tempete

Wet, Kostnice smells like dirt on me, which must be due to the frankincense note. As it dries down, a very lovely mix of what must be the rosewood and rose geranium comes out. If Kostnice stayed in this phase, I would buy a bottle and put up with the initial dirt smell, but alas, the lily note causes the blend to go soapy on me as usual. It's too bad, because the middle phase of Kostnice was quite beautiful and different from anything else that I have tried from BPAL.

Most of the BPALs containing dragon's blood resin don't work on me, and now I know why. On me, Dragon's Blood is a peculiar mix of vaguely sweet soapiness with a slight spicy-ness. I don't really like smelling like soap, no matter what the other modifiers may be, so I will be swapping this one away.

Initially, Iambe is a delightful blend of florals and white tea, with a touch of amber to ground her. However, a very sharp note comes out during the drydown (patchouli, perhaps?) that really disagrees with me. I'll try out my imp a few more times to be sure but it looks like this one is headed for the swap pile.

I ordered Bruja (before it was discontinued) because I love myrrh and amber, and was curious to see how lilac would add to the mix. Wet, the myrrh and amber notes predominate, with a tiny trickle of lilac peeking through. If only it would stay in this stage, because unfortunately, the lilac note starts to muscle out the resins as Bruja dries down. I'm not a huge fan of pure lilac scents, so this imp will go into the swap pile.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think that t3andcrumpets is referring to the Stations of the Sun (Ra, Ahathoor, Tum and Khephra), which are in the Bewitching Brews category. Go to the very bottom of this page on the BPAL website.

I can't believe that I haven't reviewed Xiuhtecuhtli yet, because it's one of my OMFG BPALs, despite the brief appearance of a rubber/latex note (see below). The initial wet phase of Xiuhtecuhtli is dominated by the orange note, although it has an underlying creaminess and smokiness. Since this is the phase that I like the most, I wish that it lasted the longest. As Xiuhtecuhtli dries, it develops that rubber/latex note that Fyre_in_Winter mentioned in her review. Thankfully, this unpleasantness goes away and the final drydown is a much lighter version of the wet phase, with a tiny bit less emphasis on the orange note. I do find this very similar to Angel, although on me Angel is lighter on the fruity notes and heavier on the creamy and smoky aspects. Xiuhtecuhtli would be a good way to introduce a newbie to BPAL, especially if she likes Angel.

Although I generally dislike almond and lotus notes, I had to get Bastet because (1) I love the rest of the notes, especially musk, myrrh, amber and saffron and (2) I love my cat The initial wet phase is pure sweet almond, but it fortunately morphs into a golden, warm, glowing scent overlaid with the spice notes. Even into the final drydown, it retains a sweetness that must either come from the almond or lotus note but this sweetness is not overpowering. Overall, I wouldn't say that this makes me feel particularly sexy, but it is very comforting and I can see myself wearing this to work. Definitely bottle-worthy!

I have two imps of Haunted, one direct from the Lab, the other from a swap. The one direct from the Lab has an orangey tone, while the swap one has a definite lemon aura. I think that I prefer the orange-tinged version, although either version of Haunted is gorgeous on my skin because my body chemistry loves musk and amber (which fortunately drowns out any association with citronella candles). I will be placing an order for a bottle of Haunted, and keeping my fingers crossed that I get the orange version!

I also disliked Lovers, although it smelled like cinammon-y soap on me. You might like Strength. Although it's light, it falls into the herbal/green category and even though you're not using it for magickal purposes, wearing it during the preparation for a presentation seemed to help keep me calm.

Much as I like the idea of leather in scents, the note just doesn't work on me, so I also have a hard time with leather-containing scents. The one that works the best on me is Perversion (the second time that I tried it) - the leather note is more of an echo that melds nicely with the coconut, chardonnay and tonka bean notes.

When Beth described red musk to me in an email, she called it "sweeter, bolder and rounder" than the traditional musks. There's not much else I can add to that description, except to say that red musk is unbelievably sexy (although not overtly in-your-face about it). I am so glad that I got a bottle of this before the single notes were discontinued!

Sigh. Another scent gone soapy, thanks to the lily (muguet) note. It seems that I also have to stay away from aquatics because their scent doesn't agree with me. At times, I could detect the musk and ginger underneath the soapiness and aquatics, which was frustrating. My imp of Lady of Shalott will be heading to the swap/gift pile, where it will hopefully find someone who loves her better.

Unfortunately, Madrid taught me that mimosa smells like cat pee on me. And with the red wine note smelling like grape juice on me... (what is up with that? stupid body chemistry ) Hopefully this will work much better on someone else, although I'm sure that it's not hard to beat grape juice and cat pee

The Lab threw Vinland in as a freebie with my last order. This is the sharpest green scent that I've ever tried and it evokes an image of windswept tundra. Every so often, a berry note (must be the loganberries) keeps briefly appearing, but the floral components never showed up on me. I think that I would like it better if the fruit and floral notes were a little stronger to temper the sharpness of Vinland, but I'm glad that I got the chance to try this.

