ImperatrixMundi

Ambergris and lots of moss moss moss. I am not a big moss fan. Sweet, aquatic moss is not so bad however. Somehow I dont get the mints. Maybe my imp is not that fresh any more and they have faded a bit?

 

Cathode does not wow me but it is not bad either. Moss lovers might want to try it

This is a fun scent, citrus, chocolate and a little peppermint. Quite nice, but not really the kind of thing I wear.

It fades a bit fast but that can be expected with citrus and peppermint. Happy and fun in an unusual way.

Rose, gardenia and jasmine.

 

Whoa. So sickly sweet and intense as hell! I dabbed on the TINYEST little dab on my wrist and could not hold my arm far enough away from me! And it just refused to wash off and die! My clothes smelled until I put them in the laundry.

 

Ugh. Not actually a bad scent but WAY overwhelming! Probably the strongest BPAL I ever tested, it even beats fresh Urd. Cant imagine what would have happend had I slathered it on. I'd still be smelling a week later.

 

Maybe I simply have no need for good fortune in the ummm... escort business?

Krampus 2006

 

I cant believe I have never reviewed this before! I love Krampus!

 

To me this is simply the best red musk scent I have tried so far. A year ago it was perfumy and dry and dusty but now it has become ever more rounded and rich red musk with a hint of leather and woody patchouli. The leather never was very prominent but then this was already a year old when I got it. And my skin eats leather unlike anything else.

More love for Krampus! It only gets better with age too! And the red musk is pretty dominant in there.

Yum. Not foody - it's feedy. Oats, molasses and hay are most prominent. On drydown the apple peeks outa bit but fortunately not too much. All the while this is surprisingly light and nice and natural smelling instead of becoming artificially sweet and cloying as I feared before.

The next morning I could smell the musk that is in there on the back of my hand.

Whow, this one really works for me!

Warm, spiced amber with just a hint of patchouli! I love it!

Very rich scent, great throw and staying power too. This will definitely be my winter favourite this year, the only regret I have is that I did not discover it earlier!

Hmmm....

 

I'm a bit on the fence about this.

 

Wet: almond milk and the white pine with something sweet - the sarsaparilla? That is a smell I am not familiar with at all but I guess it is the only possibility.

 

As it dries the pine fades fast and most of the strong almond follows suit. The almond note gets more and more creamy as it leaves - if anything called milk would always behave that well on me... The supposed sarsaparilla comes out more and more and becomes dominant, side by side with the black patchouli that now develops and the tobacco (the cigarette kind) comes out a bit too.

 

So this changes a lot on drydown. It smells great right at the beginning, but later there is something unpleasant to the tobacco. But on the other hand the sarsaparilla is nice. Fades rather fast anyway.

 

I guess I am not being helpfull at all with this review

Overall I really like it but I am not going to wear it much, it is the kind of scent where I just keep my decant.

Terminal Sugar Rush Here I Come!

 

The first ten minutes there is a wintery mint with a lot of sugar. After ten minutes the mint is gone and it feels and smells like sniffing a packet of powdered sugar, even hurts my nose a little bit, they way it burns when you get the sugar up your nose. Weird. I wish the mint would hang around for a bit. After complete drydown my nose starts reading the sugar as something else, like a cold, white and very sweet musk. Not really vanilla for me.

 

Probably not a bottle candidate but I think I'll keep my decant

Not so ghastly at all, more like a hot and humid greenhouse full of tropical plants. A moist green scent, very plant-y. The greenhouse is definitely not bright and airy, it is very dark and overgrown.

For a floral I like it more than I would have thought but it's not my thing at all to wear.

Normally the very hyped-up scents dont work work for me after all but this time I am glad I grabbed a bottle from the lab while it was available.

 

With some notes I am not familiar at all so I cant pick them out specifically. But there is a lot of the bay rum and something sharp that I find unpleasant while wet. I'll spare you my association so I dont ruin it for anyone

 

When it dries down it gets a lot sweeter, there is bay and vanilla and something earthy. The scent is very warm, smooth and peppery and very comforting. Very lovely and rather unisex than masculine for me

I LOVE violets and the more I sniff it the more I like it. Violets, sugar and definitely some vanilla too, unless I am very mistaken.

