Dymphna

In the imp: Something dark green (the oakmoss) and some sort of powdery resin (could be the grey amber or the myrrh, or maybe both). I think I can smell the muguet waaaay in the background, but it's not at all prominent. Wet: Very powdery for a couple of minutes, verging on old lady perfume. And then it turns to Chanel No. 5. I've had this happen before, with Kubla Khan, but this is even more of a match. It's almost exact, just a tiny, tiny hint spicy and without the alcohol scent, of course. Dry: Ew, this develops a sort of vomit-y undertone as it dries. I don't know what that is. It still smells like Chanel No. 5, but it also has that vomit-y smell that I get from pina coladas. (Yeah, pineapple and coconut smell like vomit to me for some reason.) Um, so I feel bad saying this, but it's just my wacky skin chemistry so what can you do?

In the imp: I totally get the "Japanese version of O" thing that people have been talking about. It's sexy-sweet honey like O, but with a crisp lightness, like a layer of pale green organza. At second sniff, I smell a light melon, nothing cantaloupe-y (I hate cantaloupe and it ruined Yemaya for me), but still a bit buttery. And still that gorgeous honey. Delicious! Wet: This almost immediately becomes a honeyed floral with a hint of melon. It's very sweet, but light. Very much a traditionally feminine summer perfume. Dry: The honey recedes a lot as it dries. I'm left with a sweet, delicate, summery floral. Very pretty, but not me at all. This is something my mom would love, though. It reminds me a bit of Anais Anais, a favorite of hers. Too bad she's so conservative that any BPAL blend would be out of the question for her, let alone one with this label, or I'd get her a bottle.

In the imp: This is a sweet springtime floral, all pastel blooms and green stems and sparkling air. I smell the hyacinth most clearly, and then the lily of the valley (which is what I was looking forward to), and something a bit spicy (I didn't remember until I checked the notes that there was carnation in this), and those sweet, crisp, green stems, very much like in Rose Red. Wet: The florals seem to blend together better on my skin. I can still pick them out individually, but they really just...blend into something that reminds me of a Victorian lady's perfume--sweet and spicy and floral and just so pretty. It's exactly the kind of scent I used to love when I was in my tween and early teen years. Not that I don't like it now, but I used to be very into the whole Victoriana thing. And is there vanilla in this? Yes, there is! The fresh green stem note isn't as strong, but I can still smell it a bit. I'm hunting for the beeswax, but I can't find it. Unless that's what's giving this a sort of creamy-but-not-foody vibe. Or maybe that's the vanilla. Happily, the rose and the honeysuckle, two troublesome notes for me, are keeping quiet. I think I can smell the rose, but carnation seems to rein that in, so it's just adding a bit of sweetness (and not going soapy, woohoo!). It smells kind of like the carnation/rose blend in Alice. Dry: Argh, honeysuckle! It's decided to show itself after all and now it won't go away. That's it for this blend, everything else is swamped under it. I can just make out a feeble wail of spiciness from the carnation, but everything else is just gone. Well, shoot. After a half hour or so, I can smell the carnation and rose again, but they're still drowned out by the honeysuckle, and what I do smell of them is so similar to Alice that I can just wear that if I want to smell like it.

In the imp: I got this all over my fingers when I opened the decant and I was thrilled because it smells almost exactly like one of my favorite scents in high school, Naturistics Sea Splash. It was a drugstore thing, but I looooved it. I used to douse myself in it--I had the spray, the perfume oil, the shower gel, the shampoo, and the conditioner. I loved it because it really did remind me of the ocean. I've been wishing for a similar BPAL blend for ages, but didn't have much hope because Beth's aquatics rarely cooperate are so iffy on me. This is very similar, though a bit (just a tiny bit) more perfumey, I think from the ambergris. I don't think I really like ambergris very much, but this isn't too bad. There's also with a slight powdery note that I think may be the honey. Wet: Yes, this is very, very similar to Sea Splash, but till a bit powdery. This is working better on me so far than most aquatics. Salty aquatics tend to be the only ones that work on me, but they don't *always* work so I was trying not to get my hopes up for this one. But so far, so good! The honey is coming out more now, and it's the sort of pungent honey that I get from O before it mellows and ages. I don't hate it like this, but I prefer it once it's had a few months to settle down. I can't find any mint, although I think that's probably what's giving this a sort of fresh, sparkling top note, like sunlight shimmering on a clear turquoise wave. Dry: Oh, yeah, this is Sea Splash plus sexy honey. I am definitely getting a bottle of this! My first Salon bottle and it's based on ancient tentacle porn.

