Lady_Ell

H~O~ly shit.

This is s~O~ great.

I love it s~O~ much.

 

Wet, it smells like honey and clover and toasted pecans and something running underneath it all with a rough texture and on top of it all is a tiny, slight fruity note. As it dries the honey-pecan aspect screams out of me and the fruit goes away, and the rough texture smooths out to a totally soft, sweet amazingness. A few hours later I have a non-foody honey, trace of vanilla, and I guess it must be the amber that holds it all down to earth to make it like a darkish, mellow honey that's been sitting in a wooden jar for a long time. Amber makes a kind of sweet, spicy, baby powder smell on me, which I usually don't care for, but in this it blends with the honey and vanilla to make it mesh with me instead of clash with me.

 

I feel very glamourous and beautiful and outgoing in this, even when I'm dressed casually. This is unusual for me, since I'm normally somewhat reserved. But I was Chatty McTalkypants to fullon strangers when I was wearing this, and feeling like I was glowing and golden all the while.

 

I have to revamp my top 3 (again). This is one of them. Maybe #1.

 

I have to add some further remarks about this one -

The first time I wore it (when I wrote this review), I was feeling somewhat celibate and businesslike. However, I do want to add (warning! TMI heading your way!): this perfectly captures the scent of bodily fluids (female, not male), with a sweet topnote and in a beautiful, wonderful way. This reacts to my hormones, too. For some reason it smells like a peanut butter and honey sandwich at certain times of month - not really what I want to smell like. But the rest of the month it's amazing and great.

 

PS - when I said above that I didn't like amber, I wasn't experienced enough with it to know what I was talking about. I love amber and it works wonders with me.

I adore Kumiho, but it fades so quickly on me. I am not getting any florals out of it, just a fresh lemony iced tea scent with a hint of sugar and spike of something bright and biting - the ginger.

 

It reminds me of Old Shanghai with a ginger shoot kick.

 

I will slather more on and see if I can get it to last any longer. It's just so beautiful and makes me happy and cheerful when I wear it.

The description sounds so fascinating and when wet it's a complex, sharpish, bright scent - nonfloral, yet not particularly masculine, either.

 

As soon as it dries on me, it becomes spicy and powdery and kind of nondescript. It's not bad, in fact it's kind of pleasant, but it's just not that interesting and it isn't something I'm particularly excited about smelling like. I think on someone else this would be great, but there's an ingredient in here that just doesn't like to be in contact with my skin.

I really really really REALLY like this one.

 

A lot of the BPAL men's fragrances tend to become weirdly powdery/spicy on me in an unpleasant way, and remind me of aftershave or Old Spice.

This one, however, does not.

 

Wet: JUNIPER - it overrides everything else in a lovely way

 

Drying: the juniper fades quickly and a dry wood smell peeps out

 

Dry (for hours): I smell like the inside of a woodbox that holds a lot of evergreen branches. I smell like a pile of pencil shavings stuck in a dribble of pine pitch. I smell like I just bushwacked through a juniper hedge with a cypress two-by-four and made a big mess out of the hedge and am covered with little juniper bits and cypress oils.

 

I am not sure if this is appropriate for an everyday scent, but it's really growing on me. I feel very calm in it. It's a nice change from the sweeter scents that I usually wear (Snake Oil, Katharina, Old Morocco), and I think I will buy a big bottle of it when my Imp runs out.

 

The more I think about it, the more I love it.

 

This is really wonderful.

I will describe how this smells on my husband, and on me:

 

On husband - a little spicy, a little salty, a little leathery - all combined nicely. Kind of like a leather jacket that has been out in the elements for a really long time, so that new leather smell is really faded but still present. He's been wearing this as his spring alternative to DeSade. I think he's planning on a big bottle of it for the summer. It smells great on him.

 

On me - starts off the same as on husband when wet, but somehow morphs into a really offensive perfumey smell after about 1/2 an hour. It reminded me of a perfume that my grandmother wears called Chantilly, which is one of my least favorite perfumes (no offense to my grandmother, who is otherwise great). It just became really overwhelming and seemed to get stronger every minute and in the end made me feel a little nauseous.

Ace of Pentacles is pretty earthy and dead leafy, with a sort of musky undertone that's very pleasant. It reminds me a bit of the smell of raking leaves; the underneath part of them where the leaf pile interfaces with the dirt.

This is a very pleasant, light scent that smells strongly of lavendar in the bottle and when wet, but dries to a bright and clean soap/citrus fragrance with just a hint of lavendar. It's very nice, although not something I'd usually wear since lavendar doesn't always agree with me. This ended up not being a problem because it disappeared completely after about 20 minutes. Oh well.

