amyw

It's really strange, but this is pretty much a dead ringer for Schwarzer Mond on me, enough that I'm surprised I don't see a rash of people in this thread saying the same thing. I don't think they share any listed notes, but that could be my ignorance of multiple names for the same thing(s). I think it smells, as I like to say, "as intended" on me, but it's not my thing at all. It's got a peppery-ness running through the herbal resin notes that I don't care for. I can't quite verbalize my reasons either, which I realize makes this review less than helpful, but I'm posting it anyway hoping the comparison to Schwarzer Mond will help someone.

I suspect many of us will review this one tonight, as many of us are probably receiving it today. Anyway... In the bottle I smell mostly strawberries with perhaps a tad bit of the green grass note and maybe a tiny bit of vanilla sugar sweetening it up. It goes on similarly, but as it dries down it goes through a very brief, odd phase I don't like. Then immediately after that it improves and there's a creamy note that comes out on me that I suspect is the combination of vanilla sugar and dandelion sap. I don't detect much grass except maybe right at the end of a long inhale, and I'm not sure what strawberry flower smells like, but I don't detect any floral notes. I suspect the grass note is in there somewhere, preventing the sweet notes from running away with this blend. I'm not sure what I expected other than strawberry, but I do believe I lurve this. It's not very strong, has medium throw, and I'm afraid my skin is going to eat it, but it's so very pretty when I sniff it up close. It's pretty enough that I keep sniffing and closing my eyes. It could easily be sickly sweet or way too tart, but it's not at all. It's a great balance between an earthy kind of fruity and sweet with some really nice creamy aspects to it. And not a bit of artificial smell coming out at all. Yum! So very glad I got two bottles of this.

I opened the imp and I swear I smelled the nutty cocoa note that's in Velvet, but it faded almost immediately into a nice, creamy plum. Now when I open the imp I don't smell that anymore - very strange. I came here to see if anyone else smelled that but I think only one other person so far has mentioned a nutty note. It was too strong to ignore though. Anyway, I also don't smell the wildflowers much, which is fine as I'm not a huge fan of florals. They stay in the background on my skin. On me, this is a sweeter, slightly creamier Bathsheba. Sans musk of course, and less like traditional perfume than Bathsheba. I'm a fan of plum so this suits me just fine! Very pretty. My SO thinks this smells like plum wine.

This scent is highly... evocative. As others have noted, it smells just like gardening. I got it because I love the smell of tomato leaves. This scent won't be for everyone, but I happen to love it right now, and I really hope it doesn't turn to soap on me. I have an unfortunate tendency to turn ozone and green notes into soap. I'll be very sad if that happens with Planting Moon, but if it does, I'll find another way. I notice it cycles through each of the notes, none of them overpowering, but each of them having a turn both in a single inhale and in what tends to come out for a half a minute at a time. I wonder how this will smell when it's aged and blends differently. At this point, I smell more dirt and tomato leaves than anything else. The florals sweeten it up just a tiny bit, and I'd say the faintest of the notes are the vegetables. Some people might not even notice them - I certainly wouldn't if I didn't know they were in the blend. This isn't a seductive, sexy kind of scent. It's an earthy, get-your-hands-dirty, outdoorsy sort of scent that brings up images of the sun, white flowers, kneeling in the grass, freshly picked vegetables, and wiping clean sweat off your brow. It's not a scent I'll wear for others; it's definitely one I'll wear for myself. That's generally true of most of the BPAL I wear, but I don't expect compliments on this sort of blend. As I've typed this (with a few puppy-related interruptions), every note except a soapy dirt note has faded. But as I said, I'll figure out another way, whether it's scent locket, clothing application, or something else. Ooh, and I walked said puppy after writing the above paragraph, and now the veggies are coming out. Really interesting, different blend. In a very good way. ETA: depending on where I look, wildflowers are not listed as a note. Did I imagine them? They smelled kind of like the green stems of white flowers where the stem meets the bloom, so maybe that was something else.

So strange that you mention old people, Lycanthrope, since I certainly didn't smell that at first. Then I took a big deep sniff and felt it at the back of my throat. How strange. Anyway, Gelt is ... mmm, yummy. In the bottle I don't smell much if any amber. On it goes through a slightly bitter stage, much like cocoa, and then sweetens up to a yummy chocolate with a hint of amber to ground it and prevent it from getting too chcolate-y sweet. About 4 hours later, the cocoa/chocolate fades and the amber starts taking over. Very nice! Definitely a keeper.

