Asafoetida

This smells SO MUCH like Snow White in the imp, soft and floral and pretty. On, it still smells like that... but something is lurking underneath, playing peekaboo, something sharp as a knife. As it starts to dry that subtle hint gets less and less subtle, first matching the sweet, pretty floral and then starting to overwhelm it. I can't see myself wearing this one much, but damned if it doesn't exactly capture my idea of a psychological horror film. My psychology major brain approves of this muchly, and I plan on hoarding it and using it as inspiration for important tests.

In imp: Bitter, bitter clove.

 

On me, wet... still mostly clove, but the incense is creeping in.

 

Drying down, there's still a lot of clove... but also the hint of incense and droolworthy myrrh. Very dark and beautiful, I'm in love. I don't get ANY rose from this, and if there is rose my skin usually finds it. Just something sharp and dark and yum.

In the imp, hints of vetiver, fig, and leather.

 

On my skin, wet, strongly vetiver (DELICIOUS vetiver) with some dragon's blood. Vanilla flower and neroli peeking out.

 

Drying down, the vetiver fades to a back note but is still fantastic. Dragon's blood and (I think) vanilla flower at the forefront, but everything blends together so well that it's hard to distinguish. This is a beautiful scent. I can't stop sniffing myself. It seems to be staying close to my skin, subtle but strangely powerful.

I could 'smell' this from the moment that I read the description, and after scrambling around failing to get hold of it for a while, when I finally got to sniff it and try it on it was exactly like I'd imagined... possibly even better.

 

It doesn't change much at all, from container to wet to dry, on me. It's a beautiful marriage of aquatic and metallic and yet it worked on me even though I typically don't wear either. Cool, refreshing water, with sunlight catching on flecks of gold swept away by the flow. Beautiful, exotic and refreshing, like an oasis in the middle of a desert. I purchased a bottle as soon as I smelled the decant.

In the imp I get lovely, musky amber that I would love to wrap myself in because it's so soft and wonderful.

 

...of course, on and wet it turns SOUR. Biting into a lemon sour, except without the lemon.

 

Then, during the drydown, it morphs to a powdery rose. Fortunately I did not amp the rose to headache-inducing levels as I usually do, but it does turn into the kind of rose scent that I could get in a spray at the Dollar Store. This one is a pass for sure.

 

Though it is interesting to note that I got hit on while returning a movie to a Redbox, which I've got to say is a first. He seemed disappointed when I answered his 'so what did YOU get' question with a nerdy movie... so perhaps this makes me come off as more demure and ladylike than I actually am, lol.

I have to admit, after seeing a couple of the reviews on this I was hoping for something a little more like MB: Tokyo Stomp (which I missed thanks to not knowing what BPAL was when it was available, and fell in love with later)... but on me, this started out as pure chocolate and ended up as cedar and oakmoss with chocolate that you can only find if you sniff hard enough. No vanilla, no mint... a wonderful scent in its own right, but the notes I hoped for the most were the ones that I didn't get even a whiff of. I think I'll keep my imp, but not going after a bottle.

Received as a frimp, and I'm glad as I never would have gotten it for myself.

 

In the imp, I smell the ginger and tiger-lily - it comes off very nicely as lily with a bite.

 

On, wet, it's the same as in the imp, but as it dries down the fruits come out more, and the lily takes on a hint of a soapy note (though not bad enough to make me change my mind about liking it). The ginger and neroli sneak around, disappearing and then popping back up when I think they're all gone. This is a very interesting 'girly but sassy' scent, and I predict that I will get some good use out of it.

In the imp: almonds and myrrh. Sweet and dark.

 

On, wet: Myrrh, musk, where are you? I smell exactly like an amaretto sour. And I do mean exactly. I mean, I love amaretto sours, but it might not be such a good idea to go to work smelling like my favorite drink.

 

Drydown: Well, the amaretto sour impression did fade and the butteriness came out a little more, but it was still pretty much straight almonds. I never got any myrrh and I especially never got any musk. It smelled delicious, though. Warm and almondy, mm-mm. It faded more quickly than I'd have liked, though, barely any trace of it left by lunchtime.

 

Verdict: I'll give it another shot, but I doubt I will love it enough to buy a bottle... which is disappointing because the notes sounded fantastic. I hope my skin doesn't make EVERY almond scent boozey like this!

This one surprised me enough to inspire me to review. Why?

 

I did not purchase this one for myself because I know that I cannot wear florals. The girlier and more flowery something smells the worse it is on me. And when you combine lavender, jasmine, and honeysuckle, that is bound to be girly and flowery. However, my girlfriend forgot it at my apartment and, since it smelled like chlorine on her, told me to go ahead and try it and if I liked it I could keep it. Okay, I thought, this will be ugly, but why not? So I dabbed it on this morning before work.

 

In the vial: Holy crap that's a floral. That's possibly the most florally floral to ever floral. Well. Bottoms up.

 

Wet: Ugh. It sort of smells like rotting flowers at first. I would have washed it off immediately, but I was already late leaving so I resigned myself to smelling bad all day. It could be worse, and it might discourage snotty children from wiping their noses on my wrist for once...

 

Dry: ...well. Not even completely dry, and I was hit by this overwhelmingly gorgeous scent. It's not any of the notes separately, so far as I can tell... I know it doesn't smell like lavender or honeysuckle, and unless I am very badly mistaken on what jasmine smells like (which I don't think I am) it doesn't smell like that either. The notes just... blend to create something entirely different. Maybe I'm just reacting to the name, but it makes me think of a garden full of some kind of flower my grandmother used to grow that only blooms at dusk... I can't think of the name of it. It's a dark, wet floral that actually smells like... a flower. On me. What the hell?

 

It doesn't change much during the further drying and wearing down. At this point it's just a faded ghost of that same flower, a hint of something sweet and I definitely get the mysterious, ethereal feeling. It's just starting to really fade (so far as I can tell) after five hours of wear. I'm still not hugely a floral person, but this one? This one is good for those occasions where a floral is more appropriate than my typical scents.

 

...I must thank my girlfriend profusely for forgetting this.

I got this as a frimp with my first big order from the Lab. Since I'm a sucker for scents that are categorized as being dark, I decided to go ahead and try it on immediately...

In the imp: Holy hell that's dark. Strong. Very earthy... I suck at recognizing notes, but I'm thinkin' vetiver?

On, wet: Hello, patchouli. This smells like the incense in every Boho store I've ever been in. It's a good thing that I love those stores. Hm, is that a hint of sweetness? It's very well hidden, if it is!

On, drydown: Oo, there's something smoky and sweet coming out. Still dark as hell. And strong, it's going to my head a little. Probably because I can't stop sniffing myself. Starts to go medicinal after a bit... from various people I've gotten 'Mountain Ice chest rub', 'hospital', and 'masculine talcum powder'. There's still something dark and dirty in the background, but it's predominated by a sort of sharp note. And yes, medicinal. It's making my nose feel really clear. Eucalyptus? Strangely, I still find myself fond of it. I'll leave it alone for a bit and check back in with it later.

Dry: I shouldn't like the way this smells. It isn't pleasant. It has a sort of medicinal sharpness to it, but at the same time it manages to smell dirty. It's roots fresh out of the ground, before they've been washed and made into some kind of poultice. It's weird and not at all pretty and completely unapologetic about that fact. ...I LOVE IT.

Conclusion: I probably won't buy a 5 ml of this, but I'll be keeping the imp to wear when I'm in the mood for something dark, secretive, and unapologetically strange (and also when I'm not in the mood to get hit on). Once that runs out? I'll see how I feel about it.