tamburlaine

I felt like such a fool when I didn't order Chrysanthemum Moon right off the bat. A lapse in my BPAL senses, I suppose, because how could I turn my head away from something that supposedly smells like an opium den? Being a sucker for all that sort of thing (a 20-page paper on the opium trade in Victorian Britain will attest), I'm glad that I finally got my hands on it with a swap. Well, it's nice, but it certainly doesn't smell like any opium den I've been in! It turns immediately to floral, and I get very little of a Snake Oil-ness or creamy ginger spiceyness. It's a dark, deep, sensuous floral, and not cloying in its sweetness, but alas, no spice and no cream. Happily there is some smoke in there, and musk, but I expected this to be a little more gourmand for some reason. It's a beautiful scent, no doubt, but unfortunately not what I was expecting. I can't properly articulate what it was that I was expecting, though; I guess it was an opium den. The opium I smell very strongly, and as it dries down I can tell why people are comparing this to Snake Oil, there's definitely a sugared aspect to the flowers. Sleepy, sugar crystal-dusted chrysanthemums and poppy pods dripping with that sweet resinous stuff. 3/5. I'm definitely keeping it around, though I doubt I'll be wearing it. It's an inspired scent, and worth having for the sentimental value.

When I've smelled YY essential oil it smells kinda... burnt. I dunno. It smells weird. I would buy her the essential oil, but I want something a little more "crafted", you know? Just a good perfume that does right by ylang-ylang. Hahahah.

Baku is my favorite of all the Somnium scents. I like to consider myself something of a lavender connoisseur, and Baku is the most sophisticated lavender blend I've ever put on my skin. I can detect anise as the second most prominent note, and who would've thought that lavender and licorice would go so well together? I originally got Baku as a frimp, and when I tried it on it immediately took effect. It didn't put me to sleep so much as it put me at ease. I think this may be because of the familiar and yet original blend of anise and lavender oils. I'm definitely buying a bottle of this because it is both functional (I did have a good night's sleep) and peculiar -- and I just love scents that smell peculiar. A+! I only wish that it lasted a bit longer on my skin; I've considered blending it in a lotion or into some shea butter to put on my temples.

For BPAL, my favorite cinnamon (and I'm a cinnamon fanatic!) is All Night Long. It's cinnamon and hot, but with some woodsy background to it that just smells sooo unique. But I've gotta say, when it comes to the ultimate in cinnamon, I stick to Arcana Soaps' Spitfire. It's cinnamon, clove, and dragon's blood: SPICY SPICY SPICY!

Fire of Love smells like cigarettes. Cigarettes burning cedar wood amongst mammals in heat. Despite my overtly animalistic stance on sexual relations, Fire of Love is not for me.

Used to open up options in your life, overcome obstacles, and create opportunities. This blend increases your potential for success, inspires creativity and quick thinking, and helps you to be more flexible, adaptable and open to change. Damn, girl! This one's a blockbuster alright. It SMACKED me in the mouth! Let's see, what have we got. Honey, clove, and something sweet like apple. It's not cloying though, it's got balls. That clove and cinnamon in there gives this scent a real strength.

From afar, it smells like citronella. I was trying to recall what memory this brought up, and it was summer evenings on Cape Cod when I was young. Oddly enough, this bug spray smell is calming to me, since the times on Cape Cod were the best of my life. So this one's got citrus, it's got wood, vetiver, it seems to have a touch of vanilla or amber or something resinous to hold it together and make it heady, but I've been really intrigued by the variety of responses people have had to this oil. I've yet to see its voodoo applications, but I REALLY like this one because of what it reminds me of. It's calming me down as we speak. Aaaaah, Van Van.

This smells exactly like violet candies. It's lovely, but not my style. There's green in there, but mostly I smell watery florals.

I smell cinnamon and something nutty. No, not crazy, NUTTY. Like roasted hazelnuts. This is, most certainly, a very sexual blend. In fact, if I may be so bold, my wrist is turning me on a little bit. After a few minutes, the cinnamon becomes more subtle and burnt out than as originally spicy as it was. The nuttiness is still there; this scent maintains and hasn't morphed on me, thank goodness. I love it. I expect a 5 ml in my next order. Woohoo!

Oh man, I am so pleased with this one. I smell the white musk almost immediately, and mixed with the bergamot and vanilla Zephyr smells like a tart lemon bar crossed with sunblock. Doesn't end up smelling like cake, though, which would cause me to give this a negative review (I don't like smelling like tacky baked goods,) but this musky, tart smell with a vanilla softness to temper it... is awesome. I only wish I knew how to make it last longer on my skin.

Okay, here we go. White Rabbit is one of the first blends that I had my eye on when I first looked at the site. I was told that it was more clean than milky, and that's true; I'm getting "clean" and "linen" right off the bat with that stinging ginger and funny pepper note in there too. It develops into something sweeter on my skin, but that linen is still there and admittedly bugging me a bit. I'm not sensing a lot of milkiness or a lot of black tea but maybe it's because I'm distracted by the clean smell that I think is kinda gross. It's like someone poured perfume on grass. What's weird is that this does smell like bunnies.

