riddel

Jailbait

This was a freebie in my last order, an oil I had not planned on trying. While I do like sweet scents, I was afraid Jailbait would make me smell like a pre-teen, what with the bubblegum and lollipop notes. But... I like it, surprisingly. With wear, the "heady womanly perfume" comes to the forefront and the bubblegum fades to the background (on my skin, anyway). The result? A grown-up blend with just enough sticky sweetness to keep it from being downright proper. I never get any of the orange or cherry lollipops, although I'm sure they're there, so well-blended my amateur nose just can't pick them out.

What a neat scent. I'll enjoy my imp and go from there.

Chaos Theory VI

I'm terrible with notes and I'm truly sorry for that because I'm dying to know what exactly is in mine. Oh, well. I'm pretty sure it's aquatic. I'm also smelling something a bit herbal underneath... Maybe. Also, a touch of floral? I... I really don't know. It has, at various times, reminded me of both Desdemona and Old Amsterdam, and there's something in the drydown reminiscent of Dragon's Tears. I also think there might be a bit of Embalming Fluid going on. Is that the "herbal" note I'm smelling? (Insert Beth's laughter here, as she thinks, "Oh, silly Tiffany! I blended no such Chaos Theory! I've succeeded in fooling you with my complex creation!")

I can't see this getting a lot of wear. Also, I'm not sure it works well with my skin chemistry, because something in it stays a bit sharp on me. For a while there I thought it might be growing on me, and I don't hate it, but I am an obsessive minimalist, so...

This whole experience has certainly been chaotic, but you know what? I'd do it all over again, in a heartbeat. I blame my Gemini sun.

Oh, what a fun question. I love that movie. Audrey Tautou is adorable. Seriously. Anyway, I think Amelie would wear something feminine and romantic, something classic with a sparkly twist -- something like Feu Follet.

Dana O'Shee

Odd. I don't get almonds from this one. Well, not the kind of almonds present in, say, Hecate and Seraglio. To me, Dana O'Shee is creamy, sweet, and nibble-my-arm edible without screaming FOODY! It smells like I took an expensive milk bath then baked some oatmeal cookies. It's just a comforting, unobtrusive scent. Like somebody else said, this is how I wish my skin smelled naturally. I so have a 5ml of this on the way.

Seance

This smells like vintage clothing; like antique shops stuffed with one-of-a-kind treasures; like Victorian parlours and ladies. It's warm, oh so warm, with a faded, aged sweetness. It truly takes me back to another time. I'm so, so happy I traded for a 5ml of this blind.

Just... perfect. Summer turning into fall in a bottle: ripe apples and dying leaves and shafts of golden yellow sunshine losing strength as the days roll by. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the wonderful sigh for sending me a 5ml of this amazing, amazing fragrance. Now I'm dying to try Samhain. I can't even imagine how wonderful that smells.

Alice

I'm a girly-girl, I'll admit it, and this is the ultimate girly-girl fragrance. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say it's my signature scent. It's so creamy and sweet and innocent. It makes me want to wear white cotton dresses and dance around barefoot in cool, damp grass. It's like those powdery, milky scents made especially for little girls kicked up a notch... or ten. 5ml so on the way for me.

Okay, so I'm love, love, loving Seance. Loving it. I'm thinking I might also like Ouija, Voodoo, and Zombi. What do you all think? Am I right on, or right off? Any others to recommend? BPAL is just way too much fun.

On me:

Alice

Bliss

Carnivale

Dragon's Milk

Gluttony

Jezebel

Persephone

Tamora

Venus

Vice

I hope you find something that suits you.

Well, I've been wearing Alice a lot ever since the temperature began to rise. While it isn't "crisp," its creamy/powdery scent makes me feel cooler, as if I took a cold milk bath and then dusted myself with a moisture-absorbing body powder.

Scents I haven't yet tried, but think sound lovely for hot weather wear:

Banshee

Baobhan Sith

Circe

Cordelia

Delirium

Desdemona

Endymion

Fae

Forbidden Fruit

Jezebel

Juliet

Katharina

Kuang Shi

Kumiho

Lolita

Maiden

Muse

Ophelia

Pandora

Pele

Rosalind

Siren

Storm

Szepasszony

Tempest

Titiana

Yuki-Onna

Zephyr

From that list, some have already been recommended, so they must be appropriate. Good luck!

Bewitched

Bewitched has failed to bewitch me. The initial stage is okay, I guess, when all of the various ingredients are playing their part. At least then it smells like wild berries growing in the woods -- wild berries that have yet to ripen fully. But in the latter stages all I'm left with is an overly sweet, overly ripe BERRY! scent. Nothing but berries. I'm not exactly a berry girl. Every time I catch a whiff of myself I'm reminded of the berry body spray my 13-year-old cousin wears. Now that I think of it, maybe I'll see if she likes Bewitched. I mean, this could be a winner for a berry fan such as herself.

Dana O'Shee!

This is a scent that morphs from one phase to another and does so rather quickly, at least on my skin. While it was a bit bitter and sharp at first, it soon became freshly cut pine trees sitting in the mild winter sunshine of a Christmas tree lot in California -- nothing cold or icy. Then, a spicy floral sweetness came to the foreground and the previous stages hovered quietly in the background, giving the scent an underlying warmth. However, I'm lucky if it lasts a couple of hours before fading to a powdery green scent, like herbal baby powder or something. Maybe I should buy a bottle so that I can slather it. It's actually a rather comforting scent. But then, I find most "green" scents comforting. Very nice. I just wish it lasted a bit longer.

At first, Old Morocco reminded me of my former best friend's house. Our friendship didn't end on happy terms and I still feel a lot of sadness and a complete lack of closure whenever I'm reminded of her. Thus, Old Morocco was making me feel downright melancholy. But something happened over the course of a couple of days: it mellowed in the vial; it changed. Now, I'm no longer reminded of people best left in the past whenever I smell this yummy fragrance. It's a golden scent, truly golden. I'm definitely contemplating a bottle.

Ouch. I had an icky bodily reaction to this one. My goodness, I haven't ever seen welts that red. I had to wash it off rather quickly. From what little of it I did get to experience, it smelled like mildewed flowers in a neglected Garden District garden on a hot, humid night. Interesting, in its own way. The "decay" of Old New Orleans really came out to play on my skin, I guess. If I could have kept the scent on longer than, say, three minutes, the decaying smell might have faded a bit. Maybe. Possibly. I don't know. Probably not.