tajana

Wet, it's pure almond! Yay! I love a good almond scent. (Back when I had no BPAL to sniff I'd just open up bottles of almond extract and inhale.) For the first few minutes Eclipse reminds me a lot of Hecate, but as this dries I get a hint of vanilla that blends into and changes the character of the almond to something very creamy. The cinnamon is barely there, and just adds a subtle note of warmth that is pretty much gone before an hour is up. After a while this is very subtle and close to the skin, and it's a lot like a frankincense-infused sibling of Dana O' Shee. I'll keep my imp but won't need to upgrade it to a bottle.

Does anyone have any recs for a scent that's got a lot of smooth and "buttery" as opposed to "dry" sandalwood? I just want a scent that's got a ton of sandalwood, without any notes I find objectionable muddling around in there (no jasmine, opium, other heavy florals, no wine or exceedingly sweet fruits). I LOVE Plunder after it's been on my skin for a few hours and turns to pure, buttery sandalwood, but I strongly dislike the first hour, the tobacco is too strong and sweet.

Weee! I'm so glad I got to try some of this! Wet on the skin, I get wet dirt. Not as fungal as the one in Graveyard Dirt, more like the dirt I get in Penny Dreadful. The flowers pop up out of it very quickly. There's something sour in a tangy candy sort of way about this, and I think it must be coming from one of the flowers. And there are lots of them! I think I can smell honeysuckle, but I can't be sure, I'm absolutely terrible at identifying most floral notes, there are about five that I can pick out accurately. The florals here are light and sweet, and even though this is named after a cemetery there's nothing somber about it. As far as dirty florals go, I found Crossroads to be much, much, much darker and reminiscent of the night. Ol' Roswell Cemetery, on the other hand, is bright and fresh and reminds me of mid-morning, when there might be a little bit of dew still left on all the petals. It's really pretty as far as florals go, and I'm usually not a floral kind of girl! The dirt note acts as a base to the blanket of flowers, though, it's not as prominent and loamy as I would personally have liked. Still, this is surprisingly pretty! Unlike a lot of pale florals, is NOT soapy at all. I am not sure yet what the ultimate fate of my decant will be. I like it more than a little bit, but it does not last very long on my skin before it turns into a faint, light bouquet of gentle florals. Right now I'm really tempted to layer with Graveyard Dirt!

Wow, I really like this. I rarely ever drink soda, and have only had really good, natural root beer on a few occasions, but this strongly reminds me of that! But I don't really get "fizziness" out of this, its texture is actually buttery. From start to finish I get a very subtle butter not that is as much about "texture" as it is about actual scent, if you get what I'm saying. Mostly, though, it's warm sassafras sweetened with vanilla. It smells almost like it has leaves and twigs mixed up with it, there's a natural, woodsy, vaguely herbal quality to it. The sassafras is really at the center of this scent at first but later on the oak leaf gets oakier and leafier and more prominent. I really like it! My imp is a keeper for sure.

Holy crap, this is appropriately named. The foodiest scent I've ever tried to date. I got this as a frimp. Now, I really love cocoa and chocolate notes when they're blended with some non-edible elements (Tezcatlipoca and Boomslang, I'm looking at you) but didn't think I'd want to smell like a straight-up cookie/candy/cake. Well the lab sent me this as a frimp (they sent me three foody frimps at once, hehe) so I went ahead and tried it. It smells overwhelming in the imp. I almost feel bloated just for having smelled it. The dark chocolate is prominent at the outset but the other sugary notes clamor to the top, and while there are still chocolate covered caramels here there's a TON of butterscotch and sticky toffee, vanilla flavoring, rich buttercream. The scent description is true, and this is NOT a morpher on me, it stays the same from start to finish, and it is long lasting and quite powerful. I still feel strangely drawn to my imp... probably more because it smells edible, not because I actually want to smell like this. It actually makes me feel LESS hungry rather than inspire cravings... perhaps I'll keep it around just to fend off urges for late night sugary snacks, perhaps I'll swap this along to a foodie lover. No point in wearing this, because then everywhere I go people will ask me to share my candy stash!

