malanna

I had high hopes for this, because I love vanilla and thought I loved sweet pea.

Like most of the other reviewers, Terpsichore was highly dominated by the neroli on me. However, before it got to that stage (taking about three hours), neroli was simmering in the background while the iris, sweet pea, and apple blossom took center stage. The presence of sweet pea was quite strong, making Terpsichore a bit of a watery scent. When it reached the neroli stage, the carnation make an appearance and sweet pea was still playing strong. I rather wish I had gotten some vanilla from this.

I'm glad I tried this, because now I know I'm not as fond of sweet pea as I had thought I was.

I, too, love olympia's icon for the scent.

On me, Euterpe turned out to be one of those unremarkable, hard to describe in a non-enigmatic way sort of scents. Euterpe starts out slightly lemon-y in a lemon candy sort of way (so not really sour), then mostly dominated by white florals and a heck of a lot of white musk. Then, it gets a bit spicy, smelling vaguely of cinnamon, but of course, that's the carnation. The carnation fades back after an hour, and it's back to the indistinct, unremarkable slightly white floral musk scent, but a lot more indistinct than before. A pleasant scent, but just not for me.

I thought this would be more medicinal smelling, which, fortunately, it isn't, but this still gave me a massive headache when I applied. It's one of those scents that smells rather concentrated (as opposed to light). This is actually a clean soap sort of smell on me. I can detect the tobacco, balsam, and ginger. The tobacco is what makes this scent rather sweet smelling, the ginger gives it a bit of bite, and the balsam grounds this one. It does smell rather like a holy scent, somewhat remniscent of Cathedral, especially with the wood undertones.

This starts out highly astringent, then highly astringent soap. This stage is dominated by the myrrh. The soap likeness disappears, then returns--the soap likeness coming from the rose. Then the dark musk comes out, hanging out with the myrrh and a bit of the ylang ylang. Phantom reminds me of another scent that was a similar color (brown)--Kabuki. There is a bit of a licorice impression, except powder/rose-scented. I really didn't like Phantom, for the licorice and powder and dark musk. Still, thanks to the lab for giving me the opportunity to try this.

Cobra Lily doesn't quite smell like stargazer lily, which is why I was so excited about it. I remember sniffing the SN (I'd dig it up, but am too lazy ) and being rapturously in love with it, but not so much with Cobra Lily. It doesn't smell much like calla lily, either. It just smells like lilies with a dash of something like orange punch (not an actual orange, because it's not citrus-y). On me, Cobra Lily doesn't live up to its name. It doesn't pack much punch and fades away after a few hours.

Ephemera is hard to describe, other than being a soft cotton dress scent. It starts out being mostly tea rose and geranium (I'm assuming that's what the sharp floral is), but then it settles into a stage which just smelled like detergent powder (scented "Breezy fresh" or "Clean" or something like that). When I smelled it, it was a "wow!" moment because it really didn't smell like liquid detergent--I really felt like I could smell the granules. Powdered detergent smells different from liquid detergent. This isn't to say that Ephemera is a powdery scent.

Chaos Theory CCXIV

Got this in a swap. I don't think this has been reviewed yet. (Just once, by mmcfa2. --Shollin)

This starts out being juicy coconut. Then, the coconut fades and this turns out to be slightly floral, mostly gardenia. After the gardenia comes the white musk stage, which is followed by the honey and musk stage. Finally, after ten hours, this now smells vaguely of Snake Oil--after it's been aged and has been on your skin for several months, so all you have left is the skin scent and not the spices. Perhaps red musk? It's incredible how this scent goes through so many changes.

Damned Internet Explorer and stupid touchpad, deleting what I wrote by randomly going back....

Basically, this starts out being all sweat, like O, but without the honey and amber to idealize sweat. It's rather icky and nauseating. Oh, hated civet. Fortunately, cedarwood comes out to temper the civet. The civet fades away at least, a half hour later, leaving a biting cedarwood. Cedarwood and juniper berry, perhaps? Then, the scent smells of cedarwood and vetiver, or at least something that has the same green quality that vetiver has. Vetiver gets stronger, but then, as the scent fades away after six hours, it goes back to smelling of cedarwood.

