AliBabble

i love the leather in this - it's really "present" - and it's a dark, smoky leather, like a leather armchair which has soaked up the smoke from an old, smoky gentleman's club. the amber sweetens things up pretty quickly...a warm sweetness akin to warm, flushed skin. pretty sexy. there's something "baby oil"-ish in here - i think amber does that on my skin sometimes, and i wish the myrrh was stronger - it only peaks out as an under-note. all in all, i get mostly smoky leather, and sweet amber - a bit like leather dipped in baby oil, though i know that sounds weird. as long as the baby oil smell doesn't annoy me too much, i can see myself really enjoying loviatar, when i'm in a sexy mood.

this is a real tart, juicy apple fragrance - i think of yellow-green apples, almost like anjou pear too. it is a bright, clear scent - the apples are mixed with spice, but not foody, apple-pie spices...more like perfumey incensey spices. verdandi stays as it is, from wet to dry - sharp, acidic (but not in a bad way), a bit of a woodsy apple...almost apple *sauce* with a bit of wine and lemon thrown in. it is an energizing, uplifting scent - feels like a daytime scent to me, outdoorsy, not particularly sultry or anything. would be good in autumn, as some have mentioned, but to me, it reminds me of spring! refreshing.

this is a bright, zingy scent. mostly citrusy/spicy - the mandarin dominates. wet, i can smell the other notes better - the cocoa and musk...but dry, it is mostly mandarin. reminds me of the celestial seasonings "mandarin orange spice" tea - not a bad thing, but for something called "the great sword of war", i'm surprised that this scent is rather cheery! anyway, i think i had wished that the cocoa, tea and tonka -the "darker" tones - had presented themselves more. the more it dries down, the musk comes out and the scent sweetens up. although i was picturing something richer and deeper, i do like orange-y scents, and i probably will enjoy this now and again.

lex talionis is wonderful, in my book. out of the bottle - it is heavy on the black pepper - i love black pepper. a touch of the grapefruit, and the candy-ish violets. wow. this scent is full of contradictions, but to me, they work like a charm. it seems almost severe at first, but it immediately becomes so grounding and comforting with its earthy undertones - the myrrh, the vetiver (which is not overly-strong), dusky sage and cedarwood...it's a well-blended scent. i don't know if it's the cardamom giving the spiciness a subtle, mellow sweetness, but it's quite soothing. the patchouli is in there, adding sweetness too, but not too much. just a rich, warm, NATURAL-smelling scent (but not in a "hippy" way). this agrees well with my chemistry...it feels nurturing - very balanced.

at first sniff, red phoenix is reminiscent of blood moon - a lighter, "fresher" blood moon. out of the bottle it actually reminds me of blood moon mixed with cherry cola (the plum, perhaps?). on my skin i get maybe the faintest whiff of tobacco, but it actually reminds me of blood moon mixed with ginger ale!?! - don't know why it is reminding me of sodapop - i mean it in a spicy, refreshing way, not an overly sweet way. it's quite nice actually, but extremely subtle. as it dries down, it is very light - not a deep cinnamon anymore. whereas blood moon has more "solidity", red phoenix strikes me as much more feathery and fleeting. but pretty nonetheless.

i had high hopes for this one, as all the notes sounded delicious in the description. the reality though, is not working so great for me...the smell out of the bottle is the first bpal oil that actually made me a bit queasy - i've heard people mention this phenomenon before, but i just couldn't imagine it - but something in pink phoenix does this to my stomach. however, on my skin it is better - lighter, sweeter...a little plasticky and chemically, unfortunately. a bit of strawberry which i like, and a bit of something creamy and sugary, but mixed with plastic. i don't wanna give up on this one - it does get better as it mellows out - and it's got this fun element to it, but i think it might be too artificial-smelling on me. can't decide.

hooray for snow bunny! what a happy scent: piney/evergreen winter trees and snow. ski slopes. fresh, cold air. berries appear: someone comes skiing down the slope with a silver tray piled high with ripe red berries...cranberries and red candy. the berries get closer and closer, you can almost taste them. you fall down into the snow, surrounded by the tall evergreen trees and pop the juicy berries into your mouth. giggling, you head back to the ski lodge, with red berry juice dripping down your chin. you feel invigorated, lighthearted, and refreshed. the fruitiness has turned more candy-like, and the pine and fresh snowy air remain.

another free imp from the lab (thank you!) and i love it. reminds me a lot of cathedral, but with fresh, supple roses added in. it is woody and churchy, and a bit of that stone or "wet cement" smell that i adore. a spiritual and quiet scent - it's actually what i thought "rose cross" might smell like. kostnice is really meditative, peaceful and grounding.

this was a freebie imp from the lab, for which i give a hearty "thank you". the great thing about receiving an scent you never would have noticed otherwise, is that they often turn out to be quite nice! libertine is one of these; a rather subtle and refined little number, the first thing i notice is the bergamot - a bit lemony, like earl grey tea...and violets! yay violets! libertine reminds me of a british tea room, with an old-fashioned teapot and china with little roses on it. a drop of rose-like scent appears later, primrose or rosewood - not rose per se, but rose-like. and the chamomile (if that's the note i detect) is fresh and clean, but not in a laundry-detergent-up-your-nose way. i dunno...this is a hard one to describe actually, but i'll leave it at this: subtle, refined, clean, balanced.

