starfish327

in the imp: pumpkin, pumpkin spice, then chocolate

 

wet: wow this is a lot better than i thought that pumpkin and chocolate would be. and i'm glad i didn't read the notes first because i probably would run screaming. it smells like a really good pumpkin desert. the pumpkin hits first and then a large dose of the chocolate.

 

dry: this is a really really REALLY good pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, the ones like my dad used to make when his garden exploded. the nut is much more prominent dry than wet.

in the imp: it's odd. i'm not sure what to think about it. it's...woody. woody musk topped with florals.

 

wet: musky florals. i'm a touch disappointed. florals are the opposite of sexy to me.

 

dry: it's morphing. it's jasmine or another whitish floral over something deep and red and throbbing. even though it's throbbing, i'm getting more cuddle than sexy. the red starts coming to the front which is going to save this imp.

 

i don't think it inspires darkly sexual thoughts (sorry, but kink doesn't smell like red jolly ranchers). i do feel more playful though.

ivory soap and bay rum. this is a definite cousin to jolly roger...unfortunately jolly roger works much better with my skin chemistry. this wanted to be very masculine soap in the imp and wet (in fact there's a guy i work with that smells like this when he comes in for shift every night...), and slowly morphed into rum and woods. this may be one of the few blends that is too masculine for me to be able to pull off- my first instinct was to find something to layer with it to cut the masculinity a little.

 

i think that i'll stick with jolly roger for something in this scent family.

pale white flowers underneath a full moon, early summer. very pale, very delicate.

 

white gardenia, straight through. it reminds me a little of psychological horror, so i'm guessing there's some musk in there as well since i didn't get florals that i remember from psy horror. it's very pretty. it's very delicate, i'm not sure that it has that much of a throw on me at all though i could be wrong, florals are tricky for me. gardenia is one of the few florals that i can normally pull off easily (normally). there is a slight sourness under it on one wrist but not the other. weird. this was an escapee from the mass testing of 2009/2010 but i think this will stick around.

this has been hanging out in my imp box for awhile now because i stopped wearing oils for awhile for my boyfriend's allergies' sake and i'm not comfortable wearing alcohol based (wine, rum, etc) to work.

in the imp: dark red wine and blackberries/currants.

wet: wine and something going soapy and sour. uh oh.

dry: nope. still soapy and sour, just less so. the wine is trying to fight through, and periodically i do get whiffs of kool aid (the dreaded kool aid that i actually love so much in suck it). but it's mostly soapy sourness like i normally turn rose notes into. i'm almost guessing it's the thyme, though i still suspect that there's a rose or two in here. too bad. this one really should have worked on me.

2007 version

 

between a sinus infection and my asthma i have had a small vacation from bpal so now that i can breathe again i can go back to reviewing

 

in the imp: chocolate first, pretty much just straight up chocolate. closer to a chocolate syrup than a dry cocoa or even chocolate candy. it's a good chocolate syrup though, it's not hershey's. then the coffee kicks in

 

wet: a really good dark mocha.

 

dry: it's still a really good mocha though there may be a small dose of cinnamon or nutmeg in there but i'm not sure if i'm getting that only because i happened to glance at a review or not. it smells to alternate between coffee and chocolate being prominent, and there is a touch of playdough in there, but i remember there being the same impression off of espresso beans on occasion when i was still working with coffee every day.

 

 

samhain 2007

 

in the imp: apples, cinnamon, a little bit of wood, something that's both leathery and grainy at the same time

 

wet: apple, cinnamon, wood, and oatmeal

 

dry: sweet cinnamon and pumpkin spice, with a splash of apple. it's deepened by a hint of smoke.

 

at first it reminds me of sweet cinnamon pumpkin but then the apple comes back to the front. this is very very nice. completely wrong in feel for the day, but it's very comforting at the same time.

 

samhain 2010

 

in the bottle: apples over something murky.

 

wet: wow, incense and dirt. there's nothing fruity about this at all. this is as about as dark and murky as my collection gets. this is totally not what i was expecting, but i like it- think dracul or similar, but not as incensy.

 

dry: this is really morphing as it dries. it stays very dark on my skin but the apple note comes forward a LOT more, so the entire blend gets a lot sweeter. it's like eating apple pie in the dark, but not nearly as spicy. throw seems to be minimal because i slathered this on accident, and my normally scent sensitive boyfriend hasn't commented at all. it'll be interesting to see what happens when this blend calms down a little more (it came in the mail yesterday) and ages a bit.

once the creosote blast that i get initially dies down...it's really NOT bad. it actually reminds me of a lot less maply px717 or a less rosy st. john's eve. i'm going to try layering it at some point. i'd wear it straight (really really sparingly) except that it gives me a mental image of dried blood. interpreting everything as an image has its downsides.

very green, sweet, and almost aquatic. very light.

in the imp: pomegranate

 

wet:...cat pee?!

