midnight_aeval

MONARCH King mandarin, red ginger, sugar cane, golden amber, mango, and pumpkin. Not at all like Pumpkin Queen, which is what I was expecting. It seems possible that a different pumpkin note is being used as of late by the lab (Blue Pumpkin Floss from what I got to test at the trunk show was unlike the usual pumpkin blends). It's way less buttery, and more squashy The King Mandarin is sort of like crushed orange peel. Not super sweet/syrupy as the orange that comes out in Pumpkin Queen. Red ginger is giving the blend a bit of a spice kick, but not overwhelmingly so. Parts of this blend remind me of Bakeneko, but it's enough like it's own blend and I like it!

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. From the bottle this blend is lavender infused vanilla musk, on my skin it's much of the same and pretty strong too. The drydown reminds me of the drydown of Lilith Victoria + TKO, but where TKO is heavy on the herbal lavender, this blend is softer and sweeter - like TKO if it had more vanilla and less bite. I have this Lavender & Chamomile baby powder and the lavender in it is the same soft one that I get in Nightmarchers. I read the Hawaiian myth of the Nigthmarchers and it seems that you want to avoid looking into their eyes so you should lay on the ground and 'play dead' so as not to bring attention to yourself. I told the person I was reviewing this for that this is a scent you could go into a trance with and zone out everything around you - that might be the intent if you had Nightmarchers around!

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. Wowee this one is STRONG! I sniffed this one at the Trunk Show and was overwhelmed by the rose emanating from the bottle. As a rule, I don't do rose scents (well, take that back - sorta. I do like the BPTP rose duo). I was thinking this might be like Hope and although the type of rose being used is definitely similar, VRM is more creamy, less sugary than Hope. If 'milk' in the name is any indication that one of the notes could be milk, it's not the type that turns sour or smells like baby spit up to me For the record, none of the Milk Moons worked for me, and most blends with 'milk' listed in the notes I run away from. Victorian Rose Milk reminds me of a fragrance a lady from the 1850s would wear to tea. One with a magnificently expensive gown with a hoop skirt underneath and lots of lace, silk, and adornments.

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. From the bottle this is an almost overwhelming sweet grass note. I remember some incarnation of this scent at a WCWC long ago and recalled that it was candy + sweet grass so I was hoping once I skin tested it this version was similar. Wet on my skin it's still super grassy - uhoh! However, in about 5 minutes it's definitely the cotton candy sweet scent with a hint of grass that I remember Strangely enough it has also morphed slightly to a bit yeasty? Beer? Not fizzy or really alcohol, just yeast/hops (which could be the grass playing tricks on my mind). It gives it a depth that the prototype from WC didn't have - interesting! Now it's like what I would imagine the smashed grass to smell like after a carnival: soaked with beer and carnival goods. Very realistic! This has been on my wishlist FOREVER so I was glad to be able to purchase it!

GOTHABILLY Black vanilla, Egyptian musk, Rožolj liqueur, and black cherries. This blend's notes sounded like a perfect scent for me! Out of the bottle it smells similar to a jar of maraschino cherries mmmmm - those are my kind of cherries. I don't get overly boozy notes from the liqueur, in fact no booze here for me. After it settles on my skin it's a lovely cream and maraschino cherry scent. Kind of like a cherry Italian soda without the fizz. The cream note is similar to what I get from Velvet Unicorn and Boo. Very sweet blend, love it!

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. In the sniffing chaos I think I gave each bottle about 5 seconds of my time - I remember thinking 'hmm, this one is nice, potential, but bottle?' Since my bottle list was nearing... too many, I passed. It wasn't until GypsyRoseRed pointed it out when we came back to resniff towards the end of the Trunk Show that I realized I might have missed a hidden jewel! I detect amber, clove, and maybe a hint of balsam? It's got that piney-resin quality to it. I'm wearing it this morning and it has a similarity to the Lamia prototype that debuted at the first (?) Trunk Show. Makes me wonder if it has cardamom in it also. My husband ended up getting a bottle because we told him it was a CLOVE scent, but I may have to steal it and buy him another one

