tempete

I was going to pass on Gladdener because I don't always do well with BPAL milk notes and I'm not so fond of powdery notes, but the Will Call reviews convinced me to give it a shot. Unfortunately, while it's not overly powdery on me, Gladdener smells like lavender-y sour milk on me.

Musky white tea laced with soft, powdery violet and a touch of mandarin. I'm a little sad that the opium poppy note isn't stronger because it's one of my favourite notes. But Lady Lilith is gorgeous nonetheless, and I am considering breaking my no-hoarding rule to find another bottle.

Spellbound (three roses, radiant amber, and sensual red musk) is very feminine and utterly romantic.

Fenris Wolf is the masculine equivalent of Spellbound (rosewood, amber, red musk and a dribble of red sandalwood) as it replaces the roses in Spellbound with wood notes.

LEs that contained red musk and amber include Red Moon 2007, The Ecstasy of Passion, and Midnight Kiss.

I adore red musk, but seem to have very different tastes from all the other red musk lovers in this thread!

My favourite red musk scents are Snake Oil, Chrysanthemum Moon, Red Moon 2007, Scherezade, Spellbound and The Contract of Theophilus of Adana. Midnight Kiss is much better aged than fresh.

Red musk and certain fruit notes seems to go waay too sweet on me, so I didn't enjoy Hollywood Babylon or Kabuki. I think that the fruit issue also came into play with Marianne - I loooved this scent at first (it smelled like a better behaved Smut on me) but I couldn't wear it after the initial test.

I still can't figure out why Mme. Moriarty doesn't work on me. It's full of notes that I individually love, but for some reason it smells really green on my skin when fresh and of nothing at all when aged.

Freshly applied Lune Noire smells like a really yummy liquor that bartenders use to make exotic drinks. The pear note is dominant in this stage and makes the scent sweet, but it doesn't push the too-sweet boundary for me. Lune Noire gradually loses its sweetness and acquires a creamy note as it dries down. Fortunately for me, gardenia (one of my archnemesis notes) doesn't make a headache-inducing appearance.

Black Moon didn't work on me at all but I think that Lune Noire is a keeper!

Kubla Khan starts out a bit soapy (perhaps because of the jasmine), but quickly settles into a gloriously complex opium scent that is sweeter and much lighter in feel than Event Horizon. I normally avoid scents that contain tobacco and leather because they tend to smell dirty and overly smoky on me, but my skin apparently loves opium more than these two notes. I'll have to wear this a few more times to be sure, but I can forsee a bottle of Kubla Khan in my future.

I love opium scents, so I was really excited to try Event Horizon. It starts off as strongly soapy opium, but the soap gradually gives way to deep, dark resiny notes. During the transition from soap to resin, the scent manages to convey a sense of hollowness, like it's a shell around a void, which is very apt given the name and description (the only other scent which has evoked this feeling for me is Nuclear Winter). As the resins settle in, the scent becomes heavier and yes, oppressive feeling.

At this point, I'm not sure whether I'll graduate to a bottle, but I'll keep the imp because I definitely want to wear this scent again.

The Queen's Salon is initially a fruity rose, somewhat reminiscent of Persephone except with a different, juicier fruit instead of pomegranate (identifying fruity notes is not my forte). I don't really get overtly aquatic notes from this scent, which is good because I tend to dislike aquatics.

Hours after the initial application, the floral, fruity and aquatic aspects have receded and resin and musk notes have emerged, giving the scent a much darker tone. I agree with growwild's comparison to Queen of Spades - the drydowns of both of these scents are similar on me and invoke a very proud, regal image.

I love the name of this scent! I usually detest foody blends, but this one is pretty nice. I've never smelled a freshly baked crumpet, but what The Crumpet Rebellion does smell like to me is blackberries and baked cakey goods like cobbler. This scent has astounding throw and lasting power, because it lasted through a scrubbing with hospital-grade antibacterial soap (so that I could go back to the BPAL booth for another round of scent testing).

The Unheavenly City is definitely my fav of the three Convergence scents that I've tried so far and has earned itself a place on my Top Ten scent list.

The only note that I can positively identify is red musk (which Beth kindly confirmed for me). This is probably the main reason why Unheavenly City is so stupendously awesome on me, since my skin seems to have a natural affinity for red musk. The creaminess in the blend smells like vanilla to me, but I'm not sure about that. And if there's gardenia in here, it's well blended because I am really good at amping gardenia (whether in a GC or LE scent) in a bad way.

I bought an imp of Euterpe because I have a strange weakness (obsession?) for violet/iris scents. It didn't hurt that Euterpe contains carnation and poppy, two other florals that I love. Unfortunately, there's usually one note in violet/iris BPALs that simply does not work on me, and Euterpe was no exception. This time, I didn't reckon with the honeysuckle, which took over and turned Euterpe into a cloyingly sweet scent. I did get a whiff of iris on the drydown, but it wasn't enough to make me want to go through the honeysuckle dominatrix phase.