That was me, silly! (Unless GRR also suggested it, in which case shut my mouth!) I was just popping in here to mention it, but you beat me to it. Sorry it didn't quite work for you. I'm going to make my friend bring the imp of AL that I gave her the next time we meet for coffee so I can try it on myself.

At first sniff, I get a strong, "scratchy" musk, which I always think of as a sort of "whiskey and honey" musk, that reminds me of Spanked (which I adore), Black Lace (which I also love, and which reminds me a bit of Spanked), and The Lurid Library (which has a lovely musk that unfortunately turns icky on me). I would say that it's most like the musk in Black Lace, and that if you really wanted to attempt to recreate BL, you could start with this and then maybe add some Antique Lace. Anyway! I don't think anything else is really recognizable for me, at least, in the bottle. Once on my skin, and especially dried down a bit, I do think I can smell some of the golden amber, which is apparently an amber that loves my skin, and the slightest bit of honey. I think the kush might also be adding to the overall dry, sweet huskiness of this blend. I don't smell any red currant or daemonorops. That's not true, I just reapplied and this time I got hit with a zingy little tingle of currant and something that reminds me of the sweet-spicy dragon's blood in Tintagel (the only DB blend so far in which the DB is noticeable but not flowery on my skin). The musk really takes the lead in this one very quickly, though. And I certainly don't mind because it's one of the best musks I've ever smelled, deeply sexy but somehow also clean. This is a very golden blend. All in all, I'd say that this blend does a truly astounding job of reflecting the theme it's meant to represent. To be a bit crude, my initial reaction on opening the bottle and sniffing for the first time was, "Oh...fuck!" And that about sums it up, really. I'll definitely be getting another bottle or two or three to hoard. And I LOVE the blue label!

I am so in love with Anactoria's label! That blue is one of my favorite shades. It's odd, because the scent seems so golden to me (and others), but I don't care, I just love it. It makes me think of the Mediterranean, which I have never seen in person, but someday I will!

Due to the concept, I was really invested in this oil working for me, and I'm so glad that it did! In the bottle: Deep red pomegranate, rich but clean, sweet but crisp. I also smell something a bit darker. I think it may be amber, as some others have surmised. Wet: Intoxicating and juicy, the perfect ripe, red pomegranate. My first thought is that it reminds me of wine, even though it doesn't smell like wine. It's just so rich and so powerfully RED. After a minute or so on my skin, I start to smell something almost pine-like, which reminds me a bit of The Snow Maiden. This is much deeper than The Snow Maiden, though. And now I'm smelling something spicy. Not fiery like cinnamon, just a clear, almost cool spiciness, like biting into a crisp fruit that has a spicy tang. And I can still smell that suggestion of amber in the background, but it's not going powdery on me, which is a big relief since the mentions of amber were the only thing in the reviews of this one that worried me. Dry: The longer I wear this, the deeper and more gilded it becomes. I keep picturing deep red berries brushed with gold dust. The gold imagery is coming from the amber, which is on its very best behavior. And there's something else, something very dark and deep and tangy far in the background. It almost reminds me of black musk except that black musk always turns to old lady powder on me and this is just...dark and wild and sexy in a very distant way. This scent is so dark without taking anything away from the glowing redness of the pomegranate. I keep imagining some unsuspecting ancient Greek wandering the woods, coming across a small hole that at first seems like nothing but an animal's bolt hole, and looking down and down and into seemingly neverending blackness--and then seeing two beautiful, hypnotic eyes looking back up at him. This is magical in a dark, mythic way that is wholly appropriate to its name. I love it.

