Vaniclion

Fresh cool mint... although not mint, since there is no mint in it. Must be the pennyroyal is all I can figure. Or perhaps that's what lavender-citron smells like. Even after wearing this one several times, I still can't trace the lavender or the citron... but my nose isn't the best. It warms up on drydown, and the musk and what /may/ be the lavender comes poking out. It's a lovely pale pastel green in my head which warms up to... well, something that isn't green and isn't red but also isn't the crap brown those two colors make when you put them together. It also isn't Christmas. In fact, it's spring. Early spring, when the mornings are still cold and a blanket is still a friend to cuddle up under before one meets the day.

I smell lemon, but it must be ginger as this doesn't have any lemon listed in it. It's so fresh and clean! I want sheets that smell like this. Didn't someone else say that about something? Anyway. It's green-yellow swirls, grass and moss and lemony-spice goodness. This is like good soap... but not what I mean when things go soapy. This is just... delicious. Green herby ginger sunshine goodness in a bottle. The darker undertone which comes out on drydown must be the fig, WHICH I LOVE. It certainly adds some of the sweetness. One of my favorites.

Lemon verbena and white musk. This just must be the key for me. I love it in Phobos and I love it in Zephyr, although here it's darker and muskier... must be the china musk. I'm also getting the florals coming through, which I like because it's not FLORAL... just floral. Perhaps bergamot, which I know I like I just can't remember what it smells like. Anyway... this scent smells blue to me. Dark, rich velvety blue. Star Sapphire, there we go. It's deep and rich, and I thoroughly enjoy it. The first time I wore this, Tygher Salice and I all wore it to go to a concert. We were all sniffing each other's wrists all night. What's so funny is that it really was different on all of us, so... I guess it's one you have to try to find out about for yourself.

Candy, pure and simple. Very similar to Bewitched, actually, fresh out of the bottle although not as herby.

 

The berry is what I think it is that smells like the candy. It disappears quite quickly with this, which is surprising on me because with Bewitched it intensifies. Darker notes are coming through now, and I'm sad to report it going ever so slightly soapy. But that's me. I go soapy/powdery/sweet. I think what I'm getting is a combination of the musk and amber mixing in with the bright heliotrope. Maybe. Anyway, it's not a bad scent at all. I like it very much, and can certainly imagine times when it'll be just what I'm in the mood for.

I'm not sure what it is about vanilla scents tonight. Fresh on, I get a green-mossy scent over the vanilla. Maybe juniper? Then it changes to vanilla and pine. Now, what's coming to my mind is the term nutty, although I don't think it really smells nutty. Maybe it's all that masculine virility making me think nut... er. Sorry Lost track of the train again. It's turned a bit sweet, but not bad at all... I just can't identify it. Vanilla, lightly, and something else.

 

It's a nice scent, slightly musky... but it's not the dripping sex that say Villain is for me. Maybe it says something for my taste in men that I'm attracted to lemon scents. *le sigh*

 

Not tremendously long lasting, either... although its true I didn't put much on.

Fresh out of the bottle, I caught whiffs of warm sweet vanilla. Like this vanilla bean tea I have. Smells a bit like fresh cake. As I actually sniff up on it, I catch a wood smell, likely the balsam and cedar with the cedar being the most prevalent.

 

The vanilla is the 'wafting' note. This smells less like a cowboy on me than perhaps the camp cook. Bakin up some tasty vittles for the hard-workin menfolk... oh, look, drool. Okay. Changing thought trains.

 

It's a nice scent, I'm just unsure its for me. Candle would be lovely, as it still smells very homey to me for some reason. Maybe the combination of that cedar box and my mom smelling like vanilla. Who knows. Also might make a nice 'earth' smell if you don't care for the scents that smell like, well, earth.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!

 

*jumping up and down JUMPING JUMP JUMP*

 

WILDE! NEPHILIM!!

 

And of course all the other.

 

*swoon swoon*

 

Beth, you're marvelous! I adore you

I think I speak for us all when I say YES! PLEASE!

