tziporra

I sniffed this in the bottle and it smelled exactly like Hope and Fear set Free which I already have a bottle of (and love, but I don't need more). I did not skin test. Tzi

So yeah, honeyed plasticky leather on me. The leather isn't truly awful, but neither is it really very good at all. Pass. Tzi

In the bottle, straight outta the mailbox: I bought this untested after I sniffed a friend's and it put me exactly in mind of a very familiar commercial perfume. Can't for the life of me think of what it might be, but the associated emotions were very positive. Still smells like that. Wet on skin: oh oakmoss. Hi there. No one warned me you were here. I guess that is what all those deodorant people were talking about up thread. It's funny because on the back of my hand where I am testing this it's all OAKMOSS, but on the finger I used to apply it I'm getting a strong velvety perfumery floral. Something night blooming, one imagines. If I sit and concentrate on this I feel like I get the labs wine note as well, or something related. So, oakmoss, floral, wine, maybe something woody or resiny at the bottom, plus oakmoss. I'm going to retest and see if I can get the finger scent to be the whole scent, instead of the oakmoss. Will update. Tzi ETA: well, I rested the bottle and rolled it between my hands, and it is now a completely different scent. Very like Event Horizon, which makes a lot of sense given the description. Still can't find the flowers, which makes me sad, but maybe it will change again in a week! Who knows? I think the resin is opoponax which is why people are getting a lavender impression. ETAA: I gave this to the man and he smells absolutely divine. I can't stop sniffing him, it's embarrassing.

Purchased off a forumite, tested right out of the mailbox. In the bottle: Not a ton of peach, it's mostly resins and wood. On wet: yup, that is a lot of resins. 20 minutes later: _there_ is the peach! And it's just as wonderful as everyone said it was! It is well grounded by the resins, and is much more grown up than I expected. This is a crone's peach, in the best of ways. Solid, independent, self-assured. This is a peach for iconoclasts and radicals. So good. Tzi

I spontaneously included this unsniffed in my weenie order after reading reviews. In the bottle this is frankincense with lovely rounded edges where the vanilla hides. I love frank, but it does not at all love me, so I approach with trepidation. On, this is amazing. Two notes that I enjoy smelling but are usually bad on my skin are canceling out all the badness of each other. Vanilla is usually cloying on me (I can wear Tombstone and Lady Death: Savage), but the deep bitterness of the frankincense keeps it in check. Frankincense usually smells of pencil shavings on me , but the sweet mellowness of the vanilla rounds it out and subdues any bitter sharpness. This is really nice. I will test again to see if it is worth keeping around, but it has the makings of being something I compulsively reapply. Tzi ETA: already compulsively reapplied once. On the dry down I get a significant boozy note that I haven't seen anyone mention. Turns out bourbon means whiskey! I loooooooooove it, but I was a little nervous about wearing it while driving!

A shroud of gardenia, narcissus, and sandalwood with ambrette seed, white cognac, muguet, davana, and white musk. 2013 Version: Ooooooooo, so pretty ....... Deep cool floral. Tons of flowers, very rich silky gardenia and well behaved narcissus note. Dusty and dry, like a shroud. I feel like I'm getting a sweet licorice-like base (must be the cognac and musk seed?) to support the florals, plus a glowing ghostly musk to create a ghostly pale feeling. This is gorgeous. Just a dark musky complicated floral, exactly my style. Definite bottle. Did not expect this one to be instant true love, so happy it exists. Tzi Eta: my original notes said "strong true lily of the valley" and then I couldn't find it in the notes so I backed off..... Turns out that's the muguet! Next time I promise not to second guess myself!

I did not grow up reading Anne of Green Gables, not even one time. However, I have read it to my children as an adult, and I can definitely understand the charm of a bpal inspired by Anne. I love this scent on its own merits. Wet, it is just like the scent description - incredibly fresh leaves and maple. The maple is awesome, like the interior of a violin dusted with some sweet resin. Dries down to gorgeous fresh ruby leaves and the most beautiful maple wood scent. Many woods are too dry on the skin, but this one oozes maple sap. Definite bottle. Love. Tzi

I amp patchouli. Since I enjoy many patchouli scents, this isn't a bad thing - I've found I need to be more adventurous about my patch scents, and this was my "stretch" decant. But this starts and finishes as single note black patchouli on me. Dark and earthy and chewy and not offensive. But I wanted those pale gossamer musks and other ghostly things, not just dirt where they were buried. Not for me. Tzi