Vanilla, saffron, and cream. This is just glorious in the bottle. My first thought was that it smelled like heavy, thick, real whipped cream flavored with real vanilla. Then I sniffed again and it smelled like cream soda! I made my husband take a sniff and he agreed. It even smelled fizzy! Unfortunately, once it hits my skin it goes through a brief plastic phase and then turns into something very similar to the way Tombstone smells on me, but without the beach-y vibe. (To me, Tombstone smells like the remnants of a driftwood fire on a cold beach, plus a hint of vanilla.) It's just so dry and smoky--I'm assuming it's the saffron that's doing this--and only barely vanilla-y. After an hour or two, it becomes smoother and more creamy, and smells once again a bit like cream soda. But it's nothing at all like I expected, and nowhere near as vanilla cream-like and Underpants-y as it was in the bottle. I'm so disappointed. This was one of only two of the new Lupercalias that sounded so good to me I bought a bottle unsniffed rather than waiting for decants. (Fortunately, the other one, Anactoria, smells wonderful on me.) I'm so sad that a scent based on this poem by this poet with these notes doesn't smell right on me. Not fair! I'll keep it to try again, I suppose, and hope that a bit of aging will help. Hey, it took nine months for Underpants to work on me, so I guess you never know.

That's funny, because to me no other BPAL blend smells like Black Opal! The only thing that smells like it is Lush's American Cream, though that's a bit more foody. I do think that Black Lace has quite a bit in common with Antique Lace, though BL is darker (obviously!) and has a richness that I just don't get from AL. ETA: Oops, another post happened in between Tempest's and mine! Kosyena, I wish I could find a GC scent that reminds me of Spanked because it's my favorite blend and I can't afford a bottle, either! The closest I've ever come was Loviatar, but that's just reminiscent of Spanked to me, more of a cousin than a sibling. And the red musk keeps me from wearing it much/ever. If you like red musk, though, give it a try!

I was just thinking that the other day, and ended up amusing myself by making a mental family tree around Dorian, with Usher as his eccentric, reclusive older brother (I've always thought that), Black Lace as his reserved but beautiful younger sister, and Snake Oil as their once-a-sexpot, always-a-sexpot mother. MB: Underpants is the beautiful, sophisticated aunt and Antique Lace is the sweet, shy spinster aunt. But who's the daddy? I don't know. I've already put way more thought into this than is healthy.

I say "tal" (rhymes with "pal"). It does sound weird, though, so whenever I say it out loud to someone else, I follow it up with "um, Twilight Alchemy Lab, you know." But in my head, it's just "tal."

In the imp: I keep opening this and sniffing and capping it back up again. I can't help it, it's got something that smells a lot like orange blossom and I can't stand orange blossom. It's not quite as bad as orange blossom, just a very sharp, green scent that hits me right in the nose. I didn't really expect this to work on me, being an aquatic, but it's inspired by a painting that I love so I really wanted to at least try it. Wet: Still sharp and green, but not quite as sharp, and not acrid the way orange blossom smells. Just a sort of hazy green, almost grassy scent. The sharpness has been softened by a sweet quatic that reminds me of Selkie. (Selkie, to me, smelled more like sweet water than salt.) It also reminds me somewhat of Singing Moon, that same "wet green" smell. Dry: This is so much nicer once it's dry. It wasn't awful before, but it wasn't something I'd really want to wear. Now, it's a sort of soft yet dark aquatic. I can rarely wear aquatics. They always end up smelling like air freshener or shampoo or deodorant soap or something--things that are supposed to smell like water, but don't. This smells a lot like real water, like a body of water, maybe a big pond or small lake, that's clear around the edges but dark in the middle. And it still reminds me of Singing Moon. I really do like it and can see myself wearing it more once the weather warms up. I don't think I'll need a whole bottle, but I'm definitely keeping the decant. And about an hour later, this is starting to smell a bit salty, too. Oh, definitely keeping the decant and maybe, if I wear it often enough, getting a bottle. What a nice surprise!

I'm most likely going to be wearing Black Lace during the day, so I might as well wear it at night, too. Unless it's too cold and I need El Dia de Reyes for snuggling purposes. And for New Year's Day, which is supposed to be cold and rainy (again), most likely also either of those two. I'm boring.