I think the first time I tried this, there was more cocoa, but I can't remember. The subsequent times I've tried this, Pumpkin Patch 2 has started out with a great deal of chocolate dessert pumpkin, then the chocolate has faded away, leaving something that smells a great deal like Jack, except with less peach. PP2 smells very tart and strong, and it honest to goodness smells like Jack, which makes me think there might be peach in this. I actually like this Pumpkin Patch! Although I wish the cocoa would stay a bit longer....

I had such high hopes for this.

Pumpkin Patch 1 starts out as apple and mulling spices over a hint of pumpkin. Shortly after, this starts to smell of...apple cinnamon potpourri. Ack. No pumpkin, very little apple, just that potpourri scent. It also smells a bit like a craft store during the holiday season. I can pick up the "holly berry" scent and a bit of cranberry. Then, this is gone after three hours. Ah well, I suppose it's better that this didn't work out on me, because it probably would be hard to get a bottle of this anyway.

Yog-Sothoth is Dirty if it was made from the cleaning liquid from Mordor. Perhaps there is some dirty, dirty ginger in this, not ginger a la Shub, but ginger swirled around in dirty water. I can pick up some ozone, but again, this is dirty ozone, the smell of smog idealized (so it wouldn't smell completely horrific). Dark scents aren't my sort of thing, so off it goes!

Like everyone else said, this smells like Ginerbread Poppet, but with less dough/cookie. However, after an hour, Shub-Niggurath doesn't smell like Gingerbread Poppet. It just smells drier and darker. The ginger isn't so spicy, but is more like real ginger. It doesn't actually smell plastic-y, but I thought, "Plastic!" because it smelled less real and natural. This makes me think that maybe I shouldn't have given up my bottle of Gingerbread Poppet. Perhaps I shall have another spin with it, even if it probably won't work out.

Luna starts off being strongly jasmine and ylang ylang, then getting stronger with the jasmine (ha, who knew that was possible?). It was nearly all jasmine when lotus made its appearance, giving it a watery sort of quality, yet ethereal at the same time, like looking into the moon's reflection in the water. Then, the lotus gets stronger, and the jasmine isn't as strong, so it's watery, not so ethereal, and makes me think of looking at the water at night (but not the moon's reflection). Finally, it gets soft and sweet and very ethereal again. This is where gardenia takes center stage. Mmm, so sweet and pure!

In the vial and immediately after applying, this smells of ragingly tart fruit--plum, perhaps? Then, amber comes out. Amber is joined by warm spices an hour later, spices like the kind you find in Silk Road or Snake Oil (although less Snake Oil and more Silk Road). The scent finally settles down and the amber fades away, just leaving the warm spices scent, but warmer and actually quite sweet--in a good way, a way that leaves my mouth salivating when I sniff it. I'm pleasantly surprised by how this turned out, given how it started.

In the vial, this is banana leaf and tropical fruits. Immediately after applying, this is banana leaf, tropical fruits, and something else, something I can tell I won't like. That something else comes out in full force shortly after. It smells like a cross between sweat and cobwebs--a jacket that was sweaty when last worn, and has been sitting in the attic for ten years. Then, it smells a bit like poo. After that stage, there's poo and civet. Then, civet and musk. I've never been so glad for civet to take over a scent in my BPAL history. I suppose someone who likes civet would like this scent, but alas, not me.

Chaos Theory D

I got this in a swap, but I can't remember who I received this from.

Eek! Lavender. Lots and lots of lavender, floating in a humid haze. After an hour, the lotus comes out, lavender calms down, and there are water flowers floating in the water. This reminds me a bit of Pisces in the blue-green watery quality this scent has.

Previously reviewed by OriginalWacky and sarada.

Wet: Honey with a bit of jasmine.

Drying: Honey and florals (definitely a Hawaiian/tropical lotion smell). White gardenia and Hawaiian ginger!

Dry: It smells more like honey, but with something herbal. After another hour, it changes back and is dry honey--not rich, humectant sort of honey.

I'm not that big on honey scents, so I probably won't be keeping my imp.

Buttered popcorn, for sure, but I'm not getting salty. This is sweet buttered popcorn on me, maybe buttered kettle corn. Quite yummy. However, after two hours, it smells like warm plastic and then fades away. The first two hours are quite nice and made me want to lick myself, though.

Chaos Theory XX

Decanted for me by the wonderful allamanda, way back in June of 2005. I'm currently trying to review all the oils I have.