 

dry: a hint of powder and something sour, and pomegranate

 

i'm going to give this one another chance before i decide its fate

in the imp: wow, this is the first imp in a long time that i actively disliked in the imp. there's been a couple that i've been sort of scared by, but this one i actually don't like.

 

wet: medicinal. herbal. smells like something i'd apply for pain relief. alternately, it smells like old stale incense.

 

dry: still very astringent, medicinal herbal. there's something that i'm interpreting as detergent as well, but i think that may be the lily. it does sort of remind me of dirt, but not so strong that i knew it off the bat- i recognized dirt in jazz funeral immediately, but this was only after reading other reviews. it becomes tolerable after awhile, but i don't see myself wanting to wear this one.

 

i know what i smell like: i smell like an attic.

in the imp: the same bbq note from st john's eve (though this time i'm not afraid to skin test it, so it's not going to take me three weeks to work up the nerve) and cinnamon, with something faintly herbal underneath that.

 

wet: why hi there vetiver, how you doin'? heavy smoke with sweet kitchen spices. i don't know why but it's surprising me since i was apparently expecting this to actually be st john's eve. i think because the smoke note was so similar. but this is all sweetness where that was incense and rose.

 

dry: apparently i amp maple. because now this is all maple and a hint of smoke.

 

i don't know what to think about this one. i like it, but it's giving me a lot of scent memories that make me think 'dirty'- as in a mess. it reminds me of sugaring season back home- burnt sugar, wood chips everywhere, smoke, sticky sappy ick on everything. however, at the same time, it's another really intense scent memory coming out of the lab so i'm torn. beth somehow does bring back the most intense scent memories from when i was younger than 15...

lab fresh, frimped with last order, dated this month

 

in the imp: wine and roses

 

wet: wine and roses

 

dry: this is having a really long drying time on me- most blends are stable by the time i get the review window open to type. this one is still drying and still morphing. wine and roses and sweet tarts- this reminds me really of a mixed drink. it starts pulling rose and musk though.

 

this is definitely ROSE. and not just rose but strong rose. i normally can't do rose, especially amping rose. but this is weird enough that i think i want to keep it around. this is actually really surprising, i thought that i would hate this when i opened the imp. i'm sad that i'm not getting the resin/incense vibe from this however.

 

actually i know what this makes me think of,. this is what i was hoping smut and/or womb furie would smell like, just with rose. this is behaving better than those two however, which is surprising because those were two of my biggest bpal let downs yet.

there have been very few blends that i've tested that i've gone, oh this is really really REALLY masculine, so masculine i can't wear it.

 

this unfortunately is one of them. it's also one of the strongest blends that i've tried.

 

in the imp and wet, i just get a blast of cologne. it's very clean and while i have little to no experience with metallic notes, this does remind me a lot of copper.

 

dry, this smells exactly like a guy i dated in college- this goes straight into axe territory and with all the same problems that i have with axe. it's very strong- i didn't even really apply it so much as sort of spray myself with the imp on accident and i'm in a very clean, soapy, male-ish haze. this actually reminds a lot of a guy i know who's really into steam punk. i just have no interest in smelling like him, personally.

 

it's very fresh and clean and borders on aquatic for me. i could see this working very well on the right guy, but it's going back into a pack on the rehoming thread!

decant bought on the forums in a hunt to replace torture king:

 

in the imp: masculine, sort of generically masculine. similar to tk but doesn't have the high citrus kick to it.

 

wet: i can see where the comparisons are made- lots of leather and light masculine style musk.

 

dry: this is the same family as tk, but not nearly as powerful. the amber lightens it up too much and i do get a slight apple vibe. i'm getting frankencense from this as well. this actually reminds me more of faunalia than tk- it has the same resiny, clean, almost cool masculine feel to it.

 

i may try layering this with doc constantine just for kicks, but this doesn't bode well for this decant. it's a lot cleaner and preppier than what i generally wear for masculine style oils, and my skin seems to eat it.

i have a bag that i put all of my to be tested imps and testers into, and i pick one out every night to be tested the following day. currently the bag almost can't be closed, and i'm falling more and more behind on my testing pile (what can i say? i love circular swaps lol).

 

doublehelix was nice enough to rehome a very full tester of hod (original).

 

in the imp: carnation and rose. strange. i'm recognizing these two notes from the bottom notes of another blend i just tested recently but i can't place which one.

 

wet: almost a carnation sn. very little rose-thankfully, normally i amp it to gag inducing levels. a hint of vanilla very much at the bottom of this.

 

dry: ...and it's gone. or almost. it's very very faint. it's like the far out dry down of something. the carnation is doing odd things on my skin as well, though it may be my hormones- spicy notes sometimes go plastic on me when the sharks are circling.

 

i'm really glad that i got a chance to test this since it's at least a minor bpalicorn, but it's going to be given a chance to be tested by a friend who wanted to sniff it and then it's going to be rehomed to someone who can actually wear and you know smell it.

decant bought off of lj

 

in the imp: smoky pine

 

wet: smoky pine

 

dry: smoky pine, a hint of amber, and incense. this is a more piny, slightly weaker st john's eve on my skin.

