OdetteOdile

Definitely the gentler side of the Goddess. This is a lovely scent - fruity, chocolaty, drying down to a very soft, fruity fragrance with a wine undertone. It faded quickly on my skin, though, so next time I'll put a lot more on. Bottle on order.

Unfortunately too much lilac for me - but a really lovely, purple-y take on lilac for someone that likes that scent. Very 1950s - would go well with pink cardigan sweaters and circle skirts.

Wood and tea leaves. Smells exactly like one of the Comme des Garcons incense-y smelling scents - "White" or "2 or maybe "Sequoia." This is an interesting scent - the kind that grows on me & makes me keep smelling my hand. I'll have to try this again. Definitely an evening scent.

Oooh...wonderful! Sweet and milky, vanilla desserty with a dragon's blood edge. I really like it - I definitely see why so many people chose it as a comfort scent (comfort scents thread). I wore it all through DragonCon 2004 (good scent for being in crowds -entirely friendly, warm and inoffensive), and ordered a bottle soon after.

Thanks for the photos Ladylatemar! On me this was mint and eucalyptus. Medicinal - or room cleanser - at first. An hour later, it had developed into a lovely sweet minty desserty scent that I definitely wanted to try again.

Sorry to say, not a favorite of mine. On me this developed into a scent that was exactly like a home with pets, one that isn't cleaned often enough, combined with the scent of cigarettes before they're lit. What a shame I didn't get the scent notes other people got when they wore it. Ah well, can't love all of them (although I do try).

I don't normally prefer men's scents, but this one reminds me a little of the fragrant wood pillars in the Chinese Astor Court garden at the Metropolitan museum. Really lovely, unusual spicy wood scent. (I wish *my* walls smelled this good!) Would be absolutely yummy on a guy.

Fruity orange chocolate, a little like one of the Fresh chocolate scents (probably one of the discontinued ones). And it's wonderfully strong - I was trying 6 BPAL oils that day, and this was the only one I could smell without putting my hand near my nose. Since I pretty much think adding chocolate to anything improves it, I was predisposed to like this. May need a bottle of it...

Light floral with gardenia under that. VERY good scent for an old Hollywood mood - has a lovely, retro, super-feminine smell. Warm and sweet and flowery - but with a green undertone tempering it.

Mango? Papaya juce? Vanilla and fruit - a tropical Asian islands scent. I smell the strawberries, too. I like that it's got enough vanilla to be dessert-y. A good scent to wear while reading Francesca Lia Block books.

Floral and a bit powdery. It strongly reminds me of a little girl lotions and perfume line they used to carry at the FAO Schwarz toy store when I was a kid - ("Princess-something-or-other"). Very girly and light and youthful. Roses and lily of the valley. Maybe it's Easter at church - ladies in their straw Easter hats might smell this way.

Oh, gorgeous. Talk about a foody smell! This is a Dickensian Christmas dinner with many nuts and cream and sugar treats and savory things. Wear while reading/watching A Christmas Carol.

Light, a little soapy. Oddly, this reminded me of a bad day in spring - the kind of day where it's beautiful outside, and the birds are singing, but you just got bad news, or have the flu, and can't enjoy it. It smells like cough syrup under the spring flowers, too. ...But there's something I like about it too...it really evolves.. figuring out what it smells like is like trying to remember a dream just as you're forgetting it. It's really elusive and makes me curious to try it again. A haunting scent.

Not a winner - people literally got up and moved away from me on the bus the day I wore it. WAY too earthy on me. My body chemistry just doesn't like those earthy - gamey scents in the Satyr family - I envy the people who can wear them well. (I'm looking forward to when the BPAL scents are categorized by scent type - I want to see if there's a consistency in the ones that don't work on me)

Based on a Romany incense blend reputed to induce sexual dreams: Somalian rose, Moroccan rose and Bulgar rose with a sultry dribble of cinnamon. A nice cinnamon rose. I like the gypsy association. I like the light fruitiness, but the rose is a little intense and watery for me. I'll try it again another day.

