Juliamon

I received a decant of this as a surprise and became worried when I looked it up and saw it had cedar as I'm not fond of that particular wood. Fortunately for me it's only noticeable upon first spritz, and disappears into the leaves and moss fairly quickly. The scent that lingers is that of maple syrup; not fresh from the bottle but rather of a sugarhouse, the sap still being cooked down and not quite ready for consumption yet. A beautiful late-summer/early-autumn scent that reminds me of childhood weekends in super-rural Vermont.

Not floral, not fruity (and I'm not familiar with the washcard in question), but Plunder is a whole boatful of mulling spices: "The scent of a pirates bumboat, overflowing with stolen wares: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg." Plunder came unbidden in my first order, and it was churchdoor's autumn companion whilst sipping hot apple cider on the patio and going mad from pirate bugs. One I haven't tried, yet, is Jack, which would bring in some fruit: "The scent of warm, glowing jack olanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove." Reviews tend to mention a distinct buttery component in Jack, as well. I just gave Jack a try and it's almost a perfect match on its own! A little less sweet and a little more buttery than the washcard, and needs a bit of spice backup (I'm testing it with a smidge of Al-Shairan first, I'll try it with Plunder tomorrow). Excellent guesswork! (update: Jack and Plunder go really nicely together, even though it's still not a match for the washcard)

In the imp: popcorn and a hint of wood. Maybe a wooden bowl holding the popcorn? Wet: Popcorn and more wood. A lot of wood. Vanilla is starting to peek out. Dry: The popcorn was eaten and the wooden bowl washed and put away. Now all that remains is vanilla cotton candy. It's a nice soft pink sweetness, but a bit too childish for me--it inspires vague memories of those cupcake dolls from the 90s. I might wear it as a bedtime scent.

This is all tangy aquatic for the first hour, almost detergent-like. It eventually dries down into a more gentle, creamy note that lasts longer than anything I've tried before--I put it on around midnight and it's still there the following afternoon! I THINK I like it, but that opening hour is a tough one. edit: What a difference a month makes! It's still a strong citrusy aquatic, but now there's a coconutty milk present very early on that tones it down quickly into something smooth and sweet. This will make an incredible summer scent for me.

This was gifted to me as part of a welcoming swap, probably because of all the mentions of creamsicle. I can smell the orange and vanilla in the imp, and it almost seems like it's balanced enough against the narcissus that I figure it miiiiight be okay. I mean, my skin amps vanilla, so the worst that could happen would be this becoming a lightly floral vanilla. Right? Wrong. The narcissus kicks the vanilla to the curb and steals the show, while the orange blossom looks nervously on, not wanting to interfere in whatever fight must have transpired lest they too get caught up in the drama. Even a layer of Bliss on top couldn't hold the narcissus down completely. And here comes that migraine. Ugh. If you're looking for creamsicle, look to Gobo instead.

In the bottle: well hello there, this smells just like Irish cream liqueur! For a moment I thought I'd opened a nip bottle of Bailey's instead of BPAL. Wet: Coffee that's been spiked with a bit too much Irish cream, a mistake I've made more than once. This scent, it knows me. I would have preferred more coffee but this isn't the first time my skin's eaten up a coffee note. Dry: The coffee's fully gone now, leaving the whiskey and buttercream. I'm not really a fan of whiskey, but the buttercream tempers it to be tolerable. Reasonable throw, but dies down fairly quickly on me to a lingering skin scent. Still, I'm more than happy to reapply because it's sooo delicious when I do!

In the imp this is fruity and lemony in equal amounts with a trace of something darker that I assume is the musk, very promising. When it hits my skin, however, it becomes aggressively, unapologetically, abhorrently floral. What the hell, skin? Why would you betray me like this? Is it the musk? Is it the plum? It's not the lemon because that stayed behind in the imp. To the swaps this shall go.

If this is floral, it's one that doesn't hate me! It's a very light, sweet, gentle, clean scent. Not exciting, and not something I'd wear out, but I've been putting a bit on before bed the last few nights and I think it might be helping my brain relax a bit because I've been getting sleepier faster. Will keep experimenting with the imp, but probably doesn't warrant a bottle unless I find something to layer it with.