I don't think I ever tasted fruitcake until this year. My husband always wanted to try it, but he won't eat raisins, and pretty much all fruitcakes have raisins. So I finally combed my cookbooks and pieced together my own recipe--the quick variety, not the type that requires lots of stewing in brandy. And we found that all those old jokes about fruitcake are just silly, because if you use enough fruits and nuts, it's absolutely delicious. And then a week or so later, I got this frimp! In the imp: Yep, this smells like fruitcake. First a blast of buttery cake, then sweet cherries, and then hints of tart citrus and pineapple. It smells delicious. I kind of wish I could drink it. Wet: My skin is being taken over by juicy, unbelievably sweet candied fruits. The buttery cake is still there, but it's pushed way into the background by all the crazy fruits. They're just having a party. I also smell nuts, but they're not nearly as prominent as the fruits. Crazy fruits! Dry: Once dry, the fruits become completely different. Instead of juicy, sugary candied fruits, they smell like real, fresh fruit. For some reason, I distinctly smell apple peel. I don't think apples (or apple peels) go in traditional fruitcake, do they? But there they are. It's a lovely scent, just a hint of buttery cake, a waft of booze (brandy, I think), and delicious fruits. Scrumptious! A wonderful and greatly appreciated holiday gift from the Lab.

There's a whole thread devoted to BPAL/Lush similarities. I'll find it and edit this post with a link. Here ya go!

Okay, Black Lace smelled very different on me the first day I tried it than it did the second day, so I'm posting all my notes from both days. I don't think I underwent any major hormonal/body chemistry changes from one day to the next, so I can't really explain this. I'm just going to hope it doesn't keep changing. Black Lace 11/29/07 In the bottle: Sharp and incense-y. I can smell the cotton, which reminds me of shampoo (in a good way, very fresh and clean) and the cognac, which is what's adding the sharp, smoky note, and warm incense. No vanilla, though. I hope it comes out once it's on my skin. On the whole, though, this is reminding me of some other BPAL, and I don't want to say that it's Spanked because I don't want to get myself all excited prematurely, but...it smells good. It doesn't actually smell much like Spanked, but the cognac in this (and, incidentally, in The Forbidding Foyer) has the same scratchy, smoky sexiness as the bourbon in Spanked. Yum. Wet: Ooh, it does remind me of Spanked! Oh. For, like, a minute and then the cotton comes out and it's like drowning in cotton balls. I didn't even realize that cotton balls had a smell, and it's probably not the actual smell of cotton balls, but that's what it reminds me of. And I can smell the vanilla, but it's the powdery vanilla that I remember from Antique Lace, which is not my favorite. Dry: No incense, no cognac, nothing but the same vanilla that was in The Perilous Parlour. And that smelled like scented toilet paper on me. And this? Yep, this smells like scented toilet paper, too. Not fair! 11/30/07: Trying again a day later. Yesterday, I tried this on my left wrist, so today I'm trying it on my left forearm. I don't know if it's the placement or a day's difference in skin chemistry, but it smells so much better. First, there's the clean, fresh cotton note. Then, sweet--but not sickly or toilet papery--vanilla and delicious smoky cognac. There's also a hint of soft musk (almost like the musk in The Lurid Library but it doesn't go stinky on me) deepening the vanilla. So then I put it on my right wrist, and it's still smelling good. There's the same progression from clean cotton to light vanilla and smoky cognac and soft-but-sexy musk, and maybe the barest hint of incense. The vanilla in the spot on my forearm is starting to get creamy and custardy now, about twenty or thirty minutes in. It's still slightly flowery/powdery like the vanilla in Antique Lace, but it also has more of the creamy quality of Underpants. They sort of switch back and forth. This is SO MUCH BETTER than it was last night. I'm so happy!

I say SOO-dha Se-GAH-ra, with the "dh" being sort of halfway between a "d" sound and a "th" sound. And Nia, I love "los perfumitos" and "las muestrecitas"! I have a feeling that's going to get stuck in my brain now. I took Spanish in school for so many years and had so many Spanish-speaking friends and acquaintances and roommates that sometimes I think certain words in Spanish and have to translate them to English before I say them out loud. Oh, and we tend to pronounce acronyms as words here most of the time, too. That's why I'm always surprised to hear that anyone "spells out" BPAL. Maybe I'm just lazy.