 

The color association I get is also different from the other bpal violets. While the other violet scents are a very light and pale violet this is a deep pink and purple tinged violet, a very deep color. I dont know if that makes sense to anyone.

 

Very good staying power as well, especially where I put some on my clothes yesterday.

This is the first scent where I seriously think of getting a backup bottle to stash away because otherwise it will always be too precious to wear. But it is a very comforting scent that I want to use a lot right now.

Very straightforward rose, obviously. It is not a light white rose or a heavy red rose, it is fresh and dewy and sweet.

I never ever wear anything with rose, it just amps so much on me and becomes screaming. Therefore as soon as it dries I dont get anything more subtle and sugary any more, just screaming rose.

But I guess if you love rose it is an absolute must-try, like Faith is for a violet lover like me

Frimp courtesy of The Lab.

 

Obviously in the sweet and fruity tropical flower category. It is mostly orchid on top and banana with something a bit creamy, most likely gardenia, underneath. In the beginning ginger gives it a pleasant hint of spice.

After a little while on my skin the orchids and banana dominate the scent. The note description also seems to mention rose (see transcription in post #37) and while I amp rose terribly much here it only gives the scent an air of classical floral perfume without being dominant.

 

Color: pale yellow

 

Verdict: Manila gets voted into office as my only go-to tropical scent with banana once again. Hi'iaka is less wood and banana and much more floral.

2008 version.

 

Want to know what this smells like? Ok.

Grab a shovel, dig a hole and stick your head in. Now inhale.

There, you got it.

 

Smells much less acrid and smoky than I was actually hoping for

While wet the sandalwood and vetivert mingle nicely but it goes a bit powdery on drydown and the metal notes again smell like oily cologne. I'll try and see what it smells like on the man of choice later and I also guess I will warm up to it a bit more when the weather gets cold and wet and dirty in November.

The berries hab me worried since I both amp and distort fruity notes. They get both intense ans unpleasant

Still I have to try everything with Red Musk in it and benzoin and ginger and vanilla and tea....

 

But the Berry Strike Team did a full frontal assault. Le sigh. I smelled like tea flavoured with vanilla and berries. That would not be bad but currant always gets very very sour on me up to the point of smelling like vomit. Sorry for being so graphic, it just makes me sad. But my bottle is already going to a hopefully more loving home.

The UK made Soft Coer smells like HIWTK. My least favourite Lush scent - ever. But I'd so much want one that smells of vanilla, mint and chocolate! I'm a sucker for vanilla-mint things.

Now I have yet an other reason to get to Australia!

Mmm. Ginger tea. I was going to suggest ginger stuff too. If you cant be bugged to chop up fresh ginger when you dont feel so well - asian foodstores often carry instant ginger tea that is good against nausea too, just take one without added sugar or creamer if you want to try it out because the sugared one are horribly sweet most of the time.

Starts out with a sweet and almost cake-like note but then the florals come out and go very powdery and sharp. A genuine washing powder scent. You break my heart.

Apple, caramel and..... Celery!

Duh. Happend to me with Incubus too and to some extent with Szepaszony. Weird chemistry. Although the celery fades after a while and I am left with green apple and caramel.

To swaps with ye.

For poison Ivy I'd say The Ghastly Garden. That was one creepy humid greenhouse smell full of pretty but poisonous blooms.

Normally I try not to describe scents using other scents but here I cant help myself. Torture Queen = Mr. Ibis dreams of The Fisherman's Wife

 

It was all vanilla musk and ambergris with something a little sharp but not definitely metallic.

While the scent as such smells great it has absolutely NO throw at all on me. Weird because the other scents I mentioned really have a lot of throw when I wear them.

After some time of waffling I swapped it away. Guess for what - Fisherman's Wife

Bright and fruity berries. Acai berry really is a nice berry note but I'm afaid I dont really wear anything that bright and fruity and sweet. That is really not me at all.

After some time, when the berry has gone away, it leaves a wonderful soft musk scent on my skin that I kept sniffing and sniffing. But I dont want to wait for it.
Can I please get exactly this without the berries please?

Great notes, but as I feared it is very strongly grape and berry fruity. Then it fades away. All the complex and delicous notes are lost. I already sent it off in a swap but now I am a bit regretful because I would like to test it one more time.