I'm having a tough time with this one. I was hoping this would remind me of childhood weekends in Vermont, up on a barely-populated mountain as I raided the blackberry bushes behind our cabin after having a mug of sage tea. Instead it reminds me a bit of Sambucol syrup, more cloying than fresh. I also am growing suspicious that the Lab's green tea note goes baby wipes on me, as there's definitely a hint of that picking up as it dries. I think it might be alright in the warmer weather so I'll be keeping my imp, but I don't see myself buying more in the future. edit: a month later (but not all that much warmer) I tried again layered over Lightning and that definitely helped brighten the berries, and the baby wipe smell never showed up. However, it had zero throw and was gone in a couple hours. Oh well.

2007 imp that has seen better days, only enough for one test. Fortunately I think that's all I'll need from it. Hot chocolate up front, and cinnamon, and the molasses from the brown sugar sitting at the bottom of the mug. I don't smell the coffee, but I do smell its bitterness. As it dries down it becomes more of a pure creamy, rich cocoa with just a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I'm still not getting the coffee. This is a warm mug of comfort in a hole-in-the-wall boutique cafe; unfortunately, such places make me feel very out-of-place. It's nice but it's not me. Glad to have tried it though!

This starts out vaguely boozy in the imp and turns to vaguely sour on my skin. I'm not familiar with cistus or tobacco yet so it's one of those, probably the cistus since I do not often get along with florals. Fortunately the sourness burns off in a couple minutes and the vanilla starts to amp on me, leaving the most delicious vanilla amber with just a hint of something else (the tobacco maybe). I saw this compared to Lush's Lord of Misrule and while they're pretty drastically different I can definitely see the comparison, particularly to the bath bomb version--there's a shared warm sweetness that 'feels' the same in my head. I think I actually prefer this, as LoM's non-vanilla notes tend to get drowned out over time and the scent becomes very flat, whereas Mars Ultor maintains a more interesting balance. Not a huge throw but it's lasting a good long while. I need to hunt down a bottle of this, I'm definitely in love!

Part of me doesn't want to post my review yet as I don't know the age of this imp (received from Lucchesa so it could be the same she reviewed) and I have one on the way from the lab, but it's acting so peculiar I feel like I need to get it down anyway. Wet it's spicy, heavy on the clove. The cinnamon is there, as well as a bit of orange peel, but the clove is stealing the show. It balances out a bit more as it dries, but this is where the peculiar part happens: the air around me still smells like the imp, but my skin where I applied it smells like red-hots, with the peach standing in for the sugar. The clove, despite dominating before, is very suddenly completely MIA. And then it begins a strange disappearing act sporadically for the next half-hour, sometimes vanishing entirely, then reappearing a few minutes later making me want candy. Sometimes I think I catch a bit of clove in the air, a dusty patchouli breeze, and then it's right back to candy. My skin certainly seems to think it's candy, as it completely devours it after an hour, leaving only the lightest trace of ash from the burned incense. And I think something went pencil-shavings on me? Where did THAT come from? I adore the scent, but unless the fresh vial from the lab has more staying power it's not gonna be something I use unless I really feel like constantly reapplying. Update from the fresh imp: the cinnamon and clove are MUCH more balanced when fresh, the cinnamon might even be edging out the clove! And the blend stays together longer, without morphing or pulling that strange vanishing act. However, it seems to be weaker than the aged imp and is gone in under an hour if I don't slather. Frustrating. I still will keep one of them around for when autumn returns though.

Was frimped this in an Etsy order of mystery discontinued imps last week. In the imp: a chaotic melange of smells: sweet, buttery, powdery, floral, and a hint of citrus? Wet: a sharp floral immediately stabs me in the brain, similar to how ylang ylang does. I can't sniff it directly without my head hurting, but (fortunately?) it doesn't have too much throw so I rolled down my sleeves and let it dry. Dry: Warm, fresh-from-the-oven brownies with a buttery vanilla caramel sauce ladled over them. The floral is still lurking in the background, but only if I shove my nose against my wrist. Which I keep doing, because I can't get enough of that brownie scent. Very sweet and foodie. Traces of it still linger 12+ hours later. I want to make brownies. Shame this is an unreleased scent, this would be perfect for someone else with my tastes but without that floral migraine trigger.

Not to derail the LoM hunt, but this month gave me a new scent desire so strong it got me to actually make an account here in vague hopes that I can find something similar: this year's Kiss Me Quick washcard. The site lists tonka, mimosa, and clove as the main scents (and the USA site adds that it makes you smell like 'mulled spices'), but I'm incredibly new to the world of perfumes and know very little about them--all I know is that this card smells wonderfully fruity and spicy. Would love some suggestions for imps to toss in my cart for my first proper BPAL order! Most florals do not agree with my head, so minimal floral components (other than the mimosa I guess) would be preferred.