boomtownrat

Thanks, Balame and JasminDreams2010! You each mentioned a couple of scents I already like, so I think you're both on the right track.

This thread has intrigued me for a long time and I've finally decided to give it a try. Sorry I wrote a novel!

 

I'm 40 years old, married, owned by five cats, child-free, and a copywriter. By night, I write mostly poetry and some fiction. My MBTI type is INFJ and my Enneagram type is 4w5. My sun sign is Taurus, my rising sign is Sagittarius, and my moon sign is Libra.

 

All of my life I've been considered a daydreamer, and those who don't know me well would say that I'm shy. The word I would use instead is reserved, because I can be bold once I feel comfortable. My moods are as fleeting as summer thunderstorms, and I can often be simultaneously elated and irritable. Anxiety and melancholy have plagued me since early childhood. (I have bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.) My mind is obsessive, indecisive yet occasionally impulsive, suspicious, fanciful, sentimental, easily amused, easily crashed into despair, easily hurt, resilient, sometimes spinning in place. I've been called weird often, which I like. People have called me insightful, witty, intelligent, and resilient. On the other hand, I've also been described as lazy, self-indulgent, temperamental, and naive. All of that is probably true.

 

When I need to escape my tangle of worries, I call on my Inner Spock, the imaginary Vulcan who lives in my head and reminds me when it's time to get logical. I'm always looking to balance my darkness with as many cute, sparkly, happy things as possible, like plush toys, drag queens, and My Little Pony.

 

My sense of humour is extremely British, even though I've lived in North Carolina all of my life. Tragedies and mysteries fascinate me even though it's probably unhealthy. I enjoy the beauty of abandoned and decaying places. In my twenties I went out all the time, but the next migraine is always around the corner, so I try not to overdo it.

 

Some of my favourite things include cats, birds, Doctor Who, RuPaul's Drag Race, post-punk, '80s alternative music, indulging in nostalgia, documentaries, British TV shows, Halloween, Christmas trees, cheesecake, chocolate, pizza, coffee, black tea, red velvet cake, falafel, and sandwiches.

Red Devil was a frimp with an order that I got late last year. I remember it being sharper and headier when it was fresh, and strong enough that I had to wash it off after a while. Now the scent has softened to a point where I might be able to wear it without getting a headache, if I'm having a good day. This is not one of those days, sadly, so I'm going to wash it off again after I write this review because I'm feeling the migraine-warning tingles in my head.

 

At first there's a strong citrus top note, maybe grapefruit, but unfortunately it dissipates even before the oil is dry. There are some florals in here, but they're not too heady; if I had to guess, I'd say that there's jasmine in here somewhere. Something warm and slightly powdery is holding everything together. The powder could be a rose and the warmth might be cinnamon or cassia. I do get a whiff of Big Red Gum, like Dani87. After the oil dries, I can't really smell it unless I bring my wrist within a few inches of my nose. Maybe if I hadn't kept huffing my arm to figure out the notes, I wouldn't have needed to wash it off today.

 

It's a pretty scent, but Red Devil wouldn't have the intended effect on me or on my husband. Floral scents don't do it for me, and it's hard to feel sexy if I'm afraid I might get a headache. As for my husband, when I had him smell my wrist, he liked it well enough but his reaction was fairly mild compared to something like Snake Oil or Playful Wooden Mallets, the two he loves the most on me. He has a weak sense of smell anyway, so 99% of the time I'm wearing scents purely for myself. I don't know if it's worth hanging on to the imp for a third try try. It might work when I haven't been exposed to any migraine triggers in the last few days, but I have many other scents I really love that don't require the wind to be blowing the right way, the moon to be in the right phase, my shirt to be the right colour, the geese to be flying south, etc.

The first time I tested Baron Samedi was the same day it arrived as a frimp. I got lots of booze and cherry, with an underpinning of something manly, a little smoky. That was lovely and I'd like to wear that version of the scent again. A few days later I tested it again, in the same spot on my wrist, and it turned into a man's shaving cream. This wouldn't be a bad thing on the right person, but I don't really want to smell that way myself. It's worth mentioning that the second test was just a couple of days after my monthly hormonal wackiness. I'll see how it goes on a third test, but this might end up going to a friend who loves bay rum and might appreciate it because of the mythology.

