valentina

I mentioned this in my review of Cockaigne, but it's very similar to Monster Bait Underpants on my body -- not quite as edgy, but quite similar in the sweeter elements. If I took a dab of high-quality single-note sandalwood and put Cockainge over the top, I'd almost be at Underpants. For any Underpants lovers, I'd say it's at least worth trying an imp of Cockaigne, because it's yummy in its own right!

Lyonesse is the other new Wanderlust that I ordered almost immediately upon reading the description. And for good reason!

In the bottle, Lyonesse is very mellow, very reserved and understated. And upon application, it remains reserved, but on my body, the lily and sea moss scents seem to come to the front at first -- it's a quiet floral with a lot of vanilla and amber underneath them. After a half hour or so, the blend really balances out for me. It's so complex that I can't pull any one scent -- and still, it is very refined and dignified. This is a scent that I will wear on those days when I want my fragrance to be a bit more restrained and not act like a wrecking ball to the nose or to the libido. However, this is a scent that could sneak up on a person, because it's not stodgy or traditional. It's pretty but not girly-girly, nor is it matronly; it's not floral and it's not foody and it's not resiny.

I'm saying what everyone else is saying -- it's sort of an ineffable scent that has a very low-key appeal that really grows on you after a while. I love its complexity and its subtlety, and it's a keeper!

Oh me oh my, I LOVE this scent! In the imp, it's sweet and very foody. I feared it might turn into a diabetic coma-inducing sweetness on my skin, akin to what happend between me and Gluttony. But no, from initial drydown to going on 3 hours later, it's just beautiful, sweet-but-spicy, damn near edible. There's an edge to this and it must be coming from the spice in the sweet cake and a bit of wine.

Take my sometimes odd body chemistry into consideration before you read this next comment, but on me, Cockaigne is very similar to Monster Bait: Underpants. I even put a bit of Underpants on the opposite arm and did a comparison. Don't ask me why, but they are a lot alike on me -- Underpants has more of a bite from the saffron and sandalwood, but there's a distinctly similar sweet-but-spicy quality to Cockaigne. I think it's mellower and less edgy, but for me, they are so very much alike. And I adore Underpants, so I adore Cockaigne.

ETA: Peter Brueghel the Elder, "The Land of Cockaigne:"

In the imp, and upon initial drydown, Namaste smells like sandalwood with a little bitterness, which is no doubt the lemongrass. I really don't pick up a lot of rose or patchouli, which is shocking, considering those notes can be very dominating for me. The lemongrass scent isn't bad, and in some ways is a very cleansing sort of smell. After the lemongrass burns off a bit and is less intense, Namaste starts to smell like jasmine incense -- very pretty! All the elements blend together beautifully to smell a great deal like a light, floral incense that might be burned in a yoga studio or a meditation center. It's lovely, subtle and calming.

I sniffed Vice in the imp having utterly no idea what was in it. My initial reaction was: chocolate, but not an overly sweet milk chocolate, nor an extremely dark, potent chocolate. It was a lighter chocolate with a lot of depth. Once I applied it, I got the chocolate scent and also a whiff of a light floral-like smell upon drydown, which was probably the orange blossom and cherry merging with each other. It smells like a rich, creamy, sweet chocolate truffle with a cherry center. After about 2 hours, my skin chemistry does what it always like to do, which is to eat up the chocolate! Why should my skin be any different than the rest of me? After that, I'm left with cherry and a slight orange blossom floral scent; not a trace of the chocolate was left on my skin. This scent would be gorgeous for anyone who loves foody, chocolately scents and whose body chemistry will hold on to the wonderful chocolate that is in this blend.

In the imp, EOM is musk with a lot of spicy tropical scents; it's really not the incredibly animalistic musk that I expected, it smells clean and tropical. On the body, the musk is relatively light, with citrus and spicy tropical plant notes predominating on the initial dry down. After a half hour or so, the musk is completely taken over by some very spicy, tropical notes and a touch of banana. To me, EOM smells like a very manly pirate who has been hiding out on a tropical island! Rather than the "ooo-ooo-ooo" orangutan ape sound, EOM makes me want to walk around with a glass of rum, mumbling "arrggghh!" a passersby!

