ajansuz

I was frimped this and extremely excited, because I had been wanting to try it for a while anyway. It's full of notes I love, and I thought for sure it would work on me. In the imp, it smelled lovely, understated vanilla, cedar, and something a little green and herbal. Wet: Plastic. Horrid plastic fake vanilla that burned my nose. Dry down: I was more hopeful. The vanilla settled to something more natural but still more foody than I care for in my vanilla blends. The cedar amped really nicely and started to work well with it, and the balsam picked up to a nice evergreen note. No hint of root beer, though, not even a tiny bit. After about an hour, the plastic was back in force. That particular vanilla has to be different than the one in Gypsy or Black Opal. Those played really nicely with my skin chemistry. This is a disaster on me, like a fake, plastic-y cheap vanilla candle. SO DISAPPOINTING.

I loved the packaging of this, very subtle and beautiful. The bar itself is snow white with a blood red dollop embedded atop it and tiny black granules that look like they might be flecks of mica. The texture of the soap is a little softer than the other bars I've tried, more of that vegetable soap texture without as much body. However, it lathers beautifully. The scent is kind of cold, like a cold, winter apple. There's definitely something dark going on there. I'm really enjoying using it in the heat of summer. The scent makes me feel cooler and refreshed. It doesn't last on my skin at all, though, but it does make my bathroom smell nice!

OK, second combo. Chaotic Evil Orc Fighter. Man, was this one interesting! I did equal wand swipes on my wrists, inner arms, and neck, and it smelled different everywhere! On my wrists, opium tar and leather duked it out in a gorgeous mix that was quite unisex overall but leaning a little more toward the feminine. The crooks of my arms were delicious incensey, opium goodness with musk, leather, zucchini, and a slight metallic tang. The mixture on my neck went pure metallic, like I rubbed a piece of steel all over me. It killed and ate every other note. I got lots of compliments, though!

I combined equal parts Good, Elf, and Paladin. It's a sweet, floral leather with something refreshing and almost citrus underneath. Delicious.

This was a frimp that came with 13. In the imp, it's a tonic, medicinal scent, almost like mint or camphor with the sweetness of Frankincense. Wet it goes very woodsy, strangely enough smelling like polished teak shelving and incense. It smells a lot like a metaphysical bookstore in Baton Rouge, Coyote Moon. The patchouli comes on strong and earthy with a hint of smoke. Dry the wood scent almost fully takes over, still reminding me more of the lab's teak note than anything else. The Frankincense is like the distant memory of incense once burned in a room and just barely clinging. Throw is low, lasting power is medium. Overall, it's a pretty neat scent but more what I'd think of as a room scent than a skin scent. 3/5

This was a lab frimp that came with my 13. In the imp, smoky, rich cocoa, a floral I don't recognize but really like, and something kind of spicy, almost like a small trace of chiles. Wet: Man, this is seriously gorgeous. Cocoa and copal incense on a bed of soft, sweet flowers and leather. It's the same leather I get from Western Diamondback, saddle leather without the horse. Dry: On my wrists, the leather amps the most, floating atop the sweet floral. In the crooks of my arm, it's more copal incense and earthy patchouli with a touch of dry cocoa and smoke. I think this is hands down the best frimp I've ever gotten that also happens to work like a dream with my body chemistry. This is more or less what I was hoping Western Diamondback would do on me, which it almost did but fell just a little short. I'm bumping it up on my GC list of bottles to buy the very next time I decide to place an order. 5/5

This is one strange brew, friends. I really like it, but wow. Hard to put into words. In the bottle, dry, in your face cocoa floating on a swanky, dirty bed of patchouli with something a little zingy/fruity like August 2010's 13 grape note, honey, and peppercorn spice to round it out. Wet, my skin ate the cocoa alive. It was there for all of a hot minute and gone. The scent went all tar and incense, almost camphor-like and kinda scary. I smelled like a hot asphalt road next to some spicy, sun baked weeds. I reeaaalllly wasn't sure what to make of that phase. Thankfully, it went away on the dry down. Now it's sweet, dry, and spicy. I amped the honey and the spices. For the first time I can pull out the saffron. There's still this peppercorn thing going, and the patchouli gets just a little dirty hippy. I happen to like that, though. After about four hours, it's sweet, spicy, and a little powdery. All in all, this scent made me feel pretty powerful, sunny, and pleased without being bubbly or happy. I think with some aging it's going to be fantastic. I'm very glad I bought it.

