diabolique

tenochtitlan is another one my grandpa could pronounce perfectly. scurvy bastard.

here's how you pronounce xiuhtecuhtli, pookie: i think it's rather fun to pronounce. the other day, i was talking to my grandpa about having ordered this scent, and i wound up pronouncing it, "she-tech-uhhhh.. i don't remember how to say it," and he managed to pronounce it PERFECTLY! i just looked at him, blinked, and said, "wow, you're good."

okay, folks, this is sort'f strange. the lab put a gimp of whitechapel in with my last order. if citrus has the same habit of disappearing on your skin as it does on mine, it should leave you with basically a single note white musk. -toddles off to play with layering-

cold, cold, cold! i can't really associate this one with jack the ripper because it's a bit too -clean-. it's pretty much all lime. i don't get anything else (except maybe citron, but the lime is very apparent) until the lime is completely gone, and it's gone pretty quickly. it's leaving me with the smell of white musk. just smooth, beautiful white musk.. and i've never even really liked white musks before. i suppose if i want to layer white musk with anything, i can just put this on and wait for the lime to fade. i really like this. i'll keep it around for layering purposes.

first whiff, nothing. second whiff, mandarin and sandalwood. on my skin? LILAC SOAP. what the bloody hell? this is pure soap and nothing else. ugh. definitely not a winner. i wanted to love you, belle epoque. all of your notes sound delish. unfortunately, you are not.

i'm not getting anything out of this scent except PINE. when it was drying down, i got a whiff of the berries, but that was it. i don't know if this is the combination of amber and "elegant spices," but UGH! PINE!!

hmmm. hellcat layered with centzon totochtin.

this wasn't as dark as i expected it to be and i definitely didn't get a dusky color out of this one. something in this went sharp and powdery on my skin (i'm glad i'm not the only person reporting this so i know my skin chemistry isn't THAT wonky) and it was a bit sweeter than ra and ahathoor, but definitely not as sweet as tum. i had a lot of difficulty picking out the individual notes.

urrrggggh. something in this really upset my stomach. i'm not sure what it was because the only blends thus far that have hurt my stomach are zombi, nosferatu, and melpomene. i'm inclined to say it was the sweetness of the blend that did it, but i'm thinking there might've been some kind of moss in it. this didn't smell herbal to me at all because it was all sweetness to my nose. i promptly washed it off, though, so maybe i didn't give it time to really develop. out of all of the stations of the sun, this is my least favorite.

i'm very much a morning person, and i could bask in the sun of the morning until my white ass looks like a lobster. naturally, i thought i would love this. indeed, it does personify the morning sun, but i'm not sure if i want to smell like that. ra is golden-red rising over that pale, dusky blue sky, chasing the shadows of night away. gorgeous, but definitely not for me. -sniff- i could've loved you, ra, i really could've.

i've been more wishy washy about samhain than any other scent; i didn't care for it, initially, but gave it a couple of chances before i swapped my bottle to someone else. i realized a few months later how much i regretted this decision and swapped for another 5mL of it, but wound up with a 10mL (because indigowhatever rocks my world). i loved it at first and wore it quite often, but the powdery pumpkin smell started to get on my nerves, so i passed my bottle onto jasminepearl's loving arms. the last time i wore this, i actually got some negative reactions. i accidentally spilled my imp on myself, and didn't have much time to wash it off because i was at school. i washed as much off as possible before heading back to class and people couldn't figure out where the smell of tobacco was coming from. i thought this was strange, as i've never actually gotten any tobacco out of samhain at all. it's always been a somewhat sweet pumpkin with a powdery edge. so, yeah, i've had a pretty rocky relationship with samhain. i don't care if you don't think these kind of scents are for you, every BPAL fan should at least try this. it's truly marvelous and it might just surprise you.

the same thing that happened with the king happened with this blend-- her royal majesty's base notes failed to make an appearance on my skin and left me with a dark red-colored berry scent that wafted quite well. when i initially tried the king and queen, i liked the queen better, but now i realize that the king is more my style. one of the notes manages to turn plasticy on my skin and eventually it starts to smell like heavily waxed berry lipgloss. alas..

i expected to love this, and it truly is a great scent, but it wasn't quite what i thought it'd be. the coconut didn't appear on me at all and i was left with a very fruity, "yellow" scent i could easily compare to yerevan. i really, really, really wish the coconut and vanilla came out on me more, but i seem to get plum and blackberry without much of an appearance from the other notes. the white musk was vaguely there, but eh. so, i did like this one, and haven't managed to acquire a bottle (which i would've liked to do), but i'm not crying about it. yerevan is a good replacement for this blend if none of the base notes really come out on you.

Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel. my first impression of this was rich hazelnut, pralines, and melted dark chocolate. it was a little bitter if i took a deep enough breath. to me, gluttony smells like someone took the 2004 yule LE sugar cookie, threw it into an oven and was only reminded it was in there when there was a loud "BOOM" from the kitchen. yeah, this is definitely a burned sugar cookie smell. mmm, carcinogens! this was marvelous as a room scent, but it's nothing i could ever wear.

it was so difficult NOT to drink this. i don't really like the smell of rum, but oh my god, this was definitely liquid butterscotch. it smelled so delicious. it was brilliant on my skin for about the first 10 minutes, but something in it went sour on me after that. it's a shame, too, because i am definitely a BPAL pirate.

hell's belle and queen mab sound right up your alley. i haven't tried queen mab, but i've heard very sexy things about it. hell's belle is a creamy, lush, dark floral. blood rose is extremely sexy, and i always feel like people pay more attention to me when i wear it. i'd also give kali a try.

well, out of the scents with fig in them, i've tried carnal, dragon's heart, intrigue, and nemesis. i don't actually think any of them were very "figgy." i hated carnal. it smelled very thin and "ordinary" in the bottle. intrigue smelled thin, too, but i think the cocoa made it interesting for me. dragon's heart was ALL dragon's blood on me because that's what dragon's blood does on my skin. nemesis was probably the.. well, figgiest.

i strongly second ophelia, although i doubt you'll get much muskiness out of that one, as well as glasgow and water of notre dame. empyreal mist. is. effin'. GORGEOUS. believe you me.

BLISS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? this is love at first sniff, absofuckinlutely. i don't get brownies or gooey chocolate cookies. this, besides smelling like chocolate, isn't all that foody and doesn't remind me of a bakery. it dries down very light and a bit like cocoa powder.

hm. okay, well, cancer wasn't really to my taste. it was sharp, green, and aquatic. being a cancer, i really expected the watery smell, but argh, the sharpness! there isn't really much to say about this blend, as it wasn't complex, but for those of you who wanted to try it when the celestials were discontinued, give delirium a try. they're similar, but delirium doesn't seem to go as wonky on my skin. i think i'll stick with ophelia for my temperamental, emotional moods.

macha, your review of calliope was BRILLIANT! i'm not fond of the herbal blends, so this one definitely isn't for me. i love the smell of bergamot in candles, so perhaps as a room scent, but arrrgh. keep it away from my skin! i actually didn't get much of the lemon verbena from this. i suppose it was tempered by the other herbs, because it's normally one of those things that screams from my skin. sorry, calliope. it wasn't meant to be. <3

another gorgeous dragon's blood blend. i SO want to smell this on my boy, but he's rather unfond of patchouli. on my skin, it was all dragon's blood (no surprises there), but it smelled wonderfully dark and, yes, bloody, in the vial. i'd say this one topped BPAL's blood with the real blood factor. this could be very sensual on the right person. unfortunately for me, i'm not the right person.

this is one of the few aquatics that doesn't hurt my stomach. i was surprised to find that the oil wasn't a murky color, because it smells SO green. i rather like this one, though; it isn't an herbal, grassy green. i didn't get anything particularly dark and murky like a real bayou, it actually smells very light and fresh to me. if i were to have to choose a favorite aquatic blend, which is difficult for me to do, as i hate them, it would be bayou.

this smelled very dark brown with a tinge of green to me. in the vial, it was a heady, smoky almond. this wasn't necessarily bad, but i don't particularly want to smell like almonds. on my skin, something turned sharp and powdery. ick. this wasn't a keeper for me. i really can't do almond blends.

clove is one of those scents i'm very neutral towards. it doesn't make me go, "ooooh," and it doesn't make me go, "ewww!" if you want straight up clove, definitely go for the ones i suggested. if you like beth's wine component, madrid might be up your alley.