I thought I mentioned this here but it must have been in the main Lush thread. I finally bought American Cream a few weeks ago and to me it smells almost exactly like Black Opal. So much so that I decided to wear Black Opal with it, hunted high and low for my new imp and couldn't find it, scraped the last tiny droplet out of my empty imp, and finally ended up ordering a 5ml I'd been planning to get.

Ifinena, my MIL used to wear that scent constantly. There's nothing with all those notes together (and I have no idea what mousse de chene is), but the closest I could find was: Queen Mab - Warrior, Trickster and Goddess of Magic and Poets, she is one of the Tuatha De Danaan and the Queen of the Faeries. A very complex scent, both shadowy and fierce: black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk. Utrennyaya - Osmanthus, Damascus rose, violet, delphinium, white mint, palmarosa and white sandalwood. Kindly Moon - Kindly Moon is available from September 6th thru 9th 2006. Utterly ethereal, an exquisite expression of love: moonflower, lotus root, white gardenia, beeswax, peach blossom, blue musk, stargazer lily, golden osmanthus, ti, sandalwood, hyacinth, ylang ylang, and a touch of vanilla bean. Kindly Moon is an LE, but you might still have some luck finding it.

Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo doesn't smell like one of those specific scents (at least, not to me, though I think others have compared it to Pink Sugar), but it is a very PINK scent. And it does have a somewhat similar feel to Pink Sugar, very sweet and happy and innocent. I love it.

( But it's Faiza, not Fazia.) Whenever I read it, I think Fah-ee-za, but with the "ee" sort of clipped. More like Fah-e'-za, maybe?

The Pool of Tears is definitely a salty aquatic, and the "Alice's perfume" part doesn't actually smell like Alice-the-BPAL-blend. I expected it to, but it doesn't. It smells like lavender and sweet pea to me. But by far the saltiest GC blend I've smelled is Dragon's Tears. I normally can't wear dragon's blood, and thus the Ars Draconis scents, because it goes all flowery on me, but this one is amazing. You can still smell the DB, but it's swamped by this incredibly salty scent. It's like when you're crying and you're surrounded by the scent of your tears, or swimming in the ocean and you accidentally swallow a mouthful of seawater. It's amazing. The City in the Sea is somewhat salty, but in a "cold depths of the sea" sort of way. And The Deep Ones...well, that one died a horrible death on my skin, so I can't really say. I should give it another try, though. Also! Since that set you bought was called Stone Wash, I must recommend Black Opal. It's not supposed to be an aquatic, but many of us do get a sort of rain-and-stone scent from it. To me, it smells like being at the beach on a cool, rainy day, which is a scent I love. Of course, for others it's more of a non-foody vanilla--which it is for me, a bit, but that's not the predominant note I get. It's worth a try, though.

Proginoskes, I'm in total agreement about Luperci! Not that I've gotten that reaction from my husband (unfortunately), but at least I find it sexy. I also find it sort of warm and cuddly, but that's nice, too. I wore it yesterday for a walk in the misty evening air and when I got indoors and took off my sweater, I thought, "Damn, I smell like a sex goddess!" I don't know if anyone else thought so, but that's okay since I wasn't really going for a reaction from someone else, just wanted to smell nice for myself.

In the imp: This smells like one of those syrupy fruit-scented drugstore body sprays. Not really liking it, but everyone seems to love it so maybe it'll bloom on my skin. Maybe? Hopefully? Wet: Hmm, okay, I'm smelling the vanilla. It's very sweet, and kind of candle-like. It reminds me of Sugar Cookie, super-sweet but very generic and a little waxy. Dry: Kind of buttery. Like butter and vanilla mixed together. I don't really know if I like it. Hmm. Nope, don't like it. Trying this a few days later (for reasons of hormonal fluctuations, and you know what I mean), I found that, once dry, it also has a powdery scent that reminds me of some brand of scented toilet paper I remember from childhood. I know that's a weird (and unflattering, but what can you do, that's skin chemistry) association, but it's a very clear memory. My mom always got the plain kind, but sometimes when I had to use the bathroom at someone else's house, I'd find this very powdery/perfumey-smelling toilet paper and be amazed that there was such a thing. Once dry on my wrist, this scent has that same papery, powdery, perfumey scent.