schackjj

My review on this one is completely different. Probably a good thing I took notes before I read the others

 

Wet: Clove and cardamom? Hey, is this a Pickled Imp dupe???

 

Drydown: Still smells an awful lot like Pickled Imp, but with a faint dustiness added. After half an hour or so, the dustiness mostly fades out and a lovely sweetness moves to the front. But the Pickled Imp impression continues to hang around. I like this a LOT more than I thought I would.

 

Throw: Average - I think (the cat's not sayin').

Wet: A mix of mineral smells swirling around.

 

Drydown: Still very mineral, but I can't pin it down. It has a dusty scent to it. It also has a slight sourness, which usually means that there's a floral in there somewhere and my brain is sending it to my olfactory senses as 'sour.' And I got no eucalyptus at all.

Wet: I totally agree, this is overwhelming eucalyptus

 

Drydown: It takes quite a while to settle down, and until it does the eucalyptus is in the forefront. Within an hour or so, it burns off, and I'm left with a softly sweet scent. Like a dusting of powdered sugar on my arm. I morphers, and the transformation on this scent was especially surprising.

 

Wearlength was only 2-3 hours (but I didn't moisturize my skin first & we're in the middle of an extreme drought where I live, right now).

In the bottle: Lavender and sage. Strange!

 

Wet: Lavender and sage are duking it out. It's hard to pick out the rest because those two are so aggressive.

 

Drydown: As the scent settles on my skin, the verbena comes out, but delicately. Cypress is in there somewhere, but I don't get any peach or tansy. Lavender is the most prominent note in the middle stage. At the end, this Bat goes to sweet amber, and it's gorgeous.

 

This scent stays close to the skin, and wearlength is around 2 hours.

In the bottle: Mossy, with a hint of sharpness. I think I'm smelling the hyssop.

 

Wet: Damp forest, cedar, and what smells like gin (must be the orris root).

 

Drydown: This just smells vaguely sour. Entirely my fault. I amp almost all florals, and the orris (iris) root must be drowning out everything else. At the far end of drydown, it goes to sweet sugar.

 

This Bat doesn't have great throw, and wearlength is fairly short for BPAL.

I'm surprised this doesn't have more reviews, considering how good great it is. The Snow White spray is absolutely stellar. It's supposed to differ somewhat from the perfume, but I can't detect it. I really, really wish I'd stockpiled more before it d'ced. Please bring it back?

Wet: Lemmonnn!

Drydown: Picture a weight scale. On one side is Lemon, on the other is Lilac. As this dries, Lemon gradually fades, going up, up, up. And Lilac sinks down, down, down. Eventually, there's Lemon high in the air on one side. Apparently, they've shoved Herbs off the scale entirely.

Other people are getting dark musk and vanilla, but with me, vetiver reached out it's big ugly paw an- *POW* Hey, that hurt! I was just- *POW* POW!*

 

Damn vetiver.

 

*scuttles off at top speed*

I did a side-by-side test today for someone who wanted to know if PK is a twin to I Fell in Love With a Floating Brain. Answer: Nope.

 

Kitty starts out with sweet fruit and a prominent boozy note. Brain is sweet and sugary with some sort of fruit, but no booze. As they dry, PK turns into a cousin of the Tikis (who said that? dead right) - strawberry and gin, mostly. Brain dries down to cake with a bit of caramel, and a hint of a burnt note. No idea where the fruit went. Maybe the brains ate them.

 

I like the fruit in Pink Kitty much better than in any of the Tikis, but still can't deal with the booziness.

CCXXXV (235)

 

The love child of O and Milk Moon. MM makes me turn as green as a landlubber in choppy seas. I'm rehoming this sucker ASAP.

CXXXIV (134)

 

Wet: A breath of mint, a hint of kitchen-type spices, but I don't smell the Dorian. No fruit, resins, or florals.

 

Drydown: Throw is niice, this is wafting around as I read my book No idea where the mint went, maybe it was my imagination? It seems to be Dorian + spice cake. In the very late drydown, around the 3-hour mark, something sweet and powdery appears too (amber?). Call it powdered sugar on the spice cake

 

A little foody for my tastes, though.

Since I clear-coated the roman numerals with nail polish the second I unwrapped my bottles, my CT V is definitely CCCXCI (391). Mine got a big dollop of SO base.

 

Wet: Primarily Snake Oil, but a hint of citrus struggled to come through too. It failed, so I couldn't ID it.

 

Drydown: SO and a really dirrrty musk, nothin' clean and frilly about it. Could be patchouli, but my nose says good-morning-darlin'-what-was-your-name-again musk. Good strength too. Two hours-plus later, it's much softer and sweeter, and very close to the skin.

 

This will be seriously kickass with some aging, but I may not have it that long

LV (55)

 

In the bottle: Gingerbread with a dash of cinnamon (yes, I know there isn't any cinnamon, tell my nose that)

 

Wet: Ginger, Snake Oil (light), and cinnamon again. The Cinnamon-that-isn't gets stronger. Reminds me of those little red hot candies

 

Drydown: As it dries, I get a hint of cake to go with the other notes. This is a Seriously Foody Scent. Wear length is several hours and good throw too. This should age spectacularly well, but I don't see myself wearing something this foody. Nor do I love SO enough to cellar it. Off to swaps

I finally got around to testing this today and now I know what the fuss is about

 

This was gorgeous from the second I put it on. The scent stayed true as well. To my (imperfect) nose, it's all ginger and musk. Probably several musks. Divine. Really divine. Did I mention divine? Half an hour after I put it on, I was standing in line at the p.o., and it was wafting around me - strongly. Now it's two hours later, and it seems pretty faint. But it's soo worth reapplying. This goes straight into my Top Ten list.