Yowza! this one is intense. - in the imp, it's very cola (which i love). cola and lime, with a touch of almonds - meow! and just a touch of patchouli peeking out. on my skin, the opposite starts to happen...lime disappears, and it is mostly vetiver - very sweet vetiver, and patchouli. yes this is a is potent oil! very "present". it seems to get sweeter and sweeter on me. almost too sweet. - i wish it was more spicy/less sweet, but i'm not getting any clove or pine to counteract. still, it's a powerful scent...really nice actually, though the cola/lime/almond phase is quite fleeting. i'm glad i got to try this one - powerful and assertive, with a kind of "earth-mama" feeling.(!?)

as others have stated, i would put this in the same grouping as black opal and regan. it is indeed a lovely, creamy vanilla, but for me it's got a "perfume-y"/hairspray thing mixed in, that makes me like it a little less. i think the metallic edge that black opal has, makes that one a bit more mysterious (on my skin, at least.) antique lace does have a bit of that, but i feel it's more all-out "feminine" - like a B&B with too many old-fashioned ruffles or something. and Regan, with my chemistry at least, is a lighter, purer vanilla, without the perfume-yness. still, antique lace is very nice - let's call her the middle sister in between younger regan, and older, tougher black opal. or maybe she's their auntie? i don't know... eta - i just pulled my imp out, for the first time in about a year, and wow - i am just loving this, desperately. i don't know if it's changed with age or what, but it is now so rich, thick and deep. i may need a bottle after all...

i used to bake cheesecakes (and other desserts) for a living, so this is a scent i'm very familiar with. beaver moon really nails it - specifically the classic italian ricotta cheesecake - with vanilla, a bit of almond extract, and lemon rind. and of course the graham cracker crumbs, with just a bit of cinnamon. i do notice something a tad "artificial" or chemically, as someone mentioned, but i can't say it really bothers me. it reminds me a bit of artificial almond extract, which i actually like the smell of. beaver moon is rather light, and very playful. it feels comforting to me, and is nice to wear to bed. the only problem is: it makes me very hungry!

ooh, this is nice. forest-y and refreshing. pine-y yes, but not pine sol. more of a mix of various evergreens, and pine cones, sap etc. actually i get a mintyness, a bit like wintergreen, i guess. there is a faint berry-fruitiness, a little sweet, but very faint. it's outdoorsy, fresh and foresty, basically. pleasant...it's calming, actually.

wow, this is different than i expected...but i'm really liking it!! reminds me of the color brown...woods and caramel...the first notes i get out of the bottle are the butteriness and nuttiness, but with plenty of pine needles and cedar. it's an interesting combo. on my skin it ping-pongs back and forth a bit between pine (i worried it would be a bit pine-sol-ish at first..) and the sweet, rich brown sugar-ish smell. it finally settles with a nice balance of the pine/woodsiness and rich, dark nuttiness. it's not too sweet - just enough. very comforting, if a bit hunger-inducing. it's very "little red riding hood"/ "to grandmother's house we go". makes me wanna run off to a cozy cabin in the woods.

hangingfire, that is so funny that you mention "charlie" perfume - i used to wear that when i was 14...i liked it, but i LOVE stardust! it's got the "fun" of charlie, but more elegant. i was so excited about the concept of this one, and i'm happy to say it SURPASSES my expectations. out of the bottle, the smell is weird - hairspray, i guess, but really chemically and nostalgic somehow. this is not the smell that lasts, though - i would second whoever mentioned the "metallic" smell it has...i'm finding i really like metallic smells; they seem to mesh well with soft, musky smells, which stardust also has. the drydown is very soft and sexy - subtler than you would think after that first hairspray *whomp* out of the bottle. i suppose it is floral, but not sharp at all - more creamy....if this perfume was a fabric, it would be ivory-colored satin. as stated in the other reviews, it definitely has that elegant, "dressed-up" feel to it...crystal chandeliers, lotsa make-up and a feather boa, etc. it's got that '70's time-capsule thing, but it's much more than just a novelty scent. really great.

