medvssa

The drydown of this one was a surprise.

 

In the imp and wet, it is just orange peel, a bit bitter. Slowly, the flowers bloom, a very yellow-orange scent, vibrant, bright, but not really warm, a little bit cologney, nothing special.

 

But, hey, as it dries down, it really warms up, deepens, "goldens". The beauitful amber and other golden notes really transform this one in something truly beautiful. Its like the light winter sun that very, very slowly warms your skin, but never gets really hot, wow!

In fact, thinking of it, it is a bit like sunrise, or the sun openigh through the clouds. And winter sun is my favorite kind of sun! I just avoid him the rest of the year, but now, it is yummy. And this is just that.

Another Yule love

Midnight Mass (another one I have been wanting to try for a long time!) is very deep incense in the imp, well, what did I expect! On, it is a warm, a little dark, blend of resins and woods. It is... very serious, somehow. It is very, very good, and those incense sticks feel like a parody of this, a very bad imitation. It is, just perfect, although it certainly seems more fitting for room scent than for perfume (and weird that I say that) but what a room scent! Amazing.

06 version

 

I wanted to try this one for a loong time! So glad the lab re-released it. Of course, I love it, as I expected, as it is a resin lover's dream, and more!

Absolutely fantastic, glorious liquid gold. Apart from the golden resins and amber, it is a little bit musky. It is the first time that an incense (resin) blend actually reminds me of the smell of a church. I want a bottle. Or two. And I just cannot imagine how well this one must age!

I should first say that I don't have much experience with the famous "snow" bpal note.

 

This blend is very chilly and light, airy, also a bit aquatic to me, it reminds me a bit of Szepaszzony and Annabel Lee (as you can see I also don't have much experience with aquatics ) and also and even whiter, colder and kind of watered down (in a nice way) Snow White, withough the coconut or vanilla (I guess that leaves the snow and the flowers) A lot less flowery than I feared, perhaps because the flowers are kind of "frosted". It is subtly beautiful. Drying down, it becomes a little more flowery and "cologney", keeping the watery quality. I find it very nice, I will have to test more to know if I want a bottle or if the imp will be enough.

I love this one! It is like a more vibrant Ygdrassil, with berries and golden resin. I cannot detect the rose. It opens with verbena, which I also like, but it fades as it dries down to become a very nice blend of wood, leaves, herbs, resin and some unsweet berries, and like a current of cold wind. Everything togheter smells, well, very alive! I find it very comforting, but then I am a green lover!

This one had a very nice, unusual and promising (for me at least) green, herby & spicy, almost medicinal opening that I liked very much. Alas, the rosewood I guess, takes over after a while with a very powdery rosey smell (and roses -but this actually doesn't have rose, right- don't tend to go powdery on me), and after a while that is all I can smell so this one didn't work for me, that was really a pity, since really liked the first stages

GAG, awful, horrible. In the imp, more than pipe smoke it seems cigar smoke >_< I tried it nonetheless, but, argh. On, it is awful too. Whatever is in this, is a note to AVOID. I didn't detect anything else, I was too busy freaking out.

 

I only had so bad a reaction from 3 oils: this one, Grog and Elegba. I thought it was the rum, perhaps it is also tobacco, I don't know, but ugggh!

Erm; hmh. I am not sure about this. It doesn't make me gag, but I would certainly not wear it as a perfume (well, it is a voodoo blend after all...) This is like Satyr with a bit of cedar in it, or something like that. I whish Mr. Patchouli would come out and save the blend for me. Now I like goats and it is actually fun to try on a perfume that smells like them, but; hm, for amusement's sake I already kept an imp of Satyr. This is a little more wearable, but, hm

Well, the best part of all this was to read savage_rose's review, now that made me laugh my ass off

I think some of those have been posted here: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?automodule=g...md=sc&cat=2

There are some great green scents in the Rappaccini's Garden section. I suggest Belladonna, it is a very fresh green scent, with a flowery hint. Black Hellebore is also watery, light grassy green and with some damp pale flowers, it says "darkly rooty" in the description, but I didn't detect any darkness or earthiness to it at all.

 

I didn't like Dublin much, it is nice but not for me, but I have to say it is not an evergreen smell (probably that is why I didn't dig it ;P) but a deciduous one, very watery and airy certainly.

I added this to my wishlist because someone said it was similar to The Masque... well it is not, not at all, on me at least. I received it in an unexpected package, what a great surprise!

 

This is liquid, pale, hand burnished gold. So sophisticated! luxurious but understated: not in your face at all, you really have to get close to it to appreciate all of its glory, and it is so amazing to be enveloped in this aura of gold! Wow! it smells really expensive, now this is a lame adjective to use, but I can't think of another!

 

And that was wet... as it dries down it gets better and BETTER! It is soft, silky, incredibly feminine, agh! I really don't know how to describe it, I feel I am not doing it any justice.

Apparently I can do amber, very well, which I though not, and I am oh so glad I do. I really can't stop sniffing my arm... GAH! I found a new "drool over" scent. Breathtakingly beautiful, I need a bottle.

 

How many exclamation marks did I use in this review? I think I just broke a personal record.

I am so dissapointed!

 

I mean, I do like it, a lot, I love pine in all it's shapes and forms, but for some reason, from the name and description, I was expecting a very dark and very resiny, woodsy pine, more in the vein of Black Forest, I guess.

I lived most of my life in the mediterranean and I was expecting the rich and strong scent of those dry and twisted pines, always dripping with resin, very dark green with their red trunks, which this is not at all.

