ImperatrixMundi

Bright and fruity apple when wet.

Then it turns into a spicy apple with vanilla. But not too much like baked apple, jucier. The description sounds tropical and fruity but Coral snake turned into a christmas scent for me.

I like it. But it smells almost exactly like the green tea and citrus shower get my father always uses. I'd wear it if it was not for that.

Uh, it is a bitter, herbal and astringent scent at first. But that sliver of toasted hazelnut claws its way to the front and everything suddenly turns very very sweet. Ugh. That was really unexpected.

 

Swap!

This is the nices BPAL pine scent I have tried so far and my Boyfriends favourite scent. I like it a lot more than Jabberwocky or Thanatopsis and it is the first GC scent I actually got a bottle of.

It goes on very PINE but mellows out quite a bit soon after it dries. Then the ambergris really comes out. It is a little more complex than that but to be honest, I cant pick out the other notes.

Fruity, like fruit tea, with cinnamon. Not really that sweet.

Fruit notes go really sour on me so this was not my thing at all.

This may not be a very useful review because I actually dont know what I smell. I could never guess any notes in this. It is just a swirl of blue, green and orange for me.

 

It never settles into anything that can be defined as a unified scent, like the notes never join up. There is just a boozy, floral, astringent and sweet swirl of scent.

 

Sorry for the utter uselessness of this review.

Waaaah! The nerdy little comics nut inside me is sooooooo jealous of all of you north americans right now because you already get to watch that movie!!! Us poor europeans, we still have to wait a few more months to see it! I cant wait!!!

 

But Batman would need an all new scent to himself A pity DC and WB have the copyright.

But he might smell somewhat like Severin or Iago.

 

And the Joker smells of Smilex for Men. What else?

 

 

 

 

 

edited: typos

Stuff with the poppy note always reminds me of Opium, my mom used to wear it. That was some time ago but when I tried Vechernyaya I really had flashbacks

Side note: When I first saw this thread, it was cut off at "Help Me Smell Like a Lemon Mer.." and all I could think was a Lemon Mermaid.

Now I wonder what that would smell like?

 

That's what I thought too!

 

Concerning Lemon Meringe Pie - I say Zephyr. Some people will disagree but at least I ended up smelling like pie. It was one of my first BPALs and I loved it until I frimped it away. Now I miss my imp!

When wet: Screaming "ozone" over heavy incense.

 

Note to self: Keep in mind that incense turns to powder within no time at all. D'oh.

The ozone does not stick either and I am left with a powdery residual scent in which I cant identify anything any more.

 

Error. Critical chemistry failure. Reboot of olfactory system in 30 seconds.

Probably my favourite Snake There is still one more to try.

 

The Snake Oil element here is not as strong. Starts out as a very creamy MINT and fades to bergamot and green tea over vanilla-musk. A creamy but fresh scent.

Reminds me a bit of Theodosius with the tea and musk and bergamot. However it works so much better for me than Theodosius. Really very nice summer scent.

This is so strange - for only having two floral notes, this scent is extremely flowery on me.

 

Me, too! All the notes I didn't want to amp came out on me, and all the ones I wanted to smell vanished.

 

This one is going to have to go to the swap pile, I think. I am so disappointed!

 

My high hopes for this have been shattered. I fell for the Babylonian Musk but landed in a pile of sharp lilac and tonka beans

Tonka hates me and so do 95% of floral notes. After some time it fades to a really nice floral musk stage but it is not worth waiting for it I am afraid.

 

Dear Lab, can I have this without the tonka, please?

A surprise winner! When picking decants I was not sure about taking this at all. Now I am really glad that I went for it!

 

Cytherea is a very soft and smooth sandalwood and orris scent. Here and there I get a waft of sweetness from the vanilla and a very light amber. The other notes are in there but never stick out on me.

 

Soft, smooth, creamy and a little sweet but with the distict scent of nice sandalwood and orris. Two of my favourite notes perfectly combined. No pencil shavings to be smelled anywhere.

The passage with the cab-driving Ifrit was maybe my favourite part of the book, one of the passages where I know exactly why Neil is my favourite writer of all times.

 

Hmm. Give this a bit of time to dry down because wet it is light and indefinite.

 

I expected a much heavier red scent. More on the lines of something like Bloodlust.

But it is really airy, sweet musk. Dry and powdery with hints of something spicy and mysterious. Swirling and sweet and hard to describe. It manages to feel more like a summer scent - something I would never expect from the notes. I'll wear it on dry, hot days and imagine that I have cool burning red eyes hidden under my sunglassrs too.

