phantasmmysteria

This one took a little bit of wear before I could decide if I really liked it or not, but I think it's a keeper. In the bottle: Oh, wow... this is cakey!! Wet: None of the cakey goodness from the bottle... in fact, the lunar herbs and florals are what come to the forefront. I smell something suspicously mint-like, along with the hibiscus and cherry blossom. Luckily for me, this stage quiets down very quickly and the citrus starts to peek out from behind the blossoms. It's very pretty, if a little sharp. Dry: Ahhhh. Here's that pretty creaminess that I get from the bottle. I wonder if it's the guava or the banyan fruit (or both) that gives it that impression? In any case, it's lovely. That subtle creaminess balances nicely with the high-pitched floral and the tangy citrus, making the blend both subtle and interesting. While I can see the resemblance to other fruity-floral blends like Tanuki or Fire Pig, this scent actually succeeds in not being cloying on my skin. I can see this in heavy rotation as the warmer weather approaches (especially in my scent locket). This is a very perky scent, and I am happy that I managed to get a bottle.

Clove is supposed to be a boy magnet too. I remember reading that study that mentioned pumpkin... but I think it was pumpkin pie, not just the big orange squash-relative itself. The spices in a pumpkin pie are cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice... and I think I've heard independently of cloves and cinnamon having aphrodisiac properties. For myself, I'm looking for the ultimate peach. I've noticed a few BPAL blends that have a bit of peach, but it never seems to be described as a primary note. My favourite scent to wear up until now has been an old bottle of Fuzzy Peach eau de toilette from the Body Shop. It's just pure, single-note peach. I'd love to find something that has a lot of peach but also other things to make it more complex. I'm still a BPAL virgin. I've ordered some stuff but it isn't here yet. I think a couple of the imps I'm getting have pear (like Titania) and plum (can't remember which, might have been Bordello). Aglaea is golden amber and peach. LOTS of peach! It's really beautiful. La Vague (a Retail Exclusive salon blend) is also very strongly peachy, with a backrop of pretty florals. But personally, Aglaea is better on my skin. I am looking for the ultimate honeysuckle blend!

How about Blue Moon? .... Sorry, I couldn't resist. Angeronalia from 07's Yules reminds me very strongly of Coco Mademoiselle and is a very beautiful, elegant scent. You shouldn't have much trouble tracking down a bottle, either.

Why am I always suprised by how much I love Crypt Queen? I let her sit untouched in my cabinet for months, and then one day I get a little crazy and take out my decant to retest and BAM! If this is what moldering fruit smells like, why buy it fresh?

Paradise Misplaced + Pele or Hi'iaka Raspberry Swirl + Spiked Punch Also, I recall someone saying in the Villainess thread that Thalassa was almost a dead ringer for Pearl Diver. I haven't tried them side by side, but I'll be they would layer well.

Wow. This scent is so far off the beaten path of scents that I go for, and yet it works so well. However, since this is pretty "out there" for me I have pretty much no idea what any of these notes smell like individually -- makes for an interesting challenge when reviewing. In the bottle: Very herbal and, suprisingly, musk-like. I think the moss and opium is creating this false musk note, but (being a musk fan) it's lovely. Wet: I was nervous at first, because this gets a minty quality to it when it hits my skin. This settles down quickly, but I'm vexed that I don't know if I'm mistaking one of the listed notes for mint of if there's actually mint in here. Moving on, this is a fascinating blend to sniff, but at the same time I find it comforting. I have a visceral reaction to this -- which I find quite appropriate, since I am a Piscean Moon baby. Dry: I kept sniffing this on the way to work because I was trying to place what other blend that it reminded me of... which it turns out is Ivanushka. It's sharper and a little more complex, but the herbal-musky tone of Pisces plays out on my skin very similarly to Ivanushka (but without actually causing me to smell skunk-like! Bonus!!). Overall this is incredibly cohesive, with no note(s) dominating over the others and all coming together to be a really beautiful herbal-floral. This is good. Really good! And (again, appropriately) this blend has probably caused the strongest emotional response of any of Beth's perfumes that I have tried so far. But more than that, it just smells good on me! Of course, now I wish I would've taken the chance on multiple bottles -- I really do think this is one I need to keep around a backup of, fo sho.