In the imp, Harlot is rose with a cinnamon stick nearby. When it goes on my body, considering my ability to amp up rose fragrances, it's naturally a very spicy, rosy smell. It dries down as a very strong, spiced rose, but with the rose aroma predominating. I was hoping that the cinnamon would take over, because I love cinnamon, but it's my body and it's rose. 'Nuf said. While it's not for my body, I do make potpourri with rose petals, and this might be an ideal oil for that purpose. It's not an overly sweet rose in this blend, and I think of Harlot as being a really great fall-into-winter rose-based scent for those of you who love roses. It has enough spice and zing to make it very distinct from the more delicate or sweeter spring-into-summer tea rose-based scents.

In the bottle, the Mouse's Long and Sad Tale is predominantly sweet pea and vanilla. After I put it on, the sweet pea amps up, along with the sandalwood. I waited for a while for the amber and the vanilla to kick in, and I'll be darned if they didn't. I was so positive I'd love this scent, and my short and sad tale is that my body can't wear it well. Somehow the sandalwood and sweet pea compete with each other, and it creates a rather bitter sweet pea sort of smell, and while it isn't terrible, it's not something that I'd want to wear. And the sandalwood and sweet pea, bullies that they are, don't burn off in the interest of allowing the other components to move foward. Damn! It really is a lovely little scent in the bottle, very feminine and innocent, and I think it would be perfectly lovely on someone who enjoyed sweet, foody scents with an exotic undertone.

Dormouse, in the imp, is a crisp, sparkling scent. There is absolutely nothing "muddy" about it, as far as my nose is concerned! Once it's on my body, it begins as tea with a bit of green behind it. Upon drydown, and for about 2 hours thereafter, it reminds me of a crisp tea blend that includes both black, green and herbal tea smells. It's still very crisp, very clean, pleasantly sharp and distinct. The longer it wears on my body, the more the tea aromas dissapate, and after about 3 hours, what lingers is predominatly peony with a green, herbal background. How interesting -- on my body, the tea components overpower the peony, but once they burn off, the peony is still there! And while it's a sweet, floral scent, it's not overwhelming or cloying and the herbs help give it a bit of a bite. To me, this begins as the ultimate clean scent that eventually morphs into a clean floral scent that's very feminine and soft.

In the imp, Belle Epoque is sharp and complex, although I'm mainly pulling opium and citrus from the blend. Once on my body, it starts out as opium and floral (lily of the valley), but dries down to a very muted opium with some vague powdery undertones that must come from the lily of the valley and sandalwood. Since my body amps opium rather significantly, that is what I continue to smell as time goes on -- a powdered opium. Because of that, the blend isn't especially "crisp" and gets muddled on my body chemistry. However, I would imagine that on the right person, this scent might be wonderful, especially if all of the sharpness and complexity of Belle Epoque would stay in place. I really do enjoy the wonderfully contradictory elements of this blend, if only it would hold on my body!

In the bottle, Harvest Moon is complex, layered and beautiful. I smell chrysanthemum, fruit, herbs and woods. I think I even catch a whiff of my beloved Russian sage. On my body, it initially amps chryasanthemum/fruit, then briefly amps bamboo and herbs, then goes very apple-berry-pomegranate. It generally stays in that strong fruity note for the duration that it's on my body. I didn't find that it lasted a tremedously long time, probably because my body found the fruits so yummy that it ate them!

Holyguacamole, Siren has broken my long-standing tradition of never, ever being able to wear scents with even a drop of jasmine in them!

In the imp, Siren smells sort of snappy and mysterious to me, a scent that is sort of sweet and sort of floral, but also not...my nose can't figure it out. On my skin, I would swear there's patchouli in it. It must be the tug-of-war between the ginger and the jasmine. Normally my skin muddles the heck out of scents with contradictory elements, but this time it works. Yipee! In addition, Siren lasts a long time and it doesn't morph. All the elements hold together at about the same level of ampage. I like this! I like it a lot, and for me to say that about a scent with jasmine in it is beyond the pale. Woot! I love the little BPAL miracles! For anyone who thinks they can't wear jasmine, but who likes Depraved and Vixen, I say you should try Siren... you may be amazed.

In the imp, Ode to Melancholy is mainly lavender to my nose, but there's a sharpness there also. On my body, the lavender gives way to florals! Woo-wee, it is floral -- my body went into the process of burning off the wisteria and rose, which made them amp like crazy for an hour or so. Then, everything calmed down and I was left with lavender, sandalwood and the barest trace of musk. Then it is very thin, very airy, very wispy. While my body chemistry isn't able to hold the complexity of this blend, I think that it's a beautiful blend that would work very well for someone who can wear lavender and florals.