My hair turned silver in my 30s (I'm 40 now), and I favour sweet, woody, musky, foodie, resinous, and spicy scents. I'm mostly an anti-floral type because I get migraines from a lot of them, but there are some darker florals that I can wear without icepick head pain. No violet, ever!

 

Before I went silver, my hair was sort of auburn/chestnut but I often dyed it black or burgundy. I used to wear Obsession (for women or for men, I loved both) or amber essential oil in my 20s, and in high school I was all about fruity drugstore perfumes and some tea rose scent whose name I can't recall.

The 2014 Womb Furie reminds me a lot of the 2011 version when it was fresh. I get deep, sweet, subtly spiced honey that doesn't morph and lasts all day. Snake Oil is kind of the grandmother of Womb Furie, in that you can tell it's in the genetic makeup but the resemblance is not pronounced.

 

I've worn this Womb Furie three times over the last four days since I got it, if that gives you an idea of how I feel about it. Even when it was fresh off the mail truck, it glowed golden-orange and wrapped me up in its comfort. On a day when even my two-year-old bottle of Snake Oil smelled wrong to me, this new Womb Furie sailed through with flying colours. I'm tempted to order a second bottle before Lupers leave.

It makes me sad that I get very little, if any, red musk or patchouli. Those notes and the cinnamon-dusted cacao were the reasons I bought this bottle. At first it's all semi-sweet cacao, no cinnamon that I notice. Minutes later a sour sweetness emerges and I guess it's ylang ylang, but I'm still not that experienced with that note. Myrrh is in there, too. For hours and hours, the cacao diminishes and that sour sweetness takes over. The next morning, that's all there is and it's still pretty strong. Ylang ylang has just made onto my list of iffy notes and it could go either way, depending on how this ages.

 

Unfortunately, I don't feel this is the least bit sexy even though red musk and patchouli tend to make for the most sensual fragrances on my skin. Maybe with time, I'll get more red musk and patchouli. After all, I've only had the bottle for four days and I've just tested it twice. I'll update this review if anything changes.

Even though I should know better than to test things when they're fresh off the mail truck, I was so excited for Anteros that I couldn't wait a day or two for it to settle down. The majority of the notes are great on me, and there's nothing that has failed on me yet. Just a little dab on one wrist gave off plenty of throw on its own. After about an hour I added some to my throat. I showered before it had a chance to wear off, but I can say that it had good staying power for at least four hours.

The description and theme might make you think Anteros is a masculine blend, but I think it's more androgynous. Shimmering chypre wanted to hog the spotlight for herself, and after warring with Italian bergamot for a while she mostly succeeded in the end. My friend the red musk note wasn't as grapey as usual, but for the first hour there were whiffs that occasionally made me think of Vixen, so I think she's just biding her time and waiting for chypre and bergamot to relax. Red musk has always intensified with time in all my BPAL blends so far. At times I thought I could detect a bit of saffron, a note that I've only smelled in one other blend. Vanilla bean, sweet patchouli, and red currant missed the show completely, but maybe they'll make themselves known after this bottle has had some time for the more astringent notes to mellow.

I expect that this scent will sweeten up quite a bit with time, but last night it was a little sharper than I like. Eventually I started getting a headache, which was probably because of other things in addition to Anteros. Given a day or two, I think it will be more to my liking. It's also worth noting that it smelled a little sweeter on my wrist than it did on my neck.

When I test this again, I'll update the review.

Never mind. I heard back from customer service and it's being sorted.

Something containing creosote, coal, and industrial waste sounds terrifying as a fragrance, in all honesty. When the Lab sent me Smokestack as a frimp, I couldn't resist giving it a test once it had settled down from shipping, but I expected I'd be washing it off within five minutes. Maybe it could work as a way to enable my husband, I thought.

 

Then Smokestack surprised me. It doesn't take much at all -- the imp spit out a little drop onto my hand when I opened it, so I swiped that onto my other wrist. This stuff has a lot of throw, but after about a minute it mellows into a more pleasant version of Bonfire Night. Vetiver might be in there, but I couldn't say for sure. Once it's been on my skin for about half an hour, it makes me think of my dad's workshop in my childhood home, a place where I would often go to be alone. It's a nostalgic scent. "Manly, yes, but I like it too!" comes to mind.