Wet: Amber and fresh cut green grass. Very perfumey and herbal at the same time - like one of those "herbal" shampoos. Almost a minty edge - maybe that is the lemon verbena. I like the amber very much, but wish there was more going on. Dry: Very much a skin scent - like an idealized version of myself. As someone else said, this is hay, first fresh cut, then dried in the field. What a great scent trip, but not something I'm going to wear. Tzi

In the bottle and wet on skin this is a scary scent. A loud clashing cacophony of scents. The agave reads as sweet chocolate to my nose (strange but true), making the whole concoction very much like Kali with the rose and tobacco in the background. But Kali with COPAL. This smells warmer and warmer on my skin till my nose feels like it's on fire. Must be those spices! I feel my sinuses clearing. I had high hopes for this one (copal!) but it is drying down into kind of strong sweet nothing. Just a lot of spicy agave, really. I need more woods and deeper tobacco. Best, Tzi

I have a very specific idea of what marigolds should smell like, and this is not it (you may take this as a good thing if you were worried about somewhat skunky spicy marigold). Wet, this is a strong straightforward floral. It's very flowery, but it's a perfumers floral rather than a gardeners floral. Definitely bright and sunny, but much more aquatic than I expected. More of a pale yellow than the full on spicy orange that the word marigold evokes for me. This doesn't smell bad at _all_: it's quite lovely in fact. But it is definitely not my style. This is what I would think a flower fairie might smell like, but probably not Marigold - it's just too sweet for her. Definitely no bottle for me. Best, Tzi ETA: 2013 version

My new favorite coconut: So Below. Tzi

I am pretty sure I'm adding Theme in Yellow to my order for just this purpose. I got to sniff all the Halloweenies from a friend on Thursday and now I'm a little scared because everything I ordered decants of smelled amazing in the bottle, plus John Barleycorn, plus Noctiphobia. Plus Theme in Yellow for the burner, plus at least one GC I absolutely can't live without, plus Today will Die Tomorrow, plus a backup bottle of So Below, and that adds up to a lot of perfume. Likely TOO MUCH. Hopefully at least half of my decants are just awful on my skin. Tzi Eta: luckily I'm not a yules person. I am very very very much a Lupers girl though. Eraa: all my decants were bad except A World Where there are Octobers and Le Revenant. So I ordered 2 Awwtao (one for my daughter who loves Anne), Le Revenant, my GC pick, Noctiphobia, Today will Die Tomorrow and a surprise last minute impulse of Hope and Fear Set Free. Managed to skip John Barleycorn this year even though it sounded amazing, and also Theme in Yellow - hopefully my scent burner is not too mad at me.

Night Gaunt is the perfect example of a gorgeous perfume I am completely uninterested in wearing. Lovely bitter orange over glittering white florals with an airy feel. Crystal clear and cold. There is no warmth in this scent, it is like the orange peels and flowers are frozen in an ice cube. It is so evocative of a lovely friend of mine (she wear D&G Blue) that I am tempted to present her with a bottle unsniffed and hope that my instinct was good. I absolutely love it, but I could never wear it. I'll definitely try it on some friends. Tzi

My whole (very poorly packaged - hopefully HM fixes this) mailer smells of ambery amberness. Yum. Wet it is PATCHOULI AND COPAL. It is a little screechy, I'm not gonna lie. Red patch reads as straight up wood on my skin so this is like the inside of a copal filled treasure chest that was just sanded. Then it settles down on the back of my hand and the toasted coconut and cardamom combine into something carmelly and rich and slightly smoky. Like someone made a moxibustion stick out of coconut and cardamom and left it burning on top of an unfinished wood table - so that some of the sweet pitch kind of melted into it and made the most fantastic smelling horrific mess you can imagine. Not foody, but ridiculously sweet and smoky and so yum. It is amazing. And like nothing else I own - maybe it is black patchouli in Goblin, but So Below is nothing at all like that. Throw is not bad - I have to huff everything, but I'm going to layer this with some coconut oil on my hands to see if I can get my skin to not eat it. I can see how this would layer well, too. Interestingly I can smell a leather shaped "hole" in it. Maybe I will get my hands on some As Above to try it with. Regards, Tzi Eta: in case you can't tell from notes and my reviews, this is soooooooper manly. My husband took a deep whiff and said, _thats_ what I like you to wear! no flowers! just cologne. Etaa: oooooooooooomigerd. This gets better and better. A few days later the patch has backed off some and it's amber and copal and coconut loveliness wet with the dry red patchouli grounding the whole thing. I get the holy grail squees down thread, this is amazing. Going to stalk sales page now.