In the imp, I really get a lot of cedar overlaying sandalwood and patchouli. On my body, I'm another person who thinks that Sri Lanka is really very much like Anne Bonny, but with a smidge more of the cedar scent. It's more masculine and woodsy, and to my nose and brain, a male version of Anne Bonny. After a few hours, the cedar mellows out, and it becomes very much the scent of aromatic woods and patchouli. Since I love all that stuff, I think this is a beautiful, unisex scent.

I love flowers, I love tulips and peonies in particular, but with my Smutified body chemistry, I wasn't sure Amsterdam would work on me. However, in the world of BPAL, I'm always surprised, so I perservered and tested it out. In the imp, the scent is a very bright floral, not terribly sweet and cloying, from what I would guess to be the tulip and aquatic grass notes. Once it was on my body, the scent turned not terribly sweet, but instead a little pungent. It's a grassy-floral-aquatic smell that tends to bloom quickly on me and fades away, not unlike tulips. It's a very sunny, springtime smell that would be wonderful for anyone who loves a crisp floral fragrance.

In the imp, Baobhan Sith is mainly ginger with grapefruit, refreshing and lovely. When I first apply it and in the initial dry-down period, it's a still a crisp ginger-grapefruit-tea scent. Then, after about 15-20 minutes, the apple blossom arises. And arises. And arises. It smells like solid apple blossom for about 2 hours, and turns into an old lady perfume scent. When the apple blossom burns off, I'm left with a very faint ginger-grapefruit scent. My ditzy body chemistry! I was certain that this scent would be something that I loved, but my body just wrecked it. But I love the smell of it off of my body so much, I think it would be delightful scent locket material, so I'm hanging on to my imp.

Manila, in the imp, smelled very floral/tropical/banana. It kind of made me want to start singing "The Banana Boat Song." Once it hit my skin, the floral and banana competed for attention, and then the floral won out. It's a very spicy, exotic sort of floral, completely unlike anything I've tried before. Interestingly, on my body, Manila burned off after an hour or so -- normally my body hangs to to floral and woods notes and amps them to an ridiculous degree. But on my body chemistry, Manila was not long-lasting. For anyone who yearns to hang on to the smells of a tropical island vacation, this is the scent for you.

Ephemera, in the imp, is very violet and floral to my nose -- I rather like violets, so that's not a bad thing. I associate violets with the dark and brooding side of the Victorian era, and also of being a little kid, because my mom always had violet bubble bath. Once it hit my body, the lily and geranium really went to work with the violet. When it dried down, it started smelling like violet-scented soap, which again, isn't a bad association with me -- perhaps not my favorite way to smell, or in keeping with the image I want to project, but not unpleasant. Then, after a couple of hours, it really calmed down into a very delicate, soft, violet and chamomile scent. Chamomile is a favorite herb, and a very delicate scent, and after the stronger components of the blend burned off, it came into bloom. Again, to me, it's a Victorian scent that is very girly and delicate.

Et Lux Fuit is a very complex blend, and it's delightful to read how its various notes bloom differently on each person! In the bottle, ELF is so complex that I can't really pull any note out except to say that it's an amber and floral blend. I really don't pick up a lot of citrus. Once it's on my skin, I get amber and vanilla musk with the spice of carnation. That's the top three notes that I can detect at first, but after an hour or so, there's also a nectary, almost pollen-like undertone that comes from the honeycomb and the sunflowers.

It's a lush, warm scent -- I associate it with bumblebees and honeybees moving drunkenly around a heavily floral, pollen-laden flower garden, and hummingbirds hovering over blossoms. It's very beautiful and intriguing, and I really love it.

In the bottle, this is sweet! Very sugary and grapefruit-ginger. Interesting, but swa-weeet! On my skin, it's even sweeter! It's a ginger-sugar with what seems like a lemony tone, but I know that's the grapefruit. My Hungry Ghost is apparently a diabetic who can't shove enough lemon-flavored Jolly Ranchers and ginger drops in his mouth! Truly, I think this is a very young, breezy, fun blend for anyone who loves sweet scents and wants to try something with an Far Eastern flair. It reminds me of an Asian version of Hollywood Babylon, if that makes any sense -- very sweet, but with an interesting undertone of the not-so-sweet.

