Lucchesa

Got this as a sniffie from a generous forumite -- thank you, Traubert! It is definitely interesting, the butterscotch immediately tempered with something more like machine oil than dirt on my skin, though never letting go of the sweetness entirely, but I don't absolutely adore it, which is a good thing because there's hardly any more and it must be hard to come by. But I'm thrilled that I got to try it out.

A glorious parasite! Once the seeds of the Strangler Fig find root in the bark of a tree, snakelike roots erupt and reach graspingly at the sky. The Strangler Fig then sprouts numerous epiphytic vines that strangles and surrounds its unwilling host, and finally snuffs the life from it. Rooty, woody, with deep green tones. In the imp: sweet and fruity (figgy? I love figs!) But when it hit my skin, a resinous note took over, like a snapped tree branch smell - very different from the bottle smell. On drydown I thought for a moment that it had faded away completely after about 30 minutes, but it was just regrouping. It came back with a complex mix of earthy green smells, with the sweetness there in the background. And it lasted longer than most oils do on me, so I could still get hints of it in yoga, and it made me feel flexible and strong. Definitely a keeper.

Funny how Mermaid-on-Land found this too faint for her. I had the opposite reaction. I liked the lovely floral tones in the imp so I dabbed some on my wrists before walking to a nearby cafe to meet a new client. Most BPAL oils are pretty private on my skin, and I thought it would be a nice confidence booster. Ironically, this was a lecture I would be giving at a local Catholic Church. And I quickly found out Water of Notre Dame is STRONG on me. I kept thinking this guy was going to think I was some kind of fallen woman, wearing too much perfume. For me the dominant note seemed to be lilies. I like Gloame's description: "spiritual lilies.". I have had this experience with one other oil I've tried recently: Imperious Tiger Lily. So it seems that my skin amps lilies. Hurray - I seem to damp down most everything else. Anyway, I often find real lilies cloying, but Beth works her magic with both these blends, and they are gorgeous. I just need to apply sparingly. Not sure about the calming effect -- I need to try again in a less nerve-wracking situation.

This is quite lovely, nicely balanced between fruit, floral and herbal. Wet the fruit and floral notes are strongest, and the herbs start to emerge on dry down. It doesn't last long on me, though. Very pleasant but not a home run.

I love Aizen-Myoo in the imp, and I remember being very pleased with it when I first tried it, but lately my skin chemistry is doing something very strange to it, changing the citrus tones into an unpleasant industrial cleanser smell. I noticed something similar though not so strong with the grapefruit in Cheshire Cat recently. Eventually it mellows down and the cherry blossom makes its presence felt, though I never got much tea, but the first half hour or so is not worth it on me.

Venice is my favorite city on earth, so I wanted to love this oil. But it's much too floral for me, which is odd given how few flowers are growing in Venice. I was really hoping the citrus, red currant and sandalwood would be more assertive, but instead I amped rose and jasmine to the exclusion of all else. Peccato.

Shanghai on me is pleasant but not a standout. For some reason the green tea just disappears on my skin, taking the verbena with it soon thereafter, and I'm just left with the faint sweetness of honeysuckle, which does not last long either. I seem to obliterate this scent within minutes. Shanghai, I have defeated you! So I won't be buying more.

This has really good throw on me, which I'm excited about, since my skin seems to damp down most of the bpal oils I really like, and sometimes I want to flaunt it. So I can apply Imperious Tiger Lily sparingly and still get a dramatic effect. The neroli and other notes keep this from being a cloying lily scent and turn it into a brassy, bossy lily, as the name suggests. I never got the ginger but I suspect it's part of what keeps this bright. I'm not into heavy florals but this one works for me. I will need to get more!

This reminds me of Eat Me but doesn't have whatever ingredient in Eat Me is disastrous with my chemistry. (Vanilla???) It's quite pleasant and I may pull out the imp on a chilly damp day when I'm craving comfort food, but I don't plan to buy a bottle.