Terpsichore is nauseatingly sweet on me when wet, for which I completely blame the sweet pea note. (Same thing happened to me with Aeval and Annabel Lee... I should just learn to stay away from the sweet pea blends.) The drydown is not as sweet and more complex as the other notes battle valiantly against the sweet pea, but it does have a funky undertone. I suspect the vanilla note is the culprit here since my skin seems to have issues with general catalog vanilla scents.

Gah, I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered a bottle of Red Lantern... I should've been more wary of the caramel note (since I hate super sweet foody scents) and the blonde tobacco note (since I can amp up tobacco to the point where I smell solely of cigarettes). Naturally, when I applied Red Lantern, there was an all-out war on my skin between the cavity-inducing sweetness of caramel and the uber-smokiness of tobacco, and it was not a pleasant olfactory experience. Red Lantern eventually dried down to a not-quite-so-sweet 'n smoky scent that was more palatable, but I wouldn't be able to endure the initial caramel and tobacco blast every time I wore this scent, and it also doesn't evoke impressions of an Asian bordello for me, so my bottle has been passed onto a more loving home.

I get the refreshing tea scent from Spirits of the Dead that has been previously mentioned, but the light woody notes take over when the scent dries down, plus the scent doesn't last long on my skin. I think that I'll hold onto the decant, but I'm not sure about getting a bottle despite my love for non-lemony tea scents.

Evening Star starts out as a burst of sweet florals, which I think is largely due to the moonflower note. But as it dries down, the sweetness dies down and the poppy note (perhaps backed by some musk) emerges. At this point, Evening Star reminds me somewhat of Vechernyaya; however, Vechernyaya doesn't include the very sweet floral opening, so I think that I will pass on my decant of Evening Star to someone else.

The Sleeper turned to earthy-smelling soap on my skin and for that, I blame the night-blooming jasmine and Calla lily. It's too bad, because I was so curious about the crypt musk.

For a good long while after I apply Alone, all I smell is cardamon with a bit of patchouli. Great, another spice note that I amp up. Eventually, something sweet comes out but at that point, Alone has pretty much dissipated on my skin.

Annabel Lee starts out as an incredibly sweet floral on me, and guessing from past experience, I would blame either or both sweet pea and peony. As the scent dries down, the cucumber note emerges and tames down the sweetness of the floral opening. Annabel Lee is actually quite nice once the initial sweet floral burst has subsided, so I think that I will hold onto my decant for me, but I doubt that I would get a bottle.

After The Haunted Palace, I was most excited for Dreamland, because I love iris, carnation and skin musk. Of course, those are the notes that I pick up least from this scent...

I get a strong hit of iris right after application, and then it vanishes almost instantly. Nooooo, come back! The iris note has been stomped into submission by a creamy tuberose note, which I normally like in small doses. Then the skin musk twined with a faint floral note takes over for a while, and this is the stage that I like the most. Eventually, however, a powdery floral note (phlox?) pushes the musk aside and Dreamland ends on a very floral note.

I think that I would have liked this better if the skin musk note was more prominent on me for a longer stretch of the scent's evolution, but since Dreamland was largely florals on me, I doubt that I'll be keeping the decant.

I agree with other reviewers who thought that The City in the Sea is reminiscent of cologne. Like aidenraine, I wish that the violet note was stronger - as it is, I can detect vague hints of something violet, but on my skin, the perfumey-ness of the aquatic/ozone notes dominates the entire blend. I won't be keeping the decant.

Given my track record with lilies (they generally turn to soap on me) and honey (scents that are too sweet tend to make me queasy), I wasn't expecting much from Al-Araaf. Imagine how surprised I was when Al-Araaf turned out to be a very pretty, subtle floral scent, not at all soapy although veering a bit too close to nausea-inducing sweetness at times. I'm not sure that I will get a bottle, but I will definitely hold onto my decant.

Scentwise, Lenore is like the brooding daughter of the Torture King and Snake Charmer from Carnaval Noir...

The vetiver note is definitely strong, almost overpowering when Lenore is wet, but it is tempered a bit by the patchouli. It eventually fades away to reveal a sweetness which seems to be a combination of plum, white musk and to my nose, a resin (such as frankincense) or perhaps an incense note. In the late drydown, some herbal notes (possibly the thyme) peek out underneath the sweetness.

For me, Lenore is the undisputed winner of the Demon in my View scents, which, is perhaps completely unsurprising given my love for musky/resiny scents. Definitely one bottle for now, perhaps another one before DimV goes away for good.

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.