 

I know I'm needing to plan my Update order, so that'll certainly help

This one I tried simply because it was listed as 'masculine', in my search to make my way through them all. So I snagged it in swaps.

 

On opening the bottle, I was... somewhat shocked. What I smelled was... a flowery version of pickles.

 

My grandmother used to make Bread & Butter pickles, canning them at home. The vinegary-sweet smell of the brine is what comes through in this to me. I'm unsure what it is, perhaps a mixture of the violet, lavender and vetiver... but to me? Pickle.

 

I still tried it on, because as we all know these oils have more personalities on skin than a roomfull of Geminis It remained fairly close to the wet smell, before simply turning to moist baby powder.

 

I'll try this on my other guy friends, see ifthey like it, and if not I'll be swapping it on. It was a fine experiment.

This is one of the scents that originally caught my eye and made me think 'Oooh, I bet that smells good!'... and it doesn't dissapoint. However, it doesn't do good on me at all.

 

Wet, the lemon verbena is the most powerful note. It's nice, with a dark green undernote which plays around. I can't say I ever picked up the jasmine.

 

On my skin, it very quickly turned to Lemon Pledge... in a bad way. About 30 minutes in, the lemon leaves and is replaced by that dark green scent which, although it isn't unpleasent in and of itself, doesn't do it for me.

 

Gonna try this one on TygherRayn and Salice and see how it does on them... maybe it'll work out better.

This is incredible. Fig seems to be a couple places this season, and I was curious about it. I'd felt a vague attraction to it, thinking I might like it... but this is better than expected.

 

Both in the bottle and on it's warm and enfolding, like a winter kitchen hot and sweet from baking Yule cookies or, one might imagine, figgy pudding.

 

Three thumbs up... if I had a third hand (one more wrist to put the oil on! WHEE!).

Speaking as a guy, I have the following recommendations:

 

Mad Hatter

Villain

Embalming Fluid

The Apothecary

Typhon

Old Glasgow

Zephyr

Mars

Golden Priapus

 

Now, those are ones I've tried that I LOVE... on me and others. There are TONS I haven't tried, and many I've tried that I loved but that just didn't work on me. I tend to go soapy/powdery/or entirely too damned sweet. Sadly.

 

There is a list of masculine scents to be found on the Lab's pages here.

 

Hope that helps!

I'm in the same school as TygherRayn, Andrabell and ShriekingViolet.

 

I'd LOOOOOVE to have a custom scent, naming it and everything... especially the Q&A sessions. Unfortunately, $150 is a /lot/ of money for me, especially in one lump sum. Money I'd much rather, I think, spend on first sampling all the other glorious scents Beth has mixed up.

 

Maybe in one of them, I'll find something I feel was mixed just for me

Beth, I think it's pretty obvious that we're all behind you 110%. Anything that makes it easier for you to produce these incredible oils that we've all fallen in love with is OK by us

This is what I imagine certain types of flower fairies smell like. Girl fairies, at that.

 

It's a very powerful, light floral. The lotus was the primary note, with various florals backing it up. There's a slight darkness to the scent, but I get a sunlight yellow color in my head with this one.

 

VERY feminine.

What I get is jasmine and cinnamon, which I like... but as paperdoll said, it's distracting. I keep wanting to look around for it, like it has a physical presence. I'm not sure it smells so much red as it smells... smouldery. Like a banked fire.

 

It's very interesting. I never would have chosen this, but got some in a swap so I'm enjoying it

Rosalind and Spellbound got together and decided I was a bastard that they didn't care for. That's the only thing I can say about that.

 

Testing things out, I had Rosalind on one wrist and Spellbound on the other. Rosalind was darker, Spellbound sweeter, but beyond that they smelled nearly exactly the same.

 

Sigh. Oh well.

Originally, when TygherRayn brought this over, I wasn't even going to try it because it was so sweet.

 

I'm glad I did. I liked it. I like it on. I'm just afraid I'd get attacked by bees because it is /so very sweet/.