The only thing I have found in BPAL that even reminded me of B&BW's Night-Blooming Jasmine was the floral in Snow White.

I love blackberries, but I have been really frightened of honey notes until recently. Emboldened by my recent good luck with honey scents, I thought it was high time I tried Lady Una. In the bottle: On first sniff, this has me a bit nervous. It's positively sticky with honey, and very sweet. I love sweet scents, but sometimes honey can go sour on my skin -- yet, I press on and dab a bit on my wrists. Wet: This starts to really bloom upon my skin, and its transformation is wonderful! The first new note that comes along is the blackberry and green tea leaves. This is not the smell of ripe blackberries, but the fresh greenness of the foliage that surrounds them. This is how I'd hoped for the blackberry leaf to smell in The Oblation (which sadly never worked for me). The sticky-sweet musk and the greens blend together and separate at times, really making this not only pretty, but interesting to sniff. Drydown: This dries down to a soft, honeyed vanilla musk. I catch a whiff of sourness every now and again (which, actually, could be actual blackberry now that I think about it), but I think the musk does a great job of keeping the honey in check. There's not hardly so much dimension to the scent dry as there is while it is wet, but it is equally pretty in drydown as it is in the beginning stages Overall, this is a short-wearing and faint scent on my skin, but I love it. I think it will do very well in a scent locket, or layered on in a lotion (yum!).

I avoided ordering this when it was released, laboring under the false assumption that honey notes = bad for me. It's nice to be proven wrong sometimes! In the bottle: While the honey is what scared me off from the listing, smelling the perfume I am most frightened by the amount of jasmine I smell. I hope this doesn't go straight to floral hell, despite jasmine being rather nice to me in general. Wet: Lots of jasmine! It's a soft scent, however, which blends really nicely with the honeysuckle (my favorite), and even the honey. So far, it's not sour at all. In fact, it's great! Honey has gone pretty sour on my skin in the past, but the florals (particularly the aforementioned honeysuckle and jasmine) really compliment the sweetness of the honey. Dry: I can smell just a teensy bit of fig and the herbal components of this blend in the background, keeping this from being too cloying. I sometimes catch whiffs of the chocolatey scent that Tempest mentions -- I think it's the combination of the herbs, honey, and tonka that give that impression. I (sadly) don't really get any apricot or (fortunately) carnation. The throw, particularly from my locket, is mostly honeysuckle -- which is just to die for! After about 5 hours my skin has faded this to pretty much a memory of honeyed florals and not much else. While the throw is slightly above average, the wearlength isn't, so slather away. I can't believe I let this one get away!

Well, I'm sad to say that this one wasn't nearly as good on me as Fire Pig was, because I apparently amp melon (I sure as hell amped this one, that's for sure)! It starts out strong melon in the bottle, and yet it only gets stronger once it hits my skin. After drydown, I can definitely smell the notes I love from Fire Pig, but they're all drowning in melon. Nothing is able to make it past that on my skin. If your skin tends to eat melon and you liked Fire Pig, I would give this a shot, as it might work beautifully with your chemistry. Perhaps with age this will become a more well-rounded scent, but I don't have the heart to let it sit and languish, not as unwearable as it was for me. Off it goes, hopefully to a far more appreciative home!