When I tried Katharina, something smelled really sour on my skin and I suspected the orange blossom note was the culprit. Masquerade just confirmed my suspicions. This lovely freebie from the lab turned truly rancid on me, thanks to my screwy body chemistry. Such a shame, because Masquerade got some wonderful reviews and I was hoping to find a deep, non-musky scent.

As a scent, Rage is a lot less angry than I expected. Wet, I can detect dragon's blood resin, but unlike other BPALs containing this note, it doesn't dominate on me in Rage. As it dries down, Rage becomes a floral blend with a touch of sweetness. If melati is indeed jasmine, then it explains the final drydown which is soapy and slightly sweet.

Swank was very sweet on me. There's nothing to offset the pomegranate, so if your body chemistry likes to amp up sweet notes, then you might get something too sweet for your tastes. I also found Aizen-Myoo very sweet - I didn't smell any black tea in it, FWIW. It may have just been the imp that I had, but on the other hand, cherry blossom goes sweet on me in another BPAL (Neo-Tokyo). Fae has been recommended, and other options that fall into the same white musk/orange-coloured fruit category (love my classifications?) are Katharina and Kuang Shi. None of these are overly sweet, at least on me. Some people have found Bewitched to be too berry sweet, but my skin loves musk, so it's not too sweet on me. My favourite fruit scents, however, are fig-based ones. In Intrigue, fig is blended with cocoa and light woody notes. In Apocathery, figgy goodness is balanced with tea, moss and herbal notes. In Nemesis, there's so much going on around the fig note that you might say that it's not a fruity scent anymore (still worth checking out though).

Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras. Port-Au-Prince is one of the few scents where I think that I can detect all the components in the description. It smells strongly of buttered rum wet, then the spices (especially clove) emerge as it dries down. In the final drydown, the sassafras makes its presence known, giving the scent a slight root beer-y tint. Although Port-Au-Prince was a lovely scent, it was a little too masculine for me so I'll be passing this one on.

I'm not a floral person, normally, except when musk is a large component of the blend. Spellbound (red musk and rose) first taught me this valuable lesson, and Queen Mab has just reinforced it. From what I've read in the reviews, most people seem to prefer Phantom Queen over Queen Mab, so when Phantom Queen turned into a sickeningly sweet melange on my skin, I didn't have high hopes for Queen Mab. Ah, but the musk makes all the difference for me. It reins in the florals so that they contribute but don't overpower everything else. I can also detect a fruity sweetness, but again, it doesn't clobber me over the head. The balance of musk, floral and fruit is stunning. I'll reach for this one when I want everyone around me to be aware of my femininity.

I love how fig smells on me, which is why I ordered an imp of Nemesis from the Lab and snatched another from ChupaChup... Initially, Nemesis was very sharp-smelling, probably because of the ginger notes, possibly in combination with the cypress notes. However, the sharpness slowly fades away, letting the full sweetness of the fig emerge. At this stage, I can detect tonka bean giving a smoothness to the overall scent and dried roses giving a faint floral aroma. It's a gorgeous combination. Yay!!! For once, my instincts were right! While I think that Apocathery is still my favourite fig scent, Nemesis has edged out Intrigue as #2 in my top fig scents (mostly because Nemesis is less woody smelling overall). I will save the other imp to give as a Christmas present to one of my sisters and I will likely be ordering a bottle of this!

I tend to go for myrrh scents because when it's mixed with the right notes, the scent will resonate on my skin. For this reason, Wicked has been on my wish list for a while, so when the Lab threw it in as a freebie with my last order, I was ecstatic... Wicked started out promisingly enough: the myrrh note tamed the rose and jasmine notes, creating a faintly floral blend with a resinous backbone. Unfortunately, over time, the jasmine note turned soapy on my skin. It was lovely while it lasted, though.

Blood Rose initially smelled like grape juice - this must be the wine! It actually dominates the scent so that it's hard to detect the rose or the dragon's blood resin, both of which are unusual phenomena on my skin. Although it's an unexpectedly fun scent, it's not for me so it's off to the swap pile.

Neo-Tokyo is delightful at first: the cherry blossom and fruity notes are balanced nicely by a strong green note (I'm guessing that bamboo is responsible for this). Unfortunately, as the scent dries down, the green note dissipates and leaves a mostly fruity scent on my skin, which is dominated by the cherry blossom. Since I don't like fruity scents unless they're balanced by other notes, I have to pass this one onto the swap pile.

When Penitence was wet on me, I had the same experience as cuervosueno: I smelled like dirt. Fortunately, as it dried, Penitence lost the "dirt" smell and took on more of an incense aroma. I think that I detect a hint of sandalwood or some other woody note in the background. I am not sure that this is some that I would wear often, but it is definitely unusual.

The three notes in Zephyr that come out on me most strongly after the initial application are lemon/lemon verbena, white musk and vanilla. The combination doesn't appeal to me, although I'm hard-pressed to pinpoint why. During the final drydown, the floral notes appear and are made creamy and smooth by the persistent vanilla note. While this phase is lovely, it's not lovely enough for me to want to endure the initial phase and so Zephyr gets added to my swap pile.