 

It is wet, clean, bright. I don't detect any of the resin I expected, it is not dark at all, just very airy and fresh pine.

As it dries down it becomes a bit darker, but it is still a fresh and clean pine. Nothing sticky about it Not what I associate with sticky at least.

This is the absolute star from the imp set of Rappaccinis I got today.

The first impression is vanilla and earth, nice, rich, slightly damp, non smoky or gritty earth and non foody or sugared vanilla. In fact, I detect the vanilla as such only when it is wet, it sort of blends in and just becomes something else as it dries down.

It is sweet in a way, but as it warms up the blend really does smell of mushrooms! I am a mushroom fanatic. I would add all kinds of mushrooms to all of my meals, and they are the cutest things ever... this scent is remarkable.

The moist smell of a damp bed of decaying leaves under the shadow of an autumn forest, and then the strange smell of the mushrooms that grow there. I love it much more than I imagined I would when I started to read the vanilla references (I am very scared of vanilla). It is masterly blended, soft, just a little moist, but not wet or cold, earthy in a comfortable way. I like this almost as much as I like mushrooms! Masterpiece

I love this stuff!

 

I adore Samhain, but it being sweet in a foody way, I don't reach to it so often. Poor Samhain.

Reading somewhere (probably in this thread) that Samhainophobia was a dark and more woodsy version of this, I had to get a bottle unsniffed, and I am so glad I did!

 

At first it is all powerful dark vetiver; rich, dark, woodsy patchouli; damp moss. Wood and leaves in moist decay, in the depth of the woods, and that is a smell I love! The clove I don't detect, maybe the touch of spice, but I can't identify clove.

 

The dark scents slowly go to the background as it dies down dry down, and there, lightly, I detect the smell of Samhain. It is there, very identifiable, but light and distant, a waft. It is like being out there in the cold woods at night, but nearby there is a house and they have Samhain in the oil burner - yeah I probably should have made that a little more poetic

 

Very, very nice, a much darker version of beloved Samhain!

This thread was recently linked to in another thread, and here am I bumping it, so that it can be updated with new stuff! please!

What about Zephyr? It has a non-sugary vanilla (I don't care for vanilla but I like this one) and citrus. Or Polyhymnia, it is resiny but with herbs and lemon balm, that makes it a bit citrusy. Maybe you can find scents in between tastes that you both will like.

Waaah, I have to review this immediately! Very surprised by this one, I love it! It is like Anne Bonny, but better; it is liquid dark gold, amazing! The cinnamon and the amber make it warmer, softer, deeper, aaah!!! I want a bottle! this is fabulous! it is a GC, yay!

 

 

Well, that wasn't very helpful, was it? hehe.

Szepasszony which to my nose was grapefruit and light florals, decidedly crisp.

I second the Szepasszony....crisp but aqautic also. Not quite enough bite in the drydown for Autumn, but close.

Third.

 

And now that I think of it Rose Red also gives me a chilly feeling.

The suggestions that mentioned that pumpkin and cinnamon are attractive for guys, well at least they are true for my BF, as he likes Samhain the most, and when I wear it he most certainly comes to grab me

 

I guess it depends on the person, though *shrug*

I will second Anne Bonny, I think it would be more suitable than the name might imply at first

 

Also, Darkness. Opium, narcissus & myrrh. A very seductive couple of flowers and the golden warmth of myrrh...

This is an adorable scent. Calming and peaceful. I bought the bottle unsniffed because I am a Poe nut. And the reviews were very good. So glad I did!

 

It is very light, clean, innocent and pale. Flowery, but not heady at all, these are very modest but very lovely flowers. The sweet pea is there, but doesn't dominate. There is a pale green watery (as in dew) freshness that must be the cucumber. And some other pale flowers I can't tell. The moss and sage must be grounding it a bit, but never getting earthy, and as it dries down, I seem to perceive a more grassy green sweet smell. But it is still very airy and perfectly blended and just beautiful without having to dissect it any more, so I will leave it at this.

Some of these have already been posted:

 

Some GC: Inferno, The Raven, Yggdrasil, Hamadryad, High John the Conqueror.

 

Samhain 05, Snow White 05, Rose Red 05.

 

Blood Rose, a bit blurry, it is sooo pretty though!

 

Some Maelstroms: Usher, Berenice, Ligeia, The Masque.

 

Melpomene and Polyhymnia.

Melpomene came in amber vial.

 

Lenore and Khajuraho

 

Yeah those are all my bottles (except Blood Rose and Inferno which are a friend's)

deciduous forest / trees (living trees rather than cut wood): Yggdrasil, this stuff is alive.

 

For a nedle forest I would say Black Forest, but it does seem to add some of the forest inhabitants too, not just the trees.

 

Leanan Shide gets a bit more flowery on dry down, but in the earlier stages it reminds me very much of sweet grass and gentle breezes.

 

I second Rose Red as a very true rose.

 

I get very vivid images of mediterranean cypress (especially a mountain next to were I grew) from Melpomene.

The more femme-fatale scent I have ever tried is Loviatar, and I would also add Darkness and Medea.

This is one of my absolute favorites. Lemon balm (melisa) is one of my favorite herbs. And myrrh, possibly my favorite note.

 

All these noble herbs, the exquisite lemon balm, a hint of wood, and the myrhh giving it a golden shine... exceptional!

 

I can't say much more. I just love it.