Oh wow, my body chemistry did NOT like this. Another of the gamy scents I need to learn to stay away from. This smelled like poop on me. Oy. Wash wash wash. I really envy the people who smelled grapes.

Really happy, wonderful, fruity perfume. Evokes happiness and Spring and hope to me (which is kind of funny, given the name). Smells a lot like the Nadina's Creams scent Mountain Rain.

This was unusual...not like any other BPAL scents I've tried. Woody and warm, but not sweet. It reminds me of brownstone apartments in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s...and the hip, young neighbors who lived in our building, who painted their kitchen hot pink and had plastic multi-colored rings and fringed leather clothing and a gray and white cat that used to wander from building to building making friends (because it would have been "mean" to keep it inside.) Maybe it's the smell of 1970s perfumes. Sophisticated and retro.

Never have I had such a dramatically different reaction to a perfume in the bottle (or in this case, the vial) vs. on skin. I actually gagged when I smelled it in the bottle. I was so disappointed - it had sounded like something I'd love, but the sweetness was too intense and oppressive - like rotting fruit (sorry Beth). I took a leap of faith and tried it on, and after about 20 minutes I actually began to love this. The fermented grape-cherry Kool-Aid scent subsided into this dreamy kind of sweetness - very autumn harvest and witchy (I think I'd say that even if it wasn't named Hecate). Evening in October, possibly Halloween. There's still a fermented base scent, but now it smells magical rather than oppressive. I do smell almonds and honey, with a strong fruitiness. This is also quite strong - one swipe with the vial tongue on my hand has lasted into the afternoon.

"Cucumber...celery...buttered popcorn..." I love how many different scents different people get out of the same perfume. Like Heartbeast, I smelled Spiritual Sky's African Violet at the outset. Then eventually it warmed up and got a little sweeter and softer. I've always been a big African Violet fan, and I love the association of that scent with the name "the Raven" - so dark and evocative, so I'm going to try this one again. (There's a slight medicinal undertone that I'm not in love with, but I'll see if I still smell it the next time I try it.)

Lilac - really? On me this was cinnamon, vanilla, more cinnamon, maybe a bit of faint amber and something very, very faintly flowery but not strong enough to my nose to be lilac. It got better and better as the day went on and became one of my favorites - but I'm perplexed about the cinnamon since no one else mentioned it. I'll have to try it on another day and see if the effect is the same.

Wow, I seem to be in the minority here but I liked this. On my skin, it smelled like cedar, wine, berries and finally, thyme. Not too masculine - more neutral. I can smell a little bit of the pepper if I try, but it doesn't dominate. The thing that really struck me when I first put it on was how well-blended it smelled - I had to struggle to distinguish the different notes. It's an interesting scent, rather than a pretty one, but the fruitiness (which isn't in the description but I swear I'm not wearing lotion or other scents) makes it wearable and even a bit addictive. I'm curious to see what the final version smells like.

I'm not normally that partial to straight rose scents - I usually feel very take-it-or-leave-it about them - usually they smell too fussy and traditional to me. However, this is such a pretty, girly rose that I think I'll hold on to it to wear on those days when I want to remind myself to honor my very libran need for peace and beauty around me. "You see Mary,' - and here Flora began to grow earnest and to wave one finger about - 'unless everything is tidy and pleasant and comfortable all about one, people cannot even begin to enjoy life." - Cold Comfort Farm Note: about two hours later, this scent deepened into a spicy, richer rose on me - very unexpected. Girly rose grew up.

This is definitely one of the scents that is perfectly named. You'd have to enjoy the *idea* of a perfume named Blood to enjoy it because it really evokes that. Vampiric is right. At first I just got cherry cough syrup. After a few minutes I began to smell something earthy and something metallic in it. It evoked, not the blood of a doctor's office or biology class, but the blood a hungry carnivore would crave - like a dark little poem on the idea of craving. Eventually it faded into a pleasant fruitiness. Craving satisfied. Note: our interns must think I'm completely looped - every time they pass my desk, I'm smelling my hand.