SmileCat

Bakeneko! With an inspiration like the Monster Cat, how could I not buy a bottle of this? And let me just say, it is In the bottle this is all tangerines and tea with a hint of spice in the background. Applied and mellowed on my skin with the warmth of the amber musk, the tea and citrus fade to warm base and the spices bloom to a sunshine glow. Cardamom, how I love you! Cat tummy, this is cat tummy. Oh so soft you can bury your face in it and breathe in the purring and liquid sunlight, but don't ever forget there are four sets of very sharp claws protecting this puss! You can pet the kitty if kitty lets you and only if.

In the imp this cake and currant with vanilla, but as soon as it hits my skin it goes currant and buttercream frosting. The cake doesn't stick around on dry down but goes CURRANT and vanilla. This stuff is strong! A dab on each wrist and it's like I'm breathing currant candy. The cakes poke out now and again but it stays mostly currant buttercream. Very very very foodie and just as sticky sweet.

In the imp, mostly mint and a little lemon. Wet on my skin, mint, lemon, and ...anise? The MINT! and ANISE! vie for attention with lemon bouncing around on top. Dry, mostly anise. I smell like a demented licorise whip. Or a horehound drop.

Purple! I would have been very disappointed if something went horribly wrong with PP on my skin. I love purple; it's my favorite color. This went from very wine-y in the bottle to on-skin progression of florals and wine, candied flowers, to smelling something like fruity SweetTarts. I like all stages of Purple Phoenix.

OH! This is a very pretty scent. Delicately floral with a little bit of sweetness. White. Very very white with touch of glacial blue if you look deep into the snow. A still winter scene in a forest with a new blanket of snow. Snowshoe hares and bare birch trees. Walking through it all in a warm coat and just being. Wintery without being cold, alone without being lonely. Snow crocuses. The oil has good throw and prescence for such "delicate" flowers. I want to call it creamy, but that's not right because it brings up a milkiness this blend doesn't have. It's that same liquid whiteness though. ETA: Wow this stays forever. After dancing and staying up all night studying/writing and I can still smell it on my skin over 12 hours later.

In the imp this smells delicious. Thickly sweet and spicy it's like those honey sticks you can buy from honey venders and old candy shops which are basically plastic straws of flavored honey. Wet it starts to lose that mellow sweetness and becomes more like cinnamon candies. High-pitched, nose-tingling cinnamon. Dry, I have no idea what this smells like because it hadn't been on long enough to even partly dry before my skin started to tingle. Danger, Will Robinson, danger! I wiped it off immediately. Chalk up one more cinnamon sensitives. Shame as it smells so yummy in the bottle.

Soft fruits. I'm getting mostly peaches with a bit of grape and florals. I can't tell the florals apart yet, mostly because I haven't smelt them individually, but this is a great fruit-floral blend. There's something eternally youthful about it.

Ohhhh. Why did I not buy 4 bottles of this? It's just that beautiful. Beth said it was velvety, but it doesn't have that 'fuzzy'-ness that I associate with velvet or anything that smells like it. Lush, maybe? It's much more 'perfumey' than most BPAL, but the depth and clarity of the scent and individual notes is unlike anything you'll find at a perfume counter. Strong, too! This is not an oil I need to massively slather on and I can still smell it on my skin hours after application. Floral, slightly juicey-sweetness, and a touch of aquatic. Moon-woman. Ethereal, entrancing, elegant. Benevolent.

In the imp: Wow, fruits! Bright, juicy, tropical fruits. On skin: Fruits are fading and a high floral is present. It's not unpleasant, but it's definately there. Is that plumeria I smell? This reminds me of Hawai'i. I get the smell, sense, and feel of being in a tropical rainforest where the very air you breathe is moist and laden with pungent discoveries. At arms length this is very nice, a real hot house smell. Close up I get a cleaner-ish astringentcy. Overall: Potent and pretty. Unfortunately I associate humid rainforests with a slight difficulty to breathe.

Hyson tea leaf, pale mint, sugar cane, orange blossom, lemongrass, and honey. This took the second or third wearing for me to fall in love with it. See, this is why I test things several times before deciding, no I don't like them. Tea! Lovely green tea with a bit of mint and a background of flowers. It's not a heavy tea like black, but a fresher tea. This smells the way a fabulous summer day with a glass of mint tea feels. Picnic. This smells like a picnic.

What a great freakin’ word. BPAL LOVES TEH SMUT! Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes. Oh yum. Sugared musk indeed. And strong. Almost "apply with a toothpick" strong. This is very sexy; not down and dirty sex, but slap and tickle sex. Fun romps (repeatedly) in a big bed sexy. It's musky without being overwhelmingly earthy and sugared without being syrupy. It doesn't have the 'tang' red musk sometimes has, but I can definately tell there's red musk in the blend. If Spellbound is red musk and roses, Smut is red musk and rum. And naughty fun. I am going to really really enjoy wearing this blend. Hmm, other days it smells like latex. Strong, acrid latex. Darn skin chemistry strikes again.