 

this is very nice. in fact, this is much nicer than what i had thought it would be. i had purchased this one because i liked the name and it was on my wishlist, but i couldn't remember anything about it, and the reviews had me a tad concerned that it would be overpowering. but this is actually a lot lighter and a lot more feminine than i had feared it would be. this is definitely dark, but it's not brooding dark.

oh this is totally not me.

 

in the imp and wet, it's all sugar- bubblegum, cotton candy, something bright pink and that would make my teeth ache.

 

dry, it's cotton candy and flowers. it's...young. it's very very young. it reminds me of something that you would market to a five year old. it's still sickeningly sweet. i could see this on a kid on a complete sugar buzz who's running rampant and getting into everything.

 

this is completely not my style- it's about a 180 from what i normally look for. i was hoping for something springy and slightly sweet, but this is...i'm not sure what it is but it's not all that pleasant.

frimped! a very well timed frimp as well. i have a job interview this afternoon and feel like my life have become very stagnant lately. on top of it, i have problems with anxiety (I'm extremely worried about this interview even though i know that i have no interest in the job, but i don't get enough offers to interview for more stable positions than the one i'm in now to pass down a chance to at least practice my interviewing skills).

 

in the imp- wow. sharp melon with an undertone of something sweet and candy like.

 

wet-sharp, herbal candies. it makes me think of something that you'd beg an adult for even as they tell you that you won't like it- and then hate it once you get it.

 

dry- it morphs into apple pie. sweet, spicy, i want to eat my arm.

 

and i have to admit, i'm a lot calmer now that i'm wearing this, it may be entirely a mind game but it does seem to be helping. this does seem to be the most effective of the conjure bags that i've tried so far.

cranberries! nomnomnom. heavy note of cranberry juice all the way through this one. the bottom notes morph though- there's something that goes from herbal to smoke on the dry down. i attempted to wear another blend today and i thought it was interacting with that, but the smoke is still there when applied on a different location. it almost smells like vetiver. eventually it fades though and i'm left with lovely sweet cranberries.

in the imp and wet: ...grass clippings? (looks at note list). okay so i guess i'm getting the fern?

 

dry: grass clippings with lavendar and lilac and something...else. i almost think it's the sugar going strange on me- it smells like latex at first and then something that smells like plastic sugar, like a doll that's supposed to smell like sugar.

 

off to the swap box/imp orphanage. this is just...wrong. i like the upper notes. if i could keep the lawn smell i'd actually like it, it reminds me of summer and is just strange enough to want to wear it. but that weird cast off note from strawberry shortcake is too much for me to take.

phantom queen confuses me. i'm having my initial confusion that i have when a scent doesn't line up with the image of the subject that i have in my head. this scent is much too pretty and girly to line up with the impressions that i have of the morrigan- i had a similar issue with queen mab when i reviewed that one as well.

 

the second thing causing confusion is that this really smells like vanilla milkshakes and roses to me. in the imp and wet, i get the impression of vanilla milkshakes from the throw. if i actually pay attention to the scent it doesn't smell anything like vanilla, but if i just catch random whiffs it's definitely creamy, milky vanilla.

 

in dry down, i actually got excited because i thought that this was the only other blend than mata hari with rose that i can actually wear. i can wear the rose in this one...because there isn't any apparently. i still don't believe that though, i amp rose to the sky and this definitely smells like rose to me. it's not bad this time though, because while it's prominent, it's not painful like it normally is. if i try i can pick out the apple blossom.

 

it's another pretty feminine floral that feels like it shouldn't be a pretty feminine floral.

well this isn't going to be much of a review, but my boyfriend says this smells...scarily true to the theme.

lol and i've had people tell me that bliss is too...something for them! I guess it just shows that there isn't a universal.

 

I could just be blanking but I think the only thing close to a true foody that I actually like personally would be sugar skull and that may or may not be a stretch to find. I fall closer to autumn food or fruit and floral if I venture into foody.

 

 

 

the ones that come to mind off the top of my head would be something along the lines of eat me/gluttony for foody, intrigue for vaguely oddball, something like the coiled serpent for patch/incense (but that may be a little heavy), and i actually really like needlework for floral/girly.

 

Actually I'm a foody person and Gluttony just does not work me, which makes me sad. And Eat Me vanishes on me. So I guess they're not that universal. Maybe Bliss would be safer for a sweet foody scent?

 

If she likes tea then I'm going to second Dorian and/or Alice.

 

straight uncut high john the conquerer oil is one of my most potent ritual tools lately and I was interested in the comparison sine this blend is more likely to be wearable.

 

this strikes me as being a lot weaker with a vanilla undertone. I don't get the same confidence boost with it either. a day's wearing will show what effect if any this has.