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. SMv4 was released at Trunk Show #5 and here we have v5 released at #6! I love when different stages/versions of scents are available for us to compare and enjoy. From the bottle at the trunk show this version screamed 'juicy' to me. I skin tested it today and it's so much more complex. It definitely has that stem/leaves/foliage quality from the strawberry plant. This invokes not an image of a strawberry, but a whole field of strawberries with an outer border of lush flowers. I found it odd to get such a dominating floral edge, but did you know the strawberry plant is part of the rose family? Perhaps this is meant to be the entire plant at all stages, from the sprouting/greenery to the budding to blooming to green fruit to final harvest of juicy red strawberries. Very classy strawberry scent! No candy here. As time wears on it is more strawberry/vanilla/creamy. Amazing the journey the scent takes from beginning to end!

MAHOGANY HALL Polished mahogany and teakwood and swirls of cigar smoke, with deep patchouli, tonka, cardamom, Spanish moss, and bourbon vanilla. I got a bottle of this some time ago at the last trunk show. I don't remember if all the ones that were released today were available, but this one blew my mind and senses! I'm a cardamom lover, and this room spray does not disappoint. Too often I find cardamom as a mere afterthought in scents, but to me this one is pretty cardamom-dominant. It also smells of sweet wood - it invokes an exotic atmosphere. I don't get much smoke or moss, but I'm sure those notes accent the whole scent and is incredibly well blended. It's my FAVORITE spray to date, even beating out Sugar Skull & Gooey Pillowcase (gasp!). Just 3 light squirts in my bedroom scents almost our entire home (1500 sq ft), so it's very strong and an incredible value! If this was a perfume oil, it would rival my top faves, I just can't find the words to express how great this spray it!

"B-Movie" initially referred to the second half of a double feature, usually a film that was lower in budget than the feature film, and weakly publicized. The expression has morphed over the years to encompass movies whose runtimes were under 70 minutes, low-budget films in general, an inartistic, cheaply produced genre movies, or high-budget exploitation style films. Examples: I Drink Your Blood, Horror of Party Beach, Attack of the Crab Monsters, It Conquered the World This scent is a celebration of B-grade sci fi and horror from the 50s, 60s, and 70s: a glowing glob of radioactive waste mixed with a mishmash of ingredients from assorted recipes for fake blood -- chocolate syrup, corn syrup, grenadine, and peanut butter. When I first read the description my head almost exploded when I read peanut butter - first time I've ever seen it listed as a note in a BPAL scent! I'm not a fan of the smell of peanut butter, but the first four notes were too good to pass this one up. In the bottle, this is all chocolate and peanut butter, and to someone who could eat straight up chocolate and peanut butter I thought I was in heaven. The grenadine pushes it into coma-inducing. Ohhhh the sweetness. Testing it out on my skin leaves a very different impression. I don't want to say it gets plasticy, but I think it did where is the fabulously rich chocolate and peanut butter? It's odd to say that I even smell coconut (not even listed!) which is one of those notes that turn to plastic on my skin. The scent reminds me of a plastic toy that may have some kind of obnoxious, purposeful, smell to it, a la My Little Pony Sunny Scents or something. I hope a bit of aging will temper the plastic note to it. ETA: I now know what this reminds me of: My little bothers and sister had these things when they were babies, supposed to smell like vanilla. So I would imagine if they made a coconut one, it would smell like B-Horror lol but totally weird is that I LOVED the smell of that teether, they also had this weird aqua nobby ball that smelled like vanilla. Would it be weird to buy these even though I don't have a baby?

A freshly mowed teeing ground. In the bottle this is freshly mowed grass in the early morning of a summer day. On my skin, the scent stays pretty true to what it smelled like in the bottle. It's definitely reminiscent of walking a golf course on an early tee time. So early that the grass is still wet from the morning dew. It also invokes 'quietness', like you're the only person on the course. It's a mellow blend and another fun one to get to try.

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. In all the hustle and bustle of the last few months, I neglected to review a lot of my trunk show oils from the 6th Clearing Out the Cobwebs! I think I initially passed up on this scent, but after a bit of the craziness died down at Dark Delicacies I was able to resniff a lot of blends, this being one of them. From my quick resniff I proclaimed this was a sweet woody scent. I thought I was picking up a cocoa-esque note from it, but as I skin test it I don't really get that at all. In fact, I do believe I know what this maaaay be - a prototype from the Urban Outfitters collaboration? The coded name would seem to suggest it could be, and truth be told this is like a less sweet version of Banshee Beat. I would bet they share some common notes!

