skepticism

In the imp all I smelled was ripe apple. It wasn't freshly ripened apple, but the kind that sits on your kitchen countertop past its shelf life while creating a a thick, sweet air around it. When I applied it, the scent soured a little bit. Again, not a fresh sour, but something that felt more indicative of fermentation (cider?). As it dried I felt like it was apple rotting on my skin after someone had taken one bite from it. Apple is a note I can do without, but the prospect of having it blended with hemlock and opium made it sound doable. Unfortunately it didn't. It might have worked for me if the apple was nested in more wood, herbals, and resins. So I'm passing on this scent.

I wore some before bed last night and reapplied before I left for work this morning, hoping it would alleviate some break up pain. It's a soft, slightly soapy scent that gently holds your hands, reminding you that everything will be alright. I dabbed a little on my cleavage so it would lift some of the heavy nausea weighing down on my heart and lungs (hey, crying really wears you out!). It's patient and gentle without the coddling factor. I think this is a scent I would wear to bed outside of it's Voodoo Blends use just because it's a tad too soapy for daily use. I really think it is a beautiful scent, though.

In the vial it smelled very much like lemon. It has a bitter smell on the tail end that I can only associate with a very very very subtle white sage. Yum! On the skin, the lemon died down a bit and the sagey/woody scent came through. I'm a little disappointed because it didn't have much throw and the staying power on me was weak. I think I'll hold onto this imp just to sniff, though!

I had to try this scent because Roman chamomile and frankincense are some of my favorite notes, and gardenia is one of my favorite florals. In the vial I got swirls of white gardenia, tempered by an equally strong presence of Roman chamomile. Upon wet application the gardenia took a few steps back and allowed the iris to shine through and illuminate the whole blend. How lovely and Baroque! The drydown took a holy route and became pure Roman chamomile with a tinge of frankincense, but I'm not quite sure (agarwood?). Not sure how much I like this blend on it's own. I need more gardenia/white floral presence to say that I absolutely love it. I think that it does a great job emulating The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, though. Very golden, airy feel.

I love this rose blend. It's not sweet and has an air of fresh, dewy grass about it. Kind of reminds me of the rose absolute used in Hymn. In the vial it smelled a soapy, but once I applied it the green + rose just wrapped all over me. I dried without leaving any sort of trail, which I found odd. I'm putting this on the bottle list!

Vial: Wow, that's a lot of fruity sweetness. Smells like fruity chewing gum. There's a bit of sandalwood on the tail end. Wet: Now it smells like sour apple Bubblicious gum on me. Very sugary-fruity. Dry: The sandalwood's finally moved up front, but then it turns a little powdery. The bubblegum smell has faded. I liken the drydown smell to orange drink that's evaporated in the afternoon sun, leaving sugary crystalline traces on a glass table. I think I only like honey notes when they're fermented and orange blossom when couple with white florals and resins. Together they just cause a riot on my skin and irritates my nose.

This is such a beautiful scent. Didn't get the "angelic" feel, but it's definitely sophisticated, feminine and floral. I get a lot of a freshly cut rose type of note coupled with the other florals listed (not too keen on identifying those specific notes). I'm not getting much frankincense, which is kind of a bummer since I like resin notes. I suppose that may be why I don't associate anything "angelic" with it. It didn't dry powdery or sweet...it just kind of maintained the same scent from wet to dry all day. I like this scent but I already have/had other perfumes similar to this.

This smelled like cough syrup in the vial, ick. I decided to try it anyway, but just a teeny tiny dab on the wrist. BAM, instantaneous jasmine blooms swathed in spicy cinnamon. I like it! A little goes a long way with this scent, so I'm glad I didn't decide to apply how much I usually do. I'm hoping that this Voodoo Oil brings a rush of good luck today. I'm going to need it with how busy I am!

Helena smelled a lot like Eos, Nyx, and Nuit in the vial but with a strong note of freshly cut rose in the foreground. Jasmine is such a dominating scent to my nose and on my skin. The only difference between Helena and othe jasmine blends is the lighter air of sophistication I felt while wearing it. I think it parallels Eos well, but a bit less dominating. As it dried it became slightly powdery, but not too much (powdery drydowns are a dealbreaker for me). I like this scent, but I'm still waffling about it. I really like how green and sour it stays on before complete drydown. Might have to stow it away and see if it passes a second test run.

If you're someone who 1) loves sweet/sugary scents and 2) is indifferent towards rose and other strong florals, you should give Hope a try. First off, it's not a blend I like since I don't like sugary notes. However, the description is exactly on the dot. It smells like overripened roses sitting in a cool tub of sugar water. Pretty much Antique Lace of Fairy Market with a hint of rose. The throw on this is amazing (just like Antique Lace). Longevity was alright; it faded withing two hours. But that may have been due to the fact that I wanted it to come off and didn't dab on too much in the first place. ETA: It smells like Turkish Delight!

I received this imp from gingiemay but I spilled it. I found it lying on the countertop and saw some droplets leftover, so I decided to try it. In the vial I smell soft lavender and flowers, very light and airy. Upon application it turned into Antique Lace, which I is blend I hate. It's definitely Antique Lace on my skin, but with ten times less throw. As it dried it just turned into a sugary powdery. Absolutely no traces of lavender or florals on my skin. Don't really like this one.

This is New Orleans all grown up. Eos is more sophisticated and proper compared to the rebellious sultry mama that embodies New Orleans. I feel that's the best way to describe it. It's so ripe with jasmine and honeysuckle, but it's airy. It reminds me of gardenias. The throw was amazing, but the staying power wasn't so hot. It might have to do with how much more airy it is. I this scent.