 

My city is in the midst of an historic winter storm, the kind we get maybe once a decade, and it turns out Smokestack was the right scent to wear on a day when I'm bundled away, safe from the snow and ice. Assuming it doesn't change much with age, I could see myself wearing this if I were going to see an industrial band play a gig, or maybe for a costume. I think the trick will be to wear it only sparingly, and probably only on my wrists. The imp will probably be enough, but I think I'll continue to wear it when I'm in the mood.

This was a frimp with my most recent order. It's not something I would have sought out, and sadly the way it dries down on my skin means I will be unlikely to test it again. The juicy, delicious burst of grapefruit that it is while wet only sticks around for about a minute, giving way to a sickly floral dryer sheet scent that I had to wash off minutes later.

My bottle arrived today and as soon as I had a sniff, I needed to put it on immediately. In the bottle Imaginer is honeyhoneyhoneyamberwoods. On my skin the honeyed patchouli emerges in a sweet embrace with the woods. So far I can't pick out any of the other individual notes besides a general impression of lightly spiced wood, maybe because it's just that well blended. It's the woodsier sibling of Feed Me and Fill Me with Pleasure.

 

If Imaginer is this magnificent fresh off the mail truck, while I'm hormonal, then I can only imagine its future fabulous beauty. Too bad I had to fall in love with such a rare scent, but that will just make it all the more precious.

On me, Kabuki is predominantly anise to the point that I've been letting it age for months in the hopes that I can smell the red musk, which is normally a note that my skin amplifies. I mean it screams anise on me. The reviews show that a lot of people mostly get red musk or cherries, so your mileage may vary.

I've found a chocolatey BPAL that rivals Black Temple Burlesque Troupe 2012 for my dearest affections. In the bottle, El Dia De Los Reyes (2013) is the richest hot cafe mocha with a touch of chocolate liqueur. On the skin it's almost exactly the same, but as it dries I swear I get a muskiness from it. This sticks around for a good six hours or more, unlike the short lifespan that Bliss has on my skin. It even smells delicious when I'm riding the hormonal roller coaster. El Dia De Los Reyes is blended extremely well and is one of those scents that should prompt people to say you smell wonderful, not your perfume.

 

P.S. You can layer it with Gingerbread Snake for outrageous deliciousness, but of course it's damned delectable on its own.

Snake Oil is the scent that always feels like it's part of me. It can be sultry and it can be comforting. Fresh or aged, I love it beyond the telling of it.

 

Gingerbread Snake is like that, but with the bonus element of making me feel like a saucy Gingerbread Woman. Yes, that's a thing now, and it's a wonderful one. She is the temptress who will seduce the innocent Gingerbread Man with her warm and spicy charms.

 

I will need backup bottles.

Dia de Los Muertos 2012 has been my scent of choice for today's post-Halloween shopping, but now that I need to settle down and write, I might put on some Sugar Skull 2012.

Well, I was such a mess trying to scramble and get into costume for work that I forgot to pick out a bottle, so I'm wearing good old Snake Oil. I think that's appropriate enough for a Fairy Gothmother, don't you?

Hello and welcome, first of all. I haven't tried Sprinklecake, but the notes look similar enough that you might want to try Eat Me from the Mad Tea Party collection. The notes are three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants. It might be a little deeper than Sprinklecake because of the currants, but you could always try an imp first. Eat Me is a little dark and sweetly spicy on me, but very much a cake scent.

 

ETA: Oh, and another one to consider is Cockaigne from the Wanderlust collection (down at the bottom of the page under The Phantom Islands): milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine. I can't personally give you any thoughts on it because I haven't tried it yet, but the reviews make it sound really delicious for cake scent fans.

Vasilissa is pretty in pink and feels kind of like BPAL's heir to Love's Baby Soft. She is unicorns, mauve eyelet curtains, purple ball-point ink pens, a collector's album full of puffy stickers, and a little lavender boom box.

 

The twelve-year-old in me loves Vasilissa. This scent is pink and sweet, not floral but creamy. I'll use the imp on nights at home when I want to cuddle up in those memories, even though my 40-year-old self wears much darker scents.