My favorite plums are LEs, naturally. Harvest Moon and A Blot Upon the Earth. Tzi

My 9 year old wears Maiden and Sugar Plum Fairy. My boys (7 and 5) wear Event Horizon and Brown Jenkins. Tzi

Monster Bait: Tokyo Stomp Vanilla Mint! (Although Vanellope might be more chocolate mint, based on her costume) Tzi

GAH SWEET! This is rich heady SWEET red fruit and SWEET wine and SWEET resins. It's like Manishevitz if there was a pomegranate flavor. I do feel like maybe the Balm of Gilead made an effort to calm things down a little before throwing up its arms and jumping on the sweet bandwagon. My teeth hurt. Tzi

Oh no I am in trouble. Lilac. Wasn't I just saying I needed a bpal lilac? (why yes, I just revived a rec thread to ask about lilac) And this one is swoon worthy. At the very bottom of the lush heady lilac I can pick out LICORICE (another win note on me - anise, fennel, whatever, I love it all). The tuberose is damp around the edges, graciously allowing lilac to take the center floral stage. The resin keeps the whole diaphanous concoction from floating of into space where ungrounded florals tend to head. Unfortunately I get zero carnation. Doesn't matter, still awesome. Definite bottle. Tzi

This was my "stretch" decant. In that "I want to smell more things so my nose gets more experienced" kind of way. It's soooooooooooooooo dry right out of the bottle (which evokes funny imagery of shaking some dust out the imp) It's the driest of dry things. The patch is dry but not funky. The frankinsence (iffy note on me) is dry, the cumin is so dry! After fifteen minutes or so I get a whiff of almond (well, it smells like cherry, but I assume that's almond) and I have hopes that it will sweeten up and I won't smell like I am sitting in a vast plain of wood chips and dry bones. Alas, the scent vanishes very shortly after. Too bad, the cumin was actually something not-to-be-feared on my skin. I think if the almond had managed to put in a full appearance on my skin it would have been close to spectacular. Tzi

This oil is incredibly pleasant. It is a smooth luscious dark scent dripping with juicy currants. If you are an incredible fan of this style of dark resiny scents with black fruit over florals, this is definitely the lunacy for you. I like my scents a little more bossy than this one, which isn't to say that it is "light", just that it doesn't grab me by my collar and march me into an evocative experience. It's going on my wish list, and I'm keeping my imp, but it's a swap-only for me. Tzi

Hey! Dead thread! I command thee to RIIIIIIISSSSSE! Ahem. I have this: http://shop.birchbayaromatics.com/Angel-Dreams-Perfume-Oil-1-3-oz-P4-ANG.htm Is there a comparable bpal? In the bottle it smells _exactly_ like walking past a bush heavy with lilacs on an unseasonably warm day in May. So much deliciousness! Best, Tzi

Source: lab frimp I received last year (?!?) How. Have. I. Not. Tried. This. ????????????????? Copal is one of my top notes (I can't actually think of a consistently better note on me so let's just call it number one). In this the copal is swirled with the yummiest citrus ever - creamy, but without the foody associations of a vanilla blend. The crushed blossoms make this an instantly identifiable "perfume" scent, easy to wear since no one will be asking "what smells like candles?" Or room spray or whatever. It is fresh and young and glamorous. Throw is amazing on me, which is just fine because I loooooooooove this scent. Can't wait to place an order so I can get my hands of the bottle-age. Tzi

This is a pretty aggressively happy day. It is the kind of happy day that reaches out of the bottle grabs you with a smack around the head of cool fizzy effervescence and announces that yes indeed, you will have a Happy Day. Preferably filled with fruit and maybe one of those "dry"sodas that are sold in the expensive cardboard four-packs at whole foods. Grown-ups wishing to have particularly happy days may mix their soda with champagne. Dry, not sweet. Perhaps you also require flowers on your happy day? Well yes, we have some particularly well behaved jasmine, a delicious cloud of honeysuckle, and some spicy carnation grounding the whole concoction. I love this, but I'm also a little scared of it. I'd _better_ have a happy day today. Or else. Tzi