tempete

When I first read the description for Haunted Palace, I thought that everything sounded perfect... except for the gardenia. Unfortunately, BPAL's gardenia note has a very distinctive sharpness that for some reason, sets my nerves on edge. So naturally, since I had the highest hopes for Haunted Palace out of all the Demon in my View scents, I can smell the gardenia. Initially, Haunted Palace is a bright, sunny mix of orange and heliotrope on my skin. The orange eventually dissipates, leaving the heliotrope to carry the scent into the next stage. The drydown is a mix of gorgeous amber and vanilla, but with a faint but unmistakable whiff of the gardenia note. The evolution of Haunted Palace reminds me somewhat of Bearded Lady, as they both dry down to floral-tinged amber-and-vanilla scents on me, though of course Bearded Lady lacks the evil gardenia note. If I couldn't detect the gardenia note, I would probably get a bottle of Haunted Palace just because of my love of amber and vanilla. However, since I can smell gardenia, and given that the drydown of Bearded Lady works so much better on me, I will have to wear Haunted Palace a few more times to see if how much the gardenia note annoys me.

Penny Dreadful is the love child of the Queen of Clubs and Shub-Niggurath on me. The description gave me no clue that it would be OMFG amazing on me, or that it would immediately attain Top Ten status. The scent starts out with a blast of earth notes like those in the Queen of Clubs, but accented by rich, dark chocolate. The latter note is gradually supplanted by a gingery spice which is reminiscent of Shub-Niggurath. As the scent continues to dry down, a vanilla note is swirled into the mix, but the base provided by the earth notes prevent the vanilla or spice from turning Penny Dreadful into a foody blend. The final addition is the addition of a rich fruity sweetness that reminds me of Queen of Clubs. I don't think that my review does this beautifully complex, morphing blend justice. It's one of those scents that is shockingly underrated and under-recommended. So what are you waiting for?

I got to try Rose Red at the Oregon get-together thanks to Natsukaze! Wet, Rose Red was the scent of a dew-covered rose that is just beginning to bloom. As the scent dried down, however, the greeness pushed the rose to the background - it was more of a sweet greeness than sharp greeness, but still not my favourite type of scent. The rose managed to re-emerge during the final drydown, but Rose Red was just too soft at this point. An amazing olfactory recreation of a dew-covered rose, but the dominance of the green elements and the softness of the drydown have forced me to pass over Rose Red in this year's Yule offerings.

My review of Asphodel is not going to be much longer than fallow deer's. Initially, I get non-soapy lilies which morphs into something resembling jasmine. Maybe this is the honeysuckle that some reviewers mentioned? In the end, the florals turn soapy, so it's off to the swap pile. The "grey and ghostly" description is quite apt. This is such a light, translucent floral that it's almost as if all the colour has been leeched out of the florals before they went into this scent.

When I first applied Black Opal, I had a strange experience so I posted about it on the Lush forum: This reminded ivyandpeony of Charlie Brown getting rocks for Halloween... but that's another story. I'm wearing Black Opal right now for the third time, and can chart the evolution of the scent a little more accurately since I'm not wearing five scents at once.... It starts out with a distinct soapy mineral smell. As it dries down, the soapiness dissipates and vanilla-like and light musk notes gradually gain in strength, with the mineral aspect in the background. I can't say that I'm in lust with this scent, but I might've been if the vanilla and musk were stronger and the minerally note weren't so prominent (but then Black Opal would be a misnomer, I know).

The lavender fougere in Old Scratch was very prominent at first, giving the scent a generic men's cologne aura. As the scent dries down, the lavender fougere recedes and leaves behind a hint of freshness overlaying the emerging tonka. The amber note adds a bit of depth, while the patchouli note works in a bit of earthiness (I couldn't ever pick out the rosewood note). If Old Scratch stayed like this, I'd be frantically searching for a bottle right now, but it settles down to a distinctly masculine, tobacco-smoky tonka scent that screams "SEXY MAN HERE!!!". Unfortunately, that's not the vibe I'm going for (seeing as how I'm not male), so this one will be headed for the swap pile.