This hit me with a really strong childhood sense memory. My father had a wood shop, so I thought maybe sawdust and machine oil. Wet it has a sharp resinous tang, but turns surprisingly honeyed on dry down. Definitely unisex, though. On my second application, I nailed it. I used to have a scratch and sniff Xmas book. The scents I remember were candy cane, hot cocoa, gingerbread, and pine tree. This smells exactly like the scratch and sniff pine tree of 40 years ago. Really, really nice and going on the short list for my next bottle purchase.

I don't think of myself as having particularly sensitive skin (though I am older than most of you all) and for personal reasons I am trying a range of anger-related scents, so I thought I would give this a go. Wet: if this is what eternal damnation smells like, sign me up! Beguilingly sweet with bitter almond as the dominant note. Dry: the cinnamon takes over - cinnamon sticks, childhood holidays. The neroli is still in the background. My wrists begin to feel warm. Five minutes later, oh damn, there are big red marks on my wrists, which are burning. I didn't react this way to the cinnamon in Wrath, but this is diabolical and I wash it off. Twice. This will have to be a room scent as apparently it hates me. Too bad!

As the name might well imply, this one is very fugitive on me, disappearing except for a hint of a grin within 30 minutes or so. I'll keep the imp as it's a nice wake up in the morning scent - grapefruit always is for me - but I won't be buying a bottle.

I've been wearing Wrath all day, reapplied twice, and at 9 pm my husband and 13-year-old son were screaming at each other. Hmm. Hopefully it's a coincidence because I really like it. It's a gorgeous orangy red, and wet it has a clean, powerful feeling, like righteous anger. As it dries down I get the Red Hots that Lunasariel and others have mentioned, but I always loved Red Hots. It's spicy and complex on me and lasts fairly well, which is rare with my chemistry.

Being a Lizzie Siddal fan, I wanted to love this, but for me it was horrible. Mentholatum, which I didn't expect from the ingredients. I was going to give it half an hour on my skin to morph into something bearable, but I don't think I lasted ten minutes before scrubbing it off. Not for me.

For me this was the weird heavy spice cake somebody brought to your holiday party and no one ate. It just didn't work on my skin. Neither does Eat Me, so I suspect there is some common ingredient that doesn't agree with me present in both.

This smells yummy in the imp, but something disastrous happens when it hits my skin. It turns weird. I have learned this sometimes happens with cake or pastry notes. They just don’t like me. In an hour or so it's more pleasant, but sadly Eat Me is not for me.

Where is the evil? This is a lovely summery floral, something my mother would have worn, whereas from the name I was hoping for something my mother would have been slightly unnerved by. I love Baudelaire and was expecting a little more "mal" from Fleurs du Mal, something deeper and debauched.

I safeguard my Screaming Mandragora frimp because I know I'm unlikely ever to get another one. It's marvelous on me, managing to be earthy but not heavy. There's a balancing fruitiness and acidity, almost a cotton candy scent in the imp that becomes richer as it dries. I wear it when I want to be grounded but optimistic.

Alice was the first bpal scent I fell madly in love with, and it is still my go-to feel-good scent. I travel with it; I wear it all year long; it buoys me when I catch a whiff of it. Pulling out the stopper invariably raises my mood two or three notches. Just thinking about Alice raises my mood. Love it! It is sexy in a light, flirty, but not little-girl way, delicious in an Earl Grey tea with marzipan cookies way. When I was home for the holidays and put it on to go out to a family event, my mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, said, "You smell wonderful!" I also have the hair gloss, and also adore it.

I wanted to love Hunger -- I found it gorgeous and lush in the imp and wet. And it is very long lasting -- I could put it on at night and still smell the traces on my wrists doing downward dogs in yoga the next morning. It dries to something deep -- the black narcissus? - which, as the previous poster mentioned, just doesn't agree with me. I can tell it must be fantastic on many users; I'm just not one of them. ETA OK, I wrote that over a year ago, when I was just beginning to go beyond Alice. I retested it in fall and loved it. It's this devilish combination of virginally sweet, which I associate with orange blossom, and drop dead sexy. And given that my skin eats up so many blends, I appreciate its staying power. It's not 100% me, but it is damned fun to wear.