This is the 08 version. My experience is pretty typical - this starts out in the bottle very butter-y, on is just like sugar cookie dough, and then morphs ever so slightly to bring out something slightly spicy. I wouldn't describe myself as a foodie so I probably won't wear this often, but it's definitely a yummy yummy scent. Mmm, coooookies...

I smell cola (Diet Coke?) in the bottle rather than smelling it once it's on, and then when it's on me it's all frankincense and myrrh, with maybe a little bit of coriander and cumin. Actually, definitely cumin because I had forgotten cumin was in but it made me think of cumin. I'm going to let this age and see if the grape and vanilla come out at all. About 4 hours later it's gone.

This one in the bottle smells a bit sharp and medicinal, starts out on skin as a bit non-descript but strongly floral, but on drydown is a pretty scent. I can smell the cream, the honey, and the gardenia in particular, but if I think about it, I can smell the rest as well. It definitely works on me and smells very good, but I'm not particularly a floral kind of person, so it's not very me. I usually prefer my scents a little darker, I think, and I took a chance on this hoping it would be more vanilla cream and honey than floral. It's a sweet, innocent girl type of scent, for sure, and althought it's certainly not overwhelmingly floral, the florals are definitely there. If you like all these notes, I think they definitely work well together and blend well.

This is the 2008 version. In a word? Mmmm. I can smell a tiny bit of coconut, a bit of caramel, a little bit of currant and spice, and maybe some other things I'm not sure about. I don't think I smell any of the tobacco, amber or opium, or maybe they're just hinted at in the overall blend as it is on my skin as I would say it's a tiny bit "smoky". I keep catching whiffs of it and thinking, "mmmm, yummy." It's a tiny bit foody, but not so much that I think it would put off non-foodies. It's a bit like Sugar Skull but more complex. It has morphed a tiny bit over the hour or so that I've had it on, but not as much as some. Wish I'd gotten a second bottle, but hopefully it will be back next year.

This is going to be tough to review, just because I have so much to say about it. I've had it on for about an hour and I'll edit if it morphs significantly from where it is now. Firstly, I'm not big on florals I've tried with one exception, and that's Utrennyaya. In the throw, which is pretty strong considering how little I used, Harikata smells just like Utrennyaya. I didn't know why until I looked up the notes. It must be the osmanthus, and I must amp it. I didn't realize that was osmanthus until now. This is also one of the oils that smells different on different parts of my body. I've got some on my wrist and some in the crook of my elbow. On my wrist it's all osmanthus, but on the inside of my elbow I can smell some of the resemblance to O people are mentioning as well as the ginger. Not at all in the throw, though. I like this a lot. It's not amongst my absolute favorites and I see it more as a springtime scent than a cold weather scent, but I like it.

I just got my bottle from Dark Delicacies today, so I was excited to try this. I love vanilla blends with things like musk and incense. In the bottle it's pretty sharp, so I hoped it would mellow out on me. It did, but it immediately amped up the tobacco and for a while that's all I could smell. I waited, hoping that would fade to the background at least a little bit. It's not that I don't like tobacco, but it's not my favorite, and I prefer the other notes listed. It did fade and then went through a very incense-y phase. Now the vanilla and cotton have come out more, and ultimately it reminds me of Snake Charmer + tobacco. It morphs a lot, or perhaps it has "levels" in the throw, if you know what I mean. It seems to go back and forth between more vanilla and more incense and tobacco. I don't know that it would ever displace Snake Charmer and Mme Moriarty out of my very favorites, but it could join them in the top ten. I think with a little aging, it will. Very glad I got some. I'm back to add that the first time I tried it, it was almost all tobacco with a bit of incense. Sometimes the other notes would come out, but then eventually all I could smell was tobacco. Then the second time it was all intense incense through every stage, enough to give me a bit of a headache. That day I wore a sweater I haven't washed yet and that sweater still smells strongly of incense, several days later. I remembered that it was very cold the day it arrived and the box sat outside for quite a while, so I thought perhaps there was some separation. I don't know nearly enough about perfume oils to know if this is possible, but I still let it sit and then gently rolled the bottle several times. This time, it seems better blended and I can smell most of the notes. I have noticed that each time, I needed to apply once and then again after about 15 minutes or it completely faded. Some oils are just like that for me.

