mirutai

In the imp, this is weirdly bittersweet and sharp. Doesn't smell like any other BPAL that I've tried! Wet, Aizen-Myoo is gorgeously refreshing - a bitter tea note, overlain with s gentle fruitiness and a waft of cherry blossom. As the scent dries, the crispness dies down a bit, leaving a more mellow scent, but there’s still the interestingly complex bittersweetness. I love this, and it would be perfect for a hot day.

In the imp, this is a deep, round, full peach scent. Wet, it's definately tangier - bright and fizzy. The amber and musk come out to play as the scent dries, backing up the peach and making this a more sophisticated scent than a pure fruit scent. Lasted all day - a winner! Perfect for summer.

A raven-haired Fairy Queen of Ireland. One of her eternal duties dictates that she must hold a midnight court every season and hear the pleas of married Irishwomen. The court serves only to determine whether or not husbands are adequately serving their wife’s sexual needs. A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. Bizarrely, my nose interprets this combination of sweetness and herbs as "mint chocolate-chip ice cream". What? Either my chemistry is doing weird things to Aeval, or my nose is...

This was a slightly sharp and acrid floral in the imp, an interesting bold rose-based floral while wet... and then went to pure soft white soap when dry. Off to swaps with it.

On me, this is all sweet dragon's blood resin and spices (mainly clove). Warm and red, but hardly dark or pulsating! I don't get vetiver or any of the darker notes at all. Not one for me!

Dark berries and jasmine. While it's wet, I get the sharp citrus scent of the lime, but it quickly fades. Venom is an interesting mixture of sensations - juicy yet powdery, sweet yet dark. It's heady, feminine, and faintly dangerous. Not really my thing personally, but a good fit for the name!

Hmm. While this is a rich, complex scent, I don't get the morphing effects that other people have described. On me, The Masque is pretty much the same from first application to the moment when it finally waves goodbye - sweet golden honey, a hint of candlewax, powdery amber and a hint of spicy incense. While the sweetness of the honey is dominant, there's something giving it a sharp edge - I'm guessing the tobacco. The Masque is appropriately heady and decadent - fitting to the subject matter, but ultimately not my thing!

Whoa. This isn't The Premature Burial, this is The Scent That Wasn't There. In the imp, I get a woody patchouli with some sharp edge, but the instant the oil hits my skin... gone. I can't smell a thing. Either The Premature Burial is identical to my natural odour, or my skin is sucking this one up like the Vortex o' Doom. Very odd!

A light ozone and aquatic scent, but with a swirl of white floral/fruitiness which stops it from doing the acrid "men's deoderant stick" thing on me. The floral component is light and sweet, and somehow seem wet; I think this is what is giving the impression of fruitiness... watermelon! That's what it reminds me of! For a light scent, there's a surprising amount of throw initially; I can smell it wafting around for an hour or so after application. It's faded by midday to a barely-perceptible scent on my wrist, but that's not atypical for me and light florals. Cool and wet, lightly floral but not too sweet; this is great for summer! Add Szepasszony to the very short list of aquatics that I like!

Smoked, spiced apples. No, I have no idea what a smoked apple would taste like either (would probably be _vile_), but this is definately the scent of apples and smoke. The spices are quite strong as well - cinnamon and clove, to my nose. I'm not actually getting "pie" out of this, though - there's none of the sweet, cloying pastry note that sometimes appears in foody blends (Jack, I'm lookin' at _you_). Over time it gets a little woodier, a little smokier. Strangely, the scent seems wet rather than dry to me - I get the impression of damp leaves. It is very evocative of autumn. After four hours or so, the scent has dried down to a thick honey-ish note. Throw, which was previously quite good, is mostly gone (have to sniff my wrists directly to detect it). Not so keen on htis phase. I'm not normally a fan of smoky or foody scents, but even I can tell that this is a good one. Not sure if it's really "me", but I can appreciate the artistry of the blend!

Bright happy springtime grass, with a waft of rose. Green, cheerful, sunny, lovely... ... and completely gone in ten minutes. Woe!

Dry, warm, smooth; spicey without being foody. It makes me think of the SF novel <u>Dune</u> - a breath of spiced wind from the desert where fierce blue-eyed tribesmen ride atop sandworms. The scent isn't too sweet, unlike many others in this category (O, Snake Oil, Queen of Sheba). Very warming, and would be great for autumn. Not my usual sort of thing, but I like this!

Sweet spices - cardamon, saffron, and a hint of cinnamon - over a rich honey-almond scent. It reminds me vaguely of baklava. It lasts well and has a nice throw (not too weak, not too suffocating). Warm and golden. A nice scent, but too sweet for me personally. I prefer Morocco, which is in the same spicey category but without the sweetness and foody associations. Morocco is walking through an Eastern spice bazaar; Queen of Sheba is walking through an Eastern bakery.

Violets love me. On my skin, they tend to amp up until I smell like I've been lightly dusted with crushed Parma violet pastilles. This is not a good thing. That said, Queen Gertrude nearly manages to survive the Sugared Violets of Death Ninja Attack; I get wafts of a gorgeous blue lilac scent fighting through the sweetshop aroma. Slightly powdery, but not too much. There's a vague feeling of slushy chill to it, like lilacs blooming through an unseasonal snowfall. Unfortunately, the violets o' doom ultimately have their evil way with me. I imagine that this is gorgeous on someone who doesn't amp violets!