This starts out as a sweet rum, a really sweet rum, almost candy-sweet. I love my sweet scents, but there's something that bothers me about it, because the hyper-sweetness smells familiar, yet I can't pin down how to describe it.

Over the next hour, there's cedar, unfurling in the background. Another half hour, and this is pretty much all cedar and some other woods. In less than an hour, this doesn't smell so woody and gets even lighter. In fact, it smells a bit like warm Oriental (I mean that in the perfume sense) spices and amber. Interesting!

Reviewed by allamanda, Penance, and paperdoll.

This is a sweet, cold sort of scent and yet more of a department store perfume than other BPAL scents are. White grapefruit predominates this scent and it is a citrus scent, but that's not so apparent that I think about it when I sniff this. Rose isn't noticeable in this scent at all, but there are frost-lined white flowers here on the foreground. Overall, a nice scent, but not my sort of thing.

Melon! Light pink and green melons! Then another fruit comes out, along with ginger, white tea, and the musks. I went to bed about an hour after putting it on, woke up four hours later, and it was just about gone, so I reapplied it. Shortly after an hour, it slid into a soft ginger, white tea, and musks stage, with hardly a hint of fruit or floral (or it was such a soft scent, I couldn't tell anyway), and any hint of a distinguishable scent was gone after another hour.

Ooh, watery freesia, I like! I was quite pleasantly surprised when I found myself really liking this scent after I applied it. Was it possible that there was a rose scent I really liked? Alas, that was not so, for after an hour, the watery rose came out fully. It's a nice scent, still, but again, rose scents just don't work for me. After several hours, it now smells like a rose linen spray--diluted, mild, sweet, and with other florals.

Sparkling sweet peach and musk! Yum! This smells like this Canadian shop called Fruits ____ or something with Fruit(s) in it. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Aglaea also smells like a fruity bubble bath (well, whatever you call it when you buy the bottle) you'd get from The Body Shop. On the drydown, Aglaea is mostly clingy musk and myrtle, with a hint of amber. I like the beginning part, but the second part is just okay. If it stayed so bright the whole way through, this would be a great "happy" scent.

Sweet florals, almost candy sweet, but it's milky at the same time. Sugared florals, perhaps. Later, I can smell the Milk Moon comparison. Chaste Moon is Milk Moon Lite, just really watered down milk (with florals). This is a nice scent, but that's one of its bad things. It's like saying a person is nice in that reluctant tone of voice. Sure, she might be nice, but she's not very exciting, is she? I'd like my Milk Moon straight up!

ADDED Feb. 3:

When I first got the bottle, I remember trying it and thinking, "This is nice, but why bother with this when I have Milk Moon?" I'm revisiting this and thinking that perhaps I was wrong in my assessment. It definitely starts out smelling milky, then goes to a light butterscotch. I'm looking at the first review of this page, and spanishviolet is right. Milk Moon is more honeyed in that it's pointedly sweet, while Chaste Moon is more milky in a watered down skim milk sort of way--hence the characterization of Chaste Moon as Milk Moon Lite. After an hour, the light florals make an appearance, and they're not heavy florals. It definitely seems as if honeysuckle might be in the scent. I think of honeysuckle as a scent that has a haze of scent around it, a scent unlike rose, where the scent just hits you, and the florals in this are just a haze of light sweetness. After eight hours, I smelled my wrist and thought it had gone, but it hadn't. Chaste Moon had just become a part of my skin (sounds sort of trippy, but that's what it seems like to me).

This really isn't my style, so I'm letting this go, but I can definitely understand the appeal Chaste Moon has for others.

This starts out all pine and fir and smoke. After an hour, it really smells like Samhain. After several hours, it still smells like Samhain with all the woodsmoke, but with a bit of a green and herbal sort of scent. I'm not so big on the green and herbal scent and since I already have Samhain, if I'm in the mood for smoke and wet leaves, I'll just stick with Samhain.

ADDED Feb. 6:

Hexennacht smells like Samhain without the foody components, except with a hint of Skadi (i.e. the fir). Hexennacht starts out with the fir and sweet smokiness. It's the smokiness of Samhain, which is a sweet sort of smoky, smoke with patchouli and clove. It gets a bit muskier later, and there's something there that makes it sweet beyond the smoke--something like tangy berries. I actually sort of like the fir, but overall, it's just not my sort of scent.