping it out to swap for other CTs looking for my one true love. * which is really weird & cool because 128 is the number I use when asked to pick one at random - like if I'm making up a user name and the one I want is already taken, I tack 128 on the end.

Yeah - I gotta say, me too - I knew florals don't work on me 99 out of 100 times, and yet I couldn't resist the description! On me, Ace of Hearts is pure dryer sheets.

I love the lavender note in Nanshe and Arcana, so I had high hopes for this one. Sadly I don't like it nearly as much as I thought I would. It's way too sharp for me, and had a very bitter edge that turned me off immediately.