Very, very sweet fruit/berry scent. This smells like artificial fruit candy to me on first application, then dries down over an hour to the less sweet -- but no less artificial -- aroma of a cheap berry-scented candle. Um, not for me!

I don't know what bois du rose is, but to me Endymion doesn't smell at all rosy. Let me consult the Google oracle... Well, nothing for bois du rose, but bois de rose is evidently "Steam distilled from the chipped wood of Aniba Rosaeodoea Ducke from Brazil, Peru and French Guiana which is a colorless to pale yellow oil with a fresh, sweet woody, floral spice odor." And there is indeed a very faint sweet woody note in Endymion, though it's mostly buried under pear and lily of the valley. To me this is very pear - a sweet, crisp, perfectly ripe pear on the tree. It's a real fruit rather than an artificial fruit flavour! There's a nice greenish edge which stops the scent from becoming cloyingly sweet. Fairly fast-fading, but a surprising amount of throw. Lovely, but I'm not into pears enough to wear this regularly!

Musk. Musk, musk, a bit more musk, and - hey, just for variety! Some musk! There's a slightly sweet and spicy edge while it's wet/drying, but after dry-down this is all musk on me. Heavy, red-shot black. Very much NOT a daytime scent. Evocative of the name - this is the musk of a very large, leathery predator - but I personally find dark musk overpowering. Not at all "me". I'll leave this one to the black-leather-clad, thigh-high-boot-wearing, night-clubbing brigade!

Before reading the description, I was pegging this as "crisp, bright orange with... something". Now that I know that the "something" is herbs, I can just about pick them out. They smell like fresh, growing herbs, not dried; this scent is more like walking in an orangery/herb garden than like being in a kitchen. This is a bright, refreshing, invigorating scent, but not sharp. It's quite unusual. Really lovely. I suspect it will fade fast, but I'd be willing to slather this!

This is the first aquatic I've ever tried that didn't immediately make me wrinkle my nose in distaste - aquatics for me normally give the impression of sniffing a men's deodourant stick. The City in the Sea, however, really does smell like the ocean (and I live near the sea, so I should know!). Watery, salty, tangy. This is a calm, blue-green scent, though not _placid_ - I get the impression of vast lightless depths underneath that quiet surface... Too well blended for me to pick out individual notes, though I suspect it's the violets giving it that slightly powdery, sweet edge which softens the darker aquatics. Not much throw on me, and quite subtle; I suspect it will fade fast. Not sure if it's _me_, but it's certainly lovely.

Softly sweet floral, very delicate and romantic. I get a light rose backed by the musk, with a hint of sweetness floating over the top that I think is the orchid. Very appropriate for the name. It is also, sadly, completely gone in under two hours. Waaah! UPDATE: Retried Psyche. This time I get a blast of pure lavender... and then nothing. At all. The scent is completely gone in under half an hour. Off to swaps with it!

In the imp, this is pretty sharp orange. Wet, it blooms into a wet, juicy, spicy orange scent - cloves, cinnamon, orange peel. It's like mulled orange juicy! There's a hint of sharpness that suggests orange peel as well as juice. I also think that there's some sort of base note backing up the fruit and stopping it from becoming too sweet - maybe a dark/red musk. It's making me think of orange pomanders decorating a Victorian-style Christmas tree in a stately country house. Firelight glittering from red and gold ornaments. Decadent, but in a warm comfortable "overindulging in treats with the family at Christmas" rather than a wild-party-and-orgy type of decadence. I like this one, but the holiday associations are too strong to make this a daily-wear scent. Would be good for a festive Yuletide celebration, though! I suspect it would also be good in an oil burner.

On me, gardenia = death (by rotting stagnant pond water). Also, on me jasmine tends to go unpleasantly sharp and loud. Soooo.... er, why the heck did I decide to try Euphronsyne? Funnily enough, it smelled foul on me. Off the imp goes for someone else to love!

Ok, either my nose or my chemistry is out of whack, because I don't get pine from Snow Moon. No, I get... pineapple. Sugared, candied pineapple with a hint of... banana? What? If I read the description while sniffing my wrist, I can juuuuust about persuade myself that I can separate out the scent into sweet flowers over a woody, light pine note. Ah, the power of suggestion! However, if I just sniff with no preconceptions, my brain insists that it's smelling a very sweet tropical fruit salad. It's too candyish to be enjoyable for me - it's like pineapple chewing gum. Very, very weird. Snow Queen turned tropical on me as well - maybe my skin/nose is doing something strange with the "snow" note!

When testing this, I misremembered the notes. Let me just say that this is a very suprising scent if one is expecting to smell milk and honey (Dana O' Shee)! Anyway, I was hoping for a wet, green floral... but on me this goes straight to Ye Generic Commercial Floral Perfume smell. Strong, "perfumey" floral, with a piercing edge and fairly powerful throw. Unfortunately, it tickles my nose and makes my head hurt slightly. So sad!

A less sweet, less in-yer-face version of Kabuki. The star anise still gives that initial rush of "OMG! LIQUORICE!", but it rapidly dies down to become a pleasantly sweetish, spiceyish, fruitish note. Cherry blossom gives a faint, light, sweet floral topnote, while the sandalwood grounds it all and stops it from becoming nauseatingly sweet. Much more wearable than Kabuki. Very pleasant!