 

It is a nice scent tho, just not at all masculine which, more and more, I'm coming to find that I like. *gasp shock*

I recieved this imp as a lovely gift from one of my swaps recently, a little extra love to share. I'm always astounded at how generous everyone is!

 

This is a flower covered meadow in full bloom, all sweet flowers and rich green grass. It reminds me in particular of this one type of grass that used to grow in my grandparent's front yard. It was so soft, like velvet, and felt so good under bare feet.

 

My initial reaction is to call this a sweet scent, but it's not. I'd say more fresh than sweet. Like good fabric softner. I wish we had fabric softner that smelled like this! I do agree with my lovely Tygher above that this would make an incredible Spring/Summer room scent, especially if one is going about the business of cleaning away the Winter must and airing the house out. As a wearing scent, it just doesn't work on me, I'm afraid, going a bit 'old woman' after a short period, slightly brazen, aged and brown with a brassy hint like horns. If that makes any sense!

 

And I realize now I've already reviewed this scent.... but it was a pissy review so I'm just going to edit it now and add all this in.

Thanks to TygherRayn, I got the chance to smell this on me.

 

Out of the bottle? Grape Kool-Aid.

 

On me? Dog shampoo. Lilith and I just do not get along at all, which is sad. I always feel bad when any of the oils don't really agree with me.

Okay, this is one of the extras that Beth threw in, darling that she is, that I just... can't get behind. Reading the description, and all of your reviews, I have to wonder if I got the same oil mix.

 

Inside the bottle, and on me, all I get is overpowering, choking floral bathroom spray. It's almost eye-watering.

 

I feel so awful, as if it's a failing of my own senses or chemisty, to dislike any of the BPAL scents... but I have to just feel bad about this one. It's a loss on me.

From Diabolus...


<span style='color:SeaGreen'>Typhon is quite stronger than other BPAL oils I've tried, making itself known now and again with a strong whiff while working, and even survived washing dishes.

Fresh on, it's very dark and musky. The musk and sandalwood mixes with the vertiver as it dries to make a darkly powerful, enfolding scent.

Sadly, what I think is the patchouli goes vaugely baby-powdery on me, the same way it did with Burial... but I don't dislike it for that.

Typhon is deffinitely a masculine scent that would be noticed. I imagine a powerful, cold corperate magnate wearing this scent as he soullessly keeps his business on top. RAR! </span>

I. Love. Villain.

 

This is the one scent, with possibile exception of Embalming Fluid, that I've yet tried that I will /deffinitely/ be purchasing at least a 5ml bottle of.

 

It smells like a very complex, rich aftershave. It's spicy and yet citrusy and altogether delicious.

 

I wore it the other day to a family gathering and recieved many good compliments on it, after I shoved my wrist in everyone's face demanding 'SMELL ME!!'

 

I like shocking my family, and gleefully telling them I was wearing Villain gave me a good giggle.

Tried this one the other day and, sadly, forgot to do the review while it was still fresh.

 

Fresh on, Burial is very wet. Dark, musky earth and leaf mold. Not a bad thing at all. I really do like it. Unfortunately, there's a note in it that on me brings to mind baby powder. Not to say it smells like baby powder... but it brings it to mind. I'm not sure I can get past it.

This is one of the extras Beth threw into my first order, and I'm glad she did!

 

Out of the bottle, it's tremendously strong, and I didn't care for it.

 

Tonight, (well, this morning) I decide to try it out to see what its like. It's extremely masculine. First on, it's dark like leaf mold. After it settled a little, I realized what I recognized in the scent. When my parents got married, as a present they recieved a little cedar box. I played with that box all through my youth, always curious what was inside. After their divorce, my mother gave it to me and now I keep my gemstone collection inside.

 

Lear, on me, smells like the inside of that box. Dry cedar with some age on it, but yet there's still something moist about it darkening the scent.

 

Realizing that... almost brings tears to my eyes. It's a very comforting scent now.

 

Wow. Anyway... yeah. VERY masucline, and I don't think it's an everyday scent, but it is extremely original as a cologne/perfume. Very much like Cathedral, except without the incense tones I think.

 

Edited because Beth deserves a capitol letter!