urbanruralferal

They've played this tune before. It's called "White Floral Breakdown," and it ain't for me!

So, I had no preconceived notions about Mum Moon, my first Lunacy. I am still new enough to BPAL to have so much to discover! In the bottle and wet it definitely has a dry floral take, sort of dusted in a yellowish smoke. Maybe like pollen fields in late summer? I don't know, someone else mentioned pollen...Anyway, there are most certainly chrysanthemums in this. Not everyone likes chrysanthemums, you know. As it dried it really started to smell like something you smoke. A blond tobacco maybe! Yum.. At one point while this was getting used to my skin, I thought, "This belongs in the Carnaval Noir!" A little bit of Torture King, and even a little bit of Medicine Show, without the girly bits. Once it was fully settled in, (and BTW, it shows no signs of moving out, we have a regular tenant at the Chelsea it seems,) it is fucking twisted! I am smelling an old lady in this, an stylish old lady in a Roman Polanski flick, yellowed around the edges, hell, yellowed through and through. Oh dear, she has peed in her foundation garments but she stills commands respect! You still bring her her glasses of sherry when she scrapes her voice into a request. My good sense tells me not to wear this, to go ahead and find it a home, but I am holding back. I like it. I'm going to wear it again. And maybe again. Oh god.

sugared milky tears in my black tea. Interesting and complex but after wearing it three times, I can't really describe it well, it doesn't speak to me or ask me to wear it again. I tried layering it with other scents, to no avail. It seems like there should be something for me there, but no. Something about these Tea Party scents, the ones I have tried all have an element of childhood, which makes sense. with the exception of the Caterpillar, which makes sense.

I had a chance to try this in passing without knowing the notes, and what I got from it was not so much leather as sweet pipe tobacco, the headache inducing kind. The yucky kind. Like Herr Drosselmeyer! I would try this again just to break it down more, but I am not actively seeking any out, no way.

This is musky and fruity, and it doesn't sit well with me. It is very similar to Czernobog in feel, somehow, but I don't like it much at all.

This is sweet sparkling grapefruit, with a touch of laundry powder and crushed candies in the background. It really has a similar quality as that commercial perfume, Poison, when wet. As it dries down, it really doesn't take on much character, I'm afraid. It gets lost in it's own candy sweetness and the grapefruit fails ot counter that. Na ja.

I received this as a frimp from the lab. Normally I wouldn't necessarily gravitate to sweet scents, but I am always to try! I am a fully married woman now, but I have been in my past a courtesan-in-training, and I do honor that aspect of my femininity. So, after wearing this a couple of times, here is what I have to say about it. This is a very golden honey scent, sweet, but in no way cloying. Wearing Osun feels like wearing liquid Beauty! I want to say that the honey is dominant in this, but I can't, really. It is so well-rounded. Osun radiates the perfect light to be reflected by. I would definitely say that this scent is Lolita (the scent) grown up. She is utterly confident in her femininity, no Power plays here, none are needed. I will be ordering a bottle of this, without a doubt. Well done! ETA: I was thinking about how this perfume has an underlying association with sunflowers (much like Lolita did for me), their gold, their richness (they are quite oily.) I checked the description, and there they are, Osun's flower. hmmm, I think I will grow her many sunflowers next summer.

So, this Hurricane. There is the heavy scent of water, dark water. It is not falling water, but rather latent and almost explosive, pregnant wet air, while overhead the clouds are roiling, that bruised purple green that is so dangerous you can't stop looking at it. There is not wind like you would expect with a storm. It is just before the clouds burst and you are drenched. It would be absolutely incredible if one could layer it with the smell of searing wet wind. What blend is that? I have had a headache all day while wearing this, just a low grade nagging, but I am not sure it is the scent causing it, and not at all sure it isn't. This scent belongs to Neptune, and he can certainly put on the pressure! I like it though, I really really like it.

Gorgeous, gorgeous soft herbal grapefruit in the bottle. On, grapefruit! and lavendar, and something sweet and quiet in the background. As the grapefruit burns off, musk comes in to fill its spot, and that sweetness starts to bloom. Unfortunately this becomes increasingly powdery as it settles, and within an hour, that's all this is: sweet musky candy powder. Is it wrong to keep reapplying just to have that flawless beginning? Naw, I won't. but I will be hunting down more scents with grapefruit, that's for sure.