This was a generously gifted lab frimp. In the imp: Sweet, juicy, and fruity. The citrus note smells more like grapefruit to me than bergamot. A very ethereal scent, very feminine. Wet: Almost too sweet. The grapefruit citrus amps fairly unpleasantly on me with a candy undertone and soft musk. It's kind of a schizo scent in that it never seems able to decide if it wants to go citrus, musk, or something kind of dead leaf-ish. Dry down: I amp the oakmoss so crazily, that's all that's left. It smells identical to Zombi on me after about three hours of wear. Oakmoss and musk. I like oakmoss, but overall this scent just doesn't fully work with my body chemistry. I'd give it a 2/5.

This was a generous frimp from the lab. In the imp: Wow, such a very faint scent. I had to hold it really close and sniff a while to catch anything at all. Soft coconut and vanilla. Wet: It started out faint and grew pretty quickly, coconut, vanilla, and kind of a creamy citrus note. A very beachy, summery scent, like tanning oil. Dry down: It always stayed skin close and didn't morph much from the wet phase. It's a very soft, creamy coconut vanilla scent, very reminiscent of those coconut tanning oils without being quite so strong on the coconut. Pleasant, but not something I've gotta have. I'll use it and enjoy it this summer. Also not at all long lasting. Within about three hours it was gone. Edit: On second thought, maybe I do need a bottle if the husband's reaction to it is any indication.

In the imp: A very salty aquatic, ozone, and something sweetly fruity, almost but not quite citrus. A sort of less sharp Cthulhu. Wet: For a few hot minutes, it almost smells like Tide laundry detergent. NOOOO! Dry down: Thank goodness, the soapy Tide scent goes away. Salt and brine come up in a very clean, very refreshing scent. Really, I want my clothes or linens to smell like this more than I want to smell like it on my skin, but I do like it quite a bit. Not dark or slithery at all.

In the imp: Something kind of grapefruity and sweet with just a small trace of evergreen and floral. Wet: Whatever it is that smells like grapefruit really amps at first, almost to the point I want to wash it off because grapefruit and I don't get on well scent wise. Dry down: Very fruity and sweet berry, something in it a little waxy like the fig from Bordello. Just a trace of sugared violet under that. After a few hours, it's all candy sweet berry, a great fragrance for a young teen but not something I really care to smell like as an adult.

In the imp: Iron, stone, and something very gritty/earthy/dirty. I thought that if a dwarf had a scent, this would definitely be it. Wet on me: This goes straight to a high end men's cologne. I...can't brain it. It smells nothing like it did in the imp. Not even a teeny tiny bit. Dry down: Men's cologne. It's a very nice men's cologne smell. Just not what *I* want to smell like. It lasted a long time, too. I'm kind of hoping it smells similar on my husband. Unfortunately, it's just not at all what the imp promised wet.

In the imp: A metallic tang sharp enough to leave a taste sensation in the mouth just from a sniff, leather, and heady musk. Wet: Metal, leather, and something that really does have that sort of meaty, metallic blood tang. As odd as that may sound, I found I really liked it. It was strangely appealing. Dry down: Unlike all of the other RPG's I've tried with leather, the leather in Fighter didn't duke it out and win. Metal and musk were the two notes that came out the strongest on me, with a hint of blood and only a touch of leather at the base. It's very true to its description and one of the best interpretations of a class I tried in this batch. My husband said it was a very visceral smell. I asked him if that was good or bad. He said it somehow made him uneasy, but it left him wanting to smell more. I think I love that reaction. Throw was low, but man does it have staying power. Hours later, I still smell the same as I did once it dried all the way.