I bought two bottles of this, unsniffed. It's truly gorgeous, and so I can't say I regret my impulse buy. In the Bottle: vanilla frosting! Are you sure I can't drink this?? Forgoing the call to the Poison Control Center and applying it to my wrist: Hmm... this actually has a cool, almost "minty" quality to it as it's drying. Perhaps minty isn't the best word, but something very "fresh" is mingled in with the vanilla and cream. Almost at drydown, I have this terrible moment where I think this is going to turn into French Vanilla scented candle (like MB:Tokyo Stomp did), but it settles quickly past that stage. When it's dry: This is a beautiful vanilla, tempered by the saffron so as to not be foody at all. While I bought this with the hopes of something like Underpants, this has a very slight powderiness to the edge of it that reminds me strongly of Antique Lace. So, if you liked AL but couldn't handle the floral notes, Love's Philosophy might be just for you.

It's funny, because on my skin Ivanushka smells just like tanned fur when wet. On the drydown, it was a little powdery, sweet muskiness that reminded me more of the fur of a living creature, but that was always the only note I got from the blend. Sadly, my boyfriend said I smelled a little like skunk when I wore it -- NOT the effect I was going for!

Pollution is awesome! It's so bright and green and cheery. I'm not a fan of aquatics, but I found Sea of Glass to be a lovely blue-green scent.

I originally slathered on Mistletoe '07 for the Christmas Day trip to my mother's house, but after about 30 minutes it was gone! So I spritzed on my old standby (my EDT of Australian Copperhead) before we got there -- funny side story, but Teh Manthing had gotten out to fill up the car when I decided to smellify myself. When he got back in the car, he asked, "why does it smell like a chipmunk whorehouse in the car?" :D Anyway, at one point I was giving my mom a hug and she exlaimed, "you smell good!" She thought that Aussie Copperhead smelled bad before when I wore it (which I think is the red musk doing that), but apparently the drydown appeals to her. During our trip to Florida, I think I wore Hungry Ghost Moon exclusively (as everything else seemed a bit too cloying in the heat). Back home on New Year's Eve (our anniversary), I wore Snow White.

Oh my goodness, this was a suprise hit for me. When I dabbed a bit of my decant on yesterday, the first thing that popped into my mind was that this was what Coco Mademoiselle would smell like if it weren't so full of chemicals! When I tried it again today, the association wasn't quite as strong, but it definitely reminds me of Mademoiselle's best qualities. It starts off beautifully fruity, all blood orange and nectarine. But that quickly to a lovely floral with a bit of woods. There's something bright and effervescent to this blend. I think it might be the olive blossom, but I'm not certain. Also, wonder of wonders: The honey behaves itself in this blend (i'm not sure if I should thank the florals or the patchouli)! It gives the blend just enough of a powdery sort of sweetness that makes Angeronalia just beautiful. On my skin, this has slightly above average throw and above average wearlength. I'm not sure how often I will wear this scent, but it sings so prettily on my skin I think it requires a bottle.

It's soooo unfortunate that, after regretting missing out on this Lunacry and tracking down TWO bottles, this scent just doesn't play well with my chemistry. In the bottle: Sweet flowers. The smell is familiar, but I can't put my finger on it in recognition. Wet: This scent is best when just a teensy bit is dabbed on. It starts out with the sweetness from the bottle, but it flares up brightly as it touches my skin. I don't think this blend contains white musk because my skin tends to love that... but this blend quickly turns to POWDER. The only thing I get besides powderyness on the drydown is a little bit of evergreen or the night chill in the background. Dry: This eventually mellows out into a soft sweetness, but it just doesn't sing on my skin. It's such a shame, but c'est la vie.

I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner: what about coconut oil? The stuff is a soft solid at room temperature, and melts at 76 degrees. It's also very good at discouraging rancidity, though I don't know about the smell of it.

Vitamin E oil can actually be added to carrier oils that can go rancid (such as the aforementioned sweet almond oil) to prolong its shelf life, so I can't see why it wouldn't be acceptable to use it as a carrier oil. What I do not know, however, is whether or not Vitamin E oil would interact with perfume oils and cause a change in scent.

