Lucchesa

Pontarlier is absolutely lovely on me. It's green, green grass, green foliage, herbal lavender, a hint of one of my favorite florals, lilac, and a breath reminiscent of mint and lime that I think is the absinthe note. I'm not getting rose or blackcurrant, and the absinthe isn't taking it into dark Bohemian nightclub territory; it's more Maria spinning wildly in the glorious Alps singing "the hills are alive..." Sadly, my skin devours this within an hour.

Only a Sip feels more like aromatherapy to me than perfume, which is appropriate given the inspiration: it's an instant pick-me-up. It's also the longest-lasting BPAL orange note I have encountered on my skin. I'm not getting any clove, and the mint and rosemary are present but subdued. I might need a bottle of this to sniff when I need a little power or courage or when I just can't.

I tried Mr. Croup out of curiosity and liked it much more than I expected to. I didn't look at the notes for about an hour and I too thought it had a leathery feel, but I really couldn't identify any of the individual notes. A kind of slightly sharp or herbal men's cologne, definitely kind of reddish brown in tone. When I checked the notes I laughed because you can really imagine the smashed porcelain being in there. Anyway, I have plenty of masculine trending scents that aren't named for despicable characters, and one of my swap partners is interested in trying this, so I will be passing it on, but I am really glad I got to try it.

Black patchouli, tonka bean, mahogany bark, gurjum balsam, and decadent cacao absolute surrounded by two dark, feral musks and sweet sarsaparilla. Mmm, dark chocolate cologne. Now there is a man I need in my life. This trends masculine and is very sexy. The cocoa doesn't dominate for long, but that wet phase is killer. An hour later, it's a rich blend of sweet dark patch and musk and woods with just a hint of chocolate and sarsparilla. It's down to a skin scent now, but I keep sniffing my wrist and fantasizing about meeting someone who smells like this. At a lecture, or a bookstore coffeeshop, but you know he goes hiking at night to look at the stars. So, anyway, I like.

Dawn: Maiden is super duper pretty. Olive blossom goes soapy on me sometimes, and that is the case here as well, though it's not a deal-breaker because it also gives this maiden great throw. The milk and honey keep the tea rose from going sour on me. Soft, feminine, not particularly me. Super pretty, though!

I wanted to love this because Rapunzel was my favorite fairy tale growing up. I don't know why, in retrospect; Rapunzel is such a colossal idiot. But I really liked the illustrations in the book we had. Anyway, Rapunzel is a lovely aquatic white floral, light and pretty, springtime and innocence, hovering on the edge of French-milled soap for me. I'm not getting a lot of either orris or rosewood. It's very pretty, but I don't wear aquatics or pure florals, so I'm guessing I won't reach for this imp very often.

This was really lovely -- warm amber and saffron and honey and coconut. I didn't really get any leather, though there is definitely a bit of the olive blossom note, though it didn't go soapy on me as it sometimes does. Then it disappeared. Sadness! Bad greedy skin ETA: Actually, this lasts quite a long time on me, but it is very faint.

I was frimped a tester of Aegir; I would never have tried it otherwise. Lavender tends to be really sharp on me, and I don't do aquatics. But I try the things that come my way, and this is surprisingly lovely. It's not a sharp, screechy lavender at all; it really is a languid lavender (Lab, if you're reading this, more languid lavender, please!!). I'm not familiar with guiac, but the cedar is toned down as well, so it's like opening a cedar chest to find old sprigs of lavender inside, not like pencil shavings. I think I prefer saltwater to freshwater notes; this does not do the laundry detergent thing most aquatics do on my skin. The saltwater is kind of grounding and works beautifully with the lavender and wood notes. And I dig the description of this as piratical lavender! I kind of love this and think it would make a great sleep scent. I wish I had more of it!

Oh I wish I had tried this before Yules went down! Instead, I tested it last night, a couple of hours before bedtime, and the Language of Crows is marvelous. Caramel, tobacco, dark woody resins, and a hint of cardamom, check! Warm, comforting, an excellent end-of-day scent, like a warm blanket and a crackling fire. Love!