In the imp this smelled like wet rope and worn leather to me. Very heavy on the rope scent. Wet, rope stays predominant with a little waft of pine that dies off pretty quickly. The leather isn't the same as the one in Orc or Paladin. It's more like a leather jacket, or how your skin smells if you've been wearing a leather jacket all day. Dry down, leather and rope duke it out with something a little sweet underneath. It has a low throw but a long last. The scent is a little more masculine than unisex, but a woman can easily pull it off. There's a cocky sort of confidence to this scent I really like. I can't wait to see how it plays with others.

In the imp: Very metallic, a hint of leather, and a sweet base of Frankincense. Wet: It's so metallic I actually get that taste in the back of my mouth. Frankincense amps really strongly, very sweet and incense-y. The leather also begins to amp. No sign whatsoever of the listed musk or vanilla notes. Dry down: The metal goes away, leaving Frankincense and leather. It doesn't morph much after that at all, though after a few hours the only note really left on me was leather. I'm imagining this will layer well. It's not something I think I'd wear a lot of by itself. I like it OK but can't say I love it. I was really, really hoping for the vanilla to do something.

In the imp: A very sweet white floral. I know it's not a listed note, but it reminds me a LOT of magnolia, which I love in imps but on me goes sickeningly sweet and funerary. Wet: Uber crazy floral, sickeningly sweet and almost ramping into headache territory. I was strongly tempted at that point to wash it off, but I waited. Dry down: Whew. Some of that really scary floral backed off a little. The honey scent is a very true honey scent, not sex, not sugar, but clean, light honey. The musk is very light, but the floral is still the most dominant note. It still smells like magnolia to me, like the magnolia of Hell's Belle or Black Dahlia, minus the funerary note. I'll try this one for layering. On its own, it's way too high floral for my tastes. The throw is positively obnoxious, too.

This was another one I was really excited about, because I love heliotrope. In the imp, it's very much sweet heliotrope, a blast to the nostrils of it. I don't know what mastic smells like, but I do detect some other note, something just a little dry. Wet: Still blasting heliotrope. This is a very perfume-y scent. I don't mean that as a negative, but it's closer to commercial perfume than most of what I get from BPAL. I desperately wanted wasabi. Not detecting that yet. Dry down: The musks start to rise and make this a lot richer than a straight floral. Also, a very fresh, herbal grassy scent emerges that might be the rooibos. I'm not familiar enough with rooibos to pick it out well. I think one might be Egyptian musk. It tends to really like my skin and I amp it. Throw on this is huge. My husband smelled me from all the way across the room, and I only dabbed on a little bit. Of all of the RPG scents I've sampled so far, this is the first I think I'd be perfectly content wearing without layering again and again. Good last, too. Several hours before fading.

In the imp, very strong blast of opium and tobacco. I couldn't pick anything out beyond that, and I was a little worried, since opium can give me a headache. Wet: Something deliciously astringent cuts up through the opium and tobacco cloud. No headache. Just glorious, very grown up, sophisticated perfume. If this is evil, it's Wall Street or boardroom evil, not a mage in a back room trying to conjure forth a demon evil. I adore it. Dry down: The scent doesn't really morph much on me at all. It kept a medium throw and lasted about six hours before going down to something soft and floral. I can't wait to start playing around with the layering.

In the imp, sharp evergreens, not just pine, although it seems to be the strongest note. Also something a little soft and dusty, almost like a layer of dry pine needles when they're hit by sun. On wet, the pine and patchouli have about equal strength. There are other wood notes that I'm not sensitive enough to pick out individually. I just know they don't have that conifer scent. I get no leather at all, not ever, which made me sad, because that was one of the things that attracted me to this scent. Dry down there's not too much morph. It stays pine, juniper, patchouli, and other woods with a little bit of dust. A very woodsy, earthy scent that I'd say is more unisex than masculine. I like it, and I think it will probably layer really well with some of the other scents. It's not quite enough on its own for me to wear it solo. Low throw. Medium last.