This is actually the first aquatic scent I've tried because they've never interested me. In the imp and fresh on the skin, it does indeed smell like ocean water! Aquatic and a bit salty. The seaweed note comes out as this is drying down. But it doesn't take long before I stop thinking "ocean" and start thinking of something between light masculine cologne and liquid hand soap. There is nothing sweet or frilly about this and I'm thinking that this might smell better on a man. It's just not my thing.

Oh man this stuff is STRONG! HUGE throw! When it's wet, and for some time after that, it smells like a jar filled to the brim with golden honey, sprigs of herbs suspended within. When this dries down a good dose of lovely smoky myrrh tempers the honey smell. It really fits the name of "Anubis" very well, it does smell religious and ceremonial and... well... funereal. This is actually really beautiful and evocative once it's had some time to rest on my skin, but I'm not sure if I'll keep this because it is so viciously sweet and strong at the outset.

I got a bottle fresh from the lab on the same day I as I got a bottle secondhand from the forums! I tested the older bottle first. Yes, I bought this unsniffed: the hype was just too massive to let me ignore it! When I first dab it on, it is a whole lot like Snake Oil! A dark, resinous musky spice. As it dries down, though, it becomes its own thing. The vanilla smells a little less "burnt" than it does in Snake Oil on me, and the Egyptian amber comes out in a big way. I also get a pleasant whiff of creamy coconut. Plums have tended to take over other scents for me, but the spices, amber, and musk keep it in check here, so it adds a pleasant, plush tinge of fruitiness that makes Snake Charmer smell special. It has an "incense" feel to it which is rather appealing. So, in the end... it's nice. But I feel underwhelmed. It's a nice smell, but why settle for "nice"? With the talk of how wonderfully this ages, I'm still tempted to hold on to it and check back after another year or two to see if a switch flips and I become more completely smitten.

I'd imagine that the wait times are a bit longer than usual lately because the recent introduction of the tons of Lupercalia LEs, and the vanilla component problems for Snake Charmer slowed down a lot of people's orders.

At first, this is awesome! Cherry-almond, layered over something richer and darker, some kind of wood, perhaps sandalwood. There are almost certainly other notes hiding out somewhere, but I really can't sense them. After it dries down, the delicious cherry-almond floats away, and I'm left with something remarkably similar to Seraglio on my skin: an unpleasant, domineering sort of rose over warped, soggy sandalwood. Disappointing.

Woah that is strong. I dabbed on just a drop and was surrounded by a cloud of aggressive tropical perfume. At first it's bright, sharply lemony (fresh ginger?) and has has high, sweet floral notes with a tropical feel. After it dries down the sour brightness calms down, and Hi'iaka smells like hibiscus and orchid with banana candy on a bed of greenery. There are other florals here too but they all blend together and are indistinguishable as separate entities to my nose. After it's had more time to chill on my arm there's a powdery undertone, but at the same time the ginger seems to have come back in a really, really pleasant way! However, the banana candy phase is still weirding me out and there are just too many flowers here for me.

I got to try this as a frimp. I never sought this out on my own because even though it has lots of note I like (dark musk, soil, black cherry, opoponax, tobacco) the night-blooming jasmine made me uneasy. My instincts were right! On me, Earth Phoenix is musky fruit (cherry with a relatively subdued plum) with just a bit of black dirt and rain-fresh wood. As it dries down I get just a whiff of tobacco, and the jasmine arrives... and, well, suffice it to say that jasmine and I rarely get along. This is no exception. It eventually fades down to a general sweetness, which, when I bring my wrist right up to my nose, turns out to be a syrupy fruity-floral, sweet plum and cherry backed by jasmine and a trace of musk.