I really liked the smell of this in the vial. It smelled like Zombi and Deep in Earth but wetter and less dirty. I mostly get the fresh, wet morning grass smell when I try this and no floral scents. What was really disappointing was the staying power. I dabbed some on my wrists and on my collarbone and it disappeared after four hours. I really like this scent, but there's really no point to buying a bottle if I continually have to reply throughout the day.

Frimp from the lab! When I opened the imp I smelled evergreen trees and fresh lemonade. After wet application the lemon-lime notes came to the foreground briefly and dominated the evergreen notes with full-force. As it dried, the lemon-lime completely faded away and just left a sugary residue underneath the woody notes. I'm someone who doesn't like sweet notes, and I actually found the sweetness in this scent to be favorable to the senses due to its pairing with earthy/woody notes. It's a really interesting blend, and I would never have thought that I'd like (let alone mix) these notes together.I'm going say that I like this for now and hold onto it for another try.

Mmmmm, smells exactly like absinthe. The lemon adds a nice feel to it so it doesn't make you feel like you're bathing in anise (read: Jagermeister bath). I feel like I need to drink this. However, I don't think I'd like it as a wearable scent since anise gives me quite a headache.

In the vial it smelled like hothouse flowers and white florals with an abundance of rot and decay. It smells like I'm drinking plum wine, but it's a little off. I actually like rotting/decaying florals because they usually just smell like over-ripened hothouse blooms and have a throw the length of a sports stadium. However, this scent had a little too much of it ... kind of like decay mixed with fermentation. When it dried a lot of tonka showed up, which kind of added some much needed dryness to this spell of humidity. Don't really like this scent.

In the vial I get a sharp woody note that's kind of like facial astringent toner. Not necessarily a bad thing in my book, since it presents itself as a sterile sort of clean. Upon wet I'm still getting the astringent smell coupled with juniper and a faint, faint patchouli note. Not getting any florals since the sterile, clean sharpness of the blend is strong and overwhelming. I definitely didn't get a earthy smell. I think I'm a little neutral about this scent. I like it because it's clean, but it's not anything fancy.

Bewitching, tantalizing and dangerously seductive. A thrilling, exotic blend -- deceptively sweet, but spiked with malice. White ginger, jasmine, and a touch of vanilla and apricot. Yikes. This smells like a gingerbread cookie factory during rush hour on me. If you like spicy, foody vanilla, then this could be a blend you like. I actually think this is fun to smell, but I will never wear foody scents. I think what makes this tolerable as a sniffie is the ginger. It adds some spice that's definitely needed to tone down the vanilla. I also think the jasmine note underneath makes this scent very very weird, like it shouldn't be there. *shrug* Not something for me.

This sounds a little weird, but in the vial and wet application it smelled like nitrate preservatives mixed with the cool scent of Christmas trees. It's very sharp and dominating, but unfortunately it's not as debonair as Casanova, Saint-Germain, or Cthulhu. When it dried that weird nitrate preservative smell faded (thank god) and the rosemary quickly moved to the front. I experienced absolutely no lemon in this blend, and if I did it it was a little rotten.

In the vial I smelled freshly cut violets and not much of anything else. The moment I dabbed it on my wrist the violets exploded with the humidity of hothouse blooms. The incense holds the strong violet smell and the air of humidity together very well. I actually think it's a little too humid for me and doesn't have enough non-violet floral. Will pass on this.

Vial: Lemonade and fresh cut grass Wet: A generic soapy lemon. I can already smell the sweet florals peeking through in anticipation for their main appearance during drydown. Dry: Very sweet floral. It definitely smells like fresh cut sweet florals. It has a green/herbal tinge to it that's more sweet than clean. This seemed kind of generic on me. It was also too sweet for my tastes. Going to pass on this.

I got a lot of warm, spicy cinnamon from this. Cinnamon is one of my least favorite notes, but of course I'm always open to try it if the blend sounds right. It spread like cinnamon wildfire down from my wrist down my whole arm when wet. Talk about throw! Too bad it the scent nauseated me. However, I decided to layer it with one another imp. I believe it was Ave Maria Gratia Plena or something with jasmine, I don't remember exactly. The results I smelled were fantastic. To put explain it better, it was everything I wanted Sacred Whore of Babylon to be. It was a complex blend of cinnamon with white floral/jasmine/humidity. I don't know if I want to buy an entire bottle just for the purpose of layering, but I just might have to do that. Seems like an easy way to add new kick to my other favorite blends.

Loralei has a soft airiness that I likened to a very light floral with a hint of sweetness. I wanted to give it a good test so I wore it before I went on a run. I found it impressive that something so light and airy still had the same staying power before and after a sweatfest. However, the light floral was accompanied by a sort of rotting powdery note by the end of the day, ick. I don't think I like this scent very much. I like light scents, but I prefer them accompanied by clean herbal notes.

All that surfaced on my skin was lemon. Pretty boring. Baobhan Sith was the same on me, but just pure grapefruit. I thought about giving up on it but then I decided to try in on the boy next time I saw him. What a world of difference male skin chemistry makes! I dabbed some on his wrists and all the notes crawled all over him. Lemon was still prominent, but it had its entourage of herbal and woody scents to go along with it. Very clean and fresh. I really like this scent, but I don't think I'm going to be starting a BPAL collection for him anytime soon unless he wants to chip in some dough, hehe.

Refined, austere and graceful. A recipe gleaned from Classical Rome: cypress, juniper, chamomile and rose. I really like this rose blend. It's not sweet rose, but a greener, freshly cut rose. I'm wondering if the chamomile in this blend is Roman chamomile, which happens to be one of my favorite notes. I put some on before going on a bike ride this afternoon to see if any other notes would pop up. If anything did, it was very very subtle fresh wood. But it was still rose on the foreground. Going to have to decide whether I like Hymn or Rome better!