In the imp, this was primarily Irish Cream with a light touch of oak. The Irish Cream note was very, very strong and sweet, to the point I was concerned it would be way too foody on me, but as with every scent I get, I'm determined to skin test and not judge by the bottle/imp scent alone. Wet on it wasn't nearly as sweet as in the imp. Some of the coffee lifted in a nice, bitter note, and the oak amped pretty strongly. I didn't get dust so much as maybe dry papers or something. There's something dry under the food and wood notes. Dry down is where it went kind of wonky on me, in the same way Calaveras did. In fact, the scent coming up is very similar. Something about most of the lab's stronger booze notes really doesn't like me. It's hard to describe except to say it's a very strong booze note, slightly bitter, slightly burnt, and not pleasant. I had very high hopes for this one. It's a pity it's a no-go with my body chemistry.

I was ridiculously excited about this one for some reason, and it didn't disappoint. In the imp, it's a delicious fresh zucchini smell, I mean like fresh from the cutting board. There's a soft undertone of leather, just a hint of it, and something kind of sweet. Really like a skin musk or a white musk. Wet on, I suddenly amped vetiver massively. I smelled like smoked zucchinis, heavy on the smoke. As weird as that sounds, it really worked on me. It smelled good. My husband loved the scent. During the dry down phase I amped the leather to the point everything else disappeared for a while. It smelled like walking into a Tandy leather shop. I happen to like that scent. YMMV. The throw on this was medium strong. After about three hours, the leather tamed down to the point that the sweet musky scent came through again, and the vetiver returned with a slightly spicy hint to the smoke. This scent was a very long lasting one. After eight hours, it was still going and still lovely. If orcs actually smelled like this, I think more races would hang around them more.

In the bottle this is mostly creamy vanilla goodness with a light undertone of floral. One me, within an hour, the vanilla and cream are gone, leaving a surprisingly strong and lasting rice flower scent. I'm with another reviewer that it also goes hints of Egyptian Musk, which I don't mind but wasn't at all expecting. I like the scent a lot. It had the unexpected added benefit of keeping sand gnats off of me when I was at the Scottish Festival today, so YAY. Big plus there!

This was a lab frimp. In the imp, dirty loam with a menthol, medicinal tang that was very strong. I was seriously concerned about even putting that anywhere near my skin, but since I've determined to skin test every BPAL that comes my way, I bit the bullet. Wet: Patchouli like woah! Menthol settling down into a more sappy conifer note, like rubbing sticky spruce needles over your skin. Loamy dirt, makes me think of oakmoss, and a little bit of heavy rose. Actually? Kind of digging it by this point. It's way more complex than it was in the imp. There's also something deliciously smoky, maybe a touch of vetiver. Dry down. This is a dry, rich scent. The rose floral floats atop the deeper, darker patchouli, and the tree sap is almost oily. I'm a sucker for the dirtier BPAL's, and this one really rocks. After I use up my bottle of Malediction I need to get me some of this. Super surprising hit of the frimps from this order. 5/5 on my skin. Good throw, long lasting. Can't stop smelling my wrists and the crooks of my arms. I bet this would age beautifully.

This was a frimp. In the imp, sandalwood, citrus, mint, lavender, and white musk. Wet: At first the lavender did its musty funk on me, and I thought I'd have to wash it off. The sandalwood went almost pencil shavings on me, not pleasant at all. However... Dry down was worth waiting for. The lavender funk died away. The sandalwood became really pretty and grounded. Something sweet that I didn't recognize emerged to blend with it, and although the scent stayed fairly dry, the sweetness with the wood note was very pretty. Low throw. Lasted maybe about four hours before fading away. Not bottle worthy on my skin, but a nice imp.

This was a lab frimp. In the imp: Astringent lemon and strong herbs, not promising. Wet on: Still very sharp and astringent, and the rosemary shows up in a cooking herb, not at all flattering way. Dry down: Now it's like grape juice and rosemary with a twist of lemon. This doesn't like my skin chemistry at ALL unfortunately.