This was very fruity, a paler fruit like a pear, and lightly floral. The word dewy comes to mind. I expected the fruity quality not to last long out of the imp, but it hung on. Nice. ish. But not my style.

It's amazing how my skin can reduce most florals to a flat floral line, sometimes soapy, sometimes not. this time it was soapy. I don't smell roses, though, and usually they just hit me over the head and drag me under the couch. whatever. I keep on trying the flowers, but who knows why. I already have a swap lined up for this.

I just found this review I had written in October '05, of this my very first BPAL: "Well, this one is not going to work in my house with a man sensitive to overbearing rose. Becasue that is what it is for me: I am back in the suburban phase of my childhood with rose potpourris and cheap perfume. I can find no wickedness in it, unless you count the harsh smell as evil. Giving this away immediately. Other people seem to love it." There you have it. FWIW

a scratchy dry scent, a little acrid, a little herbal, definitely woody. This goes through several phases, they are not unpleasant, but not too compelling, either. It seems to thin as the time passes, and as it thins, it settles into its jasmine component, which is surprisingly well-behaved here. (thin and soapy, not loud and soapy.) The woods do balance the floral element of this well. Oh, all of a sudden! I am standing in an old Spanish building in Santa Barbara, maybe up at the Mission, and in it tones are hushed if not reverent, and it is dim but not murky, while outside the light is very bright and the hills are blowing down their wild herby scent, and it is very restful being in here. A brief respite from external urgency. (it doesn't last long on me.) hand me that hookah... I think this might be a good scent to travel with. ETA: On full slathermode, I find that I will need to wait about half an hour after application to leave the house. The jasmine is so strong for that first part that it is almost embarrassing. What throw! EDITED AGAIN: My co-worker wears a perfume that smells almost exactly like this scent to me at least: Tabu. I do really love this blend! I will be buying a larger bottle someday...

Iris, black amber, sage, Kashmir wood, vanilla musk, mandarin and violet. here is a retro review. I made notes for this when I wore it, and haven't worn it since. This scent was ros-y to me. Leave it to me to not be able to tell what's what with florals. Unlike other roses I have known, this was not offensive to my nose. (Probably cause it had no rose in ti...) I got a definite image for this Lucretia. Two sides of a mirror: In the glass there is reflected a old goth junkie hag who thinks she's a Diva, primping and putting on her glamours. In the other side of the glass is reflected the same woman but younger, sexual yes, but she hasn't lost her bloom. she is in awe of the bright lights and smoky caverns she is peering into. she will go there, yes, but she doesn't know it yet, and she is standing in a doorway, her youth behind her, and the adventures that will eventually grind the lines into her face before her. Sweet girl, cunning witch.

I am loving this thread. That corked bottle is very beautiful. How wonderful it must be to have a large collection with different labels and styles and sizes of bottles, each one representing a special time for the collector.

oooh this gave me a headache, and I haven't ever had an actual headache from a scent before. It started off with anise, and some very high pitched menthe, and it smelled like a penetrating liniment a bit as well, but it was so high-pitched (for lack of a better description) that I could sniff my wrist to analyze it. The fumes made my brain squint and wince. I think I smelled plastic too. Not a winner. I had to wash it off. Disappointing night for scents.

A sinful, licentious scent: self-indulgent and luxurious. Mingled heady civet and red Egyptian musk, thickened with opium. oh. my. this is disgusting on me. I wasn't afraid of no civet, not me, huh uh, I have a high tolerance for animal smells. But oh. Do I want to smell like I slathered sweet sh*t all over my wrist? No, I do not. It was, unmistakely, a fecal odor. And despite my claims of having a strong stomach, this actually made me feel nauseous. I have washed it off, but something remains and I am not happy about it. Oh well, gotta try them. someone will love this in a swap, I'm sure.

When we first received this well-swapped around imp in a swap, I sniffed it at the post office counter (and my postmistress fell in love with it...) and it seemed pleasant enough. When we got home my daughter tried it on and I barely noted it. But when I got home from an outing yesterday and walked through the door, I was bowled over by a most unpleasant sharp vanilla odor. It was extremely pervasive, and it smelled EXACTLY LIKE the super institutional vanilla air freshener we use at my work. You know, the one that I put my respirator on around. I asked my daughter to please wash it off, and furthermore, I did a load of laundry that contained the clothes she was wearing. She was going to order a 5ml, but we switched the order to a 5ml of Alice. I will be giving the imp of Antique Lace to the postmistress. There is NO WAY I will try it on my skin. ETA: I love Dorian, and we compared the two while we were trying to get the AL smell out of the house. I would say they are definitely in the same family, the same shade of yellow-white. I just can't handle the Anitque Lace...