Do you mean the elements like earth, air, fire, and water?

There's the Dark Elements section, if that's what you mean.

 

How does one know what element one is?

 

Or do you mean like the periodic table of elements?

 

Excuse my dumbness on this - I don't know much about this kind of stuff. I know my astrological sign and that's it.

This wasn't sweet at all to me - just very fresh and lemony and clean. Kind of like a stronger version of Old Shanghai. It lasts for hours, and smells clean yet not soapy, fresh but not too astringent. It's a very bright yellow-green scent, kind of like how the light filters through green leaves on a humid day.

 

This is another absolute favorite.

 

Edited to add: this also smells great on my husband, and we are going to split a big bottle in our next order (or fight over it, since we live in different cities).

I love how this smells in the bottle - it really does smell like a thunderstorm in August, that tense, wonderful, damp smell right before the wind really starts to blow.

 

That said...

I put this on and immediately started coughing with a horrible tickle in my throat, and the smell completely changed on impact with my skin to an overpowering smell of fabric softener and dryer sheets.

 

This is great in the bottle, but it isn't something I can wear.

I think that Shrieking Violet and I are the only ones where Dana O'Shee lasts forever, but here's what lasts on me even after 3 washings:

 

Bliss

Snake Oil

Burial

Old Morocco

Katharina

Wrath (unfortunate, because it smells terrible on me)

Magus

Old Athens

Old Rome

 

 

For the lighter scents, I've found Tempest to be pretty strong.

 

Note: with Magus and Old Athens, the smell is pretty different 4 hours later than it is when you first put it on, and changes slowly throughout the day.

It seems like all the strong florals give me a raging headache. Which is weird, because regular flowers don't bother me and I don't really have allergies or anything.

 

I'm wondering if it's psychosomatic because I used to be a housekeeper and a lot of the cleaning chemicals smelled strongly floral.

 

Roses don't bother me, but lilies, lilacs, gardenia, jasmine... yikes. Headaches plus nausea.

I was unsure of this at first, because the patchouli really pierced my nose with a sharp, unpleasant, kind of spearing and bitter bite. But I waited for about 10 minutes and it mellowed nicely to undercut the sweetness of the apricot, and really mesh well with it.

 

This will be for when I'm in a kind of snarky and bad mood and want to stay in such a mood, I think. A perfume for when I need to be bitchy.

 

Edited later to add:

 

Although this seemed to work for a while that day, I think that patchouli and I don't get along very well. At the end of the day I ended up smelling like soggy, dead plants.

Wet: a sharpish, woody smell. Galangal and sandalwood and cedar most apparent, kind of like the smell of wet wood that is kind of rotting. In a good way.

 

Drydown: a sweet note comes out on top of everything and the sharpness disappears. The wood note is still strong, and it has a bit of a spicy masculine smell.

 

1 hour later: fading kind of fast, but I only put a little bit on. The sharpness is all gone, leaving a smooth, sweet, sawdusty smell. I am glad I didn't wash this off right away because I really like it after it's had a chance to sit for a while. This is really lovely and unusual, and the masculine "Old Spice" note has mellowed out a lot. The smell reminds me of the idea of wood that has been sanded so smooth that it's silky. In the end I don't find this one masculine at all, at least on me. I don't know if I'll get a big bottle, but I'll use the Imp for now.

I love the idea of smelling like sage, but unfortunately as soon as I put it on a sickly flower smell came out (the Iris?), the sage was nonexistant, and yet again I smell like that carpet cleaning fluid that you put into industrial steam cleaners (I used to be a housekeeper, and I don't want to smell like cleaning chemicals).

Wet: a coconut-mint-lime scent (non-foody) with a hint of something sharp and bright, kind of like that tang and bite that is sometimes happening on the back of your tongue in guava or passion fruit.

 

Drying: unsweetened coconut, lemon peel and maybe even some pith, and that same bright note. Not flashy-bright, but bright-sunlight-on-water bright. A little unsettling and astringent, and hits you high up in the nose.

 

Dry (up to 6 hours later): I smell like a coconut macaroon, in the best possible way. The bitter part of the bite is gone, and it still smells bright and light and airy, even though it's still very sweet. This is a different sweetness than Snake Oil, though - it's much more ethereal.

 

It's great. And it has great staying power.

 

This is really, really wonderful. The perfect summer scent.

I like the idea of this one, and it smells like a slithery mix of vanilla and rum with a masculine edge when it's wet, but once it dries on me it just smells like boozy baby powder and Old Spice.

