MolyH

My son stashed away half a grape in his room once, and for a while, his room smelled like rotting, overripe grape every time I went in it. Drove me nuts. I finally found the culprit underneath his mattress, and by that time, it had basically already turned into black water. This smells like that--rotten death grape. It's probably the first BPAL imp that I have recoiled from. I gave it a chance and put it on my skin, and within a minute, I had to go scrub it off. I'm very sad.

Clean, crisp water. Kind of like a cooler version of Vial of Holy Water.

The strange sour twist to the rice milk makes this smell like sake on my skin. Sake infused with bergamot, aged in a sandalwood barrel. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this.

Normally, I amp leather quite a lot, but in this scent, it's not much more than a background murmur. Instead, this smells like walking face first into the wall of my cedar closet. Maybe, if I concentrate, I can pick out a little bit of smoke, and a little hint of amber or leather. But for the most part, it's just CEDAR CEDAR CEDAR.

This is a weird one--the dominant notes of almond, creamy coconut, root beer are all foody, but the smoke and dark earthy high john the conqueror root keeps it from being a foody scent. This is like a smokier, nuttier version of Brown Jenkin. Very complex and lovely.

Wet, this is lemon zest and expensive white tea. Dry, it is new car leather and sleek teakwood soaked in expensive white tea. For being such a...well, mild scent, I wasn't expecting the tea to come through so nicely on this. In general, this is a very high-class, expensive perfume.

This smells so clean and cool and calming and comforting. It's amazing! It does indeed smell like water, it smells like the inside of a sensory deprivation tank, of floating weightlessly in a silent void, of feeling like you're returning to the womb, warm water to sink into, to buoy you up. It's honestly hard to describe, but if you asked for my best expectations of what a "water" scent would smell like, this would far surpass it.

Sugary, peppery carnations. It's a very delightful scent, but it keeps making me want to cough.

This smells exactly like a dusty, cold stone corridor. I have no idea how one accomplishes that.

I've never had a problem with patchouli. I've never had a problem with fig. But somehow, the two notes combine in this to becomes a nasty, rotting smell. This smells like an overripe mango that's been left on the counter for too long and is starting to leave a sticky pus under it, next to an open container of tea leaves.

All I smell is laundry detergent, alas. No peach, no tea, no sweater. Just sharp, chemical soap.

HONEY HONEY HONEY. And somewhere in there, if I really look, I can get just the tiniest hint of orange blossom. The roses and sandalwood are entirely drowned by HONEY. This thing has throw too! It's rich and heavy and absolutely laden with honey and lasts forever.

Slightly smoky honey dribbling down a wall of flowers--the floral notes are so well-blended that I can't pick anything out. It really is just like a solid wall of something vaguely floral. This is a very dry scent too, despite the description, I think that comes from the wine. I'm getting none of the chocolate that others go on about. But hey, honey scents have a tendency to turn very sour on me, and this one didn't.

The patchouli is a constant in this, and I keep getting alternate swiffs of orange blossom and carnation. Like, in one sniff, it's all patchouli and orange blossom. In the next sniff, it's all patchouli and carnation. A very intriguing scent that does indeed make me keep trying to sniff at it. But as it dries, the patchouli becomes more and more dominant and, well, funky, and that nice clean orange blossom and carnation has a harder time making themselves apparent.

Nutty, but not too sweet. It smells like the lightly scorched shell of a chestnut. I don't know if it's my cold acting up, though, but this has very little throw. It's a very mild scent, which is a pity, because it's absolutely lovely. Great for someone looking for a campfire-y, nutty smell that isn't too foody.

I definitely get something resinous in this too, and I agree with wood. A dark, heavy wood. It's not really my kind of thing, but I really appreciate the frottle from the lab.

For such a mild fruit, I'm surprised how quince is the dominant note in this. This smells like a spiced quince cider--lighter and less overwhelming than apple cider, which keeps it just out of the holiday scent association for me. But it's still delightfully delicious. I say this as an absolute ginger whore, of course.

This smells more ashy and dusty than dirt-y or earthy to me. It's a very dry, bitter scent. Reminds me of a Chinese farming village in the winter, walking across barren, yellow-dirt fields towards huts in the distance with wood fires burning in them.

Pele is non-existent on me. Every once in a while, while running around after a toddler and working a heartbeat up, I can catch the faintest whiff of something floral, but it's too weak to tell what it is even. The Deep in Earth I put on yesterday that I didn't bother washing off before bed is stronger than freshly applied Pele, and believe me, I slathered.

How disappointing--I am a huge fan of ginger scents.

This is the first lab frimp that I have opened and immediately went, "Oh wow! That is good!" It is wet and dark and fresh soil with dewy moss on top and just absolutely delicious. Brings to mind exactly a quiet, overgrown cemetery with a big weeping willow tree in one corner. I am certainly going to get a big bottle of this!

What little I can catch of this scent is amazing--gentle, soft leather and sweet frankincense and creamy vanilla. But unfortunately, it's also extremely weak, almost nonexistent. I slathered it on because I kept not being able to smell anything, and still, I can only catch the barest whiff every now and then. Even in an oil burner, it's weak and dies fast.

This is a hazelnutty hot chocolate to me, not much coconut. It's an aggressively sweet hot chocolate too, like always, reminds me a little of Hershey's. I wonder if the lab will ever make a bitter black chocolate one day. That would be really cool.

As soon as my grandma got diagnosed with cancer, she non-stop brewed Chinese medicine in her house. This perfume smells exactly like how her house did--bitter, burnt, hardwoods, futile sugars trying to make the medicine palatable.

This is a shockingly accurate imitation of Febreeze.

As soon as I opened the imp, I thought to myself, "Wow, this smells like brine." I couldn't even imagine before what salt would smell like, but this definitely smells like salt. The wood comes out later, as well as the perfume note, but the salt never leaves. I'm very impressed.