rhubarb3point14

Molly Grue is mostly fig and hazelnut on me. For some reason, it makes me think of the word "biscuit." It has a lot in common with Eden, but whereas Eden feels green, Molly Grue is definitely cream-colored. I adore this. It's soft and beautiful and kitcheny without being overly sweet.

Oh, this is frustrating! I can hardly smell the coconut at all. Tobacco loves me a little bit too much.

I can't smell any "clean linen" in this, unless it's that slightly sneezy quality I'm noticing. Mainly, this smells as though I layered Dorian with Kumiho -- which makes sense, looking at the components. It almost flickers back and forth: warm, sweet, milky tea vs. green, peppery, gingery tea. I like it quite a bit, but not as much as I like either Dorian or Kumiho.

Wet, I get alcohol first, dried apricot second, and an undercurrent of something like... freshly cut lumber? There is a slight plastic note as well. Dry, the scent matures into a subtle, very tart and slightly dusty apricot smell. I think this is good, but just doesn't quite match up with my body chemistry.

When I first applied Eden, the scent was absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful. There was a burst of fresh green fig and sunlight and dew that was like a whole summer morning concentrated into a moment in time. Then it shape-shifted. The main body of the fragrance became a pleasant mix of toasted coconut and sandalwood. Yet I could still catch whiffs of that first , haunting beauty when I least expected it. I would get little glimpses that I couldn't quite lock onto. It was like seeing something out of the corner of your eye, then whipping around to look at it and finding it gone. There’s some kind of lost-paradise metaphor here. I can't help but wonder if Beth designed it this way -- elusive. A place you always want to go back to, but can never quite reach. If she did this on purpose, I am both in awe and slightly frustrated!

Ridiculous! Kumquat, white pepper, white tea and orange blossom. This smells like Trix on me. If I believed in children's fragrances, I would say this should be one. It doesn't have a lot of throw or longevity; it is very light. Overall, I find it pleasant but uncompelling.

If I didn't know what was in this, I would have guessed fenugreek and pepper! It’s maple-y and spicy on me. There is also a warm, rich tobacco component, which makes sense given the nicotiana. This isn't at all what I expected, but I like it a lot. It melds well with my body's natural smell. I'm keeping this imp and wouldn't mind having another.

No musk. No spices. Just sickly-sweet perfumey STANK. I could not believe how rank this was on me. I guess I just have exactly the wrong body chemistry for it. Everyone else I've talked to about it seems to love it!

I smelled a lovely burst of almond and orangey neroli when I first applied this, and then it settled down into smelling like Red Hots. Over the course of the day, it went from strong Red Hots to mild Red Hots. I can't decide whether to keep this or not. It's pleasant, but is there any reason to wear cinnamon candy? I don't get any burning or other skin reaction from this. I guess I have tough skin.

This is a very interesting fragrance. In the imp, the first thing I smell is the lotus root (which I recognize from having bought some at the Asian market and fried it up). It smells a lot like peanuts. Weird. When applied to my wrist, it is very fresh, citrusy, and green-mossy. It's a little chaotic, and it's hard to pick out individual notes, but it's a pleasant, sophisticated mix. Unfortunately, over the course of the dry-down, this goes very powdery on me. I end up smelling like an old lady.

This is so odd. I opened this imp once before and was like, "WHOA ROSEMARY!" But this time, when I opened it (a mere week and a half later), I just smelled orange blossom. On my skin, it's a very pleasing blend of pink rose and orange blossom. I hardly smell any rosemary at all, although I sense that it's there keeping the mix from becoming overly sweet. Rose is usually bad news on me, but in this case it behaves very nicely. This is a more feminine scent than I would usually wear, but I'm definitely hanging on to the imp. I smell pretty.

A sultry and unruly blend that emulates the ambient scent of the markets in ancient Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. I can't handle this one. It's far too sweet on me, and the excessive amount of pepper and spice burns my sinuses. The contrast between this and Morocco, which I wore yesterday, is huge. Morocco has similar spiciness, but is soft and creamy and not cloying.

This is one of those vanishingly rare instances when I think a scent is going to be lovely on me, and am actually right. When I opened the imp, I actually said "Ooh!" aloud, because it was so pretty. Very sweet and creamy and spicy. Cassia, saffron, carnation, musk. Mmmmmmmmmm. And it stayed that way on me! It's just consistently spicy-creamy-sweet. I'm one of those people who does well with carnation. I can see how it would spoil things if carnation went powdery-floral on you. On me, it's peppery and keeps the blend from becoming cloying. I don't get much sandalwood. I was surprised by this -- my body often amps sandalwood to the point of excluding all the other notes, but now that I think of it, that mostly happens with white sandalwood, not red. All in all, a home run. Yay!

I absolutely agree with the suggestion of Calico Jack. I wear it and love it, but it's way on the blokey side. It's almost too manly for me. I adore Vicomte de Valmonte and it doesn't smell a BIT manly on me, but of course it would smell different on someone's dad.