Inside this sweet, pretty bottle is the scent of happy little jack-o'-lanterns all in a row, their candle-warmed innards glowing joyful pumpkin grins into the twilight as they sit on a bed of straw. Now that most people use LEDs inside their pumpkins, this takes me right back to the experience of a real, old-fashioned jack-o'-lantern. I can almost feel the autumn night's slight chill on my cheeks from a hay ride I took in elementary school. Smelling this scent on my third or fourth skin test and reading the poem again draws a few nostalgic tears out of my eyes, and I swear it's not just because I'm hormonal right now.

 

On my skin the beeswax and pumpkin keep nudging each other out of the way to get out in front, and I swear I even smell the straw from the pumpkin patch. It stays close, so I continually bring my wrist up to my face to huff it. Theme in Yellow is one of seven or eight pumpkin scents that I own and it's somehow more subtle and yet more complex than the others. This is not buttery, baked, spiced pumpkin. It's a lovely way to remember one of the most magical nights of the year. Charlie Brown and Linus, the Great Pumpkin has arrived.

All Souls was one of the 2013 Weenies that I was craving the most, so much so that I layered Eat Me with SkekZok once or twice to satisfy my yearning for it during the time between placing my order and getting the package. I loved that layering combination and hoped All Souls would be close to it, but it isn't. The day I got the bottle I gave it a skin test and was disappointed by its chemical scent, but now it's almost a week later and things have calmed down enough for a second test.

 

With just a dab from the cap on the inside of each wrist, All Souls gives off a pretty impressive throw while it's wet and for about an hour after it's dry. Even with a lesser throw, it's still strong enough that I don't need to apply any to my throat or behind the ears. I get very little cake from All Souls, unfortunately, but its fruity incense aroma could age well. It smells almost exactly like an incense that I burned for a while in high school, but I can't quite place which one. This is true to its inspiration.

 

My bottle of All Souls will last for years, because I probably won't wear it often or need to apply much. I'd certainly recommend it to sweet incense fans.

 

ETA, 5 January 2014: I thought I'd wear a little dab of this to bed, but a wave of nausea and head pain struck and I had to wash it off within minutes. My body is currently in the throes of hormonal turmoil, so I won't put this bottle up for sale or swap until I give it one more test.

I couldn't get an ideal photo this morning because I had to use my iPhone, but here's Dark Pumpkin Mead.

 

Usually I amp pumpkin and honey, but it turns out I amp maple even more. For most of the morning I smelled like pumpkin pancakes drenched in maple syrup, but maple wood was the only note I smelled by the end of the day. I'll try it again after it's had a few more days to settle from shipping, and I'll try layering it with another scent with a strong honey component. This seems like the kind of scent that needs time to mature.

 

The artwork on the label is an adorable black cat. It's a beautiful little gem of a bottle and one day I think the scent will age into something just as lovely.

While wet, this is very much Snake Oil with a pumpkin note that mellows the typically strong fresh Snake Oil scent. Snake Oil of any vintage really agrees with me, but I think this is going to please even those who only like it aged. When it dries, the pumpkin is more prominent than it was in the beginning.

If you ever thought you wanted a pumpkin Snake Oil, I say get it as soon as you can.

Addendum: This is not buttery, but it's sweeter than raw pumpkin. I'm hoping to buy a couple of backups, because I could easily wear this daily during autumn and winter.

 

Update on 10/7/2015: Two years later, this is pretty much a sexy spiced pumpkin cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, or Snake Oil with a shot of pumpkin, depending on when and where I wear it. It has more throw than ever, so I can just put one dab on my throat and one dab on the back of one hand (then smush both hands together) and that's plenty.

You could base your choice on one of the Doctor's companions. The Rose immediately comes to mind for Rose, but maybe that's too obvious. Anne Bonny is perfect for the fierce, adventurous River Song. Dragon's Heart makes me think of the brave, strong, doctor/warrior Martha Jones. That's leaving out many companions, classic and modern, but I have to get ready for work in a minute.

 

The Antikythera Mechanism makes me think of the TARDIS, the Doctor's most constant companion. "Bronze gears spin inside a polished wooden case, and an entire universe dances within."