batsy

In the vial: AHHH PAPER WHITES. NO! I didn't even try to put this on. Paper whites are a no-go with my sinuses, so I'm not even going to torture myself. Immediately tossed this in the swap pile.

In the vial: sweet, fresh-cut lilies. On the skin: The same, basically. Which does me no good, as lilies trigger my allergies. If you love lilies, this is basically the single note for 'lily'. Enjoy.

In the vial: Smokey honey and red wine. With a sharp kick of bay. Not bad. On the skin: Yeah, the bay is really amp'd. The wine note is much like the wine note in Lilith, which I love. On the dry down the smoke returns and mostly all I get is incense, wine, and smoke. If only it had stayed that way. Eventually it turned into the scent of 'generic hand lotion'. Oh well, I'll keep the imp around since it's discontinued.

In the vial: Spicy, with a hint of lotus and (what I'm assuming is) chiuri bark. On the skin: Whoa, cedar. Like sticking my head in a cedar chest. Very brown, very spicy and warm. On the dry down my skin amp'd the lotus. The more I sniffed, the more the back of my throat burned. I don't think this is going to work out for me.

In the vial: cloying vanilla and lily. Neither are my favorites. On the skin: Decidedly over-sweet lily. I think the sweetness comes from the vanilla. This turned very aquatic on me after dry down - I don't really do well with aquatics - and continued into a green aquatic. I wish it hadn't turned so simple on my skin; it's very feminine and would likely smell fantastic on someone else.

In the vial: Old tobacco and leather. On the skin: I get a semi-sweet note from the date palm, turns very sugary. With a faint whiff of tobacco. I guess this would certainly be representative of Havana (never been there) but after the dry down it's just basic sugar and tobacco on my skin. Not really worth wearing.

In the vial: white wine, jasmine, and rose. Very sweet and kind of sparkling. On the skin: Dirt. Okay that's the patchouli, with a faint sweetness. Like being in a pasture. I think the attar of rose is deepening the patchouli to invoke that in my brain. Really, all I can think is 'barnyard'. Which is probably not what Beth was going for with this. Off to the swaps pile.

In the vial: Orange spice. Reminds me of a spicy orange tea. On the skin: super mandarin on me, which I like. It's spicy warm, with the saffron popping as it dries down. I get a whiff of tobacco, a lot more red musk and mandarin, and a hint of tonka. Really, this is a nice blend though it's quite pungent. I would caution a little goes a long way with this. In the end, it's kind of a toss up on whether I'd want to wear this alone or layer it with another blend. It's quite strong to my nose and while I like it, I'm not sure I'd wear it often.

In the vial: strong resin, amber, musk. Reminded me of a gentler Minotaur. On the skin: The belladonna and copal were the strongest when wet, but it's dried down to a mellow musk-y clove scent on me. The amber isn't super strong after five hours, which is okay. I do get a hint of pimento when I directly sniff my wrist but there's just not a lot of throw with this one, at least on me. I really like it, as it doesn't give me a headache like Minotaur can. It's a warm scent, and it feels comforting to wear. And the name is Three Cocks, how can you go wrong?

In the vial: Aquatic peach. Very juicy. On the skin: First applied, I got rose mixed with a fresh peach. As it dried down, it became this weird, "generic perfume" mix. Full dry down, it became very deep rose and myrtle. I'm glad it lost its aquatic notes on my skin, as those usually don't do well for me. This is a very feminine "pretty" blend, sophisticated. I'm glad someone frimped me this, as I would have never tried it otherwise.

In the vial: green dandelions and booze. On the skin: Fresh cut grass and yellow dandelions. As it dried down, the hemp popped up. Full dry down was the same, with a booze backnote. I so wanted this to work but the smell of cut grass just gives me a headache.

In the vial: chocolate oakmoss. The chocolate note is always strong for me. On the skin: Chocolate peppermint pistachios. Drying down the cedar pops in to play. Full dry down it's like a woodsy/foodie scent. From that point on it became chocolate cedar. It's not bad, but it's not something I'd wear.

In the vial: That was my face upon sniffing. On the skin: I'm not as familiar with the notes in this one, but it's very herbal-ly and burns my nose. I would guess it's the cassis bud or the benzoin, but it might be the petitgrain. Overall this blend smells like the inside of the local feed & supply store and that's not something I want to smell like! The rose otto struggled to come out after the dry down but the throw of the rest of the notes is so strong it's making me sick. Verdict: Swap!

In the vial: Red apple and roses. Promising. On the skin: Red apple and teak. I'm pretty sure the neroli is strong on me today. As it dried down, it became teak, musk, and patchouli. Apple disappeared entirely, which is sad, because it's hard to find an apple scent that *stays* apple. Complete dry down it becomes teak wood furniture polish. Sigh. Verdict: Swap.

In the vial: Bright mandarin, but it has a plastic tinge to it. And a hint of spiciness. On the skin: Full on mandarin. Which is good, because normally I cannot wear things with any hint of fig in them. Even on the dry down, where it fades into my skin, it's still mandarin. Not much throw, if any, to this, unfortunately. It's a fun little scent, just not sure it really invokes its name. Verdict: Keep. Try at a later date to make sure there are no fig issues.