 

There is absolutely nothing in the catalogue like Jingo-Kogo. There must have been a component issue, because it's not possible that it didn't meet Beth's expectations. Really. Not. Possible.

Burnt coffee? Why am I getting burnt coffee?! And more to the point, why would I want to smell like Eau de Who Left the Mr. Coffee On All Night?

In the Bottle: A bit of woodiness and an impression of age, like a whiff of mustiness

 

Wet: At first, a bite of sharpness. This has no resins, sweetness, or smoothness to it, IMO. Floral scent!! If there's more than one in there, I couldn't tell you. My olfactory receptors go into shock when I test these. They must have been beaten by a bouquet when I was a child and never recovered from the experience.

 

Drydown: Surely you didn't think I got that far?

In the Bottle: Sharp and astringent

 

Wet: Whoa. This has some serious throw. Always happens with scents I don't like. My skin grabs any floral and runs with it like Harrison's 100-yard run in the Super Bowl.

 

Drydown: Harsh to my nose, but see above disclaimer. Must. Wash. Off.

 

 

I don't have the released version of this blend to do a direct comparison, so my impressions are stand alone.

 

In the bottle: Lemon and something sweet. Cake? It's very pretty, anyway. Sniffed it next day, though, and didn't smell any lemon, it was mostly tea and the sweet note.

 

Wet: The lemon note sharpened at first, more like zest than juice or lemon candy, and there was still cake. The lemon retreated within the first half hour. A murkiness was underpinning the scent, perhaps tea and something else. IIRC, the released version is lighter, has more sparkle. This has a somewhat gloomy feel to it. Initially, the throw was amazing; I was walking around in a Mousey cloud for the first 15 minutes

 

Drydown: This is a bit of a morpher. If this Tale were a horse race:

 

Lemon was an early favorite, but just can't go the distance and is falling behind, so you might as well flush those tickets, folks. Cake is in front, followed strongly by Tea. Yes, that's right, folks, I said Tea. But where is Murky Gloom? Oh there he is, you never seem to see him, but he always seems to be lurking, doesn't he? What a dark horse, that one! And here they are coming up the backstretch aaand it's POWDER and SWEETNESS in a photo finish!!!

 

Wearlength: 2-3 hours.

In the bottle: A promising sweetness, a citrus I can't identify.

 

Wet: No florals, no resins...not getting ozone or metal either, exactly. The citrus may be grapefruit. It's the only one I dislike, and this is crossing my eyes. There's an underpinning of juniper or maybe gin? The alcohol keeps getting stronger, pounding the citrus into submission.

 

Drydown: This has some serious throw & it's going strong after an hour and a half. It abruptly fades at the 3 hour mark.

 

This is a Tiki hanging out on the wrong side of town. She's into gin joints and bad boys now. Her mother is wringing her hands and telliing all the neighbors that her baby used to be such a sweet girl and she just doesn't know what happened to her.

In the bottle: candied orange.

 

Wet on skin: orange zest and *almost* real orange. This is what I imagined Orange would smell like.

 

Drydown: Scent is staying pretty true. I told my husband, "Here, smell this!" thinking it was pretty cool, so he did. "I don't like that," he said. Oops. Guess this one won't be going into rotation. Too bad though. I do think it's unique, and it would be so much fun to try layering.

 

Late drydown: It's nose-on-wrist faint within a couple of hours. There's just a hint of the orange left, and a hint of something . . .musky? Interesting and more grown up than oranges!

Well, this one was a surprise. Wet, I got metal, metal, and more metal. Bleah. Drydown? Still lots of metal with a bit of musk.

 

Late drydown, say 5-6 hours in, my nose stumbled over my wrist again. What have we here??

OMFG, musk, musk, glorious muuuusk!!!!!!! *sings offkey and bangs BPAL cup*

 

I would happily belly flop into a poolful of this and paddle around for the rest of my days :thud:

This went straight to soap on me. Bar soap. Cheap bar soap.

 

Not fair

Remember when you were a little kid, and you got to stay overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's house? But sometimes you got a cold. Then Grandma would put that stuff on you. And it smelled just like this

 

With notes like these, I don't know what ever made me think the frau and I could get along. Sometimes my optimism amazes even me.

One of my all time favorites is Glitter, the original version. It's lemon and heliotrope with a kick of musk, and dries down to a warm muskiness But it's hard to find. A couple years ago, suggestions were made - Feu Follet (tried it, don't think I liked it?) and Fae, which I think is kind of, um, pale?

 

Any suggestions for a replacement?

I remember exactly when they were discontinued - it was the day I joined I definitely prefer 10 mls of my faves. They take up a little less space & that's especially convenient for the ones that need cellaring.

 

I understand their reasons for d/c'ing the 10 mls, but the customer base has exploded since then, and I suspect they'd sell really well. I'd definitely buy a bunch