No scent description available. I saw 3 of the other scents with threads, but not this one yet.. At DD on Friday Beth mentioned this blend was "milk and herbs", so I went into this knowing sort of what I'd be getting... I almost knew this would not be a scent I would keep because Milk/Custard Notes = BAD SOUR EW on me. Neither Milk Moons, Egg'd Mailbox, nor Nonae Caprotina work with my picky skin chemistry. From the bottle it's straight up fresh milk and sweetened herbs; reminds me of a farm you read about in a book like in Amish country or something. Since everyone knows farms and dairies don't really smell that great. As it dried down I was picking up something slightly salty, aquatic almost. Like sea-spray. The most shocking thing here is the milk did NOT go sour at all. It was actually pleasant. Now I'm completely confused because I actually like this one! Here's a link to a small story behind the phantom cow: http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=159 ETA: Oh! I know what this is reminding me of: http://www.amazon.com/Kasugai-Japanese-Can...e/dp/B000EZURQS Kasugai Milk No Kuni. I got them in a swap package one time and liked them so much I bought a couple bags online.

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. As someone who is not a big fan of the initial release of Misk U nor the rerelease to the GC, I almost dismissed this one from my "To Buy" list. I'm so glad I gave it a shot because it's really nice! My initial notes said it was like Irish coffee and cinnamon, sort of like El Dia de Reyes. I tested it again today and from the bottle I got cinnamon & sugar toast! When I skin test it I actually detect little to no coffee which is surprising because anything with coffee notes seems to punch out the other notes in the blend with my skin chemistry. Letting it dry a bit provokes the coffee to come out in the background. This blend reminds me of breakfast with my grandma; she always drank coffee and when I visited she would make me some with tons of cream and sugar then would set a plate of cinnamon and sugar toast in front of me. Ahh memories I could see this being a great cool-weather scent and it definitely makes my mouth water.

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. The first thing that surprised me with this prototype is the fact that it is very different from the released version. I was at least expecting leather, but nope! I'm getting black musk (that nice creamy, slightly lemony musk from Haunted) mixed with dark florals. I'm not a floral fan in the least, but they are subtle. The blend smells exactly like what I would imagine a powerful woman wearing. Very nicely blended and now I don't know if I prefer this one or the released one better. They are both very good in their own way.

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. When I was testing all the scents this past Saturday it came to a point where everything I was sniffing started to smell similar. That's when I picked up Lamia and realized it was so completely different from the bunch.. sorta like how MB: Underpants is so different from any other blend BPAL has released. There is something extraordinarily unique about Lamia out of the bottle. In my notes I had written "L'Estate?" but when I test them both side by side there isn't too much of a similarity besides maybe an amber that might be present in Lamia. Possibly it was the L'Estate bath oil that was conjuring up these similarities in my head, but I have since swapped that bath oil away. In the drydown Lamia is a scent to be reckoned with for cardamom lovers like myself. I had once thought Bezoar was the hands-down best cardamom scent, but Lamia has changed my mind. Where Bezoar has a woodiness going on with it (that I seriously could never detect until it went head to head with Lamia), Lamia has a creamy sweetness. It's like vanilla bean and cardamom ice cream with flecks of the vanilla bean amidst the pure whiteness. This will instantly become one of my favorite blends and it's a shame I will have to use it so sparingly!

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. From the bottle this blend smells like buttercream frosting with an extra dose of vanilla extract and a hint of citrus oil - not enough to make it tart, though. I would guess lemon? It reminds me of what you would see on a super elegant wedding cake, or even the creamy filling of one. I detect no "cake" note, this is just what covers the cake! This one is a sweet blend without it being out and out foody.