Chaos Theory III, bottle CCXXXVIII, or bottle 238:

In the bottle, it's very green, grassy, wildflower-smelling. It's very much the green of a field or a meadow and not a forest. Once on the skin, the green floral quality really blooms for a bit (maybe 15-30 minutes) and then dries down into a smell that's very much like a field of freshly mown hay. After an hour or two, it smells like freshly mown hay with bright sunflowers and other fresh wildflower-herbal smells. This is an early June on the prairie sort of smell, when everything is very fresh and green and verdant. That's the word that I would most use to describe this scent -- verdant. It's extremely natural and it very much reminds me of the fields and meadows where I live. There may also a be bit of an amber or musk in the blend that gives it a slight powdery undertone, but it's very secondary in comparison to the sweet grass smell. It's really lovely and I'm going to enjoy it a great deal! Thanks to the Lab, this was so much fun!!!

Well, hell yeah, I live out here on the plains and I didn't see how Coyote couldn't work on me! Doeskin, plains grasses, dusty woods, it sounds like my childhood stomping grounds. These scents have to be encoded in my DNA, don't they?

In the bottle, I got a lot of green and woodsy smells -- what I picked up on reminded me of Yggdrasil or Hamadryad. So I thought, ooh, I dunno. But once it hit my skin, while the green grass and woods were still there in the forefront, but the doeskin, musk and amber really kicked in. After about 5 or 10 minutes, the grass and woods softened and dried out, and left a spicy muskiness that I love. I went to the gym after about a half hour after applying Coyote, and once my skin warmed up, I started thinking, OMG, what is that GREAT smell? It was, in fact, the Coyote. It's a dusty, spicy amber-musk. It is very outdoorsy, it is to me more of a casual scent, and very androgynous -- I think it could be drop-dead sexy on both genders.

I took the leap of faith on this scent and got a bottle without ever testing it, and Coyote held up to every expectation that I had, and more.

ETA: I realized about a day after I wrote this, that the grass smell in this fragrance reminds me a lot of sweet grass. It has a green, but slightly vanilla-like essence.

In the imp, I knew Marie had rose in it, because it was all that I could smell. I tested this scent without reading the description, but once it hit my skin, I did correctly guess that it was tea rose, because it's a smaller, spicier rose scent. I could also smell something darker lurking around in the blend, and that would be the violet. Normally rose becomes overwhelming on my body, but tea rose, when paired with violets, actually works.

I know several people think this smells soapy-bubble bath, and perhaps it does just a bit, but to me it's a very comforting scent. It breaks my "I can't wear rose" rule, and it really quite lovely. It's also a scent that I think would be very nice for a little girl -- it's not too complex or overwhelming. I'm thinking about going off and layering it with O to naughty it up and see what happens , but I do think that it may be a scent that would layer very nicely.

In the imp, Ophelia is beautiful and very evocative of all the pre-Raphaelite paintings of Ophelia, especially the one by Waterhouse, where she's sitting by the water, putting a garland in her hair, wildflowers in her lap, and blooming water lilies in the background. It's very much a floral scent that you'd find near a lake or a quiet, slow-moving stream. But when I put this beautiful scent on my skin, my body chemistry turns it into a scent that makes me almost as insane as poor Ophelia -- the combo of florals just overwhelms. I'm not especially able to wear a pure floral scent, and my body's reaction to Ophelia comes as no surprise. But because I find this scent so pretty, I plan to scent some potpourri with it, and if I ever get around to getting a scent locket, Ophelia is going into it!

In the bottle, Litha smells a lot like honey mead and honeysuckle. When it hits my skin, it become positively woozy with honey mead, with emphasis on the mead more than the honey. It's very sweet, but a little yeasty. After than calms down, after about 15 or 20 minutes, it reminds me of a more summery Yggdrasil that's drunk on honey mead. I smell woods and greens (especially ivy) and bright summer flowers, along with the honey mead. It's not especially suited to my body chemistry, as the woodsy/green/wildflower/herbal scents tend to muddle up on me. For anyone who loves those sort of scents, if you don't have a bottle, find one soon. And the label art! It is positively gorgeous, and so beautifully expresses the nature of the holiday.