calivianya

Wet: Woodsy and... fruity? Must be the tobacco doing something weird here. I'm definitely getting some pepper, too.
Drying: Okay, the pepper is amping. This is getting a little hellfire and brimstone-y in a very bad way, as pepper can go totally nasty hot death on my skin sometimes...
30 minutes: Warm, sweet woods with a bite. I'm glad I didn't scrub it off in the wet stage. I was really tempted to!

I think this is going to be fantastic with some aging, but right now it is really rough around the edges. I'm going to hang on to it to see how it matures.

My favorite rose blend hands down is Lilith. You have to be able to wear black musk and wine too, which is why I think it isn't so popular, but on me it is downright dark and sensuous. My boyfriend says it's his favorite smell on me.

I have been letting this mellow a while before reviewing, so here it goes!

If you haven't picked out the Lab's lace note yet, try this one and Tattered Lace. This blend has a lot more in common with Tattered Lace than the other lace blends, IMO. I love how blends smell different to different people! However, this one is stronger and sharper. It gets positively smoky on the drydown, almost a sniffing an ashtray smokiness that you can almost feel in the back of your nose better than you can smell. It has to be a part of the absinthe note for sure - tobacco, even tobacco smoke, doesn't usually do this on my skin. It's a little too acrid for me, to be honest. I was hoping a few months' worth of aging would mellow it, but so far it's a no go and I think this one is going to need to part ways with me.

That sucks, lucyboo21. I'm sorry that happened to you.

I'm a believer in you can wear (almost) anything you want - if you wear it on your chest and under your clothes and use a tiny amount. My preceptor this summer and I were talking about sweating after moving a heavy patient, and I commented, "This is why I always wear perfume!" I have been following her around for about a month and a half so far and we have pretty much been joined at the hip, but she was extremely surprised to hear that I wear perfume at all. I swear if you wear it on your chest, it just wafts straight up to your nose and no one else will smell a thing.

The Lights of Men's Lives gets pretty heavy rotation for me - I agree that beeswax doesn't smell like perfume, per se, and people wouldn't necessarily think you were wearing perfume if they did manage to smell it. I have, however, worn things that smell more like perfume, and still no one but me knew I was wearing anything at all.

I received this as a frimp. The "marine notes" would have kept me from trying this, as it's an aquatic. It is quite beautiful in the imp and wet on my skin - the aquatic notes just serve as a backdrop for the ambergris, which is the strongest note. This is clean and fresh - I would call it a misty day with a little bit of sunlight shining through the fog. For a second or two, I thought this was going to be a keeper. Then, the aquatics turned to dryer sheets as they always do and overwhelmed every other note in this blend. I think this would be absolutely beautiful on someone with the right skin chemistry, but it's an utter fail on me.

Just realized I never reviewed this!

I saw so many comments about this perfume that I impulse-bought a partial. I'm glad it was a partial and not a full bottle. It smells like carbonated light cologne on my skin. It is not in your face masculine, but it slightly on the masculine side of the gender line for me. I was hoping for something a bit sweeter. This is not really my thing.

You have some good recommendations here already, but I'll throw in my two cents.

Those kinds of scents are my absolute favorites. You should absolutely try The Bow and Crown of Conquest - it's delicious. I was going to suggest Cathedral too, but you beat me to it. Anne Bonny may be named after a female pirate, but that is also a very androgynous smell, and of course, you just have to try Dee. On a different note - if you thought Hemlock was nice but missing something, you might want to try Hemlock Honey. I think it may be too sweet for your taste, but the honey definitely warms it up a lot.

Jareth is the sexier, more manly version of Dorian. You should seriously try it. I'm also going to second Western Diamondback if you can track it down. If you really want to have an awful time finding stuff, try Silver-Haired Bat from this year's Bat's Day and Fetish.Goth from last year's. Both are good resin blends. Schwarzer Mond is also a huge winner for me, but it's also somewhat rare. I imagine it's a lot easier to track down than the Bat's Day scents, though.

I just have to say that chocolate/cocoa NEVER works for me in perfumes. Never, never, never. It turns into foody grossness and I don't want to smell like food. That being said, this blend does NOT smell like food. It smells like sexy. The tobacco and black musk keep the chocolate in check and make this officially the only cocoa blend I have been able to wear from Black Phoenix thus far. It's a winner, and damn is it a sexy winner.

The flowers and mist/dew combination remind me vaguely of an aquatic Lily of the Valley perfume. Maybe that's what's in this; I dunno. I love stuff with herbs, but I think this is too much flower and not enough herbs for me.

The Wiley Grasser from last year's Weenies is hard to find now, but that is a great cotton candy/wildflowers/pine scent. It and Sugar Skull are my favorite candy smells.

I received this as a frimp. I hate dragon's blood and I really don't like aquatics, so... this is absolute death in a bottle for me. It smells horrendous. Maybe some poor soul will love it...

Opium is hit or miss on my skin, and I think this one's a miss. The opium/orchid combination makes this a thick/dark floral with some interesting things underneath. Unfortunately, I just can't stand a predominantly floral smell. This will do better on someone else.

Violet usually turns to violet-scented candied play dough, so we'll see what happens, shall we?

Smelling this in the imp, this is cold in the same way that Veil is. I don't really mean chilly, I mean dark. Unfeeling. I get the violet and lily of the valley loud and clear. On my skin, something herbal in a bad way starts to come out. I think it's the cajeput - I don't think that's a note that agrees with me. That note may just be what ruined another BPAL for me not too long ago. It's bitter and spicy in a nasty cooking spices kind of way. This ends up being cold violet/lily plus nasty cooking spices, and I just sneezed six times in a row. I don't think this one is for me.

