oakmoss

I'm wearing Lustration today, and it is like a nice tart lemonade without much sugar. Refreshing, but soft. ALMOST exactly what I'm looking for. (Plus all its lovely magical qualities, of course.)

Time to revive this thread and see what's new and yummy in the lemon realms! Haloes has a lemony creaminess on my skin, but I am still looking for my dream lemon scent for summer. It's the Love's Fresh Lemon of my youth -- a sugared lemon that stays bright and refreshing, not sharp or perfumey. Like a lemon drop, lemon curd. Suggestions?

Translucent blooms, ethereal white resins, and davana. This had a lemony light scent at first sniff, but on my skin it morphed into a powdery fluffy white floral with a faint underwhiff of honey. Very sweet, harmless, not terribly interesting, alas. There are other florals and powdery blends I like better, so I think I'll pass this one along.

This scent is definitely an eye-opener! Good for sluggish mornings and hot doldrum days, I would imagine. On me, it was almost completely minty, with some grapefruit sharpness. Nice to sniff, not so nice to wear -- it felt cologne-y, which is not the same as perfume-y. Light, but with an edge, probably very good on a man. On me, it's a bit off-putting, I'm afraid. Nice kitty -- now, go away. =^..^=

I'm not getting any apple (or apple blossom) from this, and thankfully, no nuttiness! It's a warm, dry cocoa-sandalwood blend with just a hint of spice, rather like a cocoa incense. Not sweet chocolate, more like cocoa hulls with that woodiness and earthiness. Not foody at all, just warm autumnal goodness. I have a feeling this will age into something very special, and I like it just as it is too.

It rained here yesterday, for just a couple of minutes, big drops I knew wouldn't last, but still, amazingly unexpected here in northern California in the summer -- we normally wouldn't get any rain until autumn. The sweet sweet scent of the blissful rain hitting the hot earth, the dry grass, the thirsty trees, was swooningly delicious. I kept thinking how much I would LOVE a BPAL scent like this, even just to smell out of the bottle if it didn't work on my skin. I've tried almost all the rain scents, none of them were quite it, so I thought I'd bump this thread and keep those suggestions coming! Edited to add a bit, now that I skimmed again through this whole thread -- the scent I crave isn't just rain. It's rain on dry grass, releasing that sweet hay smell with a moistness that also smells a bit like stone, cool water falling on hot stone. I'm not asking for much, am I?

I wasn't crazy about this either on first try -- it was nice, but not fabulous on me. But then I layered with with a little Absinthe, on the theory that what was lacking was just one more drink. The roses linger in the background, but the anise and lemony notes come forward. It stays soft, doesn't go sharp or overly herbal, just a lightly smoky freshness, if that makes any sense. Great for hot summer days. If you are unsure whether to keep your bottle of L'Heure Verte, get yourself an imp of Absinthe first and experiment!

It starts out with a sweet tanginess reminiscent of star anise and clove, then morphs through a cedar/sandalwood phase, but still with the clovelike undernote. No trace of lemon at all on me. It settles down into warm resiny goodness, a dark golden spiced sweetness that reminds me of both of carnations and of burning copal. I could see this being used ceremonially as well as an everyday perfume. Really, really beautiful.

I totally second the Mama Ji recommendation! It's just a wonderful dry warm exotic spice without any incense I can smell. What they said.

Since you can try it in imp form, I suggest you throw in a sample of Squirting Cucumber. To me, this is the freshest, coolest, greenest, most delicately floral summertime blend. I would definitely roll in it.

Get L'Ecole des Filles, if you can find some -- it's one of the nicest neroli/orange blossom scents I've tried.

I haven't smelled it yet, but the notes of The Grindhouse and some of the will-call reactions seem like it might be a good replacement for Miss Lucy.

One blend that I like a lot in the summer, and that doesn't seem to get a lot of attention here, is Marquise de Merteuil. Maybe people are scared off by the mention of vetiver in the notes, but I loathe vetiver and don't get it at all here. It's a bright rich peachy blend that seems to get better the more it warms up, staying sweet but not TOO sweet, not fake candy-fruit sweet, but like a ripe summer-sun-warmed peach.

I completely agree that you should skip the perfume when you are at the shelter. Those animals are traumatized already, so why risk upsetting them more? They need to smell YOU, the pure mammal you. It's different with our own animal friends at home, who presumably trust us enough to put up with our scent changing from day to day.

I'm so glad I don't go back and read notes or reviews when I try a new blend, because I am so influenced by what my brain THINKS it should be smelling. Jasmine is usually horrible on me, but Defututa is a rare exception. The vanilla and incense notes mellow the sharpness of jasmine, and there is a subtle lemony undernote lifting the whole thing into lightness, and then the honey note smooths and warms it. I wasn't sure I liked Defututa all that much at first, but after about twenty minutes I was in love, so stick through the first stage and let it all come together. And yes, now that I've read everyone else's reviews, all I can think of is pineapple, but it's a GOOD pineapple.

