lady_pandora

Greenery and Dove soap? The furthest thing from dirt on me, this is fresh and clean. Gender-neutral and refreshing. I'm not in passionate love, but I think I'll keep the imp around for hot days.

This is gorgeous! I knew I loved it at first huff, and it hasn't morphed much. Normally I amp jasmine, but I can't really pick it out here; the caramelized amber and frank are doing a sort of ambergris imitiation. Mysterious and somehow oceanic (but not an aquatic).

I am normally not a Tobacco Person, but Elegba is really well blended and I like it. The coconut rounds out the tobacco nicely and keeps it from going too masc for me. I can't pick out the rum, but the scent is sweet overall. Summery, but with just enough weirdness to have a dark intrigue about it.

I knew I'd like this one from the vial! It's red wine with an undertone of chocolate, with the chocolate being so dark it's almost like a spice, and what I think is a bit of vetiver, because this is a close cousin of Blood Kiss. I have so much Blood Kiss that I don't need to stock up on Centzon, but I like it.

A soft, delicate scent; definitely a genteel ghost. I would have guessed violet and lily, so I'm not sure what's giving me the violet impression here. Faint, inoffensive, pretty.

Received this as a frimp from the Lab, possibly a long time ago, IDK, I'm way behind on testing imps. This is really nice! My guess of the notes was a little off, I would have said honey and leather and maybe a little spice. I could see how amber and leather could create a similar effect. The amber and possibly the opoponax take off the chemical edge that leather sometimes has. I'm not ordinarily a tobacco fan, but here it just kind of folds into everything else. Really sexy; this is the leather scent I've been looking for, I think.

Lots of lavender and sort of a berryish baked goods note, like the one in Halfling. Definitely a relaxing scent; you can just feel the tension go out of your muscles when you huff this. Works well as a sleep scent.

White musk is kind of Not My Thing, but of the ones BPAL currently has in stock, I like 51 quite a lot: "green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats." though it comes out as more of a citrus/wood dominant scent on me. And this is recency bias, but I'm trying Death and Floral's Decomposing Roses for a Decomposed Romance tonight, and her white musk note seems to work better on me than others I've tried. And BPAL's Embalming Fluid is mega popular. It's at least worth a shot IMO.

So I think I'm anosmic to something in Glasgow, because I could never smell much of anything when I wore it. Probably the heather, because I do like blackberry and can smell it in other things. So if what you're looking for is a blackberry scent, I can recommend Bewitched for a blackberry-and-herbs scent, or Exodus 22:21, which is more like blackberry dipped in incense.

Maenad smelled kind of "off" when I first tested it, like rotting fruit, which was probably at least a year ago. But age has done really nice things to it. It's a juicy, lush blend of fruits that I can't really pick out one from the other, with sort of a husky purr like a lighter version of Black Cherry Love. It suggests a wine note without actually having a wine note. It's sexy and huffable!

This is a sister to Courtesan with Secret Lover from a couple years ago; I love Courtesan, so this is not a complaint! At first I was a little bummed that I'd accidentally bought an oil that was so close to something I already had, but then realized--backup! The lemon/honey/musk combo is what makes them similar, and then in the later stages, Chushu's maple leaves and the beeswax (or maybe the honey? hard to pick them apart) create what comes off as kind of a maple syrup note on me, making this a more autumnal sibling.

Late to the party, but VILF to me is kind of like Blood Kiss and Haute Macabre had a baby. Blood Kiss is GC, and Haute Macabre is in stock at the Haute Macabre shop/

Lace Phoenix, if you can get your hands on it.

Ack, wrong thread.

This is a scent where I like the throw way better than the skin scent. Close to the skin, it's a little play-dohy on me. But the throw is absolutely scrumptious, all juicy dripping honey like a baklava. I can't really make out the amber, but that note gets along so well with my skin that it sometimes doesn't stick out.

Someone beat me to Lights of Men's Lives, and here are a few more that don't say it in the description but smell besswaxy to me: Against Idleness and Mischief: beeswax and papery? Rogue: beeswax sexed up (I think it's the rosin note) Cicuta: I think there's some beeswax helping make the candle smoke note. If you like rose, try it out.

It took me a long time to get around to trying Baku, but recently it seemed I was getting anosmic to all my usual sleep scents so I figured I'd test something else. And I'd had a couple of disturbing nightmares too, so if it worked in that sense too, so much the better. Scentwise it's almost straight-up lavender, but I think maybe I smell a little citrus, just a hint? It's soothing and works as a sleep scent. And, small sample statistics, but I haven't yet had a nightmare when using it. In fact, last night I had a dream scenario that's usually a nightmare for me (witnessing a plane crash) and the dream-plane freaking bounced like a rubber ball. It's like something blunted the nightmare so nothing bad actually happened. It might be a coincidence, but it seemed interesting enough to note here.

Skin, WTF are you doing? This started out with a lovely almond note, and then I started noticing I was wafting a musk note that's not listed at all. Like pure Jovan from my high school days. It doesn't smell bad per se, but it's not necessarily a time I want to evoke!

I get a creamy white floral in the beginning, and then just musk, musk, musk. It works conceptually, but doesn't really stand out on my skin.

This was a frimp. It goes clean manly aquatic soap on me. Nothing wrong with it per se, but not me.

Same! I usually don't mesh with melon scents, they go too sweet and remind me of cheap shampoo from my teen years. Ogun is an exception--I get a bite of spice and a tendril of smoke that make it adult and sexy, while still being summery. I like it!

I didn't use this specifically due to 45 issues, I must confess--I was just feeling generally jangled and wanted to take it easy on myself for a day. The scent is exactly what it says on the tin. I get honey, and rose. It's just on the edge of cloying in the same way Jezebel can be, but energy-wise it totally works. It feels warm, comforting, and nurturing.

The scent of this is very baking-spices to me, maybe kind of peppery and nutmeggy, and also has whatever note always smells like celery to me but doesn't seem to smell like that to anybody else. A welcoming kitchen scent, which seems appropriate. I wore it to the Lights for Liberty protest and also put it on the vigil candle I lit afterward. Will definitely use again.

Mmmm, I loooove this. The resin reads like the beeswax from Lights of Men's Lives, and the leather note is incredibly soft, almost a smoke note instead. No hemp detected. It smells like Lights of Men's Lives got sexy.

Kind of like an apple scent, but weird. Maybe a little bitter or a little fermented? It's light and bright and fruity with a touch of "huh, what's that?" I had no idea what to expect when I tested it, but I think I like it!