 

I think on a man it might smell better. On me it is pretty overpowering.

Out of the bottle this smells like more than the sum of its parts. It has a slightly bitter note that I can't place, and it certainly is piercing. The citrus is dominant when wet and while drying, but after a few hours I found that it became a kind of soapy smell with something reminiscent of patchouli (but not exactly patchouli). I think that on someone else this would be a great scent, but it just didn't work on me since it reminded me too much of Dial soap and gave me a bit of a headache.

This is a very comforting smell. It reminds me of warm composty topsoil (in the best way) and is reminscent of early summer - like when you're planting a vegetable garden in the sunshine.

 

In the bottle it smelled like cherries and topsoil, the former of which dissipated immediately on contact with my skin. The earthy smell is in the foreground when wet and for the first 1/2 hour or so, but after that I was getting a dusty, sweet baby powder scent on top of everything that I sometimes get with the earthy/piney scents, which overpowered the earthy scent.

 

I put in on before I went to bed and slept deeply and peacefully. I think I'll experiment with putting it on before bed to see if keeps my sleeping so nice (usually I am a light, jumpy sleeper).

 

I want my husband to try it out, because he's been talking about that Demeter "Dirt" fragrance (I think it's Demeter) for like 10 years now without actually buying it, and I think this might be a good analog for him.

This made me realize that my skin + even a hint of a non-delicate floral = carpet spray smell.

 

I really wanted to love this one, and the smell when wet was great: cinnamon, pepper, and corn syrup. I don't know what the problem ingredient was, but as soon as it was on me for 10 minutes a gross flowery smell smell started oozing from my wrists, and I was left smelling like deodorant pantiliners with some red hots thrown in.

 

In any case, this one has some staying power - I washed it off after a while but it refused to budge.

Oops, I posted a review for Banshee here by accident. I will try Tempest tomorrow and then post it here.

 

OK, I'm back.

Out of the bottle comes a sharp, clean, slightly sweet citrusy scent, like grapefruit or pomelo.

On application it becomes more citrus and less sharp, but as time goes by the grapefruit note comes out strongly again and dominates everything else. It's not a grapefruit juice smell, but a fresh grapefruit smell, like when you're peeling a grapefruit and that tiny mist sprays out of the peel. It really reminds me of the smell of grapefruit pith and the oil in the skin rather than the juice. It's a kind of bitter, clean, sharp citrus scent that somehow seems dry rather than wet.

 

Although everyone else so far has said that it fades quickly on them, this one stayed strong on me and lasted a good 12 hours.

 

I don't know if I'd order a whole bottle of this, because for me it it's a bit too sharp to be an everyday scent, but I'll keep my imp's ear for days when I need an extra shot of Vitamin C.

Only perfume I've been complimented on (and by a non-complimenting friend, too!).

 

Vanilla and golden syrup with woodsmoke wafting on top.

 

Long-lasting and unchanging from application until next day.

 

This is great, but depending on mood can be a bit cloying on me. I've recently found that I like it better when it's tempered with Loup Garou, which evens out the sweetness of the vanilla and makes the woodsmoke aspect stronger.

YAY!

February 4th order just arrived on E. Coast - said shipped 29th of Feb (CC Now) but actually I think was shipped on 10th of March - so to the other ladies in waiting, things are happening...

 

To Elizabeth: thank you SO much for all the samples. I am right now out of the country but dear Sedge emailed me to let me know what I'd received. I can't wait to get home and try everything out. My project while I'm away: looking for an appropriate box to put everything in.

All I can say is that Veil scared the shit out of me when I smelled it in the bottle. It really made me uncomfortable, and it smelled kind of evil - like Old Testament style evil - which isnt' something I'd usually say or even think about.

 

I think it affected the rest of my evening. I got in a progressively worse mood as I was driving to NY and there kept being these really weird and loud bumping/banging noises coming from INSIDE the car, behind the driver's seat, but I couldn't figure out what it was. The car itself was running fine, and had never done anything like that before. By the time I got to where I was going I was in a creeped-out rage.

 

I didn't like that scent at all.

I love this one. Fresh, ripe, smashed apricots with champagne dumped on top. I'd been trying to find something like this when I was about 17, but my only option was the Body Shop oils and the apricot they had was just too candy-sweet, like those Japanese hard candies that come in individual little flowered packages. Katharina is less sweet but still respectably fruity. This is a young perfume, but I don't think it is a childish one. It is a good early spring scent - it is tiding me over for much-anticipated warmer weather and strawberry season, when all I've got so far are maybe some crocuses and mud. It might be too strong/fruity for deep summer, but it's great for spring.