Simply cool, the essence of Lounge: the scent of a crisp pomegranate martini. oooh i like this. swank was a freebie imp, so i didn't know it was supposed to be a pomegranate martini (which it does smell like..) - my first umpression was citrus...lemon lollipops or sugared limes or limeade..it's really quite refreshing - would be great on a summer night. it's sweet/tart astringent, festive and bright. juicy! tho' not particularly boozy, it's making me crave an ice cold pomegranate martini in a sugar-rimmed glass. very nice.

here's a few more sweet/foodies i think you might enjoy... regan - very vanilla-y and innocent, similar in feeling to moonrose black opal - sexy and vanilla-y, in a warm yet dark and oddly metallic way (incredible) tezcatlipoca - smoky, incense-y deep cocoa (delicious) absinthe - not for everyone, but deep black licorice, if you like that sort of thing (i do) laudanum - root-beer-ish hollywood babylon - strawberry/cherry-ish succubus - spicy orange moxie - grapefruity orange and these are LE's, but you'd like 'em, i think.. midway- buttery sugar vanilla freak show - chocolate/fruity cream cheese frosting devil's night - molasses hot toddies shit, i'm hungry now...

i wasn't nuts about this at first, but it's starting to grow on me a little more. the first stage is not great on me - cinnamon, the grains, and perhaps dragon's blood - something is reminding me of urinal cake. then, something like camphor develops, and helps even-out the scent. after it calms down some, it works much better on my skin - more like a smooth, subtle, warm scent. not one of my favorites, but kind of nice for a chilly evening.

i'm intrigued by the idea of this scent, but it doesn't quite work on me; it starts off well enough - i get mostly the sandalwood, and i quite like this part. but when the other notes come in to play, it turns bad on me - maybe it's the herbs, maybe the flowers, but it becomes sort of musty-citrus-y mothbally, i don't know. it kind of wipes out the mellow woodiness which is so nice in the begining. if that part would have lasted longer, i would have liked it better.

hey, i like this one. another lucky frimpage...i certainly never even noticed this scent before. it's kind of light, and natural on me...at first it's mostly the juniper - nice and woody, but still subtle. the other notes are very well-blended - himerus becomes rather sweet in a candy-ish way (i mean this as a positive thing) - it reminds me almost of candied violets, though i know violets aren't part of this blend..maybe it's the red musk and orchid making it sweet and soft...and the woodtones are a great balancing act for the sweetness. nice.

i was always curious to try this one, so it was lucky to receive a frimp in the last order. thanks! well, it's pretty much straight-up vanilla for me, a bit of nice flowers (the stephanotis i suppose) in the beginning, then just vanilla. it's that dark, plasticky vanilla, but i don't mean that in a bad way...it's a rich, addicting type of vanilla for me. reminds me of "love's baby soft" from junior high. it's kind of a junior high scent to me, for some reason.... but i like it. not very exotic, but sexy in its way.

this was a frimp, which i always appreciate. i think though, that rosalind is not for me - it's grassy, a little lemony, and there's something a bit dank in it...sort of sweaty-smelling. like rolling around in the grass gettin' sweaty. i dunno...i think with the exception of van van, which i like, i'm not so into grassy scents.

this is pretty...very tropical (not tropical fruit, though...) - like big, lush, jungle blooms. it is light, though. effervescent, a bit. and it's got a green leafiness, when first applied. i thought of ylang-ylang too...(i don't know why ylang-ylang gets such a bad rap around here, i think it's pretty intoxicating, actually). anyhow, shadow witch orchid surprisingly doesn't have much "shadow" or "witchiness" for me...it's more like being on a carribbean vacation...light and refreshing...sort of uplifting, actually...like lazing in a hammock with a big orchid tucked behind your ear...

jazz funeral is a very lively scent..perky and alive, despite the deathliness of it. it's heavily earthy and mossy, dirt mixed with something quite sweet and almost lemony. i think i'm finding out that "dirt" scents aren't so pleasant for me. they make me feel claustrophobic, for some reason. but this does capture a feeling about new orleans..kind of wild and overgrown, ancient, a little forbidding, yet dignified and graceful. the dry-down is a green, mossy floral, with the earthy undercurrent. i have to say i didn't smell much bourbon or bay rum...more like bay leaves, actually. anyhow, this scent does capture a certain damp dreaminess...

i love the bottle, but the oil itself is problematic for me. it strikes me as very sharp, strong, and as some have noted, medicinal. like an ointment or unguent for burns. there's something very fiery about this one. it's interesting - but not all that pleasant, to me. eventually it calms down somewhat, and i can faintly smell apples...i like this stage much better. but the apples are in a sort of formaldehyde haze. i haven't given up on this one, but i'm struggling a bit to enjoy it. very distintive and unusual, though.