Am I seriously smelling.. HORSERADISH? At some point I swear I get this bizarrely wonderful horseradish sting in my nose. It's great. When I sniffed the unopened vial I thought I smelled ylang ylang and was skeptical -- that note is great but on my skin it's skaaaaanky. But no, this is most definitely not skanky. Immediately on my skin it's all about the fruits in there -- pear, quince, fig, that strange horseradish sting -- but on the dry-down The Hanging Gardens develops a woody depth and a more floral background -- gardenia, jasmine (a little too much jasmine), rose, and that heady smokiness that usually accompanies floral/oriental and wood blends (that's probably what I thought was ylang ylang). Uh, and at some point I swear I smelled freshly-packed marijuana. Really. Strange. This is definitely an oil worth the name of a Wonder. I do wish that that horseradish sting stayed around though, it seems to have evaporated off. Yeah, that was crazy. Bring it back, the dry-down isn't half as exciting here! It's turned from something totally new and exciting to a floral blend that isn't typical, but still paling in comparison to that fig/pear/stinging. Crazy. I love it, though.

Wow. I admit that I have been less-than-overwhelmed by the awesomeness of BPAL until I got this imp. I am really, really, REALLY impressed by Dana O'Shee, and I see why it has 11 pages of reviews. This is fantastic. In the bottle I got straight-up almond. I thought it was going to be cloying despite how much I love that almond scent, but Dana O'Shee ends up turning into a familiar and brilliant Johnson's Baby Oil smell, with gentle almond blossom chasing it. There's a slight bit of toastiness, but overall it's a milky, vanilla, natural comfort smell. I suppose the best word here I can think of is "gentle" -- this scent is extremely comforting and delicious. My nose will probably be to my wrist all day and I'm soo contemplating buying a bottle of this. It smells like babies! And just a little something extra: it's mixing a bit with the Shanghai I put on earlier and it seems to go pleasantly well with the green tea/honeysuckle jive. Milky green tea has a distinctive perfume to it, in fact I'm always saying that it *tastes* like perfume *smells* so maybe that's what I'm experiencing. And I'm not getting any soapiness from Dana O'Shee either; it is both fluid and consistent in the great way that all well-crafted perfumes are. Amazing. A+++.

This oil is immediately recognizable as classic green tea with lemon. Maybe it's that flavor that's always a part of the green tea scent, but I detect a bit of jasmine? Florals appear as it dries down, in any case. I assume that's the honeysuckle in there, but I always forget exactly what honeysuckle smells like. This is a very light, very Asian-influenced fragrance, so good job pinpointing the specific wanderlust. I don't get overwhelming lemon or citrus, just that familiar scent of green tea that I love with a pleasant breeze of florals. And it isn't turning soapy on me either! I'm very pleased with this one, most definitely, but it's floating away very quickly. Still: excellent.

Oh wow, this is KILLER! In the bottle it's lavender, classic lavender, and I can smell the mint most definitely "slithering" around in there with other herbs. On my skin, sadly it turns a bit soapy (why are they all turning soapy on me??) but that lavender keeps holding it in check. Oh wow. This is great. I think this is telling me that I need to buy more herbal scents and stay away from the sweet stuff.

In the bottle Verdandi is definitely apple-licious. On my skin the amber comes out a little more, but I'm surprised that it still hides behind the tart and bright apple smell, since amber almost always blows up when it hits my skin. I'm not getting too much of an herbal vibe from this, and after a few minutes the oil gets soapy and smells a bit like hotel shampoo. Depending on how much attention I pay to it when I sniff my wrist, Verdandi can either be rather good or rather disappointing. Overall, it's mediocre, but I think it's because I'm not as big of an apple fan as I thought.

Not alarming, no. Familiar, but not intimate. Freak Show comes out at me with the cocoa bean first and the vanilla and tonka (as those notes usually always hog the spotlight), but then the pomegranate appears and... well... Freak Show reminds me of those kosher jelly rings my family always gets at Hanukkah. Chocolate-covered fruit jelly candies. You know, I guess it IS intimately familiar. I have to admit that I'm a little upset that I'm not getting the bergamot, musk, or fig more; I had hoped the dry-down would show Freak Show to be a little more earthy or animalic, but it's all sweetness and all gourmand on me. Still, I don't regret having a 5 mL of it!

In the bottle I could tell that lavender would be a key player. Not powdery lavender, medicinal lavender. The Muse of History is a good inspiration here; the scent tries to appeal to the image of a musty library, or a woman of learning and cerebral sophistication. On my skin, Clio turned immediately woody, which is okay, but after a while it became a rather non-descript blend of wood and patchouli and lavender/slightly rosemary herbal scents. There was also the tingly sharpness of orange leaves, but not orange fruit. Overall, not a very remarkable scent, but useful to have around and fall back on. It's a sophisticated blend, just not as weird or distinct as I usually like them.

Swank smelled exactly the same way in the bottle as it did on my skin immediately and hours later. Unfortunately, I wasn't too happy with it. There was something there that smelled like detergent to me, something -- dare I say? -- artificial and cloyingly tart. Too bubbly, too soapy. Eeeek. It brought back memories of laundry detergents I've been allergic to, but thankfully the oil itself didn't upset my skin. Just my nose! It's too bad, I expected a lot from Swank, since I'm a fan of pomegranates. I guess that the scent of pomegranates doesn't translate the way I had expected it to!