wrestlingentropy

Wearing Samhainphobia 2011 today!

It's actively ugly at first sniff in the bottle. But, I love the strong vetiver upon initial application! Then the teakwood goes into this really oppressive powdery phase after a couple hours. (Which is the same thing that the teakwood in the Antikythera Mechanism does on me, unfortunately.) I wanted to love this strange little beast, so I'm sad that it goes off into dryer sheet territory on me.

This works well on me, and I like it a lot, but it is very, very figgy. I wish I got more of the carnation or vetiver (at this point I get none at all). The opoponax goes a leeeeetle bit hairspray on me from time to time, but not too strongly (and not every time I wear it). As it morphs after a few hours (4+), the myrrh blooms a lot more (as it always tends to on my skin), and becomes so prominent as to almost smell like skin musk. Very sexy and sophisticated without being too heavy. My biggest success from this years Lupers!

I never had the chance to try the original version of Spanked, so my impressions are based on the Revisited edition. What a brilliant showcase this is for Beth's sense of humor and her ability to tell a story through scent! I have, uh, on occasion received a few smacks on my bottom, and this oil conforms pretty much exactly to my impressions of the experience: the red-hot cardamom comes on sharp and tingly at the outset, before mellowing into a slightly diminished yet still spicy warmth buoyed by the scent of leather, which then leads into a deep, dark, funky sigh of patchouli. Those who complain about the short wear length of Spanked are kind of missing the point--the physical sensations of a spanking are supposed to fade relatively quickly. Brilliant! Bravo, Beth! Thanks for resurrecting this oil so some of us newcomers could try it, too! ETA: This. Is. Love. Wearing it multiple days in a row, which is nearly unheard of with me and my BPAL habits. ::swooning::

The combination of musk, lemongrass, and cranberry takes this blend to a similar place to Serpents with Glittering Eyes and Forky Tongues (serpentine green herbs, glistening red currant, sparkling yellow lemon rind, green musk, lime, and snakeskin) on me, but the coconut and sandalwood turn it a bit creamier and warmer. Very pretty and definitely springlike, but not essential for me, since I already have a bottle of Serpents.

I absolutely blasted through my bottle of Womb Furie 2010 (see my original review here) and was elated to see the blend back again this year. It's every bit as glorious as I remember it being. It's somehow greater than the sum of its parts on my skin chemistry. It's subtly sexy, sweet and gentle, with ridiculous staying power. (I applied after my shower yesterday morning and could still smell it on my skin when I got up today; there's also remnants swirling around my desk at work, probably on my mouse pad.) It's one of the few BPALs I would have no problem wearing day after day after day. I'm going to have to stock up before the Lupers come down. Pure win!

Oh, this is so nice! I'm generally not big on florals, but the opening notes here are perfectly light and airy, drying down into an impossibly rich and warm myrrh. I was hoping for a bit more grass, just based on my own current longing for something green under all Chicago's snow--but that's not a fault of the scent or its description at all. A lovely, evocative springtime scent.

This is my first participation in a Chaos Theory. I ordered one bottle, and received #60. It's a little plasticky when I get my nose right up against my skin, but from a decent wafting distance, it's a gentle, creamy, woody vanilla (sort of like Penis Admiration without the lilac).

I'm really surprised at how well Perversion works on me. It actually wears a lot like Black Lace, but I think I like it even better. The tonka is a lot smoother than BL's vanilla cream cotton, which can sometimes feel like it's sticking in the back of my throat. I also love that I don't get clobbered by the tobacco and leather here; they're deep and well-worn and mellow, definitely just supporting cast. Booze notes tend to work really well on me, and the combination of rum and chardonnay is no exception here. All this being said, Perversion is straight up prettier than I was expecting it to be, in a good way. I usually wear Black Lace as "work drag" on days when I want to come across as feminine and professional and put-together, and Perversion surprisingly achieves the same effect for me--and, a lot sooner in the day, at that. (I usually have to wait several hours for BL to mellow into its yummiest phase.) Quite lovely! I'm going to savor my imp and consider a 5 ml.

This is very subtle and well blended without being too mild or disappearing too quickly. The shared olive blossom and general creaminess definitely makes it a sister scent to Defututa, but, doing a wrist-to-wrist comparison, Okayaki is gentle and sly while Defututa is louder and lusty. Okayaki is nice and neutral while still being unique and immediately identifiable as a BPAL blend. I like it a lot, and can see myself wearing it on days when I don't know what else to wear. The scent and the throw stayed remarkably consistent on my skin throughout a very loooong day, which is impressive in and of itself. A very lovely oil.

Inez brought me serious love today. Part of what I enjoy so much about BPAL oils is learning them the way I have to be patient and learn a new album by any of my favorite musicians, waiting as its own internal logic unfolds and is revealed to me. With all the comparisons to Morocco, I was expecting much more sweetness and warmth right away, but Inez comes across as rather soft and dry at first. She is a little soapy in the early phases, but not in a bad way. But she takes on a fascinating life of her own as she begins to morph throughout the day. She actually increases in throw and strength after a few hours as the amber and musk come out to play, before the myrrh finally triumphantly blooms. She's like a slightly shy girl who only reveals the depth of her sensuality after you get to know her better. I'm a practicing Buddhist, and Inez is perfect for me to wear to Sunday morning service at the temple--she's quiet and pleasant enough not to be distracting to myself or others during silent meditation, but then she gets louder later in the day when I'm headed out and about. A really remarkable oil, a winner for me for sure. I was initially hoping for more carnation (mourning not having gotten any backup bottles of Hod), but that's really a minor quibble at this point given my affection for her.