Oh, Umbra was what I was looking for in Cathedral! It has that combination of incense and wood and just a little bit of candle smoke swirled into it. It is an extremely soothing scent, it just puts my mind at ease without being nostalgic. It is lovely. At one point I thought it may be almost a touch too sweet for me, but that will be seen over the course of future wearings. I certainly will be trying it again and again.

ah ha ha! This smells like a hippie oatcake on me! First I smell the dates, and then the oat flour, and then a little bit of carob powder in there to spice it up. Definitely beige food! When it is quite dry, I begin to smell smarties candies blended in with the oatcake. Not my kind of thing.

I don't know what happened with this oil, it's almost like it an entirely different oil on me, nothing at all like the descriptions here. Perhaps I haven't tried many of the Dragon's Blood blends.... I couold barely smell the amber in this. In fact, I don't know what exactly I was smelling, but almost as soon as this went on, it started amping and accelerating in a most jasmine-y way. It had the same edge that jasmine has on my skin, and the same ultimately soapy quality, and boy did it ever last! I could still smell it clearly on my wrist after 14 hours! And I tell you, only for about 15 minutes (maybe an hour into the test) could I smell the amber. Skin chemistry is so weird. This did not turn out to be the ultimate amber that I was hoping for, but you know, as always, I am glad to try!

My skin is notoriously cruel to florals, so I am just popping in to add my one cent worth, and to say that Bat-woman smells like diamonds to me. Very brilliant and very rich. I could never wear a scent like this, but if I could, I might be tempted to choose this one over some of the others. ...or maybe that was a half-penny's worth...

This is a deep, red, warm scent. I was drawn to it across the distance, and here it is, in my mailbox. Thanks jarvenpa! It is very strong on me, a lot of throw. I put this on twice today to really be able to experience it while working in the heat. After many hours it continues to radiate off of me, although others profess not to smell it. So much spice! Red, as I mentioned, with sweet blood right under the surface, flushed, I guess you would call it. And there is brown there too, almost ambery brown. Warm (not hot) cinnamon, or some other similar oil. It is a blend that I want to surrender to, though it asks little. But. It does have a particular, tenacious metallic quality that stays and stays. I can't say what that might be, but it is ultimately the urgency of that edge that keeps me from really enjoying this story, no matter how much I am drawn in. I like it better an hour after applying it, but I still can't get quite comfortable in it. It belongs to a family of BPAL scent with whom I am getting acquainted; the others in this tribe that I have met are Tezcatlipoca and Blood Moon. They all come down to a rich, very similar incense in their final hours, but Tezcat and Blood Moon lack that metallic bit, and I like them better for it. I commited my skin to this perfume for one day, to see if I would give it another, and then another. But I think that I will not. There are fires burning in other tents, I can smell them....

I put this on not knowing what the notes were, except for those five ambers!, and was surprised by the strength of the floral in this one. I do love carnation, but that wasn't the primary flower here, it was something more akin to one of those tropical flowers, cloying and creamy. Those usually don't behave so well on my skin. In any case, that flower, whether or not it was the apple blossom, dissipated as it dried, and, after about an hour, it was all about amber, which is golden and a bit powdery and you know, ambery, and I do love a rich amber, especially when I am in a sultry warm sexy mood. And then even that didn't last very long. A couple hours later, I am having to work to smell this. So, ultimately, I am going to continue searching for an amber that is just right with me, and let other enjoy this one. My daughter likes it.

received this as a gift from jarvenpa. Thanks! in the bottle, at the post office counter, first sniff smelled like... well, poo. (My daughter said dirty socks.) I knew it was going to be better on, though, so I gave it a try. On, it is a very strong fruit, black cherry and wine. Not so unpleasant as that initial sniff, thank goodness. The black currant makes itself known slowly as this dries and warms, black currant with that mustiness it has. I have a black currant growing here on the farm, and it is a very unique berry. Some don't like it because of that musty quality, but I do. On further drying down it goes through a plasticky phase, which passes, and Montresor finally ends being a deep juicy sweetness that reminds me of the Rexall drugstore I grew up sniffing lip glosses in. (You know, those fat Bonne Bell tubes...) It isn't my style at all.