Whow. This is the nice kind of patchouli. And say hello to mimosa! It goes all sweetly floral on me after I put it on.

 

I can really imagine this will smell very different once red musk week comes along again. Right now the florals really drown it and Marianne becomes a sweetly spiced bergamot, lotus and mimosa blend instead of the heavy red musk scent I would favour. But it is really lovely and I can imagine that it will only become even better.

 

This might have to become a bottle before carnaval ends

 

 

Edited to add:

 

Well... I have to add to my premature review that Marianne dries down to a very incensey scent, mainly due to the patchouli. All the floras are gone quickly and the staying power is not that great on me. The red musk stage somehow gets skipped on me. Hmmm. Now I am not so sure about this any more, I dont like to smell like "incense" but that is what my skin turns it into

As a big fan of white musk scnets I had to try this

 

This is very intensely perfume-y. Smells like the kind of scents my mother wears, like Poison and Opium. She always puts on too much, I used to get sick sitting behind her in the car as a kid. Because of that Vechenyaya makes me a bit queasy.

 

The patchouli grouds the scent a bit but is not extremely prominent. Poppy - well I guess that is why it reminds me of Opium?

 

I wanted this to be more chilly and sweet white musk. It has been sitting around since I first tried it and the second time it was a bit better, rounder and a little lighter. So I will sit on the imp until it is well aged and maybe, just maybe, it will still turn into love

It's... Floral. Yeah, I know, not helpful. Florals of most categories dont work for me I amp rose very much too. Osmanthus is a very fruity floral. I can imagine this would be a light but elegant floral scent. On someone else.

For a good musky vanilla, (this may be just me) but antique lace turns into the most delicious warm vanilla that reminds me of an early 20th century European bakery and the scent seems so welcoming, like home. ;-) Anyone else get the same reaction?

 

Lucky you On me it was plastic, my skin makes vanilla notes so incredibly fake and chemical smelling. I'd so love to find an ultimate vanilla scent but Antique Lace, Black Opal and Love's Philosophy have all been capital failures.

Mr Ibis!

 

No skin musk but the "egyptian and north african musks" are great. It perfectly combines sweet and musky and clean in one scent and is very comforting and that is what I think of when I read "skin scent".

You caramel lovers got a new scent with the update! Agrath-Bat-Something... Reds like Glowing V with musk, honey and caramel.

 

The ultimate White Musk blend issue has not been resolved yet I tried Vechernyaya, thinking that would be it, but the poppy and patchouli are so strong.

It really smelled like an old, dry, dusty vampire that was asleep for the past five centuries.

 

The imp is quite old, it still has the old BPAL Phoenix logo on the back, and there is not much left of the wine notes, just something vaguely fruity over dry earth. The dust smell was impressive, however I dont intend to smell like dusty old Nosferatu.

I think my nose must be from another planet. All I can smell from Incubus is celery?? WTH? Wheres the mint, and tobacco? I don't wanna smell like celery

 

No, I get that too.

 

It was only in the middle though. Wet it was minty caramel, on my skin it morphed slowly into celery (I think this is actually the sage, mint and tabacco making trouble. I tested it against my husband's nose who HATES celery and he didn't smell it at all). The dry down started mellowing, so I'm going to age it and see if it settles...

 

 

I get the celery too! Ack!

Incubus - how cool and sexy does that sound? And what do I get? Celery and caramel. Duh.

A naughty scent

First I thought I smelled tobacco but then I read the noted and saw it is leather. My skin eats leather notes on a regular basis, the incense and pimento are the strongest notes on me but there is more depht and the camomille can be picked up in the foreground. Very smoothly blended though, all the rest of the notes dont stick out. Very warm and dry, colour: red-brown

 

Very nice, my boyfriend likes to wear it too and I really enjoy a spicy incense blend without cinnamon in it.

After all the hype about the original version I was not that thrilled with Hexennacht 2008.

Wet there is a soft and musky pine scent but on the drydown the amber comes out and it is the kind of amber that reminds me of gingerbread. The fir/pine faded very fast. It always does, but overall the scent was very soft and faint with very little throw or staying power.

My boyfriend usually loves evergreen scents but was extremely unimpressed by this as well. I am passing it on, there is nothing bad about it but it does not warrant owning a bottle.

Woooo!

I absolutely want a bottle of this! I love love LOVE red musk and chrysanthemums!

 

Wet the chrysanthemum is really strong but after the drydown the red musk melds with a sweet, soft, resinous incense and opium scent and there is a floral waft of chrysanthemum now and then with a hint of ginger spicyness.