I wasn't sure this would work on me. Overly fruity scents don't, in general, but the supporting notes sounded wonderful -- I will try anything with mallow. Sure enough, wet on my skin Texare was all juicyfruit, but the drydown is lovely -- sweet and sexy. I'm not getting a lot of frankincense, but the oudh is a deep earthy but not stinky note, and the mallow and vanilla husk blend together into the roasted marshmallow goodness lizabelle mentions. Colorful, comforting, sweet and fuzzy. Joy!

Sharp lavender, screechy white musk, and ozone? A clean, soapy aquatic note. All together, it gives me a headache. So sad!

Feed Me and Fill Me ought to have been a slam dunk on me, based on the notes. But it turns out there's still patchouli I find unsettling: the big black variety. Dark and earthy and a little bitter wet, and the honey and vanilla amber were fighting a losing battle at first. I wasn't sure. Eventually it settled into something very wearable, but I still wasn't sure. It wasn't until I tested my decant of East African black patchouli SN then retested Feed Me that I really got this scent. After experiencing the patchouli raw and unadulterated, and learning to love it, it kind of unlocked this scent for me. It's deep, rich, sweet, and beautiful, and it doesn't last nearly as long as I would like it to (which would be all day and then some...)

Blood Countess was sweeter and fruitier than I expected from the name. In the imp the plum is almost sour, but on my skin it's overwhelmed by sweet opium and berry and flowers. Over time the opium and plum did get more prominent, but not as dark and smoky as I would have enjoyed. And then I got busy and forgot to pay attention to the later drydown, so I'm going to have to retest this one at some point. But I'm not certain I should keep it when so many people crave this one.

"You smell fruity," my husband commented when I put on Lady Macbeth. So, good throw and decent wear length, but the sweet wine note is all grape on me, so this is fruit, fruit, fruit and a little thyme. If grape and berry and currant notes are your jam (pun kind of intended), you will like this one a lot.

Thanks to the kind generosity of a fellow swapper, I have Sumatran red on one wrist and East African black on the other wrist. Sumatran red is a dark reddish-brown oil. And it's patchouli all right, but it's the more urbane of the two. Earthy but not gritty or dirty, smooth and woody and comforting whereas the black is almost unsettling to me, at least wet. Sumatran red knows every Grateful Dead song but can also get dressed up and go to work in an office. They are both beautiful in their own way. I can't believe I've learned to love patchouli this much!

When I started out with BPAL, patchouli was a note I rigorously avoided. Now I've come to love it. And thanks to hugely generous frimpage from a forumite who will remain nameless but is right above me in this thread, I get to try out both East African black and Sumatran red patch, straight up. This is the one that scares me more. It's deep, dark, primal, earthy. Not for the faint of heart. If you're patchouli-avoidant, this is not going to be your gateway patch. There's a bitterness on initial application, but after an hour or so it softens into something rich and almost, but not quite, sweet. It's amazing, and I am so glad, and grateful, to have my decant.

Mr. Nancy is delicious -- a foodie that trends slightly masculine, with the tobacco and bay rum suggesting a hint of cologne. The lime note is not particularly long-lasting on me, but the rum sugar cookies last a really long time as a skin scent. Sweet, warm and cozy.

Daybreak from 2017 Liliths. Lavender-vanilla-coconut.