Wow, I'm going against the grain when I say that I like Numb. Mind you, I'm not a fan of how it starts out - first it smells like an Estée Lauder perfume, then it dissipates almost completely, leaving behind a very faint whiff of violet-tinged powder. But after an hour or two, Numb turns into vaguely vanilla-ish violet. I normally detest sugary sweet scents, but for some reason, I love smelling like violet candies . I actually put in my order for Numb after reading clover's review, which was the first to make the Numb/violet connection. As I wrote in one of the threads in the BPAL Chatter forum, I will put up with almost anything to get a good strong violet scent, and once I get past the EL perfume and powder stages, Numb certainly fits the bill.

I wasn't expecting to love Bearded Lady... Star jasmine didn't work for me in Salome, and all kinds of lilies soap out on me. But I adore rose, violet, amber and vanilla, so I took a chance and swapped for a bottle. There's an initial hit of soapiness when I first apply Bearded Lady that disappears quickly as the rose and violet notes gain strength. As the scent dries down, the vanilla and amber become more prominent and meld beautifully with the floral notes. The end effect is a floral O minus the honey. I only wish that the violet note was stronger (since I already have lots of rose scents that I adore), but I'm happy to get as much violet as I do. A surprise hit for me!

I'm not an allergist (and I don't even play one on TV) but I would think that your reaction to R'lyeh was more a function of the delicacy of the skin on your wrists vs. the skin on your ankles. Did you have any minute abrasions on your wrist? The fact that it's taking so long to heal makes me think that may be a factor. Also, did you put R'lyeh on the same wrist as your watch? One time, I put Alice on my watch wrist and it reacted with the metallic band of my watch. (I believe that there's an allergic reaction thread in the BPAL FAQ section.)

When I entered the description for La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente in the database for my handheld, I forgot to enter "deep aquatic notes", so this scent found its way onto my want-to-try list. Oops. Aquatics generally overwhelm pretty much anything else in the blend and smell rather perfume-y on me. When I first apply this scent, I catch a whiff of pomegranate and peach, and then it's all about the aquatics. Off to swaps.

Manila smells like banana and incense at first, and dries down to what I term BPAL's tropical fruit scent: green, mostly tart with a tiny bit of sweetness, and very wet-smelling. Nice but ultimately not for me.

Huckleberry and red currant with the incisive bite of neroli. Jester is all sweet berries at first, and sort of smells kind of Kool-Aid-ish. As the scent dries down, some green notes creep in and eventually take over almost completely. The drydown is mostly green with the sharpness offset by a slight sweetness (presumably from the berries). Not bad, but I much prefer Bewitched for a berry/green scent because of the depth added by the musk.

Gluttony started out as a caramel chocolate , but quickly turned burnt and acrid. I had to wash it off.

I've not smelled Pink Sugar myself, but some of the reviews for Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo say that it smells like cotton candy and other sugary delights. Otherwise, I would say that Midway is probably your best bet.

Based on all the hype that Buck Moon has been receiving, I purchased a decant from a lovely forumite to sate my curiosity. I get light herbs and lunar oils on a slightly creamy base and can't detect any musk (which is a bit strange, considering how much my skin likes to amp up musk). While Buck Moon is indeed very nice, it's not an OMFG scent for me and it's so extremely soft that it is almost undetectable after half an hour. I'm not compelled to offer up any of my favourite LEs for it and I'm not even sure that I'll keep this decant. A very good case of 'your mileage may vary'...

Fire Eater starts out as a musky scent with a hint of florals. It morphs into a sweet floral (sans musk), then into a soapy scent with the musk flitting in and out, which is replaced by an odd chemical note. It eventually fades out almost completely, leaving a slight soapy chemical residue on my skin. It was fun to track Fire Eater through its evolution but it doesn't really suit me all that much.