Whoaaaa, salty masculine vetiver. That's mostly all I get out of this, although the vetiver is not as strong as it is in other blends. It's interesting, but not how I want to smell. Vetiver and I aren't best buddies.

This will probably go in my swap pile, not because it's bad but because it ends up being a nice floral that doesn't really stand out one way or the other. Since finding BPAL I have found that I like things other than florals much better, and florals aren't outstanding on me most of the time anyway. Someone who appreciates them more and has skin chemistry that takes to them better will no doubt love this one.

The first aquatic that doesn't go bad on me. This is good! I don't get much spice, maybe only a hint of musk and leather, and a lot of the salty aquatic notes. It takes a little while to get there and goes through a brief soapy/detergent phase, but it settles down into something very nice. I can see the comparisons to Cool Water, which I liked. I think it's a bit more traditionally masculine than I would normally wear. I'm going to ask the Mr. to try this and if it smells like this on him, I'll be pretty happy.

Mmm! This smells much more like O than Snake Oil on me, but it's O with another added dimension, perhaps the myrrh. For once the ylang ylang is behaving on me, since in other blends it's gone soapy. I like this! I thought I wouldn't because of the ylang ylang, but I definitely do.

I took a chance on this one. I say that not because I don't like pomegranate, since Persephone is one of my favorites, but because Swank was too tart on me and the reviews here talked about how much pomegranate they get from this. I thought I needed something more to temper the pomegranate the way the rose does in Persephone, so I wasn't sure I was going to like this one. Now I wonder if that wasn't the boozy note in Swank that made it too tart for me. This doesn't last long, sadly, so it may be a good candidate for hair or a scent locket. While it sticks around, it's really really nice! I agree that it's pomegranate with something darker behind it. It's not too sweet and not too tart and not too fruity, but it's a bit of all three. Glad I got a bottle, for sure.

A bombardment of edible carnival indulgences. Funnel cake, caramel apple, cotton candy, salt water taffy and sugar tart. This is the Resurrected version. I may come back and edit this, as I've had it on for a couple of hours and it's morphing a bit, but suffice it to say that I love this so far. I never got to try the original, but now I have to say it's no wonder it has so many fans. Right now it mostly smells of funnel cake on me, which is most of what I smelled in the bottle as well, but now I think I may be staring to smell some saltwater taffy and cotton candy coming out. Hard to say! Whatever it is, it's lovely and I keep inhaling deeply at the crook of my elbow. Mmmmm! I think I need a backup bottle, oh yes. And I'm not a huge foodie either!

I'm glad I read the reviews here and saw that some people smelled something spicy, if only for a few minutes. That's what happened to me, although for the most part in all stages it's floral and mostly pretty faint. And a tiny bit soapy, but that's not uncommon for florals on me. It's a nice floral, but I don't wear it particularly well, unfortunately. I do better when florals are supporting cast, not the main characters.

A memory of pleasure passed. A ghostly rendezvous, delight beyond death. Faint echoes of laughter and the distorted music of a harp drift by, along with the scent of soft white pear and sweet vanilla. My experience with The Perilous Parlor has been pretty typical of what others have described. In the bottle I smell more pear than anything else, but just behind it I smell a somewhat smoky vanilla. A slightly darker vanilla than what I typically associate with vanilla. When I put it on, the pear speaks up for a bit but then it settles down into a really nice, soft scent that blends very well with the vanilla. This scent is slightly sweet, but not overly so, and not overly foody in my opinion. Definitely a keeper! That's saying something as I'm trying not to keep things I don't love. I do wish it were a bit stronger and had more throw, but that's partly because I have only one bottle and can see myself using more at a time than I use of other oils. Yummy! ETA: as this has aged a bit, there's a bit of something ever so slightly spicy coming out when I wear it. It's a very nice complement to the other notes and makes this EVEN BETTER. I didn't think that was possible. Also, I have gotten into the habit of saying the name in a boo scary voice when telling my partner what I'm wearing. "The Peeerrrrrilous Parrrrlorrrr!!!!" Try it - it's fun.