If she wants to go with something very simple (but utterly lovely), The Rose from the Marchen series is beautiful, or I love Hope from the Carnaval Diabolique which is sugared rose but which you can only buy from the lab in a pair with Faith, sugared violet. In addition to all the great suggestions already floated, some other possibilities you could get imps of: Aelopile (Glowing amber and citrus, labdanum, verbena, cedar, and oud) has some notes she already wears Alice - a personal fave of mine (Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot) - innocent but not little girl Delight - Frangipani, with rose, tuberose, and jasmine Delirium - apple, rose and lemon Eos - softly glowing skin, jasmine, buttercup and honeysuckle Eternal - Stephanotis, cyclamen, heliotrope, white rose and gardenia Follow Me Boy (I got lilies) Les Bijoux - Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, red apple, frankincense and myrrh Mouse's Long and Sad Tale - Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood Pride - Moroccan rose and narcissus (huge throw on me) Queen of Hearts - Lily of the Valley, Calla Lily, stephanotis and a drop of cherry Seraphim - calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense Two, Five and Seven - Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose, and just an itty bitty bit of green grass Veil - White sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender and ylang ylang Viola - Gentle tea rose, lilac, Calla Lily, and Somalian Rose layered over golden Peruvian amber, Spanish moss, red sandalwood, rosewood, and myrrh, with the lightest touch of Mandarin Unless your sister has a dark sense of humor, I would stay away from anything with an unlucky name, like Grief or even Desdemona. Good luck!

I've been wearing Eusapia (2014) quite a bit lately because the lilacs are in bloom, lilac is one of my favorite notes, and Eusapia is one of my two favorite lilac blends (Cave of Treasures being the other). The opening of Eusapia is seriously beautiful: realistic lilacs and bright lemony white tea and sweet beeswax. Some blends need time on the skin to develop their full potential, but Eusapia is gorgeous right out of the starting blocks. I'm halfway surprised I don't have bumblebees buzzing around my wrists, looking for nectar. My skin tends to drink up tea notes quickly, so the drydown on me is lilac and creamy beeswax, and it lasts a really long time. It's very pretty, very feminine, very spring-like, a guaranteed lifter of moods.

I tried this Novel Ideas out of curiosity (and because roseus was offering a screaming deal on it - thanks, roseus!). I wasn't sure quite what to expect. It isn't something I would turn to every day, but it has an understated elegance to it. I don't have the kind of job that involves meetings in boardrooms, but I think it would play very well in such a setting, with a beautifully cut suit. There's a faint sweetness to the amber cream, a hint of polished woods but nothing forest-like whatsoever, and I might have guessed a fruit or a flower. No throw on me (which is normal) and average wear life.

Even wet, Cytherea is faint on me. I get pale sandalwood and pale patchouli and pale florals (champaca usually amps weirdly on me, but here I barely make it out). Dusty orris. Pale and dry is the overall feeling of this one -- I love how another reviewer likened it to an old sepia photograph, and I would agree, but it's kind of a half-tone of a scent for me. Pleasant, but not the blockbuster most of the grindhouse is on me.

I wanted to try Kypris because of the Rainier cherry note, which I've not seen anywhere else. I'm not sure how common they are outside the Pacific NW, but Rainier cherries are a local breed, sort of pale yellow tipped with red and with a more delicate flavor than the dark red types. I have no desire to furnish pregnancy of any sort. So, Kypris is gorgeous on me. The opening is vanilla almond cherry lemon, so lovely. I have a cherry almond bath scrub from a circular swap made by another forumite, and I love it, and this is very similar. There's a delicate hint of rosewater; the honey is also delicate, and as it dries down it all melds together into pure delight. The benzoin and rose keep it from being overly foodie, and it's not overly sweet either. Kypris is a joyful scent, perfect for the May sunshine we're enjoying in Seattle these days.

I wasn't sure Lady in Speckled Pink Kimono would work on me. I usually don't wear pure florals, and while I love the smell of peonies IRL, they're awfully heady. Vanilla is good, orchid is iffy. But this is perfectly lovely. It is more subdued than I imagined it would be, and not overly sweet. So while it's feminine as hell, it's sophisticated enough for professional wear and not at all girly. Low throw but good wear length.

Catherine was a wishlist frimp from a generous forumite, and I'm so delighted to get to try it. Wet, Catherine is bracing, and I like it quite a bit. There's rose and orange blossom lingering in the background, but the astringent rosemary is the main player. It reminds me a lot of Bess without the Dimetapp grape interfering. Having been a Renaissance scholar, I have a soft spot for these Renaissance blends. My skin eats up the rosemary within 90 minutes or so, though, after which it is a soft orange blossom and rose blend which is far less interesting on me.