This review is for the 08 version. Wet on my skin it's all moist, dark green moss, decaying leaves and wood, mushroms pushing through dampened, upturned soil. I really like dirty and earthy notes, but the mushroomy note is a bit much for me. As the oil dries on my skin, the scent seems to get drier, too! It smells almost dusty, and reminds me of stone... quite appropriate for the name! The end result is primarily dark black dirt accented with stone (it makes me think of cool night-time air, but underground) with a bit of moss. I'm blown away by how realistic this is! The decant is totally a keeper, but I probably won't need more of it because if I wear this out and about, it'll probably be layered with something else. EDIT: Sigh! Sigh sigh sigh. This fades far too quickly on my skin (it's just a whisper within an hour), and this isn't the kind of scent I'd wear in a locket; I've found that dirty scents actually smell nicer on my skin than they do in the locket. So it looks like I won't be keeping Graveyard Dirt after all.

CROWLEY! I pined away after this scent for ages, and it did not disappoint! I just wish I had found out about how amazing this perfume was sooner. Crowley, the perfume, is a devilishly sexy lovechild of Dee (which I like) and Loviatar (which I really like), with a few extra notes to elevate him to perfection. A lick of lemon zest to start things off, and then a haze of expensive cologne that turns smokier and spirals into an olfactory orgasm. Incensey red musk. Deep, earthy red patchouli. The perfect, and I do mean the perfect, stinging dose of black leather. Smooth, dark wood with a hint of shine. A bit of vanilla to reel you in even closer. SO GOOD. I need more! NEED. Yeah, it is quite masculine, but pshhh, whatever, I'd dab it on some days just to revel in its perfection, and slather my boyfriend in this every chance I get. Do not think twice. Just go get yourself some Crowley! Or, better yet, get some and then send it my way. Sorry for the smiley/emoticon overdose. This scent just arouses... uh... strong emotions.

Wet, it's plummy vanilla-flavored rice milk. Cute! Other plum-heavy perfumes I've tried have been really candyish, but the plum blossom seems more well-behaved, particularly because the creamy vanilla/rice keeps it in check. (I was just drinking rice milk a few hours ago. ) Dry, it's almost gone! I never did get any nutmeg out of this. After half an hour I just get a bare hint of plum on even footing with light vanilla sandalwood if I really take a deep whiff. Quite nice, but I'd really have to slather Lovers in a Ricefield to get much out of it. Edit: Well, I tested it again today and its character reversed itself! Significantly stronger and longer-lasting, but not my thing at all! It starts off demurely, just like it was the day before, but after ten minutes I was thrown off by an unexpectedly intense scent wafting up from my wrist. Sweet sweet plum, sweetened further with vanilla. There's still a noticeable splash of rice, but the sandalwood is smothered by vanilla and plum.

Wet, it's a ton of cherry blossom! Cherry blossoms have always struck me as very "clean" and since they are so very prominent here, this scent verges on soapy (not in a bad way). Anyway, after it dries down, it's still a ton of cherry blossoms, but with a faint touch of green moss. The vanilla musk adds just a delicate sweet base that underscores the pinkness of this blend. On my skin this actually turns out to be a less fruity, generally simpler version of my old Bath and Body Works pink Cherry Blossom lotion.

Wet, it's pure CAKE! It smells like a vanilla cupcake. Not what I was expecting at all! The date blends into the vanilla cake but isn't an assertive note on its own, and I'm sorry to say that I catch nary a trace of ginger. After this is dry the vanilla base persists, but it feels less cakey because of the other notes that pop up: I get soft moss and a soft wood that smells a bit mushroomy... reminding me a little bit of Death Cap, actually. This is nothing like that I expected, and yet I like it anyway. It stays really close to the skin (and I was testing a couple other scents, so it's having a hard time competing) but it's really really nice. I'll have to try my little half decant a few more times to figure out how I really feel, because, disconcertingly enough, I think I might want a whole bottle of this...!

Wow, this is true to the name. I have never tried such a patently foody scent, so this is a shocker for me! In the vial, I smell dark bitter chocolate and tart red cherry. On my skin, it's that red, candied, syrup-drenched cherry! Tart and juicy. The throw (which is pretty intense, especially in the earlier stages, by the way) is the interior of a cherry cordial, and closer to my wrist I smell seriously dark, black chocolate. Crazy! I smell like I'm hiding a box of crushed open dark chocolate-covered cherries under my clothes... really vivid, but I've decided that I don't want to smell completely edible.