… This scent reflects the futurism, self-indulgence and excess of the Glitter 70’s: champagne, hyacinth, tuberose, ylang ylang and flashing white musk with jonquil, tobacco flower, white sandalwood and a pale poppy. I've wanted to try Stardust ever since I knew what BPAL was. I just loved the concept. And I'll go ahead and spoilerize this for you: I wasn't disappointed. This stuff goes well with sweat and parties. Straight out of the bottle, the other reviewers aren't lyin': It's Aqua-Net, straight up. I know -- I used to use the stuff! Wet on the skin, there is a fresh blast of bubbly champagne. Then, during the first half-hour, a lot of tuberose -- it borders on sneezy and headachey, but doesn't quite cross the line. On the exhale, during this stage, I can smell the tiniest whiff of stale cigarette. What surprises me most about it is that, as we reach the one-hour mark, it becomes apparent that our 1970s party girl is NOT wearing a floral like Charlie; she's wearing a floriental of some kind. Or maybe she's wearing Charlie and her best friend is wearing Opium. I think it's the poppy note that's doing that. It was a pleasant surprise -- I love spicy fragrances. I wish I got more musk from this, but that's me, not the fragrance. There are only a couple of types of musk my body doesn't neutralize. On the down side, Stardust doesn't last very long at all. On the up side, that means it's fair game to apply more and smell the champagne again!

I was worried this would be too aftershave-y on me, but quite the opposite is true. Straight out of the imp, I smell... 7-Up! It's fizzy and lemon-lime and sweet. At the half-hour mark, I pick up a distinct whiff of iced sweet tea with a lemon slice. There is a hint of something spicy like ginger or white pepper. There is also, as time goes on, something dry and herbal that I think is sage. I don't get any musk at all. I think I pick up a touch of some kind of creamy white floral in the background. Over the course of the day, this mainly evolves into a light, pleasant lemon smell. It's nice, and I think it would be good on any gender of person, but it's not particularly compelling on me. Not sure whether to keep this imp or not. I feel as though any day I'd seek out Herbert West, I'd probably rather put on Envy, which is more interesting on me.

In the imp this smelled very mineral-y, to the point where I didn't even pick up the conifer smell. On my wrist, the first impression is fir trees. As the scent dries and evolves, I realize these are not Christmas-y fir trees. They are dark, somehow somber and Pre-Raphaelite fir trees, with infinite black starry sky and something a little bit tart, like purple-black fruit. (I notice someone upthread smelled grape soda, so I know I'm not imagining this!) As time goes on, I get more of the strange fruit and less conifer. There is a slight earthy note underlying it all. It’s very pretty on me.

Much like its sibling Perversion, this turns into a single-note tobacco fragrance on me. The difference is, whereas I find Perversion more or less wearable, The Antikythera Mechanism is too super-sweet, with the added bonus that it cannot be removed from skin by any means known to humanity. AAAAGH GET IT OFF ME GET IT OFF ME! (I finally had moderate success using mechanics' hand cleaner. Seriously.)

This is really interesting stuff. Yes, it's minty and licheny and earthy. But it's also faintly rubbery, dusty, metallic, and even a tiny bit petroleum-y. I can tell you from firsthand experience that it smells very much like a garden shed with a rototiller parked in it. (This is not a bad thing!) I like this all right on me, but it's a bit more masculine than I would normally wear. I think it would be phenomenal on the right guy. Who wouldn't want their man to smell like a garden shed?

I experience Envy pretty much exactly like this, so I just quoted it! Unlike some folks who don't find Envy worthwhile because of its low throw and short duration, I think I may buy a bottle and keep it handy for slathering. It's so refreshing, and it makes me feel so good! I live in the South, and a scent like this is MUCH needed for about eight months out of the year.

I'm not much of a patchouli fan, but I am a huge fan of ambergris, carnation, and orange blossom. So I thought this one was a good bet! Straight out of the imp it reminded me of 4711, which was the first fragrance I ever loved. Fresh and green and citrusy. On my wrist, as it dried, I could smell the orange blossom and carnation. Then, half an hour in, guess what happened? Oh, you know it. Patchoulipalooza. The patchouli came on strong and stuck to me like napalm. It drowned out the other components completely. If I breathed hot air on my arm, it would volatilize enough of the oils that I could smell the orange blossom again, but as soon as it cooled off again... nothing but patchouli. I wore it all afternoon and had a couple of friends smell it too. Their verdict: Hippies. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, "Rats."

A beautiful Oriental -- lots of resinous, spicy notes. Very well blended -- it's hard to discern the individual notes, although I got a nice little burst of Ceylon cinnamon while it was drying. Anyone who's afraid of the cumin shouldn't be. You can't pick it out; it just adds an earthy, grounded component to the mix. This isn't exactly my style, when it's all said and done, but it's wonderfully executed.

Everything about this should have been in my wheelhouse -- pastry, fig, pomegranate, amber. But unfortunately, the beeswax note behaves exactly like the lab's honey note on my skin, which is to say, it smells rancid on me. I could smell the other notes in the background, all gorgeous and yummy and fruity, but they were drowned out by the gamey honey smell. So jealous of people who can wear this!

Unfortunately, Horse Chestnut Honey was the way I learned I couldn't wear the lab's honey scents. I put some on my upper arm during a fun evening of testing lots of BPAL with a couple of friends... and half an hour later, there was a hideous pong that was drowning out all the other things I'd swabbed on. We located the source of the smell, and it was the HCH. The honey note had done kind of a gamey-tangy-rancid-sweet thing on me. One of my friends actually blanched when she sniffed it and said, "Oh, god. No, no, no, no." Horse Chestnut Honey, you are lovely in concept. You are lovely on other people. But you are not for me.

This is lovely, although I don't get much ginger from it. On me, it smells almost identical to the way I remember Elizabeth Arden Green Tea (which I used to wear many years ago) smelling. I imagined it would be spicier. I would like it to be spicier! But still, it's a keeper. Very nice to wear out to dinner with family -- it doesn't intrude or clash with food.