Gingerbread Poppet is the perfect foody scent for people who don't like foody scents. On my skin, it isn't sweet at all -- it's pure, delicious spices. Only the tiniest dab is needed for me to get great wafts of cinnamony goodness to my nose. On drydown, I do notice something slightly fruity -- fig, perhaps? I can only smell it when I huff at my wrist, but I think it does add a richness to the "feel" of gingerbread in the throw. Yum. Lune already mentioned it was a straightforward scent, but it's one that I find incredibly comforting (and perfect for a cold day)!

2007 version I was actually prepared to not like this scent (I'm not a cold scent kinda girl), but I had to try it. Besides being such a highly coveted BPAL scent, I'm often told I resemble this fairy-tale princess. I was pleasantly suprised by Snow White, as I don't find her very cold at all! It is floral, but there's an added chill sweetness to the blend that makes it so heavenly. If the flower in this blend is not night-blooming jasmine, then my nose is completely crazy because that's what it smells like! This blend threatens to go a little plasticy upon drydown, but it eventually settles into this beautifully creamy-sweet floral. It's never too strong or overpowering, but it seems to have good throw for such a delicate scent This is such a unique and beautiful blend, I can totally see why there's such hype surrounding it! I am going to stock up on this one for certain.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this scent yet! After hearing how similar Tamamo-No-Mae (my first BPAL love) was to this blend, I tracked down a bottle. I am so glad I did, as I actually prefer this to TNM (though they're close!). In the bottle: Predominantly woods, but also ginger, citrus, and just a touch of sweetness. Wet: LOTS of grapefruit and ginger! The citrus hits me full force at first, but quickly calms down. The ginger is gorgeously spicy and blends well with the citrus note, and after a while I can smell the sandalwood in the background (fortunately, it never gets too sharp). The throw of HGM is the most gorgeous sugared ginger and vanilla that I can imagine. Drydown: This doesn't change much during drydown for me, except to become even softer and more lovely. The woods, sugar, and ginger all sort of blend together and make me smell oh-so-good. The throw for me is above average, and I continue to get whiffs of that fantastic throw long into the wear. This scent gets heavy rotation from me, and with good reason-- it makes me smell fabulous.

Where's the emoticon for my eyes rolling back in my head?? After coveting this stuff since I found BPAL to talking myself out of not really needing or wanting it because it was so rare and back again, I finally was able to get a partial bottle of this awesome scent. It really suprised me with the fact that it's not all that foody until long into the drydown, but that phase of lingering vanilla buttercream is the best vanilla scent I have ever smelled. It is so good to smell like frosting! From the bottle to wet on the skin, though, this scent is very different. I only get a pinch of anything remotely foody, and a lot of warm, sweet sandalwood. I think I can just barely make out the saffron, but it doesn't make very much of an appearance at all. At drydown, this sadly gets a little sour-smelling, which has been my experience with every Monsterbait I've tried. I'm fairly certain it was the sandalwood in this particular blend that's the culprit (as I recognize the sour woody smell I've gotten from other sandalwoods), though from my experience with other MB's perhaps it's actually the alcoholic note interacting with the sandalwood on my skin. Thankfully, this unpleasant note hangs close to the skin; the throw at this stage is that fabulous buttercream frosting smell. After a good 9 hours of wear, this heavenly vanilla is all that's left of the perfume, but Gods is it good. I would be happy to just tape my wrist to my nose, but that would make typing a little awkward. I may never be able to get any more, but this bottle will certainly get a little lovin' here at my house!

You win the forum! That's so awesome

The reviews of Crumpet Rebellion often mention buttery patries, but if you managed to get your hands on that LE I don't think you'd dare use it for room fragrance. Sugar Skull is pretty much all burnt sugar to my nose, and I get some butteryness in Beaver Moon. Sadly, these are also both LE's! The only GC that would have a similar effect in my mind would be Eat Me -- the sugary vanilla is nicely balanced by the tart currants. It could very well be a good substitute!

I almost started basically this same thread this morning. I wore a pirate costume to work today. I figured a Halloween pirate might smell a little like Eastern spices, incense, and candy -- so I wore July's 13 mixed with Hungry Ghost Moon!