I really like this one quite a bit, enough that I purposely smell my arm and smile every once in a while. It fades after about 3 hours, so reapplication is necessary, but I can live with that. I don't smell the herbs, but I can smell something tempering everything else, and I can smell the amber behind the apple. I think it's green apple and not red apple, and it smells really good. Mmm! The amber and herbs I think prevent it from being particularly food, but it does remind me of fall. I'm keeping the imp and considering a bottle.

I'm often a little wary of florals as I've found only one that works well on me, but this one is pretty well-liked, so I thought it might work. Unfortunately for me, one of the notes really doesn't work on me. I don't think it's the rose; I think it's either the ivy or the lily. It becomes a very green, almost acrid scent. It's more like smelling the stem than the flower itself. Ah well, I'm sure someone will want this lovely! It's just not for me and my particular skin chemistry.

I'll edit this if it changes, but here is how it's gone so far: In the imp and in the air it bowled me over with cocoa smell. I find that a bit bitter, as chocolate is one of the few things I'm not a food snob about. I actually prefer it sweet rather than bitter and dark. On, however, it's gradually morphed into a spicy, ever so slightly boozy mocha, so I can see how many get coffee from it. As time goes on, I smell less of the cocoa and coffee and more of the rum and wine. It's a very pleasant smell, although I don't know that I'm enough of a foodie to want to smell like this. ETA: a few hours later, the blood smell is coming out. This reminds me of the morph that Crypt Queen went through, so I wonder if it's "blood accord". If so, I don't think I can do that note.

It's difficult to believe that I haven't reviewed this yet since it's one of my absolute favorites, but then again, I've been frolicking about with Mme Moriarty and had almost forgotten about lovely lovely Snake Charmer. I put it on today for the first time in months and a bit of aging has suited it well. Everything blends better now even though it was already gorgeous when I got it. I can smell a bit of plum, a bit of coconut, a fair amount of vanilla, and a bit of what is probably musk preventing it from being too sweet. I can see the comparisons to Snake Oil, but I like it better. No playdoh, no plastic smell, both of which are a problem for me with Snake Oil less than a year old. This is Mme Moriarty's sweeter sister; Mme is darker, this is definitely lighter and sweeter (with less plum) but just as beautiful in a slightly different way. Now I'm sad I have only one bottle, so I'm hoping Beth will do what she did with Midway and resurrect it for an update. If she does, I will hoard. LOVE. And I'm picky, by the way. ETA: as this ages, it gets better and better, and stronger. At this point I've been wearing the Resurrected (this bottle is about 8 months old, I think) a few times a week and it has become a deeply resinous vanilla scent with just a touch of plum and musk. The coconut has faded a lot yet it adds a tiny bit of creaminess. I think this is essentially how I wished aged Snake Oil would smell on me but sadly does not. Right now I can't really overstate my love for this oil, and it's remained as my favorite ever since I tried it 3 or so years ago. So my love for Snake Charmer, she is persistent. :D

I got this as a frimp, as it's not anything I'd try on my own. That's because jasmine becomes old lady soap on me and vetiver and I don't particularly get along either. My elbow smells like someone trying to wash away body odor with old lady soap. Gradually, the old lady soap will win because jasmine usually amps and takes over when it's in a blend, and that's what's happening now, even as I type. So at least the imaginary tiny sweaty person on my elbow is getting clean! Edit: Hm, now the vetiver is back. I guess the tiny sweaty person went jogging? It morphs very quickly with the jasmine and the vetiver taking turns at the helm, or maybe it's just my nose. Interesting.

When I open the bottle and when I first put this on my skin, I get a lot of pumpkin. Just as it seems to be with every other pumpkin blend I've tried, the buttery pumpkin smells goes away almost immediately and I smell the other notes. All of those notes blend really well, and I'm having a bit of trouble picking them apart, but I think the caramel is probably the strongest out of all of them. It's not too sweet as I feared it might be - in fact, I was afraid this would be too sweet, but the pomegranate rises to the occasion and tempers it with a bit of tartness. If you don't like foody this might not be for you. To me pomegranate doesn't smell foody, so that tempers the foodiness as well, but it might not be enough for some. I really like it! It lasts pretty well too. A very nice fall scent. I'm not one who insists on lighter scents in warm weather and heavier ones in cooler weather, but I think this suits fall very well.