In the bottle: A fake blueberry note mixed with that note in Selkie that always hits me. (I think it's ozone?) Not bad; decidedly strong, though. On the skin: This reacts on my skin just as Selkie does, but with an underlying plastic blueberry note. (This will sound weird, but I had a My Little Pony that was scented blueberry and it smells just like she did.) As it begins to dry down, the lime creeps out for me; I'm not getting blackberry anything, but maybe the leafy smell is tied to the blackberry? It's not a strong wet leaves (probably more like wet fir needles), but it's also got a bit of spice in it (the ozone?) to my nose. Verdict: I like this. It really does remind me of Selkie (which I liked) but it's a lot stronger and seems to last longer/throw more on me. I may try layering it with something.

I've been into BPAL for, like, six years now and have never sniffed Snake Oil. I don't think I've ever received an imp of it. (Snake Charmer, on the other hand, I have six bottles of that.) So I thought I'd give the soap version a try, since I love Villainess soaps. Holy crow, I am DRENCHED in awesomeness! The soap was super smooth; it doesn't lather like some of the other Villainess bars I've tried but that's not a big deal. Having never tried Snake Oil before this, I think I'm now a fan. Will have to try out some of the other BPTP soaps.

In the vial: Patchouli and spicy incense, with a whiff of orange. Promising. On the skin: I imagine this is what an open-air spice market smells like. Normally, I would be very much "clove and orange, yeah!" but the incense and patchouli seem to make this smell like a "generic exotic perfume oil" on me. The cinnamon and clove does cut the patchouli, which my skin tends to amp, so that's helpful. I just with there was more clove and orange. Nice to sniff but probably wouldn't wear it very much, if ever.

In the vial: Nothing but warm musk. Hm. On the skin: I'm getting spices and musk, and whiff of sandalwood but the carnation is making this all sour on me. Dang. It's actually lovely, probably does evoke mental images of Morocco, but I'm not sure I'll keep it.

In the vial: Solid vetiver. Oh boy, it made me cough. On the skin: I wanna say this reminds me of Czernobog, but more as it's totally dark nothing sweet cousin. Now while I love Czernobog and it loves me, Sloth is nothing but vetiver on me and all I can smell is burning wood chips. Oh well.

In the vial: Exotic-type spices, sticky sweet caramel, honey. On the skin: This reminds me of that generic incense all the stoners loved. I think it's the red musk and the benzoin that are causing this comparison. Yeah, I don't really want to smell like that. My skin ate the caramel and honey and all I got left were the spices and musk.

In the vial: Lilies and musk. It's sweet, perfume-y. On the skin: Okay, near-instantaneous morph into soap. I still get lilies and something that evokes the ocean and salt, maybe that's the musk? Yeah, not going to work on me. Which is actually fine, because usually lilies and I don't mix. Still, a pretty scent.

The "Forum Only" blends have been around since 2004. Per the Review database: King of Spades (August 2004) Queen of Spades (August 2004) King of Diamonds (November 2004) Queen of Diamonds (November 2004) Ace of Hearts (May 2005) Queen of Clubs (May 2005) King of Clubs (5/7/05) Enraged Orangutan Musk (2/13/06) Enraged Bunny Musk (4/1/06-5/1/06) F5 (8/2/06-8/8/06) Enraged Groundhog Musk (Feb 2007) Hony Mone (11/21/07-11/26/07) Pirate Moon (9/25/07-9/28/07) The Phoenix (9/25/07-9/28/07) Frederic (Leap Day 2008) Democrat (Election Day 2008 frimp) Green Party (Election Day 2008 frimp) Independent (Election Day 2008 frimp) GOP (Election Day 2008 frimp) Libertarian (Election Day 2008 frimp) Tabella (Election Day 2008) E Pluribus Unum (Election Day 2008) Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream (7/16/08-7/20/08) The Gladdener of All Hearts (9/2/08) Lilith Victoria (9/14/08) Lady Lilith (9/14/08) Agapē (1/15-2/15/09) Lilith and the Jarocho (June 2009) Lilith vs. the Giant Crab (9/2/09) Mlle. Lilith, Fortune Teller (9/2/09) Cake Smash (9/2/09) It seems like I'm missing something. But I might not be; there's not always a "Forum Only" update when there's a Lunacy.

In the bottle: red velvet cupcakes, indeed. Very sweet, very much related to Beaver Moon. On the skin: This blend morphs like WHOA on me! At first it's all cupcakes and cream cheese. On the dry down, I get all Snake Oil and Dorian. It's actually not as overpowering on me as Beaver Moon can be, which I love. I wanted something sweet to wear, that's a foodie but doesn't give me a headache. Cake Smash fits that bill. I'm not as familiar with Doc Constantine (I think I have a decant somewhere) but if you love Snake Oil and Dorian then you'll be set. I may have to buy a 3rd bottle.

In the bottle: apple-y, kind of juicy apple like warm apple pie with cinnamon. On the skin: A word of warning: a LITTLE of Lambs-Wool goes a LONG way! This is very similar to Punkie Night, only far heavier on the nutmeg/clove for me. I put it on like I would any of my BPAL and the throw is very strong, almost too strong. It's sweet and sugary, but also spicy. It will be a definite favorite of mine for the Fall. I do wish I got more apple after the dry down, but I love the blend anyway. A very foodie blend, if you're looking for one.