I decided to retest this this morning because I was going to get to try Hod Resurrected, and I've seen these two compared! Alice, though, on my first try, was a bit too demure. Wet: A delicate, pretty scent, light and balanced between crisp and soft. Bergamot, softened with a hint of rose and milk, over a tickle of slightly spicy carnation. Pretty! Makes me think of tea parties. Dry: It's mostly rose frosting with the faint suggestion of tea from residual bergamot. There's just a trace of honey, which I think is lending a sweet powderiness, but it doesn't go crazy like honey sometimes does on me. Alice smells light, pink, and clean. Overall: This is such a "cute" smell, I can't imagine it offending anyone. It's delicate and girly, but I'd probably be more enamored if this had more throw and potency. As it stands, I have to slather or huff my wrist to get Alicey goodness.

I usually don't celebrate Valentine's Day but I almost-sort-of am this year. My boyfriend's favorite scent on me is actually Thanatopsis () but I think I'll wear Bakeneko in the morning and Loviatar in the evening, since he's also complimented me on both of those and they feel slightly more appropriate than a "meditation upon death". Edit: Aw, yay, he actually requested Penny Dreadful! (Not by name, by description. It amuses me to know that he actually remembers and likes my different smellies!)

Does anyone know of any BPAL that resembles Dior Cherie? I'm trying to enable someone. It's listed notes are: Green Tangerine, Violette, Pink Jasmine, Patchouli, Crystalline Musk, Strawberry Leaves, Caramelized Popcorn, Strawberry Sorbet.

Definitely reminds me of a lion! Wet on the skin I can't help but think of the Savannah. (And I forgot about the "savannah" part of the official description until I got back to this thread.) I swear it smells like dry grass, golden and warmed by the sun and by cinnamon. There's a hefty dose of amber, of course, but it comes out more strongly over the grasses after its dried. The spices get really subdued after a while, so it's basically just light amber and dry grass. I prefer my ambers darker than this. Fairly close to the skin, pretty good lasting power. Smells "mature", like this would just seem more 'right' on an older woman than on me.

On my wrist, it was faint and short-lived, just milk and honey with a feeble trace of ginger. In the locket, it was much more distinctive. Golden honey and vanilla-sweetened milk livened up by a spicy bite of ginger and a shake of pepper. I'm disappointed that all I get from the "strong black tea" is a little splash of astringency that I only catch little wafts of here and there. After four hours of time in the locket, it's mainly warm, creamy honey and a really crisp and clean "linen" note. It doesn't smell like any other perfume I've tried before, but I do like it! Even though honey is such a sweet scent by itself, the other notes really reel it in and I never once thought this was too cloyingly sweet. It's the kind of scent that I could picture fitting right into any time of the year. I probably would have liked it more if the tea was more prominent, but I can just add a dab of Severin to solve that problem!

Wet, this is purpley-red wine, very very fruity and quite sweet. Smells dark enough that it doesn't feel quite like grape juice, but I wouldn't say it's boozy, either. After a few minutes I definitely sense violets. So we have violets and fruity wine. After this is good and dry the wine dies down a little, the violets are blended with roses and another floral note (myrtle?). Eventually it dries down to a sweet musk, faintly grapey and faintly rosey. I keep searching for the leather but find none! A shame, because I love leather. It's not a bad scent, but it's more fruity and flowery than I'd typically wear.

I got Opuhi as a sniffie frimp. Soft vanilla with just the right amount of creaminess and sweetness. There's only a trace of floral feel to the "vanilla orchid" and to the "ginger blossom". The light vanilla is spiced up with equally soft and light bite of ginger. It's simple but bright, a little bit sweet and creamy. It's really very nice, a sunny-day-by-the-beach kind of smell. That is, it's nice until about an hour passes, at which point this starts smelling a touch fake and a bit like plastic. Another strike against Opuhi is the fact that it's very close to the skin; I slathered on the remains of the imp to try this, so there should have been more punch and throw.