Some friends and I have been on a Buffython lately, introducing some newbies to the vamp world, so I was in the mood to try Vampire's Tears, after having only sniffed the bottle before. I didn't re-read the notes first, as I don't like to be nose-programmed too much. Wet, this was lemony and nutty, and my heart sank, as I do NOT get along with nut scents. But it morphed very quickly into something I would define as salty, not aquatic, but truly teary in essence -- slightly bitter, but with some passion underneath, not whiny. The salty phase mellowed into a quiet dark floral, rather brooding, with a salty hint of still-unshed tears. Especially factoring in the "nutty" phase, I'd say this is a good perfume for Drusilla.

Just in case anyone else has been lilac-crazed lately (as I am every year about this time), I thought I would revive this thread. I just put on some White Moon (Lunacy November 2006) and it is a sweet heady rush of lush lilac indeed. Anyone else want to recommend anything lilac-y?

I grew up surrounded by the scent of orange blossoms in southern California, so I've always been interested in the Lab's blends that feature orange blossom/neroli. Up to this point, although I've liked some of them (Bess and Lolita and Masquerade), none has really captured the true essence of orange blossom scented nights, when the perfume fills the air and makes you absolutely swoon with deliciousness. L'Ecole des Filles does evoke this, because of a coolness that reminded me of sprinklers adding their moisture and watery sounds to the heavy orange blossom bliss, lightening it and moving the sweetness through the night air.... I can't account for this coolness and lightness, given the notes, but Beth has created a magical blend here, perfect for summer.

You want Crowley. Trust me, you just do. Here are the reviews, if you want anyone else's opinion.

I got my bottle of Yew Trees when it first came out, but it hasn't really been in rotation among my favorite oils for a while, so it was nice to pull it out again when I was looking for something greenish to honor Brigid on her day. Maybe it softens with age, but I don't get the blast of pine-pine-pine that so many others have reported. To me, pine is a much brighter, more piercing scent than this, which is soft and deeply green, very much a scent of sacred woods, as the description says. This is a Druid perfume, evocative of moist ancient forests and trees that are portals between the worlds. It doesn't last long and doesn't have much throw -- I'm wondering if maybe some of the reviewers got too strong a pine-type blast because they slathered? Dabbed on delicately, this blend is quite beautiful. If you miss Dublin, give Yew Trees a try.

Thank you for the fruitcake, Beth and Labbies! I can't do butter, cherry, or almond, and yet somehow this blend is yummy on me. A friend of mine who NEVER wears perfume grabbed the frimp in the car and smeared some on right away. It was lovely on her too! What a delightful surprise and a very clever idea.

I put this on before going to bed, and my opinion after the first few sniffs were that this was a slightly harsher cousin to my favorite incense/resin blends, such as Penitence, Midnight Mass, The Pit and the Pendulum, etc. It seemed edgier, sharp around the edges, more raw. Nice, but nothing to get too excited about. BUT... after about ten minutes of reading, snuggled in my nice warm bed, I was suddenly aware that the scent had mellowed into sweetness, radiant like fireplace embers glowing in a darkened room. The first resiny rawness is the earthly love, perhaps, and then the heavenly warm bliss follows. I'm so glad this blend will be around for a while, because I intend to SLATHER.

This strikes me as a very gentle scent, in the same family as Blood Pearl in terms of softly powdery comfort. There is a faint floral spiciness, like violet or orris with carnation, but only a whisper of this, under the furry musk. It actually smells rather like the back of my cat Morpheus's neck, but without making my eyes itch.

I bought this polish (and two others) when they first came out, but didn't use any of them until today -- one thing or another kept me nervous about trying new polish when I had events I wanted to be sure my nails would look nice for, and I know I can trust OPI to look good for nearly two weeks after a manicure. So, today I handed Lady Macbeth to my nail person, who was understandably skeptical. "If you want red, I have a nice OPI..." she said, heading for the polish stand, but no, I said I wanted to give this a try. At the end, as she put on the first coat, she said, "This polish... this is better than OPI." High praise indeed from a pro who has a pile of OPI to sell! The color is great -- rich dried-blood red -- and while I can't comment on longevity yet, two coats felt like plenty, and my nails feel happy, if that makes any sense at all. *Edited to add that, alas, longevity was not so great. I noticed some wear and tear chiplettes around the tips of the nails within three days, and since I wear an acrylic overlay over my natural nails, this is very fast -- polish usually looks perfect for at least a week and a half or more. BUT, that said, I will still use this polish, as the color is sublime. I have had more compliments on this color than any I've worn in a long time.

Have you tried Erato? My note to myself about this blend essentially said it was like walking into a flower shop.