The Trunk Show was chaos, which I was completely expecting, so I had an [unsniffed] list ready to go when I got up to the table. On this list I had 3 of the crazy coded prototypes because who doesn't love a surprise every now and then? PPH07 made the list because I speculated it was a Halloween prototype and I Halloween. When I first opened the bottle on the drive home I was thinking that there was something VERY familiar about this scent, but I couldn't put my *nose* on it heh. It wasn't until I made it to work next day that I knew what I was smelling - why? Because my whole office smells like it! I frequently use L'Autunno Atmosphere Spray in my office at work just so I can pretend like I'm in a quiet forrest in the midst of Autumn - it's relaxing and makes my day less stressful. This prototype is exactly that scent; I would speculate that this could've been L'Autunno the perfume oil before it was decided the spray/perfume wasn't going to match exactly. I even took PPH07 to work to test the spray side by side with it and yes, they are identical [to my nose].

This is my second favorite of the prototypes that were available at the trunk show. It fills a need that is the non-foody lover in me; the side that loves all things dark and sexy like! I compare this scent to the best Chaos Theory I managed to get my hands on which is a perfect blend of leather and amber. There is no leather in PX23, but the amber is very much there; and it's sensual. I detect a dryness to the blend which I would peg to possibly be Sandalwood. I wore this yesterday to a wedding, but before I left the house I thought that I really needed a slightly sweeter scent so I added a bit of Lyonesse to the places I already applied PX23 to and it did the trick. So, if you fear sweet amber scents, this one will not let you down. ETA: probably the reason why I picked Lyonesse to "sweeten" it up is because they are fairly similar in scent families.

Dust, decaying fabric, dead leaves, and concrete. In the bottle this reminds me of an antique store - you know that old and musty smell? Like long forgotten books, furniture, toys and linens. On my skin the earthy, leaf scent comes out. It's amazing how accurate the blend is to a "Leaf-Strewn Couch". The couch is one that has been sitting outside, one off a river bank or something, weathered, old, and possibly not one you'd actually want to sit on. Needless to say, it's dead on and really a fun blend to be able to experience.

Prototype, unreleased, no scent description. Paladin was one I sniffed I initially said PASS, I don't know what I was thinking since it's a leather scent and my husband adores all things leather from the Lab. He ended up buying it for himself when someone pointed out to him it was masculine/leather! I wanted to give it a test though because I do enjoy leather scents. Wet it is very much like the leather in Olisbos which I don't favor. It has dried down to a woody/leather smell, perfect for a man, but not for me!

Oh my, my, my, my, my... I love this so much! The only note I was scared about was coconut as it usually turns plasticky on me. So delicious; warm, sweet, slight spice. Exactly how I love my perfume :wub2: And it's sweet without being foodie... love love, must get a lot more

This is a pretty fantastic leather blend for those that may be turned off by heavy leather notes. Present, but not overpowering. Each note in this blend shares the stage with the others, not one comes off as particularly dominant. The oak bark and patchouli lends an earthy/dry/dusty feel; bourbon vanilla and bitter almond lend a touch of sweetness; and the jasmine makes it lean more feminine although it contains leather.

I was hoping the Dragon Blood note in this leaned in the resiny direction, of course if this was the case I'm sure the scent's notes would have specified, but that's me being hopeful! This is the floral dragon's blood note that rules those blends in Ars Draconis. First applied, the blend is stronger on the Dragon's Blood, very dominant, which is not surprising given my history with DB. As it dries, the black tea comes to the party and creates a nice balance from the overly floral DB. For such a "simple" blend, it's remarkably complex.

I get mostly soft, worn leather from this blend. Spanked (my favorite #1 scent FOREVER and ALWAYS) is more of a crisp, black leather. Anyways, leather is prominent through all the stages of the scent. At first I get a blast of that almond/cherry note with the leather, which smells reeeeally good. As it dries, the almond/cherry calms down (so if you're not ordering because you're scared of the almond husk note, don't be!) and rounds out the leather nicely with the vanilla adding a touch more of sweetness; I believe the oak leaf and patchouli come to play later as it gets earthier as it is worn. The patchouli in the blend is surprisingly not the star (because really, patchouli can be an attention whore most of the time), definitely the leather! I don't get similarities to blends like Banshee Beat.. it's in a league of it's own. And yes, this blend last forever - the sweatshirt I wore on the day I wore it (a full week ago), STILL smells like it! It's pretty fantastic.

This is all lemon, all the time for me. When I first applied/smelling from the decant, it was rose and cherries, but as it's drying down, only the lemon verbena!