This was a recent frimp from the lab. I tend not to like rose OR dragon's blood, so I never would have picked it out on my own. Yet...I actually really like this! I think the red wine might be helping it along for me (red wine also pops up in two of my other favorites, Blood Kiss and Nosferatu). I wore it while doing some editing work at home on a snowy Saturday, and it helped me feel peaceful and calm and ever-so-slightly sexy (even in my jeans and flannel shirt). Seriously, this is worth a try if you don't otherwise tend to gravitate toward scents prominently featuring rose.

Got this as a frimp with a recent order, and ooh! squee! wow! It's soft and sweet and candied and yummy! So girly and dreamy. Very nice. It's like sophisticated cotton candy in the best way possible. As it warms to my skin, it deepens a bit and really brings out the musk + amber combo (which I love--a personal favorite set of notes), while still remaining essentially light and sweet. Really awesome.

I often have trouble wearing both Snake Oil (too harsh) and O (too much honey), but Womb Furie seems to hit the perfect middle ground between the two for me. On days when my chemistry is working right, the scent curls up around me like rich, spicy, sweet pipe smoke. Big fan.

The summer after I graduated from college, I spent a few weeks housesitting for a professor and her husband. Their place was at the outskirts of town, in a heavily wooded area. Nosferatu smells almost exactly like what it felt like to be driving toward their house, with the windows down, in the humid, fading heat of a mid-July evening. It's heavy and wet and woodsy, in the best way possible. Wow. I'm loving this so much more than I ever would have thought, thanks to the unexpected nostalgia it brings me for being 21 and clueless and free.

The best thing about attempting (attempting!) to keep my BPAL acquisitions to a minimum is that I can still somehow consider every bottle in my collection to be a favorite. Me, this morning, while slathering: "Oh, Defututa. You're my favorite scent! Why don't I wear you every day?" Personally, I don't know why I would ever wear O when I could wear Defututa. I always marvel at how rich and complex it is. To my nose, it has a depth and dimension that I find lacking in O's sweet, sweaty warmth. I'm usually not one for floral scents, so I love the way that the honey and smoky vanilla lend the jasmine, olive blossom, and champaca flower some sweetness, while the sandalwood and cinnamon warm everything up. It's got the perfect amount of throw, and when I combine it with some coconut oil on my skin, it lasts a nice long time, too. It's also, of course, suuuuuuper sexy. I feel all drowsy and smiley when I'm wearing it, like I'm peeking out from under the covers, with my eyes half open, to gaze at a very special someone. I'm a wrist-sniffing fool today!

Mmm...this is good. Stealthily good. When I first put it on, it was just a hideous mish-mash. I had no idea what was going on. It was sour and strong and just...confusing. But now that it's warmed to my skin, the clove has really come to the fore, deepened by what (I'm assuming) is the vetiver and poppy. It's dark and evil and horribly sexy. It feels like a black hole that you just want to keep falling down, trusting that you're going to hit something soft and sweet at the very, very bottom, even though it's wet and scary and sticky on the way down. I don't know how "me" it is, but I want to keep trying it (maybe until I convince myself I AM the kind of a person who could pull this off?). It's that compelling.

Dude, I don't even know WHAT'S going on here. When I first put it on, it's very sharp, astringent, almost Windexy. I kind of panicked. It gets a lot nicer as it warms up on my skin, though--kind of cottony, like a stack of down comforters four feet high or a basket of laundry that's been sitting in the Southern sun for hours and hours. It's not exactly what I was expecting, based on both the lab's description and the majority of reviews here, so I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this one. Even though I wouldn't necessarily equate cottony with sophisticated, it feels VERY sophisticated--almost too much for me. Maybe it's the tobacco that's creating this paradox? (My nose is still relatively untrained.) I bet it would be utterly devastating on a well dressed man.

Just got this as a frimp from the lab. Wow. It's definitely smoky. In the imp, I could almost swear I smelled beets (their wet earthiness), but as soon as I put it on my wrists, the scent was clearly a bonfire. Now that it's been absorbed into my skin for a while, it's still very strong, but has taken on almost a foody spiciness--like a really intense cinnamon or ginger. It's the first really cold day of the season in Chicago today, and this is making me feel appealingly warm and drowsy.

The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry. This one just keeps growing on me. I got the imp because of the vanilla, but was taken aback at first sniff by the cherry/strawberry. It was striking me as way too air-freshener-dangling-from-the-rearview-mirror. Something kept drawing me back to it, though. I think it's partly the inherent humor embedded in the storyline of the scent, but it's also the devastatingly warm and creamy and spicy way it melts and mellows after a few hours. Now I've come to even embrace the fruity note at the beginning, too! I think I'm going to have to get a bottle of this after I continue to explore a bit more (I'm new here!).

This is freaking glorious. It's warm and smooth and deep--not plasticky or gimmicky in a seasonal-scented-lotion kind of way. Just yum. I want to sniff myself all day. It's also EXTREMELY long lasting; I put it on in the morning and it stayed present and true all day (until about 9 pm and beyond). I have a full bottle on order already; can't wait for it to arrive.

Mmm...this is yummy. Rich and golden. As many folks have said, this smells like wooden pews in a church filled with dusty sunlight (or something like that). It's...if possible...even better than that. There's a depth here that hits a musky backbite that I'm always looking for in a really good, really "me" scent, followed by an elusive sweetness that peeks out every once in a while. I think I'm going to end up liking this one way more than I ever thought I would.

Sexy. Kind of wonderfully horrible, but sexy. Very dark, very atmospheric. Even though it doesn't feel like me, I quite like it. I like that it oozes around me in a halo. I feel very mysterious and womanly wearing it, even just in my ripped-up hoodie and jeans. I'm going to have to keep this one around for a bit.