Torture King is initially a well-blended mix of lime, vetiver and leather. Normally leather is far too masculine on me, but there must be such a small amount here to avoid that pitfall. Torture King goes rather soft becomes a skin scent as it dries down, making it difficult to pick out any notes, although sometimes I pick out grasses. Since it contains resins, the late drydown for this scent is incredible on me: frankincense that seems to be sweetened and rounded out by the other notes (although I can't tell which ones). As kmasden mentioned in her review, Torture King is addictive . Also, judging from the reviews, I agree with RHM that different body chemistries will pick up different notes in this blend, since it doesn't smell too masculine on me once it has dried down. It's funny how I was so sure that Torture King wouldn't work on me because of the leather, lemon peel and grasses. Thanks to a very generous forumite who loaned me her decant, I am very happy to be proven wrong and I placed an order for a bottle on the very last day of the Carnaval!

Lucy's Kiss starts out as a rose with a breath of spice over top, and blooms into a rose with something creamy lurking underneath. The creaminess reminds me of the magnolias in Hell's Belle. Eventually, the scent dries down to a faint, sweetened rose. There have been comparisons to London in this thread, and since I also happen to be testing London and Lucy's Kiss at the same time (though not in the same spot), I can say that London is a truer rose scent, while you can tell that other elements in the scent are leaving their mark on the rose in Lucy's Kiss.

London is pretty much a straight rose scent on me. I kept waiting for something twisty and wicked to pop up, but no such luck. While London is lovely, I like my rose notes to have company (even if it's just white tea and carnation a la Maiden) so this imp is headed to the swap pile.

I put Umbra on without checking the notes first and picked out cinnamon, vetiver and some kind of wood (that's about the limit of my ability to identify wood notes, since the only ones that I can reliably pick out are red and white sandalwood). <runs to check notes> Wow, my BPAL education is paying off! The cinnamon is strongest when wet, but it never leaves completely. I can smell the patchouli gaining strength as the scent dries down. Umbra is amazingly well-blended and balanced - I normally loathe cinnamon- and cedar-containing scents since these notes tend to get amped up on me. Still, I know that Umbra is not something that I'll wear often, so I'll be passing it onto someone who will.

As soon as Twilight hit my skin, it turned into soap. Off to swaps...

Hello, rose! My initial fears that Love in the Asylum will be a nothing-but-rose blend were unfounded, but it took a loooong time for the other notes to surface. First, the scent went through a gently smoky phase, and then finally dried down as vanilla- and tonka-sweetened resins. Love in the Asylum ends up being really beautiful on my skin, but it takes too long to move away from the rose garden thing for my tastes. I'll hold onto one of my bottles, and will probably let the other go in a swap.

Oh, I had such high hopes for Carnivàle because it is uncannily close to my "perfect" floral scent (I said: red musk and carnation; Carnivàle: warm musk and carnation!). But the berries start our relationship off on the wrong note - sweet berries that resemble a bubble gum flavour. Not so promising. Then a weird note comes in and mixes with the berries. The scent dries down to soap and finally to powder (two of my least favourite finishes in the world). Throughout the evolution of Carnivàle, I can always detect the berries but not really any musk or carnation. Alas, Carnivàle and I were not meant to be. The berries always got in the way.

When Gypsy Queen is wet, I get the grape note that olympia mentioned in her review. It is quickly replaced by some kind of resin or incense that quite accurately recreates the scent of a blown out candle. Freaky! Unfortunately, this resin gets sweeter and sweeter as Gypsy Queen dries down, and I don't do well with sweet scents that have nothing to ground them. The scent eventually dries down to a soft rose and resin finish, but it takes too long for my queasy stomach.

A strange, disconcerting embrace… to some, alarming, and to some, intimately familiar: fig, pomegranate and cocoa bean with lemon, bergamot, vanilla, mellow honey musk, calamus and tonka. Freak Show is chocolate-covered figs at first, reminding me of Intrigue without any wood notes. Gradually the chocolate note dissipates, followed by the fig and the scent almost disappears altogether at this point, but morphs into a sweetened vanilla grounded by a touch of musk during the final drydown. Freak Show is my second favourite Carnaval Noir scent. I don't think that I need multiple bottles of this, but I will enjoy using my bottle while it lasts.