All I have is a nearly bone dry tester of this one, so that's what I'll be reviewing.

This is a fruity honey scent, but it's not bright and happy. The caramel and teak make it sensual, and the cream makes it... well... creamy. Like ivory colored silk sheets you'd love to slide your bare skin across. This is very sensual, and although I can't try this on my skin, I think I will buy a bottle of it when the Carnaval comes back and see how it plays out. I like it a lot!

I had some serious misgivings about this scent, because nothing with cocoa in it has worked for me so far. I can definitely smell cocoa in this, but it's cocoa, not chocolate - it's not sweet. It is competing with some very masculine cologne. I can't pick out any kind of incense for sure, but the overall impression I'm getting here is one of a man's man. It dries down to mostly patchouli and leather with a little bit of cocoa left over. If I liked cocoa, I think I could love this. However, the cocoa remains still one of my great hates in perfume.

I don't know what I was expecting from this scent, but what I'm getting wasn't it. In the vial, this smells elegant. A very wet, green rose, and something either minty or violet-y or both. On my skin, I get more of the same. There is definitely violet in this because violet goes sort of fake play-dough plastic on my skin when it dries down, and I'm definitely getting a waft of that. It would be a very pretty smell on me if not for the violet.

Oh lordy, I received this as a frimp and I can smell it through the plumber's tape. I can clearly pick out gardenia and dragon's blood, which are two of the notes that will cause me to INSTANTLY wash a perfume off because they go fetid vomit on my skin, so I won't be brave enough to try this one today. Just the waft is enough.

Leather Phoenix... is not all I hoped it would be. It smells very green and wet at first - the anise and matcha working together, I suppose. I also get some rose. Ultimately, it gets a little woodsy, but I just don't like anise in perfumes. Leather Phoenix is not a winner for me.

Oh! This is a pleasant surprise. Wet in the vial, I get juicy sugared blueberry with lilac and white tea. It gets even more citrusy/blueberry as the bergamot comes out. In the first few minutes, this is LOVELY! However, as it dries down, the blueberry note goes almost plasticky or stale to my nose. I think the orris is overpowering it and that's what the fake edge is coming from. I'm going to have to give this another test to determine if it's a keeper or not. Right now, I'm on the fence.

First impression: sharp and cologne-y! This is very much a mosquito bite when I'm smelling it in the vial. A little pepper, saffron, and maybe the geranium? It's hard to tell. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to stand to wait for this to dry down. It is honestly a little bit nauseating. I was hoping for a spicy honey/beeswax smell, but I'm not getting it here. Oh, this is bad. This may be one of the 5 worst BPALs I have ever put on my skin. I don't think this is a keeper.

I smelled Ruddy Daggerwing the second I opened my package - even before I'd taken things out of the bubblewrap. This is a strong oil!

I was glad to see the review talking about osage-orange as being used for bug repellant, as this reminds me of cocoa plus coffee plus... citronella candle. The citronella smell is muted at first, but is what my skin amps as this blend dries down. I think this might have been a winner if the osage-orange wasn't present, but as it is, I don't care for this one much.

Vampire Bride has given me chills more than once.

I love The Vampire Bride!

It's clean, pretty tea and sexy red musk - but I'm going to agree that there is something slightly unsettling about it. It feels predatory - like it's about to snatch some hapless victim and drain him dry.

Thank you so much to my wonderful fairy!

In the bottle: Whoa, much sweeter than I expected - but this is a good thing.

Wet: The benzoin really is stealing the show at first. Ambergris can go kind of sour on my skin, but that isn't happening here. I am definitely getting the woods, too - the cedar is most prominent to my nose, but I love cedar so life is good.

Dry: This stays woodsy with a hint of benzoin and ambergris. It's lovely, and it is extremely mild on my skin. This is a true skin scent - it smells more like I took a bath with scented soap than that I'm actually wearing perfume, if that makes sense. It means that I can wear this to work! I needed more scents so mild that I could get away with them at my scent-free job, so I am very much excited about this. I am so glad I found someone willing to pick this up for me!

3 hours later: This scent is still there, and it is giving me a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but at some point it became mostly sweet benzoin with a soft woods backdrop again. Full of win!

Just realized I never reviewed this - which is a good thing, actually. I tried it shortly after getting it while the update was still up, and was nearly nauseated from the strength of the floral/red musk combo. I didn't get rid of it straight away because I had hopes that it would mellow, but I haven't touched it since until tonight.

Wet on my skin: The floral/musk ridiculously strong whack-me-upside-the-head combo is still there, but I saw someone say this has changed with aging, so... I'm not going to wash it off yet.

Dry: Wow. This scent does a total 180 from wet to dry. Dry, this is mostly carnation and honey! The red musk is still there, but it's faint, and I'm not really getting the myrrh, though it may be a subtle part of the spiciness.

This is still a little bit overpowering for me. It's definitely a going out on the town scent. I would not recommend wearing this to work or for any serious occasions. I recommend this scent for sexytimes and dancing. It's just that kind of a scent - it's very sultry and very powerful, so it needs careful handling so you don't knock people over with it. BPAL/BPTP is not kidding with this one; it really is the essence of passion. I like it a lot better than I did at first, and I'm really surprised it's improved this much, so I guess I'll continue to hold onto my bottle and hope that it gets even better with more time.

In the vial: Woodsy! Resiny! This has promise.

Wet on my skin: More of the bitter, dusty wood. It reminds me of the Lab's white sandalwood note. I'm also getting amber and maybe patchouli? It's interesting, but we'll see how it plays out.

Dry: The dust and patchouli take over for me. It's like patchouli coated in sawdust. It's not bad, but it's not great either. Aureus is a 'meh' scent for me.