A very pale blue-green. In the bottle I get sea spray and verbena where I was hoping for mint and tea. Wet and the first hour or two there's something in it that makes me feel like I'm on the verge of a sneeze. Then the tea starts to peek out a bit, it mellows down, and the aloe makes its debut. F5 is nice, very refreshing but not me. It's almost too gender-neutral. It's not that I dislike it, I just can't see myself wearing it much.

ROSE! Rose rose rosy rose. Or, roses, roses, and more roses. Beth has somehow squished an entire rose garden into an itty bitty imp. This isn't a dry rose nor an old lady's rose. This is big, fat, full-blown rose blooms. White roses, pink roses, pretty red roses, yellow roses, parti-colored roses as big as your hands. Row after row of rose bushes. In the imp it's definately rose but a little 'watery'. Eh, oils usually smell a little wet to me. On the drydown I sometimes get a whiff of the green grass, but dry this is all fresh rose blooms. Playful, slightly silly roses.

Ah, Whip! Smells like suede and bright red roses. I can see, or "smell", the connection between Whip and Wanda. Wanda is commanding while Whip is playful. A full, almost sweet rose on top of well-worn leather. Probably the best leather scent yet. Stays true in the bottle, on skin, wet, on dry down, and dry. Dry the leather picks up a little warmth and the roses some sweetness.

O. Oh my. This doesn't smell like sex, but is very, very sexual. Warm and sweet with resiny spice from the amber, I can't wear this without getting distracted in a very specific way. A little goes a long way and too much is overwhelming, but a dab here and there is so very very good.

Oooh, sweet and minty! In the bottle this is a thin mint, like after dinner candies. On my skin the mint takes a spike towards a "higher" scent but without being nose-clearing obvious. Dry this grows into a smooth, sweet mint exactly like high-quality candy canes, with real sugar, real peppermint extract, and real vanilla. This stays minty without being in your face and the vanilla gives it a base to stay almost creamy. Down right edible.* *Lick It is not for consumption. External use only.

Ah, good! It was my largest order to date and I don't want anything to go missing. I want the Lab to get it's money and me my smellies!

Hmm, I have a quick question. I place an order late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning using Paypal. Usually I have a email verification from the Lab saying thanks, they got my order, it's in the queue. This time I have the Paypal receipt, but no email from the Lab. Should I email them and check to be sure they got my order? I don't want my F5/CD order to get missed in the hubbub.

Huh, my bottle of Spellbound is a dark yellow brown. Maybe it's just the natural variety in oils.

Oooh, what a pretty floral blend. Not a dry floral, but dewy. On my skin: ROSE! Rose rose rose! I've never had rose amp quite like this. The other flowers take a backseat to this full bloom rose. Still nice. An hour later: Myrrh and nothing but myrrh. Where did the pretty flowers go?! Too bad this couldn't stay just like it was in the bottle. I might keep the imp around for use in a burner or a scent locket, but on my skin it just turns to myrrh.

Holy shit, this is sunshine, laughter, and daisy chains! In the bottle and wet it's sweet and juicy and makes me think of liquid sunbeams. The lemon peel is there, and the daisies, and something sweet, maybe the heliotrope. It's not a 'warm' scent like most resins, but warm like a perfect summer day. On my skin, I can't pick out the individual notes it's so well-blended but it's absolutely amazing. If I get really close to my wrist, I can smell the vanilla, but most of the time it's this joyous scent wafting all around me. I'm compelled to keep applying through the day, I don't want to stop smelling myself. I can't pick out the amber like I had hoped, but amber ages for me so I'll see what it's like in a few weeks. Thankfully there isn't enough ylang-ylang to give me a headache. Overall: Throw your hands up and pirouette. I must have bottles and bottles and bottles of this. ETA: This blend seems to like me the best the week before my period; before that it dries down quickly to a soft, almost powdery amber. Nice, but not the liquid gold scent it is otherwise.

Oh Brisingamen, how I love you. I read the description and this scent became my first bought unsniffed 5ml bottle. I am so glad I did so. When my bottle arrived it was tangy and green with barely a hint of the amber I adore, but I know amber and me so I let it sit and age for a few weeks. When I opened it again: amberamberamberamber and of course amber. In the bottle it's honey sweetness. On me the amber is balanced with the green from the myrtle, a little spice from the carnation, and a fruity tang from the apple blossom floats up every once in a while. As much as I love the divine golden sweet in the bottle, on my skin it's much more complex. If I want the unmorphed scent I could always wear it in a locket. This perfume is the golden goddess in a floral bower: alluring, mature, and sensual.